Comments on: Technology in the classroom http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2006/01/30/tech-in-the-classroom/ Learning on Your Terms Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:18:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Ken http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2006/01/30/tech-in-the-classroom/#comment-10096 Ken Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:19:42 +0000 http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2006/01/30/tech-in-the-classroom/#comment-10096 Wade, Really appreciate your comments. There is so much potential for the approach that ChinesePod is (I dare say) leading. Every day I discover more anbd more about what it can do. At the moment I'm totally absorbed in the literature on 'authentic input' and why authenticity is potentially so important. Over the coming weeks I will try to bring these insights into the program. I think it's going to be quite special. It is so exciting to discover what that these new tools can do. I can only imagine where we coudl be one year fro mnow if we can continue to listen to our learners and keep innovating according to their feedback. Although there is some serious academic thinking behind all of this, I've always thought that the key lies in taking action. I think we will be able to show how a network like this can truly aid language acquisition, not in theory, but in practice. It's great to have you on board. I welcome as many comments and suggestions as you might like to make. We now have the chane to create a user-generated program that consists wholly of authentic materials. Wade,

Really appreciate your comments. There is so much potential for the approach that ChinesePod is (I dare say) leading. Every day I discover more anbd more about what it can do. At the moment I’m totally absorbed in the literature on ‘authentic input’ and why authenticity is potentially so important. Over the coming weeks I will try to bring these insights into the program. I think it’s going to be quite special.

It is so exciting to discover what that these new tools can do. I can only imagine where we coudl be one year fro mnow if we can continue to listen to our learners and keep innovating according to their feedback. Although there is some serious academic thinking behind all of this, I’ve always thought that the key lies in taking action. I think we will be able to show how a network like this can truly aid language acquisition, not in theory, but in practice.

It’s great to have you on board. I welcome as many comments and suggestions as you might like to make.

We now have the chane to create a user-generated program that consists wholly of authentic materials.

]]> By: Wade Schuette http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2006/01/30/tech-in-the-classroom/#comment-10095 Wade Schuette Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:49:38 +0000 http://blog.praxislanguage.com/2006/01/30/tech-in-the-classroom/#comment-10095 Hi, Ken! For the two days I've known about ChinesePod, I've just loved your voice and banter with Jenny. Small things can be so crucial. There is good news from the computer front (speaking as someone who's been there for 40 years). It has finally dawned on some people that the social interactions are as crucial as the technical ones. Check out "Computer-Supported Cooperative Work" in wikipedia (although I wrote half the entry myself...). Check out the University of Michigan School of Information site on "Technology-mediated collaboration" http://www.si.umich.edu/research/area.htm?AreaID=3 or my blog at http://cscwteam.blogspot.com that I started after taking Professor Gary Olson's class there. So, my other email to your site yesterday is just filled with social interaction suggestions that could be used to provide some of the necessary context (ala angry neighbors) to make the rest of the technology helpful. The teaching technology is important, and weblogs and podcasts are wonderful. I agree your tone is so incredibly refreshing after my several years with Berlitz, Dorling-Kindersly, and Ted Yao's tapes from "Integrated Chinese." In fact, the social networking and connections that humans make is probably a stronger catalyst, when looking at retention and drop-out rates, than the technology. As you note with your repeated requests, social feedback loops are crucial to successful mutual growth of both ChinesePod and individual learners. So, keep those mugs and t-shirts and 24-hour chat-rooms open for people to drop by and socialize, socialize, socialize. It's not an "ancillary" activity - it's the primary activity for everyone except a very few academics who are learning a language for its own sake - the rest of us are trying to plug into and connect with 1.6 billion new people and if Mandarin helps, great, but so will many other things, which can provide a "thermal" or "rip-tide" than can drag along language skills. Anyway, the essence of the class I took in CSCW was that it IS possible to accomplish interactions as strong as face-to-face over a network, and even more so, but it takes very systematic work in an area that is so new it's often neglected. The same is true in my own area - health informatics, by the way. Everyone in the US is trying to develop national standards for health records so that they can be "interoperable" between hospitals, missing the key fact that no technical system will overcome the problems we need to face in that the hospital staffs don't really WANT to interoperate. As soon as the first disagreement shows up between versions of patient records in two sites, this will turn into flame wars - "Whose "fault" is it, whose job is it to "fix" the one that's wrong, who will pick up the bill to track down which one is wrong, etc. And those people all speak the "same language", ha ha ha. Now try it globally, as in public health. I'm in the process of trying to update Wikipedia to include more references to the serious academic literature in this area. In the meantime, let me assure you that SOME people "get it", and there are peer-reviewed journal articles with titles such as "Beyond Being There", dealing with how to overcome technology and the interaction-at-a-distance problem. With Podcasts, you not only are at a distance, you're asynchronous - different time, different place. How to build lasting relationships with people that "work" using weblogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. is a fascinating area, and one that may be central to your actual business of breaking down communication and interaction barriers between people who view each other now as strangers. wade Hi, Ken! For the two days I’ve known about ChinesePod, I’ve just loved your voice and banter with Jenny. Small things can be so crucial.
There is good news from the computer front (speaking as someone who’s been there for 40 years). It has finally dawned on some people that the social interactions are as crucial as the technical ones. Check out “Computer-Supported Cooperative Work” in wikipedia (although I wrote half the entry myself…). Check out the University of Michigan School of Information site on “Technology-mediated collaboration”
http://www.si.umich.edu/research/area.htm?AreaID=3 or my blog at http://cscwteam.blogspot.com that I started after taking Professor Gary Olson’s class there.
So, my other email to your site yesterday is just filled with social interaction suggestions that could be used to provide some of the necessary context (ala angry neighbors) to make the rest of the technology helpful. The teaching technology is important, and weblogs and podcasts are wonderful. I agree your tone is so incredibly refreshing after my several years with Berlitz, Dorling-Kindersly, and Ted Yao’s tapes from “Integrated Chinese.” In fact, the social networking and connections that humans make is probably a stronger catalyst, when looking at retention and drop-out rates, than the technology. As you note with your repeated requests, social feedback loops are crucial to successful mutual growth of both ChinesePod and individual learners.
So, keep those mugs and t-shirts and 24-hour chat-rooms open for people to drop by and socialize, socialize, socialize. It’s not an “ancillary” activity - it’s the primary activity for everyone except a very few academics who are learning a language for its own sake - the rest of us are trying to plug into and connect with 1.6 billion new people and if Mandarin helps, great, but so will many other things, which can provide a “thermal” or “rip-tide” than can drag along language skills.
Anyway, the essence of the class I took in CSCW was that it IS possible to accomplish interactions as strong as face-to-face over a network, and even more so, but it takes very systematic work in an area that is so new it’s often neglected. The same is true in my own area - health informatics, by the way. Everyone in the US is trying to develop national standards for health records so that they can be “interoperable” between hospitals, missing the key fact that no technical system will overcome the problems we need to face in that the hospital staffs don’t really WANT to interoperate. As soon as the first disagreement shows up between versions of patient records in two sites, this will turn into flame wars - “Whose “fault” is it, whose job is it to “fix” the one that’s wrong, who will pick up the bill to track down which one is wrong, etc. And those people all speak the “same language”, ha ha ha. Now try it globally, as in public health.
I’m in the process of trying to update Wikipedia to include more references to the serious academic literature in this area. In the meantime, let me assure you that SOME people “get it”, and there are peer-reviewed journal articles with titles such as “Beyond Being There”, dealing with how to overcome technology and the interaction-at-a-distance problem. With Podcasts, you not only are at a distance, you’re asynchronous - different time, different place. How to build lasting relationships with people that “work” using weblogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. is a fascinating area, and one that may be central to your actual business of breaking down communication and interaction barriers between people who view each other now as strangers.

wade

]]>