Teaching in the Digital Age Special Interest Group

Andrzej Raczkowski (ar@raidoskryptys.lt)

Co-ordinator

Currently works as a Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philology at VPU, the Head of the Languages Department at Vilnius Business College and the representative of Cambridge University Press ELT in Lithuania and Latvia. Professional interests include ELT Methodology, Translation for Business, Effective Study Skills, and Psychology for Language Teachers (esp. teacher beliefs and attitudes underlying the process of teaching and learning foreign languages).

„Well over 1,000,000 books are published worldwide every year. A Google Book Search Scanner can digitize 1,000 pages every hour." (From the Did You Know? 4.0 video created for The Economist's Media Convergence Forum)

„The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller [than the one computer at MIT in 1965]...So what used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years." (Ray Kurzweil)

We are living in exponential times. The surge of new technologies and social media is reshaping the way our students access information and knowledge. Are we (teachers) ready for the digital future? The aim of this SIG is to unite teacher educators and teacher trainers working in both formal and non-formal education who would like to help pre-service and in-service trainee teachers to take a leap from the safe world of digital immigrants to the world of digital natives that our students live in, with a focus on the special needs of those who are most involved, i.e. learners and teachers, rather than just technology-mediated language learning and teaching opportunities.