Technology in Modern Foreign Languages – A practitioner’s perspective

If you are looking for some tips on how technology can be integrated into the Foreign Languages classroom, you need to read the collection of articles embedded below.

Written by classroom teachers for classroom teachers and edited by José Picardo, it covers a whole array of ways that have worked in the language classroom to integrate ICT into all the skill areas. Highly recommended professional reading; and, if you want to go further, create a twitter account and follow those who have contributed to the document. They are all inspirational.

Technology in Modern Foreign Languages - A Practitioner's Perspective

Animoto

I've been a bit busy the past week or so as on top of the usual end of term assessment writing, marking and reports, I have been preparing for my first PD presentation. As part of the preparation for that presentation I have begun to use Animoto more in class and have prepared a short video to highlight what it is. Animoto is great for putting short videos together and even better if you grab an educator account as it allows you and your students to make longer videos with images, text and audio. Simple to use but effective. Students can include the target language in written or spoken form in their movies. Here's the one I prepared earlier ...

MapSkip

Searching through my bookmarks for a site to help me with some inspirational lessons for Year 8 Japanese, I came across MapSkip. Although I had no recollection of actually bookmarking it, it seemed to be kind of what I was looking for.

What I was looking for was a site with maps that you could add placemarks and write content into the marker. Like google maps but more... On examination I found several reasons to like MapSkip:

1. It's relatively easy to create student accounts - just remember to tick the box indicating you are a teacher when you sign up. Student accounts are created through your account and their email is not needed. Sounds good so far. It does look like creating the accounts may take a little time though.
2. You can allow or block 'outsiders' from commenting on your student's stories. You can also filter the maps on the site so that you only see stories created by the teacher and students.
3. Not only can you add pictures but also audio and video content.

So, it allows you to add placemarks to a map and write stories at that spot which can include audio, video and pictures. What's more (for me) is that it will accept the Japanese script.

The story I want my students to tell is of their assigned character. Perhaps get them to used their favourite stuffed toy as Langwitches has done with Jose the Travel Bear. Take pictures in various locations and then write the story in the target language, add narration in the target language or even video. Of course, this would be really good if you were going on an overseas trip. Take photos of the toy in famous spots (see above picture from our 2007 Japan trip), add video or even interview the locals in their language. Lots of possibilities but I think I'll try local first.

There seems to be a lot of potential here ... but I'll need to use the site a little more first.

Any ther ideas?

Web 2.0 Tools that worked in 08

Recently I've been trying to reflect a little on the year that has just passed (school has now finished for the year for me) and was thinking about what worked and what didn't. So, keeping in line with the internet's fascination with lists, I thought I'd put together my list of web2.0 tools that have given me the most success in the language classroom this year.

1. Quizlet was without doubt the most successful. Boys were motivated to use it, create new lists and outdo each other in the vocab games. Students were even using it in other subjects to help learn definitions, etc. I suggested that they share this fact with their teachers.
2. Voki - again, this motivated students to create and use the language we had learnt. This also proved successful in getting others in the department inspired to use ICT in their language classroom. The languages department went a little "Voki mad" in the last weeks of school - kids loved it.
3. Wikispaces - This has been great for Year 7 & 8 students. One central place they can go to for vocab, grammar review, activities, links and a place to view each other's creations. Simple to use & can be private as well as ad free for educators.
4. My StuDIYo - Students can create their own quizzes, which can then be embedded in other pages (ie. wikispace). Good for mixing culture and language. Worked well with engaging some of the more reluctant students; in mixing culture and language they were able to make questions that matched up with their interests. I learnt a lot about French Rugby Union through this exercise.
5. Making comic strips with the students at Make Belief Comix. There are many sites to do this sort of activity and some that I aim to try out in the holidays but this one did the job well this year.

These are my top 5. Below are some sites I aim to check out during the holidays ...

• GoAnimate
• Scribd
• Glogster

What worked for you? Any other suggestions???

PS: A note on Ask500 (thanks to Lucy Barrow for the tip)

As I was going over programmes for next year & considering the "old ways" and possible "new ways" of doing things, it occurred to me that we often use little surveys in the language class. "What's your favourite food?", etc. So, as an experiment, I went to the survey site Ask500 to type in my question.

• Firstly, very happy that it accepted the Japanese script!

• Secondly, even happier when I went back a few hours later to see that I had about 35 responses to my "好きなかもくはなんですか" (What's your favoutite subject?) question.

• Even had a comment!

Now, if I was impressed by the world's response to my little question, I guess the students would also be happy. They could then report back to the class in the target language, summarising the responses received. "The favourite subject for .. people was ..." OR "...% like history"

The ability to comment on questions is both a positive and a potential negative. Some of the discussions in the comment are interesting and could be well worth discussing in some classrooms. Unhelpful or inappropriate comments can be "downvoted", meaning that (if enough people subtract points from the comment) the comment will disappear from the default view. Here's mine here ...

Opening doors through language learning

Languages open the door is a new website (funded by the Australian Government) which aims to:

"highlight the intercultural, intellectual and vocational benefits of learning languages to a range of key stakeholders;

reinforce existing positive attitudes to languages education and assist in culture change in schools and school communities where there are negative attitudes; and

provide education authorities, schools and teachers with effective promotion and communication materials and products which can be used for a variety of purposes."

This is a positive step in the promotion of language learning in Australia. Too many students, and indeed parents, see languages as irrelevant and as somehow getting in the way of learning our own native language. Nothing could be further from the truth and hopefully this website can not only provide language teachers with some extra resources but also help young people see the value that languages add to their lives.

There are some useful parts of the website in terms of promotional materials. In particular, the Languages Champions section of the website has some bios of Australians who have been able to open up their career paths through being able to communicate in other languages.

Check it out and remember - Languages Matter!

Using placespotting for languages

A few weeks ago I came across placespotting amongst someone's links on del.icio.us - my apologies, but searching through my google reader I couldn't track down exactly who I should be thanking for the link.

Placespotting allows you to create riddles with google maps. By dragging and zooming the map (within the placespotting site) you can select any place in the world for people to find. You then create up to 4 clues to help people find the answer to your riddle. What's in it for language teachers is that you can write your clues in a variety of languages. I have recently being doing comparisons with my Year 11 Japanese class and so in order to reinforce this, I created a couple of riddles using "bigger than..." and "closer to... than..." type clues using the target language. It could also work well for directions and descriptions of places, to name just a couple of other topic areas.

It is also possible to search for riddles created in various languages. By clicking on the 'search' tab and selecting the language of the hints, you can find riddles that others have created in the language you are teaching or the language you are learning. Once you have created your riddle it also enables you to share it via email, put a link into a page or embed it. You can also add random riddles to your iGoogle homepage or your webpage.

Below I have embedded an example in Japanese and also the random riddle embed. The site can also be quite addictive so be careful!