Technology Overload and Teacher Education was a presentation given at the KOTESOL 2007 conference in Seoul, Korea by Dan Craig and Shijuan Liu. It discusses the issue of technology overload in an online Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) co (more)
Technology Overload and Teacher Education was a presentation given at the KOTESOL 2007 conference in Seoul, Korea by Dan Craig and Shijuan Liu. It discusses the issue of technology overload in an online Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) course (or really CALL courses) as part of a graduate Language Education program. Suggestions for how to mediate this overload are given (less)
Slide 1: Dan Craig
dan@danielcraig.com Seoul National University Language Education Institute
Slide 2: Individualized Web
Instruction
2.0
Syndication/Aggregation An
Approach to Delivering Content
Slide 3: Courses
designed for general needs Keeping up with heterogeneous classes Unique Students = Unique needs
Struggle
to accommodate many difficult learner needs (Tomlinson, et al., 2003) Resources for group needs and individual needs (Henry, 1975) Proactive & Reactive
Slide 4: Individualization
of resources and (some) activities is the rationale for the approach that I will talk to you about today
Slide 5: Coined
in 2001 (O’Reilly, 2005) to describe post-bubble technologies.
• Web as platform • Harness the collective intelligence of users (crowd• • • • •
These
technical insights are important, but mean little to educators
sourcing) Applications are run on data. Data is king. Applications are never finished (perpetual beta) Keep the programming simple Applications run on multiple devices Rich user experiences
Slide 6: Web
2.0 is more of a social movement than a technology.
• From closed systems to open systems • From individual to social • From consumer to producer • Arguably a change in our perception of the
world in which we live and our place in it.
Slide 7: Web
2.0 has no ONE, good definition Web 2.0 enables users to:
• Produce and consume content • Comment on content • Share content with others • Syndicate content for easy distribution
Slide 8:
Some popular Web 2.0 technologies:
• Blogs – Blogger, EduBlogs, WordPress • Podcasts - Grammar Girl, Breaking News English, • • • • • • •
English as a Second Language Podcast Wikis - Wikispaces, Zoho Wiki, Wetpaint Photo sharing sites - Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket Video sharing sites - YouTube, Google Video, TeacherTube Online social networks - Cyworld, MySpace, Facebook, italki (language learning), and Soziety (language learning) Social bookmarking - del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, diigo Aggregators - Google Reader, Bloglines Personalized start pages – Netvibes, PageFlakes, iGoogle
Slide 9: Web
2.0 technologies supply the content for the approach that I will describe today.
Slide 10: Syndication
• XML Syndication or “feeds” (RSS & Atom) • Text-based representation of content • Script tags for better parsing of content (audio,
video, etc.)
Aggregation
• Application collects & organizes feeds • Ability to mix (or “mash”) content to fit your
needs.
Slide 11: Syndication
and Aggregation are the means for delivery and organization of content in the approach that I will talk about today.
Slide 12: Uses
free, online services to organize and distribute targeted content to learners. flexible, responsive practice
Encourages Encourages
students to take control of their own learning.
Slide 13: Use
a service that provides syndication for individual “tags” or keywords. (del.icio.us) Populate del.icio.us with Web-based resources
• Tag resources for optimal distribution • Standardize tags when possible: Class name (e.g., web2esl) Skills areas (e.g., writing, grammar, speaking, culture, etc.) Types of content being linked to (e.g., audio, podcast, video, quiz, blog, etc.) Student names of pseudonyms
Slide 14: Demonstration
of posting in del.icio.us Demonstration of a tagged page Demonstration of a feed
Demo
Video (2 minutes)
Slide 15:
Students must use a kind of aggregator (Netvibes) Load aggregator with feeds
• OPML • Manual • “Share” with a program like Netvibes
Some suggested feeds to start off with
• Your class blog feed –
http://web2esl.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default • The class del.icio.us feed - http://del.icio.us/rss/web2esl • Their personal page feeds – http://del.icio.us/rss/web2esl/samplestudent • Skill area pages – http://del.icio.us/rss/web2esl/writing, http://del.icio.us/rss/web2esl/grammar
Slide 16: Demonstrate
use of Netvibes Demonstrate adding a feed to Netvibes
Demo
Video (2 minutes)
Slide 17:
Use it
• Use it as main form of communication • Start from the first day of class • Be consistent
Record it
• Note everything in your feeds: blog, del.icio.us, or elsewhere. • Build an online repository of resources
Enforce it
• Make it clear that they will be responsible for this information and that
this is not optional/extra. • Schedule activities or assignments using the class or individual feed. • Post quizzes and other activities that they are required to do (and are graded on).
Slide 18: Extremely Not
flexible approach.
bound to any one product or service.
Most
new products/services come with the ability to syndicate. The sky is the limit.
Slide 19: Focus
on the functionality (technology) offered by the services, NOT the services themselves. on the concept of developing learning networks through connecting with content and people. on the fact that the more you grow and tag your repository, the easier it gets to find, process, and disseminate that information.
Focus
Focus
Slide 20: Thank you very much!
Any Questions?
Dan Craig
dan@danielcraig.com http://iucall.blogspot.com http://www.danielcraig.com