Course Overview

EFL537
Computer Assisted Language Learning
Southern New Hampshire University/Vietnam National University
Fall 2009 

Instructor: Jeff Lebow
Email address: jefflebow@gmail.com
(most assignments and and questions for Jeff should be posted on the website, NOT emailed)
Course Website:  http://efl537.com
(in case that site is inaccessible,  a copy of materials for this course will also be posted at: http://sites.google.com/site/efl537/ 
Course  Google Group: SNHU-TEFL3

TEXTBOOK

There are no required print  textbooks for this course. All reading materials will come from online resources listed at  http://efl537.com/readings and http://learningcall.net/readings
Students are encouraged to have a USB flash drive for data storage and transfer.

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 of work, skills development, and collaborative participation.

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 anxieties and concerns that might prevent them from including CALL tools in their teaching.
  • Demonstrate competence in basic computer skills including desktop management, online content creation, use of synchronous text and audio interaction, 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 demonstrate instructional materials designed for their target learners.
  • Use computer technologies to engage in meaningful professional development and develop a personal learning network
  • Develop strategies for coping with technological, economic, and/or bureaucratic obstacles they may encounter in practicing CALL

COURSE OUTLINE

Below is a tentative schedule of skills and topics to be covered during this course. It is possible that we will stray from this schedule based on student interest, pace of learning, and technical factors. The first part of this course aims to expose you to a variety of tools and resources and encourages you to experiment with them . The second part of the course aims to help you  build resources that will be most useful to you as an EFL teacher and professional educator.

Week 1 
    Students will spend most of week#1 developing basic skill proficiencies, exploring applications of CALL online, and finding readings and other materials relevant to their particular areas of interest. They can document their learning by posting daily reflections, writing reading reviews, and adding Delicious bookmarks.

Week#1 Skills

Week 2
At the beginning of Week#2, I would like students to choose a CALL area of specialization.  This could be a langauge skill (e.g. listening, speaking, grammar, etc.), a technique (e.g. blogging,  activity creation, etc.), or any other topic of interest (e.g. learning styles, gender factors, assessement, etc.).  Try to choose a topic in which you are genuininely interested and explore how it relates to CALL. Find relavant readings, presentations, websites, and materials. Students may work on this with a partner, if they wish. Aside from focusing on their areas of specialization during Week#2, students will also conitnue developing their technical skills, creating and collecting usable learning materials, maintaining their personal website, completing other assignments.  As a class, we may also try to connect with EFL teachers around the world to share ideas and discuss how CALL is being used.

 

Assignments:

General Note: Please do NOT email any assignments to me.   All of  your work will either be posted on EFL537.com, your personal blog, other sites, or shared as a Google Document.  This makes it much easier for me to access and keep track of everything you've done.

  • Daily Reflections - at least 8 reflections - At the end of each day, please post a short (100-200 word) blog entry reflecting on what you learned that day, challenges you faced,  and anything else you'd like to share with me about your course experiences that day. Some days, I may give you a specific question to address in your reflection. Please give these posts a title like 'Daily Reflection - Day#1'.
  • Reading Reviews- at least 4 reviews (between 200-500 words each)
    The first two readings are assigned to students.  After that, students are encouraged to chose  readings that are of particular interest to them.  The can find readings by clicking on link listed on the EFL537 Reading List, the LearningCall.net Readings Index, or by using the Custom Search of CALL related journals. 
    Try to include a discussion of how the topic of the reading  applies to your teaching environment and how it might affect your practice.  Feel free to criticize the article if you disagree with any of its main ponts. Please write these using Google Docs and share them with efl537@gmail.com.  Give them a title like "Jeff's Reading Reflection #1. If you like, you can also post a copy of  these on your blog as well.
  • Bookmark at least 30 CALL related websites on your Delicious account and tag appropriately. See the delicious guide for information about how to install the delicious button and tag bookmarks. More information and guides about social bookmarking here.
    Feel free to bookmark websites that aren't  related to CALL or this course.  For the sites that are related to this course, please tag them with 'efl537' and other appropriate keyword descriptions such as (listening, reading, quiz, video, blog, etc.)
  • Build a Materials Archive
    Create an EFL537  folder on a USB flash drive that contains  sub-folders for
    • Documents (.doc , .pdf )
    • Webpages (.html , .htm)
    • Presentations (.ppt ,  pps , .odp)
    • Media (.mp3, .wmv,  .swf .flv)
      Find at least 20 files that you can use in your teaching and save them in the appropriate folders.  It should look something like this.
      You can create other sub-folders as well where you can store other items related to this course.
  • Create and maintain a Personal Blog during this class. In addtion to posting daily reflections and some assignemtns there,  you should also include pages for  'About Me' (a basic introduction),  and 'SNHU TEFL Program' (short overview of why you're participating in the program, what you've learned so far, and what you hope to get out of it) .  Feel free to post additional material there that is related to this course or not.  This is your personal site that you can continue to use after this course if you wish.
  • Daily Assignments -  assorted tasks assigned each day to practice the tools or skills being taught
  • CALL Specialization Report/Presentation - Submit a report, presentation, and/or audio recording discussing the CALL specialization you focused on during Week#2.  Include links to any relavant  readings, resources, or websites. 

Optional Assignments

     You do NOT have to do these, but will receive credit for anything extra you produce. These can fall into three categories

  • Using CALL tools to produce CALL Materials - create a bunch of Hot Potatoes activities, build online lessons for EFL students,  upload presentation lessons to your Slideshare, etc.
  • Creating materials that will help future VNU EFL537'ers - Remember how stressful the first few days were?  I would love to have support material that helped students  avoid some of the overwhelming confusion when first discovering CALL tools. I think the people best able to produce that kind of material  are YOU!  You could create combinations of  text,screenshot images, audio, and/or powerpoint presentations that explain how to use certain tools and how they might be used. These materials could include Vietnamese language and be posted on your EFL537 or other blogs and help future students avoid some of the CALL suffering you've experienced.  They'll never know how lucky they are :)
  • Going further than required with the required assignments - bookmarking additional pages, doing extra reading reflections, building and awesome personal website, etc. 

I will keep track of assignments using a Google Spreadsheet - EFL537 Cohort3 Checklist
It can take up to 24 hours before your completed work is noted there.  Do not be concerned if you don't see your post listed right away. 
If, after 24 hours, you do not see your work listed here, you can send Jeff  a short text message saying " My  "x" assignment is not listed on the student work page, but can be found at: http://...'.

Tentative Daily Schedule
Our agenda is always flexible and can be affected by technical issues, student interest, and/or other unforeseen variables.  Because we never know how much progress we'll make each day, it's impossible to provide the next day's agenda until a few hours before class, but you can see a tentative daily schedule below.

  • Day #1 - Orientation, Getting Acquainted, Learning EFL537 basic tools   (Desktop Management, Google Tools, Delicious, Skype)
  • Day#2 - Basic Tools/Exploring Possibilities continued
  • Day#3 - Audio Recording & Editing
    Reading Review#1 Due
  • Day #4 - Activity and Quiz Creation
  • Day #5 - Presentations (Powerpoint, Google Presentations, & Slideshare)
    Reading Review#2 Due, Conferences with Jeff
  • Day #6 - Social Networking
  • Day#7 - Blogging and using RSS
    Reading Review #3 Due
  • Day #8 - Site Building Options (Wiki, Google sites, Posterous)
  • Day#9 - Review skills, Being presentations
    Reading Review #4 Due
  • Finish Presentations, Prepare for life after EFL537


The last class will be held on November 13.  All work for assessment purposes must be finished by November 17.