I've spent the past three days between London, Edinburgh and Stirling at various language shows and conferences, sharing my ideas and examples from around Scotland with those who've not yet discovered some of the social media tools that can bring languages alive. This post will give some of the links mentioned as well as a screencast of a previous conference which covers some of the ground:
- 10 Ways To Stay Connected Without Losing Your Mind from mflePodcasts 21 & 22.
The original basis for some of the conference notes; talk from May 2006. -
Ideas for setting up blogs in MFL, from the MFLE.
If you're a teacher in Scotland you could use the MFLE's Typepad subscription to get started (become a member of the MFLE) or pay for your own.
You might also want to set up a free, simple blog for text and limited photo space on edublogs.org (for teachers) and learnerblogs.org (for students).
Examples of blogs:- Teacher reflection blogs are everywhere - in MFL take a look at Lynne Horn's or Adam Sutcliffe's.
- Student reflection/formative assessment blogs: Rate My Mates and in English creative writing PinkyParky (flick back to the first month and see the progress gained).
- Quick teacher publishing of course material and the same done in the primary school.
- Travelogs, such as those done by Musselburgh Grammar School in 2004, 2005, 2006...
- Track global audience with a ClustrMap. and see how Marlyn exploited it for Global Citizenship.
- Publish things quickly and easily with a wiki. Try Wikispaces for teachers or PBWiki.
Examples of wikis: - Get listening to some podcasts by searching for them through iTunes.
- Publishing students' animation and video work at Partners in Excellence.
You could use GoogleVideo, VeoTag (which allows you to chapter longer videos) or upload video to your Typepad blog. - Share your photos with a private class group or the world through Flickr or Bubbleshare (which allows voice narratives over pics!).
Get playing with Flickr:- Drag your photos to the map where they were taken by clicking the "Map" tab.
- Copy this text into the description for each photo:
<a href="http://www.roblog.com/flickrfly.kml">Fly to this location</a>
(Requires <a href="http://earth.google.com">Google Earth</a>) - And now people can "Fly" in Google Earth to where the photo was taken.
- Make a CommunityWalk with your students or see mine for an example in MFL or with video, too.
- See my photos, sign up and become a contact.
- Store your bookmarks online for all to see and share using del.icio.us.
See what I have bookmarked and explore my categories. - Get addicted to living in a virtual world with SecondLife.
Explore and comment on my ideas for using games in MFL in the gaming category of my blog. I'm only learning so would appreciate your views ;-)
You'll find an enthusiastic reaction to your Stirling gig here
Posted by: chris | November 05, 2006 at 05:08 PM
Hi,
I am a modern Languages teacher at Morgan Academy, Dundee.
So many great ideas , but so many of the sites offered are unavailable through Dundee City network : flickr, typepad, second life to name a few...
Thanks for all fresh ideas on your blog
erwan
Posted by: Erwan Ansquer | November 06, 2006 at 05:52 PM
Hi Erwan,
They are good ideas and they do improve attainment by improving the student experience. However, it's up to us all to push local authorities to see why these sites need unblocked. We've done it in East Lothian. Who's next?
Posted by: Ewan McIntosh | November 06, 2006 at 06:56 PM