Reading Prompt #2

Readings: Egbert Ch. 2, Cummins Ch. 2, Richardson Ch. 3

What are "multiliteracies" as described by Cummins et al.? How does this relate to Egbert's assertions about the need for authentic materials to support ELL students' reading and writing? Discuss how blogs and blogging can be a tool for achieving these ideals with ELL students. Finally, describe your own experience creating your blog this week. Was it harder than you thought? What ideas do you have about the kind of stuff you want to blog about (besides what is required for this course)?

Remember, do not post your comments here. Please post them on your own
blog. Please use "Reading Prompt #2" as the title of your post.

I will also post Reading Prompt #3 in the next day or two. Please respond to both Prompt #2 and #3 before class next week.

Remember to also visit the blogs of your classmates, and post comments on their responses. You can find the links to the student blogs on the right. (Please send me the link to your blog if you haven't already)

Textbook

Our missing textbook has still not arrived to the bookstore. Since it has been on order since November, and no one could tell me when it would be in, I went ahead and cancelled the order.

Required readings are now available on our Web-CT course site.

Posting Comments

Some members of the class had trouble posting their response to the reading reflection question below. You may have been told you need to register first.

I changed the settings so you do not have to register in order to post comments. I thought it already was on this setting, so I apologize to those who had trouble.

If you had trouble, try again. It should work now. Let me know if it doesn't.

Survey Results

Here are the results of our Technology Use Survey. I think these results are very interesting. First, they show that most of you have more technology know-how than you probably relized. Second, it should show you that if there were some things on the survey you didn't know how to do or had never heard of before, you're not alone! I recevied a total of 14 surveys back (missing one), so numbers indicated number of people who checked off each item.

Technology Survey

Computer Hardware
Have own desktop computer – 12
Have own laptop computer – 10
Have high-speed internet access at home – 14
Have wireless access at home – 6
Have own handheld computer – 0
Have own iPod or other .mp3 music player – 7
Have own digital camera – 9
Have own digital video camera – 5
Have own digital audio recorder – 5
Have a cell phone that can take digital audio/video – 6
Have own electronic bilingual dictionary – 2

On-line communication
Have more than 1 E-mail addresses/account (between 2 and 4) – 14
Have written and sent e-mails in a language other than English – 13
Use Instant Messenger or Chat Rooms – 10
Use Skype or other voice-over-internet protocols (i.e., internet telephone services) – 4
Subscribe to one or more listservs – 3
Have posted messages to on-line discussion boards or newsgroups – 8
Have left user feedback or comments on Amazon.com, e-bay, etc. – 4

Webpages
Occasionally visit webpages – 5
Regularly visit webpages – 11
Have created my own webpage(s) – 5
Know how to use webpage authoring program(s) – 0
Know HTML – 1
Know javascript or other coding languages – 2

Blogs
Occasionally read one or more blogs – 6
Regularly read one or more blogs – 4
Have posted comment on a blog – 4
Subscribe to a blog (via RSS) – 1

Social Networking
Occasionally visit social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, other) – 5
Regularly visit social networking sites – 0
Have own page on one or more social networking sites – 4

Digital Photos and Video
Have uploaded my photos to an on-line photo album to share with family and friends – 9
Have uploaded own photos and made available to the public (e.g., Flicrk, Yahoo) – 4
Have uploaded digital video to YouTube or other on-line video sharing site – 1
Can edit photos using photo editing software – 9
Can edit video and make mini-movies using video editing software – 4

Wikis
Used Wikipedia – 10
Edited Wikipedia – 0
Created a new article on Wikipedia – 0
Contributed to other Wikis – 0

RSS
Have an aggregator program – 0
Subscribe to one or more RSS feeds – 0

Podcasts
Listened to or watched podcasts on the computer – 5
Downloaded a podcast to an .mp3 player to listen to or watch – 2
Regularly subscribe to one or more podcasts – 0
Created a podcast – 0

Other
Have made on-line purchases – 13
Have bought things from on-line auction sites like e-bay – 7
Have sold things on on-line auction sites like e-bay – 4
Have downloaded and installed software – 10
Use internet to manage bank-account, pay bills, or other personal finances – 11
Have surfed the internet via a cell-phone or PDA – 3

Language Learning Software
Have used software to learn a language:
(List and describe)
Rosetta Stone Arabic
Rosetta Stone-used as an instructor-English Rosetta Stone-used as a student-Spanish

Language Teaching and Technology
Occasionally use technology in the classroom
Regularly use technology in the classroom
(List and describe)
Smart board, ppt, WebCT, website, google search engine, language learning software

WEB-CT Updates

Hi Everyone,

Great first class meeting. Sorry if things were a bit rushed. The pace will slower from now on.

I have made several updates on WEB-CT. The readings for next week are now available under "Readings." I have posted our Presentation Schedule, so be sure to check it and make sure I've got you down for the right presentations on the right dates.

Be sure to post your answer to my reading prompt below (after you do the readings of course). As a reminder of what I said in class, for Prompt #1 you only need to respond to me. We'll do Prompt #2 in class next week after you create your own blogs, but be sure to read the readings before you come to class.

I am very excited about our course, and I'm glad you are all in it! See you next week.

Reading Prompt #1

Respond to this prompt after reading the required readings for January 23, 2o07. Respond on this blog by using the comment link below.

What has been your experience with blogs prior to this class? Are there any blogs you regularly visit? Do you have your own blog? Richardson describes the many potential uses of weblogs for classroom pedagogy and practice. Which of his ideas are consistent with the CALL principles and conditions for classroom learning outlined by Egbert? How can these help promote literacy for ELLs, as discussed by Cummins et al? Do you envision yourself using blogs in your langauge learning classroom at some point in the future?

(Response due 1/24/07)

** IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT **

Due to inclement weather, UTSA will be closed on Tuesday, January 16. Thus, we will not be meeting on our scheduled first day of class.

The course syllabus should be available on our WEB-CT site on Tuesday, January 16th. Please look it over. We will quickly go over it on Jan 23rd. Please do not panic when you read it. All the scary sounding technology assignments are much easier than they sound, and you'll be fully trained in class how to do each one.

When Campus re-opens (hopefully on Wednesday), please purchase the following books from the Downtown UTSA Bookstore (not available at 1604).

Cummins, J., Brown, K., and Sayers, D. (2007). Literacy, Technology, and
Diversity: Teaching for Success in Changing Times. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Egbert, J. (2005). CALL Essentials: Principles and Practice in CALL
Classrooms. Alexandria, VA: TESOL

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Please read the following chapters before we meet on January 23:

CUMMINS Ch. 1. Literacy
EGBERT Ch. 1. Introduction: Principles of CALL.
RICHARDSON Ch. 2. Weblogs: Pedagogy & Practice

Please e-mail or call me if you have any questions before Jan. 23rd. Stay warm!

-Dr. Wright

Welcome to our ESL 6973 Language Learning & Technology Blog!

Welcome! This blog is for the students of ESL 6973 Language Learning & Technology, at the University of Texas, San Antonio. However, this blog may also be of interest to students and educators in the language education field (e.g., TESOL, Bilingual Education, Foreign Languages, Heritage Languages, etc.).

The students in this course are graduate students (MA or PhD) in the College of Education & Human Development, most of whom are completing degree programs in the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies. Our students have been, currently are, or will be ESL and/or Bilingual Teachers, and their experiences range from teaching at the Kindergarten to the adult level both in the United States and abroad. Thus, our students bring a wealth of knowledge and experiences to this course, and this blog will provide a space where we can learn from each other as we engage our course material.

For those readers outside of our course, please understand that we (myself included) are new to blogging. Thus, this blog is a space for us to explore the potential and experiment with the emerging read/write web for effective language teaching and learning for ESL students and teachers.

To the students, I look forward to having all of you in the course. We will have a lot of fun, and hopefully learn a few things along the way!

-Dr. Wright