I have just finished attending the CLESOL conference (Community Languages and English as a Second Language), and have many new ideas floating around in my head, that will need digesting over the next few days (and probably weeks).
I am interested, for example, in adapting the R2D2 (no, not the robot: reading, reflecting, displaying and doing) model to the idea of having students develop a wiki about their hometown as part of their pre-departure learning. This model seems to offer a way of structuring the activity that caters for all learning styles, but I need to find more about this.
I also attended an interesting presentation on an online PAC (Pre-arrival Course) that was aimed at students coming to New Zealand (or other English-speaking countries). It was a self-directed resource (not free unfortunately), and focused on preparing students for communicating in English with study abroad in mind - homestay introductions etc. Although I felt the content was still rather traditional, it did have some good features including the ability to record and playback one's own version of conversational phrases. Also, the final unit (specific to NZ) on the culture and geography looked particularly interesting. It didn't, however, appear to have much on preparing the student to talk about his / her own culture and identity, which is where I want to focus my attention.
I also became aware of an excellent resource that is being developed called FLAX, which is part of a larger 'greenstone' project. The FLAX resource is basically a way for ESL teachers to develop an online library of texts, and to then use those texts to generate exercises (cloze etc) at the touch of a button. I am not sure that it could be immediately incorporated into my plans, but I can see potential in getting the students to record their own stories, and then use them as a language-learning resource for others.
On a less exciting note, I have been considering the creation of a wiki, but found there are a bewildering range of host sites offering various different features, some free and some requiring a monthly / yearly fee, and it is hard to know which one offers the best development opportunities. Obviously this is an area I need to spend more time exploring.
