2nd mail generation?

I suppose that some of you may have heard of Google Wave these days. Watch the following video and try to compare the concept of email given in the chapter 4 of your books with the new means of internet communication emerging thanks to this tool. What do you think about Google Wave? Do you think that it will phenomenon similar to the one experienced by email or Internet in Education? What kind of activities could be done with your students in the future thanks to this technology?

You can read something here related:

http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2009/10/28/some-of-my-very-preliminary-opinions-on-google-wave/

http://markcbain.com/?p=318

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/the-google-wave-will-change

By the way, did you get any Google Wave account?

The Oral Language Archive (OLA)

All you may have read in your books, OLA is a rather relevant project in the 90ies dealing with spoken discourse. Could you find any differences or similarities with new projects like these: language exchanges , audiopal, englishaddicts, subdub, europodians project, etc

HyperCard, Apple, Hypertex...?

With the information given in Mike Levy's book and this data coming from the Wikipedia, to try find a relation between the three words written in the tittle of this entry (HyperCard, Apple, Hypertex) and why the creation of HyperCard has been so important for educational computing.

Please, use the comments section below to add your answers.

CALL Projects, associations & key ICT professionals

As you may know, CALL and technology in general develop very quicky. Here you are some of the recorded presentations that took place during an event organized by the European NIFLAR Project:

Ton Koenraad's NIFLAR Presentation, 12 November 2009:
https://admin.emea.acrobat.com/_a789908106/p73683230/

Panel discussion, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it", 13 November 2009: Duane Sider (President of Rosetta Stone),
Vance Stevens, Graham Davies and Ton Koenraad:
https://admin.emea.acrobat.com/_a789908106/p63251182/

And there were many other excellent sessions:
http://virtual-round-table.ning.com

** Information sent by Graham Davies to EUROCALL's list.

Ways to follow this blog...

Internet is already a big jungle. The best way to get updated via Internet of everything you may consider interesting is by subscribing to blogs and other websites using feeds aggregators. Watch the following video and try to think if this kind of web 2.0 would have been useful in the time of writing of the book by Levy.

Welcome to this new academic course!

Are you ready to begin? Do you all have your books? If it is so, try to read the introduction and compare it with your own conclusions generated from the following video (taken from the CNN):



Read also the text taken from the same site: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/24/language.training.online/index.html

Did you know all you have just listened and read? Do you agree with all that? Do you think the way of learning languages with a computer has changed? In which way?

Experts experiences...The role of the teacher (as author)

In this occasion, I would like to introduce one of the most experienced teachers in the role of CALL materials creators. I am sure that many of you will know of her existence, at least in the web... Her name is Isabel Pérez. She is from Granada and you can find most of her work in her very famous website:
www.isabelperez.com

As you may have read in the chapter 4 of your book, the possible teacher roles described by Herz (1987) comprise 4 different levels. Which level do you think Isabel has acquired after having a look at her materials?

A rather interesting article dealing with software to learn languages

I have jest received this article posted in Papyrus which could be of interest for you... What do you think? Any comments?

Tutor-Tool Framework

According to Levy (1997:178), a tutor-tool framework is offered as a mechanism for addressing a number of concerns in CALL, the most far-reaching being the belief that all CALL is of the computer evaluates the student input and the presents the new material accordingly.

What do you think about this model already invented by that time? Do you think that now in the 21 century, this CALL can be seen easily in a CALL context? Could you give any example? Could find any information on the Internet to know more about this topic?

EXAM practice 3

This time, we will do something different...We will make use of a webquest and the wiki created for our course to practice this question:

CALL Materials

Click here and follow the instructions given in the webquest.

You could do it in groups or individually. You choose...

EXAM practice 2

Imagine that you have just delivered your piece of paper with the exam in it. Try to answer this question using the comments option.

Write about the following topic:

Hardware and software: authoring (10 marks)

Rememeber the more students you do this the better you'll prepared you exams. Some of these questions could be asked them in the exam.

What's a MOO??

No... It is now a cow...;). It is an acronym which stands for "Multiuser Object Oriented". According to Levy (1997), "these learning environments may be place dependant, as with video-conferencing, for example, or place independent, as with IRC chat. They range from simulations which utilize the web of connections that make up the internet, to virtual worlds where students can roam around and interact with each other, and their virtual environment".

One of the most interesting MOO used for educational purposes in perhaps TappedIN. Once there, you could set up your own office to meet your students, book a conference room to hold a formative chat with colleagues, or even organize virtual parties. Have a look at its calendar of events! http://tappedin.org/tappedin/do/CalendarAction

In order to have a read some articles or visit more MOOs to know more about them, or go through the experiences told by other language teachers who have made use of them to teach languages...

Graham Davies and CALL

Having a look at your textbook in order to prepare the exams, I thought It could be a good idea to get in touch with some of the people mentioned in this book ... I met Graham Davies some time ago, and I asked him to take part in this blog.

He has been involved in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) since 1976. In 1982 he wrote one of the first introductory books on computers in language learning and teaching, which was followed by numerous other printed and software publications.

In 1989 he was conferred with the title of Professor of CALL. He retired from full-time teaching in 1993, but I continued to work as a Visiting Professor for Thames Valley University until 2001. I was the Founder President of EUROCALL, holding the post from 1993 to 2000: http://www.eurocall-languages.org

He is currently a partner in Camsoft, a CALL software development and consultancy business, which was founded in 1982: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk

He has lectured and run ICT training courses for language teachers in 22 different countries and I sit on a number of national and international advisory boards and committees.

He has been actively involved in WorldCALL since its beginning in 1998. WorldCALL is a worldwide umbrella organisation that aims to assist countries that are currently underserved in the area of ICT and the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages: http://www.worldcall.org

He still have the status of Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning and he does occasional external examining of MPhil and PhD students. He also keep himself busy by editing the ICT for Language Teachers website at:
http://www.ict4lt.org

He is currently investigating the possibilities of language learning and teaching in Second Life. I am the EUROCALL Executive Committee member who is responsible for maintaining EUROCALL's Headquarters in Second Life, which you can find at this SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/9/29/22/

Now, that you know more things about this so famous CALL expert, time for you to make some questions... As you could imagine he has achieved a never ending CV http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/cvgd.htm

I would like to ask him about his implication with "Storyboard"or any other project from that time. Also, I would like to ask him about the beginings of Eurocall. Tell us something about its origins.

EXAM practice 1

Open your books and imagine you have to answer the following question:

CALL in the 90s (10 marks)

Now, using the "comments" option to answer this question.

Take into account that you have only 60 minutes to do it.

Good luck!