A short weekend hackathon to help organise online resources that ESOL teachers can use

The challenge at the heart of this event is the difficulty that teachers face when they begin teaching English to a group of students who may not even have strong proficiency in their first language, and may not even know the English alphabet. The students may be adults, and have habits that are hard to shake, furthermore the classroom is likely to contain a range of abilities.

Most of the English teaching resources online are for higher levels of ability, or are clearly aimed at children. Many of the collections online contain broken links, or links to Flash games that no longer work due to changes in browser behaviour. It is sometimes difficult to work out exactly what level they are for, and the standardisation of resources is also less clear at this level.

The Casey Report and the Let Refugees Learn campaign have provided clear evidence to show that increasing ESOL provision benefits everyone. Integration improves, and communities are happier and more prosperous. Yet it still volunteers who teach ESOL classes for refugees in a vast number of cases, and not all have a high proficiency themselves.

https://feweek.co.uk/2016/12/05/casey-review-influential-report-requests-funding-rise-for-community-based-english-language-classes/

https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/campaigns/let_refugees_learn/

The Techfugees conference with Cambridge Assessment English in 2016 also highlighted the significance of learning English for mental health and resilience.

https://techfugees.com/events/techfugees-cambridge-event-learning-english-for-refugees/

We believe that the government is looking at this with seriousness now, following the integrated communities strategy review recently, and the announcement of more funding for councils.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/19-million-funding-for-councils-to-boost-integration

What we think is missing is a portal that ESOL teachers can use to search for resources that suit their classes, and ideally suggest modern resources that suit the characteristics of the regional context as well as the learners needs.

The schedule includes a couple of other events that we suggest attending in the morning, before the start of our event at 2pm. This is subject to change, depending on what the participants want to do (everyone runs the hackathon).

Saturday

(Before the hackathon)

11am – Join the “Walk a Mile” march with SOS Childrens Villages (optional)

https://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/walkamile

https://www.facebook.com/events/363531247499455/

12pm – Mingle at Great Get Together Emmanuel United Reform Church (optional)

2pm – Meet at Makespace promptly, start of the ESOLTHON, registration and induction

2.30pm – Keynote talks –

Julia Citron (Techfugees Cambridge) – Opening address

Ila Chandavarkar (Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum) – Talk English

3pm – Discussion forum, finding ESOL resources

Julia Citron (Techfugees Cambridge), Ila Chandavarkar (CECF), Marina Velez Vago (teacher), Ryan Smith (ESOL manager)

4pm – Get into groups and start design work on challenges (assumed to be agile user-centred design process)

UX journey of a teacher, interface wireframes

6pm – Present back to full group

6.30pm – Dinner break and games, work until whenever you feel like going home

Sunday

9am – Meet at Makespace, catchup on yesterday’s work

9.30am – Prototype implementation (in development group and curation group)

12pm – Present back to full group

12.30pm – Lunch break and games

1.30pm – Prototype implementation (in development group and curation group)

3.30pm – Present back to full group

4.00pm – Final tweaks, next steps, closing remarks

6.00pm – End

View full rules

You must pre-register on Eventbrite, as the venue doesn't allow people to turn up and join without being registered.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cambridge-esolthon-tickets-46764954237

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