Random Quote
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Online learning
I spent over 15 years attempting to teach English conversation in Japanese schools and colleges. Getting students to talk to each other was often hard work, but it was better than having no conversation at all! However, now I’m back in the UK I have seen how much better the communicative method works when you have a variety of different nationalities. Wouldn’t it be nice to recreate this in classrooms in Japan, Korea etc. Well, now we have the technology! What you need is a good broadband connection, webcameras and headsets. And a link with a school or college in a neighbouring non-English-speaking country who have similar goals in mind.
I know of a couple of schools and colleges in Japan who would be interested in taking part in such an experiment with a school or college in Korea.
Maybe some of you are already doing this. Maybe some of you are interested in trying this out. I’d be grateful for any information, advice or leads anyone has.
Please contact me via this site or directly by email at
Thanks.
japanbond inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Aug 21, 2008 at 06:38 AM
Teaching | Languages_&_Cultures_in_Contact | Guest Author |





David V. wrote 44 words on Thursday Aug 21, 2008 at 11:49 PM
For anyone living in the Gulf, TESOL Arabia are currently putting together a volume on online learning and teaching. Submitting a chapter of 3000 to 4000 is a great way to get into publishing. If you’re interested, I can supply furher details.
David V.
Sean. wrote 26 words on Friday Aug 22, 2008 at 06:13 AM
David,
I’m sure what you have to say would fit well into a guest post. If you have time would you be interested in guest authoring?
David V. wrote 10 words on Friday Aug 22, 2008 at 04:04 PM
I’ll get on it when I have a psare moment!