Plenary Speakers
Kieran Donaghy
Try Talking in My Shoes: Empathy in Language Teaching
Empathy may be one of the qualities that distinguishes an average teacher from an excellent teacher in the eyes of the student. In this session we will examine the importance of empathy in language education and propose a number of highly creative activities inspired by literature and short films that foster empathy among both teachers and students.
Kieran Donaghy is a teacher, trainer, and award-winning writer. His website Film English film-english.com has won a British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources. He is the author of Film in Action (Delta Publishing). You can find out more about Kieran and his work at his author website kierandonaghy.com
Try Talking in My Shoes: Empathy in Language Teaching
Empathy may be one of the qualities that distinguishes an average teacher from an excellent teacher in the eyes of the student. In this session we will examine the importance of empathy in language education and propose a number of highly creative activities inspired by literature and short films that foster empathy among both teachers and students.
Kieran Donaghy is a teacher, trainer, and award-winning writer. His website Film English film-english.com has won a British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources. He is the author of Film in Action (Delta Publishing). You can find out more about Kieran and his work at his author website kierandonaghy.com
Nicky Hockly
Remixing Creativity
Digital literacies and creativity, are both key 21st century skills. Being digital literate in the 21st century includes understanding ‘remix’ – reworking original digital content to create new digital artefacts. Remix provides a virtual space for learners in which both creativity and language learning can be supported. In this talk, we explore remix in detail, including how it can be used with – and created by - your own learners.
Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E theconsultants-e.com , and has been teaching since 1987. She is author of several prize-winning methodology books about technology in ELT, and is a leading figure in edtech teacher training. Nicky lives in Barcelona, and is a technophobe turned technophile.
Remixing Creativity
Digital literacies and creativity, are both key 21st century skills. Being digital literate in the 21st century includes understanding ‘remix’ – reworking original digital content to create new digital artefacts. Remix provides a virtual space for learners in which both creativity and language learning can be supported. In this talk, we explore remix in detail, including how it can be used with – and created by - your own learners.
Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E theconsultants-e.com , and has been teaching since 1987. She is author of several prize-winning methodology books about technology in ELT, and is a leading figure in edtech teacher training. Nicky lives in Barcelona, and is a technophobe turned technophile.
Dr Luke Prodromou
Principles and Practical Tips for Making Exam Classes Creative
What would we teachers do without exams? They are the perfect pretext for teaching badly. Exams are the fig-leaf which hide our failure to be creative in the ELT classroom. 'If only we weren’t pressurized by one exam after another, we’d teach ...properly!' This interactive talk shows that we can have our exam cake and eat it, creatively. I suggest practical ways of teaching exam classes successfully and creatively.
Luke Prodromou has a BA (Bristol University), MA in Shakespeare Studies, (Birmingham University), A Postgraduate Diploma in TEFL (Leeds University) and a Phd (Nottingham University). His thesis on English as a Lingua Franca, was published by Continuum (2010). His theatre group, Luke-and-friends, thrives on creative collaboration with ELT colleagues.
Principles and Practical Tips for Making Exam Classes Creative
What would we teachers do without exams? They are the perfect pretext for teaching badly. Exams are the fig-leaf which hide our failure to be creative in the ELT classroom. 'If only we weren’t pressurized by one exam after another, we’d teach ...properly!' This interactive talk shows that we can have our exam cake and eat it, creatively. I suggest practical ways of teaching exam classes successfully and creatively.
Luke Prodromou has a BA (Bristol University), MA in Shakespeare Studies, (Birmingham University), A Postgraduate Diploma in TEFL (Leeds University) and a Phd (Nottingham University). His thesis on English as a Lingua Franca, was published by Continuum (2010). His theatre group, Luke-and-friends, thrives on creative collaboration with ELT colleagues.
Dr Joan Kang Shin
Are You a 21st Century Teacher?
Our students who are young global citizens need to learn values and skills that will enable them to successfully communicate and collaborate across borders and cultures. This workshop will demonstrate ways to integrate specific 21st century skills to help our young learners and teens succeed in this technology-driven and global century. Hopefully this workshop will inspire every teacher to be a true 21st century teacher.
Dr. Joan Kang Shin is an Associate Professor of Education at George Mason University and the Academic Program Coordinator of the Teaching Culturally & Linguistically Diverse & Exceptional Learners (TCLDEL) program. Dr. Shin specializes in teaching ESL/EFL to young learners and teenagers and has provided professional development programs and workshops to EFL teachers in over 100 countries around the world. She is a Series Editor of National Geographic Learning’s young learner programs Welcome to Our World, Our World, and Explore Our World, as well as the teen program Impact, and an author of the professional development title Teaching Young Learners English.
Plenary Speaker Interviews
Sylvia Karastathi interviews Kieran Donaghy, one of the plenary speakers at the 39th Annual International Convention: “Be Creative and Inspire!”
-Why is empathy an important concept for today's teaching community?
The key researchers in the field of social and emotional intelligence, of which empathy is a key component, are Christina Gkonou and Sarah Mercer (2016). Their work has shown that, although in all educational settings positive relationships between teacher and students, and among students, and positive group dynamics are essential for successful learning, in contemporary language classrooms - where communicative competence is a central goal, and which use communicative language teaching and student-centred approaches, which are highly social, interactional and interpersonal in nature - positive relationships and dynamics are particularly important. Empathy is undoubtedly a vital skill in nurturing these positive relationships and dynamics. According to Jill Hadfield in Classroom Dynamics (1993): “Members of a group are more likely to have a sympathetic and harmonious relationship if they make an attempt to understand each others’ feelings and points of views.”
Furthermore, given the increasingly multicultural and multilingual nature of the classroom in many parts of the world, language teachers and students need to develop intercultural skills, and empathy has a vital role to play in promoting intercultural competence, which is a key facet of communicative competence. Nurturing empathy can increase students’ awareness, understanding and appreciation of other cultures.
-In which conditions can images promote modes of empathy, especially as their reception often-times occurs in the mode of the dispassionate observer?
I think images in general, and especially moving images are very effective at promoting empathy. When people try to explain the relationship between images and empathy they often refer to ‘mirror neurons’. Giacomo Rizzolatti, Professor of Human Physiology at Parma University, accidentally discovered mirror neurons while conducting experiments on monkeys. He noticed that a particular region of the pre-motor cortex was activated when a monkey picked up a peanut, but also that the same region lit up when the monkey happened to see one of the researchers pick up a nut. The brain responded as if the monkey had picked up the nut itself.
He and his team had accidentally discovered ‘mirror neurons’ - the neurons that fire up both when we experience something (such as fear) and also when we see somebody else going through the same or a similar experience. However, some researchers now believe mirror neurons are receiving more attention than they deserve, as they are only one part of a much more complex ‘empathy circuit’ comprising at least ten interconnected brain regions. There is an increasing recognition of the complexity of empathy processes in the brain. Mirror neurons are only part of a larger ‘empathy circuit’. Nonetheless, there is a consensus among researchers that images seem to have empathy-fostering qualities.
This potential of images to foster empathy can obviously be exploited in the classroom. To effectively use images to foster empathy and overcome the boredom, apathy and passivity students may feel towards the image, it is necessary to treat images in all their different forms as visual texts and to promote visual literacy – to help students to understand (read), and to use (write) images. There is an increasing recognition that visual literacy needs to be integrated into curricula. This is reflected by the fact that in the English language curricula of a number of countries – for example, Canada, Australia and Singapore – two new skills, viewing (an active process of comprehending visual media, such as television, diagrams, symbols, photographs, films, videos, drawings, and paintings) and visually representing (communicating information and ideas through a variety of media such as graphs, presentation slides, infographic, drawings, and videos) have been added to the traditional skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
-How can empathy and creativity be encouraged in the framework of a video-based lesson?
I tend to use short films which tell a narrative rather than videos in my class. Numerous studies have shown that films with a compelling narrative can generate empathy for people we perceive as different from ourselves . These short films which foster empathy among our students also promote creativity as students have to imaginatively step into the shoes of people who are very different from themselves.
An effective way to foster both empathy and creativity is to ask students empathetic questions after watching a short film. When discussing a film in the classroom, we often focus more on what happened than on why it happened, relaying facts rather than exploring the thoughts and feelings that made characters behave the way they did. So when students watch a short film, it is important to give them time to reflect as a group on what they saw and heard, and how those narratives relate back to their own lives.
Here are a few empathetic questions:
• How would you feel if you were [person/character]?
• How do you think [person/character] might be feeling? How do you know?
• Can you think of a time when you felt the same way?
• What led him/her to make that (pick one) choice?
• What would you have done differently in that situation?
• Which character in the story do you relate to most and why?
Another effective way to foster both empathy and creativity after watching a short film is to act students to focus on a character and give them a perspective-taking instruction such as:
‘Imagine a day in the life of this individual as if you were that person, looking at the world through his eyes and walking through the world in his shoes.’
-What are potential pitfalls when working with moving images in the language classroom?
There a number of pitfalls when working with still and moving images in the classroom.
Showing feature-length films in one sitting
A disadvantage of this approach is that students may find it difficult to concentrate for two hours and this may lead to cognitive overload. Sometimes this method is used with little or no preparation, and often no pre-watching, while-watching or follow-up activities. Showing a whole film in this way is sometimes ‘justified’ as a ‘treat’ after a hard week of studying grammar or to calm down young students when they become agitated. It is probably better to only occasionally use film in this way without any clearly defined pedagogical goals as it fails to integrate film effectively into the curriculum.
Viewing a feature-length in short sequences and testing with listening comprehension questions
In this approach students view the whole film in short sequences over a number of sessions. There are two types of tasks teachers typically use to exploit this approach. Firstly, the teacher gives the students detailed viewing sheets, which they have often diligently prepared themselves, on language and cultural features of the film which the students have to complete.
This method is also used as a tool to aid listening comprehension. Students watch the film and are invited to carry out listening comprehension exercises and activities based exclusively upon what is said by the characters or the narrator, in very much the same way as they might with an audio text. The exercise types are usually exactly the same as those used in a listening comprehension task.
Although this approach is very thorough and pedagogically sound, a disadvantage is that it may be very time-consuming for the busy teacher if they create their own viewing sheets for each sequence. Most teachers do not have much time for extra class preparation.
Although this approach uses the full visual context to aid comprehension, a possible disadvantage is that it fails to exploit the other rich visual details of moving image texts. It seems a wasted opportunity to not have any tasks which focus on what the students have seen.
As film is a primarily visual medium, optimal educational use capitalises on its visual richness. Film becomes much less effective as an educational tool in language learning if the activities students are asked to do depend largely on non-visual elements of the film.
Showing short videos and films without any clear pedagogical goals
The emergence of YouTube in 2005 has made it easier for teachers to find a multitude of short videos and films. However, there is the danger of just using the short film or video to grab the students’ attention, to make them laugh or simply entertain them without having any clear pedagogical aims.
-How can the creative teacher inspire both their students and their colleagues?
I think creative practitioners can inspire both their students and colleagues through their example. By being creative, teachers can expand what we know about language teaching and learning in order to discover new worlds within the confines of our classrooms. I also believe that through their example creative practitioners can help to debunk the myth that creativity is just about creating works of art or enabling students to be artistic. This still very prevalent belief is detrimental to both teachers’ and students’ efforts to be creative in the language classroom.
Kieran Donaghy is best-known as the author of the methodology book Film in Action (2015, Delta Publishing) and as the creator of the website Film English (http://film-english.com), which has won an ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources. Kieran is a teacher and teacher trainer at UAB Languages, part of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and holds Master’s degrees in ELT and Business Communication. He is the founder of the ‘Image Conference’, the only conference exclusively devoted to the use of images in language teaching and the co-founder of the Visual Arts Circle (http:// visualartscircle.com), a professional community of practice for language education professionals interested in the use of the visual arts. Kieran has published extensively on the role of film and video in language education and he has recently co-edited the volume The Image in English Language Teaching (2017, ELT Council).
You can find out more about Kieran and his work at: http://kierandonaghy.com
The key researchers in the field of social and emotional intelligence, of which empathy is a key component, are Christina Gkonou and Sarah Mercer (2016). Their work has shown that, although in all educational settings positive relationships between teacher and students, and among students, and positive group dynamics are essential for successful learning, in contemporary language classrooms - where communicative competence is a central goal, and which use communicative language teaching and student-centred approaches, which are highly social, interactional and interpersonal in nature - positive relationships and dynamics are particularly important. Empathy is undoubtedly a vital skill in nurturing these positive relationships and dynamics. According to Jill Hadfield in Classroom Dynamics (1993): “Members of a group are more likely to have a sympathetic and harmonious relationship if they make an attempt to understand each others’ feelings and points of views.”
Furthermore, given the increasingly multicultural and multilingual nature of the classroom in many parts of the world, language teachers and students need to develop intercultural skills, and empathy has a vital role to play in promoting intercultural competence, which is a key facet of communicative competence. Nurturing empathy can increase students’ awareness, understanding and appreciation of other cultures.
-In which conditions can images promote modes of empathy, especially as their reception often-times occurs in the mode of the dispassionate observer?
I think images in general, and especially moving images are very effective at promoting empathy. When people try to explain the relationship between images and empathy they often refer to ‘mirror neurons’. Giacomo Rizzolatti, Professor of Human Physiology at Parma University, accidentally discovered mirror neurons while conducting experiments on monkeys. He noticed that a particular region of the pre-motor cortex was activated when a monkey picked up a peanut, but also that the same region lit up when the monkey happened to see one of the researchers pick up a nut. The brain responded as if the monkey had picked up the nut itself.
He and his team had accidentally discovered ‘mirror neurons’ - the neurons that fire up both when we experience something (such as fear) and also when we see somebody else going through the same or a similar experience. However, some researchers now believe mirror neurons are receiving more attention than they deserve, as they are only one part of a much more complex ‘empathy circuit’ comprising at least ten interconnected brain regions. There is an increasing recognition of the complexity of empathy processes in the brain. Mirror neurons are only part of a larger ‘empathy circuit’. Nonetheless, there is a consensus among researchers that images seem to have empathy-fostering qualities.
This potential of images to foster empathy can obviously be exploited in the classroom. To effectively use images to foster empathy and overcome the boredom, apathy and passivity students may feel towards the image, it is necessary to treat images in all their different forms as visual texts and to promote visual literacy – to help students to understand (read), and to use (write) images. There is an increasing recognition that visual literacy needs to be integrated into curricula. This is reflected by the fact that in the English language curricula of a number of countries – for example, Canada, Australia and Singapore – two new skills, viewing (an active process of comprehending visual media, such as television, diagrams, symbols, photographs, films, videos, drawings, and paintings) and visually representing (communicating information and ideas through a variety of media such as graphs, presentation slides, infographic, drawings, and videos) have been added to the traditional skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
-How can empathy and creativity be encouraged in the framework of a video-based lesson?
I tend to use short films which tell a narrative rather than videos in my class. Numerous studies have shown that films with a compelling narrative can generate empathy for people we perceive as different from ourselves . These short films which foster empathy among our students also promote creativity as students have to imaginatively step into the shoes of people who are very different from themselves.
An effective way to foster both empathy and creativity is to ask students empathetic questions after watching a short film. When discussing a film in the classroom, we often focus more on what happened than on why it happened, relaying facts rather than exploring the thoughts and feelings that made characters behave the way they did. So when students watch a short film, it is important to give them time to reflect as a group on what they saw and heard, and how those narratives relate back to their own lives.
Here are a few empathetic questions:
• How would you feel if you were [person/character]?
• How do you think [person/character] might be feeling? How do you know?
• Can you think of a time when you felt the same way?
• What led him/her to make that (pick one) choice?
• What would you have done differently in that situation?
• Which character in the story do you relate to most and why?
Another effective way to foster both empathy and creativity after watching a short film is to act students to focus on a character and give them a perspective-taking instruction such as:
‘Imagine a day in the life of this individual as if you were that person, looking at the world through his eyes and walking through the world in his shoes.’
-What are potential pitfalls when working with moving images in the language classroom?
There a number of pitfalls when working with still and moving images in the classroom.
Showing feature-length films in one sitting
A disadvantage of this approach is that students may find it difficult to concentrate for two hours and this may lead to cognitive overload. Sometimes this method is used with little or no preparation, and often no pre-watching, while-watching or follow-up activities. Showing a whole film in this way is sometimes ‘justified’ as a ‘treat’ after a hard week of studying grammar or to calm down young students when they become agitated. It is probably better to only occasionally use film in this way without any clearly defined pedagogical goals as it fails to integrate film effectively into the curriculum.
Viewing a feature-length in short sequences and testing with listening comprehension questions
In this approach students view the whole film in short sequences over a number of sessions. There are two types of tasks teachers typically use to exploit this approach. Firstly, the teacher gives the students detailed viewing sheets, which they have often diligently prepared themselves, on language and cultural features of the film which the students have to complete.
This method is also used as a tool to aid listening comprehension. Students watch the film and are invited to carry out listening comprehension exercises and activities based exclusively upon what is said by the characters or the narrator, in very much the same way as they might with an audio text. The exercise types are usually exactly the same as those used in a listening comprehension task.
Although this approach is very thorough and pedagogically sound, a disadvantage is that it may be very time-consuming for the busy teacher if they create their own viewing sheets for each sequence. Most teachers do not have much time for extra class preparation.
Although this approach uses the full visual context to aid comprehension, a possible disadvantage is that it fails to exploit the other rich visual details of moving image texts. It seems a wasted opportunity to not have any tasks which focus on what the students have seen.
As film is a primarily visual medium, optimal educational use capitalises on its visual richness. Film becomes much less effective as an educational tool in language learning if the activities students are asked to do depend largely on non-visual elements of the film.
Showing short videos and films without any clear pedagogical goals
The emergence of YouTube in 2005 has made it easier for teachers to find a multitude of short videos and films. However, there is the danger of just using the short film or video to grab the students’ attention, to make them laugh or simply entertain them without having any clear pedagogical aims.
-How can the creative teacher inspire both their students and their colleagues?
I think creative practitioners can inspire both their students and colleagues through their example. By being creative, teachers can expand what we know about language teaching and learning in order to discover new worlds within the confines of our classrooms. I also believe that through their example creative practitioners can help to debunk the myth that creativity is just about creating works of art or enabling students to be artistic. This still very prevalent belief is detrimental to both teachers’ and students’ efforts to be creative in the language classroom.
Kieran Donaghy is best-known as the author of the methodology book Film in Action (2015, Delta Publishing) and as the creator of the website Film English (http://film-english.com), which has won an ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources. Kieran is a teacher and teacher trainer at UAB Languages, part of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and holds Master’s degrees in ELT and Business Communication. He is the founder of the ‘Image Conference’, the only conference exclusively devoted to the use of images in language teaching and the co-founder of the Visual Arts Circle (http:// visualartscircle.com), a professional community of practice for language education professionals interested in the use of the visual arts. Kieran has published extensively on the role of film and video in language education and he has recently co-edited the volume The Image in English Language Teaching (2017, ELT Council).
You can find out more about Kieran and his work at: http://kierandonaghy.com
Sophia Mavridi interviews Nicky Hockly, one of the plenary speakers at the 39th Annual International Convention: “Be Creative and Inspire!”.
Nicky is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, and has been teaching since 1987. She is author of several prize-winning methodology books about technology in ELT, and is a leading figure in edtech teacher training.
Nicky is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, and has been teaching since 1987. She is author of several prize-winning methodology books about technology in ELT, and is a leading figure in edtech teacher training.
- What does it mean to be “creative” in the 21st century classroom and how can technology contribute to this?
Let me try to answer the first part of your question before thinking about the role of technology. Being creative is most often associated with being able to make (or ‘create’) something new that will enrich our lives. Most teachers nowadays agree that creativity can be nurtured in the classroom, under the right conditions. But most educators also agree that creativity tends to be stifled in the traditional language classroom, with its overwhelming focus on accuracy (where students are penalised for making mistakes), and its obsession with testing (where getting good grades in tests and exams is paramount). In theory, the 21st century classroom moves away from all of this, and seamlessly combines opportunities for students to develop their creativity, critical thinking and digital literacies. Note that I say ‘in theory’, because it's often a challenge for teachers to know exactly how to help their students develop these so-called 21st-century skills in any practical sense. In my view, technology won't automatically contribute to students developing their creativity, unless the right classroom conditions and atmosphere are first nurtured. This includes teachers (and other students) having a non-judgemental attitude to experimentation, and the teacher him/herself being willing to try things out and to develop his/her own creativity. Only then might a judicious use of technology as a tool play a role in helping our students creating original and interesting digital artefacts, for example. But it’s important to remember that technology is not necessary for creativity. But if you and your students do have access to technology, then why not use it creatively?
- Our students have been described as digital natives just because they are growing up in the digital age. According to this description, they have the intuition and skills that their teachers may lack. How useful or accurate is this term?
By now the myth of the ‘digital native’ has been thoroughly debunked. It was originally coined by Mark Prensky in 2001, and it seemed to describe a certain zeitgeist. But these days, pretty much all of us use technology to some degree, whatever our age. I much prefer the term digital visitors/digital residents, coined by David White in 2008. Digital visitors use technology to get things done, like sending an email, or buying something online. Digital residents tend to have a presence online, for example via a social networking site or blog – in other words part of their life is lived online. Most of us today are somewhere on the cline between occasional digital visitors and full-time digital residents. I think that the term ‘digital native’ has actually done quite a lot of damage. It means that teachers often expect their younger learners to be expert users of technologies. Many aren't. For example, find me a teenager who is good at spotting fake news, or is 100% safe in his or her online social networking practices. They are few and far between. I certainly believe that it is part of our job as educators and language teachers to help our students develop their digital literacies. Doing so can also make our language classes a lot more interesting and relevant for them!
- How easy is it to persuade different stakeholders (parents, directors of studies) that creative activities are not a waste of time against the curriculum?
If the entire curriculum and teaching ethos is exams- or results-oriented, then it can be quite tricky! Short of changing our curricula and assessment processes, technology can help teachers share students creative work with different stakeholders. Publishing and sharing students’ creative work is an important part of the creative classroom. For example, imagine that your class of young learners produce posters about staying safe online – a closed Facebook group can be used to share photos of your students’ creative posters with parents. A blog can be used to showcase students’ creative writing. Technology can be particularly helpful in sharing both traditional and digital content with a wider audience. Once stakeholders see how creative students are capable of being, they may be won over.
- Traditionally, teaching goes hand in hand with assessment. How can technology help us to make our assessment more creative?
Assessment is a huge topic, so let me just give one example here. If students are using technology to create digital content in the classroom, then we can expand our assessment rubrics beyond the language content to include elements of the digital medium. For example, imagine that your learners have worked in small groups, and each group has researched a different country, then synthesised that information into a narrated PowerPoint slideshow. As the teacher, you will probably have an assessment rubric for their use of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation etc., but you can also assess ‘digital elements’, such as how effectively they use images in the presentation. For example, are the images used copyright-free, and are the sources of the images acknowledged? How effective is their use of font/text/colour in their PowerPoint presentation? Do they include hyperlinks, and how useful are these/what is their effect on the text in the presentation? Another the use of technology in this scenario might include students uploading their finished presentations to a class blog, and then classmates being invited to leave constructive comments and feedback on each presentation, on the blog. For older students, their ability to give useful and constructive feedback could even form part of the assessment.
- Last but not least, how can the creative teacher inspire both their students and their colleagues? What is the role of technology in this?
By sharing ideas with others. By helping teachers who may be less confident with technology to become more confident – and creative – users. For English language teachers who may feel short on creative ideas for the language classroom, and who would like to work on their own creativity, there are several good resource books available. You can download a free PDF version of the 2015 British Council publication Creativity in the English language classroom, edited by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey (see https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/creativity-english-language-classroom). You can also join The C Group (http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com/ ), a group for English language practitioners ‘to share information, promote reflection and inquiry, and encourage action through more creative and open teaching practices’. Start your own blog and share your creative teaching ideas with other teachers around the world. Set up a Pinterest or ScoopIt! account and collect other teachers’ creative ideas to share with colleagues. All of these examples show how technology can help creative teachers connect with and inspire others by sharing best practices and ideas.
Sophia Mavridi has been involved in ELT since 1998. Over this time, she has worked as a Primary and Secondary School Teacher, Director of Studies, Teacher Trainer, Writer, EAP tutor, and more recently EdTech Lecturer on the TESOL MA at the University of Salford. Sophia is the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG Coordinator, a special interest group specialising in the pedagogically sound application of technology to language teaching. Her research interests include the increasingly important role of Digital Citizenship and Digital Ethics in educational contexts and is currently working on Digital Literacy projects around Europe.