VNU Spring 2009 - Day#1

Welcome to EFL537.   I hope it will be an interesting and useful course for everyone.  

Today we will
  • Get Oriented
  • Get Acquainted
  • Exploring Possibilities 
  • Assess our situation
Getting Oriented
   This course is designed to help students develop an understanding of how technology can be used to help people learn language.  As much as possible, we will focus on skills and strategies that will be useful to students in their teaching environments, now and in the foreseeable future.  Because we have been unable to system check the facilities there, many of the details of our course plan are not yet determined, but hopefully we can sort things out on Day#1 and develop a more detailed learning plan shortly thereafter.

  The class website can be found at: http://efl537.com/  We will use this as the primary place to post daily lesson plans, resources, and student assignments.  Using the information on this student list, please login and change your email address and password.  During class today, I will be available to speak with you via text chat at: http://efl537.com/chat .  Hopefully, we will be able to connect with live audio and/or video in the days to come.

   There will be many challenges along the way.  It can be overwhelming and frustrating to cover so many new skills and materials in such a short period of time.  Please know that I don't expect anyone  to master all of the tools we learn about.  Just do your best, try to follow your learning passions, and share any questions or problems  as soon as possible. I will do my best to provide screencasts and other guides, but it can be very difficult to provide technical assistance from so far away, so students are encouraged to work collaboratively and help each other overcome technical challenges they encounter. 

Note: There are several writing assignments described below.  As much as possible, I would like all the work you do to be posted on the class website. However in order to prevent any of your work being lost because of  connection problems, I suggest that you first write it in a Word processing program (like Word or Wordpad), save a copy on your computer and then copy and paste in onto the website.



Getting Acquainted
 
I am looking forward to getting to know you as individuals during this course. The first step is to post an introduction in your EFL537 profile. Once you have logged in to EFL537.com, click on 'My Account'/'Profile' as shown in this picture.
Your introduction should be between 3-10 sentences and can  your personal and professional background, interests, family, and anything else you'd like to share. If you like, you can upload a photo as well.

Next, I'd like to know something about your experience with technology and your feelings about using it for language learning.

Please go to: http://www.efl537.com/forum/VNU2009/computer-experiences-attitudes
and answer these questions.
  • In what ways have you used computers and the internet (at work and for personal use)?
  • Describe the technology available in your current teaching situation?  How do you think that will change during the next few years?
  • What anxieties and concerns do you have about using computers and taking this course?
  • What goals and hopes do you have for this course and for learning about using computers in general?
If you'd like to get to know me a bit, you might be able to watch last year's introduction video at: http://efl537.com/VNU-Spring2008/Introduction
I haven't created one for this year yet, because I'm waiting to determine our plans based on how things go today. 
You can also read a bit about me here and here.

Exploring Possibilities
Below are a number of websites and online resources that can be used for language learning.  Please explore them freely. You DO NOT need to look at everything.   If a site is loading slowly, not working properly, or just not interesting, move on to something else. If your explorations lead you to a site that's not on the list below, that's fine.   When you find something you think is useful, please bookmark it (f you know how) or at least take note of the site name and address.  One of your assignments will be to describe three sites of interest and discuss why you think they might be useful.  Please feel free to share information with your classmates as you make interesting discoveries.

Online Presentations

Slidecasts:
Slideshows
Online Quizzes & Activities
Blogs

Readings
Many EFL related readings can be found online at: http://www.efl537.com/readings  and http://learningcall.net/readings . You can also use  the google custom search that looks like this:

It searches from a selected list on online journals related to CALL


Assess our situation
Update: We have already done this, but this is still useful information that can be used to assess system specifications of computers at your schools or elsewhere.

  Understanding the specifications of  the computer(s) being used is very important in determining what you can and cannot do in a given CALL environment. It is also important to know how fast your internet connection is. We need to determine these specifications today in order to determine what is possible for this course, and you will need to so when using computers in your teaching environment.

Computer Hardware
- CPU, RAM, Disk space, Sound card, Monitor Resolution

Software
- Operating System
- What programs are installed?

 To determine these, watch this screencast (if possible).

  If not, try clicking Start/Settings/Control Panel/ System.
 You should see info about CPU, RAM, & Operating System like this.
  You can determine your sound card options, by clicking Start/Setting/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices
 
Connection Speed
- This screencast explains how to test your connection speed. 
You can also use sites like Speedtest.net , Speakeasy.net, or Auditmypc.com

When you have learned as much as you can about your system specifications and connection speed, please post that information here.

Assignments
  • Readings:
    • Emily Chen's Introduction to CALL  - you do not need to read any of the other readings linked to on that page or take any of the quizzes (but feel free to if you like).
  • Register for accounts at: Gmail, Delicious , Wordpress.com , &  Skype.
    Even if you have an email account somewhere else like Yahoo or Hotmail, I would like you to register at Gmail.

  • Write a blog post on your EFL537.com blog. To do so, login and click 'Create/Blog Entry'
    - Share information about at least three websites or online resources you found interesting.  Why did you think they were interesting and how might you use them?
    - Feel free to share any other reflections on Day#1 of EFL537.

  • Post any questions in the How do I  forum or plan to ask them during tomorrow's class.

If you aren't able to complete everything on today's agenda, please don't get too stressed.  We will adjust the amount of assignments and our pace as necessary.