Symposium on Re-conceptualizing the Language Classroom as the Online Course

From http://www.plc.sas.upenn.edu/events/symposium.html

During the first symposium of the newly established Language Educator Series, the Penn Language Center of the University of Pennsylvania will present a model for online language courses on Saturday, December 10, 2011. Grounded on the principles of communicative language teaching, this model offers a fully online format that was designed and implemented by the Penn Language Center during the summers of 2010 and 2011 for credit courses in Gaelic, German, Polish and Turkish. Through innovative live and online collaborative instruction and mentoring, this model focuses on the development of language competence in the three modes of communication (interpersonal, presentational and interpretive). While demonstrating the technologies used with this model (Adobe Connect Pro, Blackboard, Wimba), the presenters will also consider issues related to methodology, curriculum, materials development, teacher training, assessment, articulation, student course evaluations, flexibility, and the development of new literacies. Finally, they will compare our experiences of teaching in the online environment with those of the face-to-face classroom and discuss how these distinct and separate learning spaces are related and can inform each other. The symposium is free and open to language educators, coordinators and administrators, but seating is limited. In addition to other experts in the field of online language education, the symposium will be led by award winning teachers Ed Dixon and Christina Frei.

Learn more and sign up at http://www.plc.sas.upenn.edu/events/symposium.html