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This issue of the “Making Connections” column introduces four members:
- Jack Watson
- Rita Zeinstejer
- Imogene Berry
- Snea Thinsan
For each newsletter, I invite members to answer a set of questions:
- What is your favorite platform?
- What is the one indispensable tool or Web page?
- What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
- What was your favorite CALL creation?
- What are you working on now?
- What area would you like to see developed/researched?
- In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
I hope you enjoy this opportunity to compare experiences, to
share advice, to nurture inspiration, and to make connections within our
community.
Please e-mail me at stampers@iupui.edu if you
have suggestions or contributions to “Making Connections.”
Suzan is a senior lecturer in the English for Academic
Purposes Program at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis,
IN, USA. She has been a CALLIS member since 1995.
Jack Watson
Jack Watson is a senior administrator/facilitator with the
University of New Brunswick English Language Programme in Fredericton,
New Brunswick, Canada (which is also his three-time alma mater). Along
with 7 years’ research and development in CALL (on a part-time basis),
he brings 25-plus years of face-to-face classroom experience to his
profession. An active member of TESOL for 5 years, he is currently the
CALLIS EV Fair Classics Coordinator.
E-mail: jack.watson@unb.ca
Affiliation: University of New Brunswick
Years in the CALLIS: 5 years
Q: Favorite platform?
A: I use PC, but Mac works fine, too.
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool or Web page?
A: A working knowledge of HTML is the single most important
computer skill I have, along with a willingness to limit my
instructional design to the use of only the tools I need.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
A: I’ve found sources that are not necessarily unexpected, but
highly applicable to my perspective on CALL. Currently I’m reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain
by Nicholas Carr.
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: During my involvement with the coordination of the EV Fair
Classics, I’ve had the privilege of observing numerous impressive
creations. There are too many to mention just one, and everyone has
his/her own unique application that fulfils the intended purpose.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently developing and delivering UNB (Fredericton)
English Language Programme’s Executive Online Learning series of grammar
and writing.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: I’m interested in the changes of learning styles that result
from a shift to electronic information delivery.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
A: I’d have three pieces of advice: 1. Enjoy it; 2. Just
because you can’t get your web page to look the way you want, it doesn’t
mean you’ve broken the Internet (so keep trying); 3. Simple is best.
This works with language and technology too.
Rita Zeinstejer
An EFL teacher in Rosario, Argentina, with 30-plus years’
experience teaching English at all levels, Rita is also an advocate of
the integration of CALL into language learning. She has given many
PowerPoint presentations on ICT (information and communication
technology) and CMC (computer-mediated communication) in Argentina and
other countries, face to face and online, as well as for TESOL, and is a
member of Webheads in Action, an online community of
practice doing research on CMC tools available in the Internet. She is a
Google-certified teacher and a CALLIS TESOL Steering Committee Member
(2009-2012). Further information is at www.zeinstejer.com.
E-mail: ritazeinstejer@optonline.net
Affiliation: Association of Teachers of English, Rosario, Argentina
Years in the CALLIS: almost 3 years
Q: Favorite platform?
A: It depends on what we understand by “platform.” If it’s an
operating system, I stick to Windows, but I could also say I love Google
Chrome and all the Google Apps it can integrate.
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool or Web page?
A: Blogs and wikis. And again, within Google I choose Sites and
Docs―I cannot possibly work without them: Docs, for collaborative work
with colleagues; Sites, for collaborative work with students.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
A: Definitely Twitter. It allows for connections and for rich
sources of information, based on the people you choose to follow,
without the invasion of intruding third parties!
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: Several projects I carried out with my students integrating
CALL into my classes like the “Tandem Project” with students from Ohio,
USA, in 2006 at http://caeb2006.podomatic.com/entry/index/2006-04-12T06_50_50-07_00
and the “Cross-Cultural Project” with students from Korea in 2008 at http://ritamz.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?page=2,
and a wiki I opened before a trip to England with Argentinean students
at https://sites.google.com/site/triptoengland2011/
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A new venture with WebheadJennifer Verschoor, offering
online courses on the integration of the Internet to our colleagues in
Argentina at http://techtools4educators1.blogspot.com/.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: Game learning. Very little has been explored in this area.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
A: Take your first step choosing one tool. Explore it and
exploit it, first on your own and then with your students. But always
bear in mind their needs and interests. No two groups are alike, not
even for Internet tools!
Q: What is your funniest CALL-related incident?
A: “The
Serendipity Project” in 2007.. The project was a success once
the students started understanding the meaning of the term and
realizing how many serendipitous encounters can make a big change in our
lives. They all contributed with an anecdote, very enthusiastically
recording it and publishing it online, which also helped them see the
value of integrating the Internet into our classes and of going global.
It was fun.
Imogene (Imy) Berry
Imy received her master’s from the University of Illinois and
now teaches full-time at Columbia University’s American Language
Program. She cochaired the Electronic Village with Roger Drury in New
Orleans and looks forward to leading it again in Philadelphia.
E-mail: imogeneberry@yahoo.com
Affiliation: Columbia University
Years in the CALLIS: 1 year
Q: Favorite platform?
A: Windows
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool or Web page?
A: Course management software. I do all my editing and peer
review of essays online so I need a good site that organizes files well.
So far Moodle seems like the best, but I’ve heard good things about
Michigan’s CLEAR program and this summer I’m going to try Google Docs
with its comment feature.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
A: The TESOL events. I see new technology being used in amazing ways to promote learning.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A research project on peer and teacher feedback using Google
Docs. We’re trying to find out which types of online writing feedback
help a student improve.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: There still seems to be a large gap between what the highest
levels of ESL programs are teaching and what students have to do for
undergraduate and graduate degrees. I want to know what we can do to
shrink that gap in all four skill areas.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
A: Be highly critical of any technology that promises to solve
all your problems. It’s easy to get sucked into the flashiness of new
technology without grounding your work in good pedagogy.
Snea Thinsan
Snea began exploring CAI in the early 1990s and took on a
multimedia courseware production project for the Thailand Ministry of
Higher Education in 1998 before pursuing his interest in CALL in England
and the United States. He has presented at WORLDCALL, CALICO, INTESOL,
and TESOL conferences quite regularly. Snea’s doctoral minor was in
instructional systems technologies, and he has taught teacher education
and CALL courses online for over 5 years now.
E-mail: sthinsan@umail.iu.edu
Affiliation: INTESOL
Years in the CALLIS: 9 years
Q: Favorite platform?
A: Mac and PC with Windows 7―still deciding :-)
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool or Web page?
A: Facebook. I use it daily for political and professional connections.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
A: Google opens many doors to many CALL resources.
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: I am still proud of the multimedia courseware that I
produced in 1997-98 with Authorware for delivery on CD-ROMs. It employed
layers of linked content, soundly woven and design-appropriate for
self-instruction and instruction via distance education. I find some of
those lessons more pedagogically rigorous than what you can find in many
CD-ROM-based CALL materials available in the market today. I shared
this piece at the WorldCALL 2003 in Banff, Canada.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am thinking about creating a language-learning portal with
tons of exercises created with Hot Potatoes and other simple
test-making tools. What may be special about this portal is that I will
try to put some pedagogical principles into the design somehow. This
will be done in my free time.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: I want to study the effects of degrees of comprehensibility
of CALL inputs of different forms and/or qualities of exposure to inputs
on the speed and extent of SLA among ESL/EFL learners.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
A: Just do it, and you will enjoy virtually endless opportunities.
Q: What is your funniest CALL-related incident?
A: I put links to files on my desktop instead of the ones on
the server and went to teach my first CALL class in England. I didn’t
realize that until the end of the class. :-(
Neither did the students. :-) | 
