Becoming a Webhead 2011

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. 

Interest Section

TESOL CALL-IS 

Weekly content

Week 1

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. During the week, 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

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 through Twitter) as part of building online presence. Participants will create a blog or a wiki to keep track of the activities developed during this session. Participants will create a Twitter account, and embed a Twitter widget in their blog/wiki.

Guest presenter:  Graham Stanley (an Englishman in Spain)
Venue: Elluminate at Learning Times

Week 3

Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools: Text /Audio/Video
Participants will have the opportunity to chat with other Webheads through different synchronous media such as 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. Regarding asynchronous tools, participants will explore several podcast providers (Podomatic, Viewpoint, Podbean, Archive.org, AudioPal, Voxopop, and VoiceThread) to create their own podcasts and add them to their wikis / blogs.  

Guest presenter: Michael Coghlan (Australia)
Venue: tba

Week 4

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 presenters: Rubena St. Louis (a Trinidadian in Venezuela) and Claudio Azevedo (Brazil)
Venue: Elluminate at Learning Times and WiZiQ

Week 5

Blended learning. Wrap-up: conclusions and evaluation. Graduating as a Webhead in Action.

Participants will share reflections on "blended learning"  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  & Teresa Almeida d’Eça

Moderators

Previous participants of BaW sessions have been invited to moderate each of the weeks of the session.  Meet them here.

Communication tools to be used

Join this session 

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 fill out your profile.