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.