New Technologies & Language Teaching

From 16 until August 20, 2004, from August 23 till 27 and from October 17 till 25 respectively ECO (Expertisecentrum voor Onderwijstechnologie) hosted the summer courses 'The Effective Use of the Internet in Language Teaching', 'Digital Audio and Video in Language Teaching' and 'Developing Multimedia Activities for Language Learning' in the Mediatheek of the Kohnstammhuis. The courses were organised by the Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer University and the Graduate School of Teaching and Learning (ILO) of the University of Amsterdam.

It is the aim of the Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer University to bring together young and promising professionals from all over the world. Under the inspiring leadership of Alessandra Corda (University of Leiden) and Bart Bonamie (University of Gent (Belgium)) and Willy Weijdema (from the Amsterdam faculty of Education) and Geert Bonamie (also from the University of Gent, Belgium) and ably assisted by Alex Brandsma and Willem Verberk, technical support being provided by Iman Abdullatif, no fewer than 46 young/promising professionals (38 female and 8 male) from no fewer than three continents and no fewer than 12 countries, (17 from Spain, 7 from Poland, 6 from Italy, 4 from Portugal, 3 from Greece, 3 from Turkey and 1 each from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Guinee Bissau, Latvia and Lithuania ) met to learn about and exchange ideas about the use of the Internet in the teaching of languages.

20 equally promising professionals (18 female and 2 male) from no fewer than three continents and 12 countries (4 from Turkey, 3 from Madeira (Portugal), 2 from Bulgaria, Italy and Lithuania and 1 each from Spain, Greece, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Romania and Serbia & Montenegro) met to learn about digital audio and video in language teaching from Alessandra Corda and Bart Bonamie, assisted by Willem Verberk.

30 just as promising professionals (24 female and 6 male) from as many as 15 countries (5 from Cyprus, 4 from Poland, 3 from Romania and Russia, 2 from Greece and Italy and 1 from Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine each) met to learn about the development of multimedia activities from from Alessandra Corda and Bart and Geert Bonamie, assisted by Alex Brandsma and Willem Verberk.

Most of the participants were supported by grants from the Socrates programme (Comenius 2.2) or the Netherlands Government (Matra).

Introductions by Alessandra and Bart about methods of teaching languages alternated with hands-on sessions. ECO offered each participant an advanced computer to work on. Participants worked with such programs as Front Page, Goldwave and Hot Potatoes; they made products and presented these to each other. an intermezzo about the use of computers in the teaching of pronunciation being provided by Ton Koet and Alex Brandsma.

Unfortunately the first course was beset by serious technical problems; the Digital Learning Environment (Blackboard) was unavailable for several days and the ECO server that the participants used had too little capacity for their work. Thanks to the tutors' resourcefulness these problems were solved.
Although the work was hard - and the temperatures sometimes high, particularly during the first course - a good time was had by all! Although the male participants were in the minority, it cannot be said that their work was in any way inferior to that of the female participants! All the participants were awarded their certificates.

The second course was a highly successful course, about which all the participants expressed their satisfaction. This appeared from several highly positive statements on the evaluation forms. All the participants were awarded their certificates.

The third course, which was offered for the first time, was also highly successful, although there were again serious technical problems. All the participants but one were awarded their certificates.

This is how some participants would describe the courses to others:

'Wonderful tutors, practical course.'

'Good overview and introduction; good hands-on opportunity, interactive, fun.'

'Even if you find it hard to do all the things at first, you'll be surprised with the results!'

'It was great and I learned a lot.'

'This course is really fruitful.'

'Practical, not stressful Friendly and relaxed staff.'

'Superb people working in AMSU.'

'It has been useful, practical and not something I would leave on a shelf and forget. I will use the things I learned.'

'Teachers are different than they are in my country: happy all the time, smiling, joky, helpful.'

All the participants felt that the course had contributed to the development of their professional skills.
In view of the problems it was not surprising that the first course was less successful. Indeed, 7 participants (hailing from two countries, 3 of them male (thus representing a large part of the male participants) and 3 of them female and one who had not indicated his or her sex) stated that they were dissatisfied with the quality of the course. Still, the vast majority of participants described themselves as either satisfied or very satisfied with the quality. None of the participants felt that the course had not contributed to his or her professional development.

There were many positive comments:

'Everything is professionally organised, very nice teachers.'

'Great place, fantastic atmosphere.'

'Great tools you can adapt.'

'Inspiration from other participants.'

'The teachers and assistants were helpful, the organisation is good and the city is amazing.'

'It's a very practical and effective course.'

'Friendly and approachable teachers; good computer facilities.'

'If you would like to use the technology in your classes and to make your students more motivated to learn a language, you should participate in this course.'

'It was a lovely cultural experience and I have learned quite a lot about using the Internet for my teaching practice.'

'It was a rich and satisfying experience.'

'It is useful, very well organised, the tutors are attentive, knowledgeable with good presentation skills.'

'I would like to extend the group's personal thanks to (names tutors and assistant) for making life pleasant during and after the course.'

'It is a means of helping technophobic teachers get rid of some of their anxieties.'

'Well-prepared, well-done, well-presented, well-organised!'

'Teachers who are working here are the best ones; they are so kind, patient and high-qualified.'

Negative comments concerned the composition of the group: several participants were bothered by the heterogeneous character of participants as far as ICT and language skills were concerned and wished that a more rigorous selection had been made and the inductive teaching methods, which were felt to be too time consuming.

'Change cookies.'

'Be more specific about prerequisites.'

Interestingly, one participant felt that the course fee was too low!

Thanks to the social and cultural programme offered by AMSU the participants had plenty of opportunities to exchange ideas and to get to know Amsterdam . The participants were taken on a walking tour of Amsterdam , they attended a concert in the Concertgebouw, they visited the Anne Frank Museum , made a canal cruise and could choose from a cinema programme. The course dinners in the Kantjil en de Tijger Indonesian restaurant, attended by 62, resp 28, resp 35 persons, were memorable occasions, where all the participants managed to say cheers in their own language and several in the language of the person sitting to their right. The last dinner was distinguished by an important innovation: the singing of songs in the native languages of the participants, which made the social and cultural component of the course even more enjoyable. Many participants became addicted to 'stroopwafels', of which no fewer 1700 were consumed.

This was the fourth time that ILO and AMSU joined forces, ILO being responsible for the academic part and AMSU for promotion, registration and accommodation. This co-operation has again yielded good results. If the technical problems are addressed, the co-operation will be in 2005, when the courses will be offered for a fifth resp. third and second time from August 14-21, resp. August 21-28 resp. October 16-23.