Conference Volume: "Innovative language teaching & learning at university"

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham hosted the fifth annual conference in the "Innovative Language Teaching at University" #‎InnoConf15‬ series. Under the heading "Enhancing participation and collaboration" the conference, organised by Cecilia Goria, Oranna Speicher and Sascha Stollhans, took place on 19 June 2015, and was attended by over 120 linguists, language teachers and language acquisition researchers from all over the world.

The edited volume of the conference contributions (freely available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2016.9781908416322) contains 15 selected peer-reviewed case studies, research studies and reflective pieces which are concerned with a number of languages and most chapters deal with the innovative use of technology in language teaching and/or online collaborations. The volume also contains an invited contribution by Dr. Jan Hardman and a foreword by Professor Zoltán Dörnyei.

Wonderful party on SmallWorlds today (Screenshots)

Our Xmas virtual party was a great success today! There was a variety of cakes, a Christmas turkey, plenty of drinks, fireworks, and snowballs! We danced a lot, we had a snowball fight, we wrote wishes on the walls, and we watched videos from students & tutors on the FlipGrid. By the way, the FlipGrid is still open, so you still have the chance to take part and leave your Christmas message (or song!!!). Students from all three cohorts popped in and enjoyed the event making it very special!
Below you can see a collection of pictures from the event (feel free to download and share on social media):

Again, thank you all for your participation :-)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The social media team of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching

Join our Xmas party on SmallWorlds on Friday!

We are having a Christmas party on Friday 18th December 2015 at 10-11 am (UK time), at the MA in DTLT space on SmallWorlds and everyone is invited! There will be food, games, dance, snow and lots of laughter so try not to miss it!


Directions to the MA in DTLT space: On SmallWorlds select Places (bottom of the screen), then Search (menu on the left) and then type in "MA in DTLT". On the right you will click on Go there (orange button) which will teleport you to the space.

Screenshots from today's tutorial on SmallWorlds

This week's tutorial for the Introduction to Digital Technologies for Language Teaching module has been held on SmallWorlds. The tutorial started with a dancing activity under the sounds of popular international songs. Next, students and tutors discussed about the affordances of Virtual Worlds for language teaching and learning and finally they played word games. During the tutorial several guests popped in, while some of them contributed to the discussion too. All in all it was a great tutorial; thank you all for your participation!
The following screenshots/pictures are from today's tutorial. Feel free to download and use it on Social Media! 

Tutorial on SmallWorlds this week!

This week's topic in the "Introduction to Digital Technologies for Language Teaching" is about Virtual Worlds and the tutorial will be held on SmallWorlds!

A huge thanks to all teachers who replied to our call!

We are happy that many teachers worldwide answered to our call and submitted their telecollaborative projects for consideration. Due to this huge interest our students in the "Telecollaboration in Language Learning" module were presented with an array of choices and, thus, it was easier for them to find a telecollaborative project that was closer to their context and their interests. We thank you all for this!

Let's get down to e-business! - case study of a telecollaborative project

One of the assignments in the “Telecollaboration in Language Learning” module of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching (MA in DTLT) asks students to study closely the what’s and how’s of real-world telecollaborative projects.


The eTwinning project "Let's get down to e-business!" co-organised by Eva Toth, an English teacher at a technical and vocational school in Hungary, was selected as a case study for its innovative and close to real life activities.
Karina Pearl Thorne, student of the MA in DTLT, who examined this project in her paper reported that: "The potential for digital technology to enhance and extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom is no more evident than in the project Let's get down to e-business!".

Students and tutors of the MA in DTLT would like to thank Eva Toth for her time and contribution to the TLL module.

Let's Write a Story - case study of a telecollaborative project

One of the assignments in the “Telecollaboration in Language Learning” module of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching (MA in DTLT) asks students to study closely the what’s and how’s of real-world telecollaborative projects.
The eTwinning project "Let's Write a Story" with partners from 23 schools across Europe was selected as a case study for its creative writing activities and use of storytelling Web 2.0 tools. Robert Martínez, student of the MA in DTLT, who examined the "Let's Write a Story" project in his paper acknowledged that: "Investigating and interviewing an experienced telecollaborator has translated into a deeper understanding of what telecollaboration entails by adding flesh to the bones".

Students and tutors of the MA in DTLT would like to thank Loredana Popa, teacher partner in this project, for her time and contribution to the TLL module.

Students of the MA in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching write for Wikipedia

One of the assignments of the Telecollaboration in Language Learning module of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching engaged students in contributing significant new material to the Tangem Language Learning on Wikipedia. Our students extended the history of Tandem Language Learning up to the present day, enhanced the overall structure of the text, added several new sections about telecollaboration, corrected language errors, and added extra references and links.

You may see how the article was before (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tandem_language_learning&oldid=670181788) and after (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tandem_language_learning&oldid=685208568) our students’ contribution.

Editing Wikipedia as part of an assignment

This week students of the "Telecollaboration in Language Learning" module of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching edit the Tandem language learning Wikipedia page as part of their assignment to study the origins of telecollaboration.

Call for teachers who run online intercultural projects

Language teachers who run or have implemented online intercultural projects (also known as telecollaborative projects, such as eTwinning, ePals, Flat Stanley Project, etc.) are requested to send a short description (about 100 words) of their project to the digitaltechnologies4lt@gmail.com.

Those who answer to this call will be contacted by our students and asked questions regarding their experience of developing and running a telecollaborative project.

Finally, participants will receive a certificate of appreciation while selected telecollaborative projects will be published on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UoN.MA.DTLT) of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching.

Welcome to the MA in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching!

Tutors and students of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching send a video welcome message to the new cohort.

Watch their short clips here: http://flipgrid.com/#1f5c466d

Dr. Goria awarded with the Lord Dearing Award

Dr. Goria was chosen as one of the winners of this year's Lord Dearing Awards

Dr. Cecilia Goria, Director of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching, was awarded with the Lord Dearing Award*.

In her proposal emphasised the way that informed use of digital technologies facilitate her efforts to innovate and excel. As she wrote in her abstract: "My contribution to teaching and learning is special, because I make informed use of the latest technologies, emphasising student-led learning and autonomy. Characterised by the ongoing commitment to innovation, a broad variety of methods and the development of best practice my teaching combines Face-to-Face (F2F) with Distance Learning (DL) pedagogies."


* The Lord Dearing Awards acknowledge the outstanding achievements of University of Nottingham staff in enhancing the student learning experience.

For more information about this year's Lord Dearing Awards winners: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/tld/awards/dearingawards/lda2015abstracts.aspx

Jane Basnett: What the MA in DTLT has done for me so far and my thoughts on what I am discovering now

Jane Basnett - second year student currently writing her dissertation - reflects on her experience studying for the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching.

Read Jane's post: http://janeebasnett.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-ma-project.html

Only for students of the MA in DTLT: Dissertation Show on Thursday 23 July

Poster for the Dissertation Show created by one of our students, Chryso Pelekani

Students of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching are invited to the online Dissertation Show on Thursday, 23 July at 11 a.m. (UK time).

The Dissertation Show is an excellent opportunity for students working on their dissertations to present what they have done so far and their plans for completion and get feedback from their peers and tutors. It aims also to provide ideas and tips for future research on the broad area of language teaching and learning with digital technologies to students who will undertake their dissertation during the next semester.


For more information about the Dissertation Show, please contact the MA in DTLT programme director Dr. Cecilia Goria (cecilia.goria@nottingham.ac.uk).

Lesson Plans submitted to the Competition are now available online!

The social media promotion team of the MA in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching hosted a lesson plan competition for all teachers worldwide. The contest attracted the interest of many educators and we had some great lesson plans submitted.
What is more important, contestants gave their permission to share publicly their lesson plans so everyone could benefit from them. 

We created a special board on our Pinterest account where you can find a collection of the lesson plans submitted in the competition: https://www.pinterest.com/dt4lt/language-learning-lesson-plan-competition/

Student experiences of studying for the MA in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching

We asked our students to share their thoughts about their experience of studying for the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching. Our students talked about several issues including the distance delivery method and teaching methods, support given by the tutors, and learning gains.

This video is a synthesis of their videos - we hope you find it interesting and informative!

Jane Basnett - Studying for the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching

Jane Basnett, 2nd year student of the MA in DTLT, feels a little bit disappointed that the course is coming to an end!

Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University Conference - 19 June 2015

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at The University of Nottingham is hosting the 5th annual conference in the "Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University" series. Following great success in Newcastle (2011), Bristol (2012), Manchester (2013) and Leeds (2014), in 2015 the conference will focus on 'Enhancing Participation and Collaboration'.


The #InnoConf15 is taking place at the University of Nottingham (University Park Campus) on 19 June 2015. Confirmed keynote speakers are Jan Hardman (University of York) and Zoltán Dörnyei (University of Nottingham).

A volume with selected papers from the conference, edited by Cecilia Goria, Oranna Speicher and Sascha Stollhans, will be published with research-publishing.net in 2016.

For further information, please see the conference website: http://innoconf2015.weebly.com/

Update
Read the conference report: http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/clas/2015/07/14/innovative-language-teaching-and-learning-at-university-enhancing-participation-and-collaboration/

Survey about attitudes to postgraduate study - Lucky draw winner announcement

The social media promotion team of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching of the University of Nottingham held a survey about attitudes towards postgraduate study from 30 March to 15 June 2015. We would like to thank all people for taking the time to participate in our online survey. Your input is valuable to us and it will help us determine the best way to improve the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching programme.

People who responded in our survey had the opportunity to enter a draw for a SanakoStudy Solo license (http://www.sanako.com/products/study-1200/study-solo/). The draw was held on 16 June 2015 and the winner was selected at random. The lucky winner is Alena Widows.