Where exactly IS your office?
Most of us BE trainers work all over the place - companies, home, schools, colleges, so we don't necessarliy have a designated work space that stays put. Where would you say your office is and what do you have in it to make it a "work space"?
Hi Carl
I actually have a real office - a physical space where I work, or rather administrate the academic department of our school and do my preparation and research for teaching. But like you said, increasingly my desktop at work and my personal netbook are "my office". My lesson ideas, links to materials, etc are on my netbook and my desktop. I really don't go anywhere else for materials (should I need any, being a dogmetist essentially!) but the Net.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to stretch to a smartphone, so I don't use my phone for anything but phone calls and taking the occasional pic! My netbook does follow me around a lot though.
Thank you for the two web addresses. I shall investigate Dropbox. I have a posterous account, but haven't done anything with it.
I have a feeling most BE teachers these days have mobile offices.....Let's wait and see who else posts ere.
Candy
Good question, Candy.
Like Carl, I tend to live in the clouds. Dropbox originally made this possible and now all my admin is done via this. I also find SugarSync a real boon as it has larger capacity for stuff like films.
Like you, I have a real office as well, although I barely use it, preferring to work at home where the tea is better!
I don't have a real smartphone either. In fact, I'm not sure mine would even manage the 11+. Still, that doesn't stop me being interested in what can be done with them as some 95% of my students have them. Do you share stuff with your students via your phone in lessons, Carl?
Hi Tony,
Yes, more and more students have smart phones and some are coming to lessons with iPads so I make flashcards, quizzes and worksheets available to them. Here's a small group I taught this evening engrossed in their phones: http://carldowse.posterous.com/mobile-devices
Carl
That's very interesting Carl - and, quite possibly, the most controversial video in EFL!
Thanks for sharing it.
Hi,
I have a real office where I meet with colleagues and clients. I also coordinate and prepare stuff.
I also work a lot form home and from my clients's offices, so my laptop is my partner.
I have a real office myself as well. Face to face students.
I remember a quote from a US author , whose book I translated earlier on . She said she used to say to friends and colleagues : " I work from home" but now she says: " I sleep in my office" :) for all those of you other there who work from home or wherever you might be : a park, a beach , a cafe :) etc
Nat
Hi everyone!
I have a real office too. I rent it in one of the business office centres here in Kiev. It has a number of benefits, since I can have face-to-face lessons on an “independent” territory. Plus, all the things needed for lesson (peace and quiet, whiteboard, computer with speakers and etc.) are present. Though, I must admit I would rather have a place of my own – the rent price is high, so I can hardly afford more than 15 days off a year.
Hi Max - great to see you here!
I'm sorry to hear the rent is so high still, although I guess it's the sign of a healthy economy. Rent here plummeted after the recession.
I guess when holographic technology becomes sufficiently advanced and cheap, we will be able to have virtual offices and schools.
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Tony! Thank you for the comment! I am not quite sure about Ukrainian economy, but offices do stay high :). I hope i will be one of the first to try such technology, Tony! On the other hand, I also hope that my clients would still prefer the 'real', physical/material presence in face-to-face lessons. It is just because I like it this way :) I personally tend to think that we communicate with more than just 5 senses. There must be one more, which i can't define, but which makes it really different and probably 'genuine' from any other ways of communication.
I like that idea very much, Max - it makes a lot of sense to me.
Hi all,
It’s great to see Carl, Tony, and Maxim Here.
I do not have an office of my own yet, and work primarily from a designated area at home as Carl does. I occasionally rent a small and neat training center, by the day, from a relative whenever I have scheduled training events.
Tarek
Hi Tarek,
Good to see you here too! You sound like you have a good deal there if you can rent an office by the day when you need it. Six months is about the minimum here!
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Candy,
During the day I work mostly from home, but rather than in the "real" world, increasingly, I associate "my office" with whichever device I happen to be using. So, in the classroom, or in a client's office, it would be my laptop and/or my smartphone that acts as my mobile office.
At home, it's my desktop computer - which does have a permanent space in a corner of our living room. Using these devices on the go brings with it one or two problems. For example, how to keep the data on each sychronised. These days, the kind of mobility your question implies is being increasingly served by so-called cloud computing. For instance, there are applications, that allow me to synchonise my bookmarks (favourites) on all my devices. And with the new version of the Firefox browser this feature is now integrated and that certainly makes life easier. Storing one's material online, for example with an application such as Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/), means that I can access it - whether it be a worksheet in pdf format or a sound or video file - on my laptop or smartphone. It also means that I can share this material very easily with my students.
My smartphone is playing an ever bigger role in my teaching so that has become an essential element in my mobile office and with super easy to use online applications like Posterous (https://posterous.com/) material can be shared with students direct from my smartphone and they can view it and interact with it their mobile devices. All of which is adding another dimension and extension to our face-to-face teaching.
How about you? Where is your office?
Carl