Graham Stanley and offline teaching

At the final event of the 21st IATEFL Hungary conference participants had the chance to ask the plenary speakers questions. One of the questions Graham Stanley got was: “When was the last time you taught an offline lesson?”

Just in case you didn’t know: Graham Stanley is one of the top experts on using technology in the language classroom.

So the assumption here is that since Graham uses technology in his classroom, he must be using it all the time, probably exclusively. Strangely enough, Jamie Keddie, who gave a talk on storytelling (an excellent one, by the way), didn’t get asked “Do you do anything else in your classroom apart from storytelling?” Sheelagh Deller (another excellent session!) wasn’t asked whether she was always pondering over who influences who in the learning community.

I’ve often had the same question and it always disturbed me: why do you have to assume that just because I happen to believe in using technology I’m so obsessed with it that I do nothing else? Of course Graham explained patiently that most of the time he has offline lessons. But why do we have to justify ourselves? I don’t drink but I still don’t go up to people at conference receptions with a second glass of wine in their hands asking them “How often do you get drunk?” When you give a talk on listening comprehension I don’t ask you whether you’re aware of the fact that speaking skills mustn’t be neglected either.

In his two brilliant sessions, Graham made several very convincing points for using technology in ways that help learners enormously. He showed real life examples from his own teaching which can be used without practically any computer skills, so the sessions were very definitely not exclusively for computer geeks but for a general ELT audience. And then he gets this question… I thought the debate over using technology in teaching was over.

But I don’t want to sound too pessimistic: I’m sure the vast majority of his audience will make excellent use of his ideas and probably even spread the word about them.

To learn more, make sure you check out Graham’s blog, his Twitter feed and his book Digital Play:

4 thoughts on “Graham Stanley and offline teaching

  1. I actually felt that that question was just meant as a good natured joke and not a serious question. What is known in British idiom as ‘Pulling someone’s leg’. Overall, I thought this was the best conference yet for motivating people to try various online approaches and tools. It wasn’t only that there were some really good presentations but the whole experience seemed to me to be more ‘connected’ than ever before. I particularly liked the Facebook page and the blog.

    • Thanks for offering another perspective, Frank; it’s always good to see at things from different angles. However, I must admit I fail to see the humour in this question. Could you explain what the source of humour is here? This is a genuine question.
      It has to be added that the quesion in question (ha-ha) had been submitted in writing, so we didn’t have facial expression, body language, tone of voice etc. to guide us in either direction.
      As I explained above, I found it disturbing because I’d had the same question several times previously (so it seems to be a widely-held misconception), and in all of those contexts it was obvious that the person asking it had the motives I described in this short piece.

  2. Hmm.. tech is just a (powerful) teaching/learning tool. Something like books (used to be).
    Kids are just not as fascineted by books any more. They are being brought up with TVs in their bedrooms, PSPs, smartphones and computers. You may say I’m a tech freak but I swear I have never bought any child any of these devices. The circumstaces are given. I just want to teach them English and I’ve found this (ICT) is the most effective and engaging channel for them. (In my practice, of course.)
    Sorry, I can’t shout at them, I’m not strict, I can only count on my ability to entertain or edutain them. Ah, it’s my fault :'(
    Is ICT laughing matter? Well, I’m not good at being a spartan teacher, all I can do is to laugh at disciplined classrooms to reduce my inferiority complex.

  3. Hi Elek, I have to say it was great meeting you and everyone else at the IATEFL conference last weekend. I had a great time and was made to feel very welcome. As for the question you refer to above, I took it as a joke too. There were quite a few humorous questions in that last session, which made it fun. I agree that people also get some funny ideas about you when you choose to specialise in something (as I do in Learning Technologies), but I suppose it’s only normal that this happens- It is funny in a way as I don’t consider myself much of a techie and am not the person you want to call if your PC fails. I’m more interested in how to use technology in the classroom when it fits, and so as I mentioned, there are many times when I don’t use any tech with groups of learners. Still, this is what you get if you go out there trying to help people use technology in ELT 🙂

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