Syllabus: This is our current syllabus, which was revised after our first week discussions and surveys.
Reading packet: Our main readings can be found here. This may be updated during the course. If so, I'll let you know ahead of time.
Basic Info survey: try to take this survey before the first night of class if you joining this class.
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)
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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.
If we have time, we'll also talk informally about the interesting era we are in with respect to language teaching and AI (more specifically - LLMs and machine learning) and discuss some possible future paths we'll take as professional language teachers and researchers. No one can predict the future (accurately, at least... any idiot can predict incorrectly^^). However, generally speaking, era-defining technological changes tend not to lead to job loss, but rather to job changes - in other words, big shifts due to technology tend to change how people work rather than whether they work. We are Human After All - and language is a fundamental aspect of humanity.
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:
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?
What do the results of Liou and Lin (2017) mean for me if I do my own CMC research in the future?
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?
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.
For this week, there is no assigned reading. Go to Snowboard and watch the multiliteracies lecture before 10/12.
Note: Snowboard has been having some errors with videos. Please let me know if that is happening with you.
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.)
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.
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.
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 give you time to ask any remaining questions about project 1
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.
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
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
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).