It's Easter holidays in most schools in Spain. In my present job I work until Maundy Thursday. But, after a very busy month I have spent sometime checking some of the activities other teachers prepared in my last workshops. I found very creative activities and good links. One of the link I bumped into was this wonderful flash clip of the song lemon tree (Juande Aguilera had it in his blog). I already had that song in my list of songs, but when I found this nice flash I felt like preparing an online exercise
and updating the song.
I hope students enjoy it and learn about the use of verbs and prepositions.
I enjoyed it a lot preparing the activity, for me it's kind of relaxing.
I wonder How, I wonder Why ...............
A year ago, I started a blog. I was looking for free hosting to create an online resource tool -mainly for the need of accessibility anytime, anywhere. I stumbled upon Blogger and my first blog was born. Quite accidentally.
A year of online discoveries and experiences has moved me further and deeper into an understanding of blogging. Mind you -still a beginner's view.
As I have already been asked by my employer to present again about my blog for students (now with wiki), I am reviewing the previous slides. And my question is:
How would I define blogging now?
Towards a definition
Where to start?
Well, reviewing what I did last year... (Would you do it differently? Comments?)
My last year focus was all about the possibilities of the tool. The how-to start and organise a blog.
Today, the point is not the tool itself; but what the tool enables.
So I'll jot down some notes in this post, as a way of clarifying my thoughts on the experience of blogging so far. Then I'll add a few links to what fellow bloggers are saying.
From tools to people
The Internet is people. But what kind of people? People in motion. People who would rather discover than wait until they are told how-to. People who resort to
meaningful nodes in their networks of like-minded people. It is the attitude in front of the screen that makes all the difference: knowing you will know. It is all there, somewhere. Findable.1. Finding people's work
Forget Google. I haven't used it in a long while. The things I am reading now I have got to read by someone's referral. Blogs, wikis, agregators, networks or bookmarks.
Google to me now is a kind of lonely statistically driven engine. The last thing I resort to. Funny when you think they started as an attempt at an annotated web. The kind of annotations I look for are produced by bloggers, not engines (yet?).
2. Reading a reading
I mean, looking at a topic the way others read it. Blogs among blogs, perpetual conferences that allow me to read in ways unheard of in the f2f world. If I read an info static, encyclopedic page about Web 2.0 and then print it to read with colleagues, we will perhaps be misled if we think we are exchanging varied opinions. We are just people who share background, context and probably purpose for reading. There can be variety, yet not much diversity. Blogs show me the way a reader reads. Blogging is reading and writing in a diffused (i.e. hyperlinked) totally diverse (i.e. global, conversational) context.3. Contacting people
Can you study today without contacting the author? Do you learn APA, write papers with the hypothesis they will be published one day in the respected, accepted journals your knowledge community reads? Really? Most of my university classmates write as if they were going to publish -knowing all the time they never will. Just a few of us will get published. But we all work hard at acquiring the style of the community we -in the end- are already a part of.
Blogging could be a way of making your first steps into a community. Perhaps being accepted and why not receive some help to make a successful entry after graduation.
4. Testing an ideaIdeas in the making propel blogs. Not finished, corroborated thesis statements which are far less engaging for people to comment on. Posts need to leave an open door for readers to contribute with their thoughts. A blog is a vehicle to put your thoughts to the test. Rollers for your thoughts!
5. A blog is a learning engine
A node in your PLE (personal learning environment). A virtual zone of proximal development. Learning happens when you connect to other people (other, meaning diverse , not just a group of different people). Reading alone with my books is half way to learning. I need to ask. If the author cannot be consulted anymore, I'd much rather find what their readers are writing in blogs. Always connecting, constructing, learning.
6 A blog is a seed
Once published, a post starts a perpetual journey. A blog-powered thought can start travelling aimlessly, but will get ahead with other bloggers' breeze. Ideas swifting on the blogosphere. Post towards a post. If they contribute to the conversation, they will somehow find land to grow in a far off blog.Afterthoughts
What a blog is not
A blog is not a book. Not even a chapter. It is always a draft, a preface, maybe an appendix or addenda.
Not all punctuation is applicable in a blog. Take fullstop, for instance. When a post ends in a fullstop, the comments read: Great, good! They add nothing to the conversation.
Better end your posts with a question mark or semicolon. Meaning, thoughts please;
And this leads me to something my blog is becoming right now...
7. A social network node
My blog is the main carrier of my ideas and identity.
My thoughts in the making, my classroom experiences tell more about me than my degrees. My blog is where other people in the conversation can get to know who I am and which conversations will engage me most.Other people. The Internet is all about meeting people. Choosing the teachers that will make you grow. Where can that happen? In social networks. But that is subject complex enough for a brand new post.
............................................
(I've been reading these links while drafting this post)
Bloggers reflecting on blogging
David Truss
Learning Conversations
Tony Karrer
What Bloggers Do
In the Middle of the Curve
Blogging as Therapy
Think:lab
Forget Blogs it's all Network Effects, Baby
(video with Tim O'Reilly)
Stephen's Web
The Egalitarian Nature of Blogging
Steve Hargadon
Educational Blogging with Will Richardson
(audio)
..................................
(Wrote my thoughts. Then I searched my RSS to see what my ELT colleagues where saying on their blogging experience)
Teachers of English reflecting on blogging:
Pab's Potpourri
Blogging Sixth Month in
EFL Geek
Five Reasons Why I Blog
inspired by:
Steli Efti
Five Reasons Why I Blog - Nº 100
More related links in my del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us/fceblog/blogging_experience
........................................
(Then, of course the pics! And a last edit touches before pressing 'Publish')
Pictures attribution:
woodsy
coralsee
mordoc
Nota
spekulator
On deciding which is the best methodological approach to CALL there are many variables involved. The multidisciplinary nature of CALL, the ever-changing nature of the technology and the wide variety of applications available cause the need for criteria on how to implement a CALL environment and evaluate the different options. This is not new:
“A glance through the computer-assisted language learning (CALL) literature of the 1990s reveals the profession’s quest for principled means of designing and evaluating CALL. Like researchers in other facets of applied linguistics, CALL researchers look to cross-disciplinary sources for perspectives and research methods.” Chappelle (1997)
One of the problems in the CALL field is the lack of a clear and articulated theoretical base that is commonly shared. New insights and applications coexist with old ideas on technology and how a language is learnt.
“…in terms of pedagogy, the new and improved have not always replaced the old and tired. Instead, many programs being produced today feature little more than visually stimulating variations on the same gap-filling exercises used 40 years ago.” Beatty (2003:11)
Our methodological orientation requires a theoretical base providing pedagogical principles to guide our decisions. A better design and evaluation of CALL activities should be provided by the insights from theoretical developments in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories, instructional models and theories on learning and knowing and Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT) .
Como muchos de vosotros sabréis esta asociación es una de las veteranas en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés. Hace muchos años que soy socia de la misma, formando parte de la Junta durante varios años (del 93 al 96) y también me he ocupado de su página web hasta ahora. Por una evidente falta de tiempo no he podido actualizar el aspecto y mejorar los contenidos tanto como me hubiera gustado, además es obvio que esto debe hacerse ya de una manera profesional y por ello me consta que la asociación está en camino de tener una nueva página en los próximos tiempos.
Desde aquí os invito a visitar Granada y a asistir a estas jornadas que han cambiado de su habitual ubicación en septiembre a la primavera.
isabel
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/History_of_CALL.pdf
I have also agreed to take on the task of recording new developments in the History of CALL. To a large extent I have been doing this anyway as Editor of the ICT4LT website, but it’s been a piecemeal job. I have begun to collate new developments systematically in Section 2 (History of CALL) of Module 1.4 at the ICT4LT website, with relevant internal links within the ICT4LT website and a few external links:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-4.htm
Comments and suggestions for additions welcomed.
Middlebury College’s Department of History made headlines at the end of January when they announced a ban on the use of Wikipedia as a reference. Later in February, a Classics course at Oberlin College was required to use Wikipedia for a research assignment. These stories are but two of many that have prompted educators across the country to debate the value of Wikipedia as an educational tool. What are it strengths, its limits? When, if ever, is it appropriate to use Wikipedia for research? Should we be using it in the classroom at all?
On Thursday, 29 March 2007, we welcomed Don Wyatt (chair of the Department of History at Middlebury College), Elizabeth Colantoni (Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Oberlin College), Robert Berkman (Visiting Associate Professor at The New School), and Bryan Alexander (Director of Research at NITLE) for what started out as a discussion about Wikipedia in the classroom, but which took a couple of very interesting turns to touch on “malicious misinformation,” student and professor motivation, and other collaborative knowledge-gathering tools.
The podcast will be coming soon…
For those (still) outside the blogosphere the question of why we blog does not even reach the status of a poser. It is not that easy to see why blogging matters to us. That is, you should imagine an impassive voice mumbling 'Why do you do that?' 'Doesn't it take too much time?' And you might even hear a voice -almost carrying the force of a full stop over the issue- demanding: 'What for?'
These voices were trained by the same education we have had. At the time before blogs could be envisioned. Blogging in education is still in an infancy or adolescence that sometimes needs to prove its value to the world of adults. To the actors in education. Universities have a pattern of success that builds upon tradition, method, research and plan. Our passionate talk of integrating technology sounds too like you-niversity, too informal and even dangerous.
The unsettling power of innovations is equally felt by peers and managers within the organisation. When the school needs equipment to set up a lab, the old question of ROI (return over investment) will crop up. What's the benefit of all this time-consuming blogging experience after all? And us, pioneer teachers, cannot explain to managers this need that, although becoming pervasive and evident to bloggers and Time magazine, doesn't yet exist for them. We tell them that we should bring this experiences to the class because the nature of information distribution is different and our students will need to face a new world. Come on! Even change is changing!As a student of mine told me this week, this can be a hard message to pass to management. Leading companies like Apple have a strong innovation policy that overrides any market study. They do not stop development investment because they still need a survey to know what will sell best: they just do it right. And they create what we will find hard to live without. Ford said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have answered: Faster horses.
Schools though, are traditional artifacts. In order to replace obsolete PCs we will need to show management the investment is worth it. Needless to say, we will prove it with our own free and voluntary time investment/contribution! (No comments on this, please. Just read on). We tend to think that with more PCs at school, things could be different. But it is not a question of simply having equipment and broadband connections that can bring about the change. As Kelly from Canada very sharply points out in his comment in my previous post:
"We have access and we have the people who are trying these tools but there are few who are truly aware of the power that they have."
Sometimes even the teachers who embrace Web 2.0 have their own mind fetters to blog and end up clogging the Internet with book pages. And it is a power issue. At the planning stage of your blogging project you can hear your inner voice saying: What if my manager does not like it? And you must shut it up or you cannot really blog. Period.
It is a whole new frame of mind that has to change to make it happen. Playing with the tool and creating a hybrid online context can help. When I started my FCE Blog, I started a website on a blog engine. It wasn't until much later that I found myself blogging there. So I clearly arranged sections (always available at the site footer) like: Disclaimer, acknowledgements, site rules, privacy, links. And I am still preparing one on accessibility (still learning about it). After that, I believe I will become the first edublogger ever to have all those XX century links on a footer!
You want to laugh? According to MyBlogLog link-tracker stats, nobody seems to click on them! Except perhaps, the people who have taken to blogging after my presentation. Teachers attention is always drawn to them. The "book nature" of my blog. They also tend to start modeling their blogs after my profile or sections and I always wonder why don't they go for the more Web 2.0 aspects first?
I believe that part of the success of my blog in my school community is due to its seductive hybrid nature. You can -if you want- read it as a book. It is, though, a highly disruptive hypenlinked environment that is dressed up with some order, organised sections and a flavour of a book that one day will have a post called "The end". Reading all my blog and its links would take ages. Students will be forced to make autonomous decisions as to what to click, read and learn. And that is the essence of it.
Sharing, always sharing
I think that presentations by new teachers who blog can function as a decisive change agent. Sharing what we are experiencing -more than showing statistically proved facts- is indeed powerful. People start blogging! Some teachers have told me about their playing with draft blogs that were never published. But they gave it a try.
I am happy to read the blogs of Patricia and Gabriela, attendees at my last year presentation of my students' blog. Their work is entirely a personal realisation of the task. They have taken things from me, but they have translated them to their own way of talking to students.
This week, Gabriela has opened up a new blog. She is no doubt Taking it Further. Her own introduction in the profile section, her account on learning paths, her writing style... all bear the marks of an accomplished blogger.
Don't read this, just listen to her:
"I’ve always wanted my students to get involved in their own process of learning. We teachers can artificially create the need to learn, the need to communicate but only if you go beyond the single moment of the class, you will be able to appropriate the language and in doing so, you’ll stop feeling that English is an appendix [...]"
And she wrote an acknowledgements section that after winking an eye on me reads:
"When I started teaching adults (the beginnings of time) the most fashionable book was Kernel Lessons by Robert O’Neill. By that time he visited and I attended his lecture at Colegio Lasalle. I do not remember his words, but I remember this: that day I learnt my second really true methodology lesson –teaching is about sharing. Thanks."
Don't you just like her style? She can talk about a book no one would dare use today and at the same time she adds power to her thoughts. Great.
And if this passes blog owner approval, I'll have the honour of contributing with the first comment (Yes, blame me for suggesting comment moderation to her and I am a victim now!).
Dear Gabriela,
Each day I am more convinced that teaching is all about learning.
As a teacher, I have always been moved ahead by the need to share. Remember the dinner we had in your house last January? I perfectly remember when you were asked how you started your blog and you answered that suddenly you were correcting your students' writings and thought: 'How come I am the only one reading this?' And I felt echoes of my own voice in yours.
Somehow, even before blogs, I've always wanted to reach far. I always thought that the highest point in my career would be to teach teachers one day. Not out of a need to see a bit of myself in others, but rather to set people into autonomous learning mode.
I have found in Whitman the finest expression of my inner thoughts about the definition of success in my profession:
'I am the teacher of athletes,
He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own,
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.'
I am most grateful for your words in this post. Yet, I am far deeply honoured to read how accurately you have captured the essence of blogging, learning, and sharing it all with your students.
I am sure you will take me further and look forward to it!
Wishing you all best,
Claudia
See why blog matters? How could I know a year ago that what I wrote for my students could trigger off this? Because you cannot measure the impact of an innovation before the development stage. The talk of ROI is not applicable. Not in education please. Students' motivation and teacher's commitment matter, therefore, blogging matters. That is all.
..............................
I thought today I would post my draft on my bloganniversary, but with all this going on in my head I think it can wait.
I want to thank my student Nico, because the talk about innovations we had last class has been most inspiring for me.
Whitman's lines are taken from Song of Myself section 47 in Leaves of Grass.
I'll save related links to this in my del.icio.us here:
http://del.icio.us/fceblog/blogging_experience
Making my way through the dozens of emails I get in a day (GeekyMom you win…I think if I got as many emails as you do I think I would just cry), I found this wee gem from a language textbook publishing company:
Dear Professor:
We at (name of publisher) are very excited to extend to you an invitation to put your cultural expertise to work in a meaningful way. We are looking for professors to serve as culture experts on a forthcoming textbook. You will be asked to review text chapters related to your home country (or adopted country!) and comment on the cultural richness and authenticity as well give suggestions for improvement. You will be compensated for your contribution and will receive special reviewer credit upon publication.
If you are interested, please click on the “Participate Now” button to the right. Space is limited to 8 experts per country.
Oh my. One of the reasons I have adopted social software is that if my students need to know about something related to a specific culture, they now have the tools and the means to speak or correspond with people from those places…and as a result they can see that there are many, many sides to a culture… not just something that was written by 8 “experts” who claim knowledge of one place.
It is these “cultural” chapter notes that drove me to blogs in the first place. Here’s why: I am a gringa through and through. I was born in Boston (a place where Latin Americans tell me the “purest English” is spoken 
). Yes I lived in Latin America but that was well before any of my current students were born. (Insert large sigh). I can speak the language but there are current events or the nuances of cultures I simply do not know. I am as as distant from reality as the cultural vignettes that some (not all) of the textbook companies produce. And yet, my students are trained (through years of teacher-centric education) to look to me for “the truth” about, oh, the current political situation in Venezuela, for example.
We need to liberate ourselves from the notion that all learning has to happen in the classroom, with a textbook and with the teacher at the helm. When I did the deep learning exercise with my students, we came to remarkable conclusion: most of their most memorable learning experiences happened outside of the formal academic structure.
Does that mean that we should dispense with classroom teaching? Absolutely not. But what it does mean is that we need to acknowledge that the classroom and the academic calendar restrict us in many many ways. We simply cannot get it all done in 150 minutes per week, and assigning more workbook exercises won’t help. We need to find more time —but meaningful time– for our students to engage with the subject matter.
Through tools such as blogs and Skype, my students found some of their answers. Here are a few examples:
We saw the movie Secuestro Express in class about kidnappings in Venezuela. My students wanted to know if this was a sensationalized view of the Venezuelan reality or not. So they blogged about it…and lo and behold they received responses.
This particular commenter made it a point to visit many of my students’ blogs and leave detailed comments about her perspective on the situation. My students then wanted to know if there was a way to hear another side of her (quite passionate and moving) argument in order to make some comparisons…and once again, Skype connected us with an individual in Venezuela who had a very different opinion about how her country was being led.
Here is something that speaks to the connections these blogs can facilitate: I was cleaning out the spam comments from last year’s blogs and found this comment that arrived after the semester was over. The story this man tells is painful, it is gripping, and yes, it is quite unlike anything we would have found in a textbook….
Did we take these opinions from these native speakers as “the Gospel?” Absolutely not. But hearing and reading other voices, MANY other voices, in the target language provided two tangible results: 1) my students had to stretch and push their language skills to communicate, question, collaborate with these people, something every good conversation class should provide, 2) it provided my class with a variety of perspectives that neither their teacher nor the textbook could have ever provided them, and 3) it gave them much more time on the task in a meaningful and sometimes moving way (If you still have doubts, check out Evie’s extraordinary presentation about her equally extraordinary work in my class at the ELI for some real goosebumps)
To paraphrase what they say on HGTV, as teachers we are limited in our ability to do our jobs well by three things: by time, money, and by our imagination. Good social software is free or inexpensive, it provides an ability for the language to be used in and out and after the classroom, and it opens up learning to unimaginable and extraordinary possibilities.
More to come on what this semester’s students are doing with these tools to help them answer their questions.
Here's the presentation:
And here's a link to the article we gave as the handout - there are also some associated worksheets
The Reckon (Regulation and Competition Economics) website:
http://www.reckon.co.uk/open/BBC_Digital_Curriculum
The Guardian newspaper, 14 March 2007
http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,2033611,00.html
The decision to suspend BBC Jam is mainly the result of pressure from publishers’ associations and commercial online companies who complained that BBC Jam has had a negative impact on their businesses. This raises a number of important issues, for example the morality of allocating such a large sum of money to a public organisation, thereby distorting market forces, and to what extent the BBC’s move towards the production of Web-based educational materials rather than educational TV broadcasts was desirable. Bear in mind that the unit that produced the excellent series of TV broadcasts for adult learners of foreign languages has now been closed down.
BBC Jam aimed to cover most of the secondary school curriculum. Some materials for learners of modern foreign languages have been produced, but reactions to them have been mixed. Many teachers welcomed them for their refreshing and lively approach, but they have also been criticised for their confusing interface, linearity and lack of interaction, e,g. Donald Clark’s blog:
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2006/01/bbc-jam-french-sticky-mess.html
Reactions?
Once you are at it you will probably not go back. After understanding that the user-driven web of blogs and wikis is a reality, teaching the old way simply stops making sense.
So you spend hours self-training, feeding your RSS readers and social bookmarkers of valuable information provided by other savvy web users. Then it is time to prepare your tools. You open your own blog, wiki, podcast and then plan to face your students with it.
Your own enthusiasm is something you must take care of. There is a world of reality offline and outside the classroom teachers are not used to facing. Success with it requires that you go deeper into management issues. Part of the newly acquired roles.
My colleague Jennifer in Buenos Aires writes an email to me after a meeting at her school where she presented to the authorities her new wiki for a class. The meeting had not been precisely encouraging.
This is what I answered her by mail:
Jennifer answered me in her blog. A must-read I think if you are a pioneer teacher with a blog:
http://jenverschoor.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/my-first-integrating-technology-journey/
To quote but a couple of remarks she had to address at that meeting:
- You must correct every blog entry
- You must support the teacher and use technology as a means of allowing the teacher to improve her students practice for the international exam
Many miles away...
In Greece, a few weeks before Jenny's meeting, Teacher Dude was Pulling his hair out!! over somewhat similar issues. Craig says:
"The more I create my own material the less satisfied I become with the teaching resources available commercially." [...] "Yet every time I mention these facts and figures and try to introduce new ideas and approaches I'm told that they won't work, they'll negatively affect exam results or that that's not what students want from their lessons. After a while there comes a time when you just shut up, keep your opinions to yourself and tow the line."
My comments to Craig:
Dear Dude,
I had noticed the low Greek passing grades from the Cambridge site and also the work of Costas Gabrielatos mentioning the problem as well. Now your post really completes the picture to me.
Down here in Buenos Aires the situation is a little more hopeful. Few teachers embrace ICT introduction in their lessons, but at least, neither teachers nor managers are desperately against it! Management is always a key defining point between adoption or rejection. That's a start.
On the students’ perspective, FCE has become a standard way of referring to a level. There is no exams craze these days; perhaps due to our 2001 economic crisis, which made the exams rather expensive for us. People value communication more than certificates. I believe no one gets a job by just exhibiting an international certificate. They will certainly be asked to speak in English at an interview. Simple.
Technology is changing faster than most minds can cope. And most teachers still love to stand in front of a classroom and know ALL. Few step into the room to learn SOMETHING. That's what postgraduate courses were made for! (I do not know whether I should laugh or cry at this!). It is not just having or reading a blog; it is a whole new frame of mind that teachers have to change to get the point. But I do believe things are getting better.
You are a pioneer in what you do, Dude. That has a price in incomprehension. I would like to tell you not to let the environment change your happy blogging mood, which makes me like reading you. Perhaps, instead of going with the crowd, try just not dealing with them. Deal with your things and always post about your ideas and your results. Some teachers might be feeling something must be changed and will not know where to start. Your blog will be there for them.
All best,
Claudia
Symmetry
If Jenny and Craig had not met before, I think it was about time.
Borges said that history is a plot which tends to repeat itself. The protagonists, however, seldom know they are part of history's game.
If you think you are alone, check on more stories like this on Doug's blog post "I can't teach properly" and make sure you do not miss the comments.
Innovations
As much as we have come to feel more than comfortable with new technologies, we must remember we are doing something new and disruptive. It's all in the changing of the rules that gets them so uneasy. Management skills cannot be far behind if we want to integrate technology and lose only a reasonable amount of hair in the process.
The teaching of management skills to prospective teachers should be introduced earlier in their studies and not just in the masters or post-grad courses. I like to think these are interesting times to be a teacher in. Yet, we cannot sail through only equipped with enthusiasm and determination.
Follow-up links
I'll be using the tag "blogging_experience" on my del.icio.us for any relevant post I discover after publishing this.
http://del.icio.us/fceblog/blogging_experience
.
A few posts ago I promised to review Smith & Baber (2005) and Zacharia & Zaphiris (2006) . I have been told by Amazon that the first one is not available (if someone knows where I can get it, please tell me).
Zacharia & Zaphiris (2006) is a good overview of new strategies, methodologies and design approaches for building interfaces for a user-centered CALL environment, helping to understand the possibilities and challenges that can be found in the field according to different case studies. There are 14 articles grouped in 3 sections:
(1) Theory and Analysis
(2) Design
(3) Evaluation and Case Studies
In the preface we are told that the key objective of the book was to look at the topic of CALL in a new direction by focusing on the human-computer interaction elements of learning a language online. "Due to the increasing popularity of the Internet and the use of multimedia, there has been a recent move of CALL systems from CD-ROM to Web-based systems, making it possible to create systems that can facilitate the emergence of online communities of learners."
In the first section, we have 3 articles:
It is suggested that ludology and narratology theories of computer games can be useful in designing language-learning software applications, providing a better framework and "making the experience of learning more immersive and engaging". Two case studies are compared: Slime Forest and Alien Language.
2. Lambropoulos, N., Christopoulu, M. & Vlachos, K., “Culture-Based Language Learning Objects: A CALL Approach for a Ubiquitous World”.
This article presents the theoretical basis of CLLOs' CALL design and its current practices in Greek learning as L2 in the UK. “Culture-based L2 teaching and learning could be implemented through CALL, as learners can be engaged in simulations with computer applications through role taking, working on meanings that have cultural associations and making inferences…. Additionally, CALL applications can offer learners the chance to use synchronous and asynchronous online communication with native as well as other speakers of the target language. Thus, they can retrieve cultural and social information directly from native speakers, discuss topics of common interest and expand their knowledge on cultural codes and tolerable and intolerable patterns of verbal behaviour in the contexts where the target language naturally occurs.”
3. Farmer, R. A., “Situated Task Analysis in Learner-Centred CALL”.
Farmer calls for the development and adoption of situated task analysis frameworks in CALL system design and evaluation leading to the development of more fit-for purpose and personalized CALL systems. Language learning is socially situated and settings vary widely. A learner-centred integrative approach is proposed, modelling the cognitive and sociological aspects of learner-computer interaction. “Situating the users’ actions within the context of social human praxis has the potential to reshape perceptions of Human-Computer Interaction. To this end, research in CALL is witnessing a transitional shift away from cognitivist ‘communicative’ CALL (involving drill-and-practice exercises that focus on accuracy and fluency) towards more sociocultural, ‘integrative’ CALL activities (that address the importance of agency).”
The 5 articles in the second section are:
4. De los Arcos, B. & Arnedillo Sánchez, I., “Ears before Eyes: Expanding Tutors’ Interaction Skills beyond Physical Presence in Audio-Graphic Collaborative Virtual Learning Environments”.
In audio-graphical learning environments interaction certain aspects of non-verbal behaviour are absent. We are introduced to strategies to deal with turn-taking, time lag and other incidences, while observing the difficulty in applying a communicative approach in these settings and the differences between face-to-face and virtual classrooms.
5. Coit, C., “A Student-Centered Online Writing Course”.
A student-centered online writing course, where peer corrections were the sole source of feedback.
6. Lonsdale, D., C. R. Graham & Madsen, R., “Learner-Centered Language Programs: Integrating Disparate Resources for Task-Based Interaction”.
Theoretical foundations and design of the GEDspeak application.
7. Veiga Marriott, R. C. & Lupion Torres, P., “LAPLI - The Language Learning Lab: A Methodological Proposal for a Hybrid Course in a Virtual Environment”.
An interesting virtual learning environment design for advanced students with 12 types of activities working with Internet materials and concept maps.
8. Gstrein, S. & Hug, T., “Integrated Micro Learning During Access Delays: A New Approach to Second-Language Learning”.
On micro learning materials designed for mobile devices.
In the third section 6 more different experiences are described:
9. Cantos Gómez, P. & García Iborra, J. , “EOI Online Inglés: A Fully Implemented and Operative Online English Language Course”
10. Chan, W. M., “Metacognition and Learners’ Interactions with a Web-Based CALL Grammar Exercise”.
11. Melton, J., “The Effect of a Native-Language Interface vs. a Target-Language Interface on Students’ Performance”.
12. Schcolnik, M. & Kol, S., “Reading and Learning from Screen”.
13. Hirata, Y., “Evaluating Students’ Perceptions of ‘Online Counselor’ for Independent Language Learning”.
14. Vrasidas, C., Landone, E., Christodoulou, N. & Zembylas, M., “Language Learning and User-Centered Design: The Development of the Electronic European Language Portfolio”.
An interesting post in the Ethicist Column from the March 11 2007 Sunday Times magazine section (yes I know it is Thursday and I am finally getting to it… in my house reading the Sunday Times is a week-long event) about whether one should include information gleaned from sites like FaceBook and MySpace or personal blogs when evaluating candidates…in this case, the individual posing the question was interviewing a high school student who was applying to his alma mater. The interviewer then “googled” the student’s name and some unsavory things emerged.
The Ethicist, imho, gets it when he says “Because such material will not be considered for most students, it is unfair to subject your interviews to this additional scrutiny” and my favorite: “Put down the mouse and step away from the computer. You should not Google these students in the first place, let alone make your dubious discoveries a factor in college acceptance.”
Indeed.
Just because you can Google someone does not mean that the information that comes up is accurate. Or complete. Case in point…I just “googled myself” in Google image search. Here is what came up:
| 
| 
| 
|
Guess what? Not a single one of the images tagged as me is me.
Goodness gracious. It seems so hypocritical when we in Academia feel we need to educate our students on how to be safe on line, and then we turn around and end up being their own worst nightmare by confusing access to their personal sites with license to dig deeper. We seem to be quick to slam Wikipedia (more on that later) for its inconsistencies, and yet we will stop dead in our tracks and consider anything as the Gospel if it means finding dirt on someone…
We all have some icky things rumbling around in our closets. The web now makes those things easier to find, but do we really have to look? Oh and by the way, is accessing Facebook to do that digging within the acceptable use policy of Facebook…? Some would say not. Some would say, as does The Ethicist, that you should just look away. But if we must look, have we lost our bearings to such an extent that we cannot discern that there may be a variety of realities out there for any one person… the good, the bad, and the oh my..?
At NAIS there was a wonderful keynote by Azar Nafisi in which she talked about the importance of schools as a place to create context for our students. She spoke eloquently about how our world is saturated with information, and yet as citizens we lack a compass, a context, a means to navigate in and around and through that information. Nafisi noted that this information overload has made us smug as a culture and as a result we have lost our ability to genuinely question our world around us. She argued passionately for schools to be the place to provide that context, but also a place to appreciate difference, to have empathy for others, and most importantly, to acknowledge that people and ideas and things have a variety of facets, not just that which comes up after a .21 second Google search.
Read the Ethicist’s article…and the follow up. And tell me what you think.
Howard Dean showed during his ‘04 presidential campaign just how much influence grassroots networking can have on national politics, and early ‘08 wannabes are following his lead. Sort of. Most of the big names (notable exclusions include Rudy Giuliani) have some kind of social media/software integrated into their campaign websites, but it all seems vaguely half-hearted. For example:
- Barack Obama has a “group staff” blog on the front page of his site which he doesn’t contribute to, directly or indirectly. His site -does- have a community section, which you can’t access without registering an account. That’s a dealbreaker for me. I do, however, get a kick out of some of the groups on his site: Information Technology Professionals for Obama (made up of “IT professional[s] who are excited about Barrack [sic] Obama’s pledge to build the next interstate system of broadband connectivity”), “The Secret” Believers for President Obama, the Obama Book Club, and my personal favorite: Batman Loves Obama.
- Mitt Romney has his own streaming video channel - Mitt TV - made up of short clips of his public appearances. All in all, there’s not much more info than one might get watching cable news channels … but he does get points for including recent blog entries in his news links.
- John Edwards: I don’t even know where to begin. You can check out the
exhaustingexhaustive list of what he calls “Media 2.0″ networks for yourself. - John McCain apparently considers three linked images a blog, is calling his grassroots campaign area “McCainSpace,” and plans to respond to policy questions via YouTube. Because YouTube viewers want talking heads.
I’m disappointed. Finances can make or break a campaign, most of which are chock-full of workers / volunteers who are young and technologically-savvy, and who could really put this stuff to use. So, why wouldn’t candidates jump at the opportunity? ‘Splain me, somebody. Is there a reason other than fear?
They have finished the cartoons, and we have also recorded the audio to go with them, but I think that I may ask them to record the audio again, directly in Bubbleshare, as they might get a kick out of doing that.
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog
I took the overnight train there on Thursday night, arriving at 7.00am on Friday morning. The conference wasn't due to start until 15.00, which in theory left me sufficient time for sightseeing, but, as I was due to present (on 'Online Student Publishing Projects') that evening, I spent much of the time beforehand, holed-up in my hotel room, making sure my presentation was up-to-scratch.
I arrived at 15.00 and found that I was one of the first people to arrive. Waiting around, I bumped into another early bird, who turned out to be the incoming President of TESOL (Sandra J Briggs). Quite by chance, we chatted about her taking over the presidency in Seattle later this month, and I was able to talk to her about the TESOL Electronic Village Online projects. She wrote down names, and promised to look up some of the people when she goes to the Convention. She also attended my presentation, which was very nice of her.
I was happy with how the presentation went, and surprised at how many people attended - over 50. I didn't have enough handouts for them, and so promised to post a copy of it on the TESOL Spain Website. Afterwards, quite a few people stayed to talk to me, and many said then, and later that weekend that they were going to start either blogging, podcasting, or using wikis with their students - Incidentally, if you are one of the people who attended, and who happens to be reading my blog afterwards, thankyou very much for the warm reception!
As for the rest of the weekend, I wish I had time to say just how much I enjoyed the other presentations I attended - it was fabulous to get so many ideas and hear so many competent speakers in such a short space of time. I think I have had my teaching batteries fully recharged, and have already been trying out some of the ideas (Thankyou Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Seligson)that I picked up while I was there.
ESL-EFL BLOGS. Here you can read what some language teachers from around the world have written in their blogs.
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- (Subscribe to this page via RSS!)