Oz et Virgo » Regular Posting

Regular Posting- 17

virgo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:07:33 +0000

In his article, Brown pointed out that today people use technology to support relationships between individuals. “We are discovering new tools to support each others, which is the very essence of social learning.” (Brown, 2000). It is a theory also supported by the Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology.

I like to believe that technology does enhanced collaborative learning, people share their knowledge and their information via blogs, podcasts, videos, social networking. It is up to educators to value this tool and bring it into the classroom. We have to our disposition a gigantic classroom representing every culture, every language and every thinking. We can connect students with the world and teach them to use the best of what the Net can offer in order to improve as individuals. By using a collaborative learning networking, students learn to become more tolerant, patient and to keep an open mind on what is different.

Though, it is the way I translate it because for our digital natives, this way of thinking is natural, innate. As for people like me who are digital immigrants it is something that we need to keep in mind at all time. Because no matter how long, how often and how well I will use technologies, I won’t become a native. No matter for how long I have been living here and how well I know Australia, I will always be French, it is innate.

But I can keep an open mind, keep up to date with the technology and continue to learn this new language and learn about this new culture. Being disconnected from the new technologies it is being disconnected from the new generation of students. Technology is not a wall that seperate generation of people, it is a bridge between many generation of people.

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virgo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:40:41 +0000

I just read the article “What is meaningful learning?” by Jonassen. Meaningful learning is a balance between cognition and metacognition. Students should learn how to learn and to be able to think about their learning. Thus, students should be engaged in meaningful tasks which allow them to work in interactive groups and master their own learning. For Jonassen technology can be used to enhance these ideas in different ways. As a prospective language teacher two points stand out for me: Technology support discourse among knowledge-building communities and help learners to articulate and represent what they know. (Jonassen, 2008 ). Learning a language is far more complex that learning a tool to communicate. In a traditional teaching it can be challenging to express the complexity behind the language such as the cultural differences and the different way of thinking.

If students are asked to construct a project, a blog or a digital video, they will have to seek information and to build their own research. Thus, they will encounter people on the Net that thinks, write, and speak differently. They also can find material that can change their mind on the language and the culture they are learning.

Technology is a support to both the LOTE teacher and the students, giving the opportunity to the students to go deeper into their knowledge and their learning process. In the way, tools like the Internet, blogs, and podcasts make the language learning experience more real. It is a step outside the classroom a first step to discover the world.

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virgo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:57:52 +0000

I just read an interesting article by Sylvain Genevois(1) about Geoportal, which is the equivalence of a French Google Earth. It interested me to see that this tool as well as Google Earth and Nasa worldwind are used in the French classrooms to teach geography.

Their use is still limited to an iconic vision of the world. There is no real interaction. But this tool allow another perception of the world and gives the world another dimension.

As I mentioned in my last post I find Google Earth and Geoportal interesting tools to use in a LOTE classroom. When we teach the Italian language teachers also mentioned the ancient Rome. It can be interesting to show them how the Roman patrimony is still present; most of the Italian cities are constructed on ancient cities. With a vision from above students can easily see the cardo and Decumanus and have a better understanding of the importance of this patrimony.

Because teaching languages is not only about languages Google Earth and other Geoprotals facilitate the integration of cultural and geographical points. Paradoxically, these tools do make the experience of learning a new culture and a new languages more real.

The crossed geographical aspect of the city of Turin based onto the antic city of Augusta Taurinorum. Google Earth Image, 02/11/2008.

(1)Sylvain Genevois is a French geograph writing articles for the journal M@appemonde sustained by the National Centre of the Scientific Research (France).

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virgo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:57:03 +0000

I went to have a look at Chris’ blog and I listen to his last podcast. A year 5 class was speaking to someone in Antarctica via Skype. It was some how incredible. But what interested the most in his post is that he used Google Earth to find someone in Antarctica with whom he could start a conversation.

I then, had a look at Google Earth and again I found a fantastic tool many teachers in diverse KLAs could use.

For a LOTE teacher it is fantastic, we can locate places we are speaking about, give our students a more precise idea of how people live in France. Many times I heard that all French live in flats. For example we could ask students to locate a specific city and ask them to list different types of habitations or ask them to list different types of landscapes. Students can interact with the geographical aspect of the country. Especially for students who are living so far from other countries it is such an interesting tool to use. The most touristic places have cultural points about food or habits or geographical wonders.

I am again vey enthusiastic and really the list of new technologies, online tools and other media a teacher can use in his or her KLA seems endless.

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virgo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:36:37 +0000

In my Regular Posting 11, I mentioned emails being a way to teach languages to students. In the article Language Learning and the Internet by Lesley Graham (1), emails and languages learning is also explored. 15 students from Bradford University send a weekly email to their teacher. They are not assessed on their grammar but a natural way to express them in the Target Language is offered. This experience was based on Krashen theory that the acquisition of languages is primordial and the learning secondary. Emails offer a stress-free environment where students are encourage to express themselves in the Target language. This mode of expression recreates the early stage of acquisition mentioned by krashen.

I am familiar with Krashen theory about language acquisition and do believe that by recreating an environment close to the one we were familiar with during the acquisition of our first language, we enhance the chance for students to succeed in learning a second language.

It seems that today, emails and other technologies make this possible. However, what alarm me the most – is not the input the teacher or students will provide, neither the amount of technology we will use during the learning process – is the fact that languages are not compulsory in the Australian curriculum, and that LOTE subject seem to don’t be taken seriously.

In today’s world, where everybody moves, travel, work overseas, or even meet online, languages are important. Europe understands it very well. In the Educational Curriculum, Languages are compulsory and they allow European inhabitants to interact more easily and to understand each others better, with the use of new technologies or not.

(1) Lesley Graham is a tutor for a Professional Master formative in languages of speacialists from other disciplines at the University of Bordeaux France.

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virgo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:33:37 +0000

In the article Digital Storytelling What’s Digital Storytelling?, Alfonso Varona writes “Digital Storytelling is the old need for human beings to tell a story but integrating the new tools of the 21st century” (Varona, 2009).
I have to say that I am totally enthusiastic about the use of digital story telling in the languages classroom, may be some recollection of my major in video and cinema during high school. But at that time it wasn’t digital and I remember cutting metres of films to edit sound or working with gigantic monsters to edit a movie. But what I also remember is the enjoyment of being able to use different skills and the power of telling stories.

I can’t wait to work with students and prepare a digital storytelling project. Students would be allowed to tell their own stories in the target language, telling all about what they like to do, their family, their pets, their hobbies or even to learn about the culture and produce something about the country. Digital story telling offers many opportunities to encourage students to master their own learning and also to motivate them for a new experience.

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virgo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:08:33 +0000

I have just finished reading an article from Dr. Dietmar Rösler Professor in German as a foreign or second language in diverse European Universities. His article, Foreign language learning with the new media: between the sanctuary of the classroom and the open terrain of natural language acquisition, highlights different media that can be used today to teach languages in a more natural approach.

It surprised me to find emails being introduced as a way to teach languages. For Dr Dietmar Rösler, emails reintroduced a 1:1 quality teaching that has been lost for centuries.

Not that I am against the idea, but after reading so many articles about the use of new media in education, it never occurred to me that emails could be one of those. And, why not?

As Dr Dietmar Rösler mentioned writing an email is an informal act, which stands between oral expression and written expression. In addition, it allows a close contact between the student and the teacher. However, it seems logical that emails are only one way to learn a new language. It is without seeing that students will still have to reinforce their 4 micro skills which include listening and speaking. I believe that sending podcasts via emails can be a possibility but what about the interaction?

We cannot forget that language is a tool to communicate with real people in a real world. The more students will be in contact with this real world, the better they will improve.

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virgo — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:46:18 +0000

Thanks to the article Digital Video goes to schools, we can see the large panel of skills developed by students when involved in the creation of a digital video. Students are enthusiastic, motivated and confident they can achieve well.

Creating a video requires time but also logistic, students learn to be responsible for their part of creation.

I do believe that for a LOTE teacher, digital video is a wonderful tool. Students can do researches about the subject, decide of what they want to create, organise themselves in different learning and creative groups and use the target language as a tool for their creation. They can use their four skills in the Target Language, reading when seeking information, listening to other people’s ideas in the TL, speaking about their ideas in the TL and finally writing their project from the brainstorming to a complete scenario or story board.

In this project students are mostly autonomous; they learn to work together, to share ideas and to create something. They also learn about different techniques and improve their TL skills. They can create new reports or documentaries about events from the TL country or write poetries that they can illustrate with images, they can create a short film in the TL or create a travel video after a trip overseas. They can create videos to communicate with students from other countries. Digital video seems the most complete tool that the new technologies can offer, allowing students to use all their knowledge and aptitudes.

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virgo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:22:15 +0000

This post is to illustrate my last Regular posting (n°8). I mentioned that ICT are taking off slowly in France due to a very instructivist system. I came across a blog that embrace completely the determination for teachers to change education in France.

Patrick Dubreucq, has made a blog for his year 12, to help them to keep in track with their learning and revision for the Baccalauréat in History and geography. He is making his lesson plans accessible as well as giving tips on how to perform well during the exam.

His blog is not really interactive as it is only a source of information – don’t forget that for the French, playing is not learning- however it shoes the teacher goodwill for a new type of learning-teaching rapport. I wish I had teachers like that! I find it encouraging and motivates me even more to use a constructivist approach to my teaching.

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virgo — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:00:50 +0000

I am French, and in France things change slowly. I have never really been connected with the French educational system since I left my country. However sinceI am doing this subject, I wanted to know what my country had to say regarding the E-teaching and E-learning matter.

I have been pleased to observe that the French are changing the way they are thinking education. It is about time… In 2005, the ‘Bulletin Officiel’publish a new curriculum concerning ICT in the schools. Even, if the article is very academic using a lot of jargon most of us cannot understand (what is a B2), it is a enormous step for a country where education is deeply conservative and instructivist.

Since I started this subject I was wondering how I would be able to connect my Australians students with some French students knowing that ICT is so poorly regarded in my birth country. I am finally reassured.

Even if it is taking off so slowly at least education in France seems to take a new more open direction.