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VoiceThreads might best be described as interactive media albums

The technology is particularly accessible because viewers can comment using just about any technology -- including a good old landline. "We've tried to make it fairly universal in access," says Ben Papell. "If you don't have a microphone

when he discovered he could engage his kids online in a collaborative, multimedia slide show called a VoiceThread, he decided to see if he could use it to, as he puts it, "steal some of their online minutes."

One “choice” assignment I regularly offer students is letting them engage in a texting conversation in Spanish and send me the screenshots. This assignment seems more like fun than like work. Plus, students are able to use the language in an authentic, realistic way.

Connect students with another class and set up a virtual pen pal program. (Bonus points if you can arrange this with a class in a country in which the target language is spoken.)

nearly a third of American college courses are now taught online.

anguage instructors need to be convinced that online education presents a responsible learning environment for students,

lexibility. S

through collaborative technology‐mediated tasks, we can promote productive language output (spoken and written) and the type of interaction that facilitates language learning and motivates students to continue improving their language skills

Padlet allows for synchronous or asynchronous collaboration. Learners can share ideas, materials, audio and video.  They can then comment on these.

Vocaroo.com is a simple and free audio recording tool which works in the web browser of all personal computers and mobile devices. There’s no app to install, no login or account is required, and you can quickly share recordings via Link, Twitter, Email, QR code, and many other ways.

Online distance learning is impersonal and has the potential to violate personal privacy. Even a matter as seemingly straightforward as turning on web cameras can raise difficult questions: Are cameras needed to humanize the lesson? Do they force an uninvited intimacy, revealing the realities of students’ and faculty members’ living situations?

We’ve been hearing that a lot. Increasingly, teachers in our audience are reporting that a handful of their students—shy kids, hyperactive kids, highly creative kids—are suddenly doing better with remote learning than they were doing in the physical classroom. “It’s been awesome to see some of my kids finally find their niche in education,” said Holli Ross, a first-year high school teacher in northern California, echoing the sentiments of dozens of teachers we’ve heard from. That’s not to say it’s the norm. Many students are struggling to adapt to remote learning: Digital access and connectivity remain a pervasive equity issue; stay-at-home orders have magnified existing problems in familial dynamics; and, universally, teachers and students grapple with how to replicate the engagement and discourse from an in-person classroom.