Saturday, April 4, 2009

Facebook with Jeff and Adan

Grew in order to support community building. Decline among some programs of use of physical lab.
Expand on opportunities where langauges are ongoing--give the students more.
Conversations developed, but now moving to new more searchable tool.
Live Journal looks like a great place to get conversations going... http://www.livejournal.com/
Signage on walls "THIS IS NOT A QUIET PLACE"
Plug for SWALLT page on Facebook--hope to see you there!

The Sims in the classroom: Tabea Brukelt

The Sims in the classroom: Tabea Brukelt Pomona College
Take a character and send 'him' through life.
Eat, work, toilet, etc.
ca. $18-19. SIM world plus expansion packs. eg Extend into university or library. Business models too.
Body Shop is free to 'create character'. 'Try on' changes depending on language setting for game. Interact with something else: appreciate, entertain, flirt, hug, kiss...
Why use it? Showed scans of food clothing furniture from text book. Lots of vocab from 1st year, 1st semester...
Change avatar
In class elect controller and then class helps lead to create the character.
Skin color, body type, eye color, hair length, etc.: adjectives, body parts, nose width, nostril width, chin pointiness, facial hair...
Clothing: what's the purpose? Select from everyday to formal wear.
Randomize button: let students describe the person and clothing
THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD--just this section!
Entered the German University SIM.
Greek organization join challenge... Make friends with people on this site.
Able to see the house inside. Enter Build mode and furnish the house.
Furniture has prices; TV styles; computers; stereos; sofa vs. chair vs. lounge chair.
Using Adv and Intermediate conversation classes: started with basement and added full house. Curtains and wallpaper!
All in target language.
Google cheats to reduce interference of running out of money or being hungry...
Google regedit hacks to change version between languages.
Needs: hunger, comfort, energy, friends, hygene, toilet urgency,
SIM improves as they read, etc. Put bookshelf in every room--learns to cook better.
Rotting food on table has flies and mold. CLick on fridge--many actions--check food levels, cook, make snack, etc.
Can control many people or just one. SUggestion to start is to create one SIM person, one house and see how that works.
Gardening is possible. Plant trees, create pond, etc. Can buy just some land and prepare it for the house.
Machinima is created from here: click V and start recording! Click C for screenshot.
Used SIMS Machinima to send sims chars into one house; recorded all interactions, then added voice overs.
Turn off green/red bars for recording...
Wrote script based on TAming of Shrew, created scene for it to 'live', recorded video and did voiceover.
Found script critical!
FLRC has 2 'gaming laptops' dedicated for this use.
Motivation was high among students. They had just returned from study abroad experiences. Challenges for faculty to 'know' computer language. Challenge for less motivated sections.
Serious Games: eg Tactical Iraqui for military.
Virtual Dollhouse?! Task driven games.
German version purchased in Germany.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Ryan Brazell on Moodle

Ryan Brazell on Moodle
UCSF Migration from WebCT 4 to Moodle 193 (soon 1.9.4)
12 minute discussion--then open questions.
Hosted by RemoteLearner

Class eval by peers
multi-choice questions with images.
Adaptive mode--get feedback before 'final answer'.
Multi-language capability--user, course or system level
Glossary--instructor or student created. Creates in-system one-click
MP3 embeds.
YouTUbe embeds
Test Audio Dropbox from Clear @ UMich.
End of canned presentation:
Now to the questions.
Weekly outline vs. topic layout... Automatically puts dates on the week: BUT using the topic format
Embed command from you tube--compose a text page and then tell it it's HTML and not text. Seems to keep formatting better. RealMedia doesn't play well with Moodle.
WebCT transition to Moodle: FTP transfer, then link to the PDF.
Sakai transition questions--no experience.
Groups in 1.9.3? Should improve with v.2 and Groupings (groups of groups)
Difficult to set up. Create enrollment keys or with auto enrollment...
Modules? Layout options?
Banners for courses.
Books--module to group content.
TOC, Hardlinks, Database module has soft links,
How does it talk to Latec for math tools. See moodle for
HotPotatoes is built into Moodle!
Respondus moved quizzes from WebCT into Moodle.
Ninehub.com is moodle host @ no charge.
Etudes like Quia.
Built in Wiki vs OpenU version. OpenU Wiki is much better!
Blog is user specific! So no blog is associated with the course. Journal type tool. Forums are closest tool. Suggest using WordPress.
RSS is limited.
Gradebook will improve with 1.9.5
Attach file to discussion forum post...
Recommend 'force download' on all PDFs for best cross-browser consistency.
Use most recent version of Acrobat Reader for Firefox.
Checkout 'Workshop' tool...
http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/ for SLOAN-C and Moodle Moot June 17 in SFO

Steven Zetlan, Supertext!

Intro to Kurzweil 3000 for ESL uses. Teaches at culinary institute--many 2nd language students taking 3 classes with avg 1400 pages in the text!
Can speed up/down reading of passage.
Read aloud tool. Built in dictionary. Extract tool will pull out highlighted text--i.e. pull out vocab terms. For ESL use it to create cognitive tool.
Use it as a tutor who 'whispers in the learners' ear' --eg introduce a chapter with more language than the book provides.
Notes, multiple choice, highlighting, dictionaries, test questions,
Small group work: how would we use this software?
Available as Flashdrive application for portability.
Similar product recommendation is TextAloud $20, NeoSpeech [nextuptech.com]

Grassroots Audio and Video with Felix

Felix' Grassroots AV event.
Start with Audio
Best tool MP3 recorder. Sony device ICD-UX70. Very popular for field recording and presentations
Woices.com mashup--google maps and Flash audio recorder.
Find location; click on map to create location, 'create Echo'. Upload your recording or 'record now'. Flash plugin

based. 2-5 minute limit? Maybe 10. File can be downloaded as MP3.
Then find 'close echos' made by other people.
Power of tool: create 'walks' or groups---plays series of recordings based on group. Comments on e/o statements.
Use with novels. Historical maps in Google Maps. Detective stories. Narrate a hike.
YackPack is down now.

NanoGong "the Gong Project" for simple recordings.

CLEAR.edu @ Mich State. http://ria.clear.msu.edu
Audio drop box. Demo had server problems... Good reminder that backup is essential!

Reminder of Audacity as a backup.

Voxopop.com is message board. Improved from ChinSwing. See also VoiceThread
Can have talkgroup or public thread.
RSS feed for subscription as Podcast. Shows where person is from with flag icon. Clickable links available.

PowerPoint: Record audio on the PPT.

Nanogong Java Applet on your server. Allows you to have Recorder on any page...

The Mixxer language exchange community from Dickinson College.

End of audio tools
Flip video camera. "Most successful purchase in the whole language center." Kodak Zi6 HD model records to SD card. .mov format with h.264 codec.

Viddler. Similar to YouTube. Creates Vidgets.

German media course: find native speaker. Invite to film them. Film the person. Write up experience. Had students use privacy release forms. Will take down if requested.

Think in terms of what can we do with these tools? Cell phones? Send students into community! "We create community"

Photobooth: on all Mac computers. Fake the backgrounds, etc.

Claymation
--learn how to manipulate video as part of literacy.

CallRecorder for recording Skype on Mac.

iChat for Mac and recorder.
Adobe connect used by SWALLT for monthly conferences.

MeBeam and Skype for multi-video conf using contact list.

YouTube for recording and geo-tagging. Add subtitles, comics and annotations, URLs, etc.
Make them public or private.

UStream.tv create a channel--live video stream, with text chat room. Invite viewers feature.

Narrated still images.

Blabberize

Pop-up bubbles for video.

Fabulous lunch at Oldenborg Center

Great meal at Oldenborg center--signed in at desk and ate lovely international meal. Plantains!!!! Espresso! And great conversation.
Rumor is the ship on the ceiling at the entrance is related to the Star Trek 'Borgs'…
Thanks for the great meal to top the keynote!

Sawhill Keynote

Fear, Control, Failure and the Language Teacher/Technologist
Cooper Intl Learning Center, Oberlin College
Chinese Cyber Language Learning Project for UNESCO
BS goal is to stimulate conversation and move us to speak.
Admiration of Bootcamp and Felix' work
Starts with Caveats:
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should [note: long syllables-- Soooo Coooollllll--means stop thinking about that Ring that Will Rule them All]. What is the learning outcome of the experience?
Failure is OK--yes, failure is part of learning. Fail Whale is part of the process for positive benefit. Have we dropped failure from the model of higher ed, due to business model pushing the industry? "Have fun after you get tenure"
Fear is unacceptable. Sceptical is OK. But fear is paralyzing and closes you to other possibilities--no shades of gray. Do one thing that scares you every day. Keep your mind open as you do these things.
[Prensky @ IATEFL--5 stages of learning finishes in Power--can this be changed to Empowerment?]
Our students like us. Really. Show me how this technology will help me as a learner. UW Quote-- Affinity Spaces. Leave the personal, social spaces alone. Facebook is there for Facebook reasons. Find a space that's appropriate for learning. Find another space--stay out of the dresser drawers after 13...
It's not just about teaching anymore. It's about learning. What we do is important. What they do is essential. What we do to help them is critical. Help students engage in their own process. Learning is participatory.
Language learning technology today: Shows slide of husband's langauge lab in 1950s.
YouTube how to cheat series video clip. Stretch rubber band. "Verb conjugations won't help you in life." What is the meaningful assessment we can have?
Edi Izzard Speaks French video--show us how to make sounds and use filler words to 'sound native'. "Keep your honor". http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FEddie_Izzard&ei=jUrWScyfOI3gtAPr59CxCg&usg=AFQjCNHdUu3AGxL7QvANEGo0xCiAdUyL5g&sig2=LNC1nwlXumxWnoxnicNUKQ
Moved to Blog from BlackBoard--what was in place was not working. Open tool allowed other stuff in. Motivated students of conversation wanted to meet personal goals. Blog gave them a place to make mistakes for themselves and with others.
Learned that no one had asked them what they wanted to get out of the class--"It's the teacher's job to tell me what I want to get out of the class."
Uses WordPress multi-user. Class central, each student has own space.
Then the outside comes in. Screaming in. via Podcasts. Users in other countries searched for 'podcast' and found BS' student files. Comments about correction came from intl teachers. eg pronunciation, conjugations, etc. 'Camino Bueno' sent response podcasts on corrections that bothered her. Some students responded positively. Many horrified.
Able to talk about correction as a class. Exchange of podcasts with teachers and their students in other locations.
FARC topic brought in Columbians posting to blog. Even beat the 'real' news services in timeliness of intl events.
BS is a "risky" language teacher. Puts students in place where they can fail.
Blog posts have driven the students to write extensively in conversation--over 100 pages per student.
http://languages.oberlin.edu and follow 'class sites' link.
Example of music theory student Sean in HISP305.
The sky is the limit, but lots and lots of work. [http://thisisindexed.com]
3 goals for the class: what is the context of what grammatical point you want to master? Confidence. Comprehensible. Study abroad with natives.
Norton Pierce quote on complex social interactions.
Peter Filene Joy of Teaching quote: purpose of teahing is not to satisfy consumer wishes or find LCD.

Questions:
What levels of students? Met requirements of 1st 2 years. Students who won't blog--consent course only, so some students might be weeded out...
Reminder of languagelabunleashed.com

How do you assess student work? BS sees fear is central to assessment: What is A- vs. B+? So doesn't do it much on the "formal" basis. Students develop goals for class on overall and intermittant basis. Informal feedback is part of process. 10 min 1x/week. How does this work toward grade: end of sem: 1 page document on how they approached goals--expectations met, missed, surprised, etc. And what is your self-assessment. Also, grade each other. Help them to create a rubric for peer assessment. No attendance policy. If course is relevant, then maybe participation is natural.
Listening Comprehension: Speak with vs write to, etc.
Do we need digital TV? We have YouTube. Greatest hits of all newsworthy clips. And here's where we can make the information comprehensible.
80% of students find SL 'creepy'.
Q: How well is this stuff picked up? How many others are picking this up? What's effective in helping others to let go? A: If they buy in "I want to blog"... then ask "What do you want to do?" What's the goal?
Read Janet SWaffer's Remapping the Curriculum
New MLA piece on culture and connection to things other than the academy.
It took 3 weeks to help students develop set of goals for the course.

Welcome from Dean

History of Pomona College and Claremont College group
Grew up from post-war need for colleges and expansion in this area.
Mudd, Pitzer, Keck Graduate Institute--7 schools total.
Rancho Sta. Ana Botanical Gardens and a Seminary.
Cross-registration available between all 7 schools! Also, can eat at any other school! based on decisions in 1920s. Back-office politics! "Making the dining work is part of the magic of the Claremont Colleges"!

Lab Tour and Introductions

Pomona FLRC tour with Felix.
All tables, walls, etc. roll.
Remodeled old building—no power in outside walls, but floors have
No headsets on the labstations/desks... from checkout desk when necessary. St. Olof College found that jacks wore out on checkout hardware.
12 stations in lab—portable walls used for whiteboards, breaking up spaces, etc.
Want to use iMacs, but no VESA adapter for brackets...
Developed set of ‘regulars’. New center—1+ years. Faculty learning to come here.
How is tech seen in RTP? Part of teaching @ PC
Walls are beige-gray with bright project posters hanging: project title; software overview; teaching objectives; time needed; process of the project; “What else” comments, etc.
Storage space and project room on lower level.
Classrooms all have SmartBoards
Check out picture of custom chairs with tablet arm, cup holder, shelf for bag underneath.
Curved walls and enticing shapes to help people have ‘nooks and crannies’.
“Real labs and classrooms” downstairs.
Usual cap @ 20 students.
Can’t justify lab to have computers—events and activities that meet overarching needs of learning and socializing.
Introductions now.
Larry College, UCLA, St Olof (MN), UC Berkeley, CCSF, Bryn Mawr College (Philly), Colorado College, Lewis and Clark (Portland, OR), LA Valley College, CSULB, UCSB, UCI, UCSF,
Resources coming up during intros: software titles, LLTI, SWALLT, IALLT, LLTI Archives