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Unfortunately, unless you are a subscriber to the journal, you can't access this article, but if anybody is interested just let me know!

LOTS of information here about Twitter - answers questions about retweeting, hashtags, chats, and much, much more.

I am creating an online course. There are many ways to make that happen, but I think providing a learning platform through online should be my priority and not necessary forcing students to use technology to learn.

Karen, I use a shortener when I have a very long URL - even to include in an email, or to advertise something I want people to go to (a survey I did) and some shorteners will let you pick your own ending so it can be something recognizable rather than random letters. I think Twitter does this automatically for you now.

Notes and links to materials Brown University uses to prepare faculty to teach online.

This is a great explanation. Thank you for posting it. Any idea about the legality of editing YouTube videos with eduCanon?

ProfHacker is the Chronicle of Higher Education's tech blog. Probably my favourite source for news in educational technology.

From Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (of LangWitches.org)

" 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."

"What are the best apps for teachers? We asked TED-Ed Innovative Educators and the TED-Ed community. Below, 25 awesome apps recommended for teachers, by teachers."

Thanks for sharing this incredible resource!

I appreciate the data around this-- Will be helpful with my student/ family communications about the 'how, why and when' of corrections.

"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."

Abstract: Since their emergence in 2005, Web 2.0 technologies have been advanced as potentially transformative in the area of education in general and foreign language learning in particular. Web 2.0 technologies are presenting new opportunities for developing diverse online learning environments and enhancing interactivity, participation and feedback between students, their peer groups and teachers. This article examines one of the most significant Web 2.0 tools, Social Networking Sites (SNS), and focuses on Livemocha, an example of an online community specifically aimed at encouraging collaboration between foreign language learners. Results from the ethnographic approach adopted in the paper indicate that: (a) SNSs can be used by language learners to explore new relationships rather than merely maintain existing ones and that (b) longitudinal studies are required to achieve a better understanding of the complex processes of mediation involved in online community formation and maintenance

Funny! I also found this article last week and even attached it to last week's blog post in the ning. I've noticed this morning, that reading and commenting on it is also one of this week's assignments. I guess I chose well :)

This is a really good suggestion Vivian! It is always nice to have plan B especially when using technology!

The author says that CMC helps in all of these areas, but doesn't provide any information about his sources. I think this shows the value of including links to other websites in blog posts about education!

Good discussion of "authenticity" -- what makes a text authentic or not?

"Authentic" appears to mean: naturally produced by authentic source for communication in a native setting. What concerns me is that the call for "authentic" dates back to perhaps 20 years ago? We are still claiming it is important, yet we scaffold authentic text often to the point that they loose their intrinsic challenge.