IG-Material Writers Update

Nicole Mercer, Member

One of the greatest challenges I have faced over my twenty years of teaching is keeping my materials fresh: up-to-date in both content and form. With technological innovation, particularly over the last decade, have come new expectations and opportunities in terms of materials development, from creating engaging and community-creating activities for online courses to incorporating corpus tools in the classroom.

Fortunately, the CATESOL community can be an invaluable source of both ideas and encouragement for us as materials writers. The CATESOL annual conference and regional conferences, The CATESOL Journal, and the CATESOL Newsletter and blog are fabulous forums for sharing materials. 

If you are interested in materials development, I strongly encourage you to join the CATESOL Materials Writers Interest Group (MWIG). Our message board is a space for sharing ideas, articles, books, blogs, contacts… and questions. 

We are also always interested in articles and presentations related to materials writing. If you have ideas and are looking for feedback from other materials-minded CATESOLers or if you have suggestions for blog posts or workshops you would like to see, please write to the group at catesolmw@memberleap.com.