EV 2004 Online Sessions
The CALL Interest Section of TESOL, in conjunction with the EFL Interest Section, is proud to announce its 2004 round of online sessions, including readings, discussions, chats, guest speakers, and task-based activities. If you can’t come to the conference, now the conference can come to you! You do not have to be a member of TESOL, nor do you have to register for TESOL 2004, to take part in these FREE events.

Time

Presentation Topics & Presenters

3/31 Wednesday

12:30-2:00pm

Building a Virtual Community across the Borders Using Nicenet

Presenters:

Tomoko Nozawa, Keisen University, Japan

tomonozawa@nifty.com

Halyna Kaluzhna, the National Ivan Franko University of L’viv, Ukraine

KaluzhnaH@macewan.ca

Computer Skills: Basic

Computer Platform: PC

New technologies offer hundreds of possibilities to find partner classes all over the world. However, different platform choices, as well as different level of access to the Internet can serve as impediments for potential partner classes. The workshop participants will learn about the Nicenet platform, a groupware offered by an educational non-profit organization located in California, U.S.A., which can be used by educators free of charge. The presenters will start with introducing the main features of Nicenet platform. The workshop participants will then join the Nicenet class created specifically for the purpose of the workshop, and try working with the platform. The presenters will also show the joint project "Tokyo-Lviv discussion group" developed for Ukrainian and Japanese university classes. They will share their findings on how the discussion group influenced students’ motivation and cross-cultural awareness, and comment on the challenges the class administrators faced and lessons they learnt. Meeting for the first time off-line, the presenters will share their success story of building a solid teacher-teacher relationship on-line. Finding good relations on the net is possible, but pretty difficult even with educational services, why don’t you join us in this workshop to find your partner who has the same interests?

Setting up a Web-Based Course Using Moodle

Presenter: Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan

trobb@cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp

Computer Skills: Basic

Computer Platform: MAC

This workshop will demonstrate how Moodle, an open-source virtual learning system can give you virtually all the benefits of an expensive virtual learning environment (VLE) like WebCT or Blackboard for free. Moodle has numerous features which make it more functional and conducive to language learning courses than other platforms and is being used by thousands of institutions and individuals that offer online training. Moodle can be used for content-based courses as well as for language training. Other material may be linked to Moodle or incorporated within it, such as activities generated with Hot Potatoes. The workshop will provide hands-on experience at setting up your own course, including discussion forums, online chats, quizzes and other functionality that one expects from a modern virtual learning environment.

4/1 Thursday

12:30-2:00pm

Creating Listening Comprehension Quizzes Using Online Recordings

Presenter: Susan Earle-Carlin, University of California, Irvine

earlecar@uci.edu

Computer Skills: Basic and Intermediate

Computer Platform: PC

This workshop will cover the basic steps for creating online
listening comprehension quizzes for ESL students using Real Player to
access a variety of audio files available on websites such as NPR,
Science Today, and the US Census Bureau. The presenter will demonstate
existing class webpages, created using Netscape Composer, that have
links to audio files, accompanying comprehension questions, and an email
link to send answers to the instructor. These materials have been used
in university ESL classes; since the materials are authentic recordings,
the level is appropriate for high-intermediate to advanced students.
Following a demonstration of the end result, participants will be given
a list of websites with audio files. A hands-on demonstation will allow
them to build their own webpage, using Netscape Composer, with links to
an audio file, a set of listening comprehension questions, an email link
to send the answers to the listening quiz, and a follow-up question for
an oral response that might be recorded for homework. A handout
reviewing the steps and listening helplful websites will be provided.

Developing Online Materials that Enhance Language Learning

Presenter: Ron Fujihara, Long Beach School for Adults

rfujihara@mindspring.com

Computer Skills: Basic

Computer Platform: MAC

The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate and discuss how this web-enhanced course combines online and face-to-face interaction in order to support the language growth of adult English language learners (ELLs) in a free community-based program. Online learning and face-to-face learning offer very different environments for students and teachers- each with its own gains and losses. By uniting them, a new learning setting such as this one is produced, which is able to take advantage of the strengths of both. For example, providing materials online allows students much greater flexibility in choosing and selecting tasks based on their needs and interest levels. Conducting face-to-face classes allows the student access to a learning-scaffold necessary for many ELLs. Besides changes in the learning environment, the teacher of this web-enhanced course has experienced changes in teaching strategies. For example, greater emphasis is put on the use of graphics and design (multimodality) in teacher-produced online materials in order to assure that learners are able to comprehend the materials. This presentation will highlight the benefits of this web-enhanced course while highlighting some of the changes that the teacher of the program has noticed in the resulting learning and teaching environment. With a consideration of ELLs’ needs, participants will construct a student worksheet in Word that can be uploaded and saved on their web site. Students can save the worksheet as a Word document and send it to the teacher as a completed assignment.

4/2 Friday

12:30-2:00pm

Writing and Grammar Practice with Paint

Presenter: Barry Bakin, Los Angeles Unified School District

barry.bakin@lausd.net

Computer Skills: Basic

Computer Platform: PC

Students use Paint in projects which provide vocabulary, writing, and grammar practice. Participants in the mini-workshop will do three projects: "Label a Photo" (vocabulary), "Draw ‘n’ Write" (writing), and "Comparisons" (grammar). The projects require a minimum of computer skills and can be done with students from the lowest ESL levels to intermediate and higher levels. They are enjoyable for students of any age. "Label a Photo" is just that. Students open a photo that the teacher has provided or that they have taken in Paint. They then use the "text" tool and the "line" tool to label various objects in the photo. For "Draw ‘n’ Write" students draw a picture using any of the tools available in paint, copy the image into Word and write about the picture commensurate to their level. In the "Comparisons" project students draw 3 pictures of items that can be compared. As in the previous project, the final image is copied into Word and the students write a series of sentences comparing each of the 3 items to each other and a final sentence using the superlative form to arrive at a conclusion.

Creating Online Communities for Free

Dana Saito-Stehberger, Alliant International University

danasaito@hotmail.com

Presenter Homepage: www.danasaito.de

Computer Skills: Basic

Computer Platform: MAC

Motivated by Long’s Interaction Hypothesis and Wenger’s idea of “Communities of Practice”, I would like to encourage English language teachers to create online student communities with MSN or Yahoo groups, which are free and take about 10 minutes to create. As an example, I would like to share one of the online communities that I have created. It includes types of questions and activities that will encourage student interaction. I would also like to share language learning links that can be linked to their community site to encourage interactive learning. As teachers create their community during the EV, I will give them a handout of useful tips of how to create online interaction between the students. This mini-workshop will be aimed at English teachers of junior high students and older at the intermediate level and up. The strength of the free MSN and Yahoo communities (groups) are that they are free, easy to access and to use, and provide students with a special place to meet and to communicate. The weakness is that there isn’t a lot of storage space (but there is definitely enough for an active message board and for pictures of the participants.)