Technologies of the self

My post title is a reference to Michel Foucault's concept of the technologies of the self about which I attended a seminar when I was still in Media Studies back in Germany. To put it very simply, the concept tries to describe the ways in which people put forward, and police, their "selves" in society; and the ways in which they are enabled or constrained in their use of different techniques by available discourses. Although this might seem a little off-course with regards to foreign language teaching I had to think about it again while reading about computer-mediated communication in FL teaching.
I would be interested in analyzing to what extent a CMC environment enables students to put forward a different self and possibly a different L2 output. Do they use a different language in a chat environment e.g. as compared to face-to-face interaction? To what extend may such a different language output be at odds with skills we as teachers want our students to have? A problem with this approach might be that CMC in a classroom environment is structured by certain goals or tasks and is not really representative of real chat behaviour...In this respect then it is the technology of the learning oriented classroom setting that influences the chat language output more than the medium itself...So, basically I'm not really sure how to tackle these thoughts productively.(comments and suggestions highly appreciated)

Karneval

Here is a video I showed to my class to illustrate how Germans celebrate carnival. I asked them to pay attention to practices they didn't know, comparing them to Mardi Gras e.g. I think it is a good example of how the web can provide authentic material that gives more insight into the target culture than the textbook can provide.

Jan Delay - Ich möchte nicht, dass ihr meine Lieder singt
[I don't want you to sing my songs]

Thoughts on Technology & Teaching

Technology has basically always been a part of the classroom. Whether it is just a book, a chalkboard, a map, video-players or overheads; all these tools are intended to somehow enhance the human teacher.
Computers have opened up a whole new set of possibilities for teaching foreign languages and are a basic part of students' daily experience in our days. These possibilities along with the fact that students generally show a positive attitude towards the inclusion of computer technology into foreign language learning, should be reason enough for teachers to try take advantage of it. The www e.g. provides an endless source of authentic material in the target language.
This material can also be found in a variety of forms; texts, audio files or videos. The internet also allows students to directly communicate in writing (IM) or speaking (skype) with native speakers. These possibilities are certainly an enhancement to the traditional classroom, however, teachers should always be aware that technology in itself does not guarantee learning
success. As with all technological tools, the use of computers, too, should be grounded on theories and methods that have been proven to be suitable foreign language teaching approaches. My expectations for this class, then, are mainly to get an insight into what I can use for my teaching and especially how I can implement these new possibilities into a productive learning environment.

Blog Party

The past week I followed three blogs - their appearance, content and purpose - to get some ideas and inspiration about what I would/ would not like my blog to be or look like.

http://marypinckney.blogspot.com

This is my girlfriend's blog. It's a personal blog she started when she went to Germany for a year to keep people at home informed about her life. After she came back she continued the blog as a medium to share her thoughts and experiences with the "world", or rather people who are interested.
She also uses blogger.com but knows a good deal about html to create her own layout for the page. Thus she doesn't have to rely on the restricted choice of blogger.com templates, which is a good thing if you want to give your blog a more personal touch. Beside text she includes a lot of photography and videos, too. Youtube.com allows you to directly post videos from their site on a blog you can associate with your account. I think that is a really good feature which I would definitely use for this blog to show some videos that I used in my class to teach culture e.g.

http://hausbau-in-egelsbach.blogspot.com/

This is a blog that friends of mine in Germany started to document the process of how their new house is being built. They have many text posts describing their struggles with German bureaucracy but the majority of posts include pictures of the house building process such as new features that were added to the house. They also use the blog to share problems and questions with fellow house-builders.
They changed the blogger template and included a picture in the upper frame. Once I figure out how to do that, I'll probably include a picture on my blog , too. I also like the weather report that is included in the sidebar.

http://www.themovieblog.com/

This blog apparently doesn't use any blogging platform and seems oriented towards a much broader audience than the former two. Somehow I find it a little disturbing that the sidemenu is on the left but I can't really explain why. (Maybe it has something to do with the difference between left and right brain hemisphere.) It seems as if most of the information posted on the blog is drawn from other entertainment sites. It also includes some google ads in each post which I find rather distracting. (Sorry, google, you can't advertise on my blog!)
The blog can also be subsccribed to on Itunes as a podcast which is a very interesting feature, I think.

Journal/ Book Research on CMC

Books:

Computer-mediated communication : linguistic, social, and cross-cultural perspectives ed. Susan Herring Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, c1996.

Philosophical perspectives on computer-mediated communication. Ed. Charles Ess. Albany : State University of New York Press, c1996.

Technology-enhanced language learning. Michael D. Bush, editor and Robert M. Terry, associate editor ; in conjunction with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Lincolnwood, Ill. : National Textbook Co., c1997.

The books are a bit old, but they sound interesting and might provide some valuable basics about CMC.

Journals (available online):

- Language Learning & Technology [http://llt.msu.edu/]

This is a great resource, specialized on language education. There are also peer book and article reviews. Lots of up to date empirical studies.

- Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture.

This journal is not primarily concerned with foreign language teaching but they seem to publish a lot about in technology&teaching. I found an interesting article there: Lenard, Mary, Dealing with Online Selves: Ethos Issues in Computer-Assisted Teaching and Learning.Issue 5 (1), Winter 2005. (PDF available through USC library subscription)