ESL SUPERBLOG / podcasts and chat logs

G’morning folks: The audio from Language Lab Unleashed, episode #21, is now available for your listening pleasure. We had a great conversation ranging from the roots of language learning anxiety (and how it’s different from other kinds of learning anxiety) to how to overcome it in the classroom. Right-click here to download or use the audio [...]

September 6, 8 p.m. EDT LLU #21: Language Learners and Anxiety: Elaine Horwitz, University of Texas-Austin, on anxiety and second language learning as well as her recent book “Becoming a Language Teacher:A Practical Guide to Second Language Learning and Teaching” Dr Horwitz’ work was recently highlighted in Inside Higher Ed as well as [...]

Happy Tuesday everybody! Here’s this week’s episode: Download audio file (Techo_Tuesday_3.mp3) (or right-click here to download the file.) For this week’s episode, Felix and I reviewed several free and/or open-source audio recording tools for your use: Audacity DL Recorder GarageBand (Mac OS X only) Audio Recorder (Mac OS X only) Windows Sound Recorder (Windows only) We also mentioned a couple of free audio conversion [...]

Hi folks! We’re back from vacation and (making our way towards) getting caught up. For Tech-o Tuesday #2, I’m joined by our co-blogger Felix for reviews of four web-based audio tools that require no special software installation: Skypecasts, Chinswing, Odeo, and Yackpack. I also mentioned in the show that we’d post a link to third-party tools [...]

It may be summer, it may be relatively quiet (!) in your Language Learning Center, but we here at LLU are planning our late summer, early fall line-up of webcasts. Please let us know if you would like to join in on any of these conversations. We would be delighted to include you. [...]

Listen to the show here: Download audio file (LanguageLabUnleashed20.mp3) Or download it here: Language Lab Unleashed #20 Many thanks to Todd Bryant (Language Program Administrator at Dickinson College), Felix Kronenberg (Instructor of German and Director of the Foreign Language Resource Center at Pomona College) and Doug Canfield (Coordinator of the Language Resource Center at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville) for [...]

Please join us Thursday May 17 at 8 p.m. (Eastern time) for a conversation about how online, multi-user “games” or MMPORGs such as Second Life and World of Warcraft can be used for second language learning. Given the fact that one needs to pay for a license for WoW and Second Life [...]

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 [...]

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…