Ela Wassell, a Polish English language teacher based in the UK, attended The Image Conference and talks about her experience here.
1. What did you enjoy about The Image Conference?
I loved the fact that it was held in Barcelona! I’ve always wanted to visit this city. The venue was amazing. I enjoyed the talks. I met some of my PLN and made new friends – fantastic and inspiring people.
2. How was The Image Conference different from other conferences you’ve been to?
As far as I know, this is the first conference entirely dedicated to images – using pictures and videos in the classroom.
3. What were the main discussion points to arise in The Image Conference?
What materials are appropriate to show to our students? For example, violence, murder – would I show them to my learners?
– Political correctness and PARSNIP – based on Lindsay Clandfield’s talk.
4. Are there any practical activities you saw in The Image Conference which you’re going to use in your classes?
I liked Jamie Keddie’s idea of withholding the picture – picturetelling. I was inspired by Kieran Donaghy to write Manifestos with my students and to make our imagined journey diaries.
Ian James gave us a lot of tools and techniques to work with images!
I’d been already using and contributing to the #eltpics project – Fiona Macauline’s talk.
I’d like to incorporate a technique suggested by Mark McKinnon – showing a video without the sound and make students guess or create the dialogue.
Steve Muir also provided us with lots of practical activities that involved using TV programmes in our lessons.
To sum up, I came back inspired and with my head full of ideas!
5. Would you like to see a second edition of The Image Conference?
Yes, please! This conference was so well organised.
The programme was published well ahead, meals were organised for delegates (delicious Catalan food!), communication with organisers before the event was easy and efficient – hats off to Eleanor Broadbridge, Pascal Shaw, Kieran Donaghy, Nicky Hockly and everyone involved in organising the conference!
Can I have some more, please?