Geoffrey Hooke - Master of Education (TESOL)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Welcome

My name is Geoffrey Hooke and I am an ESL teacher, instructional designer and educational technologist.

I currently work as an Instructional Designer at Keypath Education in Melbourne, Australia.

In the Table of Contents on the right you will find links to my CV, some educational resources I have created. There is also a link to ESL Students in the Director's Chair, a collection of my students' digital storytelling projects.

I returned to Australia in 2010 after having taught English as a Foreign Language to the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces for seven years. It was a great job and I'd like to thank all my former students and colleagues for their friendship and support over the years.

Me and my Military Language Students in 2008

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Good Ship "Elsie Brown"

For six years, from 2005-9, I sailed much of the UAE coast in my gaff rigged trailer-sailer, "Elsie Brown". Since 2009, she has been berthed at the Yaringa Boat Harbour on Westerport Bay, sixty kilometres south-east of Melbourne, Australia.

Named after my maternal grandmother, she is a stripped-planked Evening Swan designed by Paul Fisher built in Melbourne by Chris van der Cratts. Elsie has a shallow bilge/shoal keel ideal for the shallow waters of the Arabian Gulf and Westerport Bay. She is easily beached and sits upright on the sand until the tide returns. She has twin berths (convertable to a double), a porta-potty and a small galley.

Ashore on a small sand island five kilometres west of Abu Dhabi (2007). The traditional owners, who have a date-palm plantation on the island, kindly let me camp on the beach for a few nights while I explored the neighbouring islands.

Sailing of the coast of Kalba just north of the Omani border on the Indian Ocean side of the UAE (2006). Shorty after this photo was taken the winds gusted over thirty knots and I lost the chain bobstay holding down the bobsprit at the bow. My companion boat lost her forstay but we returned safely home.

Elsie at her new home at the Yaringa Boat Harbour on Westerport Bay, in Victoria, Austalia (August, 2009). My friend, Chris Cheers, and I had just finished re-rigging her with new standing and running rigging when Chris took this photograph.

Sailing Oman's Musandam Peninsula (2007)

The Musandam, at the North-eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, overlooks the Straits of Hormuz. It is bordered to the west by the Arabian Gulf and to the East and South East by the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Known as the "Norway" of Arabia, the Musandam Peninsula is separated from the rest of Oman by various of the United Arab Emirates - Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah.

Musandam begins where the mountains rise from the plains of Ras al Khaimah where "Elsie" was berthed. The Musandam Peninsula is difficult to reach other than by sea and is a haven for sealife and birds. Indeed, as I sailed into Khor Habilayn I was escorted by a pod of a dozen dolphins. The cliffs rise a thousand feet from the water's edge and plunge fifty metres underwater just metres from shore. This makes safe anchorages rare and the winds eratic and unpredictable. The shores are populated by friendly Omanis who still live the simple traditional fishing life of their ancestors.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Resources

Documents

HCT Military Language Program Teaching Materials
Author - Geoff Hooke (2005-10)

Taif University English 1 Workbooks
Instructional Designer - Geoff Hooke (2011-12)

FCHS English for Health Sciences 1 and 2 Workbooks
Instructional Designer and Lead Author - Geoff Hooke (2012-13)

FCHS Introduction to Research and Biostatistics Workbooks
Instructional Design and Editor - Geoff Hooke (2012-13)

BBE110 Professional and Cognitive Skills Course Videos
Producer and Editor - Geoff Hooke (2015-16)

IELTS Experience

I taught IELTS preparation to intermediate English students at the UAE Higher Colleges of Technology from 2005-2009. I also taught IELTS preparation for the Monash University English Language Centre from 1992-6 and 2010-11.

There is a shortage of good IELTS practice speaking tests so I wrote one for my students. Click here to see a copy of the test .

My Overseas Study Project: Many of my Emirati students wanted to study overseas when the finished their course. I wrote this four-day project so they could research in depth a study destination and language school of their own choosing, practice a variety of authentic IELTS activites and practice their internet and IT skills.

My Masters Project

The research project for my Monash University master's degree, "Real English - Authoring Multimedia Listening Comprehension Exercises for English Language Students" (1996), is available here.
Wiser Educator, the software I designed for this project, was published by Wiser Software in 1997. Wiser Educator was used to create a box set of four commercial CALL CD-ROMs: Wiser Business, Travel, Entertainment & Sport.

Project Abstract

Wiser Educator is a new authoring program currently under development by the author for the rapid and simple creation of interactive multimedia English language listening comprehension exercises using any kind of audio or visual media as the primary input.

This project critically examines the aims, rationale and design of this program within a framework derived from a review of current literature in second language acquisition (SLA), communicative language teaching (CLT), computer assisted instruction (CAI) and computer assisted language learning CALL). On the basis of this analysis, the project then outlines a series of refinements, enhancements, additions and developments for the program and discusses the implications on further research and development of the Real English project. The project concludes with a discussion on the future of such programs in the context of the emerging global multimedia computer network.