Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Getting personal at Language World 2011

In light of the current economic downturn and the difficulty teachers have of getting out of school to attend courses, I felt it was apposite at this year's Language World to promote the myriad ways colleagues can improve their own continuing professional development by taking advantage of powerful online tools such as Twitter to nurture a personal learning network.

In an ideal world, it would be great to receive training during the school day in a centre or hotel paid for by your school, but in the current climate, these opportunities are simply becoming less and less viable. Finding alternative sources of CPD is becoming increasingly important and teachers need to be more pro-active if they want to keep up with the latest developments in their field.

Enter the MFL Twitterati. Now I understand that Twitter may not be for everybody and there are  concerns about it from some quarters, but more and more teachers are realising the power it can have to make connections with other like-minded colleagues all over the world. According to a crowdsourcing experiment I did earlier this year, language teachers particularly value the support Twitter offers them, as well as the ideas and inspiration they receive.

Twitter certainly presents a golden opportunity for networking and finding authentic materials that can impact on the classroom. Language teachers Caleb Bloodworth, Catherine Ritz and Val McIntyre have all blogged about their own experiences and plans in this area recently. Worth checking out too is this post Twitter tips for language teachers which includes a podcast of a Skype presentation I gave to a group of language teachers in Australia. Thanks again to @mrsangell for the opportunity I heard about on ... Twitter!

Have a look too at this comprehensive Livebinder curated by Steven W. Anderson and below is a great guide by Brian Sharland A Teacher's Introduction to Twitter.

Here is a slidecast of my presentation as well as a summary of all the links I refer to.

Continuing professional development this time its personal!

Download CPD_this_time_its_personal.mp3

Show Notes

• Continuing professional development is hard to access
• Language Trends survey 2010
• Links CPD survey: teachers go online but still need face-to-face contact
• The networked teacher
• The rise and rise of the MFL Twitterati
• Coming to terms with Twitter
• Piggybacking on Twitter
• MFL Twitterers list
• WL Twitterers list
• Tweetdeck
• Twhirl
• Seesmic Desktop
• How to bookmark Twitter Links
• Packrati.us
• Del.icio.us
• Friend or Follow
• Manage Flitter
• What does the MFL Twitterati mean to you?
• The MFL Times
• Ukedtech list
• Ukedchat wiki
• Ukedchat blog
• Ukedchat daily paper
• Twitterfall
• Using TwitterFall to get the most out of Twitter Chats
• MFL Flashmeeting
• How to videoconference with Flashmeeting
• Flash Forward
• MFL Show and Tell
• You and Yours: the follow up
• MFLresources
• TESConnect with RSS
• Linguanet Forum
• Ning networking
• Talkabout Primary MFL Ning
• 70 tools in 70 minutes
• A – Z Internet Resources for Education
• MFLEdapps
• edapp Twitter Search
• langchat Twitter Search
• CILT 14-19 Training Zone
• O2 Learn
• Add a dimension to your teaching: an introduction to language learning in Virtual Worlds
• ALL London Webinar June 2011 Report!
• SLIC conference webinar
• LARC Social Media Workshop 2011
• Primary languages podcasting, Lancashire Children's Services Authority
• MFL Sunderland podcasts
• ICT Links into Languages Conference Buzz!
• Technology in schools: Is the clock being turned back?
• The mother of invention
• ICT - Make Do and Mend
• One in three ‘overwhelmed by technology’

To finish off, I'd like to quote primary deputy headteacher Julian S Wood from Sheffield who in May delivered a thought-provoking TeachMeet presentation about PLNs in which he concluded that

"We is most definitely better than me".

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment and in these difficult economic times I think it is essential that we all explore the potential of online collaboration as a way of improving our own CPD and receive the support we all need as a profession.

New opportunities in Montreal at AATF11

Last month, I had the fantastic opportunity of delivering a talk at The American Association of Teachers of French convention in Montreal and championing the trailblazing efforts of MFL colleagues from the UK about their use of new technologies to enhance language learning and improve continuing professional development. I firmly believe we are leading the way in this area and it was a pleasure to convey this message to like-minded colleagues across the pond.

New Tools, New Opportunities, Personal Learning Networks

Download_new_tools_new_opportunities_plns.mp3

As you can see, I chose to video my presentation as well as slidecast and podcast it this time. I hope I have catered to your preferred learning style and you find the information useful! All the links I refer to are included below as well as on this Posterous blog I set up so delegates could access the resources and download the PowerPoint immediately following the presentation if they wanted to.

Show notes

• Joe Dale
• Prince William and Kate Middleton's Tour of Canada - Duke delivers speech in French
• Bloom's Digital Taxonomy
• The networked teacher
• Coming to terms with Twitter
• What does the MFL Twitterati mean to you?
• MFL Twitterers
• WL Twitterers
• TweetDeck
• Live tweeting and polling in PowerPoint
• MFL Flashmeeting
• Flash Forward
• MFL Times
• MFL Show and Tell
• ICT Links into Languages Conference Buzz!
• The educational value of podcasting
• ICT for the non-specialist - podcasting
• Around the world with 80 schools
• 7JD can animate
• Catherine Elliott on stop motion animation
• Les fables de la Fontaine en PowerPoint
• Le Mur Parlant
• 40 ways to use QR codes in the classroom
• 4D Books - Linking analogue to digital
• MFL edapps
• No Stress with DS
• My French Coach blog posts
• Modern Foreign Languages – A Games-based Learning Approach
• MFL Digital Stories
• MFL Storybirds
• One in three overwhelmed by technology

I was delighted with the audience’s response both during and after the talk and I was made to feel very welcome. One kind soul left this comment which made the whole transatlantic trip worthwhile in itself!

“Your workshop alone was worth the whole conference! I received so many ideas, not just for my classroom, but also for my AATF chapter. Now if I could only invent a way to make more time......” (Robin Jacobi July 2011)

Here is the formal written feedback I received later too, once back in Blighty which in the main is equally positive. (Go fullscreen to read properly).

Feedback from AATF talk: New Tools, New Opportunities, Personal Learning Networks

Another highlight of the convention was to meet twitter buddy Cristy Vogel face to face!

Cristy was the person who originally suggested I put in a proposal to speak at the convention and seeing her in person was awesome!

It was also wonderful to meet Catherine Ousselin, world languages consultant and teacher at Mount Vernon High who presented a wonderful 3 hour workshop on using web tools and apps in the languages classroom. Catherine can be seen introducing me at the start of the video and checking delegates knew where the Isle of Wight is!

Other technology based sessions I attended included one by Adam Steg on e-safety and the iPad, Germain Choffart on creating a fan page in Facebook and Jean-Pierre Berwald’s presentation on PowerPoint which I ‘sort of nicely hijacked’ with a quick explanation of triggers!

Before the conference started, I took the opportunity to go on a visit to the Eastern Townships or ‘Les cantons de l’est’ with other delegates from the conference. We visited the vineyard L’Orpailleur, tasted some of the wine and had a lovely lunch. Santé!

We also had a look in some of the antique shops in Dunham in the afternoon and stopped off for another food break before making our way back to the hotel.

On the evening of the first day of the conference, a group of us visited Château Ramezay, one of the only remaining 18th century buildings left in Old Montreal. As part of the entertainment, our two québécois guides re-enacted three different court scenes from the period and asked for ‘volunteers’ from the audience to take part.

Being one of the only males in the room, I was lucky enough to be ‘volunteered’ to play the role of bailiff l’huissier (a word I will never forget!) and to read from a script at designated moments. For comic effect however, the guides were deliberately speaking very quickly and using antiquated French on occasion making it difficult to follow the thread, leading to great confusion and hilarity! A very memorable moment! (Unfortunately no photo graphic evidence exists of said event).

Earlier in the week, I went to Quebec City too and reminisced about my first visit to la belle province in the early nineties when I was a language assistant, thanks to the British Council programme (long may it continue). Here is a short film I made of that blistering hot day including a québécois speciality Poutine! Hope you like it.

Check out too this tripline presentation which chronicles my every movement in a visually appealing way!

My pool partner is my former flatmate Stéphane who I’ve kept in contact with for all these years through Skype, Facebook and emails. We’ve also met up face to face a couple of times when I’ve had the chance to return to Montreal and St Jean sur Richelieu where he lives.

Attending a foreign language convention in another country was a fascinating experience in many ways. For example, I was surprised to hear many of the delegates speaking in French with each other around the hotel and during the excursions despite English being their mother tongue in the main. It was clear that this was one of the convention’s convention and although it took a little getting used to I found it really refreshing once I’d become accustomed to the idea!

Talking to some of the delegates, it seems in the US, that it is more common for language departments to be smaller compared to the UK and schools may only have one teacher offering a particular language in their faculty. Therefore, I presume for many, meeting other French teachers in this way was a great opportunity to practise. Please let me know if I’m talking rubbish!

Thank you to the AATF for accepting my proposal to speak and for welcoming me to their convention. I hope this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship, starting with Facebook!