Beyond WebCT - Recently Updated Pages

Beyond WebCT Course Wiki

blindsey — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:10:06 CST

This wiki showcases the work of graduate students in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages (fall 2007 and fall 2008) as they define key Web 2.0 concepts, describe collaborative Web 2.0 tools and provide pedagogical rationales for their use and suggested course applications.

This site is a companion site to our course blog: Beyond WebCT: Integrating Social Networking Tools Into Language & Culture Courses

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

wikis

Wenling — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:27:48 CST

by Wen-ling Tung

Photo by jeffmacneill
Courtesy of a Creative Commons license.

What is "wiki"?

A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wikis are used to create collaborative websites and allow the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself by using a simplified markup language. In addition, wikis support hyperlinks and have simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links. Wiki, in Ward Cunningham’s original description: “The simplest online database that could possibly work.” Ward, the developer of the first wiki site called “Wiki Wiki Web” in 1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com in 1995. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “fast.” According to Cunningham, he says he chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for “quick” and thereby avoided naming it “quick-web.”

In the book The Wiki Way: quick collaboration on the Web, Ward and co-author Bo Leuf described the essence of the Wiki concept:

"A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons. "
"Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not."
"A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape."

Functions of Wikis

Wikis have some special functions. First, they have the function of hypertext links to other pages. Second, users can also create any number of index or table of contexts pages with categorization or whatever form of organization they like, which may be challenging to maintain by hand. Generally, wikis provide some ways to categorize or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index pages. In addition, most wikis have a backlink feature, which displays all pages that link to a given page. Also it is typical in a wiki to allow users to create links to pages that do not exist, which serves as a way to invite others to share a subject new to the wiki. And most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the search depends on whether the wiki engine uses a database.

Wikis and Security.

There are many different types of wikis. Different settings allow you to make your wiki as private or as public as you want.
Yet most of the wikis are open to users and allow anyone to edit content. Some larger wikis employ sophisticated methods, such as automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript enhancements that show characters that have been added in each edit, and some wikis allow unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, whilst other limit this function to just registered users. Generally speaking, on most wikis, becoming a registered user is a short and simple process. Users can sign up without any difficulty and allow everyone to create and edit while some wikis require an additional waiting period before gaining access to certain tools. For example, on the English wikipedia, registered users can only remain pages if their account is at least four years old, and Portugese wikipedia use an editing requirement. Also some wikis choose to "close-up", requiring the users' real name and detailed biography, which seems ineffective and affect the growth of wiki.

Wikis in Higher Education

With the features of powerful collaboration, wikis allow everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site which encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users. Linda L Briggs in “The Power of Wiki in Higher Ed” mentions his interview with Stewart Mader, who has staked his career on the power of wikis, talking about powerful ways to use wikis in education, and how colleges and universities use wikis to enhance learning. Stewart indicates that in higher education, there are three ways a wiki can be useful: teaching, research, and administration. He points out that the usefulness of applying wikis in teaching comes from two things. First, teachers can work together using a wiki to write curriculum and lesson plans for courses to develop the assignments and so forth. For students, wikis are beneficial primarily as a collaborative tool for things like group assignments in courses. In addition, wikis allow instructors to focus on fewer, more in-depth assignments or products that are results of highly collaborative work by students. And since an instructor has access to the contribution history on the wiki, he can see what students are doing as they are doing it, which allows an instructor to help students to keep a project on course towards success.

Pedagogical Rationales for the Use of Wiki

Since wikis provides users with author and editor privileges, they can easily edit the content and the overall organization of contribution as well. In addition, wikis are able to incorporate sounds, movies and pictures, which make wikis a simple tool to create multimedia presentations and simple digital stores in a language. For example, in a language class, the instructor can create a class wiki, which is a free online learning community, providing students reading resources, asking inspiring questions, making announcements, and engaging students with any activities related to the target language learning, sharing ideas, giving feed backs and so on. And students can use the class wiki to create and edit their own works or do the group works, present their projects, and exchange their opinions among them. Moreover, a class wiki is not only use among teacher and students in a class, but engage visitors from all over world, which students will feel exciting and being motivated if the visitors can join their discussion and give comments. The following link is an example of an English Class Wiki (by Steve Shann): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BByRVoDVEpM

Another example is from Nathalie's experience sharing. She has applied Wetpaint as a class wiki for her literature class. Wetpaint is more students centered tool, so students can completely create it themselves. And the other features, such as very user friendly and easy importing widgets from other sites, engage students to be more creative and more willing to use the tools for learning purpose. They can discuss the topic on the discussion board, editing and doing their group work, and sharing their opinions at the class wiki, and Nathalie, as an instructor, can put reading resources, link video clips from YouTube, giving students responses and feedback, which makes her teaching work more efficient and well-organized and more communicative. In addition, it is better that all the creative works of students and the class curricula and discussions will be maintained well on the class wiki even the class have ended. However, she found that her class wiki in Wetpaint is not much outside interaction.

Framed by the 5C's, the appliance of wikis can help achieve the standards of foreign language teaching by ACTFL. A class wiki help students achieve the standard of communication--engage in daily conversations, provide and obtain information, express feeling and emotions, and exchange opinions. With the functions of import widgets easily, a wiki also allows students to reach the standard of culture more effectively--gain some knowledge and understand of the culture of the target language. And the feature of working wiki online make student be able to use the target language to communicate within and beyond class setting. Since students can efficiently interact with their instructor and classmates to their best in the target language by wikis, they will develop a certain level of comfort with the new language in the online learning environment which is more efficient, nurturing, motivational and communicative.

For simple but clear explanation of wikis, please see the following video clip "Wiki by Plain English" by Lee and Sachi Lefever

Collaborative Editing

Wessam.saad — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:16:27 CST

by
Renato Ventura

Before we start discussing Collaborative Editing (CE), it could be useful to provide a definition of CE. It seems appropriate to use Wikipedia, which itself is an example of collaborative editing. Here is the definition from the online encyclopedia:

"Collaborative editing is the practice of groups producing works together through individual contributions. Most usually it is applied to textual documents or programmatic source code. Such asynchronous (non-simultaneous) contributions are very efficient in time, as group members need not assemble in order to work together. Generally, managing such work requires software; the most common tools for editing documents are Wikis, and those for programming, version control systems. Most word processors are also capable of recording changes; this allows many editors to work on the same document while automatically clearly labeling who contributed what changes."

If someone feels more comfortable with visual description of CE, the painting above (Courtesy of Teroan 'Ntuvera) represents graphically the concept beyond CE. Because all the contributors work at the same project (it could be an article or any kind of document) there is not a one to one relationship (in fact there is no hierarchy as in the classical tree) or a diachronic procedure (first draft, revision, second draft, revision, etc.), but instead the procedure is synchronic: all the editors operate simultaneously and each one can see in "real time" what is happening. In a (language) classroom, websites such as wetpaint or googledocs could be used for collaborative editing. Another application of CE could be posting on-line a series of VERY badly written essays in Italian (or other foreign languages) and have the students - singularly or in groups - make corrections to the essays with their evaluation for the exercise based on (a) how many of the errors they were able to discern and (b) how they corrected the errors they did find.
The picture and the concept of CE reminds me of the rhizome, used in literary criticism and proposed for the first time by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. [fr. 1980] Trans. B. Mazzuni. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1987). According to Deleuze and Guattari, "the rhizome itself assumes very diverse forms, from ramified surface extension in all directions to concretion into bulbs and tubers." As a consequence, the rhizome perfectly symbolizes the concept of student-centered (rather than teacher-centered) classroom we all (as instructors) strive to achieve.

The pedagogical applications of CE are intuitive and are, for example, explained in the article "Pedagogical Potential" by Renee Fountain. One of the most common applications of CE is writing an article where the main focus is the connections between the authors. In a classroom, such a tool can be used for common projects or group presentations. Thus, students are able to exchange opinions, engage in discussions, as well as communicate. In addition, students are able to demonstrate their ability to use the course contents beyond the classroom.
Here is a web site (written by Brian Benzinger) where is possible to find many CE applications,

http://www.solutionwatch.com/154/real-time-collaborative-editing-applications/

Presentation Tools

Wenling — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:48:06 CST

by Fulvio Orsitto

Picture is courtesy of cogdogblog at Flickr

What are Presentation Tools? According to Robin Good, “Web presentation tools and technologies provide the means to deliver any PowerPoint-based or similar type of visual presentation to an Internet-connected audience, no matter where participants are connecting from.” The importance of these tools is given by the fact that, in Robin Good’s opinion, “until recently, sharing a PowerPoint presentation with other people, let alone doing this in real-time, was a major challenge. The size of a typical PowerPoint file didn't make it easy to send it via email, and incompatibilities between different versions of PowerPoint made the effort even more complex for the non-technical user.” Therefore, it is crucial, Good concludes, that “newer software and web-based technologies now allow the easy-uploading of PowerPoint presentations to dedicated web presentation services and even the delivery of unattended, on-demand presentations having a custom web page address (URL).” As stated on the Blog “The Distant librarian”, “the key features that characterize web presentation technologies and delivery tools include: Automatic conversion to Flash, Thumbnails Preview, Live annotation, Interactive annotation, On-demand delivery, Audio, Full screen, PowerPoint transitions preservation.”

Why are Web Presentation Tools important? The current generation of students entering colleges and universities is characterized by unprecedented skills in terms of technology (for more details, see “Convenience, Communications, and Control: How Students Use Technology” by Robert Kvavik). According to Marc Prensky, these students are actually “digital natives”, meaning that they are all “native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.” (see "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants") Nowadays, students take technology for granted and they expect to encounter a certain level of technology in every course they take. As a consequence, according to Alma Clayton-Pedersen and Nancy O'Neill, “to better meet individual and societal needs of the 21st century, numerous leaders—inside and outside higher education—recognized at the end of the 20th century that college and university missions and practices needed to be reinvigorated. Within such a process, perhaps consensus could be reached about the new expectations we needed for students, for curricula, and given its infusion into society, for technology” (for more details, see “Curricula Designed to Meet 21st-Century Expectations” by Alma Clayton-Pedersen and Nancy O'Neill). These presentation tools provide the opportunity for students to present ideas and information to an audience. In addition, in a foreign language classroom, for example, students are able to demonstrate their knowledge and the use of the vocabulary they already learned. Presentation tools can also be used to start a discussion on a specific topic in a language class. It is useful when the subject (in particular a grammar topic) is hard to understand. The students can present on the topic and lead the class into a discussion. If you can teach something it means you really understood it!

What are the most popular Presentation Tools? There is a large number of Presentation Tools available to those instructors who wish to use them and possibly integrate them into their courses. Among these, one must mention Spresent, “a Web-based alternative to PowerPoint”, Slideshare another free program described as “the world’s largest community for sharing presentations on the web”, Screencast-o-matic, depicted as a “free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free hosting all from your browser with no install!” and CamStudio, an application “able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).” Since students always want to be exposed to multiple sources, Google jockeying has become increasingly relevant in the field of Presentation Tools because it adds “a new dynamic to lectures, creating a collaborative environment with elements of theater and play,” (for more details see "7 Things You Should Know About Google Jockeying") and also because it “might be an effective tool to help students acquire skills for online research while mimicking their own learning strategies (for more details see "Google Jockeying - Search Engines in the Classroom").

Applications & Examples. A very simple classroom application could be to have the students prepare a PPT presentation on a topic that is being studied at that time in the course (fashion, food, art, ect.). Following the Standards for Foreign Language Learning, from ACTFL, a presentation like this corresponds to Communication 1.3, which states: "Students present information, concepts or readers on a variety of topics". By creating the same presentation in Slideshare, another aspect of learning a language is enhanced: Communities 5.1 "Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting". In a presentation about, for example, Italian fashion, an audience outside the classroom can provide valuable feedback, this way enriching the knowledge acquired by the students into doing the presentation. Another application could be to have the students to prepare a simple slideshow on a topic that interests them. The pictures will be the starting point for class discussion, and will give the students the chance to develop their communicative skills. As previously stated, other possibilities could be offered by applications such as Slideshare, Screencast-o-matic and Camstudio. In advanced language classes, for instance, these applications could easily (and successfully) substitute the classic students' presentation on a single topic (which usually leads to the creation of a poster with text and pictures taken from newspapers or magazines in the target language) making room for more creativity and allowing students to familiarize themselves not only with newspapers or magazines but also with websites and with clips (from youtube, etc.) in the target language. All the abovementioned applications (along with voicethread and also youtube - but with some limitations) allow students to produce very creative montages of images, clips, music and texts (which they read), leading to a final "product" (that is, a presentation) which is more creative, fun to make, entertaining and that travels easily outside of the classroom (producing wider feedback). In other words, a better end "product" that perfectly represents our rhizomatic postmodern society.

RSS

Wenling — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:46:32 CST

by Nicole McClure

Illustration by Matt Forsythe

The nature of the internet has changed drastically over the past few years. Websites no longer feature static information or material that remains unchanged for long periods of time. Instead, information is changed, edited, added and deleted on a regular basis. While this type of website used to be reserved for daily newspapers, the emergence of blogs, social networking, bookmarking and annotation sites and collaborative editing projects circulate changing information every second of the day. As many users participate in the changes, just as many are taking that information in. RSS serves to bring that information to the user in an organized and efficient manner.

RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication." In technical terms, RSS is an XML-based format for delivering content (See RSS Specifications). RSS delivers web-based content on a regular basis, thereby providing updates as frequently as they are created. According to Software Garden, RSS has become popular with people who are interested in multiple websites as a way to avoid having to constantly check for new content. As the sites change, the updated versions are delivered right to a user via an RSS aggregator. As information is updated or changed on a site, simple formatted notices appear in a reader to alert the user of the change. The information is delivered to the user rather than the user tracking down the information.

There are numerous aggregators available for free, each offering unique features that can be customized according to the user's tastes. Google Reader, NewsGator, eSobi, and Snarfer are all examples of RSS feed aggregators. Each one has different features that allow you to sort by feed or date, mark updates for and quickly sort through multiple feeds. This technology has become quite useful in navigating through an ever-changing web of information. RSS readers manage and organization information in a central location making the large amounts of information less intimidating and overwhelming.

While many use RSS feeds for casual reading, the technology has multiple pedagogical uses as well. Organizing research is much more efficient when using RSS. Social bookmarking sites such as Diigo and del.ici.ous offer RSS feeds to post alerts of relevant links and information that may have been targeted for research. This can be helpful for individuals, but also for groups working on the same topic. As one user finds information, all group members who subscribe to the feed will be alerted. Collaborative network sites often offer feeds as well, making it easy to notify site members of changes and updates. This is helpful when using course blogs, discussion forums and other forms of collaborative input, especially when working with large groups. Rather than checking each individual site each day, the updates will all appear in a central location. Likely the most popular feeds come from blogs and news sites, however iTunes and YouTube offer media aggregator feeds to alert you of new videos , podcasts and other media posted by your favorite contributors.

This may be useful in an educational setting when asking students to seek out authentic materials. For instance, if you are teaching a writing class, you might ask students to follow at least one or two blogs that model good writing. They could add these blogs to their RSS reader as well as a feed from their own class blog. Another example may be to have language students subscribe to a feed of podcasts or videos in the target language. The BBC website offers a RSS service for each different language that they publish the news in, for example the Arabic news feed. The students can then use the news feed to keep track of the news in the region that their target language is used in. Most importantly, RSS technology allows educators and students to harness the numbers of other Web 2.0 tools, providing efficiency and organization to its users.

For a great and brief intro to RSS, check Lee and Sachi Lefever's video "RSS in Plain English" featured on the Common Craft Show.

Social Networks

Wenling — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:24:22 CST

by Martina G. Luke
What is social networking?

The following article, based on texts and discussions in our class "Beyond WebCT: Integrating Social Networking Tools Into Language & Culture Classes" at the University of Connecticut, shall provide insight into aspects of Social Networks and their pedagogical use.

The New Media Consortium's and the Educause Learning Initiative's "Horizon Report" (2007) gives the following definition:

"Undoubtedly the most pervasive aspect of Web 2.0, social networking is all about making connections and bringing people together. Conversations that take place in social networking contexts are inherently social, and often revolve around shared activities and interests" (p.12).

Similarly, Lee LeFevre in his article "Comparing Social Networking to Online Communities" points out:

"In traditional online communities, connections to particular forums or sub-communities are implicit. [...] Social networking, on the other hand, enables individual members to share explicit relationships with people and forums. Members use their home pages as rich representations of their preferences- which enable them to express their identity through explicitly shared forum membership and connections to other members." From this perspective, social networks are closely linked to Web2.0. Yound people today are becoming more and more involved with social netoworking sites. According to ECAR Research Study 8, 2008, 85.2% of respondants admit to using social networking sites. This usage, however, varies largely depending on age. It was learned in in the ECAR Study that 95.1% of respondants between the ages of 18-19 report using SNS's, but only 37% of those 30 years old or older have SNS profiles. The most popular social networks are, for example, myspace.com or facebook.com for an exchange of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Also in the ECAR Research Study 8, 2008, Facebook is the most commonly used social networking site, with 89.3% of respondants reporting to maintaining a profile here. Student's also use websites such as ratemyprofessors, pickaprof or myprofessorsucks to share ideas and impressions on a class and its professor. There are also websites with an emphasis on a more professional social networks (for instance, openBC.com/Xing.com and LinkedIn) where career oriented social connections, as well as suggestions for clubbing, for the house market for expats (professionals who live and work outside their homecountry) etc. are presented.
Overall, social networks might help and support finding new ideas, starting a contact with people, who have similar interests, and sharing and exchanging information. A good overview about social networking and its impact gives mashable.com, where bloggers focus on new sites and current trends. This variety of social tools is brought to mind by Brian Alexander in his article "Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?": "During the past few years, a group of Web projects and services became perceived as especially connective, receiving the rubric of “social software”: blogs, wikis, trackback, podcasting, videoblogs, and enough social networking tools like MySpace and Facebook to give rise to an abbreviation mocking their very prevalence: YASN (Yet Another Social Network)." Thus, rather than attempting to explain different social networks or "yet another social network", this article aims to present some ideas for the use of social networks for classes on the high-school or the university level. These examples are based on the standards as developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), and the American Association of Teacher of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) . Their publication "Standards for Foreign Language Learning. Preparing for the 21 Century" focuses on the 5 C's: Communication, Cultures, Comparisons, Communities, and Communication.

From a pedagogical point of view, social networks are essential, particularly if you teach a foreign language class that is based on communication and exchange. Social networking provides exchange with other (academic) communities and countries. University of Connecticut's Professor Manuela Wagner, for instance, currently has an exchange between students from the University of Connecticut and students from Tufts University via voicethread, where students can explain to each other their campus life. In a foreign language class students could have similar exchanges to other countries and native speakers. Instead of waiting for letters one could have an authentic, direct, and fast exchange - without leaving the classroom and without expenses. Another example for virtual travel could be a project such as 1000stories, where, at the same time, an American visits Germany and a German travels in the United States.Their social networking, e.g. the stories they collect and their interviews in both countries, is documented via weblog and can be used for discussion on culture and language -from both perspectives- in the foreign language class. With these tools students can engage in conversation and exchange opinions, their feelings, and are able to articulate their experiences and understanding of other cultures and communities.

Another application of the above mentioned social websites like myspace and youtube could be to advertise a university's language program and university language clubs, e.g. the Italian or German Club or a program such as the University of Connecticut's Eurotech program. This has four main benefits, it connects people and (interdisciplinary) language learners, creating social networks for them to utilize, it helps students and their parents to get important information for potential educational careers and it can help prepare them for a studying abroad. Podcasts from a lecture or class, as described in the article's "Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective" by Carrie Windham and "Lectures on the Go" by Brock Read, allow teachers to support students who fall behind or have to make up for classes as well as deepen the insight into the contents of a course. Using social networking tools in assignments, for example, the collaborative use of digital storytelling, e.g. the use of talkshoe and mogulus, or collaborative writing projects such as a class wiki, e.g. the use of googledocs or wetpaint, allow students to deal creatively and socially with the contents of a class. Of course, it would be important that these websites and podcasts be used appropriately and that privacy protection is kept in mind. If this is the case, learners can reinforce and further their knowledge as well as their (technical) skills via social networking. In addition, social networking could be used inconnection with other tools, like virtual realities. Students can prepare their own character and alter ego, and write the biography, what this "virtual" self likes. When the avatar is complete (on facebook for instance), it will be used on places like Second Life, the self-proclaimed "3D online digital world imagined and created by its residents". The pedagogical goal in these virtual realities is more indirect and includes the interaction with others from different backgrounds (far from the classroom and the campus) and the experience and practice of new ideas and techniques as described on Second Life's website "Education & Non-Profit Organizations".

Other examples of the professional benefits that might arise from social networking could be pedagogical online sources such as Language Lab Unleashed where educators, students, and everybody interested in educational questions can connect and share ideas, thus helping to create new tools and ideas for learning processes. Similarly, this wiki and the blogs in our above mentioned class "Beyond WebCT: Integrating Social Networking Tools Into Language & Culture Courses" bring pedagogical views and insights together and allow educators to articulate and discuss the use of technical tools and social networking in the classroom. Similarly, social networks sites and blogs, as illustrated by Carrie Windham in "Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Student's Blog", could be used in a (language) class. By being a part of the (weekly) schedule, students and teachers can communicate, acquire additional information, raise questions, engage in discussions, express opinions, and apply what they learned and/or know already. Social bookmarking and social annotation through websites such as Del.icio.us or Diigo, allow educators and learners to share ideas and concepts, which could be easily included as assignments or as additional resources in the syllabus.

In conclusion, social networks and their communities provide students and teachers simultaneously with the ability to learn language and culture both within and beyond the setting. From this perspective, social networks support the experience of a life-long learning process in a globalized world.

Here is the video clip about a simple and clear explanation of Networking in Plian Engilsh by Lee and Sachi lefever.

The picture used in this wiki shows a statue in Munich. It is courtesy of Nice Bastard at Flickr.

ning

Wenling — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:32:53 CST

By Wessam Ibrahim

What is Ning?: Launched in October of 2005, Ning is a social network designed around creating social networks. Ning invites users to create their own social network by going through a series of steps such as naming the social network, selecting a color scheme, and allowing for unique profile questions. In some ways, Ning is a portal to mini-social networks since you can choose to join any of the thousands of user-created networks, and in other ways, it is a social network development platform.

Ning is a social networking site similar to Facebook and Myspace, but it takes the notion of a social network one step further by allowing the user to create own social network. The word "Ning" is Chinese for "peace" (simplified Chinese: 宁; traditional Chinese: 寧; pinyin: níng). Ning was launched in October of 2005 by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini, Andreessen is known for founding two other prominent Internet start ups Netscape and Opsware. Ning invites users to create their own social network, based off their own particular interest, with social networks based on a wide range of interests from a group focused on a shared fear of flying to another group that consists of fans of Outdoor Music Festivals. This is accomplished by providing the user with simple and easy-to-use tools which allow them to create their own fully customizable network. First they begin by selecting the name of their social network then they move on to selecting the visual image of their network. Finally the creator adds unique profile questions specific to the topic of their social network. The user is also able to upload videos and pictures from other Web 2.0 projects such as Flikr as well as link to outside websites in order to enhance their network.. Ning has also been utilized by educators in order to develop their educational resources and assist in their classes. In some ways, Ning is a portal to other mini-social networks as it allows the user to navigate amongst and join thousands of other user-created networks, and in other ways, it is a social network development platform.

The Role of Ning in Education:

Students today live on Facebook and other social networks like Myspace. Ning stands as an effective tool that takes advantage of social networks in a neutral setting by offering something fun and enjoyable for the students. How can that be done? By creating social networks around academic topics of study. It can also help researchers from around the world working on one particular area of study. What is more, it can be used by colleges and universities to help current or new students to build connections with their fellow students. It can serve as an ice breaking activity at the very beginning of the year when a teacher is instructing the class for the first time. Furthermore, it can also connect an individual dorm or the library to connect with the campus constituents. I think, creating a ning as a social network tool would make the "world flat ". In other words, it can connect those participating in a semester abroad program to stay connected through the college years and beyond, even as they transfer to other institutions, graduate, or relocate.

I am using a ning page for my class this semester, Arabic111. I can really feel all the advantages mentioned above as it enabled me, not only to connect the two classes I am teaching, but also to other universities and other socail networks. It gives more spaces and chances for learners to practice and participate in an enjoyable way. I strongly agree that " ning" is an easy tool, which doesn't need any technical skills to set it up, to connect people, learners, reareachers, and institutions regardless the space ot the time boundaries.

twitter

Wenling — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:28:01 CST

L'albero delle conversazioni con Twitter

Photo by Pandemia courtesy of a Creative Commons license.

Twitter is a free social-networking site that allows users to send very short, often inane, messages to one another about even their most mundane daily activities such as, "i'm eating lunch right now" or "I like cows". The "tweets" are updated on the users profile and then can be sent to select friends. Users can also subscribe to other users; twitter pages and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. Users update their status with a brief message of 140 characters or less.

Here is a brief explanatory video. For a more detailed demonstration of how to use twitter, please link: http://www.graspr.com/videos/Online-Social-Network-Media-TIPS-using-Twitter-1 (6 minutes 46 seconds)

Despite what may appear at first blush to be as an absolutely useless web application, even a signpost on the road to the end of civilization, Twitter can also be a useful pedagogical tool.

One example of the educational application comes from Mrs. Alessandra Melia's 10th grade Spanish class at St. Mary's Academy Bayview. Mrs. Melia set up a Twitter page for her students and requires them to submit 2 "twitters" per day in Spanish. The simple act of briefly describing ones actions in a second language is intended to bridge the gap between the relatively short amount of time that students spend in class, actively engaged in in the target language, with the rest of their experiences that presumably take place in their native language.

Twitter is also useful for the dissemination of classroom logistical information. Doug Belshaw explains on his blog

"I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed."

Education and Virtual Meeting

nmcclure — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:38:06 CST

By Nicolas Hidrio

In process...

Social Annotation

nmcclure — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:37:26 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Blogs

mcbride.jessica — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:33:05 CST

Photo Courtesy of DailyPic

by Jessica McBride

What is a blog?

Blogs (nickname for Weblogs) are becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives. In short, a blog is a place where anyone can create their own website, create or add content easily, and broadcast it to the world. According to the Educause article "7 Things You should Know about Blogging," a blog is "an online chronological collection of personal commentary and links." Blogs have evolved from their primary function as an outlet for the publication of personal diaries into a credible and respected arena for editorials and general information. Although blogs are now more recognized and utilized by media companies, blogging still allows for anyone, anywhere to create and share their own thoughts at any time. Gone are the days of needing to be able to write HTML code in order to have your personal space on the web. For more detailed information about the history of blogs, see Andy Carvin's post on his blog learning.now, or click here to see Lee Lefever's video Blogs in Plain English.

There are many types of blogs that can be easily found with a search engine. Still used as personal journals or online diaries (see Jason Dunn's personal blog where he discusses diverse topics related to his everyday life), other types of blogs are becoming more and more prevalent. For instance, there are collaborative blogs (see The Collaborative Piano Blog), family blogs (see the Bayer Family blog), community blogs (see the Dublin Community blog), corporate blogs (see Google corporate blog), Warblogs (see Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's blog DailyKos, which was voted best warblog by Forbes magazine), Lib blogs or library blogs (see the Library of Congress' Lib blog), and Edublogs to name a few (see Bertalan Mesko's Scienceroll which won the 2007 Eddie Edublog Award for best individual educational blog).

As aforementioned, blogging is incredibly easy and allows for anyone to participate. To start your own blog geared toward whichever topic or audience you like, first explore and choose a blogging website that suits your needs. There are many options including, but not limited to: Wordpress, Blogger, Blogspot, Typepad, Blogsome, eBlog, and Edublog. Begin your blog by choosing a name and a website, then begin your first post, which is as easy as typing an email. It is also easy to add pictures, hyperlinks, videos, audio - almost any type of media you'd like. Also, it is now easy to add audio to blogs using cell phones with services like Audioblog, Blogger for your phone and Gabcast (see Lisa Kolb's blog or the MobileActive.org site called How to Start Mobile Blogging for more infomation). Different settings allow you to make your blog as private or as public as you want. If made public, people from all over the world can come and read your posts, watch your videos and look at your pictures, and they may even choose to make comments. As a result of the comment feature, blogs often lead to virtual debates or discussions between people who would have been unlikely to have the opportunity to interact otherwise (check out the lengthy discussion resulting from the BoingBoing blog's - which is the most popular blog according to Technorati - post about their poetry contest).

Video courtesy of Supershona

Blogs in education

According to Educause, current estimates indicate that approximately 50 million people world-wide are blogging. According to Dr. Scott McCleod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, Edublogs make up approximately 50,000 of those 50 million. The role of blogs in education is quickly becoming more and more visible, not to mention abundant. In fact, blogs are already a large part of the educational landscape as evidenced by the fact that blogging has not been a large topic of discussion in the New Media Consortium's and the Educause Learning Initiative's "Horizon Report" since 2005 (since blogs are considered social networking sites, issues discussed in the 2008 Horizon Report still could be helpful in a study of blogs).

One of the perceived benefits of blogging, whether for educational or personal purposes, is the opportunity for written reflection. Writing to learn while learning to write is a catchphrase used commonly by instructors and educational institutions (see the 2009 Write to Learn Conference site, Write to Learn software, and some sample Write to Learn activities). Blogs offer an interesting venue for educators and students to experiment with the write to learn philosophy (see Roots in the Sawdust: Writing to Learn across Disciplines edited by Anne Ruggles Gere). The social and communicative nature of blogging sites tends to favor student-to-student interaction, as evidenced by findings in the ECAR Research Study 8 that found that while approximately half of Social Networking Site users "communicate with classmates about course-related topics, [only] 5.5 % use them to communicate with instructors about course-related topics." Based on the belief that authentic learning, or the students' ability to learn by doing rather than listening, is the most beneficial way for students to acquire knowledge by making connections independently, blogging can be viewed as a way to integrate Web2.0 technologies into an authentic learning experience.

For instance, in a literature course with a writing component like UCONN's French Literature and Civilization course, adding a blog to discussion could be helpful. Students could be asked to consider instructor provided questions pertaining to the course material and then asked to write a response on the blog. This allows for other students and members of the community to appreciate others' perspectives on a given topic, which is a much more open and inclusive approach than having students respond privately to questions posted on a course management system site like Blackboard (see Nathalie Ettzevoglou's class blog). As mentioned in Carie Windham's article "Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Why students blog," many students find that despite seeming daunting at first, blogging their ideas allows them to write longer, more personal posts. Another benefit of online discussion according to faculty and students in Windham's article is the security and longevity of information on the site. The information is not automatically removed at the end of the semester as is often the case with many CMS's.Another option would be to have students provide the questions for their classmates, allowing them to feel more ownership in the process and also giving them the opportunity to "write to learn" (see Jessica McBride's class blog). Each week a different student would be responsible for posting a thought-provoking and discussion-inducing question for students, and hopefully the community to consider.

In a foreign language class, an interesting idea could be for all of the students (depending on level) to create their own blogs. Students could write in the target language about topics of their own choosing or topics provided by the instructor which focus on grammar and vocabulary currently being taught, and hopefully the blog format would allow for others (including other students of foreign language and/or native speakers) to comment on the students' posts. Students could also be asked to sign up via RSS feed to different types of blogs created by native speakers of the target language, and when they feel comfortable to begin posting comments on these blogs. This could lead to more communication between students and native speakers as well as a better understanding of the culture(s) of the native speakers.

The use of a blog in a foreign language class would achieve many of the standards for foreign language teaching proposed and advocated by ACTFL. A blog would fulfill all of the written standards for communication ("engage in conversation, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, exchange opinions, understand and interpret written language on a variety of topics, present information, concepts and ideas to an audience of readers on a variety of topics"), would allow for students to be exposed to the culture(s) of speakers of the target language ("gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures") as proposed by the second C, Culture, would give the opportunity to compare their culture and the culture(s) of those who speak the target language, would make being part of a community in the target language in and beyond school possible as proposed by standard 5.1, and could certainly lead to students becoming life long learners as proposed by standard 5.2

Web 2.0

blindsey — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:27:15 CST

Photo by Vincos courtesy of a Creative Commons license

What is Web 2.0?

The term is accredited to Tim O'Reilly, during a conference brainstorming session in response to the dot-com burst of 2001. One of the key components of Web 2.0 is the idea of the 'web as platform' where people can collaborate, communicate and participate. In this initial brainstorming session the focus was on business applications. Because of the controversy about what O'Reilly meant, or if there is such a thing as "Web 2.0" he clarified his definition in a late 2006:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.)"

Similarly, Brian Alexander describes the variety of this terminus in and its possible pedagogical impact: "Web 2.0: A New Innovation for Teaching and Learning":

"The term is audacious: Web 2.0. It assumes a certain interpretation of Web history, including enough progress in certain directions to trigger a succession. [...] Many people—including, or perhaps especially, supporters—critique the “Web 2.0” moniker for definitional reasons. Few can agree on even the general outlines of Web 2.0. It is about no single new development. Moreover, the term is often applied to a heterogeneous mix of relatively familiar and also very emergent technologies."

For further explanation about what Web 2.0 is, take a look to this voicethread created by Quentin D'Souza and Rob De Lorenzo, titled Web 2.0 Promises and Potentials. Itself a good example of Web 2.0 possibilities. (It includes visuals and audio).

The following six Web 2.0 related categories "Collaborative Editing", "Digital Storytelling", "Mashups", "Presentation Tools", "Social Networking", and "Digital Storytelling" provide insight into pedagogical ideas as discussed in our class "Beyond Web CT: Integrating Social Networking Tools into Language & Culture Classes" at the University of Connecticut.

Digital Storytelling

mcbride.jessica — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:35:21 CST

What's Digital Storytelling?

by Alfonso Varona

Simply put, Digital Storytelling is the old need for human beings to tell a story, (as well as to be fascinated by it) but also includes integrating the new tools of the 21st century. It can be as simple as a series of images along with a narrative voice or with a text, or as complex as a movie created with a camcorder (with special effects, acting, sound effects, etc.). Educause (the "nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology") describes Digital Storytelling in the article "7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling" stating that DG "is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component" (2).

Following ACTFL (The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) five "C's" for language instruction (1. Communication 2. Cultures 3. Connections 4. Comparisons 5.Communities), Digital Storytelling is naturally suited to point 1, and, as I will argue at the end, point 5. The five "C's" are explained in detail in a PDF named Standards for Foreign Language Learning. I will refer to this article simply as "PDF."

If you want to start with something simple and non-threatening, I recommend using Voicethread. It offers a simple way to download a series of photos, and with a microphone or by typing text (voicethread gives you both options), you can provide your own narrative. In a course setting, the mere act of creating a narrative forces the students to use the vocabulary they are learning into a coherent story. There is also the motivation from the part of the students to show their peers an aspect of their lives not seen in the classroom. This actually corresponds to ACTFL sample progress indicator for Communication 1.1 student in Grade 8:

Students exchange information about personal events, memorable experiences, and other school subject with peers and/or members of the target cultures. (PDF 5)

This can of course be applied to any foreign language beginner, including College students. For example, in a language class learning vocabulary about family, students can gather several photos of their family, starting from their immediate family and progressing to their extended family. The student can also comment on additional information, such as the event taking place, the place the photo was taken, this way making the narrative more compelling, and giving the student a wonderful and well integrated setting for using and reinforcing the already learned vocabulary.

The same rationale can be applied to the use of podcasts. A podcast is a short audio or video program, usually conceived as a regular series. As as already discussed in the Web 2.O definition, its advantage is that it is available wherever there is an Internet connection, and down-loadable to any mobile device. It can be used to tell a story (original or adapted), or to create a program series around a specific topic. In this paragraph I focus on the first option. Podcasting creation is well suited for collaborative work, giving students a clear goal, in a format that calls for conciseness, and creativity. A good example is provided by Duke University professor, Daniel Foster. He introduced podcasting in his class “Radio and the theater of the mind”, in 2005, centered on the exploration of old time radio production. By the end of this course, the students were enthusiastic about producing radio programs like in the old days. Foster emphasizes the fact that his experience shows that podcasting proves to be an alternative for written work, in a openly collaborative and at the same time fun way. I would use podcasting in a creative writing class, asking students to adapt a short story of their own, into a podcast. They can gather in groups, that way, in collaboration, they would pick the best story created by the group and work together in the adaptation. Students would receive a grade for their original written story, and another one for their collaborative adaptation.

I want to finish with two more tools, which call for a much more ambitious narrative, and are more professionally oriented, since they involve the format of a real program. With Mogulus, (available since summer 2007, currently runs in closed beta, and is expected to be on open beta before the end of the year) it is now possible to create your own news channel, either by yourself or with a team of collaborators. Watch any of the official demo videos from Mogulus and think of the possibilities: This tool requires not only the integration of other digital material (photos, videos), and involves not just recording voice, but videotaping oneself reporting news as well. Fake news has always been a well-known activity for language classes. With this tool, a fake news channel gets an upgrade. It can actually look like a real professional TV news program. The ACTFL PDF document provides the following sample learning scenario:

In the Spanish II class in Wiliamston High School, a small, rural community in Michigan, students worked in groups to write, produce, and videotape a fifteen-to twenty minute Spanish language news show that included news events; a live, from-the-scene report; weather; sports; and commercials. The news events included items form the Spanish-speaking world, the United States, the state, and local areas. (PDF 7)

Mogulus provides the easiest way ever to make this happen. An excellent idea would be to prepare a midterm or final project discussing important events taking place on Campus, which can be real or created. A variation of the video news, podcasting can be used instead, in a way that resembles a daily news podcast. Students of Spanish, for example, can follow professional podcasts like the BBC's Spanish daily podcast (produced by Spaniards), Radio Formula podcast (Mexican), or others from other Spanish speaking countries as to get used not just to different regional accents, but also to different styles of podcasting. As the mentioned sample indicates, by doing this, students also target the points 1.2, (Communication: viewing newscasts), and 4.1 (Cultures: comparing and comparing/contrasting language styles). With Talkshoe, you can host your own podcast. You can include up to 15 people, either via phone or chat. The important thing is that you create it on whatever you are passionate about. This tool is obviously for advanced students, since it involves an actual interaction in real time, besides the fact that it can be recorded as a podcast. Communication is the essential "C" put into practice, taken to the most interactive way among the whole list of Web 2.O tools. The other "C's" will vary on the target topic being discussed. I would try Talkshoe as a final project, where groups of students work together on a specific topic during the semester. Once they present the program, the other students in the classroom become listeners and participants.

All the aforementioned Web 2.0 tools, because of their communicative nature, can make "Communities" happen. ACTFL divides this "C" into 5.1 and 5.2, where on 5.1 "students use the language both within and beyond the school setting" (PDF 7). Since these tools can be opened to the whole world, there is no restriction to the target language being used only within the local community. Voicethreads or podcasts opened to the Internet community can provide feedback and motivation. Students learn that what they do actually does have an audience, and communication in the web community does not have to be unidirectional or a mere school activity. Hopefully, this can be turned into Communities 5.2, where "Students show evidence of becoming lifelong learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment" (PDF 7). This is the synthesis of all "C's", and hopefully we start to see more and more of our students going in this direction.

I have to admit that some of these tools are new to me, and I still have to hear about actual examples of their pedagogical use. What is clear is that Mogulus calls for much more technical and creative expertise, in order to be done successfully, while the challenge with Talkshoe is the real time interaction. There is a connecting line from simple to complex that runs like this, in my opinion: Voicethread, Podcasting, Mogulus and Talkshoe. But don't be fooled with the idea of a progression. Wonderful things can be done integrating photos within a text, or commenting on a series of photos. What these tools have in common is that they offer students a way to focus on a challenging and yet compelling format to tell a story to a real audience. As on all content created using Web 2.0 tools, you can reach an audience anywhere in the world, and get feedback, an option not available just a few years back. The use of digital storytelling is still in its early days. I'll finish by recommending a look at Barbara Ganley's blog. Ganley is a Lecturer in the Writing Program and English at Middlebury College, an enthusiastic advocate for digital storytelling.

Virtual Worlds

blindsey — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:59:28 CST

"Ideal City." Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 4 Dec. 2007

by Felice Italo Beneduce

What is the definition of Utopia ? The idealistic "Non-Place" where perfection and harmony reign, unencumbered by the weight of human insufficiencies. Studies in the field of the fantastic in arts have traditionally dichotomized the non-place into Eutopia (which generally corresponds to the definition provided above) and Dystopia (an Orwellian darker image of reality which, rather than covering up our innate flaws, brings them out into the open and emphasizes them).

The use of the virtual world in the field of language instruction has enormous potential but in order for it to be an effective tool - both for the instructor and the student - it must include all the imperfections which are inevitable in any human society, while at the same time presenting an image of the Target Language society which is appealing to the student: in other words a dystopian core with a eutopian veneer. Striking this balance should be the goal in the creation of pedagogical program that, for a more authentic conveyance of language instruction, will incorporate elements actually found when strolling the streets of Rome, Madrid, Berlin, etc. For, notwithstanding all the glorification of "authentic materials" used in the communicative approach, what we teach our students is fundamentally a text-book version of our languages, with the complete elimination of inherently human factors of linguistic expression such as dialect, accents and regionalisms. While it would be difficult for the instructor to teach these subtleties in the classroom, they could be profitably included into a Virtual World program, set for instance, in Stuttgart's Schlossplatz or under Bologna's famous porticos. The result would therefore be twofold: on the one hand, such a program could be conducive to a marked improvement in the students' knowledge of the Target Language by means of a medium with which they are already familiar (e.g. Second Life); on the other hand the program would prepare them for subsequent authentic linguistic experiences abroad.

The fundamental issue in the use of a Virtual Word in foreign language pedagogy is the concept of interaction in a setting that takes the student beyond the walls of the classroom to an authentic language environment without, however, entailing a substantial expenditure, often beyond the means of many. As stated in the Educause article Things You Should Know About Virtual Worlds, virtual worlds promote learner-led model knowledge development in “an online environment [that] encourages participants to experiment—to learn by trial and error—in a way not feasible in the real world… Virtual worlds facilitate ‘unintentional’ learning, where students discover and create knowledge not for its own sake but in order to accomplish something they want to do, resulting in stronger comprehension and deeper knowledge.” Virtual worlds thus represent an enriching supplement to traditional foreign language classroom and there are indeed already several foreign-language based Second Life worlds for German (Frankfurt, newBERLIN), Spanish (MundoSL, Spanish Orientation Island), French (Gaïa), even Portuguese (Mainland Brasil) and Dutch (Second Life Netherland). As the Education page of Second Life confirms, what is created is “a safe environment to enhance experiential learning, allowing individuals to practice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes…as part of a globally networked virtual classroom environment.”

As long as tasks and goals for the students remain clear-cut, it is possible to implement the tenets of constructivist learning while at the same time incorporating the four skills of the the communicative approach within the framework of existing forms of learning assessments. For example, task for a second semester student of Italian in a Virtual Rome could be to reach Piazza di Spagna from Piazza del Popolo by: (A) asking directions from passersby [clearly a voice recognition program would be required]; (B) correctly understanding the directions given; (C) reading indications/hints which have been placed along the way; and (D) writing a virtual postcard extolling the beauty of the Spanish Steps and its culturally iconic features once it has been reached. As a supplemental activity, the student could then relate to the class what had been seen/encountered during the virtual stroll.

Other course applications could include virtual activities such as: buying at an open market all the items necessary to prepare a meal; going to a virtual restaurant and ordering a pizza, buying a train ticket for virtual Venice from a travel agency; exploring the ruins of the virtual Roman Forum and entering a virtual reproduction of a Roman art gallery.

Therefore, through the insertion of the students into a language context that engages them in their education while attaining this engagement by means of commonly used ludic venue, these virtual language worlds could be used for the teaching not only of the language per se but also a wide array of interdisciplinary topics pertaining to the country/language question: from archeology and history to art, architecture and graphic design.

In the completion of the activities described above, the students would achieve all five ACTFL goals of Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities (again, ideally this final goal is attained not in substitution of but as a precursor to an actual visit to Rome). Just to mention an example from the ACTFL report, students can actually "use the language both within and beyond the school setting." The benefits of the virtual as compared to the in-class version of these activities are that firstly the linguistic interaction will occur with a person other than the instructor and secondly that the interlocutor will be a native speaker with a specific accent. Furthermore, as Patricia Deubel has pointed out, these simulations need not involve only the single student but could provide opportunities for collaboration between students.

Chris Dede of Harvard has made a strong connection between virtual environments/augmented realities and “neomillennial learning styles” through this ludic medium by defining immersion as “the subjective impression that one is participating in a comprehensive, realistic experience. Immersion in a mediated, simulated experience (such as a virtual environment or an augmented reality) involves the willing suspension of disbelief” which cannot but recall the notion of “full immersion” in foreign language pedagogy. Although the virtual Rome should by no means substitute an excursion to the original, the student for whom a study abroad may not be economically feasible can at least have the benefits of an immersion program through Coleridgean theory of the fantastic referenced above.

While obviously there will be practical concerns and considerations in the creation of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE s), the first and foremost of which is the funding and content ownership, it is possible to conclude in agreement with the words of James Morrison according to whom this combination of “graphics and audio with the ability to communicate with multiple users in real time within the context of a 3-D virtual environment” will assuredly be an enhancement to course content and education in general.