The document discusses the opportunities and challenges of technology in language learning. It argues that while tools like blogs, videos, and social media can engage students and connect classrooms globally, teachers must also consider cultural and ethical issues. Slow learning approaches that embrace connections but also focus on well-being may be most effective. Overall, technology amplifies the social nature of learning when used to facilitate interaction, but educators should thoughtfully integrate it and maintain local relationships.

1. Teachers have to keep learning to be effective teachers Use your creative input Technology is not a magic bullet Don’t be too serious Technological determinism and the wow factor Learning is a social activity Choose one thing you may able to use (for your bag of tricks) Take your classroom to the World or bring the world to your classroom Technology does not of itself promote Language learning Continual Partial Attention

8. Language learning in a connected world Michael Coghlan IATEFL Conference (Chennai) August 4, 2007 This presentation on the web at http:// www.slideshare.net/michaelc/chennai

11. “ technology” “ future” TAGS

13. A GLOBAL AUDIENCE? YouTube - http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =QjA5faZF1A8 Performance by a 13 yr old Korean boy July 23rd: 24,510,118 million views; 90006 comments That’s more than the populations of Israel 5.7m Denmark 5.3m Finland 5.1m New Zealand 3.6m Ireland 3.6m Holland 16.4m Australia 20.4m

14. DIGITAL STORY PLAYED AT THIS POINT AVAILABLE AT http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =Pue4FtOb3HM

15. WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? Is it real? Who are these 24.5 million people? Copyright implications? – I can reuse the content for my own purposes Who is exercising editorial control? Disintermediation – the decline of the gatekeepers of content Should students have access to sites like this? (see ‘ YouTube – a Class Act’) How do students like this feel at school? Should we be encouraging our students to create content Publish to these kinds of sites Empowerment and realisation of identity through personal publishing to social networking sites MIT; Jason and TV shows…..

16. IN A CONNECTED WORLD: Daily contact with the planet In the supermarket…..Australian made products are made offshore My neighbours may not be my closest companions Overseas call centres

18. LOCAL GLOBAL LOCAL = (GLOCAL?)

19. Implications for the Classroom? The Local, Unconnected Pre-Global World all dialogue was between teacher and students with some communication between students (but who was really listening?) Internet enter Internet tools: writing/speaking for an audience other than just your teacher ie authentic contexts for language learning The Global, Connected World Personal publishing tools Teachers and students can now reach a global audience Moot point : does everyone find this idea appealing?

20. The Internet – more than just a book

21. eLearning 2.0/Web 2.0 (Stephen Downes) Elearning 1.0: static packaged content little true interactivity and learner input and very little contact with teacher represented by Learner Management Systems. (eg WebCT, Blackboard) Elearning 2.0: more student-centred students generate and share content . they interact not only with teachers and their peers, but with anyone in the world they can learn from . (this description courtesy of Sean Fitzgerald)

22. PERSONAL PUBLISHING TOOLS Blogs Digital story telling Podcasts Flickr (photo sharing) Wikis (Wikispaces.com) – collaborative workspace MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Bebo Video repositories: YouTube, Google Video, BlipTV

23. Indian YouTube Equivalents http:// meravideo.com / http:// apnatube.com / http://layfile.com/ http:// www.aapkavideo.com

24. Facebook in India … .these people are not your average Indian young people; they are from upper socio-economic tier of Mumbai. But one thing is clear, there is a revolution brewing in the Internet space. Environments like Facebook and MySpace offer easy publishing tools, powerful communication mechanisms using multimedia experience… http:// ngs.ics.uci.edu/blog/?p =779

25. CREATING ONLINE PRESENCE Why bother?

26. Why might teachers create an online presence? You will get wider recognition Wider network of professional and personal contacts Greater variety of options for learning activities Place to store and record resources

27. Who are the Webheads? “an experiment in world friendship through online language learning” 300 + members

28. Where are the Webheads? in approximately 50 countries To join the Webhead community send an email to [email_address]

30. Why might students create an online presence? For students: Developing skills for the knowledge era (facility with technology, collaboration, conflict negotiation, problem solving, communication, adjusting to rapid change: ‘employability skills’) Access to personal publishing tools for self-expression and realisation of identity Excitement at publishing for a wider audience: “ Thank you so much for being such supportive, all of you! I hope to continue my learning process and get ready to speak and write in English. I was really surprised to see all the people who wrote about our wiki. It's so cool because it was from all different places of the world... I think that's so great! :)” (Maria, Venezuela)

31. It’s a Wild World http:// youtube.com/watch?v =T-t8tUED9MI “ Just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware.”

32. Online Presence

33. Are we sociologically ready? What are ethical responsibilities as educators?

34. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =e5jtiJPlv4Y

35. YouTube in Chennai Media:

36. ONLINE PRESENCE “ I blog therefore I am.” Weblog search engine Technorati: 8,000 -17,000 new blogs created every single day. a new weblog is created somewhere in the world every 5.8 seconds . On average, approx 3 blogs are updated every second. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/13/8000_bloggers_per_day/ (13/4/06)

37. From a student of Konrad Glogowski: “ Hello Mr. Glogowski It’s Phil, just in case you haven’t guessed already. I’d just like to thank you for a great year of blogging, and to wish you luck in the years ahead. You really managed to make a few of us into writers. I think writing/blogging will be something I’ll carry with me my whole life.” (http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/)

38. MEDIA RICH BLOGS http://english-ad.blogspot.com / by students of Aiden Yeh Aiden is an EFL Lecturer, Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan MOVIE MULTILITERACY DIGITAL LITERACY ELITERACY

39. ORAL PRESENTATIONS FOR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE From Buthaina al Othman (Kuwait) http://alothman-b.tripod.com/present_162.htm

40. CONNECTIVISM: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age (George Siemens, Red River Community College, Canada) Principles of Connectivism: Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

41. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT Does teacher know best? Image courtesy of http://www.sussex.ac.uk/USIS/test/education/1-2-14.html

42. THE CROWD: Collective wisdom? Stupidity of the masses? Is our culture being re-written? Is the Internet killing our Culture? (Andrew Keen: the cult of the amateur)

43. THE MOBILE/CELL PHONE

45. Africa (and the developing world) Cellphone economy Kiva

46. Mobile/Cell Phone Phone to web communications Post photos Flickr Post photos/videos to blog (moblog.co.uk) Post audio to blog (hipcast.com) Web to Phone via SMS (ipipi.com) Lesson feedback Spot quizzes Anonymous contributions to controversial topics SMS – may need to be taught; it is now a legitimate form of communication

47. Check: http://flickr.com/mikecogh (to see photos uploaded from cell phone) http://mikecogh.blogspot.com (to hear audio posted from cell phone)

48. http://flickr.com/photos/32912387@N00/171506548/

49. SLOW LEARNING "It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. "There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge.“ ( http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070111/1a_tech-noxx.art.htm )

50. SLOW LEARNING: A Dangerous but Powerful Idea - Counter Acceleration and Speed with Slowness and Wholeness Geetha Narayanan is Principal Investigator with Project Vision at the Centre for Education Research Training and Development (CERTAD) within the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India.

51. Geetha Narayanan - Slowness as a pedagogy consciously embrace the core value of slowness – both as way of being and as a way of learning culture of immediacy values fast knowledge which in turn runs counter to the development of both the self and the mind. The thoughtless and widespread use of technology as the universal solution to the rising need for fast knowledge is wrong and must be questioned. Often in developing countries, such as India, the term ‘digital divide’ is used to support the argument that the use of new technologies, alone, will create conditions of learning … That is not true the new digital technologies are tools that allow for learners to develop their imaginations, to be able to play and to have fun, to be able to tell stories in different and exciting ways. But in order to generate value they need to be integrated into new forms and structures in an invisible and contextual manner - one where new media arts can sustain social change . Slowness promotes “wellness of being”

52. HOW DO YOU TRANSLATE ALL THIS INTO CLASSROOM PRACTICE?

56. IN CONCLUSION: It’s all about NETWORKS = CONNECTIONS Is there a place for NALL? (Network Assisted Language Learning)

57. Education by and large has not changed. The world outside has. Syllabus/curriculum is rooted in a past paradigm of fixed knowledge. Photo courtesy of Sawrah, http://flickr.com/photos/sawrah/314474272/

58. IN CONCLUSION: a connected classroom, connected living (Nancy White: ‘eliving’) DOES reduce the time you have available to attend to relationships locally. And THAT is a very interesting and confronting thought…….

59. Resources Vance Stevens: ESL Skill Areas: Writing and the Internet http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/writing.htm

60. THANK YOU This presentation on the web at http:// www.slideshare.net/michaelc/chennai Email: [email_address]