Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Get the right image

Before setting up a website you have to pose yourself a few questions:

What is the purpose of the site?
Who is your potential target audience?
What will the content be?
How will it look?
Do you learn how to build it yourself or pay someone to do it instead?
How much will it cost to run?

I've been wanting to get a website for ages now, to upload all my resources and share them with other MFL teachers. Blogging has been good for exchanging ideas and storing links in the same place, but a website would offer even more possibilities.

In February, I sketched out the idea to send an email to the Linguanet forum looking for a web illustrator to commission to create some of the necessary artwork for the intended project. I was impressed by the reponse and pencilled in a few names. In the end, I drew on local talent Al Rowe who just shaded it with his humorous illustrations drawing comparisons to traditional cartoonery à la The Beano.

His website Potting Shed Cartoons illustrates his whimsical artistry beautifully.

I wouldn't hold your breath for the website itself though. I still need to decide on a suitable web designer!

TES ICT Blog: ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Using podcasts in the classroom

25 May 2006 at 10.30

ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Using podcasts in the classroom

It's been a momentous week for our MFL blogger Joe Dale - he made his first podcast... Six months ago I didn’t really know what podcasts were, let alone how they could be useful in the MFL classroom. However, thanks to Ewan McIntosh’s evangelising on the subject, the MFLE creative teaching section, BT Internet Radio Kit for Schools and a bit of Google research, I’m now much more tuned in. For those that don’t know, podcasts are free online radio style shows created mainly by enthusiastic amateurs as well as professional broadcasters who want to spread their ideas to a worldwide audience. The good news is that although the term podcast is a hybrid of the words ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’, it's not essential to buy an iPod to listen in. In truth, all you need is a computer and some free software for playing music files. However, if you're one of these people who likes to listen to their sounds on the move, fear not. Podcasts can also be downloaded and played on any compatible MP3 player, not just the ubiquitous iPod. The launch of a podcast section on iTunes has raised the profile of podcasts further. The shows are filed according to theme making it is easy to search for a topic of your choice. If you want, you can also subscribe to a podcast so that each subsequent episode downloads automatically to your machine. The podcasts in the Education section for example cover a wide range of topics including ones aimed specifically at language learners. You'll find podcasts in different languages too. Unlike streaming internet radio though, they can be listened to repeatedly, stored offline and played at your convenience. In principle, these could provide a wealth of free authentic listening materials for use in the classroom. Your pupils could have access to, for example, a genuine news report from the country whose language they are learning or listen to an amateur show made by digital audio fans of their own age. Having allowed your pupils to listen to suitable podcasts in, say, French, German or Spanish, why not let them make their own? The learning objectives could be: to practise their writing when planning their scripts to practise their speaking when recording their different segments to give them a real purpose for using their language to create a potentially huge audience to listen to their work Making your own podcasts You'll need... an external or internal microphone on your computer, MP3 player or mobile phone sound editing software such as Audacity for PC or Garageband for Mac If you want to mix in music to your podcast, it must be copyright free. You can’t use a commercial song as a backing track unless you're willing to pay thousands of pounds in royalties. Websites such as Jamendo showcase artists whose music is covered by a special ‘Creative Commons’ licence. This gives more flexibility to how the tracks can be used. In most cases, as long as the source is acknowledged, the songs can be copied without infringing copyright and are what is known as ‘podsafe’. Now, it is all very well writing about podcasts and espousing their benefits for language learning, but I needed to put the theory into practice and try it out for myself. So, last week, my form class (7JD) planned and recorded their very first podcast. I wanted them to revise the content we’d covered so far this year. So, I divided the class into small groups and asked them to work on a dialogue or text together for a particular unit of their choice. The pupils rose to the challenge and were very serious about their scripts. I made the recordings on my iriver MP3 player, added some instrumental music from Jamendo and used Audacity to edit and mix the whole thing together on my home PC. Having now made a podcast, I must say I’m really proud of what the pupils have produced. They all took part and OK, so they’ve made a few mistakes in their French, but their enthusiasm and dedication shines through. The result is so much more than the sum of its parts. They think it’s cool and exciting and that’s good enough for me. If you want to have a listen, I’ve uploaded the ‘Le podcast de 7JD de Nodehill Middle School’ here. Download Le_podcast_de_7JD.mp3 ‘Le podcast de 7JD’ is also available on the TES Resources Bank. I’ve divided the recording into two parts as there is a 10MB limit problem per upload. The links are: http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Resource.aspx?resourceId=1217 for part 1 http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Resource.aspx?resourceId=1218 for part 2 Comments welcome as always. Comments from my form 7JD: Rachel I thought the podcast was fantastic. Being able to hear myself on the podcast was wicked. I liked being able to plan out what we were going to do. I also liked recording and choosing the music. It was the best because I improved my speaking. Adam I think making the podcast was really fun and the turn out was excellent. The recordings were superbly clear. It wasn't fuzzed out or bits you couldn't hear. It was all clear and it really helped our accents and speaking. Lily I enjoyed writing the scripts. It was really good to go into groups and concentrate on one area of French. I really enjoyed it. Francesca The podcast was really fun. I thought it helped with our French. It was cool to say the stuff we do in French. All in all a wicked project. I really liked it. I think that other people should try it. My favourite part was listening to it afterwards. Katie I thought the podcast was brilliant and I think each class in Years 5, 6 , 7 and 8 should do it as well. I think we could do it again. Cameron I liked the idea of people listening to our French accents and our pronunciation all over the world. Jamie It was fun as we could be heard speaking French all over the world and they can put their opinions on the blog page. Sammy It was fun. It helped us with writing and speaking in French. Zoe I thought that the podcast was very fun. I liked it because you could learn more French out of it. It was also good for our speaking and writing. Jessica I think the podcast was very interesting because it helped me with my speaking Charlotte I thought the podcast was very educational and fun because we learnt speaking in French and we had fun as well. Ellie I thought that it was interesting and something different. It has improved people's French speaking. It is another way of making French fun. I hope we do podcasting again. Anne I think the podcast is really interesting and making it was fun. I think that the podcast is something different. It also shows that children at Nodehill learn French. Violet Making the podcast was fun. I especially liked speaking about my family in French. I think all of the other classes should make a podcast because it's great. Matt I think that making the podcast was good for our speaking and writing. We had to write down what we would say and say it loud and then we could practise our accents and our writing. Other pupil podcasts to check out St Thomas of Aquins, Edinburgh, Spanish Edinburgh City Guide Dunoon Grammar School, Dunoon, Radio Show on free time Firrhill High School in Edinburgh Thomas Adams Cast, Wem, Shropshire, Radio show led by students Happy listening!

See mention on Irish French.ie website here

TES ICT Blog: Using Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom

03 May 2006 at 12.30

Using Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom

MFL teacher Joe Dale looks at how to use the freebie Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom and create engaging learning resources For many, digital cameras have transformed our attitudes to taking photos. We can now be more creative and take risks by worrying less about the number of shots we have left and more about capturing the moment. Digital technology allows far greater versatility in how we view our images too. Collections can be stored not only on a computer’s hard drive, but also on portable devices such as mobile phones and mp3 players, burnt on to CD or DVD and even hosted online for others to see anywhere in the world. Using Photo Story 3 Photo Story 3 for Windows is a free download from Microsoft which lets you put together digital images with accompanying text, music and narration in the form of a slideshow or photo-movie. You can use photo stories to... present new vocabulary using individual objects or by miming actions to practice dialogue work such as buying different items in a shop or asking for directions to give a description of your daily routine or local area for example to design a comic strip to make a record of a trip to put together a multimedia resource for your partner school Photo Story 3 for Windows is very simple to use. Setting up your presentation is straightforward; the software guides you through each element of the slideshow allowing you to customise your work at any point. Cool things you can do with Photo Story rotate imported pictures and size them to fit the screen scan across your images in different directions in slideshow mode add formatted text (size, font, colour) and position it on each slide. make notes and record a narration for each slide insert a sound file made ‘on the fly’ with the voice recording function of an mp3 player insert copyright-free music to play in the background over selected slides create different genres of customised music automatically using the software preview any changes made import pictures from PowerPoint save a project and finish it later save your finished presentation to be sent as an email attachment, played on a pocket PC, mobile phone or portable media center Where to go for Photo Story tutorials For a detailed tutorial including video clips and teacher notes on how to use Photo Story 3 for Windows go to the mini site Assignment: Photo-movie set up by BT. The tutorials cover topics such as importing pictures, making graphics, recording narrations, adding music What is a Photo-movie? Getting The Software Setting Up Importing Pictures Making Graphics Recording Narration Picture Moves Adding Music Writing The Script BT also recently produced a handy guide to creating podcasts Internet Radio for Schools. As part of the free two DVD set of workshops from the recent MFL conference for primary teachers organised by Northamptonshire County Council, there's a practical explanation on how to use Photo Story 3 for Windows in class. For more details, go to the Learning Discovery website or contact Guy Shearer, Northamptonshire County Council guy.shearer@learningdiscovery.org.uk. For some examples of photo-stories produced with Comic Life (Mac only), have a look at the Modern Foreign Languages Environment’s Creative Teaching section on cartoons. There are also some Word templates there to help you get started. Lynne Horn from Tobermory High School has more examples of Comic Life cartoons on her blog tobermoryhs under the section Qu’est-ce que tu fais le week-end? Having just returned from our recent school trip to Brittany, I look forward to playing around with the digital images we took and the audio we recorded for our next photo-movie. To see an example of a photo-movie created using images from a PowerPoint presentation, click below Download example.wmv or on this link to our Resources Bank (you will have to register to access the Resources Bank, but registration is free). The file is called Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard. Following the instructions, from the Assignment: Photo-movies tutorials, I saved the slides from the PowerPoint I made four years ago as jpgs and put them into Photo Story 3 for Windows. It took me about ten minutes including adding the cheesy music. I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that the presentation is copyright free as Monsieur Oiseau and Monsieur Canard have come to a mutual agreement and waived their worldwide rights. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. I’m sure the lads will be keen to know. To download Photo Story 3 for Windows, click here

Comments (13)

 

Would anyone like to comment on the lack of social comment on this blog since we've needed to register to register? Should we need a login for bloggin' to host a post? Should feedback make a comeback? Communication must be two way, eh? Is it always right to reply to your right to reply? No comment!

Posted by: dalej on 06 May 2006 at 19.42

 

Yes, well, what do you know, Joe, I downloaded the software Photo Story 3, and created, within 10 minutes, a cheesy show about my family's recent day out in the Lakes...complete with tinny background music and a barely audible narration....all in English... It now remains for me to do the same thing for a school 'audience'

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 12.02

 

Yes, well, what do you know, Joe, I downloaded the software Photo Story 3, and created, within 10 minutes, a cheesy show about my family's recent day out in the Lakes...complete with tinny background music and a barely audible narration....all in English... It now remains for me to do the same thing for a school 'audience' Merci pour l'inspiration!

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 12.02

 

Is there an echo in here? Thanks for the post PierreImport and your rating of 'Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard' from the TES Resources Bank. I'm sure it will encourage others to download the software and try it out for themselves. At the risk of repeating myself, I was also wondering if you had any thoughts about needing to register now to leave comments on the blog. Do you think that effects spontaneity? Personally, I'm only ever spontaneous when I've thought about it first.

Posted by: dalej on 07 May 2006 at 13.32

 

Spontaneity? I will tell you tomorrow.

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 21.30

 

PierreImport, as today is also tomorrow's yesterday, I was wondering if you've had a chance to have a look at the Assignment: Photo-movie link above from BT? It's very good you know. Monsieur Oiseau and Monsieur Canard both like it. They think it's good to squawk.

Posted by: dalej on 08 May 2006 at 07.59

 

Great post Joe - a real find. Very easy to use as well. Love your photo movie - you didn't stay in Hotel les Mielles in St Cast did you, by any chance? I'm off with the Year 8s next week too ... you've got me wondering whether to ditch the video camera - this seems MUCH less labour intensive. I've put a quick link to this on my blog: www.cms.typepad.com

Posted by: binks on 13 May 2006 at 07.54

 

Dear Ruth/Binks, Thanks for the comment here and the post on your blog. I’m glad you liked ‘Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard’. The original presentation took me about ten hours to make, whereas the slideshow was ten minutes max! I wouldn’t ditch the video camera though. In fact, I’d bring along an mp3 player that can record audio. I find the pupils are more relaxed speaking into a microphone than having a camera pointed at them! By the way, we always stay at the Bon Abri Hotel in St Cast which I can highly recommend.

Posted by: dalej on 13 May 2006 at 19.17

 

Dear Ruth, Have you heard of Microsoft's HTML Slide Show Wizard? I came across it in a computer magazine recently. I've not used it, but it looks interesting. Here is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Posted by: dalej on 13 May 2006 at 20.49

 

Any ideas for video editing software? A few years ago, I bought Pinnacle's Studio 8 - WHEN (for about a month) it worked, it was fantastic, but I've had problems with it ever since. I'm not alone in these problems, they're well documented on their support forum. Windows Movie Maker doesn't seem quite so good ... but at least it works ...

Posted by: binks on 14 May 2006 at 11.11

 

Here are some tutorials for Movie Maker: http://www.atomiclearning.com/moviemaker2 http://www.mrbelshaw.co.uk/extras/documentary/index.htm I've not done a lot of video editing myself, but its an area I would like to explore more. When we come back from France each year, we give the video footage to my colleague who runs the school film club. He then edits it with the pupils and makes it into a short film which we show later in a whole school assembly. He uses a range of different software depending on the effects he wants to create, but I know he recommends Ulead software as being particular good.

Posted by: dalej on 14 May 2006 at 17.36 How can I use this facility in my lessons when the authorities are not prepare to buy the necessary tools? Posted by: Asamando on 24 May 2006 at 17.57   Dear Asamando, I can understand your frustration of not having access to the necessary hardware to use ICT in your classroom. Is there a computer suite in your school though? If you are specifically referring to the software Photo Story 3 for Windows all you need to get going is one computer and a few images which you could take with a digital camera or search for on the web (respecting copyright of course). You could then put the slideshow together in a matter of minutes and present it there and then or later on a computer suite (if you were to have one). One of the reasons I wanted to write this blog in the first place was to show that colleagues don’t need to have the latest all singing all dancing interactive whiteboard in their class to use ICT effectively. If they have a computer suite to which they can get access, they can make interactive exercises for their pupils to practise using authoring software such as Spellmaster, Hot Potatoes, TaskMagic or Fun With Texts. They can use desktop publishing software to design a newsletter or poster, word-processing software for redrafting a text or the web for finding authentic websites. Using ICT can be as simple as using a computer to create activities with Puzzlemaker or Teacher’s Pet to then be printed off as paper worksheets. I first started out by finding good websites to use such as Linguascope or bonjour.org.uk as it was then called and Languagesonline although it had a different and much longer name to begin with. Next, we bought a couple of Vektor CDroms for our network, plus Fun with Texts a bit later on. I started making Spellmaster activities for the computer suite after that until I was lucky enough to be able to use a data projector in my class. It was at that point that I began making PowerPoint presentations for whole class teaching basing some of my ideas on examples I had downloaded from the MFLresources website. From then on, I searched for freeware on the web which I could use with a data projector. Some of my findings in fact, I’ve already written about on the blog. Getting an interactive whiteboard was the icing on the cake as it allowed me to explore my ideas further. I do understand where you are coming from Asamando and others like you who have limited access to ICT. I referred to this in my first blog post if truth be told. My advice is to keep badgering your SMT for some more ICT kit and see if that helps. Good luck. Posted by: dalej on 24 May 2006 at 21.57

TES ICT Blog: Using freeware to spice up your language lessons

20 April 2006 at 10.15

Using freeware to spice up your language lessons

MFL teacher Joe Dale returns with the fifth in his series of blogs devoted to using ICT in language lessons. This time he's using freeware to make language lessons interactive What a buzz! I’ve just come back from Language World 2006 in Manchester and seen a wealth of inspiring sessions on the use of ICT in MFL. Check out some pictures here taken by Helen Myers from the Ashcombe School on behalf of the Association for Language Learning. Unfortunately, I missed Helen’s session Working together to share best practice and resources...today and in the future!, but got ‘caught’ in a murder scene by Mark Pentleton, Project Coordinator, of the Partners in Excellence project. in his session Using photo-stories to develop writing skills. He was showing how  easy it is to use the software Comic Life to make up a story on the spot. The result was a comic case of attempted homicide entitled Love Triangle photo-story.  At my session Free games, time-saving utilities and fun with MS Word: integrating ICT into the MFL classroom, my intentions were far less malevolent. In fact, I will freely admit, my only misdemeanour was to aim to show delegates how easy it can be to make interactive activities with just a data projector, laptop and readily available software. Hardly a capital offence. ATnotes was one such example. This software lets you create virtual Post-It notes for your Windows desktop. Using ATnotes you can carry out tasks including: drag ‘n’ drop create games, such as noughts and crosses create reminders of grammar points, build visual prompts for gender and adjectival agreement erase on screen annotations in PowerPoint The notes can be formatted and saved (font, size, background colour) then revealed on screen in a few clicks. They can be dragged and resized anywhere on the desktop and hidden until manually activated. As well as a helpful aide-mémoire, ATnotes can also be used in a variety of ways for the purpose of whole class teaching with a data projector and/or interactive whiteboard in MFL classes. For example, to support word, sentence and text level work, notes can be dragged and dropped into the correct order. This works particularly well when a PowerPoint slide with a simple background colour is running simultaneously behind the notes (see tips below). If you use PowerPoint to make a noughts and crosses grid containing images or text signifying new language, you can create notes with large O’s and X’s positioned on them at the bottom of the screen. Pupils can then simply drag the notes into position having answered a question correctly. You can also format the notes to have different coloured backgrounds to denote whether nouns written upon them are masculine, feminine or plural. I personally use the convention that words or images which have a blue background are masculine nouns, pink for feminine nouns and green for plural nouns. As I’ve said in previous posts, I apply this ‘code’ throughout my teaching (ATnotes, PowerPoint presentations, digital worksheets, grammar wallcharts etc) and I find it is very effective as a visual reminder of which nouns are which gender. For example, to remind pupils of the gender of certain classroom objects, you can launch your different coloured notes so that the ‘un’, ‘une’ and ‘des’ notes, coloured blue, pink and green respectively are at the top of the screen in a row with the other notes containing nouns such as stylo, gomme, cahier, règle, crayon, trousse etc appear in a mixed order at the bottom of the screen. Next to test if pupils can remember the genders, you can change the background of the notes to a different (not pink, blue or green) colour. The aim is then for pupils to drag the nouns into their corresponding group according to whether they are masculine, feminine or plural. Simple! In addition, the notes can serve as grammar prompts to digital worksheets. You can create a note with a grammar reminder on it eg. “Remember to use du in front of a masculine noun, de la in front of a feminine noun, de l’ in front of a noun starting with a vowel or h and des in front of a plural noun...”. By positioning the cursor on the edge of a note it will become a double headed arrow. You can then simply drag an edge and ‘roll up’ a note, so that pupils can no longer see it. If it is needed it can simply be unrolled again. This can useful for differentiating tasks for pupils with different abilities. More Practical Tips It’s a good idea to run a single coloured PowerPoint slide behind your notes to focus your pupils’ concentration on the activity in hand. To change background colour, click on the Format menu in PowerPoint and select Background. Click on the dropdown menu in the Background dialogue box and then More Colors… You should now see a honeycomb of different colours. Choose the one you want, click OK and then Apply. As contrast is important, it is probably better to go for a light background, so the notes stand out more. I tend to go for yellow myself. A little trick to stop pupils from accidentally ending the Slide Show by touching the screen instead of an Atnote is to set up the slide so it no longer advances with the mouse. Click on the Slide Show menu and select Slide Transition. A pane should appear on the right of your screen. Underneath where it says Advance slide, remove the tick in the box next to On mouse click by clicking on it. Now when you run the Slide Show you can click on the slide without resulting in the infamous black screen declaring End of slide show, click to exit. To save lesson time, you can set up your PowerPoint file to automatically open in Slide Show Mode. Having changed your slide’s background colour and removed the tick from the Advance slide on mouse click box, save it as a PowerPoint show. In the File menu, click on Save as… Then in the Save as dialogue box, select the Save as type dropdown menu and scroll down to PowerPoint Show. Select it and click Save. The presentation will be saved by default in My Documents. When you go to My Documents, you’ll see the file looks different to a standard PowerPoint file. That is because you’ve created a pps as opposed to a ppt file. The only difference is that the former opens in Slide Show Mode when doubled clicked. If you want to edit a pps file, just open it from within PowerPoint and then save it again as a PowerPoint Show. In the latest version of PowerPoint (PowerPoint 2003), the pen pointer tool has been updated to include many more options eg Ballpoint Pen, Felt Tip Pen, Highlighter and Eraser. This is good news for teachers who like a bit of variety when circling, underlining, drawing arrows, or making other annotations during a presentation. However, for those with PowerPoint 2002, or earlier, screen annotations made with the pen pointer tool in PowerPoint can still be individually ‘rubbed out’ by dragging across them with an ATnote. To be able to annotate in Slide Show Mode, change the arrow pointer to the pen pointer by pressing CTRL + P. To erase any on-screen annotations, press E and to change the pen pointer back to the arrow pointer, press Ctrl + A. You can download ATnotes from the ATnotes site. Language World 2007 will be at the University of Oxford 30th-31st March.

Comments (7)

I missed Language World in Manchester - I'm just recovering from major surgery. I would have liked to be there. ATNotes is a useful tool. I have had a link to in in my Favourites for some time: http://atnotes.fr.st/ but I now get a "discontinued" message when I access this site. Where is ATNotes now? Regarding the creation of post-it notes and annotations, this is also useful in Word documents in electronic format - which can be done using the standard Word tools. We deal with this in the following ICT for Language Teachers modules: Module 1.3 (Using text tools in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom), Section 8.1 - where we show a downloadable Word document enhanced with an audio file and post-it annotations relating to items of vocab. Module 4.1 (Computer Aided Assessment and language learning, Section 3.1 - where we show how post-it notes can be used in marking students' work submitted in electronic format. See http://www.ict4lt.org

Posted by: Graham Davies on 21 April 2006 at 10.29

Found it! http://atnotes.free.fr/download.html The free program has moved. The problem with a lot of free stuff on the Web is that either it's here today and gone tomorrow or it begins by being offered for free and then the next time that you access the site you find there is a charge. It's called "casting bait", I believe.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 21 April 2006 at 16.29

Thank you for your comments as always Graham. To make it clearer exactly what to do to make notes. I've written some more advice here on what to do. Once you've downloaded ATnotes from http://atnotes.free.fr/download.html and installed it by following the on-screen instructions, a little post-it note icon should then show in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. If you double click on this, a note should appear with a flashing cursor in it. Type in your text as normal and you should find you’ve just made your first note! To format your notes, right click the note and select settings. The dialogue box ATnotes Settings should then come up. This will allow you to change formatting such as font, text colour, background colour and even transparency. In the preview window, you can get an idea of what the note will look like. You can save these settings from here and give them each a name. The text needs to be fairly big to be readable from a distance so I’d recommend formatting such as Arial, Regular, 24 pt with black text on a yellow background for regular notes as an example. If you want to practice gender, it’s simple just to change the background colour (blue, pink and green) and then save the new formatting each time with the names masculine, feminine and plural. It’s also easy to change the formatting of multiple notes all in one go. Hold down the CTRL key and click on each note in turn. Little dots should appear around their borders. Right click one note and select settings. Click on the dropdown menu underneath the preview pane where your customised formatting should appear and select one. The preview pane will then change to show your saved formatting. Click OK and hey presto all the selected notes will have changed. To save a set of notes, right click the main ATnotes icon again and select Note List. Hold down the CTRL key and select all the notes you want to save together. Their backgrounds should turn blue when selected. Click on the Export icon in the top left of your screen. Give your set of notes a name such as classroom objects and click Save. Now you can delete the notes you’ve made, but still retrieve them later by clicking on the Import icon in the Note Lists dialogue box. Hope that helps. Best wishes Joe P.S It does say that ATnotes have been discontinued on the site, but it seems what that means is that it is still available to download, but that the software will not be developed in the future.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 21 April 2006 at 20.58

Joe writes: "It does say that ATnotes have been discontinued on the site, but it seems what that means is that it is still available to download, but that the software will not be developed in the future." I've seen this happen many, many times with downloadable freeware. Freeware is often developed by enthusiasts who just run out of steam or who get fed up with being bombarded by technical enquiries that they cannot cope with. Another problem with freeware or shareware - and I write from personal experience - is that it may be packaged with adware or spyware that attempts to keep a watch on your Web browsing habits and then you get hit with unwanted adverts or spam. This is how a lot of freeware and shareware is financed. Whenever I download a program of any sort from the Web - free or paid for - I scan my computer thoroughly to check that it has not been infected with adware of spyware. It's surprising what one finds lurking on one's hard disk! My computer is set to run Window Washer on boot up, which gets rid of most of the rubbish left over from previous Web browsing sessions. I also run SpyBot Search and Destroy to locate and destroy adware and spyware. Spy Sweeper and Norton AV can also trap adware and spyware.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 22 April 2006 at 10.35

Dear Graham, Thank you for your advice on how to be aware of the potential threat of spyware and adware with freeware and shareware. However, as far as I am aware, we don't need to be too wary of this particularly freeware as I believe it is free from such 'malware', to be fair.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 22 April 2006 at 23.34

To get back to the practicalities of using the software for a moment, you may have found that you've been able to create a note, but then it suddenly and inexplicably 'disappears' from the screen. To avoid frustration and stop notes from ‘disappearing’, right click the icon in the bottom right of the screen and select Always on Top. You can always find any note you’ve made by looking in the Note List by right clicking the ATnotes icon again and selecting Note List. Notes which you’ve created, but haven’t saved will be there.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 22 April 2006 at 23.36

Just an addendum to what I wrote earlier and to Joe's reply: It is probably worth issuing a cautionary message when you recommend freeware or shareware, i.e. indicate that users should always check for adware or spyware after downloading it. This should keep you in the clear, just in case someone decides to sue you for giving bad advice. As I operate as a free-lance trainer/adviser, I have an insurance policy that includes protection against this sort of thing, i.e. under the heading "professional indemnity". I have created a "cautionary tale" page at my website: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/bugs.htm

Posted by: Graham Davies on 23 April 2006 at 11.27

 

TES ICT Blog: In the classroom: How to use on-screen keyboards with interactive whiteboards

22 March 2006 at 12.15

In the classroom: How to use on-screen keyboards with interactive whiteboards

In his fourth ICT blog MFL teacher Joe Dale unearths a handy tool that lets pupils type live onto an interactive whiteboard Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) can be great for engaging and motivating pupils. Pre-prepared digital resources can accessed quickly and easily in a few clicks. They help learners take a more active role in lessons and make work more memorable. To realise a board’s full potential can be a steep learning curve, but it’s a journey well worth taking. In a languages classroom for example wouldn’t it be useful if your pupils could type live onto an interactive whiteboard without having to resort to your computer keyboard? They could label or annotate images, edit text or simply write their name. Wouldn't it be a real timesaver? Blog number four is about a neat tool aimed at those teachers lucky enough to have access to an IWB. There’s nothing to download or install, so your network manager won’t need to feel at all insecure. In fact, as long as you’re running Windows XP, you’ll find this key utility is already on your PC ready to be launched. The Windows XP On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) is a useful whole-class teaching tool for the interactive whiteboard because: • the virtual keyboard allows pupils to enter text and numbers directly on the board • the utility can be configured to float over almost any application • it can be brought up automatically with shortcut keys • depending on the type of interactive whiteboard you may have, the OSK can be operated with a pen or finger • it can also be accessed remotely with a tablet PC or interactive slate. With special interest to MFL teachers, the language of the On-Screen Keyboard can be easily switched allowing foreign characters to be typed into any Microsoft Office document, web page or online form for example (See link below). I normally launch the On-Screen Keyboard when working on a gapfill exercise. Before the lesson, I create a web page with Hot Potatoes and write out ten sentences using the verb or verbs I want the pupils to practice. I replace each conjugated form with a gap, but leave the subject pronoun as a clue. If I'm testing different verbs, I write the relevant infinitive in brackets at the end of each sentence so pupils know which verb they need to conjugate. We could be practising -ER verbs for example and I'd want to see whether the pupils knew how to conjugate them correctly. I would ask one of them to copy and paste the infinitive from its bracket by highlighting and dragging it to the gap. He or she would then highlight the -ER ending and press bksp on the OSK to delete it. Finally the pupil would type in the correct ending using the virtual keyboard. While the pupil enters the answer by clicking on each letter in turn, the others write their responses on mini whiteboards which they then hold up in the air, so I can see if they’ve got it or not. Using the OSK saves time and increases the pace of the lesson as there's no need to return to my laptop. Everything is done instantly on screen. The virtual keyboard is useful for editing text or entering short phrases such as pupils’ names, simple answers and quick written feedback. The OSK is not suitable for creating longer pieces of texts which should be prepared before hand using a standard keyboard. In class, a pupil could always revert to the computer keyboard when he or she needs to do a lot of typing anyway. When appropriate, I feel the OSK helps the pupils to interact with the board and facilitates how they learn. Why not set up a class register in Microsoft Excel and let your pupils use the On-Screen Keyboard to type in that they are present when coming into the class? Just an idea. Launching the On-Screen Keyboard • Go to the Start Menu and click on Programs/Accessories/Accessibility/On-Screen Keyboard. Easier still, click on the Start Menu and select Run… Then type in OSK in the box and click OK. • If you want to create a shortcut on your desktop, right–click the desktop, select New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard should then appear. Type OSK in Type Location and click Next. Type a name for the shortcut and then click Finish. • To set up a keyboard shortcut, right click the desktop shortcut you’ve just created and click Properties. In the Shortcut key box, click a letter like Z and CTRL+ALT+Z will appear. That’s your customised keyboard shortcut. Click Apply and OK. Now hold down the key combination CTRL+ALT+Z and the On-Screen Keyboard should open before your very eyes! A potential downside of using the On-Screen Keyboard is that by its nature it will always obscure part of the screen. The keyboard can be dragged around by its title bar however and positioned in a more convenient location to reduce this problem. If required, you can even drag the keyboard to the taskbar (the strip at the bottom of the screen) where it will turn into a tab. When you want to use the OSK again, just click on the tab and drag it back into position. Beware minimising, and then maximising the keyboard though as the keys will disappear (for some reason not known as yet by the author). Final tips • It's advisable to set the keyboard as the standard layout which does not include the numeric keypad as this simply takes up more room than is necessary. • You can format the text which appears on the keyboard to the font and size you require. • Select the Always on Top option to keep your keyboard displayed on your screen even if you switch programs or active windows. Useful links To learn how to switch the language of the keyboard, read my post on the Linguanet forum archives To research other methods of inserting foreign characters, click on these links: http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/linguanet-forum/2005-06/0005.html (follow thread ‘Diacritics in Word’)http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/accents/

Comments (8)

What a brilliant idea .. many thanks! Helen

Posted by: Helen on 23 March 2006 at 19.26

On switching keyboards and inserting foreign characters see the following Web pages: Section 5 (Typing foreign characters) of Module 1.3 at the ICT4LT site: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-3.htm The FrKeys Foreign Characters utility: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/frkeys.htm This makes life a lot easier!

Posted by: Graham Davies on 25 March 2006 at 16.36

I like Joe’s blogs: useful practical information. However, why do I find it difficult to understand the essential differences between (a) a blog, as exemplified at this site, (b) a discussion list such as Languages ICT or the Linguanet Forum, (c) a website such as the ICT4LT training resources site? All three appear to have similar aims and functions, e.g. conveying hints and tips to the teaching community and encouraging a dialogue between teachers with common interests. But look at the comments added to the blogs at this site. Most are in single figures. Are there hundreds of lurkers out there who choose to digest the useful information and remain silent, or is no one reading the blogs? My experience as webmaster of the ICT4LT site is that there are thousands of lurkers. I know from the ICT4LT hit list that 1000-plus people on average visit the site every day – including spammers and nutcases, but most visitors are genuinely seeking information. As for feedback, however, I am lucky if I get half a dozen emails per month. I have perused quite a few blogs over the last few months. Some are amusing, some contain some great rants where the initiators and participants really let off steam, but most appear to address a very narrow audience of 200-300 people or - in some cases where a class of kids creates a blog, for example, on a trip to France - just 20-30 people. Is information on the Web really reaching a mass audience or do most people just regard the Web as a useful means of finding holiday bargains and online shopping? Regarding modern languages, I guess many of you will by now have read the story that Amazon is moving its European customer services centre from Slough to Cork, Ireland, one of the reasons being that they cannot recruit enough employees from the Slough area with appropriate skills to handle enquiries in European languages. Ireland is unquestionably ahead of England in terms of its population's language skills (v. the 2005 Eurobarometer survey), but I suspect another reason for the move is that Ireland offers great business incentives. Bear in mind that Slough's local Thames Valley University (TVU), which has main campuses in Slough and in Ealing, used to have well-equipped language centres, including computer labs, on both campuses. I was Director of TVU's Ealing Campus Language Centre. TVU's language departments closed down in the 1990s - along with the two language centres - due to lack of recruitment of suitably qualified students. Fortunately, I had the good sense to take early retirement (in 1993) before the crunch came. Ironically, at around this time I was employed as a consultant to the University of Limerick, helping them set up a new language centre - which is still going strong. There's a message here, I think... OK, Slough can continue to feed off its fame as the location for the TV sitcom “The Office” and John Betjeman’s famous poem beginning “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough”. In fairness to Slough, I really appreciated being looked after by TVU’s student nurses during a recent stay in Wexham Park Hospital (north of Slough). Angels, all of them.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 09 April 2006 at 16.13

Dear Graham, When I first starting researching what blogs were. I couldn’t see the difference between them and posting to a forum, but now I would argue they are quite different. I’m conscious of the number of potential readers of the blog and as a result, I spend a lot of time drafting and redrafting each post to make it as clear, helpful and encouraging as possible. I think forums are much more efficient for exchanging ideas quickly and finding out about the latest thing. I’ve tried to make my blog more measured and reflective as the posts are less frequent. For this reason, I’ve tried to choose topics which I feel even for members of Linguanet and MFLresources should inform them of something new. Forums are brilliant ways of keeping up to date with what is happening and for swapping opinions. Blogs are more individual expressions given over a period of time I think. People can leave comments, but it is the main poster who should set the tone. Some teachers prefer just to read messages rather than write comments, some like to express themselves openly and some hide behind pseudonyms when posting. I think there should be room for everyone as long as posters don’t use anonymity as an excuse to berate others and make personal comments about them. What do you think? Best wishes Joe

Posted by: Joe Dale on 10 April 2006 at 14.25

I don't object to lurkers or teachers hiding behind a pseudonym - I can point to teachers being pressurised by their superiors not to display their own name or the name of their school in blogs and discussion lists. One teacher wrote to me to say that she was convinced she was passed over for promotion as a result of a controversial contribution she made to a discussion list. Hiding behind a pseudonym is, however, of no use if someone decides to sue you for bringing their reputation into disrepute. See the recent case where a college lecturer was successfully sued for smearing a politician in a blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/story/0,,1737445,00.html I guess it is up to the blog administrators to ensure that potentially libellous material is filtered out. I can see that a blog has the advantage of a personal topic being introduced and then followed up, but then quite useful information appears to get lost in archives - which you have to search carefully. Cataloguing and making the archived material more accessible would help. I recall seeing useful material in blogs but then I have had problems finding it 2-3 months later.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 10 April 2006 at 15.31

On screen QWERTY keyboard is a standard on the Onfinity CM2 through COMPUBITS. It also has a virtual whiteboard that can REPLAY the comments written and pause at stages for emphasis. See the unit at www.compubits.com and www.onfinity.info. It is a hell of a lot less expensive than a whiteboard solution and allows anything on the PC/Laptop to be interactive on the wall, curtain, tablecloth, sheet - whatever you have available. You really do not know what you are missing.

Posted by: harry on 12 April 2006 at 09.26

Dear Harry, This looks interesting and for about £500 is certainly cheaper than an interactive whiteboard. However, for those who already have a data projector and or IWB the attraction of the On-Screen Keyboard is the fact that it’s free and is probably all ready on your computer, ready to use.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 12 April 2006 at 10.13

Harry, I've put in links to the Onfinity device in ICT4LT Module 1.2 and Module 1.4 at http://www.ict4lt.org I've also emailed the EUROCALL, Languages ICT and Linguanet fora about it. This could be just what presenters at international conferences, e.g. EUROCALL, CALICO and IALLT, are looking for. So far it has not proved easy finding venues set up with a range of compatible IWBs. Compatibility is a major problem because of the different types of IWBs. Consequently, presenters hesitate to demonstrate good IWB materials. Compatible data projectors used to be a major problem too, and one often saw presenters trailing a wheely case containing their own mini-projector as they didn't have much confidence in what they would find locally - and rightly so (I write from experience!). This has now ceased to be a major problem - more or less :-)) Remember the massive BARCO projectors? IWBs might go the same way. IWBs are not suitable for demonstrating to a large audience. I often have to talk to 200-300 people at a time and then a large screen is essential.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 14 April 2006 at 13.51

See mention on Whiteboard Web Forum here

TES ICT Blog: Using free Hangman games to teach languages

27 February 2006 at 15.15

Using free Hangman games to teach languages

MFL teacher Joe Dale returns with the third in his series of blogs devoted to using ICT in language lessons. This time he's using a free Hangman game...

So here we are again looking at ways to integrate ICT into our language lessons. I hope you’ve found the first two blogs useful. Maybe you’ve tried out some of the suggestions and you’d like to leave a comment here about your experiences. That would be interesting to read and could encourage others to have a go themselves.

This week’s blog is about that traditional favourite hangman. It’s the game where the letters of a word or phrase are individually guessed to avoid the untimely death of a man whose only crime is his inability to spell. It has the double bonus of being simple fun as well as improving children’s learning at the same time.

In the classroom, the gallows-and-dashes classic has been used down the years as a reward for good work, a change of pace or a refresher. Children have always liked to pit their wits against each other and show their competitive spirit. Hangman is great for that, isn’t it?

Le Jeu du Pendu (translated as The Hangman’s Game) is a free multilingual version of the well-known game. The software works equally well on either an interactive whiteboard or installed individually on a computer suite. Teachers can create their own customised word lists or ‘dictionaries’ tailoured to the needs of their pupils and mapped to their department’s scheme of work. Le Jeu du Pendu allows well for differentiation in the game’s options.

You can for example: leave a clue for each phrase, set a time limit, provide the first and last letter of an expression and add your own picture prompt.

Le Jeu du Pendu supports word and sentence level work as the phrases you type in may include as many as thirty six characters each (including spaces). More impressive still for an MFL teacher is the fact that the interface is available in seven European languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and Portuguese no less). So it’s up to you, if you want to play Le Jeu du Pendu, Hangman Spiel or El Juego del Ahorcado to name just three.

Using Le Jeu du Pendu in class
I use Le Jeu du Pendu to check pupils’ understanding of areas such as:

• gender (un stylo, une gomme, des crayons)
• adjectival agreements (mon frère est grand et mince, ma sœur est petite et grosse)
• verb conjugations (je suis, tu es, il est, elle est)
• prepositional phrases (le baladeur CD est sur le lit, le baladeur CD est à côté de la table).

This can be as a lesson starter or revision activity as part of a plenary. The pupils like the interactive version and playing against the computer poses a challenge for them.

The computer picks a word or phrase at random or chronologically from the list I’ve created and displays it as a series of dashes, representing letters. The pupils guess letters one at a time. To practise the sounds of the French alphabet, I may want them to say the letters out loud or ask them to write down their guesses on individual mini whiteboards which they can then hold up in the air.

I normally give the job of typing in the letters either on the onscreen keyboard or on the laptop to one of the pupils so they feel more in charge of their own learning. If the chosen letter is in the word or phrase selected then the computer will fill it in. However, if it does not contain that letter, a piece of the hangman's gallows appears automatically on the screen. If the gallows are completed before the word or phrase has been guessed, the poor victim comes to a sudden and predictable end accompanied by a snatch of the ‘Death March’. Very appropriate.

Conversely, if a pupil guesses the word or phrase before the gallows are completed, the game is won and he or she has the option to enter his or her name into a best scores table!

I organise the dictionaries into the different units that we cover so they are easy to find. Using the software’s editor, The Dictionaries Management Utility, it is easy to combine different dictionaries to revise a whole unit’s work. This is what you do:

Copy and paste your dictionary selections into a word-processing package such as Word
Highlight the whole list and then copy it.
Create a new dictionary in Le Jeu du Pendu and paste your selection back into the editor.

Downloading Le Jeu du Pendu
To download Le Jeu du Pendu, go to the TomCat Soft website. I would recommend downloading the Version complète as it includes many example dictionaries to get you started.

Download the file pendufull.exe on to your Desktop. Double click the file to open it and you will see a message asking you if you want to install the game. Click Yes and then follow the installation instructions.

Once installed, you need to double click on Le Jeu du Pendu shortcut on the desktop and then you will see a dialogue box asking you to select a language. Make a selection and then click Start. Hey presto, you’re done!

Now, consult the help files available in English and French to find out how to make your own lists and configure the game’s options. It’s very straightforward. Really. There’s no need to have any hang-ups at all. Infact I’d make a dash for it right now!

Comments (6)

Many thanks much useful info Can you tell us something about videoconferencing - but in a way that won't send the IT department into a frenzy regarding firewalls, etc. Is Skype a possibility? Nick

Posted by: Nick Mair on 27 February 2006 at 17.42

Dear Nick, Glad you’re finding the blog helpful. To be honest, I’ve never used video conferencing myself, but here are a few links that I’ve found after a quick search: http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/linguanet-forum/2004-04/0048.html (follow the thread) http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=il&catcode=nwslttr_index&icttypeid=2&icteditionid=6&ictsectionid=44&ictsubsectionid=54&ictitemid=139 http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/languagesict-forum/2005-04/0016.html These two articles on the work of Chris Tetley at Wycliffe College give ideas on how to take part in low-tech audio conferencing (of a kind) by explaining how schools can exchange sound files with each other. http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/languagesict-forum/2005-01/0019.html http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=il&catcode=nwslttr_index&icttypeid=2&icteditionid=11&ictsectionid=65&ictsubsectionid=75&ictitemid=258 It would seem Ewan McIntosh as been ‘podcasting like crazy’ according to his site http://edu.blogs.com/ Hear more of Ewan’s views on the value of podcasting and blogging by listening to a webchat he took part in recently posted on the Language Lab Unleashed site at http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/?p=71 For more live interactive webcasts, why not download some of the EdTechtalk shows from http://podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=6346 where enthusiasts discuss the use of technology in education using Skype. All are welcome.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 27 February 2006 at 21.46

Videoconferencing I have used a dedicated system - which is fairly secure - but I know that desktop videoconferencing does tend to send ICT managers into a panic because of the security issues it raises. The best contact I know is Robert O'Dowd, who has written extensively about this subject. He is organising a EUROCALL conference on telecollaboration in Spain in May 2006: http://dfm.unileon.es/telecollaboration/index.html See Section 14.1.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org This deals with videoconferencing and contains some useful links, including links to Robert O'Dowd's sites. We also briefly mention Skype - which is a useful tool but also tends to drive ICT managers mad because of some of the security problems it can cause.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 28 February 2006 at 08.56

This hangman game looks like a useful tool. I have also had a chance to see a brief demo of the teacher's pet program which was mentioned recently. A big problem for me however is the downloading from the net. The way our college network is set up, it is impossible to download anything from the internet, however useful or free it may be. On the one hand, i can appreciate the network manager's caution, but filters are now so prescriptive that we often miss out on useful tools.

Posted by: Chris Graham on 28 February 2006 at 20.36

Joe, I've just downloaded this game and it looks great, thanks ... but I can't figure out how to put a time limit on the game ... can you help?

Posted by: RParker on 07 March 2006 at 19.19

Hi Ruth, Click on the Options icon on the main interface or press the F4 key on the keyboard to bring up the Options dialogue box. Make sure the ‘Play against time’ button is selected. Set the time limit by typing in the number of seconds you want each go to last. Easy!

Posted by: Joe Dale on 07 March 2006 at 20.08

TES ICT Blog: The easy way to create language exercises

15 February 2006 at 09.30

The easy way to create language exercises

In his second blog MFL teacher Joe Dale, from Nodehill Middle School on the Isle of Wight, explores the delights of a handy little tool called Teacher's Pet and shares his tips on how it can be used to create fun language exercises Well the comments have been coming in thick and fast. This blogging game seems quite fun. I hope it hasn’t been ‘too much tech and not enough teach’ though. That wouldn’t help, would it? Here is my new post for those teachers trying to use ICT in their classroom. I thought I’d blog this time about the fantastic Teacher’s Pet toolbar, great for use with an interactive whiteboard or for preparing a paper worksheet. Teacher's Pet runs within Microsoft Word as an independent toolbar. You can install it very simply and the buttons on its drop-down menu allow you to create language learning exercises quickly and easily. Just highlight your text and in a few clicks, it is possible for example to remove words, vowels, punctuation and spaces. Jumbling letters, words or paragraphs are equally as easy and you can even make flashcards with it. Brilliant. This means if you have some grammatically correct sentences in the foreign language you're teaching, Teacher's Pet will jumble them automatically for you. For example "Pour aller à la poste?" becomes "? poste la à aller Pour". In this case, your pupils have to unpick the jumbled sentence and put the words back in the right order by dragging and dropping them on the interactive whiteboard or writing them out on a paper worksheet. It's simple but builds confidence. Sounds interesting? Thanks to Teacher’s Pet, you can make a series of different exercises very quickly, without having to go to the trouble of manually doing the tasks yourself such as typing out individual letters or words in the wrong order. By creating these exercises regularly, you can give your pupils lots of written practice on the structures they are learning. They can all be prepared instantly with Teacher's Pet and be ready for use on the interactive whiteboard or printed out as a worksheet. I find that my pupils like the types of exercises that Teacher’s Pet can make and it seems to have a positive effect on their spelling, comprehension and understanding of word order. Using Teacher's Pet To get started, go to Teacher's Pet and download the version of the file you need. If you're running Windows XP with Microsoft Word 2000 or above, I recommend you click on the Download Button marked (zip file) for teacherspet4.zip. Save the zip file into My Documents and then extract the files by right clicking on it and selecting Extract All. Teacher’s Pet is a Microsoft Word template and the exercises are created using macros which perform a set of instructions in one click. For the macros to work, you need to open Word, go to Tools/Macro/Security/ and select Medium. This will mean that when you try and use Teacher’s Pet, a dialogue box will appear on the screen asking you to Enable Macros which you then select. There are two methods to install the toolbar, depending on whether you want it to always be there in Word when you open it or if you want to launch it only from time to time. For the former, double click the file Teachers Pet Text Tool 4 to open it and then double click on the word Activate to install the template. Follow the on-screen instructions. For the latter, open Word and click on the Tools menu at the top of the screen then on Templates and Add-Ins. Click on Add in the Templates and Add-Ins window. Click on the drop down arrow in the Look in box and select My Documents. Select the Teacher’s Pet template - it's the file with a yellow strip along the top. Click OK twice. The dialogue box about enabling macros should then appear. Select ‘Enable Macros’. You should now be able to see the Teacher’s Pet toolbar at the top right of the screen. It is easy to remove the toolbar if necessary by using the Templates and Add-Ins window or by going to the bottom of the menu’s toolbar and removing it from there. So don’t panic. To see examples of some of the different exercises you can make with Teacher’s Pet, why not download my example lessons from the Teacher's Pet site  file from and try them out. To apply a macro, highlight the required text and click on the relevant button from the toolbar and see what happens. As long as your Macro Security settings have been set to Medium, the macros should work fine. The author of Teacher’s Pet is Chris Lacey, an EFL teacher working in Hungary. I think we should all be very grateful to him for making such a brilliant tool. Finally, if you want a toolbar to remove accents, check out the Language toolbar developed by WELL (Web Enhanced Language Learning). This is similar to Teacher’s Pet and is installed in the same way using Templates and Add-Ins.

Comments (10)

A lot of tech, sure, and I'd like to see more of the students' reactions to these kind of dreag and drop exercises. That's the kind of thing I had in mind when I coined the phrase: "It's not about the tech, it's all about the teach" (http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2005/12/educators_dell_.html). It's what the students make of something that leads, so a large extent, whether I use it or not. These tools seem very traditional methods tarted up - is this right or is there more to them that I'm missing?

Posted by: Ewan McIntosh on 16 February 2006 at 12.44

Teacher's Pet appears to be a bit old-fashioned in its approach, but the exercises that it offers will certainly keep learners busy. On the other hand, I think most language teachers whom I know would find it difficult to use. Macros tend to send most teachers running scared - and ICT managers in schools are often loathe to allow teachers to set them up. Producing electronic worksheets is, however, a useful start to creating interactive materials and is covered in detail by Heather Rendall in Module 1.3 at the ICT4LT website - including the integration of sound and pictures into Word and PowerPoint. There are tools that are much easier to use. See, for example, Section 8 on Text Manipulation (by Sue Hewer)in Module 1.4 at the ICT4LT website. More ambitious teachers might take a look at Module 2.5 (by Paul Bangs) on authoring in general and Module 3.2 (by Ana Gimeno) on CALL software design. ICT4LT (ICT for Language Teachers) can be found at: http://www.ict4lt.org

Posted by: Graham Davies on 16 February 2006 at 14.31

I like the hand puppet, but there is a much better one at the web address above. The puppetmaster is a keen trilingual ventriloquist but he has forgotten his password to update his page and correctt he spelling mistakes.

Posted by: Mr Gorse on 16 February 2006 at 16.57

http://www.zarb.de/en/index.php I often use a similar programme to do my worksheets, it is called ZARB, it is not free of charge but it is great to do create activities in no time at all. For drag and drop, Easiteach is the best tool I have ever used with an interactive whiteboard. I will have a look at teacher's pet though!

Posted by: E. Mercier on 16 February 2006 at 17.30

Once installed, Teacher's Pet is brilliant for creating traditional exercise types, quickly and easily. Moreover, for language teachers who may not be fortunate enough to have access to an interactive whiteboard, Teacher’s Pet can not only be a timesaver, but a lifesaver for making worksheets to a deadline. You can make lots of different activities based on the structures you want your pupils to learn in a matter of minutes. This can give them plenty of practice and help their reading and writing skills. Many pupils seem to like these activities because as they are traditional, they know exactly what it is that they need to do to complete them. The exercises can take them from simple understanding to accurate reproduction allowing them to become more independent in their language use. Teacher’s Pet is not a cure-all though. It won’t do your marking for example! There are other resources out there which may be easier to use and which are more interactive. TaskMagic, Fun with Texts, Spellmaster and Hot Potatoes all have their merits and I would recommend them all. Don’t forget, Teacher’s Pet is free and it is very useful for creating certain types of traditional language exercise. Its main purpose is for making paper worksheets, but you can use it on an interactive whiteboard too. Why not try it out? What’s the worse that can happen? Anyway, what’s wrong with a bit of tradition?!

Posted by: Joe Dale on 16 February 2006 at 19.46

Dear Mr Gorse, Hugo et al, I’ve been using puppets for about five years now. They are good for teacher-pupil questioning and for pupil-pupil interaction when practising role-plays at the front of the class. I find my pupils love using them and seeing them talk. They put the pupils at ease and makes them more willing to ‘have a go’ at speaking. I’ve two main ones. ‘Monsieur Canard’ who is becoming quite famous now having appeared both on the TES website and in the TES Teacher supplement in recent weeks whereas his trusty companion Monsieur Oiseau only made it into the latter and I feel may be becoming a tad jealous! I first got the idea of using puppets when coming across an inspiring PowerPoint presentation involving that well-known character John Duff who was photographed galavanting around France by the local paparazzi no doubt. I’ve just checked and the presentation is still there in the Modern Foreign Languages section of The Staffordshire Learning Net. It would seem John has not lost the travelling bug as two more of his journeys have been archived and are available in PowerPoint form to download from http://www.sln.org.uk/mfl/PowerPoints%20for%20Teachers.htm In homage to John Duff, I made my own presentation back in 2002 ‘Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard’, a travel diary of that year’s school trip to Brittany. I photographed the pupils acting out various scenes with the birds during the week. Then, when I got back home, I put the shots together in PowerPoint and added appropriate speech bubbles. I still show it even now at Open Evening once a year as a guide to parents who are interested to know what we do when we go to France. Unfortunately, however, due to contractual difficulties between the two main protagonists, I don’t have the worldwide rights to put out ‘Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard’ on general release. Sorry about that. For more tips on using puppets, have a look at the following great article written by Rosemary Bevis and posted on the ELL forum back in 2001. No strings attached, honest. http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/ell-forum/2001-02/0022.html

Posted by: Joe Dale on 16 February 2006 at 21.27

Re: Using puppets to teach languages It's nice to see old ideas being revived. When I was undergoing teacher training at Goldsmiths' College in 1964-65 we had an enthusiastic teacher of German, Eva Paneth, who introduced us to using hand puppets in the languages classroom. I never had much success using puppets. The boys in the tough London comprehensive school where I did my teaching practice just took the mickey. I recall a session on using puppets at the TESOL 1987 conference in Miami, Florida, but I can't remember the name of the presenter.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 18 February 2006 at 15.20

I try to keep fairly up to speed with ICT in MFL ... but Teacher's Pet is new to me. Thanks for that Joe. With all the discussion forums we have(mflresources, linguanet, one might think that a blog like this was overkill ... but Joe's blog posts have been well thought out and researched, as have the comments. Cheers Joe, keep up the good work.

Posted by: RParker on 19 February 2006 at 18.00

Dear Ruth, I'm really pleased you've found the blog useful so far. Like you, I've tried to keep up with what’s happening in the wonderful world of ICT and MFL by joining forums like MFLresources and Linguanet at: http://www.mflresources.org.uk/ http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/linguanet-forum/ They are fantastic for finding out about ideas on what different MFL teachers are doing around the country. I find Google is also brilliant for doing research. Attending conferences or shows (if you can afford it) like Language World, BETT and The Language Show is great too. You may be interested to know that I’m speaking at Language World 2006 at The University of Manchester. Download the whole programme from The Association for Language Learning site here: http://www.all-languages.org.uk My session is called Free games, time-saving utilities and fun with MS Word: integrating ICT into the MFL classroom The other ICT related sessions are: Using photo-stories to develop writing skills, Mark Pentleton Working together to share best practice and resources...today and in the future!, Helen Myers Lights, camera, action: out-of-school film-making activities for languages, Mark Pentleton Blogs and podcasts: the learner is the resource, Ewan McIntosh ‘Working together’ - live online language teaching, Karsten Stephan Interactive whiteboard resources sharing forum: bring an idea – take 20 away!, Wendy Adeniji and Ros Walker Primary French on the interactive whiteboard (Heinemann), Jackie Coe The i-way to great lessons – and exam success! (Oxford University Press), Louise Perrier, Dick Capel-Davies and Richard Matthews Including every child: an analysis of student response systems in the MFL classroom (Promethean Technologies Limited), Ros Walker I also lead a whole day course for Dragonfly Training called Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom. The next dates are 26th June – Manchester Jurys Inn, 27th June – Birmingham Ramada Hotel (Solihull) and 28th June – London Ramada Hotel (Ealing). The course details are here: http://www.dragonfly-training.co.uk/Courses/JDale1_ICT.MFL.html I’ve noticed, you’ve started a blog yourself at http://www.cms.typepad.com/ Looks good!

Posted by: Joe Dale on 19 February 2006 at 19.27

very useful ideas thank you so much, Bravo!!

Posted by: fanel on 21 February 2006 at 15.14

See mention on ICT4LT link here

TES ICT Blog: In the classroom: ICT and modern foreign languages

07 February 2006 at 09.30

In the classroom: ICT and modern foreign languages

Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom – teacher Joe Dale, from Nodehill Middle School on the Isle of Wight, offers hints and tips learned the hard way Blogging is a whole new world to me. PowerPoint, Word, websites, freeware, this is my comfort zone, my bread and butter, but blogging? Well that’s something new to explore. As my first blog contribution I thought I’d start with the familiar and go from there. So where do I start? How can I help? You may be looking for some good ideas on how to use ICT in your teaching. You may be lucky enough to have a departmental interactive whiteboard or even have one all to yourself. You may not really know what an interactive whiteboard is and how it works. You may have access to some networked computers, but they may be block booked when you want to use them. I don’t know. What I thought I’d focus on is some no-nonsense advice on how you can use ICT in the MFL classroom and thereby offer some practical solutions to some practical situations. It’s up to you if you want to take these ideas on board. See what you think. So, first base. What about some free software for creating interactive exercises for practising vocabulary and all for free? Well, Spellmaster games are a good place to begin. They are very easy to master and you can create exercises in a matter of minutes which you can use on an interactive whiteboard or in a computer suite. You'll find all the instructions you need on the Spellmaster website. You can make different types of interactive exercise with or without sound. For the latter, click on the first Download Pack link on the home page and save the spellmaster.zip file to your Desktop. Upon opening it or ‘extracting the files’, look at the Readme file in the main folder where you will find information on how to get started. Easy! Essentially, the words that appear in the words file are those that appear in the exercise. Just set out the file as instructed in the notes and then rename the folder containing all the files the vocab area the exercises are based on. Then, just copy the folder as many times as you wish, changing the words and folder names as appropriate. About four years ago, I spent about a month creating Spellmaster exercises in this way according to the QCA scheme of work which we use. The templates lend themselves well to vocabulary learning. I’ve used it for practising nouns, adjectives and verbs. I made activities for the first twelve units (Year 7-8) including all the structures I felt the pupils would need to practise. I worked through unit by unit, looking at the core phrases for each section and created appropriate files which I saved into their corresponding folders and had them put on our network. Having the original files in their folders was fine to start off with, although I noticed that from time to time files would ‘disappear’ or ‘move by accident’ into the wrong folder. This was quite frustrating and needed quite a lot of maintenance. Last year, our ICT technician was kind enough to create sets of web pages containing links to all the files. This got rid of the problem and made life a lot easier. I have made a few listening exercises as well although this is another thing to add to my ‘things to do’ lists. I used the free sound editing software Audacity to make MP3 files. It was very easy. I just plugged in a microphone and went for it. There is a tutorial on the Audacity site on how to use the software. You'll also find tutorials on the Moodle and BT websites. To get started, just download the spellsounds.zip file from the home page by clicking on the second Download Pack icon. Setting up the words file is very similar to the spellmaster.zip file. As before, you just have to make sure that all the files you need are in the same folder. Go on. Don’t be scared. Give it a go! Let me know if you find this advice useful and any areas you'd like to see covered in future blogs. Just add your comments below

Comments (36)

Well, it's like this you see... Years ago, when all pupils had was a tape recorder and a course book, not forgetting a damn, good teacher unburdened by the ridiculous tossy methodologies we are forced to teach with today, they (the pupils) managed to learn languages rather well. In other words, you don't NEED computers to teach or learn languages. The learning comes from withing the person, and it is not reliant on a machine, or "fun" or edutainment, which are all external frivolities. Computers will change very little because in the end YOU STILL HAVE TO WORK AT THE LANGUAGE TO LEARN IT and computers can't do that for you. You can dress language learning up any way you want - bells, whistles, pretty pictures, those multicoloured animals in a row on a piece of elastic you used to see strung up accross a pram, songs, noises, silly voices and yes, computer software, but none of it will make any difference until you TACKLE THE REAL PROBLEM AT SOURCE instead of trying to hide behind technology. The Emperor's got new clothes on again...

Posted by: Molari on 07 February 2006 at 13.54

I'm sorry Molari, but you really are not correct in your assumptions. I am speaking not just as a teacher, but also as a learner of languages. You are right in saying that learning languages is hard work - I have never told my pupils anything different to that, but ICT can give us distinct advantages. I began to take an interest in ICT when teaching Russian to two groups: one group I gave cassette players and hand-outs (the good 'old fashioned way') and the second group I asked to use computers. They worked with a simple program which flashed up Russian words which were spoken at the same time. The difference in the progress between the groups was marked and this was what started my interest in ICT in learning languages. I am now learning Chinese and have to say that the software I am using it making it a much easier job than it would otherwise be: that doesn't mean to say that I am not working hard - I am doing 30minutes a day, but I KNOW from learning Russian by traditional methods and now learning Chinese with technology, I am experiencing distinct advantages which were not available to me previously. If you deny the role that technology plays, you deny your pupils these advantages. No one is talking about gimmickry and flashy images - we are looking at the genuine advantages which can help pupils to make the most of the time that they do put in to learning languages. Additionally, pupils live in a multimedia world; if pupils use languages, they will use the technology associated with this: machine translators, online or CD ROM dictionaries, websites; persisting with 'old' methods does not prepare students for using language in the real world. Yours, a language learner and teacher, Ros Walker Teaching & Learning Adviser

Posted by: Ros Walker on 07 February 2006 at 18.18

Dear Joe Thanks ever so much for this ... really helpful. Keep up the good work! Helen

Posted by: Helen Myers on 07 February 2006 at 21.01

Well,what a pleasant feeling to 'talk' via these complicated machines ! at least, they're here to help us find one solution for flying over the Channel ... Keep up the good work, Joe Evelyne

Posted by: Evelyne Souillet on 07 February 2006 at 21.20

I’ve found using ICT has opened up a whole new range of possibilities to aid language learning. Be it MS Office, freeware, CDroms, email or the internet. ICT can help all pupils learn in different ways. I’m a big fan of PowerPoint for whole class teaching because of its versatility and ease of use. Being able to create multimedia presentations which include colour, moving images and sound effects can really strengthen your message and make it more memorable. In a computer suite, pupils can work on interactive exercises on their own or in pairs. The software often provides feedback which can motivate them and give them a sense of independence, an essential factor to effective language learning. In a fifty minute lesson, I find it amazing how many different exercises pupils are willing to complete, just because they are on the computer. I can’t imagine the same pupils working with the same rigour doing equivalent exercises on paper or being desperate to tell me that they’ve achieved 100% in such and such an exercise. It is the ICT that is making the difference and motivating pupils to do more. Why not try out a few ideas and see what your pupils think. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 07 February 2006 at 21.39

Ros, I'm also learning Chinese, could you please provide a link to your resources?

Posted by: Stephen on 08 February 2006 at 08.25

Hi, Joe. How computer technology is exploited in the MFL classroom must be just as important as which software titles are used. Which MFL teaching points do you think are particularly well matched with an ICT solution? How do you think ICT can be used to support differentiation with MFL, so that the ablest and the weakest students each learn at an appropriate level and pace? Is there an optimum balance to be maintained between ICT and off-computer work in the MFL classroom? David Wilson Learning Support Teacher

Posted by: David Wilson on 08 February 2006 at 11.14

ICT – or any other technology – CAN make a difference to language learning if used in the right way. But if we think that ICT, like the language lab in the 1960s, can make a sudden dramatic change on its own then we are wrong. It’s what you do with the technology, not the technology itself. See my “Lessons from the past…” article that I wrote for a Council of Europe publication in 1996 (since revised several times): http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/coegdd1.htm There IS evidence that ICT can make a difference to language learning, as documented in the many reports on research published by the professional associations such as EUROCALL, CALICO and IALLT. For further information on using ICT in the languages classroom see the ICT for Language Teachers website, which is the outcome of an international project funded by the European Commission. http://www.ict4lt.org This is probably the largest single site of resources and training materials of this type anywhere on the Web. It is updated every week. Graham Davies Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning

Posted by: Graham Davies on 08 February 2006 at 12.10

Regarding resources for learning Chinese, I've had a go at learning Chinese too. Wenlin 3.0 is the best resource I've seen: http://www.wenlin.com For absolute beginners I'd recommend the EuroTalk series "Talk Now" or the VL Systems Mandarin Chinese software: http://www.eurotalk.com http://www.vl-systems.com There are online learning materials too, but no website I've visited offers the essential listen / respond / playback activities you need to help you master tones in Chinese. The websites are far too passive - all point and click recognition stuff. Graham Davies Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning

Posted by: Graham Davies on 08 February 2006 at 13.14

Dear David et al, Having good software and state of the art ICT equipment is all very well, but of course it is how these resources are used in the classroom that counts. As Ewan McIntosh, Development Officer for the Modern Foreign Languages Environment (MFLE) www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/ says on his personal blog http://edu.blogs.com/ “It's not the Tech, it's all about the Teach” Using ICT to aid learning is the key, not for its own sake or as something bolted on, but as an integral tool to enhance good practice. The point of this blog is to show how ICT can be integrated into the MFL classroom using mostly readily available software which teachers can either easily download or find already on their computer. When I run training sessions, I try and get the message across that so much can be achieved with a little know how. You don’t have to spend hours making resources, unless you want to. It’s a question of finding what works for you and exploring new possibilities. So what to use when? Well, here are some of my favourites: • I use PowerPoint for whole class teaching, for presenting new vocabulary, setting up role-plays or playing games and I find it is very effective. • Word is great for creating digital worksheets which can be used on an interactive whiteboard or printed out as a paper copy. • Self–authoring software for making interactive activities from standard templates can be helpful in providing grammar exercises for pupils to master in a computer suite. Matching, gapfilling, reordering exercises may be mechanical, but they provide the rigour needed to embed new language. It has been argued by Heather Rendall that this type of practice can ‘develop neural pathways’, I for one would have to agree. Read her article at http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/SLR/Issue8/Heather.htm As for differentiation, ICT can be very useful. Pupils can work independently through a cycle of exercises at their own pace. More able pupils can stretch themselves by working more quickly and less able pupils can be given more support where necessary. Moreover, the teacher can see how individual pupils are progressing simply by looking at their different computer screens. I have made many interactive exercises using 'Hot Potatoes' http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ which is a piece of software free to use for educational purposes. It allows you to make different exercises (gapfill, crosswords, matching exercises, reordering words, multiple choice etc). I've created gapfill exercises for all the major verbs we study in Years 7 and 8 e.g. avoir, être, faire, aller, er verbs, reflexive verbs, modal verbs, immediate future, perfect tense with avoir and être etc. I sorted out each verb type into ‘lower’ (1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular) and ‘upper’ (whole range) exercises making between ten and fifteen sets of questions for each verb. The idea is that everyone can start with the lower versions and then the more able can progress to the upper ones. I know this sounds very mechanical, but I’ve found that it has really helped the pupils with their understanding of verbs.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 08 February 2006 at 17.33

Joe writes - I use PowerPoint for whole class teaching, for presenting new vocabulary, setting up role-plays or playing games and I find it is very effective. - Word is great for creating digital worksheets which can be used on an interactive whiteboard or printed out as a paper copy. Graham replies: Both the above topics are dealt with in Module 1.3 (Using text tools in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom) at the ICT4LT website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-3.htm Joe writes: - Self-authoring software for making interactive activities from standard templates can be helpful in providing grammar exercises for pupils to master in a computer suite. Graham replies: The above topic is dealt with in Module 2.5 (Introduction to CALL authoring programs) at the ICT4LT website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-5.htm Besides Hot Potatoes, which is a good basic authoring package, there are other easy-to-use authoring packages that enable you create interactive routines embodying sound and video, e.g. The Authoring Suite, GapKit, MALTED, MaxAuthor, TaskMagic and Fun with Texts, all of which are mentioned in ICT4LT Module 2.5, including links to sites from which they can be downloaded or purchased. Graham Davies Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning

Posted by: Graham Davies on 08 February 2006 at 18.30

Graham Of course the authoring packages you mention do also exist. The ones Joe uses, however, have the double advantage of allowing the teacher to create extremely atractive language exercises and of being free.

Posted by: MPC on 08 February 2006 at 20.42

I think TaskMagic and Fun with Texts are also very useful for rigorous language practice and are very simple to set up. I use a combination of different pieces of software depending on the learning objective. I tend to use Hot Potatoes for practising verb conjugations, TaskMagic for vocabulary revision and Fun with Texts for text analysis although TaskMagic and Hot Potatoes can be used for this too. These three pieces of software can all be very effective in certain types of practice. I would recommend having a look at each one and deciding for yourself. The advantage of Hot Potatoes is that it is free, but it could be argued that it is more time-consuming for the teacher to create new exercises. Any thoughts?

Posted by: Joe Dale on 09 February 2006 at 06.17

The comments so far have moved from talking about what makes it easier for learners to learn to what makes it easier for teachers to prepare. With ICT there will be a 'lead-time' that the teacher has to spend learning a new skill. But what about transferring the technical knowledge to the students so that THEY can make the next worksheet for the class or write up a summary of each lesson on THEIR own personal blog? Why not have a class wiki webpage (a webpage ANYONE can change) where every day some new piece of knowledge is written up. I believe that this student-led approach to using technology to create learning tools is more beneficial in the long-run than having teachers spoon-feed their students the whole time with gap-fill and drag and drop. It's far more demanding, encourages some degree of original thought and means that students are writing or speaking for a purpose: their audience.

Posted by: Ewan McIntosh on 09 February 2006 at 10.03

MPC writes: Of course the authoring packages you mention do also exist. The ones Joe uses, however, have the double advantage of allowing the teacher to create extremely atractive language exercises and of being free. Graham replies: MALTED and MaxAuthor are also free. Regarding Ewan’s point about involving students in the process of creating materials, I recall a number of teachers doing this way back in the 1980s, namely getting the students to author multiple-choice tests and to create their own texts for insertion into Fun with Texts – after correction of errors by the teacher, of course. It’s a good idea and highly motivating for students to see their work appearing on screen for use by other students. A substantial number of the descriptive texts that appeared in the BBC’s Domesday Videodisc (1986) were produced by children in schools throughout the UK. Coming back to the issue that started this blog, i.e. integrating ICT into the classroom, can anyone explain why the ICT4LT Module 2.1 (CALL methodology: integrating CALL into study programmes), which is all about integration, has consistently been the least popular module at the ICT4LT website? It’s written in a down-to-earth style by an experienced teacher/trainer, Sue Hewer, with lots of practical tips. Maybe it’s the word “methodology” that puts people off. Teachers in the UK don’t seem to like words ending in “-ogy”. See: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-1.htm

Posted by: Graham Davies on 09 February 2006 at 10.35

I forgot to mention that "Integrating CALL into Study Programmes" is the main theme of this year's EUROCALL conference, which will take place in Granada, Spain, 4-7 September 2006. The conference site states: "Language learning looks to be gravitating more and more towards digital technologies, and the challenge for language educators all over the world appears to fall into one of two categories: to update and extend their existing methodologies, or create and introduce new technologies into their language delivery systems very often with little experience and few resources. The challenge, therefore, varies from region to region, but the goal is a common one: to integrate computer technology into the language learning process." It is hoped that the conference will attract teachers from all sectors of education, from primary to higher. See: http://www.eurocall-languages.org

Posted by: Graham Davies on 09 February 2006 at 12.09

Great stuff. I am really pleased to see blogging in action. Merci Joe. ILT is another tool which in my view does not replace anything and I agree the work still has to be done by the learner. But it is a wonderful addition and at a time when we need to meet individual needs and different learning styles, I am pleased to see ILT as an inspirational additional learning tool with fantastic potential. The teacher role is vital, support, advice and management. What happens when many people contribute... how many pages of screen will we need :-) or are there ways to have subjects and threads. Michele

Posted by: Michele on 09 February 2006 at 17.51

"Having good software and state of the art ICT equipment is all very well, but of course it is how these resources are used in the classroom that counts. " ...er... how about giving the poor MFL department access to ICT in the first place? I am sure I am not alone in being in a school where access to ICT for MFL lessons is pretty rare. ICT suites are busy most of the time teaching ICT, and you can only book yourself in if the ICT teacher has a non-teaching lesson, throwing them out of their classroom for the hour. I would love to debate the pros and cons of various software packages, but I rely entirely on flashcards, OHP and my trusty tape recorder.

Posted by: Mme Smith on 09 February 2006 at 20.16

The computer suite has definitely added a new dimension to language lessons and we try to get our classes in to the computer room about once every three weeks. Best resources out there for secondary learners are, in my view, the "video on demand" tasks from Ashgrove School in Surrey (Helen Myers) and the LanguagesOnline exercises from RGS High Wycombe (Andrew Balaam and co.). I like the interactivity and the fact that pupils can go at their own pace. My one (slight) reservation is that Hot Pot activities tend to favour the focus on form rather than meaning for the most part and I wonder if newer versions of the Half Baked Software will be able to address this issue to a greater extent.

Posted by: Steve Smith on 09 February 2006 at 21.16

Steve writes: "My one (slight) reservation is that Hot Pot activities tend to favour the focus on form rather than meaning for the most part and I wonder if newer versions of the Half Baked Software will be able to address this issue to a greater extent." Focusing on form is not a feature of Hot Potatoes itself, rather it's a feature of most of the content that language teachers choose to create with it. Even the most primitive multiple-choice and gap-fill authoring packages can be used to focus on meaning rather than correct morphology. I recall a colleague creating very demanding exercises of this type with a multiple-choice package produced for the BBC Micro way back in the 1980s. The materials used were drawn largely from the MC tests in the demanding Cambridge Proficiency Examinations for EFL students that require students to make fine semantic distinctions - some of which a native speaker would be hard pushed to make. More important, I think, is a package that offers the integration of sound and video as well as text and pictures.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 10 February 2006 at 15.53

I think it is important to let as many people as possible know what is available out there and let them decide whether they have the hardware, time, knowledge and inclination to use it and move forward. On the extremely active mfllanguages site there is a lot of interest at the moment in "Teach and tell cards" (Very LOW tech) There is however a site which deals with about 30 topics, each of which has over 100 flashcards for vocab testing, which also allow the pupil to listen to the word or phrase. This found at: http://www.classzone.com/books/french_3/index.cfm To find simpler topics change the 3 to a 2 or a 1.

Posted by: Eva Forbes on 10 February 2006 at 19.23

Eva writes: "I think it is important to let as many people as possible know what is available out there and let them decide whether they have the hardware, time, knowledge and inclination to use it and move forward." This is the objective of the ICT for Language Teachers website at: http://www.ict4lt.org It contains lots of ideas and over 1000 links to other sites. The ICT4LT was produced with EC funding and it's free. Do have a look at it. I have compiled my own set of useful links at: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm I am also involved in the creation of an e-learning pack targeting teachers of language learners aged 16+. This will be made available free of charge via the DfES Standards Unit to all adult education and FE colleges later this year.

Posted by: Graham Davies on 11 February 2006 at 12.23

We need to be specific about what ICT can achieve. I have an article on the Cricksoft website on its use to overcome the weakness in teaching writing that is inherent in the NC provision for copying. My research on this has been published by Strasbourg University, and I am happy to share it with anyone by email. I see this as a solution to a very big problem. Ths link is http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/ideas/languages.htm

Posted by: John Bald on 11 February 2006 at 18.31

Thanks for this John. Very interesting.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 11 February 2006 at 19.05

Thanks for mentioning your great and very useful website Graham. I had found it previously, have used it and have recommended it to tutors in Adult Education. Have a good week. Michele

Posted by: MIchele on 12 February 2006 at 22.31

Great ideas. Do people know that the Kids iPods can support a lapel mic or a plug in general microphone. This make a really neta tool for recordings and of course you can then edit with Audacity. Recording podcasts for the children to listen to on their long journeys home.

Posted by: john on 13 February 2006 at 08.20

Re: Podcasts Many teachers may not know what podcasts are. Podcasts are Web-delivered radio broadcasts that can be downloaded to your PC or to an iPod or similar device. Partners in Excellence (Scotland) are creating their own series of podasts for languages learners, which they refer to as PiECasts: http://www.pie.org.uk If you are puzzled by new jargon (e.g. podcasts) see the ICT4LT Glossary at: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_glossary.htm

Posted by: Graham Davies on 13 February 2006 at 09.23

If you want to keep yourself tuned in have a look at the Internet Radio Kit for Schools site from BT Education as mentioned in my original post. The link is: http://www.bteducation.org/img/lib/dialogics/schoolradio/index.htm. It has step-to-step guides for each stage of making a podcast, including text, audio and flash video tutorials. There will also be a guide on podcasting coming soon from Ewan McIntosh in the ‘Creative teaching’ section of the Modern Foreign Languages Environment (MFLE) website: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/creativeteaching/index.asp.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 13 February 2006 at 13.46

I am a performing arts technician in a Liverpool High School and the MFL Dept. asked me to transfer their revision cassettes onto CD as NONE of the students had access to a cassette player! However a week after producing the CD's not one student had requested one. Solution: Upload the files onto the school server as MP3's and voila! Students revising French and German on the bus via their iPods! Trust me. It works.

Posted by: Nigel Paice on 15 February 2006 at 17.37

Regarding the transfer of audio and video files to make them available as podcasts, in what ways does recent EU and UK legislation embodying the originator's "communication to the public" right restrict this kind of activity? See: Oppenheim C. (2004) Recent changes to copyright law and the implications for FE and HE: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/publications/copyrightcoppenheim.htm

Posted by: Graham Davies on 15 February 2006 at 17.51

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Posted by: R16vLwnNaY on 17 February 2006 at 21.34

Dear R16vLwnNaY, Have you changed your name by Deed Poll to your car registration number? I'm sorry I can't figure out what you're trying to say. You'll have to spell it out more clearly!

Posted by: Joe Dale on 18 February 2006 at 12.25

I find myself somewhere along the spectrum of my love affair with ICT as a teaching tool. Clearly we must move on from the methods of the past, if only to ensure that we retain the attention of the children we teach, and I am absolutely stunned by the plethora of fabulous ICT/web-based material out there for us to use. It has been a huge learning-curve for me to incorporate ICT into my teaching to the extent that I have, but I can certainly see the benefits. I do, however, fear that unless we are careful, we risk allowing ourselves to become lazy and complacent, allowing the fizzy wizzy materials at our fingertips to amuse the children rather than to teach them. I also think that, as in all things, a great deal was achieved through the methods of the past and we should NOT under any circumstances throw these out completely. ICT must become ONE OF the tools available to us. We should all enjoy its benefits whilst remembering its place in the Language-learning Hall of Fame!!

Posted by: Debbie Benjamin on 25 February 2006 at 22.45

Dear Debbie, I think ICT is a powerful and multipurpose tool, but it is not a panacea. It can allow us to combine traditional good practice with the benefits of new technology. Sound, images and text (the staples of MFL classrooms around the country) can be enhanced with animation and use of colour amongst other techniques. It is now possible to make multimedia presentations conveying and reinforcing meaning to cater more easily to pupils’ different learning styles. That said, yes ICT can be very seductive. It shouldn’t be used 100% of the time. I personally believe the time invested to find out how it can improve learning is worth it. We should try and integrate ICT into the classroom, but not at the expense of everything that we’ve known has worked in the past for teaching languages. Traditional methodology should not be ignored, but neither should the potential of ICT. We all need to be reflective practitioners and decide when we feel ICT is appropriate. It’s a journey of discovery. We can go as far along the road as we feel comfortable with.

Posted by: Joe Dale on 26 February 2006 at 16.14

ICT is still a challenge for me but it has allowed me to stir some interest in learning MFL within the least able, the least motivated, the boys, the visual learners ... The list goes on. You cannot avoid technology these days! Thank you Joe and everyone else for the useful tips. It's good to share.

Posted by: Julie T on 26 February 2006 at 21.25

Hi good blog, However, most of our "ICT" teachers don't actually understand ICT.

Posted by: Unity User on 05 March 2006 at 14.28

See Scottish CILT mention here

And here we go again!

Well, having cut my blogging teeth on the TES website, I felt it was time to tear into a new blog all of my own. As websites change and links break, posts and comments can disappear from the blogosphere into the ether. With this in mind, it seemed a good idea to fill in the gap and open a Typepad account. That way, I can keep everyone posted about new developments and keep a ‘backblog’ of everything I’ve written. That's the new drill, anyway. I hope you like it.

This doesn't mean I am going to stop writing for the TES ICT blog, only that those posts will be archived here along with fresh ones for you to get your teeth into and brush up on anything you may have missed.