How are you digitising?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Fox on September 5, 2007 at 5:34am

Funny you should ask! I have just revamped my French website at http://anne_fox.homestead.com/ and this is what I said about the revamp on my blog only yesterday.

Le français mobile
Over the summer I have been revamping and updating my French website http://anne_fox.homestead.com and the two themes emerging from that process have been audio and mobility.

I was surprised to work out that the website is at least six years old. It started as an aid for my neice who had a difficult French teacher. But as time has gone on and I have changed from temporary to permanent and from part-time to half-time to full time it has become increasingly difficult to maintain it to a reasonable standard. I was considering deleting it altogether or finding some collaborators but it still serves a purpose as a testing ground for various ideas and some people seem to find it useful so instead of deleting I tried to update.

The mission of the website is to help people on their way rather than giving them self-study lessons. And so I duplicated as much as I could to a mobile website at http://winksite.com/engelsk/learnfrench

I have replaced the WIMBA Voiceboard (which our small institution had difficulty to continue funding) with a free Springdoo tool so that visitors can continue to have asynchronous audio conversations with the added advantage that people can post and listen from their mobile phones.

Just for fun I have also added a speaking Voki character to the front page which will probably delight and infuriate in equal measure and to which people can also add audio comments. My policy is to delete all audio contributions in English by the way.

And on the exercise front, I have abandoned Quia for which my institution had to pay in favour of Word Champ which is not only free but which, once again, can be accessed, at least in part, on a mobile phone.

Finally I have started a Flickr Learn French group where I have placed a few pictures annotated with French vocabulary and to which I hope others will contribute their own annotated French pictures. The pictures are accessible on a mobile phone but not, unfortunately, the notes.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I have also created a couple of Voice Threads which are pictures with audio commentary to which other people can add comments.

The text with all the links is at http://eduspaces.net/annef/weblog/193394.html

Permalink Reply by Aaron Bray on February 24, 2008 at 3:53pm

Your link is a great page and gives me lots of new ideas. Is it easy to put the sound files in?

Permalink Reply by Richard Platts on July 23, 2008 at 7:02pm

I'm always short on time, so I'm integrating technology as a way to take back some of the face time that I do get with my kids. I teach Middle school German, and sadly am limited to 20 minutes of class a day with my students (yes, that does mean i teach 10 sections.) Because of this limitation among other crazy scheduling issues that mean I'm on something different each day, I am using an online classroom to make resources available, am designing some online lessons that students will complete on their own, and am moving most of my quizzing online.

I used moodle for a while, but had to switch over to blackboard since my school went in that direction. I'm toughing it out, but am not a big blackboard fan at all.

I do like the online tools for additional listening and reading work that would have been hard to do otherwise. I have lots of stories online, and I often record myself reading the text to accompany the typed page.

I'm always looking for new ideas and relevant resources!

Permalink Reply by Julie Meierdirks on July 24, 2008 at 7:19pm

I'm looking for ways to include more audio practice online. I currently have a webpage which will include a blog by me this year, and I'd like to add the audio files there. I was thinking about video files too (or rather links to them) but haven't had much luck finding good videos. They're either extremely advanced or way too basic. BTW I teach 6th-7th grade French, mostly 1st year content. I'd love to find a way to include their recorded content as well; I've tried Voicethread before and really liked those results.

I'd love to hear any ideas anyone may have to help me with my audio dilemma. I could really use some great resources!

Permalink Reply by James O'Reilly on July 25, 2008 at 12:48am

I'm an Intern at the WebcastAcademy.net, which operates under the Creative Commons License.
Please take a look at the curriculum: http://www.webcastacademy.net/book/curriculum
The WebcastAcademy.net is a hands on, online collaborative training center for people interested in learning how to produce and host live, interactive webcasts with worldwide participants. English and Spanish language modules are being produced. Further languages are forecasted.

I like the innovative issues addressed, but as things are moving so fast "muddling through" has been the favored approach up to now. Convergence of the course into Moodle and into 3D virtual worlds is under way.