Preparing Teachers For Digital Fluency

Educators are under increasing pressure to transition from face to face instruction by incorporating more blended, flipped and online learning elements into their teaching (PolyU, 2019; HKU, 2019). The online elements include both the MOOCs and SPOCs, which can be seen as an extension of traditional distance learning, and synchronous online teaching. Teacher training for existing teachers has mainly focuses on face to face teaching (UCLES, 2019), but current demands require a much wider range of skills including digital fluency - i.e. the ability to leverage the myriad digital tools and resources at our disposal to complete a specific job (Murphy, 2018). These skills can partly be met by professional development, although with quickening technological developments, it is only a matter of time before demands for personalised, purpose specific and time-efficient learning is met by a successful technologically enhanced delivery model (British Council, 2018). This presentation will consider the feasibility of professional development to be able to adequately prepare tertiary teachers in English Language Centres for the changing professional demands of their vocation in the coming decades.