Story Builder is not that new anymore, but many people I talk to haven’t heard about it. So if this doesn’t sound familiar, read on. If you want to make dialog writing a bit more interesting, then google story builder is a neat way to change things up a bit. Read more…
The 20 Questions game is a great game for language students. A person thinks about an object, say a table, and the other players (or player) have to ask questions that can be answered with yes or no, or a few select answers such as probably, rather not, or Read more…
I and many of my students have used Quizlet for a while, and since many of them like it so much I thought it would warrant a blog post. Quizlet is a free study system (think digital flashcards) for computers and mobile devices. It’s particularly good for vocabulary, but can be Read more…
Small, browser-based games can be great in your language classes because of their manageable scope, shallow learning curve, and their accessibility. Fitting into a single lesson, they can create conversation opportunities and prompts. For instance, the 20 questions game, derived from a traditionally non-digital game, provides an always present conversation Read more…
My article titled “Selection Criteria for Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Video Games for Language Learning” was published in the IALLT Journal yesterday. The journal is open access, so you can just click on the link and start reading. Link to article Link to the PDF Version
There’s an annual competition and price in Germany for pedagogically sound games, called the “Pädi.” Not all these games are good for language learning, of course, but it’s an interesting list to look at. There are two age categories, one for children and one for teenagers. One social game I particularly liked Read more…
One of the coolest non-tech features of our language learning center at Rhodes is the fact that you can write on the walls (and the sliding doors when they are closed). It’s great for professors who need more space than the mobile whiteboard provides. Students can write their answers Read more…
Karaoke is not the first thing that comes to mind for many when thinking about language learning. Over the years I’ve seen music in general and karaoke in particular used in wonderful ways to practice other languages and in addition to that promote the joy that language learning can bring. Read more…
I was fortunate to visit the brand new Language Learning Center at Willamette Universityfor the last few days. I was invited to give the inaugural presentation (“Language Learning Spaces at Liberal Arts Colleges”) and meet with faculty, students, administrators, and of course language center employees. The space shows how far Read more…
Socrative is an enhanced real-time student response system that works on a number of devices. There are others (e.g. Poll Everywhere or Piazza), but I like Socrative because of its ease of use, reliability (at least so far), and its cost (it’s free). With Socrative, students connect to a instructor created Read more…