Sunday Video Session

Here is my video of the week, selected from the technoLanguages Vod Pod collection. This one is about the dangers of online translators and thanks to Andrew Jeppesen for adding it to the collection!

SMART Board Ideas Videos

I found these two videos last week just before I went to a SMART Board support meeting. They are by Rebecca Duncan who teaches in Perth. I think they are both great little ideas for getting the most out of SMART Notebook:

International Language Learning Projects

I wanted to find some collaborative projects that involved language learning. I’ve really enjoyed being part of Voices of The World by Sharon Tonner which involves classes around the world completing a different task each month that involves recording their voices and presenting it in different ways. For one of our tasks – a counting task – I got my Grade 2 class to say the numbers in English and Chinese. you can see the result of that here (ours is the second one down – Hawkesdale College).

Anyway, having been inspired by this project and wanting to create one (or three) that actually involves students presenting in two languages, I’ve come up with the following projects:

The International Lunch Box Project – For students in Prep (K) – 3. Presenting what they have for lunch at school, sharing pictures and maybe a short video or audio in the language they are taught in and the language they are learning.

Little Language Experts – For students in Years 4-6 (and 7). These particular classes of mine are looking at greetings and introductions and the aim is for them to teach other classes some beginning Chinese. The idea is for other classes to make up short (and simple!) language lessons for other schools to introduce the language they are learning. The aim is for students to understand that other students learn languages as well and why different languages are taught in different places.

Ours Schools – For students in Years 8-10. My aim with this project is to have students discuss what the differences and similarities are between their school lives. I think it’s really important for my particular group of Year 8 students (some of whom seem to have an aversion to anything Asian just because it’s Asian) to see that just because people are in a different country, doesn’t mean you don’t have anything in common with them.

Each of these projects will be run through a wiki I have set up for each one. you can visit each one to find out more about the project and how to get involved. I’m still adding a few details to them (esp the Little Language Experts one!) but if I wait until everything is perfect before writing about them, then it might be a while before anyone hears about them!

As part of the projects classes will need to add photos and comments to the wiki and maybe to some student blogs as well. Hopefully there can be live link ups with Skype, but that will depend on time zone differences.

One thing I do stress for each project is that they will change and evolve depending on who gets involved and what they want to contribute. It’s all open for discussion and negotiation, but I will provide a definite structure at the same time – as contradictory as that may sound!

So, if you are interested in being involved, please visit the wiki for the project that suits you, and let me know what you think. Also, pass on the link to this post to anyone else you think might be interested. Looking forward to it!

Oz and NZ Educators Unite!

Last night I was part of a Flash Meeting (online web conferencing) with a whole bunch of great educators from Australia and New Zealand. We’re planning on meeting regularly on Sunday evenings to chat about education, technology, and combining the two. This group and meeting was started by Sue Tapp and there is also an Oz Educators Group on Diigo sharing bookmarks like mad.

This initial meeting was really a hello and get to know the software we are using. Most of us had webcams, but some didn’t and just participated by voice. Here you can see what a Flash Meeting looks like. Everyone who is involved is listed on the right hand pane. The person who is speaking at any given time is featured in the larger window. When I want to have a turn at speaking to the group, I click on the button with the yellow hand that says ‘Join Queue’ and then it automatically switches to my webcam. Everyone can also send messages via text at the bottom. This practice of having a text chat going at the same time as a speaker is called backchanneling.

It was great to meet this way. It was really easy and is a great way to meet other like-minded educators. We chatted for about an hour. We’re meeting again next week so if you’re in Australia or New Zealand and would like to join us send me and email and I will send you the link to the meeting when I know it. I’m also toying with the idea of running a technoLOTE (or ‘technoLanguages’) meeting. Anyone interested if we can sort out a time that is suitable for several time zones?!

More for technoLOTE Readers!

You love the blog right? (and how could you not?!) But just imagine if there were other places that technoLOTE existed on the web for your viewing and discussing pleasure… Well, as luck would have it, there are! Now, now, calm down and stop jumping out of your seat. It’s really ok! Here are some groups you might be interested in visiting – you never know who you’ll meet there!

Share bookmarks as part of the technoLanguages on Diigo – Join this group to collect some really good website links on this social bookmarking service. Also, get new links for technoLanguages delivered right to your inbox. For those of you not sure what Diigo is yet, check out this post by Miguel Guhlin.

Share videos with the technoLanguages VodPod - a collection of videos about language learning and anything related to that. Anyone can add to the pod and I would LOVE it if you would help me to make this collection bigger.

Share images with the technoLanguages Flickr Group – I created this with the intention that we would share photos of our classroom, of technology in our classroom and general photos that relate to language learning. I haven’t added any yet – see if you can beat me to it!

Start and contribute to discussions on the technoLanguages Discussion Forum on Classroom 2.0 - Join this international group and start a discussion on anything you like about language learning and teaching and technology

or the technoLOTE email discussion group – This group has been going for a while now and has just over 120 members. I send out a weekly website watch email and a few other tidbits here and there.

So, there you have it. A few more ways to get involved – discussion, photos and videos. Do come and play at these places. I’m looking forward to finding you there!

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