This Session is sponsored by the Computer-Assisted Language Learning
Interest Section of TESOL

Moderator: Vance Stevens

Target Audience
Foreign language, including ESL/EFL, teachers wishing to learn more about setting up web presences for themselves and their students. The focus however will not be absolute beginners to an online community. The target will be those who already interact in online communities and who would like to push up to the next level of managing and archiving their interaction, and those who facilitate such communities and want to inculcate a sense of responsibility in participants regarding setting up and maintaining their own online presences.


Content Description
There are many reasons why teachers might be interested in Web presence. First of all, teachers might want to share with peers information on a particular area of expertise within their field, or they might want to help students establish a web presence so they can write authentically and communicatively to an audience that extends beyond the walls of the brick and mortar classroom. In either of these roles teachers might be either or both members or facilitators of an online community. Such communities are enhanced by participants' getting to know one another through artifacts available in the online environment. Where the facilitator must establish and maintain these artifacts (in the form of web pages) this becomes such a burden on the facilitator that interaction within the community may be compromised.

This session shows participants various ways of establishing web presence and sets out a tutorial that can be used or taught to others to ensure that members of an online community are capable of taking on the responsibility for establishing and maintaining their own web presence, thus freeing the facilitator to devote attentions to other aspects of community building without having to neglect the crucial one of creating a means by which community members can meet and appreciate the skills and personalities of one another.

Content will be presented in this course through web pages that will constantly model:

*how communities can form and grow through effective use of online presence

 *how establishment and maintenance of online presence can be taught to participants in an online community

It is also intended to develop a Moodle that will link to the above web pages and itself help manage the learning of the course goals.

In the course of the 6 weeks, participants will learn collaboratively and hands on to:

· start and use various kinds of blogs

· start their own web pages through a number of different free web hosts, such as Tripod and Geocities

· develop simple web pages (or enhance pages created in HTML editors) using HTML code that can be written and saved as HTML in Notepad (other HTML editors can be used, but we will assume no more than access to a text editor such as Notepad, or its Mac counterparts)

· enhance their web presence using photos, sounds, javascripts, etc.

Week by Week Outline

Week I -
Blogger: features and templates
Buzznet and other blogs

Week II -
Bloki (a blog that verges on a web site)
Introduction to HTML

Week III -
Setting up at Geocities and / or Tripod (depending where you are in the world)
More HTML


Week IV -
Images on web pages: photo manipulation, file sizes, linkages
Even more HTML


Week V -
Managing larger projects
Enhancements such as 'borrowing' javascripts and attractive features from other web pages


Week VI - 
Showcasing our projects 


Communication Media
Regular and prearranged meetings at http://www.tappedin.org
A course web page linking the community
A Yahoo Group dedicated to the course, used for file storage and listserv
A blog or wiki promoting interaction within the group
A Moodle to serve as portal for the above elements




To join this group go to The Web Presence Website
   and follow the directions there.