So Much to Learn...So Little Time

The Power of Twitter

Flippin' 'eck.
On a small scale this is the power of twitter. I posted my previous opus at 23.29. About five minutes later I then advertised it on Twitter. Then...

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Makes you think doesn't it?

Web 2.0 Apps and their use in an MFL Classroom, Part 2...Audio Resources.

In this second post relating to how web 2.0 apps can help in the Foreign Languages classroom I am looking at, for want of a better term, audio resources. I have used this term loosely to include recording applications, sites to help jazz up recordings (free music and sound effects), podcatchers  and even a set of rubric(s)(sp?) to help assess student produced podcasts.
Again its a bit long, so please have patience and most of all I hope you find it useful.

GabCast
This is a super little application for podcasting, particularly if you don't have access to a computer. Why? Well because you can cast your pod by phone. Call the access number (dependent on which country you are in) record what you want to say and that's about it. If you want to know more details about how this works and some of my ideas about how to use it in a modern languages classroom you'll have to click the player to listen to it. Once you have recorded your thoughts and had them published you can share them with the world via your blog, facebook or myspace pages by embedding the player.
Gabcast! So Much to Learn...So Little Time #1

Record by phone with Gabcast.com via kwout

GCast
Gcast is pretty much the same as Gabcast, except that there don't appear to be different access numbers dependent on where you live. It also seems you have to input a US telephone number as a security check. I used a friend's number which worked fine. Couldn't get it to work with my home phone.
It give you 2 ways to create a podcast, i) by using your phone and ii) by uploading audio. Once you've done that you can add music to it by creating a playlist...just fiddle around and follow the links it makes no sense me just telling you here. Learning by doing! THIS ISN'T AN EDITING TOOL.
Any way this is what I came up with by phoning in a message and then adding a song from the associate website, GarageBand.com (see below.)

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Voki

Voki has had quite a lot of coverage in the edublogger world, particular with Sharon Tonner's Voices of the World project. Basically you create your own avatar and let it speak. You can upload an audio file from your computer, record directly via a microphone, phone in a message (USA only I think) or text in what you want said.

From an MFL point of view this is a superb application. It allows students the creativity of designing their persona and it also allows them a certain level of anonymity...great for the shyer members of the class. Kids get a kick out of seeing a cartoon like figure talk with their own voice.
Obviously as this is Web 2.0 you can share your Voki's either direcly via email or mobile phone, or embed them in your SN site or blog. Here's my French speaking Dubya:

Get a Voki now!

VozMe

vozMe is quite a nifty little tool. I transforms text into an mp 3 file that you can listen to or download. Obviously its a computerised voice, but it is still of reasonable quality.
Here I copied the first couple of paragraphs about Spanish from Wikipedia and created the mp3.

vozMe via kwout

Audacity (Portable)

Ok not strictly a web application, but this is the portable version of the very popular and super useful audacity audio editing software. By portable this is a version you can carry with you wherever you go on a flash drive. Just download it and transfer it to your pen drive (along with the Lame MP3 encoding file.) You can then quite simply use audacity on any computer, unless of course you work in a school and even as a teacher you are not trusted to upload anything onto the empty 60gb of hard drive you have available...oooppps a touch sarcastic there!

Audacity Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives via kwout

Podomatic

A simple way of hosting your podcasts. In the free version you get 500mb storage, but you can pay and get more. Podomatic alows you to upload your podcasts to their servers, and it then creates a feed for them to enable listeners to subscribe. Aside from hosting your podcasts on a blog style page, podomatic lets you embed episodes in your own blog.
In an MFL context, this is a great way of storing students audio work, which enables the wider world to listen and comment on it. I think podcasting is one of the best things we can do in language lessons as it encourages Speaking and more importantly give the Speaking a purpose and an audience. Therefore anything which can facilitate this is most welcome.

Joe Dale uses podomatic to host his students' grammar podcasts. Here I've created a channel for my son's funky times table podcasts.

Yanick's Podcast via kwout

Ogg Tours

I chose this site more as an example of what could be created in podcast form, rather than a specific application. This site features downloadable audio guides to cities around the world. What I like about this site is that anyone can contribute. I therefore thought it would be a fantastic way of getting kids to use their language skills to prepare audio tours of their own area, for foreign visitors. This would also incorporate so many different skills and curriculum areas (eg history); involving planning, preparation, scriptwriting, proof reading, recording and editing. And of course providing a real purpose and audience for their work.
Obviously students could just as easily upload to their guides to their own blogs, web spaces.

Audio Tours by GPS, iPhone, or iPod | Opensource GPS Guided Audiotours, Walking Tours, Mediascapes and Soundseeing Podcasts via kwout

Jamendo

This is a superb site not only for podcast production but for listening to new music. All the music on the site is free to download, as long as you cite the performers appropriately according to the Creative Commons licence under which the work is registered. As we are not supposed to use copyright music from the charts to funk up podcasts, the music from this site can be used. Ok so its not chart stuff, but if you are producing a podcast to highlight the rules for French -er verbs, you wouldn't want Marylin Manson to growling away whilst you speak. Search jamendo for some nice French accordian music to set the scene.

If you check out my presidential widget in the top left of this page the track on that came from Jamendo.

Jamendo : francais via kwout

Incompetech (Royalty Free)

Similar idea(ish) to Jamendo, but this is pretty much all instrumental stuff and all composed by the same bloke (Kevin McLeod.) There are some nice stress free tunes to add as backing to your podcasts and again they don't cost a penny, unless you want to make a donation. Again you must credit the composer somewhere or somehow in your podcast. Kevin even tells you how you should do this in the FAQ.

Royalty Free Music via kwout

Here's an example:

Soundsnap

For those of you unlucky enough not to have a mac and and so be unable to use garageband, soundsnap is for you. It's  an online library of thousands of downloadable sound effects, loops and weird noises. Most can be downloaded in either wav or mp3 format. And guess what? They're free, and they are all original. Specially recorded for the site by users.
Obviously it could be a bit of a chore to find what you want but there is  a tag cloud to help give you an idea. It could just be a great source of funny stingers for students to add to their podcasts.
Once they are downloaded, just import them to your audio editor (eg audacity) and BOING, WHIZZ, POP you have a souped up podcast.

Soundsnap.com: Find and Share Free Sound Effects and Loops via kwout

Here's a couple of examples:

 

Podcast assessment

Now then you've done all that work and got your students hard at work producing aural masterpieces just itching to be released to a waiting world, you still have to assess them in some way shape or form. One way, if you don't have to produce any formal assessment is to get your kids to assess each other. Peer assessment. AiFL in action. However maybe you need to assess the work in some formal way. Ann Bell of University of Wisconsin drew up an assessment rubric for podcasts. Obviously this is aimed at university level students, but the ideas are there. If you wanted to use it in an official capacity I think you would have to obtain her permission as the rubric is copyright.

Podcast Rubric via kwout

So that's my take on audio resources. Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: gcast, gabcast, voki, vozme, audacity,  podomatic, universitywisconsin, incompetech,  soundsnap,  oggtours, jamendo

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What is Learning?- A Student 2.0's definition.

I want to recommend to all my readers that they read this Lindsea's post on Student 2.0, and then encourage as many students as possible to read what she has to say.

This post is a well written definition of what learning is (or should be) in this age. Many edubloggers posting on these kind of topics write in such an erudite way that I often give up and don't finish the article. Lindsea, however has written a simple piece, which whilst referencing classical thought doesn't lose it's impact. Not only does she define learning, she also has interesting views on what a teacher should be.

Our teachers become some of the most important and revered authority figures in our lives

Unfortunately I think the profession of teacher has become so eroded and so messed up by politicians over time that many students think of us as enemies, and thus of learning as a hateful process.
Lindsea then goes on to differentiate between learning and thinking. If I have read it correctly learners aim to excel in passing exams and such like, whilst thinking is a far more dangerous activity. At the far extremes of this definition thinkers are often ready to die for their thoughts (eg Suffragetes to continue Lindsea's analogy.)
I like to think that I try to encourage thinking in my classrooms, but am often forced to go along with the learning as dictated by the assessment system. However in my own little CREATIVELY SUBVERSIVE way I try to allow more thinking with my younger students, because I can get away with it.

This is how Lindsea belives a thinker in school should be:

“Question, think, explore and dissent at your own free will, but listen (and obey)!”

I like the idea of dissent ( I would probably have said disagree) because she has preceded it with questioning, thinking and exploring. In other words, disagree by all means but make sure you have a reason and support thererof to do so.

If in learning, a student applies critical thought and decides that that particular piece of information goes against their belief system and all ideas of truth, then I believe the student is still obligated to learn it.

This sounds a bit like the adage in Sun Tzu's Art of War, "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles." Basically in order to disagree you must first undersatnd the opposing viewpoint.
Nothing wrong in that at all.

So why do I say that teachers should have their students read this?
Well, there are too many students out there who don't seem to believe that thinking is important. Words like these coming from a fellow student could have that all important influence. It could show students that they do have the right to disagree but that disagreement must come from reflection and not simple reaction.
In Lindea's neo-education teachers and students embark on a journey of thinking and learning together, which still allows for students to hold their own opinions and for teachers to have their authority, promoting "learning both at it’s most basic, and most complex levels."

Learning is the process in which a person consciously takes their self farther away from ignorance. Ignorance is the lack of knowledge, the inability to understand something without guidance from an outside force.

What is learning? at Students 2.0 via kwout

Technorati Tags: learning, students2.0, teaching

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I've built a sprout

Ok I know it's a bit political, but I couldn't think of anything else I could build into a widget. Got onto Sprout via Mashable.
I've often wondered how widgets are created and this application seems to make it quite easy. You can add audio, video, images etc and the application does the rest.

I took the picture from a tshirt stencil by the Underground Action Alliance
The track on the mp3 player is "The GWB Theorem" by Greg Baumont. The lyrics are a compilation of speeches by Dwight Eisenhower, Dubya himself, Orson Welles and an unknown. Very clever using the great Dubya's own words to mock him...actually it's not all that difficult is it?

Mashable still had Sprout invites last time I looked.

What do you think?

Teachers could use this application to create promotional widgets for school, class events, perhaps a countdown to a due date for an important assignment or to exam time. I'm sure there are tonnes of uses but I'll let you think of them...and then you can let me know.

Students in MFL could use them to produce speaking assignments, which are then posted to their blogs / class blog or such like.
Technorati Tags: georgewbush, widget, sprout, undergroundactionalliance, jamendo, gregbaumont, mashable

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Speaklike...or just a lazy app for anglophones

I caught an article on this new beta in my reader, via Webware.com.

SpeakLike: Home via kwout

As a languages teacher I'm actually at a loss as to what I think about it. At first I thought it could be a fun kind of application. As it is an companion to an IM  client it is obviously not going to required to translate a huge amount of text. So for maybe a business person in a rush to communicate with a colleague overseas this could be a useful tool. The user types in their own language and apparently seconds later the interlocutor sees the translation in their own language. (English, Spanish and simplified Chinese currently available.)
The interesting bit is that human translators are also used along with HAL (Human Assisted Language) (2001: A Space Odessy, anyone)

However  as an MFL teacher I am obviously wary of any kind of translating machine. No machine can ever replicate the humanity of language. Words often have multiple meanings which sometimes require an understanding of nuance to translate. I suppose the creators of SpeakLike have realised this and added the extra buzz of human translators, but this is bound to slow down the whole process and it would no longer be quite like IM (INSTANT messaging.)

This application came hard on the heels of VOXONIC which has apparently developed some proprietary software which can replicate a person's voice in ANY(!!!!!) language. Apparently from a fifteen minute sample of you speaking they can present you saying whatever you want in any language...without more info (or maybe more brains on my part)I can't see how this would give a good translation, I just keep thinking about Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films "Deu yeu 'ave a reum? etc. Some rapper (Prodigy from Mobb Deep) has decided to release his latest album in 14,000 languages using this software.

Technorati Tags: speaklike, voxonic, language, adamsutcliffe

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How right I was

For those who read my posts about language learning resources I predicted that Mango Languages wouldn't stay free for long. And le voila:-

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Technorati Tags: mangolanguages, languagelearning

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Are You a "good" Teacher?

What Makes a Good Teacher

BBC NEWS | Education | What makes a good teacher? via kwout

When I saw this article pop up in my reader I groaned inwardly and thought, " Not another politician telling a whole profession what it doesn't need to know".

However this article is really rather wonderful (except for the promotion of Teach First, which I am not yet convinced about because I don't know how many of the trainees stay in teaching) and I am sure most people reading this who are interested in their profession would agree.

"the highest quality teaching and learning comes when we have the greatest autonomy for the teacher and the learner".

This is when a teacher is most at ease with what they have to deliver are are able to be creative and allow their students to be creative

So, for Professor Broadfoot, the key ingredients of good teaching included: creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and fairness in the classroom, providing opportunities for "active learning" and humour to encourage pupil engagement, making learning interesting, and explaining things clearly.

Without wanting to boast this is what I attempt to do in all most of my classes and when I get it right that is when I feel the kids have learned best.
I love this bit of the article.

Professor Debra Myhill, from Exeter University, took a similar line. She argued that while good subject knowledge and intellectual ability were both important, they were not "sufficient" to be a good teacher. The crucial ingredient, she argued, was a teacher's ability to reflect on his or her own performance and then to change it. She too argued for a healthy scepticism towards national policy initiatives.

Since I decided to become a teacher 12 years ago I have seen many trainees in my classroom. Most of them have been far more academically qualified than me. And in languages this can mean someone who has studied the complete gamut of French Lit but who has spent perhaps a year in France as an assistant. I don't have a degree in languages I only had 5 years of living and working in France prior to teaching. For this I had to do an extra year of PGCE to prove that I had what it takes academically...easy but I still consider myself a gifted amateur. It is this however which enables me to connect with and help kids with their learning because I know where they are coming from.

Since taking up this blog I reflect on almost a daily basis.

I definitely have a healthy scepticism towards national initiatives, particularly when they change year on year; and this is why I find it hard to work with pen pushing, box tickers whose goal is to complete the next set of paper targets and move on...usually to the offices of education authorities.

.

..teachers liked to be given practical guidance on how to improve their teaching, yet what they really needed to develop was their own judgment of what works and what does not work in their own teaching.

And guess what we need for this....time. Time from form filling and admin. Rather than becoming lunchbox police give us time to think and reflect on what works and what doesn't.

Finally I like this advice from Professor Debra Myhill from Exeter University:

...she advocated that a good teacher should go in for "creative subversion".

I think I shall adopt this as my motto. Adam Sutcliffe, creatively subversive.



Technorati Tags: teaching, learning, debramyhill, bbceducation,

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Web 2.0 Apps and their Use in the MFL Classroom...mashups

Following on from a couple of previous posts regarding web applications and non-web applications I have used in the class, I set out on a little bit of personal research to have a look at some of the new web apps and see how they could be used in an MFL classroom (filters permitting) or to aid language learning. Regular readers will have seen the recent posts about specific language learning resources. These post and others to follow deal with applications which don't necessarily have a language learning purpose but can be adapted for this purpose.

In this post I want to deal with what I've termed mashups, for want of a better word. They permit the user to manipulate text, images, audio and even video.

Glogster:

Glogster's tag line is "poster yourself". And it is simply that. You create a poster including pictures, text, video etc. I think this would be superb for language learners. Students could create e-posters about themselves, celebrities, their town etc. They can show off their writing in a foreign language, or they could record themselves speaking the language on their phone/mp3 player and upload it. They could even make a wee video and upload it. In one piece of work students could present both their Speaking and Writing skills whilst at the same time showing of their creative skills.
Obviously, knowing the kind of networks we all work with in schools it may not be possible to use in school, and if possible it would probably need some preparation beforehand. Students would possibly have to load pictures/audio/video onto a pen drive  at home. I think though that it is at home that this would be great for learners to sink their teeth into. Once their glog is created they can then either embed it in a class blog or email the link to their teacher.
Here's one I did earlier.

Le Glog de Monsieur S.

Scrapblog:

Scrapblog is similar to Glogster in many ways, in that you can add photos and videos etc. It differs in one obvious way, and the clue is in its name, scrap...blog. It's the e-version of a scrapbook. That is you can create multiple pages, add a sountrack to the project and even add Ken Burns Effect to your pages.

I think this application would be a great way for students to write about and create a pictorial representation of a holiday experience, say a school trip to France etc. In my example I thought about the topic of school and how I could represent that. Obviously mine is a quick version just to have a look through (which is why the embedded video has nothing to do with our school) but there are definite
possibilities. This is more of a long term project though.

Update: Scrapblog can also be used to tell a story. Why not adapt a fairy tale in a foreign language and jazz it up with photos?

Mixbook:

This app is essentially photo based, but text can be added. Again this is great for writing and showing an account of a trip and such like. What I do like about it is the fact that you can collaborate with friends. So a group of students could work on a project of some kind away from school, and not have to be together. Even better, if a student (or class) has a penpal a mixbook of images and writing comparing and contrasting each others' lives etc. A way for both (sets of) students to practise their language skills whilst ensuring they understand each other.

  View this book full size or get a printed copy at Mixbook

Technorati Tags: mfl, languagelearning, web2.0, learning, teaching

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The Social Network Debate Keeps on Going

Here's a preview of a programme to be shown soon over the pond on PBS.
It appears to be in a similar vein to our own Panorama's One Click From Danger show a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately unless someone puts it onto YouTube I won't be able to watch it, but doesn't the tone of the preview already sound ominous.

Obviously the deeply scary side of the social web makes for far more interesting programming than highlighting the potential advantages to your kids education:

Cue ominous music (voiceover by that fella who always does action film trailers):

"The Social Web...Imagine a world where your child can interact and learn a language online...without necessarily having to divulge important identity info.

A World where ideas can be shared with both peers and educators.

This is a world your child could inhabit whilst staying at home.

Can you handle that"

Doesn't have the same ring as the threat of cyberstalking etc, does it.

Oh well let's see what happens.

Technorati Tags: socialweb, socialnetwork, debate, pbs, panorama

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Funky Five Times Table

Yanick's homework this week has been to learn his five times table. I was terrible at remembering these things, but he seems to have more of a flair for maths than I ever did. However after our attempt at his first podcast we thought we'd take it a step further and jazz it up some more.

As a bit of background Yan is my stepson who only came to live with us 2 years ago from Cameroon. Whilst there he had just learned to speak his native language of Bulu, and then started in Kindergarten to learn a bit of French. Since arriving here English as taken over as his main language. Obviously he's not quite at the same level as his mates but the progress he has made is phenomenal (cue applause). But he's got some serious courage to stand in front of a microphone and do this. I wrote the lyrics so any complaints about the cheesiness of them are totally valid.

The idea is to create something that will help in learning his tables, whilst having a laugh...and possibly to help others. Having already created a previous 2x podcast and the Making Papyrus movie I'm thinking of creating a wee blog, but first I want to talk to him about the idea.

Oh my family is expanding again; we have finally got a visa for Yanick's older brother. He's 11 and should be arriving in the week to start at school. Apparently he's a pretty decent footballer...next Samuel Eto'o.

Anyway, here's Yan's Funky Five Times Table.

Please let him know what you think!

Technorati Tags: maths, math, mathematics, multiplicationtables

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