I am an ESL instructor / Technical Coordiantor at Shoreline Community College. Our level 1 - 5 students have been required to complete 1 credit hour per quarter in our computer lab which is supported by commercial software, a website I co-developed (http://elmo.shore.ctc.edu/callab) as well as Microsoft applications, etc. The purpose of the credit requirement has been muli-pronged: to increase computer literacy and to improve their language skills. As a way to better support students who have met the goals of the first requirement and / or students who have difficulty completing their hours because of family / work commitments, we developed a distance learning component. We use developed performance-task activities using Webquest. I have the activities linked through Blackboard. Students are required to register during the first 3 weeks of the quarter. In the past, we have only offered this to levels 4 - 5; however, this fall, we will be including level 3. In addition, we will be including English For All as another option.
Ruthann Duffy
Technology Coordinator
Shoreline Community College
>From: "David J. Rosen" <DJROSEN@THEWORLD.COM>
>Reply-To: nifl-technology@nifl.gov
>To: Multiple recipients of list <NIFL-TECHNOLOGY@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV>
>Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2956] Re: International Virtual Visits and DL
>Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 15:04:50 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Hello Jay,
>
>The International Classroom Virtual Visit Web pages [
>http://brooklynesl.swsites.net ] that you, your students and your
>partners in South Africa have made are terrific. They are an
>excellent example of project-based learning which involves
>collaboration and learning at a distance. The project stimulated a
>lot of writing, much of it beyond students' introductions to
>exploration of their cultural and political questions. I very much
>like the discussion around the film, Serafina, and think that film
>discussion is an idea to promote in this coming year's International
>Classroom Virtual Visit project -- having students in different
>countries -- if they can -- view the same film (or video) and then
>discuss it from their different perspectives.
>
>For those who are interested in project-based distance learning I
>recommend Eunice Askov's chapter on Australian Distance learning in
>the recent NCSALL Publication on adult education DL, _Expanding
>Access to Adult Literacy with Online Distance Education_
>http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/research/op_askov.pdf For example, at
>the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Institute in New South
>Wales, students use WebCT to do Webquests, just one of many
>interesting examples Askov describes. Also, the appendix of this
>publication has an excellent set of descriptions of major DL
>products.
>
>David J. Rosen
>NIFL-Technology Guest Moderator
>DJRosen@theworld.com
>
>
>On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 11:38 AM, Jklokker@aol.com wrote:
>
>>Ishrat, David & all--
>> I am one of the teachers whose class partcipated in the virtual
>>classroom
>>visit project last year. My class is a high-intermediate ESL class
>>of adults in
>>Brooklyn; we partnered with a class of South African adults--mostly
>>Zulu
>>speakers who are also learning English--who are studying computer
>>literacy. We
>>used our sites rather like Bulletin Boards where class writing and
>>pictures were
>>posted on a regular basis. Some of the writing related to
>>questions
>>exchanged by the classes, other to field trips (we went to Ellis
>>Island & several
>>members of the class went to a rally in support of public education
>>in Albany).
>>We also had both classes view the same movie--"Sarafina," which is
>>about life
>>in South Africa during the apartheid era--and share responses. If
>>you would
>>like to see a record of our work together, you could visit the
>>web-site for my
>>class: http://brooklynesl.swsites.net. It is linked to the South
>>African
>>class's site, too.
>>
>>All in all, the experience was exciting and interesting for all
>>involved.
>>The one frustration came when we tried to connect our classes
>>directly for
>>chat. I was able to get all of my students signed up for yahoo
>>chat, but we were
>>never able to communicate with the South African students because
>>of technical
>>difficulties that I still do not totally understand. I would very
>>much like
>>to hear from others who have had good or bad experiences using
>>inter-class
>>chat. I chose to use yahoo only because that is what I am most
>>familiar with.
>>Are there other chat providers, perhaps ones that are more
>>convenient and more
>>appropriate for an academic setting?
>>
>>Jay
>>
>>Jay Klokker
>>jklokker@aol.com
>