Group items tagged

"More writing courses than ever are being taught online, and effective online writing instruction requires teachers to communicate deliberately and clearly in order to have productive relationships with their students. In The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors, former chair of the CCCC Committee for Effective Practices in Online Writing Instruction Beth L. Hewett articulates the how and why of one-to-one online writing conference pedagogy. Complete with an instructor's study guide and informed by the principles set forth in the CCCC Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Practices for OWI, her updated text provides examples and transcripts of synchronous and asynchronous instructor-student interaction, targeted lessons, and conferencing action plans that help instructors hone their pedagogical practice, from formatting comments to showing regard for students."

This article presents a research about the effects on integrating multimedia sources on second language vocabulary acquisition. The researchers exposed the language learners to different stimulus: video with audio and captions, video with audio, and video with captions and compare the results to analyze their effect on language acquisition.

10 tools for effective peer feedback - from Matt Miller

From the book: "Since the first version of this book came out in 2005, the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has grown and changed. This update is the result of some of those changes. Our intent is to place pedagogical goals before technologies, as the literature advises but is not always followed in classrooms. In revising this book, as in the original, we assume that good teachers teach well because they bear in mind certain principles about how they can best help learners to learn language. Placing these principles at the center of attention makes it much easier for teachers to concentrate on the question of what constitutes effective computer-enhanced pedagogy and why. This book takes as its organizing principles both the system of conditions that are known to support effective language learning and the goals that a variety of standards in the field have set out for us and our students. Examples throughout the book underscore the need to consider theory in every aspect of the teaching and learning process. Some of the points in this book we have made in other places; other we discovered during the revision process. All told, this text provides a brief picture of what CALL classrooms can be like today. Of course, that could change tomorrow."

The article highlights the effectiveness of collaborative and cooperative language learning activities such as school exchanges and pairing students with counterparts abroad. It also bring up the issue of difficult assessment gets in the way and brings to the front solo performances and summative examinations.

I certainly agree with this as being an effective way to language learning. We in the military community use the group/pair work approach for many reasons. Pair work keeps them interested and motivated to learn. It also makes better use of class time. I also think that when the students are ready for the OPI, they generally do better than if they were in a traditional classroom. As for assessment, yes it is more difficult, but it is up to us as instructors to find ways to measure the students' performance based on the interaction. Once the student is in country, it will be up to him/her to communicate with others. That will be the true test.

This site has information about creating and assessing telecollaborative projects - and assessing the "Telecollaboratively Effective Person" (TEP). This is a link to the Evaluation section which has many resources, rubric, descriptors, and examples of how to assess a telecollaborative activity.

PhotoFunia reviewed by TeachersFirst, (review last updated: 1/14/15) : Use your pictures and PhotoFunia to create photo collages, flyers, family trees, holiday albums, and more. No registration is needed! PhotoFunia has hundreds of effects and filters. More are added weekly. To add shadows, age your photo, or rende

PhotoFunia reviewed by TeachersFirst, (review last updated: 1/14/15) : Use your pictures and PhotoFunia to create photo collages, flyers, family trees, holiday albums, and more. No registration is needed! PhotoFunia has hundreds of effects and filters. More are added weekly. To add shadows, age your photo, or rende

I played with this web app; it's a lot of fun.

Abstract: This paper sets the stage for the articles selected for the special issue "Language learning and social media: (r)evolution?". Starting with some definitions of mainstream terms like "social media", "web 2.0", "social web", "social networking sites (SNS)" and "web 2.0 language learning communities". The purpose is not to "reinvent the wheel" by suggesting new definitions, but to synthesize definitions of mainstream terms and juxtapose them to similar concepts from CALL literature. We then critically discuss three key features of web 2.0 technologies (user participation, openness and network effects). Despite the fact that these three features were present to some extent in technologies prior to social media, we examine whether they take on a radically different meaning in the social media era. Research insights are discussed in the last section of the paper.

make the most of the possibilities afforded to us by the effective use of the internet in order to raise achievement and participation, as well as to increase motivation and engagement.

Twitter, the popular microblogging site that allows users to post 140-character "tweets," both intrigues and irritates faculty, according to a Faculty Focus survey. Some embrace it as a clever way to teach concision and get students writing, thinking, and connecting with the course material and one another.

"The evaluation of online courses involves many of the same criteria applied to traditional classroom courses but also necessitates the use of new criteria more directly based on the online environment. The course evaluation materials below offer a range of rubrics and guidelines for help in developing effective practices for evaluating online courses."

An alphabetical list of suggestions for the novices in the group (myself included).

The cons of using Twitter as a backchannel discussion. The article debates the benefits of a backchannel discussion and negative effects it may have to the overall understanding of the presentation when the listener's attention is split between two activities.

Interesting article. I think I would lose a fair amount of what speaker was saying if I were tweeting as well.

" I realized that to effectively engage in professional learning, I needed tools in place to curate content, save what I found, and connect to other educators."

"Abstract Currently, language educators experience difficulties in facilitating oral practice effectively in the foreign language classroom. Regularly, they face introverted and passive learners who fail to embrace speaking opportunities (Poza, 2011), or simply do not find the time to promote speaking practice in the classroom (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009). In this light, many asynchronous computer mediated communication (ACMC) technologies have emerged to confront this situation. However, central research studies do not seem to acknowledge ACMC as viable in accommodating oral development but, rather, frequently attribute this merit to synchronous CMC (Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Kervin & Derewianka, 2011). By employing a mixed-methods approach, this small-scale case study examines, firstly, the extent to which ACMC speaking practices are suitable for language learners' speaking development. Secondly, and by extension, it investigates the salient characteristics of the ACMC tool myBrainshark, that makes it appropriate for fostering linguistic growth. The data is obtained from post-beginner Spanish language learners by means of an online questionnaire and an online structured stimulated recall. The findings show, on the one hand, that ACMC oral practices can be beneficial in developing speaking aspects in lower-proficiency language learners and, on the other hand, that myBrainshark has characteristics that can potentially promote linguistic development. Finally, this paper calls for experimental research on the improvement of oral competency in post-beginner and higher-proficiency learners."