Notes for Tuesday, April 13, 2010

In today's class we'll finish our demo of the use of Second Life as a CALL tool. By now everyone should have an avatar and be able to log on and explore SL in class. We'll be using "SLurl's" to jump to places of interest.

The list of SLurl's we'll be exploring can be found at http://slurl.wikispaces.com/

In addition, I'll be giving a demo of how to use Blackboard from an instructor's point of view. All students in this class are listed as instructors in the "Ling 487 CALL Practice Site" Blackboard site and will be required to log on and modify at least one element of the site as an instructor in today's class.

Class on Thursday, April 15, is an open lab session. No additional readings or homework is due (beyond your weekly blog post) for Thursday so you can use the class time to work on your final project and your e-portfolio. For details on these assignments, go to our class Blackboard site and click on the "Assignments" tab.

ooVoo room

http://videocallroom.oovoo.com/room/terrieb/room/1

Meebo test

Meebo Room

Notes for Thursday, April 1, class

Group Wiki pages due by class time today. Presentation of wiki pages in class for peer feedback. http://ling487.wikispaces.com/

Discussion of updated syllabus for final weeks of the term.

For Next Tuesday

• (optonal) Read Belz,J. & Vyatkina, n. (2005). Learner corpus analysis and the development of L2 pragmatic competence in networked intercultural language study: The case of German modal particles. CMLR, 62, 17-48.
• (required) ReadWare, P. D., & Kramsch, C. (2005). Toward an intercultural stance: Teaching German and English through telecollaboration. The Modern Language Journal, 89(2), 190-205.
• Explore free web-based video conferencing tools and be prepared to discuss what you consider to be the best 1-2 for learner-learner video conferencing and teacher-learner video conferencing. You can start by exploring this site http://www.voip-sol.com/7-leading-browser-based-video-conference-tools.

Dates for Final Project presentations

Tuesday, April 20
Aja/Jay/Jesse (30 min)
Deena/Christine (20 min)
Erin (10 min)

Thursday, April 22
Kaz
Miglena
Nicholas

Tuesday, April 27
Bailey/Maria
Jessina/Christina
Kristen

Thursday, April 29
Bill/Sabah
Jeffrey
Lisa
Hanan

Notes for March 30, 2010, class

In-class activity
Go to http://ling487.wikispaces.com/ and click on "Discussion" to read and follow the instructions on the in-class activity.

Homework for Thursday
For this week's blog assignment, discuss the way "e-journaling" was used in the reading assignment and the benefits described in the article. In addtion, describe at least one way you think e-journaling can help in learning oral language skills.

Notes for Thursday, March 18, class

Today we're going to explore the pros and frustrating cons of collaborative learning in general and in terms of language instruction.

First, you'll need to add the following link to your own wiki in wikispaces.com. You may want to also post it in your blog for quick reference:

http://ling487.wikispaces.com/

This is a group wiki with permission for everyone to add and edit any content on it. I have started an outline of what the entire class will develop on this wiki, but groups are free to change the headings and (slightly) change the focus of each heading. The point is to work towards consensus on each area of the wiki.

To start with, you will work with the group that shares your area of interest to combine and post on each of your individual wikis the links you all agree are most useful for your topic. Each person in the group should have the same list on their personal wiki when you're through.

Next, your group will pick one of the main headings in the class wiki (http://ling487.wikispaces.com/) and brainstorm what you want to put there. Ideally,
this will be completed in class. Before you do this, discuss how you want to approach this as a group activity. Who types? How do you settle disputes?

Most likely this will be all we'll be able to accomplish in today's class. One last thing you'll need to do is add links to your individual wikis to the bottom of the class page. Do this in your group. Type a heading for the subject of the links your group collected and include the links to each member's page.

Grammar and Constructivist Learning

Notes for 3/2/10 class

• Your beliefs about grammar acquisition?
• Participation metaphor vs acquisition metaphor for SLA
• a priori vs emergent grammar/ langue vs parole
• organic dynamism (micro change --> macro change)
• creative construction hypothesis
• "noticing" input/Inductive strategies
• consciousness raising
• metalinguistic knowledge
• discovering rules/negotiated meaning

Explore one or more of the following online grammar activities to determine if and to what extent they are constructivist. Tweet your findings.


http://a4esl.org/q/f/x/xz38mvt.htm

http://www.marks-english-school.com/games/g_presperf.html

Links to CALL 487 wiki's

Erin http://ecrofford1.wikispaces.com/
Kristen http://kristen01.wikispaces.com/
Bailey http://blschmid.wikispaces.com/
Nicholas http://hynso.wikispaces.com/
Jeffrey http://jeffreycall.wikispaces.com/
Bill http://billtesol.wikispaces.com/
Lisa http://esldepot.wikispaces.com/
Christine http://christinemarieanderson.wikispaces.com/
Jessina http://jmbranyan.wikispaces.com/
Jesse http://heylookatme.wikispaces.com/
Christina http://cindovina.wikispaces.com/
Maria http://mariacall2010.wikispaces.com/
Hanan http://callhanan.wikispaces.com/
Aja http://badandworse.wikispaces.com/
Sabah http://sktesol.wikispaces.com/

Missing wikis
Jay
Deena
Kazuaki
Miglena


More examples of wikis courtesy of Ryan Hunter
http://depaulelanovel01.wikispaces.com/
http://depaulelanovel02.wikispaces.com/
http://depaulelanovel03.wikispaces.com/

Notes on Thursday, 2/25, class

Discussion of blog assignments requirements

• make sure you have a blog roll
• need reader-friendly format/fonts
• add tags for all postings!

Discussion of wiki use for writing feedback/collaboration
wikispaces demo

• http://collegecomp.wikispaces.com/
• http://introtolit.wikispaces.com/
• http://techproject.wikispaces.com/

Pbwiki demo

• https://eps4151200910016grpa.pbworks.com/
• https://hre47012008910013.pbworks.com/
• https://epsy40812008910007.pbworks.com/

In-class and homework activities

• Sign up for free account in wikispaces at http://www.wikispaces.com/
• Give your new wiki a name, click "edit" tab to start adding content
• On main (home) page of your wiki, write a short "about me" text, followed by a bullet point list of your main areas of interest in CALL
• Tweet the link to your wiki with the tags #MATESOL #wiki
• Start in class and finish at home--> Find who else in class shares your interests and post a comment under the Discussion tab introducing yourself on their wikispaces page. You'll need to read everyone's wiki to do this, but you only need to post on the wiki's that describe areas of interest that you share.
  

Notes on Tuesday, 2/23, class lecture

Using CALL to teach ESL Writing -- Computer Mediated Feedback

• focus on form vs content
• social relationships/dynamics
• writing vs typing
• grammar feedback/brute practice
• embedded concordance links
• teaching how to fish
• email/discussion board feedback
  

Some additional tools and sites:
Digital Storytelling Tools for Instructors--free handbook
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/digital-storytelling-tools-for-educators/6257307

Format for your podcast blog post

Begin with the title of your podcast

Follow with "show notes" Find tips on show notes here Your show notes should include:

• Brief introduction, including the purpose and audience for the podcast and any instructions for what you want them to do as they listen.
• If relevant, a vocabulary list
• link to the podcast on podbean
• Any follow up activities, exercises or recommendations for how to use the info on the podcast
• Any related or useful web links, including a list of references if relevant (especially in a teacher to teacher podcast).

If you are working in teams, each team member should post the same show notes and podcast link in their blog.

Info on fair use of copyrighted music in a podcast:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide#Fair_Use_Under_Copyright_Law_And_Its_Application_To_Podcasts.

Tips on composing and publishing your podcast

To be an effective instructional tool, a podcast needs to be well-crafted. The use of "show notes" goes a long way towards this end. You can read more about designing and using Show Notes at http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/27-writing-podcast-show-notes.htm

For each of your podcast assignments in LING 487, you must post both a link to your recording on Podbean and a description of your podcast in your blog (Blog post #6). Use the Show Notes format to create a blog entry that is both appealing and useful for your intended podcast audience.

You'll find additional tips here http://www.feedforall.com/effective-podcast-tips.htm

Lecture notes for Tuesday, 2/9

Asynchronous L2 oral practice using CALL tools

Cognition Hypothesis and resource-directing dimensions

• Then & There tasks (past & elsewhere)
• multiple POV
• location, causality
• intentional reasoning (theory of mind)

Task complexity, interaction and uptake

• task sequencing
• link input to output to increase interaction/uptake
  
• interaction and attention to input
• input vs output anxiety
• task difficulty and complexity

Questions to consider:

• How does this apply to instructional design of oral output lessons/activities?
• Can production CALL tools such as Voicethread, podcasting and YouTube posting increase student L2 uptake?
• If so, how?

Readings and blog assignment for 2/9/10

Additional readings for Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010:


Voicethread for ESL/EFL
http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/EFL+&+ESL
(A chance to learn about Voicethread and to see a Wiki example in Wikispaces)

Voicethread Extends the Classroom through Multimedia
http://www.edutopia.org/voicethread-interactive-multimedia-albums

For Blog post #5, discuss how the concepts in Ch. 6 of your text and the assigned Robinson reading apply to the tool Voicethread. Use the concepts in the readings to essentially evaluate the instructional value of Voicethread.

Blog assignment for week of Feb. 2, 2010

For this week's blog assignment:

1. View or listen to one instructional video or podcast in your L2 and evaluate it from the point of view of a student. Include a link to the video or podcast.
   
2. Then view or listen to one instructional (or topic-based) video or podcast in an L2 you teach or intend to teach, and evaluate it from the point of view of an instructor. Include a link to the video or podcast.
3. Tweet your links with with the #MATESOL tag at the end of your post.
   

Then, read 2 classmates' blog entries, listen to/view one of the podcasts/videos evaluated each classmate and in the comments section briefly describe your evaluation of the podcast/video.

CALL for Listening Instruction

Notes for 2/2/10 CALL class:

Sources for audio input:

• Audio Podcasts
• For language instruction
• ESL Pod http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html
• ESL Podcasting http://www.rong-chang.com/podcast.htm
• Free Foreign Language Lessons Podcast http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html
• Foreign Language Podcast Feeds http://opalmyth.com/key-terms/foreign-language-podcast-feeds
  
• Topic based
  
• podcast alley http://www.podcastalley.com/
  
• iTunes, http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
  
• Videos
• YouTube
• Lakota Speaking Lesson: the Silent Way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxjMhi6jV2E
• Thai Language Lesson Playlist http://tinyurl.com/yfr9vq4
• How to Videos
• Expert Village http://www.expertvillage.com/
• Instructional and DIY videos http://www.5min.com/
• Content Videos
• Video Jokes http://www.thejokeproject.com/
• Real English Video Dictations http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=real-english-dictations-exercises
  

Resources
iPods & Podcasting for Whole Language Instruction
http://www.slideshare.net/gpoli/ipods-podcasting-for-whole-language-instruction

A question about toolbars

Recently one of my CALL 487 students emailed me the following question:

"Hi Terrie,
I was just surfing the interweb and came across this site: http://www.eslprintables.com/

I wanted to use some material from it but it asked me to register and then sent me a link to activate my profile/registration. It then said that in order to use the site I had to download their toolbar. My question is whether or not this kind of thing is common? I have declined to install the toolbar, but I'm not sure if sites do this frequently or why they might want you to do so...."

Here was my reply:
"Many sites give you the option to download a toolbar, but don't require it. Delicioius, Yahoo and Google, for example, do this. I generally don't download the toolbar because it seems to slow my computer down and clutter the top bar of my web browser. I looked around at the site and I think you were wise not to download the toolbar. There may be nothing malicious about the site, but there are other places where you can get the same kind of resources without downloading anything, and the eslprintables.com site looked a bit unprofessional....cluttered with ads and odd notes."

You can compare www.eslprintables.com to a site such as http://a4esl.org/ to see what I'm talking about. Just as we need to teach our students to be critical "readers" of the interweb, we also need to bring a skeptical eye to our own search for online ESL resources and CALL tools.

Do you have any examples of either excellent sites such as a4esl.org, or dubious sites such as eslprintables.com, to share?

Also, don't forget to tweet links to either sites you think teachers should steer away from or sites you think are useful resources (add #ESL and #MATESOL at the end of your Twitter post to make it easier to find).

Homework for Thursday, 1/21/10

Read Chapter 3 in our CALL textbook (pdf available on our Blackboard site).

Find at least one online resource that you think would be useful in teaching SLA reading skills. This can be an online text or an actual online activity or lesson. Describe why you chose this resource and how you would use it. Make sure you include a link in the post to this resource.

Finally, add a link to this resource in your delicious account, using MATESOL as one of the tags, and at least one other word as a tag that describes the main subject of the link.

We will be sharing all these blog posts in class Thursday, so be prepared to have your entry and link projected for all to see.

Highlights of 1/19/10 class discussion

The reading for today's class, Principles of instructed language learning by Rod Ellis (2004), presents 10 principles that you should use to assess any CALL tool, lesson or activity you design to ensure effective language instruction.

Some key concepts include:
Focusing on fluency as well as accuracy,
Addressing the learners' built-in syllabus
Providing extensive input and output opportunities
Addressing learner differences
Providing opportunity to interact with L2
Assessing free and controlled production\