Week 4: Feb 4 - 10

Virtual classrooms. Voice and video mail.

Co-Moderators: Sharon Betts, Ibrahim Rustamov & Kat Urbaniak

Guest presenter: Jonathan Finkelstein

Play our Evoca Welcome

Objectives Activities Live Session

Objectives

By the end of this week you will have: become aware of different virtual classrooms explored different features of each virtual classroom explored different friendly tools for voice and video mail attended the live presentation on the topic of the week commented on the presentation of the week answered the questions of the week read and commented on the Week 4 readings

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Activities

Online learning

Get ready to explore the online world of learning. Through Alado, Elluminate and WiZiQ virtual classrooms, as well as user-friendly tools for sending voice messages (HandyBits, Springdoo, Wimba Voice)
We will be loudly learning and exploring.

There is often setup required to use online classrooms. Please take some time to read through the instructions for the virtual classroom downloads where necessary and do not leave this until the last minute. Complete system checks and audio checks as required in the instructions.

Alado Go here : http://www.alado.net/webheads At the top left, click on Login . On the next page, scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in your name. You do NOT need a password. Now click on Enter and you are in the Alado virtual classroom!

Elluminate To access Elluminate, first become a member of the Learning Times community (LT) and explore its features http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes You may also like to explore http://learninginrealtime.com and the accompanying video program at http://www.realtimeminute.com

WiZiQ Start here: http://www.wiziq.com/
become a member by clicking on the Join Now, Its Free button and completing the form. Take the tour at: http://www.wiziq.com/Tour/online-educational-platform-teachers-learners.aspx

Flashmeeting http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/
During the meeting one person speaks (i.e. broadcasts) at a time. Other people can simultaneously contribute using text chat, the whiteboard, or emoticons etc. while waiting for their turn to speak. This way the meeting is ordered, controlled and easy to follow. A replay of the meeting is instantly available, to those with the 'unique' replay url.

Live Session

Jonathan Finkelstein's presentation on using a virtual classroom will be held in Elluminate on Friday, Feb 8 at 17:00 GMT
Time Zone Converter

Andrew Pincon's presentation on using Alado as a virtual classroom will be held in Alado on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 17:00 GMT

Post your comments and reflections on the presentation at the Blog (http://baw08.wordpress.com/)

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Voice / Video Tools

Like to have your voice heard? Did you realize there are many voice tools available for communicating across the web? Look over the tools below. Post your comments on our forum at http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/baw08.html

Making your voice heard - Setup accounts in two of the following tools
+Evoca (our welcome message tool) site: http://evoca.com
You may be interested in the video Evoca and Online Audio and Podcasting
+Handy Bits (VoiceMail) site: http://www.handybits.com/
+Springdoo (Videos) site: http://www.springdoo.com/
+Wimba Voice (must pay) site: http://www.wimba.com/demos/voiceemail.php
+My Chingo (No longer free) site: http://www.mychingo.com/
+Voice Thread (My favorite) site: http://voicethread.com/
See a short tutorial
+View Point (audio and video) site: http://clear.msu.edu/viewpoint/index.php
+Gong Tool (voice chat) site: http://gong.ust.hk/
+ChinSwing (voice threads) site: http://chinswing.com/
Post to our example - we want to hear you: http://chinswing.com/pages/discussion.aspx?id=6501a7c3-a5a5-4777-8261-1fa4d630dbf9

+YackPack (free limited to short messages) site: http://yackpack.com/
Watch for examples from Sharon, Ibrahim and Kat - Experiment by reply.

Your turn - pick your favorite voice tool and embed it into the tools page: http://baw08participants.pbwiki.com/Tools-participants

Post your reflections on these message tools and, bearing in mind the Questions of the Week below, the potential and applications of these tools to language learning in our BaW-08 blog.

Questions of the week

How could using voice increase learning? Which tool would you choose for your classes? Why?

What are the differences between Alado, Elluminate and WiZiQ?

Why should we become comfortable with virtual classrooms?

Which would you choose to use in your classes? why?

Readings

download adobe reader for the pdf files:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

• 7 things you should know about Virtual meetings http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7011.pdf

• Labonte and Christian. Moderating Tips for Virtual Classrooms http://odysseylearn.com/Resrce/text/e-Moderating%20tips.pdf

Some more interesting reading:

• Understanding E-Learning 2.0 By Tony Karrer http://www.learningcircuits.org/2007/0707karrer.html

• Virtual Classroom Starter Guide By Bob Maiden http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/oct2003/maiden.htm

• Shi, S. and Morrow, B. V. (2006). E-Conferencing for Instruction: What Works? http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0646.pdf

Post your reflections about the weekly readings to our forum at http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/baw08.html

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