We are happy to let you know that now also the 50+ recorded parallel sessions are online. You can access them from the main conference website (http://www.eurocall2007.com) in the left navigation bar. Some of the recordings didn't meet the quality requirements and had to be left out. Sorry about that.
Peppi
Monday, 8 October 2007
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
All archived files now available
We are pleased to let you know that the recorded versions of all the plenaries and the round table are now available online. We are also sorry that you had to wait this long, things don't always work out as planned.
There will be audio recordings of some of the parallel sessions availalbe later on. We will keep you posted on those too.
Peppi & Lesley
There will be audio recordings of some of the parallel sessions availalbe later on. We will keep you posted on those too.
Peppi & Lesley
Monday, 17 September 2007
Uschi Felix's plenary and the Roundtable discussion
For those of you waiting for the archived versions of Uschi Felix's final plenary presentation and the Roundtable Discussion that followed it, we've been promised that these will be available some time next week. Sorry for the delay, but they will be online soon.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Pre-conference Workshops
As usual I didn't have time to write a posting during EuroCALL this year, I was so involved in attending all of the interesting sessions and taking part in the interesting cultural activities - one of which was the Irish Céilì dancing we did on Friday night. The band, Craobh Rua, did a great job of leading a bunch of neophytes through the various Cèilì moves - and didn't even laugh too much as we crashed into each other. What fun!
I wanted to express my thanks to Peppi Taalas and Lesliey Shield for preparing and conducting the pre-conference workshop on the Virtual Strand. We had lots of fun while getting a hands-on experience with the Conference Blog and chatting with Blogger and Yaplet. I was impressed by their dedication to running the Virtual Strand.
I was sitting next to Peppi while she chatted with a virtual participant during Panel Discussion. He was able to have a question of his answered by members of the panel through with Peppi's intervention. Synchronicity!
Sarah Guth and Lisa Griggio prepared and presented an excellent pre-conference workshop on Using Social Software for Language Learning - Web 2.0 tools available online. Participants learned about wikis, blogs, podcasts, chats, social bookmarks, slidecasts and more! Great handouts were also available to further stimulate participants on their return home. Participants were able to collaborate in teams to practice using these tools and come up with lesson plans they could use on the job. These ideas were all posted in the pbwiki Web2Workshops. Why not take a look and share your ideas too!
I wanted to express my thanks to Peppi Taalas and Lesliey Shield for preparing and conducting the pre-conference workshop on the Virtual Strand. We had lots of fun while getting a hands-on experience with the Conference Blog and chatting with Blogger and Yaplet. I was impressed by their dedication to running the Virtual Strand.
I was sitting next to Peppi while she chatted with a virtual participant during Panel Discussion. He was able to have a question of his answered by members of the panel through with Peppi's intervention. Synchronicity!
Sarah Guth and Lisa Griggio prepared and presented an excellent pre-conference workshop on Using Social Software for Language Learning - Web 2.0 tools available online. Participants learned about wikis, blogs, podcasts, chats, social bookmarks, slidecasts and more! Great handouts were also available to further stimulate participants on their return home. Participants were able to collaborate in teams to practice using these tools and come up with lesson plans they could use on the job. These ideas were all posted in the pbwiki Web2Workshops. Why not take a look and share your ideas too!
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Afterwards
Now that the conference is over, it doesn't mean you can't post your reflections here or in the conference discussion group. After returning home from the conference if you were there, or after thinking about the archived materials you're able to watch or listen to, you may want to ask a question or share an idea or simply make a comment. Please do continue to use the blog and discussion group to do so.
The round table discussion and Uschi Felix's last ever appearance at a conference will soon be appearing in the archived material that you can access from the Virtual Strand website at http://vsportal2007.googlepages.com/home.
The round table discussion and Uschi Felix's last ever appearance at a conference will soon be appearing in the archived material that you can access from the Virtual Strand website at http://vsportal2007.googlepages.com/home.
Monday, 10 September 2007
Podcasts 7 and 8
Here are the final 2 podcasts (actually, since they are not syndicated, by definition they are mp3s available online and not podcasts, but you know what I mean). The last day was so packed with papers and activities that we didn't have time to record any more, but I hope you enjoy them.
Fernando
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs07.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs08.mp3
Fernando
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs07.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs08.mp3
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Podcast 6
The technology has made the process of uploading these a bit slow but here is podcast number 6. The final 2 should come soon!
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs06.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs06.mp3
Final reflections by Graham Davies
Final reflections from Graham Davies
It is often said that if you return from a conference with three new important impressions or ideas then the conference has been a success. These are mine:
1. Bernd Rueschoff, talking about wikis in his plenary presentation on Web 2.0, pointed out that an analysis of the answers given by the audience in the German TV version of “Who wants to be a millionaire” were predominantly right. He reflected that the criticism levelled at wikis such as Wikipedia may be unjustified, as collective knowledge is increasingly proving to be reliable.
2. The video that Grainne Conole showed in her plenary presentation of the student living in a high-tech house and using a variety of digital devices as part of her everyday life left a lasting impression on me. Teachers need to be aware that the new generation of students feel completely at ease with new technologies.
3. Uschi Felix – who declared her intention to retire from academic life this year – warned us that students will not be impressed if they are confronted with “boring old technology” at school or university. On the other hand, they often react negatively to teachers who think they are being trendy by using Facebook and other social network sites that are popular with young people. Students often perceive such sites as “their” property, which they want to keep for themselves.
All in all, this was a great conference. All the sessions that I attended were good. The weather was kind to us, we observed a perfect sunset from the venue of the conference dinner, were entertained by the best Irish/Scottish band (with a fabulous dancer) that I have ever heard, and we danced ourselves to exhaustion at the Ceili. A big “thank you” from me to all the organisers, presenters and participants.
It is often said that if you return from a conference with three new important impressions or ideas then the conference has been a success. These are mine:
1. Bernd Rueschoff, talking about wikis in his plenary presentation on Web 2.0, pointed out that an analysis of the answers given by the audience in the German TV version of “Who wants to be a millionaire” were predominantly right. He reflected that the criticism levelled at wikis such as Wikipedia may be unjustified, as collective knowledge is increasingly proving to be reliable.
2. The video that Grainne Conole showed in her plenary presentation of the student living in a high-tech house and using a variety of digital devices as part of her everyday life left a lasting impression on me. Teachers need to be aware that the new generation of students feel completely at ease with new technologies.
3. Uschi Felix – who declared her intention to retire from academic life this year – warned us that students will not be impressed if they are confronted with “boring old technology” at school or university. On the other hand, they often react negatively to teachers who think they are being trendy by using Facebook and other social network sites that are popular with young people. Students often perceive such sites as “their” property, which they want to keep for themselves.
All in all, this was a great conference. All the sessions that I attended were good. The weather was kind to us, we observed a perfect sunset from the venue of the conference dinner, were entertained by the best Irish/Scottish band (with a fabulous dancer) that I have ever heard, and we danced ourselves to exhaustion at the Ceili. A big “thank you” from me to all the organisers, presenters and participants.
The "normalisation" of CALL: two sessions
The last two sessions that I attended focused on the “normalisation” (v. Bax 2003) of CALL. Monica Ward (Dublin City University) talked about normalising CALL in the primary school context” and Euline Cutrim Schmid (University of Education, Heidelberg) showed how the use of an interactive whiteboard could further the normalisation of CALL.
Monica Ward described a small-scale research study focusing on teaching Irish in primary schools. She said that in this context it is potentially easier to normalise CALL than in other educational environments (secondary and higher) as teachers have more control over their learners and the pedagogy is less exam-oriented. They can also assume that children in this age group already have some familiarity with technology, although they may lack keyboard skills. On the other hand there are a number of barriers to normalisation in the primary sector, namely:
- Lack of equipment
- Lack of software
- Teachers’ lack of ICT and CALL knowledge
- Teachers’ lack of confidence
- Teachers’ lack of interest
One of the problems in teaching Irish is that it is not needed for exam purposes and it is therefore not a main focus of teachers in the primary sector. Furthermore, Ireland is predominantly an English-speaking country and only children living in the Gaeltacht areas (where there are around 10,000 speakers of Irish) would need it for authentic communicative purposes. I reflected that in this respect teachers of Irish are probably experiencing similar problems to those experienced by teachers of Welsh and Scots Gaelic in the UK – and, of course, teachers of French, German and Spanish who always have difficulties convincing their students that learning foreign languages is worthwhile.
Euline Cutrim Schmid’s presentation focused on facilitating the normalisation of CALL through the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the languages classroom. She showed a video demonstrating the main features of an IWB, which also included sequences in which trainee teachers of EAL were using some of these features in their training sessions. This was the only session of the conference focusing exclusively on the use of IWBs. I reflected that this would have been unusual in a language teachers’ conference in the UK, where most of the ICT sessions would probably have focused on IWBs. The main thrust of this session was that the presence of an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, as opposed to a computer lab, which most teachers would probably have to book in advance, was a major step towards the normalisation of CALL. I reflected that in this respect primary and secondary schools in the UK are probably ahead of most other countries in Europe, and indeed ahead of the HE sector in the UK too. I saw no interactive whiteboards in the lecture theatres in the University of Ulster, and Graham Chesters had pointed out in the morning’s panel discussion that there were more IWBs in a primary school near to the University of Hull than in the university itself. This is a factor that needs to be seriously considered, as students entering HE will expect such technology to be available. For them it is already “normal”.
Monica Ward described a small-scale research study focusing on teaching Irish in primary schools. She said that in this context it is potentially easier to normalise CALL than in other educational environments (secondary and higher) as teachers have more control over their learners and the pedagogy is less exam-oriented. They can also assume that children in this age group already have some familiarity with technology, although they may lack keyboard skills. On the other hand there are a number of barriers to normalisation in the primary sector, namely:
- Lack of equipment
- Lack of software
- Teachers’ lack of ICT and CALL knowledge
- Teachers’ lack of confidence
- Teachers’ lack of interest
One of the problems in teaching Irish is that it is not needed for exam purposes and it is therefore not a main focus of teachers in the primary sector. Furthermore, Ireland is predominantly an English-speaking country and only children living in the Gaeltacht areas (where there are around 10,000 speakers of Irish) would need it for authentic communicative purposes. I reflected that in this respect teachers of Irish are probably experiencing similar problems to those experienced by teachers of Welsh and Scots Gaelic in the UK – and, of course, teachers of French, German and Spanish who always have difficulties convincing their students that learning foreign languages is worthwhile.
Euline Cutrim Schmid’s presentation focused on facilitating the normalisation of CALL through the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the languages classroom. She showed a video demonstrating the main features of an IWB, which also included sequences in which trainee teachers of EAL were using some of these features in their training sessions. This was the only session of the conference focusing exclusively on the use of IWBs. I reflected that this would have been unusual in a language teachers’ conference in the UK, where most of the ICT sessions would probably have focused on IWBs. The main thrust of this session was that the presence of an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, as opposed to a computer lab, which most teachers would probably have to book in advance, was a major step towards the normalisation of CALL. I reflected that in this respect primary and secondary schools in the UK are probably ahead of most other countries in Europe, and indeed ahead of the HE sector in the UK too. I saw no interactive whiteboards in the lecture theatres in the University of Ulster, and Graham Chesters had pointed out in the morning’s panel discussion that there were more IWBs in a primary school near to the University of Hull than in the university itself. This is a factor that needs to be seriously considered, as students entering HE will expect such technology to be available. For them it is already “normal”.
Saturday, 8 September 2007
The end is near...
Well, folks. We are drawing close to the end of the conference. It has been a great event, it has been exciting to hear about what people are doing, to see what is "hot" and what is not :)
This is however not the end of the virtual element of the conference. We will keep the blog alive and hope to see many of you posting your impressions on the topics in the coming weeks. Either after having been in Coleraine in person or attending the events at a distance.
Take care and do keep the discussion going! See you next year in Székesfehérvár!
Peppi & Lesley
This is however not the end of the virtual element of the conference. We will keep the blog alive and hope to see many of you posting your impressions on the topics in the coming weeks. Either after having been in Coleraine in person or attending the events at a distance.
Take care and do keep the discussion going! See you next year in Székesfehérvár!
Peppi & Lesley
Co-operative Audiovisual Comprehension
Language teachers and learners need to be ready to use online video in a pedagogically-sound way for developing comprehensible input and output in our language classes.
Following the Web 2.0 philosophy here is the Powerpoint of my Paper presentation at this conference so everybody (delegates and virtual participants) can view it and leave some comments.
Following the Web 2.0 philosophy here is the Powerpoint of my Paper presentation at this conference so everybody (delegates and virtual participants) can view it and leave some comments.
Impressions, aspirations and thoughts from the panel discussion
As you will all be watching the panel discussion either in real time or later on as an archive, I thought I will post more ad hoc impressions rather than document what is being said. Do join in at some point or another.
Bernd's point about a new era is definitely true. The somewhat random surfing for information is a fad from the past, technology enhanced learning is more about joint knowledge construction and use of the various media for a purpose.
I definitely agree with Gràinne in that our big challenge at the moment is two-fold: to do methodological explorations to find, develop and come up with new/combined methodologies that will be better suited for our research in our current complex settings. We also need to do serious development in the approach to designs for learning so that they would be manageable but at the same time incorporate a variety of multimodal learning affordances.
Uschi said the word that is the key in all learning: learning has to be meaningful for the learners.
This was a VERY good panel discussion! I am leaving so much of the essence out that you'll simply have to watch the recording if you haven't already done so!
Bernd's point about a new era is definitely true. The somewhat random surfing for information is a fad from the past, technology enhanced learning is more about joint knowledge construction and use of the various media for a purpose.
I definitely agree with Gràinne in that our big challenge at the moment is two-fold: to do methodological explorations to find, develop and come up with new/combined methodologies that will be better suited for our research in our current complex settings. We also need to do serious development in the approach to designs for learning so that they would be manageable but at the same time incorporate a variety of multimodal learning affordances.
Uschi said the word that is the key in all learning: learning has to be meaningful for the learners.
This was a VERY good panel discussion! I am leaving so much of the essence out that you'll simply have to watch the recording if you haven't already done so!
Uschi Felix's plenary
This is an important post! It records Uschi Felix's announcement that she is retiring after this presentation and has chosen to make her last appearance at EuroCALL. She does not believe in speaking if you have nothing left to say!
So, the streamed/archive of this presentation is something you really need to see.
Peppi is going to add another comment about the presentation, but I wanted to say a big thank you to Uschi for raising the profile of the use of technology in learning and for being a good friend.
Thank you Uschi.
Now to listen to the presentation and to anticipate the koalas...
So, the streamed/archive of this presentation is something you really need to see.
Peppi is going to add another comment about the presentation, but I wanted to say a big thank you to Uschi for raising the profile of the use of technology in learning and for being a good friend.
Thank you Uschi.
Now to listen to the presentation and to anticipate the koalas...
Friday, 7 September 2007
The Wednesday Gala Dinner
The magnificent sunset
The treat
We had a great night in perfect surroundings, didn't we!
I would have liked to upload a few pictures of the magnificent Altnaveigh House Band and the lady dancer, but usually it is a copyright issue with performing artists, and I don't want to violate their copyright. :-)
But they were amazing!
Speed Bumps for Authentic Listening Materials
Marty Meinardi, from the Dublin Institute of Technology, talked about a very important issue, namely the [English] language learners' difficulties in finding a match between the sound they hear and the words they know. When native speakers of English speak very fast, the speech becomes messy, and this makes understanding difficult for the learners Special attention should be paid to this in teaching.
Marty quoted Swan, who has written that "if students are exposed only to scripted material, they will learn an impoverished version of the language, and will find it hard to come to terms with genuine discourse when they are exposed to it". Listening exercises are often read aloud from text by actors and are not authentic. So there is a great demand for "real" language to be used in listening exercises.
There have been programs that can slow down sound files, but they have been created for music purposes and mostly don't give good results with speech. A new algorithm has been developed at the DIT for slowing down speech. It looks at the sound pattern and can slow down speech down to 40 % of the original time without the speech sounding too odd (although it sounds a bit sleepy). But at 80 %, even the native speakers consider the quality very good and natural.
According to Marty, the slow-down tool can be used to facilitate the processing and retrieving formulaic sequences and chunks which the native speakers usually speak at a faster rate. This way these highly important elements of fluent speech become more accessible and "learnable" to the students.
Marty quoted Swan, who has written that "if students are exposed only to scripted material, they will learn an impoverished version of the language, and will find it hard to come to terms with genuine discourse when they are exposed to it". Listening exercises are often read aloud from text by actors and are not authentic. So there is a great demand for "real" language to be used in listening exercises.
There have been programs that can slow down sound files, but they have been created for music purposes and mostly don't give good results with speech. A new algorithm has been developed at the DIT for slowing down speech. It looks at the sound pattern and can slow down speech down to 40 % of the original time without the speech sounding too odd (although it sounds a bit sleepy). But at 80 %, even the native speakers consider the quality very good and natural.
According to Marty, the slow-down tool can be used to facilitate the processing and retrieving formulaic sequences and chunks which the native speakers usually speak at a faster rate. This way these highly important elements of fluent speech become more accessible and "learnable" to the students.
Archived plenary sessions now available...
You can now view the archived plenary presentations by Bernd Rueschoff and Gráinne Conole at http://www.eurocall2007.com/conference_format/virtual-strand/archives.html
One Laptop Per Child Project
One Laptop Per Child
Presenter: Todd Kelsey
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organisation aiming to help children in the developing (and developed) world gain access to educational materials and to explore, experiment and express themselves. A significant need for a wide range of (free) language learning materials in a variety of languages has been identified.
Todd showed us a prototype of the small, colourful, XO child-friendly laptop which is being developed as part of this project and which it is hoped can be made freely available under the OLPC initiative.
Todd pointed out that the equipment and materials designed for use by children could also be used by adults in developing countries.
Todd is currently looking for partners willing to be involved in this initiative, especially donating content materials to be made available under a Creative Commons Licence.
Further information at:
http://www.laptop.org
http://wiki.laptop.org
Presenter: Todd Kelsey
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organisation aiming to help children in the developing (and developed) world gain access to educational materials and to explore, experiment and express themselves. A significant need for a wide range of (free) language learning materials in a variety of languages has been identified.
Todd showed us a prototype of the small, colourful, XO child-friendly laptop which is being developed as part of this project and which it is hoped can be made freely available under the OLPC initiative.
Todd pointed out that the equipment and materials designed for use by children could also be used by adults in developing countries.
Todd is currently looking for partners willing to be involved in this initiative, especially donating content materials to be made available under a Creative Commons Licence.
Further information at:
http://www.laptop.org
http://wiki.laptop.org
LANCELOT: An online teacher training course
This was a symposium session, led by Gary Motteram, University of Manchester, UK, focusing on the EC-funded LANCELOT language teacher online training project. The aim of the project is to develop an online course for training language teachers to use the tools found in virtual classrooms. The course combines both synchronous and asynchronous elements.
The session opened with a demonstration of a synchronous session with a number of members of the project in various geographical locations joining us live.
The software used for conferencing is Macromedia Breeze – now Adobe Connect.
Intercultural Competence (IC) and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) are important features of this project, with trainees being helped to take potential differences into account when planning and delivering their online lessons.
Heike Philp joined us online from Germany, talking about the technological tools used in virtual classrooms: Web conferencing, instant messaging, audio conferencing, whiteboarding, screen sharing and Web touring, etc and how these tools are used.
We were then joined online by Daniela Arghir, who talked about her positive experiences following the LANCELOT course as a trainee. She is a teacher of EFL and Romanian.
This is the project website, where more information can be found and from which the materials will be launched:
http://www.lancelot.at/
The session opened with a demonstration of a synchronous session with a number of members of the project in various geographical locations joining us live.
The software used for conferencing is Macromedia Breeze – now Adobe Connect.
Intercultural Competence (IC) and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) are important features of this project, with trainees being helped to take potential differences into account when planning and delivering their online lessons.
Heike Philp joined us online from Germany, talking about the technological tools used in virtual classrooms: Web conferencing, instant messaging, audio conferencing, whiteboarding, screen sharing and Web touring, etc and how these tools are used.
We were then joined online by Daniela Arghir, who talked about her positive experiences following the LANCELOT course as a trainee. She is a teacher of EFL and Romanian.
This is the project website, where more information can be found and from which the materials will be launched:
http://www.lancelot.at/
From tags to riches: Improving Webquests with Web 2.0
The Make Your World webside was created to help students learning English through a socio-constructive task-based approach. This inspiring presentation described a study of how students can make use of Web 2.0 technology in Webquests. There are some useful resources under the link Technology: http://turizm.comu.edu.tr/staff/bart/projects/travel
Podcasts 3, 4, and 5
Here are podcasts 3, 4 and 5. Hope you find them interesting and they help bring the conference closer. Your feedback is welcome!
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs03.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs04.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs05.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs03.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs04.mp3
http://www.eurocall2007.com/virtual/archive/vs05.mp3
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