Activities

Description

Point Value

Forum Discussion

Participation in the electronic discussion forum includes asking questions, answering questions, sharing information, and so on, in a variety of ways. 

Assessment is based on the quantity and quality of your contributions. This means that you should ask thought-provoking questions, give thoughtful comments, and raise critical problems or issues. You should also address other people's questions, concerns, and comments in a friendly and supportive way. No personal attacks are allowed (we really don't think this would happen, but just in case). We can all learn a lot from each other through idea exchange and sharing.

Most importantly, a successful electronic discussion takes the form of a conversation. Simply posting questions and answers results in a dry, boring conversation that treats the discussion as simply a chore. This is your space, your class, and your learning. Take advantage of the expertise that your classmates possess and the functionality that the technology provides. And...have fun!

In addition to the expected discourse above, you and one or more class participants will be responsible for facilitating our class discussion. This is not only to support the philosophy of a learning community but also to give you an opportunity of being an online group facilitator. Many of us are used to being a teacher or a lecturer, always telling people what to do. Being a facilitator is very different. You must figure out a way to link us all together without dominating discussions. Each week, the instructor will begin the discussion with question(s) based on the topics, readings, or technologies, there will be one provocateur who will move the discussion forward and one wrapper who will summarize the readings and the forum discussion.

70

General 
Participation

Participation is crucial to the success of the class as a whole and your learning in particular. You will explore technologies, theories, and the application of each to teaching by yourself and collaboratively with a partner(s).

General participation represents activities/exchanges that occur outside of the discussion forum. These include learning new technologies, familiarizing yourselves with instructional and professional websites, keeping blogs of your work in this class, updating the class wiki on numerous topics, as well as responding to instructor calls for information.

30

Interactive Class Reflections

Every two weeks (3 total) you will write a reflection to describe what went well and what could have gone better in the class, what you learned/didn't learn, wish you had learned, and what your plan is for learning more. You will send your brief (one page or less) reflection through e-mail to the instructor, who will respond in a timely fashion. Points are earned for completing this activity as instructed.

15

Synchronous Communication Tools

Synchronous communication tools, often referred to as "chat" clients, enable users to hold text chats. Most of these tools also include audio and video components, which enable users to hold more natural voice conversations. These can be invaluable tools for language teachers and students.

One of these synchronous communication tools is MSN Messenger. Students will download & install the program and demonstrate the ability to use it in conversations with the instructor and other students.

15

Website/Software
Evaluation

Why is an application (Web or software) good? Why should it be used in your classroom? These are questions that you will not only have to answer for yourselves, but you may be called upon to justify their use by others. This assignment aims to help you to evaluate websites/software that are available in your area. You can find the guidelines here (MS Word document).

Each student will submit 4 evaluations throughout the course. These will be submitted to the instructor as an email attachment. Versions will also be posted/discussed in student blogs and the class wiki.

25

External Documents

Teachers are used to adapting texts and other content to serve their needs. It is not often that a resource completely satisfies the needs of your classroom. External documents enable you to supplement software and websites to better serve the needs of your students.

External documents can be used to assist students in using the resources, add additional information, provide supplementary activities, and so forth. This assignment goes hand in hand with the evaluation assignment. You will be able to address weaknesses in the evaluated resources to make them better suited for your classroom.

25

Web Page

More and more online resources are created by people with no experience in creating Web pages. Blogs, wikis, and other similar technologies do not require this kind of specialized training. However, Web page development is still an important skill for teachers to have. Not only is this still a requirement for most online materials, it also enables you to customize blogs and wikis to better design Web pages with the above mentioned technologies.

For this assignment, you will develop a web page using an editor that allows you to create the page quickly without using HTML (though you are free to use HTML if you would like).

30

Online Quiz/
Editing Project

Assessment is an integral part of teaching. In this course, we will look at a number of different methods of assessment that are carried out on computers and the Internet.

For this assignment, you will have two options: (1) demonstrate the use of the reviewing feature in MS Word to comment and edit student work or (2) create quizzes using programs like Hot Potatoes or other applications that allow you to easily configure web-based quizzes.

30

WebQuest

The culminating assignment for this course is the development of a WebQuest. In this project, you and your teammates will build on the strengths of the Internet and World Wide Web to create materials for language teachers world-wide.

60