How should TEFL reviews change?
I was typing out the usual easy but boring list of contents as part of an MET book review the other day, when it occured to me that it would just be easier and more sensible to mention how much you can see on Google Books, link to an Amazon page that has the Look Inside function and/ or explain any freebie content the publishers have put online. That got me pondering on how else TEFL reviews have, should and will respond to the changes that are happening around them (sure sign of a TEFL otaku, spending time thinking about stuff like that, I know…)
Ways I have been responding to those changes in my MET and ELTJ reviews and the things we review on TEFL.net include:
- Comparing books and CD ROMs etc to content that is available (sometimes for free) online
- Giving more space to reviewing the multimedia components of a course, e.g. with Teaching with Bear where the DVD tucked unobtrusively in the back cover is more important than the hundred odd pages of text
- Mentioning online components (even free ones) when that affects how well you can use the course
- Mentioning price and value for money more often as people have more choice (something some reviewers have strongly resisted!)
- Reviewing content you have to pay to view on the web in the same way we would books etc.
There might also be an argument for reviewing free content, given people’s lack of time to check out every site and part of it themselves, and when the things we often reviewed like photocopiable materials and guides to practical techniques are moving almost entirely online as these kinds of books from the big publishers are totally drying up. Unfortunately, we’d be overwhelmed with things to review if we did include free stuff. There’s also the grey area where an ABAX textbook and Jason Renshaw’s paid content are available for whatever you’d want to pay, and it must I imagine be difficult to know how much is fair without reading a review of it.
Any comments on the above or ideas on changes? Have your say below:
April 5th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Hi Alex – well, believe it or not this really caught my attention for the whole idea of it and not that you specifically mention my site (found it at the bottom of the post and thought – oh, wow, didn’t know my site and approach to selling materials could be relevant here – but yes, ’tis!).
Being in the grey area you mention, I have to say that generally my idea of “fair” is whatever teachers feel they can afford at the time. Pretty much 90% of the pay-for content is already previewed (admittedly, by me), exemplified, and often introduced with some free material across the many public pages of the site – which I generally hope helps a teacher to estimate the scope, quality and relevance of the resources to them.
But I have to say, rather than being an estimate of the worth of the material (if that’s even possible), the idea behind “choose your fee” is more along the lines of just making a contribution – something that will help me pay for my site and storage hosting, and give me a little budge to keep adding things from time to time. I don’t know if that is the right way to look at it, but the initiative has worked really well according to the goals I set for it. I’m covering my costs now, getting a little more for a few coffees a week, and attracting a lot more teachers in places I never reached before. That works for me.
Getting back to the overall thrust of your post, however, I think you’re right to review and re-think your approach and priorities for TEFL reviews. These times they are a-changing, and access to materials and resources are changing rapidly – makes sense for your review procedures and priorities to change as well.
Look forward to reading some of your readers reactions and ideas…
Cheers,
~ Jason
April 16th, 2010 at 11:02 am
A creative commons textbook–probably not very creative but perhaps not so common yet anyway. Does this mean I can do anything I want with and to this book?
I’m never very sure where to go with reviews in ELT. I can’t bring myself to read or write a review of something I would never use in my classrooms. But in terms of reviews of materials, the reviewer really should be honest about what the course was like to use in a course over a period of time, like 16 weeks (the length of a term here in Japan).