Download - Online language learning for LCOnline
The Web, my browser and me
Melanie Leggatt IT and CALL Officer
Modern and Medieval Languages
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83633410@N07/7658181994/
What you can achieve with a computer, a network connection and your inspiration
And no money
A bit of a gallop so lots of supporting links available online after the session
Some assumptions
Primarily – that this isn't you
Quite the opposite – that you're bubbling over with ideas
You just need the tools to make it happen
Introducing you to these tools, where to find them and the possibilities is the focus of this session
Caveat emptor
First rule of web design - start with pencil and paperThe appropriate use of technology
Only when you've successfully defined your goals should you start using digital tools
Otherwise you risk going round and round in circles
Getting the basic building blocks right will make using and creating cool stuff later on much easier
Traditional language labs were very expensive and often left students bored and unenthused
With Web 2.0 things have changed! Today there are too many excellent resources to list
Before we go any further, an aside about Web 2.0 – just what is it?
Initially with Web 1.0 we all tooled up and went shopping, then something changed. . .We stopped being merely consumers and started creating instead. Web2.0 meant write access for all!
Lots of people posted their own resources and made them freely available for sharing
Writing for the Web became accessible and easier – no longer the sole domain of geeks
Today, the challenge lies in developing the skills to find what you want
So, we have whole world of digital creativity to explore
Creating
Sharing
Publishing andCurating
Chargeable proprietary, proprietary at no cost vs freely distributed
Free offerings from commercial companies, or are they?If it seems to good to be true, is it? An informed choice
1. Creating and storing
Writing online. Offerings from e.g. Google and Microsoft
Sharing online. With colleagues, friends or students
Downloading free office suites and then storing your files onlineat no cost
Photo storage and editing and sharingFlickr now offer 1 terabyte of storage
And video storage and editing too!
Services like Jolidrive provide a one-stop portal for you to access your documents and storage
They can even tell you how much storage you can amassOver 20 gigabytes of storage are on offer here
But there is no excuse for not keeping a local backup of your files
1. Creating and storing
REVIEW
CreatingStoringEditing
All at no cost
2. Sharing
Collecting other people's resources – legitimatelysharing your own
Using other people's materials legitimately means you can relax about posting your work online
And you can chill out knowing you've reciprocally shared back
So how do we find all this stuff?
One-stop shopThe Creative Commons 1,000s images, sound and video files
Listings of online radio stations Or newspapers
cultural and educational media sites
And guides to television channel listings
Reviewed listings of the best sites
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel
So you've created or found lots of contentHow do you take it to the next level?
GETTING SOCIAL
One of the best potted definitions of social media around
Clearly, some aspects of social media are more relevant to your professional life than others
Places to be seen. . .
Sharing resources, discovering new ones, joining groups, making contacts
Lots of very active groups out there
Follow the most productive blogs
Use the review sites to make the most of the specialist social media sites
Which neatly takes us back to systems like diigo to help us manage all this information
Other social media sites probably aren't so useful. What of FB?
Too much leakage. Keep your personal and professional profiles separate
2. Sharing
REVIEW
SearchingGetting social
Being seen
All at no cost
3. Publishing and curating
3. Publishing and curating
So you've acquired all this great stuff
LEARNINGYou want to organise it for yourself
TEACHINGYou want to share it with students
IDENTITYYou want to include it in your site to establish your online profile
Thankfully for us, publishing is now as easy as falling off the proverbial log
Achieving it with style and elegance still takes some skill though
The best of the best publishing tools
Scoop.it – curating and displaying your favourite contentcreated by you and others
User-friendly content systems like Wordpress (or Blogger) make creative publishing easy
If you can insert an image in a Word document you CAN drive Wordpress
Excellent support, customisation and content integration
Full multilingual support
Ernesto Priego's Wordpress site is a good example of what an individual can achieve on their own
More examples
a superior film criticism website with post-doctoral contributors Why not invite contributors to your site?
Catherine Grant’s http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/
Ruth Page’s http://www.digitalnarratives.blogspot.co.uk/
Benny Lewis' Over 500,000 readers
Bab.la – check out what other people have done
for pure interdisciplinary inspiration http://ted.com
Some advanced inspiration for teaching. . .
Forums and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
Get hands-on and interactive with your students
Moodle is free and can run on a very modest computerThe Computing Service can host it, or you can pay for a commercial site
The OU system is based on (an albeit very customised version of)Moodle
Fluency practice
Writing development
Managing and mashing together content
Quizzes
Grading
Student interaction with and without your input
All possible in VLEs like Moodle
All these tools can be fully integrated – do as much or as little as you like
What next?
All these tools can be fully integrated – do as much or as little as you like
Explore the links on the page we'll supply you with
What next. . .
www-chucol.mml.cam.ac.uk
Email with ideas