CALL Newsletter - July 2011 (Plain Text Version)
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In this issue: |
COLUMNS MAKING CONNECTIONS
This issue of the “Making Connections” column introduces four members:
For each newsletter, I invite members to answer a set of questions:
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. :-) |
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