This is the reflective (mostly) blog of Adam Sutcliffe, a teacher of Modern Languages at The Gordon Schools in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.
All opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own. Any complaints should be expressed directly to the author.
So the gaming in education craze is hitting languages. Now I am not a fan of gaming per se. For one I am utterly useless and secondly the word gaming brings up images of those killing and car jacking games that all my students talk about. BUT I am prepared to open my mind and think about the uses of appropriate games to aid in the teaching and learning of languages. Having watched Derek Robertson of LTScotland on the BBC (thanks to Ewan's handy recording) I was rather impressed by the work that is going on via Consularium.
On first thoughts something like this could be an excellent way of acquiring vocab, especially if you could set the game to work on vocab pertaining to a specific topic. I wouldn't be averse to trying out this kind of thing for say 5-10 minutes at the beginning of each lesson or every other lesson. Plus it appears the games are being developed with Berlitz, therefore there will be some serious language learning content...I would hope.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not advocating that this kind of approach should over take teacher based language teaching, but it could be an enjoyable yet useful addition to a teachers tool box. (Nightmare for security though...count them in and count them back...)
Virgin and Berlitz are planning a series of games (going under the title of Mind Your Language with Spanish and English being the first releases (due this summer) and French, German and Japanese to follow in autumn.
It will be interesting to see whether these games have a similar sort of impact on the general populace as the Brain Training games have had.
By the way if you get to read this Derek, I'd be prepared to trial these games in my class if you wanted to set up a project...
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.
How about this for a potentially superb resource for language lessons. A bright, colourful mp3 recording device, battery powered and compatible with a pc. The uses of this in an mfl classroom are endless:
have as many students doing speaking exercises as you have microphones
in group work have a microphone on each island so that everyone can do the work
strategically place the microphones all around the room when recording drills etc.
And loads more that I haven't thought of in the time its taken me to post this.
At the beginning I said it is a potentially superb resource...I wonder about the quality of recording. Most mp3 players are capable of recording voice but the actual recording quality is doubtful. I would be very interested in testing out this resource committing to buying one.
I like Google Alerts. It always throws up some interesting stuff.
This one came from my "Languages" alert and is a Forbes article based on an interview with Noam Chomsky, noted linguist. In the article he speculates that the learning of a language has a critical period for development, and that for languages this could be from birth to around puberty.
If you have learned a language by that time, you will be able to learn more languages later, but probably in a different way, and maybe by connecting it to the languages that you do know.
I'm sure most language teachers would agree with this and indeed anecdotal evidence nearly always concurs. How difficult do adults find it to acquire a second language?
From birth children seem to absorb language (mother tongue) with no need for formal lessons and the idea of language lessons has always been to try to include as much target language as possible to attempt in some way to replicate this. However as kids get older it becomes more difficult for them to absorb any new language.
This is why it is important that kids get the chance to learn a 2nd language in primary school, whilst they are still at their most receptive. It is also important that at this stage they get a chance to really enjoy a second language. In my experience most kids really do enjoy language study in the primary stages.
However, as a secondary teacher I fear that all too often we seem to slog this fun out of language study. Why? Is it because we start to get into the nitty gritty of language, i.e. grammar and it becomes boring? Is it because we often have to deal with a class in S1 where kids arrive at totally different stages in their language learning; some at zero because they have changed language and some for whom a lot of the S1 topics have already been covered in primary? Unfortunately as a common denominator we often start at the basics again.
What can we do to resolve this problem? To my mind TRANSITION becomes all important. Somehow secondary teachers need to be able to latch onto the enthusiasm of the primary school whilst still pushing the boundaries of linguistic knowledge? But how?
Could this be where emerging tech should get involved, by enhancing the creative skills of these kids? Rather than starting with a text book why not use kids prior knowledge and introduce them to the delights of podcasting to introduce themselves. Or use web resources such as glogster, scrapblog start to compile e-folios. Lets try to build on the creativity kids often get to express in primary to ensure that they remain motivated to study a language throughout secondary. AND let us encourage those who may not be naturally gifted linguists to be as creative as possible with the language that they know. Lets allow CREATIVITY and COMMUNICATION to be the by-words rather than 100% accuracy.
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
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.)
Voki has had quite a lot of coverage in the edublogger world, particular with Sharon Tonner'sVoices 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:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'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.
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?
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.
This film looks at 2 other web learning resources, Palabea and iTalki. As learning resources for pupils I am not convinced as to their relevance they are more geared to using language learning as social network. Not that I'm against that per se, just they do not appear to be 100% set up to learn a language. The majority of this film gives advice about using these sites and the amount of information required to be able to use them.
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. Click to Play
The second in a mini series of web-based language learning resources looking at Livemocha.
May I be so bold as to suggest that if you are reading this you are probably a networked teacher, or on the way to becoming one. I find myself more and more a networked type and I have to say it suits me down to the ground. I have never thought so much about my job (vocation?) ever, and have never had so much contact with fellows world wide; at this particular point in my life when due to my ruptured discs I am not in my "Typical Teacher Network" it is really quite comforting and stopping me wallowing in too much of my own pity. For example I was ironing a few clothes on Sunday ( I can still do a bit of work) with Twitteriffic chirruping in the background and Ewan wanted some contributions for a piece he was in the course of writing. I had a few thoughts and so did a few of our mutual followers. You never know I might vaguely recognise something he writes in The Economist. Yesterday I caught a tweet from Lucy Gray asking for examples of presentations showing good practice in Global Ed. I sent her a link to one I did for our Welwitschia Partnership...lo and behold I discovered she has set up a whole network dedicated to Global Education.Fantastic. One BUT though. I put out a tweet for any GLOW monitors to ask about their role. Nary a tickle. Glass half full version, non of them are online tonight. Glass half empty version...they don't know about Twitter...oh dear, better not utter my true thoughts.
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.
On first thoughts something like this could be an excellent way of acquiring vocab, especially if you could set the game to work on vocab pertaining to a specific topic. I wouldn't be averse to trying out this kind of thing for say 5-10 minutes at the beginning of each lesson or every other lesson. Plus it appears the games are being developed with Berlitz, therefore there will be some serious language learning content...I would hope.
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.
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