Prezi perspective ... and Skype too!

Before our Prezi tutorial and assignment, I had seen a few Prezi presentations in several of my grad courses.  Being used to Powerpoint from my years in consulting, I initially  loved the fresh and fun look Prezi brings to presentations.  As I watched more presentations, however, I realized that it is very easy to overuse Prezi's zooming features and intricate designs.  When this happens, presentations become overwhelming and it becomes difficult to sort out the main ideas of the content.  I think this becomes even more of a challenge for younger audiences.

After doing the assignment, I do not think the basic templates are too overwhelming or intricate.  I chose the "pathway" template, which guides the viewer along via a simple flow.  It has footprints that mark the way, and simple circles to frame each "presentation point."  I do think that a more youthful template like this would be more engaging for students, as opposed to a Powerpoint template, which can look very business-like very quickly.  My guess is the more distracting templates I saw on prior presentations are only available via an upgrade.  Once I got used to the menus and how to sequence the flow, it was easy to construct my presentation.  

I just completed a lesson plan for my World Language Methods course, and I definitely needed slides to use as visual aids to support my French lesson.  I immediately opened up Powerpoint and set to work on my slides.  After creating a few, I remembered that I could have used Prezi.  I stuck with Powerpoint, however.  This is most likely because my  comfort zone lies with Powerpoint.  I also think that Prezi is more geared to very short snippets of text.  All presentations should limit the amount of text, but I felt I needed more room for my French text (maybe this is because the template I selected had circular "slide" layouts, as opposed to the rectangle in Powerpoint).  I think I need more time to experiment with Prezi, and my goal is to use it for one of the other lesson plans I need to do for my World Language Methods course this semester.  I will add to this post with my results!

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I also want to include a few words about Skype in this blog post.  I really enjoyed the Skype discussion with Patrick Larkin.  I thought it was very informative, and the fact that he took time out of his clearly busy schedule to speak with one class from Fairfield University speaks to his passion on the subject of technology in schools.  Having graduated in 1994 from high school, I find his iPad initiative remarkable.  I still cannot get my head around the fact that students will use the iPads responsibly for the most part, but he seems to have a great deal of confidence in the students, and he also views the benefits as outweighing any risks.  Maybe this confidence is the secret to his success!  In addition, I also wondered how he encouraged all teachers, especially those who do not consider themselves "tech savvy," to use the iPads in their classrooms.  His expectation that teachers set a goal of adopting and implementing one new tool each year is very realistic.  I think this approach will minimize any additional pressure teachers may feel in the midst of an already pressure-filled career.

I find so much potential for using Skype in a world language classroom.  I could skype with native French speakers from around the world on a variety of topics.  For example, I could arrange conversations with a French restaurant owner as part of a thematic unit on food.  Or I could skype with a native French citizen about current events in the country.  Finally, we could skype with an English class in France with whom we are "key pals."  The fact that these conversations can be in French as much as possible will provide students with more exposure to authentic language and accents, and provide more opportunities to improve listening comprehension and oral speaking skills.

Animoto - mixed reviews

My feelings about Animoto are mixed.  I think the concept (ie, making your own movies via a user-friendly, stream-lined process) in and of itself is very fun and engaging for students.  I myself felt pretty limited while making my video, however.  I felt the text boxes were too short, especially since I was writing in French, which requires more words (prepositions) than English.  I also had a difficult time making accents work.  I would need to find a way to work around this if I were to use it in class.  My other frustration was that I could not control how the text appeared in relation to images.  For example, I could not make text appear WITH an image to which it pertained.  I was frustrated that I could not control the time spent on each frame as well.  Perhaps these limitations are because I was using a free version that has more limited capabilities.  I would think other versions are more robust.

After that critique, I will now note some positives!  The technology behind the tool is pretty cool.  I never thought making a movie could be so easy!  The front-end is very user-friendly and I think anyone could navigate around the tool after a simple tutorial, which makes this a possibility for middle school through high school.  The themes are visually appealing, and while I like the music selection, I would prefer more known artists (although there is most likely a copyright issue here!). 

As I write this post, I realize that, while I may have issues with Animoto, students would not.  I can imagine that middle school students would love the ability to make their own videos.  So, for me, the best use for Animoto would be for student use in the form of assignments and assessments.  I could integrate Animoto into an end-of-unit assessment.  For example, if we studied a particular francophone city or country, I could ask students to do their "report" using Animoto.  They could also create a movie that tells a story, using a particular tense we learned in class.  As I think through this more, I do believe the possibilities for students are more robust.  If students are engaged in the technology, they will have much more fun completing the assignment, and there is a lot to be said for that!
 

I love Glogster!

I really enjoyed the Glogster assignment.  I think this tool has so much potential for use in the classroom, primarily because it is so engaging.  I think students will love the idea of navigating their way through the pathfinder at their leisure, based on what is most interesting to them.  As a result, I believe I can use this tool in a variety of ways, from introducing a new unit, to providing background on a text we are reading in class, and it will still be engaging for my students.
I created a Glogster pathway to be used as a supplement to reading Le Petit Prince in class.  The purpose was to provide background information on Saint-Exupery's life, the setting on which Le Petit Prince was based, and the primary symbols used throughout the book.  When reading a text in class, I think learning about the author and his or her perspective is extremely important to gaining a thorough understanding of the text's true message.  Glogster is a great way to provide students with access to this type of information, which some students can find boring or unimportant.  I think that giving them the control to find this information in the way they choose will make the task a more positive experience for them.
Another potential use for Glogster would be to link students to cultural content within a unit.  Culture is one of content standards for world language learning, and I would love to add a significant chunk of cultural content to each of my units. I am taking World Language Methods this semester as well, and I need to create a full unit of lesson plans as a final project.  I have decided to do my unit on "Communities,"and use this as an opportunity to talk about different types of communities (urban vs. rural), as well as community leaders.  I will use the content as a springboard to teach the grammar and vocabulary.  I can envision using Glogster as a means to introduce this cultural content.  For example, a Glogster pathway that focuses on urban vs. rural communities could include links to video and news stories about important issues facing urban (ie, pollution, environmental) and rural (ie, jobs) communities, as well as issues they share.  It could also include images of authentic French advertisements from both communities.  A Glogster pathway on community leaders could include links to information about the French perspective on the US presidential election, or the recent French presidential election.
Overall, I find Glogster to be a robust tool to use in the classroom.  I'd even love to have students create their own Glogster pathways as an alternative to a report about a given topic!

French wikis

I think wikis are wonderful interactive tools for a foreign language classroom.  As I mentioned in my blog reflection, learning a foreign language can be overwhelming for many students.  Speaking in this language in front of others can only increase this anxiety.  The key to language proficiency, however, is oral and written use of the language in a real-life, interactive setting.  I think some Web 2.0 tools, including wikis, can encourage this interactive use of language and for this reason they can be excellent additions to a foreign language classroom.  I think that if students can begin to express their ideas and collaborate with one another in written form via a wiki, then teachers can continue these online "conversations" in an oral format within the classroom.  
I can think of many uses for wikis in my future French classroom.  I could use them to introduce the theme for a new unit (ie, clothing, vacations) by including information about cultural details.  I could use the wiki to link students to video links and other pertinent sites, and ask students to respond to a group question at the end.  For example, a wiki about vacations could include video links about common French vacation spots, links to French travel agency web sites, and images from authentic French travel brochures.  This wiki could give students an introduction to what the travel experience is like for French-speaking people.   
I could also ask students to do a report on a topic and present their findings via a wiki.  I think this would be a more interesting way for students to write a report, which can be a mundane, boring process.  Since peers would be more interested in reading someone's work in an interactive format that provides audio and video links and links to other web pages, I think they would be more engaged in reviewing their peers' work and responding to it.  Finally, wikis are great tools for group projects, which can promote the collaboration and communication that are so key to language learning.  Each student in the group can create his or her section, edit peers' work and add comments. 

Wordle & iGoogle

At the beginning, I did not think that Wordle would be that useful in the classroom.  The technology itself is interesting and it does create eye-catching word maps, but I had a hard time thinking of how I could use it in my French classroom.  As I began to think through it more and did a little research, however, I thought of several ideas.  I think it could be a very useful tool to use to help students learn and study vocabulary.  Learning vocabulary can be very boring and arduous, and something like Wordle could make the process more interactive and engaging.  Teachers can use word clouds that include French vocabulary words, as well as their English translations, and ask students to match the French vocabulary to the English translations.  Teachers could also create word clouds that contain "hidden" sentences, and ask students to put the sentences together in the correct order.  Finally, if a class is reading a book or poem, the teacher could ask students to enter a chapter of a book or a poem into Wordle to generate a word cloud that includes the most frequently occurring vocabulary words.  A follow-up assignment would then be to translate the vocabulary.

I enjoyed the iGoogle activity.  I liked searching through the gadgets and was surprised to see how many gadgets are available.  At first I thought this would be a great tool to use to build a classroom homepage.  After thinking through it more, however, I prefer to use a blog since it is more interactive and I can link to the specific web pages I want.  I think that having the students create their own iGoogle pages, however, would be a great assignment.  I could specify the types of gadgets I want them to include.  From the perspective of a French class, I would ask that they include gadgets for a French word of the day, a French/English dictionary, and French news sites.  Students could choose the news sites they want to include from a list I provide.  Articles from these sites could provide the basis for journal entries and presentations.  I think iGoogle presents many possibilities for world language learning, since there are so many websites today that focus on world languages.