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Beyond CALL: Integration, normalisation, or separation?

Dates

June 1-3

Location

Konan CUBE, Konan University, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture

Announcements

 

Reminder

Note to all presenters: If you are presenting at JALTCALL, please bring a mobile device to connect to an external projector/monitor. Not all presentation rooms have computers. Thank you for your understanding.

Note to all participants: Lunch will be served on the 5th floor cafeteria on Saturday and Sunday.

Pre-Conference Workshops June 1st

Pre-Conference Workshops will be held on Friday June 1 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Registration for the conference will take place on Saturday and Sunday. There is no registration procedure for the Friday Pre-Conference Workshops and the conference fee is inclusive of the Pre-Conference Workshops. If you are attending a Pre-Conference Workshop, go directly to the classroom indicated below and write your name on the attendance list provided. Thank you for your cooperation.

Pre-conference workshops A: 6:00 p.m. to 7:20 pm

1. Stephen Henneberry: Student-centered Video Process Using iPads (3rd Floor CALL room 304)
This presentation will discuss an iPad solution to a video processing problem. Whereas as in years past video processing time was measured in days, or weeks, putting iPads in student hands reduced that to less than an hour. Students captured, processed, and uploaded videos to Moodle on their own. Come listen and find out how.

2. Scott Shinall: Experience Game Mechanics for ESL Classes (4th Floor CALL room 404)
This workshop will introduce the use of game mechanics in the ESL classroom. The first part of the workshop is an explanation of the experience mechanic and how it was implemented in a 3rd /4th  year University course.  This will include an explanation of the task list, the spreadsheet used for monitoring and how a social media site was used to tie the elements together. The second part of the workshop will be the development of a task list for various types of ESL classrooms. We will also look at how the tasks can be monitored and alternative implementations. A prototype spreadsheet will be made available for the participants.

Pre-conference workshops B: 7:40 p.m. to 9:00 pm

1. George MacLean: Automated Feedback Devices for Peer-evaluation and Other Classroom Applications (3rd Floor CALL room 304)
This workshop will allow participants to use automated polling devices (clickers) in a number of familiar classroom situations. The workshop will discuss efforts to implement clicker use in a modern foreign language (MFL) context. Potential advantages of such a setup will be presented and critically examined.  Participants will be asked to suggest examples of classroom applications based on their own teaching contexts. Active participation and a colloquial environment are strongly encouraged.

2. Clair Taylor: Project Work with VoiceThread (4th Floor CALL room 404)
VoiceThread is a well-established, free, web-application which allows students to upload images, documents and videos, and record their comments. This creates a shareable slideshow to which other students can add comments in a number of ways. In this workshop, participants can view examples of projects and examine the advantages of having a teacher’s account. Participants will create a VoiceThread, brainstorm project ideas, and explore avenues for finding partner schools to collaborate with.

Participants who pre-registered for the workshops, please go directly to the classrooms on the 3rd and 4th floors of Konan University Cube

Main Conference June 2-3

Overall schedule has been posted here.
Presentation Abstracts and Tentative Schedule are now online.

Conference Poster Available for Download

JALTCALL 2012 Flyer

Call for Proposals

The JALT CALL SIG announces the Call for Proposals for the JALTCALL 2012 Conference to be held in Konan CUBE, Hirao School of Management, Konan University, Nishinomiya from June 1 – 3, 2012 (Map)

Submissions for proposals are invited for presentations until February 29, 2012. (Submission for proposals is closed.)

Session types are listed here.

Requests for commercial displays & non-vetted presentations will be accepted until April 27, 2012. (Please contact the Associate Member Liaison, Glen Cochrane , for more information.)

 

Featured Keynote Speaker

 

Dr. Stephen Bax

Reader in English Language, Learning, Assessment and Technology

University of Bedfordshire, UK

 

How does technology become fully effective in language education?
The social and psychological dimensions of educational normalization.

 

This talk revisits the concept of normalisation (Bax 2003) as a way of understanding innovation and CALL in language education. Normalisation in education is the process whereby a technology gradually becomes an integrated part of our daily pedagogy, when it becomes as invisible and normal to us as a pen or a book, and is used to maximum pedagogical effect. The talk examines current thinking on normalisation and what it means for us as teachers and administrators. It focuses in particular on the role of the teacher and the role of the manager  and other stakeholders in implementing new technological innovation in educational settings, and emphasises the centrality of syllabus integration in the normalisation process.

 

In addition it reflects on neo-Vygotskian interpretation of concepts such as *internalisation*and *scaffolding*, and others which emphasise the social dimension in conceptual development. I will suggest that these concepts can be helpful as ways of understanding the processes we go through when using technology in the language classroom in increasingly normalised ways, until we reach the stage when the technology is a fully normalised part of our educational practice. It will be suggested that these neo-Vygotskian concepts can help us to understand why some technologies succeed in reaching normalisation and others do not. The concepts can also permit us to set out a number of recommendations to follow if we wish to make the use of technology more effective in our daily teaching and learning of language using ICT. The talk will then conclude by discussing a set of such principles or recommendations which could be helpful to teachers,managers and other stakeholders seeking to integrate technology more effectively in language teaching settings. My aim is to combine insights into the theory of educational technological change and also to offer some more practical recommendations for those in the field.

 

Plenary Speaker

 

Mr. Lance Knowles

President and Director of Courseware Development

DynEd International, USA

 

Defining Roles: Who Does What and Why?

 

Many teachers are still unprepared to deal with technology. Though Technology Assisted Language Learning has become an important force, it remains outside the mainstream of many teacher training programs, which relegate technologies to an interesting but supplementary role.

 

This presentation argues that a learning theory is needed to define the roles of teacher, learner and technologies in blended learning configurations. Though the term ‘blended’ learning is often used, it has a range of interpretations, which leads to confusion and inefficiency. An often-asked question from teachers is: “What is my role? What do I do in the classroom?” Without a model or guide, teachers do what they have in the past, leaving students to work with technologies on their own or in ways that fail to take advantage of the potential of what technology can provide.

 

One reason for this is that many teacher-training programs don’t adequately prepare teachers for a future where technologies play an increasing role. Without a learning theory that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of technologies and teacher-led activities, resources and teacher time are used inefficiently. One such theory is a brain-based theory that is being used with some success in blended learning situations on a large scale in several countries. A major challenge remains the issue of teacher training and orientation. Fundamental assumptions about language teaching and language sequencing are challenged, and a new set of skills are developed, including increased oral proficiency levels for teachers, and a means for assessing progress.

 

Plenary Speaker

 

Dr. John Brine

Professor, Center for Language Research
University of Aizu, Japan

 

Language Technology: Predictions and Unintended Outcomes

 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the availability of the first microcomputers in North America made the realization of their educational potential seem imminent. A widely held expectation among educators at the time was that computers with the necessary hardware and software characteristics for useful application in schools were almost ready for delivery. For example, even if intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) were not yet possible, it was commonly believed that, with more memory and improved programming languages, ICAI would soon arrive. However, in the ensuing years, as computer technology increased in power and diffused widely, and as networked and mobile technologies made it possible to be connected persistently, it is not surprising that unmet prior predictions were often updated or revised. For example, early expectations about intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) have been superceded by new predictions emphasizing the relevance of mobile technology to language acquisition. Repeatedly, the promise of the educational potential of technology continues to motivate enthusiasm for each new development. However, focusing excessively and optimistically on potential seems to contribute to inadequate attention to the unintended outcomes, or side-effects, of new technologies. (This is not to say that all unintended outcomes are negative.) Interestingly, early signs of unintended outcomes of mobile technologies, and other technologies of relevance to language learning, are now being detected and debated. Given that the use of mobile technologies in Japan is pervasive, paying attention to unintended outcomes within this context may provide insights into social, cultural and educational features that will help to inform our educational practice. This presentation will discuss the importance for language educators of considering both predictions about technology and unintended outcomes

Conference Dates

June 1 – 3, 2012