Vol 7, No. 3
Software Reviews

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Columns:
Collaborative Software and Services for the Writing Class by Paul Daniels

'POST-DARWINIAN DYNAMICS'  by Steve Shucart

Quick Reviews
by Kevin Ryan

Soft Cover Reviews

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Quick Reviews
By Kevin Ryan

If anyone would like to see a longer version with more details, please contact the author for submission in the next CJO. These are quick reviews of both print and software materials related to language teaching and computers. -Kevin Ryan

Computers, Minds and Conduct
Button, et.al.

I bought this book because one of the authors was Jeffery Coulter, revered in hypertext literary circles such as Eastgate, and it was on the shelf of my favorite bookstore outside Northwestern University, slated for sale in one of the computer and learning courses. I found a philosophical tract, or rather a series of them, on consciousness and learning, but very little to do with computers. Chapters cover Philosophy, Language and Mind; the Cartesian Nexus, Connectionist theory, computational linguistics and whether a machine can think or talk. This book may be interesting after reading about Turing, Searle’s Chinese Room and Roger Penrose, but only then.

Button, Graham, Couter, J. Lee, J.R.E., Sharrock, W. (1995) Computers, Minds and Conduct, Polity/ Blackwell, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0 7456 1571 6

Language Learning Online: Theory and Practice in the ESL and L2 Computer Classroom
Swaffar, et. al.

Inscribed inside the cover, a note to myself: bought at the 1998 TESOL conference in Seattle, at the Daedalus booth. That should have been a tip-off. Although the sub-title is "Theory and Practice in the ESL and L2 Computer Classroom" all the of the research is directed toward using Daedalus. Daedalus is a suite of collaborative writing software designed for ESL/EFL classroom interaction and a process approach to writing. The subtitle should have read, "Computer Assisted Classroom Discussion (CACD) at the University of Texas at Austin." From the looks of it, I would guess that Janet Swaffar is the senior professor in the department, and each of the other seven authors is under her guidance. The quality of the research is very uniformly presented, but often lacked significance because of either poor research design or small sample size. I would recommend this book to anyone considering Daedalus as a way to improve informal class discussion over a computer network (practicing email?) rather than for what they term as "display writing". A study of Asians and women , another on interaction of minority (Black and Hispanic) students and another on attitudes and motivation. I found the entire work a little too PC (as in politically correct and too post-structuralist. UT at Austin is a great school, though, and the in-depth explanation of how Daedalus is used there might be worth the wade through questionable research. Note that Daedalus has the copyright.

Swaffer, J, et.al. (1998) Language Learning Online: is "Theory and Practice in the ESL and L2 Computer Classroom, Labyrinth, Austin.

The Power of CALL
Martha Pennington, ed.

Martha Pennington has assembled an impressive array of writers on CALL to form a collection well worth looking into. Broader than her last book on Computers and Writing (see issue 7/2 for a review), authors touch on many aspects of the CALL world. Phil Hubbard discuss methodolgy, Carol Chapelle and Joan Jameison on classroom research, Robert Hoffman on networks, Tom Cobb and Vance Stevens on reading, Marianne Phinney on writing and John Esling on spoken language skills. A couple of weak articles on hypermedia (not another introduction to hypermedia!) and concordancing could have been brought up to the level of the others, but in general, this is one to consider next time you are in the bookstore. The only sin I can find throughout the book is that it may be overly optimistic. A good introduction to the field.

Pennington, M. (ed.) (1996) The Power of CALL, Athelstan, Houston. ISBN 0-940753-03-0

(Note: Athelstan is publishing another collection by Pennington on computers and writing which should come out March 1999. See their web site at http://www.athel.com/).

Computer-Assisted Language Learning
Michael Levy

(See the The Language Teacher for a more complete review.)

Michael Levy has obviously put a lot of work into this book. It shows. Levy looks at CALL from a variety of perspectives; historical, links to other disciplines, through the body of literature it has generated, and through a survey he has taken. Studded with examples, he walks us through how CALL has developed over the decades, each with its own paradigm. Projects like PLATO, ATHENA, TICCIT, CAMILLE, and OLA are covered. The shortest chapter (yet the most interesting) was the one on related fields and their interaction with CALL Cognitive science intermingles with SLA and AI, most sub-fields in linguistics, information processing, instructional design with programmed learning and materials design, natural language processing and parsing along with language teaching methodology. A wonderful mix. The coverage of the CALL literature is adequate, with an interesting emphasis on different taxonomies of the field. The survey was the most disappointing part of the book, with a 48% response rate (104 responses from institutions around the world), and shooting at a moving target with the quick advances in the field, the results seem worthwhile for long-term trend watching, but little else. The chapter on emerging themes covers researchers today that have been of interest to Levy (and by extension, us readers). We then arrive at Levy’s kernel contribution to the field in this book, the tutor-tool framework. Not quite a dichotomy, it is more a continuum for evaluation and preparation of CALL materials and programs. The final chapters are the most valuable part of the book, Levy’s take on the nature of CALL. This book is a definite must in the library of any CALL professional.

Affective Computing
Rosalind Picard

Advances in psychology show that emotions play a far greater role than previously thought. Human emotions are involved in decision making, perception, learning and even "rational" thinking. The focus of the book is the attempts of computer scientists to develop computers to deal with humans on a more emotional level. The books first half covers the theoretical background necessary for a more emotional HCI (human computer interface). The second half is the application of those ideas in the real world, with real-world examples. Even though this book is written in a style understandable by the layman, some language teachers may find this book too technically oriented. Fisher projections and McGurk effects make the reading difficult to get through, but well worth it. Learning how computers model affective system, recognize facial and vocal stresses, and even to certain degree mimic those physiological signals of emotion are intensely interesting. Picard teaches and researches at MIT’s Media Lab.

Picard, Rosalind, (1997) Affective Computing. Boston, MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-16170-2

Hypertext 2: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology
George P. Landow

The first version of this book came out in 1992, and it changed my life. I became fascinated with this thing called hypertext and began experiments using rudimentary software like IRIS to develop "knowledge webs." So I was delighted to see the biggest web of all expand across the Internet and the world a year or two later. Rereading it in 1995, I found the constant references to the post-structuralist French philosophers a bit tedious, but the examples included invaluable for conceiving of information (and later writing as an extension). Landow used to teach at Brown, then went to Johns Hopkins after publishing the first edition. This book was instrumental in my discovering Eastgate (www.easgate.com) and StorySpace, the best software for writing hypertextual fiction. Version 2 was somewhat of a disappointment. Bakhtin, Foucault, Barthes, Derrida and Baudrillard still take up most of the first chapter. The examples have been updated, but the content has basically remained the same. He does refr more to contemporaries like Stuart Malthroup and David Jay Bolter, which have very stimulating works of their own. If you didn’t get the first version of this book back in ’92, definitely get this one for a great perspective on literature in hypertext. If you got the first one, you can pass on this second.

Landow, George. (1997) Hypertext 2: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-5586-1

Inside Multi-Media Case-Based Instruction
Roger Schank, Editor

This book is a kind of compliment to Shank’s Engines for Education (with Chip Cleary). This book consists of four shorter (80-100 pages each) works on using an Artificial Intelligence technique of case-based reasoning and storytelling by experts to use computers in a new learning paradigm. The first article by Apple Computer’s Enio Ohmaye is on language learning and is of most interest to us here, as well as being a rounded introduction to the application of Schank’s thories. Other articles are on Socratic case-based teaching (Daniel Edelson), Social simulation and story retreival (Robin D. Burke), and representing and applying teaching strategies (Menachem Y. Jona). Shank runs the Institute for Learning Sciences (ILS) at Northwestern University (check out their web site) and puts into practice his theories with large corporations like Arthur Anderson. This book is from students that helped him develop some of the successful software that saved millions of dollars in training fees for these companies. Check out this very hands-on account of four different projects.

Schank, Roger (ed.) (1998) Inside Multi-Media Case-Based Instruction. Erlbaum, London, Mahwah, NJ. ISBN 0-8058-2538-X

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Edward R. Tufte

We so often teach our students a certain kind of literacy that has very little to do with real-world reading. Many times most of the information is laden in a chart or graph. Learning to read this kind of presentation is important. Half of my students go on to financial institutions after they graduate, yet we rarely teach them how to spell out a math problem, much less explain a graph. Then there is the "writing" part, the creation of graphical information that is now so easy on today’s word processors. Edward Tufte is one of the most well known arbiters of style of graphical information. This is the first in a series of three books on style, the Strunk and White of graphs and charts. He litters his book with both good and bad examples, making sparse explanations that drive home simple points. Think of it as Robin Williams (My Mac is not a Typewriter) on steroids and shiny paper (now in its sixteenth printing). This first is depicted in the sales brochure as "pictures of numbers." The second in his series is Envisioning Information, is "pictures of nouns," maps of data and evidence. The third, "pictures of verbs," depicts cause and effect.

Tufte, Edward, (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. The Graphics Press, Cheshire Connecticut. ISBN- none visible

Can I Fax you a thank-you note?
Audrey Glassman

The sub-title of this book, "The first handbook of techno-etiquette" intrigued me since I had co-authored a book on using email in international business http://www.nikkei.co.jp/pub/newbooks97-9-1/14569/14569.html. The book was a total disappointment, concentrating on avoiding faux-pas on telephone and fax, with only few pages dedicated to email. Most of those were taken up with how email works and how to use smileys. You can get better guides off the web. Don’t buy this one!

Galssman, Audrey (1998) Can I Fax you a thank-you note? Berkeley, New York.

ISBN 0-425-16433-0

Dave Barry in Cyberspace
Dave Barry

Humorist Dave Barry has an opinion on everything, and you can bet it will be unusual. Dave Barry treated his three-week trip to Japan in a sidesplitting book. He has had much more experience with computers and it shows. The fables are all the more detailed and for a computer users, invariably hilarious. Quick reading, I could even recommend some of these for students, if their ar intermediate and know computer jargon. I could go on with a million examples, but I will just let you get the book and wail with laughter. Get it quick, though, it was first published in 1996 and this computer stuff gets out of date really quick!

Barry, Dave (1996). Dave Barry in Cyberspace. Ballantine. ISBN 0-449-91230-2