Graham Davies gave a presentation on Second Life at
the University of Portsmouth, 17 February 2009.
Graham Davies is the author of the preface in this new
book on Second Life: Molka-Danielsen J. & Deutschmann M. (eds.)
(2009) Learning and teaching in the virtual world of Second Life,
Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim, Norway, ISBN: 9788251923538: http://butikk.tapirforlag.no/en/node/1195
The second EUROCALL CMC SIG conference took place in at the
University of León, Spain, 23-25 April: Researching Computer Mediated
Communication in Foreign Language Education: Issues and Methods http://www3.unileon.es/personal/wwdfmrod/cmc2009/programme.html
The SLanguages 2009 conference took place in Second Life
on 8-9 May 2009: see
Section 14.2.1, Module 1.5
Graham Davies will be running a pre-conference workshop on
Second Life at the EUROCALL 2009 conference in Spain: http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/
Section 14.2.1 in Module 1.5 is dedicated to Second Life.
It is the most rapidly growing section of the ICT4LT site. It now
includes a link to a downloadable tutorial in Word format for
newcomers to Second Life:
Section 14.2.1, Module 1.5
The ICT4LT project
team
The original ICT4LT project
team (1999-2000) consisted of eight individuals based in the following
institutions:
Scroll over to the right for information on
the individual members of the original ICT4LT team. The team has now
been disbanded, but the English-language version of the ICT4LT website
is still updated on a regular basis by Graham
Davies, Academic Coordinator of the ICT4LT Project.
The main aim of the ICT4LT project was to provide
Web-based training materials in ICT for teachers of Modern Foreign
Languages. It was also planned to develop the materials into an accredited
online course, but funding ran out before this aim could be achieved.
The materials are, however, still valid as a free resource for teachers
and teacher trainers.
The project was built upon a number of national
and EU-funded projects which the partners had successfully completed,
in particular the New Technologies Sub-Group of the Thematic Network
Project (TNP1) in the Area of Languages, which was initiated by the
European Language Council: http://www.celelc.org
Two members of the ICT4LT project team, Peppi
Taalas and Graham Davies, were participants in the Socrates-funded
TALLENT project, coordinated by Angela Chambers, University of Limerick:
http://www.solki.jyu.fi/tallent
The ICT4LT website materials have been developed
by practising language teachers with many years of experience in using
a wide range of technological aids in language teaching. The approach
is pedagogy-driven, and the emphasis is on language teaching
methodologies that can be implemented successfully with the
aid of new technologies. The modules include references to new teaching
concepts and methodologies that have emerged from new technologies
(Levy 1997). Only one purely "technical"
module is included: Module 1.2. This was
in response to the large number of enquiries we received about the
kind of hardware and essential software required for a CALL environment.
The main target audience of the ICT4LT website
is language teachers already in service, although parts of the website
are suitable for teachers undergoing initial training and for teachers
following short intensive courses. The ICT4LT website materials are
also relevant to other occupations concerned with languages and communication.
It must be emphasised that
ICT4LT is not an introductory course in Information and Communications
Technology. Such courses are already available, e.g.
- The European Computer
Driving Licence (ECDL):
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5829
- The ECDL for Education, which is designed
specifically to help teachers, support staff and ICT coordinators
develop practical computing skills for teaching and learning in
the classroom and leads to an internationally recognised level of
certification:
http://www.educatorsecdl.com
It is expected that visitors
to the ICT4LT website already have qualifications that include a foreign
language and a basic knowledge of ICT, i.e. including:
- the basics of Windows 2000 or higher
- word-processing
- using a Web browser
- using email software
See the next section.
The ICT4LT blog and other discussion
lists
The ICT4LT blog can be found at:
http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com
You may also consider initiating a discussion in one of the following
online discussion lists:
EUROCALL:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/eurocall-members.html
EUROCALL CMC SIG: The Computer Mediated Communication Special Interest
Group in EUROCALL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CMC_SIG/
IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LearningTechnologiesSIG/
Linguanet Forum:
http://www.mailtalk.ac.uk/lists/linguanet-forum.html
MFL Resources Forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mflresources/
If you wish to send the Editor of the ICT4LT
site feedback or ask specific questions relating to ICT and language
learning and teaching, use our online feedback form by clicking here:
Feedback.
ICT "can do" lists
A downloadable Word document containing
a set of "can do" lists is available if you click here:
ICT_Can_Do_Lists.
The document is designed for:
- Trainers, to enable them to identify trainees'
strengths and weaknesses in ICT.
- Language teachers undergoing training, to enable
them to assess the development of their own ICT skills, experience
and understanding.
The document covers selected generic applications (e.g. Word,
browsers, email software, PowerPoint) and software applications
that are particularly useful for language teachers. Under the heading
for each application there is a range of essential tasks that the
teacher should be able to carry out in order to feel comfortable
working with the software - a so-called "can do" list. The applications
and the tasks have been selected according to their usefulness for
teaching foreign languages. Feedback
welcomed.
Questionnaire
When we initiated this project we designed a Questionnaire
for visitors to the website to help them to analyse their own situation
and their ICT training needs. The questionnaire is still available
here: Questionnaire.
We are no longer gathering data about visitors to the ICT4LT website,
but the questionnaire may help you identify your training needs. We
are still interested in your views on the site: Feedback
welcomed.
Web guru Jakob Nielsen writes:
Reading
from computer screens is about 25% slower than reading from paper.
Even users who don't know this human factors research usually say
that they feel unpleasant when reading online text.
Source:
Be Succinct! Writing for the Web, Alertbox, 15 March 1997:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html
See Nielsen's other articles on Writing
for the Web:
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
The Web is unlikely to replace
the printed book as a means of presenting large amounts of
text. This is not to say that text on the Web is a bad thing. The
Web is superb as a means of delivering text that can then be
printed. It is also quicker to search the Web for information than
visiting your local library, and once you have found a text you want
to read you can use your browser to search for keywords within it.
It was interesting to read
the story in The Times (29 November 2000, p. 9) headed King
leaves Internet readers in suspense. Stephen King decided not
to complete his Internet novel The Plant because - according
to King - "it failed to grab the attention of readers on the Web".
King found that a surprisingly high proportion of the readers accessing
his site (75%-80%) made the "honesty payment" for being allowed to
download chapters: "But", he said, "there are a lot fewer
of them coming. Online people have the attention span of a grasshopper."
The article points out "that digital publishing has a bleak future
because it is an unattractive medium for reading long texts and it
is difficult to stop breach of copyright". See: http://www.stephenking.com
You should therefore not
feel guilty about printing out any of the pages at this site and sitting
down in a comfortable armchair in order to read them. It's the sensible
thing to do - and better for your eyes. To print a page, just use
the File/Print facility in your browser.
Dead links: linkrot
The English language version of the ICT4LT
site contains over 1000 links to other sites. Checking these links
on a regular basis takes a good deal of time. Up to 5% of the links
listed at the ICT4LT site move or disappear each month, but we do
a regular automatic link check using the excellent Xenu Link Sleuth
program, which is available free of charge at
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
We mention the topic of broken links in Section
6.3.3, Module 3.3. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as
linkrot (see Glossary). Linkrot
is a growing disease: see Jakob Nielsen (1998) Fighting Linkrot
at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980614.html
After we have identified broken links with
Xenu Link Sleuth, they have to be retraced manually - mainly by backtracking
to homepages and using local or global search engines, combined with
a bit of intuition. If you come across a broken link and know where
it has gone please let us know: Feedback.
You may be able to retrieve the contents of
a dead link by entering its URL into the Web Archive (the Wayback
Machine) at http://www.archive.org
This enormous archive keeps records of revisions of websites at various stages
in their lives. It is not 100% complete, but we have found it to be
remarkably efficient at recovering old documents that
we thought had been lost forever.
A further problem that we have identified is
that domain names regularly change hands, especially when a site goes
dead. Unfortunately, this can lead to so-called cybersquatters
(see Glossary) grabbing the name and
using it for other purposes, e.g. for a site containing offensive
material. We have had two experiences of this, which Graham Davies
documents on the following Web page: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/DodgyLinks.htm.
Our research indicates that this is a growing problem. We check all
links when we add them to this site, but constantly checking what
they contain is very time-consuming. We apologise for any oversights
on our part. You can help by notifying us if you discover any links
that contain anything you find offensive: Feedback
Felix (2001:353) makes
the following important points regarding mkaing use of other
people's websites:
- Only stable and frequently
updated resources are worth considering.
- If they are used frequently,
the possibility of downloading the entire resource on a local intranet
or creating mirror sites should be negotiated with the author.
- Teachers need to be fully
versed in the use of the resources.
Wise words!
Regarding the first of Uschi Felix's points,
we expected educational and government sites to be among the most
stable. How wrong we were! In terms of stability, these are the worst
offenders in our experience. Their webmasters simply cannot resist
moving the furniture around every few months. Restructuring is a permanent
process, it seems, and very few webmasters in educational institutions
and government organisations leave clear indications of how their
site has been restructured. We therefore make a special plea to these
webmasters: Please leave redirection instructions at the old URLs
for a period of at least six months.
Regarding the second of Uschi Felix's points,
please make sure you pay attention to copyright. Just because the
material is on the Web it doesn't mean that it can be distributed
freely to all and sundry. See our General
guidelines on Copyright.
Regarding the third of Uschi Felix's points:
This is where ICT4LT can help!
Site visits: requests
for pages
The ICT4LT site consistantly receives
over 1000 page requests per day. A peak number of requests was reached
in March 2007, an average of 1756 per day.
Order of popularity of ICT4LT Web pages
These are our Web pages
in order of popularity, i.e. according to the number of recent downloads:
- Module 2.2: Introduction to multimedia CALL
- Glossary of ICT terminology
- Module 1.5: Introduction to the Internet
- Module 1.2: Introduction to computer hardware and software
- Resource Centre
- Module 1.4: Introduction to CALL
- Module 2.4: Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign Languages
classroom
- General
guidelines on copyright
- Module 4.1 Computer aided assessment (CAA) and language learning
- Module 3.4: Corpus linguistics
- Module 3.1: Managing a multimedia language centre
- Module 1.1: Introduction to new technologies
- Module 1.3: Using word-processing and presentation software in
the Modern Foreign Language classroom
- Module 3.2: CALL software design and implementation
- Module 2.3: Exploiting WWW resources online and offline
- Module 3.5: Human Language Technologies
- Module 2.1: CALL methodology: integrating CALL into study programmes
- Module 2.5: Introduction to CALL authoring programs
- Module 3.3: Creating a WWW site
See the Contents page page for links
to all the above pages:
- Philippe Delcloque's
History of CALL
- ICT4LT
software and website evaluation forms
- ICT4LT
"can do" lists: check your ICT skills
- How effective
is the use of ICT in language learning and teaching?
- Graham Davies's Second
Life tutorial materials
C
How do people find us?
Using the Google and Yahoo search engines mainly,
but a number of other sites refer visitors to us. These are the sites
that regularly refer visitors to ICT4LT. You may wish to have a look
at these sites to see what they have to offer to language teachers:
- Our own blog:
http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com
- Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning
- Thames Valley University:
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/prospective/Short_courses/Online_courses.jsp
- ByTeachers website:
http://www.byteachers.org.uk/sites.htm
- E-learning Europa (European Commission):
http://www.elearningeuropa.info/index.php
- Languages ICT (CILT/ALL) website:
http://www.languages-ict.org.uk
- BBC Languages website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/tutors/internet/nocomputer/index.shtml
- Fred Riley's CALL@Hull website:
http://www.fredriley.org.uk/call/innovation/langs.html
- Language Learning & Technology online
journal:
http://llt.msu.edu/vol8num1/net/default.html
- Spartacus website:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REVlanguages.htm
- The Education Forum:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php
- Times Educational Supplement (Browse Forums
/ Modern Foreign Languages):
http://www.tes.co.uk
Several people have written to us asking how
they should present bibliographical references to the ICT4LT site.
Hard-and-fast conventions regarding the bibliographical referencing
of Web pages are only slowly emerging. This is what we recommend:
1. If you refer to the English-language version
of the ICT4LT website in general you should reference it thus:
Davies G. (ed.) (2008) Information and Communications
Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley
University [Online]. Available from: http://www.ict4lt.org
[Accessed DD Month YYYY].
2. If you refer to a particular module at the
ICT4LT website, e.g. Module 1.5, you should reference it thus:
Walker R., Hewer S. & Davies G. (2008) Introduction
to the Internet. Module 1.5 in Davies G. (ed.) Information and
Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough,
Thames Valley University [Online]. Available from: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm
[Accessed DD Month YYYY].
The publication date of the printed versions
of Modules 1.1 to 1.5 was 1999. Modules 2.1 to 3.5 were published
in their printed versions in 2000. Module 4.1 has not been printed.
The Web version of every module is updated at least once a month.
If you are citing the Web version of the ICT4LT
site look for the revision date and information regarding copyright
and bibliographical referencing at the bottom of each page. See our
Copyright notice.
The ICT4LT website contains numerous links
to external websites containing information that we consider relevant
to ICT and language learning and teaching. Some of the external sites
are managed by educational institutions and some are managed by commercial
enterprises. We make every effort to check that the links to external
sites function correctly and we also check that the contents of the
sites to which we make the links are appropriate to the aims of the
ICT4LT project, but we cannot ultimately be held responsible for the
contents of external websites. We will remove immediately any links
to sites that are found to contain inappropriate or offensive material
or to sites that appear to be in breach of copyright. If you are a
website owner that does not wish a link to your site to be made, please
contact us and we will remove the link. Feedback
in this connection is welcomed.
Felix U. (2001) Beyond
Babel: language learning online, Melbourne, Language Australia.
Reviewed at: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/FelixReview.htm
Levy M. (1997) CALL:
context and conceptualisation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
If you wish to send us feedback on any aspect
of the ICT4LT website, use our online Feedback
Form or visit the ICT4LT blog
at:
http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com
The Feedback Form is accessible at the bottom
of every page at the ICT4LT site.
If you download or print a copy of any material
from the ICT4LT site, please pay due respect to copyright. See our
General guidelines on copyright.
Please cite this Web
page as:
Davies G. (2009) ICT4LT Homepage. In Davies G. (ed.) Information
and Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT),
Slough, Thames Valley University [Online]. Available from:
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_home.htm
[Accessed DD Month YYYY].
Document last updated 27 June 2009. This
page is maintained by Graham Davies.
© ICT4LT Project
2009 under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works, UK, England
& Wales Licence.
The ICT4LT homepage was designed by
Graham Sedgwick at Electric Easel: http://www.electriceasel.co.uk
|
