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.

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.

This great new tool is like a large screen-touch computer, called surface computing.

Annie mentioned that it would be much fun to use it in the classroom. I agree with this statement, it would be really fun to use it. Students could make interactive portfolios and instead of having a traditional desk, students could have this computer-graphic-screen-touch-hands-on-desk.

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).

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.

TALE and other websites built bridges between communities and allow teachers, parents and children to access easily and quickly to information. It is interesting to see that many people are willing to share their knowledge or information with others in the perceptive of offering a better education to our children.

This type of websites have a place in the classroom. Teachers can use them not only to seek information with their students but also to teach their students how to look for intersting information and documents. Consequently, students learn to define their research and to develop a critic thinking.

This the video we produced for our elective C. Hope you will have fun. We did!

To me, this project is fantastic to more than one level. First of all as a future LOTE teacher, it is exactly the kind of project I would like to engage my students with. Secondly, Bernard Garcin proved me that even in France, mentalities are changing and a more constructivist education is taking place. Lastly, In France as in many other countries, schools are closing in small villages and youths are living those places. This type of e-learning and e-teaching could be one of the key to maintain schools in these areas.

As Tanja, I also think that blogging should be used in moderation. However it can be a great tool when it comes to interact with others. Not only in a basic communicative way but also in a constructive way. Students can post their work online and have feeds back from other students at the other end of the world. To me that definitively help students to construct their thinking. In fact, students are confronted with other realities, believes and thinking.