Welcome to EFL537.  I'm looking forward to sharing this online learning adventure with you.  Day#1 of this course is often challenging, confusing, exciting, and overwhelming.

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I will provide an agenda for each day of class. 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 on the course overview. If you don't finish everything on the daily agenda, don't be concerned.  You will have time to finish after class or the next day.  The Day#1 agenda is especially ambitious, so I do not expect us to finish everything described below.  It is likely that we will spend much of Day#2 (and maybe Day#3) working on these  tasks as well.


1) 'Jeff says Hello' via Skype on the projector
   (if skype is not working, we can make text contact in the EFL537 Chat Room)

2) Students begin Day#1 in-class tasks.  

• Read Course Overview &  Welcome page,
  
  
• Complete EFL537 Entrance Questionnaire

3) One-on-one Skype Meetings/Continued Task Work
When students have completed these, they can begin individual skype meetings with Jeff one at a time.
During these meetings (3-5 minutes each), please tell me your full name, what I should call you, and your EFL537 ID (e.g. vnu21, vnu22). To find out your ID, look at this page. Then, tell me anything you wish about yourself and ask me anything you wish (about me or the course). 
While doing this, others will continue with the tasks below

• Watch the EFL537.com website tour.  This is from last session, but most of the information is still accurate. 
• Check the Login info page, log in to EFL537.com using your assigned ID,  click 'My Account/Edit' and change your password as shown here
• Register for accounts at: Gmail, Delicious, Blogger.com, &  Skype.
  If you need help registering with Blogger, a Blogger sign-up Guide is here
• Login to EFL537.com and click  'My Account/Profile'. Update your profile (skype ID, gmail address) .
  
  

4) Alumni Thoughts, Skills Training & Sampling the Buffet
    You can work on these in any order you wish.  

• Alumni Thoughts
  You can see all sorts of work from previous students by checking the profiles page.
  Below are some selected writings from former EFL537 students - overviews of their EFL537 experience and words of wisdom to those who follow.  You don't have to read all of them, but taking a look will hopefully provide some useful insights.
  
  • Van's advice (English and Vietnamese)
  • Hoa Dong's Words of Advice
  • Thom's Final Thoughts
  • Quy's Reflections
  • Ngoc's EFL537 Thoughts
    
    
• Begin working on Week#1 Skills (You will need to look at each guide and complete the tasks at the bottom of the page, although I don't expect you to finish everything today)

• Desktop Management
• Google Tools
• Social Bookmarking
• Skype
  
  
• Start Exploring  the CALL Buffet
  Please go to Day#1 Buffet Page .
  A number of websites and online resources that can be used for language learning are listed there. Please explore these sites during the next few days at your own pace. 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 with Delicious (if you know how) or at least take note of the site name and address.  Please feel free to share information with your classmates as you make interesting discoveries.

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Assignments

Continue working on any of the in-class assignments you were unable to complete during class.

After Class

• This week's readings:
  
  • Tomasz  Szynalski's How I learned English in the pre-Internet age and why you can do it faster
    
  • Emily Chen's Introduction to CALL, Unit 1  - 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).
    You need to complete your first Reading Review by Wednesday and your second  by Friday. The Reading Review should be written with Google Docs and shared with efl537@gmail.com .You may also post them on your blogger.com blog if you wish.  Do NOT email  these directly to me.
• Write a daily reflection on your blogger.com blog. (blogger guide here)
  Share your  reflections on Day#1 of EFL537.
  
  
• Post any questions in the How do I  forum at EFL537.com or plan to ask them during tomorrow's class.

Again, 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.