Thanks to Martin (mmcmorrow for pointing this one out on the ELT World Forums).
That’s right folks, ELT oligarchs TESOL are offering a fairly comprehensive range of free six-week online teacher training courses. You don’t even have to be a member of TESOL to participate, although lunch is not included, apparently. Seriously though, all those organising and running the online courses are giving their time and expertise freely in order to ‘serve the profession.’ How noble.
There are a quite stunning number of courses open; here are details of some of them. ‘Becoming a Webhead’ proposes to be a hands-on workshop where participants explore Web 2.0 tools and share the best ways of using them in their teaching practices. ‘Blog-based Lesson & e-Portfolios’ will provide basic notions like planning a lesson and put into practice what you might have learned about blogs to design a lesson supported with e-portfolios to collect students’ activities for evaluation. In the ‘Collaborative Writing’ session, the most popular computer-mediated communication tools for collaborative writing, blogs and wikis, will be introduced and some activities with word processors will be carried out. Discussions and exchanging of points of view will be provided by WiZiQ sessions in this comprehensive workshop. The interestingly titled ‘Conflict Resolutions for English’ is designed around a curriculum guide for teaching conflict resolution with English language learners. Participants will engage in conversations on prejudice awareness and reduction, communication, and conflict management and will discuss challenges and opportunities to bringing these conversations into their classroom. The ‘Designing Interactive Activities for the Young learner EFL Classroom’ session, meanwhile, will enable participants to learn how to use Hot Potatoes to create activities for the young learner EFL classroom. The ‘Digifolios and Personal Learning Spaces’ workshop aims at providing awareness of the way the web can empower the individual not only to learn, but also to present what, how and with whom he/she learns, while ‘Digital Storytelling in ELT Classrooms’ will show how to use Windows Movie Maker software while creating and editing videos; and at the end of the session participants will have the chance to create their own videos and publish them online. In ‘Enhancing Lessons with Web 2.0’, participants will create their own blogs and Web 2.0 instructional items, participate in asynchronous and live discussions, complete topic-specific readings, and develop a lesson plan applying web tools to a relevant teaching/learning context, while the ‘Planning Video Projects’ session will help teachers of EFL/ESL develop lesson plans for video projects to use with their students of various levels. The ‘Exploring Images in the 21st Century Classroom’ online workshop introduces participants to various online image manipulation tools and will learn how to effectively incorporate these resources into their teaching practices. The promisingly named ‘Internet for Beginners’ is designed to help inexperienced Internet users learn how to develop and use the Web in their classes either as bridging activities (like homework, but beyond fill in the blank), as class projects or even in the computer lab as a class activity, while ‘Mentor2Mentor’ is for those interested in mentoring new or struggling ESOL teachers. Basic mentoring skills will be explored and online resources will be identified. Extremely long-winded title it may have, but ‘Multiliteracies for Social Networking and Collaborative Learning Environments’ will basically focus on the fact that multiliterate individuals are aware of the pitfalls inherent in technology while striving for empowerment through effective strategies for first discerning and then taking advantage of those aspects of changing technologies most appropriate to their situations. These strategies include managing, processing, and interpreting a constant influx of information, filtering what is useful, and then enhancing the learning environment with the most appropriate applications. This course seeks to heighten awareness of these considerations, and to enable participants to explore ways of dealing with them in professional and interpersonal development as well as work with students.
Believe it or not, that isn’t the full list, which means that there’s probably something for everyone. However, you’d better get a shift on as registration finishes on 12th January. Click here for more details.
14 comments
3 pings
Douglas says:
January 9, 2009 at 7:25 pm (UTC 2 )
Thank you a lot for this, looks like there are some great courses on offer
Kalgukshi's dominatrix says:
January 15, 2009 at 9:10 am (UTC 2 )
Damn, I guess I missed the boat on this one. Shame.
Jennifer says:
July 27, 2009 at 2:27 am (UTC 2 )
Too bad I missed this free online offering. Will the same course be offered in the future?
Abuska Gilbert says:
April 19, 2010 at 1:01 pm (UTC 2 )
How doI get enrolled
Shawkat Anwar says:
April 21, 2010 at 6:19 am (UTC 2 )
I want to help the students of Bangladesh to learn English effectively and efficiently.
That’s why I need to enhance my ability to teach in a vary short span of time.
As a result I’ve decided to take the assistance of yours.
Shawkat Anwar says:
April 21, 2010 at 6:26 am (UTC 2 )
Its really great that there is a free online ELT Course – which,obviouly,could help the Enlish Language Teachers of Third World Countries- like Bangladesh – to improve their expertise in (English) Language Teaching.
tanveer says:
January 29, 2011 at 7:01 am (UTC 2 )
i want ro do FREE TESOL ON LINE certification. plz guide and help.
thanks
Morteza Hashemi says:
April 29, 2011 at 9:23 am (UTC 2 )
Dear David,
I am really intrigued to meet your beneficial website and I regard it as a ray of hope to enhance my teaching qualifications through your recommendations.
Thanks a milioon,
Morteza Hashemi
RUMASEN says:
June 24, 2011 at 7:52 pm (UTC 2 )
I AM SOFT SKILL TEACHER I HEARD THATVtesol cource is helpful
Iliana Marlen Quinonez Elizalde says:
July 10, 2011 at 11:51 pm (UTC 2 )
Hi I’ve lived 15 years in USA but I think is time to go back to my own country, Mexico and I would like to teach English, but as far as I know I need to have a cartification to be able to teach English in Mexico and I want to prepare myself to do it right so that’s why I’m doing my research on how to get prepare and do all necesary to succeed in my goal. Thank you! I hope to hear from you very soon!!
tesol courses online says:
September 23, 2011 at 9:23 am (UTC 2 )
Learning tesol courses or tefl courses is always going to help thanks for explaining the things
Online TESOL Courses says:
October 3, 2011 at 4:41 pm (UTC 2 )
i am inspire from your opinion.i have listen about these courses that are more essential.
mariam afzaal says:
October 6, 2011 at 2:52 pm (UTC 2 )
i have 5 years teaching experience and want to job abrod so tht i need to do some ELT cource but being a profeesiol i m not able to attend regular classes and wants to do online and free ELTor other realted cource which ll b helpfuul for me to get teaching license and job as well. i need help regarding all mentioned task and ll b obliged thanks
muhammad usman says:
November 9, 2011 at 7:59 pm (UTC 2 )
i want to do Free Online TESOL Courses. plz help me in this regard
TESOL Offers Free Online Courses | ELT World News says:
January 9, 2009 at 3:01 pm (UTC 2 )
[...] are offering a fairly comprehensive range of free six-week online teacher training courses, notes ELT World, and you don’t even have to be a member of TESOL to participate. All those organising and running [...]
The ELT Times » Blog Archive » It’s a Great Time to Teach English Abroad says:
January 15, 2009 at 8:45 am (UTC 2 )
[...] is true there are some countries where a TESOL/TEFL certificate is not required, but these are often at schools which pay very low and offer exploitive working conditions and [...]
Top 5 blog turn offs (for me) | EFL Classroom 2.0 - Teacher Talk says:
September 26, 2010 at 6:21 pm (UTC 2 )
[...] 4. Tiny print black and white and no pictures! Especially with 3 columns. Yes, I’m getting old and yes, I need (deserve) a little color. If I wanted to read the newspaper, I’d of bought one. HERE’S AN EXAMPLE. [...]