So Much to Learn...So Little Time

MangoLanguages

This is the first in a mini series of films looking at some of the free web-based language learning resources now available.





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This is a superb language learning resource. Well presented and well thought out. The audio uses native speakers and there is something for everyone.
Use it while its still free.

Technorati Tags: adamsutcliffe, languages, learning, resources, french, german, spanish, mangolanguages

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Live Mocha Language Learning

Live mocha is a superb, free language learning resource, which as well as giving learners reading, listening and writing exercises there is also the option to interact with speakers of the kanguage you have chosen to learn.

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The second in a mini series of web-based language learning resources looking at Livemocha.

The Importance of Learning Another Language...or not, if league tables are invovlved

I caught this from Education Guardian in my Google Alerts for "languages" today and although I'm not directly affected being an MFL teacher in Scotland it got my goat.

Headteachers today blamed school league tables for a dramatic decline in the number of children taking languages.

I'm am in no way a supporter of league tables, but it is blatant rubbish that it is the fault of league tables that fewer kids are studying languages. I am willing to be corrected if wrong but is it not the choice of individual schools whether or not languages are compulsory post 14.

As the government published the latest tables for GCSE and A-level in England, John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said they created perverse incentives for schools to skew the curriculum for 14- and 15-year-olds towards easier subjects.

So is Mr Dunford saying that the sole incentive for dropping the obligation for language study is the incentive to make a school look better in a league table? Hardly the most educational rationale is it?

I always thought we were in the business of producing well rounded young men and women with a drive for lifelong learning and an ambition to to their best in whatever they attempt. Yes it is important to kids and mums and dads what grades appear on their certificate but it also important...no vital, that students come out of their time in school as confident, responsible ,world aware citizens. The study of a foreign language goes a long way to doing this.

I think more H/T's need to be stronger to resist the temptation to make their school look good through tables. A good school with good teachers and a strong ethos of achievement in the broadest sense will always shine through...except to those who are so blinkered as to believe that a league table in something  like education actually means something (politicians for example.)

But Dunford said the target had contributed to a dramatic fall in the numbers taking modern foreign languages now that pupils were no longer required to a take a foreign language after the age of 14. "This is widely regarded as a hard GCSE, a view that is supported by reliable research evidence, so, instead of taking French or German, students have taken subjects in which it is easier to reach grade C.

Oh dear, so languages is seen as a hard subject...SO WHAT?. What is wrong with a little academic rigour? Nothing for those that respond to that. But learning a language doesn't always have to be so difficult. Surely in England there are lower level courses students can take where students don't dwell so much on the hard grammatical stuff, but learn more about the culture of the countries where those languages are spoken, whilst still covering the basics. Any language teacher will tell you that parents at parents' evenings constantly bemoan the fact that though they didn't like languages at school they wished they had paid more attention because they go to France every year on holiday...

It's easy to blame league tables...they can't exactly respond via a blog can they.It just seems to me that everyone is taking the easy option: H/T's because they get to skew their stats a bit and pupils because they don't want to do something thats a bit difficult.

There have been so many articles written worrying about our lanck of linguistic prowess and what it means for future generations. This is just one I picked up on. (The Language of Ignorance?)

The rest of the world is becoming more multilingual - and monolingual English speakers are being left behind. Those that have learned English as a foreign language have every right to compete for jobs in the English speaking market, and if they are more qualified than those that speak English as a primary language, this could leave a huge chunk of the UK population without jobs.
Many think of languages as a non-vocational option of study, but in reality learning a foreign language can open up a vast array of career opportunities, ranging from work with well-known multinational companies to international organisations or charities, with the added benefit of travel abroad.

  

Without a language skill more and more of our kids will be at the back of a queue for all the good jobs. Come on give them a chance. Yes its hard, yes it can be a pain in the arse sometimes but it is encumbent on  us as educators to give our students every chance to succeed in a world which is changing everyday...it's then up to the students to grasp the opportunity given.

And yes I know H/Ts have lots to think about when making their decisions about the curriculum but simply blaming the league tables is to my mind down right daft.

Technorati Tags: languagelearning, language, johnduford, educationguardian, adamsutcliffe, gcse,

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Ready for la rentrée

In actual fact I won't be. Still laid up with my prolapsed discs and looking like surgery (according to the chiropractor)
However never let it be said that I have stopped working. I have a great S4 French class, most of whom I have taught all through school. Just in their moment of need their favourite teacher isn't there...me that is. Due to the supply situation in the 'Shire there is no MFL teacher to fill in so they have a really nice lady who unfortunately isn't a French teacher.
Now I would dearly love to really put 2.0 tech to the test and deliver the odd lesson via my apple and the pc in my room, but this ain't possible. So in order to give a helping hand I've put together this wee presentation to assist with the prep of a folio piece. I will be posting this on the departmental resource blog along with written details.
How nice am I...more likely how frustrated at being out of the loop.

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Technorati Tags: teaching, learning, technology, french, languages,

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Learn 200 words a day

200words-a-day.com

Just got this link through my google alerts for languages. For any of you MFL teachers out there have you heard of this, do you have experience of it. If so drop me a comment.
It sound to be too good to be true, but I like the idea if only for increasing students grasp of vocab.

Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in Schools Using Accelerated Learning Software
Free Trial in your School - read on only if you are open-minded...
Many modern foreign languages (MFL) teachers have difficulty in attracting, and retaining the interest of students who are studying languages in schools. Teaching vocabulary is one of the areas of difficulty.

The 200 Words a Day! techniques, which use the
teachings of the world's memory masters, might hold the solution if
this sounds like you might be facing.

Now to approach my PT. What is there to lose by talking to them and trying it out. We are always complaining about how students don't learn enough vocab. Obviously it wouldn't/shouldn't replace the usual courses etc but it could be useful.


Technorati Tags: language, learning, teaching, french, german, spanish, 200words-a-day

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Working with eLearning Tools

Jane Hart's E-Learning Pick of the Day has provided me with loads of new applications to try out over the last few months.
Here's one I wanted to share. The E-Learning Guild has just produced a free to download ebook called 162 Tips and Tricks for Working withe Elearning Tools.
On first brief overview it is chock full of tips on how to use a plethora of web tools. The book is free to download and share but cannot be altered in anyway. So with thanks to the E-Learning Guild here is...

162 Tips and Tricks for Working With eLearning Tools

LAFTAS and Festival Pocket Films

A little while ago I blogged and posted my presentation for the LAFTAS (Language and Film Talent Awards) promoted by CILT.
In school we are using it as an opportunity for our S4's to think about the study of a language and its relevance to their future working life. I am hoping we get a whole raft of amusing, interesting films to judge.
This morning though this post cropped up in my reader from Liz Kolb's From Toy to Tool Blog. So here's a call to all creatively minded language teachers.
Enter the Festival Pocket Film. For the 4th edition of these awards the organisers have introduced an international section specifically related to producing films for viewing on mobile equipment (phones, pda's etc).
Here are some more details:

Project typology :
  All collective / participatory projects which use mobile technologies such as mobile communications terminals, small digital cameras, etc. and which result in an audiovisual presentation or diffusion of : films, news reporting, video blogs, video casts, webTV...

Examples :
  a teaching, technical or artistic workshop
  an audiovisual documentation of a particular community by its members
  the constitution of an audiovisual cooperative
  an informational relay program regarding environmental, - public health and cultural problems a participatory artistic project...

If and when I eventually get my back sorted an return to work I hope to be able to get something together for this project.

Another New Web Based Language Learning Resource

Following my post on MANGO I was emailed about another new language learning resource called LIVE MOCHA.

Without having undertaken a course yet it appears very interesting as there are real live tutors involved and there is full interactivity, with Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing actvities. Plus there is a whole range of languages from French and German to Farsi and Arabic.

AND ITS FREE AT THE MOMENT. (I shall be recommending both Mango and LiveMocha to mys S4 students as revision aids.)

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Response to Derek Wenmouth's k12 Online 2007 Questions

More from me on K12 Online 2007.
I am so glad this conference has been taking place during our half term holidays because it has meant that I have given myself time to watch / listen to some of the presentations. I've got through about half of them so far and am still interested.
For the purposes of this post however I wanted to respond to the questions posed by Derek Wenmouth at the end of his presentation entitled: "Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice".
This keynote looks at the issues surrounding the use of emerging technologies in the classroom, and ways of trying to make the use thereof as invisible as possible, but he looks particularly at how we should reflect on our use of these technologies.
It is all well and good trying to use blogs, podcasts, wikis etc but the outcome must be that students learn what they are supposed to learn, which is usually dictated by a curriculum.
At the end of his presentation Derek leaves us with a series of questions to enable us to reflect on our own practice. He asks us to chose the one question most appropraite to ourselves...I'm a swot and have answered most of them.

    •    What are the mirrors I am holding to my practice?

not enough at the moment. I think the time is approaching when I need to stop looking forward all the time and just take stock of some of the things I have done in class recently and try to analyse how effective I have been and how much the students have learned.

    •    Who are my mentors WHO I RELATE TO REGULARLY?

I suppose my mentors are my colleague language teachers when it comes to the actual teaching of the languages, however i feel as though there are few, if any, colleagues in school who could sufficiently mentor and coach me on how to integrate emerging technologies in the classroom. There appears to be very little discussion on, or use of these technologies in my school. Every one is waiting for an INSET on them...I am not a "dIgital native" as the generation we teach are supposed to be. I only started to use computers in 1995 when I started teacher training (but it wasn't part of the course). I have learned and developed through my own interest. No INSET or course can provide you with the training you need because the training as we know it doesn't exist. Most of my training and mentoring comes from my blog reading and comment writing and TRYING STUFF OUT...AND FAILING

What is my professional reading?

        Blogs, blogs and more blogs. I have to admit I was never a good reader of academic material...not enough crime or horror in it for my reading tastes, but since my discovery of blogs I have never felt more up to date and in tune with educational thinking. Blogs are immediate and I can, if I wish, comment on what is written. Until just over a year ago I honestly only really spent time reflecting on my practice when Annual CPD review time came about. Now I'm doing it all the time.

What communities of practice do I belong to?
The blogosphere I suppose


DO I HAVE A BLOG?
You're reading it

What about my rss feeds?
Numbers growing on a weekly basis as reading leads me to new people.

When was the last time I observed a lesson?
I have not done this in a formal sense in along time but I often observe my MFL colleagues at work  if I need to visit their classroom.

When was my last presentation?

Done 2 main presentations in last 8 months Communicate.07 and 'shire and city In-service. Really enjoyed doing them and actually felt I was contributing to other colleagues development (thanks to feedback received), but actually done lots of assemblies and such like recently.

Well that wasn't too bad. All of this reflection leads me to the idea that I should really get myself together and go for Professional Recognition with GTCS.

Web tools I use

Welcome to the first in a short series of mega posts.
More for personal reasons I decided to audit the different web / ict resources I use, have used or intend to use. This list is those web-based resources I have used in class or for other professional reasons. I have tried to give examples (where appropriate), along with a screenshot. So here goes.

firefox

great free open source web browser, built to work with RSS technology. Lots of add-ons (foxy tunes links directly to your computer's media player and allows you to control media player from browser) and customisability. Blocks pop ups, links easily with different google apps and as with most open source stuff safe because those in the know work to protect it. Cross platform usage (windows, mac, linux etc)

flock
specialised social networking browser. Just out of beta. Links all your social networks together in one browser. I use it for uploading to flickr (great resource for this puprpose..multiple uploads easy batch tagging). Just seems to have too much going on at one time for me. I like to ...browse with my browser.

animoto
great way of putting together slideshow. Free for 30 second videos. Upload copyright free music to go with photos. Quick way of putting together an exciting slideshow to include in a presentation. There is a pro version which allows you to produce full length videos, about $30 I think for one year.

bubbleshare
Nice way of presenting photos in a slideshow

BubbleShare: Share photos - Here comes Halloween!

slideshare / slidecast
Used it for publishing my own slides from presentations, but have used slidecast to produce vocab learning resources. Could be used to promote pupil produced resources. Slidecasts are quite easy to produce and synchronise but you need to have a url for a voice file, I just uploaded to my blog and used the post's url. Would be great if you could upload sound file direct.

| View | Upload your own

zamzar
Great little resource to convert all kinds of file. etc into other formats. Have used it to convert my .mov files to .wav files and vice versa. All conversions carried out on zamzar servers. They then send email of link where to download converted file. Simple and efficient.

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pbwiki
Wiki for collaborative work - collaboration depends on collaborators getting on board, but this is very simple. As easy as a Peanut Butter sandwich. If you can email or word process you can use this. I am currently using it to promote our activities in our Connecting Classroom partnership. You can upload files (limited file space if you have a free account) or you can embed using the plugin menus...I find this a great way to post videos without using too much space.

I want to get into using it with students as a way of helping improve writing skills and helping them build a portfolio of work.

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wikispaces
as above but above but I prefer look and feel of pbwiki.

google docs
as I am disorganised with paper this is a great way for me to keep documents. No need to worry about school server packing up. However not as feature filled as office and I some times find it a bit frustrating...although I hear microsoft are coming up with a web based version of their office suite to rival it. Includes word, xl, powerpoint equivalents. The ace thing about these docs is that there is a share/collaborate tool which allows you to work together on a document.

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gmail
great easy to use unlimted webspace email. just about impossible to fill up inbox. Also creates conversations with mails exchanged between same people. The search facility is fantastic as well. A million times better than the new yahoo mail where I also have an account. (Compare these figures, in the last week my yahoo account had over 100 spam mails, gmail account had 2 so there is very good spam protection.) I am considering whether to start an experiment with a class where each student sets up a gmail account. I can then link them all to their own blog / wiki or whatever, but there is also an IM chat facility so I could specify a time online where difficulties with homework could be rsolved away from class... WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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feedburner
creates feeds...don't ask me to explain how it works or what it does but it works. Basically if you create sound files or write blogs you can ensure that potential subscribers can follow your every outpouring...you can probably tell I don't fully understand it but it works.

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typepad
blogging platform, paid but comes with all the whizz bangs necessary. You can link text, embed videos slideshows...as you can see from this very post. Extremely simple to use.

flickr
photo sharing website. Great for photo blogging etc. I have used the creative commons search facility to find photos for use in class. It can be used to share photos from class trips or school events etc. There are loads of "toys" that can be used with your flickr photos (motivational posters etc.). Try flickrvision for a few minutes, its mesmerising.

flickrslidr
produces embeddable slideshows from your flickr photos

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

skitch
allows sharing of screenshots. These can be annotated. Does lots more that I've not yet discovered. ONLY FOR MAC. I STILL HAVE 2 INVITES AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE WHO LEAVES A COMMENT. See examples on this post.

bloglines
This is my feed reader. allows me never to miss what people whose blogs I enjoy reading write. Also does a whole heap more that I've not discovered.

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youtube
video sharing website. Upload films and share with the world. Embed or link to your blog, social networking site etc.

teacher tube
video sharing website specifically aimed at educators. Self moderated

school tube
As teacher tube. requires registration via a school based email address and videos are moderated before publication. Doesn't seem to be as easy to use as tt but allows for longer films and are able to identify more specific channels for film. Was excited about it at first but am cooling on it very fast.

delicious
Bookmark sharing. Great way of helping students find web-based resources also enables you to bookmark interesting sites on whatever computer you are using. Here are my own favourites.

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vixy.net
"record" videos from you tube etc to your own hard drive. In other words allows you to convert youtube files to files viewable on PC, iPod, PSP etc. Great when school network doesn't let you see you tube

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miro
A bit like itunes specifically set up to search video sharing websites

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rss
really simple syndication. aggregates everything that interests you on the web. rather than you going out to look at something all the time this is the technology that brings it to you, via bloglines in my case. Look out for the little orange logo in your  browser address bar which lets you know you can subscribe to the site via an aggregator (eg bloglines, netvibes, my yahoo, google reader etc.)

voki

Talking avatars. Create cartoon type characters from the available types then record, text or upload voice file (max 30 secs). Great way of encouraging kids to speak without having see themselves, good amusement factor as well.

Get a Voki now!

flashmeeting
open university hosted free web based video conferencing. can chat in back channel, exchange urls etc. All conferences are also recorded and available afterwards, including all chat. This links to the recording of a flashmeeting organised by Joe Dale.

That's it for now. Hope this wasn't too long. Maybe I should have written a separate post for each application...hmm!
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