Edtech Languages

2010-06-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

Where does the power of the Web lie?

What comes to mind when you think of the word "Web"....intricate, links, connection, extension, strong, attract, caught, can't get out!!!!
When brainstorming about what I was going to write for this blog, two thoughts came to my mind about how I have been impacted by the power of the Web lately.
1) SHARING:
I have definitely noticed, over the past 6 months, how Facebook has taken on new levels of social networking and particularly sharing. You don't just go on facebook to update your profile, read someone's update or look at pictures. You can now go on facebook to see what people SHARE. Is it just me or have Youtube videos, newspaper articles, and links to websites been making a serious impact on your Facebook page?
When I first set up my igoogle account with RSS feed two years ago, people told me I would be reading more than ever. It did not happen so much then. But today, being fed information by people I respect and/or have the same interests as me is making me read much more than ever before.
Jeff U. shared with us how he gets information brought to him. Power!

2) TWITTER:
Over the past few weeks of unrest in Bangkok, everyone has learned the hard way how biased the media can be. It's been difficult to find objective reports of what was happening. Newspaper took side and English language radio gave little information. It definitely made me question the authenticity of the media in general. Friends and family abroad saw a country on the verge of civil war reported on the news with alarming images. Meanwhile, living downtown, I still drove home everyday and did not feel or see any difference in my routine. In the midst of not really knowing what was happening or going to, many people started to rely on twitter as a source of information and updates on the situation. I cannot find it anymore, but an article was posted a fews days after commenting on the record use of Twitter in a political crisis.
Here is a related article from @RichardBarrow on the topic. Now the question remains, what resources to trust ? It's important to keep in mind that what we read in newspaper, what we read on the Web (e.j. Twitter) should be taken as information and not absolute truth!

I could not agree more with Jeff Utech when he says that "we need to teach people (not just students) to filter the information they receive"

Support System for Student Safety Online

2010-05-31T22:38:00.001-07:00

For this course, a group of middle school teachers (Danielle, Heather, Caryn, and Wendy) worked on re-designing our Middle School Technology Acceptable Use Policy. So, can say with confidence that we have addressed several rules to promote online safety. Now our students can go on using the internet safely. Yeah Right!

How can we be sure that our students are safe online when we unaware of their safety in their regular school/social environment?
How can we prepare them for the potential risk of cyber bullying when bullying can go unnoticed in the hallway of our school?
How can we protect them from the various shape bullying could take (personal/physical, online, phone, etc.)?

And, who is responsible for teaching students about how to stay safe? EVERYONE!
Parents at home and educators in school need to help and support by educating them and raising awareness about their safety!

But we cannot be satisfied with having a policy written up somewhere on the agenda or in the computer lab. The AUP needs to be mentioned, referred to by ALL teachers in ALL classroom on a regular basis in different settings, so that the message really sinks in.

It is also important for the adults to stay informed about the new technologies and the potential risks that they represent.

In school, we should also teach students to be aware and watch out for themselves and others.
After all, they are the " in generation" who knows what's out there. So rather than being re-active to a case of bullying, we need to teach kids to be pro-active and take initiative to report any danger.

Copyright and Plagiarism

2010-05-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I started to paint again. Here is a photo of my first work: What do you think?
Of course this is not MY work, but Le nu bleu II de Henri Matisse.

Tonight, I learned Russian! I am pretty good, don't you think?
Я использовал интернет, чтобы перевести эту фразу на русском языке
Of course I don't speak Russian. The sentence above reads "I used the internet to translate this sentence into Russian."

What's my point?
We cannot plagiarize: use someone's work as our own.

So how can students complete research with respect to the laws of copyright and plagiarism?
For example, where can they find the images for a visual presentations ?

In my observation, it used to be that most students googled for images, copied and pasted it into their presentation. However, over the past 2 years, I have seen much more awareness and education in teaching students from our school to give credit for their resources. It will take a few more years to bring everyone (students, teachers, parents) on board, but I do believe that soon it will be an expected skill.

How can a student be sure that s/he is not breaking the international rules of copyrights?
1) Students should be aware of the school's Acceptable Use Policy with respect to the copyrights' law.
2) Encourage students to use the creative commons search engine for visual or audio resources. I have created a step by step use of Creative Commons* that can be presented to students on the first day of a project to teach them how to look for powerful pictures.

*Reference

Privacy Online

2010-05-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Is there such a thing as privacy online?

Because new generations are considered "digital natives" does not mean that they understand the consequences of their actions. They are children after all! Parents and Educators must help students understand their Digital Footprint and take responsibility early on for what they chose to post publicly online.

Our immediate concern is directed at social networking sites where everyone exposes themselves or is just as easily exposed or "tagged" by others. However, it is important to regularly remind all the online -ers (facebookers, twitterers, bloggers, etc.) that we have a choice in what we do publicly, whether we do it in the middle of the cafeteria at recess or from the 'privacy' of our home computer. Once it's online, it's not yours!

For example, I think this short video carries a simple, but powerful message for middle and high school students:

Also, this article definitely pushed me to question privacy online: Beware: the Internet could own your future. We all need to be aware and help each other staying informed about the rules and stipulations on "privacy settings" as they are rapidly and regularly changing, yet not very well advertised.
However, playing the devil's advocate, I struggle with some of the "fears" out there. Should we be so cautious and careful about our every moves? Are we not inhibiting our creativity and expression by being so careful about our "public" image all the time. For example this article presents "your online reputation can hurt your job search".
Could your future boss really ask you to show your Facebook profile and make a judgment about your professional skills? Wouldn't a job interviewer be over stepping their rights? Am I just naive?

The Digital Footprint and It's Shadow

2010-05-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?

Before answering this question, I would be interested to ask some students at various levels (elementary, middle, high school) if they know and understand what Digital Footprint is.

I used the online Digital Footprint Calculator to calculate my approximate personal footprint:In this article, Sara Perez simply defines Digital Footprint as "your social network profiles, your web site or blog, your photos shared on an online service, videos you uploaded to YouTube, perhaps even mentions of you in the local paper or your school's web site...."

Considering this definition, it is safe to say that most of our students from Kindergarden through 12th grades contribute regularly to their personal Digital Footprint. Therefore I would support the idea that it's never too early present the "reality" of what it means to be active online, especially considering our technology expectations for them.

There can be positive feedback in one's contribution to the digital footprint: For example you were recognized internationally for your humanities' class blog entries. Or the language teacher in your new school views your online Spanish portfolio from your previous school and uses it as your placement into the next level.

However, Sara Perez also addresses the digital shadow, explaining in her articles that if we are active in creating our digital footprint, our Digital shadow, "... images of you on a surveillance camera, your bank records, your retail and airline purchase records, your telephone records, your medical database entries, copies of hospital scans, information about your web searches, general backup data, information about credit card purchases, etc." is being created indirectly through our actions online. We definitely have less control over our Digital Shadow, which is one more supportive argument to bring awareness to students as early and often as possible.

Photo Credit: North Sea (Sankt Peter Ording) Germany by Paraflyer

BLOGS AS LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO

2010-04-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

As the end of the year approaches, I would like to take some time to reflect on one new web 2.0 tool I decided to adopt this school year.
At the beginning of the year, I created 3 different blogs for each French class:

FRENCH INTRO

FRENCH A

FRENCH B

My main goal for creating a class blog was to communicate with students, parents, and the bigger community. Sharing class activities, projects, ideas, accomplishments. Looking back through the different posts, I know there are lots of piece missing that I never got a chance to post (videos, photos, projects, etc!). It feels as though I have not used it consistently enough for students and/or parents to feel that it is a valuable resource.

Linked on my main page(s), you can also access students' personal blogs. On their blogs, we created a FRENCH category. The goal and expectation was for students to post their projects, journals as an online portfolio. Before this school year, we had been keeping "paper" portfolios for students but were looking for the better tool. Ultimately, this portfolio will follow them through the years, demonstrating their progress in French.
To better understand how to use Blogs as a portfolio, read this post by Jeff Utecht.

I just looked through some of my student's portfolios. Here are some observations:

1) Some are well kept with all projects posted. Others have only 1 or 2 French posts. This is a good reminder than I need to allow (class)time for students to upgrade their French portfolio.

2) In the future, I could invite students to reflect on their learning for French class on their blog. It might give the outside reader some insights on the various posts on their blog. It would also be good writing practice.

In the next few weeks before school is out for the summer, I will encourage students to update their portfolios so they can continue to use them next year in the following level of French.
If they leave Thailand, they could use their French portfolio to demonstrate some of their French skills in order to place in the appropriate language class.

VIRTUAL SCHOOL

2010-04-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

What to do when/if we need to close school (campus) for unforeseen circumstances; yet you do not want to close school (learning)?

On April 8 and 9, 2010, after the state of emergency was declared in Bangkok, ISB made the decision to close campus. However, teachers were asked to keep their classes open, virtually.
Our school has implemented plenty of web 2.0 tools over the past 2-3 years to keep the classes alive and going: Panthernet, class blogs, Google accounts, Wikis, etc.
However, without any warnings of the closure, we had little preparation for how to proceed. Our school has since April 9th been developing a Virtual School Guideline.

How do we ensure that students who think they just got a free snow day actually check for assignments and complete them?
On that day, my two French INTRO classes had an old school paper test assigned. Students had been reviewing the days before and were ready. The next day, was the start of a week long Holiday. I decided to post the test on Panthernet, have students complete it at home and submit their test ALL ONLINE.
Wouldn’t they use their notes? To ensure that the test was done in a “proper” testing environment, I wrote specific instructions on the Panthernet assignment and I e-mailed those to the parents. Students had to allot themselves 1 hour to complete the test.

For my other classes, we had no major assignments due. Instructions were posted on Panthernet, but the actual assignments were posted on their class BLOGS. Again, to make sure that students completed their work, I e-mailed their personal e-mail as well as parents. Students had a week to complete the assignment. I invited them to e-mail me if they had questions.

I would consider my virtual school day to be fairly successful. Most students completed their work. The only students who did not were given a chance to make the work up. After all this was our first Virtual school day!

Image @JulyYu

Voulez-Vous WIKI Avec Moi?

2010-04-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

As presented in a previous blog post for this course, I had elected to work on a Wetpaint WIKI for this COETAIL course. Because the unit based on using this WIKI was planned for later in the semester, I chose a different project (voicethread) instead. However, I have starting to use that WIKI project in my French B class this week.

What are my goals for WIKI page: DESTINATION FRANCE?

1) CLASS DISCUSSION: Ensuring that students have read the chapters

Students read a short French novel in French (DESTINATION FRANCE) over their Song Kran holiday.
This month in French class, we are using the WIKI to prepare for class discussion: Students answer text based/comprehension questions as homework. We then use these responses to discuss the story in class.

*If time permits before class discussion, we could use a few minutes at the beginning of class to read the answers posted by other groups.*

2) COLLABORATION:
Students take turns in their roles: Architecte = Writer, Décorateur = editor, Nettoyeur = proofreader.

Students use different text color to show their work. Black = Architecte, Blue = décorateur, red=nettoyeur.

What does each participant have to do?
-L'Architecte answers the main question(s) as best as possible, focusing on the content but without worrying (too much) about the details of language structure.

-Le Décorateur comes second and adds on to the response of the architecte. The décorateur can give opinion about the architect’s answer or add on to missing information. The décorateur does not focus on the language structure either.

-Le Nettoyeur comes last, reading his/her classmates’ answers. He/she does not have to add any content to the response/text. The only responsibility of the Nettoyeur is the structure of the text. He/she needs to looks for spelling, grammar, accents, and sentence structure.

Students in one group have different responsibilities and are co-dependent on each other. They must have to communicate, read each others’ work and help one another.

3) STUDY NOTES: Working collaboratively on all the questions for all chapters, students are building their review notes. They can later use the notes to study for the test based on the reading and class discussion.

4) PARTICIPATION: Not having to take notes in class (they are all on the WIKI) allows students to be attentive and active in class discussion.

Things to consider when using WIKI (or things I learned the hard way!)
-Becoming members: Make your WIKI page PUBLIC (see settings) for a few minutes during class time, and have students JOIN the WIKI right away. This is easier than inviting each member through an e-mail.

-Accents: I encourage students to work and save their work first on a word document instead of directly on the WIKI Page. It allows them to check for spelling and accents. It also avoids accidental deleting of their work.

-Internet Connection: If several students are trying to work on 1 page of the wiki simultaneously, it will not save their work and/or might delete everything they or someone else did.

-Responsibility/flexibility: One great advice I received from Kim Cofino for this year’s use of the wiki, was to allow students to choose/decide/share responsibilities for their role. Knowing they had to alternate Architecte, Décorateur, Nettoyeur, students would sign up as a team. It allowed them more flexibility for in case they had a busy day and it took a lot of work off my hands.

-Grading: students are held accountable for completion of their task and quality of their participation on the WIKI. I check their work every day and leave comments on the pages for the groups who need to review their responses (content or form).

-Worth It factor?:
Last year, Using the WIKI for the first time was very time consuming in organizing and creating the pages. This year, however, having the pages already set up has made it easier to manage the page.
Most students in French B class this year had already used WIKI pages in another class and were familiar with the set up of the tool. So far, students have been doing their homework, answering the questions on the WIKI, leaving us a whole class for discussion and oral communication on the novel. In the context of studying/analyzing literature, they apply/practice the French they have learned this year.

-Feedback: I would like to have students give their opinion of the WIKI at the end of the unit. I hope they will have found it useful/helpful.

LINGT: Sharing Best Practice and Web 2.0 Tools!

2010-03-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Reading and Writing skills are often the easiest skills to put into practice. However, finding relevant, practical and interesting LISTENING and SPEAKING activities can be more challenging.

ISB’s ES world language teachers shared this wonderful web 2.0 tool for language teachers this semester.

LINGT is a great new tool supporting language teachers. It is so easy to use; you will be able to use it for your classes right away. Here is a DEMO VIDEO I found that can give you taste for what LINGT can do for your language classroom.

The video explains most of it, but here is what you can do with LINGT to create balanced language assignments (LISTENING/SPEAKING/READING/WRITING).

Teachers can use:
1) IMAGES: choose a photo from your gallery or from the credited sources.
2) VIDEO (from youtube only. You would have to post your personal videos on youtube to use it on Lingt).
3) TEXT: Type instructions or record your instructions in the Target Language.
4) VOICE: Record a voice message(s)/instructions /question(s).

Students can respond:
1) With TEXT: Typing their answer to the audio or written question/comment
2) With VOICE: Recording their answer orally. They can listen to their answer and decide if they want to keep it or re-do it.

Some cool features by LINGT:
-DUE DATE: assign a due date for an assignment. If students complete the assignment late, it will be indicated next to their name.
-FEEDBACK: You can give oral/written immediate feedback to students' work.

Some things LINGT does not do (YET?)
-You cannot delete recordings made by students?
-Accents: If you use PC computers, you need to type your text in a word document before posting it on the assignment.

Here is an example of an assignment I used with French B students this semester.

Voicethread for Oral Communication

2010-03-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

In our current unit on school, French intro student had been learning the vocabulary for daily routine and their school environment. Over the past few months, we have learned everything we need to know about school: Our classroom environment, our classes and teachers; and lately, the activities that take place before, during and after school. Students learned basic action verbs (-Er verbs: étudier, parler, écouter, marcher, porter, regarder, etc) as well as expressing likes and dislikes (J'aime nager, je déteste étudier!).
My goal as a French teacher is always for students to have real communication (apply the content into relevant, contextual communication, using acquired vocabulary and grammar.)

TOOL: The project I chose to share for this class used VOICETHREAD as my web 2.0 tool. The Voicethread project pictured regular ISB students' routine around campus.

TASK: Using as much French as possible, French Intro students were required to comment on 1-2 pictures following specific instructions and requirements.
To add a little challenge to their descriptions, one instruction specified that no comment or information could be repeated on any 1 picture; requiring participants to listen carefully to their classmates’ comments.

PROJECT:

Here are a few things to consider in using VOICETHREAD

-GOAL: Set your goal.
My focus was for students to communicate ORALLY using the vocabulary and grammar. VOICETHREAD offers different options. Students can write comments, draw on the picture, or record a voice comment. I chose to ONLY USE THE VOICE RECORDING to promote for impromptu French oral communication. Of course students might/could prepared their “recorded comments” by writing them first, but this assignment invited them to practice SPEAKING French. At the end, everyone could listen to their own or their classmates' creation, accents, pronunciation; and hopefully feel proud of their accomplishments as first year French students.

-TIME:
Allow enough time for students to practice and learn how to use the tool!
I learned from one class that it was better to have students log into VOICETHREAD right at the beginning of class and follow along to practice recording their message with guided instructions, rather than explaining and/or demonstrating each step, leaving students as mere spectators without any practice time.

-PICTURES:
Because I did not want to use too much class time preparing the projected (my focus was on oral communication), I elected to take the pictures myself. I was able to take pictures of different students at different times, around school. It allowed me to target specific actions and therefore vocabulary.

However, if students were familiar with VOICETHREAD, another assessment could be for them to create their personal routine, using a VOICETHREAD presentation and their own photos + comments. It would require more time in class/at home: to take, download, upload, pictures. One would need to be specific about the quality (and source) of the images also?

-PERMISSION: There is one important information that my project advisor (Kim Cofino) recommended for me to think about: Consider asking students’ permission for taking and using their photo in an internet-based school project.

Un Pour Tous et Tous Pour Un*

2009-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

*"One for all and all for one" is the famous motto from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
How do you ensure that students have completed the reading and are ready for class discussion?
In creating this wiki project, one of my goals is to guarantee that my students come prepared for class discussion, having read the literature and answered the questions. But just as importantly, my goal for this project is for students to learn to work collaboratively.

As they take turns playing the roles of writer, editor, and proofreader; students collaborate on a common product. Collaboration is essential as I believe that students learn from each other. It also forces students to communicate their needs and expectations with each other-in French. In French B, I really encourage students to understand that communicating in French isn’t one way (student-teacher) anymore, but they need to take on every opportunity to communicate in French with everyone in their immediate environment, including their classmates (student-student).

Collaboration also means helping each other become stronger French speakers and writers. Peer-editing both the content of the text and the language in the answers will hopefully reinforce the importance of proofreading. Too often, students turn in “completed” work without checking. It takes commitment to take the time to self-evaluate, but when they work on a public project, students tend to care more about the results because others will be reading and evaluating their French skills.

Maintenant, à l’attaque!

Photo: The Musketeer at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower by Matito

Peripherals In A Language Classroom

2009-12-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

How do you manage the use of technology peripherals with students?
What are some things you've learned and hope to implement?

I usually have been the one handling the tools as I feel responsible for the material I have checked out from the library. Also, when it comes to projects involving cameras and video cameras, students usually have one at home that they can use or borrow.
Here are some basic peripherals used regularly in my French classroom:

-Video cameras (and tripod): record students dialogues and oral presentations.

-Digital Camera: to capture moments in the classroom or material created by students/teacher.

-smart board: To teach and for students presentations. When students are handling the smart board, I usually ask them to take turns and we may need to make a circle around the board to give enough space to watch and participate.

-Phone: We’ve used phone for a project where students had to call a restaurant (the teacher) to make a reservation. I’d like to be able to use their phone (or skype) to have live conversations (maybe 3 way conversations) in an authentic situation more often.
[I read a blog post from one of my classmate on the use of cellphones in the classroom. Our middle school policy prevents students from using their cellphones during the day. However, their cellphones never stay in their lockers. They are in their bag or in their pockets. MS students see the HS students using their phones everyday and all day. Why couldn't they? Students don’t go to the office to call home if they need to. They use their cell phone. Their parents call them in the middle of the day. Students play their music plays on them. They text their friends or even go on the internet. I agree that we may need to rethink our position "against" cellphones in the classroom. There could be many uses for them. Why not try to use them as a learning tool?]

Back to the tools currently used in my classroom. This year, the school has acquired new peripherals that I have used or plan to use more with students:

-Snow ball microphone: I discovered this new microphone in one of our COETAIL class earlier in the semester. Jeff used it to record a class discussion. This is very useful when recording dialogues in the classroom. The microphone from a regular camera or video camera are never strong enough to pick up the conversations clearly.
I usually record the students dialogues so that they can view/listen to themselves, and also to grade them. For grading purposes, I need to hear everyone’s voice, including those timid students. The snow ball microphone has been really helpful in recording the sound(s) at a higher quality. I haven't used the snow flake microphone, but plan on using them next semester to record an oral assessment (student & teacher).

-flip cameras: These new little video cameras make it easy to record a short video and then transfer the data into a computer. I plan to use it soon with students, giving them a chance to do their own recording and uploading. However, these cameras are in high demand, so I will wait until our department can have it's own stock to use them in my classroom.

Laptops in the classroom

2009-11-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

What are ways you manage the use of laptops in your classroom and what additional best practice ways might you add?

As a coetail class, we used voicethread to discuss and share many techniques on how to manage “technology tools” in our classroom.

I know I have learned lots of new ideas from this discussion.

Here are some easy practical steps I follow:

-Timing: Allow enough time at the beginning and at the end of class for students to save their work, log off their computers and return them to the carts. If you can’t manage time well like I do, ask a student to remind you of the time.

-Computer: Assign a computer to a student at the beginning of the term. They will be responsible for plugging the computer and keeping it in good shape.

-Saving work: Create a personal folder for your class on their flash drive as well as on the server and teach students the mechanism of saving in both places. They will lose their work, so teaching them the mechanism of saving in 2 places will pay off some time or another.

-Focus on instruction: One thing I have learned from experience…you can give students instructions orally over ten times and they will not follow it if they are engaged on something, especially if there is a computer in front of them. I usually count down and ask students to lower their screen while I give instructions. One thing I learned in the Coetail class was that you can use your fist to measure how much one can lower the laptop screen without shutting down the activity.

-Peer helpers: It’s nearly impossible to answer all questions at once. As long as it doesn’t become a distraction, I encourage students to help each other. They are great with problem solving.

-Instructions: As mentioned in my peer language educator’s blog, giving instructions in the target language when it involves the use of technology can be challenging for students and teacher! Of course, breaking down the steps and the language of instruction as much as possible is essential. Other technique I have used have been to provide students with specific checklist for each step they need to accomplish.

Photo Pudú Introducing OLPC by: Lizette Greco

2009-11-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

How relevant are the NETs for Teachers and Administrators to being a "Good Educator" today?

Encouraging teachers and students to learn more about how to use new technology is one step, but the administrators of a school also need to be on board with the learning (After all, they are the ones who will hire experienced teachers). Over the past 5 years at ISB, I have seen a clear commitment from the school to educating everyone about technology. For example, we have gone from one technology coach to having 3; one for each school (Elementary, Middle, High). Another example has been to offer professional development like the COETAIL class and opportunities to attend many technology related conferences.

Teachers and Administrators should understand and promote the vision of education technology, but they should also lead by example. In particular, I would expect that as a school, all teachers and administrators should all be reminded regularly to apply the standard of “digital Citizenship”.

Digital Citizenship (NETS for students )
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility (NETS teachers)
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
a. advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
b. address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.
c. promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.
d. develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

5. Digital Citizenship (NETS for Administrators.)
Educational Administrators model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture. Educational Administrators:
a. ensure equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources to meet the needs of all learners.
b. promote, model and establish policies for safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology.
c. promote and model responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.
d. model and facilitate the development of a shared cultural understanding and involvement in global issues through the use of contemporary communication and collaboration tools.

When It Comes To Instructions: Is Less More?

2009-11-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

How can teachers and schools ensure that their students are learning what they need when it comes to Technology and Information Literacy?

I have used the program movie maker in French class for 3 years. It allows students to create neat video projects using voice and text over still images or even video clips. The students are usually proud of their projects and more willing to show them to their peers. Every year, I revise the project to match the students' ability level.
In the process, I also refine the instructions, breaking it down into small steps, allowing more classtime, giving more details about due dates and providing more specific checklists. However, it seems that every year, the projects are more and more difficult to complete a) following the instructions b) on time.

This year, for the final project of the semester, I met with our MS tech coach, Ms Cofino , asking for suggestions on how I could present and organize the project to ensure success. I tried to apply the following:

1) Presentation of the project in class, providing some examples and stressing the details of the calendar.
2) Brainstorm of ideas (on paper)
3) Story board (on paper)
4) Script (Online, using google docs to allow students to work simultaneously and the teacher to oversee participation and collaboration)
5) Checklist for the script (to allow student the time to reflect on their script, making sure that the CONTENT of their project demonstrated mastery of the new language skills)

Then we moved on to the project on the computer program (movie maker). I had a check list for this section as well.
1) Demonstration of how to use the program movie maker (if necessary)

2) Import and organize all images, using transitions.

3) Add subtitles & record Audio

4) Finalize the movie and publish

Final stage: presentation

1) Complete the final check list for the entire project and turn in the project on stushare.

2) Present to classmates and peer evaluate the projects.

After 7 classes, all broken up stages, 3 checklists, class time and 2 weekends…still, students don’t read the instructions, nor do they use the check lists to ensure that they met the requirement for the CONTENT of their project.

So I thought I had covered all the bases with a structured project, but maybe less instructions is more for this generation of students? I would agree that students today can figure out how to use any tech tools by trial and error (vs. reading instructional manual), but how do we ensure that they follow instructions and meet the requirements for the content?

I am open to suggestions. What works for you?

Pay it forward

2009-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Whose job is it to teach the NETs and AASL standards to students?

According to Wikipedia, the expression "pay it forward" is used to describe the concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead.[...]In sociology, this concept is called "generalized reciprocity" or "generalized exchange".
My interpretation is that if something good happens to you, then you should in turn do a good action for someone else. It seems simplistic, but I think it can work in the the context of our discussion about "whose job is it to teach the standards?".
Let me explain:
When my students come into my French class, they already know how to read a text and write sentences using appropriate punctuation and paragraph forms. Whose job was it to teach writing? Do students only learn to read and write in their English/humanities class? Although there is a clear emphasis on those skills in an English class, everyone expects students will become better writers because they get to practice in their other classes.
When I teach my students how to use a new computer application to use in my French class, I know that students will be able to apply this new skill for another class or for their personal use. In turn, I was pleasantly surprised when some students started on their French journal already knowing how to use their blogs. Whose turn was it to teach this tool?
Interdisciplinary teaching is expected in most classrooms. Familiarize yourself with the curriculum of other departments so you can integrate it into your own. In my classroom, we study math, science, humanities, art, physical education, etc in FRENCH.

Looking at some of the NETs standards, most of the colleagues around my table agreed that most of these standards are common to most discipline?

1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.

So, why couldn’t/shouldn’t we expect interdisciplinary teaching of technology skills, and therefore the standards?

Reflection on the final project

2009-10-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

My final project for this class was a project for French A students to create a digital story using movie maker. We started a unit on countries around the world and climate to go along with the students’ humanities classes.
Later on in the same unit, students individually performed in class as a television “weather man”. In order to do well in their authentic performance, students needed to know the vocabulary. The videos were meant to help students learn and practice the new vocabulary on weather.

My goal was to kill two birds with one stone:
-students learn their new vocabulary in their project.
-Students learn to use new tools (creative commons + movie maker) that they can/will use later for other presentations in French class.

Based on the students’ self-reflection after the project, they were proud of the outcome of this project. They felt that they had learned to use the new vocabulary, and even though we had trouble with the technology, they enjoyed learning to use the movie maker program. Overall, students were proud to have created a video and posted them on their individual Blogs (portfolios). Students can use each others’ videos to review the vocabulary for the unit.

What can I do to improve this project next year?
1) There were too many new skills and tools to learn at once. Images + text + voice recording + video editing. Who has time to proofread their French?
Next time, I would teach students how to search for original images on creative commons beforehand and for a simpler project. They could learn the true value of finding good visuals and giving credit to authors. Once it is time to work on the video, they already know where to go find their images...

2) For the movie maker project, I also need to review the steps to follow.
The organization and writing of the project should be separate from the actual making of the video (movie maker). As a team, students should write and organize the story (board) away from the computers. That will give them time to discuss the project as a group, share tasks, peer edit their work and make changes if necessary. Because 3 or 4 students worked on one project as a team, it made for some logistical nightmare if one student did not have his/her part on time. Students work at different pace, so it is better for each student to be assigned a specific individual task. For example: each student should complete their video: fall, winter, spring, summer. Once we have all 4 videos, we can complete the group’s video by putting it all together.

I will continue to use movie maker as I believe that it is a powerful tool for teaching and learning a foreign language. It provides opportunities for students to practice all skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) in the target language. With more opportunities to use movie maker, students will get better at using the tool and will improve on their use of the target language.

Using Video in the Language Classroom

2009-10-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

How has the explosion of web based video changed the teaching and learning landscape?

Introduction to a new unit: Starting a new lesson, I often use a piece of realia: an object, an image…How about a video to start the unit?

Language Lab: In Bangkok, my students’ exposure to French is very limited. The classroom is often the only place where they will be able to listen (and speak) French.I can provide students more opportunities to be exposed to the target language through videos. Asking a student to watch TV5 in French may not be very exciting (although it has its benefits), but inviting them to watch a video on YouTube might be more appealing to my students.

Self Assessment /Reflection: In a language classroom, we aim for all students to practice their oral skills as much as possible.Students are guided to produce orally in the target language through various performance assessments (interpersonal communication, presentations, etc).However, once the students have performed, they may receive teacher feedback, but they have little opportunity to reflect on their completed oral performance.Videotaping students performing orally is nothing new. Yet, being able to upload the student’s video on the web, and on their personal (or the class) blog, may give students a chance to watch/listen to their performance and self-assess.(Delivery, pronunciation, etc). Watching themselves communicate in a foreign language also gives students a sense of pride and ownership. Students are encouraged to post their performance video on their blog as part of their portfolio.

Screencasts: How to Add Accents on a Glogster.com Poster Project.

2009-10-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

How could screen casts be used in your classroom/department?

Screencasts can be used to help teach different computer skills to both students and teachers.
Here is an example of how I have used screencasts for my class.

Screen cast can be used to help teach different computer skills to both students and teachers.
Here is an example of how I have used screencast for my class. French intro students were creating a poster on glogster.com at the beginning of the year. They were required to use the program to present themselves and the first few French words they had learned. Accents being important in French, it was important for them to ensure they typed the correct spelling (with accents) on their poster.

Before screencast: I demonstrated one time on the smartboard to the class how to use accents in their glogster poster. However, I had to go around the classroom and repeat the set of instructions several other times to individual students who had forgotten or not heard it the first time.

After Screencast: I now have created a short video demonstrating how to add accents on a Glogster poster.
I have posted it on my class blog (or Panthernet), and invite students to go watch it as many times as they need. Hopefully, the screen cast will be sufficient in helping them.

Screencasts can be also used to share best practice with other teachers. For example, in response to this blog entry, many teachers from our Coetail class created a sample screencast. There are now many screencasts that we can search within our small network of teachers to learn new skills that will help our students as well as us teachers/learners.

Digital Story Telling

2009-09-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

(Assignment sept 28-Oct 4)

This project was completed by French Level A students.
I posted images in voicethread and invited students to make comments using their new vocabulary & previous knowledge of French.

upgrades

2009-09-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

(Assignment sept. 21-27)

Three years ago, I created a video model for a project on weather description. I used the images that I had from books, cliparts and low quality photos.

Last year, students started to use creative common images for this same project. We encouraged students to find images that represented the weather and activities in that season.
Here is the new version of our project.

I no longer use my video as the model for the project, but use some of the students' to show how to find relevant, interesting images, and give credit for their sources.

Visual Literacy (course 3-blog 2)

2009-09-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand word.

Using images to illustrate new vocabulary is not something new to modern language educators. We use visuals to catch students' attention and the image help them construct meaning.

However, finding relevant and interesting images to get a message across in the target language is much more powerful. Until recently, and before I knew any better, I have always been a fervent user of clip-arts (top left image) to help support a lesson presented in the target language.

Today, the web 2.0 is giving us access to unlimited resources of images with tools like creative commons. We can now use richer images, but we must not forget to give credit for those who took the pictures. Wondering how to use creative commons? Check out the cc help form I created for my class. (I would welcome your feedback)

This year, my goal is for myself and students to find more relevant pictures to use in the context of French classes. I used this picture to record descriptions of the weather in a French A project on voicethread. The image doesn't limit itself to weather expressions "il pleut" ou " il y a de la pluie".
Students can get much more creative with their description of the image.

Photo: : http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhussein/3564634131/

ON N'ARRETE PLUS LE PROGRES

2009-09-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

In French, we say that progress can't be stopped. Progress is good, but knowing how to use it well and appropriately can sometimes bring new challenges.

I feel that as I get stronger in using technology in my classroom, I loose focus on my teaching: French as a modern language. I need to take a step back, and follow Shirleyville's advise : "As I adapt my own practice, I take the ideas that can deepen the meaning for my students, and put on hold the ideas that don’t."

Yet, it's so hard to hold back on creativity. New attractive tools are coming out so often and so fast, that it's hard not to want to try them. I get new ideas for teacher or students' projects every week.

At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, my last blog post presented some of the web 2.0 tools that I started to explore in my French classes.

This year, we are only (already) 2 months in, and already I have tried 3 new tools in my classroom.
1) Glogster.com : interactive poster
2) slideshare.net: upload your power-point presentation and share it with the world.
3) Student French portfolio:
In may, I was still searching for an ideal tool for students' portfolio. I want to get away from the paper portfolio that get stacked in the back of my classroom at the end of every school year and find a creative tool for students to show off their French.
This school year, our middle school students have all created their individual school blog account.
We will use those blogs as our French portfolio. It allows us to post pictures, journal entries, presentations, movies, etc. Time consuming? YES! But it looks promising. Again, because technology changes so fast, I am worried, but hopeful that we will keep the students' blog longer than a year (unlike other tools like myisb).

You can see students' blogs/portfolio through my classroom pages
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrenchintro/
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrencha/
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrenchb/

How has my teaching changed? It hasn't stopped evolving and improving. Does it make my teaching better? Do students communicate better in French?
Let's reflect...

Wed 2.0: Where am I & where am I going?

2009-03-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

Every august, at the beginning of the school year, I go back to my French curriculum folders to start planning for units. I use those folders to keep copies of my classes' activities, ideas, and samples of work. They are meant to guide my planning and teaching along the year. Unfortunately, every year, I have to start new folders because I can never redo "exactly" what I did the year before. Students never move at the same pace, the lessons gear us in different directions, and, there are usually always new ideas for how to improve the units. Basically, my folders have been multiplying on the shelves over the past 4 years.

Things I have been working on in the past few (4) years:
1) Getting away from poster presentations
2) Finding creative ways for students to use the French they have learned

Tools I have been dabbling with in my classes:
-Panthernet: I am in the process of uploading the files from my curr. Folders onto panthernet online.
-Blogging: monjournalenfrancais.
-voicethread: see final project blog entry on Language Exchange
-Windows moviemaker: It's been a great tool for oral presentations but allow minimal spontaneous oral communication
-Audacity: I have created many (podcast) recordings in order to improve listening skills. (i.e. the vocabulary for INTRO is recorded and posted on Panthernet where students can go listen and practice)
-Photostory 3 for Windows: easier to use than movie maker, but less flexibility
-Myisb (our school's social network): I am trying it out as a potential portfolio for my students.
-podcast: a great way to find authentic material
-Youtube: another great source for authentic material (movie, music…)
-msn messenger & facebook: Spontaneous chatting with students in the target language

Tools I will be trying to use in the near future
-Skype: I am hoping to use it soon to connect with other French classes around the world
-Wiki: in the next few weeks, I am going to venture in the world of WIKI with my French B class. I will let you know soon about this project. I know I will be seeking the help of Kim, Jeff and anyone who has used a wiki before.

At the end of this class, I am still looking for a few ideas/suggestions:
-From 6th to 8th grade, my French students create a variety of "projects" that contribute to their portfolio. It can be anything from a journal entry, a poster, a power point presentation, a photostory or movie making video presentation. I am still searching for a tool that would allow my students to post their work in one location.
Ideally:
-Students would be able to use the portfolio to post and back up their work in French class.
-Students (parents & teacher) would be able to see for themselves how much progress they have made in French over 3 years.
-Students would be able to take their portfolio with them if/when they leave ISB.
-The portfolio would be aesthetically pleasing.

If anyone out there has any suggestion for what tool could work best for me, send me your suggestions.

Did I leave the Coetail class overwhelmed? Yes, but with tons of ideas.

Old things in New Ways!

2009-03-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

In his article "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom", Prensky writes that "the only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they (the students) know about technology with what we (the teachers) know and require about education."
Here is a sample of a project my French B students did last year presenting their daily routine. They combined their passion for music, applied what they had learned in French class, and created this awesome music video clip using microsoft movie maker.

Moving forward...

Reflection on Final Project : Collaboration-Connection-Commitment

2009-02-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

3 language teachers (Spanish-French, Elementary-Middle school) from our school connected today to share ideas and collaborate on a common project. Our students will use the target language to actively communicate with other students around the world using voicethread. We will challenge students to "virtually" step outside of the classroom and apply what they know to connect with another person.

I valued our work together: we shared our previous experiences, brainstormed for ideas, and ultimately learned from each other. I would like to spend more time in conversation and follow up on the progress of our students. It will be interesting to go through the experience together and reflect on our failures and successes.

Project Sketch: Penpal or Digipal?

2009-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Last semester, French INTRO students learned how to describe the physical and personality traits of people (themselves and later others). In class, students created posters (cover for their journal) using basic information about themselves. As they are starting to speak French, I wanted them to have a chance to record their voice and listen to themselves. Wanting to make it more relevant for the students, I created a classroom account on voicethread.com where I posted a picture of each of my students. Students presented themselves in French, recording their voice comment on their picture. Later in the semester, as they learned how to describe others, we went back to the pictures on voicethread. This time, instead of describing themselves, students picked a classmate's picture and recorded a voice comment about them.

Ideally, I had hoped to connect my class digitally with another French class, using their journals and this project. However, I did not make any successful contact with any other school, so the project remained pending. Talking to Gaby about her idea for this course, she inspired me to revisit the voicethread project with my French intro students.
During an IB conference in Paris, I had a chance to make contact with several French teachers around the world. I tried to actively establish a line of contact with those schools, hoping that one of them would be interested in starting an exchange with our middle school French classes. It's a work in process, but I am hopeful that my 6th graders will connect with French students in Europe, Middle East or China before the end of this school year.

NET Standards:
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaborate
3. Digital Citizen ship
4. Technology Operations and Concepts

Some ideas:
-Apart from describing themselves and others, students will be able exchange and present their daily routine as middle school students, their school, their culture, their world.
Some questions:
-One question I will need to address quickly will be regarding the safety of using digital tools like voicethread. Will I be able to continue to use the students' pictures on a private voicethread account or should I consider using other images?

Direct Classroom Application: Field trip to Paris

2009-02-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

As a transition between 2 units (weather – café) in French A, we listened and sang the song "Aux Champs Élysées" (Joe Dassin) in class. The song led us to a visit in the streets of Paris and with the use of youtube , I was able to show a video clip with some images of les Champs Élysées.

However, trying to give a perspective to students who have never been to France what the streets of Paris look like and where they lead you was no easy task. I used the board to draw a mediocre map explaining how you can go from l'Arc de Triomphe to la place de la concorde, to le musée du Louvre, etc.

On Wednesday, during our F2F meeting, we learned about the 2009 Horizon Report and Geo-Everything: "Many free or very low-cost tools to capture and display geolocative data are available online and they continue to improve in usability and flexibility".

The next day, my students were taking a walk down the Champs Élysées, thanks to google maps .

ET VOILA!

Thoughts changing? Leading the way...

2009-02-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

My brother is 14. He goes to a public high school near Paris, France. He does not play any sports and has some trouble socializing with his classmates. Most of his free time is spent playing (online) video games and chatting (with friends? With people he plays games with? With strangers?). During my visit in France, I noticed that he had a blog. I am not sure how he uses his blog, but out of curiosity, I tried (teenager) to have a conversation with him about his use of technology. He reported that, were he given a choice, he would like to use technology all the time. However, when I asked him about the use of technology in the context of his school, his response was firm: Never!
Does that mean he is enraged? Is the French school system failing him? Will he not be able to catch up? I am very curious to watch, observe and compare his education with some of the students in our international school setting.

I would like to take things with a grain of salt. Some of the articles we have been reading are trying to convince educators to step away from their traditional teaching and use new tools. I feel the teachers in our coetail class have already taken that step. Our international school is well "en route". I am (al)ready to use technology. I am convinced that it is important to step on the same level of the students. What I need now are concrete ideas & examples of applications in my language classroom.
I struggle with finding a balance between good ole classroom teaching and technology. Should I not hang on to it so much? I am not ready to tell my students that using online translator to write their French project is OK. I still want them to think rather than let the machine do it for them.

Bonjour-Niao

2009-02-22T00:48:00.000-08:00

January 9-15th, 2009 I was absent from school.

I went to France for an IB Conference in Paris, France. I thought I would have to miss the Wednesday scheduled f2f meeting, but instead was able to watch it directly from my mother's computer.

Thanks to some neat technology, the class was videotaped and broadcasted live on our coetail wiki. Although the connection was not always the best, I was able to meet some of our overseas' colleagues and classmates.

David Young, currently teaches in ISBeijing but will be joining ISBangkok next fall. 2 reasons why I think our connection was neat:
1- One of our assignment was to read different blogs from our RSS feed. I went searching for David's. I have been reading his blogs. If you haven't done so yet, go check him out. Neat ideas and good questions raised!
2- In the midst of our conversation, I asked David if ISBeijing teaches French. In my search for connecting my middle school French students with other French students, I asked David if he could put me in contact with the French teachers at his school so we could (maybe*) create an exchange between our students. David and I exchanged e-mail. He has since e-mailed me, putting me in touch with one of the French teacher at ISBeijing. I hope to be able to establish contact between our two French programs, so that our students can write/read/listen & speak to each other. Exciting!

To be continued…

Messing around

2009-02-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

I missed one week of class, and all of a sudden, everybody's blog turns fancy with a map pointing to those following their posts. Neat!
It took a little of searching around, but I figured out how to add clustrmap onto my blog...

How are your thoughts changing? (Taxonomy)

2009-02-08T02:55:00.000-08:00

The readings from Churches and Siemens were difficult for me to take in. I had to read several times and take some time to think about it. Also, reading others' blog posts (Susi, Robin) on those reading helped me understand them better and reflect on the impact in my own learning/teaching.

I am not sure that I am ready to carve the Bloom's Digital taxonomy in stone (or post on my blog) just yet. It seems that technologies are evolving and changing so fast that this new taxonomy may not be applicable in 5-10 years? Will we be re-making taxonomies every 5 years?

However, as a teacher, it was interesting for me to go through each digital element of the taxonomy to evaluate where I stand. It gave me a perspective for what my students, the next generation, already know/use/control. In turn, it made me reflect on what we/they use or not in schools.

About blogging

2009-01-31T01:58:00.000-08:00

About 1 year and a half ago, I started a blog for my French class: mon journal en francais

The way I used it, I would post questions related to our current topic and ask students to comment online. They had to contribute at least once a week.
I made several observations regarding "blogging in French" with students that made me "question" the validity of using of blog for my French students:

1. For some students, it became just another homework, where the teacher checked for participation. So the students' motivation behind their participation wasn't what I had hoped for.

2. Students could only answer my questions, yet I needed a tool that would allow them to be able to read & respond to each others' comments. A blog doesn't allow for this. (a forum might be better)

3. Technical skills: Writing online on the blog, students had to learn how to add accents and other symbols. It was easier for students to write their comment on a word document and then copy/paste their comment onto the blog. Changing the language of the entire keyboard, meant learning to type all over again.

4. Learning and using French in an online blog setting, students became self-conscious about their writing because others could read it. It took away from the spontaneous use of the language to communicate I was hoping for.

5. Writing a journal doesn't help become students more confident about speaking French.

6. time...time...time....

Unfortunately, I haven't gone back to using my classroom blog. I should continue to blog with my students. I have been meaning to do it through the schools' network (myisb). But I have also been researching other tools (ning, moodle, voicethread, podcasts,etc.) that could potentially help my students better. I struggle with time management, and finding the most efficient/relevant tool. The problem is, things change and evolve so quickly, by the time I think I have found a potential tool, there is another one out there that could be better.

(re: Your thoughts on Personal Learning Networks)

Betchaboy

2009-01-30T23:47:00.000-08:00

After listening and researching the web with Chris, I realize that I need to spend more time thinking about the credibility of the information I research on the web and use for classroom purposes.
We learned a lot of useful tips for researching on google as well as questioning the credibility of websites. Checking a page for content/purpose, contributors, general design & language are things we need to keep in mind for ourselves and the students we teach.

(re: Finding information online: How do we address truth and bias in the classroom? )

Connecting with the rest of the world

2009-01-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

Teaching French, one of my goals is to get students to speak in the target language. Ideally, I want my students to understands the value of learning another language: communication, interaction, connections. I am trying to get away from the "classroom/prepared" interactions, and bring students closer to more relevant & authentic interactions.

Learning French while living in Thailand may seem limiting at times, especially when my 15 French B students have been in the same class for 3 years, meeting 4 hours a week. I encourage students to use French amongst themselves in the classroom, but once they step outside, they go back to English.
Only a hand full will make a connection outside the classroom (for example their friend is a french speaker or they use the language to speak in code in front of others), but for many, French is only during period 6.

So my I challenge is to motivate students to use French to communicate with others.
I am hoping that the new technologies of web 2.0 will enable my students to connect with other French speaker or French learners here and there.

Catching on and keeping up

2009-01-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

"You need to let go of the control" I hear.
Yet, I am used to having control of what I know and teach. I need to feel confident enough in my own (tech) skills in order to use them to teach my subject (French).
Technology is moving and growing faster every day, so by the time I start using one tool, another one is out there that seem to meet my (students') learning needs better.
How do you keep up?

I have learned so much about technology in the past 3 years, yet I have the constant feeling that I could be learning more.
"Your learning has to change." I hear.

So in joining COETAIL, I am hoping to be learning how to learn.