Repost: #ELTchat: the loss of eltchat.com – Plan B

The news that eltchat.com had sadly demised during my recent absence from the Internet came as a complete shock.  However, its imminent and hopefully swift rebirth as eltchat.org is fantastic to hear.  Although I have recently dropped a little bit off the radar on a Wednesday, it does not mean that I have forgotten all about it.  In fact, eltchat remains very dear to my heart and I am so glad that it has found a way to overcome this unexpected situation.

 

I wish Marisa and Shaun and all the wonderful eltchat moderators and volunteers who make it such a valuable and outstanding site all the very best for the future.  Thank you for everything yuo all do for the EFL community!

 

As requested by Marisa on her TEFL Matters blog, I have reposted the article in full below:

 

For the last – well, almost two years now, since September 15 2010, #ELTchat has kept us on our toes and forged hundreds of professional and personal relationships amongst its followers who turn up on Twitter every Wednesday to talk about topics they have suggested and voted on – a community of peers which was created by a small group of colleagues – which grew and grew some more and became something that counts as an important part of our continuous professional development.

Like many great ideas, it didn’t hit just one person but several.

And that is how #ELTchat was created.    

The website to keep up the communication of its members, a base and repository of our ideas was one of the first things we all thought of creating – the wiki came later.

Andy Chaplin was keen to join the moderation team and help with podcasts and technical stuff; he was quick to buy eltchat.com and announced the good news to us after the fact.

A few months later, right after TESOL France 2011,  he suddenly disappeared – some say for reasons of health.

We never found out for sure.

We never received a single word of response to our emails.

eltchat.com was and still is registered in his name.

And yesterday we lost it

On August 8 the domain expired and we have no way of taking over unless it goes up for sale again; it was very sad that Andy Chaplin did not find it appropriate to renew.

The news is really upsetting.

The work we have put in on this website cannot be told in a few simple words – but it has been a labour of love and we have got so much out of it that we have never regretted one single moment

We are pretty upset at the behaviour of this individual – disappointment is one big understatement.

But we trust that our community of #ELTchatters, our PLN for short, will again gather round the new domain which we have purchased – eltchat.org

It will take us a few days to put the website back on its feet

And all will be as it was before – all the posts in place all your thoughts and comments, all the polls and great summaries which got us on the shortlist of the ELTon Awards nominations

We will be back with a vengeance

We are not just a website – we did not get on the ELTon awards shortlist as just another website!!!

We are a great community of teachers and we have a Plan B!

See you all in September!!!

Marisa Constantinides – Shaun Wilden

P.S. We would greatly appreciate it if any of you belonging to this great community of teachers,  teacher educators, bloggers, #ELTchat followers,  reposted this on your blog

If you decide to do this, please add your name to the post under ours.

The ELTons 2012

The ELTons are held every year in London and sponsored by Cambridge ESOL. The award ceremony is tonight May 23rd. It will be very exciting to follow the British Council's live streaming of the event starting UK time at 18.15pm here.

All the nominees are listed here.

A quote from the website -

"The ELTons are the only international awards that recognise and celebrate innovation in English language teaching (ELT). They reward educational resources that help English language learners and teachers to achieve their goals".

The reason I am writing this post is because I would like to mention the fact that #ELTChat has been nominated. Below you can see part of the very special #ELTChat T-shirt that I bought recently. I am looking forward to wearing it in the summer when I am teaching. It will be a great conversation starter, I reckon!

#ELTChat provides an invaluable resource for all English language teachers worldwide. The chat is held via Twitter every Wednesday at 12 o'clock midday, and then another topic is discussed at 9pm. Followers can suggest topics and then vote for a topic. The top two topics are chosen for the chat.

#ELTChat has been nominated for an award in the Innovation in Teacher Resources category. It is run by a small group of highly dedicated and comitted ELT teachers, together with the support of many volunteers, who help out in different ways, including the twice weekly writing up of summaries. These have been efficiently indexed and are freely available to all teachers. The subjects range from methodology, time management skills, using iPads in the ELT classroom to discussions on Multiple Intelligences and the latest trends in English language teaching.

I have created a special personal folder with the summaries of the topics that interest me the most, and I use these for my own CPD, to refer to and learn from.

In addition to the blog and wiki, there is also a dedicated #ELTChat podcast, with excellent reviews and interviews with teachers around the world talking on a variety of subjects.

I haven't been able to follow the chats of late, so this is a very small contribution to raise awareness of the outstanding contributions provided by the site. I wish them all the best for tonight!

In addition I would like to wish the following members of my PLN all the best for their nominations:

Ozge Karaoglu with her nomination in the Digital Innovation category for her contribution to the amazing Bubble and Pebble website.

Graham Stanley for his contribution to the book Digital Play, published by Delta Publishing.

An #ELTChat Podcast with a Crackling Backdrop!

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Marisa Constantinides, straight after the Twitter ELTChat talk on Wednesday 24th November. Marisa is one of the wonderful moderators for ELTChat. The top topic discussed at 4pm (Rome time) on that particular afternoon was " Do ELT lessons need to have a theme or focus, or is it enough just to communicate using English?" It was a bitterly cold day in Abruzzo, and the fire was roaring and crackling away in my living room.

Image above of fireplace found on google search here

You can read the full transcript for that session by pressing on the link: http://eltchat.com/chat-transcripts/do-lessons-need-a-focus/. It proved to be a lively discussion and I was very happy to join in with my views. The chance to exchange opinions on all manners of topics with teachers from around the globe on a given day and time, every Wednesday at either 3pm or 9pm GMT is really wonderful and is great for one's CPD (Continuing Personal Development).

While it was very cold in Abruzzo, in Athens the temperature that day was 24 degrees!
You can listen to the podcast interview with the background crackle and pop of the blazing fire here.
There is also another interview on the podcast, directly after mine has ended, with Erika Osváth on the subject of "Soft Skills" that teachers need when teaching. You can see the ELTChat transcript of that topic here.

Leahn Stanhope from Early EFL blog has also followed the discussion up with a very interesting and thought-provoking blog post called "Teachers: Born or Made?" Please do add to the comments on her blog. It is a fascinating question.

A seasonal Christmas message from all the wonderful ELTChat team on Twitter can be viewed here.

If you have never joined in the ELTChat discussions, why don't you pop in this Wednesday afternoon at 3pm or Wednesday evening at 9pm GMT? The sessions last approximately one hour.

The topics you can choose for the chat on Wednesday 22nd December are listed here. I have opted for the topic of "How can we overcome teacher burnout?" Please do join in on Wednesday if you can! All you need is a Twitter account, and then follow the hashtag #ELTChat.

#ELTchat - My Personal Thoughts

Recently I have been following the newly formed #ELTchat on a Wednesday. The most convenient time for me is usually the first session of the day, which begins on the dot at 3pm GMT (4pm Rome time). There is also an evening session at 9pm GMT. These two slots cover most time lines around the world so teachers can choose a convenient time.

What is #ELTchat? Well, it is a weekly discussion based on a pre-selected topic, which is held entirely via Twitter.

There is a poll where teachers can choose what they would like to talk about and this poll is posted up on Sunday evening for people to vote for their choice of topic for the following Wednesday.

Here is the poll to vote for the choice of topics for Wednesday 6th October. The top 2 topics are discussed either in the afternoon or evening session. Therefore, if you wish, you have the opportunity to attend 2 different #ELTchat topics on one day!

The chats in the past few weeks have been varied and very interesting, including the latest one I attended - "Given the demands of a full-time teaching position, is using a coursebook really a bad thing?" Despite encountering a few technical difficulties, almost 700 tweets were exchanged on this lively topic. You can view the full transcript here. The chat is moderated by an excellent crew of moderators, and they are able to keep the chat on track very skillfully.

Over the weekend, I will be looking through the transcript of the evening session I missed, which was "Critical Thinking vs Comprehension". Here is the transcript for you to get a taste of how it went.

The Art of Being Concise
How can you say what you want to say in only 140 characters, you may be thinking to yourself.
Well, I thought that as well, before I started my learning journey on Twitter. My doubts were soon dispelled. You can definitely get to the heart of the subject, cutting out all the waffle and perambulations of the language, all within 140 characters.

When I attended my first #ELTchat session, I was a bit lost initially, as you really have to be "on the ball" to follow a lot of people tweeting at once. The one-hour is fast-paced, action-packed and truly exciting. Time literally flies! Despite my initial feelings of "Oh my goodness!! This is too fast for me! I can't keep up!!", I was hooked from the very beginning. I am getting better with practice.

Reasons for Participating
Why should you take part? Well, here are a few of my personal thoughts for starters!

• It allows you to discuss with your peers from around the world valid topics of educational interest.
• You can connect with not only teachers, but also publishers, ELT authors, people from all sectors of the industry.
• You can learn a lot from the discussions.
• You can feel a part of how education is evolving.
• You can make things happen via your input.
• You can make new friends and expand your PLN.
• You can feel part of a unique experience.
• You can use some of the ideas in your own lessons.
• It will stimulate your world!

If you can, why don't you join me and other teachers from around the world on Wednesday 6th October? It will be an enriching experience, I assure you!

Follow all the updates via twitter by using the hashtag #ELTchat.

Hot off the Press!
#ELTchat has just won the TEFL.net Site of the Month Award October 2010! Wow, that is amazing for something which has only been going a few weeks. Many congratulations to the organisers of #ELTchat.