CALL Course Review

Description: This CALL Course was intended to give a brief overview of a number of different technologies, while providing a deep understanding of a handful of apps, programs, and sites. While the idea was to familiarize students with some of the currently available digital learning tools, the instructor's main goal was to endow students with a sense of empowerment and confdence in trying out new resources and tools on ther own, long after the course has ended.

Pros: Students were able to create their own blogs and to use it as a learning journal. They were able to assess various tools and decide for themselves what the benefits and negative points were. Students were able to select the technology that they wanted to become experts in, and were thus able to increase their own understanding of how to use it by teaching it to the class. Students benefited from having not just one instructor, but 10, as the other students all became teachers as least once.

Cons: At the start of the semester, there were still many questions left unanswered. Students were often unsure of what the homework was and what was required of each assignment. While the instructor tried to impart the necesary information, sometimes it wasn't made clear enough for the students. In hindsight, she should have provided more detailed, step-by-step instructions for most tasks. Also, the workload was concentrated on the same schedule as the other courses, so there was often a great amount of homework to be done.

Overall Feelings: This was a very enjoyable class because of the sense that no one was an expert in everything. Everyone had questions and, more importantly, everyone was willing to help each other. There was a stong sense of community that brought the students together. While in the future, this class may go a little more smoothly, this time it was unique because it was designed as students' needs were assessed. The class requirements were designed based on the needs and interests of all of you. Thank you for making it such a valuable experience for me, and for your classmates!