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Jerry Bicknell
TE 365 CMC in
Education
Case Study
CMC Case Study
Background
and Instructional Setting:
The
course that I chose to investigate is being taught Sunday mornings (11:30 a.m
GMT) under the auspices of English For Internet (EFI). English
For Internet is a free, web-based English as a Second Language (ESL)
"School." The following description is taken from the EFI web
site <http://www.study.com/whatisefi.html>:
StudyCom (of which English for Internet is a part) is
a teaching project initiated and overseen by David Winet, who also teaches at
the University of California at Berkeley (Extension) English Language Program.
The purpose of the
project is to explore and expand the educational potential of Internet by
offering free online instruction by volunteer teachers to students from all
over the world, in order, in part, to facilitate the learning of English by
students who might otherwise not have access to, or resources for, 'real
world" and/or paying classes; and in part to identify:
1)the advantages
and disadvantages of online education as compared to traditional in-class
education, and
2)the optimal
methods for instruction and learning within the online environment.
Normally, students
sign up for courses by completing a form at the EFI website
Instructor:
The
instructor, Vance Stevens, has years of ESL and Computer Assisted Language Learning
(CALL) teaching experience. In May of 1997, he began work as Computer-Assisted
Language Learning Coordinator for AMIDEAST at the Military Language Institute
in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where he has "helped to set up
yet another language center." There he "established the concept of
networked computers on teachers desks, in the classrooms, and in labs, then
identified the software, specified the computers to be purchased, and helped
design the furniture appropriate to teaching in a largely computer-based
facility." He adds: "The result has been in operation since March
1998, and is slated to undergo phases of expansion culminating in the
construction of a dedicated building for our resource center." In addition
to his responsibilities for Amideast, Vance regularly volunteers to teach free
online courses at EFI.
Elements of
the Course:
Infrastructure
Required to Conduct the Course
The course that I am describing is one of a
number of newly established "Real Time Classes" courses being offered
at the "Virtual Schoolhouse/EFI" <http://www.study.com/schedule.html>. The course, "EFW: English for
Webheads" <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/efi/webheads.htm> is taught entirely online using four software
applications: an internet browser, email (which may be a free, web-based email
account), ICQ (freely downloadable at: <http://www.mirabilis.com>), and The Palace software (also freely
downloadable at: <http://www.thepalace.com>). Any Internet-capable machine with an internet
browser can be used, however, a java-capable browser running on a multimedia
machine is necessary in order to run the ICQ, and to access the
alternate java-based access to the EFI classrooms at The Palace.
[I could access The Palace at home on my Macintosh LC 520, with downloaded
software, however, the ICQ program would not run, nor could I access the
java-based EFI classroom site, although my Netscape Navigator 4.0 browser is
nominally java-capable. Apparently, the processor in the LC 520 is not capable
of running either program.]
In
spite of the expressed purpose to offer "free online instruction by
volunteer teachers to students from all over the world, in order, in part, to
facilitate the learning of English by students who might otherwise not have
access to, or resources for, 'real world" and/or paying classes," the
infrastructure required for courses such as the one here investigated require
very high-end, top-of-the-line computer equipment and internet connectivity,
which, I suspect, is not readily available to all students "who might
otherwise not have access to, or resources for, 'real world" and/or paying
classes." It should be noted, however, that many other courses are offered
at EFI, which do not require such state-of-the-art equipment. [Last
autumn, I briefly taught an English for Academic Purposes course, in which all
that was required of the students was email access and access to a simple
text-capable web browser.]
Classroom
Utilization; Instructional Materials Developed/In Use
As
stated, the course is conducted entirely online. Students logon from Argentina,
Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and
Thailand and "meet" via The Palace software at the EFI classroom
<HOST: palace.virtualscholar.com PORT: 9997> and use ICQ (internet
communications software), both of which they must download and install on their
machines. In addition to realtime chats, the students contribute information
and pictures for their own "Webheads" web pages, which Vance puts up
at his site <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/efi/webheads.htm>, and eventually mount their own web site at
Geocities <http://www.geocities.com/>.
Other
resources are available to all EFI students. They can sign up for a
number of grammar, reading, writing, listening and speaking courses, all
conducted via the Internet. There is also an online chat room as well as a
space at SchMOOze University <http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:8888/>, and a links page which lists a number of online ESL
sites and homepages for the software used in the various courses. In addition,
Vance has a number of resources available for students via his web site
"Outta-site" links for ESL students at <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/lnxmainp.htm>. This page includes a wide range of online
resources for both ESL students and teachers. Vance also maintains an ESL home
page which he describes as "a comprehensive web-based resource which I and
others can use to set up and implement computer-based language training
overseas," available at: <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/esl_home.htm>
Instructional Teaching/Learning Theory
and Practice
Students
participating in the course are expected to complete three assignments, which I
have included in the appendix. Although not explicitely stated by Vance at his web
sites, one can easily determine from the resources and activities included that
his theory of teaching encompasses a Dewian/constructivist's hands-on approach
to learning. Students are required to actively communicate in English to
complete all the activities for the course. At a minimum, they must communicate
with the instructor (and other students) via email. More active involvement
requires downloading the appropriate software (intermediate to advanced English
reading skill is necessary to successfully complete this activity), and
participating in the real-time discussions held at the "Virtual
Schoolhouse/EFI" via The Palace software and ICQ. The
students are requested to log their chat sessions, to review them for errors,
to revise them and send them to the instructor as email attachments.
Particularly
challenging is the assignment to create their own web site, for to do so in
English requires not only an acceptable level of English skill, but also the
confidence in one's language abilities (as well as in the technical details of
using the Geocities site) that underlies such a public display of one's
abilities. In keeping with the name of the course, the World Wide Web is at
once the venue for the course, and the focus of this "sheltered
content" course. Thus, one can infer that Vance believes in the importance
of both input and output for active language learning.
Evaluation
Since
this is a free course, students are not formally evaluated on their
performance. The instructor does provide evaluation of their performance, both
in real time through "whisper" commands in The Palace, which
the students must respond to in their revision of the logs, and asynchronously
through email-based feedback on their revised logs. In the final analysis, the
public nature of their discussions and the work on their web pages/sites is the
ultimate evaluation as the other students (in the case of the Webheads pages)
and any Internet user who happens on their site (in the case of their own
Geocities sites) are free to comment on the English content of the pages.
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