Two online teacher training seminars were organized by Istanbul Medeniyet University School of Foreign Languages on 02 April 2021 in cooperation with Oxford University Press (OUP) and Professional Development Unit on “Using Technology and Online Sources in Education” and “Using Games”.
The first training session on “The Use of Technology and Online Resources in Education” was delivered by Nick MANTHEI, one of the Oxford University Press teacher trainers. In this session, MANTHEI discussed practical applications, ideas, and technological tools to be used in education. He presented certain resources, tools, and ideas that teachers can use in their lessons to provide students with various learning opportunities. He first reviewed online applications such as Kahoot, Padlet, Quizlet, and Memrise that are frequently used in our School of Foreign Languages and why they are used. After mentioning the good and missing aspects of these applications, he introduced new methods in relation to the activities in the textbook used. He mentioned the benefits of using Google Doc for writing activities, noting that with this application, students and teachers can collaborate on a single document and give feedback to each other. Then, he demonstrated that by sharing audio and video screen with the Loom application, five-minute video feedbacks could be given to students. In this way, he underlined that the students could be given feedback in a practical way and they could feel like they were receiving face-to-face feedback. After the introduction of Vocaroo, the audio recording site where speaking activities can be organized for students, our teachers were shown sites such as Mentimeter and Jamboard, which will increase online interaction and collaboration with students. Before the end of the first session, MANTHEI shared an evaluation survey for the training to our instructors and received feedback.
The second session on “Using Games” was given by Aysu ŞİMŞEK, also an Oxford University Press trainer. In this session, ŞİMŞEK introduced some interesting online tools, as well as different games and activities that can be fun for both teachers and students and strengthen the learning process. Starting the second session with a small game to get to know our teachers, she then showed them an example of practical games that can be used in class. In this activity, which consisted of questions and multiple-choice options, she showed how to get to know a group of people easily by getting information in a short time. Afterwards, she showed an online word puzzle creator site to introduce herself and had the puzzle solved. She emphasized that games are important because they increase motivation, memory, class cooperation, attention and fun. In the following parts of the session, to address different skills, she introduced some game creation sites and practical games that can be used in the classroom . Before ending the session, ŞIMŞEK initiated a discussion by asking our teachers whether the games are fun, their linguistic purposes, their suitability for university students, how they can be adapted, how much preparation process they require and what else to think about while playing games. She then suggested useful Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts and shared an evaluation survey for the training to our instructors and received feedback.
At the end of both sessions, those who filled out the shared feedback forms were given a digital badge by OUP.
As Istanbul Medeniyet University and the School of Foreign Languages, we would like to thank Oxford University Press and its valued instructors for these enlightening teacher training sessions.