1. Gary Motteram from Manchester University is conducting a survey on behalf of the British Council on Social media and teacher professional development which asks how teachers and teacher educators use communication tools and social media for professional development. Gary says “We want to know what you learn by engaging in online groups and what you do with what you learn. If you are part of an online group for teacher development, please help us.” https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtiaABY4tKqFTlmpCEGVhXCPxNa7n3LmVDnQsTKEwqZN3eMQ/viewform Don’t worry if your online group is not terribly formal. Make a cup of coffee and give yourself fifteen, maybe twenty minutes – you need to finish the survey in one sitting. The good thing, though, is that you can look through the whole thing before you start!

Here’s a link to the recording of a webinar of Gary’s from last November, reporting on the use of WhatsApp in ‘challenging contexts’ https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher-professional-development-through-whatsapp-based-communities-practice-challenging

2. First of two from my Darling colleague Ellen: Language teachers’ tips for an interactive online classroom from Ukraine, Spain, Peru and the UK https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/language-teachers-tips-interactive-online-classroom

3. Ellen’s second suggestion is a report from the UK Open University, Innovating Pedagogy 2021, that looks at “ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a widespread influence on education” – here’s the link https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2021.pdf   Copy of PDF below. Small-scale use of enriched reality is within reach for learners with access to a suitable smartphone and a good internet connection, apparently! Sounds like quite a good thing in lockdown, enriched reality.

4. Let’s talk about feedback! is Alexandra Mihai’s latest post on her blog, The Educationalist: https://educationalist.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-feedback Not always comfortable territory, says Alexandra … [As usual with Alexandra’s blog posts, there’s a really good list of resources at the end.]

5. And, finally, for a bit of a change, Lester Bowie’s brassy big band version of Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love for You: https://youtu.be/py6bZ5qaj7k