I was genuinely shocked and saddened at the news this morning that Graham Davies, founder of Eurocall, ICT guru and omnipresent voice in the global languages community had unexpectedly lost his fight with long term illness. His encyclopaedic knowledge of computer assisted language learning was second to none and his willingness to share his expertise via a myriad of online media was greatly appreciated by many he connected with over the years. Graham's dedicated altruism and honesty touched colleagues from all over the world and his legacy speaks for itself
Throughout my teaching career and beyond, Graham Davies has been there, contributing to debate, challenging opinions and giving support. I contacted him many times asking for advice on a range of issues and he always helped and encouraged me. I know he did the same for many others too.
I was lucky enough to meet Graham in person four times, at a Japanese Conference at Oxford Brookes in 2007, The Language Show 2007, Eurocall 2011 and finally at the Digital Kitchen event at the Institut Français last October where he gave a talk on the history of CALL and we had lunch together with his colleague and friend Scott Windeatt. He was a kind, warm and approachable man with a great sense of humour and an affable nature.
A life 'post Graham' is hard to imagine such has been his contribution. My thoughts and best wishes go to his family and friends at this difficult time. If you would like to pay your respects, The Association for Language Learning has set up a tribute section to Graham on their Facebook page where you can leave comments. Alternatively you may like to add your thoughts to this TES thread I started this morning after hearing the terrible news.
Rest in Peace GroovyWinkler, GroovyGuzi, DaisyBundle ... Graham. Your unique voice, understanding and generosity will be sorely missed.
The core idea for the project came from a Skype conversation between Joel Josephson from the University of West Scotland and e-learning consultant Shelly Terrell following the 2009 Virtual Round Table conference where Shelly showed Joel how to maximise his use of Twitter to connect with like-minded educators from around the world. Inspired by the effectiveness of this form of online mentoring, Joel decided to put together a bid to the Life Long Learning Programme along with seven partner institutions from across Europe and was fortunate enough to receive around 280,000 euros!
Here are two short recordings taken from the Virtual Round Table webinar referred to below where Joel introduces the project and talks about the value of having a PLN.
With the funding in place, each team was assigned different responsibilities or work packages and began creating resources to support their different roles. Calls for associate partners were made in January 2010, and a year later the aPLaNet project website officially launched, followed by a Facebook page, Twitter account and Ning shortly afterwards. Using social media to build a community of like-minded educators around the project has resulted in over 140 institutions (associate partners) from 33 countries getting involved already!
It seems the aPLaNet team are using these drivers in the following way:
Facebook - a directory of related news, events and blog posts
Ning – a place to meet make connections, join sub-groups and access downloadable resources
Twitter – a vehicle for sharing conversations and crowd-sourcing information from the community.
There is a Google+ site too and this duplicates some of the Facebook content.
Colleagues from the seven partner institutions have met up face to face three times so far in Barcelona, Athens and Brno and each time they have fedback progress to the associate partners via video-conference. To access these webinars, click on the following links. Please note you will need to sign up for a Wiziq account.
You can access the recording from here and here is Marisa Constantinides' prezi about PLNs.
In July 2011, the team carried out an online survey regarding the use of social networks amongst language teachers in the EU. The feedback collected using a Google Form was used to improve and extend the resources and methodologies being prepared and give an insight on how educators are currently using social networks.
One of the project's objectives is to make it easier for teachers to identify useful ICT tools for language teaching and to help teachers in this area, there will be guides, video tutorials and face to face training opportunities for them to get involved especially with respect to a PLN. Joel Josephson and his team are also going to create a Twitter tool called Language Resource Filter Application (LRFA) which will collect tweets containing the hashtag #lrfa.This could be a useful way of pooling resources although as Graham Davies points out curating the content may be time-consuming.
Another core objective is to facilitate a mentoring system via the Ning subgroups whereby volunteers choose to either mentor newbies or be mentees themselves. If they prefer, it is possible for mentees to go through the materials on their own as a self-access pilot and have a series of tasks to complete with a final evaluation. Please note due to the nature of the EU funding for the project, mentees have to come from Europe, but mentors can be from anywhere in the world.
To become a mentor or mentee, you need to sign up to the Ning, fill in your profile and join the mentor or mentee group. There are three ways in which mentors and mentees can find each other
Look for someone who is listed as wanting help in the mentees group. Contact them and offer to be their mentor
Be approached by a prospective mentee looking for someone to mentor them.
Be recommended by an aPLaNet partner to connect with a mentee or mentor
As a mentee, you will be expected to fill in a questionnaire so your mentor can analyse the areas where you need support. The job of the mentor is then to use SMART criteria to set objectives and provide the appropriate support so mentees don’t feel overwhelmed and can manage their time effectively. This could involve for example learning how to use tools like Twitter, Facebook and Ning so mentees can make connections with other like-minded teachers and in time become autonomous. Ultimately, the idea is to have an on-going cycle of mentees who become mentors themselves once they’ve been through the process.
Guides for being a mentor or mentee will be made available on the Ning very soon.
Different levels of blog badges from bronze to platinum will be awarded to mentors according to the number of mentees they have. Mentors can have as many mentees as they feel they have time for.
The British Council in Barcelona is responsible for the mentoring side of the project and the first orientation meeting took place on 23rd November 2011. It was delivered by Graham Stanley from the Brno meet up and the webinar can be accessed here.
At the end of the session, we had the opportunity to make comments and I suggested it would be a good idea to encourage mentors and mentees to record their exchanges so they could refer back to useful conversations and possibly share the highlights with the community.
The mentoring pilot begins January 2012 and resources will be available in Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Spanish, English, Romanian, Turkish, German, French and Italian.
Here is an example mentor presentation from one of the partner institutions and this clip filmed in Brno gives a nice overview of the project to date.
Undoubtedly, one of the challenges to the success of aPLaNet will be encouraging enough mentees to sign up. Joel Josephson recently wrote a guest post on Shelly Terrell’s blog concerning this very issue. He feels the two main reasons why teachers don’t use social media to connect with other educators around the world is time and privacy. Trying to reach people who don’t know about the power of PLNs or who feel they don’t have the time to engage with social media may be problematic. I hope not, as I think the premise of the project is fantastic. Time will tell though.
Joel describes a PLN as being:
"like a language teachers staff room and a supportive educational authority in one. It is a global community of language educators, just like you, that have come together to support and help each other improve and update their language teaching by using and sharing the resources that are constantly being developed on the Internet." (Joel Josephson 2010 - taken from the Associate Partner form from Graham Stanley’s post)
"I am now involved in many exciting new collaborative projects, simply by being part of this global conversation. For example, by engaging with my peers on Twitter, it has become possible for me to work on aPLaNet, a major EU funded project which aims to help teachers in their autonomous professional development through the use of such social networks as Facebook, Twitter and Nings." (Marisa Constantinides Autumn 2011)
Anne Foreman, another of the official partners described PLNs as "Do-IT-Yourself Professional Development" in her presentation REAL TICE | Making sense of chaos | Madrid which I love! I also liked the text chat comment from RaquelEFL in the Virtual Round Table session where she quoted Alexander Graham Bell and described the following as a PLN Mantra!
"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds."
In conclusion, I encourage you to listen to this 50 minute podcast interview I recorded over Skype with Graham Stanley from the British Council in Barcelona (No 2 in the picture above!) as it gives a comprehensive overview of the aPLaNet project and fills in any gaps I may have missed in this post!
introducing the aPLaNet project and explaining what the acronym stands for
explaining the reasons for launching the project as a way of bridging the gap between those language teachers who use social media and those who don't
promoting the concept of using a PLN and particularly Twitter as a professional development tool and showing the benefits of doing so
piloting a mentoring and self-access approach
explaining what is a personal learning network, the origin of the concept and the value of having a PLN
maintaining contacts and support through a PLN instead of being tied to a PLE, VLE via an institution
ways in which PLNs can help professional development
the target audience for aPLaNet - language teachers who are experienced and inexperiend users of social media
the challenge of finding mentees
involving colleagues through face to face workshops as well as online mentoring
becoming a mentor or mentee by joining the aPLaNet Ning and going on to the next step
explaining the self-access option and carrying out a webquest
translating the resources into a variety of languages and encouraging MFL teachers as well English teachers to get involved
making the Ning the hub of the project
where the idea for the aPLaNet project came from
bringing together seven partner institutions for the eu bid
asking for associate partners in January 2010 and seeing a great reponse
the benefits of the partner institutions meeting up face to face and agreeing on the first steps
preparing for the life of aPLaNet after the end of the project in order to make it sustainable for years to come
explaining the resources in more detail: (Mentor and Mentee support guides, feedback questionnaires, teacher diary template which can be completed online or on paper, 150 page teacher reference guide, series of online workshops which will be recorded, webquests, video tutorials)
explaining the differences between the mentor and mentee questionnaire and the importance of collecting data about the use of social media by language teachers to update resources and improve the effectiveness of the project
explaining what are the markers of success?
creating a cycle of mentees who become autonomous mentors themselves
presenting the results of the project at an aPLaNet themed conference in Istanbul in September 2012 and feeding back on what has been achieved
following the progress of the project and involving associate partners via webinars to maintain interest
the importance of creating a community spirit around the project and drawing on members' PLNs
creating a report on the use of social networks amongst language teachers based on the feedback from the July 2011 survey which fed into the section on social networking in the teacher guide
crowdsourcing colleagues for recommend resources and links before creating the mentor guide and seeing a great response
drawing upon the "generosity and volunteer spirit of all of these wonderful language teachers all over the world"
clarifying that during the life of the project, mentees are expected to be from the European Union due to the nature of the funding, but mentors can be from anywhere in the world
rewarding mentors with different blog badges (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) which denote the number of mentees each mentor is supporting
giving a t-shirt prize to the first mentor who mentors eleven mentees and achieves platinumn status!
presenting aPLaNet at the Virtual Round Table conference 2011 and trying to connect with as many language teachers as possible and keep their interest
explaining how the Language Resource Filter is designed to work as a way of crowdsourcing useful language specific resources and making them available on the Ning
finishing off with some thoughts on quotes from Joel and Marisa about the value of PLNs
seeing a PLN as a virtual staffroom full of connected, helpful and sharing language teachers
giving a heads up to the MFL Twitterati!
find a world of opportunities arising by simply posting on Twitter
getting involved in the iTILT project about helping language teachers make the most of interactive whiteboards
being asked to speak at a conference through Facebook
using Twitter can open up a whole new world to language teachers and broaden their horizons exponentially - they can find answers to pressing questions 24/7, help another colleague in return, gauge opinion and discover a neverending stream of useful information from their online community
concluding remarks
I hope you've enjoyed learning about the aPLaNet project and hearing testimonies of others on the value of personal learning networks.
Here are a couple of presentations which may just do the trick if you're not convinced already!
I encourage you to get involved with the aPLaNet project. It could be a wonderful opportunity for you. Developments in the new year are sure to be out of this world! Follow that pilot!
If you can't wait until then though, check out this Scoop.it! magazine I've curated which focuses on PLNs and Twitter as professional development tools. Enjoy!
The idea of Edutalk Radio is twofold, first to live stream random selections of the existing bank of audio collected on the Edutalk site and secondly to offer educators the opportunity to call or Skype into a live phone in and chat about topics of their choice.
The topic of discussion last Thursday was educational podcasting and Stephen Reid from A Higher Place kicked off proceedings brilliantly by calling in on his smartphone live from his train carriage using a 3G connection while David and John endeavoured to patch the audio through into the live stream!
As you will hear, it did work and Stephen was able to share his expertise with the hosts and of course the listeners. He talked about the key messages he likes to convey to teachers when training them on the power of podcasting and how he tries to dispell their misconceptions through practical examples. I loved the way he added how pupils just go for it in his experience and don't seem to share the same concerns.
My section was recorded through Skype too and you can hear the difference in audio quality between the iPhone's microphone and my Samson CO3U below.
Pioneers of educational podcasting in Scotland, John and David have been experimenting with the power of audio in and out of the classroom for the past six years with projects such as Radio Sandaig and Booruch. In 2009, they came up with the idea of encouraging delegates attending the Scottish Learning Festival to reflect on the event by using their mobile devices to send audio feedback to a Posterous blog. SLFtalk was born.
As John explains in this short interview I recorded with him at the time, he was pleased with this first attempt of gathering the voices of educators together in the same place and the seamless way Posterous coped with the task. Using social media platforms like Twitter certainly helped to spread the word as well as specially-produced SLFtalk cards with detailed instructions we gave out over the two days.
Buoyed by this initial success and Edublog award nomination, David and John launched Edutalk, an extension of the SLFtalk idea and a further opportunity for teachers, pupils and educational professionals to capture their thoughts on a mobile device and share them with a wider audience 24/7.
To help build up a bank of user generated content, the duo challenged people to post a new recording everyday and this certainly got the ball rolling.
Not content to sit on their laurels, David and John then decided to start up Edutalkr, an online panel discussion featuring specialists in their fields such as Professor Stephen Heppell and other learning enthusiasts wishing to debate the educational issues of the day from their mobile phones, landlines or SkypeOut.
In August 2010, the TESS published the article Audio explorers right on track which catalogued the progress of the project to date and acknowledged its impact in its first year.
A month later, the team presented their findings at the Scottish Learning Festival in the session Edutalk - Mobile audio publishing by educators. I was lucky enough to be there in person and to record proceedings including the iPadio + Skype conference call test involving willing volunteers scattered around the exhibition hall!
Book by the end of this month for the amazing early bird rate and start sorting your transport and accommodation now!
Come along too to the free MFL Show and Tell event on the Saturday night at The Highfield House Hotel where everyone is welcome to speak, sing a song or play the ukulele, if you fancy (at no additional cost)!
For those arriving on the Friday, we will be having a get together at Ceno restaurant as well. Would be great to see you there!
Check out this Google Map for more details and contact Zena Hilton on [email protected] or call 023 8059 9135 if you have any queries. Follow #ililc2 on Twitter too to find out about the latest developments!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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).
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!
For the last couple of months, I’ve been producing a toolkit of step by step guides designed to encourage language tutors in the Adult Community Learning sector to explore the potential of new technologies to enhance their existing courses.
The idea of the project funded by The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) and coordinated by ACL Curriculum Manager for Languages Nola Marshall is to offer students a blended approach of distance learning and face to face contact so they can extend their learning outside of the classroom at a time that suits them.
In addition to creating the comprehensive guides, I delivered 3 consecutive days of training to participating tutors at Witham Adult Community Learning Centre with the help of Nola, Maria the Curriculum Manager for ICT and e-learning and two lovely technicians Bob and Paul.
We looked at different ways of creating, publishing and subscribing to content concentrating on the tools and technologies I had covered in the toolkit. These included:
Posterous as an easy way of blogging content via email in an open, moderated or password-protected environment
Audacity for recording and editing podcasts
Accessing creative commons licensed images through Flickr and different search tools such as Behold, Compfight and Xpert
Creating and editing video clips using digital video cameras and Movie Maker
Subscribing to blogs, podcasts and wikis via RSS for distance learning with Google Reader
Flashmeeting for videoconferencing and recording meetings
SlideShare and publishing PowerPoints or creating Slidecasts with embedded audio
Collaborative writing and publishing resources with Wikispaces
Creating interactive exercises with Hot Potatoes
Creating word clouds with Wordle (not covered during the training due to time constraints)
Using Text to Speech software Speakonia to support listening and reading skills (not covered during the training due to time constraints)
We also touched upon using Twitter as microblogging service and a way of developing a personal learning network and I suggested tutors follow colleagues from the MFL Twitterati. I was delighted minius666 and ElinorMcN rose to the challenge there and then!
Everyone set up their own Posterous blog to publish their outcomes on to. Here is the one I created for this purpose and here is the one I set up prior to the training to show examples of my outcomes for each tutorial. Maria created a wonderful example called Moodle Magic.
We covered three tutorials a day which some found quite intensive, but with the comprehensive notes I gave out I'm sure tutors will have all the support they need as well as time to reflect over the summer. I've also told tutors they can contact me if they get stuck which I hope they will.
Hats off to Rick, ACL IT technician in Harlow for agreeing to take part in our Flashmeeting on the last day of the training, the full recording of which can be found here. He did brilliantly fielding questions from the tutors and all while keeping a smile on his face too!
To assess the success of the training and the impact on practice, I asked tutors to record their thoughts at the end of each day and you can listen to their feedback here.
During the course of the training we did come across a few technical issues, namely:
We couldn't create more than 10 gmail accounts from the same IP address and so I realise now we should have asked delegates to create theirs before the start of the course.
We had difficulty in setting up SlideShare accounts simultaneously. Again, it would have been better to have asked tutors to do this beforehand.
Movie Maker continually crashed due to to only having 1.5 GB of RAM per machine. To get around this I asked delegates to import CC Flickr images instead and add a soundtrack, transitions and effects, music for the end credits and a title page which worked fine.
Admittedly, the gliches did put some people off as it knocked their confidence, but with a bit of encouragement we were able to work through this OK.
Complying to the terms of the funding, the toolkit will be made available for free to ACL tutors in the autumn term via the Excellence Gateway portal. We will be recommending however that centres hire me in to provide hands-on training for some or all of the tutorials as well to ensure staff are fully equipped to embed the techniques covered. We are also looking at offering a revised version for schools and again will be strongly suggesting that they also buy in hands-on training to support them in offering students these new and exciting distance learning opportunities. Watch this space!
As a follow up to my participation in last month's innovative ICT Day at Medina High School on the Isle of Wight, I spent last Monday afternoon with the MFL department looking at ways they could use a class set of iPod Touches to engage their pupils and enhance language learning.
To give some structure to the training, I created a new page on the Posterous blog I set up to publish the podcasts we made during the two workshops in June.
Referring to Sharon Tonner's wonderful explanations on her I-C-T wiki, I demonstrated how easy it was to make different types of QR code with the site Sparqcode and within minutes we had created one linking to a URL and the other to some text. The advantage of the latter being that it will work offline as well as on. To read the codes, I recommended the free app I-nigma which works instantaneously when pointed in the right direction.
We then discussed how we could employ QR codes in language lessons.
e.g. For a URL QR code
To launch an mp3 file
To play a video
To visit an authentic website and answer some comprehension exercises
My favourite idea was to give students cards with QR codes on them linking to a text response whereby they would have to find their partner who had the answer to their question or the same information as them. Preparing the exercise wouldn't be too time-consuming as you could use the Teachers Pet toolbar to make picture flashcards in a few clicks or copy and paste multiple QR codes into a Word document, print it off on to card and cut them up from there.
Alternatively, you could just use Russell Tarr's wonderful QR Treasure Hunt Generator! which simplifies the process even more by creating the necessary QR codes for each question along with an answer sheet. Moreover, your devices don't have to be online for this to work and you need to input a minimum of five questions and answers. Try out his bookmarklet too which can generate a QR code of the web page you are on or any highlighted text on that page! The QR codes can then be copied and pasted into a document, printed off and cut up as previously suggested. The beauty of the text ones is that they don't need a connected device to work. Just think of the exciting exercises this could generate in MFL and yes QR codes can deal with accents!
Have a look too at QR code voting with Qwikvotes! The idea is a teacher sets the question, students scan generated QR code of their choice and then teacher clicks on show results.
For QR codes which link to URLs, another way of saving time would be to create a customised URL using the link shortening service Snipurl. This would mean you could use the same QR code, but change the URL it launches each time.
By clicking on the Manage Snips tab and Edit, you can see that you can change the Long URL and hit the Save Changes button without changing the shortened form. In this way, you can create a range of customised links with different nicknames e.g medinamfl1, medinamfl2 etc and generate QR codes for each one. These QR codes will not need to change because they will always link to the same customised URL. However, by changing the Long URL, the link that opens as a result can be different and so could be regularly updated for different purposes.
If you add a Private Key to your customised link, you will need to enter it and click Fetch my URL before being able to access the desired web page. To avoid this extra step, but keep your snipping private, you can add your Private Key after your link e.g. http://sn.im/medinamfl-medina
Both methods will ensure your snippings will not appear in the public timeline so it's up to you to choose which you prefer. Unfortunately, this will not work with text QR Codes only URL ones.
There are various apps which allow you to generate a QR code directly from your iPod Touch. Easy QR is my favourite as it is free and has a very simple clean interface. Using the text option, you can create QR codes for texts as well as URLs and save them as images in your Camera Roll so they can be scanned later.
One idea would be to make a QR code from a long piece of text and display the image on the board. Pupils could scan it in and then complete a Google Form also accessed via a QR code to show they had understood the contents. To finish, you could display the results on the board and go over the answers. Alternatively, pupils could generate their own QR codes and do a pair or group work activity which you would traditionally complete on paper.
To inspire us with further possibilities we checked out the wonderful 40 interesting ways of using QR codes in education to see which ideas lent themselves well to MFL. Vicky Davis's post QR Code Classroom Implementation Guide is also full of good advice and recommends Kaywa and FireFox add-on Mobile Barcoder for generating QR codes. The latter works straight from the bottom right corner of the browser which could be useful when presenting on an interactive whiteboard and asking students to scan from their devices.
Use Russel Tarr’s bookmarklet to create giant URL QR codes in one click on the interactive whiteboard so students can quickly scan them and transfer the content on to their handheld device. See this process in action in this clip from Ollie Bray published in 2008. To create a text QR code, highlight the text in question first before clicking the bookmarklet.
Give students QR codes which link to revision PowerPoint presentations you’ve published on Slideshare so they can watch them on their mobile devices. You could embed a YouTube clip containing supplementary material which runs on one of the slides. This would work fine unless you wanted to make a Slidecast by synchronising an mp3 file with your presentation in which case, you could add a QR code on the slide in question and ask students to pause, watch the clip and then press play again. The QR code linking to the SlideShare version of a class presentation could be added to the last slide as a matter of course.
To enhance a departmental portfolio of levelled pieces of work, use QR codes to launch audio or video clips as evidence of speaking. Likewise, add QR codes to your prospectus linking to impressive multimedia outcomes highlighting the strengths of the school.
Use Sparqcode to generate a set of QR codes linking to Google Maps for a lesson on directions. Give pupils written or spoken instructions for where they need to go via a text or URL QR code and ask them to label the final destination they reach having followed the instructions.
Give pupils a QR code which launches the email client on their handheld device as a way of simplifying the process of handing in work or sending you the URL of a web based project they’ve completed. This could be the email they need to publish resources on to a class Posterous site although they could use the dedicated app for this as well.
Create a text QR code for the login details needed to access a site or resource so they are always kept in the device’s history. In the same way, use a QR code to access the school’s wifi system!
Stick a URL QR code linking to work carried out in an ICT suite as proof of outcomes in pupils’ exercise books.
Create a QR code of an RSS feed to make it easier for students to subscribe to blogs and podcasts.
Use Snap.vu or BWScan to find out how many times a QR code has been scanned and by how many unique visitors. Choose the former if you want to clear results and receive email notifications. Choose the latter for more detailed analytics
For ILILC 2012, I’ve been reflecting on the possibilities of integrating QR codes into procedures and so far have come up with the following:
Create a QR code which links to a mobile friendly WebDoc full of multimedia goodness. Thanks to Shelly Terrell for the inspiration for this idea. This could be incorporated into a blog badge or added to any paper literature about the conference.
Put a QR code next to speaker’s bios in the conference programme which link to their respective blogs.
Create a multimedia QR code quiz to be completed between presentations at the MFL Show and Tell. Pub Quiz for the 21st century?
Here is an example Free Text poll to show you how it works with the iPod Touch or any other handheld device connected to the web.
click Save new poll.
On the right hand side, untick the box next to Text messages from and make sure there is a tick in the box by Web devices on.
Make a note of the number you need to use for your web response and go to http://pollev.com to submit it with your answer.
Return to the page where the answers to your poll are displayed to see your response.
Please note you can carry out a poll without being registered and your answers will be deleted after two weeks. Once the poll is finished though you can choose to click the Stop Poll button. You can also download a PowerPoint slide which contains the poll too and include it in a presentation.
Next we looked at recording audio on the iPod Touch. There are many apps which allow you to do this including the default Voice Memos app. One issue is the format the audio records in (m4a, AIFF, mp3, caf etc) and the second is how to transfer it off the device, if it needs editing and publishing.
John Johnston is an expert in this field and has recommended two apps to me. The first is iTalk recorder which is free, allows you to rename your files on the device and lets you sync your recordings with your PC with the free iTalk Sync program. It records audio as AIFF files which means they can be edited in Audacity and converted to mp3 using the Lame encoder.
The second app is VR+ Voice which costs £1.19 on the app store and records directly as mp3. You can also transfer the files wirelessly from the device to a computer using a URL. Listen to John singing its praises here as well as Wifi Photo Transfer which works in the same way, but for images.
I demoed iTalk and showed how to download files from the iPod Touch. They were suitably impressed!
To finish the session we talked about file management using DropBox and touched upon the digital storytelling apps SonicPics and Our Story. The latter looks particularly good and was designed by the Open University to promote reading.
Check out as well my MFLedapps blog which features links and video clips of many apps I feel could be useful in enhancing language learning. I've used tags on the right hand side to specify in which skill area they could be particularly effective, if they are free or not and if they are for the iPod or iPad. A good place to find educational apps is on Twitter. Search for edapps and you're bound to find some gems!
I'll be very interested to hear how the MFL department at Medina get on with the iPods next academic year and see what impact they have on the pupils' learning. I hope they keep in Touch ;-)
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