Due Date: (date negotiable, but no later than April 24th) However, you'll be doing a short (5 minute or less) presentation about the tool you choose on either March 11th or 13th, so you can't wait until the end of April to start thinking!
For some ideas of possible tools, check this page, and explore on your own!!!!
For some ideas of possible tools, check this page, and explore on your own!!!!
Page Requirements: Given the use of screen captures, this should take a minimum of 5 pages, but I’ve gotten these that are much, much longer. Enough pages so that your readers can easily use and understand it!
Description
As part of your course grade, you will be required to write a Critical Review of Technology[1]. This review will be similar to a critical review of a book, but with a CMC twist. For the review you should explore the Internet, inside a VW, etc. to find some tool/technology/product that you think might be useful (or not useful!) for teaching in a VW or using CMC. This might be some website you find that encourages chat among speakers of different languages, some cool new social networking site, or any other tool you discover that you believe has a potential use for language learning (including text, audio, or video). This, of course, might also be a tool that you find within Second Life, or a review of some other Virtual World program. Remember, this is a critical review, so the tool you review may not be perfect! It is also quite possible (or very likely!) that the tool you choose was not expressly created for the purpose of CMC as it relates to language learning.
As part of this critical review process you must give feedback to 1-2 of the reviews written by members in your collaboration group.
As part of this critical review process you must give feedback to 1-2 of the reviews written by members in your collaboration group.
Your critical review should include the following sections:
Part I. A concise description of the tool being described. This is similar to the summary part of a critical review of an article. Therefore, this section of your review should describe the tool, not evaluate it. For this section you should answer the following questions[2]:
- What is the “bibliographic” information for the product? By this I mean that you should provide information that will allow your readers to find and/or potentially download the technology under review. You should also mention who created the tool (probably a company, but perhaps an individual)
- How is the product described by its creators?
- What is the product designed to do?
- How do you use the product? (This should be a step-by-step set of instructions that will let your readers understand how to use the product. I strongly recommend the use of screen captures in your paper as part of this process. As you might imagine, this is where the pages can really add up!)
Part II. The second section of your critical review is the critical part (insert groans here—pardon the pun). In this section you will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the product as it relates to CMC and also talk about how it might be used by teachers. In this part of your review you should answer the following questions:
- How easy or difficult is this product to use? This answer should include a discussion of required technologies (Do you need a newer computer? Do you need a high speed connection? Do you have to download something onto your computer? Do you need a head set or webcam?).
- Who do you think would most benefit from using this product?
- How could this product be used to enhance language learning? It is possible that the answer to this question is not discussed at all on the website for the product—answering this question will depend on your insights. In answering this question, please give some very concrete suggestions. For example, you might briefly discuss how an individual learner might use the technology for ATALL, or you might discuss how a language instructor might make use of the technology for a CMC activity in a classroom (or between two classrooms separated by thousands of miles).
Please feel free to make additions to either of these sections!
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