So Much to Learn...So Little Time

Free Your Mind and Your Class Will Follow - The Slidecast @iowconference08

Here's a slidecast version of the talk I gave at IOW Conference 08. I'm looking at why blogs and podcasts have a natural home in the MFL classroom.

Free Your Mind And Your Class Will Follow : Using Blogs And Podcasts In The MFL Classroom

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: iowconference08 learning)

Really making use of the tech that kids bring to school

I got to thinking the other day in my register class as one of the students pulled out his iPhone, other mobile and iPod.
Although this pupil was a bit of an exception to the norm, most kids have a mobile phone on them at least.

I have already had my students using them to help vocab learning via simple audio files, but I wanted to go further and allow them to see either a picture which illustrates the vocab or the word itself.
Here is my solution:

• i recorded the audio in garageband
• i typed the vocab items onto slides in keynote
• i set the garageband file playing whilst recording the keynote slideshow (I could simply have narrated but it wouldn't have had the music)
• Hey presto a narrated vocab slideshow which I then exported to quicktime
  

I now needed to convert this in somehow to an acceptable format for mobile phone (3gp). My first idea was to use youconvertit.com to simply transcode the .mov file. This didn't work as the 3gp option isn't available for this conversion. I then thought I'd try to convert it from an online file, so I uploaded to blip.tv. BUT youconvertit isn't compatible with blip.tv urls. However with blip I was able to download an flv version. Using this I was then able to convert to 3gp...unfortunately this didn't work very well, the file was corrupted somewhere...and it was all getting a bit complicated.

THEN it dawned on me . Ok so it cost me £20, but it will be worth it. It worked like a dream. I just opened the .mov file and then exported it as a 3gp file. The reason why I say it will be worth it is that now I will be able to convert all the vocab guide podcasts ( which I want to redo) to mobile phone files to give out to students.

Result!






And here's the proof...sort of.

In case you are interested the film is below in the previous post.

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I wanna go Higher

For the first time (ever) in my teaching career I have a senior class of my own. Naturally I have to get them involved in creating stuff to assist their learning.

Inspired by and en hommage to Mark Pentleton's Verbcast my students have put together podcasts about regular verbs in the present tense.

Three groups, three very different attempts. What do you think of them? I think they all serve their purpose, but interestingly they reflect the different characters and personalities in the class. There's the serious one on -er verbs, a very verbcasty one on -ir verbs and a plain off the wall -re verb one.

Listen to them all.

Regular -er verbs:

Regular -ir verbs:

Regular -re verbs:

Motivating learners - Embracing New Technologies for Learning

On Saturday 19th April Aberdeenshire Council's Education, Learning and Leisure Department hosted a CPD event at Meldrum Academy, called Motivating Learners - Embracing New Technologies for Learning.
The idea behind the event was for teachers to acquaint themselves or update their knowledge of the new technologies that are available out there with the potential to enhance teaching.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to present a seminar. My focus was Blogs and Podcasts. I would have liked to be able to host a hands-on session taking teachers through the recording of a podcast, but that wasn't a possibility with the available facilities so basically I looked at reasons for both students and teachers to blog, reasons to incorporate podcasting in the classroom, some resources available to make podcasts and finally examples of podcasts / vodcasts produced by myself and/or my students.

Unfortunately due to the time limits I was unable to show the delegates who came to my presentation the examples of blogs I'd hyperlinked into my presentation. With that in mind for those who attended and any of my readers here is the pdf file.

Free Your Mind and Your Class Will Follow

Alternatively here's the slideshare embed.

| View | Upload your own

 

Blogs and Podcasts - Free Your Mind and Your Class Will Follow

Grammcasting in German

A long time ago, deep in the mists of time, before my back decided to give up the ghost I set my S2 German class a task to produce podcasts in which they would explain the finer points of a particular grammar item. The idea was that the podcast (or Grammcast as I have termed them) would help fellow German learners grasp that point.

Due to my recent incapacity this never got finished, until now. This week I have recorded these Grammcasts and am going to post them on RateMyMates for the kids to assess them.

I recorded them without checking the scripts for accuracy, mainly because I have plans for the class next week and wanted to get their work published. This decision has thrown up what I hope to be a nice little teaching point, as in one or two of the podcasts there are some quite glaring errors. When I ask the class to listen to and assess their mate's work I want them to try to identify those mistakes (sensitively) and then come back and re-record the podcasts grammcasts accurately.

Here is the task.

Have a listen if you get a chance...CAN YOU SPOT THE MISTAKES?
There's a couple more to be added as well.

Click here to get your own player.

Technorati Tags: grammar, podcast, languages, learning, german

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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.)

Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

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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Expert tips for Editing Podcasts in GarageBand

Here's a great list of tips about editing podcasts in GarageBand. It's not a how-to, rather a how you can improve and make it more professional.

10 Tips for Editing a Podcast in GarageBand


Technorati Tags: garageband, editing, apple, mac, podcast, podcasting

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My kids are podcasters too

The last couple of weeks my son Yanick has started to learn his 2x table in his P3 class. I was thinking about what I could do to help him learn, so I thought why not have him make a podcast that his mates could listen to too.
So this afternoon he wrote down his 2x table off the top of his head, we then practised reading it through and recorded it. It sounded fine when we put a beat to it but I wondered if he couldn't say it using the beat to help. Of course he could. Here's the result.

It was amazing to hear his voice gain in confidence as we did it. And you should have seen the moves he wanted to put down when he listened back to it. I'm sure he will be pleased as punch when he gives the cd to his teacher tomorrow.

...and I can now see a whole series of podcasts coming up. Not just x tables but maybe letters, phonics and any old stuff.

Now whilst we were working on the mix Aïcha came into the room and started blethering into the mic. So I had to record her. She's 3 and did a jolly good job I think.

Aicha Speaks

So there you are a family of podcasters...just need to get my wife in on the act now.

The Countdown Commences

The clock is ticking...

Disappointed as I am not to be at SLF ("Suspect Device" great song) I am actually quite glad that I haven't been able to attend. I've been catching up on some stuff via the ace Connected Live Blog BUT I have so many things to do here.

Our visitors from Namibia and Ethiopia arrive on Sunday so there is some serious organisation going on.

In preparation for this event, and in celebration of the Ethiopian Millenium last week I have lead the assemblies all this week, just simply talking about Ethiopia. And I made a slidecast of the presentation. (Its a really simple but effective way of sharing presentations)

Here it is:

Re first slidecast

Told my S2 French class about the slidecast to help them with their revision and played it in class and had them drill the words....they loved it.
Every single pupil in the class listened and repeated the words in unison. WHY?

Any answers?