CALL symposium

Such a buzz to meet people who are reading the same books and thinking similar thoughts and with similar research interests. The symposium rolled out perfectly to plan – only a couple of technological glitches and everything else was wonderfully smooth. My only complaint would be that organisers don’t have enough time to chat. But the symposium dinner was a good space to catch up, and I so enjoyed the sessions that I managed to get to.

Just reflecting on Siemen’s words about learning in relation to the symposium opportunities… 

“Learning is a rich, multi-faceted experience, where the whole picture of a discipline or space is held in the connected elements of individuals. Each individual in a network holds a part of the entire piece.” (Siemens, 2006, Learning in synch with life:new models, new processes)

It was nice to see the pieces coming together : )

Open space

How open do we want to be?

I’ve subscribed to Kathy Sierra’s blog for a while now – I enjoy her idiosyncratic images and comments on marketing etc. even though it’s way out of my field. But recent events (death threats made to her on other blogs) are sad, and particularly relevant to those teachers who work with (especially younger) kids and have wondered/discussed in various forums how ‘open’ our open web publishing should be in the field of education. Recently (well OK it was back in April but I have been very busy!) Kathy and Chris Locke (front man for the threatening blog) put out a pre-media release statement  which reflects on the curtailment of freedom in public spaces like blogs. Food for thought and part of my learning curve, I guess. My naivety wants to believe that this sort of thing doesn’t happen!

What makes a good learner?

Why is it in the holidays that you seem to have the energy to ask these questions?

Recently read this posting Student Self Directed Learning: What makes a good learner?, which reminded me again that learner training is crucial and that we can’t expect students to magically know how to learn. Also just read a chapter in Teacher Education in CALL by Kolaitis, Mahoney, Pomann and Hubbard called Training ourselves to train our students for CALL along the same lines. 

So encouraged again to consider how self-directed my students are – and to think further about student motivation, metacognition, self-efficacy, self-regulation, locus of control, and goal orientation. A number of my students, particularly from China, seem to think that just living in an English-speaking country will help them acquire language. Many consider (on the basis of the number of years they have already been studying English at school in their own country) that they already have the basics (ie grammar) and that being in NZ will overnight (or perhaps over a term) improve their speaking and listening skills to the point that they (or frequently, their parents) think is necessary for a suitable career in business back home. Within this kind of framework, words such as student motivation, metacognition, self-efficacy, self-regulation, locus of control, and goal orientation simply do not belong! Perhaps a good learner starts with the realisation that learning a second language to the point of being able to use it effectively and comfortably is something that just might require hard work!

CALL symposium

Part of my learning curve over the past nine months has been helping to organise the CALL symposium here at Unitec. Now it is only ten days away, which is exciting. I’m thinking of starting a list of ‘Things NOT to do when organising a conference’! Most of them relate to doing things the slow way, when there are short cuts out there : ) I’ve learnt all sorts of things.

I’m really looking forward to meeting the participants and especially the presenters, some of whom feel quite familiar already having been emailing them over the last few months. Meeting people in the same field is always a buzz and hopefully there will be time to talk to all the people that I want to.  The abstracts for our keynotes look interesting and it will be nice to meet them again and hear the ‘experts’. A lot of the presenters look pretty expert themselves and there are a huge range of topics in the abstracts.

If you’re coming, I look forward very much to meeting you!