Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Exploring the potential of Gabcast

Simon Brown, one of the mainstays of our weekly OZ/NZ Flashmeetings has been trying out Gabcast this week as a way of moblogging audio files from a phone call. Simon describes his experiments in detail including comprehensive instructions on how to add Gabcast recordings straight to your blog.

I personally still favour the Gabcast + Podcast Pickle option, but this is a great run through and thanks Simon for taking the time to write this all down in easy to digest bite-size chunks. Food for thought for sure.

Newbury Park are flavour of the month

Language of the Month, the award winning project from Newbury Park Primary School was mentioned yesterday in the Telegraph article Language lessons: When a new language is child's play. The report explains how each month children from the school create multimedia resources to teach their classmates basic phrases from their mother tongue. Forty three presentations are now available for download in languages from Afrikaans to Yoruba.

This is a great example of how children can promote language awareness and global citizenship in a way which makes perfect sense to anyone.

Laptops for personalised learning

In the video clips E-Learning - Benefits of combining ICT with Education, Action! Teacher Video - Laptops for Learning and Student Macbook Reflections, pupils and teachers discuss how laptops can facilitate personalised learning and creativity. Mmm ...

20 Ideas on using Podcasting for English

Paul McMahon from Learning Solutions has created an overview of the sorts of language learning activities which lend themselves well to podcasting, drawing some of his ideas from a recent article I wrote for the new CILT 14 to 19 curriculum. Thanks for the great visuals, Paul.

Au revoir Jean-François!

Today Nodehill said "Au revoir" to Jean-François Rolland, our French assistant for the academic year 2007-08. Before leaving "Jeff" shared some of his thoughts about living and working on the Isle of Wight since October, comparing his experience with life back in Brittany and his own education.

His comments about pupils' attitudes to language learning in England and France are particularly interesting and give a personal insight on the differences of our two educational systems.

Thanks Jean-François for agreeing to the interview and for all your help in improving Nodehill pupils' comprehension and pronunciation of French this year. We wish you all the best in the future and in particular about your plans to become a language teacher yourself. Stay in touch.

Download Interview_with_Jean_Francois.mp3