Educational Technology in Foreign Language Teaching

Testing DreamScreen

2010-08-19T09:55:00.003+03:00

NYIP - Print Digital Photos | Digital Photo Printing | Epson Photo Printer | NYIP

2010-02-26T14:54:00.001+02:00

NYIP - Print Digital Photos | Digital Photo Printing | Epson Photo Printer | NYIP

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Blogs for English Teachers

2010-01-20T15:01:00.004+02:00

Here are some links to blogs for English Teachers:

Macmillan's Dictionary Blog

David Crystal's blog

WordSpy

For more, see ELT Journal, Volume 64/1, January 2010.

Quote of the Day

2009-12-30T18:05:00.000+02:00

Wordle

2009-11-25T22:39:00.003+02:00

Wordle-työkalulla (www.wordle.net) voitte laittaa erinäköisiä avainsanakarttoja esimerkiksi oman esityksen tueksi. Ohjelma poimii tekstistä avainsanat ja niitä voi muotoilla eri järjestykseen ja korostaa eri värein.

Second Life as an Environment for Foreign Language Learning

2009-04-29T14:47:00.001+03:00

The virtual platform Second Life (SL) is often used for educational purposes. One example is from my own process to study Italian. I participated in an Italian course in Firenze in March. The group continued to work in SL, and we meet virtually every week. SL can be made into a very effective learning space, where students can study with help of pictures, synchronous text and voice chat. They can also visit virtual places, such as Rome, Firenze, Itland etc., meet other people from different countries and use other languages with native speakers. The SL platform is free of charge and the technical requirements are a broadband connection and a headset with a microphone.

Foreign language learning and Second Life

2009-02-13T08:58:00.003+02:00

This is a short interview with Irma Mänty and Minna Scheinin about foreign language learning and Second Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9LoLEI0bmA

The Impact of Strategy Training

2009-02-09T08:52:00.004+02:00

Picks from ELT 61/1 2007, article by Yiching Chen (pp. 20-29)

The author emphasizes an important point: in strategy training the emphasis is mostly on the quantitative results, ie the learners' test results. These should be supplemented by a qualitative analysis of the impact of strategy training on the learning process.

Strategy training aims at improving learning techniques and increasing the motivation to learn, its results are manifested in long-term changes in learners' behaviour and attitudes towards FL study, rahter than in rapid improvements in FL proficiency.

"The ultimate goal of strategy trining is to empower students by allowing them to take control of the language learning process" (Cohen 1998).

The dimensions of learning process and behaviour changes:
1. FL exposure
2. Information processing
3. Strategy repertoire and strategy transfer
4. Changes in listening comprehension and attitudes towards FL learning

Student-created Content

2009-01-28T19:50:00.001+02:00

“How do educators encourage students to participate in creating educational content in addition to purely recreational content?” (Mason 2007).

The justification for using student-created material is presented, for example, by Jonson and Dyer (2006). They argue that the education systems have failed to keep pace with technological development and that the learners could benefit from community memberships where they can collaborate and create user-defined content. In order that this could be carried out, the skills needed to access and process the information available are a prerequisite. In other words, the participants must be to some extent media literate. Media literacy means, for example according to Livingstone (2003), “the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create messages across a variety of contexts”.

Livingstone, S. (2003) ‘What is media literacy?’ [online], Media@LSE, http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/pdf/What_is_media_literacy.doc (Accessed 28 June 2007).

Mason, R. (2007) Student-created Content: Implications. H807 Course material. http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourcepage/view.php?id=7021 (Accessed 27 June 2007)

Johnson, J. and Dyer, J. (2006) ‘User-defined content in a constructivist learning environment’ [online], elearning papers, http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=8404&doclng=6 (Accessed 27 June 2007).

Mikä on PDP?

2009-01-23T11:19:00.000+02:00

Katso esittely tästä:

https://admin.emea.acrobat.com/_a830061739/p64037398/

Key Concepts in ELT: Learner Autonomy

2009-01-09T09:09:00.002+02:00

Picks from Richard Smith: Learner Autonomy, in ELT Journal volume 62/4:

- Learner autonomy is taken as a term to describe people's ability to take charge of their own learning (1970s).

- Learners do not necessarily have the full capacity (competence) to take charge of decision-making in all the areas normally determined by an institution, teacher, or textbook, namely: objectives, contents, syllabus, methods and techniques, pace, time and place, evaluation.

- There is a distinction (Holec) between a desirable learning situation or behaviour ('self-directed learning') and capacity for such learning ( 'learner autonomy').

-The exercise and develoopment of learner autonomy can be seen as an educational goal

Cooperation with MKFC

2008-12-14T12:54:00.001+02:00

We cooperate with MKFC in Stockholm in a project, in which we develop network-based material for several professional field. Check the MKFC blog at http://www.stockholmcollege.se/default.aspx?id=2361

Mapping pedagogy and tools (Conole et al.)

2008-03-18T10:36:00.000+02:00

1. Who do the authors see as the main audience for this paper? * I think that the main audience of this paper is the learning practitioners. The author provides the practitioners a map of theoretical approaches, a review of learning theories, and the main characteristics of these theories. Further, the model gives examples of potential e-learning applications.
2. What is the main aim of the paper?* The paper outlines a specification for a learning design toolkit, which uses a model of pedagogical approaches as a basis for developing effective learning design plans.
3. Try to fit the readings met so far in the course into Table 1 of the Conole et al. paper. - will be added later
Source: http://openurl.open.ac.uk.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/sfxlcl3?sid=Elsevier:SD&genre=article&issn=03601315&date=2004&volume=43&issue=1-2&spage=17

Activity 6.7. Ethical issues

2008-03-18T10:20:00.000+02:00

The research question: What is the added value of the implementation of teachers’ e-Portfolio for the teachers’ professional development?
The data will be drawn from:1) Pre-test: A questionnaire to the teachers on the use of electronic tools (for what purposes?), as well as on the technical skills2) Interviews with teachers about their motivation to apply electronic environments in their teaching3) Post-test: how did the implementation of an e-Portfolio support the teachers’ professional development in the sector of using modern media in teaching?
Reseach ethical questions: • How will participants be able to give their informed consent?o The idea of e-Portfolio will be launched on a seminar day in May 2008. After the introduction of the issue the teachers will be asked about their consent to participate in the study. • How can I guarantee confidentiality and anonymity?o All data will be handled so that the participants will remain anonymously. All data will be treated as confidential.• Are there any potential conflicts of interest in my research?o We will conduct research on the usability of any tool, rather we will recommend a tool which is already in use at our institution. We will not get any funding from a third party. For any written report or publication the researcher will take of that no names of participants will be mentioned. • Could any aspect of my research cause distress or psychological harm?o Teachers may feel that the interviews and questionnaires may add their workload and are time-consuming. To avoid this the purpose of the study will be clearly expressed at the beginning, as well as the fact will be underlined, that through this research the teachers will also get extra help in implementing e-methods in their daily routines as well as for teaching.• Do I have the skills to analyse the results in an appropriate manner?o I will get support from the colleagues, who are more experienced researchers. • What unintended consequences could result from publication or other publicity?o I cannot think of anything at the moment. I hope I can learn more from the fellow students’ postings.

Activity 6.6: Finding relevant policies, processes and guidance

2008-03-18T10:19:00.000+02:00

Guidelines for Educational Research:
British Educational Research Association (BERA): ‘Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research’ seems to be a very practical and helpful guidebook.
http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/guides.php
The following areas are covered:- Informed consent- Deception- Right to Withdraw- Incentives- Detriment arising from Participation in Research- Privacy- Disclosure- Responsibilities to Sponsors of Research- Methods- Publication- Responsibilities to the Community of Educational Researchers- Misconduct- Authorship
Ethical guidelines for online Research:
University of Leicester: Exploring online Research Methods; Guidelines http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/ethics/ethfaqs.htm
There are many ethical guidelines for online research but the following are a useful starting point:
Ess, C. and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002) Ethical decision-making and internet research: recommendations form the AoIR ethics working committee.( http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf).Bruckman, A. (2002a) Ethical Guidelines for Research online ( http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/ethics/).American Association for the Advancement of Science Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects Research in Cyberspace ( http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/intres/main.htm)John Suler (2000) Ethics in cyberspace research( http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/ethics.html)

Activity 6.2. The research question

2008-03-18T10:18:00.001+02:00

My research question for TMA1:What is the added value of the implementation of teachers’ e-Portfolio for the teachers’ professional development?1. What kinds of audience were you assuming for the research findings? - The audience for this research is 1) the language teachers themselves: I would like to show that by implementing e-methods in the teachers’ PDP and daily routines would encourage them to apply the modern methods also in their teaching. 2) other e-learning practitioners: they might be interested in the results and how I succeeded with my research (thanks, Sarah). 3) The administration of my institute: It might be valuable to show how easy/difficult it is to implement e-learning and what kind of effort is needed in order to succeed.2. How might this research question, and/or the methods you chose, be different for different audiences? - I am not sure about this. But let’s imagine that the commissioner of the study would be a software provider: Would there be a danger to pose such research questions that would give a positive feedback on the software usage if one would be tested in the research?

Quantitative and Qualitative methods - Considerations

2008-03-18T09:58:00.000+02:00

Reading Wegerif and Mercer, here are some introductory comments:
The authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of some commonly-used methods for analysing classroom talk.
1. One method is the use of coding schemes, which enable researcheers to deal with large amounts of data and make categorisations. - this method is limited in value for exploring the construction of knowledge because it is not sensitive to the ways that content and context of talk develops over time. - this is an example of a quantitative method.
2. Methods that rely essentially on the interpretative analysis of transcirhbed speech. - these methods are limited in (have been criticised for) the reliance of thier exponennts on the detailed interpretation of short excerpts selected from larger, unseen speech corpora. - this is an example of a qualitative method.
Wegerif and Mercer assume that the incorporation of computer-based methods into the study of talk offers a way of combining the strengths of quantitative and qualitative methods of discourse analysis while overcoming some of thier main weaknesses.
Wegerif, R. and Mercer, N. (1997) ‘Using computer-based text analysis to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in research on collaborative learning’, Language and Education, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 271–86.

Activity 1.4. Reading the paper

2008-03-18T09:56:00.000+02:00

This assgnment asked us to read the article given below and to analyse the research article with help of some questions.
Hiltz, S.R. and Meinke, R. (1989) ‘Teaching sociology in a virtual classroom’, Teaching Sociology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 431–46.
Available at: http://www.jstor.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/view/0092055x/ap040059/04a00040/0 (Accessed 4 Feb 2008, 12:10).
Questions: What research questions are being addressed?- Is the registered Virtual Classroom system a viable option for educational delivery? Are the outcomes at least as good as those for traditional face-to-face courses?- What variables are associated with especially good and especially poor outcomes in this new teaching and learning environment? Setting: What is the sector and setting? (e.g. school, higher education, training, informal learning)- 5 matched courses Introductory sociology, Computers and Society, Oraganizational Communication, anthropology, Uppsala College, NJIT,Concepts: What theories, concepts and key terms are being used?- The concept of collaborative learning was used as the pedagogical theory. Knowledge is not delivered to students; instead it emerges from active dialogue among those who seek to understand and apply concepts and techniques. Methods: What methods of data collection and analysis are used? (e.g. the number of participants; the type of technologies; the use of interviews, surveys, observation, etc.)- several mixed-mode courses were offered; 107 students were involved in six sections of mixed-mode courses in 1986-87; 96 students took six mixed-mode courses in 1987-88;- Pre- and post- questionnaires, behavioral data ( grades, SAT scores, and records of the amount of on-line activity)- Qualitative data (participant observation in class conferences, personal interview with students, and case reports by instructors. Findings: What did this research find out?- Mastery of the subject matter: no significant differences in midterm or final examination scores in any courses.- Subjective assessments: the following hypotheses were supported: convenient access to educational experiences, improve access to professor, increased participation in a course, increased level of interest in the subject matter, which may continue beyond the end of the course; improved ability to communicate with and cooperate with other students in doing classwork - Students lacking the necessary basic skills and self-discipline tend to do better in a traditionally delivered course. - Limitations: What are the limitations of the methods used? - the results of the quantitative analysis are inconclusive in determining which was better, the VC mode or the TC mode. The overall answer is “It depends”.Ethics: Are there any ethical issues associated with the research?- The issue of having a pen name in topics in sociology which deal with personal experiences Implications: What are the implications (if any) for practice, policy or further research?- VT is a promising and viable option for post- secondary educational delivery- Students who are motivated and self-disciplined and who have average or better quantitative and verbal skills are likely to experience superior outcomes.

Blogit ja kieltenopetus

2007-05-11T16:42:00.000+03:00