IATEFL 2012 Glasgow

James E Zull on Friday morning's plenary

It's been a fast week, and Glasgow is preparing to say goodbye to those fortunate enough to be there. I must admit that I haven't been able to follow much of what's been happening this year although I hope to go through some of the archives in the next few weeks. You can see the interviews here and the recorded sessions here.

I did manage, however to watch (on and off, although I had my wireless headphones on) yesterday's opening plenary by Steven Thorne entitled "Awareness, appropriacy, and living language use". What I kept saying during his talk was "Hell, I can't even think this fast! How can this guy speak at this speed... and without notes, too?" You can watch it here. His presentation  examined out-of-school L2 digital engagement in environments such as social media, fan fiction communities, and online gaming.

The highlight of the evening was, undoubtedly, as it was last year, the Pecha Kucha. If you still haven't heard of it, it's basically a presentation of 20 slides of 20 seconds each. These evenings tend to be rather light-hearted, so a lot of us were waiting anxiously for it. The eight presenters, led by the always-funny Jeremy Harmer, including such PLN favourites as Shelly Terrell and Barbara Sakamoto, didn't disappoint us. You can watch it here:

Part One:
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-22/pecha-kucha-part-1
Part Two:
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-22/pecha-kucha-part-2

I won't say much so as not to ruin your fun!