Which Thing is Best?

I really can't decide which of our 23 Things is my favourite! The one I have already used at school is Voki, and it has been a hit with my students, so that is definitely on my list of "Great Things".

Personally, I love blogging (actually, I prefer reading other people's blogs rather than writing my own), I think RSS feeds and Google Reader are fantastic (I'd never keep up, otherwise), Delicious solves the problem of different Bookmarks on each computer, Flickr is a wonderful resource (I've also used it a little in my classes already), I've already shared Wordle with staff at my school, and Twitter is great fun and fantastic professionally. I can't wait to use VoiceThread - I think it has amazing possiblities or collaboration with students in Japan. SlideShare is also on my list of things to use in the classroom. I think Google Docs will be the way of the future (Cloud Computing), but maybe not so useful in my primary classrooms at the moment.

I didn't put YouTube on the list as I was already using it a lot before this PD, but I love that, too, especially searching in Japanese.

So... I think they are all great!! I wouldn't take any of them off the list.

Thanks, Penny!

Tweet! Tweet!

Okay, I decided it was time to check out Twitter. I know it's not one of our "Things", but it's been in the news a bit lately, and also mentioned in a few blogs I am following.

Twitter has been described as "micro-blogging" - you post short updates about what you are doing in 140 or less characters. I am already "following" 11 people, and (surprisingly!!) 8 people are "following" me! Most of them are Languages teachers who are interested in integrating ICT into their teaching.


Once again, like blogs, the key to Twitter being useful appears to be managing all of the incoming and outgoing messages. There are so many messages flying around, some of them general updates/info for everyone, others directed at specific people (eg replies to someone's post). There are lots of Twitter "apps" around that are designed to help with management. I have installed "TwitKit", which adds a sidebar in Firefox so that I can see what's happening, live.

I also need to find and read some on-line Twitter guides I think, so that I can learn some Twitter etiquette, and what some of the common abbreviations mean.

VoiceThread - Voices Of The World

I would love to do something like this with a sister school in Japan. We could name objects, like in this VoiceThread, or share information about families and school life. It could almost be used as a simple picture dictionary. How wonderful for the students to be able to hear a native speaker of their own age when practising vocab.

Common Craft Videos - What a Great Find!

I know this isn't strictly languages-related, but I really love these videos! I think they will be useful in the Languages classroom because they will save time when explaining technology that you want to use as part of your lessons. When you only see a class once a week (in the primary school), time is at a premium, and having to teach the skills before you use the technology eats up valuable class time. These videos simplify everything - both the audio and visuals are clear and concise, suitable for middle to upper primary students as well as secondary students and adults.

Here is an example:

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

Gorgeous Sakura - Another Creative Commons Photo

IMGP3552
Originally uploaded by hayami

I am blogging this photo direct from Flickr, now that I have signed up and have an account. I am hoping it will acknowledge the photographer automatically.

It is currently ohanami (flower viewing) time in Japan, a short season in late March/early April, when the sakura (Cherry Blossom) flowers begin to bloom. Japanese people like to stroll or picnic under the beautiful trees. I like to share this event with my students, so photographs like this are great to explain what ohanami is all about.

Creative Commons - Using Photographs

I love this photo I found of "玉入れ" (tamaire), a traditional ball game played at school Sports Days in Japan. I am looking forward to using it next term when I talk about Sport with my Year 4 students.

Japanese students are usually divided into two teams on Sporst Day, red and white. On my last trip to Japan I bought a class set of the reversible hats that the children wear. They are a great idea - red on one side, white on the other. Every child has one as part of their sports uniform. You form teams for games during sports lessons or on Sports Day by asking half the students to turn their hats to the white side, and the other half to the red.

I'm not quite sure how to use Creative Commons correctly. I'm guessing I'm supposed to acknowledge the photographer, but I'm not sure of the rules. Does the acknowledgement have to be in a particular place, or of a particular size relative to the photo? (ie is very small text under the photo or at the end of the document in which it is used, acceptable?) I'm also confused because I did a Creative Commons search on Flickr, but the small print next to this photo includes a copyright mark, not a Creative Commons symbol. (By the way, this photo was taken by "cheboo".)

I watched one of the videos on the CC website. Maybe I should watch a few more to understand it better!!

Need to learn a bit more about this....

Google Docs - our Group PowerPoint

Here is our Group's attempt at a shared slide presentation (I guess we can't really call it a PowerPoint because that is a Microsoft copyright!).

I'm looking forward to seeing how it updates itself in my blog as people add more slides. At the time of writing, there were only five slides. We should be able to make it to at least ten!

Google Docs in the Primary Classroom?

Okay, I must admit I'm not sure about this one. I can definitely see the benefits of Google Docs, and I can't wait to try it out. I am going to suggest that the JLTAWA (Japanese Language Teachers' Association of WA) consider using it when planning PD etc, instead of pinging e-mails back and forth. I can also imagine it being used in secondary language classrooms.

One article I read on the web explained how a teacher had used Google Docs for his students to share PowerPoint presentations they had made. Instead of one student standing at the front of the class, showing his/her presentation while the others listened (some maybe not paying attention at all), he asked them to present as a shared document. All the students watched the presentation on their own computers, and were able to contribute comments (in writing) as the presentation progressed. He said it was the most engaged he had ever seen a class during this type of activity.

I'm just not sure how useful it would be in my Primary classrooms. Once again, like Voki and some other sites, it requires students to log in with individual e-mail addresses, outside of the "protection" of the school server, and setting up these accounts would be time-consuming. (This problem would be somewhat alleviated if it was a school-wide decision, and student accounts were already set up ready for me to use.) I'm also not sure how much "sharing" we could do in once-a-week classes where there are only a couple of computers and the students' typing speed is so slow!

Finally, the Terms and Conditions of Google Docs say that it is to be used only by people 13 years and older, which would exclude all primary school students. (Not that this has always stopped us in the past!!)

So... I'm still debating this "Thing". For me, it's great. For my students? Let me think about it a bit more!

Wordle Wonder (but not in Japanese!)

I had fun creating this Wordle - it can be a bit addictive playing around with the colours, fonts etc! I read the FAQ and unfortunately it is not likely to be available in Japanese or Chinese. This is because these languages do not have spaces between words, and therefore the computer would need some sort of algorithm to determine where words start and end. As we know, language is complex, and no-one has yet been able to write that algorithm. What a shame! I could still use it with my classes, but it would have to be in romaji (Japanese written using the English alphabet).

I do want to share this with my colleagues at work (primary classroom teachers). Several of the teachers have a "Star of the Week" project running in their classrooms, and this usually involves the student sharing information about themselves and showing photos and a few treasured objects to the class. Classmates then write a short positive description of the Star Student. My son's class did this in Year4 - it is a great keepsake of all the lovely things his friends said about him. I think that wordle.com would be a great way to make this into a personalised artwork about each student. (You could also do this in the target language - great for practising adjectives). Type in the Star Student's name quite a few times to start (may take some experimenting to ensure that it is the biggest word on the page), then ask classmates to each secretly write down 3 or 4 words that describe that person. You could brainstorm a list of adjectives first and display this to assist, or maybe use it as a dictionary exercise? Enter all of the words chosen into wordle.com, and see what you come up with!

Delicious

Hmmm... I'm still trying to get the hang of Delicious. I do like it - much better than having different "bookmarks" or "favourites" on each computer, but it's taking me a while to really get the hang of it and how to use the Delicious Toolbar efficiently. Because I log on at home on my laptop, at school on my laptop and at home on my desktop, I find that my settings for Internet Explorer and how the toolbars are set up are slightly different. I also use Firefox sometimes, especially when working on the 23 Things project and this blog, and my settings for Firefox are also a bit different. I think it is just going to take some practice. Like everything new, it's a bit overwhelming when you first start!

The idea of forming groups is good, and I'd like to run a simple PD at a Japanese Language Teachers' network meeting on how to use Delicious, and then set up a group for sharing our bookmarks and tags. It takes a long time to trawl through websites to find a few that are really good in the classroom, so it would be a great time-saver if we could share them with each other.