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Abstract: In recent years, a sharp increase in the number of academic studies around the use of video games and new media for educational purposes has greatly expanded our understanding of their potential for enhancing learning.

Constantinos, this a great resource of information. Thank you for sharing! I haven't sit down to read it all, but skimming through it I found plenty of interesting information. I was always interested in using video games or educational games for language learning, but never took initiative in reading anything on the topic. In the beginning of "From "Authentic Materials" to "Live Materials" section, the author mentions that the culture should not be described to students, but rather facilitate a platform for them to actually participate in that culture. I see how we can do that through games, but is there any of you using other means to do it? Is it possible to do it through social networks or second language learning networks? If yes, how exactly? Any thoughts on this?

Some of the more popular web apps for education - which ones of these do you use?

Using Twitter for a 10 minute verb activity.

This is so cool! I know it would keep my students more engaged and focused on what could potentially be boring grammatical exercises. I do not currently use an on-line notebook and want to use Google docs more often. Lots to think about!

The article highlights the effectiveness of collaborative and cooperative language learning activities such as school exchanges and pairing students with counterparts abroad. It also bring up the issue of difficult assessment gets in the way and brings to the front solo performances and summative examinations.

I certainly agree with this as being an effective way to language learning. We in the military community use the group/pair work approach for many reasons. Pair work keeps them interested and motivated to learn. It also makes better use of class time. I also think that when the students are ready for the OPI, they generally do better than if they were in a traditional classroom. As for assessment, yes it is more difficult, but it is up to us as instructors to find ways to measure the students' performance based on the interaction. Once the student is in country, it will be up to him/her to communicate with others. That will be the true test.

It's coming - an online MOOC for language learners.  How good are they?  How do they teach a language to hundreds of learners at the same time?   Something to investigate and see what we think - please comment below.

"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)."

Finding videos

A digital whiteboard - for collaborative brainstorming, diagramming, infographics - what else can you think of? What would this add that you could not do with a Google doc?

Super interesting thread on ways in which other Spanish teachers have incorporated iPads into their classrooms! Maybe some ideas for people?

Just what I was looking for...I have many students whose lives revolve around their smartphones and iPads.

Came across the idea in Carlatech in July, but this article provides multiple ways of implementing. Something you can start doing in just about any class tomorrow!

Another side of the cursive argument. I know it doesn't have much to do with language teaching, but it does go with technology. I survived 12 years of Catholic education and had some very bad experiences with my poor cursive writing and nuns.

I do audio slideshows as an end-of-semester project in my level 2 class, but I have only ever used PhotoStory. PhotoStory is loaded on our language lab computers so that students do not have to register or create any types of accounts. These resources seem to be just as easy, however

several examples of SNS use in the FL classroom

inding productive media examples to use in the classroom can be time-consuming and challenging. Here are media examples other teachers have found useful along with descriptions and information about the teaching contexts in which they were used.

I thought this was pretty interesting.  How do we teach students to judge the quality of information they are getting?

Amy, I like the graph. There are so much details to think about when it comes to look for "the tool" for our students. Thank you for sharing!

Twitter, the popular microblogging site that allows users to post 140-character "tweets," both intrigues and irritates faculty, according to a Faculty Focus survey. Some embrace it as a clever way to teach concision and get students writing, thinking, and connecting with the course material and one another.

Here is an article that describes boomwriter, a technology tool that allows students do collaborative writing. Activities may have to be simplified for beginning level students, but I can see how this might work well with higher level students as well as with native speakers.

Although this article is about British language education and it's two years old, my interest was piqued when I read it: ""Languages cannot be taught, they can only be learnt. The best way is to tell students right away that they are responsible for their own learning process, and the teacher is just a guide who has to motivate them."" Made me think about relevancy and how Tech is only one part of that.

Really interesting. I wonder if we changed the setting to the U.S. if the same difficulties would apply. I never really thought about grammar being discarded simply because students don't know it well enough. While I've found that most students we teach don't understand their mother tongue, I still think that the shift to task-based work had as much to do with the lack of real communication skills. Just teaching them grammar and relying on them to go abroad to learn to speak wasn't doing it. That being said, I think the mixture of methods is best, and by mixture I mean the integration of many methods into accomplishing a task. And I agree that the meta-learning is key.

I remember getting a comment from a student once, many years ago, that she had learned more about English grammar in my Spanish class than anywhere else... (sigh)

Wow, just imagine how much calmer the world could be if classrooms were set up to allow for multiple temperaments as well as learning styles?! Also, the think-pair-share concept is fantastic; I've been using the "alone-paired-large group" sequence for language learners in groups since I got my CELTA certification and it's been hugely successful. Nobody wants to be wrong in public, and when learners have a chance to discuss it with a partner first, they are more likely to share their ideas.