Using technology to help teach Spanish

This is my first time every posting to an online forum so bear with me if I sound like I don't know what I am doing! I am a high school Spanish teacher teaching in a small rural community where there aren't many opportunities for my students to communicate with others in Spanish. Consequently, I would like to use technology to supplement my students' language experiences. I am especially interested in using video clips and music in my classroom but have no idea where to start. There is so much out there on the Web that it makes it hard to find useful content and it is so time-consuming for me to do searches. Does anyone have any suggestions for resources out there that I can use without having to spend hours hunched over my computer screen trying to find something that will "work" for my lesson? I tried doing a search for foreign-language teacher groups on this site that I could ask but none that I found looked like they had been active lately. Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Julie Jezuit on January 30, 2011 at 2:19pm

If you aren't already a member, I would suggest joining the FL Teach Listserv. FL teachers of all different languages share tips and ask questions on the site. http://www.cortland.edu/flteach/

Another site I suggest you check out is: http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/clozeline/ The site offers a lot of great activities with videos and music in Spanish. Zachary updates it daily.

There are also many FL teachers on Twitter that tweet about tech resources. One to follow is @DiegoOjeda66 He has a website for FL teachers to collaborate. It is: http://languageteacherscollaborate.pbworks.com/w/page/32526867/Fron...

For creating your own resources to use in class check out CLEAR at Michigan State. The Rich Internet Applications allows you to create your own listening activities, games, audio dropboxes, etc. Best of all it is all free and housed on their server. The address is: http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/ria/

Good luck. There are a lot of great resources out there.

Permalink Reply by Beth Johnson on January 30, 2011 at 7:02pm

Thank you! You gave me more great resources in a few minutes time than I have managed to round up on my own after hours and hours of searching!

Permalink Reply by Sabine on January 31, 2011 at 5:35pm

Beth,

I agree there is a huge amount of info out. I put together a site with helpfull links for teachers in my district how to use technology to connect. You can check this out too.http://study-hall-8-g.mps.cms.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/integr...

Also Toni Theisen has a great wiki with a huge amount of links how to use technology and handouts from her presentations and you can follow her on twitter. http://tonitheisen.wikispaces.com/ that would be a good point to start. From my expierence I would give you these advises try it out first- Teach known content with new technolgy and take it slow :) Also always have a none technology backup in place :) Have fun!

Permalink Reply by Kym J. Kennedy on November 5, 2012 at 10:22am

I have a Spanish teacher friend who utilizes sites such as LomasTV.com (has music, videos, etc. with engaging games and such) and studyspanish.com. I like both of these, but I don't know if they will work for you.

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