Learning2gether at the CETE/TESOL (Virtual) Annual Online International Conference – Deborah Healey keynote

Learning2gether Episode 503

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I have occasionally in the past made Learning2gether episodes out of events I did not myself organize. My involvement in this one was almost accidental. I received a message from a colleague that the Center for English Teaching Excellence affiliate of TESOL, CETE / Georgia was looking for speakers for their upcoming virtual conference and suggested I put myself forward. On making enquiries I discovered two important things: (1) the conference was to be held from 7 pm to midnight Tbilisi time, odd timing for Georgians, but most probably to accommodate their plenary speaker Zooming in from west coast USA; and (2) the plenary speaker was Dr. Deborah Healey, a long time colleague in CALL-IS in TESOL, and past-president of, and current roving / virtual ambassador to, TESOL.org. When a TESOL affiliate needs a speaker, Deborah is often called on and often accepts (and always makes a great presentation).

healey_ceteGeorgia

The conference started at 11 pm my time in Penang, Malaysia. I had scheduled a meeting of moderators of my EVO 2021 group, EVO Minecraft MOOC, for 10 pm my time, and as long as I’d be online anyway, I decided to stay up for Deborah’s presentation.

I don’t see where there is a video recording yet, but if one becomes available I can embed it here. Meanwhile, we’ll have to make do with my screenshots and the materials Deborah posted at http://tinyurl.com/healeycete

Deborah’s Tiny URL points to a Google Drive folder where there are three files. One is to a getting-to-know-you Google form. One is to a breakout activity she may have been planning for her presentation (or perhaps meant it as a model for one). And the third file is to her slide presentation, direct link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w-B1yYBBc7aJo6bHkpREasphu9GtPCNa/view?usp=sharing

The presentation was timely, entitled
Building community in difficult times: Pandemic and online teaching

She set the presentation in the context of the sudden shift in demands on teaching, followed by suggestions for effective teaching and community building online, couching the discussion in the framework TESOL’s 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners. She closed with a discussion of resources that teachers could access worldwide for free, and from TESOL often for free or at nominal cost. She made clear when one of her suggestions might cost something; e.g. in the neighborhood of $35, what a year’s global membership subscription to TESOL would cost people overseas in Georgia, for example.

My other meeting had run a little overtime, and I arrived at about the point when she started talking about the 6 principles:healey06ps

You can see in the slides where for Principle 1 she talked about ice breakers in Zoom; using surveys and playing games such as scavenger hunts to get to know participants and their opinions.

2020-12-19

On Principle 2 she gave her insights into conditions for interactivity in virtual classrooms. One of these was to have students switch cameras on, which I interpreted as a signal to turn mine on immediately. No one likes to talk to a wall of static icons. Also her breakout activities would have fit in here, all explained in the slides.

Also on the same Principle 2, on Slide 11 (page 11 in the pdf version) Deborah introduced the Flipped Learning approach, https://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FLIP_handout_FNL_Web.pdf. She mentioned its tenets and then suggested her listeners go to the Electronic Village Online page which has on it a Call for Participation in the sessions taking place this January and February, 2021, http://evosessions.pbworks.com/

She suggested that teachers find in the list on that page the link to the session on Flipped Learning in Language Teaching, whose direct link for those interested is http://evo2021proposals.pbworks.com/w/page/141324927/Flipped%20Learning%20in%20Language%20Teaching.

She did not mention that there is also a session given by one of the chief proponents of Flipped Learning, Laine Marshall, on her trademark SOFLA, or Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach, http://evo2021proposals.pbworks.com/w/page/141322005/Synchronous%20Online%20Flipped%20Learning%20Approach.

So participants in EVO this year could take one or both of those. EVO sessions are free and available to all.

The part of her presentation that I warmed up to most was about Principle 3, designing high quality language lessons, because she gave practical examples of tools that might be used to implement the three online presences in Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (2000); per Slide 12:

healey_principle3

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87-105.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6; also available http://cde.athabascau.ca/coi_site/documents/Garrison_Anderson_Archer_Critical_Inquiry_model.pdf

As can be seen at the CoI portal page (https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/) there are three presences represented in the Venn diagram reproduced in Deborah’s slide. For Social Presence, Deborah suggests the following tools, plus Webquests, which she added just before she changed slides, and before I could refresh my screenshot.

healey01

For Cognitive and Teaching Presences, she suggested these tools as an appropriate fit to the revised Bloom’s taxonomy for constructing meaning in a digital age (shown on her slide 14):

But the part of the presentation where she made this a Learning2gether episode was when she reached her discussion of Principle 6, Engage and collaborate within a community of practice:

healey06

On slide 20 she made mention of Learning2gether as a salient example of teachers helping one another in times of need; most recently in reference to ERT (emergency remote teaching) and whatever the new normal is in this era of pandemic

healey_slide20

This was followed by a full list of resources, many of which are not hyperlinked in the PDF version of the slide show, but there are usually umbrella links at the bottom of the slides, and failing that, there’s always Google. One such set of resources was the https://my.tesol.org/ COVID-19 Resources Group.

covid19tesol
https://my.tesol.org/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=80115161-470c-46be-bd23-849d1e8302a4

This group has informed a substantial portion of materials I have been sharing since last March 2020 in my Crowdsourced Google Doc on COVID-19 Teaching. This document was created at the outset of the ERT phase as a part of the TALIN webinar series whose 38 webinars took place from from March to August 2020. TALIN at the time stood for Teaching and Learning in IsosatioN, but it has since morphed into TALIN2, which, whenever possible, I represent with a superscripted 2 so that it reads “TALIN squared” – standing for Teaching and Learning in the New Normal.

talin2020fb
From the TALIN Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/talin2020

So, this was a very stimulating presentation, overlapping nicely with principles and mindset of the ongoing Learning2gether project.

2020-12-19certificate

If more links for this presentation become available in the near future I’ll add them here.


Promotion and Feedback

This event was promoted at the CETE / TESOL Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1406931896220617

And in email from the organizers, which had this welcome announcement:
Thank you for registering for the 12th (Virtual) Annual Online International Conference “Pandemic and Online Teaching” which will be held on the 19th of December from 19:00 to 24:00 Georgian time

Plus the email had a Zoom link, and an attached schedule (to my knowledge, not online)

From Nino Chachanidze’s follow-up post to the
CETE/ TESOL Conference 2020 Dec 19

ninoFBdec20


Earlier Events

Tue 8 Dec 0100 UTC Learning2gether Episode 502 – VSTE Minecraft Monday regular monthly webinar for December 2020: Fun with skins and resource packs

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/08/vste-minecraft-monday-regular-monthly-webinar-for-december-2020-fun-with-skins-and-resource-packs/

Tue 8 Dec 1500 and 1800 UTC – CALL-IS and American English Live Tech Tips webinars

ELT educators around the globe have faced new and often unexpected challenges during the recent shift to online and hybrid learning. To address some commonly reported virtual instruction concerns, the U.S. Department of State’s American English Live webinar team and TESOL International Association’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS) are jointly presenting two special Tech Tips webinars on December 8, 2020.

Please join us on the @AmericanEnglishforEducators Facebook page (facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators) for one or both of these free 45-minute sessions; times below are listed in US Eastern Time (Washington, D.C.), and you can confirm your local broadcast time here: bit.ly/ChecktheTime.

Registration is not required. Recordings of both professional development webinars will be available on the CALL-IS YouTube channel at tinyurl.com/call-is-youtube

——————————
posted by Heather Benucci
TESOL Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS) Chair, 2020-2021

10am EST – “Flipped Instruction in the Virtual English Language Classroom” 

Martha Ramirez will explain the concept of flipped learning and examine how to apply it during courses that include live virtual sessions. We will also discover how flipping has become an effective practice for differentiating learning during online instruction.

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators/videos/2453641318274868

Martha shows us (in a compelling and insightful way) how learning can be messy

Recordings:

“Flipped Instruction in the Virtual English Language Classroom” with Martha Ramirez

1pm EST – “New Frontiers in Classroom Management: Effective Practices for Live Online Instruction

Justin Shewell will share a selection of practical strategies and accessible tools that can help teachers manage their e-classrooms during live online sessions.

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators/videos/2802058820037517

Recordings:

“New Frontiers in Classroom Management: Effective Practices for Live Online Instruction” with Justin Shewell

Wed 9 Dec 1300 EST B-MEIS Webinar: Hip-Hop and Translanguaging: Negotiated Community Participation

Here is the link to the webinar recordinghttps://youtu.be/WjMj3LAd7E8

Description

 This panel brings together a group of critical scholars who look at the intersection of hip-hop and translanguaging scholarship. Drawing upon their own experience as a hip-hop artist and/or scholar-activist and work with people from language-minoritized groups in different regions of the world – Hong Kong, U.S., South Korea, and Serbia, panelists (Chang, Im, and Schreiber) will discuss how individuals adopt and adapt hop-hop and translanguaging practices to participate in local and global communities with the purposes of amplifying their voices, expressing their multicultural and multilingual identities, and resisting the dominant ideologies and discourses. Panelists will also offer implications on how hip-hop and translanguaging can be used as pedagogy in classrooms to promote bi/multilingualism and advance a social justice agenda. Our discussant, Angel Lin, will synthesize ideas and guide overall discussion to help develop further theoretical understanding, practical applications, and future pathways toward engaging in hip-hop and translanguaging as a form of negotiated community participation.

Presenters

Benji Chang is Assistant Professor of Equity Education in the School of Education, and International & Global Studies, at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Education University of Hong Kong. Dr. Chang’s work focuses on teacher education, community engagement, and language, literacy and culture, with publications in venues like Linguistics & Education and Curriculum Inquiry. He currently serves on the Teachers College Record board and is Co-Editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. Prior to UNCG, he was a hip-hop artist, inner-city classroom teacher, and Fellow of NCTE and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Jae-hyun Im is a PhD candidate in the department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University Bloomington. He is interested in translingualism, teacher identity, hip-hop-based education, and discursive psychology. His recent publications can be found in Applied Linguistics Review and Journal of Multicultural Discourses.

Brooke R. Schreiber is an Assistant Professor of English Department at Baruch College, CUNY, where she teaches courses in writing and linguistics. Her research focuses on second language writing, pedagogy, and teacher training, as well as global Englishes and translingualism. Her work has appeared in TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, the Journal of Second Language Writing, Composition Studies, and Language Learning and Technology. She is the co-editor of a forthcoming collection with Multilingual Matters on linguistic justice and multilingual writers.

Angel M. Y. Lin received her doctoral degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto in 1996. Her research and teaching have focused on critical discourse analysis, critical literacies, bilingual and multilingual education. She has published six research books and over 100 research articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards of leading international research journals. She was a full professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong before moving in 2018 to Simon Fraser University to take up the position of Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education.

Where?
Register for the Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrc-2qpz0pG9H6QXIwpAfx9A6s3CogvtQK

Fri 11 Dec 1500 UTC – AQUEDUTO

https://bit.ly/32kRmmH/

Fri 11 December 11 1500 EST – Christine B., Liz England, Sara Stevick, and Ashley Jennings

Sharon Tjaden-Glass: I’m happy to share the recording of our most recent #networking session between TESOL/education professionals and instructional designers. Thanks so much to our speakers, Jennifer Davis, Laine Istvan, MSID, Jennette Skaggs, and Elisabeth Huber for sharing their stories of moving from the field of teaching to #instructionaldesign.

Our next networking session will be held on Friday, December 11th from 3-4 p.m. EST, and our speakers include Christine B., Liz England, Sara Stevick, and Ashley Jennings, MA. To register for our next session, please visit this link: https://lnkd.in/dZi2hD6

Recording of most recent networking session: http://bit.ly/ArtsCreativity
(The bit.ly link opens onto the Zoom recording)

Sat 12 Dec noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763
Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

  • Dec 19, 2020 07:00 AM
  • Dec 26, 2020 07:00 AM
  • Jan 2, 2021 07:00 AM
  • Jan 9, 2021 07:00 AM

Sat 12 Dec 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Time where you are Dec 12, 9-11 am EDT, 1400-1600 UTC
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sat+Dec+12%2C+9-11+EDT+-+VSTE+Second+Life+Saturdays&iso=20201212T09&p1=212&ah=2

 Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time.

Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there. Follow VSTE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/

Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft

Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces

If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Thu 17 Dec Diversity in L2 Writing: Creating Inclusive Pedagogical and Administrative Approaches

What: Diversity in L2 Writing: Creating Inclusive Pedagogical and Administrative Approaches

L2 writers in English-speaking colleges and universities come from across the globe and bring myriad academic and life experiences with them. Panelists discuss research and practical applications for creating equitable spaces for English learners with disabilities, refugee students, and international students in writing classes and institutions. Teachers and researchers of L2 writing as well as administrators of writing programs will learn important information about how to make their programs more equitable for all learners.

Presenters

  • Betsy Gilliland is past chair of the Second Language Writing Interest Section and an associate professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i Manoa.
  • Caroline Torres is an associate professor in the second language teaching program at Kapi’olani Community College in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
  • Shawna Shapiro is Associate Professor of Writing and Linguistics and Director of the Writing & Rhetoric Program at Middlebury College in Vermont.
  • Megan Siczek is an assistant professor and director of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
  • Aylin Relyea the current chair of the Second Language Writing Interest section and faculty at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College in California.

When: Dec 17, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (ET)
Register here: my.tesol.org/events/…

___________________________________________________________
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 February 23, 2021 07:00 UTC
Added certificate of participation forwarded from Georgia organizers

VSTE Minecraft Monday regular monthly webinar for December 2020: Fun with skins and resource packs

Learning2gether Episode 502

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In the USA where my VSTE friends were convening in Discord and talking each other through their preparations for the day’s event, it was Monday evening, December 7. But for me on the other side of the world it was almost 9 in the morning of Tuesday December 8. Still, in deference to my friends, I go along with how they like to call their monthly event: “VSTE Minecraft Monday”.

This Minecraft Monday was streamed in Discord by K4sons and recorded in Camtasia by the mysterious alter ego Streamer Vance, who made it available for replay at https://youtu.be/y3RExV7vcMw

My VSTE friends, two of whom were also moderators in EVO Minecraft MOOC (and some other VSTE folk who are occasional EVOMC participants), were in Discord getting set up for their regular monthly event. I had offered to record it. There are various ways of doing this, but the easiest way for me is to use Camtasia since I bought a copy years ago and Techsmith still honors my license after all these years and not only that, lets me download and install the software onto multiple devices at any given time using the same purchase key. Camtasia is the quickest way to get a screencast up and running unless you plan to stream out to the Internet as well, in which case OBS (Open Broadcast Software) is usually my choice; it’s free but trickier to configure, therefore takes more time to pick and choose what you want to record and test beforehand. Camtasia costs a couple hundred dollars, but I’d already bit that bullet, and it is pretty good at recording whatever part of the screen you want to include and whatever sound is coming out of the computer, and getting your mic sound if you tick it in, and and your web cam if you choose to include that. I just have to test it once, and it’s usually good to go.

I had arrived in Discord early to find out if K4sons (a.k.a. EVOMC21 co-moderator Kim Harrison) was going to stream the session in Discord (‘stream’ here means stream someone’s screen in Discord, but visible only to others with permission to view that group’s doings in Discord; and the stream can’t be recorded in Discord). I had offered to record that if that was what they were going to do, in which case I would need to bring along Streamer Vance, one of my alter egos, to assist. Teacher Vance, my Minecraft character, can be in Minecraft and record that in Camtasia on one computer, but Teacher Vance would become quite disconcerted if he were having to track both his view of Minecraft and a stream from someone else’s perspective taking place on one patch of laptop computer screen real estate (and Camtasia itself records a region of the screen which would consume a large part of that real estate). So I invented an imaginary sidekick Streamer Vance whose job it is to go onto another of my computers, insinuate himself into Discord there, and record the stream. However, in order for me to record a stream in Discord, Streamer Vance would need to become a member of the VSTE Discord group

This meant that K2sons had to add the new member to the group while trying to get set up for the event, but she’s pretty good at that, so well before start time Streamer Vance was happily in place and testing the setup, and giving us the thumbs up that all was good to go.

We waited for Show Time! K4sons had sent an email just four hours before the two Vance’s had got out of bed in the morning which said:

Take a break from your shopping and decorating to reconnect with your VSTE Minecraft friends. Tonight we will play with changing skins and resource (texture) packs. Let’s dress up Minecraft for the holidays!

And what a great session, as I noted on Facebook …

2020-12-08vste

Among the items presented were:

Toward the end of the session (we were playing in survival mode) we were attacked by phantoms, flying mobs in Minecraft that appear at night, seemingly out of nowhere. Here’s what they look like when they are dangerously bearing down on you. It’s rare (for me) to get a screenshot of them:

2020-12-08_09.50.56

Here are the same phantoms once Jaz had kindly gone to sleep, and switched the lights back on for all of us:

2020-12-08_09.51.13

Burn in peace, duckies!

Meanwhile, those of us on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server noticed that we were prompted in November to accept a resource pack that turned our world into fall colors. After Thanksgiving, another resource pack was offered that has thrown us into Christmas, with wreaths on the doors and snow on the ground (fortunately the paths we’ve painstakingly made are still visible 🙂

Here’s the view from the top of my house these days:

It seems that the Resource Packs that our EVOMC21 server admin Zzidkha has prompted us to install are running on the back end, but if you want to install your own resource packs, in your Minecraft Settings window you click on the button that says “Resource Packs”  and this is what I see in mine:

1.16.4resourcePacks

It looks like we can revert to the default look or load in the classic view, both built in (I tried it though; didn’t work, still got the resource pack imposed on us from the server). If you want other options you have to install them on your computer. But after this session, we can now see now how to install service packs more to our taste and just run them at will when we launch Minecraft.


Promotion and Feedback

Here are K4sons’s instructions on how to join Minecraft Mondays each month

Minecraft Mondays occur on the first Monday of any month at 8 PM Eastern time on the VSTE Place server
minecraft.vste.org:11002. (GMT -5)

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.

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. Make sure you have installed and are running version 1.16.4.
  3. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP: minecraft.vste.org:11002.
  4. 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.

  1. Download and install it for free.
  2. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple.
  3. 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.

Promotion on Facebook

This post was made to the EVO Minecraft MOOC group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc/


Earlier Events

Sun 6 Dec 0800 UTC Minhaaj Rehman interviews Vance Stevens to discuss their life and career trajectories so far this century

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/06/minhaaj-rehman-ceo-of-psyda-co-interviews-vance-stevens-to-discuss-their-life-and-career-trajectories-so-far-this-century/

Sat-Sun 5-6 Dec two-day OpenSimulator Community Conference

From 5-6 December 2020 starting at about 3pm GMT (Sat) the OpenSimulator Community Conference takes place on the AVACON grid. Come join us for 2 days of learning all about OpenSim.

To HyperGrid jump to the OSCC conference grid:

  • Click the Map button at the bottom of your screen
  • In the Search text field on the right side of the map, paste this link: http://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/   (note the trailing slash)
  • Click the Teleport button at the bottom of the screen to teleport to a Landing Zone on the conference grid where there will be maps & info signs.

New to the conference and interested in creating an avatar?
If you registered and requested a new local account be created for the OSCC Conference Grid, you should have received an email with the login details. View this step by step video and visit the Login Info page for instructions on how to download an OpenSimulator viewer and more information about how to connect to the grid. If you have a Local Account from a previous OSCC event and have forgotten your password, use the Forgot Your Password link to reset it.

Sun 6 Dec 1630 UTC Heike Philp presents on EVO storytelling in virtual worlds at the OpenSim Community Conference

On Sunday 6 Dec 2020 Heike Philp will present a short 20min session about her EVO session coming up (9 Jan – 14 Feb 2021 EVO Storytelling in Virtual Worlds), showcase EduNation in OS purposely built for EVO, but perhaps there to last, and she will mention her latest EU funded project proposal EXCALIBUR.

When:
6 Dec 2020 at 4:30pm GMT (UK time) or 8:30am SL time; World times
Heike Philp: ‘Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and Anvil, is rightwise king born….’

EXPO Zone 4
Also Heike created an expo area/ booth on Expo zone 4 where you will find more information about EduNation in OS, the upcoming EVO session and EXCALIBUR. Here is the link to the expo:
hop://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/OSCC%20Expo%20Zone%204/112/179/26

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Rgds Heike

Here is my screenshot of the crowd at the last session in the conference

Here I am testing my ability to embed a video I can’t get the plugin to accept at this page
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials#EVOMC21Tutorial12SafarifromTrenchshelter1toMountainbase2toMineshelter3

___________________________________________________________
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 10, 2020 09:00 UTC

Minhaaj Rehman, CEO of Psyda, interviews Vance Stevens to discuss their life and career trajectories and convergences this century

Learning2gether Episode 501

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Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

Minhaaj’s video recording is here, https://youtu.be/gKbLRnjfRaU

Some early participants in Webheads in Action might remember Minhaaj Rehman, who has since become CEO of Psyda https://psyda.co/, which is a company into different kinds of academic research; e.g. AI and data analytics.

2020-12-06psyda

Among many other initiatives, Psyda mounts a podcast series,
https://psyda.co/podcast#6ceff2ac-33d6-4dac-8358-eec731068780 

with topics such as this one, an interview with Dr. Premkumar Elangovan, developer of a writing software package called Ref n Write, https://youtu.be/RsVMDr2MNEg

Many of the topics of these podcasts appear somewhat even more esoteric than the one above.

One of Minhaaj’s lesser esoteric of these podcasts occurred on December 6, 2021, when Minhaaj interviewed Vance Stevens on a wide ranging variety of topics, stemming from Vance’s background in computer-assisted language learning going back to the late 1970s, and into when Webheads in Action was founded 20 years later. At around that time Minhaaj, one of the early Webheads, met up with Vance and Bobbi frequently online and later over several meals in Abu Dhabi.

2020-12-06psyda-abuDhabi2
Bobbi, Vance, and Minhaaj in Abu Dhabi, circa 2006

In our interview we caught up with what we’ve been up to since then, and how our respective interests and career trajectories intersect.

Where?

Minhaaj invited us to meet him in StreamYard on Sunday, Dec 6, at 0800 UTC,
Streamyard is very similar to Zoom. You can find detailed instructions here:
https://streamyard.com/resources/docs/guest-instructions

Minhaaj produced this attractive poster for the interview

2020-12-06poster

Minhaaj wrote this about the event on Facebook:

Tools like Grammarly, Ref n Write and Scholarcy are all outcome of Natural Language Processing and helps in writing academic papers that are of high quality. On December 6th, i’ll be talking to an expert in computer assisted language teaching Vance Stevens. Vance has trained pilots in UAE and has spent 40 years working around the world teaching English using cutting edge technologies such as SecondLife. We will be discussing issues like academic writing and modern day tools for intelligent research like MAXQDA and NVivo. You can read more about his work at https://vancestevens.com/papers/CurriculumVitaeVance.pdf 

Note from Vance: a better link is to stop further back at the URL above, where all my publications are listed and many are linked in full text, here: https://vancestevens.com/papers/

On teaching writing to (low-level) EFL students

In preparations for this interview, Minhaaj mentioned Ref n Write, a microsoft word addin for better academic writing. I mentioned that in my last years teaching EFL in UAE I was focusing my most novel work on writing.

I told Minhaaj that I had described and demonstrated a technique for giving feedback on student writing to teachers at SQU in Oman, online, and posted this archive of it.
https://learning2gether.net/2019/03/07/vance-stevens-presents-on-supporting-student-writing-with-the-help-of-voice-to-text/

I note there that I gave an improved version of the presentation online in preparation for a face-to-face presentation I would be giving at GLoCALL in Danang a few days later. These links are:

These links reference articles I have published on and around the topic

I said I could address the topic above if  Minhaaj wanted to bring it up in the interview. He replied that “that’s a very good topic and method to teach students. You can elaborate that in detail.”

But the topic never came up. I include it here because it seems to be something Minhaaj wanted me to mention, and anyone can follow the links for more information.


Promotion and Feedback

Vance’s announcements beforehand

This event was announced at these Facebook groups

And shared with …

The event was also posted at this Groups.io –  https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32753

Minhaaj promoted the event on Facebook and on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/events/computerassistedlearningandnlp-6740878708908797952/

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This is the video as it appears on Facebook, for as long as it stays there 🙂

Long-time Webhead-in-Action Maru Del Campo sent us this much-appreciated feedback

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Earlier Events

Sun 29 Nov 1400 UTC Webheads in Action 30th revived Open Mic FUNinar and 500th Learning2gether Webcast Party

An archived work in progress can be found at https://learning2gether.net/2020/11/29/webheads-in-action-30th-revived-open-mic-funinar-and-500th-learning2gether-webcast-party/

Tue 1 Dec 1500 UTC CALL-IS and State Dept Office of English Language Programs webinars – Tech Tips for Teaching Today

Heather Benucci, CALL-IS Chair, 2020-2021, informs us of a collaborative “Tech Tips for Teaching Today” OER webinar partnership between TESOL’s CALL-IS and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of English Language Programs designed to meet the needs of teachers around the world facing an unexpected shift into online learning environments due to the current global pandemic.

Tentatively planned for Tuesday, November 17th at 10am Eastern Time and Tuesday, December 1st at 10am Eastern Time

Sat 5 Dec noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZMsdOygpz8tHNc_WLlu_kPfIuQ_zb0fF75W/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGvrzgvEt2Rtx-ERpwEBYjCZ_zxmClago1eoyjJDzVsaTPwH_dzDah9QN72

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763

Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Every week on Sat, until Jan 9, 2021

Sat 5 Dec 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Time where you are Dec 5, 9-11 am EDT, 1400-1600 UTC

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sat+Dec+5%2C+9-11+EDT+-+VSTE+Second+Life+Saturdays&iso=20201205T09&p1=212&ah=2

Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time.

Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there. Follow VSTE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/

Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft

Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces

If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Sat 5 Dec 1430 UTC KSALT Teacher Talks

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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 9, 2020 08:00 UTC