Everyone working in educational technology should read the April 2008 Universal McCann Wave 3 report on global trends in social media. This is not an education-specific report, but rather a global view of the impact of social media – who is using what tool for what purpose. Absolutely worth a read – the content is outstanding and the visual layout beautiful.
The Michigan World Language Association conference is starting tomorrow. The Holiday Inn South in Lansing is the location – it is centrally located, free parking, and easy to reach for many educators from the east and west sides of the state. Hope to see you there!
Voki allows the user to create an avatar and give it voice. It is easy to customize the voki, record your voice (up to 60 seconds) or upload an audio file. I created a quick voki to welcome workshop participants back from break. Do you recognize the character?
Does Voki have staying power? Well, I don’t know. It’s cute, it’s easy – like many technology authoring platforms, it is up to the user to give it meaning. Rumor has it that there are some high school students I know creating a variety of political vokis and sending them to each other, just for fun.
I just returned from New Jersey where I worked with 36 world language teachers for 4 days. We focused on enhancing world language teaching and learning with web-based technologies. We had a wiki that served as our starting point (see the Explore page), and then each participant had a workspace (see Participants page), and many went on to develop their own wikis for the upcoming school year (listed beside their workspace on the Participant page).
While we primarily focused on the tools, there was some discussion on the pedagogy – however it was more implicit than explicit – the trouble with such as short time together and the way the 4 days were structured. It was interesting to work with such a large group, as there are teachers all along the technology adoption-integration spectrum. Some are simply recreating existing practice via technology and are still rather teacher-centered, while others are innovating and thinking very creatively and having the students be the creators of personalized, media-rich content.
They are an energetic group with great ideas – many have set up their own wikis, others are working on projects in VoiceThread, and some have even set up collaborative projects with each other’s classrooms via Skype. The New Jersey Department of Education will be holding follow-up events throughout the year, and hopefully there will be some exemplary lessons emerge from this group.
During our 4 days, excitement was generated by…
I look forward to hearing how the 2008-09 year goes as these teachers experiment with new technologies in their personal and professional practice!
I just returned from co-facilitating a 10 day intense professional development institute called Mentoring and Leadership for K-12 Chinese teachers at the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University. Cherice Montgomery, my co-facilitator, did a tremendous job with curriculum development. The participants were phenomonal – what a great group of teachers of Chinese! During the Institute we created a wiki that is serving as a jumping point for new initiatives in connecting Chinese teachers. It was interesting to work with a group of teachers whose language was not my language, Spanish. Many of the participants did not have English as a first language, adding an additional layer of complexity to our interactions. I learned a lot about Chinese, about teaching and learning Chinese, and am grateful for the opportunity to share the past 10 days with this group of gifted educators. Indeed, they have the power to shape the profession, serving as mentors and leaders for their colleagues!
Now that I am a few days post-Institute, here are some random summative thoughts:
I hope the participants have used the experiences to challenge old ideas, to create new ideas, and to explore the possibilities of teaching and learning a world language in the 21st century.
Cindy leading a demo lesson, Juan está triste. This part of the lesson is answering the question, ¿Por qué está triste Juan? Porque un ratoncito come su queso.
During a campaign stop in Colorado, Obama indicated that in order to compete in our global economy everyone should be bilingual or even trilingual. Read more at Obama Urges Education Reform.
What I find interesting about this comment is here we have a presidential candidate who himself has second language experience (Indonesian) and third language experience (Spanish, which I understand is at a novice level). Here we have a candidate who appreciates and understands diversity and cultural differences. I’m wondering if this is signaling a shift in America politics. For so many decades our county has had the attitude of “if you want to do business with us, learn our language.” Perhaps this call is a recognition that if the United States wants to do business with the rest of the world, and understand the rest of the world, and develop tolerance for the rest of the world, perhaps we can start by speaking the languages of the rest of the world.
We’ve seen a shift in attitude due to national security. After 9/11, when the government discovered a backlog of untranslated documents, a lack of second language speakers in our citizenry, suddenly in the name of national security there is interest again in world languages.
In business, the saying was “speak the language of your customer.” Well here in the US, we have many products we are trying to sell abroad as our dollar weakens – our products are now bargains. Who are our customers? Who is interested in buying our goods? Now, perhaps, we can have a shift in part due to economics and in the name of understanding our fellow human beings.
I’m thinking this election is going to set the stage for many years to come. What kind of world are we going to have for our children and how are we going to prepare them for it?
I know my thinking is richer because I also speak Spanish, and I have had the opportunity to live in Mexico and Peru. I hope we can create a world where other languages and cultures are treasured, honored, and respected – languages and cultures within the United States as well as throughout the world.
Photo credit: Automania
The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing of.
— Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst
Came across this quote and liked it. Think about learning about a culture. How much do we take in with our eyes, with our soul. The understanding we gain in our heart adds so much to the understanding we have in our head.
There is an interesting discussion on FLTEACH regarding the film Rue
Case-Nègre and the use of the “n” word. The issue at hand is whether or not this film is appropriate for the high school classroom. There are some very thoughtful posts surrounding the issues of culture, sensitivity, and situating the film within its historical and cultural frame while deciding if it is appropriate for your school and your students. Here are some of my favorite responses:
From Kareen Obydol-Alexandre:
I am black French (from Guadeloupe) and I have shown Rue Case-Nègre. I have students of diverse racial backgrounds. What I do though, before the movie,I mention that the “n” word appears a lot but it does not have the connotation they expect. I also explain that the word nègre is used in
France to talk about a ghost writer (I think that’s the English term). I am
not saying it is right, but it is part of the culture. My culture. (5/9/08)
Crystal Cannon replied:
I think that would be a great loss to your students, both black and white. As a black person, and a French teacher, I don’t equivalate the word French word nègre to the American n-word. In my mind, they are two different words. One means Negro or black, not pejorative, the other very pejorative. I show this movie to my students the minute we begin talking about Martinique, but also I want them to know some history and this film is one of the few that shows it. What a loss if my students couldn’t see this movie. I’ve even heard some French teachers say they don’t show it because it’s in Creole, which is not true. This movie is a treasure and should not be passed over for any reason!!! If your students have questions about the language, explain it to them, but please, don’t stop showing this film and telling this story, I beg you. (5/12/08)
Additional discussion revolves around the comfort of the teacher situating the film for the students; discussion that if shown, would the film or teacher be considered racist; discussion on the comfort of the teacher in showing the film. Some discomfort noted lies in the teacher having the deep understanding to be able to confidently situate the film culturally and historically:
I think the kids still handle it as such, though — as a portrayal of a situation that contributes to the plot and understanding the characters. It gives the opportunity to talk about attitudes then – and now, if you’re up to it. (Mary Young, 5/08)
And, of course, everyone must evaluate what will be acceptable in your school, by your students, parents and administration, and as a teacher, your willingness to enter in to culturally sensitive discussions.
We must continue to prepare teachers and provide opportunities for practicing teachers to gain greater understandings of historical and contemporary culture in order for them to be able to bring these perspectives in to the classroom.
Book Clubs are providing opportunities for collegiality and discussion around books. But how about Book Clubs that use books in the target language!?
Over in Milwaukee, WI, such book clubs are popping up – what a great idea! Teachers could find community members to help facilitate such clubs, and clubs could be age specific as well as language specific.
Read more at Book clubs boost language skills in friendly atmosphere.
Over the next few weeks Coca-cola is going to be raising awareness of other languages – the company will be releasing collectible cans and bottles that will have the company’s logo/name in languages other than English. According to the Atlantic Business Chronicle:
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) on May 19 will release Olympic-themed collectible cans and FridgePacks bearing the iconic Coca-Cola logo in different languages, including Ethiopian, Russian, Thai, Mandarin, and of course, English. Twenty-ounce Coca-Cola bottles will have labels with multiple languages including those of the Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Korea, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The packaging marks the first appearance of the Coca-Cola script in different languages in the United States, with new designs appearing every two to three weeks.
