Monday, July 19, 2004
feedback from Martha Clark Cummings
A few thoughts:
1) Last year, the teachers really emphasized their need to have clear pedagogical uses for the technology they were learning about. They saw my job not as a provider of technology but as a provider of pedagogical applications. I can't stress that enough. But it looks like you have already thought of that.
2) Many of the teachers were in situations where there was only one computer in the school where they were working. They really would have liked to have lessons they could do with that one computer. There are some, as I'm sure you know, in Warschauer's book. You could just keep that in the back of your mind. I know the organizers say that they are being trained to be teacher trainers, but the question is, in how many years?
3) Often, links to servers in the States didn't work. You might need to have a backup plan for when the links don't work. Also, get there early to make sure that the computers really are connected to the Internet. Will they have microphones and webcams for you to use? Sorry. I'm sure you've taught in plenty of situations where nothing worked and know exactly how to deal with that problem too.
4) Correction: Ingrid Bowman was also a trainer last year and although we used nicenet as a platform we did a lot more than work with nicenet! Did they not give you the class keys? The key for my class for the second week was 277909T86, if you'd like to have a look at it although I will understand perfectly if you don't have time! Here are the links from Ingrid's class, just to give you a sense of what she covered. (Have you been in touch with her? She was in Tunisia for a year.)
Writing and the Internet
Purdue's Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Univ of Oregon
Class projects
TOPICS Online Magazine
This online students magazine has a TEACHERS CORNER where you can read about other projects teachers have tried in class.
broken link
Email for English teaching
Keypal information http://www.wfi.fr/volterre/keypals.html
Epals Exchange http://www.epals.com/
Yahoo free mail http://www.yahoo.com/
Dave's ESL Cafe http://www.eslcafe.com/
Information about smoking
Science and Tobacco http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/smoke-pr.html
Americans for non-smokers rights http://www.no-smoke.org/
United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Group http://www.smokersclub.com/newsltr.htmv
Ingrid's web site
Learn English http://www.hexabyte.tn/learnenglish/
Links for the Mahdia Summer Institute are on this site that I created for Tunisia.
Lesson Planning
Ask Eric, now Educator's Reference Desk http://www.eduref.org/
Listening & Pronunciation Resources
BBC Listening Resources http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/
Randall's Listening Lab
http://www.esl-lab.com/
Practice your English
Fawzi's Englishwebsite
http://www.evt.edunet.tn/depinteg/projetstic/secondaire/projets/anglais/intasks/index.htm
Publisher Sites
Longman http://www.longman.com/
Theory of C.A.L.L.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction
Great article by Mark Warschauer explaining how C.A.L.L. got started and how it has expanded into today's classrooms.
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/call.html
1) Last year, the teachers really emphasized their need to have clear pedagogical uses for the technology they were learning about. They saw my job not as a provider of technology but as a provider of pedagogical applications. I can't stress that enough. But it looks like you have already thought of that.
2) Many of the teachers were in situations where there was only one computer in the school where they were working. They really would have liked to have lessons they could do with that one computer. There are some, as I'm sure you know, in Warschauer's book. You could just keep that in the back of your mind. I know the organizers say that they are being trained to be teacher trainers, but the question is, in how many years?
3) Often, links to servers in the States didn't work. You might need to have a backup plan for when the links don't work. Also, get there early to make sure that the computers really are connected to the Internet. Will they have microphones and webcams for you to use? Sorry. I'm sure you've taught in plenty of situations where nothing worked and know exactly how to deal with that problem too.
4) Correction: Ingrid Bowman was also a trainer last year and although we used nicenet as a platform we did a lot more than work with nicenet! Did they not give you the class keys? The key for my class for the second week was 277909T86, if you'd like to have a look at it although I will understand perfectly if you don't have time! Here are the links from Ingrid's class, just to give you a sense of what she covered. (Have you been in touch with her? She was in Tunisia for a year.)
Writing and the Internet
Purdue's Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Univ of Oregon
Class projects
TOPICS Online Magazine
This online students magazine has a TEACHERS CORNER where you can read about other projects teachers have tried in class.
broken link
Email for English teaching
Keypal information http://www.wfi.fr/volterre/keypals.html
Epals Exchange http://www.epals.com/
Yahoo free mail http://www.yahoo.com/
Dave's ESL Cafe http://www.eslcafe.com/
Information about smoking
Science and Tobacco http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/smoke-pr.html
Americans for non-smokers rights http://www.no-smoke.org/
United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Group http://www.smokersclub.com/newsltr.htmv
Ingrid's web site
Learn English http://www.hexabyte.tn/learnenglish/
Links for the Mahdia Summer Institute are on this site that I created for Tunisia.
Lesson Planning
Ask Eric, now Educator's Reference Desk http://www.eduref.org/
Listening & Pronunciation Resources
BBC Listening Resources http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/
Randall's Listening Lab
http://www.esl-lab.com/
Practice your English
Fawzi's Englishwebsite
http://www.evt.edunet.tn/depinteg/projetstic/secondaire/projets/anglais/intasks/index.htm
Publisher Sites
Longman http://www.longman.com/
Theory of C.A.L.L.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction
Great article by Mark Warschauer explaining how C.A.L.L. got started and how it has expanded into today's classrooms.
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/call.html
