On CALL
June 2005: Volume 22, Issue 3.
A periodic newsletter for TESOL members.
In This Issue...
* Leadership Updates
o From the Chair
* Articles
o Future Visions of CALL
o Discussion Session Reports From San Antonio 2005
o True Anywhere, Anytime Learning With Mobile Phones
o The Extensive Reading Web Site
* Columns
o Making Connections
* Keeping Up With the Community
o Photos From the Electronic Village, San Antonio
Convention, 2005
o Hooray for the EV ’05 Volunteers!
o Call for Submissions
o About This Member Community
Leadership Updates
From the Chair
By Susan Gaer, e-mail: sgaer@yahoo.com
Welcome to an exciting new year. I want to welcome all our new
members and thank all of you who continue to support the CALL IS
with your time, effort, and considerable expertise.
If you are new to the CALL IS, you may not realize that this is
one of the most active Interest Sections in TESOL. The CALL IS
contributes to a very important part of TESOL by sharing its
experience and knowledge in a number of ways, especially in
planning and operating the Electronic Village (EV) at the annual
convention and EV Online before the convention. We are an
active, involved IS that is not just for experienced CALL
practitioners. When I first joined the CALL Interest Section, I
was afraid of my inexperience. I was amazed at all the expertise
of the people involved. I knew nothing about CALL, but everyone
helped me and made me feel good about myself.
Our San Antonio convention was one of our best yet. We developed
our first ever program book from a TESOL special project grant
and had a booth in the exhibition area. Perhaps some of you who
are new to CALL are here because of the booth in the exhibition
area. We also had an academic session that was Webcast-another
first for the CALL IS. In case you were not able to get to the
academic session, visit http://www.homestead.com/prositesvstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/2005/call-is.htm.
We need your help to make TESOL 2006 in Tampa even better than
TESOL 2005 in San Antonio. If you want to volunteer or help out,
e-mail me at sgaer@yahoo.com.
Thank you to everyone who attended, presented, organized, and
volunteered and thank you in advance to those who will be
helping out in Tampa.
Susan Gaer is an associate professor of ESL and the technology
trainer at Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education in
Santa Ana, CA.
Articles
Future Visions of CALL
By Susan Gaer, e-mail: Susan Gaer sgaer@yahoo.com
In the TESOL 2005 CALL IS Academic Session "Future Visions of
CALL," participants were introduced to the latest in state-ofthe-art technology, all currently available. Many of the
applications were low cost or free. Also participating in this
year's Academic Session were Vance Stevens, Jim Duber, Deborah
Healey, and Karen Price.
Vance Stevens talked about tools he has been using in Webheads
in Action, for professional development, to model how teachers
can set up communicative, authentic, and constructivist learning
activities with students.
Deborah Healey talked about trends in software/hardware (as a
counterpoint to the heavy Internet focus by others), including
* voice recognition/speech to text and text to speech (e.g.,
Windows Speech SDK) that can change human-computer interactions,
* laptop-based labs with wireless communication that change
teacher-student and student-student interactions and enable
movement out of the classroom,
* easy-to-use creative tools such as iMovie and its Windows
counterpart that let students become video authors, and
* PDA-based language tools that are starting to allow people
to put CALL into a pocket and carry it everywhere.
Jim Duber used Flash technology to show us innovative ways of
interacting online. Jim describes his presentation at his audio
blog at http://duber.com/mediablog/. Find and play the entry for
2005-03-05 "Conference Presentation: TESOL 2005."
Karen Price offered a "show-and-tell of technologies not used
(yet) in language learning contexts as counterpoint to some
general thoughts about future trends/directions." Karen's
presentation can be found at
http://www.tiac.net/~kprice/TESOL_2005/.
The session was completely webcast and is available for viewing
at http://www.homestead.com/prositesvstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/2005/call-is.htm. To view the
webcast, you must be a member of Learning Times (membership is
free).
Susan Gaer is an associate professor of ESL and the technology
trainer at Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education in
Santa Ana, CA.
Discussion Session Reports From San Antonio 2005
Getting More From Authorware and Freeware
Andy Bowman
ielc.lab@wichita.edu
Intensive English Language Center
Wichita State University
Wichita, Kansas, USA
Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
ehansonsmi@yahoo.com
Command Performance Language Institute/Computers for Education
Sacramento, California, USA
This discussion group shared comments about uses of free and
commercial authorable software available either on CD or via the
Internet. The talk revealed that although teachers pursue
similar goals, their strategies for achieving them are quite
diverse. For example, participants mentioned a variety of
methods with little repetition in software titles.
Mentioned applications included
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Hot PotatoesTM
Quia programs
Praat
CAN8
Flash
ToolBook
MS Visual Basic®
The background of the participants also differed. Though most
were teachers, several identified themselves as administrators
and designers. Platform preference was another point of
distinction, with a majority indicating that they used PCs.
Nonetheless, several were Mac users.
One conclusion drawn from this discussion is that there would be
some use for a tool that can manage a great variety of content,
one that a user may customize to suit a particular interest or
application, most likely with materials available on the
Internet. Some of the discussion addressed the possibility of
creating a user group that would have a hand in designing a tool
that would make authoring easier and more flexible.
Professional Development Opportunities in CALL
Christine Bauer-Ramazani
cbauer-ramazani@smcvt.edu
Saint Michael's College
Colchester, Vermont, USA
Mary-Ellen Butler-Pascoe
mbutler@alliant.edu
Alliant International University
San Diego, California, USA
Twenty TESOLers from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and
Japan attended this early-morning discussion session on the
first day of the convention in sunny San Antonio and discussed
needs that they or the teachers in their organizations have for
professional development in CALL.
needs:
They identified the following
1. international and national standards related to technology
(e.g., ISTE, TESOL/NCATE)
2. certificates indicating that standards in item 1 were met
3. access to step-by-step tutorials or a database of handouts
on basic uses of technology tools (Word, PowerPoint®,
FrontPage®, Flash, Web templates, Web
exercise/quiz/rubric/puzzle creators, etc.)
4. a shared space where such tutorials and handouts can be
accessed and submitted by TESOL members worldwide
5. any tips on how to motivate teachers to sustain their
professional development endeavors in using technology
6. any tips (technical, pedagogical, classroom management) on
how to use technology in a one-computer classroom in
countries/environments with limited resources
The discussion group leaders resolved to establish a Yahoo!Group
on a short-term basis for interaction among the participants and
relaying the needs expressed by the group to the TESOL board for
long-term solutions.
Learner Training for CALL
Phil Hubbard
phubbard@stanford.edu
Stanford University
Stanford, California, USA
Howard Pomann
pomann@ucc.edu
Union County College
Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
A group of 13 joined the two organizers in this lively
discussion on the rationale and process of CALL learner
training. They came from various countries, including at least
three from Brazil, and taught age levels from kindergarten to
adult.
The session began with a brief description of the parameters of
learner training in CALL. These included
* technical training in how to operate the computer in
general as well as for specific applications, and
* pedagogical training in how to connect the computer
software or activity effectively to identified language-learning
objectives.
The organizers stressed that these two types of training were
not limited to tutorial software but also included the many uses
of the computer as a tool.
One participant remarked that he had worked in a setting where
independent learning occurred, and that he had found it helpful
to train students in metacognitive strategies such as planning
and locating language content. A point brought up by another
participant was the importance of integration, particularly
integration of CALL activities into a communicative/interactive
curriculum that was project oriented. It was noted that learner
training supported such integration by focusing learners'
attention on strategies for language knowledge and skill. For
example, if negotiation of meaning is a desired part of the
process for a computer-mediated communication activity, then
training could put some emphasis on the how and why of
negotiation of meaning. Essentially, we can give students some
"language teacher" training so that they address their tasks
with more attention to actions (such as negotiation of meaning)
that lead to the desired learning outcome (language
acquisition).
Another participant noted that she taught young children and
what worked best with them was a play-and-learn approach that
let them explore the software. It was acknowledged that a
strategy-based approach would probably not be appropriate for
kids, though explicit technical training in operating the
computer and software would be.
Other points mentioned were the importance of pre and post
activities for CALL lessons, including class debriefings, the
difficulty in getting students to use and transfer the
strategies they have been taught, and the differences in
learning styles.
The handout from the session with further information on CALL
learner training is available at www.stanford.edu/~efs/lttesol05.
The What, How, and Why of CALL Research
Joy Egbert
egbert@mail.wsu.edu
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington, USA
Gina Petrie
gina_wsu@yahoo.com
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington, USA
Keun Huh
Keun70@yahoo.com
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington, USA
At TESOL 2005, participants interested in computer-assisted
language learning met to discuss CALL research. The group
decided to use the short time allotted to discuss two topics:
* where CALL research is currently; in other words what is
being investigated by whom and how, and
* where we need to take CALL research to make it even more
useful, valid, and interesting.
The two lists below present the topics discussed and by whom:
Where we are
*
*
*
*
*
*
Scaffolding (Halliday)
Context Awareness (Hauck)
Engagement/Flow (Egbert)
Choices/Ergonomics (Raby)
Visuality/Images (Petrie)
Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences/Field Dependence
and Independence (see an argument against this strand in a
review and analysis of Gardner's three major works by Daniel T.
Willingham in Reframing the mind, Education Next, 4(3), 18-24,
http://www.educationnext.org/20043/18.html)
* Blended/Hybrid Learning
* Presence/Identity/World View/Relationships (Burniske &
Monke, Lankshear & Snyder, Warschauer)
Where we need to go
*
*
*
*
Metacognition/Reflection
Method/Time/Sample (Hubbard)
Instruction
Limited Technology/Value of Technology/Access
*
*
& Van
*
*
Individual Differences
Meaning-Making/Multimodality Theory (Salaberry 2002; Kress
Leeuven)
Media Literacy
Technology Affordances/Task-Technology Fit
For other questions that researchers are asking and find
important, check Phil Hubbard's Web site, "A Survey of
Unanswered Questions in Computer Assisted Language Learning," at
http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/callsurvey and for a study of CALL
research see www.stanford.edu/~efs/call04. The group agreed to
meet at the next TESOL conference to discuss what progress has
been made.
Using Movie Editing Programs in Student Classrooms
Sookhee Kim Plotkin.
Sookhee.Plotkin@pgcps.org
Prince George's County Public Schools
Maryland, USA
Steven K. Sharp
ssharp@pgcps.org
Prince George's County Public Schools
Maryland, USA
About seven people attended this early Friday morning discussion
session, which started with a brief introduction of who they
were and what they used as far as video editing programs. A
couple of people had created movies for their personal
interests, but the majority of attendees had not used video
editing programs with students in the classroom. The discussion
session leaders shared their experiences in creating movies to
engage elementary and secondary ESOL students in reading and
writing projects. The discussions and questions centered around
what equipment they need to get started and how to convert
analog movie clips to digital format. The session leaders also
shared their knowledge regarding computer hard drive and memory
capacity, video editing programs available for Windows-based and
Macintosh-based machines, and video cameras and cables for
creating a video product. For those interested, the discussion
notes and handouts for the related PCI session "Creating and
Using Digital Video Projects" can be found at
http://www.pgcps.org/~esol/TESOL2005.
True Anywhere, Anytime Learning With Mobile Phones
By Tim Collins, e-mail: tgcollins@earthlink.net
Imagine this situation: You are a cab driver in Beijing. To keep
your job through the coming Olympics you have to improve your
spoken English. But your busy work schedule and family
responsibilities don't give you time to take classes. What can
you do? For many in this situation, giving up is, unfortunately,
the most likely course of action. But the solution may literally
be already at hand: our mobile phones.
Mobile phones are already becoming much more than a means for
transmitting the human voice wirelessly. Mobile phones today
support a variety of data and multimedia features, most notably
short messages and photography, but also video photography and
audio for playback of ringtones and music. Increasingly, mobile
carriers are adding flat and dynamic content, including
individual and interactive games and access to information (such
as driving directions, travel information, e-mail, and more).
Mobile phone users can access information on fine wines; submit
samples of music to find out the name of the song, artist, and
record label; and submit pictures of famous buildings to access
guidebook content. Museums such as the Uffizi Gallery in
Florence are experimenting with using connected phones and PDAs
to share information with visitors to enhance their experiences.
Also being developed is more traditional academic learning
content using the current and forthcoming capabilities of mobile
phones. Soon technology will enable the creation of rich mobile
multimedia content suitable to the learning of ESL and EFL,
including developing listening, speaking, and reading skills as
well as cross-cultural awareness.
At present, technology supports delivery of a variety of
educational content, ranging from text-only to rich multimedia
(including audio and visual content) that can be delivered over
the air to mobile phones for playback and storage. Simple text
messaging technology is the most rudimentary, allowing the
transmission of short text messages. In fact, simple text
messaging was used in Greece during the recent Olympics to teach
simple, relevant phrases in modern Greek to visitors.
Multimedia messaging takes the delivery a step further, allowing
the integration of images, audio, and text. Applications such as
Java and Brew allow the creation of sophisticated content with
art, animation, rich audio, and more.
At present, the most sophisticated content delivery systems are
in Asia (including China, the world's largest mobile phone
market) and Europe. However, infrastructure is in place around
the world to deliver mobile content to phone subscribers.
Currently, about a quarter of mobile phones worldwide are able
to support the more sophisticated forms of multimedia, and this
number is expected to grow quickly, as new, more sophisticated
models are rolled out.
Developing curriculum for mobile phones requires understanding
of both the technology and good instructional practices. With
current capabilities, a variety of educational content can be
developed for language learning, including
* Short dialogues as conversational models and for listening
comprehension.
* Read-alongs, which are recorded audio stories that allow
the user to follow along with the printed text while listening
to the reading. This technique can be used with news stories,
recorded books, or other text passages to develop both listening
comprehension and reading skills.
* Picture dictionaries with illustrations of common objects
and actions, plus audio playback of the words and examples and
translations into the users' first languages.
* Phrase books for travelers needing to access key language
for travel needs.
* Preparation for standardized testing, such as TOEFL and
TOEIC.
* Materials for phonics instruction.
Soon a number of interactive features will become available,
including the following:
* Ability for content producers to integrate a wider variety
of media, including animation and short video, and the ability
for users to record and play back their own voices.
* Ability for users to submit sound files for evaluation of
pronunciation and speaking skills, including automated
evaluation.
* Establishment of learner communities for interactive
learning using shared tools and content.
*
using
*
using
Daily delivery of new content (such as a daily lesson)
a "push model."
Ability to identify and deliver location-specific content,
GPS technologies.
Mobile learning has been the subject of a number of major
conferences in Europe and Asia, and organizations such as the
European Commission are supporting advanced research in this
area. Soon, people may be able to access not only outstanding
educational content but even a live teacher or classmates around
the world through their mobile phones for true anywhere, anytime
learning.
Dr. Timothy G. Collins, PhD, is assistant professor, English as
a second language and bilingual education, at National-Louis
University, Chicago. The author of over more than books, Dr.
Collins has served as educational consultant and mobile content
designer for First International Digital, a Motorola spin-off
and a leader in mobile content delivery and mobile education.
The Extensive Reading Web Site
By Rob Waring, e-mail: waring_robert@yahoo.com
At TESOL 2005 in San Antonio, Marc Helgesen and I introduced the
Extensive Reading Web site (http://extensivereading.net/). The
Web site was set up and is maintained by Tom Robb, who oversees
the many contributions to the site. The site is packed with
useful advice for teachers who want to start an Extensive
Reading (ER) program. But what is ER?
ER is an approach to reading that says that people need vast
amounts of sustained silent reading to learn a language. For a
person to read fluently, the reading should be easy and
achievable, with very few unknown words. In this way fluency and
reading speed can be promoted. In ER, self-selected reading is
preferable over reading that is imposed by a course, and the
reading is done mostly out of class. ER practitioners believe
that reading is its own reward.
ER is often contrasted with Intensive Reading. In Intensive
Reading the learners read very little text, usually only a few
hundred words, and are examined on their understanding of the
text with comprehension questions. This is often followed by
vocabulary and grammar exercises. The aim is to learn about the
language in the text, so they discuss it. By contrast, in ER,
the reading is done for the pleasure of it. Because ER involves
reading massive amounts of text, ER allows learners to pick up
numerous new words and deepen their knowledge of the grammar and
vocabulary by giving them chances to get a feeling for how the
language works by noticing word patterns and collocations as
well as grammar patterns as they read. As there is so little
time in the classroom to teach all the necessary vocabulary and
grammar as well as teach the four skills and so on, reading (or
listening to) a massive amount of language allows the learners
to meet the language they need enough times to develop the
knowledge they need to be fluent in the language.
The ER Web site is divided into many sections. "What is ER?"
(http://extensivereading.net/er/whatis.html) and "How to start
an ER program" (http://extensivereading.net/er/start.html) allow
those who are unfamiliar with ER to learn more about it and get
some tips on how to start and maintain a program. The site also
has some examples of model ER programs
(http://extensivereading.net/er/model.html), some handouts
(http://extensivereading.net/er/handouts.html) from various ER
presentations, and some classroom worksheets that can help those
new to ER get their bearings. Other sections of the site list
the various ER materials
(http://extensivereading.net/er/materials.html) that are
available to teachers and learners. Very often within ER these
materials are graded readers, which are books written within a
limited vocabulary and set of grammar structures to be made
accessible to second and foreign language learners. Often L1
materials are unsuitable as ER materials (for fluent reading) as
they are written for natives and contain far too much unknown
language, forcing the learner to return to a study-mode kind of
reading.
The site also has many links to online articles
(http://extensivereading.net/er/online.html) and there is a huge
annotated bibliography
(http://extensivereading.net/er/biblio.html) of several hundred
articles, research, and more. For those interested in conducting
research the site provides a list of teachers and researchers
(http://extensivereading.net/er/group.html) who are working in
ER and are willing to be contacted to discuss or help with ER.
Please take some time to review the site and consider adopting
an ER program. More information can also be found at my own
Extensive Reading
(http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/er/index.html) and Extensive
Listening (http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/el/index.htm) Web
sites.
Dr. Rob Waring is an associate professor at Notre Dame Seishin
University in Okayama, Japan. His research interests include
curriculum development, reading, and vocabulary instruction.
Columns
Making Connections
Introduction
By Suzan Stamper, e-mail: suzanstamper@yahoo.com
"Making Connections" is a new column focusing on a valuable CALL
resource: our CALL-IS members. For each newsletter, I will
invite a few members to answer a set of simple questions:
* What is your favorite platform?
* What is the one indispensable tool/web page?
* What is your most unexpected source of information about
CALL?
* What was your favorite CALL creation?
* What are you working on now?
* What area would you like to see developed/researched?
* In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie
starting out in CALL?
The answers to the questions will reflect a variety of
perspectives, experiences, and insights. My hope is that every
reader-from new member to founding member-will enjoy this
opportunity to compare experiences, to share advice, to nurture
inspiration, and to make connections within our community.
In this first column, you will find four names often heard in
our Electronic Village:
*
*
*
*
Christine Bauer-Ramazani
Douglas Coleman
Jeff Nelson
Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou
These four members, who have served on the steering committee in
the past or in the present, contribute to our interest section
through the EV Online Sessions, EV Special Events, or the CALLIS Web site.
Please e-mail me at suzanstamper@yahoo.com if you have
suggestions or contributions to "Making Connections."
Christine Bauer-Ramazani
Bauer-Ramazani
Christine Bauer-Ramazani is in her second term as a member of
the CALL-IS Steering Committee, serves on TESOL's Technology
Advisory Committee, and is the cofounder of the Electronic
Village Online sessions, which she coordinated from 2001 to
2004. She presents regularly at the TESOL convention and has
been teaching online workshops for TESOL since 2002.
E-mail: cbauer-ramazani@smcvt.edu
Affiliation: Saint Michael's College
Years in the CALL-IS: 8
Q: Favorite platform?
A: PC
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
A: My web editor-FrontPage
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about
CALL?
A: My own students (in the graduate CALL Online course)!
Learning is ongoing and the most fun when teachers are not only
mentors but also learners themselves.
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: My latest digital video clips of collaboration between
Intensive English Program students and undergraduates in a TESL
seminar using games and puzzles listed on my links compendium
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A book chapter on training CALL teachers online
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: Quantitative data/studies on the effect of using the Internet
for language development
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie
starting out in CALL?
A: Attend the CALL-IS business meeting at the TESOL convention
on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. (see Program Book for location)
and volunteer for a "job." It's the best and easiest way to get
involved in CALL-IS and have fun doing what you enjoy doingworking with computers and with others who enjoy the same.
Back to Introduction
Douglas W. (Doug) Coleman
Coleman, DougDoug's first presentation at a CALL-IS event was in
the Author's Showcase at TESOL 1989 in San Antonio. He's a past
chair of the IS (1992-93) and past member of the CALL-IS
Steering Committee (2002-04). For the past two years Doug has
been the editor of the CALL-IS Electronic Village Program
booklet for the annual convention.
E-mail: Douglas.Coleman@utoledo.edu
Affiliation: University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio
Years in the CALL-IS: About 20. That is, probably since 1984. I
didn't become active in the IS until the early 90s, though.
Q: Favorite platform?
A: The last stable version of DOS? Seriously, of what's current,
probably WinXP Pro, mostly because of familiarity and, among Win
versions, it has a combination of stability and ease of use.
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
A: Word processing software. I could more easily go back to
sketching by hand (instead of using Painter) or using a 3x5 card
catalog in the library (instead of an online catalog) than I
could go back to a typewriter. I think anybody who says
something like "My Whiz-Bang JimmyCrack 7.2 WebTerminator Plus"
or some such, in answer to this question, is just trying to show
off.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about
CALL?
A: The Web. (That's right; I did not misread the question.)
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: Could be TERRI, which ran on the Commodore 64 back in 1984 or
so (written up in System in 1985). It understood what I said to
it.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Langland, a simulated English-speaking country presented in a
first-person 3D environment
(http://coarts_faculty.utoledo.edu/dcoleman/langland). The
software and resources are being developed as open source.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: Langland. It's not about language learning-it's about
learning how to communicate. And I need help; one person can't
go it alone on a project of its scope.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie
starting out in CALL?
A: Don't just take what other people have made and use it for
its intended purpose. Be creative. Sometimes you can do
extremely interesting things with software simply by subverting
it for your own (and your students') purposes.
Back to Introduction
Jeff Nelson
Nelson, JeffJeff is our CALL-IS webmaster. He has also served on
the steering committee, in discussion groups, and on the
Electronic Village team during conventions.
E-mail: jtnelson@el-camino.net
Affiliation: Washington State University
Years in the CALL-IS: approximately 7
Q: Favorite platform?
A: For CALL, my favorite platform is the WWW. I prefer to use
Apache as web server software, running on Debian Linux, with
apps programmed in PHP/MySQL.
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
A: I don't know what I'd do without Moodle
http://www.moodle.org. I'm also addicted to Mozilla Firefox.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about
CALL?
A: New colleagues. This year I had a new officemate who showed
me some CALL sites that I had never seen before.
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: I really enjoyed the "Love Page" that Doug Winther and Colin
Sachs coordinated as a class project. The students translated
several different phrases of love, such as "I like you," "I love
you," and "I love you very much" into about 10 languages, made
recordings, and put it all together in a nice HTML page. It was
fun. Unfortunately, I think it has disappeared by now.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm trying to troubleshoot network problems in a computer lab
at a school in rural Colombia. Other ongoing projects are
creating Moodle courses for typing (in Spanish); computer
literacy courses; and grant-writing for my Colombia project. I
also tend to work on motorcycles a lot. :-P
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: I'd like to see free, open-source tools like Moodle used more
in ESL. With Moodle, it's really easy to create an entire course
that other teachers can upload and use on their own Moodle
server, so we could avoid having to re-create the wheel so
often.
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie
starting out in CALL?
A: Don't bother becoming an expert on anything that will be
obsolete in 5-10 years.
Back to Introduction
Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou
Ioannou-GeorgiouSophie has been a regular proposal reader and
presenter for the CALL-IS. She has been a TAC member (2000-02)
and chair of the TAC Portfolio on Technology Standards. She is a
member of the CALL-IS Steering Committee and this year's
coordinator of the EV Mini-Workshops.
E-mail: yiansoph@cytanet.com.cy
Affiliation: Cyprus Pedagogical Institute
Years in the CALL-IS: 5 (I think)
Q: Favorite platform?
A: I started off with PCs and carried on that way. You can't
find many MACs in Cyprus.
Q: For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
A: I think it has to be Google. I really like its noncluttered
look and it is a pretty good search engine.
Q: What is your most unexpected source of information about
CALL?
A: I tend to take it for granted now, but my most unexpected
source of information was the online communities of friendly
technophiles from NETEACH-L to IATEFL COMP-SIG, TESOL CALL-IS,
and the WebHeads Community.
Q: What was your favorite CALL creation?
A: A series of activities for students to carry out while in a
MOO [Multi-User Dimension, Object-Oriented]. I was also very
happy with setting up a CALL conference in 2001 when we had a
parallel online conference; we webcast the presentations and
accepted questions from virtual participants. On one occasion we
had a presenter webcast in to the live audience. He was given a
slot in the regular conference and he gave his presentation
while he was in Australia. It was really exciting when
everything went smoothly and in 2001 we weren't so accustomed to
this technology.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm working on the final stages (writing up) of a comparative
study of f2f [face to face] interactions and online synchronous
text-based interactions as well as an in-depth analysis of MOO-
based synchronous interactions and their effects in language
learning.
Q: What area would you like to see developed/researched?
A: I would like to see much more research regarding learning
outcomes of CALL implementation. Although we have been working
in that direction, we still need to see much more researchpreferably research that also employs qualitative analysis and
longitudinal studies.
Q: What is your funniest CALL-related incident?
A: I have a stock of funny incidents, but this is the most
recent one. I wanted to use the computer in a particular
classroom, a month or so after the school year started. I asked
the teacher if the computer was set up and she replied, "Yes."
The next day I was ready to install the software I wanted and
get to work with the students. I went to class and pulled away
the computer cover but couldn't see the computer tower. I
wondered where it was and stupidly started looking around the
computer desk just in case it was somewhere there. It was
nowhere to be found. The computer tower had been missing since
the beginning of the year and no one had realized it!
Q: In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie
starting out in CALL?
A: Find a good, supportive community to help you grow!
Back to Introduction
Keeping Up With the Community
Photos From the Electronic Village, San Antonio Convention, 2005
A few photos from the convention.
Charles Kelly, OnCALL June2005OnCALL June 2005
OnCall2 June2005
OnCall4 June2005
OnCALL5 June2005
Hooray for the EV ’05 Volunteers!
By Laurie Moody, e-mail: dqm4884@nyu.edu
A few years ago in St. Louis, I broke my wrist while looking for
a McDonald's on a riverboat along the river. (Proof positive
that fast food is bad for you!) As a result, I missed the CALL
meeting and somehow ended up on the committee that solicits
volunteers for the EV. (Yet another reason to attend the EV
organizing meetings!) Actually, this turned out to be a great
job.
Since then, along with other committee members each year, we
have put out a call for CALL Electronic Village volunteers
through various electronic mailing lists and we have asked
teacher-ed faculty to encourage their students to join us. In
addition, the TESOL Central Office has included the EV as one of
the general convention volunteer opportunities. This past year,
Lupe Ruvalcaba from the local San Antonio Committee coordinated
the efforts from the Central Office and sent us volunteers
throughout the conference. We send her special thanks.
In San Antonio, we had an excellent and diverse group of
volunteers. In the incomplete list below, you will find new and
returning volunteers as well as current and past board members.
Last-minute volunteers may not have been included. Please let me
know if you are not listed.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all:
Christine Bauer-Ramazani, Buthaina Al Othman, Sayora Nurmatova,
Felicita Putri, Irene Pannatier, David Winet, Michelina P.
Bonanno, Alejandro Martinez, Dawn Bikowski, Larry Udry, Silvio
Avendo, Nuuri Deen, Steven Sharp, Candi Rodrigues, Adrianna
Mercado, Melissa Martin, Malika Lyon, Lisa Rodriguez-Placencio,
Donette Artenie, Bonnie Aghai, Li Jin, Jerry Bicknell, Kathleen
Rathburn, Larry Udry, Miho Endo, Sookee Kim Plotnik, Chi-Hua
Tseng, Doug Worsham, Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, Lisa Davison,
Claire Bradin Siskin, Sharon Sylvester, Renee Karaolis, Sandy
Reno, Rae Lan, Naima Asri, Mania Missirian, Bunny Frost, Ron
Belisle, Agnes Drath, Jane Smith, Susan Stamper (Moody), Norma
Smith, John Madden, Chris Sauer, Elizabeth Low, Susan Gaer,
Alison Hanks, Jane Petring, J. D. Boswell, Elizabeth Cambray,
Rita Zainstejer, Liz Cambray.
Call for Submissions
On CALL welcomes your contributions of articles, reviews,
opinions, announcements, and reports of conference
presentations. We also like hearing your suggestions, ideas, and
questions. Send one or more of the above to Dawn Bikowski at
bikowski@ohio.edu.
About This Member Community
About the Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section
Interest Section
The Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL
IS) exists to work toward a definition of issues and standards
in CALL, to facilitate communication and exchange, to contribute
to the computer orientation of other members of TESOL, and to
foster research into the role of CALL in language learning.
CALLIS 2005-2006 Community Leaders
Chair: Susan L. Gaer, e-mail sgaer@yahoo.com
Chair-Elect: Steven K. Sharp, e-mail ssharp@pgcps.org
Editor: Dawn M. Bikowski, e-mail bikowski@ohio.edu
Past Chair: Susanne E. McLaughlin, e-mail smclaugh@roosevelt.edu
Coeditor: Suzan E. Stamper, e-mail smoody@cuhk.edu.hk
Steering Committee Member: Randall S. Davis, e-mail rd@esllab.com
Steering Committee Member: Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou, e-mail
yiansoph@cytanet.com.cy
Steering Committee Member: John P. Madden, e-mail
jmadden@mail.utexas.edu
Steering Committee Member: Christopher S. Sauer, e-mail
csauer@dwci.edu
Steering Committee Member: Sookhee Kim Plotkin, e-mail
sookhee.plotkin@pgcps.org
Steering Committee Member: Laurie Moody, e-mail dqm4884@nyu.edu
Steering Committee Member: Christine Bauer-Ramazani, e-mail
cbauer-ramazani@smcvt.edu
Steering Committee Member: Buthaina Al-Othman, e-mail
buthaina_3@yahoo.com
Web sites: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~call/ and
http://www.tesol.org/callis/
Discussion E-List: Visit http://www.tesol.org/getconnected to
subscribe to CALLIS-L, the discussion list for CALLIS members,
or log in and visit http://lists.tesol.org/read/?forum=callis-l
if already a subscriber.