Making Connections
Larry Udry, Divine Words College, Epworth, Iowa, USA
In this column, I want to introduce you to two CALL-IS members- one who is currently a very new at-large Steering Committee member and the other a former at-large SC member and a member of the Newsletter Editing Team.
For each newsletter, I invite members to answer a set of questions:
- What is your favorite platform?
- What is the one indispensable tool/webpage?
- What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
- What was your favorite CALL creation?
- What are you working on now?
- What area would you like to see developed/researched?
- In a sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
I hope you enjoy this opportunity to make CALL connections with our members as they share their experiences, advice, and inspirations. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have suggestions or contributions to "Making Connections."
Years in the CALL-IS: 3 months!
Q. What is your favorite platform?
It has to be a learning management system; it centralizes and organizes educational resources, allowing for consistent and accessible learning anytime, anywhere. It provides for easy rating of students’ performance and shows detailed progress tracking. An LMS also improves engagement through interactive features like gamification and online and offline discussion forums that enrich classroom learning.
Q. For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
One of these is the Google Form. I can use it for exit tickets that allow me to qualitatively gather feedback on what the students learn from the class and how I can improve the delivery of the lesson. It is also a valuable tool for assessment. Its features provide several ways of evaluating my students from objective type tests to subjectives ones like essay and paragraph writing.
Q. What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
Online gaming communities are awesome sources to improve students’ language skills especially multiplayer role-playing games (RPGs) or social simulation games - they're great for practicing a language and getting to know different cultures.
Q. What was your favorite CALL creation?
One of the most innovative and engaging CALL creations is Duolingo, particularly its gamified approach to language learning. For my class, I require my class to use it to practice the target language and submit at the end of the semester a screenshot of their level. This is a part of their grade. I personally use it to improve my Spanish language skills. Also, I have no one to speak the language with so it gives me the mode to practice it daily. Duolingo makes learning languages fun through interactive exercises and game-like rewards. It personalized lessons to fit the user’s proficiency level, and its interface is easy to navigate while showing leaderboards and social community features, further enhancing engagement.
Q. What are you working on now?
I am currently in the process of updating an instructional print material for the subject: History of English. My colleague and I developed this material during the pandemic to distribute to students who did not have access to internet resources. My objective in the revision is to incorporate digital tools that will enhance student engagement and foster motivation to learn the subject.
Q. What area would you like to see developed/researched?
Exploring how teachers integrate artificial intelligence in their classrooms is fascinating; I'm curious about their concerns and how they address them.
Q. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
Don’t get fazed with technology; embrace it.
- Heather Austin, OnCall Newsletter Editing Team
Years in the CALL-IS: 2
Q. What is your favorite platform?
As a language instructor, I enjoy utilizing tech platforms that foster student collaboration, such as Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Jamboard, Canva, and Padlet. These tools allow students to work together in real-time, share ideas seamlessly, and create visually engaging projects. They enhance the learning experience by encouraging interaction, creativity, and critical thinking, making the classroom more dynamic and demonstrating the importance of teamwork.
Q. For you, what is the one indispensable tool/web page?
One tool I utilized quite often in many of my classes was Flip, which was a fun video discussion platform. Sadly, it was recently announced that the Flip site and mobile app have been dismantled. However, some of the core Flip features have been moved into Microsoft Teams for Education, which I am less familiar with, so now I need to tinker around to see if it is comparable. As a runner up, Padlet is a very versatile tool that I use in my classes almost every semester. With multimedia integration and customizable layouts, there’s so many different things you can do with it as students collaborate in real-time!
Q. What is your most unexpected source of information about CALL?
Believe it or not, Linkedin has actually brought many CALL topics into my peripheral, but it’s important to build the right network. I follow TESOL International Association, IATEFL, many leaders within these groups, other education-based accounts like British Council English and ThoughtStretchers Education, as well as publications like Modern English Teacher. These accounts frequently post articles and blogs, engage in discussions, and share resources that highlight innovative strategies and tools for enhancing language learning through technology. I’m not endorsing the use of Linkedin for those who want to avoid social networking sites, but for me, it has indeed been an unexpected source of information about CALL.
Q. What was your favorite CALL creation?
My favorite CALL creation came about during the days of mandatory online teaching brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. My in-person ESP classes on English for career development had abruptly moved online, and I was worried about how students would be able to properly prepare for their midterm exam, which was a mock job interview in English. Thanks to Padlet and ZOOM, I was able to adapt my lessons in a VERY effective way. Students were put into breakout rooms, discussed their understanding of the input from class about strategies used to answer common job interview questions, and collaborated on their own answers to these questions, and then posted them on Padlet. Padlet was great because my classes could not only collaborate in real time, but I was able to rate their answers and respond with feedback via comments. Not to mention, the finished product served as a repository of sample answers that students could refer to while studying. In fact, this lesson went so well that it even won the first place TESOL 2022 Ron Chang Lee Award for Excellence in Classroom Technology! I’m still very proud of that CALL creation.
Q. What are you working on now?
I teach at a university in Japan, and I recently built two courses as part of a newly launched program. I taught them for the very first time this past year, and I’m extremely pleased with how well students received them. I’ve been analyzing feedback collected from these students, and I’m currently making adjustments to the courses in preparation for delivering them again in the upcoming academic year. I’m excited to see how these changes will impact the students and the courses overall by comparison!
Q. What area would you like to see developed/researched?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly developing field and is here to stay. With the advent of tools like ChatGPT, I’m concerned that students will increasingly forego the effort to work through challenges independently and opt to use AI to complete their tasks for them, rather than leveraging it as a tool to support and enhance their own learning processes. In an ideal world, I’d like to see AI in the ELT classroom developed and researched to include practical approaches to comprehensive training for students, enabling them to use these tools meaningfully and ethically as valuable resources that enhance their language learning. By doing so, we can create a richer, more practical learning environment that embraces AI instead of one that actively, and perhaps unrealistically, tries to avoid it.
Q. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a newbie starting out in CALL?
Let CALL tools support pedagogy, not overshadow it.
Larry Udry has worked at Divine Word College, a small Catholic seminary in Epworth, Iowa, since 2003. He has published the CALL-IS Newsletter and has served on the CALL-IS Steering Committee since 2009. Recently, he revised the second edition that has an accompanying app of an environmentally-themed ESL e-text with Kendall Hunt. Prior to his position at Divine Word College, he worked in UT Martin for eleven years, where he published the TNTESOL Newsletter.