cmc Lessons

cmc 01 First Week Materials

1. Basic Info survey: try to take this survey before the first night of class if you joining this class.

2. 09/04 cmc 01 "Welcome to Computer-Mediated Communication"

   • We'll be doing a lot of important stuff in our first class. Of course, I'll briefly introduce this class, but I won't spend too much time reading from the syllabus - instead we'll cover a reading, do a series of quick in-class 'micro-experiments' to explore some concepts that we'll be studying this semester, and talk AI (if time). 

   • For next week, read Choobsaz et.al. "A longitudinal analysis of highly cited papers in four CALL journals" 

     • Supplement:  Excel format | Google Sheets format (you'll want to download or make a copy of one of these)

   • If you are interested in surveying the different aspects of AI development, consider Axios AI+ newsletter

cmc 02 Class Materials

We are going to look at four major journals in the field of CALL, narrow our focus to CMC, and discuss some essential research skills.  To make the best decisions in our practices, we need to know how to read the research.

• For next week, read Choobsaz et.al. "A longitudinal analysis of highly cited papers in four CALL journals" 

  • Supplement:  Excel format | Google Sheets format

  • Side note - I'm trying out a dark theme for the slides, but we'll have to see how they look in our classroom.

cmc 03 Class Materials

This week, we're going to look at one more overview type of meta-analysis that focuses on research quality. If you get the feeling that I'm focusing pretty intensely on this issue , you are correct. Don't worry, though - we're just setting a strong foundation for establishing better/worse examples of CALL/CMC research. Soon, we'll use this foundation as we transition to more practical aspects of CMC in language education; it will help us know which research finding are worth applying to our real-life classrooms.

• For week 03, read Liou and Lin (2017) - CALL Meta-analyses and Transparency Analysis

• We'll finish discussing important elements of week two's reading, then continue on to this week's reading.

• For this week class & reading, I want you to keep two different perspectives in mind: 

  1. What do the results of Liou and Lin (2017) mean for me as someone who reads CMC research with the intention of using CMC effectively in my classroom?

  2. What do the results of Liou and Lin (2017) mean for me if I do my own CMC research in the future?

cmc 04 Class Materials

This week, we're going to wrap up our 'introduction to CALL/CMC research' unit by doing something a bit interesting - we're going to do a problem-solving activity together in class that will help us improve our ability to intelligent consume and create CMC research. This will also have a rather large impact on how we handle practical CMC skills.

• This week's article has a lot of potential... and a lot of shortcomings (look at your notes for the first 3 weeks of class). Now, you do NOT need to submit anything this week, but you do (finally) have a more specific homework assignment for this week that I want you to bring to class. This assignment is informal, but important.

• Read and take notes on Akkara et al. (2020). This is a very short CMC-focused article about "WhatsApp." (If you are not familiar with WhatsApp, just think about it as a privacy-focused version of Kakaotalk.)  In your notes...

  • Make notes of 3+ good things this paper did as CMC research (or at least 3+ good ideas the authors had)

  • Make notes of 3+ shortcomings of this paper... how can we improve this specific WhatsApp research design?

  • For both of the things above, I want you to think of 'potential' - if we re-did this research, how could we do it in a way that is more meaningful, specific, and helpful? How could we create research that would help inform tech-focused SLA researchers and/or help teachers use CMC more effectively in a classroom?

cmc 05 Class Materials

We're going to start moving towards more practical issues from here forward.

• Read Morris & Blakes "Harnessing CMC to Foster L2 Oral Communication" and take good notes.

• Look through the journals mentioned in previous readings, find a CMC-related article that interests you,  and enter it into this spreadsheet before Monday at 11:59 pm (23:59). 

  • Nothing else is due. Just enter your article - I want to look over your interests and plan ahead from there.

cmc 06 Class Materials

For this week, there is no assigned reading. Go to Snowboard and watch the multiliteracies lecture before 10/12.

• Use this handout when watching the multiliteracies video.

• Note: Snowboard has been having some errors with videos. Please let me know if that is happening with you.

cmc 07 Class Materials

• For this week, please bring in the a CMC-related article that you selected in week 05.

  • Make sure it is a research article - not a website, not a meta-analysis

• Try your best to make sure you have access to a digital copy (ideally a pdf version).

• In first several weeks of the course, we spent time critiquing wide-spread issues in CMC research in detail, and we discussed better/worse examples of CMC research along with how to evaluate the quality of CMC research. 

• In week 05, we transitioned to a general discussion of implementing CMC for supporting spoken tasks in the classroom. 

• In week 06 provided a lecture to help you to being (or continue) to develop the sets of background knowledge and skills we need for implementing modern technology in our classrooms:  media literacy, technology/digital literacy, and information literacy.  

• For the remainder of the course, we're going to be weaving these elements together (a solid research grounding, strategies practical classroom applications, and the necessary literacies to inform both of those) in order to develop graduate level perspectives of CMC . Other than bringing your selected articles, there is nothing extra to prepare for this week.  (I'm going to teach this week's class workshop-style.)

cmc 08 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• This week, I'll do a live demonstration of a typical workflow for processing research articles into references used by researchers, while talking through the associated thinking processes.  I'll also being doing this demonstration using a few of my preferred tools: Research Rabbit, Zotero, and Obsidian, but the techniques will work with any similar services and programs.

cmc 09 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• This week, I'm going to give a bit more specific guidance on the practiced-focused part of your responses, by thinking through types of language-classroom interaction (in person or online), task designs, and related real-life considerations.  This will be synthesized with our evaluations of CMC research from earlier in the semester and extend on them so that your research findings can be integrated into your planning and teaching practices.

cmc 10 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• We'll continue our materials analysis skills by focusing on how we evaluate new & existing CMC tools

  • I'll begin by talking, but then we'll move into an experience-based approach towards evaluation (link)

  • If we have time, we'll look at a revision of the above activity that is applicable for us (link)

• I'll give you time to ask any remaining questions about project 1

  • Here are your collected references so far.

cmc 11 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• I revised this week's content based on an updated needs analysis. We're going to talk about

  • Essential search skills related to Boolean operators. We'll begin with Google Scholar but then expand.

  • Walk through some of the more recent updates to Generative AI capabilities, some of the ethics involved for graduate students, and then move into the real focus - improve our AI effectiveness while being ethical.

cmc 12 Class Materials

• No reading response due this week - bring either your very clear notes or your first drafts of project 1

• We'll discuss your preliminary results in class. I'll  ask you to...

  • Introduce at least one of the themes that your miniature literature review is exploring focus on.

  • Share and explain the research question that your paper is supporting

    • Share one or two articles analyzed in your paper

    • Share and explain the tentative research question that your paper is building towards

cmc 13 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• We'll look at CMC technology from a different perspective - instead of focusing on app & programs, we'll analyze current and future technologies according to principles & features of New Media

cmc 14 Class Materials

• Select a research article and submit your response before Tuesday before 11:59 pm (23:59)

• Not all SLA activities are directly benefited from CMC - we can probably adapt them, though.

cmc 15 Class Materials

• Have an activity prepared to share with your classmates for project 2.

• As we ended early due to unexpected heavy snow last week, I'll teach a final brief lesson (which should also help you with finalizing your second project activity choices).