carlatech

Technology in the classroom

FREE RESOURCES AND LESSON PLANS FOR TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

Amazing information about the use of media.. and great sites to explores and get lost!!

Some different ways of reading and checking on what students have read!

These are great ideas! I think some are very adaptable for different types of activities, too.

Abstract This study contributes to the body of research that aims to understand the relationship between online communication and foreign language (FL) learning, in particular when teachers seek to provide authentic opportunities for interaction for their learners. The study was motivated by efforts made in the New Zealand context to overcome the geographic limitations of interaction between FL learners and native speakers. We report on the findings of an exploratory study into an online reciprocal peer tutoring program established to enhance the FL learning of a group of beginner eleven-year old students of Spanish, with particular focus on the benefits of written corrective feedback. The project aimed to examine the processes by which students tutored each other in the online environment as they responded to each other's texts. The analysis of the students' messages focused on (1) the aspects of language corrected by the tutors, (2) the frequency with which tutors accurately identified and provided input on errors, (3) the types of feedback provided by the tutors, and (4) what the learners did with the corrections and feedback. The findings indicate that the students were willing to contribute to peer correction and used different strategies and correction techniques to foster attention to linguistic form, although they were not always capable of providing accurate feedback or metalinguistic explanations.

"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 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)."

This is a collection of webinars from two of the national language resource centers (LARC and CALPER). They address issues surrounding assessment and could be very educational and helpful professional development for language teachers.

I found it interesting as it shows some of the purposes not only for using Wideo in our classroom, but also for using some other media resources

Add your voice to presentations (Ppt, doc, photos, movie, or podcast), share online, and track viewing.

A collection of multitandem sites. Reviews are pending :-)

This site has information about creating and assessing telecollaborative projects - and assessing the "Telecollaboratively Effective Person" (TEP). This is a link to the Evaluation section which has many resources, rubric, descriptors, and examples of how to assess a telecollaborative activity.

Get around firewalls by using Google Translate - does this really work?  Those of you who have blocked access to YouTube movies at school - let us know!

45 minute presentation on evaluating web-based tools for language teaching use. 

Engage your students with text messages for realtime polling, and send reminders that they'll read instantly. Learn more here.

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?

Here is one certification program that has one course specifically about teaching languages online.

There is a "course tour" from FVS for a Chinese class.

" Using TPCK with digital story issues in educational technology Abstract Digital storytelling is recognized as a motivating students in critical thinking and reflective learni ng storytelling are readily available and much easier to use today than they were in years pa convergence of these facto rs has facilitated the inclusion of digital storyte lling in p educational technology courses . Some researchers have expressed concern over approach technology instruction over careful consideration of the educational value of the tool, speculating that such are unlikely to result in powerful uses of technology in schools. Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed a conceptual framework technology an d pedagogy. With emphasis on the development of Content Knowledge (TPCK) , the model reframes for pre-service teachers. This case stud framework to a digital storytelling project in an u ndergraduate teacher education course. Keywords: digital storytelling, educational technology, Techn ological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPCK Journal of Instructional Pedagogies TPCK with Digital Storytelling digital story tell ing to investigate contemporary issues in educational technology "