I came across the following post from WEBLOGG-ED

More molecules moving today…sat with a group of World Language teachers and talked and showed them what we could do with audio and podcasting and the like and there were suddenly lots of light bulbs going off. They’re already posting their own files for kids to listen to, but…

“So you mean we can just send the link to the audio file in an e-mail once we post it.” Yep.

“If we wanted to archive them, we can link them from our blogs, right?” Uh-huh.

“What if we wanted to have kids in other schools listen and respond in writing…could we do that?” No problem.

“Could our kids load these files onto their own MP3 players?” Yup.

“So I could have them do something like this on a regular basis, like my kids putting together shows in Spanish, say about our school, that the eighth grade teachers could play and have their kids listen to for the language piece and learn about high school at the same time, right?” Can you say podcasting?

“What if I wanted to have them really talk to someone from far away?” Let me tell you about Skype…

“Wow.” Exactly.

The scenario seems familiar. I think that most teachers are simply not familiar with the possibilities these new Web 2.0 tools can offer them. Especially foreign language teachers need to have the opportunity to hear about podcasting, blogging, wikis and RSS feeds. I agree with Will Richardson from Weblogg-ed that once they know what is now possible ,light bulbs with go off (maybe even fireworks!).

Maybe the first step in professional development for foreign language teachers is to expose educators to the tools and their existence and the possibilities they generate in the foreign language classroom.
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Posted: 13. July, 2006 at 9:29 pm. Filed under: Uncategorized.
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