For the last few years I’ve attended the always-interesting  Wireless Ready conferences organized by Michael Thomas at Nagoya University of Commerce.  As you would expect from a conference on educational technology, each year there are presentations on new technology and novel uses for it.  This year, however, frustration with difficulties in getting (particularly Japanese) learners to more actively make use of Internet and related technology resources–and to learn more actively in general–was palpable in several presentations I attended. Over the past few years, many presenters had reported problems with getting learners to make use of technology or novel approaches to language learning but there was always an underlying sense of optimism and hope and excitement about new technology and the opportunities it afforded. This year you could almost hear the sound of impact into the wall (snowbank? swamp?) of realism.  Every presenter seemed to take pains to point out that technology is only as good as its educational design and implementation. Games featured big this year. Hayo Reinders spoke on the challenges and potential advantages of using them. Darren Elliott interviewed him right after his presentation and you can hear what he had to say here.

At past Wireless Ready conferences, there were lots of presentations about using podcasting, but this yearit seems excitement about podcasting has declined, judging from the number of presentations on that topic. Well, just in time for this cooling off I recently learned (via  a newsletter from Tony Bates) of a website devoted to making use of ipods for education. It’s called Learning in Hand and I think it is a good example of a shift toward a focus on pedagogy even as the gleam of novelty lessens.