Reinventing Teacher Education During the Pandemic

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.929432408057

• Palavras-chave: ELT methodology; Maker Movement; online course design, maker-activities

• Keywords: ELT methodology; Maker Movement; online course design, maker-activities

• Abstract: During the abrupt transition to virtuality during the pandemic, educators saw the need to change their teaching practices and find innovative ways to promote online meaningful learning. This paper presents the experiences of a group of educators from Universidad de Santiago de Chile who drew on the principles of the Maker Movement (MM) Manifesto originally used in the field of sciences -STEM- to redesign an English Language Teaching Methodology course during COVID-19. Through the creation of “makerspaces” and the implementation of collaborative maker-activities, the course incremented virtual collaboration, collaborative learning, and student attendance and participation through hands-on activities that required knowledge creation rather than knowledge consumption. This paper offers practical suggestions and reflections, describes the advantages and disadvantages of using the MM in course design and implementation, and finalizes with a call to consider the MM principles to transition back to the old normal.