Going back to Arlyn Freed's Questions:

1. Have you  evidenced concrete results from CoP participation? What practical skills (if any) have been acquired?

The projects that will be presented today are good examples of CoP in action.

2. How has this skill acquisition effected your professional development? Your classroom instruction?

In terms of skills, I believe I have learned and acquired many. In terms of professional development, I have learned how to create webpages, how to make use of Yahoo!Groups, and how to use different software programs-from the simplest Word tools to Publisher. However, the most important aspect of professional development, in my case is to be able to apply what I’ve learned in my teaching. All of the classes that I teach are non-CALL related, and mostly focused on communication skills (listening and speaking). My membership in this community has allowed me to integrate CMC into the curriculum without having to use computers in the classroom.

3. Have these new skills resulted in changes in teaching philosophy as well as methodology? 

Methodology? Yes. I have not thought about the philosophy aspect, I guess, I’m more of a ‘hands on’ person. I do believe in the saying ‘practice what you preach’. While many linguists talk about communicative competence and the need for teachers to adopt communicative language teaching (CLT), I simply ‘do it’. Borrowing Nunan’s characteristics of CLT, I try to implement teaching methods that are geared towards achieving one or all of the following:

Learners of English usually do not acquire English simply by obtaining knowledge about the language; they need practice and opportunities to use the language.

However, providing experiences for contact with language in context may prove difficult for foreign language teachers.

This is where CMC or Computer Mediated Communication and Webheads, an online community of language learners and educators, play a crucial role. Integrating technology via CMC tools into the curriculum may provide a more stimulating environment for students to use and experience the target language.

How Webheads and CMC tools aid in the process of enhancing students’ communicative skills and motivation towards learning English as a foreign language

Projects for f2f classes but with international collaboration with webheads

Integrating CMC into the curriculum for non-CALLers

 Before anything else, students' access to computers and internet and their knowledge in using them should be taken into consideration.

Yahoo! Groups

The use of Yahoo! Groups allows teachers to communicate with students, share files, post assignments, uploads pictures, etc.

 Efiwebheads: On Asynchronous Communication

English for Webheads is a writing course given through English for Internet (EFI). It's free, and the teachers are all volunteers. The eclass was an innovation of the Writing for Webheads class which was formed January 26, 1999.  The purpose of the eclass was to allow students to control (by sending email to the egroups server) whether they were class members or not (Stevens, 2001).  Prospective members and/or students are asked to send a self-introduction to the group’s Yahoo! Groups page at efiwebheads@yahoogroups.com. To join in the discussions, members simply post messages to the list. Aside from the asynchronous communication, webheads also have their regular students and teachers meeting every Sundays at 12:00 GMT in Tappedin.org (TI).

Posting on EFI webheads

The students’ writings (150-200 words) on New Year’s Resolutions-to coincide with the 2003 New Year’s celebration  and a topic chosen by them were posted to the efiwebheads’ list as part of their final assignment and online project. The tasks involved both written and oral activities.

Before my students posted their assignments on efiwebheads, I sent a message to the list about the importance of keeping resolutions.

“How to Keep your new year's resolution? Read the article that's provided in this link 

http://www.how-to-keep-your-new-years-resolution.com/  

It would also be helpful if you know why people celebrate New Year's Eve and why they make resolutions.”

By the time my students posted their assignments, many efiwebheads’ members had already joined in the discussion.

“Happy New Year to all my webhead friends as well to all the nations in the world. On this day we all have to pray. May Allah(God)stopped this war situation every where. And we may live together. Because we all know we are here on this earth for a very short period. We have to increase Love and Passions for all the peoples not the hate.”  

Thanks & Regards,
Abid Shakoor-webheads student

Webheads’ teachers also responded:

“To all of Aiden's groups who have written about their New Year's resolutions (or revolutions!) I have enjoyed reading them and hope that others have as well. The wishes to do better on tests and family are good but remember a wish depends on the person for it to come true. I hope they all come true next year!! I hope more people can become tolerant, learn to live with their neighbor and that that greed, power, and violence become a thing of the past.”
Maggi :-)

“Hello everyone. Like Maggi I found it fascinating to read all the New Year's resolutions from Aiden's students. Good luck with them! It will make very interesting reading one year from now when you can all check what you wrote and see what actually came true! I personally don't make New Year's resolutions because I have learnt from experience that I am not very good at keeping them. Regards,” - Michael C.

The members of efiwebheads have different ethnic background and many join the list to improve their English writing and speaking/communication skills. The discussions could be asynchronous but the speed in which other members respond to other people’s posting is relatively quick. In addition, the group also offers online synchronous chats with native speakers of English, which also makes English learning truly authentic.

TappedIn and Webheads: Two of a kind

Online sessions in TI were based on various topics and are laid out in conjunction with the materials used in the classroom.

Topics covered

 http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/shih_chien/sy2002_1stsem/communication_skills_course.htm

First Time in TI: Chaos Navigation in Full Action

Problems:

 My students have come a long way since the first TI meeting. The above suggestions on how to make online chats better were noted down and were implemented in the most recent live chat we had in TI.

"What's in a name? A collaborative online project of Aiden Yeh's Communication Skills Class and Webheads"

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/shih_chien/2ndsem/whatsinaname/main.htm

This online project was part of Webheads in Action: A Case of a Community of Practice, Week 5

What's in it for new webheads members?

You have wondered how some webheads teachers like myself have integrated CMC into the classroom, well this is your chance to do the same. But, before embarking on this online journey with your own students, you need practice, you've got to test the water and see and experience for yourself what's it like, how's it like. Besides, you get to open your own office in TI, for free. How cool can that be? Bar none.

What's in it for students?

They get the chance to talk and be heard by intelligent folks like the webheads. They'll be there to learn, and to have fun.

The Students

An Outline of Events

Who's Who is a Group

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/shih_chien/2ndsem/whatsinaname/who.htm

Reflections

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/shih_chien/2ndsem/whatsinaname/after.htm

1^st Online Project using Voice Conferencing via Yahoo! Messenger with Michael Coghlan: Supplemented by Video Recordings and Listening and Writing activities

Title: Fear of Being Too Good

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/michaelc/index.htm

Listening Activity: 

With Audio http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/nkfust/fear_of_being_too_good_audio.html

Writing Activity

Continued by a chat with Susanne Nyrop

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/michaelc/plan/withsus.htm

Reflections

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/michaelc/plan/reflections.htm

   FORMOSA: An Online Project in collaboration with Ardecol's VIVA  

This project was made possible with the help and support of Christina Nucci and Phil Benz (also a member of Webheads-efiwebheads), creators of VIVA 

http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/viva/taiwan/index.htm

What is the Formosa Forum about?

CMC for Non-English Majors: Learning English Through International Friendship

http://www.oocities.org/aidenyeh/gen_english.html 

Students from National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology

Juani Barrientos's Students from Chile

Halyna Kaluzhna's Student from Ukraine

Nasar Kiss                                                               

                          Halia

Students participated in the project by posting messages at gen_english2002 Yahoo! Groups based on our course syllabus.

Webheads in Taiwan: A Social Gathering with Teachers and Students

A proposal to meet was sent by Rachel Chung, a teacher from Kaohsiung Military Academy

http://www.oocities.org/nkfust2003/social/proposal/pro1.htm

The Students

The Teachers

(From left, Aiden Yeh and Rachel Chung)

Webheads and Teacher Professional Development

Webheads in Action and CoP may not offer teaching certificates but the skills a teacher may learn and acquire from being member of this extraordinary group could be equivalent to what one may learn from school and the learning experience, in some aspects, perhaps exceeds the more traditional ways of gaining professional development. What is so fundamentally clear about this group is that, many of our members are classic examples of teachers who value their/our profession. Whether one is a NS or NNS, a teacher should always leave a room for learning (language and technology), and for enhancing his/her skills. Professional development is a cliché and a term used too often, but in this profession that we're in, it is a must.

Webheads in a CoP: To infinity and beyond!

The need to keep up with technology will always leave a space for Webheads to exist. So long as there are new software programs and new tools to explore, and so long as people are willing to try them out and prepare to use them for their own benefits (whether personal or professional) webheads will be there.

End of presentation

Aiden Yeh