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…
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…
One reason why I like teaching in our new language center is the ability to set up a backchannel. If you’re not familiar with the term, it is a deliberate setup of a chat-like environment that allows students (and the instructor) to post information in realtime. There are numerous reasons, Read more…
Turnitin is mostly known for its plagiarism detection software (a feature that can actually be turned off if you only want to use the features discussed below). For me, the real advantage of the program are the peer editing features, the quick commenting, and the rubric grading feature. First of Read more…
I’ve been using VoiceThread throughout the semester. I use this tool for a number of reason with my beginning German class: It’s easy, free, and allows the students to express themselves despite their level of language competence. I introduced the tool by making new vocabulary items from the book available Read more…
A question we hear as language educators all the time: “How do you pronounce that?” But what if we’re not around? One good web 2.0 solution is Forvo, a collection of several hundred thousand words and pronunciations in many languages. It’s social software at its finest: native speakers add Read more…
We often talk about how to have our students use communicative technologies. I do that all the time, and I think it should be a big part of every class. But today I thought I’d share how I use VoiceThread in my German for Beginners class. As an important part Read more…