Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1703] Final Summary
From: Adamson (adamson46844@mni.ne.jp)
Date: Fri 25 May 2001 - 00:23:26 MEST
From: "Adamson" <adamson46844@mni.ne.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1703] Final Summary Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 07:23:26 +0900
It seems that there are few people on the list who are interested in CALL,
which appears to have a different set of problems from CAL for content
subjects. Depending on the methodology adapted, CALL uses the computer to
present examples of the language, to present explanations of the language,
to drill, and to provide situations for the student to use the language. An
informal survey of student usage leads me to think that most CALL involves
individual students working alone with language learning programs and
surfing target language sites on the Internet as their two main activities.
If conference presentations are any indication, only a few teachers are
requiring their students to use chat sites. This seems to contrast strongly
with CAl in content areas where teachers seem to be mostly interested in
getting students to participate in on-line discussions or the teachers use
websites to provide student access to things like course notes,
administrative information, and supplemental materials. For example, in one
department at my university all students are required to purchase a laptop
computer and many of the administrative and class related materials are
on-line. The students also receive a CD-ROM containing class notes,
readings, and other materials for many of their classes.
In the recent discussion on this list the following points have been made.
M. Yasar Ozden is looking for ways to enhance courses through the web. For
the last two years, he has been placing his lecture notes on a website and
setting up chat and forum opportunities, but he does not feel that it has
been very effect.
Charles Adamson suggests that the reasons for using CAL or CALL
(CAL/L)should be clarified. If there is a strong need for CAL/L, then
Adamson suggests using grading to encourage student participation in the
CAL/L aspects of the class.
Chan Su Ling also points out the need to consider the reasons for using
CAL/L. He sees the main benefit as being the facilitation of communication
and discussion among the students who are physically not able to meet in
face-to-face groups. He offers two suggestions for encouraging students to
use chat and forums:
[1] Have a government official or a renowned lecturer from another
university participate in the on-line discussions.
[2] Set up some sort of collaboration between the students and those at in
other universities or countries.
Steve Mahaley offers some suggestions for the effective use of on-line
discussion which he discovered as a result of the non-graded on-line courses
he teaches.
[1] Introduce the course on line.
[2] Put course notes on discussion boards.
[3] Create topic-specific discussion boards with learning goals and dates
attached.
[4] Organize students into teams with a discussion board for each.
[5] Teach the students the appropriate use of discussio boards.
[6] Keep chat focused and prepare answers to FAQs in advance.
[7] Make team contracts specifying who will be doing what and have all team
members sign it.
Arthur M Recesso is also interested in on-line discussion among students. He
conducts week on-line discussions in relation to a masters degree course. He
posts a reading and questions a week before the discussion. Students are
required to react to the questions and respond to at least one other
student's comments. He is now experimenting with a new format of assigning
one or two students to be discussion leaders on an assigned topic.
At the beginning of the discussion I posed a list of five questions. In the
following I will summarize the answers as I have seen them developed from
this discussion.
Question 1: Are there creative ways to use the computer lab?
This question was not really addressed as most respondants seemed to have
students that are distributed over wide geographical areas and have access
to their own computer, including access to the Internet. Also this is a CALL
problem rather than a CAL problem and most respondents are working with CAL.
Question 2: What materials might be appropriate and for what reasons?
It appeared that all the respondents felt that discussion was the most
important aspect of CAL and that they were searching for ways of doing this
more effectively. There was no mention of the commerical software which is
typical of CALL. Many respondents talked of placing class notes,
administrative information, and supplemental materials on-line.
Question 3: Is it possible to adapted CALL/CAL materials in ways that are
parallel to adapting a textbook?
This question was not addressed at all. This was apparently because the
respondents were involved in CAL where this problem does not seem to exist.
Question 4: What are the problems and possible solutions to the question of
potentially having two methodologies (the teacher's and whatever is used in
the CALL materials) in a single class?
Again this question was not addressed. Apparently CAL teachers do not have
this problem as they concentrate their use of the computer to facilitate
discussion and to present materials. They do not use them for teach and
drill as is common in CALL.
Question 5: How does the teacher organize the class to promote the most
effective learning?
There were many suggested answers to this question, but almost all addressed
the aspect of increasing participation in on-line discussions. Apparently
few teachers are actually using software to teach, drill, or exercise the
students.
While this discussion did little toward developing a deeper understanding of
CALL, it did develop some useful and interesting ideas for CAL-based on-line
discussions and presentation of materials.
>From the Moderator
Charles Adamson, Ph.D.
Professor, Faculty of Nursing
Miyagi University
Miyagi-ken, Japan
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