This is an exciting time to be a teacher! The internet now allows teachers to innovate,
collaborate on, and share ideas for using technology to meet learning
objectives. I have been teaching courses
about the use of the Internet in second/foreign language teaching through the State University
of NY at Buffalo since 2004. My course
became an online course called Educational Uses of the Internet in 2006. The present online course is called Technologies
in Second Language.
Who
were my students?
Since the course deals with ever changing tools for
learning, I find myself updating the syllabus before each new semester. Before the upcoming fall 2013 semester, I
thought it would be a good reflective activity to see how the course has
changed over time.
What
resources did we use?
In the beginning students from many different
disciplines took my course because of a dearth of courses on using technology
in their own fields. I encouraged
students to tailor each mod to their own interests and I felt that all the
participants in the course learned a lot from having multiple viewpoints. At
that time the text was Egbert and Hanson-Smith's (1999) CALL Environments:
Research, Practice and Critical Issues
and articles which students could find on reserve in the campus library
.
However, in 2006 I began to use Will Richardson's
text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. His
book was unique in that he discussed the tools in K-12 school contexts, giving
many examples of what teachers had been done and could do with Internet tools in
the future. I used Richardson's text in
its many revised editions until this semester (fall 2013) and supplemented it
with online articles dealing with second language learning and technology.
Unfortunately like all texts dealing with technology,
Richardson's text became somewhat out-dated, so I have begun to use only online
articles and videos. There is no longer
a dearth of information or courses on educational uses of the Internet, there
is an explosion! So I am now narrowing the focus of the course to second/foreign language learning.
What has gradually become more important?
What has gradually become more important?
Over time I have put more emphasis on the visual
aspect of learning. Throughout the
course, the students use Voice Thread and, eventually, they create their own
Voice Thread lessons. They also craft
digital stories using tools for creating photo-stories and comic strip
generators. They also have to include
images in their blog posts and curate
website through Scoop.it.
Who
did students collaborate with?
Another change that I can see is in my course is
that over the years there has been a shift in the types of collaboration.. In the first few years my students interacted
primarily with the other participants in the course. For example, they created detailed webquests
and gave each other feedback. They were
also encouraged to join appropriate listservs.
However, the emphasis in the ensuing years has been on requiring the students to
widen their own PLNs (personal learning network) by joining Nings, following educational bloggers and
attending Twitterchats. In that way,
they will be connected educators in the future and will be able to stay
up-to-date.
What's
the latest new thing?
One of the newest mods in my course is "Games
in Second/foreign LanguageLlearning.
Although gaming has been a growing force in education for the last few
years, little work was available on its application for language learners. However,
that is beginning to change and there is now enough information to include a mod on gaming.
Reflections
These are the two biggest gradual changes that have occurred in my course:
- An emphasis on having the students create an effective personal learning network.
- An emphasis on having students learn about digital tools not only to use them personally but also to teach their own students to use them creatively.