Leslie Opp-Beckman
University of Oregon, USA, leslieob@uoregon.edu  [bio]

Setting the stage for effective online distance education--in the case of UO, primarily with ESOL educators worldwide--requires careful advance needs analysis, planning, and ongoing assessment for all participant, instructional, and administrative "roles." This session will look at some of the ways in which course administration, best practices (as derived from 15+ years of online course development at UO), and assessment can form useful measures for determining the degree to which online learning is effective. 
Preliminary notes, last updated 3/25/2010 [PDF].

Joan Kang Shin

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), USA, jshin2@umbc.edu [bio]

E-presence in Text-based Asynchronous Online Discussions  

 Although e-learning environments are evolving through the incorporation of new technologies, such as Web 2.0 tools and video-based instruction, there is still an important place for text-based asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC).  In a fully online distance teacher education program with participants from over 80 countries around the world, instruction should center around the technology that all participants can access equally.   Internet access is not the same from country to country, and there can be variation within a country from region to region or from urban to rural settings.  When many students only have dial-up Internet access and when commonly used Web 2.0 tools like YouTube and Facebook are blocked in some countries, use of innovative technology can exclude students in less developed and more restricted settings.  Therefore, text-based asynchronous CMC can be more inclusive pedagogically.  This presentation will focus on strategies for building e-presence internationally through an online distance TESOL professional development program where levels of access range from slow dial-up internet access a few hours per week to high-speed internet access any time seven days a week.  The key is to find the most inclusive technology and bring it to the forefront of instruction.

JKS Brief Outline

Rita Abdelnour

Saint Joseph School, Cornet Chehwan, Lebanon, slaveoflight@gmail.com [bio]
 

Online Collaborative Learning: A Lebanese Ongoing Experience

 Saint Joseph School, like many other Lebanese educational institutions, offers technological facilities to students who, in the majority, have regular and easy access to the Internet. However, taking these young teenagers online as part of their learning process still faces major resistance. Not a long time ago, objectives of collaboration, critical thinking, and a more efficient use of the excessive time students spend connected to the net have convinced the administration to give the innovative use of web 2.0 a try. Grade 9 students, aged 13-14, were therefore offered the opportunity to hold discussion forums and share their writing online. This presentation will highlight the basic challenges as well as the success stories such an ongoing pilot project has had. It also explores the strategies needed first to turn this online learning community into a better planned opportunity for learners’ skills to develop consistently and second to overcome the anticipated difficulties more efficiently.

Abdelnour Brief Outline

Abdelnour_CALL-IS_Academic_Session_2010.pdf  

Karen Price

Boston University, USA, kprice@tiac.net   [bio]

As Dr. Shin points out, there is still an important place for text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC).  However, where learners and teachers do have access to mobile phones, internet-connected gadgets, and social media, they may wish to consider “plugging in”.  On the one hand, the integration of these technologies offers teachers and learners intriguing new opportunities in the realm of e-presence, participation, and interaction with content.  On the other hand, teachers will soon need to face the challenges posed by the rise of the “splinternet”, the fragmentation of media across a multitude of gadgets, and the splitting of the internet into a series of content portals.  

We will look at a number of platforms and technologies (including Avermedia, iPoki, Google Latitude, PollEverywhere, Cisco Telepresence, TweetDeck, Meebo, TwitterTV, Project Natal, MyScribe) and consider how issues involving choices of social learning technologies, task types, and activities might affect second and foreign language teaching and learning. 

Mini Panel - Deborah Healey

University of Oregon, USA, dhealey@uoregon.edu [bio]