Spring 2008

EFL537 - Computer Assisted Language Learning is a course offered as part of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Master's Program at Southern New Hampshire University.   The archives of  the Winter 2007 edition of this class can be found here.

  Below are materials for the Spring2008 term. 

Course Overview

EFL537 - Computer Assisted Language Learning
Spring 2008

Instructor: Jeff Lebow
Email address: j.lebow@snhu.edu
Office: Virtual Office at http:/efl537.com/live
Office Hours & Extra Assistance
Office Hours and extra lab time will be held 30 minutes prior to every class. Additionally, we will occasionally schedule 'Virtual Lab hours' and use Group Instant Messaging to collaborate throughout the week.
Phone: (603) 574-4923

TEXTBOOK
Gavin Dudeney's The Internet and the Language Classroom

COURSE PREREQUISITES
The equivalent of a United States Bachelor’s degree and 550 TOEFL score paper - based, or 213 on the computer-based test for a non-native English speaker.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides a hands-on, collaborative environment in which to learn about and explore the use of computer technology for language learning. As much as possible, participants are encouraged to use the various technologies we’ll be learning about to develop learning materials that will be relevant to their teaching context. Participants are also encouraged to use these technologies to collaborate with and engage other EFL professionals in learning about the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of CALL. Assessment is based on each student’s portfolio, skills development, and participation (in class and online).

COURSE OBJECTIVES
EFL537 students will be able to integrate the learned theories, pedagogy, and technologies into their practice as learners and educators. Specifically, they will

  • Overcome affective filters that might prevent them from including CALL tools in their teaching.
  • Develop strategies for coping with technological, economic, and/or bureaucratic obstacles they may encounter in practicing CALL
  • Demonstrate competence in basic computer skills including desktop management, web posting and site building, use of CMC, and accessing multimedia files.
  • Familiarize themselves with advanced computer literacies such as producing audio and video materials, creating interactive web based quizzes, accessing materials via RSS, and functioning in 3D virtual environments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of theory and research related to CALL
  • Produce and test instructional materials designed for their target learners.
  • Use computer technologies to engage in meaningful professional development and develop a personal learning network

COURSE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Skills Assessment 20%

  • 3 or 4 Skill Assessment Drills
  • Your Toolkit Tour

Participation 30%

  • In class assignments - 10%
  • Homework assignments- 20%
  • Students will lose one percentage point for each absence.
Portfolio 50%
  • (Creations & Interactions) - Examples include developing learning materials, producing a podcast, producing topic based, presentations, applying for a grant, online PD interaction, live interviews with researchers, practitioners, and learners, and any other meaningful activity related to CALL
  • The assessment value of portfolio components will vary from student to student and will be determining in consultation with the instructor
How to get good grade:
How to earn 'Brownie Points'

Week#1 - Getting Oriented

Week#1 - Spring 2008
April 3, 2008

The Basics & Beyond
Not afriad to fail...


Welcome to Week#1 of EFL537.
Week#1 Materials are below.
Chat Log here

Prepare you computer


Getting Prepared - Week#1


Open the Firefox Browser

Install Missing Flash Plugin
Go to this page and click 'install missing plugin'.
If you have any problems or questions about doing so, look at the step-by-step screenshot guide.
Once you see the chat room , you're 'good to go'.

If you have not already done so, please register for a new gmail account.
Then register at EFL537.com (this site) using your gmail address. (if you need help, screencast here)

Next. watch this quick intro to tabbed browsing with Firefox

Open Firefox with these three tabs open.

 

Next Step: Course Orientation

Course Orientation

Orientation Video

If bandwidth in the Belknap Hall Computer Lab permits, you can each watch this video on your computers. If not, Eric can play it on the main computer and show it on the projection screen.

Course Overview here




Next Step: Getting Acquainted

Get Acquainted

Answer the questions on the Voice Thread below.
Voicethread Help Screencast
Please note the directions on whether to answer by audio, text, or phone.
If the Voicethread is unavailable, Plan B is here.



Want more information about VoiceThread? Here's an interview with their founders and details about Ed VoiceThread (for education)


Next Step: Basic Training

Basic Training

Basic Training - Week#1

Below are screencasts that explain some basic computer skills.
Please watch them all and then complete the tasks below.

Tasks ( It is OK to seek help from you classmates if you have questions.)

  • Save the file from the designated URL on this page, rename it (any name you like), email it to me (jefflebow@gmail.com) as an attachment, and tell me its filesize and extension
  • Send me another email with the following information
    • Watch is the largest .exe file on the computer you're using? In which directory is it located?
    • How much total hard drive space is there on the computer you're using? How much is used? How much is available?
    • What is the download bandwidth speed of the computer you're using?

 

Next Step: Exploring Possibilities

Exploring Possibilities

Let's look through the list of topics, skills, & tools and discuss which are of most interest to you.


Finally: Assignments

Assignments


Readings
Copyright, Fair Use, Licensing
Web Presence
These screencasts and the glossaries below should address any questions you have.

Week 2 - Building Basics

Relevant Screencasts

HTML & FTP Screencasts
Del.icio.us Guide

Questions about this week's assignments?
Here is a two-part screencast providing more details
Part 1 - Part 2

Week#2 links & assignments below.

Prepare your computer

  • Install Del.icio.us plugin for Firefox
  • Open Windows Explorer to your Root Directory, list view
  • Open Firefox and in separate tabs
  • We will do this together - Download & install Kompozer
  • Not doable tonight - disregard - Add a few 'search engines' to Firefox (at least Del.icio.us, Technorati, & Wikipedia)

Discussion

Let's turn the technology off and discuss

  • Class Approach, Instructor Style
  • Why we are here
  • Collaboration & Openness
  • Anxieties & Concerns

 

Skills Overview

Skill Groups
  • Html/FTP Publishing
     (Kompozer,  Filezilla)

  • CMS  Management  
    (Wordpress, Drupal,  Moodle Drupal)

  •  Media - graphics, audio, video
     (Irfanview, The Gimp, Audacity,  TeacherTube, Dotsub)

  • Presentations
    (Powerpoint, Impress, Google Docs)

  • Materials Development
    Hot Potatoes, Flash, Java
  • Info archiving and access
    tagging, taxonomy, filtering, searching

  • Collaborative Tools
    (Yugma, WizIQ, Nowlive,  google docs, skype)

  • Aggregation
     Google Reader, Miro,

  • Networking 
      Del.icio.us Diigo, Ning, Facebook

A Screencast Tour of  CALL Skills & Tools
  • Part 1 - Audio, Blogging, Browsers,  Chat, File Storage & Conversion, Graphics
  • Part 2 -  Html editors,  Interactive Media, Mapping, Media players,  Microblogging,  Mindmaps,  Presentations, & Telephony
  • Part 3 - RSS Readers, Screencasting, Social Bookmarking, Start Pages, Streaming,  Surveys, Utilities ,Video, Virtual Environments, & Wiki's.  
  • Part 4 - Word Processing, Tagging, Content Management Systems, Quiz & Game Creation, & Social Networking

Assignments

Questions about this week's assignments?
Here is a two-part screencast providing more details
Part 1 - Part 2

Sites to check out::
Videos to think about
Terminology

Week#3 - Site Building

EFL537 Spring2008 Podcast#1
(sorry world, student access only)
Sharing interesting sites, blogs, resources from the past week and thoughts about portfolio possibilities.
Screencasts

3 page htmlcast

Edublogcast

Prepare Your Computer

Audio Show & Tell

We begin today by recording  'Show & Tell' in small groups.  Please go to your designated Recording Station, and take turns answering this questions:
  • Take turns sharing the most interesting site, blog, or reading you've found related to CALL.  How would you use it in your practice?
  • What ideas have you had for your EL537 'personal portfolio' items?
Group members are encouraged to ask  questions and make comments or suggestions. Each person should record between 3-5 minutes.
To record audio using Audacity
1) Click the 'Record' button

2) Click the 'Stop' button
To Save the file as an mp3
Click File /Export


1) Save it in c:\EFL537
2) Make sure 'mp3' is selected as file type
3) name it 'week3-yourname'
4) Click Save

When you see the window below, ignore it and simply click OK,


Later on , we'll learn how to use this window to add 'meta-data' to the mp3 file.
basically ,it's what you see on your mp3 player when listening to a file.

Presentations

Presentations


Presentationcast


Slideshares tagged EFL ESL

Activities
Tools and Trends in Self-Paced Language Instruction

Presentation Examples

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by DaveGrewal

Graphics


Understanding Graphic File Formats


Irfanview - an free image viewer program that can be used to view, edit, and convert image files.


Gimp
GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs.

Readings
Reading Authentic EFL Text Using Visualization and Advance Organizers in a Multimedia Learning Environment

Your Website

As part of your personal portfolio for this class, you will need to build yoru own website. Typically, these include
  • Introduction
  • CALL Toolkit
  • TEFL Program Portfolio
  • EFL537 Portfolio

but as always, I'm open to alternate plans.

You can choose to use

1) and html site (worldbridges.info space) ,
HTML Examples - Jamie, Zoe, Past EFL537 Classes

2) Hosted Blog (edublogs, blogger, etc.), or your own Wordpress
Examples- Kelly , Joy , Wesley Fryer, Always Learning
or
3) our own Wordpress (Jeff hosted) - for those especially interested in learning about Wordpress

For those interested, here are some more Electronic Portfolio Resources

Assignments

  • Use a menu table to make sure all pages link to each other
  • include an image on at least each page
  • embed a slideshare presentation or Youtube video on one of the pages.
The content of the pages is up to you.If you prefer some more specific guidance, create these three pages
  • index.html - a 'welcome to my site page'
  • tools.html - tools you're interested in using
  • presentations.html - the embedded content and a short description
  • Create those same three pages on your Edublog - You do not need to create the menu table
    Edublogcast
  • Please reflect on your readings (document your learning) somewhere - Edublogs, EFl537 blog, create a slideshare, up to you
  • Next week, we will be practicing audio & video content production. If you'd like to 'read ahead', resources are here

Week#4 - Audio & Video


In Class Audio Assignment


  • Test your audio to make sure levels are correct and that you can export mp3 files
    Make sure your sampe rate is set to 44khz (in Audacity, Edit/ Preferences / Quality = 44100Hz)
  • One of you will be an 'interviewer', another an 'interviewee'. Record the discussion on the interviewer's computer. Aim for about a five minute record. Choose the questions of most interest.
  • Any interesting CALL-related discoveries this week?
    What are some of the best examples of using audio or video for language learning that you've seen? Why do you like them?
  • How might you use audio or video in your teaching environment (present & future)?
  • What are the greatest obstacles you face in using CALL in your teaching envirnment? How might you overcome these obstacles?
  • How's your computer related anxiety these days? How are you coping with this crazy firehose of tech tools Jeff is aiming at us?
  • Any other questions you'd like to ask your partner....
  • File / 'Save Project as' / EFL537-studentname-2008-04-24 (studentname = name of interviewee)
  • Switch roles and record the second discussion on the new interviewer's computer.
  • You should both now have an audo recording on your computer.
  • Record an intro. (i.e. this is a dicussion with... about... recorded on....) Cut and paste it at the beginning of the audio.
  • Export it as an mp3 (64kbs) named EFL537-student-2008-04-24.mp3 - Make sure to include ID3 tag metadata including (artist name, Track Title, Album Title, Comments [URL])
  • Post in on EFL53.com by clicking Create Content / Audio or going to: http://efl537.com/node/add/audio

Video Content Production

Video Hardware
Video File Formats

Video Production Tools (PC Based)


Online Video Sites
Live Streaming
Screencasting
Mahable 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources
Sample sites that use video
Lists of other video sites & resources Readings
Tips & Tricks

To embed a flash video file (.swf) in your blog or page, you can use this code (you will need to change the bold portions):
<embed
src="filename.swf"
width="300"
height="300"
allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true"
/>

To embed a .wmv file in your blog or html page, you can use this code (you will need to change the bold portions):
<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="192" HEIGHT="190" CLASSID="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
STANDBY="Loading Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="videofilename.wmv">
<PARAM name="autostart" VALUE="false">
<PARAM name="ShowControls" VALUE="true">
<param name="ShowStatusBar" value="false">
<PARAM name="ShowDisplay" VALUE="false">
<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2" SRC="videofilename.wmv" NAME="MediaPlayer"
WIDTH="192" HEIGHT="190" ShowControls="1" ShowStatusBar="0" ShowDisplay="0" autostart="0"> </EMBED>
</OBJECT>

Housekeeping & Portfolio Possibilities



Odds & Ends
  • Bringing your own computer is very OK
  • Software update / lab preference
Assignments
  • Scoring (running tally on BlackBoard)
  • Help available,look at the forest, not the trees, don't be passive, look for help, ask for help
Week 4 - Where we're at...
  • One more week of 'basic training' (next week: collaborative tools)
  • Begin focusing on application, academic analysis, content production
  • Meet with Jeff between weeks 5 & 6 to discuss portfolio plan
  • TEFL Program Portfolio Integration
CALL Portfolio Possibilities

- Slidecast on a CALL Topic (presented live or not)
- Learning Activities
- Curriculum using web based resources
-Write a Wikipedia article
- Produce a Wikipedia Media Presentation
- Create CALL Tool guides for future generations (How to use, what's the point)
- Produce and/or host a Global Talk Show
- Produce a podcast
- Theory Explanations, Examples , Discussions
- Annotated (or audio described) OPML
- Annotated (or audio described) Del.icio.us
- Document Network activity (i.e. EFLClassroom Ning)
- Live interviews with researchers, practitioners, and learners,
- Build a Moodle Course
- Create your own social network on Ning 
     and any other meaningful activity related to CALL

Collaboration is a good thing. "It's hard to collaborate alone".*
Feel free to collaborate with classmates, colleagues, and/or friends.
I will be glad to play with you.


* quote from Jennifer Maddrell

Badges (Skills Assessment)

Badges - Skill Assessment

This is the badge page for Spring2008 - it will be modified for Fall2008

Image Editing (required) 3 points
  • Go to this URL:    http://worldbridges.info/badge1.html
  • Take a screenshot of your monitor and crop it to only include the portion with a black background
  • Resize the image to 400pixels wide.  Save it as a .gif file. 
  • Email the image to jefflebow@gmail.com
Screencast Guide
Desktop & File  Management(required) (3 points)
  • Create a folder called 'badgetest' in your Root Directory. 
  • Save the this file  into that directory
  • Rename that file, add meta data (title, keywords, comments, etc.)
  • Take screenshot#1 of that file in the that directory.
  • Create a quicklaunch icon for Wordpad (Start/Pograms/Accessories/Wordpad)  on your toolbar. 
  • Take Screenshot#2 of your quicklaunch bar and save it as a .gif.
  • Email both screenshots and the file as an attchment to jefflebow@gmail.com

Screencast Guide Part 1 

Screencast Guide Part 2
CMS Management (required)
  Edublog version  (3 points)
  • Create a category called ' badge test'. 
  • Create a post (content unimportant) and categorize it as 'badge test'. 
  • Change your blog theme to 'Fadtastic'
  • Add the 'Google Search' widget to your sidebar
  • Add this site (Learning Call / http://learningcall.net/ ) to your blog roll
Screencast Guide
Audio Production (required) (3 points)
  • Import this piece of audio into Audacity.
  • Record a short introduction. 
  • Export it as a 64kbs mp3 file including appropriate ID3tag information and upload it to your website or blog. 
  • Send the URL to me at jefflebow@gmail.com
Screencast Guide
Presentation building  (required) (3 points)
  • Create a 3 slide presentation that includes a backgound color or design, an image, formatted, colorful text, and a couple of links.
  • Upload to your slideshare or voice thread space.
  • Embed the presentation onto a webpage or blog post.
  • Send the URl to me at jefflebow@gmail.com

Relevant Screencast
Basic Html & FTP Uploading (3 points) Screencast Guide
RSS Usage  (3 points) Screencast Guide
Activity Creation (3 points)
  • Create one  Hot Potatoes activity and upload the your website, blog, or Moodle.
Relevant Screencasts

Week#5 - Moodles, Wiki's, & Project Prep

Personal Space & Projects

Personal Space
  • A web based interface that includes information about
    • Who you are
    • What you've done in the course ( web presence, projects, activities, etc)
    • What you've done in the program (optional)
    • A collection of resources that you will use in your CALL future (sites, tutorials, personal learning network)
    • Tools - Demonstrated uses (Irfanview, Kompozer, Movie Maker, Del.ico.us)
  • Can be html, Edublog, wikispace, other
  • Does not have to be public
  • Hopefully, something you will use in the future

Projects
  • Learning Documentation, Reflections & Discussion in the form of a slidecast, screencast, podcast,  webcast, presentation, wikipedia article, talk show, network activity, or any other usage of CALL tools (Subjects of this documentation, can be Readings, Videos, Presentations, Course Materials, Tools,  or Topics/issues related to CALL - choose things that gave you something to think about)   Solo OK, with others will probably be better and easier
  • Learning Activities - moodle course, hot potatoes activities, web based activities

Professional Devlopement

It's a new world of professional development - informal, interactive, & personal. Below are some site/communities of interest. Please add other sites that you can see using in your professional development to your del.icio.us

http://openpd.wikispaces.com/
http://eflclassroom.ning.com/
http://webheads.info/
http://www.classroom20.com/
http://edtechtalk.com/

Assignments

Week#6 - Security, Jing, Video, & Project Planning


Security & Utilities    * Q & A, Odds & Ends
Project Content Production  * Badges * Assignments

Assignment: By 11:59pm Sunday May 11, post an EFL537.com blog entry providing an update on your project plans.  Please include as many specifics as possible including topics, tools, supporting readings, and collaboration partners.  Also include resources you're still looking for and questions or tech challenges that need to be addressed in order for you to produce your desired projects.

Lab Time: Wednesday May 14,  5pm    Belknap Lab

Recent follow-ups to questions asked during Thursday's class...

From Bird: How to manage your edublog front page
http://www.efl537.com/node/436

From Chantel: How to bulk upload users to a Moodle courses
http://www.efl537.com/node/437

From Betty:  How to include audio in a Hot Potatoes Activity
http://www.efl537.com/node/438

Prep, A Survey, & Assignments

  • Your Computer (if using a lab computer)
  • Add the noscript &  del.icio.us extensions to Firefox 
  • Activate Flash by going to this page and following the 'Install missing plugins'  instructions (top right)
  • Close all Firefox windows.  Open Firefox again. 
  • Save lame_enc.dll into c:\Program Files\Audacity  (screencast)
  • Download and install skype

Security & Utilities

Security & Utilities

Q & A, Odds & Ends

Answer any questions (technical or course related), screencasting if desired.

Introduce Jing Project & Windows Movie Maker .

Project Content Production

You still have some flexibility in producing content for the project portion of this class, but a typical 'project package' should include at least:
  • 1 presentation (delivered solo, small group, or whole group & published online with audio)
  • 1 audio/video  (interviews, discussions, reports, etc.)
  • 1 unit, course, or module of learning materials
  • Your personal web space
    • Intro/philosophy
    • CALL Tools & Resources
    • EFL537 Portfolio
    • TEFL Portfolio (optional)
* Topics for the presentation and audio/video can come from Readings, Videos, Presentations, Course Materials - choose things that gave you something to think about.

  Solo OK, with others will probably be better and easier

  • Discuss Topics & Project Plans 

Assignments

By 11:59pm Sunday May 11, post an EFL537.com blog entry providing an update on your project plans.  Please include as many specifics as possible including topics, tools, supporting readings, and collaboration partners.  Also include resources you're still looking for and questions or tech challenges that need to be addressed in order for you to produce your desired projects. 

Week #7 - Screencasting & Project Work


Badge Practice
Details and screencast guides for you badge tests are here.

For our classmates in Hanoi
Please post a short audio comment here.
For those who had trouble posting audio during class, please try again  to  post a comment - a new alternative method of commenting has been added.  Thanks to those who already posted - it's some lol listening :)
Screencasting:
Posted Screencasts Here
Using Jing, please create at least one screencast sharing tools or resources that you have found most useful, interesting, and/or fun - specifically for CALL or for computer use in general.  
Purposes of this task include documenting your learning, providing an overview of 'what's possible' for incoming VNU students, and allowing Jeff to get a sense for what's of most interest to the class.

Save the .swf to your computer, then post it to EFL537.com by clicking Create / Screencast . Please choose a descriptive, but concise title (it will be used for the URL - i.e. efl5357.com/screencast/Delicious Bookmakring ).
I encourage you to produce as many of these as possible - it is considered part of your Project Portfoliio and helps make the world a better place :)

A few more tool intros - 

Week#8

New decaf guides
Personal Spaces
- For bloggers, I suggest making Tools, EFL537, & TEFL categories.
- A bit late, but Wordpress.com and Google Sites are other friendly site building options

Project Content Updates
Collaborative Tools
Collaborative Communities & Projects
Webheads  EdTechTalk  Classroom2.0  Earthcast2008  YouthVoices  Flat Classroom Project

Badges

Lab Time

EFL537 After Hours 

Week#10 - The End is Near!

Week#10 - The End is Near!
June 5, 2008

Small Group Presentations

We will set up three 'recording stations' in different classrooms.
Take turns using Audacity to  record a 5-15 minute presentation and/or tour of your proejcts.   Let your fellow group members know if you'd prefer to take questions throughout your presentation or at the end. Group members, please ask questions and make comments that will help that person further develop their work.

Homestretch Assignments

Screencasting your faves
Personal Site Tweaking

 Make sure your personal site has been adequately developed. Some common things to work on: (mostly for blog users.  Html site builders, we can address your tweaks during class).

Screencast showing the above tweaks is here: http://www.efl537.com/screencast/personal-site-tweaking-and-delicous-tag...

 Other Assignments

 

Week #11 - To the Finish Line and Beyond!

Week#11 -  To the the Finish Line & Beyond!

Today's class is about task completion, assessment & reflection, and Life after EFL537

Assessment & Reflection

   Life after EFL537

  Task Completion