The following five websites have been selected as samples of the types that we, as Novice WBLL teachers, need to access to continue drawing inspiration, seek information and develop a sense of community that will last long after this course finishes.
http://towerofenglish.com links you to a listening site that you can bookmark and draw down from for years. Its inclusion here is designed to inspire you to search the Web yourself, so you can regularly create your own task-based activities. For example, this site includes recordings of Neil Armstrong's landing on the Moon, and Nixon's resignation speech; plus much much more. Get inspired!
www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495 is a link to the teacher development site. '7 Things You Should Know About ...' is a one-stop shop for the lastest briefings and information on everything of interest to the WBLL teacher. For example, there are archived briefs on every possible CMC tool with, no doubt, regular updates as they arrive. Plus, much much more to keep the teacher right on the pulse of WBLL. An excellent site that simply must be bookmarked.
http://webheadsinaction.org/ links to Webheads in Action - one of 'the electronic communities of learning' that Sotillo, 2000, May was referring to in Review of the Research, bottom of para. 3. Aka, an online Community of Practice (CoP) Webhead members regularly meet online to discuss the latest CMC tools, explore e-Learning issues, and so forth. Why doesn't every teacher join and connect to this profession in a much more proactive way than simply reading and teaching? Why not practice what you preach to your students and get involved. We can all do with as much help as possible in order to keep abreast of the rapid developments in this field. What better way to go beyond the Novice label. Highly recommended.
www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59782 links to a site that is a worthy of investigating to find out more about podcasts, and their application to WBLL and, in turn, SLLT in general. This site, OneStopEnglish, is a general SLLT site sponsered by MacMillan Publishing which has recently launched this section dealing specifically with podcasts. They can see the value of this CMC tool and believe in its future application to the profession. An interesting place to look-around. Check it out, then go and research some more!
http://worldlanguages.merlot.org is the World Languages portal belonging to MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Online Teaching and Learning. This organisation is HUGE and holds a massive online library worthy of a good browse. The library holds tutorials, simulations, animations, case studies, and collections. One thing we can not get enough of in this vibrant field is information; particularly for Novice teachers as we students most certainly are. Worthy of a look.