The Electronic Village (EV) 2022 was online: https://call-is.org/ev/, hosted by TESOL’s Computer-assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS)
The Electronic Village (EV) took place virtually during the hybrid 2022 TESOL International Convention from Thursday, March 23 through Saturday, March 25. The online program contained both synchronous and asynchronous interactive professional learning content. Events included:
Innovate and Implement: Practical Tech-Supported Instruction Tips: Short, practical tech tips videos grouped according to four themes: Innovative Tools and Activities for Synchronous Virtual Instruction; Innovative Tools and Activities for Asynchronous Virtual Instruction; Tools and Approaches for Overcoming Classroom Management or Instructional Admin Challenges; and Tools and Activities for face-to-face (F2F) environments
Let’s Learn Live!: 20-minute live, interactive presentations on topics related to tech-supported learning and the 4Cs- Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication-and 21st Century Learning; no audience size limit
Tinkering with Tech Workshops: Live 60 or 90-minute workshops that include hands-on activities with presenter support and may utilize small-group work in breakout rooms
Best of the Electronic Village Online 2022: Celebrate the outstanding work and lessons learned during the 2022 EVO sessions through live and recorded events
We’re CALL-ing on You: Daily asynchronous Mentimeter interactions that will generate and share ideas about current ed tech and pedagogical innovation topics for TESOLers….and more!
There was no fee to attend or present in the 2022 Electronic Village; it is an open-access program.
For examples of the exciting events that take place in the Electronic Village, please visit the EV 2021 site. You’ll find a wealth of free, openly accessible ed-tech for ELT resources…our EV 2022 website will be available soon.
Live EV presentations were listed in the main TESOL convention scheduling app along with the full EV program, so information will be centrally located and easy to find!
Want to learn more about the Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section? … follow us!
Helaine W. Marshall’s keynote presentation on Creating Fertile Spaces for Instructional Innovation in a Digital Age
On Friday, 25 March 2022, at 8:00-9:00 am US ET, Laine Marshall gave a keynote presentation live from the TESOL convention in Pittsburg, and streamed live as part of the virtual program.
At the end of her presentation, she honored the Webheads in Action / Learning2gether and associated (e.g. TALIN) communities by speaking for a few moments on this slide:
The slide and notes are included here with permission.
Earlier Events
Tue Feb 8 from midnight UTC – EVO Minecraft MOOC 1-day conference on language learning
Sun 13 Feb EVO 2022 ends with the Closing Ceremony/Summary from all lead moderators
EVO 2022 ends on Sunday, Feb. 13 with the Closing Ceremony/Summary from all lead moderators on their sessions. Jane Chien presented on behalf of EVO Minecraft MOOC.
NYS TESOL Webinars free-to-all scheduled for February 18, 19 and 23
NYS TESOL Webinars are free and open to all. Check out our impressive lineup of international presenters and innovative topics. We provide certificates of attendance/presentation as a member only benefit.
NYS TESOL is committed to diving deeper into strengths-based, inclusive practices with each webinar we bring to you! You are cordially invited to submit a webinar proposal for the above Webinar Series. All topics are welcome! See how to submit a proposal here.
Each webinar requires a separate registration. Click each hyperlinked event to register.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is July 30, 2022 08:00 UTC
On Tuesday, February 8, all day from midnight UTC to bedtime in Malaysia, EVO Minecraft MOOC held its 1-day conference on language learning, the first such conference that we know of to be held in Minecraft!
The full program with stream and connect-live links were developed through crowd-sourcing and maintained prior to the conference here, https://bit.ly/evomc22program
I have often pointed out that our community is a MOOC in the sense of ‘miniscule open online course’, and our conference was enthusiastically and appreciatively powered and enjoyed by the small number of passionate individuals who contributed either by attendance or by presenting to make it happen. If you missed it, every effort has been made to make it re-playable.
Midnight to 0050 UTC Conference Grand Opening and Train Ride
When the conference started, we gathered in Zoom to use voice for our conference opening, and screen shared what we were doing in Minecraft as we warped to our conference venues. At /warp conf22, we explored an extensive rail system created by Dakotah, dealt with housekeeping, then moved over to the VSTE server
February 7th, 8 pm EST (This is Tue, Feb 8, 2022 1:00 UTC) VSTE will venture into our new world, version 1.18 together, and look for the evasion Lush Cave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPPepwzvGI
If you are whitelisted you have the server information. That has not changed. If you need more details, please register with the conference and your details will be passed to the K4sons, Kim Harrison, at VSTE, for whitelisting.
This month, February 7th at 8 PM EST the EVO Minecraft MOOC will be our guests on the Minecraft server, kicking off their “first-ever, free EVO Minecraft MOOC 2022 1-day conference on Language Learning starting midnight Feb 8, 2022 [UTC]. As far as we know it is the first such professional conference to be attempted in Minecraft.”
Our goal will be to find a “Lush Cave” on our newly updated version 1.18.1 server while chatting and enjoying each other’s company.
Lush Cave
The VSTE Virtual Environments PLN is proud to maintain a Minecraft world for educators who want to learn more about Minecraft for teaching and learning and for educators who just love to play in Minecraft. We meet nearly every month on the first Monday of the month from 8 to 9 PM eastern time. The server is open all the time.
We started our adventure on the USS Dakotah
Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world
You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP: minecraft.vste.org:11002. Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter. Email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.
Discord
Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device. Download and install it for free. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple. Our channel is https://discord.gg/cp9tsWz It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.
0200 to 0250 UTC James York leads discussion on Ludic Language Learning Pedagogy
James York & LLPeers – Q&A on how to teach with games
We then moved back onto our EVO Minecraft MOOC server where James York was awaiting attendees at the first ever Conference on Language Learning to be attempted entirely in Minecraft to join him and ask questions aimed at teachers that are actively using games and play in their teaching contexts. We found him via or dynamic map, which you can see at the left of the screen in our videos. He was holding court at Sura’s phantasmagorical desert build at /warp conf22 on our server.
Discussion questions included:
Why should we care about teaching with games?
How can we teach with games? (pedagogical focus)
How have we (guest speakers) used games in our own contexts?
What are best practices for teaching with games like, but not limited to, minecraft)
What are the barriers to entry to teaching?
While we talked, Dakotah Redstone created, on the fly and in Minecraft, a meeting table and surrounded it with chairs, a subtle invitation for us to all have a seat there. That was only one unique aspect to the venue. Jane pointed out another in this Facebook post:
0300 to 0350 UTC Robert Remmerswaal and Robert Dykes – Minecraft as a Self-Access Learning Tool
After James’s lively discussion, which we streamed in Zoom, we changed horses in mid-stream so to speak and used OBS to stream Robert Remmerswaal’s and Robert Dykes’s presentation – Minecraft as a Self-Access Learning Tool, streamed on
These teachers are using Minecraft in the Self Access Learning Center at their university. They will discuss what they’ve done in phase 1 of the project and the current plans for phase 2
The floor will be opened up to the audience to share ideas about activities for students, some great plugins or mods, or to share any other ideas they might have to improve our instance of Minecraft and increase student engagement.
Meet on the EVOMC22 server at /warp conf22ship where there is a wall and books prepared to collect ideas from the audience. Server members can post live or after the event at any time.
While the presentation was in progress, Dakotah Redstone was flying overhead and sprucing up the open-air venue with a roof and giving it a more aesthetic aspect (illustrating as always one of the affordances of working in an always-on readable and writable collaborative space). Voilà le résultat!
On visiting the venue some days later, I also noticed that more activity suggestions had been posted on the collaborative wall, that the notices had been highlighted in dye making the lettering easier to read, and that a few more had been posted.
See the follow up with Robert Remmerswaal’s and Robert Dykes’s Minecraft as a Self-Access Learning Tool, as reported by Jane Chien in May, 2022, in the feedback section below.
0900 to 0950 UTC Heike Philp – EXCALIBUR – a new EU funded project
From there our conference took a short break while Heike Philp prepared to come online with her trio of presenters. Heike managed her own streaming through Vance’s EVO Minecraft MOOC video channel (with Vance’s assistance starting and stopping the streams). She also recorded the individual Zoom presentations, and uploaded them to YouTube.
When she was ready, Heike started with her presentation of EXCALIBUR – a new EU funded project;; Zoom recording uploaded to https://youtu.be/iYT5dm32HY0
EXCALIBUR stands for EXpanding Content And Language Integrated Learning through BUilding a Sustainable Future in Realtime in immersive environments and is 2-year an EU funded project which takes place in Minecraft (3/22-2/24)
1000 to 1050 UTC Chris Binder – Minetest as an open source alternative for Minecraft & the BLOCKALOT dashboard
Chris Binder – presented on Minetest as an open source alternative for Minecraft & the BLOCKALOT dashboard, Zoom recording uploaded to https://youtu.be/Xch8TZ9kNqU
Minetest (minetest.net) is a free block building game. Due to an active community and its LUA modding capabilities, the gameplay can be customized to the needs of educators
BLOCKALOT (blockalot.de) is a web dashboard that allows teachers to create online maps. It comes with features like user/rights management and custom maps for educational purposes. Despite being in Beta, BLOCKALOT is already used by many teachers. Chris had provided us with a tutorial in advance, How to install Minetest tutorial but none of us had noticed or read it.
Still all three participants , Heike, Robert, and Vance were able to install Minetest and join Chris in his world and follow him around as he explained the affordances and pleasures of this open-source project.
1100 to 1150 UTC – Andrea Benassi – At school with Minecraft: a large scale experience from Italy
Andrea Benassi was the last of Heike’s network presenters, and he gave a remarkable presentation on At school with Minecraft: a large scale experience from Italy. Andrea works with INDIRE, the research institute of the Italian Ministry of Education, and has been working with schools for a number of years. He presented on some of their projects, providing one answer with copious evidence to James York’s earlier question as to who was actually working with students effectively using Minecraft.
The above presentations were streamed all three together consecutively in one long video, https://youtu.be/h3BHX5fbZj4
1400 to 1450 UTC – Jane Chien – An analysis of Minecraft in-game activities: beyond vocabulary learning
I shared copies of the Zoom recording files with each presenter for whom Zoom recordings had been made. Jane uploaded hers to YouTube here, https://youtu.be/ibjnbbPYaww
After another break, we met Jane Chien online and streamed in Zoom to hear her Analysis of Minecraft in-game activities: Beyond vocabulary learning
The presenter discusses the different types of activities conducted on the EVO Minecraft server and how she has used them in the course of her experiences with EVO Minecraft MOOC
1500 to 1550 UTC – Walton Burns – Beyond Adventuring: Tools to teach in Minecraft
We then warped on our server to /warp pagoda to meet there with Walton Burns, who showed us around his neighborhood and then screen shared from other devices he had at hand his in-world presentation on Beyond Adventuring: Tools to teach in Minecraft
The presenter demonstrated numerous ways he’s used elements of Minecraft (redstone, NPCs, command blocks, books, etc.) to practice language in fun engaging ways.
Network – Continue meeting in Minecraft and learning how to work with one another. Expand your horizons and contacts in Minecraft by meeting educators from, and in, other communities (including by means of a one-day professional conference on our EVOMC22 server).
This is something Vance Stevens mooted in an article published recently in TESL-EJ
Stevens, V. (2021). Virtual worlds at virtual conferences. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 25(1), 1-32. https://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej97/int.pdf
And here’s more of that history, a follow-on to Robert Remmerswaal’s and Robert Dykes’s presentation – Minecraft as a Self-Access Learning Tool, as reported by Jane Chien on Facebook, May 4, 2022
How exciting! Twenty-four students from Sojo University and NTUE attended this Minecraft Protect the Village event hosted by professor Robert Remmerswaal! Four teams competed against one another protecting four different villages. Team A and B built fancy walls and farms, Team C built an artistic walk to the sky statue, and Team D built a tall watchtower up on top of the hill to overwatch the village. It was wonderful to have our students team up with Japanese students, communicate in English and complete this fun mission! I would like to thank our EVO Minecraft MOOC community and Vance Stevens for hosting the Minecraft for Language Learning Conference back in February 2022 because that was where I learned about Robert’s Minecraft Self Learning Center project at Sojo University. Here’s the recording:
Earlier Events
Fri 17 Dec 0500 UTC Vance Stevens workshop on Tag games
Successful Kickoff of TESOL CALL-IS Electronic Village Online 2022!
The EVO 2022 call for participation Smore page had over 4000 views. Over 790 people signed up for the kickoff, and approximately 200 people joined us as the 19 EVO sessions presented a brief overview and welcomed participants into their sessions.
This is a great opportunity you don’t want to miss to interact with members of our community and educators around the globe! Moderators will be able to share the achievements of their sessions at the BEST of EVO 2022 during the virtual TESOL international expo this March.
and on FB Jane added
Zoomfies at TESOL CALL-IS EVO2022 Kickoff! Over 790 signed up for the live zoom kickoff, and approximately 200 participants were present throughout the presentations! Caught some funny photos! Let the fun begin! Enjoy your sessions! #EVO2022 #TESOL #CALL
This one seems to have the best likeness of me (top row, far left)
NYS TESOL Webinars free-to-all scheduled for January 25, 26, and 28
NYS TESOL Webinars are free and open to all. Check out our impressive lineup of international presenters and innovative topics. We provide certificates of attendance/presentation as a member only benefit.
NYS TESOL is committed to diving deeper into strengths-based, inclusive practices with each webinar we bring to you! You are cordially invited to submit a webinar proposal for the above Webinar Series. All topics are welcome! See how to submit a proposal here.
Each webinar requires a separate registration. Click each hyperlinked event to register.
Sat 29 Jan TESOL CALL-IS Webinar: with Prof. Grazzia Mendoza – Engaging Teacher Training through Virtual Formats
TESOL CALL-IS Webinar: “Engaging Teacher Training through Virtual Formats” with Prof. Grazzia Mendoza
Date & Time Jan 29, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Sat Feb 5, Free VSTE Virtual Conference
FREE, ONE-DAY CONFERENCE
Recipes for Success: Gather. Measure. Blend. Repeat.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022
#BlendVirginia
NYS TESOL Webinar free-to-all scheduled for February 6
NYS TESOL Webinars are free and open to all. Check out our impressive lineup of international presenters and innovative topics. We provide certificates of attendance/presentation as a member only benefit.
NYS TESOL is committed to diving deeper into strengths-based, inclusive practices with each webinar we bring to you! You are cordially invited to submit a webinar proposal for the above Webinar Series. All topics are welcome! See how to submit a proposal here.
Each webinar requires a separate registration. Click each hyperlinked event to register.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Fri 17 Dec 0500 UTC Vance Stevens workshop on Tag games
I'm setting up here in Penang and practicing in Big Blue Button for my #glocall2021 workshop on empowering participants to share commentary across parallel sessions and create back-channels for discussion by playing Tag Games, more info here https://t.co/7PwuX5sLMdpic.twitter.com/cC4rHPHEer
Tag games: How to use #tags in professional and language development
Abstract
This session introduces the concept of #tags and empowers participants to exploit their power in professional and language development. The session presents examples where #tags are used in language learning, and by teachers pursuing professional development; notably by using them effectively at conferences such as this one.
There are often delegates attending conferences who use #tags to share content conference-wide with others following the tagged feeds, often in Twitter. The presenter will show participants how they can use #glocall2021 at this conference to share commentary across parallel sessions and create back-channels for discussion throughout the conference.
To illustrate, we play a number of “#tag games” to create a set of tagged objects that participants can retrieve instantaneously through techniques learned at the workshop. We then extend our games to show how this can extrapolate to language learning; e.g. a project where teachers around the world had their students blog content online, and then find one another anywhere in the world using the tag #writingmatrix.
Through exploration and using the tools to recapture what they have learned, teachers will leave the workshop with a greater understanding of tagging and its possibilities in language learning and in their networked professional development.
Promoted on Facebook, in posts tagged #glocall2021
Deborah Healey and I were in touch today, and I mentioned to her that
“You can hope to make a change in the world, but change in behavior is what you are looking for to see if your hard work has paid off.”
One of the bullets on the next to last slide of my workshop deck, slide 9, says
We’ll know you found this valuable when we find your posts tagged #glocall2021
Sharina was the GLoCALL docent for the session. She didn’t play the tag game during the workshop, but I see now that she reflected and tried out the tagging technique the day after the workshop, posting on both Facebook and Instagram:
As Cristina Costa @cristinacost once told Etienne Wenger when he joined us in one of our WiAOC, Webheads-in-Action online conferences, when he asked her about her participation in the Webheads community of practice, how did she know when she was in a CoP? Her answer, “When I noticed my practice had changed.”
Sharina commented at the end of the workshop that the session had been an “eye-opener” for her, and she has reciprocated with the most appreciated kind of feedback, evidence of change in practice.
All registered participants were sent this notice from the organizers, through GLoCALL Moodle portal
We would like to cordially invite you all to the opening ceremony of the GLoCALL 2021 conference, which is scheduled for tomorrow, Dec 17, 2021 (Friday), between 9.00 to 9.55 am (Malaysia time, GMT+8). All presenters are kindly requested to attend the opening ceremony compulsorily and to join the session on time, not later than 9.00am.
Please note that this is a public event, and it is open to all invited guests as well. No username or password is required to join the virtual opening ceremony session (Opening ceremony access link provided)
Just one more item re: @OzMark17 Pegrum's plenary talk at #GLoCALL2021 earlier today (finding these items in tabs still open on my browser). Much of what he talked about is covered (in greater detail of course) in his 2019 book, Mobile lenses on learning, https://t.co/Kaa45txrfJpic.twitter.com/Qz1C8K7WGD
This followed by another round of parallel sessions, including this one –
Language learning in immersive virtual reality: An exploratory study of Chinese college nursing students in a simulated operating room, by Junjie Gavin Wu
@gavin_junjie Wu is starting his talk on Language learning in immersive virtual reality: An exploratory study of Chinese college nursing students in a simulated operating operating room at #GLoCALL2021pic.twitter.com/BwymfOvdP8
Deborah Healey's last slide showed a QR code of some of the resources used in her plenary today at #glocall2021, links to https://t.co/hdoRmNDAVD. Deborah's talk developed multiple frameworks for Intelligent use of Technology, worth revisiting if you can access the video. pic.twitter.com/YaSMfM5CFo
Two more impressions from Suzan Stamper's presentation on Student Collaboration with Miro at the #glocall2021 virtual conference. It was a quick intro but she actually got people into Miro 🙂 pic.twitter.com/oD5b5qa4aZ
Suzan Stamper is showing us examples of Student Collaboration with Miro, https://t.co/ecKy1gZ7Yf, one of the last of the parallel sessions of the 3-day #glocall2021 virtual conference. Her examples show using it for student intros, storytelling, and sorting/matching. pic.twitter.com/t0RNWWLEEm
Screenshots of faces on webcams at the Closing Ceremony of the #glocall2021 virtual conference – turned out to be an informative and cozy online event, Moodle and BBB worked remarkably well, an exemplary effort for a first-time virtual conference, smooth & enjoyable. Next year? pic.twitter.com/gGxuGBRlOM
After downloading and installing the 64-bit Firestorm viewer , it will need to be configured to connect to the OpenSimulator Community Conference Grid:
Launch the Firestorm viewer
Click the Viewer->Preferences->OpenSim button at the top left of the screen
Now that your viewer is configured to connect to the OpenSimulator Community Conference grid, you should be able to log in with your local account information.
Enter your FULL AVATAR NAME in the Name or Username field. This should be your First and Last Avatar name, separated by a space. Example: Jane Doe
Enter your password that was emailed to you when your account was created.
In the Grid pulldown menu, select the OpenSimulator Community Conference grid
Click the Login button
You should arrive at a Landing Zone region with maps and signage to attend the conference.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is December 24, 2021 00:00 UTC
On Friday, Dec 3 (a little late for me, 11 pm my time) Vance Stevens was a part of a panel that kicked off the Eduverse Online Festival
My (Vance’s) contribution
I’d been thinking in terms of a conversation on ‘transversing’ the Eduverse from Web 1.0 to 3.0 and how we were dabbling in the metaverse even last century, until now, coming up on on Feb 8, we have a conference planned in Minecraft, which we think will be a first on that platform specifically on Language Learning https://bit.ly/evomc22conf.
In “preparation” I created this little recollection of the Eduverse at the turn of the century, https://bit.ly/eduverse2021vance
Heike Philp and Helena Galani about to explain Innovative teaching through Virtual Worlds – at the OpenSim SYMPOSIUM in 2020 – https://youtu.be/O9TTDshnmso
The schedule was shared with us as we settled into the opening conversation. Beforehand, I had had yet to see a schedule.
Videos for the 4 segments were posted in Discord as follows:
Episode #1 took place from 10-11 a.m. EST, with Mark Barnes, Nik Peachey, Vladimir Splvakovsky, & Vance Stevens, The EduVerse
Episode #2 took place from 11 a.m.-noon EST, with Bree McEwan and David Bozetarnik The EduVerse: Episode #2
Episode #3 took place from 12-1 p.m. EST, with Shelly Terrel, Jennifer ESL, and Marek Tkaczyk
The image above was posted in the ELK Discord chat
Episode #4 took place from 12-13 p.m. EST, with Raquel Ribeiro and Stacey Roshan The EduVerse: Episode #4
Promotion and Feedback
Promotion came in bits and drabs right up until the time I was scheduled to join the opening session. Consequently, I wasn’t sure how to announce the event on Learning2gether. However, when it came together, it came together well.
I could never find any widgets there that worked well enough to actually send me a ticket, and in the end, Streamyard is a tool that is convened on the fly, so unless you were attuned to this community elsewhere, I don’t know how you would have joined. The following widget was carried at the bottom of the link above:
(As I post this, a week after the event, there is a link at the bottom of the main link that indeed directs you to join the Telegram community)
All a little confusing, but a pleasant and powerful experience in the end.
Earlier Events
Sat 13 Nov – Vance Stevens on Leveraging language learning through the participatory culture surrounding Minecraft at the JALT CALL SIG Forum on games and play
In 2001, as I was coming to the end of my four-year term in the TESOL presidential line, I published an article entitled “Is language teaching a profession?” Drawing on work carried out by the TESOL Board of Directors at the time, I proposed four criteria for answering the question:
the existence of advanced education and training
the establishment of standards of practice and certification
an agreed theoretical and empirical base, and
the work of individuals within the field to act as advocates for the profession.
Twenty years on, I would like to revisit this question. Drawing on work carried out in 2017 by the TESOL Task Force on the Future of the Profession, I will describe the forces that have had an impact on the profession over the last twenty years, issues that remain to be resolved, and the implications for those of us engaged in teacher education.
Biostatement
David Nunan is Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at Anaheim University, and an Executive Board member of The International Research Foundation for Language Education (TIRF). He has published over 100 books and articles in curriculum development, teacher education, research methods, teaching English to young learners and discourse analysis. He as also written 14 textbook series for learners of all ages. Go For It, a series for young teen is a market leader, with sales of over 4 billion.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is December 11, 2021 02:00 UTC
The JALT CALL games and play forum took place on Saturday, November 13 2021
Full webinar recording, speakers James York, Deborah Healey, and Vance Stevens
Vance was invited by the Japan Association of Language Teachers, by Hanaa Khamis and Brian Teaman, Program Co-chairs for JALT CALL to join the panel at the games and play forum.
The forum showcased the theme of games and play as a preview of the JALT CALL conference which will occur in June of 2021. The JALT conference in November is scheduled for online only.
The format of the forum was 90 minutes, with 3 different presentations of about 20 minutes each, allowing 30 minutes for introductions and discussion among the presenters and organizers as well as the audience.
Vance’s presentation on Leveraging language learning through the participatory culture surrounding Minecraft
What the talk is about
Leveraging language learning through the participatory culture surrounding Minecraft
My focus here is on Minecraft and helping teachers to understand the participatory culture surrounding such games and how they can use this to leverage their students’ learning of the target language. Over the years the EVO Minecraft MOOC community has accumulated considerable anecdotal and some quantitative data regarding their students’ acquisition of target language occurring both in and around this challenging and enjoyable game. However, to be effective in a student-teacher dynamic, teachers have to experience for themselves the many nuances of the game as they strive to communicate to others their discoveries, as students tend to do during and after game play through a target language which, in many cross-cultural contexts, tends to be English. EVO Minecraft MOOC was conceived as an environment to foster discovery learning among teachers learning the game, and by extrapolation with their students, via critical thinking, and problem solving through meaningful play.
Minecraft tends to be highly gamified (in the sense that certain aspects are designed to hold people in the game and allow them to gain increasing powers as they master lower level accomplishments), but it also has great potential as a game-based platform for teaching and modeling content concepts in numerous disciplines, and I would want to elaborate on this a bit.
Share the registration link with your professional networks
Encourage students, colleagues, and networks to get involved by connecting them with our Facebook page, Twitter, and website.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is December 1, 2021 02:00 UTC
The eighth annual Second Life MOOC (renamed the Virtual World MOOC in 2018) started in 2014. The current iteration, VWMOOC21, took place from September 1-30, 2021 on Moodle for Teachers https://moodle4teachers.org/course/view.php?id=114 . The theme was “Connecting in Virtual Worlds. Communities of Practice”
The MOOC strove to connect a plethora of communities in virtual worlds promoting education and learning through connecting online via web technologies such as Second Life. The MOOC focused on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through virtual worlds like Second Life, Digiworldz, Kitely, Minecraft, or OpenSim.
The MOOC and the live online classes were organized and coordinated by Dr. Nellie Deutsch, Dr. Doris Molero, Dr. Valerie Hill, and Ann Nowak.
I had hoped to participate more fully in this event. A complicating factor was that the sessions took place almost entirely during very wee hours where I live in Malaysia. Consequently, I tried to follow it using the option provided for any participants who reflected on 10 live sessions and filled in the feedback form at the end of the MOOC, to be eligible for a certificate of completion.
The due date for the reflections was October 1, 2021.
I only managed two reflections, which I’ve posted below.
Reflection 1
Starting with the opening session, https://youtu.be/NQnSjUXg32A a 1-hour video, Nellie started by introducing the other moderators with a video within a video, which included a mention of each of the presenters, to consume the first ten minutes. After that there was a thorough description of what’s on the Moodle portal: organizers, presenters, live sessions, how to enroll in the course. After 20 min. I finally skipped ahead to 30 min, which is where Doris appeared to take us into Second Life.
Doris then started a tour in SL and noted they would be including VR. Nellie pointed out that this was especially relevant for engaging learners in remote learning these days. Valerie (librarian) joined us in SL, screenshot https://www.screencast.com/t/jNcHtacYeSd.
Doris showed us how to get a bookmark to return here from boxes on the floor. There were boxes where you can find links to previous VWMOOCs. She showed us how to get resources from posters on the wall, https://www.screencast.com/t/ncG63AxxhHn, but she had to drop out from serious lag at 40 min.
Zoom was being used to document and stream to YouTube, but it was disappointing to realize that this event was going to be interactive-live on in SL and other VW spaces, so I would probably not be able to participate to a great extent thru YouTube videos.
Doris demonstrated that YT videos are also functional from players on the walls in SL, which is critical, because whereas intuitively you might think why bother to access them through layers more cumbersome than your browser, in this space you can “be in a room” with your students and play the videos to the group through SL, which is much more engaging than doing it through Zoom.
In the last ten minutes of the video, Doris walked us through the pleasant surroundings, where you can meet and discuss – “For language students this is a paradise.” In the last 5 minutes we find a clown which gives you party favors and things you need for dancing, and then we see how the dancing is done.
Doris is giving numerous sessions and would be fun to work with, but all here sessions are at 4 am my time 😦
And as Doris says at the end, if you do not do this, then you cannot teach your students how to do it. How true 🙂
Come hear live music and visit the CVL Marly Milena Music Library- a dynamic library
Musician: Noma Falta has been honored with awards like Best Musician in SL, Best Blues Musician in SL, Best Rock Musician in SL, numerous times. If you want a party, she’ll bring it. If you want some delicious slide, acoustic guitar or bass, she’ll bring that. She’ll share covers & originals. Come join us in our beautiful Library. Nominate your favorite original SL musician to be a part of the Library.
This Community Virtual Library branch is a collaboration between the Community Virtual Library and Octagon: Creative Exploration. To learn more about CVL, join the Second Life Library 2.0 group in Second Life or visit our homepage. To learn more about Octagon, join the Octagon:Creative Exploration group in Second Life or visit Octagon’s website. Octagon hosts diverse events, including art, music, and therapy exercises and exhibits.
They organize a musician of the month on the 4th Saturday of every month.
Noma Falta was streamed to YouTube through Zoom, and thence into Second LIfe.
So, impressions: great music, excellent musician, great concept for SL, but from a visual and participatory perspective, there were a lot of gyrating avatars, lots of attention to clothes and costumes, probably not all of it free (you have to purchase certain gestures, and this seeds some peer competition among participants in participatory circles in SL).
Avatars can start group dances in SL and invite others, which you can accept (or you can just touch a participating avatar, e.g. “the back of Kedwin’s skirt”, to join the group dance).
Case in point on costume one-upmanship, this dancing bird character.
There’s more info at https://www.facebook.com/nomafalta; interesting stuff there, all in the interest of promoting learning in immersive worlds, where the main thing is not to be thinking, “how can I use this in class on Monday”, but “what does this suggest about the potential of immersive worlds for engaging participants in whatever you think they should be doing, among whom might be my learners”.
Earlier Events
Learning2gether about the nether: Immersed in a VSTE Minecraft Mondays nether world community gaming adventure
Thu 17 June from 1600 UTC 2nd Library 2.021 mini-conference on Reinventing Libraries for a Post-COVID World
I copied and pasted this from promotional email. It is a free event.
The second Library 2.021 mini-conference: “Reinventing Libraries for a Post-COVID World,” was held online (and for free) on Thursday, June 17th, 2021, from 12:00 – 3:00 US-Pacific Time.
You need to be a member of Library 2.0 (free) to access them there.
Please join the Library 2.0 network to be kept updated on this and future events.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, librarians have been faced with all manner of challenges as they have worked to bring their service, resources, and events into the virtual realm. Unsurprisingly, librarians have not only met this challenge but thrived in bringing new dynamic digital content, engaging virtual programming and instructional events, and exciting online such as virtual book clubs, gaming tournaments, and even makerspace activities to their patrons. Please join us as we discuss the ways librarians have adapted and evolved their service offerings for a post COVID world.
This event was organized in partnership with Ellyssa Kroski, the Director of Information Technology and Marketing at the New York Law Institute as well as an award-winning editor and author of 60 books. Everyone is invited to participate in our Library 2.0 conference events, which are designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Each three-hour event consists of a keynote panel, 10-15 crowd-sourced thirty-minute presentations, and a closing 30-minute keynote. A mini-conference FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is here.
Participants are encouraged to use #library2020 and #librariespostcovid on their social media posts about the event.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE THURSDAY, JUNE 17th – 12:00 – 3:00 PM US PACIFIC TIME
(Click the link on any session title to see the description and/or to correspond with the presenters. The actual Zoom session links will be emailed to registered attendees the day before the event.)
12:00 PM (NOON) US-PACIFIC TIME(Click HERE for Other Time Zones)
OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL (one hour, see the speaker bios below!)
1:00 PM US-PACIFIC TIME(Click HERE for Other Time Zones)
Learning from the Pandemic: Mechanics of Post-Pandemic Programming, Sasha Kinney, Adult Services & Reference Librarian, Sacramento Public Library | Bryan Duran, Materials Manager, San Francisco Public Library | Brittany Garcia, Adult and Teen Services Supervisor, Rancho Cucamonga Public Library | Shamika Simpson, Associate Professor & Librarian, Long Beach City College | Ashleigh Torres, Youth Services Librarian, El Dorado County Library
Flexible Work Arrangements: Managing Remote, Bridgit McCafferty, Dean, Texas A&M University-Central Texas University Library | Lisa Hopkins, Assistant Dean and Head of Technical Services
Fri-Sun 6-8 Aug MMVC21 – 10th Anniversary MoodleMoot Virtual Conference
The 10th annual Free MoodleMoot Virtual Conference (MMVC21) for 2021 took place from August 6-8, 2021.
The purpose of the conference was for educators to engage in learning best practices and challenges involved in teaching and learning face-to-face and online (blended and fully online learning) using Moodle and other technologies. The theme of MMVC20 is teaching and learning with and without technology.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is November 15, 2021 03:00 UTC
This VSTE Minecraft Monday event was promoted as a Nether Adventure on the VSTE Minecraft server. It took place on Monday evening, June 7, 2021 in the USA (hence ‘Minecraft Mondays’) which is Tuesday morning June 8 where I am in Malaysia. You can find out more about VSTE here: https://vste.org/
The join instructions were simple: “We are going to explore the nether, it’s biomes, some scary structures, and a blaze farm. Dakotah, Jazmar, and K4sons have this all set up for you. You don’t need to prepare at all, just show up!”
You can see what happened when we showed up in the video recording. First we rode a minecart to a gathering point at the end of the redstone powered rails and strolled together over to an elaborate build where we climbed a stairs and followed a maze through a series of iron doors where we had to press buttons to keep them open and then duck through, to arrive eventually at an elaborate hall full of beds, shokur boxes, and footlocker chests. Our first task was to divest ourselves of anything we had on us (that we didn’t want to lose) and put it in the shokur box. Then we needed to break the shokur box, which we could pick up off the floor with our possessions intact inside and put the shokur box into the foot locker where we could retrieve it later. Finally, we put signs on our beds to claim each as our own, and right click on the bed, so that our spawn points would be set back to our bed (in case of death, not that it would necessarily happen, just sayin’).
Next we wandered around to the dispensers placed at either end of the room and pressed their buttons to get them to spew out armour of the best quality, which we could gather off the floor and don, including gold items to wear so piglins would ignore us in the nether. Some dispensers had powerful weapons and tools, others potions to allow night vision (for up tp 8 minutes; it could be dark in the nether) and magic totems to carry in our shield hand to protect us (up to a point) from death (so we needed to get more than one, in case the spare would come in handy). There were golden apples which kept us on a constant high, restored health hearts quickly, and possibly provided some protection. We scooped up all these items and prepared ourselves for descent further into the maze where we would find and step through the nether portal that would transport us to a land of lava and dangerous creatures inhabiting phantasmagorical biomes not found on the overworld.
If you want to experience this with as little frustration as possible, and (if you’re new to this) with some hope of lasting long in this hellish environment for as long as an hour, then you are fortunate if you can travel in groups like this composed of community members who can help and support you, look after your scattered things if you succumb to mobs, and give you a place to teleport back to so you can retrieve them and continue into the fray. It can be chaotic and confusing, but if you don’t take in-game death personally, then the object is to rise to the challenge, enjoy it, and bounce back to persist in the tour so skillfully laid out by our friends and mentors Dakotah, Jazmar, and K4sons.
The recording was made in OBS by Vance Stevens, founder and coordinator of Learning2gether.net. This was episode 521 at https://learning2gether.net/ Some of the participants present were also moderators of EVO Minecraft MOOC http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/.
Promotion and Feedback
Mon 7 June 2355 UTC – VSTE Minecraft Event – Nether Adventure
Nether Adventure!
Time: Monday 8 PM June 7, 2021 = Tuesday 12 Midnight June 8, 2021 UTC
We are going to explore the nether, it’s biomes, some scary structures, and a blaze farm.
Dakotah, Jazmar, and K4sons have this all set up for you. You don’t need to prepare at all, just show up!
Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world.
Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter. You could email k4sons from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name and she will whitelist you.
Discord
Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device.
Download and install it for free.
Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple.
Wed-Fri 7-9 Jul ‘International Conference on Technology-enhanced Language Learning and Teaching & Corpus-based Language Learning and Teaching
International Conference on Technology-enhanced Language Learning and Teaching & Corpus-based Language Learning and Teaching
(TeLLT & CoLLT 2021) [ONLINE VIA ZOOM]
7 – 9 July 2021, Hong Kong
The joint conference ‘International Conference on Technology-enhanced Language Learning and Teaching & Corpus-based Language Learning and Teaching (TeLLT & CoLLT 2021)’. TeLLT & CoLLT 2021 aims to bring together academics from around the world to report on their various research work related to technology-enhanced language learning and teaching (TeLLT), and corpus-based language learning and teaching (CoLLT). Given the current unforeseen circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be held virtually via ZOOM.
The conference fee is HK$300, around $40 US.
Conference keynote speakers
Professor Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp
Professor Glenn Stockwell, Waseda University
Professor Gu Yueguo, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Professor Chen Haojan, National Taiwan Normal University
Professor Randi Reppen, Northern Arizona University
Professor Alex Boulton, University of Lorraine
Organiser: The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Conference themes: technology-enhanced language learning and teaching (TeLLT), corpus-based language learning and teaching (CoLLT)
For more details, please refer to TeLLT & CoLLT website.
For enquiries, please write to us by email at telltcollt2021@eduhk.hk.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
As announced by the organizers:
JALTCALL 2021 is happening online once again from June 4 – June 6. We’ve learned a lot in the last year and this will be a chance to share ideas and see great presentations outlining so many of the innovative ideas that the last year has necessitated in the online sphere.
This post is one participant’s perspective on JALTCALL 2021, the latest of its friendly, free-wheeling online conferences held on Fri 4 June – Sun June 6, 2021. I attended JALTCALL 2020 last year, blogged it here, and found the conference to be an excellent example of how many social media tools can be “loosely joined” (Weinberger, 2002) to present a smooth and easily intuited interface for participants. I was keen to repeat the experience this year. The organizers were kind enough to waive registration fees for me in a spirit of mutual appreciation through professional courtesy and I decided to pay forward by archiving my experiences in the sessions I attended.
This is my personal account of my enjoyment of JALTCALL 2021. Over the three days I encountered many friends whom I had met often online as well as at international conferences of educators throughout the globe over the years. It was great to renew acquaintances and keep abreast of how so many good professional friends were themselves refining their skills in addressing challenges of remote teaching in these times of pandemic.
In this post I’ve bookmarked the three days of the schedule and included program details of the presentations I attended from the https://jaltcall2021.edzil.la/schedule/. I did not include any presentations I did not myself attend.
Immersive learning has been a buzz word in the field of education for the past several years as an increasing number of affordable consumer devices and free/proprietary apps become available. Among various types of immersive learning solutions, virtual reality (VR) has gained much attention among educational technology researchers and developers worldwide. In this workshop, the presenter will show how to use Engage (https://engagevr.io/), a proprietary virtual reality app accessible on VR and non-VR devices, to create immersive learning materials for on-demand purposes and to conduct synchronous online classes. Given that VR headsets are not yet available to the majority of learners, this platform specifically designed for education can be a promising tool as it is compatible with PCs, iOS and Android mobile devices as well as major VR headsets. Although the freemium version has many features, a paid account is more beneficial for professional content creation and real-time use. The participants of this workshop are requested to download the app on their device in advance.
The first speaker I attended gave a basic overview of virtual worlds and then demonstrated her VR app,
She made use of the Engage advanced communications app here: https://engagevr.io/
Here she is showing us what it looks like to configure her world.
Here she showed us a classroom in her simulation. It struck me as odd to apply such a powerful tool to a traditional setting where students were being introduced to basic elements of a lesson, until she suddenly …
Until she suddenly … made the walls dissolve and took the students out into the virtual open air, where they were able to apply the concepts in more imaginative and language rich setting than had been apparent in the virtual classroom.
This workshop will present the work of the EU-funded CLIL Open Online Learning Project (www.languages.dk). Since 2018, the project team have been updating and expanding the functionality of clilstore.eu – an Open Educational Resource which serves as a repository of open access materials and an authoring tool that enables educators to create multimedia learning units combining audio, video, text, images and Web 3.0 applications. Learner autonomy is underpinned by the way the authoring software treats embedded texts, that is, verbatim typescripts of audio or audiovisual recordings are automatically linked word for word to a nexus of online dictionaries that helps boost their reading skills.
This workshop will introduce participants to the ways in which Clilstore can support Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and language learning generally. A selection of sample learning units showing how Clilstore.eu is currently being used to good effect will be presented. Participants will then be given a hands-on demonstration of how to author a new teaching unit containing: video/ audio content, transcript with all words linked to online dictionaries in over 100 languages, and embedded learning tasks. Participants will also learn how to use Clilstore’s inbuilt portfolio and personal vocabulary tools. The Clilstore user interface is currently available in the following languages: Danish, English, Spanish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Italian.
Here, Ana is walking us through the Clilstore back end
Like any other learning subjects, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound, significant effect on language learning. Remote teaching is now common, and both teachers and students are getting used to learning via technology. This presentation has two parts. The first summarizes language learning before the pandemic and since it began and proposes things that do and do not change. Those that do not change include (1) the significance of design, (2) increased student input and output, (3) practice of the four skills, and (4) in-class and outside-of-class learning activities. The things that do change include (1) lesson series designed to include synchronous and asynchronous learning activities, (2) new input and output methods, (3) four skills training that uses control of information and media, (4) more learner-centered learning, and (5) a balance of data-driven and knowledge (theory)-driven approaches. One of the biggest differences between the traditional and the new hybrid era is that data collection has become easier and the types of data available are more varied. These learning data can enable our teaching to include more evidence-based interventions and just-in-time facilitations. The presentation’s second part focuses on the larger vision of technology-enhanced language learning. Technological advancements enable us to be more creative and innovative as instructional designers and teachers. The presentation discusses the further development of recent technologies and proposes their potential applications in the near future. Let’s imagine and discuss the possible directions of future language learning and some strategies for overcoming concerns.
The presenter started us off in Miro, whose link she had provided in the conference Discord.
Miro has a way of attracting participation
Participants start moving around Miro immediately, registering comments
She pointed out how input and output methods were changing dramatically
She said this was everyone’s favorite image, an infographic on social presences:
Research findings showing peak use time right before deadlines and at other junctures indicated
Teaching online makes it challenging to encourage student engagement and interaction. In this workshop, I will share how I utilized Nearpod, an online teaching platform, to enhance my online English teaching practices. Research has shown that using Nearpod in English classes aids in promoting active learning by facilitating collaborative participation between students, teachers, and lesson content (Amasha et al., 2018, Hakami, 2020). My workshop will showcase how Nearpod can be used for effective discussions, reading activities, vocabulary activities, student-paced assignments, informing future instruction through its post-class reports feature, and more. Teachers will receive opportunities to test the functions as well. Finally, I will share the results of a quantitative opinion survey of 197 students’ self-reported perceptions of Nearpod, which indicated they felt an overall positive effect on their motivation and interaction in classes. Regardless of teaching online, hybrid, or face-to-face, the Nearpod lesson platform contains plenty of tools to increase interactivity and engagement in language learning. It is my hope that educators will leave this workshop feeling more confident in their ability to use this technology to facilitate interactive classes.
In this study, the effects of web-based, gamified vocabulary instruction (through Quizlet’s Match activity and online leaderboards) on assessment scores and student motivation are examined. The primary features of gamification present in this study include ‘conditions for victory’ and leaderboards. Japanese English language learners from two online Listening and Speaking courses at Kyushu Sangyo University took part in this experimental study. The control and experimental groups initially received identical vocabulary instruction, and in week 8, both classes took a vocabulary recall assessment (75 words). Afterwards, gamified vocabulary instruction (via the Quizlet application’s Match game) was introduced only to Class B (the experimental group). At the end of the semester, a second vocabulary recall assessment was administered to both classes (75 new words). Previous studies have claimed that gamified instruction increases a learner’s motivation to (a) study a second language and (b) study second language vocabulary. Results of the final assessment indicate that gamified vocabulary instruction through Quizlet’s competitive Match game and the use of a public leaderboard have a positive effect on vocabulary assessment scores. However, quantitative student feedback from this study suggests this manner of gamified instruction may not affect Japanese English Language Learner’s (ELL) motivation to study English or English vocabulary.
This session was one of several poster sessions scheduled in the same Zoom room, each with it’s own breakout room. This in theory would have emulated the ability of participants to move from room to room to listen in on what each presenter was saying, as if they were wandering from poster to poster. In the one I attended, the presenter essentially made a presentation, complete with slide show, and I didn’t notice that other participants wandered in or out to any significant degree. The presenter held my interest so I stayed the whole time whole time with the one presenter.
In 2020, in order to give university students encouragement during a difficult time while also providing free educational content, a teacher at a university created a series of daily comics that introduced study tips, vocabulary, educational ideas, or just entertainment value. The goal of the series of strips evolved over time, as did the format, as various kinds of comics were explored, such as “yonkoma” comics, single-panel comics, and later a series with a recurring main character. The strips were not used for a specific class, but were available for students to access free on the school’s social media, often in both English and often in Japanese. This presentation will explore the design decisions used for the art, the jokes, the educational content, and how those concepts evolved over the course of the year, as well as how text, questions, and tags were used to support the goals of the project. The comics remain free to use online, and the presentation will also explore further directions for the creation of online comics for education.
In his presentation, the presenter traced how he developed his of his skill with cartoons particularly in the teaching of English idioms, and how he had modified his techniques through experience. He ended with reflections on his technique; e.g. strengths and weaknesses of his approach, but also wondering how he could generate stronger evidence of student enthusiasm for his work.
Pandemic-era teaching takes many forms: online, face-to-face, hybrid, and hyflex, among others. Teachers must be prepared to transition rapidly among these modes, depending on local conditions and the whims of administrators. Where will language teaching with technology go from here? In this talk, I make four predictions for Japan and provide my recommendations for optimizing this future. First, I predict that online instruction will quickly fall back to prepandemic levels—that is, unless we make efforts to prevent this. CALL experts are well suited to argue for the effectiveness of online learning, where appropriate. One area where we may be able to make progress is in virtual international experiences, such as online study abroad. Second, most institutions will adopt bring-your-own-device policies. This will bring significant advantages for the use of technology in language classes but also present challenges when students’ devices are not uniform. Teachers will need more tech literacy to meet these challenges. Third, our institutions will recognize a growing variety of learning differences among our students and rely on us to accommodate them. To support all learners, universal design will become standard. Fourth, although most instruction will return to the physical classroom, we will need to be constantly prepared to shift instruction online again. This will apply not only during the current pandemic, but is also necessary preparation for future public health or natural disasters that prevent face-to-face instruction. Emergency remote teaching will no longer be adequate; instead, we will need to provide high quality online learning experiences. To prepare to meet these challenges and optimize the outcomes, we need quality professional development (PD). Although current offerings from our institutions are inadequate, CALL experts can help to fill some of the unmet needs. In conclusion, I encourage CALL experts to push for the future of technology in education that they would like to see. We have the power to make change in the use of technology through our research, our exemplary teaching, and the PD we provide to our fellow teachers.
One of Betsy’s slides made that point that we have been reinventing the wheels of online learning repeatedly since 1994 (but if I may be allowed an aside, TICCIT and PLATO were operational in the 1970s) Stevens, V. 1983. Software review of English lessons on PLATO. TESOL Quarterly 17,(2), 293-300. http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/archive/1983Stevens_PLATO.pdf
Based on these responses, the PD sessions studied don’t appear to be very effective.
Taking questions and appreciative feedback from the audience
The Covid-19 pandemic has popped the online teaching genie out of the bottle into the spotlight. One of the great challenges language teachers now face is finding ways to help learners engage each other through the computer screens in different areas as opposed to the traditional face-to-face method in a unified classroom. One method that has proven successful is the adapting of popular games and activities from exclusively face-to-face versions to computer-based models. This presentation will introduce a variety of games and activities that can be used with Zoom or other online learning platforms in either paper or digital form. Furthermore, this presentation will demonstrate how you do not need exotic software nor a high level of computer expertise to use these games and activities. This presentation will be highly interactive and participants are asked to bring writing materials that will allow them to make written notes that can be seen by the other members when held up to the camera. Activities will include online versions of the American TV game shows “Match Game” and “The 20,000 Pyramid” as well the murder-mystery game “Clue.” Materials for these activities will be available in the form of PDF files for anyone interested using them in their classrooms.
The point of this presentation, by example, was that learning language is less a focus on form than on providing stimuli for communicative opportunities, and that utilizing this observation might promote engagement through what is possible with Zoom. At the end of this session I noted that the presenter had modeled not only how to use these stimuli to engage students in remote learning spaces, but also to reshape how this might work in webinars in teacher professional development, which Betsy had mentioned in her keynote in the previous session.
Since schooling has been affected by the pandemic, educators are beginning to be more open to distance learning and might become more open to immersive virtual worlds, such as Minecraft (Cleave & Geijsman, 2020; Egbert, 2020). However, in order to integrate new technology into their practice, teachers need to be provided with training that promotes the development of their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). This study identifies the level of TPACK teachers need to integrate Minecraft English teaching by investigating twenty-nine elementary school English teachers who created Minecraft English lessons after receiving Minecraft professional development for 16 hours in two months. A Minecraft TPACK instrument for English teachers was developed based on Schmidt et al. (2009) and Bagheri (2020) and administered before and after the training. Five Minecraft English lessons were created as a result of the training. The results showed an overall improvement in Minecraft TPACK scores. The English teacher’s Minecraft content knowledge gained from M=1.98 to M=3.79, Minecraft Technological Pedagogical Knowledge gained from M= 1.86 to M=3.6, and the TPACK mean score gained from M=2.5 to M=3.93, indicating that they are more knowledgeable of how to teach English through Minecraft. In the presentation, the results of the study will be discussed with a focus on an analysis of the content, technology, and pedagogy incorporated in the Minecraft in-world lessons and supplementary materials using Kahoot, Bamboozle, and Nearpod that the English teachers have created. Also, the merits, affordances, and challenges for teachers to integrate Minecraft as a language teaching environment will be discussed.
“Your students are more motivated than yourself” – Jane
‘I only know one thing about the technologies that await us in the future: we will find ways to tell stories with them.’ (Jason Ohler). The technology in question for this presentation is a virtual world called OpenSim, which is similar to Second Life but more suitable for education. We present the main challenges addressed and the outcomes produced towards inspiring the participants to transcend previous achievements throughout our workshop “Immersive Storytelling In Virtual Worlds”. For five weeks earlier this year, with moderators and 110 participant English teachers, our EVO session focused on the skills, methods and techniques required for promoting the use of VWs for Immersive Storytelling in the new classroom. The affordances of a 3D user-created virtual environment such as OpenSim can prove indispensable to the language teacher, educator, tutor, course designer or trainer moving their classes online or resorting to hybrid and blended practices, at any stage of the Educational system. The process of recreating popular narratives in Virtual Worlds can effectively accelerate immersive language acquisition by motivating learners to take charge of their own education with an avatar, in a creative, imaginative and memorable way. In addition to the workshop outcomes, Heike Philp presents the rich resources created by 10 universities during three EU funded projects over a period of 6 years exploring the potential of language learning in virtual worlds like Second Life, OpenSim and Minecraft.
Here, Heike zooms out to an overview of her virtual island. She pointed out that many of the builds here were freely available to be copied from OpenSim resources to be transplanted here.
Here we approach, and then enter, the gate to the castle.
When the discussion turned to appropriate innovative venues for future virtual conferences and classrooms, Yoshiko Goda shared a walk into such a space using Virbela, https://www.virbela.com/. I didn’t want to interject anything that might have been construed as self-promotional at this juncture, but knowing I could always blog it later, I can here point readers to my most recent published thoughts on virtual venues for virtual conferences.
I also mentioned to James York in chat before his presentation the following day that I was contemplating trying to organize a one-day conference in Minecraft at some point during EVO Minecraft MOOC 2022. The above article ends on that suggestion.
The use of video streaming has exploded over the past several years, in part, due to the ubiquity of smartphones and advancements to mobile network technology. However, while the topic of video for second (L2) learning has been studied extensively in CALL research, the use of video streaming for out-of-class, informal foreign language (FL) learning has received little attention. This presentation details a study that addressed this gap in the literature. Specifically, the study examined Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ practices and views concerning the use of subscription video streaming services for informal language learning. To this end, a survey was administered to Japanese students at four universities, with a total of 256 participants fully completing the survey. Moreover, 12 of these participants were interviewed to gain deeper insight into their views of subscription video streaming for informal foreign language learning. Results showed that informal language learning through subscription video streaming is a common social practice among the participants and that they had positive perceptions towards using these services for L2 learning. Additional findings and implications from the study will also be discussed in the presentation.
The past year has shown us both challenges and opportunities in education in particular socialization, collaboration and interaction for research, discussion, support, and exchange of ideas. Social distance and the inability to connect physically has created barriers to the type of communication required for learning, teaching, and researching. To help bridge this divide, institutions hastily struggled to implement a range of Learning Managements Systems LMS’s to address both teachers and students needs. The result was a collage of contradictory, conflicting and complementary platforms that greatly assisted and facilitated some endeavors but hopelessly added to the burden and confusion of others. Far from there being any logical consensus, teachers had to experiment and trial systems in this ‘wild west’ of online classrooms, finding out what worked and what didn’t, and in many cases relearning how to teach. Students were equally plagued by this inconsistency and in some cases had a different platform for each class. What did we learn from this? Will the experience of LMS based teaching have a lasting impact on education? The following will describe an “Integrated English” Program for freshmen and sophomore English majors and how it was coordinated, managed and adapted to online learning.
Presenters will discuss the results of two surveys conducted to evaluate the online learning and teaching experience. The research surveyed 280 college students and 39 instructors regarding their worries, fears, challenges and triumphs using various LMS’s ranging from Webex and Zoom to Course Power and Google Classroom.
Renewing acquaintances, awaiting the crowds to appear
In primary education, English grammar learning focuses on single-sentence formation. However, reports show that nearly half of upper-grade students in primary schools demonstrate grammatical errors in their single-sentence production. This points to the need to improve instruction on single-sentence formation at elementary schools. Since conventional English instruction relies on textbook teaching, which leads to insufficient contextual language use of target language items, this Show-and-Tell session will provide an overview of how a theme-based situated learning environment consisting of a robot and toys (R&T) supported by Internet of Things (IoT) technology was created to help elementary students use English sentence patterns. The authors will show how content-language integrated learning (CLIL) is incorporated into a R&T farm English learning game, along with embodied cognition based on sensory-based guided play and scaffolding of robotic prompts to make English syntax learning closer to real life. Specifically, the audience will be shown two design-based research (DBR) cycles of the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model. The first DBR cycle focuses on (a) the needs analysis stage concerning the English learning needs of middle- and upper-graders in Taiwan, (b) the implementation of the R&T game on farm English with 15 fifth graders; and (c) the evaluation stage with learning outcomes based on pre- and post-test measures and interviews. The second DBR cycle, which involves the R&T game enhancement and pilot testing with six upper-grade students, will also be presented. Suggestions and principles for the R&T English learning mode will serve as content to take away from this presentation.
In this presentation, the presenter will demonstrate how teachers can transform their classroom into an engaging and collaborative hybrid-learning environment with the help of Showbie, a classroom management tool. Showbie is a cross-platform application used by teachers to assign, collect, and review student work. However, it houses a myriad of features that go far beyond simply assigning and turning in work digitally. Showbie gives users the ability to store and share documents that can be annotated utilizing a digital pen, text boxes, and embedded voice notes. Using the Pro version of Showbie, teachers can host online discussions, create private group chats, and have students collaborate on projects both synchronously and asynchronously. Furthermore, Showbie is incredibly user-friendly making it easy for even the least tech-savvy teacher to create an account, invite students, and share a digital assignment with their entire class in just a few minutes. The presenter will give concrete examples of how Showbie can help educators to achieve a truly paperless curriculum that will both enhance and transform language learning.
Has a video to show how to set up the Showbie app in Japanese in just a few minutes, shows features in video, hard to screenshot 🙂 Very informative and excellent well choreographed video tutorial.
Here is a folder setup with assignments not yet added to folders
He can watch students work in real time
Students can share presentations and add voice notes to each slide
Another way to share slides with video voice over and access to annotation and highlight tools
Students, as well as the population as a whole, often suffer from debilitating levels of presentation anxiety. Public speaking phobia can have a negative impact on students’ ability to function in the classroom, as well as their ability to effectively acquire a second language. This talk will discuss an ongoing investigation into the best methods for reducing this anxiety in students, including virtual-reality and imagination-based home practice, as well as course work and exposure to in-person speech acts. This program used a combination of exposure training, mindfulness training, and interventions based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to target presentation anxiety in the Japanese university student population. Preliminary results show significant levels of anxiety reduction within the participants, consistent with earlier findings within this ongoing program. How this experiment shifted to an online format in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will also be discussed, as will differences between participants who used more technological methods (VR) versus those who used more traditional methods for presentation practice. Participants’ comments from program interviews and surveys will also be presented to explore the nature of presentation anxiety and to help find best practices for classroom presentation activities and assessments by instructors.
Part of his PhD research: Recruited first 30 out of 50 applicants who self selected to participate. Taught 4 skills: presentation skills, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness skills, exposure training (illustrated in the icons below)
The presenter focused on VR for in-virtuo exposure training
Simulated speaking before audiences
Seem to find no differences in anxiety reduction with vr but wow factor strong
There are few studies that explore interactive fiction’s (IF) cognitive and effective benefits for language learning. Inspired by Neville (2009), we compared the effectiveness of IF in comparison to non-interactive, linear fiction in terms of vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension and motivation in a university EFL context. Participants (n = 93) were divided into two groups. The control group read a linear story, the experimental group played through an interactive version of the same story. A pre and post-experiment vocabulary test was employed to measure the acquisition of 16 target vocabulary words. A quiz based on the actions of characters within the story was also employed to measure reading comprehension. Finally, a post-test questionnaire measured student perceptions of learning with linear and IF. This presentation introduces the results of the study which are as follows. Findings revealed no significant difference in scores between the control (linear) and experimental (IF) groups for vocabulary acquisition or reading comprehension. However, an additional analysis of the data was conducted based on learners disposition towards gaming (gamer vs non-gamer) which revealed that, in comparison to gamers, non-gamers found the interactive version of the story more enjoyable and easier to read. This suggests that students’ level of game literacy had an effect on their perceptions. We will introduce the IF tool (Twine) and offer a number of options for future research such as exploring the creation of more robust IF including more micro-level choices, choice impact on story progression, and the explicit use of target vocabulary.
Use Twine to create interactive stories, James shows coding, and then the result
This study addresses implications for professional development in the current pandemic by exploring novel practices in pre-service teacher education contexts and by emphasising future teachers’ skills and digital readiness. The study takes as an example the involvement by 22 university students (pre-service teachers of languages) at a European university in a hackathon, as part of their university curriculum. Hackathons are time-constrained events that bring together volunteers to address a problem or challenge, often with a social purpose (Gutiérrez, 2018). Adopting an action research approach (Colpaert, 2020; Luo & Gui, 2019), this study focuses on examining the student perceptions as well as the challenges in the design of a hackathon as a pre-service teacher training facility that took place in November 2020. Two mentors (university lecturers) provided conceptual and technical support throughout the process. The hackathon targeted the creation of plurilingual and pluricultural resources for L2 with an emphasis on digital activism and social participation. Groups in teams of 4 and 5 persons were engaged in this process using a variety of technologies (Slack, Google Drive, Zoom) to achieve their goals and all results were made openly available on the DigiEduHack website (cf. Solutions). The opportunities and drawbacks of pre-service teacher education (Hauck, 2015; Borg et al, 2014) through novel remote collaboration and co-creation possibilities will be discussed, as well as implications resulting from the integration of open innovation initiatives (as hackathons are) in standard university curricula and degrees.
In recent years the increase in the availability of computerized speech recognition and speech synthesis has lead to exciting possibilities in the field of foreign language learning. Computerized speech essentially represents a final stage in the development of a human-computer interface, and in this context, it offers substantial advantages over traditional touch-based interfaces which can eschew language altogether. One activity where this is particularly pertinent is in spaced-learning activities where traditionally students do not need to vocalize their responses, and indeed the responses are often not available to instructors at all. Speech Recognition has further benefits in that every utterance is immediately displayed for students, giving them a more accurate indication of their success with the tested language constructs. The advantage to instructors is in the ability for utterances to be stored as text in a database allowing computer analysis of speech patterns to discern common errors. As the 3rd year of a four-year cross-institutional research grant from the Japanese Government (Kakenhi), this paper will present a speech recognition and speech synthesis system developed by the author within the context of a spaced learning program. We will further show (a) a pattern analysis of the accuracy of the system and patterns of learner usage, (b) an analysis of the effectiveness of spaced-learning using online speaking on student outcomes over 3 institutions, (c) student feedback and reactions on speaking to a machine, (d) how the system deals with pronunciation.
I found it easier to navigate into the conference the second time around. They had added Discord channels though that can be a welter because Discord spaces tend to be organized on how someone envisages how everyone else’s minds might work, but with familiarity the patterns promoted by the organizers become clearer. I posted to #introductions.
There were live and static schedules where you can filter events by day, There was even an view of what was taking place at a given moment. With the feature, presentations and correct Zoom rooms were just a click away, and everything worked smoothly after that.
The organizers announced that they were using the same platform in 2021 “which has a beautiful new look as before so you don’t need to create a new user. Just join the event space and get a ticket. We also have free hardship tickets for those from developing countries. Please contact us at the above website if you, or you know of anyone who would benefit from attending.”
The registration page https://jaltcall2021.edzil.la/ gives the price of tickets (approximately $25 and $35 respectively)
There was a catch. Until you are able to register, the Student ticket option takes you in an endless loop to the same page. The only other option is to ‘contact us’.
That option informs you that you must be a logged on the JALTCALL site in order to use the contact form.
When you try to Join the space, if you have an academic address your good to go (I guess).
I am retired, acting as founder and coordinator of Learning2gether.net, so I have no academic address.
I next saw this screen
So I finally submitted a note and asked if there were any MOOC price tickets in exchange for my track record in promoting freely sharing of knowledge with colleagues on a quid pro quo basis.
I received this response …
This is the point at which I decided to extend my benefit in being accepted on these terms into the conference milieu by blogging it as Learning2gether episode 520.
Recordings
All the sessions are being recorded to the cloud. The recordings are being made available for download to the presenters. Presenters have a choice on whether or not to share a recorded version after the conference, but they will have to download the files and upload them to YouTube themselves (too overwhelming a job for the conference organizers). Once the videos are online they will be added to the JALTCALL YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/c/JALTCALL or they can be uploaded on their private channels.
Earlier Events
Thu May 27 1000 UTC Vance Stevens speaks on Blended learning and communities of practice for the ELC PD Committee at U of Tech and Applied Sciences Ibri Oman
Learning2gether episode #519; renamed
Tag games: Vance Stevens revisits practicing blended learning in communities of practice for the ELC PD Committee at UTAS, Ibri, Oman
Tue 01 June 2300 UTC IDEA informal networking session
Sharon Tjaden-Glass deserves kudos for setting up these sessions. Not only does she share the live event announcement but she provides a link to a YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLqYX_uge5bz_lE2Csu1G2yoABHo1M4Jy where the recordings of these sessions will end up, and you can see videos from the sessions that have gone before. That’s a great IDEA. It’s what I do with all my presentations, and it’s a model I wish that others would follow as a matter of course.
Are you an educator who is experiencing teacher burnout? Are you seriously considering another career path that builds on your current skills as a TESOL professional? Ever heard of “instructional design?”
Please join us for one or all of our informal networking sessions between instructional designers and educators, known as IDEA Networking (Instructional Designers and Educators Alliance.) Since August 2020, we have welcomed 30+ current instructional designers–who were once educators–to share their stories of how the moved from the field of education into the field of instructional design. Each session begins with 20 minutes of guest speakers, 25 minutes of breakout room with guest speakers, and 15 minutes of whole group Q & A.
We will have three sessions over the summer on the following dates:
Agendas with the names of guest speakers for each session will be emailed to registrants several days prior to the event. All sessions are free and recordings will be shared with registrants who are unable to attend live.
You can also watch recording of previous sessions at this link.
If you’d like to join the IDEA Networking mailing list to receive updates on upcoming networking sessions, please sign up at this link.
Thu 03 June 0600 UTC UTAS hosts panel on Special Needs of Students in COVID-19
The English Language Centre at University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Ibri, Oman cordially invites you to join an “ELT Colloquium: Special Needs of Students during COVID 19” on Thursday 3 June 2021 at 10:00 am Oman Local Time (GMT+4)
Guest speakers:
1- Sharyn Collins- UK
“The Etiquette of Online Learning”
2- James Papple– Canada
“Providing Differentiated Support for EAP Students.”
3- Dr Mike Kenteris- Greece
Participants will receive a Certificate of Appreciation within 6 business days.
The “attendance and feedback” link will be shared in the chat box.
Screenshots
Sharyn Collins starts us off, followed by James Papple
Mike Kenteris delivers a wide-ranging presentation on Differentiated Support for EAP Students based on his experience as owner of and teacher in his own language school on Lesbos, Greece.
Q & A
And on Facebook
Recording
Faisal Al-Shamali has followed up with this additional information:
To watch the recording, kindly click here: https://youtu.be/anGC1rLTZlU
Faisal added in his email that James Papple is willing to share the PPTs of his presentation, though you would need to contact the presenters if you wish to have it.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is June 13, 2021 22:00 UTC
On Thursday, May 27, 2021, I was invited to give a 35 minute talk plus 10 to 15 minutes for Q & A as a free webinar hosted by the ELC PD Committee at University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Ibri, Oman. The talk was recorded and posted on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J2zFcRHDfG4
Revisiting learning about blended & hybrid eLearning through engagement in communities of practice
Abstract
Participation in CoPs is critical for ongoing teacher professional development. Drawing from experience coordinating teachers’ CoPs for the past 20 years, the presenter illustrates the evolution of groups into CoPs, as well as how CoPs interact in distributed personal learning networks, continually leveraging their participants’ PD and modeling ways to be applied later in teaching practices. This strongly suggests that teachers must be trained not only in the use of social media, but through its use.
I had been originally asked to speak on Blended learning and communities of practice, specifically to repeat my talk given earlier, blogged here:
I was going to have to alter my remarks anyway to adjust to the specified time-frame, so I crafted an original presentation on approximately the same theme, except that I broadened the topic to teachers learning virtually anything through their participation in communities of practice, and in turn modeling their way of learning to their students to help effect a break from pre-digital learning paradigms.
Announcements of recent webinars in this series (including one another announced for the day I am invited to speak) are posted on the webpage here: https://www.ibrict.edu.om/
I suggested during my presentation that settling on a consistent webinar tag would help to improve use of Twitter as a means for locating information about the UTAS series of webinars. I modeled this by posting my announcement of my presentation on the Twitter tag #utaswebinar and then showing how anything I posted to Twitter with that tag would appear in a search on that tag in Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=utaswebinar&src=recent_search_click&f=live .
I invited the audience to join me in a “tag game” and post about the webinar on the same tag and we would see their related posts appear at that link in real time. No one took me up on that while I was giving the webinar, but of course the game is still open and anyone can test the technique at any time using that tag and that search link, or since this is folksonomic classification, create their own tag and try to get tweets from many people to ‘aggregate’ around that tag on Twitter.
I was asked how this could be used practically in the classroom. I found it hard to answer that question, since the answer depends on the inventiveness of the teacher who sees an opportunity for collecting student feedback in the context of a particular learning situation. So I gave an example of tag games I’d played with students in recent workshops; I showed them the results of a tag game I had played with participants at a workshop on January 20, 2019 at Rangsit University in Thailand on the tag I had created for that group #jan20reli. That search is still viable over a year later, and can still be found here: https://twitter.com/hashtag/jan20reli?src=hashtag_click&f=live
All of the tag games I played with all the pre-service (student) and in-service teachers who attended my two weeks of workshops in Thailand in January, 2020, can be found at in the sidebar of the wiki I created for the event here: http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/
Here are the aggregations from all the workshop groupings copied from that sidebar:
The thrust of my message to attendees at this workshop was that teachers learn about such techniques through interaction with teaching peers in webinars like this one, which are offshoots of networked communities of practice. And also that the knowledge to be gained is often ineffable, which means that it must be experienced in order to be understood. So it’s hard to answer the question that prompted this reflection with an example off the top of my head, except to say “Try it,” and then you’ll see 🙂
And finally, I aimed in my webinar to point out the importance of modeling in teaching. For example, I did not specifically address the issue of blended learning per se in my talk, but the wiki I created for my workshops in Thailand was a perfect example of blended learning (by some considered to be a mode of teaching where online components are blended with face-to-face ones). In that wiki, I set out a document where anyone, and in particular my participants in Thailand, could see in retrospect what I was trying to model for them, and theoretically review the material and how we played our tag games and what the results were. So in teaching, I was modeling and demonstrating how blended learning works (being physically with them, but leaving them a live document tailored for each of their experiences with the workshop).
In learning through this blended approach, my workshop participants were left with something they could reflect on and also practice, just as any participant in the webinar I am writing about today could review what I have written here, and after reflection, decide to go ahead and try the tag game. That act of trying would be their practice.
If they feel they have learned something, having experienced the technique, they might then relate this to something they are trying to teach, and thereby model and demonstrate it to their students, who might in turn practice it, and on reflection perhaps feel they want to experiment with it in their own classrooms. From that point, the knowledge would be transferred (via me, having demonstrated the original model) on to a whole series of teacher to student relationships, and develop the concept the way memes form, as described by Richard Dawkins in his seminal work, The Selfish Gene (where he coined the word ‘meme’ in 1976).
I ended by pointing out that communities of practice encourage autonomous learning, and that in order to nurture autonomy in our learners, teachers need to themselves practice autonomous learning. I brought these threads to a conclusion borrowing slides from a talk I gave at the IATEFL conference in Exeter in 2008 https://www.slideshare.net/vances/lets-start-with-teacher-autonomy-multiliteracies-and-lifelong-learning/ . The slides were based on my article, Stevens 2007, which I had in turn been invited to Exeter to discuss as part of a panel addressing learner autonomy.
This is one of the most complementary instances of feedback I’ve ever received from a webinar participant. The name of the sender is included with permission.
One interesting aspect of the follow-up on this webinar was that Faisal Al Shamali polled his listeners. He logged 231 respondents to his feedback form, which might mean there were that many in the webinar, or at least that many. The 229 respondents indicating where they were from listed 42 different countries. Not surprisingly, 40 were in Oman, where Ibri is, but an almost equivalent number, 38, were in India. After that, there were 14 participants from each of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, followed by 13 from Indonesia, 11 from Turkey, and 10 from Nepal.
In single digits, 9 participants came from Azerbaijan, 8 from Bangladesh, and 7 from Pakistan. Morocco and the Philippines both had 6 participants in the webinar, whereas Iraq, Malaysia, and Tunisia each had 4. Algeria, Ecuador, Palestine, and Ukraine each provided 3 participants, and there were 2 each from Bhutan, Jordan, Libya, México, Romania, and the United Arab Emirates. The remaining participants came one each from Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Gaza, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Moldova, Nigeria, South Africa, UK, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zambia.
It’s interesting to have such demographics and to realize how many people from developing nations are taking part in these webinars. There were many from southeast Asia, Iran, and the Arabian Gulf, and from Africa. Participants came from Turkey further east from countries in the old Ottoman empire, but only one other from farther north in Europe (UK). There was one participant from Australia, but none from the Americas apart from 3 from Ecuador
All but one participant answered yes to “I highly recommend this webinar to a friend or a colleague” (vs. a single ‘no’). Participants were asked to rate 6 aspects of the presentation on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. Here were the average ratings followed by the question.
4.6 – The event was well-organized.
4.6 – The event was very useful to me.
4.6 – The concepts and ideas were presented clearly and effectively
4.6 – The event was informative and practical to me.
4.7 – The guest speaker was knowledgeable on his topic.
4.7 – Personal approach and attitude of the guest speaker in explaining and answering questions was good.
This appeared to be a gratifyingly appreciative audience. Overall they rated the presentation highly. I’m not sure what the all choices were, but I received 3 categories of response in answer to the prompt for Overall webinar evaluation:
7 – fair
87 – very good
138 – excellent
The most interesting feedback was where participants were asked to offer any further comments or suggestions. Some of these related to webinar timing, audio quality, and two complaints about not using Zoom (Faisal told me this was an institutional decision; out of his control). Some expressed a desire to have the slides and recordings shared with them. One respondent said “Keep on organizing webinars!”
Some adjectives used to describe my presentation were ‘awesome’ (2 respondents :-), 1 ‘perfect’, 1 ‘unforgettable’, 4 ‘wonderful’, and varying degrees of good, such as ‘excellent’ (17 tokens), ‘great’ or ‘very good’ (10), milder praise such as ‘good’, ‘good work’, ‘all well’ (14), 2 instances of ‘fine’, 4 indicated ‘nice’, and 2 went as far as ‘ok’. Three said ‘I enjoyed it’.
Some commented on the utility of the session. Six used the word ‘fruitful’. Eight applied the adjective ‘informative’, one going so far as to extend that to ‘highly informative’. Two said it was ‘useful’ (e.g. “It helps me to my teaching career in the future”). Other adjective were ‘effective’, ‘insightful’, ‘relevant’, and apt (“the topic is very apt”).
Two respondents wrote “Congratulations!” One wrote “Succes” (sic). My favorite was “great learning experience.”
41 respondents wrote variations on ‘Thank you’; e.g.
Thank you for these valuable MOOCs, Vance!
Thank you for this event. I really liked it. 🙂
Thank you. More power! 👏💕👏💕👏💕
One participant suggested “Maybe making it more interesting and interactive so that we can follow without losing our attention.” Another said that “Technical issues became a problem but the speaker was excellent.”
The most loquacious response was “Great Session. The Event Was Well Organized & Useful To Me. The Concepts & Ideas Were Presented Clearly & Effectively. The Event Was Informative & Practical. The Hon’ble Speaker Was Knowledgeable. Personal Approach & Attitude Of The Hon’ble Speaker In Explaining Was Excellent. Such Great Points.”
Two respondents purported to speak for all, saying “We like more sessions of this type.” and “We look forward to having more webinars on Engaging students in learning.”
Earlier Events
Just this, from the day before
Wed 26 May 1300 UTC – TESOL CALL-IS webinar on EVO: 20 Years of Free Professional Development in Online Teaching/Learning for English Language Teachers Worldwide
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is January 4, 2022 01:30 UTC
On May 26, 2021, TESOL CALL-IS hosted a free webinar on EVO: 20 Years of Free Professional Development in Online Teaching/Learning for English Language Teachers Worldwide
Christine Bauer-Ramazani organized this special celebration of the 20th anniversary of EVO sessions as a CALL-IS webinar, in conjunction with the Electronic Village Online’s 20th anniversary.
This special EVO 20th Anniversary Webinar featured a panel of speakers that were instrumental in making EVO such a success over the last 20 years. As of 2020 EVO had trained almost 50,000 ELT professionals around the world! Critical in making this enormous feat of volunteerism happen are the EVO Co-founders and Lead Coordinators, who orchestrated the many activities carried out by the teams of EVO coordinators, some of whom have been with EVO for most of those years.
Accordingly, this special celebration of the 20th anniversary of EVO sessions featured the 3 EVO Co-Founders, 10 former Lead Coordinators, and Vance Stevens on a panel of speakers.
Vance Stevens presented for 6 minutes on Webheads and EVO: Truly Lifelong Learning
I wanted to show how a popular EVO session I organized in 2002 led to my becoming a coordinator of EVO in 2003 and nurtured a series of Communities of Practice which have persisted and interleaved themselves in TESOL CALL-IS and in EVO to this very day.
To achieve this I prepared two versions of my slides. This link contains both versions: http://bit.ly/EVO20Vance
The shorter version was designed to be delivered at the webinar and to encapsulate in 6 minutes what I wanted to say in an 18 minute video which I had pre-recorded to go over in greater detail what was in the longer version of the slides. The video is here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YuoOzPOPWUc
The video shows how so many participants in early versions of Webheads for EFL students, and teachers who got involved in that, became founders, coordinators, and moderators of EVO after their participation in the several communities of practice associated with the Webheads in Action EVO session I offered in 2002.
The main event EVO: 20 Years of Free Professional Development in Online Teaching/Learning for English Language Teachers Worldwide
Christine advertised the webinar in a post sent to several ‘myTESOL’ groups prior to the event:
The Electronic Village Online (EVO) is excited to invite you to a special TESOL Webinar to celebrate the 20th anniversary of EVO sessions, the first 10 online/distance sessions held in 2001. During the pandemic, the 19 EVO 20th anniversary sessions held in January/February 2021 were especially pertinent to the 2,682 participating English teachers from 71 countries worldwide.
Presenting will be the three co-founders of EVO, Christine Bauer-Ramazani, Tom Robb, Susan Gaer, as well as the 11 lead coordinators of EVO–Dafne Gonzalez, Aiden Yeh / JoAnn Miller (Co-Coordinators), Carla Arena, Nina Liakos, Mbarek Akaddar, Nellie Deutsch, Carolina Buitrago, Martha Ramirez, and Vance Stevens–all known authorities in CALL and TESOL. They will address their contributions to EVO as well as their latest endeavors in the area of online teaching and learning.
There are 14 presenters in a 90-minute time frame.
In the first 20 minutes
Christine will start with the purpose of the Webinar, an explanation of what EVO is, then introduce the EVO Coordinators
Susan and Tom then talk about the founding of EVO
Christine gives a brief walk through history, including updates on the latest data on EVO participants and countries reached. I’m hoping this can be done in15-20 minutes.
Each presenter then has 6 minutes to talk about main accomplishments during your tenure and possibly any recent endeavors in “free professional development in online English language teaching and learning worldwide.”
WHEN: Wed, May 26, 2021 from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM (ET)
At the end of the meeting, we all waved, smiled, and clapped at our successful completion of twenty years of thriving within our robust communities of practice and getting through 90 minutes of webinar pretty much within the allocated time frame.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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The image above was posted in the ELK Discord chat
Learning2gether 