CMC SIG Workshop 2009

http://www3.unileon.es/personal/wwdfmrod/cmc2009/

EUROCALL’s Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Special Interest Group wishes to announce the following regional workshop for foreign language educators and researchers:

"Researching Computer Mediated Communication in Foreign Language Education: Issues and Methods"

The workshop will take place between the 23-25 April, 2009 (Thurs-Sat.) at the University of León, Spain.

Colleagues who are interested in finding out more about the workshop and who may be interested in submitting a proposal for a presentation, should visit the workshop website.

Theme of the Workshop

This 3 day workshop sets out to deal with how Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in foreign language education can most effectively be researched and aims to explore the practical, theoretical and ethical issues which emerge when researching online student communication and collaboration. Prominent themes which will be addressed include the relative value of qualitative and quantitative research methods as well as the differences between sociocultural and cognitive interpretations to foreign language acquisition. The particular challenges involved in researching 'emerging technologies' such as social networks, wikis and virtual worlds will also be examined in detail.

This workshop will take a 'hands-on' approach and participants will be encouraged to present and discuss their own research data and ‘work in progress' as well as taking part in interactive sessions with the invited guest speakers.

The workshop will take the following structure:

Guest presentations on some of the key theoretical approaches to FL education which drive research in CMC and online foreign language education.
Workshops on research methods as applied to online foreign language interaction and learning
Presentations by participants in which they present and discuss with colleagues their own CMC research findings to date and issues which emerged when researching in this area
Round table discussions where themes such as the contribution of VLE’s, virtual worlds and Web 2.0 can be discussed in greater detail
Various ‘virtual’ presentations by invited speakers in other locations using Second Life and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Profile of Participants

Participants should ideally be involved in foreign language education and should have an interest in using and researching computer mediated communication in their teaching and research.

It is hoped that this workshop will be of particular interest to researchers and Masters/ Ph.D. students who are working in the area of online foreign language education.

Guest Speakers

Francoise Blin, Dublin City University, Ireland
Marie Noelle.Lamy, Open University, UK.
Regine Hampel, Open University, UK
Andreas Mueller-Hartmann, Paedagogische Hochschule, Germany
Mirjam Hauck, Open University, UK

Registration

The registration fee for participants is 80€. As places are limited, it is necessary to book and pay in advance.

Contact details

To find out more information about the workshop, please contact Robert O’Dowd at the University of León: robert.odowd@unileon.es

This event has been organised in collaboration with Eurocall, the European Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning.

Robert O'Dowd
Universidad de León
Departamento de Filología Moderna
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
24071 León
Spain

Phone: 0034 987 291084
Homepage: http://www3.unileon.es/personal/wwdfmrod/