Rich Internet Applications - Conversations and Mashup

CLEAR’s RIAs

Michigan State’s Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR) has created a number of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) that can be used across a variety of disciplines. Because CLEAR is funded by a US Department of Education grant, the applications are free to use. Furthermore, they do not include annoying advertisements. As a world language instructor, I have used a number of these RIAs in both face-to-face and online classes, and have been very pleased with them. Although the RIAs were created for language classes, most of the tools can be used in other disciplines as well. 

Conversations

One of my favorite RIAs is Conversations. Instructors create a series of audio questions for students to answer. In world language classes, the questions are often structured in such a way to simulate an authentic conversation that a student might have in the target language. However, the tool can just as easily be used to create a series of audio questions and responses in any discipline. 

Let’s look at how to create one now. The video below will show:

• where you can find Conversations and other tools on the RIA homepage
• how you create a conversation
• where you find the embed code to insert into your webpage, LMS, or Mashup (the second video will show you how to use Mashups)
• how a student will go about answering the questions
• how you can locate and listen to the student responses

Once you have created your conversation, copy the embed code and insert it into your webpage or Learning Management System (LMS).

Mashups

If you don’t have access to a webpage or LMS, you can use CLEAR’s Mashups tool to create a page where you can insert your conversation (or any other embeddable element). Your mashup will provide you with a url that you can give to students so they can access the conversation. The following video will show you how to use Mashups.