ELT, EdTech & Feminism Workshop January 2021 — Share Your Story With Confidence

Women + Teaching + Technology

What has feminism got to do with ELT and educational technologies? Anything at all? Is feminism even still a thing?

Well, in answer to the last question, indeed it is. In fact, it has undergone a bit of a revival thanks in big part to the #MeToo movement. Women all over the planet have been prompted to review episodes, events and interactions which have occurred in their lives, and to ask themselves if they were truly treated fairly. This includes women working in the field of ELT - well-represented among the ranks of teachers, but less so in the higher levels of educational management, and even more rarely in the upper echelons of the highly-profitable ELT corporations.

Over the last few years, EdTech companies have muscled in on the profits once reserved for manufacturers of traditional teaching materials, like publishing companies. Nowadays, few teachers in an area of education do not use some form of EdTech on a regular basis.

There's a good reason for that from a teacher's point of view - EdTech can supply you and your learners with the most amazing educational tools! However, some EdTech tools can over-automate and over-gamify processes, and encourage the use of short-form questions and answers, and multiple choice activities. One reason this type of EdTech is so popular is that the boys like it. But where does that leave girls? With their penchant for creative activities, are girls penalised by a certain type of EdTech use?

The Workshop

This month's free interactive workshop is going to take a look at the importance of female creativity in ELT, both from the standpoint of educators and learners. Putting the focus on the group, you will be invited to share your experiences with EdTech, and:

consider what kinds of EdTech appeal more to the different sexes
discuss whether certain types of EdTech stifle creativity
express your own personal narratives

Workshop Presenter

A few words from our host:

My name's Caroline Gatti, born in Scotland, half Italian (hence the surname) and I've been an English as a foreign language teacher with a penchant for technology for most of my professional life. At the present time, I'm a (very!) mature student in the final stage of the Masters in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching offered by the University of Nottingham (UK). Aside from interests like reading, creative writing, the visual arts (I'm currently dabbling in watercolours and mixed media) and talking people's heads off, I've been interested in the issue of gender equality since I was a young teen.

Workshop Day/Time

You are cordially invited to join us on:

Wednesday 20th January 2021 from 7.30pm UK/2.30pm NYC time.

Watch the recording here:

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash