The presenters will discuss how to realize an online community for EFL instructors in the UAE and its integration with professional or personal learning networks (PLN). They propose a social network structure that will address the need for ongoing PD in the UAE that is driven bottom up, not top down, according to the perceived interests of practitioners involved in language education and other a of learning in the UAE. The session will suggest means by which practitioners can share knowledge and skills and contribute to each others’ PDs by practicing within a PD network dedicated to the needs of knowledge workers in the UAE as well as connecting with similarly motivated networks and communities worldwide. NB: SMALL stands for Social Media assisted Language Learning.

1. Thinking SMALL
Realizing Ongoing Professional Development
through Grassroots Social Networking
in the UAE
Vance Stevens and Phil Cozens
Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi
Jim Buckingham
Zayad University, Abu Dhabi
Prepared for the Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaima ELT Conferences
Aprll 10, 2010
Zayad University, Abu Dhabi and HCT Men’s College RAK

2. Guiding Premise
From Stephen Downes, Learning the Web 2.0 Way
And … to TEACH is to LEARN - Vance
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/personal-learning-the-web-20-way
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

3. Paradigm Shifts in Education
http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/papers/2007alexandria/web20arabia.htm
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

4. 10 Aspects of Paradigm Shift
• Pedagogy: • Heuristics:
Didactic --> constructivist Client server -->
• Modeling: peer to peer
Do as I say --> AND as I do • Sharing:
• Transfer: Copyrighted -->
Technology enjoyed at creative commons
leisure is F.U.N. --> also, • Classification:
applied to professional Taxonomies -->
practice folksonomies
• Trepidation: • Directionality:
Will they find out? --> Push --> pull
ok to say “I don’t know!” • Ownership:
• Literacy: Proprietary -->
Print literacy --> open source
multiliteracies Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010 4

5. What is TESOL Arabia?
• A group?
• A community?
• A network?
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

6. Configurations
• Groups
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

7. Configurations
• Groups
• Communities
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

8. Configurations
• Groups
• Communities
• Communities of
practice
– Domain
– Practice
– Community
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

9. Configurations
• Groups
• Communities
• Communities of
practice
• Networks
can include
overlapping
communities
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

10. Configurations
• Groups
• Communities
• Communities of
practice
• Networks
and sample
Connections
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

11. What is a conference?
• What is an appropriate metaphor
for conference attendance?
– Group? Community? Network?
• Should teachers / students be cut off from
their networks?
– At school? Meetings? Conferences?
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

12. Alternative models for professional
and student skills development
• Use Nings / Moodles / wikis / Google Wave / Jing / uTiPu / or
other LMS/CMS to replace outmoded email attachment
systems
• Hold un-conferences and other grass roots events such as
• Bar camps
• LAN parties
• Speed-geeking
• Speed Lifing
http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/06/speedlifing.html
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

13. Keep current, participate with peers
around the world in:
• Social networks: Ning,
TappedIn, EVO, WiAOC
• Social bookmarking:
Delicious, Diigo
• Groups: YahooGroups
and GoogleGroups
• Microblogging:
Twitter, Plurk
• Instant messaging:
Yahoo Messenger,
Skype
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

14. Keep current, participate with peers
around the world in:
• Blogging and
podcasting:
keeping current via
RSS
• Wikis: PBWiki,
Wikispaces
• Aggregation:
Technorati,
Pageflakes, Netvibes,
Protopages, iGoogle,
http://addictomatic.com,
http://spezify.com
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

15. Personal Learning Networks
Scott Leslie's PLE (above) and more PLE diagrams: http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams

16. Nings
http://cck2009.ning.com/
http://multiliteracies.ning.com/video
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

17. Webcasts, Podcasts
http://ed
te chtalk.co
com/ m /live
evens.podomatic.
http://vance_st Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

18. Microblogging: Twitter
Our daily network interactions; e.g.
Morning Tweets
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

19. Microblogging: Edmodo
Modeled and demonstrated by Nicky Hockley, #Socialnet09
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

20. The not-yet future: Waves
Who are the
early pouncers?
http://wave.google.com
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

21. Organizing through Wikis
http://webheadswave.wikispaces.com/
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

22. Future of Learning
in a Networked World
http://flnw.wikispaces.com/Brazil
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

23. PD models
for Networked Interaction
• Growing numbers of teaching practitioners no
longer focus professional development
activities on annual conferences
• Professional development is done
– daily (weekly, etc.)
– for free
– at individual's pace and convenience
• Via Twitter, Ning, Skype, YouTube, Facebook,
YahooGroups, TappedIn, WiZiQ ...
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

24. PD models
for Networked Interaction
• Electronic Village Online (EVO, since 2001)
• Webheads (1998, WiA since 2002)
• Steve Hargadon Classroom 2.0
• Free online conferences
– George Siemens’s many conferences
– WiAOC
(Webheads in Action Online Convergences)
– K12 Online Conference
– 2010 #iatefl conference in Harrogate
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

25. How EVO models social Networking
• Almost all start with an email list, usually Yahoo
Groups – http://yahoogroups.com
• Many have Nings – http://ning.com
• Most use wikis; e.g. http://pbworks.com or
http://docs.google.com
• Many use microblogging; e.g. http://twitter.com
• Many socially bookmark URLs using
http://delicious.com or http://diigo.com
• Most encourage reflective blogs; e.g.
http://blogger.com
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

26. Key to success in keeping current
Expanding productive contacts within a network
Attribute: d'arcy norman touchgraph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/436670816/
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

27. TESOL Arabia Conferences
and Chapter Events
• In future, successful conferences and
professional organizations will combine
• opportunities for interpersonal connection
• with connectivity and
• seamless interaction with distributed personal learning
networks
– Those that do not will be decreasingly relevant
• If conferences are networked?
– Who benefits? Who loses?
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

28. Model Conferences
• Ongoing PD requires connection to a network
• Conferences are good for face to face
interaction and interpersonal networking
– But inefficient for sustained professional
development
– Many conferences / schools etc require
participants to leave their networks at the door
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

29. Model Conferences
• F2F conferences with rich networking
potential
– Learning 2.0 (Jeff Utecht, set up in Ning, Podcast)
– IATEFL right now, getting better
– NECC
– Educon 2.0
THINK SMALL
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

30. CALL? Think SMALL …
• Social networking via social media is the new CALL
• Now that the C in CALL is almost seamless, almost
taken for granted,
– Social networking is the new front-line
– SMALL? (Social media assisted LL?)
(… enhanced … won’t work)
For an online explanation of this presentation
http://tinyurl.com/ta10april2010
Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010