new research
I went to kickstarter.com's open house today to practice pitching Converso. It was a great learning experience and definitely motivated me to do some additional research. I wanted to make the larger purpose of Converso clear, which is to motivate students to continue studying their target language.
Converso - Refining my argument
Converso is a supplement to the college language class. It’s main goal is to motivate students to continue studying their target language. It accomplishes this by providing students with connections to native speaking peers and contextualizing their learning. In Bilingualism, Multiculturalism, and Second Language Learning, Prof. Wallace E. Lambert concludes that “...perceived motivational support from the other language community was an important determinant of second-language achievement, often more so than individual motivation.” This extra motivation could be a key component in the retention of students. In Converso students become part of a larger language learning community that supports each other with individual attention and personal connections.
I then took some time to research popular course management systems to see if it would be appropriate to build a module.
Response to Cynthia’s comment
Converso is not a course management tool. There are a number of course management systems currently being used by major universities. ANGEL Learning Management, Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, eFront, Moodle, Sakai, WebStudy, Claroline, ATutor, TeleTOP, and Scholar360 are the ones that seem to be most widely used. Every university has their own course management system in place and it isn’t always online. Every teacher also has their own unique system so it would be unnecessary for Converso to have cms components. If I were to develop a module or plugin for the existing course management system I would have to develop one for every type of system as well as something accessible to those that don’t have a CMS at all. I think the most rational way to begin is to create something separate that everyone can access and then later once the community has been established add ways to integrate it with a CMS.
Converso is an exclusive network. In order to keep the outside learning experience consistent with what is learned inside the classroom students will have to use a standard form of their language. For example a student learning Spanish in Minnesota might have a difficult time understanding a student from a remote part of Chile. The abbreviated or heavily accented Spanish could end up being demotivating for the student. Substantial learning requires some structure and consistency, and Converso will provide it.
Good night,
Hilary