IATEFL Cardiff Online

Even if you aren't going to Cardiff for the IATEFL conference, which kicks off with pre-conference meetings on 31 March and continues through 4 April, you can follow the proceedings online at http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009. The Special Interest Forums are really worth visiting.

Read along or join in discussions, for instance on Interactive White Boards, which Scott Thornbury argues are useless:

"Yes, don't start me on IWBs! It baffles me why they are called "interactive" - they seem simply to reinforce, and exacerbate, the delivery model of education enshrined in coursebooks."

And Nik Peachey agrees, to a point:

"It's really all about how they are used. Who in their right mind would want to interact with a whiteboard?? Learning, and especially language learning, is about interacting with people. IWBs can help to make that happen, but so much of the way they get used and the content designed for them is unfortunately NOT leading to this."

More: Cardiff Online, IWBs are useless. Discuss.