MWALLT
 
   Midwest Association for Language Learning & Technology  
      Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Michigan - Minnesota - Missouri      
            Nebraska - North Dakota - Ohio - South Dakota - Wisconsin 

 
Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Michigan - Minnesota - Missouri
    Nebraska - North Dakota - Ohio - South Dakota - Wisconsin
MidWest Association for Language Learning Technology
 
 
 


MWALLT Conference 2015

Relevant Technologies for Language Learning: Methods and Spaces
 for Transfer of Knowledge, Practical Application, and Collaboration

Valparaiso University, October 10, 2015



Session Descriptions and Presenter Bios 

Elizabeth Harsma, Minnesota State University, Mankato               

Flipping the Content-Based Language Classroom: The Case of Intro to Hispanic Literature

This descriptive case study outlines the technology and the pedagogical approaches used to flip an introduction to Latin American and Spanish literature course. The presentation will outline one unit of the course to give you some ready-to-use ideas for flipping your content-based language course.        

Elizabeth Harsma holds a Master's degree in Spanish language and literature from MSU, Mankato and is currently studying for her Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in E-Learning. Her research interests include contemporary Ecuadorian literature by women writers, best practices in hybrid and online language education, and teacher preparation for hybrid and online language instruction.                

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Ralf Porankiewicz, ASC-ReLANpro          

BYOLL: The First Free Language Lab on Any Device

BYOLL, Bring Your Own Language Lab, by ReLANpro provides the first free language lab for teachers and students. In this session we will show you how to create and access your free account, share materials, submit answers and provide feedback.

- Use authentic audio and video files
- Create gaps (recordings) in any audio or video file
- 100% preparation free
- Subtitles
- Teacher feedback
- Free for any teacher and their students

Ralf Porankiewicz, CEO of ASC-ReLANpro has been a language software specialist for more than 20 years and is using his experience to change the face of education by creating software that helps teachers to achieve their goals. 

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Shannon Spasova, Michigan State University      

Finding or Making Visuals for Your Class

In this session, I will present tools that you can use to find or make appealing visuals for your class. I will talk about how to refine your image searching skills and introduce photo sites specifically for language classes. I will also show some easy tricks that allow you to edit existing photos to your purpose or create your own tailored illustrations or infographics. Tools presented will include: Toondoo, Bitstrips, Pixlr, Piktochart, Bonanza, and PowerPoint.   

Shannon Spasova is an Assistant Professor of Russian and Technology Specialist at Michigan State University. Her recent interests include blended language teaching, using simulations in language teaching, and instructional design.

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Daryl Boeckers, University of Minnesota             

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL): Past, Present & Potential

This session offers a brief overview of MALL situated it in today's 1:1 language learning context.  It also serves as an invitation for language educators to consider MALL at all learner outcome levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.           

Daryl Boeckers teaches at the University of Minnesota in the College of Education + Human Development.  His specialization at the Learning Technologies Media Lab is the tech integration course for pre-service language teachers.  Boeckers has fifteen years of L2 secondary teaching experience.      

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Ikuko Patricia Yuasa, DePauw University             

Incorporating Writing Assignments into Facebook Communication:  Putting Grammatical Functions of Challenging Forms into Pragmatic Uses                        

This is the report of implementation of coursework that incorporated writing assignments into Facebook communication. The task involving theme-based writing assignments, in which grammatical functions of challenging forms in Japanese were put into pragmatic uses, was a type of focused communicative task, categorized as a structure-based production task.  Instructors of any language in any type of learning environment can assign this coursework, since Facebook is the most widely used social network readily available.                  

The presenter received a doctoral degree in Japanese (linguistics) at University of California, Berkeley. She has more than 20 years of experience in teaching all levels of language courses as well as experience in guiding graduate students in foreign education.                                                                                      

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So Young Kim, Gary Hughes, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center                  

Increasing Teaching Success in Higher Education with Business Intelligence Technology             

This presentation will discuss the effectiveness of Business Intelligence (BI) technology to promote teaching success in higher education. The BI system provides the capacity of data mining, descriptive, and predictive models on students’ performance, which will help instructors to monitor students’ progress in various aspects of learning and provide timely data-driven interventions.

Participants will 

* Gain a basic understanding of the concepts of DW/BI.
* Develop strategies for adopting BI in foreign language learning.

Dr. So Young Kim is a Research Associate Professor, Data Analyst/Evaluation Database Manager, in the Training and Analysis Division, DLIFLC, Monterey, CA. She received a Ph. D. and MA (with Distinction) in Applied Linguistics, from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the Defense Language Institute as an Assistant Professor of Korean in January 2007 and subsequently received the Provost’s Excellence in Teaching Award for two consecutive years (2008 and 2009). She published and presented in her work on 2nd language acquisition in Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition, West Coast Conference of Linguistics, and Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition in North America, among others. She has multi-disciplinary educational credentials and experience in linguistics, mathematics, statistics, programming and optimization, which enables her to take significant initiative in the DLIFLC Student Outcome Dashboard Project, and successfully implement the Student Outcome Dashboard prototype analytics. She has provided technical leadership at all aspects of the DLIFLC Evaluation database, one of the primary institutional databases. She is certified in Microsoft SQL 2008 Database Development.

Gary Hughes is currently the Director, Research Professor, in the Training / Research Analysis Division, DLIFLC, Monterey, CA. He has developed a comprehensive, program evaluation program for the effectiveness of language programs, the behavioral, psycho-social, organizational, and environmental impacts on student attrition, the student outcomes associated with increased application, and integration of technology into language and cultural instruction for DLIFLC. His most recent program evaluation model, After Class Review (ACR) model, is being adopted for program evaluation in DLIFLC. Prior joining to DLIFLC, he was the Associate Research Professor/Director at University of Alaska, the Executive Director at Telluride Medical Center, the Program/Project Manager at University of California San Francisco and University of California Davis, School of Medicine, and a Research Compliance Officer for Veterans Administration, Central California.

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Phill Cameron, John Beals, Brenda Imber, Valerie Waldron, University of Michigan          

Meaningful Play: Gamers as Teachers (Workshop)

This workshop addresses the question of how to effectively repurpose and integrate commercially available games into course content. First, we will present an overview of a pilot course that integrated games into a teacher-training curriculum. Attendees will then play a game from the pilot and discuss the opportunities and challenges of integrating games into their teaching. Finally, we will explore how these concepts might be applied to projects of interest to the attendees.

Phill Cameron: Language Resource Center Instructional Designer and über gamer.
John Beals: Language Resource Center Instructional Designer and prodigal gamer.
Valerie Waldron: Computer and Video Game Archive Manager and board gamer.
Brenda Imber: English Language Institute Lecturer and analog gamer.

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Carlos Miguel-Pueyo, Valparaiso University                  

Viscube Tour / When Language Comes to Life: Embedding Virtual Reality in Teaching Spanish Civilization       

While making second language learning meaningful in the classroom is one of the main goals for instructors of second languages, this goal becomes even more predominant while teaching civilization and culture in the target language. With the collaboration of Prof. Jeff Will, of the College of Engineering of Valparaiso University, this session will show how to use virtual reality in 3d (Viscube) to teach Spanish civilization -more specifically, architecture- in the target language, so that students are able to "enter" a Gothic cathedral to play with terms in the target language.       

Carlos Miguel-Pueyo is Associate Professor of Spanish, and he has worked at Valparaiso University since 2005. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and a Doctorate from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). His research interests are the interrelationships between literature and the Fine Arts, as well as between Spanish and other European literatures. Within his teaching research, he is interested in how to teach civilization courses through Fine Arts, and how to make it virtually meaningful.

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Salena Anderson, Valparaiso University                

Technology Promoting Reflection and the Writing Process in a Computer Lab Classroom

This session explores the use of a computer lab, including Blackboard, in an ESL writing course.  Classes met in the lab two of four class periods weekly, and computers were used for drafting, revision, peer review, and reflection with some activities in class and some out of class.  The session explores these uses and shows positive student response and learning.  Participants will learn classroom-informed practices for using a lab in second language writing classes.             

Salena Anderson is an assistant professor of English at Valparaiso University, where she teaches linguistics, TESOL, and ESL classes.  She is interested in second language writing and how technology can be used to improve student learning outcomes.          

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Marianne Zemil, The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools                 

iFlash: An Untapped Resource for Language Learning   

iFlash is a virtual flash-card program for Mac that allows unlimited number of sides and has many features to help students learn: audio recording, images, categories, printing, search feature.  It can be used for vocabulary, grammar, stories, geography, famous people, etc.  Decks can be created by the teacher, students, or collaboratively.  Files can be transferred to a mobile device and used anywhere.  Benefits: individualized, autonomous learning and differentiation.   Useful to all students, especially those with learning differences or at-risk FL learners.  Cost benefit: useful in any discipline.

Marianne Zemil has been teaching French and German for 24 years, 19 of which have been at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.  She has taught all levels of foreign language from 3-4 years old through the university level, and was instrumental in her department's designing of a new Language Lab in 2006 and has served as its Language Lab Liaison several times in the past.       

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Claire Knowles, University of Memphis

If Foreign Language Students Have Google Translate, Do We Still Need Foreign Language Classes?  (Workshop)

This workshop focuses on how students use machine translators, such as Google Translate, in the language classroom, how a prevent and detect approach negatively affects students’ use of this tool, and how instructors can integrate this tool while promoting language acquisition, higher order thinking and academic honesty.  The limitations and capabilities of machine translators will also be discussed.  Participants will leave the session with practical ideas for adapting their assignments, syllabi, and rubrics to effectively integrate machine translation.  

A professional adjunct and Spanish instructor with over 10 years experience designing and teaching courses in the online language-learning environment, the presenter currently teaches online for Dakota State University (DSU), Tennessee's Regent's Online Campus Collaborative (RODP), and Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC). She is also a third year doctoral candidate in the Instructional Design & Technology program at the University of Memphis. Her research focus is online machine translation and second language acquisition.

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Stacey Johnson, Vanderbilt University, Berta Carrasco, Hope College                                       

Online Discussion Boards to Maximize Language Learning (Workshop)    

Web-based learning management systems come with many built-in tools -- the discussion forum among the most important. However, facilitating dynamic online discussions is challenging with language learners. In this workshop, participants will explore best practices in discussion board use in beginning and intermediate language courses. With research-based suggestions for creating engaging online discussions, the presenters will give concrete examples of how to create discussion prompts, encourage peer interaction, and assess participation.         

Stacey Margarita Johnson is the Assistant Director for Educational Technology in the Center for Teaching and a Senior Lecturer of Spanish at Vanderbilt University. Berta Carrasco is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Hope College. Berta and Stacey co-authored a book, released by Springer press in March 2015, called "Hybrid Language Teaching in Practice: Perceptions, Reactions, and Results."


 

 

MWALLT is a regional affiliate of IALLT (International Association for Language Learning Technology), established in 1965, a professional organization dedicated to promoting effective uses of media centers for language teaching, learning, and research.

 
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