Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research techniques.
create and share screen casts from power points, flip charts, smart boards for example. Add a short recap of your lesson and upoload to share with absent students or as a study guide.
Paper.li provides a forum for students to find TL newspaper articles and publish an online class newspaper. This could be used with upper-level students to expose them to news and authentic language materials, and allow them to create based on their interests.
A free tool that lets you embed an audio message into your website - an appropriate tool for the 610 course! You can record a message by phone or mic, use the text-to-speech feature, or upload your own mp3 audio files. You can even choose from 25 languages and 100+ voices. Very cool indeed.
Many free sites for portfolios. A wonderful way to measure student growth through oout the school year. It gives students a way to measure their own learning and identify weaknesses and strengths
Storybird is a visual storytelling community. A global hub of readers, writers, and artists of all ages. Students and teachers can make, read, and share short, visual stories with an easy-to-use tool. Teachers and students can select artwork, drag and organize photos, and add your own text to create beautiful digital stories. These creations can then be published on the web with adjustable privacy settings and with the option to allow comments, which is perfect for teachers to encourage student collaboration. In addition, there is the option to create a classroom account. You can sign up for free or consider an upgrade to a paid account.
World Language teachers can create stories for their students to read and share online. Students can also read or create short visual stories to share with their teacher and their peers.
Cute and creative voice recording program available on iTunes or online. Allows you to edit the sound of a 30 second voice recording by raising pitch of the voice, lowering it, changing accents, etc. Embeddable in your website, creates a URL and can be emailed to teachers, tweet, and more. Fun! Could be used for any voice recording needs, oral assessments, etc. Any age group, any lesson topic.
Padlet is tool for asynchronous (or synchronous) posting of comments and images on a wall by multiple users.
This tool is much like a discussion board, but it's a bit more visually stimulating and motivating for students, as they get to choose where on the wall they will leave their note (kind of like a sticky note on a bulletin board). This also works great for department-wide discussions. Users do not need a login to post.
Teacher resources website which provides lessons, activities and classroom artifacts to engage learners using web 2.0 tools and technology. Categories are easy to use and make finding appropriate material simple.
This is a really good site, and I have used it a few times. Have you tried Share my Lesson at http://www.sharemylesson.com/ ? Many of the lessons are correlated to the common core standards. I've found several good lessons here as well.
This is an excellent resource for finding target language newspapers from around the world. I would give my students a country and a topic and have them research that topic (ie, the environment). Or, we could focus on a global topic and compare/contrast how it is being presented in different target-language speaking countries (ie. North Korea crisis)
Create and share screen casts from power points, flip charts,smart boards for example. Add a short recap of your lessona nd upload to share with absent students or as a study guide.
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Visuals for Foreign Language Instruction is a free gallery of images hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Research Library. The gallery contains nearly 500 drawings of people conversing, scenes in houses and buildings, and objects commonly found in houses. You'll also find drawings scenes in cities, in stores, and in nature. The visuals are all drawn cartoon style without any text or speech bubbles.
Applications for Education
If you're looking for some visual prompts to use in your language lessons, take a look at the gallery at Visuals for Foreign Language Instruction. You can search the gallery by keyword or simple browse through the collection.
Use colorful collaboration with an online canvas. Incorportates sticky notes, uploading of pictures and YouTube videos.
You can create calender reminders also.
By making your canvas public it can be used as an exit ticket or for class discussions. Students can use their computers, IPads or Smart phones. Great collaboration tool which students can use both in and outside the classroom
This tool allows the teachers to create formative assessments that can be accessed by the students using their web-enabled device. The tool is free and can be used to create different types of quizzes.
