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…
Quest for the Rest is a great little browser game that lends itself for one language class and that I’ve been using for quite some time now, so I thought I’d share my thoughts. The game free and easily accessible here without any downloads. There is no text in this brief Read more…
A few weeks ago I wrote about my favorite sources for images for language learning and teaching. Today I’d like to write about another great tool: Thinglink. This one is actually for adding meta info to images: text, links, other images, videos, etc. It’s quite easy to do: you upload an Read more…
For several years now one of the most versatile game I’ve used in the language centers at Pomona College and Rhodes College is a PS3 game called Buzz. Here’s how it works: up to 8 players each take a wireless controller, which sports 4 brightly colored buttons and a large “Buzz” button. Read more…
In my last two posts I wrote about applications that are located between games and digital storytelling: Dear Esther and StoryLines. Today’s post is about the Story Wheel iOS app, in which multiple players spin a virtual wheel. There are several animated pictures on each wheel, and they are thematically related (the Read more…
Last week I wrote about the narrative game StoryLines. Today’s pick is arguably not even a real game, but more like an interactive novel: Dear Esther. There aren’t really any goals that have to be accomplished. No tasks or choices, no levels(there are “chapters”), no upgrades, no overt rewards other than Read more…
I just finished revising a book chapter I wrote on new forms of narratives, which includes several applications that are neither games nor digital storytelling software in the traditional sense. So I decided to write about one of those applications in this post (StoryLines) and a few others (e.g. Dear Read more…
This coming fall semester (2012) I’m trying something new with my German 101 class: we’re going to publish a book. I’ve helped other courses publish their work as magazines (e.g. Conexiones), and therefore have an established workflow in the language center for such print and epublication projects. One the student workers Read more…
I use a lot of images in my language classes. An unusual picture is a great way to start a class, and photos can convey a more authentic impression of another country than many traditional textbooks can. They can be used for descriptions in the L2, or as vocabulary props. They also Read more…
A while ago the Goethe Institut released a mobile Game, Lernabenteuer Deutsch – Das Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe, to Practice German. I played through much of the iPad version, but other platforms are supported as well: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch), Android, and a browser-based version. All versions are free and worked flawlessly. Read more…