What it takes to do CALL

This is the title for the podcast we listened to this week (Dec. 3). I have listened to this same podcast before when we learned about podcasting. I was going around Itunes and happened to find this same place: The callspot. I downloaded to my ipod and listened to it at least three times while I was doing something else. I could not understand much in those those attempts, and now that we had to listen to it again, I have listened to it twice and still don't get to understand everything, and even worse to remember. So the last time I decided to not do anything else, and take notes. Guess what? it worked.

It is good to know that even TESOL recognizes the importance and possibility of including technology in class, in addition to try to design the standards for students and teachers to go by. Nevertheless it seems it is a huge task and the standards are not ready yet. They commented they may be ready by TESOL conference, but it was on April 2008 and now it is December. One reason may be what the interviewees mentioned in the podcast: their biggest achievement was to "plant the seed" that standards in CALL for ESL classes are needed. 

These standards seem to follow the layout the other standards have: goals made up of standards, which are evaluated by performance indicators and finally exemplified by vignettes. I can't imagine all they have to consider, all the discussions and revisions these people need to go through in order to come up with a good product. They described this same concern by saying "it was tough to write it at the appropriate at the level of generality required". It may be too ambitious to gather into one group all education scenarios, talking about k-12, as well as bear in mind all three possible settings (low, mid and high resource). It will be interesting to see what they come up with, meanwhile we have to make up our own standards, believe they are the best and stick to them. 

Software or Softwares?

Reading Ch 9 brought up an old question I have ... is it possible to say softwares? The dictionary shows it is not possible but what I have read in the internet says the contrary. How do you pluralize this word?

Anyway, going back to Ch 9 I love the tables this Ch presents, they are a great wrap up, but I think it would have been better to see this before even "learning" the many pieces of software in class. It could have been useful to create the web lesson and even the CMC activity knowing this tables, because it presents the kind of software and class activity, as well as the teaching difficulty level. With new software you never know how deep you can get or how difficult it would be, therefore having this summary before hand would have just eased the load in a meaningful way.

The list of Selected Authoring Software looks fancy, I didn't recognize many of them and those which I did are beyond my understanding. There are three programs we worked with in class: Audacity, Composer and Hot Potatoes and the latter is the one I like the most but sadly have spent less time on. It is tiring to collect pieces of software for diverse uses, this one for recording, this other for blogging, and this one for checking blogs ... I think too many products in the market will hinder people to play with many of them. Personally I like Google because it combines several features under a good umbrella.

Second Life and miscelaneous

Linda Jacoby's presentation was great! It was informative, interesting, paced, useful, clear, complete ... I learned that there is more about Social Networking than Facebook. I think I will not try to use it in class in a billion years, but also that professionals should not be that cautious about it, as Linda said you decide what you put on the web, and after it is there, there remains.

And Second life sounds like a video game to me, lots of time and energy are required, as well as some ability ... and I don't see myself using it in the near future, it is just time consuming. I may look around the page and if possible check a tutorial (a popular word in this class), but that is all. I have already created an avatar using other web page, so there is no much curiosity left.

When I was teaching adults in Colombia I was part of a project that was exactly about Social networking. We used Yahoo 360 and teachers and students were in touch through it. We taught students how to open e-mail accounts in English, build their avatars, make postings, use feeds and link their classwork to their site. I think it worked great, it was safe, educational and focused (students were not there to meet other people). 

The picture you see is the avatar I created long time ago. I chose to represent myself exactly the way I am, and I think I did it. It was fun to change my outfit and background according to the season, and obviously to be able to include my country in it with its flag. If you were to create an avatar, or already had, would you represent yourself the way you are in this one life?

Presentation and Hot Potatoes

Last week Dr. Evan Bibbee presented his way of working with wikies in a french as a foreign language class. It caught my attention that he has done this for three years now and that the project involved the cultural aspect of the language. He gave good tips on how to implement it and what he has learned by doing that project. I will definitely give it a try for my next Spanish class, one of the components of the course deals with culture, and a wiki will work great for online learners.

We also saw the so famous Hot Potatoes ... I had no idea it was that easy and most importantly free. I didn't get to actually do my own exercise due to time, but I can ambition this feature in the lessons' section in my web page. I bet with time I can turn old worksheets into catchy exercises using Hot Potatoes ... all I need is time and patience, sadly I have the latter but not the former.

Readings week 10

Chapter 4 presented eight writing activities integrating CALL. I found new the idea of creating and using templates, as well as all the technical explanations about editing texts. I had used Manual Track before knowing the Track Changes feature from Microsoft Word, it took me for ever to work on each one of the documents from my students. When I switched to Track Changes it made grading easier but students didn't know how to modify the changes, so at the end I ended up teaching that feature in the language class. I'm not complaining, it simply took me by surprise.

Chaper 8, pp. 170-171 explained basic concepts related to concordance. I remembered we talked about this in Methods class, and my impression was, (and is) that they are kind of messy and overwhelming. I rather teach my students to use online dictionaries now, but I must confess I haven't even tried to use a concordance web site yet.

Copyright and fare use was the title for the online article of this week. The most interesting part was the quiz, most of the situations presented are likely to happen and were on the "fare use" side. But I didn't notice any situation including commercial songs as I think may be the most common source of piracy. Copyright is a delicate topic in the United States, in Colombia there are laws about it, but most of us don't respect them (yes I'm including myself here). I just have to say that respecting copyright, in my case, depends on my goal.

Presentation about Online teaching

The presentation Dr. Nan gave last week was really comforting. It was good to know that online teaching is being practiced in several US universities for a decade. Knowing that number actually made me feel out of shape because I just experienced online learning last summer. Nevertheless it was great to actually see a professor say "I've been there and done that", rather than just read or hyphothesize about it. And as she said, it is very probable teachers will be required to conduct online classes, so why not getting a good idea of how they work?

I agreed with her about the feeling of throwing the computer through the windows in the first couple of online classes. That was exactly what I wanted to do when I was teaching in summer, I felt my world was my computer and the only people I knew my students. Everything went wrong and of course I didn't have the answers. On top of it, I began with 34 students and ended up with 24, still too many. Dr. Nan also mentioned her classes are successfull because there is a consistent routine or structure in them. That was a great piece of advise I think, but I wonder how to keep it in a language class. I personally like variety, besides learning a language means to work on its four skills, therefore variety is a must.

Finally, I have a comment about the software "Elluminate", I found its purpose valid but its application way difficult and somehow archaic. I'm comparing it to Adobe connect and though I have used the latter software only as a guest, I believe it is a perfect fit to people working with this kind of technology first time ever. I will store "Ellumiate" in the pile of 'things to use only if you are desparate', it's a new list I developed through the experiences I have had in this class, and personal ones as well.

Readings week 9

Online learning, key pal connection and intercultural learning were the topics for this week. The later ones were more interesting than the former, and the key pal topic didn't provide much new information, and didn't convince me of incorporating key pal projects in my classes.

Online learning seems to be growing fast in America, nevertheless it is not the same in other countries, or at least in South America. People still don't trust technology (besides not having easy access to it), and are used to the old ways of teaching.

The key pal connection article confirmed it is easier to find classrooms inside the same territory, in order to exchange letters. It also proved that its success depends on how close the teacher is looking at the activity, which does not encourage me to add to my load. Therefore I don't think I can use those projects in my classes, I rather have students write blogs or journals, and I would answer back, or have them write back among themselves.

Finally, the long article about intercultural learning through e-mail exchange brought the importance for teachers to develop intercultural communicative competence, as well as for students to look at their culture, and sub cultures, to reinforce, confirm or negate stereotypes, bias, etc. I don't necessarily see the use of e-mail in doing so (as I explained before), instead the teacher could use a video, a movie, a tv program or even a song to teach students about their and other cultures.

Week 8

The presentation we got from Lily Compton about Teacher education going into Virtual Schooling taught me two main things. First the existence of three roles or participants in virtual schooling, and second the teaching skills for doing this kind of teaching. 

Talking about the roles, I do see the need of separating the teacher from the designer; but I hadn't thought about a stand alone position such us Site facilitator. I had an online teaching experience last summer and by listening to this presentation I realized I was the teacher and site facilitator at the same time, and thanks God I was not the designer. And to be sincere I was not not even the teacher, because the software I was given to "teach" the class with, put me in the role of controlling what exercises students were to do, and grading, nothing else. It was a dream because I didn't have to lesson plan, but I didn't feel like a teacher but a programmer (besides I never met my students).

Looking at the Skills pyramid from Hampel & Stickler (2005) I learned teachers should enhance online socialization (No 4) besides facilitating communicative competence (No 5). Referring again to my Spanish online class I was not completely successful at No 4 due to schedule problems among my students mainly. I did think it was important, but I just didn't find an answer (and need to look for it still). And No. 5 was beyond my capacity because that was my first online teaching experience. 

I am taking one online class now, and the knowledge I have gained there plus what I have learned in this CALL class will make a difference in the next online class I teach (this spring). I wish I had a Site facilitator to help me carry the load, I may ask for one based on what I learned from the presentation, and I just hope the department listens to me because I'm just a TA. 

Readings week 8

WEBLOGS FOR USE WITH ESL CLASSES
Campbell talked about three different kinds of blogs. The tutor blog is a new idea to me, but sincerely I don't think it would really work since most tutors are seen as temporal teachers or answers to questions. This semester I began using the learner blog with my class of Spanish, and since the objective is for my students to free write in the target language, there hasn't been much reflection on the class or showing of their feelings. I haven't asked them to read each others entries and comment on them, I will do so next week since it is already midterm, I hope students will enjoy and learn more this way, so far this activity is plain.

KEY PALS

Chapter 5 (Szendeffy) explained about exchange of letters through Internet, which is an idea I tried a couple of times in my own classes, but I categorized of too much for a teacher. The chapter addressed every issue I encountered while trying to set up key pals to my EFL class, and it also presented possible solutions. However I still think there are so many buts in doing this activity, and I don't feel like venturing into it again. The hardest part, as pointed by the book, is to assign key pals and have the communicate frequently. When I tried this idea I was working with adolescents, so I didn't think of sending them to find a key pal by themselves; with adults this task may be difficult, nevertheless I rather have everybody use the same source. Once I even tried to use some of my friends as key pals to my students, but even them were not consistent and my students got disappointed. The idea itself sounds great and it excites students, the deal is to make it work.

A FIELD GUIDE TO CROSS-CULTURAL PROJECTS

This short article presented some tangible samples of what a cultural project could look like. I searched the site (CultureQuest) and found lots of practical guidelines for teachers who want to be part of the project, or just want to use them as a way to shape their own project. What I found more valuable about this page was the fact of integrating culture and teaching with the help of technology. Culture is one of the 5 cs American schools are to address in teaching, but more than that, culture is an essential part of learning any language.

Creating our own professional web page

This week we faced a huge task, create a web page. I have always wanted to create one, and this is my opportunity to learn, I just wish I had more time to devote to this task. I'm pretty sure some of my classmates and I thought creating a web page required of programming knowledge, therefore the task was impossible for simple mortals like us. But it was neat to know there are free and easier ways to do it. 

At the beginning of the class we talked about what strategies we use to deal or keep up with technology, and I clearly stated I don't like to use tutorials or read manuals, I follow the approach trial and error, because I have some basic knowledge about computers and softwares. Nevertheless this task is different and will requirement to make use of such tutorials and manuals. I am so new to the topic that I don't feel comfortable going around a page and trying to play with the stuff I see. I don't even know where to start at when doing a web page, I don't know the terms, the requirements, I have no idea what can be done or how far we can go. This first class should have given us most answers to these gaps, we need to build the foundation of this topic in order to face it, and our instructor should address it in class, I hope it can be done next meeting, otherwise I am pretty sure this task will turn into a mission impossible.

So far I can ambition a teacher portfolio as content of my web page. That will be a great and more practical way for me to work on it. I don't really think I can finish my portfolio in the time that remains for this class, but for sure I will be delighted to add the URL of my web page to my resume. 

Ideas from chapters 5 and 6 and a couple of readings

I would like to comment briefly on new and doable ideas I found from these readings. Chapter 5 talks about using Media News in classrooms, and that was the way how I polished my listening skills back in college, although we didn't have access to the broadcasts so we had to be very skillful at taking good notes. I like the idea of switching languages when accessing some of these Media News, specially because as a teacher of English and Spanish, it facilitates the search process and gives me better comprehension at the same time.

The activity called "Discerning Editorial Slant" sounds challenging for teachers to create and students to perform. Nevertheless it is worthy to work on, and it could open students' ideas in regard to culture. Finally the mentioning of LexisNexis really caught my attention since accessing it would mean a closer use of authentic materials in future classes. I am looking forward to reading about it in chapter 8.

Chapter 6 provided more information to me than ideas to teach. I was recently thinking that I needed to make a list of technological terms I have heard in this CALL class, so I could begin incorporating them to my vocab. This chapter brought me to such list and even explained it for me. Now I can say what is the URL instead of the address, or show a student certain web site maybe not reliable because its domain is commercial. The integration of this new vocabulary will show my expertise in CALL among colleagues and students, something that makes me feel in a better position.  

Using DVD feature films in the EFL classroom. Jane King described the pros and cons of using dvds feature films in regard to showing the whole story or divide it, and using captions or not. I am not a fan of showing the two-hour videos, or some close time to it, since there is always too much to do and little time to accomplish it. According to her research there are more advantages in using captions than in not including them, therefore choosing a short part of a film and including its caption will work for intermediate students, and without captions for advance students. Any method will bring results but she reminds us of the importance of getting something out of the video, not just watching it with no terminal goal.

Using TV Commercials to Teach Listening and Critical Thinking. This was my favorite article for this week because teaching with commercials has been something I had thought about but didn't know exactly how to do it. Alfred Smith and Lee Ann Rawley present strong reasons why commercials fit EFL and ESL classrooms, besides promoting critical thinking, and the one I'm most interested in is the part of vocabulary development. Recurrency is a key feature in mastering vocabulary, and tv commercials are full of them, as well as culture, slang and what ultimately will be called pop culture. The three steps the authors described in this article indicate the potential this authentic material represents to the classroom, I am going to try one of them this semester to see how students react to it and the benefits they will bring to their learning, and I will blog to report findings.

About Podcast, Audacity and Gcast.

The lesson of this week was very informative and practical. I was able to follow most steps by myself and even helped one of my partners, that is why I chose this picture of Podcasting for dummies.

I was amazed by all the steps and softwares we needed to download in order to broadcast our own voices in internet, but the result made it worthy. The best part was to see my channel in itunes, that was really impressive. Nevertheless when we got to the part of thinking how to use this creation of podcasts in language classrooms, I couldn't get many ideas.

The difference I see between getting podcasts and creating them is simply a sense of "personalization", however their uses are the same. If students don't have ipods, they need to be attached to a computer with itunes, though it is not such a bad solution. What is amazing is the easy access students will have to personalized podcasts, and the better fit between what they are studying and the materials they are using.

One last ideas has to do with the free part of this personalized podcasts, not only my students but whoever runs into my channel or my students' will access our mini world, so we need to be cautious about it and protect ourselves. We said in class it is a risk we all face when working with freeware, so I guess we just need to do what we always do so we don't get a bad experience out of it. Personally I don't think I am going to use podcasts in future classes where not all my students have an ipod or access to itunes; but I can bring podcasts to the class and exploit all the listening and content practice they provide.  

Audio/Video Activities

I love readings where theory and practice match, so this week's chapter was the perfect match. I would like to comment on a specific idea thrown along the activities described.

On page 100 from A practical guide to using computers in language teaching, I found an interesting statement "Whatever can be spoken can likewise be recorded and saved to an audio file that students can access and control individualy as they would access local media files of those found on the Internet". 

The paragraph itself is suggesting teachers to record their voices so students can have access to them in later exercises. If the teacher's desire is to show students authentic ways of speaking in the case they are teaching in an EFL setting, I would think of recording two-people-conversations. In doing so I have found some difficulty since most mics come attached to the headphones, and background noise is also recording in the conversation. However if I take this activity to students recording their voices in an oral exam, as I have attempted to do several times this last year, things get really complicated.

I have asked questions to record in real time their responses to my oral questions, and I have learned it can promote cheating somehow since everybody is listening and answering to the same question at the same time. Chapter six provided the solution to this problem, I can simply record my own voice so students reproduce it individually and work on it whenever they are ready, and without going with the flow. Then my concern goes to how to record students oral exercises when they are working in pairs. I have also asked students to share the headset and try to pass the mic part to each participant but it doesn't really work well, there is always a voice cut out. I have looked for voice recorders but most schools have the analog type ones so it is not of great help if I want to maximize my job when grading those exercises.

Here is where I don't completely agree with the statement on page 100, according to my short experience, I would add something else to this statement to: whatever can be spoken can likewise be recorded and saved to an audio file, only if there is one person talking and the school has the standard audio labs: carrels, headset with mics and still some analog voice recorders.  

The meatrix

While surfing the net and looking for a web lesson to use for class I found The Meatrix and this great web site with the video and some great lessons about it. The video is quite hilarious, well done and enjoyable for those who saw the movie The Matrix. I just wanted to share it with all of you so you could either laugh about it or get some ideas for your web lesson. This is the URL for the web pages with the video and exercises, and I have also posted the video for me to learn how to do it, and you to see it: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/annie.gwynn/meatrix.htm

I like the idea of watching a piece of a video or movie, or something vary popular, and later build language exercises from it. I would like to apply that for my web lesson the problem is where and how because I don't know yet a place or software that allows me to do so. If you have any input, please comment on this blog.

Readings week 5

From CREATING STANDARDS-BASED ACTIVITIES INTEGRATING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS FROM THE WWW

I am not pursuing the license for ESL but I know a bit about the 5 cs and I think they bring a sense of compliteness to the classroom. I have lesson planned with the 5 cs in mind and I agree with this article about the great tie between the Comparisons and the Culture goals. The Communities goal is the most difficult to achieve, after the Connections because they ask for going out of the classroom. Not all schools are lucky enough to go on a field trip, or to choose the best match to go on a field trip; some classroom teachers still don't see the benefits of joining efforts and work together with other colleagues. 

Finally most classrooms are getting better at Communication, so the worry relies on having teachers bear in mind the 5 cs when lesson planning, besides addressing the three modes of the Communication standars: interpretative, interpersonal and presentational. It is just a fact of getting into the habit of this new lesson planning, the rest will come.

Next I will list key ideas I found in this chapter as well as in INTEGRATING INTERNET-BASED READING MATERIALS INTO THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CURRICULUM.

- Safe sources of authentic materials are government pages and non governmental organizations, educational institutions, and museums web pages.

- Kinds of authentic materials may be online driving test preparation, maps, automobile travel planning, air or train schedules, etc.

- Online media such as newspapers, magazies, radio and television are also of great help. 

- Reading and writing are the best suited skills to the web. 

- Some limitations of working with internet are problems on interactivity and bandwidth, plus the confusion feature of using hyper links.

- Always include a presentation of an end product.

- If a print out of an Internet-based resource can be made and used in classroom, sending students only may not be the best instructional practice.

Interesting quotes:

- "The materials found on the internet should not determine the content or goals of the course".

- "The strategy is to have students write about what they read".

- "The learners need to have a minimal functional proficiency that allows them to explore an open-ended environment as the internet without the intervention of an instructor". 

- "The objective of foreign language learning should be to teach students how to read critically on their own, especially with the Internet".

- "The pre-screening and selection process of the Internet sites may constitute the most time-consuming part".

   

Mi primera foto modificada en PICASA / My first modified picture from PICASA

 

I had already had Picasa in my computer but I hadn't had time to explore all of its features. I was extremely educative what Chris did in our CALL class. We learned how to use basic features of the software while listening to his instructions in perfect Spanish. And at the end we were able to blog from Picasa with one click.

Sometimes it is difficult for me to link teaching with practical ideas. This happens may be because I learned English following the Grammar-Translation Method, and I tend to think of grammar chunks in lieu of contexts or real uses of language.

So Chris' demonstration reminded me of linking something I already know, with language in a purposeful way. His students didn't require previous knowledge of Spanish, he was talking all the time in the target language, he was introducing vocabulary and commands, and he didn't take much time. To me that sounds like the perfect scenario to use technology and integrate it with learning in a successful way. Plus it was connected to a regular activity in our class, blogs, so the wrap up was perfect.

For sure I will think of blogging from Picasa in the future, and right now I can foresee the elaboration of stories with pictures or even videos (once I learned how to do it because I still can't). Gracias Chris, ya tenía el programa pero no había explorado estas aplicaciones. Thanks Chris I already had the program but I hadn't explored these features yet.

Teaching with videos and music

Oishi brings to our table the popular web page "youtube" and a hilarious but catchy video called Mentos and Coke. It didn't take me more than 5 minutes to log into the page and find the video ... and it was impressive what those two guys showed us with that video. There are so many videos in youtube that the possibilities and scenarios to use them are countless, and as it is described in the article the main point is to stimulate student's interest in the content. I hadn't heard of Revver.cor or Zudeo.com, so that will be my next task, to test them out.

Kanel's article was pretty interesting, it is the first time I read about how using songs contribute toward various aspects of teaching a language, besides all the different exercises that teachers can create with songs. There were two things that caught my attention: first it was new to me that "music is generally processed through the brain's RIGHT hemisphere, whereas lyrics are generally processed through the LEFT hemisphere". Great support to keep on using songs !!

Second when the article was suggesting ways to select songs for the class, I found a statement I don't agree with. On page 129, Audibility and clarity of lyrics, says "If the teacher cannot distinguish the words, then there is a little chance that students will be able to." If the teacher decided to give students the opportunity to work on songs they like, it is obvious that students are going to be more familiar than teachers, so chances of teachers not distinguishing the words are bigger, right? Therefore this part of the article doesn't work quite the way it was stated and I will change it to: Just because teachers do not distinguish the words, it does not mean students cannot do it. 

That happened to me a couple of years ago, I was teaching a communication class and most of my students were teenagers, so I decided to let them choose and present their favorite songs. One of my students chose a song from Green Day (I'm trying to recall the title) and amazinlgy the cloze activity he designed was too easy for a big part of the class. Most of my students were familiar with the lyrics so they completed it faster than I did. I had heard the band before and the song a couple of times, but I discovered that day that my students were able to distinguish the English sounds better than I did. I was amazed and my students too, they believed as their teacher I should be able to know it all ... and that day we learned that was not true.

I remember the song now "Basket case", I will try to post it here just for the sake of learning how to link blogger and youtube. 

Humanware

I had to read Warschauer & Meskill again because I had forgotten all of the new ideas they introduced in their article. There were so many things I liked about it, and to make this post short, I will list them and comment briefly:

- Technology is been used since the Grammar-Translation method. Awesome to consider the blackboard as a piece of technology, this teaches us that there are more things than computers and internet.

- Computer-Mediated Communication in a classroom has three main outcomes: first it makes possible a more equal participation; second it has students notice the input provided from others, and with this they incorporate such imput in their messages; and third it promotes the use or more complex aspects of language.

- The computer is a machine, not a method. Self explanatory.

- Seeing the way technology has melted into the daily life, it is necessary to teach elementary things such as how to write an e-mail.

- "INTELLIGENT use of new technologies usually involves 1/3 for hardware, 1/3 for software and 1/3 for staff SUPPORT and TRAINING.

- Integrating new technologies is definitely a trial-error process.

- Finally success in using technology in the language classroom does not rely on hardware or software but in "humanware", which is the capacity teachers have to implement effective educational activities.

Too long in front of a computer

I need to comment on this week's assignments because I got wiped out before starting class (and don't want to mention what happened after). The first part of our assignments seemed too much to me for a single class, and since most of them were on line (and my budget didn't allow me to print) I had to read them from my computer. Then the second part involved typing and as a second language learner of English, I need to spend more time than normal when doing these written activities. Ok I was done with that, but I still needed to read my classmates' part of the homework, and comment on D2L. So one more time reading from the computer and typing. Well I thought after commenting I was done, but I realized the class was obviously going to have us use computers. That was when I felt all the load on my shoulders. 

I bet there was a point when I looked exactly as the person in the picture, and this is happening more frequently than I want it. I wonder what people got tired of before working with computers and internet, paper? books? I have never felt that, of course, I belong to the digital age so I think this is inevitable, plus I'm taking a computer class. Anyway I really think the load was too huge for this week, and I just hope it will not be like this in the future ... meaning toward the end of the semester ...   Thanks for reading and helping me get rid of what I was feeling.

First readings

I read the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky and there was a question on page 3 that caught my attention: "Should the Digital Native students learn the old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new?" Technology is all about this and that is what I have heard people complain about: technology evolves too fast that is difficult to keep up, but if we don't keep up we will be out. I have experienced that myself, when my father first got a computer I was in elementary school and he introduced me to this world through Word Start which mainly used commands (ctrl + s). Later he brought a new operational system called Word Perfect which was more like what Word document is these days and I didn't want to learn it because it was different from what I was used to work on. Finally he challenged me "you either learn this new system or you don't continue using the computer" so I chose to learn the new way. In short, I believe that when it comes to working with technology there is only one possible way to follow "upgrade", "learn" or advance. So Digital Immigrants should learn the new ways, not viceversa.

PS. I did this post from word document and it didn't work well.

Did I create another blog? Week 1

I began using blogs last summer for a class I took online, I thought it was out of my hands but actually it ended up being pretty easy. I see there is a direct connection between this CALL class and writing a blog, so I'm actually going to enjoy this activity.

I used to hate journals (and still do) and free writing ... it may be just the format because there is no big difference between them and a blog, but I'm beginning to see the benefits of writing in teaching. Actually I'm employing this idea into my Spanish class, the only change I made was that I let students choose whether to write a journal (paper version) or a blog (digital version). I find this choice more fair to students and it suits better their diverse learning styles. So far I have half of my students keeping blogs and half of them writing.

It was pretty need to learn in this first week that there is a way to blog from Word document. I just noticed the space provided in here does not check on spelling automatically, so using word doccument will help me and students to produce more accurate texts. I will try this new feature in my next blog.

Something new I wanted to add has to do with the multiple languages choice that Blogger provides. This is being helpful for my students since I want then to be surrounded by Spanish, so when they blog, and set the language to Spanish, they find all the features in the target language and that is extra practice for them. So I strongly suggest, if you decide to use Blogger in your classes, to have your students set the language to the target language they are to learn.