Interesting CALL Projects

As we approach Mid-November, we have some interesting technology integration projects being developed as a part of the Introduction to CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) Certificate taught by Jeremy Robinson through the Culpeper Language Learning Center.

In this picture Sarah Jones-Boardman (French) and Tim Warburton (Swedish) pose after our most recent session where we discussed the drafts for their Technology Integration Plans. As an essential element of the certificate requirements, each participant has been asked to select a course they will be teaching in the semester, and then creating a technology integration plan for that course. Each plan contains information such as general requirements, pedagogical rational, technologies to be used, preparation, technology support, and assessment.

Sarah Jones-Boardman is preparing for her upcoming Spring French 202 course where she is planning to have students take on a persona from one of the francophone countries they will be studying, and they will then communicate online with each other using a social networking platform called edmodo, which acts much like a social networking site such as Facebook, but with additional course friendly attributes.

While Tim Warburton is only with us at Gustavus through January term, his integration plan is aimed at a beginning level Swedish course he may teach in the future. The key technology in his plan is the use of texting, where students will be required to text with each other outside of class in Swedish on certain topics or tasks. This is a good opportunity for students to communicate in Swedish using this important everyday tool, and there are interesting opportunities to learn Swedish acronyms and shortened words used in texting.

Both of these integration plans are very interesting, and it will be great to see how the implementation stage goes. As the facilitator of this certificate program, it is exciting to see the ways in which participants take hold of different concepts and technologies and create something unique. Great job!