CALL Lesson 1 (24-25Jan08)
Overview of two blogs
What is CALL? It's Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
And what are CALL Lessons? They are blended (a mixture of face-to-face/f2f and online) lessons for learning English in a fun way with a computer (my laptop), a video projector, an Internet connection (= ligação) and... the Internet/Web.
In these lessons we will use different communication tools (= ferramentas) - text, audio, image and video - to work in class and to communicate with teachers all over the world.
What is this first lesson about? Let's see!
Objectives
Students will:
- get an idea of the two blogs: the curricular blog (this one, used in class) and the extracurricular blog, "Have Fun with English! 3" (used outside of class), and
- get an idea of the tools available for group work (in class) and individual work (at home)
- read about the objectives of these blogs
- explore useful links
- listen to podcasts
- write a group message about "first impressions".
Activities
- Look at this blog and Have Fun with English! 3
- Read the objectives of these blogs
- Watch a short animated film about CALL Lessons
- Visit useful and fun links
- Listen to student and teacher podcasts
- Write a short text about "first impressions".
Enjoy the lesson! 
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Report
Equipment used: My laptop and USB portable speakers, and a video projector and LAN connection from school (the wireless connection is a bit erratic).
I created this curricular blog for my blended classes, or CALL Lessons, with my two 5th grades over the Christmas 2007 break. The students had no idea what was coming their way at the beginning of the 2nd term.
They had already recorded some podcasts in class: a short interview for some teacher-friends of mine (5A) and a "thank you" message the following week. This was a very surprising innovation. The podcasts were recorded with my PDA, then transferred to my laptop, converted to .mp3 files with Audacity, uploaded to my server and linked to the blog. From recording a podcast to listening to the it on the Web takes about 15 minutes. In the meantime, I emailed the podcast to six teacher-friends all over the world (Argentina, Australia, Sudan, England, USA and Venezuela) and asked them to email back a podcast with their replies. A couple arrived in time before the holidays and were played in class with the help of a set of speakers for the PDA.
The students had also made drawings, and had sung and recorded two Christmas carols for me in class. And they had taken photos (with their cellphones) of the drawings they made on the whiteboard on the last day of the first term. Cellphones sometimes come in very handy in class!
The drawings were scanned by my husband, transferred to my computer through our home LAN and then oploaded to a Bubbleshare page that takes a couple of simple steps to create. It's also a matter of minutes. Then I sequenced the photos by class, name and date, and identified each one.
The photos were emailed to me by Duarte (5A) and reduced to thumbnails by me with Windows PhotoDraw. I also created an intermediate size (in-between the original size and the thumbnail). I uploaded both sets of photos to my server, inserted the thumbnails in the blog and linked them to the larger photos.
This first lesson was an overview of what is available so far. The students didn't get a chance to be at the computer. I just wanted to whet their appetite... and so it was. The lesson was a "wow" moment for both classes (on separate days). They weren't expecting it. They loved the podcasts, the Christmas movie message from teacher Dafne (in the 25Dec07 post "Comments" section), their Art Gallery and the audio-picture dictionary, both in the "Links" section. When you mouse over a picture, it plays the word. It's a fantastic and very motivating tool to learn, practice or reinforce vocabulary.
Finally, they were hooked on my "CALL Lessons" ZimmerTwins animated film. They didn't understand some of the content at first, because it's advanced for them. But they watched it with great curiosity. During the second viewing, the more language-savvy students with my help, when necessary, translated the new structures.
It was a great beginning and a lesson they will always look forward too.
CALL Lesson 0
Welcome to CALL Lessons, 5A and 5B. These are "computer-assisted language learning" lessons with a computer, the Internet, Web 2.0 text and voice communication tools, a video projector, a screen (= ecrã) and... lots of "learning in a fun way"!
Objectives
The objectives of these blended lessons (a mixture of classroom and online) is for students to:
- learn the target language (L2) in different ways,
- practice English through communication tools (Web 2.0),
- communicate with a worldwide audience,
- improve their basic skills in English,
- work collaboratively to do the tasks,
- become more autonomous/independent,
- develop computer skills and e-literacy.
Classwork
In December 2007, 5A recorded a podcast (audio files) for some teachers. Here are the questions and the answers from our six teacher friends: Cristina Costa (England), Dafne Gonzalez (Venezuela), Dennis Oliver (USA), Hala Fawzi (Sudan), Michael Coghlan (Australia) and Rita Zeinstejer (Argentina). And then the students recorded a "thank you" message from 5A.
Notice the difference in the "atmosphere" from the first student podcast to the second. They sound tense and sort of intimidated by the microphone in the first message, but totally at ease and very excited in the second.
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Message from 5A
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Cristina
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Dafne
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Dennis
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Hala
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Michael
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Rita
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Reply from 5A
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