Tag Archives: tool

Oct 2 2015

Ten Tools for Engaging Learners

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On Wednesday, September 30th, from 3-6 pm, the Montgomery County Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages (MCAFTL) held its fall conference at Wissahickon Middle School.  I was asked about 6 months ago if I would be the presenter for this conference as they wanted to once again focus their fall conference on technology.  As a former French teacher and member of MCAFTL, I jumped at the chance to share my love of instructional technology with my world language colleagues once again.  When writing the conference presentation blurb in the spring, I came up with the following:

World Languages 3.0:  Technology Tools for Engaging World Language Learners

Come on out to learn about the latest and greatest web-based tools for creating engaging and interactive activities, projects and lessons for your World Language learners.   In this fast-paced, hands-on workshop, participants will be exposed to a variety of tools and resources that can be used for communication, collaboration, creativity, formative assessment, and the blended/flipped learning environment.  Time will also be allotted for participant sharing, so be sure to come ready to share your favorite web-based technology!  Be sure to bring your own device (laptop or tablet) to get the most out of this session.

However, I didn’t really know at that time what tools I would be presenting.  As I really only had about 2 hours of instructional time, and I wanted to be sure to allow the participants some hands-on time with the tools I present, it was difficult to choose not only the best tools for world language learners, but also tools that would be free, web-based, and device agnostic, as we have a variety of platforms, devices, and student access in our county.

So, without further ado, I present “Ten Tools for Engaging (World Language) Learners“.  I put World Language in parenthesis because in no way are any of these tools solely for language class.  Each and every one of the tools below can, and should, be used by teachers from every discipline in every grade level.

What tools would you have chosen?  Please leave your favorite free, web-based tools, in the comments!

Apr 1 2008

New Language Learning Website: Babbel.com

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Check out this new language learning web 2.0 site called Babbel! Here, you can learn languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian, English), practice what you’ve learned, find people from around the world who speak the language you are learning (or your native language!). This seems to be a great tool for students AND teachers of world languages. Teachers can use the vocabulary lessons with students, refer students to this site for extra practice, or brush up on their own language with the upper-level activities and discussion forums.

Check it out!

http://www.babbel.com

Feb 24 2008

Blabberize

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I first found out about Blabberize at PETE & C earlier this month and hadn’t really thought that much more about it until my CFF Apple training last week. Our ‘assignment’ was to create an iMovie, on basically anything we want. So, because most of the time we like to use our time in the trainings on something useful, a fellow coach and friend, Aly Tapp, suggested we do a tutorial video on Blabbarize. I was slightly more familiar with iMovie and she was more familiar with Blabbarize, so we made a good pair. Not only did I learn how to use this cool web 2.0 tool, but I also learned a great deal about teaching the tools I know and collaborating to get a task done. I have since posted my tutorial video on my CFF Moodle page and advertised it in my recent newsletter. It’s sometimes amazing how easy things are these days!

Here is the Blabber I made for the tutorial video:
http://www.blabberize.com/creation/playBlabber/11306

Here is the tutorial video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYd5PXLF9U0