Learning2gether Episode 184

There was quite a lot on this past week and today in the way of edtech chatter, as usual.  Today the event organized by Learning2gether was WorldCALL scholarship recipient Hora Hedayati and Susan Marandi on impediments EFL teachers perceive in implementing CALL in EFL classes in Iran.

Download mp3

https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/2013oct20hedayati_marandi-64k.mp3

Where: Bb Collaborate / Elluminate (thanks to a grant from http://learningtimes.com)

• http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/

Recording

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-10-20.0641.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75

What

In this event, Hora Hedayati reports on the presentation she co-presented with Susan Marandi at WorldCALL 2013 in Glasgow. The presentation focuses on the impediments Iranian EFL teachers perceived in implementing CALL in their EFL classes.

Fatemeh Hedayati and Seyyedeh Susan Marandi presented this 45 min Research Paper on 13th July at the 2013 WorldCALL conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

S. Susan Marandi authored Ch. 16 “Bravely Stepping Forward: Creating CALL Communities to Support Teachers and Learners in Iran” in the 2010 CALICO publication, CALL in Limited Technology Contexts, Editor, Joy Egbert; Area Editors, Chin-Chi Chao, Yu-Feng Diana Yang, Senem Yildiz, Vance Stevens, Jeff Nelson (20 chapters), https://calico.org/page.php?id=452

Abstract

Despite the spread of reliable technological tools and the availability of computers in the Iranian universities as well as the mounting evidence of the effectiveness of blended teaching, many Iranian language teachers are still reluctant to incorporate such tools in their EFL classes. This qualitative study investigates the obstacles, perceived by the Iranian EFL teachers, toward implementing CALL in Iran. In so doing, 12 teachers, comprising 2 supervisors with no CALL experience, 4 teachers with the experience of integrating technology in their EFL classes, 2 teachers with no CALL experience, and 4 teachers who had recently finished an online CALL teacher education program, were interviewed. The semi-structured interview questions were designed by the researcher with the help of two experts in CALL and teacher education. The researcher conducted the interviews which lasted for 30-50 minutes. The researcher used content analysis of the interview transcripts to find themes relevant to the research question. The results suggest that the obstacles in implementing CALL in language classrooms could be classified into three categories: teacher, facility and learner constraints. Examples for each of these categories are provided and implications for designing CALL professional development programs for EFL teachers and supervisors.

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-worldcall-scholarship-recipient-hora-hedayat
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30677
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/messages
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30681

Hora Hedayati was a WorldCALL Scholarship recipient for WorldCALL 2013 (and Susan Marandi was a scholarship recipient in 2008).

http://www.worldcall2013.org/index.asp

Program: http://www.worldcall2013.org/programme.asp 

Proceedings: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/p3853ngyb94dazq/Short%20Papers.pdf (link broken)

We plan more sessions hosted by WorldCALL presenters whom we hope to attract for discussion about their presentations.

Watch this space for more news, and meanwhile, here is a listing of sessions in this series

• Sunday, Oct 6 – Learning2gether with Carla Arena and WorldCALL Scholarship Recipients Miguel Mendoza and Hora Hedayati
  • https://learning2gether.net/2013/10/06/learning2gether-with-carla-arena-and-other-worldcall-scholarship-recipients/
• Today, Sunday, Oct 20 – Hora Hedayati: Obstacles in implementing CALL in Iranian EFL classes
• Sunday, Nov 10 –  Kalyan Chattopadhayay: Language teachers’ use of social networking technologies in India
• Monday, Nov 25 – Karen Price: Multimodal interfaces: blending gaze, gesture, movement and speech to overcome the limitations of keyboard, mouse & touchscreen
• Sunday, Dec 8 – Phil Hubbard: Digital content curation for CALL
• Monday, Dec 23 – Işıl Boy: Does Mobile Learning need to Move?

 These other events were on at about the same time as this one, or in the week before:

Thu October 17 Laine Marshall at Moodle MOOC 2 – Flipped Learning in an Online Course for Teachers

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1395077-flipped-learning-in-an-online-course-for-teachers-with-dr-marshall

Sat Oct 19 1400 GMT Vicki Hollett on Learning to Speak ‘merican

What and Who

In this IATEFL Webinar, Vicki Hollett explores some of the curious differences between linguistic politeness in these two influential English varieties – British and American.

More information: http://mercedesviola.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/learning-to-speak-merican/

When: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Vicki+Hollett+Webinar&iso=20131019T15&p1=136&ah=1

Where: http://iatefl.adobeconnect.com/vickihollet2/

Fri-Sat Oct 18-19 (ends Oct 20 0500 GMT) – Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference

The third annual global conversation about the future of libraries is scheduled for October 18-19, 2013

 http://www.library20.com/2013

The conference is once again being held entirely online around the clock in multiple languages and time zones. Everyone is invited to participate in this FREE forum designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide.

We have 146 accepted conference sessions and ten keynote addresses. There are eight conference strands covering a wide variety of timely topics, such as, MOOCs, e-books, maker spaces, mobile services, embedded librarians,
green libraries, doctoral student research, library and information center “tours,” and more! The current schedule in US-Eastern Daylight Time is below; hour-by-hour session schedules for all of the world’s major time zones are published on the site and you should use those for the most current information.

Sun Oct 20 0900 GMT Luke Prodromou: The Dickensian Turn

What

IATEFL Global Issues SIG

http://gisig.iatefl.org/event/events-future/webinar-luke-prodromou-the-dickensian-turn

How does our work in ELT relate to wider social and economic issues? What does it mean to be a language teacher with a critical perspective in our digital age? Let’s discuss these issues together at this free virtual event open to all!

JOIN ROOM: http://iatefl.adobeconnect.com/rzuigulkn6/

SUNDAY Oct 20 1400 GMT IATEFL LTSIG Webinar on How to speak Meme

http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events/312-201013-webinar-how-to-speak-meme.html 

with Nina Jerončič (Slovenia)

When: Sunday 20 October 2013, GMT 14:00
Find the time in your time zone by clicking this link.

Where: The event takes place in the IATEFL online conference room.
Click here to join the webinar.

More LTSIG webinars are listed here http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events.html

The one on Oct 26 has been postponed; next one after that is Nov 17

http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events/313-171113-ltsig-appaganza.html

Sun Oct 20 1600 GMT Stephen Downes on Moodle MOOC 2 Habits of Effective Connected Learners

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1407629-moodle-mooc-2-habits-of-effective-connected-learners

Stephens’s Web entry on the event:

http://www.downes.ca/presentation/328