NETEACH MOO Sessions sponsored by NETEACH-L

Intro to MOOing and General Planning Session

Net Worth: Communicating the Value of Internet Activities

Many of us face a number of Internet access problems for ourselves as well as for our students. *We* know we're onto something, but our colleagues and administrators may remain skeptical. How do we gain their support and cooperation?

Ed-Tech: Geeky Teachers Seeking a Balance

Our technical knowledge (or even *interest*) seems to be making us more marketable in our changing field. But the range of our new role has not yet been clearly defined. How do we go about searching for/creating job descriptions which recognize the tasks we perform and the benefits we bring to our institutions? How do we reach our potential?

Juggling modals and modems: Technical training in ESL classes

We are finding ourselves in the role of Computer Instructor more and more as our curricula begin to include more tech-based activities, especially in programs with an academic preparation focus. This seems to necessitate a balancing act as we try to squeeze these mechanical skills in with the language topics we must cover. How do we achieve this balance? What preparation is necessary to ensure that our students get the best training in both English and computer use?

MOO Training Sessions

MOO: What to DOO

Please join us at schMOOze whether or not you have actually used it with students. After hearing from some experienced MOO instructors, we'll break up into smaller groups to brainstorm MOO activities for ESOL students. We'll then get back together to share and evaluate the best activities we developed in the small group discussions.

NETEACH-L Secret Santa Party

We're here at schMOOze for a variation of the "Secret Santa" party. You were asked to bring a "stocking" and a "bag of goodies." The stocking is a list of your professional needs, deficits in your techno-pedagogical knowledge. The bag of goodies is your repertoire of skills and tidbits you can share with another NETEACHer who's carrying around an appropriate empty stocking! Gregor will be wearing his Santa suit and helping to match up peer partners for professional development throughout the coming year.

Remote Possibilities: Issues for Distance ESL

Everyone everywhere seems to be talking about Distance Education, "the wave of the future" for education. While it seems clear that a lot more learning and teaching is moving online, there are numerous institutional, administrative, and pedagogical issues to be settled well before diving into it headlong. Which aspects of ESL instruction are currently possible via the 'Net? How must our traditional pedagogical theories be adapted to these new media? What are some approaches to the administration of online courses? What are the most important marketing issues?. Please join us at schMOOze University to share ideas associated with these and related issues.

NETEACH-L CGI Session

Technology in ESL Classes: Getting Students Started

We're language teachers, mostly, and not computer teachers. Orienting our students to the use of technology in our classes needs to be efficient so that we don't spend valuable language learning time struggling with mundane issues of directory navigation, margin setting, and password changing. How do you get your students started in the computer lab? What have you tried? What worked? What didn't? What will you try next semester?

Keeping Up Without Burning Out

In order to use technology in the most appropriate and effective ways for our students and ourselves, we educators must keep up with changes and improvements. How do we keep up with something that changes so frequently? Let's get together to share tips on keeping up with technology without getting overwhelmed.

Internet for ESOL: Boon or Bandwagon?

What could be more fashionable than the Internet? Is there a danger that the Internet is being embraced uncritically as language educators leap onto the latest bandwagon? Its potential as a resource in second language learning is widely hailed. However, serious technical, pedagogical, and ethical issues present themselves. As trend-setters, tech coordinators should be as well informed about the pitfalls of the Internet as they are about its advantages.

High-Tech for Low Levels

The Internet provides lots of opportunities for advanced ESOL students to do research and interact with native speakers and other learners, to their great benefit. Clearly, bringing lower level students online requires some preparation and carefully chosen tasks and objectives. In this session, we will discuss useful attitudes, approaches, and activities for low-level English learners on the Internet.

Non-verbal, text-based communication on the Web: miscommunication and text-based virtual reality - some pitfalls and proposed solutions

In this discussion session, the hosts examined some of the problems of non-verbal communication in text-based media on the Internet and proposed some (partial) solutions to these. Participants were asked to bring with them examples of miscommunication and to share their ideas about how to overcome such problems.

Participants were asked to look at the following site before the session and take some time to explore it: http://halley.yadata.com.br/schMOOze/neteach/nonverbal.html

Who are literacy students, and what are they doing at schMOOze University?

Literacy students often have characteristics different from other language learners, yet many love MOOing and find it highly motivating. Low literacy skills don't necessarily mean low technical skills or low intelligence. Many people with dyslexia or other specific learning disabilities are very keen to do further studies.

In this NETEACH session, you can get some useful information about literacy teaching and learning, and have a chance to talk about great ways to work with people for whom reading and writing doesn't come so easily.

Can ESOL Classes Work Online?

In this session, we'll open the floor for brainstorming and discussion onthe topic of the potential benefits and limitations of ESOL courses delivered at a distance. We hope for participants of all persuasions, from cynical skeptics to starry-eyed dreamers, from newbies to old hands, and all steps in between. Which language skills can be taught effectively online with relative ease? Which ones are going to take heaps of work? Which ones are bound to flop?

ESOL Emailing: E-asy E-literacy

This month's NETEACH MOO session (guest-hosted by Mex Butler) focuses on email: what you can do with it in your classes, how to get email addresses for all your students (if you haven't already done it) and tips and tricks to make it work better for you. You can brainstorm ideas for great email activities and share links to good email projects on the WWW.

The Care and Feeding of Technopedagogical Visionaries

In this session, we'll discuss problems faced by the "Designated Innovators" regarding institutional support. How do administrators thwart your efforts? On the other hand, what is your administration doing right?

Why Synchronous? Why Asynchronous?

Proponents of asynchronous communication (webboards, email, etc.) for language learning sometimes dismiss chatrooms and MOOs as being less effective than asynchronous environments. MOOmaniacs and chat aficionados may be equally ardent in defending the use of realtime communication. Either way, a thorough understanding of specific goals and objectives for any online activity should clarify which mode is better for which activity. In this session, we discussed selection of appropriate technologies for language learning tasks.

Applying the Five C's to Online Language Learning

 
ACTFL (the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages), in collaboration with other language teaching organizations, has published a set of standards for language instruction whose goals can be summarized by "the Five C's:" Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. This mnemonic describes the goals of content standards for language instruction: what students should know and what they should be able to do. In this session, we discussed possibilities and pitfalls for reaching all five of these goal areas in a completely online language instruction scenario.

Talking to Lesley about Talking to Strangers

 
How does working online alter the role of the tutor? Read "Talking to Strangers - The Role of the Tutor in Developing Target Language Speaking Skills at a Distance" and bring your questions and thoughts for these hour-long discussion sessions.