วีดีโอนี้จัดทำขึ้นในฐานะ RELO Grantee เพื่อสะท้อนความรู้สึกที่ได้เข้าร่วม
The 41st Thailand TESOL International Virtual Conference
“ELT in the Digital Era and Beyond: Innovation, Engagement, and Resilience”
Date: January 21-22, 2022
✨AN ORAL REFLECTION ✨
First of all, I'd like to express my joy and honor at being selected as a RELO grantee and having the opportunity to attend the 41st Thailand TESOL International Virtual Conference. It was absolutely an exciting, enjoyable, yet professional experience for me because I had never attended a session from the comfort of my own home before.
I actually wrote on the application form that education is a never-ending process. It doesn’t stop when you start a job. Through continuing education, through conferences, through professional activities, I can constantly improve my skills and become more productive at my job. So, I always look out for opportunities to pursue professional development, not only to ensure the best learning outcomes for my students but also to be more effective in other aspects of my work.
This conference offered teachers and educators a chance to talk, interact, network, and discuss research and practices in the educational field, and also a chance to listen to distinguished keynote speakers. Many of them were in fact, excellent field experts.
I attended many sessions during the conference, seven to be exact. There was one in particular that I really enjoyed. It was called The Use of Digital Tools to Promote Critical Thinking by Miss Kanteera Khadee. She talked about how she employed a variety of digital tools in her remote classes to foster critical thinking. Padlet, Kahoot, WordWall, CapCut, TedTalk, and ClassDojo were just a few examples. Her presentation was really interesting because it allowed me to look at a variety of digital tools that could aid children in building critical thinking skills. I felt like I could somehow relate to her and her circumstances because, during the pandemic, my school also shifted to remote teaching and learning unexpectedly. It was a bit hard at first, with adjusting and everything, but I was able to overcome most of the difficulties with the help of certain digital tools. And that was just one presentation. Many others were fascinating as well.
Honestly speaking, I enjoyed this platform, this online format a lot because I was able to interact with more educators as there were no limiting boundaries like the number of chairs or the size of the room in the session.
While attending this virtual conference, I realized that, despite the fact that we, as educators, have been through a tough journey, we have received wonderful insights from the consequences of the forced pedagogical modifications. It was nice to see that so many ELT professionals and teachers came together on the virtual platform to exchange ideas, share information and lessons learned during this disruptive time.
Last but not least, I want to say that even though I strongly believe in the value of face-to-face events, I definitely think that virtual conferences should continue to be organized even after the COVID-19 situation. I'd also like to express my appreciation to the Thailand TESOL Organization for hosting this event. Without a question, it was well-organized, well-planned, and well-executed.