Rule <rule who-is-at gol.com>

Rule (rule who-is-at gol.com)
Wed, 26 Nov 1997 15:05:53 +0900

I'm a foreign lecturer of English (as a foreign language) at Aichi Gakuin
University in Nagoya, Japan. My area of research has been computer-assisted
language learning (CALL). Recently, however, I have become interested in
constructionism, specifically, in what sorts of constructions (tangible
representations, computational or otherwise) facilitate students' building
of stronger/clearer mental representations of a second language.

Much of my reading has centered around the work of MIT Media Lab's
Epistemology and Learning Group
<http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/elpapers.html>. Most of the
available papers relate to math and science education which has offered a
challenge to me (i.e., in drawing out what is germane to language
education). Seymour Papert's (?) idea of "debugging" had played heavily in
the model I am currently working with... I see that the interaction between
"designer" and "user" (most recently of hypermedia interactive stories and
mind maps of conversations) offers valuable opportunities for discussion,
examination, probing, and modification of not only the project itself, but
also of the designer's and user's understanding of the second language (L2)
used in the project. Both designer and user play the role of L2 researcher.
My recent paper on this model, entitled "Hypermedia Authoring: A
Constructionist Approach to Language Learning," is available in PDF format
at <http://www2.gol.com/users/rule/scott>.

I am feeling saturated, however, and am joining this list to "come up for
air" and join in the discussion of connections/links that members are
making.

Cordially,

Scott Rule