Mission Statement

Introduction

The IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group is one of the largest and the oldest of the IATEFL SIGs. It began as the COMPUTERS SIG in the mid-1980s and has members from all around the world. This reflects the growing interest in new technologies.

The LTSIG is concerned with the application of new technologies to English language learning. The LTSIG includes among itsinterests the use of corpora and concordancers, multimedia, online and remote teaching, online tools and resources, socialmedia, e-learning, instructional design, mobile learning, computer-mediated communication, text-based software, authoring,learning management systems, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and interactive digital whiteboards.This list is non-exhaustive and as technologies grow, so too do our interests.

Aims

  • To raise awareness among ELT professionals of the power of learning technologies to assist with language learning.
  • To contribute to the knowledge base as to how learning technologies can be used for effective English Language Learning.
  • To develop members’ expertise in the myriad of uses of learning technologies with their language learners.
  • To encourage networking and online collaboration amongst SIG members.

What we do

  • Organise and collaborate with Edtech related events in the UK and overseas, with discounts for IATEFL members
  • Organise the learning technologies track at the main IATEFL Conference.
  • Offer a scholarship to attend IATEFL conference face-to-face.
  • Offer travel grants to attend conferences face-to-face.
  • Publish a newsletter, LT.
  • Build a community around learning technologies on our Facebook page and group, Instagram and Twitter account.
Although there have many changes in this field over these years, we remain committed to looking into, describing, and critically analysing the latest learning technologies in the field of language teaching and learning in terms of tools and apps, but mostly their pedagogically-sound application.