Unless otherwise indicated, preconference workshops will be held on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus on Tuesday, May 29, Wednesday, May 30, and Saturday, June 2, 2018. Workshop space is limited; registering now reserves your place. Register for these workshops on the conference registration form.
Click on the items below or scroll down the page for full information about the workshops.
Tuesday, May 29
9:00am-12:00pm
Interactive Stories with Twine
1:00pm-4:00pm
Using ArcGIS in a Class Project
Wednesday, May 30
9:00am-12:00pm
H5P, ANVILL, and the Case for Faculty Authoring
1:00pm-4:00pm
GIS and Google Maps: Jump Starting your Place Based Lesson
9:00am-4:00pm
Saturday, June 2
9:00am-12:00pm
Creating Games for Mobile Apps 101
9:00am-4:00pm
Creating Interactive Fiction and Narratives for the Language Classroom
Detailed Workshop Descriptions
Interactive Stories with Twine
Half Day Workshop ($50)
Tuesday, 29 May 2018
9:00am-12:00pm
Location: Nevada Lab
Conducted by: Jeremy Robinson and Frederick Poole
In this workshop participants will learn to use the open source software Twine to build interactive, non-linear story driven games for second language learners. These games allow learners to actively choose the direction of the story and subsequently increase engagement with the text. These can be beneficial for the language learner who reads these stories in the target language, or who creates these stories in the target language. Workshop participants will be introduced to Twine’s authoring tools, shown story examples, create their own short interactive story, and create a project plan to be implemented in a future course. This workshop will demonstrate both how this tool can be used for classroom activities and for research in second language learning. This tool is suitable for teachers and researchers working with any language and students of all proficiency levels.
Using ArcGIS in a Class Project
Half Day Workshop ($50)
Tuesday, 29 May 2018
1:00pm-4:00pm
Location: Foreign Languages Building, G17
Conducted by: Trevor Shanklin
This workshop will introduce you to using ArcGIS Online to create web applications suitable for class projects and for curriculum development. We will use ArcGIS online to add a basemap and data layers, use the smartmap feature to do a data analysis, and then configure a web application. Next we discuss using the web application in a class project and finally look at the free ESRI training modules to further skills development. Examples of two recent projects are presented: a class map for study abroad students and a capstone project for a graduate student in learning design and technology.
H5P, ANVILL, and the Case for Faculty Authoring
Half Day Workshop ($50)
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
9:00am-12:00pm
Location: Nevada Building
Conducted by: Jeff Magoto, Sarah Foroughifar, and Shannon Spasova
Two open-source and widely available course authoring and media-centric tools will be the focus for our tool learning: H5P, a general purpose authoring system, not written with language learning in mind, and ANVILL-LTI, initially a web-based language lab replacement tool, which has morphed into a speech tool with many functions and course authoring capabilities. Both H5P and ANVILL are easy to learn, so we should be able to devote much of the workshop to materials creation. A relatively extensive introduction to the tools will be available to participants prior to the workshop. And because they were both written to play well with other systems, they now work well together. Interactive Video quizzes written in H5P, for example, run natively in ANVILL.
GIS and Google Maps: Jump Starting your Place Based Lesson
Half Day Workshop ($50)
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
1:00pm-4:00pm
Location: Nevada Building
Organized by: Robert Elliott and Jeff Magoto
GIS and the freely available Google Maps offer many opportunities for language teachers to incorporate place based education. In this workshop, participants will be walked through the elements of creating maps for collaborative and individual projects. We will view numerous samples of map projects, and cover the essentials of creating, naming, retrieving and setting permissions on collaborative maps. We will take part in two mini-projects, one a collaborative mapping exercise, and the other an individual mapping project. We will conclude with a brainstorming session on map projects that will work for your classes. A support website will be made available.
The Parallelism of Digital Game Design and Effective Language Pedagogy: Exploiting Synergies for the Creation of Classroom Materials
Full Day Workshop ($100)
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
9:00am-4:00pm
Location: Foreign Languages Building G17
Conducted by: Stephanie Knight and Julie Sykes
Though players are often unaware of the embedded mechanisms, smart digital game design closely mirrors the design of an effective SLA environment. Both environments involve goal orientation, meaningful interaction, feedback, contextualized environments, and are motivating to their actors (Sykes & Reinhardt, 2013). This workshop will guide participants to exploit these synergies to create game-enhanced learning activities for their own classrooms. Participants will use a research-based tool to evaluate variety of low-cost, digital commercial games for their utility in SLA contexts. They will also experience and evaluate ready-made classroom activities, and time will be allotted for collaboration and unique activity creation.
Creating Games for Mobile Apps 101
Half Day Workshop ($50)
Saturday, 2 June 2018
9:00am-12:00pm
Location: Foreign Languages Building G17
Conducted by: Mahmoud Amer
Games are an important part of the modern language teaching classroom, and while most teachers generally agree with this notion, the current landscape for games to be used in the classroom is limited, and fragmented. Apart from a few limited games that can be used, teachers mostly have no control over the game in terms of content, length, integration, or portability. While massive complex game design is not the scope of this workshop, meaningful and form focused games can be within the reach of language teachers. In this workshop, attendees will learn how to create interactive games, and how to adapt these games to their students.
Creating Interactive Fiction and Narratives for the Language Classroom
Full Day Workshop ($100)
Saturday, 2 June 2018
9:00am-4:00pm
Location: Nevada Building
Conducted by: Phillip Cameron, Frederik Cornillie, and Randall Sadler
Today, there is an abundance of free tools for crafting interactive fiction (IF), which are interactive reading experiences often combined with game mechanics. This workshop is an introduction to crafting IF and other interactive narratives in a hands-on approach for a general audience including researchers and teachers in domains such as virtual worlds, gaming, fan fiction, or (creative) writing. Participants will develop a) an understanding of the mechanics of interactive narratives through playing and writing; b) ideas for use in the classroom; c) a collaboratively created narrative artifact that they may adapt to their own courses. Programming knowledge not required.