ATESL 2010 PRESENTATION

The presentation is ready--I've linked the presentation  to the ATESL CALL sig wiki.

It proved harder to pull together than I expected--there's so much overlap of concepts and artefacts. For a presentation, it's nice to be able to present something that's clear cut, well organized. The reality is that the PLE concept is only five years old, and our PLEs are in a continual state of flux. There's always something new around the corner!

My hope is that putting this presentation on the wiki will encourage others to add to the information and the resources listed. Some commentary on the usefulness of some of the tools would be interesting--a form of annotation.

The idea behind a PLE is that the network is greater than the sum of its parts--we are that network, and together we know more and can think of more that we can as individuals. So let's put that principle into practice and see where we can go.

PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

By a strange coincidence, there is a MOOC on now that is all about Personal Learning Environments and Network Knowledge. MOOC means Massive Open Online Course, and there are over 1,500 people from around the world taking this course, and it's all free. It's a Canadian organized event and is about learning in general, not just language learning, but of course the concepts as they apply to language learning and teaching are just a subset of the total. It's rather overwhelming to have so much information flowing around one as people respond to the readings with blog posts, discussion forums, twitter, meetings in SL--you name it, they're doing it!

ATESL CONFERENCE PROPOSAL

Debra Hoven and I have submitted a joint proposal for the ATESL 2010 conference--it's about PLEs (personal learning environments). Most specifically, we plan to look at the PLEs we use for keeping up-to-date within ESL and TESL. I certainly hope to promote the ATESL CALL-sig along the way;-)

CNIE

Those initials stand for Canadian Network for Innovation in Education; this conference was held in Saint John, NB, this year. It's not geared towards language learning or ESL specifically; the focus, using technology within education has a wider interest. It's an interesting conference because although the focus is technology, the information is presented in ways that allow anyone with a general  interest in the subject to understand the sessions. Usually, presenters highlight the way in which they are using a particular application in their own practice. The first keynote speech (Daniel Peraya) summed up a lot of this for me with talk of the inherent conflict (at least for many of us) between  technical knowledge and ability and how to teach with technology. Within this conflict the role of the teacher usually changes from the traditional one--often we end up as co-investigators with our students.

Other important points made were the technology does modify teacher behaviour, it does have an impact on our students, and the teacher is usually part of a team that helps to bring the technology to the teaching situation. As with any teaching, however, it was reiterated that we need to participate in reflective behaviour--what works in our particular situations and why? And just as importantly, what doesn't work for us or what could we do better? Finally the point was made that most of us need training in order to embrace the technology that is out there.

Some of these points came up again in a presentation by Albert Johnson  entitled Students' Perception of Effective Teaching in Higher Education. Johnson used a survey to compare important characteristics in face-to-face teaching and distance education. It was interesting that although the characteristics remained constant (repectful, responsive, approachable, communicative, organized, engaging, professional, and humorous), the order varied. For distance education, all of the other characteristics were dependent on and related to responsiveness.

We have all heard of Prensky's concept of digital immigrants and digital natives, so it was interesting--and somewhat of a relief--that reseachers in BC (BCIT), Regina, and Catalonia found that this digital stereotyping didn't hold.. The important thing for students was what they used technology for--if it was mainly social usage as opposed to academic usage then the students were not as adept at using it.

In case anyone is interested, next year's conference will be at McMaster University.

Jody is now a co-pilot

Although I've been co-author for a while, I've only been a lurker I suppose - too many eggs in too many baskets.

Well perhaps I'll post a video I re-visited recently as I've been thinking about grammar teaching quite a bit lately, especially the FonF and focus on forms discussion. Here's Scott Thornbury - I think he sums things up nicely from some general perspectives. If you can find the time this one is well worth it.
Cheers,

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL NETWORKS

 That mouthful is the title of a course I started to take last week--it's an internal AU course being offered by George Siemens a leading expert in the field. it's totally online so that we are practicing what we preach. Last week, Week 1, was an introducation to some learning theory through the following readings: 

History of Networked Learning:

Social Networking (.pdf): 

What is Connectivism? : A short overview of different theories of learning

The Unique Idea in Connectivism: Title sums it up - a comparison of theories of learning.

There was an Elluminate session to get us all up to speed with that technology and to help set the scene for the next seven weeks. 

TESOL 2010

It was a month ago I was there. It was an energising experience largely because the webheads are such a fantastic group. The conference itself was over 7,000 people, so there is no single event that brings people together the way we have with either ATESL or TESL Canada conferences. In this huge conference, it is really nice to have a "home" to go to. "Home" is the Electronic Village; it hosts various displays of technology--hardware and software--with a lot a show and tell exhibits; it is also the place where the webheads from around the world meet up. I volunteered for two hours at the EV, and it was great to meet up with some old friends I had met in Seattle three years ago and also meet others that I had only met online before. The best way to give you a flavour for the experience is to direct you to the blog, Webheads in Action (WIA) in Boston, in  that many of us participated in as a way to record and reflect on our experiences--the professional and the social.