Thing 19- Podcasting

I had heard a lot about podcasting and was a bit underwhelmed with what I heard during the podcasts. It seemed very similar to using a tape recorder. I think the biggest convenience of this is that many students could download the files to access rather than one student or a small group listening to a tape player.

I think that it would be an interesting way to have students practice their listening skills, but the professional podcasts would mainly apply to higher-level students. It's really hard for beginners to listen to something that is not in context. When I can point at something, talk about the size and color, students get the idea. If they heard someone talking about news in French, they probably would recognize some things, but the majority would go over their heads.

One of the podcasts I listened to was about French grammar. I couldn't imagine trying to make any sense out of that without having visual cues. Of course, if I had a visually-impaired student, that would probably be a great resource.

I think this would be useful for recording some class discussions to share with parents, absent students, the administrators, etc. to show what we did in class. One of my major concerns is trying to keep absent kids caught up, so I could see using this resource occasionally.

I liked some ideas such as having students make a sample radio program. They could record an interview (with a "famous" person), give a weather report, tell the local news, etc. and then the class could listen to the whole cast.

Thing 23

I definitely got some new ideas and I'm just sad that I can't have more computers in my classroom so I can actually implement them. With all the budget cuts, we probably won't see much expansion for computer labs and classroom computers for several years. Some of the things we learned about, like Voicethreads, would be great for activities and a real time-saver in class. I loved some of the alternatives to PowerPoint shows due to their versatility and simplicity. I'll definitely continue using the embed feature to access videos, songs, etc that I can use in the classroom. That's a great way to get around the website blocks that restrict us from accessing these materials. I can see myself using Google Reader to keep up with current events in the French-speaking world and also PageFlakes. I liked how the flakes could access local radio stations, post international times, show the weather, and other fun functions. I liked these things the best and I think they could easily be used in my classroom. Some others, like podcasting, might not work out well since there's no video to "see" what they're listening to or talking about. Beginner language students need more support with visuals so they know the context and can guess at vocabulary they don't immediately recognize. Still, there weren't really any other Things that I saw that wouldn't be useful in some way! This was a great course!!!!

Thing 22

I decided to check out Busuu and I think some of the features would be ok. For example, a student would be able to find an online chat pal there and listen to the language being spoken. A lot of the features are "premium" features and that costs money. There are free sites that are just as good or better, so I wouldn't recommend this to my students.

Bamzooki doesn't have anything to do with French, but I thought it might be fun to have students describe their robots and maybe write about who won, describe the fight, etc. I don't think we could use this because it requires a download and that needs special permission. I have to admit that I had trouble figuring out what to do since the tools don't have any tutorials with them. My first attempt was an embarassment, so I'm not sharing that :) I had legs coming out all over the robot bug. I think students would probably like it, but they have to be under 15 to make an account (or say they're under 15). Some of the other robot-building sites may be better since this one didn't tell you how to do anything.