VOCAROO

This is a very new tool for recording a voice message. All you need is a microphone! There's no time limit which is a bonus. After recording your message, you can easily send it to a friend via mail or post it on your site. As a language teacher, I could see this being a great tool for getting students to send specific messages to eachother or to their teacher. Some ideas that occur to me could be the following:

A Dictation: - students could send messages to eachother. The receiver could listen and write down the message.

A Greeting: Students could send greeting messages to their teacher or introduce themselves at the beginning of the year.

Narrative Stories: Students or teachers could record themselves reading short narrative stories. The other students would listen to the story and 'listen for specific information'.

Pronunciation: Different accents could be recorded and students would have to listen and try to identify them.

I'm sure there are many ways in which VOCAROO could be used!

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WE AINT GOT NO FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY!

This is such a cute video. A must-see! Never too old... It's exactly how we want our students to be; fearless and willing to try new things. Not to mention how fellow teachers should be with regards to trying out new technologies. I know it's not a new 'techy tool' but I couldn't resist sharing it.

CHILDREN'S FUTURE REQUESTS FOR COMPUTERS

Here's a very interesting read!

http://latd.tv/kids/kidsTech.pdf

Back-to-school blues...

Teachers, it's ALMOST that time again!
Very soon we will be starting up a new school year and rather than feeling more in control as we gain experience from previous years, many of us feel more overwhelmed than ever before. Shifts in the educational system require us to make adjustments to curriculums, develop objectives integrating the 'Key Competences', implant the 1x1 program (1 laptop per student) in our classroom, etc. It’s no wonder we get the back-to-school blues even though we may feel well rested and ready to take on a new year. In many cases, it’s simply because we do not feel totally supported in taking on these new tasks.

Why not create a PLN? What's a PLN you ask?

Great question. Most teachers probably have no idea what a PLN is, how to go about getting one or how it can help them to fight the back-to-school blues.
Richard Byrne – teacher, speaker, edtech blogger and advocate for technology in classrooms – describes PLN as a “network of professionals with whom you share knowledge and from whom you gain knowledge.”

Have a look at the following presentation to see how you can develop a PLN.

Constructing a PLN

View more presentations from Richard Byrne

EDUCATION IN THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

A short inspirational video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JH1FaOAf90

VERBLING

A colleague of mine recently discovered 'Verbling'. This is a fairly new site that enables language learners to instantly connect to native speakers through live video. At the moment,there are about 7 languages being exchanged and from what I can see, it looks free. It's set up for short five-minute chats based on a topic of your choice. There are also three levels; beginner, intermediate and advanced.
www.verbling.com

To facebook or not to facebook with your students?

To facebook or not to facebook with your students? That is the question. The following article gives some good reasons why connecting with our students on facebook may not be a bad idea and may actually be beneficial.
10 Ways Facebook Strengthens the Student - Teacher Connection