Episode Twenty-nine

Conversation with Orlando Delgado: Taking ELT Online in the Time of COVID-19

Show Notes

We’re kicking off Season 2 of Expand Your Horizons by welcoming a returning guest, Orlando Delgado. Orlando is the Director of Teacher Training & Development Operations for IH Mexico and has been a teacher trainer and CELTA and DELTA assessor for over 10 years around the world. Orlando is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about online teaching and training in particular – and this week, we’re talking about what’s going on in the world right now and how that affects the ELT industry. We’re currently in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is impacting how we’re thinking about teaching, learning, professional development, and communication in general. In this episode, Orlando joins me for a less formal conversation in which we reflect on what all of this could mean for our industry and bring you some general insight and advice on teaching online.

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In this Episode

  • A special announcement: you can now take the CELTA course completely online through Ih Mexico: find more information here.

  • Our free webinars are back! Register here to save your spot.

  • Orlando’s initial thoughts on how the Covid-19 pandemic has immediately affected the ELT industry

  • How teachers and professors around the world have had to adapt to remote teaching

  • How this situation has made us reconsider how things might change more permanently

  • The potential long-term effects of our adaptation to online teaching

  • What some teachers are finding stressful about online teaching

  • Different generations of teachers and coping with online teaching

  • The new apps popping up for online teaching and tutoring

  • How our view of online teaching is shifting from a “backup plan” to the first choice for a learning method

  • Our predictions for how online teaching and learning will increase

  • Whether there will still be a desire to travel to physical classes even after it’s safe to do so again

  • Whether online services are actually superior to in-person options

  • Benefits of remote learning - what’s possible online

  • “Flipping the classroom” - what this means and how it works online

  • Homework as an afterthought to a class vs. homework as preparation for the upcoming lesson

  • How flipping the classroom can motivate the students and promote learner autonomy

  • Teacher training and professional development opportunities online

  • How you can still make classroom management techniques work through technology: monitoring, interaction patterns, student talk time, etc.

  • Ideas for making online activities collaborative in a group

  • The benefits of getting trained to teach online specifically

  • How CELTA online can work and the unexpected upside to conducting teaching practice online

  • Why employers may jump at the chance to hire a candidate who has received training for online teaching

  • Our predictions for the future of teacher training


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