Return to the EVO Call for Participation
Becoming a Webhead
Session Description
Webheads in Action is a long-standing community of practice of language teachers worldwide, coordinated by Vance Stevens. In the Becoming a Webhead workshop, which is an introduction to Webheads in Action, we explore Web communication tools and share the best ways of using them in our teaching practices, engage with students in virtual classes,collaborate in projects, and participate in conferences as audience and presenters. This collaboration takes place online, as we are all geographically apart. Would you like to join us?
Objectives
In the course of the 5 weeks, participants will learn collaboratively and hands on to:
- use various synchronous and asynchronous web tools for learning and teaching EFL/ESL,
- interact through e-mail, text chat, voice chat, voice and video mail, and distribution lists, among others,
- create wikis, blogs, podcasts and interactive exercises related to their own contexts, and,
- reflect on ways of applying those tools to their teaching, either online or face-to-face.
Weekly chats will be held to discuss content and pre-defined topics, build rapport and create a sense of community.
Former and very active BaW participants, some of whom are now active members of Webheads in Action, will moderate the 5 weeks of our session.
Much of the content derived from the discussions will be made available through a wiki created during the five weeks, which will be kept online for future reference.
At the end of the session participants will be invited to join the Webheads in Action (WiA) community of practice.
Target audience
ESL/EFL teachers interested in using communication tools in their teaching, be it exclusively online or blended into face-to-face teaching.
LEVEL: False Beginners
Requirements
Having an e-mail account, familiarity with browsers, Internet access and navigation. Having a headset is advisable.
Sponsoring TESOL Entity
TESOL CALL IS
Weekly Outline
Week 1 (Jan 10 - 16, 2011)
Getting acquainted with Yahoo Groups. Introductions.
Participants will introduce themselves to the group, get acquainted with the Yahoo Groups platform, and interact among each other through the mailing list. At the end of the week, and as an introduction to week 2, we will take a tour of Tapped In, a well-known online community of international educators, where participants will be able to create their own virtual office and later meet with students and colleagues.
Guest presenter: BJ Berquist (USA)
Venue: Tapped In
Week 2 (Jan 17 - 23, 2011)
Building an online presence: Blogs and wikis.
Participants will be introduced to blogs and wikis. They will explore different blog providers (Blogger, Wordpress, Edublogs) and wiki providers (Pbworks, Wikispaces, Wetpaint) to start their own sites. Participants will also use Slide/photo sharing applications (VoiceThread,Flickr, Photopeach, Slideshare,Slide.com, Animoto, among others ) to create content and add it to their blogs / wikis. We will also touch on Social Networking (e.g. microblogging throughTwitter) as part of building online presence. Participants will create a blog or a wiki to keep track of the activities developed during this session.
Guest presenters: Claudio Azevedo (Brazil)
Venue: WiZiQ
Week 3 (Jan 24 - Jan 30, 2011)
Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools: Text /Audio/Video
Participants will have the opportunity to chat with other Webheads through different synchronous media such as Tapped In,Yahoo Messenger, and Skype. During these chats, they will learn how to use the many powerful features of each of these environments.Voice chat and webcam-enhanced chat will be introduced in Yahoo Messenger and Skype, and video email and chat through Tokbox. Audacity, a free online tool to record audio files, will be introduced for those wishing to try recording voice sessions. Regarding asynchronous tools, participants will explore several podcast providers (Podomatic, Viewpoint, Podbean, Archive.org, AudioPal, Voxopop, and VoiceThread) to create their own podcasts to add them to their wikis /blogs.
Guest presenter: Graham Stanley
Venue: tba
Week 4 (Jan 31 - Feb 06, 2011)
Developing class materials: interactive exercise creators.
Participants will have the opportunity to explore different online materials and create their own materials for their classes using different online exercise creators (Quizlet, Quiz Marker, Wordlearner, Wordchampion, among many others). They will link their exercises to their wiki /blog.
Guest presenter: Rubena St. Louis
Venue: Elluminate at Learning Times
Week 5 (Feb 07 -13, 2010)
Blended learning. Wrap-up: conclusions and evaluation. Graduating as a Webhead in Action.
After a discussion on "blended learning", participants will share reflections and arrive at the main conclusions about these online Web communication tools and their role in language learning. To wrap up these five weeks, there will be a "Graduation Ceremony" chat during which participants will be invited to join the "Webheads in Action" community. Participants will give feedback about the session.
Guest Presenter: Rita Zeinstejer (Argentina)
Venue: tba
Readings
There will be weekly recommended readings for reflection and discussion (in the Forum).
Coordinators
Dafne Gonzalez has been an EFL/ESP teacher for more than 30 years. She graduated in Language Teaching, has a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics, and a Ph.D in Education. She is currently a Full professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar,Caracas, Venezuelawhere she coordinated the Graduate Studies in Education Programs and was the Head of the Specialization in Informatics and Education. Besides teaching technology-related courses at the graduate level, she also designed and teaches the English for Architecture and Urban Planning blended courses. A webhead since 2002, she was the lead coordinator of the TESOL Electronic Village Online for 3 years, and has co-moderated, with Teresa Almeida d'Eça the Becoming a Webhead (BaW) online Workshop since 2004. She teaches the TESOL Principles and Practices Certificate Program course: "Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar Online". Currently, she is the head of the Spanish Program for Languagelab.com in Second Life.
E-mail:dygonza@yahoo.com
Teresa Almeida d’Eça is a recently retired EFL teacher. She taught English for 33 years at most levels. She lives and works from home in a small town in the suburbs of Lisbon, Portugal. In January 2002, she joined the Webheads in Action for the EVOnline 8-week teacher development workshop, and since then she has been actively involved in the cyberworld of education! She has published two books, one on the use of the Internet in education and the other on the use of email in the classroom. She presents regularly at conferences at home and abroad. She's been coordinator and co-moderator of BaW with Dafne González since 2004. She also co-moderated with Dafne the TESOL Principles and Practices Certificate Program course "Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar Online". You're welcome to visit her website and to get in touch with her at tmvaz@mail.telepac.pt
Moderators
Previous participants of BaW sessions will be invited to moderate each of the weeks of the session.
Communication tools to be used
Join this session
To join this group:
-
Go to: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/baw2011
- Click on the blue button: (This is just an image). The real button is on the Yahoo Group. If you don´t have a Yahoo ID, you will be prompted to create one (it is free).
- Follow the instructions
|
Note: When you register for the group, you will have to be approved by the moderator. In order to reduce the possibility of "unwanted" members (such as spammers), please be sure to explain who you are and why you want to enroll in the session. This message will only be seen by the session moderator. |
The Electronic Village Online is a project of TESOL's CALL Interest Section.
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, an international education association
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.