Reading Response Four

Reading Prompt #4
* LEVY – Ch. 2. Design

* RICHARDSON Ch. 5. RSS: The New Killer App for Educators

Comment one one or two issues raised by Levy and Stockwell CALL educators must think about when it comes to the design of CALL products. Then, comment on what types of RSS feeds you might be interested in using with students or following yourself.

"The point where one begins in design is critical. Whether it is a theory, pedagogical model, course or syllabus, task, exercise, language skill, technology, or some kind of mix, the whole design unfolds from that point on." (Call Dimensions, Levy p.12)

The idea of language teachers being designers is an exciting one. It means that we can design our classes as creatively as we like. Using technology as a design tool is also very cool. I like what the book says about including the students in our design process so that they will have a chance to see the technology the way that we do.(p.14) I think that goes back to the article by Soares about her blogging experience with her class. The more time she gave in class for the students to blog the more they took part in the project. I think including students in the design of the class blog or of their individual blogs will enhance the learning experience. This leads into using RSS feeds. Rss feeds are a tool for the classroom that is valuable to teacher and students. The teacher is able to include all her student's blogs on her RSS feed enabling her to look at them and respond to them. Giving your students an RSS feed to use when doing research for a project not only ensures safety for young students while surfing the web, it allows students to have a 24/7 news feed to a particular subject.