Dr. Dawn Bikowski, Director of the English Language Improvement Program at Ohio University, was a featured speaker at the Teacher Educator Conference 2014 put on by the British Council in Hyderabad, India, in February. It’s the largest teacher education conference in India.
Dr. Dawn Bikowski
Bikowski spoke on “The Pedagogy of Collaboration: Teaching Effectively with Evolving Technologies.” She noted an increasing demand for English in an increasingly connected world demanding digital literacy. She pointed to changing student expectations regarding interactive technology and collaborative learning.
She referenced a British Council report citing “fears that India does not have the English-speaking ‘talent pool’ to support…growth” of 6 million IT workers in the coming decade and the growing importance of “English for Specific Purposes.”
Bikowski provided 10 guidelines for “Pedagogy of Collaboration within a Technology Landscape,” including harnessing the powers of technologies to increase learner motivation and reflection and guiding students on how to work autonomously within a collaborative environment. She also referenced digital games for language learning as one way to prepare students to become lifelong learners for digital literacies currently unknown.
Her paper and the full webcast of her talk will be published on the British Council’s website for the International English Language Teacher Educator Conference. This presentation was in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, with Bikowski serving as a Senior English Language Specialist. She also led several teacher training and curriculum development projects in India.
Bikowski is an Ohio University alum, having earned a Ph.D. in Education, Instructional Technology and an M. A. in Linguistics from Ohio University.
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