I am very excited to announce a new book series for Palgrave Macmillan on ‘New Language Learning and Teaching Environments’, dedicated to recent developments in learner-centred approaches and the impact of technology on learning and teaching inside and outside the language classroom I am inviting submissions for full-length manuscripts and edited books.
New Language Language Learning and Teaching Environments offers a multidisciplinary forum for presenting and investigating the latest developments in language education, taking a pedagogic approach with a clear focus on the learner, and with clear implications for both researchers and language practitioners.
Aims and scope:
• To publish cutting-edge research into current developments and innovation in language learning and teaching practice.
• To publish applied accounts of the ways in which these developments impact on current and future language education.
• To encourage dissemination and cross-fertilisation of policies and practice relating to learner-centred pedagogies for language learning and teaching in new learning environments.
• To disseminate research and best practice in out-of-class and informal language learning.
Work on New Language Environments encompasses research (both theoretical and applied) and development in areas as diverse as (and not limited to):
Virtual learning environments
Learner Autonomy
Self-access centres
Blended learning
Distance learning
Self-directed learning
Content and Language Integrated Learning
Work-based learning
Community initiatives
Self-study
Mobile learning
New Literacies
Situated learning
Language Support
Language Advising and Counselling
You can find out more about the series or learn how to submit a proposal here.
Sites like Wirenode let you easily reformat an existing website for mobile access. Mobile roadie take this one step further and facilates the creation of Iphone and Android apps. We are currently working on developing these for academic literacy development here at Middlesex University in London. Have you created any? Used this website? Send me a note!
Nothing to do with language or teaching but too good to miss:Lonely Planet is giving a way a number of free city guides as Iphone Apps - part of a campaign for travellers stranded because of the volcanic ash cloud. Only until the end of Thursday so be quick!
I came across this application quite some time ago and thought it was a fabulous alternative to those silly clickers (which always seemed like a transitional technology to me). This lets students respond or give feedback using SMS or Twitter, and displays the results straight into a Powerpoint. I’m sure prices for this sort of thing will come down considerably.
COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING AND THE LEARNER
AILA ReN Symposium
Call for Papers
Background and Aims
Recently, attempts have been made to make learning more flexible for the learner. With developments in mobile technologies, learners have freedom that was previously unavailable to them, and researchers have started capitalising upon this, through provision of lessons that learners can access whenever and wherever they wish (e.g., Stockwell, 2007, 2008), or through encouraging them to access audio and/or video resources of their choosing (e.g., Gromik, 2008). Other researchers have chosen to use these mobile technologies as a supplement to class activities (Levy & Kennedy,
2008; Reinders, 2008) and to make increasing links between formal and informal learning, for example by capitalising on the potential of computer games (e.g. Ranalli, 2008).
Social networking sites such as Active Worlds and Second Life have also empowered learners to make decisions about who they wish to converse with, by what mode (i.e., text chat or oral communication), and freely engage in discussion with a real audience who shares similar interests (e.g., Dudeney, 2008). This is a growth area, where researchers examine the way technology facilitates interaction between teachers and learners, between native speakers and learners, and between learners themselves and the unique characteristics of this type of communication. Another related strand of research looks at the identities learners create online and the ways they develop and build on communities of learners for their language development (e.g., Lam, 2004).
These recent developments in the area of social networking and mobile-assisted language learning are of particular interest to researchers interested in understanding in changes in the way learners approach the learning of a second language. In saying this, however, a crucial question that remains is how best to support learning in these environments. We are only starting to develop methodologies for investigating these forms of language learning, where the teacher’s role is less dominant in controlling learners’ actions, but rather one where the learners must be guided to use the existing resources in a way that has the potential to lead to personal development and to language acquisition. Furthermore, in such an environment where a good deal of the learning may occur outside of a classroom situation, methods of ensuring maintenance of learner motivation also become paramount.
Although research is carried out in the above areas in many parts of the world, the research is not connected and studies done in one field may not be informed by research done in another. It is the aim of this Symposium to bring together people working in the different areas related to the role of the language learner in CALL.
Themes of the symposium include:
- Learner motivation
- Computer-mediated communication (with a focus on the role of the learner)
- Learners’ beliefs in CALL
- (Materials development for) individualising instruction
- Social networking and computer games and second language acquisition
- Mobile-assisted language learning
- Supporting out-of-class language learning
- Teacher education for CALL (this follows on from the AILA Symposium in Essen).
Submitting a proposal We are inviting proposals for contributions to the symposium. Each paper will be given 20 minutes and there will be time for questions and discussion at the end. To submit a proposal, please send a 250 word abstract to
callandthelearner@gmail.com
You do not need to submit your paper to AILA, as ReN symposium papers are vetted separately.
You can find more information about the conference here: http://www.aila2011.org/en/default.asp
To find our more about, or to join the Research Network, please visit: www.callandthelearner.info
The deadline for submitting a proposal is May 30.
In this free issue of
I came across an article titled ‘lessons learned about signing augmented Realities’ in the freely available inaugural issue of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations. In it the authors talk about augmented reality and a project in which they provided middle and high school students with handheld devices equiped with GPS. In the words of the authors: ‘As the students move around a physical location, such as their school playground or sports felds (Figure 2), a map on their handheld displays digital objects and virtual people who exist in an AR world superimposed on real space (Figure 3). When students come within approximately 30 feet of these digital artifacts, the AR and GPS software triggers video, audio, and text fles, which provide narrative, navigation, and collaboration cues as well as academic challenges. In Alien Contact! the students are presented with the following scenario: Aliens have landed on Earth and seem to be preparing for a number of actions, including peaceful contact, invasion, plundering, or simply returning to their home planet, among other possibilities. Working in teams (four pupils per team), the students must explore the augmented reality world, interviewing virtual characters, collecting digital items, and solving mathematics and literacy puzzles to determine why the aliens have landed. Each team has four roles: chemist, cryptologist, computer hacker, and FBI agent. Depending upon his or her role, each student will see different pieces of evidence. In order to successfully navigate the augmented reality environment and solve various puzzles, the students must share information and collaborate with the other members of their team’ (pp 4-5).
This is very neat indeed. I tried doing something similar before by using podquests, but these did not have inbuilt GPS so obviously were limited compared to this project. This is an excellent use of technology to encourage - and support - out-of-class learning.
Thornton and Houser were among the first to show the potential for cellphones for vocabulary learning back in 2004. They sent out SMS messages to their students with new vocabulary, and made sure that each item was received multiple times by their participants. I don’t think (but I could be wrong here) that they made use of spaced learning by increasing the time interval between each exposure. Flaschard software is excellent at that, and now there are programs for use on cellphones. This could potentially be excellent as you are likely to have your phone with you when it is time for your next rehearsal. Here is one such program (www.flashmybrain.com) but there are many others.
Coursesmart, a publisher of college textbooks in the US, is offering an Iphone application that gives you access to over 7,000 textbooks. Why are publishers of language education materials so far behind….?
A very neat application was just realised by Ipadio for use with any cellphone. Essentially this lets you dial a number in the UK (or if you have an Iphone or Android phone you can use a dedicated app) and record yourself, a call or a presentation (if you have a mic). It then automatically uploads that to an audioblog, so it’s ‘live-to-web’. It also includes voice-to-text transcription and it will geo-tag your post so that people can see where the recording was made. Needless to say this would be wonderful for a range of uses, such as data collection (interviews, recordings of classroom interactions, personal reflections/portolios), and also teaching (get students to do interviews or be ‘journalists’ and report on events outside the classroom; they then read or listen to eachother’s posts and comment on them). Has anyone usd this yet for language teaching or research purposes?
In the past I have used www.wirenode.com to make mobile versions of my website. I have now found a new website called Mippin, which seems just as easy. It will take an RSS feed from your website and turn it into a mobile-ready version, complete with pictures, formatting and layout. Brilliant.
