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 :)
Orientation experiences support students' transition to the first year of college, which is essential for student success.1 This support is particularly important for those students from historically marginalized populations.
boost students' confidence for success online,
foster a sense of community among students, faculty, and staff,
equip students with the tools necessary to be positive community members,
facilitate academic preparedness and skill-building (e.g., time management),
provide support and engagement resources, and
give students the opportunity to use the technology they will encounter in their courses.
As in any other learning experience, educators should first identify the desired learning outcomes of the student orientation
nteractive Learning Objects (ILOs): Campus leaders should think through how content will be delivered in order to achieve course objectives and consid
(LMS), or virtual campus, creating a student orientation course within the same virtual space fosters a seamless experience for students
Modality: Think
The course learning outcomes can also help inform what topics should be reinforced in live sessions.
Course location:
employing an ILO where students have to respond to academic integrity scenarios will enable them to relate to the material better than if they simply read an informational page about academic integrity.
acilitated v
e counterbalanced with how the onsite orientation is assessed (with consideration toward creating an equitable experience).
digital badge in the LMS.
to teach students how to become successful online learners. More specifically, we hoped to boost students' confidence in learning online, equip students with the tools necessary to be positive community members, and give students the opportunity to use the technology they would encounter in their courses.
and build basic competency in the digital tools
time-management tip
the importance of study groups,
how to practice "netiquette" (
"Start with Why"
We created an assignment that included the self-enroll link and directions with screenshots on how to locate and submit the completion badge.
A well-planned online orientation is essential for student success ahead.
This is huge! Students can see and comment, all on one page.
Padlet allows for synchronous or asynchronous collaboration. Learners can share ideas, materials, audio and video. They can then comment on these.
any level of learner. As learners add their own posts, what skill they develop depends on what task given is to them. Learners can develop writing skills (e.g. write a short description of a person you admire) or speaking skills (record yourself telling an anecdote). They can also brainstorm vocabulary related to a topic to activate existing knowledge before a reading or listening text. As learners all type their ideas at the same time, it’s an inclusive and efficient way of collecting ideas.
For big classes, the right padlet activities allow the instructor to "eyeball" the content for grading.
For the teacher, Padlet helps them to better assess the learning of everyone in the class, something that can be tricky even with medium-sized classes.
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!
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.
Isis, I wanted to comment on this tool, stating I like the fact that is free and one does not need an account. Anyways, I wanted to add sticky note but I accidentally clicked on Vocaroo and the page popped up on my screen ready for me to provide my voice. Pretty cool!
Vocaroo is a free service that allows
users to create audio recordings without the need to install any
software. You don't even have to create an account to use Vocaroo. All
you need to provide is a microphone. I used the microphone built into
my MacBook to make the recording below. To create a recording just go
to Vocaroo.com, click record, grant Voca
roo access to your mic, and
start talking. After completing your recording, Vocaroo gives you the choice to publish it or to scrap it and try again. Vocaroo provides
the option to embed the recording anywhere.
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.
The basic premise of the list is that as professional Foreign Language teachers we are all in this together and are here to help one another.
"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."
Abstract. A journal article is often preceded by an abstract, or a condensed version of the contents and main argument of the article. What is the main argument of the paper?
the nationalist character of divine interventions that marked Greek society during critical periods.
it was mentioned that many learning technology (LT) presentations at conferences and blog posts are of the type '20 ways of using Wordle', etc., dealing with the 'how to use tech' but not the 'why it should be used'.
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.
I almost feel overwhelmed with all this information of how to use Twitter for educational purposes. Some of the ideas are great and they look fun, definitely aiding to the traditional ways of teaching. What caught my attention at this list of creative ways teachers use Twitter is creating a TWIBE - have any of you heard of this before or used it? If yes, how did it work?
______ of the day: No matter the class, a vocabulary word, book, song, quote or something else "of the day" might very well make an excellent supplement to the day’s lesson. When teaching younger kids, tell their parents about the Twitter feed and encourage them to talk about postings at home.
Supplement foreign language lessons: Twitter’s unique spacing limitations make for an interesting way to nurture foreign language acquisition. Tweet a sentence in a foreign language at the beginning of the day or class and ask students to either translate or respond in kind as a quick, relatively painless supplement.
Create a twibe: Build networks beyond Twitter itself and set up (or have students set up) a twibe, bringing together other classrooms or professionals. These networks not only serve to broaden one’s perspective, but offer an interesting lesson in how online communities come together, sustain themselves or fall apart.
I discovered this post from an earlier carlatech class when searching "German" in our group, and I thought it was worth bringing to our group's attention. The site offers hundreds of songs in many languages. Would make for a fun Friday reward activity.
Excellent resource. Three levels, Karaoke and Expert options seem fun. What is really interesting is ability for instructor to customize their own activities.
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!
This is an important factor for me when I am thinking about integrating a web-based technology--my students all have very different levels of access, so I want to be as inclusive as possible of their various capacities to engage.
students also know I will look at the “Editing History” to hold them each accountable.
What’s more important is that I can provide feedback without drawing dark red lines across their writing, an experience that can be discouraging to many writers (including myself). Instead, we use Comments, Editing, or Suggesting to provide less invasive feedback; we can also share audio feedback right in the document using Kaizena, a Google Doc add-on. Students can receive immediate feedback multiple times throughout the writing process--and I don’t have worry about dragging stacks of paper home!
I'm curious to look at this Kaizena...in addition to commenting/suggesting, I also use colors to clarify my edits for students (I do this on paper, too)--different colors represent different kinds of errors, for example, purple means there is an error or lack of clarity in vocabulary choice, red means the verb is misconjugated, etc.
Michael Gorman, former president of the American Library Association, decries the movement towards a user-controlled Internet as “a world in which everyone is an expert in a world devoid of expertise”
Technical usability is defined as the general usability of a tool for a user— how easily users can complete a task with the least number of obstacles.
Pedagogical usability applies specifically to how learnable and usable the website is for learners.
Providing users with an immediate solution to an obstacle may not be the preferred outcome when users must learn during the process
How do current users of a foreign language learning website that employs Web 2.0 technologies use the site for learning and social purposes?
What technical and pedagogical issues arise when potential users participate in a usability test of three foreign language learning websites that employ Web 2.0 technologies?