Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Making history with the biggest language learning competition there has ever been!

This is the week we’ve all been waiting for! The Language Perfect World Championships have started. The biggest language learning competition there has ever been in history! Do you and your pupils want to be part of history? Oh yeah!

Countries competing against countries, schools competing against schools, pupils competing against pupils all with the same aim: to appear as high as possible on the championship scoreboard. 2.5 million questions have already been answered in the first day of the competition. With 6 days to go who knows what the final total will be?

This now is our challenge to compete with the rest of the world. We mustn’t slip behind as we’ll never catch up. Don’t forget in last year’s European Language Olympics, the UK topped the scoreboard, but now we are against the world people! Time to step up!

I am personally in charge of coordinating the UK attempt on the crown! (No pressure there then) and with your participation, I’m sure we can do a sterling job!

If you haven’t done so already, you can use the code (JDALE) when registering to receive 50 places for FREE and if you are a member of the Association of Language Learning, an official partner of Language Perfect, you can additionally use the code (ALL) for an extra 50 FREE places. Anyone can use my code not just schools from the UK so what have you got to lose?

To see just how much learners are loving the competition to date, check out the Language Perfect Facebook page which is awash with positivity!

Check out too the news page on the main site where CEO Craig Smith, myself and other members of the Language Perfect World Championships committee will be posting regular updates throughout the week.

To celebrate your school's achievements further, you can also send an email to [email protected] and attach images such as your position on the scoreboard, audio or video clips and some accompanying text about how you are finding the competition. Contributions will appear on this Posterous blog embedded automatically and accessible to all.

The country which accumulates the most points wins the Trevor and Rose Trophy, named after Craig's Mum and Dad!

What a great way to enthuse your students at the start of the school year. 

My first time at Eurocall 2011

New tools new opportunities personal learning network

Download New_tools_new_opps_PLN_at_Eurocall.mp3

Speaking at Eurocall for the first time was a great experience and opportunity to meet educators from around the world interested in technology and language learning. I've been aware of the conference for years now and have followed from a distance thanks to the virtual strand but attending in person was a first.

Show notes

• Bloom's Digital Taxonomy
• Getting personal at Language World 2011
• 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
• 7JD can animate
• Catherine Elliott on stop motion animation
• MFL edapps
• MFL Digital Stories
• MFL Storybirds
• One in three overwhelmed by technology

Like Helen Myers in 2010, I thoroughly enjoyed the event and found it fascinating to hear many engaging presentations delivered by university colleagues and PhD students based on their academic research as well as their classroom practice. It was also interesting to see a designated ten minute slot included for questions at the end of each session for a very techno savvy audience to discuss the concepts conveyed by the speaker more deeply and offer feedback.

I was glad to have had the chance to have experienced this format first hand for a day before speaking myself so I could streamline my presentation accordingly, cut out the fluff and concentrate on the key messages due to the imposed time restrictions (like a TeachMeet on steroids!).

Championing the MFL Twitterati was a no brainer and as in previous live tweetouts I was delighted with everyone's response as it proved yet again of the power of having a personal learning network which you can draw on 24/7.

Other highlights included a whole day workshop on OER (Open Educational Resources) from the MFL department at The Open University where we looked at searching for Creative Commons images on Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, Filta, LORO and Clic Images 2.0. Check out the fab links!

I also really enjoyed Nicolas Guichon's session where he fedback a plethora of interesting data culled from high school students from all over France on their use and perceptions of digital technologies. It would be great to do a similar study in this country ;-)

There was a wonderful session on podcasting and learning Indonesian from Ms Indrianti where she described how she had integrated podcasting into her practice and what were her students' reactions to it.

I enjoyed all the keynotes, particularly Gillian McLaughlin's who gave a stirring and amusing talk on the lifelong learning programme, the history of EU funding for language activities and her adventures in organising tech-based conferences in the early nineties!

The final session I attended before heading home was about the European funded project SpeakApps which is examining the potential of audio and video feedback from students from a range of countries using a special WordPress plugin. It was great to hear that this plugin will eventually be made freely available as Open Source for anyone to install. You could always explore the potential of a Posterous Group to achieve a similar outcome if you can't wait though!

It was lovely to see some familiar faces such as Graham Davies and Andrew Grenfell at Eurocall as well as meet colleagues face to face who I have only ever communicated with online before namely Ton Koenraad and Billy Brick. Andrew filled me in on the latest developments of the Linguacast project, Universed, The Angry Family and Teachers Toolkit and I'd encourage others to check out these links too.

Here is a slideshow of all the pics I took. I am now looking forward to hearing more of the parallel sessions which were recorded and will be published online in the future.

Havin' a LARC with Social Media

One of the highlights of my summer holiday this year was taking part in the 2011 LARC Social Media Workshop a week long programme of online presentations and hands-on workshops delivered through Elluminate on the use of ICT in language learning. Organised by Director of Instructional Technology and Design at the Language Acquisition Resource Center, Evan Rubin and his co-facilitator Kyle Murley from San Diego University, the totally free event was a great success and drew in participants from all round the world.

Toni Theisen kicked off proceedings with a great keynote followed by Michelle Olah and Catalina Bohorquez, Glenn Cake, Claire Bartlett, Dr. Trevor Shanklin, Dr. Sarah Eaton, Dr. Felix Kronenberg and Shelly Terrell. Sessions covered such tools and topics as Posterous, Google Forms, Weebly, Voicethread, Storybird, digital storytelling, and Personal Learning Networks. Archives of all the sessions can be found here and are well worth checking out. Recordings and resources from 2010 and 2009 are also available for your learning pleasure.

It was an intensive week and required a lot of commitment from organisers, presenters and delegates alike, but resulted in everyone having a rich and meaningful experience. The most memorable moment for me was learning how to use Google Forms properly thanks to Dr Sarah Eaton and thinking how they could work well on an iPod Touch when combined with a QR code and Flubaroo.

Glenn Cake opened my eyes to breakout rooms in Elluminate. Claire Bartlett taught me about Tandem Learning and Dr Felix Kronenberg introduced me to the wonderful site Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon for finding authentic images which promote intercultural understanding. It was also lovely to see a familiar face in Catherine Ousselin who generously shared some of her ideas and resources with other delegates.

I thought Ewan's idea of the Monday showdown where a couple of us had to light-heartedly pitch our preferred tool for delegates to use to present their outcomes at the end of the week was also a cracker.

Here is what they came up with:

• Edward's Posterous blog
• Tricia's Posterous blog
• Amanda Kennedy's wiki
• Mo's Weebly
• Gareth's Weebly and Posterous blog
• Tilla's Weebly
• Janis' Storybird

I very much enjoyed presenting my three hour workshop on easy classroom blogging with Posterous and it was interesting to compare the dynamics of a hands-on session delivered virtually as opposed to face to face. This was one of the topics Evan and I discussed  in our post workshop chat over Skype which I've published here.

Download Interview_with_Evan_Rubin

Thanks again to Evan for organising such a fab, fun and free learning experience and for my attendance certificate too of course! Much appreciated and see you again next year.