5th GLOBELT and GLOBETS conferences were organized in Kyrenia between 11 and 14 April 2019 and participants from 33 different countries presented 94 proceedings. Lecturers of Near East University Atatürk Faculty of Education were among the keynote speakers invited in both conferences. President of the conference, dean of Atatürk Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Hakkı Mirici made opening speech and the first speaker of the conference was Esteemed Meral Akıncı who is wife of Esteemed Mustafa Akıncı, president of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In her speech, Akıncı emphasized the necessity of examining the reflections of technologies and innovations in education and stated that education is the key factor for transforming negations into the benefit of the society and it is really important for educators to contribute to the development of society in every domains.
This year, GLOBELT 2019 was organized with the theme of “Teaching English as Additional Language” and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavuşoğlu gave speech titled as “From Theory to Practice, Practical to Insight: A Transformative Experience”. Çavuşoğlu mentioned about developing insightful skills of preservice teachers and gave information about the project titled as “Building Bridges: Teaching English to Different Groups” carried out with the collaboration of Near East University Applied Linguistics Research Center. She emphasized that the project both give the opportunity of teaching in real classes before graduating for preservice teachers and arise as a community service practice which strengthens university-society relations. Çavuşoğlu explained that the project, which has been going on for three years, has improved the teaching skills of pre-service teachers and based on the re-organized teaching practice programs, they put professional insightful practices at the center of the internship program, and said that this arrangement provided unique transformational contributions to the experiences of both teacher candidates and teacher trainers. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çavuşoğlu’s speech was especially listened by the instructors who train teachers. In addition, the Building Bridges Project was discussed by the audience as an important initiative.
In GLOBETS conference which was designed as sister conference and the second one organized this year, Near East University Social Research Development Center co-chairman and Atatürk Faculty of Education Computer Education and Instructional Technologies department chair Prof. Dr. Zehra Altınay presented a speech titled as “Research and Projects on Disabled People: Social Welfare and Dignity”. Emphasizing the importance of the projects realized within the center since 2013, Prof. Dr. Altınay pointed out that scientific value and solution-oriented projects in sustainable education, non-disabled society and education can be sustainable and that institutional cooperations are necessary in this sense. The center provides scientific contribution to all institutions by presenting projects on accessible information, safe school, conscious families, happy tomorrows, free women for children, women and disabled people. She underlined that social solution oriented projects are continuing especially in the field of disabled people, and that developing technologies and innovations are an integral part of this process.
In pursuit of GLOBELT and GLOBETS 2019, GLOBELT and GLOBETS 2020 will be held in Montenegro next year.
