Readings for Tuesday

Hi everybody,

Here are the readings for Tuesday.


If you haven't done so, please e-mail me version two of your learning objectives!

Opening Doors through Distance Language Education: Chapter 5:Designing a Distance Foreign Language Environment.

We need to submit the MERLOT proposal before the 23rd. I will share a googledoc with you guys!

Thank you,
Edwige.

Learning objectives

*****PLEASE, READ PREVIOUS POST AS WELL!!*****

About the learning objectives for your course, here are a few pointers:

The learning objectives describe the learning outcomes of your course. As such, they tend to be fairly precise.

For example:
After taking this three-week refresher class, students will be able to:

- apply the subjunctive mood in new and unprompted situations.
- analyze and summarize an authentic text (at the intermediate level) dealing with social problems in France.
- explain and justify their position on illegal immigration.

There is only so much you can get done in 3 weeks! You will have to be selective in your choices.

Where to get information on what to include in your course:
- Ask instructors (incl. yourself!) who teach 3000 level courses what students need to review the most.
- Ask students who took 3000 level courses what they struggle with
- Ask your TA coordinator.
- Try to find the placement test for 3000.

I suggest you start refining your learning objectives as soon as possible. The sooner you have them, the sooner you can get started developing your course. No need to go crazy on the details, half a page to a page with bullets will be fine. Now is the time to decide whether you want to develop and two or a three-week course. Please, bring draft 2 to class on Wednesday!
Let me know if you have any questions or are confused about anything!
Thank you!!
Edwige.

For next week: Feb 18th

Hi everybody,

I thought we had a productive discussion and I hope you have a better idea of what the instructor's role is in CM asynchronous discussions. There are NO READINGS for next week, but we need to do a few things.

I created and shared 3 Google documents with you. You can log in Googledocs using your gmail account at http://docs.google.com/

1. The first document is called technology reviews and is for your information only. I will update it every week.
2. The second document is the Merlot conference proposal but the deadline was extended so we have time. We’ll work on it together in class next week.
3. The third document summarizes yesterday's discussion. Please review the various project suggestions (1), add your tips on how to manage online discussions (2) and make some suggestions on developing a rubric to assess online discussion (3).

Thanks!
Edwige.

For next week!

Hi everybody,

I had a great time this morning. I was worried I hadn't prepared enough questions...clearly, it was not an issue! In case you downloaded the syllabus, please be aware that I am changing it on a regular basis. Your best source of info on what to do for next week is the blog itself:

For next Wednesday:

1. Remember that we meet at 10:30am. We'll look at CMC tools for 30 minutes.
2. Please, e-mail me your logs.
3. Post an answer to the questions I uploaded to the culearn forum and answer a couple posts as soon as you can so that we can compare with the google groups forum.
4. Readings:
Learning domains and learning objectives
Standards for FL Learning
5. Prepare a first draft of your learning objectives and e-mail them to me before class (this way you don't have to print anything).
Here are a few questions to consider when determining course content, I am sure there is more, we'll talk about other factors in class!
- How much can you cover in two/three weeks?
- What are important skills/forms your students need to review?
- How can you validate your choices?

It is helpful to consider the ACTFL standards and also the taxonomy for the cognitive and affective domains when thinking about what you would like your students to learn/review/practice in your course (see readings above). We'll talk about this in class next week as well!

For those of you who would like to read it, here is the first chapter of the Blake book. It is a really good introduction and explains a lot of the terms he uses in chapter 4!

Please let me know if you have any question!
Have a great week!
Edwige.