On Thu May 7 1800 GMT Learning2gether attended an event organized by Juergen Wagner, hosting Joe Dale presenting on apps and websites for Planning a virtual field trip to New Orleans. The announcements and show notes were prepared by Juergen. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8905964/Breeze/invitation_field_trip.pdf
Enter your feedback into the Padlet http://padlet.com/wagjuer/webinars (Just state your full name and enter a short remark concerning last night’s EVENT!!!)
What? This is planned as a virtual tour of a place, city or region: a powerful vehicle for
promoting intercultural understanding
creating authentic language learning opportunities
free web tools for planning a virtual field trip: New Orleans as an example destination
how to find creative commons licensed images on Flickr
how to incorporate them into a Pinterest board
how to share them via a Padlet wall
Storybird as a creative writing tool bringing together key
vocabulary and expressions
how to create a Google Slides presentation based on the content
On Sunday May 3, at 1300 GMT we were Learning2gether about StudyCom with David Winet, Michael Coghlan, and Vance Stevens
The topic for Learning2gether this week is about emerging advances in online learning since the turn of the century, from a panel who were there at the beginning and have stayed on the wave for the past decade and a half. Dave Winet recently sold the domain study dot com marking the end of an era for many Webheads. Study dot com was a free website that attracted and matched teachers with language students interested in studying online just before the dawn of social media. Dave’s innovative methods created among other things a space for language learners at the Palace, which was where Vance Stevens, Michael Coghlan, and Maggi Doty met in an online class for ESL students that soon became Writing for Webheads and evolved in 2002 into Webheads in Action, a community of practice for teachers. In this session, Dave and Michael join me, Vance, in talking about some of the very forward thinking developments that characterized Dave’s work starting late last century and that have led us through Webheads in Action on up to Learning2gether, twenty years later. If you were with us at that time, please join us to add your reminiscences, and for those who have more recently joined us, enjoy a conversation with the founders of Webheads in Action.
Alternative live stream with Chatwing text chat You can join us here for the video embed above plus interact with us via the Chatwing embed on the same page http://webheadsinaction.org/live You can also join the Chatwing live chat at http://chatwing.com/vancestevWhen? 1300 GMT …
On Fri Apr 24 Learning2gether tried to join Jim Buckingham, first in HoA, and failing that, in BbC during his presentation at the SQU EFL Conference in Oman
Abstract
Discover TESOL Arabia’s online tutorials and digital badges projects currently being produced by TESOL Arabia volunteers. As a professional practitioner learn how you can realize PD goals while also earning international standards based digital badges. As an aspiring elearning developer learn how you can participate in creating such projects too.
I think the message of Jim’s session is that there is no need for anyone to be ‘behind’ in technology since there is so much support, for free, in the community e.g. TAEdTech SIG, that anyone who wants to can use to find out more about tech that will make their classes more engaging for their students – Vance
Where?
Google Hangout was blocked in Oman so we ended up in Blackboard Collaborate (also blocked in Oman, unfortunately), but the online audience managed to reach http://webheads.learningtimesevents.org/
Learning2gether is about to start not in HoA as originally planned but in BbCollaborate / Elluminate.
If planning to join us, do NOT use chrome, java no longer supported. FF and IE work fine, as does Safari. In one of those browsers, run the Tech Check (middle tab at above URL) first and enter the TEST room to make sure you have associated Elluminate’s new .collab file with java.
From Sheila Adams: Earthcast 2015 will start around 8:30 EDT on Wednesday, April 22 – Check your time zone. Students have content for about 4 hours, then we will play recorded material until Jason Robertshaw does his event at 14:30 EDT. Would love to have anyone stop by the chatroom for a quick hi! Happy Earth Day all! http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Earthcast+2015&iso=20150422T1225&p1=%3A
Thu Apr 23 1300 GMT Integrating Technology 4 Active Lifelong Learning webinar on eBooks with María J. García San Martín
Integrating Technology 4 Active Lifelong Learning has rescheduled the class on ‘SBF: From eBookEVO to CLIL eBooks with María J. García San Martín’ to Apr_23 2015, 05:00 PM ((GMT+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat). You may use the same class link to enter the classroom at its changed date and time. Enter the Class to hear the recording
What? Ayat Tawel will be talking with our community about her experimental practice with the silent way. For more information about what she will be talking about see Ayat’s blog post at: http://ayat-pdiary.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-silent-way.html
Ayat did an exemplary job for us, not only in preparing a remarkable presentation which wowed even three of us who had seen Caleb Categno demonstrate the silent way in person before his death in 1988, but also in using all available means to connect with us. It took her ten minutes to finally get a stable connection with us via her mobile phone, but she succeeded. After that, we could see how her dedication to the technique, as indicated by the amount of thought and practice she puts into playing with the rods for example, contributed to her success with the silent way. – Vance Here is what Maria Bossa said about Ayat’s presentation: http://mariabossa.blogspot.com.ar/2015/04/the-silent-way.html
There was some interesting Twitter follow-up on this topic. Fanny Passeport (Silent Way Teacher, Google Certified Teacher and Educator, and Bharatnathyam Dancer https://twitter.com/fanny73779583) picked up on a remark I had made during the conversation that there should be a Cuisenaire rods app (a physical box of rods costs upwards of $70). I replied that I was just imagining, not aware that any such app in fact existed,
Simon Gregg (primary teacher, ICT coordinator in Toulouse) chimed in with a link to a Cuisenaire rod environment online – check it out: http://nrich.maths.org/4348
Note, does not run on iPad due to the use of Flash in the web URL
Extensive reading as a means to improve all language skills and fluency
increasing students’ motivation and confidence
changing their attitudes to learning another language
the many benefits of extensive reading for pleasure (e.g. with graded readers)
practical, fun ideas and classroom activities to help you make extensive reading an integral part of every language-learning programme
the importance and benefits of incorporating the latest technology in the reading lesson
various Web 2.0-tools which make working with readers a lot easier and more fun for you and for your students
Presenter: Mag. Dr. Thomas Strasser – Vienna School of Teacher Education Host: Tilly Harrison – University of Warwick Upcoming events in this seminar series Thu May 7 1800 GMT Joe Dale – Planning a virtual field trip to New Orleans
Nancy Zingrone, PhD is Adjunct Faculty in the School of Psychology at Northcentral University, as well as an edupreneur working on the WizIQ platform and in Second Life.
Vance made three other presentations at this conference
Thursday March 26 from 15:00-16:30 EST, Nery Alvarado, Daniela Coelho, Ellen Dougherty and Vance Stevens held a workshop on “iPad-agogy: a Bloomin’ Better Way to Teach”
Listed in the CALL-IS Electronic Village program: http://call-is.org/ev/schedule.php
Our wiki provided the information, applications, lesson plans, project-based learning exemplars, and web links covered in the workshop: http://tesol2015ipadogogyabloominbetterwaytoteach.pbworks.com/
Links associated with Vance’s part of this presentation can be found here http://tinyurl.com/vance2015writing
Friday, March 27, 2015 from 1:00 PM to 2:45 in room 203D at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Betsy Gilliland, Maggie Sokolik, Micah Risher, Vance Stevens, and Robert Connor convened a panel on Second Language Writing MOOCs in Theory and Practice;
Links associated with my part of this presentation can be found here http://tinyurl.com/tesol2015vance-mooc
Friday, March 27, 2015 at 4:00 PM in room 703 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Jeong-Bae Son, Phil Hubbard, Tom Robb, Tyson Seburn, and Vance Stevens convened a panel on “Self-directed professional development in computer-assisted language learning”;
Links associated with my part of this presentation can be found at http://tinyurl.com/vance2015pd
CALL-IS webcasts live from TESOL Toronto
These webcasts are staged apart from the official program by the TESOL CALL-IS. They were made possible in most cases (all the links to sas.elluminate below) thanks to http://www.learningtimes.com for an ongoing grant to Learning2gether and Webheads in Action for free and open use for educational purposes of a Bb Collaborate meeting room
Sat Mar 28 CALL-IS Webcasts from Technology Showcase at TESOL 2015 Toronto
Susan Gaer’s Evernote public link to the paper handouts she received from the conference. There were only a few sessions with paper handouts “and this is the only way I could think of to share those” – thanks, Susan, very thoughtful: http://bit.ly/handout2015
Useable MP3s will be harvested from Elluminate recordings and posted here when time allows
Thanks to Bertha Leiva for the photo from the last webcast of the conference
Sat Mar 28 1300 to 1415 GMT Hot Topic: Managing the Darker Side of Classroom Technology
Fri Mar 27 1500 GMT Robert Wachman at TESOL Toronto on HoA
On Friday, March 27th, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (UTC -4) http://bit.ly/1EzyUG4 and again at 11:25 a.m. Robert Wachman conducts a Tech Fair presentation in the Electronic Village at TESOL 2015 in Toronto, on Google Hangouts On Air, including how to set up and launch one. The official invitations to these HOAs will be sent during the presentations as I cover that step.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/0W4Uty_iClc Thanks to Arturo who joined on his smart phone so we could have video and audio from the conference, since it wasn’t available on the computers in the Electronic Village.
This URL was used to point to the slides during this presentation, but the slides at this location have been repurposed for a TESOL Toronto presentation and are no longer valid for SBF: http://tinyurl.com/vance2015sbf
The proposal: Blogging and logging weekly conversations among educators
Learning2gether is an initiative of Vance Stevens evolving from synchronous meetings with Webheads in Action taking place weekly since 1998 and more directly from three WiAOC (WiA Online Convergences) in 2005, 2007, and 2009. L2g started in 2010 and has hosted conversations most weeks since, usually on Sundays (but for this occasion, on a Saturday). L2g encourages all educators who enjoy connecting with peers to volunteer to contribute their voices to perpetuating weekly conversations at our L2g venues. This presentation explains how L2g works and how you can contribute and participate.
Shaping the way we teach English MOOC Part 2 ended March 15
“Shaping the Way We Teach English: Paths to Success in English Language Teaching“? This course is Part 2 of “The Landscape of English Language Teaching” which was offered both last year and this January. Even if you didn’t take part 1, you are still invited to take part 2. Registration is now open and the course starts Monday, February 9th. It is a 5-week course that includes the following topics:
Week 1 Feb 9: Integrating skills and using tasks to motivate learners; project overview, introductions
Week 2 Feb 16: Alternative assessment that shows what learners can do with language; lesson plan phase 1 is due
Week 3 Feb 23: Incorporating individual learning differences in instruction; peer and self-evaluations are due
Week 4 March 1: Ideas for effective classroom management; final lesson plan is due
Week 5 March 8-15: Improving practice with reflective teaching; final peer and self-evaluations are due
Opportunity to be a Community Teaching Assistant
If you have taken the course already or even if you haven’t but are interested in taking a more active role, we are looking for Community Teaching Assistants to help lead the course!
Finding ways to make online courses interactive and localize the content is what can make MOOCs successful. Read more about this opportunity in the Community TA Handbook. We don’t anticipate this taking more than 2 hours a week of your time. Nor will we be able to offer any financial compensation, but we will gladly write a letter acknowledging your valuable role in this course. We work very closely with our CTAs to make both our roles more enjoyable.
If you are interested in this opportunity, would you mind filling out this brief questionnaire so that we can contact you with further information. You’ll also have to register for this course.
Opportunity to host MOOC camps in your community
Another way to assist other teachers in your community is by setting up MOOC camps. These are face-to-face meetings held at least once a week during the course with anyone in your community taking the course. It’s a great way to discuss topics and assignments and brainstorm ways to apply new concepts to your local context. Feel free to organize MOOC camps with your colleagues!
Tue Mar 17 1900 GMT Journal Club at Infolit iSchool discuss paper on Second Life (inworld)
Journal Club at Infolit iSchool: Join the group in SL for a one-hour discussion of an open-access article.
Adra Letov (Prof Diane Nahl of the University of Hawaii outside Second Life) will lead discussion of a paper,
MARTIN, J.. Refreshing Information Literacy: Learning from Recent British Information Literacy Models. Communications in Information Literacy, North America, 7, dec. 2013.
Available at: http://comminfolit.org/index.php?journal=cil&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=v7i2p114&path%5B%5D=169. When: 17 March 2015 at 12 noon SL time (see http://bit.ly/1E38PyD for times elsewhere – US clocks, and therefore SL time, have moved forward for spring) Where: Infolit iSchool Journal Club room, in SL, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/133/47/22
Everyone is welcome to join the one-hour discussion.
This is a Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research event.
Thu Mar 19 1100 EDT EdTech Mojo presents 5 Secrets to Spectacular Student Engagement
Register for this complimentary webinar to learn how Dr. Colin Montpetit, Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of Ottawa, increased class participation to 99%. Hear how he transformed his classroom into an “active learning zone” with the use of a student engagement solution. Get the full story behind Dr. Montpetit’s stunning findings – how student participation rates grew in his classes, grades improved and failure rates decreased.
Who Should Attend: All are welcome. Those in Academic Technology or Teaching and Learning Centers are highly encouraged to attend.
Not time-zone friendly? Register to receive the archive.
This just in from Simon Helton, ISTE Community Engagement Manager –
Just another reminder that today we’ll be presenting the webinar Getting Started with Connected Learning and Global Collaboration at 4 Pacific/7 Eastern. Registration is free for members, just “buy” the product from our online store here to register. Check out the description below, and I hope to see you there!
Join educators from across the world as they share global collaboration experiences K-12 and beyond and provide advice for what works and what doesn’t work. Topics include: where to go to find global partners; best collaborative tools to use; networks to join; ideas for curriculum development. This promises to be an energized and fun session for beginners as well as experienced global collaborators!
In replicating this announcement, I’m noticing that you have to be a member to register free, and though it appeals to a global audience, no GMT / UTC time is given, so many outside the USA will have to work to figure out what time this is for them, sigh ...
Sat Mar 21 0900 PST Classroom 2.0 LIVE webinar on IWitness with Kori Street
Date: Sat., March 21, 2015
Time: 9:00am PT/10:00am MT/11:00am CT/12:00pm ET
Location: Blackboard Collaborate (http://tinyurl.com/cr20live)Peggy George, Lorie Moffat and Tammy Moore will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 Ning community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing and closed captioning. A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html.Whether you teach these issues/subjects in your MS/HS classrooms or you would like to learn more about genocide and the Holocaust, you will definitely want to join us for this very informative webinar on IWitness with Kori Street, Director of Education for IWitness.On the IWitness platform you will find 1,450 full-length testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. Specific lessons are built around short clips of testimony and mini-documentaries summarizing big concepts, such as Fighting in the Face of Racism or The Power of Words. Students are asked to use these videos as a basis for writing short reflections, creating word clouds, or producing their own multi-media essays using the built-in IWitness video editor. All the activities are carried out and stored on the secure online platform. Kori will provide a basic overview of the IWitness site and resources and ways they can be used in the classroom.More information and details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Blackboard Collaborate, and navigate the site. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern (GMT-5) and may be accessed in Blackboard Collaborate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE link athttp://tinyurl.com/cr20live. All webinars are closed captioned.On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you’ll find the recordings and Livebinder from our recent ”Featured Teacher” session with our special guest Avra Robinson. Click on the Archives and Resources tab.When tweeting about Classroom 2.0 LIVE, be sure to use #liveclass20. Special thanks to our sponsors Weebly, The Learning Revolution and Blackboard Collaborate!Classroom 2.0 LIVE Team: Peggy George, Lorie Moffat, Tammy Moore, Steve Hargadon
Ellen Dougherty, Nery Alvarado, Daniela Coelho, and Vance Stevens, four colleagues working for HCT/CERT at the aviation college in Al Ain UAE, are presenting a mini-workshop at TESOL Toronto called iPad-agogy: a Bloomin’ Better Way to Teach, Thursday, March 26, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Electronic Village in Toronto
One of the presenters Vance shared his insights into using various apps for writing including Google Docs with students to both enhance and streamline the process of interacting with them in their writing practice. Vance teaches to students who use iPads but manages the process on a PC. We will discuss the reasons for this configuration, but my purpose at this session is in part to get feedback from those present on how they address writing with their students in an iPad or PC environment.
What? Russell Stannard on Moodle for language teachers: Increasing interactivity
How can we increase the level of interactivity on our Moodle courses?
How to make use of chats, forums, wikis, assessments and more ways that we can engage and involve our students more in our Moodle courses
Tools available in Moodle
and, one or two additional tools that link well with Moodle to make our content much more interactive and compelling
On Sunday Mar 08 at 1400 GMT Learning2gether held a discussion hosted by Elizabeth Anne on blended learning in her conservative higher ed environment in Grenoble, France. She focused largely on Pbworks Wiki <http://pbworks.com> and how she uses it to post student writing and then correct it so that the posts have correct English, but the students can see from wiki history what changes were made. She then uses screen shots from the marked-up histories to show the class what errors were made in here grammar and writing lessons.
The establishment is notoriously opposed to change. For the past 8 years my 3rd and 4th year science students have all had to create their own pbworks wikis for their English class (to fulfill the requirements of their mark), while each class shares a wiki on which they collaborate http://makeyourown.pbworks.com/. I’d love to share some of the things I’ve learnt from this experience while learning how you manage to reconcile blended learning with institutional requirements.
The Hangout on Air was full. The ten participants were, besides Vance Stevens
Benjamin Stewart, Halima Ozimozov, Maria Colussa, Nina Liakos, Maha Abdulmoneim, Teresa Almeida d’Eca, Robert Wachman, Kara Naber, Claire Siskin (plus there was a listener in the stream)
Vance Stevens – you are probably looking at http://webheadsinaction.org/live where the chatwing is embedded as well so on that page, we have a one-stop shop where viewers can listen in and interact with us in chatwng
On Sun Mar 1 starting at 1400 GMT LEARNING2GETHER joined forces with Kara Naber and TILL (Teachers for Interactive Language Learning) to talk about Developing and implementing an interactive language learning experience
Here is Benjamin’s comment there: “Inspired by a post from one of our TILL members (https://plus.google.com/118245459778485541027/posts/LibiknMZZey), we’ll be discussing how to plan and implement an interactive language learning experience. Join us in the HOA and share your thoughts and experiences!” Ben created a space for the TILL Hangout Notes: http://1drv.ms/1Iwspqd
I’m a relatively new teacher. For the last three years, I’ve been teaching ESL to adults in an ABE program in the US. Recently I accepted a position teaching EFL at a state university in Oaxaca and am still awaiting my work permit. In the meantime, I’m trying to prepare myself for my new job. In addition to teaching face-to-face classes, they want me to develop a curriculum to teach via Interactive TV (ITV). I’ll try to explain the system.
The university has one building entirely designed as a broadcast center. It has many small rooms that are set up with video cameras that broadcast classes live to other campuses in the state university system. One teacher will be teaching up to three classes in different locations simultaneously. The classes are designed so that the students and teacher can interact in real time.
The broadcast rooms are set up with a desk for the teacher. Beside the desk is an interactive whiteboard that (as you know) can be used for a variety of things. The cameras are set up so that the teacher can focus on herself talking while sitting at the desk or standing at the whiteboard.
One benefit will be that each remote classroom will have an assistant. That person can facilitate the class in different ways, for example by distributing materials or dividing the class into small groups for activities.
The university is already using ITV for regular content courses, but they want me to develop a curriculum for teaching EFL. This is a completely new “ball game” for me, since my previous experience included technology no more sophisticated than an ‘old fashioned’ whiteboard with felt markers. All I know for sure is that it will be different from face to face classes.
I would appreciate hearing from any of you who have had experience with this type of distance learning. What techniques work well for teaching language using both the ITV and interactive whiteboard?
What happened on the day?
In a nutshell, the event went off as if we’d planned it that way, but what in fact happened was that Benjamin scheduled the Hangout on Air (HoA) for March 1 and created an event for it. However, an hour and a half before show time, which would have been very early Sunday morning for him in Mexico, he sent me word that he wouldn’t be able to make it due to a sudden illness (hopefully passed by now). Presumably he went back to bed to recover.
Meanwhile some had turned up in the online comments spaces created for the event, where I posted my Skype address and the link to our synchronous text Chatwing.
Due to the inevitable tech-ups (hic) in trying to organize on such short notice we were a little late starting but when the HoA came online it had a half dozen participants and eventually filled to ten. Besides Kara and Robert, we had Glenys from France, Halima from Uzbekistan, Jim Buckingham from down the road in Abu Dhabi, Morteza Barin from Iran, Sabrina Wilson from Barcelona, David Weksler from Tenafly NJ, and Elizabeth Anne from Grenoble, not a bad crowd for what was essentially a flash mob. Had I had time to organize it I would have streamed it at http://webheadsinaction .org/live, so it’s possible we had to turn away some in excess of ten participants allowed in HoA.
Mon Feb 23 1700 GMT Joel Mills in conference for participants of Canvas Minecraft MOOC
Joel Mills is holding open tutorials on Friday 13th February at 9.00 – 10.00 am GMT for anyone who wants to get some advice or support on any of their Minecraft projects. He will be using the Canvas conference tool again, but in a way that allows people to join in and ask their questions or get support.
Look out for the conference email on Friday morning and follow the link to join in.
For our participants from further afield we will hold a conference on Monday 23rd February at 5pm GMT so we can make sure they can join in live as well.
Thu Feb 25 1900 GMT IAFEFL YLT SIG Webinar by Nives Torresi on Play, Learn and Grow Together
Nives Torresi will present on Play, Learn and Grow Together: An after school Language Project
The presenter will introduce a project in video format, then explain how the project evolved over the course of 20 hours.
About the Presenter
Nives Torresi has been Teaching English at High Schools and Elementary / Middle Schools in Italy for about 15 years. She also does translating, interpreting and training programs for local businesses. She enjoys what she does and tries to make learning a part of life.
Sat 28 Feb 1500 GMT IATEFL Webinar with Shelly Sanchez Terrell
Get Them Speaking & Learning with Digital IcebreakersTransform your classes into collaborative supportive student communities with digital icebreakers. In this session, Shelly Terrell will share various digital and mobile icebreakers for young learners to adults. Join the fun and learn some quick activities that get students to take better selfies, collaborate on recreating images, and much more!
28 February 2015, 15:00 GMT (to check what time the webinar airs in your location, please click here)
According to 
Learning2gether 