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About Vance Stevens

A 4-line bio from Feb 2008: Vance Stevens teaches computing at Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. After a 20-year career in English language teaching, usually as CALL specialist and coordinator, he worked in software development in California as educational technology consultant, before returning to the Middle East as ed tech coordinator for a language school in Abu Dhabi. There he founded the online community Webheads resulting in involvement in many community-based online professional development endeavors which have formed the basis of his professional development life this past decade.

An earlier Bio: Vance Stevens is a Lecturer in Computing at Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. From 1997-2003 he was CALL (computer-assisted language learning) coordinator at the Military Language Institute in Abu Dhabi. He has been an ESL teacher since 1975, and has implemented CALL since 1979. He has conducted research, produced numerous publications and CALL software, and was for 2 years Director of ESL Software Design at a software publishing company in California.

Vance is past chair and founding member of the CALL Interest Section in TESOL. He has also served on the editorial boards of major professional journals, e.g. TESOL Quarterly and CALICO Journal, and is currently

• E-Sphere section editor of the new journal Writing & Pedagogy, from Equinox Publishing, edited by Martha Pennington. http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/wap
• On the Internet editor of the TESL-EJ (Electric Online Journal)
• On Editorial Board of Computer Assisted Language Learning An International Journal (CALL-Journal)
• On the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning
• Vice-President II, Executive Committee for November 2004 - October 2006 of APACALL (Asia-Pacific Association for CALL), and renewed for another term.
• EVOnline Liaison to TESOL in general, formerly via the Distance Education Sub-committee of TESOL's Professional Development Committee, and Advisor to the PDC for 2005-2006.

Since 1996 Vance has developed online language learning environments resulting in two robust communities of practice (one for students and the other for teaching peers) based on the 'Webheads' model of personalized web pages and weekly synchronous online events. These activities have led to numerous publications and conference presentations in the past several years, both on site and online, and to a number of appearances for keynotes and workshops under the auspices of various institutions including the US State Department’s English Language Specialist Program. Eight years of fruitful interaction and substantial collaboration through Webheads culminated in the Webheads in Action Online Convergence which Vance instigated and coordinated entirely online in November, 2005, and which is scheduled for a repeat in May 2007: http://wiaoc.org

• I have extensive conference presentation experience (both in-person and online), and have over 50 publications (courseware, reviews, articles, chapters, and co-editorship of books).
• As a recognized leader in the field, I have served on editorial and executive boards and committees of organizations of which I am a member (e.g. TESOL Quarterly, CALICO Journal, APACALL).
• I have had 20 years experience as a face-to-face teacher of ESL/EFL (1975-1995).
• I have been involved with CALL since 1979. I headed my first major CALL development project in 1980 did my thesis research on a CALL topic for my MA/ESL1983, and worked as instructional developer and CALL coordinator (in addition to EFL/ESL teaching) throughout my post-MA career until 1995.
• I have conducted regular online training of students and teachers in techniques favoring formation of communities of practice which I have formed and sustained since 1996.
• My leadership skills online culminated in the Webheads in Action Online Convergence, a milesone online event first held in November, 2005, and scheduled to repeat in May 2007: http://wiaoc.org
• I worked full-time in CALL software design and project consultancy and management from 1995 until 2003 (and since then I have been a lecturer of computing).
• Currently working as Lecturer of Computing, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE

CALL = computer-assisted language learning
CMC = computer-mediated communications
ESL/EFL = English as a second/foreign language

55 words: Vance Stevens is a Computing Lecturer at Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. In 20 years as ESL teacher and CALL coordinator, he implemented many CALL facilities, conducted research, and produced numerous publications and CALL software. He moonlights as Ed Tech consultant, online facilitator and coach, and founder and moderator of the Webheads community of practice.

Teacher training and professional development, face-to-face and online

My research efforts have been in the area of efficacy of CALL, or computer-assisted language learning. Since the early 1980's I have held several CALL coordinator positions where my job was to implement CALL and train others to cope with computers in the workplace as well as use them productively with students. Recently I have altered my notions of CALL after fostering an online community called Webheads which started out in 1997-8 as an online class for students. The class was totally communicative and developed linguistic competence in students through giving them an opportunity to meet regularly as members of a community in various virtual spaces. The class attracted the interest of teachers who soon formed an offshoot called Webheads in Action which has served as a crucible for notions of learning languages and how to teach them through constructivist principles that work through communities of practice. This group, in existence since 2001-2, has been the focus of my teacher training activities lately. The idea is for participants to use multimedia computer-mediated communications tools to help each other learn about blended and online environments so as to develop implementations applicable to participants' teaching situations and special projects.

I have proposed and/or presented the following seminars and workshops recently:

• Many more since those given below, see http://vancestevens.com/papers ...
• I conducted an online training session on Web presence for the EVOnline 2005 Sessions, January 17 - February 27, 2005 [6 weeks]
  • About EVO 2005 http://www.geocities.com/ehansonsmi/evo2005/announce.html.
  • Course portal: http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/evo2005/webpresence.htm.
  • Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webpresence; [email protected]
  • Moodle: http://www.opensource.idv.tw/moodle/
  • Buzznet blog: http://webpres2005.buzznet.com
• I gave an online course September 13-October 10, 2004 as part of the TESOL Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate Program, http://www.tesol.org/edprg/olw/ppcp/index.html on Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments - Instructor: Vance Stevens. A multiliterate online language teacher creates learning environments interweaving sound and image with text over networked media. This course provides experiential training in the technological skills required to develop effective strategies for utilizing video, web cam, image, and voice technologies in communities of practice as enhancements to collaborative learning settings. http://www.tesol.org/edprg/olw/ppcp/courses-1.html#pp107
• I conducted two week-long workshops July 19 - 31, 2004 as an English Language Specialist at a Summer English Institute for secondary school teachers in Mahdia, Tunisia. The courses developed principles of good online tutoring through establishing blended learning environments incorporating both face to face and experiential online exploration of a set of community building tools for interacting online. The portal for the workshops is here, http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tunisia2004/mahdia.htm, where you can find links to our YahooGroup, the pictures we took and placed at Ofoto, the blogs created at Blogger and Buzznet, and web sites participants created using Tripod. The second and most developed syllabus for the course can be found here: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tunisia2004/mahdia_wk2.htm
• I put on one of the TESOL Online Academies October 27 to November 23, 2003. My session is listed as: Enhancing Online Communities with Voice and Webcams (W-3) Workshop Leader: Vance Stevens, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: http://www.tesol.org/edprg/olw/academies.html#w3 and it has its portal here: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/academy/portal2003.htm.
• Find here a proposal for a 6 hour session on computer mediated communications tools
• Here is a syllabus for an 8 week session on Community formation online and its role in language learning with sections on web design and computer-mediated communications
• Portal for a 2-hour workshop on Internet Applications in Foreign Language Learning

Web Projects

The following are web projects of my design, all of them ongoing:

• Writing for Webheads - a community of practice of language learners and facilitators - since 1998
• Webheads in Action - a community of practice of language teachers and practitioners which meets in a number of cyberspaces to explore a variety of multimedia computer mediated communication tools and their application to language learning and role in professional development - since 2001
• Web resource for CALL lab users and managers - a comprehensive portal which I and others have found useful in setting up and implementing computer-based language training and teacher professional development, both on-site and online - since 1996
• Virtual Learning Resource Center - a portal meant to complement a brick-and-mortar learning resource center which I had designed on paper, including 3-D CAD mockup and specifications for equipment, software, and integration into a network - since March 2003

In April 2007 I had to justify my credentials for teaching computing with an MA/ESL degree:

I have an extensive track and publications record in computing

• My presentations over the past decade: http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/papers/index.html#navigate, and m
• My publications are listed at: http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/papers/index.html#writings).

I have been using computers in teaching English since 1979 (when I was put in charge of the first-ever computer-based instructional development effort for the ELC at University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, KSA) and I have been CONTINUALLY involved in their use since that time. My MA in ESL (1983) had as its thesis an experiment wherein I myself programmed a computer to deliver instructional materials to students (and used the data derived to draw conclusions about most appropriate feedback).

In 1984 I was again using my programming skills in BASIC to re-code programs written for Apple in the public domain and repurpose them for use in the ESL program I established at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, where I got that school to set up a small computer lab dedicated to my program (they had allocated money for computers but not software, a typical oversight at the time).

In 1985 I went to Oman as an instructional developer and worked with a programmer there to develop over several years a set of text manipulation programs (published initially as Text Tanglers and later as SuperCloze) which I again used in research (tracking student keystrokes). My work with the programmer often involved my sketching the ideas out in rough BASIC (and later QuickBASIC) and his improving the code with subroutines and procedures. My duties evolved over 10 years at Sultan Qaboos University into my becoming CALL (computer-assisted language learning) coordinator for the Language Center at SQU (half time, I also taught EFL).

In 1995 I effectively ended my EFL career by moving to California to work full time for an educational software company. My job there was to work on coding in Authorware as well as dealing with all aspects of digital recording (from studio to file manipulations) and speech recognition (working with in IBM product to force the program to recognize the speech according to the coding language provided).

In 1997 after a consultancy with Amideast to explore the possibility of establishing a language center for the UAE military (my part of the consultancy was to address the technology required for the center) I was hired by Amideast to coordinate (full time) all computer-assisted language learning aspects of the resulting Military Language Institute. This included coordinating work with networking and also with developing a database driven interface to organize academic and administrative work at the MLI, as well as selection and adaptation of software in an appropriate context for language learning, training teachers in its use, and continually troubleshooting the software and hardware issues that arose daily, as well as write specs for the military on numerous proposals for other military language centers in the UAE patterned on the MLI.

When my (second) contract with Amideast expired in 2003 I was interviewed for and accepted as candidate for my current position.

Meanwhile, I have since 1997 been deeply involved in educational technology (in language learning and other disciplines) though online communities which I either joined or in some cases founded using computer-mediated communication tools. My own communities (Webheads student and teacher groups) have around 1000 members and are actively involved in training one another online in latest developments in ed tech. We interact daily and intensively in email lists, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, which we extensively document on the Internet using our own web sites or computer based learning-management systems.

In addition, I am frequently called upon to make presentations, set up training workshops, teach courses both face-to-face and online, and occasionally deliver plenary addresses at international conferences, on topics ranging from CALL to other aspects of educational technology (e.g. multiliteracy). This May I am organizing my second conference on ed tech to be held completely online (for free) http://wiaoc.org .

To find out more about my skills and endeavors

I invite you to conduct web searches on 'Vance Stevens' for example:

• Google: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Vance+Stevens
• Altavista: http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=Vance+Stevens&kgs=0&kls=1&avkw=xytx

Thank you

Copyright 2007 by Vance Stevens
under Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

January 12, 2007

Mirrors: This page is available at:

• http://www.vancestevens.com/vance.htm
• http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/vance.htm
• http://www.prof2000.pt/users/vstevens/vance.htm