The blog is going on a holiday! Wishing all of you who celebrate xmas a wonderful time and all the best for the New Year! We’ll be back in the second week of 2010.
Hayo
Archive for December, 2009
The blog is taking a xmas break
Friday, December 18th, 2009Teacher education for learner autonomy (special issue)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009For you autonomy experts out there you may be interested in the latest issue of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, which is a special issue on Teacher Education for Learner Autonomy. More information here.
Editorial
Teacher education for learner autonomy: building a knowledge base
Richard Smith; Flávia Vieira
Teacher education for learner autonomy: an analysis of the EuroPAL contribution to a knowledge base
Manuel Jiménez Raya
Educating for learner-centredness in Chinese pre-service teacher education
Qiang Wang; Xin Ma
Action research as a tool for critical teacher education towards learner autonomy
Maria Alfredo Moreira
Enhancing pedagogy for autonomy through learning communities: making our dream come true?
Flávia Vieira
Automatic transcription and captioning (an amazing tool from Google for teaching and learning)
Saturday, December 12th, 2009Google has combined several technologies into one, powerful new tool. Its ASR engine (automated speech recognition) will automatically transcribe any audio source, including the audio that is part of video material, such as that on Youtube. This has now been made to work with Youtube’s auto-caption system. Put the two together and anyone can upload or select a video and have it captioned automatically. In addition, it adds the timecodes automatically so that the captions appear exactly when those words are spoken (a very time-consuming job to do by hand!). This is great news if you use video materials in your classroom or self-access centre, or if you would like your students to have access to materials outside the classroom. I could imagine using this myself with videos that I enjoy watching and to play with turning on and off the captions to see how much I could understand. To use it with your self-produced videos, just set up a Youtube channel (it may take another couple of months before it is rolled out for everyone). You can download the captions and, for example, print them out for use in class for further discussion. The feature is also particularly helpful for people with a hearing disability (and was created by someone who is deaf). Someone on www.twit.tv’s podcast also pointed out that this was a great feature for people who speak a language but are unable to read it (although this tool is currently only available in English - this is set to change in the future).
There are so many good, free tools out there these days. In discussions with various institutions I visit, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that the need for proprietory software is becoming smaller and smaller.
Annotated bibliography of Twitter, social networking, and communities of practice
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Just came across this recent annotated bibliography of Twitter, social networking, and communities of practice. You can read it here.
Language advising in the curriculum
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
Autonomy conference
Saturday, December 5th, 2009An interesting conference will take place at Zirve University in Turkey next year. More information here.
The conference goals are to
• provide a full understanding of the theoretical basis of learner autonomy in language learning
• review both theoretical and practical gains in the field through the experiences of academics
• present innovations to promote learner autonomy not only in classrooms but in other sites including but not limited to homes, private courses, and self-access centres as well
• pioneer the growth and expansion of the concept of learner autonomy worldwide, especially in Turkey and in the neighbouring region
• highlight the relationship between learner autonomy and e-learning
• shed light on teacher education programmes that train teachers to create learning environments appropriate for learner autonomy
• underline the importance of very early childhood and parental attitudes in nurturing autonomous individuals by reflecting on character or whole-person education
• remind us that learning is an on-going, life-long process and can be enhanced by encouraging independent learning
• provide academics with a space for sharing the results of the newest empirical research in a way to build onto the existing body of research and discussion on all aspects of learner autonomy.
Free computer game for learning German
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009In a recent article by Neville, Shelton and McInnis in CALl Journal (vol 22, no 5, 409-424), the authors make a game designed to teach German vocabulary, reading, and cultural skills to beginning university students available for free. The game can be found here.
Here is a description of the game:
Game Introduction
Karin Moller is an American foreign exchange student living in Freiburg im Breisgau and studying computer science and German at the Albert-Ludwigs University . On a free Saturday she decides to take a sightseeing trip to Munich. Before she can depart by train, however, she must first park her bicycle, buy a train ticket, get something to eat and drink, find a book to read, and locate the correct train platform. And what what will she do about the mysterious homeless man that everybody is talking about at the train station?
Game Research
The constructivist learning environments afforded by digital games provide students with personally-tailored and highly motivational instruction, enhance student responsibility for learning, and promote student free inquiry and exploration. Included within a second language acquisition program, digital games possibly can increase knowledge retention and transfer rates. In Fall Semester 2007 Ausflug am Wochenende nach München was used to teach German vocabulary and culture to beginning university students. Included within the experiment scope was a measurement of the cognitive load imposed by the IF game, the sense of presence provided by the game, analysis of the knowledge retention and transfer rates, and the role of player sex in game interaction. You are free to use the game for your own research purposes.
Validating self-access centres (new forum)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009An exciting and much-needed forum has just been established by David Gardner and Marina Chavez. As posted recently on Auto-L (apols for cross-posting, but I realise not everyone who reads this blog is on the Auto-L mailinglist):
This is to let you know about a new forum that has been established as part of a project looking at the validation of self-access/independent learning centres. The purpose of the forum is to initiate a participatory approach to defining a set of standards and an evaluative system that is meaningful to all. Please take this opportunity to participate in the development of a system for validating SACs by joining us at:
http://cad.cele.unam.mx/sac/
Looking forward to discussing with you online.
David Gardner (HKU) and Marina Chavez (UNAM)
Some More Background
In our paper at the ILAC conference in Hong Kong (June 2009) we discussed the benefits of a system for the validation of self-access centres. We proposed a system which evaluates self-access centres with reference to their own goals and contexts but also with reference to an agreed set of standards. Ultimately, the system could become the basis for a process of certification. We suggested such a system would be of benefit to self-access practitioners for purposes of self-development and to provide evidence of performance to host institutions and funding bodies.
In our paper we suggested that the only viable way forward is to develop a set of standards which define aspects of an effective SAC through a global participatory process. The goal of this process is to develop a system which is meaningful for all participants.
We have now established a discussion forum to start the participatory process. We envisage this forum will serve as a place for discussing ideas and also as a place to participate in formulating the standards that we hope will eventually emerge from the process.
At the moment the forum is very young so we need your participation to make it work. If you are interested in developing a system for validating self-access centres please sign up to the forum at:
http://cad.cele.unam.mx/sac/
