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Written by Bill Pellowe   
Thursday, 06 September 2012 16:29

NewsMOARS, the free, open-source Mobile Audience Response System for students to use with iPod Touch, iPhones, and other mobile browsers, will be featured in two presentations during JALT's 38th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning, to be held October 12 - 15, 2012, at ACT City in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Using a Mobile System to Monitor Extensive Reading

Saturday, October 13th, 6:10 PM to 7:10 PM, room MR35

Bill Pellowe (Kinki University) and Trevor A. Holster (Fukuoka Women's University)

Extensive reading (ER) requires comprehension of large quantities of interesting text of appropriate difficulty. Following a pilot experiment using paper surveys, the presenters developed an open-source module for a mobile-device-compatible survey system to collect data from students about ER. Analysis using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MRFM) indicated reliable measurement. This workshop demonstrates the module, and how it generates data easily imported into MFRM software, not only helping teachers monitor students' ER, but also informing text recommendations and future purchasing decisions. No previous experience with the software demonstrated is assumed.

Learning by Assessing In Second Language Writing

Monday, October 15th, 11:20 AM to 11:45 AM, room 32

Trevor A. Holster (Fukuoka Women's University), Bill Pellowe (Kinki University) and J. Lake (Fukuoka Women's University)

Performance assessment using peer-assessed tasks such as presentations or essay writing can improve engagement and provide learning opportunities for performers and raters through "learning-by-teaching." However, data collection and analysis limit the practicality for classroom teachers. The presenters demonstrate a peer-assessment module for an open-source audience response system designed for classroom use that can output data files for many-faceted Rasch analysis, allowing detailed analysis of students as both performers and raters. This presentation is aimed at classroom teachers, assumes no previous experience with the software demonstrated, and will be especially useful to those who want to do peer feedback research.