23 Things

I am glad I decided to take this course, although I felt overwhelmed at time with the amount of information and resources included in each lesson. I learned a lot about different tools that I had only heard about until then. Some of my most exciting discoveries included Pageflakes, ToonDoo and using Google Docs with my Wiki to improve writing skills.
I still think that Web 2.0 applications have a limited use in the first level of a language as we need to focus on providing comprehensible input to our students in order for them to increase their fluency level. I think that it is easier for the teacher to manage this kind of audio input in the controlled setting provided by a software like Wimba or the Sony Soloist. However, I believe that Web 2.0 tools like Wikis, Google Docs and ToonDoo provide the perfect setting to encourage peer editing and improve students writing skills. Publishing student work is one facet of language learning and students are motivated to produce better work when they know that it will be published on the web.
I have already started using voicethread, wikis, googledocs with my students and I look forward to creating new projects with these tools next year. I also think that I will be able to use Skype to communicate with students in France next year. It was a great course and a good learning experience.

I enjoyed creating my podcast. As a Mac user I appreciate all the tools we have at our disposal in GarageBand to create audio recordings. I also felt that it was very easy to upload to Gcast. I believe that I could use a podcast with my students next year to study the French TPRS novels in seventh and eighth grade. Students could benefit from listening to a native person reading excerpt of the chapters or making comments on different cultural aspects/questions introduced in the story. I think that I will include a podcast link in my Wiki to achieve this goal.

The classroom 2.0 Ning was a very interesting site. I read several comments in the Weekly Classroom 2.0 Live! I thought the discussion on copyright was very interesting. It reminded me of some of the discussion I followed on a listserv I subscribe to for Language Lab Directors: LLTI. When professional can network to discuss educational issues the result is always very positive. I was also very interested by the list of Forums. I signed up on the site so I know that I will go back to explore some of these topics.

I do not think that a Ning network would be ideal for the foreign language classroom at the Middle School level. However, I explored some well designed sites in French about Foreign Language Education. The Ning network is a very valuable tool for educators, the challenge is to manage the amount of information available.

When I looked at my Google Reader this morning, I realized that there was more than one thousand titles already in one of my RSS feed (Le Monde newspaper). I tried to delete some items but I was unable to do so although I marked all of the as read. I looked into one of my favorite feed: The Infinite Thinking Machine and I found a very interesting article entitled:
Friday Five- Tools for Teachers I went ahead and downloaded one of the tools metionned in the article “jing”. It appears to have several applications for the classroom including student presentations. I looked forward to using it when my students complete a group project.

Pageflakes is an amazing tool and I really enjoyed designing my own page. I added a search tool, a calendar and a task manager. I also included a flake with an RSS feed to a French newspaper (Le Monde) and I also found two flakes with links to several useful resource tools for French teachers. However, I thought that the search tool in pageflakes was not very user friendly. It took me also one hour to locate some Web 2.0 resources I wanted to use in my language class.

I believe Pageflakes can be a very useful tool to publish student works and also to create a resource tool for my class in addition to my Wiki. Every year I ask my students to complete a review project to prepare for their semester exam. Next year I may ask them to include the activities they created on a pageflake they could share with students in other classes.

I use Google Docs almost on a daily basis at my school. I use it to update technology plans, plan presentations and share ideas for TPRS activities. I can see several ways we can use this application in my department.

1. Teacher can share project ideas using the presentation feature. I have already used a presentation created by a Spanish teacher in my department. I was able to make changes to the document and adapt the project to the French novel my seventh graders are reading this semester.

2. Students can use the word document to work on a story they created in class. They can edit the story for homework and receive feedback from their teacher.

3. Teacher can use the spreadsheet component to create a document listing the different projects they do with their students in Middle School. It will prevent us from doing the same project for two consecutive years.

I started using You Tube videos one year ago to motivate my students to create a movie based on the novel we read in French class: Pauvre Anne. I found the video embedded below and I showed it to my sixth grade students. They enjoyed watching it and they produced two original videos based on the same story. Since then I have also used You Tube to introduce different cultural topics such as music from Mauritania and tourist sites in Bretagne.

I have really enjoyed discovering Teacher Tube. I found a student produced video on the school supplies vocabulary that inspired me to design a vocabulary project for my seventh graders. I am amazed at the resources available on You Tube and Teacher Tube and I look forward to exploring the sites during the summer.

I enjoyed exploring several podcasts with the links provided in this lesson. Last year I created podcasts with my students, but I did not really explore all the resources available to educators with this tool. I looked at a couple of podcasts. The first one was language lab unleashed; it is a site dedicated to discussions on the use of technology in foreign language. I did find some of the archived conversations interesting but I did not find a link to subscribe to the podcasts. The second site I explored was the FrenchPodClass Podcast. I really liked the quality of the recordings as well as the fact that the focus of each lesson was clearly outlined on the site. I think it would be a good resource to add to my Wiki for my students. Unfortunately you have to pay a fee to subscribe to the full service. I think that podcasts can provide an excellent resource for students, but I also think that screening the contents is very time consuming.

I really enjoyed discovering the LibraryThing. The feature I liked best was probably the Suggester. I entered the title of one of my favorite books and it gave me at least 5 book titles I had already read. I can see how I can use this feature for my own reading pleasure. I also thought that the 50 books challenge group was a very interesting concept. I can see potential classroom applications using the group feature of LibraryThing. I only had one regret, when I typed book titles in French the suggester did not come up with new titles. I any case, exploring this site is a pleasure for someone who likes books as much as I do.

I created my Delicious account a year ago while I was attending a foreign language and technology conference (SEALLT) in Florida. Over the course of the year, I did not add many tags to the page I created. However, I enjoyed rediscovering the Tags functions and looking through some of the pages created by my colleagues. I think the most useful aspect of Delicious is creating links to other Delicious pages managed by foreign language instructors. It enables me to access a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools and save on my research time. This is a web site I can use to discover new tools to integrate in my lessons.