From the Conferences

To increase participation, lower expenses for participants, and avoid jet lag, more conferences are providing ways for people to take part even though they may be thousands of kilometers away. Taking this one step further, some conferences are entirely online. Here are two CL-related papers from one such conference.

1.          Hanson-Smith, E. [ehansonsmi@yahoo.com], & Buthaina Al Othman (2004, September). Tools for online collaboration. Paper presented at the First International Online Conference on Second and Foreign Language Teaching and Research, September 25-26, 2004.

Abstract

The Webheads in Action are an online community of practice that actively seeks out and experiments together with new, free, and educationally valuable tools on the Internet. The group holds regular live voice, text, and video chat sessions, and members bring students together for joint sessions using various technologies in real time, as well as participating in collaborative presentations, workshops, and other activities. Sister groups, Real Video Online and Academic Writing, explore narrower elements of online teaching and learning, and profit from the experimentation of the larger community. Using the recently taught English for Sciences (Kuwait University) as an example, the co-presenters will help participants visualize the tools that make global collaboration possible and discuss the benefits for students learning to read and write in an electronic environment.