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| "Problems of Foreign Language Education in Turkey" Mugla University | ||||
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This conference was
much more like a holiday rather than a conference for us. The topics
were really important; however, it was the Spring time and the sea
was great. After the sessions, we sat by the sea and enjoyed very
much. As for the presentations, I went there with Derya Erice.
We had a joint proceeding and in addition to this proceeding, we had also separate proceedings. The one we worked together was about the content analysis of educational blogs. We analyzed the randomly selected educational blogs and analyzed them according to the codes we modified. We tried to determine the frequencies of speaking, writing, reading and listening materials, the audience, the blog owners' characteristics and the structural elements blogs. It was an interesting study for us. It was in Turkish and I think it was the most difficult time for us to translate some terms related to the computers. My own proceeding was about the design of a curriculum for online teacher training. I presented some Web 2.0 tools and I suggested a syllabus for an online teacher training. It was also in Turkish. I was planning to listen to Craig L. Dicker's presentation but I missed his presentation. We thank to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kınsız for his invitation and hospitality.
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Gazi University - Conference on Foreign Language Education in Turkey | |||
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As a conference team,
Erice, Barut and I, we were ready at Gazi University for a
conference entitled "Türkiye'de Yabancı Dil Eğitimi Ulusal Kongresi"
which means "National Congress on Foreign Language Teaching in
Turkey". However, here we have two more friends from Middle East
Technical University, Zeynep Ölçü and Sibel Korkmazgil. They were
presenters here, too. I had three proceedings and a joint-poster with Erice. My proceedings were about (a) Dokeos: An online platfrom, (b) Tapped In: A meeting place for teachers; and (c) The use of wikis in English language teaching and PBwiki. Since they were proceedings, the presentations were only 15 minutes long. Most of the participants saw these tools for the first time and they were really impressed by the systems of these pages. I am sure that most of them will try these tools in their classrooms. Our joint-poster presentation was with Derya Erice and it was about the syllabus of CALL course in undergraduate ELT Departments of the universities. We proposed ten different topics for this course and we prepared a poster showing the applications of these tools in language teaching. If quota allows, I will try to attach that poster to this blog. It lasted for two days, we listened to many different research results related to Foreign Language Teaching. The medium of the conference was Turkish. Between the conference sessions, we really enjoyed as well with our friends. That was really nice experience for all of us.
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| 17th IATEFL Conference in Hungary | ||||
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We, Derya Erice, Kenan
Barut, and I, were in Hungary for the 17th IATEFL Conference in
Hungary. We all have presentations. Before starting to talk about
the presentations, I want to mention that we met Jeremy Harmer and
Csoma Katalin, one of the members of Webheads, there and we are glad
to meet them. Firstly, I started my presentation which was on "Curriculum Design for Online Teacher Training". I talked about using Dokeos as an online platform for online teacher training. After Dokeos, I talked about 10 different topics which should be included in an online teacher training. Harmer and Katalin were also listening to me and they were really interested in Dokeos and other CALL applications. Then, we listened to Barut and his presentation about "Process Writing" and the importance of evaluating process instead of product. I listened to him many times on different conferences about process writing, but it was really good for the new listeners. And finally, Erice was on the stage to present her presentation on "Digital Storytelling" and how to work with photos, musics and videos on Windows Movie Maker to create short films. It was really enjoyable and teachers from all around the Europe saw that Windows Movie Maker is a really user friendly program for teachers and even for novice users of computers to work on. After the presentations we didn't stay more and return to Turkey. However, I had some comments about the conference and IATEFL. As I wrote on the feedback form, it was a shame for IATEFL that the participants had to pay separate fees for a projector, the Internet connection and the computer. Although the participants paid for participation fees, they were to pay for these different tools separately. In today's world, they are inevitable parts of presentations and they are not extra tools. That was my second visit to Hungary and I was impressed by the Budapest once more.
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| WIAOC 2007: CONNECT - Conversations on Networking, Education, Communities, and Technology | ||||
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Webheads In Action Online Convergence
was between May 18-20, 2007. It was really successful and inspiring
for all researchers, educators and teachers of English as it was in
November, 2005. When I first joined WIAOC in 2005, I was admired at
the process of that online convergence and it was really helpful
event for me just before starting to write my MA dissertation. I was
only a helpdesk at Tapped In and a coach for Joy Egbert in 2005;
however, this time, I took place in WIAOC 2007 actively and I also
had a presentation titled as "Collaborative Writing Through PBwiki".
I started talking about wikis in general and then I illustrated some
applications of wikis in language classes. The participants were
enjoyed very much and found it really useful for writing classes.
Since this event is online, I had this presentation sitting at home.
For this presentation, I am grateful to Webheads but special thanks
goes to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Arif ALTUN because he introduced me to the
Webheads and guided me in the field of CALL. I owe many things to
him. To talk about the WIAOC 2007 briefly, it can be said that Webheads managed this event successfully once more. There are some links for this event I would like to share. The sessions were recorded and can be listened at any time. I think you will find more information about WIAOC 2007 when you click on the links below. The schedule: http://schedule.wiaoc.org The official web page: http://wiaoc.org/ Keynote
Speakers: Webheads Home Page: http://www.webheadsinaction.org/ Recorded Presentations: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1563545 (but first create an account clicking on http://www.learningtimes.org/join.html and then use the link above.) And finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all participants listening my presentation at WIAOC 2007 and Webheads. |
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| Ankara University Development Foundation Schools, Ankara - "Technology C.A.L.L.s You!" | ||||
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On April 14th,
Kenan Barut organized a conference at school he worked as an English
teacher. He invited important figures of CALL, Vance Stevens, Prof.
Dr. Aydan Ersöz and Assist. Prof. Dr. Senem Yıldız as the keynote
speakers and Derya Erice, Ferit Kılıçkaya and I had presentation in
concurrent sessions. Vance had a great presentation and it was a
great opportunity for me to talk to Vance face to face. He had
presented Web 2.0 tools and it was a good collection of tools and I
noticed that I had some doubts whether the teachers in Turkey are
ready to integrate Computer Assisted Language Learning tools in
their classrooms. My presentation topic was the use Wiki (PBwiki) in
language classes. Our students from Abant Izzet Baysal University
were also with us. We enjoyed very much.
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| Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu | ||||
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Last week, on May 4th, 2007, we were at Abant Izzet Baysal University for the conference held by English Language Teaching Students' Group. AIBU is the university I worked for 2,5 years as a research assistant and the one I will go back after getting my PhD. That's why we chose AIBU for a conference entitled "Computer Mediated Communication and Education". This time Derya Erice was the organizer of the conference and Ferit Kılıçkaya, Zeynep Ölçü, Dr. Betil Eröz and I were the presenters. In Bolu, I started with the same topic - PBWiki and the use of wikis in language classes and then Kılıçkaya went on with his presentation on creating and using forums in the morning sessions. In the afternoon, I had a presentation about creating and controlling online classroom by means of Dokeos, Kılıçkaya presented text to speech technology. Then Ölçü had a presentation about Yackpack and the voice messages, and finally Dr. Eröz closed this conference with an online conference. She had a class at Middle East Technical University, so we suggested her having her presentation online and she mentioned the CMC tools and then she illustrated the results of the research which she conducted with Randall Sadler from the University of Ilinois.
The
presentations were really nice here as well, and then we went to
Gölcük for having tea by the lake. It was more enjoyable than
the conference of course.
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| Using Information Technology for Public Diplomacy: Focus on English Language Programs | ||||
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The poster presentation is from Budapest, Hungary. If you want to download the poster itself, please click here. |
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