Welcome to the LAN 321 class wiki!
The idea of this wiki is to collect language teaching resources in one place. When you find good links or resources on the web, post them here so you can share them with your classmates.
What's a wiki? A wiki is just a website, but the unique thing about it is that everyone who has access can edit anything on the site. That means you--as an authorized user--can add, edit, or delete things on this site. The interface is quite user-friendly; it looks and functions basically like a word processor. In a wiki, the focus is on the content, not so much the format and appearance.
Resources for Creating Basic Web Lessons and Websites
TrackStar
This free site allows you to create a webpage that organizes links to other websites. It's one easy way to send learners to one website and then ask them to complete web activities that you organized ahead of time in a certain order. It focuses learners' attention on only specific websites that you want them to use, rather than letting them surf freely on the web. It's user-friendly for the teacher because you don't need to have any web-editing skills to create your website.
Web Poster Wizard
This free site allows you to very easily create a one-page website with text, images, and hyperlinks. You don't need to have a server to host this page; it's hosted for free. Web Poster Wizard is very easy to use, although the format is fairly fixed, making what you can do fairly limited. One nice use of WebWizard is to make it your homepage within a TrackStar site.
Quia
This site allows you to create many fun games using templates that are easy to use. You have to pay $50/year to use Quia resources. If you like Quia activities but don't want to pay to be a member, you can also Google search for Quia activities that other language teachers have created in the target language that you teach. Then you can link to those activities on your website or send students to those pages.
SeaMonkey
This free web editor from Mozilla can be downloaded. It is user-friendly to create your own webpages. However, unlike other programs such as Dreamweaver, it does not have as wide a range of website-creation functions. But you will be able to create simple webpages using SeaMonkey.
Hot Potatoes
Free software that you can download from the web to use in creating interactive language-learning exercises for the web.
Class Marker
This tool can be used to create free, online practice quizzes for students. It's free to use, but you do need to register.
WebQuests
A WebQuest is a webpage that follows a certain structure and organization to promote inquiry-based, cooperative learning using authentic resources found on the world wide web. WebQuests can be used with content in any subject area, including foreign languages. Go to the WebQuests Homepage for general information and lots of links. The resources page within the webquest.org site has lots of helpful links for designing and creating your own WebQuest. This site also provides a lot of resources and information for teachers about designing WebQuests. There are a number of sites available on which you can create and host your own template-based WebQuests, such as Zunal, which is free. TeacherWeb and QuestGarden are good hosting sites, but have a moderate yearly fee.
Click here to go to the WebQuest about WebQuests class activity page.
Free image editing on Picnik.com
At this site you can do basic editing of images for free. You upload an image to picnik.com from your computer, edit it with online tools, and then download it back to your computer. You can crop, resize, change colors, and do lots of other editing functions.
ISU Datastore
This link takes you to a page where you can log in to your webspace at ISU, which is called Datastore. Through ISU Datastore, you can host your own website. If you need help using or understanding how Datastore works, check out the ISU Help Desk page on Datastore.
Example High School FL Teacher Webpages
McNichols, French
Cook, French
Litwiller, French (Normal)
Ibarra, Spanish (Bloomington)
Krueger, Spanish
Baldwin, Spanish (Normal)
CMC and Web 2.0 in the FL Classroom
Blogs and wikis
Blogs and wikis can be used by teachers (and students!) as an easy-to-create-and-use website to post information and activities. If you don't want to take the time to design your own website and/or don't have web space to host a website, creating a blog or wiki for your class is a good alternative. Although blogs and wikis also have other pedagogical applications, one use of both tools is to create a simple website where you can post links and information. See Educator Blogging for resources about using blogs. Check out the CALPER library for foreign language blog lesson plans. Below are some links to sites that allow you to create your own blogs and wikis for free:
Blogs
WordPress: Free blogs for anyone (recommended!)
Edublogs: Free blogs for educators
Blogger: Free blogs for anyone
Squarespace: Free blogs for anyone
Class Blogmeister: Free blogs for teachers
Wikis
PB Wiki: Free private or public wikis
Wikispace: Free public wikis
WetPaint: Free public wikis
Document sharing/collaborative writing
Google Docs: Free online word processor that allows multiple people to edit the same text document at the same time.
Synchronous voice and text chat / Social networking
Chat can be used in the FL classroom in diferent ways, including connecting learners located at different sites around the world and bringing an expert into the classroom for learners to interact with virtually. Below are some links to useful sites for setting up chat sessions with your students. (Note: the sites listed below have the benefit of not being commercial and exposing learners to ads or inappropriate content.)
- YackPack: Free audio and text chat tools designed by researchers at Stanford University
- Skype: Free audio, video, and text chat options
- Tapped In: Specifically for K-12 teachers to create private text chatrooms and discussion boards for their students
- Flash Meeting: Secure platform for video chat and video conferencing for use in schools (free)
- Ning: social networking site with built in blogs, discussion forum, chat, personal profiles, and sharing of videos and photos. You can set up a private (i.e., password-protected) Ning site for free for a group or class. One potential use of Ning is to connect language learners in different countries and have all of the CMC tools in one place.
- Moodle: Open source (i.e., free) course management system with text chat, discussion boards, social networking, and many other functions as well as privacy options. Moodle is a great way to have a system like Blackboard without paying licensing fees. However, to use Moodle, you really need to have institutional support, that is, it's not for an individual to set up, since you need to put it on a server. Some public school districts have set up, maintain, and make available Moodle to their teachers--so check with your school district.
- Wimba Voice Tools: Audio and text chat, as well as voice mail tools that integrate with course management systems such as Moodle and Blackboard (not free; must have institutional support)
CULTURA
The CULTURA project is a well-known design for teaching language and culture in tandem. On the webpage you can review the materials and read a description of the project, as well downloading a teacher guide for implementing the methods used in this project.
Second Life and Education
This website is a bibliography of resources for using Second Life (a virtual environment available on the web) for educational purposes.
Collaborative Mind Mapping at Mind 42
This free website allows individuals or groups to create mind maps online that include words, images, and links. You can then export your mind map to different files types (e.g., PDF, JPG).
Setting up Keypal Exchanges
The following are some websites for teachers and language learners to set up a tandem language partner exchange, either on an individual basis or through a class-to-class exchange organized by teachers.
Resources for Technology Integration in the Foreign Language Classroom
ICT4LT (Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers)
This well-developed site has learning modules for language teachers about using technology in the classroom for beginning, intermediate, and advanced computer users. Learning modules include topics such as website creation and setting up a language lab. The site also includes well-organized resources for CALL, including bibliographies and lists of software.
CALPER (Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research)
This site from Penn State has many resources and materials for second and foreign language teachers. CALPER has a number of resources for technology integration in the language classroom.
CARLA (Center for Advanced Research in Language Acquisition)
This site from the University of Minnesota has many resources and materials for second and foreign language teachers, including a section on technology with technology-based lesson plans for foreign language teaching.
Lesson plans for using blogs and wikis in the language classroom
Click on the link "activity database" to see the lesson plans. This database has lots of interesting ready-made lesson plans for using blogs and wikis in creative ways in foreign language teaching.
The REALIA project
This website has a searchable database of photos from many countries and a variety of languages that are copyright-free and ready for teachers to use. The idea is to use authentic images as the basis for language and culture learning in the classroom.
Classroom 2.0
This is a social networking site in Ning for educators interested in the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. The resources and discussions on the site are open to everyone, members and non-members of the network.
PowerPoint Tutorials
Basic functions in PowerPoint for the classroom
Creating interactive text boxes on the screen (Office 2007)
Using invisible action buttons in PowerPoint
LAN 321 Advanced Powerpoint Practice
Interactive Whiteboards (aka SMART Boards)
Interactive whiteboards
Some educators believe that interactive whiteboards such as the brand SMART Board and its accompanying hardware and software (e.g., SMART tables) is the next big revolution in K-12 teaching. Here is a good resource page from a local Bloomington school about using SMART Boards in the classroom. Click here for an article (PDF format) about techniques for using SMART Boards specifically in FL teaching. More SMART Board resources:
SMARTBoard Lesson Exchange (free downloads of lessons)
More free SMARTBoard lessons
SMARTBoard Revolution Ning Teacher Group
Ready-Made Web Lessons for Language Teaching
Audio and Video in the Classroom
Downloading YouTube videos
Go to this link and follow the instructions to find out about one easy way that you can download YouTube videos to your computer's harddrive as MP4 files. This link provides even more information about various options for downloading YouTube videos, for example, by downloading a user-friendly Firefox plugin called Flash Video Downloader. The benefit of downloading video to your hard drive is that you will be able to use it forever, even if it's eventually deleted from YouTube's website. Also, you can then embed the video into Powerpoint or other presentation software. Using the online downloader at Vixy.net is another option for downloading YouTube videos, including downloading video formats such as .avi and .mov.
VoiceThread
A great tool for posting, sharing, and commenting on videos. Visit their library for examples of how VoiceThread has been used in Education.
Tips for using video in language teaching
Great site from the University of Iowa discussing technical and pedagogical issues in how to integrate video into the classroom.
Video library and lesson plans for the FL classroom
Annenberg Media has compiled a library of videos that you can view on the Internet with descriptions of how the videos can be used in the FL classroom. To view the videos, you must register, but it's free.
Using TV commercials in language teaching
This article discusses how to use TV commercials in the foreign language classroom as a way to promote listening comprehension and critical thinking skills.
Choose-your-own-adventure digital video project for FL learning
This website describes an interesting model for student-directed video production and website creation.
Audacity: Free audio-editing software
Audacity is a great free program for both editing and recording audio files of different types (e.g., MP3, WAV).
Free video-editing software
This website provides a list of the the top five best free video-editing software available for Windows and Mac.
Podcasting
Podcasts are broadcast on a number of different websites. Podcasts are simply audio files that are made available on the web. Some podcasts are created by media giants such as the BBC, NPR, Radio Nacional Española, and Radio France, but many are also created by smaller organizations and independent folks. Anyone can create and upload a podcast to the web, in any language, with a little bit of technical knowhow. In order to find available podcasts more easily than simple searching in Google, it's recommended that you install a podcast receiver to your computer. The most popular is Apple iTunes which can be downloaded free of charge from here. Another free program that is a podcast receiver that comes highly recommended is Juice, downloadable from here.
Podcasts may be designed for native speakers of a target language (e.g., Radio France, BBC) or can be educational and intended for language learners. Those podcasts intended for learners are of varying quality and pedagogical value and differ greatly in the extent to which they provide support materials for the audio component. Some sites are commercial, but most offer the actual audio podcasts for free and charge only for the supporting print materials which include grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation exercises. The following are some popular educational (i.e., non-authentic) podcasts for learning French and Spanish:
Other Sources on the Web for Audio and Video for FL Instruction
Multilanguage
French
Spanish
Foreign Language and Technology Standards
Illinois technology standards for K-12 teachers
List of the technology standards for K-12 teachers in the state of Illinois.
ACTFL Standards
Standards for foreign language teaching as outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.