Software Evaluation-Rosetta Stone

1. General Description
Rosetta Stone
-All levels language proficiency
-All ages
-includes variety of activities: multiple choice, dialog, vocabulary, etc...
2. Evaluation
-The program works very quickly, is easy to use and is quite reliable I had a few classes that used the program over an entire school year and there were never technical issues, crashes or stalls with the software
-The program is very technological sophisticated, and functions through a central web site.
-Activities inlude drills, and games, with rumored collaborative peer work coming soon. [link to my other call page]
-The most important feature is that it is facilitative. There are databases, spell/grammar check and authoring systems.
-The linguistic and language focused activities are vast. They include discourse, morphology, pronunciation, reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
-Rosetta Stone describes itself as including "dynamic immersion, adaptive recall, and speech recognition" among the best features and activities.
-As for teacher fit, the program if purchased as part of a liscence group it includes teacher accounts where you have access to endless amounts of data on individual L2s.

-By the same sense, a liscence allows a student to continue to log-in and use the computer from anywhere with a specalized http:// address and password and gives the software the added bonus of being easy to use and thus, learner fit.

3. Summary

I make no secret about my love of the Rosetta Stone software, and I have backed it up by investing in the company, which has so far been a success. The software is very easy to manange, I have taught L2s in a public school using this software and I believe it can help learning a second language. There are many options with the software; they sell the individual packaged software like you see at mall kiosks, you can purchase a liscence for an entire class, or the new option called TotalE (which I discussed in lenght a few weeks ago on this very blog) lets you log in again from anywhere with personal http:// address but with the added benefit of actual live on-line lessons with a real tutor via chat technology. You are limited to how many lessons, but the possibilities are growing for what CALL software can do.

The naturalist approach Rosetta Stone believes so strongly in makes managing and using the product natural as well. From the looks of the success this year on Wall Street, as well as being the product of choice for the State department (that's what they advertise), they are getting others to believe it is the right approach to CALL software as well.

Reading Prompt 11

Share an idea of two about how you could use the ideas from Richardson with ESL students.

What is the "digital divide?' And why do Warschauer et al argue that this term may longer be applicable. What are the issues they found regarding differences in technology use with ELLs and other low socioeconomic students. What are some ways you could address this in your own schools or programs?

From the Richardson text, I really like the idea of using twitter with ESL learners. More specifically, I like the idea of ESL students writing haiku poetry using twitter, whether on their personl phones or school computers. I have already taught English syllabry using haiku in the past, the twitter ideas for classes that Richardson described can make that lesson modern and exciting. It also seems to be the perfect venue for bringing back an underrated form of poetry. Also, it can incorporate the student's cell phone into the lesson (as a former high school teacher, I can't believe I just wrote that) and is a big step towards the type of environment we talk about in our class.

The digital divide described in Warschauer's is made up of more than one factor (p.548. Of course social economics are the central focus of his research, and on the surface it looked like poor schools are at a disadvantge when it comes to technology. This isn't the only factor though, teacher training and teacher competence in dealing with technology are also mentioned among other things. There is a digital divide in technology instruction, management, and those who deliver it to the students. So again, an article with a wake up call to educators that change is coming, and we must prepare. I saw it written recently somewhere that indeed, "technology will not replace teachers, but teachers who know how to use technology will replace those who don't". The divide between those who can teach with technology and those who can't seemed to me to be the biggest divide, not just how poor someone was. Warschauer points out those who suffer the most because of this type of divide may very well be the students we care most about, those with limited English ability. The article talked about teachers not willing to use technology with ESL students (p.583) for many reasons, but maybe the bottom line is that those teachers could not handle it. As the article points out on page 585, society and technology are intertwined, society (including school) is changing and everyone (including teachers) will need to adapt and incorporate new technology into their lives (curriculum) or be left on the other side of the digital divide.
As a teacher of ESL learners we must advocate for our students to have equal oppurtunity to computers and technology in US schools, amd provide them that instruction.

Reading Prompt 9

What is Corpus Linguistics? And why are some language teachers so excited about it? What applications can you envision for your current or future classroom?
Corpus Linguistics is a philosphy for language teaching. It is a rejection of some of the previous ways grammar has been taught and a new approach to teaching language. The ideas are based on teaching how the language is used, rather than simply how it had been taught previously. It is a radical approach to teaching, so controversial.

For teaching English, among other languages, allowing for dialects means a lot. For one, allowing variety in the ways grammar is perceived and taught as is Corpus Linguistics as opposed to traditional ways means there is no set of correct grammar, and instead you allow for a variety of grammars. This in turn allows for a wider conversation about, and how language is used and taught. Although the ideas look to be earth shattering, educators are excited about this new pedagogy.

CALL is certainly ready to adapt to Corpus Linguistic teaching. A classroom taught through the intergration of both Corpus Linguistic and CALL can create great things. For TESL classes, it means specialized assesment. Imagine test and assesment that gain accurate insights and answers to what has is becoming a more and more specific learner. It changes the game, teachers will have access to useful evaluations, and quicker than ever. Learners can have hand-tailored lessons through the integration of these two ideas and everyone wins.

First additional posting on any topic I choose

Microsoft exec pitches Internet usage tax
Here is an interesting piece. It goes back to my recent comments on the class voice thread when we discussed Wikipedia. I said that the idea of access to the wealth of all human knowledge was nice, but not realistic. Microsoft execs saying things like taxing the internet is why I bet it will never be free access. 'Death and taxes' Ben Franklin said, are the only things we know for sure. Taxing the internet and all its contents(wikipedia, google)makes sense to governments and it will happen.


*Just as I put this post on my blog, I checked my RSS feed, and BBC has an article on the topic of internet access as a 'human right'. It includes opinions from around the world on wheter governments should infringe on citizens right to internet access. This seems to be a huge topic that we are going to be seeing more of soon.
World's opinion is that internet access is a 'human right'

Reading Prompt IV

Comment on issues raised by Levy and Stockwell,
CALL educators and the design of CALL products.
Comment on types of RSS feeds .

The part of the Levy text (ch 2) that stuck out for me was task design. If the task included in a paticular piece of CALL is boring and simple, the learner is not going to have much interest. On the other hand, a learner could also complain that tasks are too complex and difficult, and give up on it. Good CALL design is going to keep these perspectives in mind and produce something in between. As educators we need to look for CALL that is desiged with easily accessible task, but also task design that is challenging enough to keep the learner engaged and interested.

As far as RSS, there has got to be hundreds of ways to use this with students. One easy example of how it might be used with a class of L2s is setting up a "feed" to a class blog. Choose a traditional, non-controversial news group (VOANEWS.com) and ask students to write responses to the stories that roll through. The point is that the students are following the news, discussing it, and responding. They practice skills like reading and writing, plus decesion making task can additionally be completed in groups.

As for me personally, and I would recommend this to any teacher, use the RSS to keep up with buisness and financial news, take control of your investments. Follow different companies and play the stock market! Normally, a teacher is far too busy during the day to follow changes that take place every hour in the world of fortune 500 companies. During working hours, a school teacher is literally shut out from the world (most schools in Texas don't even have windows!). By using RSS technology, the playing field is evened up somewhat, and teachers can keep up with everybody else in the financial world. Teachers become day traders, and don't need to spend very much time to do it (only during breaks, and never while giving test). That is to say, you do not have to spend your day wathcing the ticker and cable tv to get rich on wall street. The RSS reader quickly brings tailored news and information directly to you. Set up your RSS to follow news about companies that you have stocks in, open the reader once in the morning and then at lunch, if circumstances are happening in the financial world, quickly make adjustments to your financial portfolio and get rich.

Nobody says teachers have to be poor chumps and live shackled to promises of state retirement money (all of that is based on wall street investments any way). Build your own future with the RSS google reader.

Howard Zinn 1922-2010

LA Times Obituary

Eddie Vedder's note on Zinn

Magnus Opus

Reading Prompt II

*Egbert describes the optimal conditions for classroom language learning. Discuss how blogs and blogging can be a tool for achieving these conditions with ELL students. Finally, describe your own experience creating your blog this week. What topic or topics do you plan to blog about?

Instead of discussing all parts of the optimal conditions list, let me just say that the entire list meets CALL (computer assisted language learning) conditions for blogs to be used with ELLs (English language learners). Here for brevity, I focus on only one part of the list, condition 7, the principle that a blog gives the ELL a working atomosphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level. This principal is met when students publish on the internet via a blog. ELLs (like any students) can be unmotivated at times, and the stress/anxiety to publish on a blog is a great way to keep students working at the skill. Good old peer pressure works here for the good of education, and additionally, the types of discussions that are held can be adjusted to the level of students involved so that not too much or too little stress/anxiety is applied. It really makes a lot of sense to use one with your class.

Working on this blog has been useful for me. I have seen a lot of blogs in the past, but needed some sort of motivation to create one for myself. This assingment is doing that. My focus these past two weeks has been creating a simple interface, that looks cool, and I continue to make sure all my links are up. The links are a good, simple part of the html skills I have been learning recently, so it is a good way to check my skills.

When I think of things to post here, of course professional work comes to mind, publishing work and having my students post their work and writings. Also, as a historian and family man, I would like to see the living history of my own flesh and blood kept on a blog. Embarrassingly, I have also started to think about how to make money using this technology. Not everyone does (or can do) blogs, I am glad to be part of the group that is in the know.