TES ICT Blog: ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Leading the way

24 July 2006 at 09.45

ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Leading the way

MFL teacher Joe Dale devotes his ninth ICT blog to the ins and outs of becoming a Lead  Practitioner June was a busy month. I ran my Dragonfly Training course Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom in Manchester, Birmingham and London. Representatives from Heinemann visited Nodehill to check out pupil reaction to three interactive games I helped to design for their new French course Expo. I was booked to speak at both The Language Show and BETT in Olympia in November and January. Finally, and most prestigious of all, I was appointed as a Lead Practitioner for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The Lead Practitioner Induction Day was held at the home of Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge (see photo above). The event was designed to allow all new and existing LPs to meet up and discuss their individual action plans for the forthcoming year. Fourteen of the Lead Practitioners are MFL teachers, of which five are taking on the role for the first time this year. The DfES funded scheme runs from now until March 2007 during which time each LP must: organise an event for teachers in their local network plan a learning visit for teachers from their area create some supporting training materials For my event, I’m putting on a one-day conference also called Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom in my school on the Isle of Wight on Friday 20th October. I'm going to be covering blogging and podcasting, digital video, eTwinning/virtual learning environments, presentation software, interactive whiteboards and classroom performance systems. The learning visit is intended to build on what is achieved at the local event. I have suggested to the Isle of Wight MFL Steering Group that we go to one of the free presentation days Effective use of ICT in Modern Language Teaching at The Ashcombe School in Dorking, Surrey. Helen Myers, deputy head and also a Trust LP has pencilled us in for February. Having the chance to see and discuss how technology can enhance the teaching of languages will be a very useful learning opportunity for us all, I’m sure. As for the training materials, I’ve been writing ‘toolkit’ sessions for The SSAT for two years now. Toolkits are made up of four practical sessions written by teachers who use ICT effectively in their subject area. Toolkit authors are asked to produce: tutor notes on their chosen topic a presentation with session aims and objectives detailed delegate notes describing how the new skills could be applied practically in the classroom a face-to-face delivery of their materials at a regional training event The toolkits are then used in centres around the country. To find out where your local centre is click here. My three sessions to date are: Macro toolbar ‘Teacher’s Pet’ in MS Word for IWB/making worksheets The Hangman’s Game – Free downloadable Hangman game for major European languages Useful Word Features for MFL teachers Useful Links To find out more about the toolkits and how to become a trainer or toolkit writer visit the SSATrust To see photos from the Lead Practitioner Induction Day, the Heinemann visit and The Dragonfly Training days, click on the Flickr badge on my blog If you would like to come to the one day conference ‘Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom’, simply complete the booking form on The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust’s website when it becomes available from mid to late August and keep checking my blog for more details. See Scottish CILT link about the conference here

Comments

[Alex Blagona]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the comment. I'm surprised you found us, as we weren't planning to shout about the blog until September - we're in a test phase! We're on the podcast trail as well now thanks mainly to ideas and tips we picked from both yourself and Ewan McIntosh, and the blog seemed to be the natural progression. All the department are keen for it - and want to use it, but we'll see how well it's being used in say, January!

[Joe Dale]

Hi Alex,

I found your link on El Blog de Español!!! - http://kings-spanish.spaces.msn.com

It looks really good. It's interesting to see how you've set it out. I'm going to create a school blog for the pupils over the summer which I'm going to launch in September. I've already told the pupils and most of them think it sounds cool. They need to see the blog in practice though I think and get excited about their growing readership. This was a point made in the Blogosphere programme on Teachers TV recently http://www.teachers.tv/strandProgramme.do?strandId=5&transmissionProgrammeId=187922

The site meter I use on my blog from http://www.sitemeter.com/ is good for that and it's free. Little pictures of the flags show the country that each reader comes from. I find this quite exciting, particular when it's a new continent or country I've not seen on the blog before, but maybe I should get out more!

The dew player for playing mp3's is a nice way to ensure they'll play on your site irrespective of which media player you have installed as it just need Flash to run. The link is http://www.alsacreations.fr/?dewplayer

I've been having a look at different sites for creating resources from digital photos. Here are some interesting ones.

e.g

http://www.slideroll.com
http://www.slide.com
http://www.picturecloud.com
http://www.bubblesnaps.com
http://www.pimpampum.net/toys
http://www.bubbleshare.com
http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr
http://www.filmloop.com

Blogs are starting to happen in England and it's an exciting time. I keep track of when a blog updates by using the brilliant service Feedwhip http://www.feedwhip.com

Just type in the blog address you want to track on the Feedwhip site, plus your email and then each time the blog is updated, you are sent an email reminder in your inbox. Amazing!

All the best

Joe

P.S Feel free to put a link from this blog on yours if you want