Learning2gether Episode 200

Download mp3:
https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ali-bostancioglu-on-technology-professional-development_-networking-and-online-communities.mp3

On Sun Feb 2 Ali Bostancioglu presented on Technology Professional Development: Networking and Online Communities

This was an Electronic Village Online event for Weeks 3-4 (Network-Cluster) in the MultiMOOC EVO session, as well as a regularly scheduled Learning2gether event.

In Googe Hangout, streamed from http://webheadsinaction.org/live

You Tube video link for the recording http://www.youtube.com/embed/KymcI4KM4So

Ali’s slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/malibostanci/language-teachers-technology-professional-development

Ali Bostancioglu is a PhD student at the University of York, UK, where he is investigating the impact of engaging in online communities of practice on EFL teachers’ technology professional development. He will talk about communities vs. networks and how different social media platforms can best be used in pursuit of technology professional development. His presentation ends with advice for managing both the affordances and potential pitfalls of social media platforms.

We met in Google Hangout on Air, streamed from http://webheadsinaction.org/live.

Those wishing to join us in HoA can find the direct link provided at the URL above shortly before the event, as well as at the ‘more information’ link here:

http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32206114/volunteersneeded#Nextupcomingevents

All Learning2gether events are recorded and archived at http://learning2gether.net

A full catalog and index of Learning2gether events since 2010 can be found here:

http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex

Tags for this session:

#rhizo14 #multimooc #learning2gether #evomlit #evosessions

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-bostancioglu
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30899
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/messages/1981

Earlier this week

Jan 26 and Jan 28 MultiMOOC sessions

• https://learning2gether.net/2014/01/27/vance-stevens-chaos-in-learning-and-resolving-that-chaos-through-networking/
• https://learning2gether.net/2014/01/28/learning2gether-with-karen-price-on-perceptual-computing-in-mooc-interaction-and-assessment/

Rhizo14 Week 3 Embracing Uncertainty

Download mp3
https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/rhizo14-week-3-embracing-uncertainty_001.mp3

This is a really cool hangout. Prior to this Dave had been experimenting with creating breakout rooms during the hangouts, creating gaps on the audio that could easily be removed, but some odd moments on the YouTube videos where he would be puttering about his house and visibly (but not audibly) engaging in the breakouts.  Also, the previous recordings came off as monologues, at odds with his so-inclusive Worldbridges endeavors, whereas this one he has invited others into the hangout, admitting voices of  others in the MOOC, and thereby embracing uncertainty while pulling off another totally extemporaneous event that models what it intends to get across, that certainty is an attempt to control proceedings by falling back on scarcity; uncertainty in turn embraces abundance.

Tue Jan 28 1830 GMT NNEST-EVO Session with Dr. Valerie Jakar

Listed on the EVO Events calendar http://my.calendars.net/eslhome_conferen

as taking place in Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate)

http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/

Thanks to an ongoing grant from http://www.learningtimes.com/

Fri 31 Jan 0800 GMT Charles Goodger – Let’s make a song and dance of it

An EVO Teaching English to Young Learners and Teenagers event

More information here: http://yltsigevo2014.wordpress.com/times-dates/

Fri Jan 31 1500 GMT Tessa Woodward in IATEFL Webinar

Gary Motteram informed FB of an up and coming IATEFL Webinar Friday, 31 January 2014 at 3pm GMT

Tessa Woodward will be holding a webinar on ‘Enjoying personal and professional creativity’
Tessa will encourage us to consider a number of aspects on the topic of creativity. Join us for this fun and informative webinar which is free of charge and open to all.
http://www.iatefl.org/webinars

Sat Feb 1 1630 GMT ICT4ELT session with Claudio Azevedo

“From Darkness to a Sparkling Connected ELT Community”

http://ict4elt2014.pbworks.com/w/page/70684966/LiveSessions#Week3

Took place in Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate)

http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/

Thanks to an ongoing grant from http://www.learningtimes.com/

The recording link is available from the Live Session page at http://ict4elt2014.pbworks.com/w/page/70684966/LiveSessions

The direct link is here http://ict4elt2014.pbworks.com/w/page/74183399/From%20Darkness%20to%20a%20Sparkling%20Connected%20ELT%20Community

Sun 2 Feb – 1200 GMT Luke Podromou – Self-esteem in the Classroom

“Building Self-esteem in the Classroom – from Principle to Practice”

An EVO Teaching English to Young Learners and Teenagers event

More information here: http://yltsigevo2014.wordpress.com/times-dates/

Learning2gether Episode 199

Download Audio mp3:
https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/karenprice_perceptualcomputing_take2.mp3
(Note, the audio has gaps removed where silence occurred in the hangout, because the video being played was not recorded on YouTube; we may try to repair this in time)

On Tue Jan 28 we met with Karen Price who demonstrated some of her work on Perceptual computing in MOOC interaction and assessment. This was presented as an Electronic Village Online event for Week 3 (Networking) in MultiMOOC EVO session

Where? Google Hangout

• Live streamed at http://webheadsinaction.org/live
• YouTube recording: http://www.youtube.com/embed/jqFr4oRYLz4

A problem with this video, explained by Karen …

Since the frame rate for videos when sharing from pptx in Hangout is pretty poor, opting to show videos via the YouTube app in Google hangout allows users to see videos with normal FPS. However, the moderator must “share” his/her screen /YouTube app for the videos to be captured. Otherwise, only the screenshare (i.e. avatars and pptx) is captured and the videos (which the moderator and Google Hangout members would have seen) are not there. So, anyone who didn’t view the videos at that time via the YouTube app won’t have seen them and won’t have them in their YouTube channel. That’s why I was recommending “annotations” with the archived hangout to enable viewers to see the explanatory videos.

Thinking caps on!

Announcements:

• http://fourc.ca/calendar/
• And in the places mentioned here: http://advanceducation.blogspot.ae/2014/01/learning2gether-with-everybody.html

Karen’s presentation at the  at the 2013 WorldCALL conference in Glasgow

Karen Price presented a 30 min Research and Development paper on 11th July at the 2013 WorldCALL conference in Glasgow, Scotland, entitled Multimodal interfaces: blending gaze, gesture, movement and speech to overcome the limitations of keyboard, mouse & touchscreen. This session expanded on the lines of this presentation with many video examples brought into the Hangout.

Abstract

Human-to-human communication depends upon and integrates gaze, gesture, movement and speech. However, most user interfaces for language learning consist of keyboards, mice or touchscreen interfaces. These click-and-type / touch interfaces exclude many hints and signals, explicit or implicit, which are integral to language interactions. In contrast, multimodal interfaces process two or more combined user input modes such as speech, pen, touch, hand gestures, gaze, head and body movements in a coordinated manner with multimedia system output. For example, the processing of user-generated speech and non-speech sounds, in parallel with the user’s gaze, can generate appropriate listening behavior for a conversational virtual agent, triggering backchannel signals according to the user’s visual and acoustic behavior. (Bevacqua, et al, 2012) The presenter argues that multimodal interfaces do not simply offer the option of using a different mode or channel of communication (e.g. speaking vs clicking a button vs writing), but that their use enables the cross-modal synchronization of timing and meaning that is evident in human-human communication. Additionally, studies document significant improvement in the recognition of speech from accented L2 speakers when multimodal input is processed simultaneously. (Oviatt, 2008) Motion-sensing and gesture detection eliminate controllers and remotes, enabling users to interact with computer monitors, video, games, and music through physical gestures. As TV characters speak, children can participate in on-screen activities by responding and interacting in intuitive, physical ways by jumping, moving forwards or backwards, catching and throwing balls. Moreover, user-specific feedback and error correction can be offered to users in two-way conversations by onscreen characters in response physical and spoken responses to questions and suggestions. This paper reviews the capabilities of a variety of multimodal interfaces and gives participants a glimpse of intriguing commercial and academic applications as well as selected, relevant research in applied linguistics, gaming, and the behavioral sciences.

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)

Earlier this week

The official EVO BbC Elluminate Calendar

And check out http://my.calendars.net/eslhome_conferen

Sun Jan 26 1400 GMT MultiMOOC and YLTSIG EVO sessions joint event

An Electronic Village Online event for Week 2 (Declaration) in MultiMOOC EVO session

Posted here: https://learning2gether.net/2014/01/27/vance-stevens-chaos-in-learning-and-resolving-that-chaos-through-networking/

Mon Jan 27 0200 ET Badges and Competency-based Learning

Monday, Jan. 27, 2-3:00 ET: Badges and Competency-based Learning – In the Open Badges MOOC session on “Learning Providers” last fall, Richard Culatta, Director of the Office of Educational Technology in the U.S. Department of Education commented that “it’s really about competency-based learning… and badges are a nice way to get there.” Competency-based learning provides a framework for defining learning objectives and shifting the focus to mastery of these objectives rather than “seat time.” Badges provide clear ways of verifying learning, with portable, transparent evidence of mastery. This session will demonstrate how badges are a logical and highly motivational component in competency-based learning.

From the MOOC on badges: badges.coursesites.com

Learning2gether Episode 196

Download MP3 https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/evo2014-opening-ceremony.mp3

On Sun Jan 12 Jeff Lebow, Nina Liakos, and Vance Stevens hosted the EVO (Electric Village Online) kickoff live megawebcastathon

The EVO Kick-Off happens every year, on the Sunday before the sessions officially begin. This year’s webcast was hosted by Nina Liakos, lead coordinator of EVO this year, and Jeff Lebow, of Worldbridges, Koreabridges, EFLBridges, and EdTech Talk (Website: http://jefflebow.net/) as MC, together with Vance Stevens. Where? Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate) http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/ Thanks to an ongoing grant from http://www.learningtimes.com/ The event was also, live-streamed on http://webheadsinaction.org/live thanks to the Remarkable Mr. Lebow

Recordings:  Bb Collaborate /

• Elluminate: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2014-01-12.0455.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75 
• Recordings and chat log of the EVO2014 Launch Ceremony are also posted at: http://webheadsinaction.org/evo2014-launch-ceremony
• Nellie recorded in Camtasia and contributed:
  http://youtu.be/Nu8YHAiIzLs

Nina’s retrospect: A big thanks to all who made it to the kickoff webcast today! We had relatively few technical problems, all things considered, and almost everyone who was signed up to speak was able to do so; seventeen of the eighteen sessions were represented, and we miraculously finished on the dot of 1600 gmt. Thanks for your patience when we had audio issues, and thanks for being there at the right time and sticking to the admittedly frustratingly short amount of time you were allotted.

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/evo-kickoff-live-megawebcastathon-hosted-by-jeff-lebow
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/messages/1956

Jeff’s links from the bottom of his live-stream page

Past EVO’s:  EVO2013  EVO2012   EVO2011  EVO2010    EVO2009  EVO2008     EVO2007   EVO2006    EVO 2005    EVO2004  EVO2003 EVO2002  EVO2001

EVO2014 Tweets (#2014evo, #evosessions)
Tweets about “2014evo OR evosessions OR EbookEVO OR ict4elt OR multimooc OR mentoreevo OR machinevo -collaborative -DontGetHairy”

Later on the same day, Sunday Jan 12

Ebook EVO Meet & Greet HangOut

time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Ebook+EVO+Meet+%26+Greet+HangOut&iso=20140112T17&p1=1440&am=30 Details: http://ebookevo.pbworks.com/w/page/70379800/hangouts

MachinEVO kickoff meeting

Sunday, 12 Jan 2014 – 7pm GMT / 11am SLT Meeting Point in Second Life: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation/141/164/23 Thanks to Alexandra Koukoumialou

Kenneth and Yetta Goodman on Making sense of making sense

DR. KENNETH GOODMAN and DR. YETTA GOODMAN will appear on Global Conversations in Literacy Research to speak on “Making Sense of Making Sense” on January 12, 2014, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time zone/New York/USA, midnight GMT http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Making+Sense+of+Making+Sense&iso=20140112T19&p1=867&ah=1&am=30 In Bb Collaborate https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=221&password=M.8631F22F3B67CB38E60FEA16E0B04A More information http://globalconversationsinliteracy.wordpress.com/upcoming-speakers-2013-2014/kenneth-and-yetta-goodman/

Mon Jan 13 EVO Electronic Village Online begins

Sessions go from January 13 – February 16, 2014 http://evosessions.pbworks.com

Learning2gether Episode 195

On Mon Jan 6 Morteza Barin invited us to a discussion of Using tablets for online teaching and learning

Morteza in Iran is a strong contributor to Learning2gether despite difficulties in connecting online, and getting and applying information on educational technology to his context. He has offered to host a discussion apps for tablet devices in order to give us an opportunity to crowd-source such information useful to all of us.

If you have any apps you find particularly helpful please add them to our list here http://titanpad.com/FZKJlQCB6k

Where: We tested a number of discussion environments and settled on WizIQ

• Course URL: http://www.wiziq.com/course/42639-learning2gether
• Direct link to recording:
  http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1572874-learning2gether-with-morteza-barin-using-tablets-for-online-learning

Why did we do this?

Morteza recently acquired a Samsung Android smart device and has agreed to research the topic to the extent possible, and then host this session in hopes of getting others to help him and one another learn more about using such devices.  He is keeping us update with what he is finding so far:

• Tablets and their use for effective teaching and learning
  http://www.naace.co.uk/cpd/tablets
• How tablets accelerate the ease of learning a foreign language
  http://tabtimes.com/analysis/education/2012/01/06/dan-nickolai-how-tablets-accelerate-ease-learning-foreign-language

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/morteza-barin

We publicized on the following Facebook threads (to no avail)

Screen shot URL: http://screencast.com/t/5WnFayyvie

 Later in the week …

Fri Jan 10 1200 EST IT4ALL Nellie Deutsch Introducing the syllabus in creative ways

Integrating Technology 4 Active Lifelong Learning event

Here are the class details:
Class Presenter: Dr. Nellie Deutsch
Class Title: Introducing the Course Syllabus in Creative Ways.
Class Date: Friday, January 10, 2014
Class Time: 12:00 PM ((GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Click here to access the class.

Learning2gether Episode 194

On Wed Dec 18 Learning2gether hosted Klaus Michelsen on the topic of Social business and blended learning in cash-strapped Lima public schools? Panacea or deadly combination?

Audio and video content removed at request of presenter

This webinar took a look at some of the insights gained from a recent four-month-long professional development course aimed at a small group of EFL public school teachers based in Lima, Peru.  The whole project was run via blended mode. It was put together by Klaus and run with the great help of two hard-working American colleagues – the first based in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), and the second in sunny California.

Text chat transcription

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kSslsorZ04jus6mfM0elc2GUSHxpzWtTm6Q4QzU17nE/edit?usp=sharing

Here’s the abstract for the case study Klaus is currently working on:

This article reports on a blended teacher development course currently being piloted in Lima, Peru. The course, which the author designed at the request of the Ministry of Education in Peru, is designed for a group of practicing English language teachers who teach both in Lima and across the state (cash-strapped) high school system, where English is mandatory.

The course addresses two common problems identified by both the Ministry and the author: first, the need to improve teachers’ basic English speaking skills and second, the need to design oral fluency activities that are neither book-driven nor dominated by a grammar or lexical syllabus approach to language teaching and learning. Many high school teachers are not English teachers by training and do not possess a fluent command of the language. As in most other parts of both Peru and the region, an alarming number of state school teachers lack the motivation to move out of their comfort zones and are therefore unwilling to explore more situated and creative pedagogical models. Not surprisingly, both traditionally assigned teacher and ICT roles (i.e. teachers as suppliers of knowledge, digital technology as a tool or tutor, etc.) remain largely unchallenged.

In light of the above, the author proposes a tailor-made blended learning framework which draws on a number of blended learning principles outlined in a recent publication (2013) commissioned by the British Council. The suggested framework is then grounded on a situated pedagogic model which is in turn informed by the following three learning approaches: Web 2.0 pedagogy, TBLT (Task-Based Language Teaching) and gamification. Through the current professional development course, the article seeks to demonstrate the extent to which the proposed framework has met the aforementioned objectives.

Since the blended learning principles and suggested pedagogical models (Web 2.0, TBLT and gamification) have not yet been empirically tested in any of Peru’s state school classrooms, it is hoped that the lessons gained from this case study can be used in the design and implementation of future pre-service and in-service professional development programs, not only in Lima, but also across Peru.

In conversations with Klaus, he explains further about Social Business – a business not run for profit maximization but to solve a social problem

As he explains,

“All  language schools I’ve worked for in the UK, Saudi Arabia and here are for profit only. In other words, they are run like any other regular business. BUT is education a business? And when you prioritize making money, what happens with quality education? Second question, what happens with teachers’ salaries? Social business is a totally unexplored concept in English Language Teaching and Learning.”

Klaus cites three writers who have influenced his thinking in moving forward this project:

1.  Muhammad Yunnus’s book Creating a World Without Poverty
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-yunus/social-business_b_4074094.html
   summarizes really well the busniess model behind Blended English Peru.
2. Slahberg’s book is absolutely brilliant too. Follow his blog, http://pasisahlberg.com/
3. And Diane Ravitch’s, http://dianeravitch.net/

Muhammad Yunnus has been interviewed on Democracy now by Amy Goodman
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/12/nobel_laureate_and_banker_to_the

I was thinking of another Amy Goodman interview, with Chilean “barefoot economist” Manfred Max-Neef
http://mediaforpeacebuilding.com/manfred-max-neef-on-democracy-now/

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/18dec2013
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30826
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/topics/1950

Earlier this week

Wed Dec 11 0800 GMT Delin and her students at Taiwan Air Force Academy in BbC / Elluminate

On Dec 11 there was a workshop with Delin Xiao archived here:
https://learning2gether.net/2013/12/11/contacting-delin-and-her-students-at-taiwan-air-force-academy-in-bbc-elluminate/

This followed an earlier Learning2gether recording made Dec 5 to show teachers where Vance works how to use Bb Collaborate / Elluminate, and to document the training for them.
https://learning2gether.net/2013/12/05/vance-stevens-introduces-teachers-in-al-ain-uae-to-bb-collaborate/

Fri Dec 13 2000 GMT Headless ds106 Campfire

https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c3qcs2l28jdpdjhivdc92g96sos

What’s it about?

Join us for a live hangout around the ds106 campfire as we celebrate the stories and accomplishments of headless ds106. Help us now by tweeting links to your best work with a #ds106headlessbest  tag. If you join us around the campfire, please come ready to talk about some of your favorite moments and the work you saw others do that inspired you.  This was going to be via Google Hangout and crosscast to ds106 radio, but now …

Because the lighting is tricky around a campfire, and as our camera person really would rather be toasting marshmallows than hoisting the camera, we will be broadcasting discussion LIVE on ds106 Radio (audio only, that’s how radio works. folks).
To tune in, use  the web player athttp://ds106rad.io/listen or for a media player, use http://ds106rad.io:8000/ds106radio_64.m3u

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Giulia Forsythe: http://flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/5394469018/

Dec 14 Featured Teacher-Wes Fryer on “Coding & Games with Kids: Hopscotch, Scratch and Minecraft”

http://live.classroom20.com/archive-and-resources.html

You can find recordings at the link above and at Wes’s blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

Dec 14 and 15 Maria Collusa invited Webheads to chats associated with the Global Classroom Project

http://theglobalclassroomproject.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/integrating-global-issues-across-the-curriculum-globalclassroom-chats-december-1415/

Dec 15 1400 GMT IATEFL seminar – Plan Ceibal English with Mercedes Viola and Graham Stanley

http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events/314–151213-webinar-plan-ceibal-english.html

Fri Dec 20 at 2030 GMT Heike Philp Christmas Party on Avalon

Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi has invited you to the event ‘Christmas Party on EduNation’ on AVALON! Check out “Christmas Party on EduNation” on AVALON Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi Time: December 20, 2013 from 8:30pm to 11pm Location: EduNation in Second Life Organized By: Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi Event Description: Christmas Party on EduNation Friday, 20 Dec 2013, 8:30pm GMT /12:30pm PDTCome join us for a Christmas party on EduNation with DJ Mick Stanton Where? EduNation III http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/125/111/21 When? Friday, 20th December 2013, 8:30pm GMT / 12:30pm SLT |^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| || | ……..DJ Mick Stanton ♪…..| ||’|”;, ___. |_…_…___________  __===|=||_|__|…, ] – “(@)'(@)”””””****|(@)(@)****”(@) _.;:+*’`’*+:;..;:+*’`’*+:;..;:+*’`’*+:;..;:+*’`’*+:;. Ice skating, sledging and fun! ˜*•. ˜*•.•*˜ .•*˜ ˜*•. ˜”*°•.˜”*°•.•°*”˜.•°*”˜ .•*˜ •°~°•~ MERRY XMAS! ~•°~°• .•*˜ .•°*”˜.•°*”˜”*°•.˜”*°•. ˜*•. .•*˜ .•*˜*•. ˜*•. See more details and RSVP on AVALON: http://avalon-project.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2244249%3AEvent%3A53334&xgi=1BIWaSeEMQln0n&xg_source=msg_invite_event

Learning2gether Episode 193

On Wed Dec 11 teachers in Al Ain got in touch with Delin at Taiwan Air Force Academy via BbC / Elluminate

Halima in Tashkent also joined us. Delin’s students could not join us (they had physical training exercises)

Delin’s Edmodo profile: https://www.edmodo.com/home#/profile/20948949

What is this about?

Vance Stevens is introducing his EFL teaching colleagues at KBZAC to Delin Xiao and her students at RoC Air Force Academy. In this session we informally discuss means of connection and collaboration between teachers and / or students in the UAE, Taiwan, and elsewhere (so all interested are welcome)

Recording

https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-12-11.0046.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75

Where?

Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate)

http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/

This follows an introduction to Bb Collaborate given to teachers in UAE:

https://learning2gether.net/2013/12/05/vance-stevens-introduces-teachers-in-al-ain-uae-to-bb-collaborate/

and on a previous meeting in Bb Collaborate with Delin and some of her students

About the UAE Air College

Read more about this Graduation Ceremony and view the enlarged photos here

http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=19dabbd37aa46210VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&vgnextchannel=2777bc9e88caf210VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Khalifa bin Zayed Air College is mentioned in the Wikipedia article on the UAE Air Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates_Air_Force

http://www.desertfalcons.ae/en/about_college.php

About the RoC Air Force Academy 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_Air_Force_Academy

Academy Web site:

http://www.cafa.edu.tw/english/index.asp

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/kbzacpd
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30811
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/messages/1945

Learning2gether Episode 192

Download mp3:
https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/learning2gether-with-phil-hubbard-curation-in-call-and-ted-talk-videos.mp3

On Sunday Dec 8 Phil Hubbard spoke with us on Digital content curation for CALL using TED Talk videos on YouTube

This post documents a great session with Phil Hubbard  where Phil explained his system for curating TED Talk videos according to their vocabulary and language load for the students. It was a very well attended event and generated a lot of discussion not only in the chats, which we captured (I found out you can copy from Hangout chat and paste it into Google Docs and of course it comes out with avatars and emoticons intact 🙂 but in the Google Group, where Claude Almansi entered an energetic discussion and even made a transcript to subtitle the video record in Amara.

Where? We were in Google Hangout

• Streamed through YouTube on http://webheadsinaction.org/live
• The YouTube URL for Dec 8 is http://youtu.be/1HxkCbD_lto (it streams when the hangout begins)
• The Webheadsinaction.org archive:
  http://webheadsinaction.org/sunday-dec-8-phil-hubbard-digital-content-curation-call-using-ted-talk-videos
• Text chats from the Hangout:
  https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Bup9Njo2Al93gCgCXX9zoVbze9c1_ybVab1bMUATvs/edit?usp=sharing

Philip Hubbard presented this 45 min Research and Development paper Digital content curation for CALL on 10th July at the 2013 WorldCALL conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

His PowerPoint slides are here:

• http://www.arts.ulster.ac.uk/worldcall2013/WorldCallPapers/efs@stanford.edu/262-Hubbard.pdf
• Links in the talk
  • http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/TED1.html
  • http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/

Abstract

To date, CALL work has focused on four major and sometimes overlapping areas: tutorial CALL, use of technological tools for CALL, CALL tasks, and CALL environments. The first two are linked to Levy’s (1997) tutor-tool framework, CALL tasks are most comprehensively acknowledged in Chapelle’s (2001) framework, and CALL environments have been defined by Egbert & Hanson-Smith (2007), as well as through work in Activity Theory and ecological approaches. To these foundational domains of the field I propose adding a fifth: curated digital content. Digital content—text, audio, video, and multimedia—is growing almost exponentially, especially in commonly taught languages and others with large bases of Internet users. This volume can be overwhelming to both teachers and learners.

Aimed at imposing order on this chaos, CALL content curation can be defined as the collection and organization of digital content with value added by a language learning expert who serves much the same role as a curator of exhibits in a museum. In this talk, I first present the concept of curation and distinguish it from related concepts such as simple content aggregation, tagging, crowdsourcing, content adaptation, and lesson development. I then offer a preliminary framework for identifying promising sources for curation and for desirable characteristics of curators and curated material. As an example, I describe a curation project from my advanced ESL listening class, built around videos of TED talks (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) curated from http://www.ted.com and designed to support autonomous learning. This section includes a discussion of how the effective use of curated content by language learners requires informed use of a range of technology tools for extracting form and meaning in the pursuit of language learning objectives. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of content curation as a long-term priority ripe for further Research and Development.

Claude Almansi has made some interesting comments on Google+ …

Here is the full text of Claude’s observations:

Just some remarks re: the very useful http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/TED1.html list, mentioned in the PDF. TED talks viewed on TED.com or on YouTube:

• have subtitles and interactive transcripts generated from them in usually heaps of languages. So you can have the subtitles in the original language and the transcript in your own language, or viceversa: this allows learners to use a talk even if they have a limited vocabulary,  and it also makes the need to provide a glossary less important;
•  can be downloaded with subtitles in any of the provided languages burned in (open captions): useful when learners don’t have access to a good connection
•  can be subtitled by learners themselves by joining  http://www.amara.org/en/teams/ted/ , and subtitling is a great language exercise. Moreover, the subtitle timing is sometimes more accurate on amara.org (where they are made) than on ted.com, due to codex things I don’t understand 😉

That’s the case with those for the “Andy Hobsbawm: Do the green thing” video mentioned in the PDF and in the list: there’s a lag in http://www.ted.com/talks/andy_hobsbawm_says_do_the_green_thing.html , whereas there is none in http://www.amara.org/en/videos/cVZdvmYJzuHc/info/andy-hobsbawm-says-do-the-green-thing/ .

One more thing: once you’ve downloaded a TED video as MP4 (or any MP4 video for that matter), you can open it as audio in Audacity if you install the FFmpeg library (see http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq_i18n?s=files&i=wma-proprietary for more info). And with Audacity, you can change the delivery speed without altering the pitch, either via the “Change Tempo” effect, or via the reading speed slidebar. This would allow learners to overcome understanding issues due to  fast delivery.

Moreover, you can also add labels to the audio with Audacity: see http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/track_label.htm . So a teacher could e.g. make and download a label track with either glossary indications or questions, and share it with the students, who could re-use them with their audio file in Audacity too. And then, such an audio version could also enable, by comparison, a reflection on use of visuals in the video: some TED lecturers use them, some just speak.

This thread continues at some length

in comments on the event announcement at the Learning2gether Google+ event page here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cj1vec8ee848lgvakb9oj5qjauo?authkey=CL7e0o-_856xjAE

Transcript of this session

in addition, Claude and others have subtitled this talk using the transcript posted in Amara, here:
http://www.amara.org/en/videos/57VzK4F5LToL/info/learning2gether-with-phil-hubbard-curation-in-call-and-ted-talk-videos/

The version with  English captions can be edited and improved (some words are still missing) at
http://www.amara.org/en/videos/57VzK4F5LToL/en/ .

On July 14, 2013 Claude and her colleague Lucia Bartolotti joined us on Learning2gether to explain Amara and its use as a media caption tool in language learning
https://learning2gether.net/2013/07/15/learning2gether-with-claude-almansi-and-lucia-bartolotti-about-amara-and-media-caption-tools/

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-phil-hubbard-on-digital-content-curation-for
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multilit/conversations/topics/1944
• http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads/conversations/messages/30799

More about WorldCALL

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

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

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

Earlier this week

Wed Dec 4 at 1000 GMT Jennifer Maddrell hosted Designers for Learners webcast

Please join us at http://designersforlearning.org/live for our next Designers for Learners webcast on Wednesday, December 4th at 1:00 p.m. CST. Here is the start time in your area: http://bitly.com/1aN32cy. The webcast will focus on opportunities to develop service-learning and Open Educational Resource (OER) projects to support General Educational Development (GED) test preparation. Our guests for the webcast have extensive experience in OER development, including Ronda Neugebauer and David Wiley of Lumen Learning (http://lumenlearning.com), and Quill West, OER Director at Tacoma Community College (http://open.tacomacc.edu).

In the past few months, we have received inquiries from nonprofits in need of instructional design help to support GED test preparation, including resources for learners, as well as for staff and volunteers who work as tutors. In 2014, the requirements for the GED test will change significantly from the existing 2002 version of the test. In addition to changes in the content and test items, all students will be required to take the test via computer vs. pencil and paper. Instructional materials are needed to support a range of subject-matter, including math, science, social studies, language arts, and computer use. Please join us to contemplate the adaptation, development, and use of OER as an alternative to existing commercial offerings, such as those in the GED marketplace (http://www.gedmarketplace.com).

We look forward to seeing you on December 4th! If you can’t make the live session, the recording will be available at
http://designersforlearning.org/category/webcast or http://www.edtechtalk.com.

Connect with us on twitter at:
Quill: http://twitter.com/quill_west
Ronda: http://twitter.com/RondaNeugebauer
Jennifer: http://twitter.com/JenM
David: http://twitter.com/opencontent
Designers for Learning updates are posted at:

Our website: http://designersforlearning.org/category/news
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Twitter: http://twitter.com/design4learn

Thu Dec 5 at 0800 GMT Vance Stevens introduced teachers in Al Ain UAE to Bb Collaborate

https://learning2gether.net/2013/12/05/vance-stevens-introduces-teachers-in-al-ain-uae-to-bb-collaborate/

Learning2gether Episode 191

Download mp3
https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/vanceelluminate5dec2013-64k.mp
On Thu Dec 5 Vance Stevens introduced teachers at his workplace in Al Ain, UAE, to Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard Collaborate, formerly known as Elluminate, holds many possibilities for online professional development and sharing among teachers, as well as for collaboration with and among students.

Vance Stevens showed how to use the version of Bb Collaborate at this URL http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-12-05.0023.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• mp3 forthcoming

Slides

• http://www.slideshare.net/vances/once-upon-a-time-28908911

Here is a screenshot of the tool when used with some of Delin Xiao’s students at the Republic of China Air Force Academy earlier this week (and we are hoping that Delin can come online and chat with some of our teachers on Dec 11 at 0700 GMT)/

In the session today (Dec 5) BbC / Elluminate was introduced to teachers with little prior experience with the program.

Here are survey results of 11 who responded to a poll on the topic:

In a follow-on event to this one, teachers at KBZAC in Al Ain, UAE met Delin from the RoC Air Force Academy in Bb Collaborate on Dec 11, 2013

https://learning2gether.net/2013/12/11/contacting-delin-and-her-students-at-taiwan-air-force-academy-in-bbc-elluminate/