I
personally found the CALL workshop interesting and useful for several reasons:
1.
The first day I saw, in practical terms,
a)
what other colleagues are doing, why they are doing it and what kind of difficulties and
advantages they have experienced incorporating the computer assisted language learning
into their teaching (and research);
b)
the potential that the use of this technology can offer to my teaching in order to give
students a framework which motivates them more and fosters learner autonomy and language
learning awareness.
2.
I have already a webpage but it is only informative. I would like to make it more
interactive and incorporate it into my teaching. I am particulaly thinking of two modules
where it would be very useful: SP488 (Business and Society: Business Ethics) and SP478
(Spanish for Academic Purposes). I still don't know specifically how to do it because that
will require more time and planning. I would also like to link it with my colleagues
teaching the modules in French and German (Juliette Pechenart and Claire Bohan).
3.
I know that I can also rely on the experience and advise from other colleagues more
familiar with the use of CALL.
(JS)
I
found the CALL workshop interesting from several perspectives:
- it introduced me to a language
exercise authoring tool from London Guildhall University that may prove useful for my
research work * I was able to discuss with LGU personnel the pedagogical application of
each language exercise
- I was able to discuss with LGU
personnel the issues to be dealt with complete computer novices (again very pertinent for
my research)
- I was able to see first hand the
issued faced by language teachers when dealing with the hand-on side of CALL
- it reinforced the idea that the
technical issues to be dealt with in the creation of a CALL exercise are secondary to the
planning of the exercise
- it was interesting to see language
teachers, using previously unknown technology, being able to create their own language
exercises
- (from a software engineer's point
of view) it reinforced the idea that the interface must cater for more than one language
(i.e. being able to label the instructions and buttons in the learner's target language)
Looking towards the future:
- I will consider using the LGU
software in my research project
- I will consider using the LGU
software for my Computer Architecture class (although not specifically language related,
there is an assembly language component and the cross-over might be interesting)
(MW)
I
found the workshop very useful as I had no idea how to set up a web-site beforehand. What
I would ideally like to do now is to prepare a homepage with links to exercises suitable
for the language modules that I teach. I would like the exercises to be preparation for or
practice of what is covered in language classes.
(JB)
There
is a wide rage of authoring tools available. Often we do not use them because simply
nobody has introduced them to us. The workshop on the authoring system introduced me to
this tool. Now that I know it, it is up to me
if I want to make an effort to exploit its potential.
I
attended this workshop with this aim: getting to know the tool.
I
would like to be introduced to more authoring tools.
(MM)