Nominations for Top 100 Language Blogs 2009
http://tinyurl.com/mjkzwb
There are some really excellent blogs relating to language teaching and learning, translating or just musing about languages. The list of nominations that is appearing at the Lexiophiles website looks amazing.
Have a look too at Section 12.2 of Module 1.5, where you will find a list of teachers' blogs that I read regularly.
Graham Davies
Pero me gustaría hacer un balance positivo de lo que ha significado este año de trabajar en el aula bilingüe con muchos resultados. Contar con los assistants ha sido fundamental, David y Jenni han dado sentido al uso del inglés desde el día que llegaron. I miss them a lot. Se puede decir que he aprendido a trabajar acompañada en el aula y que ahora me gusta bastante. Y también los compañeros de mi nuevo centro en Moraleda de Zafayona con los que me he encontrado fenomenal todo el año.
Y lo mejor del año los alumnos, que me han dado muchas satisfacciones. Ya lo sé, no todo el mundo, y no siempre he tenido yo está sensación, pero este año lo más destacado ha sido salir del instituto con satisfacción casi cada día.
Y ahora hay que terminar los materiales elaborados y dejarlo todo lo más colgado en la Web posible, y algunas cosillas así. Así que sin relajarme mucho espero poder sacar partido de la primera parte de las vacaciones.
Os deseo a todos un feliz y merecido verano. Enjoy and see you again in September.
Os dejo una canción que no tiene nada que ver pero que me encanta y me ha dado por escuchar ahora. Triana por Sabina:
As announced a few weeks ago, EUROCALL and CALICO have joined forces in Second Life on EduNation III Island. We have just created a Welcome area, from which you can teleport to the main locations in the two headquarters of our associations, as well as a joint Resources Centre that we are stocking with free resources for teaching and learning. Here is the SLURL of the Welcome area:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/29/32/22
I have just finished creating a snapshot wall (with landmarks) in the Resources Centre displaying views of interesting locations covering a variety of languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Italian. There are a few fun links too: Winter Wonderland, Fibber Magee’s Pub in SL Dublin and the Knightsbridge Underground Club where you can dance the night away.
Ralph Sadler has put together some amazing scenes that can be accessed via the base holodeck on the CALICO site, and there is a new Skydeck that can rez really large holodeck scenes. The Resources Centre, the Skydeck and the holodeck on the roof of the EUROCALL HQ are all accessible via the joint teleport system that we have installed.
It appears to be hard to convince teachers that language learning in Second Life is effective until they have tried it. I am currently learning Spanish in anticipation of EUROCALL 2009. I had an introductory lesson in the Ciudad Bonita sim, which is mini-city set up specifically for learners of Spanish. There are a number of activities that are suitable for self-access, but the main purpose of the city is to provide an environment in which teachers can conduct their classes - which have to be paid for. Access to Ciudad Bonita is restricted to registered students of Spanish. My own approach to learning, however, tends to be exploratory. I visit Spanish-speaking sims in which the signs and messages are all in Spanish and where I can meet native Spanish speakers. I have reached the point where I can understand most of what they say, but when I get stuck I switch on my X-Lang translator (for text chat) and then I can match up the English and Spanish. X-Lang is only as efficient as Babel Fish (i.e. it makes lots of mistakes), but it's surprisingly effective at helping you through a dialogue. I have even had a text chat with Mandarin Chinese speakers in Ling’s Chinese City.
There are several sims in SL that are set up for language learning and teaching. Language Lab is the biggest and mainly geared towards EFL teaching to students aged 18-plus, but I have found many others. For example, the Goethe-Institut maintains a sim where you can learn German, and you can learn Japanese in Little Yoshiwara. The Open University has a teaching area too, but they are not using it yet for teaching languages.
We will be holding a Virtual Worlds SIG meeting at EUROCALL 2009 to discuss the way forward, and I will be running a pre-conference workshop for newcomers to Second Life:
http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/acwork.php#wkshp4
See you in Gandía!
Graham Davies, 25 June 2009
Webheads in action have once again invented an online phenomenon. SpeedLifing is an offshoot of SpeedGeeking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Geeking, which Kim Cofino and Jeff Utecht mentioned in their excellent presentation at WiAOC http://webheadsinaction.org/node/364, and in this blog post: http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/04/05/take-your-faculty-speedgeeking/ This got Webheads thinking we could try the technique, so we decided to do it in Elluminate http://tinyurl.com/y3eh starting at 13:00 GMT June 14, 2009. There's more information at our wiki http://wiaoc09.pbworks.com/SpeedGeeking
SpeedGeeking is where a lot of participants show up and move at a signal from one presentation to another. The presenters keep repeating their presentations. In Online SpeedGeeking as Webheads will attempt it we will rotate presentations through our Elluminate presentation room at http://tinyurl.com/y3eh. Elluminate has a countdown timer. We'll set it to countdown 5 minutes. The SpeedGeeker's task is to present cogently and concisely on a topic of choice (non-commercial of course :-) in just 5 minutes. Anyone can present. Scope of topic is up to individual presenters, as long as the topic is covered in 5 min. Anyone interested can sign up at the wiki.
At our usual Webheads Sunday noon GMT chat on May 31 , someone had some questions about Second Life, so we decided to meet in SL the following week June 7It gradually dawned on us, why not try a similar format in SL? We put the event down on our wiki page and invited people to show us their favorite places there, with the caveat that each tour would last 5 or ten minutes. We thought we could get people into SL, exchange friendships, and teleport each other from place to place. And guess what? It worked, and it was F.U.N.
On the day of the event, we had only two presenters who had signed up.
- 13:00 GMT, Webhead Link (Vance),
Landmark to be visited: Webheads in Action, EduNation III (72, 36, 21) - Next up: Ruta Maya, Mexico, Nina Liakos/Zaytsev
Doris Molero had come online for another reason and wanted take some pictures of me in Second Life to accompany an interview that she had conducted (and which I blogged here: http://tinyurl.com/090522molero). I said fine but in return she had to show us her favorite places in Second Life.
She took us to the Great Wall of Mao (85, 85, 36) and then to a Japanese village with the name Kansai in it (looking for it now, can't seem to relocate it, one of many builds containing the name Kansai). In Kansai Doris found a lovely kimono but the guys in the group could find no clothes, so we went off in search of men's clothing elsewhere, and ended up at Amity Island (116, 95, 23).
By then we had attracted a crowd, including Nina who conducted us to Ruta Maya, Mexico 2 (187, 25, 21). This turned out to be a charming place where we could 'rent' horses (for free) by touching them and then 'wearing' them. So we rode horses around the build, the beach, and the old ruins there.
The charm was somewhat compromised by a villain who appeared by name of Lucianopt Vita. This character first disrupted our outing with a confusing holodeck which scattered our avatars. He followed us to the ruins where he created storms and grey-outs, and then wrought a tornado that blew trees and telephone poles crashing around us. He can be seen in the picture above conjuring up his next episode. (I wonder if it was he who killed Mike Marzio's horse?)
Fortunately no one got hurt and we all escaped to Webheads Headquarters at EduNation III (72, 36, 21). There the tour ended. But it was interesting, all aboard enjoyed it, and we must do it again sometime.
On May 22 at the start of the recent Webheads in Action Online Convergence, I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Doris Molero, who had requested an interview as a part of a project for her degree program. Doris was under close time constraints, but with WiAOC09 close on our heels, I was too. The constraints appeared so insurmountable that I suggested Doris conduct the interview as a session of WiAOC. She agreed and set up an event at http://wiaoc09.pbworks.com/May22. It happened to be the second event in the 74 hour online conference, and it was recorded here: http://worldbridges.info/wiaoc09/WiAOC09-0522-2GMT.mp3
A minor hiccup however was that Doris had connectivity problems right at that time and did not appear for the interview. Jeff Lebow was there as were some stragglers from Doug Symington's EdTech brainstorm just ended. Afterwards Jeff remarked that I had done a good job at interviewing myself. I can only assume he was being complimentary.
Meanwhile, Doris sent me a pared-down version of her original 30 questions and on a car journey between Abu Dhabi and the dive spots on the east coast of the UAE I managed to address them in writing. Here then is the somewhat delayed interview between me and Doris Molero, a glimpse at how it might have gone on May 22 :-)
Doris: What’s your opinion about teaching English as a foreign language in the university?
Vance: It’s been a great career for me. Lots of travel opportunities and good vacations, pays the bills while allowing me to interact with a great community of online educators. I like working with language learners.
2. What do you think about teaching a second language with the help of the Internet and computers?
Language is about communication. For most people, there is no purpose to learning a language apart from a desire to communicate in it (not counting theoretical linguists who might wish to study a language for other purposes). Since this is most people's goal, it is awkward and inefficient to study a language in a context where communication is not done purposefully. By purposeful, I do not include exercises that a student might do on instructions of a teacher which put the student in communication only with the teacher. Communication with others in the class is also possible but I have been a language learner in classrooms where the teachers did not exploit this potential, dominated the class with student to teacher interaction, and spent class time on exercises with printed materials which were not at all communicative.
Properly used, the internet opens a world of communication to language learners. They can blog and get comments, they can collaborate with others worldwide, they can engage in live voice conversations, and do constructive language play with real people behind avatars in Second Life (just as a few examples). No student needs to study language in isolation any longer. Teachers who have developed skills in productive use of Web 2.0 can model use of appropriate tools with their students and put them in touch with language learners in collaborative projects. Teachers who reflect on the results of such projects report remarkable gains in motivation to write and hone ideas for peer critique. Most importantly language learning becomes FUN and meaningful for all concerned. Communication is clearly restored as the true purpose of learning the language in the first place.
3. How have your students changed compared to the ones you used to have when you first started teaching?
I started teaching in the mid 1970’s and everyone has changed. I would say that the most significant recent changes, apart from going from questioning the efficacy of using computers in language learning to general acceptance of technology in all aspects of life, have to do with the ubiquity of mobile technologies, especially with younger people including students down to the K-12 level, and the integration of social networking into transactions ranging from making purchases on Amazon and eBay through to so many people, especially students, congregating on Facebook and in other socially networked spaces. These developments are poised to make even more significant impacts on our profession. I have suggested that CALL is becoming an outmoded acronym. These days I encourage people to think SMALL (social media assisted language learning).
4. What does it take to be multiliterate? Are you multiliterate? Why do you think so?
Multiliterate means to be conversant with media as it develops in conjunction with technology. It means to be able to communicate appropriately in these media, that is to know what multimedia tools are available and how to use them, as well as to be able to search and access the communications of others in their various forms of technological enhancement. I teach courses in multiliteracies so I feel that I am moderately multiliterate myself and generally aware of the issues (see http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/ for a last rendition of the course, and http://multiliteracies.ning.com/ for the Ning).
5. In your opinion, do you think that just using a textbook, a workbook and an audio program is enough to teach a second language at university level these days?
It could be enough depending on the motivation of the students to learn. I have met many people while traveling in foreign countries who had used such materials to achieve some competence in English and were grateful for the opportunity to meet a foreigner and have the chance to put their skills to use. However, as noted in question 2, the ability to learn a language well through communication with other learners and native speakers online increases the scope for language learning.
6. What do you do to teach the following skills: listening, reading, writing, critical thinking and speaking to your EFL students?
I taught EFL for 20 years but switched to computing and software development in 1995, so I can’t speak first hand about teaching EFL in the past decade. I have been working in teacher training since that time (online through webheads and other communities and networks) so I am aware of what others are doing. These people are blogging their experiences so my answer here would be to review their blogs and recorded experiences, but as the question relates to my personal experiences in EFL, I am not currently working specifically in that area.
7. What differences do you find between the traditional paper and pencil class and the class that integrated Web 2.0 tools?
These differences are those noted in my response to question 2.
8. What kind of text do you and your students use in your classes?
We use texts teaching computing written in-house by computing faculty.
9. How does participating in a community of learning help to learn more?
Peers in the community model the most productive behaviors to one another toward reaching the shared goals. They scaffold one another, support one another in collaborative projects, feed back to one another, provide encouragement, answer questions on a just-in-time basis, and provide a context for informal, social learning to take place. More importantly each ‘node’ in the network is connected with its own locus of other nodes, with the result that the knowledge contained in any one node is accessible throughout the connected networks to all the other nodes. In connectivist terms, knowledge can be defined not as what one possesses within one’s mind or the walls of one’s library, but in terms of ‘the pipes’ or how successfully one is able to nurture and access the nodes in the extended network. The knowledge contained in the network is the sum of its parts, and to be knowledgeable in multiliterate terms means to be able to incorporate this knowledge into one’s own Personal Learning Environment or Network.
10. How should we evaluate when we integrate web tools into the class?
This is a very good question, and my instinct is to say NOT how we evaluate traditional learning. To examine how we might evaluate alternatively, I refer to my answer in question 3, think SMALL. Techniques are evolving for measuring trust on the Internet. Examples are found in Google’s predominant algorithm for search, whereby trust is measured by calculating links from other trusted sites. E-bay, Amazon, and Couch Surfing all have trust systems set up whereby users rank each other according to expected performance. A system has been proposed for enhancing internet security whereby users might have a way of seeing who else has installed software that’s about to install on their machines as a means to helping them decide if they should authorize it (the information would come from tracking choices made by users as each made the choice individually). I think that these techniques could be adapted to pedagogical evaluation systems, whereby users were ranked on the quantity and quality of comments on their blog postings, for example, on measures relating to download and feedback on their podcasts, how viral their uploads to YouTube were, and other peer measures utilizing features of these so-called ‘trust’ systems.
11. What do you think about using project based approach as a learning tool to validate what has been learned in class?
Projects are the only valid thing to evaluate in a system described above. There would be little of this kind of feedback generated by user responses to a multiple choice test, these tests being designed solely for student-teacher interactions, nothing more. In a world where we are all connected to one another, peer evaluation, both by peers who knew and those who did not know the student in question, could become part of the evaluation matrix. Project based learning also lends itself to students' creating digital portfolios of inter-related artifacts which could be evaluated as yet another measure. These methods might produce a mindset whereby the answer to a question on history might not necessarily be 1492 (though a student could look that up if the exact date were required; as opposed to having memorized it) but something along the lines of, let’s see, Columbus was sent on a voyage of discovery by Ferdinand and Isabella, who at about that time ejected the Moors from Spain, so this would have been toward the end of the 15th century …
12. What do you think should be the role of the teacher that integrates web 2.0 tools into his or her classes?
I like what I hear from teachers who successfully integrate interactive whiteboards in their classes. What works, I understand, is for the teacher to move to the back of the room and guide the students in turn taking at the IWB. Similarly with Web 2.0 the paradigm of learning has to change. In writing that last sentence I changed what I had originally written to replace ‘teaching' with ‘learning’. The role of the teacher is to not teach, but to become a master learner who is simply the model for how everyone in that class learns. With regard to language teaching, the ‘teacher’ is a language informant in that the teacher ‘knows’ what is accepted as correct language, and the teacher can facilitate the learning process. But the idea that anyone can ‘teach’ a language is a spurious one beyond the most rudimentary levels. Language has to be learned; it can’t be taught. What we still call a teacher is actually someone who is more experienced in learning and who can model tricks and tips for students to apply to their own learning. This is where web 2. 0 fits perfectly with this conception of the role of guide on the side facilitator of learning in a classroom. Web 2.0 tools put control in the power of learners, or anyone who uses them. They enable users to communicate online, to record to online spaces, and to tag their artifacts so that others can find or stumble on them. They are ideal tools for constructivist, connectivist learning environments. The role of the teacher in such an environment is to introduce them to students, model appropriate uses, suggest or help learners conceive of ways the tools might be used in collaborative language development, and then step to the back of the room and let the learners get on with it.
13. What do you think should be added or changed in the EFL class in the university?
What is generally needed is for teachers steeped in traditional ways of learning, who have never had the new tools modeled for them, to become first aware of the tools available, and then to form communities where they can see and experience the tools modeled so that they can learn which ones are effective with each other. Only then will they be tentatively in a position to try some of the tools out on their own students.
The fact that this process is not a straightforward one is its biggest drawback. Some awareness of a number of fundamental paradigm shifts is required. I have elsewhere set out ten or 12 of these and many have been covered here (see http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/03/celebrating-25-years-of-call-forging.html). Essentially they revolved around a fundamental underpinning of multiliteracies, that the way that people communicate online is becoming less arbitrated and more populist. It comes down to how readily people can accept that people on the Internet will regulate one another, so that it becomes possible for example to produce an encyclopedia (for free!) that anyone can write on that is more comprehensive, more current, and arguably of better quality than a very expensive and ecologically unfriendly one produced through the tradition publishing process. Not until this essential concept is grasped, accepted, and understood, can one make sense of the rest of it.
So the people who need to be reached are those who have not yet grasped a functional conception of the socializing and interconnectivist forces at play in an appropriately configured learning network. This is where the concept of change agency becomes crucial. Teachers already attuned to the role of multiliteracies in 21st century learning have crossed a rubicon and must build bridges to those still on the other side. This is difficult. Those on the left bank, as in the one left behind, are not convinced that there is anything better on the right bank, and think they are being talked down to when those on the right try and explain why this is the ‘right’ place to be. It makes little sense to someone who feels the left bank has been perfectly fine for their entire teaching careers to go to the trouble to move off that spot for something that might be just a passing fad.
There are still people whom I work with who tell me they will never blog, and wonder how anyone could be so self-absorbed. Many (sometimes the same people) will tell you that the blogs they’ve read are just nonsensical journals, not for serious readers. I came upon a post on a mailing list the other day that argued that we should carefully consider how we use computers in teaching because learning is social and computers are isolating. Clearly the author of that post is broadcasting ‘knowingly’ from the ‘left’ bank.
There is also an interesting bit of research that suggests that people who are incompetent are blithely unaware of how incompetent they are (not meaning to question anyone's competence in the present instance, concerning colleagues I don't even know - just that this is an interesting bit of research: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/011800hth-behavior-incompetents.html).
But what I have just written is anathema to change agency. Successful change agents do not belittle the shortcomings of others or, more importantly, appear to (I didn’t mean to just then; I might have appeared to - anyway the incompetent could be me, or any reader of this blog, blissfully unaware of course :-). Change agents need to start by forming cooperative partnerships with peers who want to learn. The change that’s needed in teaching programs is that these partnerships need to be somehow encouraged.
Thank you to Doris Molero for giving me the opportunity to post this interview here and link it from WiAOC09. The tiny url for this post is http://tinyurl.com/090522molero
The conference ran for 24 hours from Friday 8 May to Saturday 9 May, with many of the 39 presentations being repeated so that people in different time zones could attend them without having to stay up all night. A total of 359 participants took part in the conference, with a peak of 91 in attendance concurrently on Friday evening.
If you missed it you can catch up here in Gavin Dudeney's blog:
http://slife.dudeney.com/?p=191
Graham Davies
I'm excited to be speaking several times, first as part of the AVALON project, a European Union funded initiative, with 26 partners in 8 European countries. AVALON stands for Access to Virtual Learning live ONline, and our goal is to explore the potential for scenario-based language learning. This (tonight and then again tomorrow morning - see schedule for details) will be the first time we've spoken about it in public together - looking forward to it.
I'm also speaking as part of the panel discussion plenary on language teacher training in Second Life, with Nergiz Kern, Nick Noakes and Dennis Newson, although I think Dennis can't make it after all. We'll be talking about our experience organising the TESOL Electronic Village Online session on Virtual Worlds & Language Learning. The social network, http://evovwll.ning.com, that was set up for the EVO session has now just under 3000 members, and the discussions and meetings have been continuing, even though the actual EVO session finished back in February.
Finally, on Saturday I'll be talking about the Virtual Tourism CLIL course I organised earlier this year in Second Life. I'll mention how it went, include references to what the students thought about it (collected here), and finish off by taking people on a short tour of some of the places the students had to visit.
If you're interested in innovative ways of language learning and teaching , be sure to check out the SLanguages conference - hope to see you there!
The title of this thread comes from Scott Thornbury's contribution to the IATEFL 2009 blog:
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/forum/iwbs-are-useless-discuss
What do you reckon? I referred Scott to my mini-survey that I
conducted a few months back. Many teachers waxed lyrical about their IWBs:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/ICT_Effectiveness.doc
See also:
Section 4 of Module 1.4 at the ICT4LT site:
http://www.itc4lt.org/en/en_mod1-4.htm#anchor12058
Scott, BTW, was interviewed by Nik Peachey in Second Life last week and managed to upset a few people about his views on technology. But I didn't find his views particularly controversial. I have expressed similar views here:
"Lessons from the past, lessons for the future":
http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/coegdd1.htm
Graham
Following discussions between Graham Davies (EUROCALL), Thom Thibeault (CALICO) and Randall Sadler (CALICO) it has been decided to create a joint CALICO/EUROCALL Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group for teachers of modern foreign languages and English as a foreign language.
CALICO has already set up a Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG):
http://colanmc.siu.edu/virtualworlds/
EUROCALL already has a headquarters building in Second Life, on the EduNation III island at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/9/29/22/
If you have not visited the EUROCALL HQ recently, drop in sometime. I have made several improvements, including a more efficient video projection screen, and I have begun installing teleporters to enable easier movement around the site. There is also a holodeck on the roof. What's a holodeck? The term derives from Star Trek. Think of it as virtual reality within a virtual world. A holodeck offers exciting possibilities of calling up a range of instantly available simulations that can be used for entertainment, presentations, conferencing and, of course, teaching and learning.
CALICO has now acquired the land immediately next door to the EUROCALL HQ and will shortly be building its headquarters there. This the two HQs will form a a significant joint environment in Second Life for teachers and learners of foreign languages, where meetings and classes can take place and where resources can be distributed.
We welcome suggestions about what people think would be useful to have at the site. We plan to hold our first joint SIG meeting at the EUROCALL 2009 conference in Spain in September – details to be announced at the EUROCALL website:
http://www.eurocall-languages.org
The contact persons for the joint VW SIG are:
Graham Davies (EUROCALL): graham@camsoft.force9.co.uk
Thom Thibeault (CALICO): ttbo@siu.edu
Randall Sadler (CALICO): rsadler@uiuc.edu
If you are new to Second Life there is a wealth of information in the rapidly expanding Section 14.2.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site (which I edit):
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife
A pre-conference workshop for newcomers to Second Life will take place at EUROCALL 2009:
http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/acwork.php
Graham Davies
Webheads have been busy piling on the web artifacts for the upcoming 3rd biannual Webheads in Action Online (un)Convergence. The WiAOC site since 2005 has been http://wiaoc.org but links point to our current social network portals:
- http://webheadsinaction.ning.com/
- http://wiaoc09.pbwiki.com/
- and the schedule of events at: http://wiaoc09.pbwiki.com/schedule
- text chat: http://webheadsinaction.org/chat
Planning under way ...
From WiAOC planning session April 26, 2009 hosted by Jeff Lebow at Worldbridges on http://webheadsinaction.org/
Community pitching in ...
From Minhaaj http://www.archive.org/details/WiaocPromo, almost ready for prime time, needs a few additional keynote speakers added ...
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I needed a place to send people so I could explain what's going on here, and this was it. I was feeling like I had a lot of virtual balls in the air, like silicon sparklers being juggled in a holodeck in Second Life.
I agreed to participate in the LearnTrends conversation being sustained online for 24 hours April 21-22 by Jay Cross and friends. Jay is known for his Internet Time blog http://www.internettime.com/ and books/writings on social and informal learning. The event is based at the Corporate Learning Trends and Innovation Ning: http://learntrends.ning.com/page/april-2009-event or http://bit.ly/46G1Om. Jay said he wanted to feature webheads in this program so he gave us three hours, 1000 to 1300 GMT on April 22nd.
Meanwhile adjustments and tweaks were being made impacting plans I was making for use of this time, but when I saw that happening I managed to lock down 10:30 GMT to 11:30 GMT on the schedule here: http://learntrends.ning.com/page/april-2009-event.The conversations were held in Elluminate: http://bit.ly/WPKGi. The idea was to stimulate conversations by pulling together voices, with a chorus joining in from around the world. It was hyped to be informal, no slides, or maybe just a few. One of Jay's ideas was to have a web tour up showing a Twitter feed aggregated on #learntrends. That could be F.U.N. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=@learntrends
The times I selected coincided with a second 24 hour conversation about Earth Day, being celebrated by the webcasters at Earthbridges all day April 22nd and streamed out on http://earthbridges.net/live. I managed to get Webheads down on the schedule here http://earthbridges.wikispaces.com/Earth+Day+2009 from 10:00 to noon GMT.
Meanwhile a third element was put in juggling motion when I informed student groups at Petroleum Institute where I work, that they could join in as part of their own Earthday celebrations. So a conversation with students at the PI about our environment has become a recorded part of the LearnTrends event, and was streamed worldwide live, as it happened.
And here's what was expected to happen ... this is what I wrote prior to the event, to help with planning ...
By 10:00 GMT I will go to a classroom at PI where I will likely be all alone at first, and and I will log on to Elluminate at http://bit.ly/WPKGi. There is no Skype at PI so I will be in the Elluminate chat and voice room, and in the chat room at http://earthbridges.net/live. I will also be checking Twitter, which you can follow at http://twitter.com/vances.
Jose Rodriguez and/or Doug Symington have agreed that at least one of them would be there to stream on http://earthbridges.net/live (thanks guys!! indefatigable!)
At 10:30 GMT, Sanja Bozinovic intends to bring 5 high school students (not sure from where in the world) to Elluminate.
At around 11:00 GMT some students from the PI might appear. We'll continue the conversation and stream. Michael Coghlan has also promised to be in the area.
Meanwhile in the real world, Dr. Nadia Al Hasani, director of the women's campus at Petroleum Institute dropped by to see what was going on and had an online conversation with Doris Molero, who showed her a social networking site she had created for engineering students in Venezuela. Of course, Dr. Nadia brought along a photographer:
The event was also mentioned afterward at the Petroleum Institute website. I'm not sure how long these links will remain valid, but for what they're worth:
- Latest News: http://www.pi.ac.ae/arzanah/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=58
- PDF: http://www.pi.ac.ae/arzanah/index.php?view=article&catid=1%3Alatest-news&id=126%3Awatch-your-step-earth-day-2009&format=pdf&option=com_content&Itemid=58
At 11:30 we go to the next item in the program at LearnTrends, whose schedule is here: http://learntrends.ning.com/page/april-2009-event
I will continue as moderator of LearnTrends events until 13:00 GMT.
I'll report how it came out here. However it comes out, it should be F.U.N. All are welcome.
Recordings of the sessions from both LearnTrends and Earthcast09 will be linked from here when recordings are available (audio being edited, renderings forthcoming)
- Earthbridges audio starts at minute 23 at this URL (I am told): http://samlab.com/earthcast09/earthcast09.unconf05_Vance23.mp3
- LearnTrends audio is here http://learntrends.ning.com/page/april-2009-video-page - scroll down to "Earthday webcasters with Webhead Vance Stevens" or directly download from http://www.skillcasts.com/learntrends/LT14-webheads.mp4
Reading the Wise is easy, sifting for great thoughts in a sea of publications is more like the kind of advanced literacy we will need.
#iatefl from Prensky interview: http://tinyurl.com/iatefl-p... - Teachers should NOT use interactive whiteboards, their students should!carolrainbow@VanceS #iatefl IMHO An IWB being used well is an excellent teaching tool! Children should use as well but not have sole use :-)
To which I replied
@carolrainbow #iatefl I agree, but think value in Prensky's remark in reminding us to maximize active role of students in learning with IWBs
So what did Prensky actually say? This took me back to the original interview at the URL above. Prensky was saying that pedagogy needs to change in order for technology to be effective. He pointed out that technology tends to hinder the sage on the stage, whereas it facilitates the guide on the side. Therefore, he thought we need to focus more on the pedagogy in order to bring technology into classrooms. As long as teaching is rooted in the old paradigms, then technology will make slow inroads, but once the teaching changes, then technology will start to appear quickly. As it is, he said, if you have a teacher in front of a class all on laptops, and the teacher isn't engaging the students via their laptops, then the students will all be on Facebook.
At time: 16:15 in the video ...
Gavin asked him how he saw interactive whiteboards, as a help or hindrance, because they tend to push people into a certain pedagogy which is teacher fronted ...
Prensky replied:
"Personally I don't think we should let the teachers use the interactive whiteboards. I'm not saying we shouldn't have them, but if we have them, they should be the province of the students. The students should use them, the students should present with them, the students should figure out the most engaging and important ways to use them." He went on to say (and keeping in mind the context of his remarks) until their pedagogy changes, teachers will use them in the old paradigm, like a blackboard (e.g. show pictures, show videos from YouTube, make a PowerPoint).
This got me thinking of another time I was multi-tasking on my feet, back in 1985, when I wandered into a plenary at the TESOL conference in New York city, just in time to hear Stephen Kraschen suggest to the thousands of listeners present in the huge hall that "teachers erase all their current language teaching software disks and use them instead for wordprocessing" (my memory was jogged by a Google search which led me to Richard Young's CALICO Journal article Vol 5, No. 3 (March 1988), Computer-Assisted Language Learning Conversations: Negotiating an Outcome, p.65: https://www.calico.org/a-380-ComputerAssisted%20Language%20Learning%20Conversations%20Negotiating%20an%20Outcome.html). As you can imagine, this remark was taken way too literally, with some jumping to the extreme conclusion that no CALL software was worth the mylar it was written on.
Kraschen has since been understood to have over-reached himself with his notions of comprehensible input, the idea of i+1, which was an excellent idea, and one that makes a lot of practical sense, but which was on examination found to have no actual research base (so?? it favorably guided the practice of quite a lot of teachers nevertheless!). Another such notion that had also got its author in difficulties was Chomsky's suggestion that there was a black box in our brains where language processing took place. Many autopsies later, when no such box could be found, this notion was raised by Chomsky's detractors, who had already carried the great man's ideas into transformational grammars and down essentially non-communicative garden paths.
Prensky too could fall victim to the great success of his notion of digital natives and digital immigrants. Some are now questioning whether people actually break down into such groups, leading Gavin to suggest in his interview that the native/immigrant distinction might be reaching its 'shelf-life'.
But here again, these are all marvelous notions, and whether or not they stand to scrutiny under close inspection, they all get us thinking. Whether they were literally correct or not is beside the point, I think. Prensky's role as a change agent is to move us all along the path of paradigm shift. For that to happen, for the pedagogy to change as he says it needs to, teachers have to change their practice, and for this to happen they have to reflect and internalize the many discreet shifts that will lead them toward some major revelation that invokes the change.
This then is one great affordance of our blog and Twitter network, a medium through which we can keep these ideas percolating, and move more and more of us over the chasm that will allow all teachers to become effective interactive whiteboard users, with fully engaged students.
Are you there yet? Are we there yet? What is holding us back? Let's think about it ...
Global and local visions: Evolving communities of practice
Panelists: Vance Stevens, Suresh Canagarajah, Jane Hoelker, Yuko Goto-Butler, Takako Nishino, Perin Jusara, Golge Seferoglu, and Toni Hull, presented March 27 at the annual international in TESOL conference in Denver.
The abstract for the colloquium was:
Whether learning or teaching English in the EFL context, the model of Communities of Practice moves individuals and groups forward in their development. Examples of shared practices implemented in elementary, secondary and tertiary institutions as well as in programs of teacher professional development conducted on worldwide communication networks are discussed.
My contribution was entitled
"The Webheads and Distributed Communities of Practice"
Abstract for my presentation:
In these times of globalization and worldwide communication networks, distributed communities of practice (e.g. any CoP that cannot rely on face-to-face meetings and interactions as its primary vehicle for connecting members) are becoming more common. The concept of distributed CoPs has been addressed by Etienne Wenger. This presentation discusses CoPs implemented for educational technology specialists, many particularly concerned with language learning, in ongoing teacher professional development, foremost through Webheads in Action and in various other communities and offshoots from these, such as TESOL-sponsored EVO (Electronic Village Online). How Wenger’s concept of CoPs has evolved after his encounter with the Webheads online will also be discussed.
In my talk I didn’t rehash a definition of communities of practice except to mention that they are most frequently understood, as defined by Etienne Wenger, to:
• promote knowledge of a domain
• revolve around a practice
• form spontaneously, voluntarily
Wenger further characterizes distributed CoPs as, among other things, having a particular space to interact in. Not many of Wenger’s writings are available online, but these include:
• Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice Learning as a social system. Retrieved April 22, 2005, from: http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml
• Wenger, E. (2004a). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved April 22, 2005 from: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm
• Wenger, E. (2004b). Cultivating communities of practice: A quick start-up guide. Retrieved April 22, 2005, from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/start-up_guide_PDF.pdf
The ostensible purpose of my talk was to explore where Webheads intersects with these characteristics of communities of practice.
Webheads in Action, http://webheads.info, formed as a 2002 session of EVO (TESOL sponsored 6-week courses given free each year via Electronic Village Online, http://evosessions.pbwiki.com/). Webheads membership has since increased to hundreds of educators who engage in helping each other pursue lifelong, just-in-time, informal learning through experimentation in use of social-media and computer mediated communications tools. Among its accomplishments, the Webheads community has already mounted two free international online conferences, the Webheads in Action Online Convergences (WiAOC 2005 and 2007) with a third coming up this May 22-24, 2009 - see http://wiaoc.org and http://webheadsinaction.ning.com/
The question I addressed in my talk was, is Webheads a group, a community, or a network? In formulating my arguments I made a distinction between groups, communities, communities of practice, and networks, as illustrated on the diagrams in slides 6-10 in my embedded slide show: http://www.slideshare.net/vances/the-webheads-and-distributed-communities-of-practice
Groups
A group is a gathering of people. It could be a mob or a friendly gathering at a pub. The impetus for its formation is chance or convenience; e.g. people walking near one another in a park, people who come together to observe a sporting event, or students who are grouped in furtherance of class logistics.
Downes makes further distinctions in a presentation anticipating my progression here of configurations from groups --> communities --> communities of practice --> and then to networks.
• From Stephen Downes’s slide show “Groups vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues” at http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/groups-vs-networks-the-class-struggle-continues;
• The slide cites his posting “Sudden Thoughts And Second Thoughts” from Stephen’s Web, September 21, 2006, http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=35839, where these points are contextualized.
Downes's slide show covers each of these dichotomies in more detail.
Communities
Communities have more cohesion and permanence than groups. A community could form around a place where people live, or other groupings might consider themselves communities as they develop social bonds and identity to distinguish themselves from groups.
When Webheads in Action was started in 2002 it coalesced around a Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads. As people started to join the group they identified themselves as such until they started taking on characteristics that made them think of themselves more as a community than a mere group of teachers.
What would some of these characteristics be?
• Photographs and voice/webcam communications enable group members to see the human behind the text message and enhance bonds leading to a sense of community
• Not only helping one another’s practice by answering each other’s questions, but also showing evidence of caring, such as interest in personal vignettes, individual accomplishments and setbacks
• Developing and defining a group culture through various forms and modalities of communications
Communities of Practice
Shortly after its formation as an EVO session in 2002, participants in Webheads in Action were exploring their interactions and sense of cohesion in the framework of communities of practice, leading to an EVO session and two subsequent presentations at the 2003 TESOL conference examining the community in that light
• EVOnline workshop: Reflection through experience and experiment with a communities of practice online: http://vancestevens.com/papers/tesol/baltimore2003/copractice.html#workshop
• Colloquium: "Case study of a community of practice": http://vancestevens.com/papers/tesol/baltimore2003/copractice.html#colloquium
More rigorous examinations were conducted by several PhD candidates who sometimes joined Webheads in order to study our dynamics. Chris Johnson, who joined Webheads in order to study the community as a possible example of a distributed CoP, had Etienne Wenger on his doctoral committee. Johnson found that Webheads fit (all) nine characteristics unique to distributed CoPs except on one independent variable associated with “emergence with respect to boundary practices;” meaning, Webheads tended to neglect boundary members and expected them to bring knowledge into the community on their own.
Chris left some artifacts for us online here (and none of these three links work - Vance is writing Chris to see if there is a definitive link somewhere that can be shared):
• Johnson, Christopher. (2003). Annotated Bibliography: Web version. Communties of practice bibliography created for Webheads in Action EVOnline sessions, at http://sites.inka.de/manzanita/dissertation/biblio_COP.htm
• Johnson, Christopher. (2003). CoP Theory Overview. Retrieved February 12, 2004 from: http://sites.inka.de/manzanita/cop/
• Johnson, Christopher. (2005). Establishing an online community of practice for instructors of English as a foreign language. Unpublished dissertation, available for private distribution: http://tinyurl.com/cj-diss
Meanwhile Etienne Wenger agreed to be a keynote speaker at our 2007 WiAOC (Webheads in Action Online Convergence http://wiaoc.org). His keynote took the form of a conversation moderated by Susanne Nyrop. When Cristina Costa entered the conversation, Etienne asked her when she felt that she was a member of a CoP. Cristina replied that she realized this when her practice began to change. Etienne referred back to this later when, during the question period, I asked him whether his concept of CoPs had evolved after his encounter with the Webheads online. He said indeed it had. He said that the fact that Webheads met in so many spaces while clearly being a CoP was a revelation to him. He now realized he could relax his previous thinking on constraints on SPACE occupied by a distributed CoP.
Networks
Meanwhile I’ve moved in my own thinking beyond the CoP model, following on the work of Stephen Downes and George Siemens (whose writings on connectivism are cited in Downes, 2001-2008). Downes has written and presented much on the concept of diffusion of knowledge within distributed learning networks, and Siemens of course has long espoused the notion of connectivism, famously summarized as “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.” Here, Siemens means that it is more important to nurture a system of connections between knowledgeable people (the pipe) than to be concerned with what these knowledgeable people know (the content within the pipe) since this content can be directed to anyone with appropriate connections with the pipe.
• Downes, S. 2001-2008. E-learning 2.0. eLearn Magazine, retrieved from http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1
• Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Elearnspace, http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Distributing knowledge is what communities and networks are all about. Downes has a simple illustration of what it means to ‘know’: Where’s Waldo? Once you know where Waldo is, you can’t not know. But these days it seems, there is too much information available, and it seems we need increasingly to get our minds around more of it in order to keep up with and ‘know’ how to perform competently in our work.
Wenger (2002:6) promotes the CoP model as an anecdote to the fact, as he puts it, that “increasing complexity of knowledge requires greater … collaboration; whereas … the half life of knowledge is getting shorter.” Dave Cormier suggests a rhizomatic model of learning to deal with increasingly rapid obsolescence of knowledge. In this model, knowledge is seen as springing up wherever the tendrils, given its rhizomatic nature, are able to reach.
• Wenger, E. (2002). Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder. Cultivating communities of practice. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 284 pages.
• Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic Education: Community as Curriculum. Innovate: Journal of Online Education. http://innovateonline.info/?view=article&id=550
Downes often expresses himself in analogies, and one oft repeated is that no one knows how to get a plane from London to Paris. Engineers must design the plane, someone has to build it, pilots are trained to fly it, but they in turn need an infrastructure of crew working in the plane as crew and outside as mechanics, and all those who work in airports and weather and navigation, etc. No one can actually on his or her own take a plane full of passengers from one place to another; this requires a network and all the knowledge within that network.
What these notions, theories if you will, suggest is that connection with others in a network is of prime importance in having access to a repository of knowledge. On a personal level we experience this when we turn to Google or Wikipedia to answer in minutes if not seconds a question that in the past might have sent us to a library, but more often than not would have remained unanswered due to the logistics involved.
Of even greater importance in this day and age, another available resource is direct (and indirect) contact with many people in one’s network, each possessing a reservoir of knowledge which contributes to the entire pool of knowledge residing in the network. This can be accessed through listservs or sometimes almost instantaneously through Twitter or RSS feeds, or instant messaging. Thus the knowledge possessed by any individual, or node, in the network, is the sum total of all aggregated knowledge within that network. It is to this that we ascribe the incredible power inherent in distributed learning networks which often comprise to some extent communities of practice.
• Downes, S. (2005). An Introduction to Connective Knowledge. Stephen’s Web, http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=33034
• Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing Knowledge. Ebook available via Creative Commons license: http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf
I conceive CoPs as bubbles overlapping in a Venn diagram. The total of all the bubbles would be the network as conceived in connectivist terms. The CoPs are themselves important to sharing of information within a community, but the fact that nodes within the CoP are connected with nodes outside the CoP in essence brings infinitely more knowledge into the community. I think it is something along these lines that Wenger is trying to accommodate in re-envisaging the notion of space in which distributed communities of practice work.
This has tremendous implications for professional development. Just before we held our colloquium, Jack Richards delivered a plenary address in which he touched on what teachers need to KNOW in order to practice effectively. He said research indicates that teachers often tend to revert to traditional methods rather than activate what they are exposed to in training curricula. Derick Wenmoth (also from NZ) mentioned similar research findings in his keynote at the K-12 Online Conference in 2008:
• Wenmoth, Derek. (2008). Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice. Keynote address given at the K12 Online Conference 2008, http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=181
This means that the key to success in keeping current is in expanding productive contacts within a network. One problem is that teacher-trainers without sufficient experience with technology and who are rooted in old-school methodologies are simply not modeling new age learning behaviors for the trainees.
The increasingly inadequate model of reliance on face-to-face exchange of knowledge is apparent in the way that many annual conferences are organized and structured. Many such gatherings do little to encourage connectivity for either presenters or participants. There was just recently a very interesting online conference, AACE's Spaces of Interaction: http://www.aace.org/conf/spaces/, which suggested that face to face conferences were falling ‘unacceptably’ short on utilizing networking potentials for participants.
This was acceptable in the past because participants who relied on having the opportunity to touch base with each other once a year traditionally might have only been able to exchange letters or emails during the intervening months between conferences. But the new dynamic suggests that connectivity where contacts only meet face to face falls far short of interacting with them in online environments as well. Fortunately there are many venues for doing just that, and for many practitioners these are taking on greater importance in professional development than interaction in face to face environments. At the very least, one could say that interaction in online spaces facilitates greater productivity when the interactants eventually do meet face to face.
The bottom line is that it does not hurt and most likely maximizes productivity to interact with colleagues as frequently as possible in online spaces, and this is where distributed communities of practice interacting with each other through greater networks is key to practitioners’ keeping current and confident in their level of competency at work.
Some means for doing keeping current are participation in:
• Social networks: Ning, TappedIn, EVO, WiAOC
• Social bookmarking: Delicious, Diigo
• Groups: YahooGroups and GoogleGroups
• Microblogging: Twitter, Plurk
• Instant messaging: Yahoo Messenger, Skype
• Blogging and podcasting: keeping currect via RSS
• Wikis: PBWiki, Wikispaces
• Aggregation: Pageflakes, Netvibes, Protopages
I finished my talk by asking which construct of knowledge distribution was more productive, communities or networks? I answered rhetorically that perhaps this was a matter of scale, where networks can handle an almost infinite number of participants. The evolution of Webheads is instructive. Seen as a community, members interact within the domain of practice. Networks imply more widespread, perhaps opportunistic, contacts, with looser characterization of domains and practices. So which is more productive? Given the spontaneous and voluntary nature of such constructs, the answer is ‘whatever works’ and therefore probably moot.
I would like to know if anyone has created a LinkedIn profile or group to either use it as a platform or an online support to any kind of formal training session. If so, how successful was it? I am interested in pedagogical implications on the use of a social network tool like LinkedIn. ideas and results of this will be published in my blog ELT Notes. http://eltnotes.blogspot.com Thank you.
Two simple reasons.
- A social platform with tremendous networking and learning possibilities.
- A place not only to read but to contribute.
- A place to ask your questions where help is pretty much guaranteed and fast.
- A platform where lots of informal learning happens.
[...] I am an active FaceBook user (but only with friends and family) and am making more use of LinkedIn, but I don't find either particularly effective in supporting my learning or the small circles of people that I learn with. Am I missing something? [...]
Most of what we learn, we learn from other people.
You say apps like LinkedIn don't add much to your learning, yet you contacted me through LinkedIn and I hope the connection adds to your learning.
We would certainly hurry in a hello wave to say that Twitter is precisely the place where networking and informal learning can actually happen.
Marginally relevant. Some technical aspects (if you are familiar with LinkedIn, skip this)
Please note that the discussion starts on minute 20 of the first video. See post on Part I of this keynote.
My notes
Part I Min 20
Formative assessment as an instructional tool
Feedback from classroom.
Assessment should provide students with a clear picture of their progress on learning goals and how they might improve.
Formative Assessment
Bangert-Drowns, Kulick, & Morgan 1991
Feedback on classroom assessment
Types
Right/Wrong
Provide Correct answers
Criteria understood by student vs. not understood
*Explain
*Student reassessed until correct
*higher gain
Part II
"Assessment should be a process of interaction between teacher and student. That is all it is."
Dialogue model
Students are able to say,
"This is what I see I have to get"
Teacher,
"This is what I see you have to learn"
"You can never rely on a single assessment no matter how good the assessment is"
Reliability
Decisions made about the individual, the class, the school, the district. To whom does the assessment make sense?
"You cannot rely on the 100 point scale"
Rigorous rubric-base approach.
Observed score= the score+error
(the student 'deserved' another score)
We need to look at a lot of data over time to assess. This is where technology comes into the picture. Keeping track. Grade books.
Min 7
Shows examples of students self-assessment.
Related links
Classroom Assessment & Grading that Work
By Robert Marzano
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106006/chapters/The_Case_for_Classroom_Assessment.aspx
Applying the Theory on Measurement of Change to Formative Classroom Assessment
By Robert Marzano
http://www.marzanoresearch.com/documents/ApplyingTheoryToFormativeAssess.pdf
Rubrics and Self-Assessment Project
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/RubricSelf.htm
"The two studies that made up the Project Zero's research focused on the effect of instructional rubrics and rubric-referenced self-assessment on the development of 7th and 8th grade students' writing skills and their understandings of the qualities of good writing."
Assessment bookmarks on my delicious
http://delicious.com/fceblog/assessment
He addresses the question What do we know about the effect of technology on student achievement?
On this first part of the keynote, the discussion centres on educational research, its value, how to read results and some instructional implications.
The second part focuses on assessment. (on separate post).
Here my notes as I watch. My reflections at the end.
Min 8
Quotables on stats and findings
"If you line up all the studies what you will find is that on the average, it all works pretty weel, but there will always be a big chunk of studies that say it doesn't work."
"If you use it, you do it less well than if you don't use it."
What is the implication of that?
"All research is equivocal, particularly in education.
And here's why: you can never account for all the factors in the classroom that impinge upon the strategy, the technology, etc, etc. You cannot take the human being out of it. It's always going to be that way."
Good news
"We can have all these tools we can use, but none of them is a silver bullet."
You cannot use everything all of the time. The point is which set of tools bring the best results in my classroom.
"The more experience you have with technology, the more effectively you can integrate it to classroom use."
An expert user is not just someone who uses technology, but someone who reflects, re-thinks and relearns and then goes out again into his blog, forum or community.
An expert is someone who models how he learns, how he evaluates the tool and practices.
Slide
Sweep Spot
Conditions under which you obtained the projected highest increase in student achievement.
- An experienced teacher
- who has been using the technology for two years
- who uses it about 75% of the time in class
- who has had enough training to be confident in their use of the technology
This is linked with good teaching
"You can't just give the technology to teachers and expect to automatically enhance student achievement."
"Sometimes it is possible to get better results without the technology."
Professional development= technology+ instructional strategy
Q1 How do you modify an instructional strategy with the use of technology?
We only have guesses.
Proper use of technology includes
-Clue: keep focus on the content, not the bells and whistles
-Keep track which students are "getting it" and which are not
Min 18
Questions can work against you in the classroom
Strategies to increase response rate- Student involvement
Voting technology (not just taken at face value)
Min 22
Starts discussing assessment, which is dealt with in depth on the second part.
------------------
My reflections
(marginally relevant)
It is interesting to note that although expertise and time spent experimenting with the tools is an entry level requirement, these things cannot be taught in a particular sequence. Everyone of us in the edublogosphere is reaching out, finding what they have to say and trying to model. Yet, none of us is following or trying to figure out some grading to the acquisition of 21st century literacy. There will be guidelines; yet not unquestionable rules of best practices.
The informal learning we make is more like jumping into the deep end of the pool and then tweeting out for help. Someone in the network will throw us a lifesaver link with some resources to learn how to swim. You keep calm and confident you'll make it with a little help from your friends and your autonomous learning skills.
I note this here to remind myself when I prepare a presentation for people new to the eduverse who might take Dr Marzano's statement of expertise at face value.
These are notes I took on paper and transcribe here now. Why paper? Because video consumes most of my bandwidth and you know, he who listens well takes notes, or takes part in the chat room, or a bit of both.
Then re-shares.
Just raw notes through my filter. Perhaps nothing new. However, Will has a way of presenting that engages us to rethink what we take for granted. So here it goes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
What does change look like?
-Have some people in your network who disagree with you.
Downes. Diversity in the composition of your network.
See slide #26 on this PLE presentation.
Connected writing
We write not simply to communicate, but to connect. Writing is a means, a node that needs to start a conversation. It is a draft. There is no real final copy. What happens after publishing is the more important. We are seeking to engage in conversation -purpose of publishing.
Writing not for a contrived (had to look it up) purpose, but for a real audience.
Writing
starts with: SHARE
moves to: COLLABORATION
goes on to: COLLECTIVE ACTION i.e. doing things together to change the world.
Writing for a real audience, how can we make it?
NCTE- National Council of Teachers of English is trying to redefine literacy.
Writing in the 21st Century (links to pdf)
Literacy
build relationships
pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally.
Classrooms
Thinly walled.
Literacy is about going outside the classroom.
What's the assignment?
Number of words or self-sponsored writing.
Sir Ken Robinson
on TED
The Element
Personalization of 21st Century learning
Self-directed writing: own passion.
Q for students:
What do you want to learn most about in this world? What would you write about? Not because they want to get a grade.
What do you want to tell the world about your topic?
Become a reporter, an expert
This cannot be taught in a sequence.
Visuals in writing.
You are a literacy teacher.
Writing is ubiquitous; not just for a particular purpose.
Writing starts with reading: RSS
RSS
Refine your reading.
Learn how to sift through 50 things to get 10.
George Siemens: recognize patterns of information, synthesize. That is when blogging comes in.
Links are the keys to network. Writing without links is not writing to connect.
Links add value to the post and context. Reader chooses to click on some of them. Are you teaching how to read in a hyperlinked environment? Different from reading a book or essay because it is not a linear experience.
There is a process, a reading skill to reading links.
Short attention span theory.
Trackbacks. Comments on other people's blogs. A distributed conversation.
So publishing is not the end. It's the beginning. We wait. No comment? Go to the blogs and say hey! Here's my post reaction.
Who cares on what I have to say?
Find communities.
Be clickable and googleable
Once you publish, don't take it down on second thoughts.
There is private blogging in Blogger, but there is no private RSS. (which reminds me of my post)
Better update. I trust you more if you are transparent.
Chat in Diigo
Critical thinking and analysis
You can RSS Diigo annotations
You cannot do that on paper
How to
Do it first for yourself, then for the students. Help them create theirs.
Digital footprint or portfolio
Some tools mentioned:
Online notebooks
Google Notebook -stopped developing.
Zotero -citation saved
Zoho
Cloud computing- everything done online
Livescribe pen
Rethink writing: transparent, connectable, googleable.
Writing is happening in audio as well.
Screencasting software. Jingproject.com
--------------------------------------------------
Side note on RSS management.
I understand Will advises to keep a well trimmed RSS. Reason being to favour focus and attention span. So if you have sift 50 items to get only 1 of value, you should take the feed out of your RSS, for example.
Question for Will Richardson
How does that RSS policy balance with the idea of a distributed network mentioned by Stephen Downes?
The network speaks to you via trackbacks and links, I guess. But if you are new to the network, how do you build a PLE without reaching out and tolerating a bit of noise in your RSS?
What I am doing with my RSS now.
RSS because I am interested in the content or the person. Then create a folder of the readings that matter to me now. Deal with that first. Ignore the unread count.
The Friends shared items in Google reader are also a source to reach out to other important readings within my area of interest, but I understand it is still an inner-circle.
OK. Post.
And now to reflect and design ways in which all of this can apply to writing in my EFL classroom.
I was working for the first time in a secondary school (Padre Poveda School in Guadix, Granada). It was my firt "substitución" and I was excited at becoming a teacher. What about computers in my life? it wasn't until a year later that I attended a course on MSDos system, but I must say I did so just for one day. I got bored easily. That was my relationships with computers at that time. But it wasn't until the WWW came up that I became extremely interested in computers and their potential for education and self learning.
20 years ago, Tim Berners- Lee invented the Web and developed the HTTP protocol. When his supervisor, Mike Sendall, read his project he wrote on one side of the document "Vague, but exciting". That was the beginning. Then, on 30 April 1993 something very important happened, Tim Berners- Lee convinced his superiors in the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) stated a document that put the Web in the public domain, that meant that CERN renounced intellectual property rights to the Web, but no one else could claim those rights either. That act of generosity made the Web a great invention.
Later, Berners-Lee moved to Cambridge in US to work at the MIT (where I was lucky to meet him last summer) and took up the role of Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. "W3C's mission is: To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web."
On this website you can see several videos about the celebration of the 20th anniversary and also about the history of the Web.
But if you want to watch one of the latest talk of Tim Berners- Lee and participate of his enthusiasm about the Web, see this video. You will understand why I feel so close to his ideas of sharing and putting everything on the Web as a way of contributing to a global community. Here he explains why he started the Web and his present project called "linked data".
ESL-EFL BLOGS. Here you can read what some language teachers from around the world have written in their blogs.
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