COMMUNICATION

&
COLLABORATION

Lucy Borrego
Leidy Hinojosa
Scarlett Dragustinovis
At the end of this presentation you will be able to:

• Review communication and collaboration terms

• Learn techniques to support communication and collaboration
• Discover opportunities afforded by a variety of physical
contexts
• Learn how technology can be used as communications medium
to enhance classroom communication
• Explore activities and tools that promote collaboration and
communication
OVERVIEW OF COMMUNICATION AND
COLLABORATION IN CALL

Chapelle, 1998
• Communication is a crucial
component of language
learning environmenrs,
including those enhanced by
technology.
Communication Collaboration
• Implies simply • Will be taken to mean

conveying the process during

knowledge either which learners
one way or trough interact socially to
exchange. create shared
understanding.
By interacting and negotiating meaning
with others in the target language,
learners can:
• Take advantage of modeling
• Gain new, comprehensible language input
• Use language creatively
• Work together to understand new experiences and derive
meaning from them
• Solve language and content problems
• Learn to use language appropriately
• Focus on language structure and use
Supporting Communication and Collaboration
• There are two techniques for helping teachers to develop
tasks that increase the possibility of quality social
interaction:

Provide Provide reasons

opportunities for for learners to
learners to be active listen and respond
PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNERS TO
BE ACTIVE

• The teacher can

build specific roles
or assignments for
individuals into
tasks so that each
student’s
contribution is
necessary to
achieve the group
or team goal.
Provide reasons for learners to listen and
respond

• What reason do the students

have to attend to what is being
presented? By proving reasons
to listen…
• Adding evaluation rubrics that
the audience completes,
providing a handout to take
notes for a quiz, requiring a
group synthesis of the
information presented.
Physical classroom contexts in which
CALL occurs
• Interaction in the Computer Lab
• Interaction on the Multiple-Computer Classroom
• Interaction in the One- Computer Classroom
Tips for designing a Computer- Enhances
Collaborative Project

• What teachers know about students:

• Student’s levels of technical expertise and keyboarding
proficiency.
• What will encourage them to interact in the target language.
• With whom your students will interact have agreed to
participate in the project and know what is expected of them.
ACTIVITIES THAT ENCOURAGE
COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION
• True social interaction cannot take place with the computer, yet
it can occur through and around technology.

• Nevertheless, we will describe CALL activities that provide

opportunities for students to collaborate and communicate in
some level.
• After each activity… Computer
tool
The choices they can make and
need to discuss
What encourage them to listen
and respond to their peers or
The
other information sources
students´
role
 CALL activities

Online
Stand-alone
sources

use software on individual computers

use features of Internet
Activities using Stand-Alone Software

• Theexamples in this section focused on stand-alone,

commercially developed software packages.

• Teacher can use techniques and principles to develop activities

with many different types of software.

• One of the benefits of using stand-alone software packages is

that they do not change, whereas Internet resources must be
checked regularly for changes.
 Putting vocabulary into context 1

One is working on the As each word comes onto the screen, one
Ss are sitting together in the student dictates it aloud ad the other
computer lab vocabulary of the software
whereas the other is writing copies it into a paper

orrect
c

They discuss which answer choice They enter the answer into the One of the students writes the definition on the
presents the meaning of the word software and if it is correct paper and they move on to the next word
 Tool Vocabulary practice software
Interaction Student pair
Roles One student is the computer operator
and the other the writer; during the
next unit they may switch roles

Choice Students decide on their partners and

roles

Reason to listen and respond Students most cooperate to get all the
words and definitions down on paper
and to study for the quiz
 Learning about the United States 2

The National Inspire (Version 1.0) provides each student team with a set of six maps of the US

The teacher sets the

software for a specific
number of teams

When any student team has its route prepared, it

The software gives each team a set of enters each state in the route into the computer They are then given
criteria that they must meet as they travel and is given points to each state that meets the new criteria for the
across 10 contiguous states. criteria. next trip
 Tool National Inspirer (Version 1.0)
Interaction Student and team member
Roles Economist, demographer, population
specialist, importer, geographer, and
secretary
Choice Learners decide the manner in which
their group will function (e.g. how
they will get input from each other
without looking at their maps) They
also choose their routine.
Reason to listen and respond Students will score the most points if
they land in states that have more
than one attribute, so they need to
know what their teammates know.
This is an information gap activity.
 Neighborhood Trip 3
• The class is preparing for a field trip around their community.

Third group uses simple map-

Second group is locating making software to make a
One group is developing a set community map
of questions to answer community members to talk to

When the map is finished, the group presents The other groups share their
Each student in the map group has been it to the class, explaining the key that they questions and resources.
assigned a particular component of the map to develop together and how to use the map After the field trip class
research and add to the map. most effectively. collaborate to add info.
 Tool Neighborhood Map Machine
(Version 2.0)
Interaction Student and small group members,
students and class.
Roles Researchers for houses, streets,
building, signs or landmarks

Choice Students choose the roles they play

and how to present their information.

Reason to listen and respond Students must use the map to find the
way to various locations in the
community.
Choices, choices 4
• Elementary school ESL students working with a software
simulation have been presented with a problem:

The soccer field at their

school is dirty and not
ready for the upcoming big
game

• Students have to solve the problem by choosing a goal and then

making decisions along the way toward the goal.
The choices of the goal are:
Make Keep the Win the
Have
less playing soccer
fun at
field game
trash recess
clean

• Learners in teams play roles within the group as they

discuss each of the four choices of action, make decisions,
and defend their decisions.

• The teacher or a student uses the software to click on the

students´ choice, and participants receive feedback and
another set of choices.

• At the end, the software helps students review their

decisions and the outcomes and see how close they came to
their goal.
 Tool Choices, choices: Kids and the
environment (Version 1.0)
Interaction Student and team members, teachers
or class.
Roles Students each support one of the four
different goals and make decisions
based on their goal.

Choice Students decide how their groups

functions; they discuss and make
their choices.
Reason to listen and respond To meet the goal, students need to be
able to make informed decisions.
 Activities using Online Resources
• Communication and collaboration between members of the
group and between one-site and off-site groups.

• Other online activities that support interaction are:

Developing advertisements Participating in literature circle Completing or developing

Web Quests
 1
Shopping on the Web
• Student team are asked to develop a new advertising campaign for a common
product.

They need to compare

their product´s existing
prices, features and
advertising
• Each student checks a different Web site, such
as…

or another shopping site that the teacher has

supplied and then fills out a column in the product
comparison handout
 The other team members add
the information that they have
discovered about the product.

They will use the information as

they take on the roles of artist,
text editor, and presentation
specialist in preparing their
advertising campaign.

Once their advertising is in place, they

will present it to the class for
evaluation. Students will also take
orders for the products from members
of the school community as a way to
evaluate their work
 Tool Internet shopping sites and advertising, presentation/
graphics package such as Microsoft PowerPoint, word
processor.

Interaction Student and small group members, small group and class,
small group and school.

Roles In the first part, students are all researchers at different sites
for the product. In the second part, they each take a role in
developing the advertising.

Choice They choose a product that they are interested in,

Reason to listen and respond
choosing Web sites to visit from the teacher´s list and
develop their own advertising strategy and presentation
format.
The audience most evaluate whether the advertising is
effective and tell why.
2
Reading circles
• Students are required to post a weekly reading reflection to their
class´s online conference on http://www.blackboard.com
They are The teacher has Students can ask At the end of the
working with assigned each questions, week, each
students at two student to reply clarify points student writes a
other schools also to two other about the summary in
who are reading students´ reading, or his/her journal
the same articles reflection each persuade the of what he/she
as they are each week during lab other student to learned and take
week. time. their point of a quiz on the
view. reading content.
 Tool Asynchronous electronic discussion forum.

Interaction Student and off-site partners, student and whole group,

student and teacher.

Roles Each student posts and individual opinion.

Choice Students choose what to say and to whom they say it.

Reason to listen and respond Students must understand the issues to participate in
the discussion, and they have to pass the quiz.
3
WebQuests
• Students´ task is to create a cookbook
of healthy regional recipes from the
United States.
• Each team is assigned to one region
of the US and is required to:
 Tool WebQuest, Internet sites, word preocessor.

Interaction Student and small group members, small group to class,

student or small group to external experts (chef, for
example)
Roles Each student contributes part of the information needed to
complete the project.

Choice Students choose their roles, where and how they find
their information, and how to present it.

Reason to listen and respond The audience must listen to know what they are eating
and why and to provide feedback.
These examples
demonstrate that many
different activities can
support communication
and collaboration. There
are also many tools to
facilitate such interaction
TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION
AND COLLABORATION
MOO
• (multy –user object-oriented domain) is a text-based program
that runs on a computer and be accessed by large number of
users from all over the word at the same time. Typically MOOs
provide a map of locations and help screen to show users how
to get around.
Chat
Discussion forums
• Forms provide asynchronous written conversation. Written
conversation. Benefits include allowing students more time to
think before they post and posting in themed threads that may
be easier to read and follow that chat.
Electronic list
• Electronic list, sometimes called listservs after a piece of
popular proprietary software used to set up run the list,
are e-mail posting services created to facilitate the
exchange of information.
Software
software
• Although the internet is the most obvious source for
collaboration tools, software packages can also support
collaboration and communication.