an interview with hayo reinders (computer games and language learning)
An Interview With Hayo Reinders from darren elliott on Vimeo.
I’m by no means a gamer*, but I was fascinated to hear Hayo address the question ‘Do computer games really contribute to language learning?’ as keynote speaker at the 4th International Wireless Ready Symposium in Nagoya, Japan. The answer? They can, but…..
I meant to ask a little more about the institutional obstacles to success in incorporating technology into language learning. One thing Hayo alluded to in his talk was the difficulty in controlling who and what learners come into contact with in the online world. Here in Japan the age of majority is twenty, so technically many of my students are still children! My personal preference would be to give them a little training in online ‘smarts’ and let them free, but I realise life is not so simple and that we have a duty of care. How should we approach this problem, then? Do you think fears about security / ‘bad’ language / inappropriate content are justified? Or that firewalls and filters just end up shackling us?
It was great to finally meet Dr. Reinders and he gives a great interview here, despite being on a nine-hour time difference from his home in London. I first came across his work when I started looking into self-access learning and learner autonomy, and we discussed these topics too. For all things ‘Reinders’ I recommend his website “Innovation in Teaching”. As well as many, many fine articles you can find a clip of Hayo on Pakistani breakfast television…..
*apart from ‘Urban Dead’, but that’s more about my love for zombies than my love for computer games
I was interested in the views expressed on gaming but was also thrilled to hear some really interesting views on self-access, something which I have been interested in for a long time, moving from the small, physical and now to the digital.
His questioning of the value of this type of work is food for thought. I am thinking more in terms of my SA for teacher education courses but same principles would apply, wouldn’t they…
Great interview, Darren, thanks for putting together.
Marisa
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A lot of food for thought there, particularly regarding the facilitative role of the teacher. Thanks for sharing all this stuff from the Symposium in Nagoya.
Great interview – thanks also for drawing my attention to Reinders and his work, Darren – I hope you don’t mind us reproducing your video on our Digital Play website (if you do, then please let me know and I’ll take it down)
[...] Elliot, who writes the great Lives of Teachers blog recently interviewed Hayo Reinders, keynote speaker at the 4th International Wireless Ready [...]
Sputnik – Cheers. More in the pipeline.
Graham – You’re welcome! Two ‘t’ s in Elliott, mind you…. but I’m used to it
Thanks, Darren – just changed it. Thanks again for introducing us to Reinders – lots of great stuff to follow up on here
[...] For the last few years I’ve attended the always-interesting Wireless Ready conferences organized by Michael Thomas at Nagoya University of Commerce. As you would expect from a conference on educational technology, each year there are presentations on new technology and novel uses for it. This year, however, frustration with difficulties in getting (particularly Japanese) learners to more actively make use of Internet and related technology resources–and to learn more actively in general–was palpable in several presentations I attended. Over the past few years, many presenters had reported problems with getting learners to make use of technology or novel approaches to language learning but there was always an underlying sense of optimism and hope and excitement about new technology and the opportunities it afforded. This year you could almost hear the sound of impact into the wall (snowbank? swamp?) of realism. Every presenter seemed to take pains to point out that technology is only as good as its educational design and implementation. Games featured big this year. Hayo Reinders spoke on the challenges and potential advantages of using them. Darren Elliott interviewed him right after his presentation and you can hear what he had to say here. [...]