Mozuku

The thing above is a QR (Quick Response) code. QR codes can contain various information including text, links, phone numbers, and even some images. They are primarily aimed at cell phone users recently and are becoming increasingly common in advertising. At the recent Wireless Ready conference, one presentation discussed the way in which QR codes can be used in classes. You see, these codes are easily generated with one of the many online generating services (just google QR cod generator). And once you have the code squares, you can print them out or paste them into a blog or website. You can use the codes to have learners put short texts (up to about 140 characters) into their cell phones. These messages can be saved and learners can take them with them. The presenter at Wireless Ready was doing interactive treasure hunts with groups of his learners. Of course, you could also give some important vocabulary or usage information. The best part is it involves no downloading for either the creator or the user, and no internet access fees.

The latest WorldCALL 3 podcast interview is available. It’s with Claire Bradin Siskin who is the director of the  Language Media Center at the University of Pittsburgh,  co-chair of the program committee for  WorldCALL 3, and one of the workshop presenters. Her presentation will be on a  piece of  software that allows for rapid content development. It can do the same things as Flash but is apparently much easier to learn to use. The catch is that it–like  Flash–is not free; but whereas the Flash player is  widely  used and preinstalled, Runtime’s Revolution player needs to be downloaded. Check out the commercial site here.  Claire’s  support site is here.

Here is the interview I did with Vera Menezes, one of the keynote speakers at WorldCALL in Fukuoka this summer. She plans to talk about Chaos theory and CALL, and CALL in Brazil and South America and she gives a little background to those topics in the interview.

Here’s the “interview” I did with Dr. Trude Heift. She is a keynote speaker at WorldCALL 3 in Fukuoka this summer and is planning to talk about feedback and ICALL. In the interview, she talks a little about feedback in general, feedback in CALL, and ICALL, or parser-based CALL. She recently published a book on the topic of intelligent feedback in CALL. You can find it at Amazon.

The 3rd international WorldCALL conference will be held in Fukuoka August 5-8, 2008. The website can be found here. The keynote speakers and workshops have been announced and registration is now open. I am a member of LET, the group directly hosting the conference and I’m helping out with various things, including making podcast interviews with presenters and organizers. You can find the podcasts at the WorldCALL site, or at the podcast site, or you can get to it by searching for WorldCALL 3 on iTunes.