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.

In an introductory writing course I teach, the textbook asks students to make a scrapbook to introduce themselves. There is even space provided–in the form of topic titles and empty square boxes to write in located in the last few pages of the textbook. There are  interesting and exciting topics such as “My Favorite Holiday” and “What I Do to Stay Healthy” and “My Daily Activities.”  But the best part is the big blank title page, a full-sized blank page with nothing on it but the words, “My Autobiography, by ______________.” Students simply add their names and then apply their creative energy to filling up all that blankness by drawing pictures or pasting in pictures to illustrate their activites, health tips and favorite holidays, etc. The lockstep nature of the whole thing is distasteful. It squelches creativity. And while I do sometimes ask learners to write on some of the topics fixed for them in the autobiography, I have never asked them to do the whole thing the way the writers of the book suggest. I find the whole thing really uninteresting, from any perspective I try on it (with the possible exception of the publisher who is getting paid for mostly blank pages). Instead I get learners to write in their journals and I give them different topics or similar topics with a different focus we all agree are more interesting. But it is still text.

Blogs can be a better alternative, if you intend to make a lot of use of them in a course. But for lower level learners and learners who don’t have the computer literacy, or when we just want to allow for a little more creativity in a face to face classroom-based situation, there is a flexible tool available. It is called Glogster and allows you to make a digtal multimedia “poster.” Like the autobiograhy title page in the writing textbook, it is a single blank page. But unlike that page, it screams out to be filled up with images, video, info or poetry.  As a platform it forces the learners to think about design and content. And the results are engaging. The posters on display at the site are now organized by categories (rather loosely, however), and you can take a look at some of the ways others have expressed themselves: travelogues, interactive calendars, cartoons, movie intros (with the preview, critics’ opinions, etc.). A great resource, no registration and no downloading required.

Chatroll is a chat-discussion tool that recently opened. Learners can join or start discussions on any topic.

As I mentioned in my last post, increasing the amount of time learners engage in English is essential for success. Of equal, or I should say related importance, is the need to provide activities where learners can participate in communities of use–places where they can construct identities of themselves as English users. Hanna & de Nooy (2003) asked students learning French to participate in online debate forums at the Le Monde newspaper website. Their students met with mixed success. The ones who wrote simplistic messages asking for help learning French were ignored or met with sarcastic comments. Others who tried hard to actively participate and express their ideas, met with better success. The focus for everyone–the native French users in the forum and the learners–had to remain on the content of the discussion. Hanna and de Nooy say “…the critically important message for this study, framed in the vernacular, is that if you want to communicate with real people, you need to self-present as a real person yourself. From an instructional perspective, encouraging (or requiring) students to participate in noneducationally oriented online communities would involve teaching students how to recognize genres, and subsequently, how to engage in discussion that does not ultimately revolve around the self…as the exotic little foreigner/the other” (pg. 73). That means that using the language and participating as an individual is essential to identity formation and language development.

Which brings us to the big problem of where. Forums for language learners are often too simplistic (”Hi, my name is Hanako and I like music. Do you like music?”) or learners may have been forced to participate and are not likely to participate further (”I’m Ali. I lke pretty girl….aaaaammmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!”). Large forums for native speakers (or near-natives) may be out of reach for many or most of our learners, as the Le Monde exercise showed. The answer might be smaller forums on much more specific topics that learners already have expertise in. Lam (2000, 2004) followed the development of a learner who found his voice and his entrance-way into linguistic competence (of a sort, anyway) by participation in blogs related to a Japanese pop singer. On the negative side, the dangers of this type of learning don’t go away so easily. These sites can also just as easily host predators as active learners. Students need a little heads-up training in online community self defense.

A new site and promising site for this kind of participation is Chatroll, where people find chat partners by topic. The name is made from combining chat with blogroll. There are already lots of topics here, but users are free to create their own topics. This latter function is what makes the site really useful, I believe. Learners can more easily get to linguistic competence and an identity as an English user if it develops through their topic identity. But they need to be able to find or create a group that specifically matches that topic. By being part of a group of similarly-interested individuals, the chances of meaningful interaction are greatly increased. The only problem at this point is that there aren’t that many people in the Chatroll system yet. Hopefully that will change. There may be some topics here that instructors are uncomfortable with ( the flirting group comes to mind immediately, and there is probably some more dicey or racy content). I plan to get my students to report on what they do in their blogs so I can monitor as best I can how they participate.

One of the keynote speakers at the Wireless Ready conference on March 29 was Russsel Stannard. With a background in EFL and a degree in multimedia, he has done something simple and garnered a lot of attention, including articles in the Guardian and Times as well as invitations to talk at conferences such as Wireless Ready. That simple thing is to adapt screen capture software for the use of providing feedback for students. In his case, he uses Camtesia by TechSmith. What he does is “video” himself correcting a student’s written assignment, recording himself highlighting sections of the text, drawing marks, and making audio comments. He then sends those videos to students in the form of Flash or Windows media files (or others) and students open them up, listen to the corrections and suggestions and then redo their written work and send it back. Technically simple and pedagogically powerful. And the students apparently love it. At his website, you can find out more information, see example videos, and even watch instructional videos that show you how to do it (as well as other things). This is something I am definitely going to try in the new school year (starting tomorrow!!).