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I don't have an iPad or a WordPress blog, but this looks like a lot of fun! I wonder if it would work with an iPod Touch or iPhone? Android phone?

Finally a unit fro French teacher. Merci Beaucoup!

Great activity ideas! Loved seeing the appreciative comments and shares from the French teachers in the comment loop-- Aren't we lucky to live in an age where we can share great ideas from near and far-- Encouragement for us all to add to the web of resources and share out what we are doing as well (note to self).

"Abstract Currently, language educators experience difficulties in facilitating oral practice effectively in the foreign language classroom. Regularly, they face introverted and passive learners who fail to embrace speaking opportunities (Poza, 2011), or simply do not find the time to promote speaking practice in the classroom (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009). In this light, many asynchronous computer mediated communication (ACMC) technologies have emerged to confront this situation. However, central research studies do not seem to acknowledge ACMC as viable in accommodating oral development but, rather, frequently attribute this merit to synchronous CMC (Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Kervin & Derewianka, 2011). By employing a mixed-methods approach, this small-scale case study examines, firstly, the extent to which ACMC speaking practices are suitable for language learners' speaking development. Secondly, and by extension, it investigates the salient characteristics of the ACMC tool myBrainshark, that makes it appropriate for fostering linguistic growth. The data is obtained from post-beginner Spanish language learners by means of an online questionnaire and an online structured stimulated recall. The findings show, on the one hand, that ACMC oral practices can be beneficial in developing speaking aspects in lower-proficiency language learners and, on the other hand, that myBrainshark has characteristics that can potentially promote linguistic development. Finally, this paper calls for experimental research on the improvement of oral competency in post-beginner and higher-proficiency learners."

Abstract: Since their emergence in 2005, Web 2.0 technologies have been advanced as potentially transformative in the area of education in general and foreign language learning in particular. Web 2.0 technologies are presenting new opportunities for developing diverse online learning environments and enhancing interactivity, participation and feedback between students, their peer groups and teachers. This article examines one of the most significant Web 2.0 tools, Social Networking Sites (SNS), and focuses on Livemocha, an example of an online community specifically aimed at encouraging collaboration between foreign language learners. Results from the ethnographic approach adopted in the paper indicate that: (a) SNSs can be used by language learners to explore new relationships rather than merely maintain existing ones and that (b) longitudinal studies are required to achieve a better understanding of the complex processes of mediation involved in online community formation and maintenance

Funny! I also found this article last week and even attached it to last week's blog post in the ning. I've noticed this morning, that reading and commenting on it is also one of this week's assignments. I guess I chose well :)

Good pointers on how to organize orientation to online course and how imp it is for successfull learning

is an online oral practice/instruction/assessment platform for foreign language teaching. It dramatically increases your students' oral practice opportunities by making it possible to give speaking homework. developed at Purdue

This looks great and it is reasonably priced! Have any of the group memebers used it and can give us an insight about it? Is it possible to purchase more storage?

"Abstract Despite its obvious importance, it appears that in many foreign language programs, oral practice is not given as much time and attention as it deserves. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that foreign language professionals recognize the need for more oral practice, but do not have at their disposal a convenient means to provide it. An online oral practice/assessment platform, Speak Everywhere, has been developed to fill this void. It allows instructors without special computer knowledge to quickly create video-based speaking exercises and quizzes for their students to work on outside the classroom. The instructor can access the oral productions that the students submit to the system, and grade them or give individual feedback on them either in text or audio or both. Using its flexible and easy-to-use authoring sub-system, it is possible to create exercises of various formats (e.g. Q&A, repeat after the model, structure drills, role-play, and oral reading)."

Tenth grade ESL literature class, and how the teacher changed his mind about flipping a classroom.  I wonder how he deals with access to technology- if that is an issue students face.

This was very interesting for me to read and made the flipped classroom model seem purposeful and useful in an ESL setting. I also worry about access to technology though...thanks for sharings!

This is for the iTouch - but it also works on Android devices pretty much the same way

I like that audioboo is an app. I am pretty much connected to my iphone (it's an extension of my arm) and audioboo seemed to be the only one that was mentioned that had an iphone app.

Photobucket is the most important site on the Internet that hardly anybody understands. Unpretentiously, it has built an essential service that didn't need to shout out for attention, the way MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, or other related sites have. Yet it's built an audience of 38 million members, a figure now growing more than 80,000 per day.

Blog about free audio tech resources

Thank you Isis. I like all those ones that are useful without signing up. I will keep looking in this page. They have lots of articles!!

"The Foreign Language Teaching Forum is an integrated service for FL teachers, dedicated to encouraging communication, sharing, and collaboration at all levels. Our broad discussion topic is foreign language teaching methods for any level of instruction in all languages."

From History and Anthropology, Volume 21, Issu 2 June 2010, pages 139-157 by Katerina Seraïdari

An example of an academic text

The importance of focusing on "Why technology should be used?" instead of only "How to use technology?" is emphasized - indeed an important aspect teachers should not overlook.

I agree that we need to really access why we want to use technology. Is it really the best option all of the time? I love the checklist of questions one should ask him/herself before deciding to use the technology. I, especially, thought the question "Will students control the technology?. Sometimes, I need to remember that spending hours creating a great powerpoint presentation isn't as great as finding a way for students to engage in an interaction rather than passively listen to a lecture.

So far in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese - in three levels.  The Beginner level has pull-downs so you just make a choice.

Awesome resource, thanks for sharing, I can use this for my weekend school. Middle school students would really enjoy it. :D

anyone try the karaoke? or, is there another karaoke site? i have a student trip to Mexico City coming up and my wouldn't that be a fabulous fundraiser!

An article about virtual exchanges in WL instruction

An article about virtual exchanges in WL instruction