Growing, Changing Syllabus

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?

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.

Perpetual Beta

As I begin teaching my online course called Technologies in Second Language Classrooms this semester, I want to take a moment to look back at how the course has changed over the years.  There  have been changes in both the content and the activities I ask the participants to do. However, I find that three guiding principles seem to be the basis for how I created the course and the changes that I have made.  The three general features which I felt were important then and still feel are  critical now are  learning by doing, staying connected, thinking globally.

The original 2004 course was called Computer Technology in L2 Learning.  In that first  f2f  course which I taught in a computer lab, the readings were a combination of a 1999 text on computer-assisted language learning, and many online articles about webquests and intercultural communication.  The students were required to create a website using MS Front Page, create a webquest lesson plan and teach a computer skill to the class from a list that included MS Publisher, tracking changes with MS Word, Yahoo groups, Tapped In, Inspiration, and Schmooze University. 

Let's jump ahead to 2008 to Using the Internet in the L2 Classroom.  The course is now online and we are using Will Richardson's text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms but we are using the first (2006) edition.   Thankfully, students no longer need to learn how to create a website from scratch but they create their own blogs, Googledocs documents and podcasts.  They reflect on George Siemens' connectivist theory of learning and get connected through Nings, Delicious, and Twitter.  The Googledocs assignment is a group project with each student reviewing two tools (one synchronous and one asynchronous) from a suggested list of Internet tools.  To think globally, the students choose from a list of sites which allow for global collaboration and review one of them.

What changes have 4 more years brought?  Richardson's text, now in its 3rd edition, is still the basic reading material.   Students learn utilize blogs and VoiceThread for sharing their ideas and creations.  They practice story-telling by using tools such as Bookr, Bubblr and comic strip generators.   They explore gamification by exploring language games.  They complete a group project using Googledocs presentations in which they compare several Internet tools of their own choosing.

They stay connected with Nings or Yahoo groups, DIIGO and Twitter.  They explore ePals in depth to reflect on how to connect their own classrooms with the world.

I think the guiding principles of learning by doing, staying connected and thinking globally remain relevant in 2012.  What changes over time is the tools used to accomplish these ends.  For that reason, the course will remain in "perpetual beta."