TESOL Blog

Dissertation Introduction

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:57:00 -0400

“We are in the midst of a communications upheaval more significant that the introduction of the printing press. The World Wide Web emerged in the 1990’s but exploded into its most decisive phase in 2004 with the arrival of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is about opening up the internet to ordinary users, where they add and share their content. It signifies the transfer of control of the internet, and ultimately the platform for communication, from the few to the many.” Rob Brown 2009 (Blurb)

As communicative and social language teachers this new development in communications should be of interest to us all. This transfer of control means that we as teachers and students can control, collaborate and contribute with others to the World Wide Web. This dissertation seeks to explore what this shift in the communications landscape means for us as teachers and for our students.

I will first endeavour to set out and explain exactly what “Web 2.0” is and what makes it such a radical step forward in terms of human and global communications. Within this first section, it is hoped, that the reader will gain a better understanding of “Web 2.0” and why it might have a significant part to play in all aspects of our lives and specifically, for the purposes of this dissertation for English Language Teaching and Learning.

During the main body of the literature review “Web 2.0” will be viewed from a number of theoretical perspective, Communicative Language Teaching, Constructivism, Socio-cultural theory, Task Based Learning and Language Acquisition. It is hoped that within this section that different feature, characteristics and applications of “Web 2.0” will be able to be looked at and viewed in terms of their ability to facilitate, enhance or even reach some of the aims of a number of different language learning theories.

The research element will seek to discover what we can learn from those that are already active participants i.e. those using “Web 2.0” either for teaching, learning or both. During this section I will enquiry into what is happening now and how “Web 2.0” is being exploited by teachers and learners of English. I will draw directly from my own experiences and that of others that I know both professionally and socially both on and off line. The dissertation will use a mix of self reflection, including diary notes kept by myself, Face to Face and online interviews and questionnaires handed out in person and/or electronically.

The goal of this dissertation is not to find out what teachers aren’t doing or why they aren’t doing it but rather to find out what teachers and students are doing and what we can all learn from these people. It is my hope that from this dissertation we will be able to explore just some of the potential benefits of using “Web 2.0” for teaching, learning and communicating in English. Also to discover what might be considered as good practices so that those who are not yet involved may learn from those that have already begun the journey. To give this dissertation a balanced perspective on “Web 2.0” I will also seek to find out some of the fears teachers and learners have about using technology in general and some of the dangers and drawbacks of this new technological development.

The fact that this dissertation is online is in responce to what W. Richarson (2009) said that is that not "every teacher needs to start a blog or creat a wiki or Podcast, but as educators we must tap into the potentials that these tools give us for learning" P8 Also that "the best way to fully understand the potential of weblogs, (wikis, websites, podcasts or Web 2.0 in general) is to become a bogger" P43 Wikis, Websites, Podcasts creator and Web 2.0 user and contibutor. So this is what I have done.

Please check out the TESOL Master Wiki and if you like contribute

Please check out Websites design by my students Link1 Link2

Chapter 1 Literature Review

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:14:00 -0400

Glossary of acronyms, terms and jargon

Mush-ups
Linguist mush-ups
Code switching
Digital natives
Digital immigrants
CAI Computer Aided Instruction
CALL Computer Aided Language Learning
CMC Computer Mediated Communication
NNS Non-Native Speakers
MOO Multi-User Domain - Object Oriented
A MOO is an object-oriented database housed on a remote server. Users from around the world can log into a MOO to communicate with other MOO users, or players, either synchronously or asynchronously.

What is Web 2.0

“Web 2.0 has a variety of definitions. It can be described simply as the version of the web that is open to ordinary users and where they can add their content. It refers to sites and spaces on the internet where users can put words, pictures, sounds and video. It is a very simple idea in theory. In practice, it signifies the transfer of control of the internet and ultimately the central platform for communication, form the few to the many. It is the democratization of the internet.” Rob Brown 2009 p 2

“"Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centred design, and collaboration.” (2010) Wikipedia/web 2.0, Web 2.0 is also known as “read-write-web” as it enables users to both, read content and write or post their own content and as “The Social Web” as it is essentially a means of Social interaction and communication.

“Our students’ realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are vastly different from our own” W. Richardson (2009) P 5

“They are building vast Social networks with little or no guidance. They are using much more complex and flexible digital information and by and large without any instruction on it differs from the paper world” W. Richardson (2009) P 5

Watch above video

Websites

Stduent Websites

BHAK Neumarkt

ISIS

Wikis

Wikis are very similar in appearance to traditional websites with one major difference Wikis are in essence a collaborative tool were multiple users can work together on a single project form any computer in any country on the planet. “If you want to find the most important site on the Web these days, look no further than Wikipedia” W. Richardson (2009) p 55

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That is what we’re doing”, J. Wales (2004) Founder of Wikipedia.

The Facts

“Wikipedia was launch on 1st January 2001, within a year it had acquired 20,000 articles in 18 languages. As of December 2007 Wikipedia UK alone had over 2 million articles making it the largest encyclopaedia in history” R Brown (2009) p 39

In 2005 Nature published a study showing that Wikipedia “was accurate as Encyclopaedia Britannica. Today Wikipedia has become even more accurate, not less.” E. Qualman (2009) p 23

Blogs

Blogs are very similar to a diary that is online, in so much as they are time dated and in a continual process of change and addition of content. However they differ in many ways, Blogs are often created around a theme e.g. food, weather, cars, the news or the local area etc. Blogs are open to the online audience and what is of utmost importance is that Blogs are open to feedback from the reader.

The Facts

“two new blogs are created every second” W. Richardson (2009) p19

Podcasts

Social Networking

Social Bookmarking

Social video, image and file sharing

Web 2.0 “The Social Web” and ELT an Overview

Web 2.0 from a theoretical perspective

Web 2.0 and Communicative Language Teaching

Web 2.0 and Constructivism

Web 2.0 and Sociocultural Theory

Web 2.0 and Task Based Learning

Web 2.0 and Language Acquisition

Public Relations & the Social Web How to use Social Media & Web 2.0 in Communication

Sun, 30 May 2010 08:05:00 -0400

R Brown (2009) “Public Relations and the Social Web How to use Social Media and Web 2.0 in Communication” Kogan Page Ltd London UK

“We are in the midst of a communications upheaval more significant than the introduction of the printing press” R Brown (2009) P1

“Web 2.0 has a variety of definitions. It can be described simply as the version of the web that is open to ordinary users and where they can add their content. It refers to the sites and spaces on the internet where users can put, words, pictures, sounds and video. It is a very simple idea in theory. In practice, it signifies the transfer of control of the internet and ultimately the central platform for communication, from the few to the many. It is the democratisation of the internet” R Brown (2009) P2

What has changed “is the way that people have started to view the internet. The way that the internet has changed is a reflection of a much wider change in society. For a number of years politicians and social commentators have been taking about the “end of deference” R Brown (2009) P3

This is what is happening in a real way you no longer have to ask permission to publish something to a World Wide Audience, you are in effect your own publish house. If people like what they read you will be read if not then you won’t. The gatekeepers are gone.

“Communications is undergoing a radical change information is feeling the impact of the technological revolution” R Brown (2009) P4

“Changes are taking place in the way we use the media channels and totally new communication channels are emerging” R Brown (2009) P4

The internet in its current form “is far richer and more complex than any of the traditional media channels.” R Brown (2009) P4

“The social web is a place or a series of virtual places where others like them: Sharing content rather than simply consuming it, talking, swapping ideas and interests, recommending things for their friends to watch or read and consuming a variety of media on the recommendations of their peers” R Brown (2009) P13

Relinquishing Control

“It the content that people (teachers and students) are engaging with is content that they are contributing to, if the media that they are consuming allows them to participate, it becomes clear that the rules of engagement have change” R Brown (2009) P16 this in no more true than within the educational setting. Web 2.0 is constructivism inaction. It represents not only a dialogue with teachers but with text, video, audio, and images from the real world and it can facilitate communication with real people in real time whenever and wherever you are.

Students “are no longer passive but active participants in the conversation. This does not only mean that we should converse with them but it also means that we have to give their views and opinions due respect.” R Brown (2009) P23 This change signals the end of deference in the classroom, especially for adult learner who can now actively seek out learning for themselves.

“The internet is a network that is able to carry and support most of the other media” R Brown (2009) P23 From this it can be reasonably be argued that many of the benefits of the internet in terms of pedagogy have been researched and tested for a long time i.e. the authentic uses of audio, video, text and images both for linguist and cultural learning have been well documented. The internet simply gives quicker, greater and more far reaching access to these resources.

“If we take, for example, social networking we might start with Facebook. Within Facebook there is a plethora of applications and ways of drawing in content from other Web 2.0 applications” R Brown (2009) P25

“For those of us that wish to engage with bloggers we need to bear in mind that the explosion in the sheer number of blogs means that most of them will seldom, if ever, be read. At the time of writing (2009) Technorarti was tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media and typing the word “blog” into Google produced 3.2 billion results” R Brown (2009) P25

This volume of data can be over whelming and could give rise that the complaint that quantity outweighs quality. Another argument is that searching the web is like searching of needles in a haystack. Teaching our students how to search the internet is one issue we as teachers need to address if we want to make the most of Web 2.0 for ELT. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is one way that this can be done.

“In many ways a blog is similar to a website but a generally held to have some defining characteristics. Bogs have a title, they usually have a date stamp and they almost always allow comments to be attached.” R Brown (2009) P26

“For many blogging is simply about the pleasure and excitement of being able to self-publish” R Brown (2009) P28 It is this pleasure and excitement that can really be harnessed within the educational context. All people take satisfaction in producing something real and tangible.

“By far and away the easiest way to get started is to use an online blogging platform, and it is very easy, is to use Blogger or Word press. Both of these services are free to use, and you can get started on your blog very easily, with a minimum of set-up.” R Brown (2009) P30

One of the feelings I get from talking to fellow teachers is that they believe that building a website, Wiki or writing a blog is a complex task beyond their capabilities. What I know from running teacher training sessions on using ICT for ELT including a basic introduction to web design is that everyone is surprised at how easy this is nowadays. It is in my opinion that it is this misconception that inhibits many teachers form integrating ICT into their own teaching.

“The ease with which we can blog means that a key element is often forgotten- that of quality. One of the most important things that distinguish a blog from other forms of written published content is the absence of and editor or a publisher to select, moderate or adapt the content. There is no quality threshold that the blog has to pass through in order to be published. We can publish anything we like.” R Brown (2009) P31

This is a double edged sword, on the one hand students can write, experience and experiment with publishing their own work. On the other hand students can be exposed to language of a dubious quality and content. This means as teachers we need to vet, guide and control what our students are engaging with online. Also we need to educate them how to evaluate things for themselves a tough job especially in a foreign language.

“A Wiki has come to be understood as series of WebPages designed to enable anyone who accesses the site to add content or modify the content that is already there.” R Brown (2009) P39

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classrooms

Wed, 19 May 2010 09:16:00 -0400

Click here to look inside book

W. Richardson (2009) “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classrooms” Cornwin Press California USA

“90 Percent of our connected students use social web technologies in their personal learning lives, only a small fraction of classrooms have begun to understand fully what these networked learning environments mean” W. Richardson (2009) P ix

“Our students continue to outpace our own use of these tools, and they continue to have very few people in their lives who are modelling and teaching safe, effective, and ethical use of all the internet has to offer.” W. Richardson (2009) P ix

“Our teachers come in all ages and colours and from all over the world” W. Richardson (2009) P x

“On many levels, it seems we are in danger of becoming irrelevant in our students lives” W. Richardson (2009) P x

“I think this is a hugely challenging time to be an educator. The World is changing around us, yet as a system, we have been very, very, slow to react.” W. Richardson (2009) P 5

“Our students’ realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are vastly different from our own” W. Richardson (2009) P 5

“Without question, our ability to easily publish content online and to connect to vast networks of passionate learners will force us to rethink the way we communicate with our constituents, the way we deliver our curriculum and the expectations we have of our students.” W. Richardson (2009) P 5

PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences D. Breakenridge (2008)

Wed, 19 May 2010 08:42:00 -0400

D. Breakenridge (2008) “PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences” Pearson Education New Jersey USA

“The Internet enables you to extend your communications in ways you never could have imagined and to connect with groups you probably never though you could reach” D. Breakenridge (2008) P13

“The Web has evolved from thousands of separate web sites into thousands of communities. People within these communities all want to share information to make informed decisions” D. Breakenridge (2008) P13

“With blogs you’re connecting many separate sites, suddenly, there are scores of new communities that can all become connected. Blogs make connecting easier than in the past. This is a big component of blogs and the whole web 2.0 world- The linking and collaboration” D. Breakenridge (2008) P80

“Transparency is so critical, as well- in the web 2.0 world you’re not holding onto the information, you’re putting it out there not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because someone is going to find out if you don’t” D. Breakenridge (2008) P81