Todd Beuckens (Featured Speaker)

2016 KOTESOL International Conference

Featured Session - International Conference 2016

PUSH Your Lessons Beyond the Classroom

This presentation will look at how to incorporate technology inside and outside the classroom to maximize the effect of traditional learning environments. More specifically, the presentation will highlight the P.U.S.H. project, which aims to help teachers produce, use, share, and host digital content that renders on multiple devices. Attendees will learn how to create a variety of digital learning materials using a bevy of free tools online. The presentation will also show how to incorporate smartphones into classroom activities and use them as the main device for accessing and displaying content. To demonstrate the effectiveness of some free online tools, people in attendance will work together on collaborative task-based activities that showcase the ease and effectiveness of some tech-laden lessons. The presentation aims to help both advanced and novice technology users by offering practical tips that both early-adopters and technophobes will find useful.

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Invited Second Session

Build Your Own LMS — For Free

Most teachers are familiar with using some sort of Learner Management System (LMS), such as Blackboard or Moodle on an institutional level, but these powerful tools are designed for large organization, and not individuals. This presentation will show teachers the power and benefits of creating a personal LMS for each class, and how it can be done quickly, easily, and for free using a variety of online tools such as Blogger, Facebook, Tumblr, and Wordpress. The presentation will look how a personal LMS can enhance learning and engagement for students, and how updating content takes just a few minutes to do every day. Attendees will learn how to structure, utilize, and manage content so that it is not cumbersome or daunting, and how it can even be fun! Sample classroom LMSs will also be on display to serve as models for good and bad practices.

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Biographical Sketch

Todd Beuckens is an ESL teacher at Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Japan. He is also the creator of several English language websites, such as elllo.org, soundgrammar.com, and toetal.org. He has also created self-access websites for learners of other languages, most notably spanishlistening.org and frello.org (a site to learn French). He started elllo.org, which stands for English Listening Lesson Library Online, in 2003 as part of a graduate school project as a way to address the lack of authentic listenings available for ESL learners in published textbooks. The site now have over 2,500 free lessons online featuring more than 300 speakers from over 100 countries worldwide. As a full-time teacher, he is interested in ways to incorporate various technologies in the classroom in a way that is effective and non-obtrusive to genuine face-to-face interaction.

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