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This is the blog of a EFL teacher in Japan who has a technology focus. He introduces some pretty good CALL tools and also provides some lesson/activity ideas and resources that you can use yourself. He's got some really interesting ways of using video and shows off some neat things with a WiiMote.

Want to learn French cooking, while learning French? Forget Julia Child! Go to the Digital Kitchen. This is a task-based learning "ambient kitchen." A computer gives cooking directions in French, and you try to follow them. All the cooking utensils are embedded with Wii-type movement sensor technology, so if the instructions are to stir with a spoon, the computer can tell if you have completed the action correctly. If you leave the oven on too long, the computer can give you feedback. I think this is absolutely crazy technology that could (with a lot of money) be applied to other areas of language teaching. Watch the video on the website. I think you will be impressed. I was.

Virtual tourist allows you to plan trips all over the world. DuBravac chapter 5 discusses consensus activities on pages 92-93 and lists a trip-planning task as one example. After choosing a continent, learners could choose a particular country (or, the teacher could assign each group a country), and then the site offers pictures, pros and cons of traveling in this country, lists of attractions, reviews of hotels and restaurants, etc... The interactive maps, pictures, videos, and comments/reviews from other users make this site pretty engaging. I could see it being a bit overwhelming for some learners, though, since there is so much information. But if a teacher wants to use one website for a trip-planning task, this one looks good!

It looks like the site busyteacher has lots of resources and links for...busy teachers. There are articles, worksheets, and links to seasonal activities. I'm posting this particular list of photo activities because (a) I think a lot of our students take pictures anyway and we could include them in the photo-gathering aspect of these projects, and (b) I think a lot of these activities can be adapted and incorporated into digital stories or grockit videos (or other CALL activities). Photo activities can provide context for teaching grammar or situational uses of language.