Web 2.0, language learning and the digital migrant

1. Web 2.0, language learning and the digital migrant Susan Brown and Gary Motteram School of Education University of Manchester, UK susan.a.brown@manchester.ac.ukgary.motteram@manchester.ac.uk School of Education

2. What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities … which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users… it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2 School of Education

3. http://www.informationarchitects.jp/slash/iA_WebTrends_2007_2_1600x1024.gifhttp://www.informationarchitects.jp/slash/iA_WebTrends_2007_2_1600x1024.gif School of Education

4. Are you a digital migrant? Marc Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/) in fact used the term digital immigrant and this refers to people who didn’t grow up using computers as a normal part of their practice: the Net Generation School of Education

5. What are the tools that we are talking about? • Blogs • Wikis • Podcasting • Social networking sites • …. School of Education

6. Web 2.0 in language education • Potential benefits: • enables learners to be in regular touch with a world-wide community of learners • enable learners to take some control over their learning making use of tools that they use in their everyday lives • easier connection to be made between the classroom and the ‘real’ world and real-world, life-long skills School of Education

7. Web 2.0 in language education • Potential benefits • exposes learners to new/digital literacies and helps the learner develop a sense of appropriate discourse and genres related to different CMC spaces School of Education

8. Web 2.0 in language education • Potential benefits • It creates opportunities for intercultural communication in TESOL School of Education

9. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs • Blogs are ….. • Web environments that do not require html or ftp. Anybody with an internet connection and minimum web confidence can create them…….. School of Education

10. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs • Blogs are generally associated with the following: Individual blogging: • An “ I, I, me, me” environment for • Digital diary blogging ; soap box blogging etc See Baghdad Burning blog http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ For thought-provoking example of diary blog School of Education

11. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs • Interactional blogging: • Conversation; chatter; twittering see http://twitter.com/ ; Cat blogging: what my cat is doing now School of Education

12. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs What role for blogs in language learning ? Learner (individual blogger) be used as a presentation space for work a learner has done/is proud of (e.g. story writing in English; annotated photo gallery etc) motivate individual learners in their writing (emphasis on product writing) School of Education

13. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs What role for blogs in language learning ? Learner (in interactional communication ) • Use as a space to discuss various issues or simply as a chatting space. • Practise using short written text in authentic situations. • Learner-centred ongoing project work Teacher • be used by the teacher to co-ordinate and organise language activities ….etc School of Education

14. A whistle stop tour ….of blogs • Blog spaces • For whom have the blogs been created? • What, in your opinion, is their purpose? • http://ourclass2006.blogspot.com/ • http://bobsprankle.com/blog/C1697218367/index.html • http://dehaminguksaranghe.blogspot.com/ • http://romelfblog.blogspot.com/ School of Education

15. A whistle stop tour ….of wikis • Wiki (meaning quick in Hawaiian) is a hypertext environment which allows for different multimedia files. • The best known wikispace is wikipedia • generally associated with collaborative (mostly written) interaction. School of Education

16. A whistle stop tour ….of wikis • Wikis consist of a set of loosely structured pages linked in multiple ways (Thorne & Payne, 2005) Wikis can…. • give the user the freedom to create, modify and transform texts and pages • ask the user to justify those changes through edit facility • track all changes School of Education

17. A whistle stop tour ….of wikis What role for a wiki in language learning? • Development of process writing • Development of metacognitive skills • Scaffolding of peer-peer feedback • Project work (which may result in ‘publication’ in different environment Lots of etcs School of Education

18. A whistle stop tour ….of wikis • Go to … http://edtechandtesol.pbwiki.com/ how do the tasks set here use the functions of wikis? Go to ….. • For whom has the wiki been created? • What, in your opinion, is its purpose? http://fdvenglish2pbl.pbwiki.com School of Education

19. A whistle stop tour ….of social networking -1 • Social networking software is a way of bringing people together • They started off serving specific communities, e.g. Friends Reunited, then became more generic: Facebook • Now we can set up our own School of Education

20. A whistle stop tour ….of social networking - 2 • They started as a way of keeping in touch with friends at universities • They have grown to include a whole range of tools including: games; forums; listening tools etc. • http://www.facebook.com/ • Newer kids on the block include: NING: http://www.ning.com/ School of Education

21. A whistle stop tour ….of social networking - 3 • http://www.englishonline.org.cn/ School of Education

22. A whistle stop tour of podcasting - 1 • Podcasting is essentially listening materials online: • iPod + broadcasting (mp3) • Also, now Vodcasting • Video + broadcasting (mp4) School of Education

23. A whistle stop tour of podcasting - 2 • http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-elementary-01.htm • http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ • http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm • http://cla.univ-fcomte.fr/english/sites/podcasts.htm School of Education

24. If you’d like to know more … Ask a Net Native: School of Education