Post-1: Course introduction

Dear All,

Welcome to the course of ICT Methods in ELT!

This course will help you learn about the approaches to using technology in the classroom. You will have a chance to learn about the tools and resources that can help use different tools and techniques in your classroom.

The purpose of this course is to help you get acquainted with a number of approaches and techniques used nowadays in the Language Classroom that rely on the use of different types and kinds of technologies from blogs and wikis to podcasts and more.

To start your introduction to this course, think about 3-4 tools and techniques that you have used yourselves to enhance your learning AND those some of your Ts use in the classes they teach you. Share your answers in the blog that we created for the course of ICT in Linguistics. I’m going to publish the tasks for you in it, while you will have a chance to complete your own tasks and get acquainted with the tasks your peers have completed. It’ll help us to have a broader perspective on the issues this course is devoted to.

Now let's get acquainted with the current understanding of what literacy is. Do you know what the literacy definition was last century and before? And what is it now?

Below is a list of literacies as they are I'd like to discuss with you and make familiar with what you and your students must be able to do to be considered literate nowadays.

However, before you read about the literacy you have chosen answer two questions

What do you already know about it? and
What would you like to know about it?

Let's start with getting acquainted with the article by M. Pegrum that gives an overview of the current state of digital technologies:

https://markpegrum.com/overview-of-digital-learning/e-learning-with-web-3-0/  (accessed 16.02.2020)

After that you should choose one of the literacies from the list below and get acquainted with the materials about it.

A. Print literacy

B. Texting literacy

Explained: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/407022/literacy-and-text-messaging/

Can you decipher the following txt msg: My smmr hols wr CWOT?

Do you see any danger in the Ss' use textspeak? What can an inappropriate use of textspeak signal to? Some researchers see it as a signal of rebelliousness (Pegrum, 2009) or sloppiness and lack of education (Baym, 2010).

Do you know what code-switching is?  Crystal thinks that it can be sometimes taken in the classroom as slang. What is your opinion about it?

Can you guess what netspeak and textspeak are? What should our entitlement to them in the classroom should be?

Weiberger (2009a) expressed an opinion that if textspeak is a new linguistic register, hyperlinks are a new form of punctuation, requiring the dev-t of text literacy. It is defined as the ability to process hyperlinks appropriately and to use them effectively to enhance a document or artefact.

C. Hypertext literacy: the ability to process hyperlinks appropriately and to use hyperlinks effectively to enhance a document or multimedia artefact

D. Multimedia literacy

Here are some definitions:

Following this link below, access the article by Renee Hobbs (Temple University) Multiple Visions of Multimedia Literacy: Emerging Areas of Synthesis 

https://bit.ly/2ItAsuR

and the article

Literacy - Multimedia Literacy in Education Encyclopedia  on StateUniversity.com  at 

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2186/Literacy-MULTIMEDIA-LITERACY.html

-What is the role of visual elements in today's communication? Can you give an example of how you approach processing a multimedia text?

Discuss the following opinion expressed by D. Crystal about the changes in communication because of the new possibilities provided by the multimedia:

In a multimedia world, it's not possible to focus exclusively on the spoken or written element, treating everything else as marginal - as non-linguistic extras. All the elements combine a single communicative act, and their joint roles need to be considered. (Kindle location 4164).

What are the key tools Ss should be able to use?

-podcasts: Here is a very useful article about 9 different ways of using podcasts in language teaching https://bit.ly/2V89IkG

-vodcasts: here is a research article about vodcasts that I found on academia.edu that I think might be useful for you to read if you are interested in using them in your classroom.

-animation services:
Dvolver (http://www.dvolver.com),
Voki (http://voki.com)
Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com).

What are the key techniques?

-Visualization: infographics:

Using infographics

-Transmedia storytelling: A research article Towards a Transmedia Learning Approach in ESL Context (2017) by José Bidarra and Patrícia Rodrigues at https://bit.ly/2GQImMg

A variety of social sharing sites:
-Scribd: http://www.scribd.com
-Flickr: http://www.flickr.com
-Picasa: http://www.picaseweb.google.com
-Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net
-Video sharing: http://youtube.com

E. Gaming literacy  NB! Add the links to resources about these literacies; Ss will add theirs too

A research article about different aspects of gaming literacy by Patr´ıcia Rodrigues and Jos´e Bidarra you can access at https://bit.ly/2GSMo6E (accessed 16.02.2020)

A short video clip introducing gaming literacy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNV2xtiBk5U
F. Mobile literacy
A research article about different aspects of mobile literacy with the focus on information literacy by Alice Schmidt Hanbidge, Nicole Sanderson and Tony Tin
https://eric.ed.gov/?q=mobile+literacy&id=ED571443  (accessed 16.02.2020)

G. Code literacy: an article about it by Douglas Rushkoff published in Edutopia
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/code-literacy-21st-century-requirement-douglas-rushkoff (accessed 16.02.2020)

H. Tagging literacy

I. Search literacy
an article by Wilson, M. and Ye, Chaoyu and Twidale, Michael B. and Grasse, Hannah and Rosenthal, Jacoband McKittrick, Max (2016) about search literacy
Search literacy: learning to search to learn
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35662/ (accessed 16.02.2019)

G. Information literacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe6xBibOL4 (21.02.2019)

K. Filtering literacy: an inflection of network literacy, this is the ability to reduce information overload by using online social and professional networks as screening mechanisms

Follow this link to access the definitions of all the literacies listed in this post (https://markpegrum.com/overview-of-digital-learning/e-learning-with-web-3-0/

L. Network literacy:
Ibid.
M. Participatory literacy
Ibid.
N. Intercultural literacy
Ibid.
O. Remix literacy
Ibid.



What should you do with this information? You need to choose one of these literacies and read about the one you have chosen and complete the following task with it:


After you have finished reading the information you have chosen answer the questions below:

a) What is the essential information you learned about the chosen literacy?

b) What would you like to learn more about it?

c) What is not clear?


What additional questions would you like to get answers to after you have gotten acquainted with the information from the resource you have had?

Lesson plan from Nick Peachey with the focus on developing the literacies we have been discussing: Location my Memory Stick: Lessons in Digital Literacies

A World Without Magnets. We’ll read the LP, discuss it and complete some of the tasks, depending on your choice.