FLEAT VI

Publishing pupils’ multimedia work to a potentially worldwide audience can motivate children, raise standards in their work, promote creativity and give them a real purpose for their language learning. It can also facilitate assessment for learning opportunities, distance learning, forge international links, and celebrate pupil voice.

However, the plethora of web tools and apps currently available to teachers is overwhelming. So which ones are the most effective for enhancing language learning? One powerful solution to this question is drawing on a personal learning network and crowd sourcing ideas. This is exactly what is happening on a daily basis with the #MFLtwitterati, a trailblazing community from the UK interested in exploring the power of technology such as iPads in the classroom and flipped learning in a positive and collaborative way. This presentation will highlight the importance of having a growth mindset when approaching the use of technology and how we should use it only when it leads to enhancement or transformation in learning not as a bolt on or substitute for traditional pedagogy.

I am a primary school teacher in Doncaster, England as well as British Council Ambassador for education and I would like to talk about a project that has started in July 2014. I have been coordinating an etwinning project which was set up to celebrate languages from within my school to across the globe. The basic concept, was for students from across Europe to post simple video introductions of themselves before counting from 0 - 10 in whatever languages they speak in. Nothing more than a simple 30 - 60 second clip to allow students to have a voice in explaining who they are without putting them under pressure. Presently, we have 75 partner schools and a large collection of videos with pupils of all ages from Armenia to Ireland, Greece to Spain sharing a vast range of languages. Arabic, Amazigh, Urdu, Czech and many other languages being heard and applauded instead of derided and shunned which can happen all too frequently in some areas. With the help of these schools and their pupils we have exchanged some incredibly positive videos that show children talking in 1, 2 or 3 different languages and making other people step back and instead of labelling them as being different, praise them for being talented. Understandably, our pupils want to listen to, learn from and collaborate with these friends because they want to find out more, understand more and know more. This project has enabled us to bring down barriers and open up some eyes and minds and I would like to share how we have done that, but I would also to ask for your help in spreading the message even further so that instead of 75 partner schools, we have 175 partner schools and hundreds of languages represented and celebrated.

The proliferation and availability of digital tools are having a profound impact on language teaching and learning. New digital and online tools are dramatically shaping the ways we teach language and the ways our students learn. These tools are opening up new possibilities to foster meaningful communication, interaction and collaboration in the target language, both in and outside the classroom. Language teachers are leveraging these digital tools to extend students’ engagement with the target language, and make their interaction with the material more meaningful and effective.

How can we best harness the potential of these new technologies to advance students’ linguistic proficiency? What pedagogical approaches should inform the communicative tasks we design in order to maximize our students’ interest and motivation? How do we integrate these new digital tools into our language curriculum?

This presentation will examine how language teachers can take advantage of many of these readily available digital tools, and how they are being used to enhance not only our students’ linguistic skills and their communicative competence, but also to improve their motivation and their critical thinking. Concrete examples of digital task-based activities used at different levels of language instruction will illustrate the pedagogical potential and applications of digital tools in designing student-centered communicative tasks that capitalize on student creativity and collaboration to further their competence in the target language.

In our modern world, social media connects us to a world of instant information, as well as to each other. Teachers are the gatekeepers to the world of technology, we hold the key to ensuring our students are prepared to take part in the digital world. It is our job to ensure, however, that we teach them how to be safe; from obtaining authentic information to protecting themselves and their identities. One of the best ways to do this is to have them experience interacting with their peers and others in a safe space online. Two such useful platforms, Edmodo and Google Classroom are both used by our school for different and similar uses. Both are free, however, while Edmodo is open to everyone, Google Classroom is only available currently to teachers’ whose schools are approved for and use Google Apps for Education. Both have free mobile apps that can interact with them, and both can be monitored and moderated to maintain a safe environment. Edmodo has a true social media feel, looks a bit like Facebook, and can run your entire classroom - from assignments and quizzes to class discussions. Google Classroom is most useful to those whose classes have Google Drive embedded within them. Assignments, forms, surveys, quizzes, presentations, projects.. all can be completed and turned into the teacher through the Google Classroom. Our school uses Edmodo for international exchange interactions as well as to manage certain classes. Google Classroom is used within all classes that use Google Drive. Results show that students have increased understanding of computer use, and quickly learn effective research strategies as well as copyright restrictions, and more, making them better digital citizens.

Star Trek’s universal translator, augmented and virtual realities, gaming … and language learning? Social media and augmented/virtual realities are redefining learning environments, creating new arenas that change how we interact with and perceive our world. In this presentation, we review the current language learning landscape, explore where it’s heading, and construct opportunities for educators to take advantage of these new opportunities and ideas.

We examine languages classes based in fluid social media virtual classrooms over a 4 ½ year period. We observe actual online and face-to-face classes taught using a Facebook platform (no other Learning/Course Management Systems), and multidisciplinary and social media projects created by students in a tiered environment. The online and blended/hybrid students are integrated, learning together, and collaborating on transmedia projects. The language classes explore culture in larger scale transdisciplinary projects. The highly personalized assignments are compiled into AR-portfolios. Students finish with applied language as well as transmedia and team-building skills. We also survey the impact that the social media platform has had on student success & retention data.

In this presentation, I will describe a project called “Real Life in Russia” that aims to create a number of simulations of everyday tasks in order to help prepare students for study abroad as well as enrich the regular first- and second-year curriculum.

Many of the tasks that students have to perform immediately upon arrival in the target culture (like interacting with store clerks or buying transportation tickets) can be intimidating. They oftentimes involve procedures that everyone in the culture already knows. Difficulties in these interactions can set the tone for the whole study abroad experience, discouraging students from taking linguistic risks early in their time. Luckily, many of these procedures are quite formulaic, and with a little practice, can be more successfully managed more quickly. This project aims to introduce students to these formulaic real-life tasks and interactions, allowing them to practice them, in the hope that success early in their study abroad experience will help them feel prepared to perform more challenging tasks during their time abroad.

The project includes 6 modules: Transportation, Host Family Life and Eating, Shopping, Eating Out, Telephone, and a Capstone lesson, with other modules in the planning stages. I will share lessons learned and tips about tools and methods for creating these kinds of simulations, show examples of the current modules, outline plans for further modules, describe how the modules fit into the curriculum, and give initial student feedback to the lessons.

This session outlines the value of student project-based learning with the course taught entirely in the target language (Spanish) at a wireless laptop / iPad school. Grade 12 Pine Crest students will give "live" presentations without the use of notes and incorporating realia into the theme of their presentations. A follow-up video trailer highlights and summarizes each presentation. The presentations incorporate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills for 21st Century Learners using the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the five C's (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, Communities). The themes are student selected, researched, and initiated, thus providing "meaningful" learning and purpose for the student. Participants of the session will model classmates in asking open questions to the presenters relating to the themes presented. A follow-up question / answer session will conclude the session.

The following Pinecrest students are unable to attend FLEAT 6 but have contributed to this session:

Molly Rose Malaney
Kyle Ockerman

Appsmashing is "the process of using multiple apps in conjunction with one another to complete a final task or project" according to Greg Kulowiec who coined the term. This session will show how appsmashing can enhance language learning through the productive skills of speaking and writing as well as promoting the 4 C's of Creativity, Collaboration, Critical thinking and Communication.

Appsmashing challenges language learners to access higher order thinking skills and gives them ownership of their work. They can produce engaging layered digital storytelling projects which channel their creativity in multifaceted ways and promote personal expression. Language learners are able to work creatively and collaboratively to produce writing and speaking in one multimedia outcome giving them extensive and rigorous practice of the productive skills which they can easily publish to a worldwide audience on a blog or video sharing site.

Appsmashing allows them to draft, redraft, refine and edit what they have done as a vehicle for promoting creative writing or improving pronunciation. Students are able to work independently and at their own pace or collaborate with their peers.

In the session, we will look at some practical examples or recipes for combining different apps together to produce collaborative video projects, interactive posters and multimedia comic books which lend themselves very well to enhancing language learning. We will also explore some language specific lesson planning guidance and outcomes produced by young learners in the UK.

Are you up for the challenge? If you like the idea of turning an original idea on its head and coming up with something which is far more engaging, relevant and important to young people, then this could be the perfect session for you!

The on-going study is designed to investigate how Korean elementary students develop their intercultural competence (IC) while telecollaborating with American peers. 14 Korean sixth graders, English language learners, have exchanged information with 7 American fifth graders regarding themselves, Christmas message and their school life such as school schedule, school buildings, lunch time, etc. Since the Korean students have limited English skills, they were asked to make a group of 3 students and each group has worked on their topics with group members, using a tablet and a laptop computer. After completing each of topics, they have created either a short video clip or a written note with pictures and posted on a blog site, which is managed privately by only the study researcher and the two school teachers. This telecollaborative learning project started at the end of September, Korean students have met for 2 hours every other week, and they will have the last class at the early of this February

To evaluate the Korean students’ level of IC, Fantini’s IC assessment tool is used; first, his questionnaire was translated into Korean and some technical terminology changed into plain words to make them better understood. After modifying Fantini’s IC tool, Korean elementary school teachers were requested to review each statement and to rewrite it if necessary considering the students’ cognitive ability. Then, 3 sixth graders in the same school, but not participating in the study, were asked to respond to each statement and to report if they had any difficulty in understanding. The finalized assessment tool was given to the participants in the study before they started their telecollaborative learning project. Upon the completion of the telecollaborative project at the end of January, the participants will take the post-test with the same questionaire. The responses from both the pre-test and the post-test will be compared through paired sample t-test to find any development differences of Korean elementary school students’ IC, based on the four components of Fantini’s IC model: knowledge, attitude, skill and awareness.