#1 Nings

You just don't have to Kill Trees to get your point across

Welcome to the first edition of Environmental English. I was originally recruited to make a presentation on Using the Internet as a Teaching Tool a Wednesday afternoon. I fully recognize that on Wednesday people are in a hurry to get out and get a start on their weekend activities that may include but not limited to:

o Sashaying the malls of Muscat
o Holding up in their flat and working on exercises on the comma while engaging in their past time of devising creative noodle dishes
o Checking out the local Watering Hole
o Performing mindless Honey Do’s
o Rearranging their sock drawer
o Trying to spend less than one riyal over the whole weekend while drinking tap water

I will provide information about sites and places to go on the Internet that have great things to do and learn for both the teachers and the students. I’ll also show you how to put something up so that your students for years to come can benefit from your efforts. It will always be something you can update.

But environmentally speaking, the paradigm should be, How can I make as little impact on the environment by my teaching methods. Obviously, using the Internet is one way to avoid murdering trees through a heap of photocopies for our students. English by Photocopy is not a recognized method of teaching. It’s true that the Dinosaurs have already died so we can use these Plastic boxes as teaching machines while the electricity dissipates into the atmosphere as heat. Al Gore should have mentioned that the Internet is causing Global Warming. Something he invented (his claim) is causing Global Warming. There is another way of looking at it and that is teaching Unplugged. Future editions will also cover that way of teaching.

So lets get started on putting it all together.

English Companion Ning

The first we want to look at is English Companion Ning at
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

What is a Ning. Well, it’s a Social Media site. You can start your own group there on a subject of your choosing. The site is dedicated to “Where English teachers go to help each other.” There are literally zillions of people out there who are engaged in the ART of Teaching English and they have their own groups here. You can look at the groups and join a group so you get notices when anybody posts anything to the group. I have one group, “Wikis in Use” which is dedicated to people who actually use Wikis for teaching. I am also a member of another group called “Free Tools for Schools.” It has lots of stuff online and some of the stuff is downloadable.

NINGS are great tools so investigate the site and use it.

Try not to Kill Trees