Reflection on the final project

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

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.

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

(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

(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)

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

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...