Podcasting en Español

Podcasting can be a very useful tool for foreign language classrooms.  After searching The Education Podcast Network, I was able to find many useful postcast websites that don't requiring downloading extra software to my computer.  At the El Bloguipodio website, students can listen to podcasts in Spanish that discuss a variety of topics.  I specifically would like for the students to listen to the podcast, De Fiestas Latinos y Reformas de Salud.  I really liked this website because I think it can be very useful for students to practice their listening skills.  After listening, students can leave comments on the blog.  To test student comprehension, I'd like to create my own blog and have my students answer several questions and post their responses on my page.

Podcasts open many different doors for students because they don't always have the opportunity to be exposed to a native speaker's voice.  These podcasts are a unique way for students to hear native speakers, and test their comprehension abilities.  With this tool and audacity, students can begin to record their own podcasts, which would be very beneficial for learning Spanish because the students can play back their recordings and try to correct their own errors in grammar and pronunciation.  Overall, podcasting seems like it would be a great resource for my students.

How "Global" is Global Collaboration?

Ethan Zuckerman raises some extremely important concerns in the video, Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to Global Voices.  He first shows the vulnerability of people who use social network websites such as Twitter.  Although we believe that we are globally connected, our social network is comprised of people that we choose to have contact with.  Therefore, our sources of information may only consist of people just like us, which limits our global contact.

Zuckerman also presents some very interesting visuals such as a map of flights around the country that show how much more limited the contact is between the continents of Africa and South America compared to that of the United States and Europe.

This video really would be great to show my students because I don't think that they realize how limited the information is that they receive, and they often forget about important issues that occur internationally.  Zuckerman's cause is a very important one, and I hope that changes can be made to help create a more global representation of world issues.

Collaboration Made Easy with ePals

The ePals website is a great way for teachers, parents and students to collaborate.  Most importantly, this website is safe and easy to use.  After exploring the ePals website and watching the demo, I found many features that would be very useful in this program. 

First, I think that the blog feature would be a great way for the teacher to communicate with students.  The instructor could post instructions and reminders for the students to help them keep up to date with classwork. 

The forum feature would be a great way to post homework or other class assignments.  It would be an easy way for the teacher to collect assignments, and it is paperless!  Absent students would be responsible for checking the forum to find their missing work.

The Wiki feature is my favorite.  This is a way for students to collaboratively contribute to a project from their own computer.  I think this feature would be very useful because all students work at different speeds, and this feature would allow students to continue working on a group project without the guidance of the teacher.

Lastly, the global community feature is very unique because it allows teachers to connect with other classrooms throughout the world.  This feature would be great for my classroom because my students would be able to communicate with Spanish speaking students.

Teach Grammar Quicker with Flickr

After looking at the Bubblr and Bookr tools that can be found at the Bubblr website and the Bookr website, I was very excited about the possibilities that these websites can give to my students.  

The Bubblr website allows you to create text bubbles and place them on photographs, and then add the text.  I think this would be a great project to use with my Spanish classes.  Not only would they be able to show their creativity, but they would also be able to demonstrate their abilities in Spanish by creating a Spanish comic strip type project. 

The Bookr website allows students to create a book, which would be great to use with my level 2 students.  I think it would be really fun for them to experiment with all of the features that the Flickr website has to offer, and it would be a perfect way to evaluate their comprehension of the Spanish language through a different form of assessment than a written test. 

Also, the students would have the projects on their Flickr webpage, so it would be something that they could share with their families and friends, or use as a part of an online resume.

This is a sample of a way that I could use the Bubblr website in my classroom (The students would create something more involved):

Photo by: Sixtopaz

                                                 

Proper use of Flickr

When using the works of others, it is very important to give credit to that person in order to avoid copyright infringement.  Some Flickr users will allow others to use their photographs, but only if the user follows the Creative Commons Licensing procedure.  Information about the various licenses can be found at the Creative Commons Licensing website, but I have described each in this blog post.

There are six different licenses to be aware of.  Each has their own specific requirements for use.

1. Attribution License-This means that others may copy, distribute, and display the work, but only if credit is given to the owner of the material.

2. Attribution-NoDerivs License-This means that others may copy, distribute and display only verbatim forms of the work and credit must be given to the owner of the material.

3. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License-This means that others may copy, distribute, and display the work only in verbatim for, only for non-commercial purposes and credit must be given to the owner of the material.

4. Attribution-NonCommercial License-This means that others may copy, distribute, and display the work only for non-commercial purposes, it does not have to be verbatim, and credit must be given to the owner of the material.

5. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License-This means that others may copy, distribute, and display the work only for non-commercial purposes, under a license that is the same as the license that govens the work, and credit must be given to the owner of the material.

6. Attribution-ShareAlike License-This means that owners may copy, distribute, and display the work under a license that is the same as the license that govens the work, and credit must be given to the owner of the work.

                                          Photo by: By CMYKcolours Mark Elzey Jr

The "Twitter" Bug

                                                 

Twitter is a great resource that can be used for professional development.  Some great websites with reasons for using Twitter were created by Laura Walker or Richard Byrne.  Be sure to check them out!

As educators, we spend the majority of our time working with students, and we don't have that much time to collaborate with our colleagues.  Using Twitter is a great way to collaborate with other teachers for new ideas or suggestions on how to better our teaching of a particular topic.  Twitter also gives us the opportunity to communicate with people from different areas of the world, so we have plenty of different resources.

Because each Twitter page is unique, teachers can use their pages as a journal to reflect on their teaching.  For example, if I felt my lesson went really well, I could tweet about it so that other people following my Twitter page could find new ideas that might work for them.  On the contrary, if I was having trouble with classroom management, I am sure their would be many other experienced educators that could offer me some great advice.  For these reasons, Twitter is a great resource for teachers!

Escucha la Musica

I was excited to find this blog, A Kid's Tour of Latin Music through Google Maps, through LanguageJourneys blog, that focuses on the Spanish speaking areas of the world, and has embeded videos for the students to watch that demonstrate music from the different regions.  This tour is linked together with Google Maps so the students can explore the various countries and watch music videos.  The videos are a great idea because they will capture the students attention.  This same idea could be used to identify typical food of each region, or a variety of other information.