Incorporating Technology into my L2 Classroom

Jon Snow vs. Ramsey Bolton! Octavian vs. Mark Antony! Bat-cat vs. Joker Dog! Salvete omnes, today's competition is less of a battle and more of a comparison. Nor are our competitors fighting to take back their family home, or for the right to rule an empire, or even to stop a fiendish pup from causing chaos around the house. Instead the contenders I want to discuss are ways to utilize social bookmarking for the classroom. So first let’s answer some questions. What is social bookmarking? Social bookmarking is an online tool that is used for saving websites you find useful and/or interesting. How is that any different from the bookmarking feature on your web browser? For the most part it isn't, but social bookmarks are an improved method for organizing your information and also allow you to tag, annotate, and share your saved webpages. As mentioned in the title, this post is a battle of the bookmarks so we will compare the social bookmarking tools that you may re...

Salvete omnes and welcome back! Did you know that the earliest stone tools date back to 3.3 million years ago. Since that time the tools we have designed, created, and used have evolved into the advance technology we see today. While we are still (hopefully) a far ways off from a Terminator- level takeover, no one can deny the enormous influence that technology has on our lives. A video posted to YouTube titled, Social Media Revolution 2011 , presents the social media statistics for 2011. The video quotes several examples of how social media is used. Such as how 93% of marketers use social media to promote their business and how YouTube is actually the second largest search engine in the world. After watching this video it's crazy to think how quickly modern technology and the Internet has evolved in such a short amount of time. I recently watched another video because I have been watching a lot of videos in the past week, titled Future Learning . This video is part of a mini d...

Salvete omnes! (Welcome everyone!) In the ever-changing world of technology, as educators we often find ourselves falling into two roles: one as the teacher and another as the student. And that’s okay! As a former hip, cool youngster, I was once in the loop with all the new phone apps and advanced technical gadgets and doodads. But now as I cross the threshold into adulthood I find more often than not that I need to call my IT department, (AKA my fiance), to help me figure out how to use certain computer programs. But I’m always excited to learn because new technology, or even finding new uses for present technology, means a new opportunity to present information to my students that will help them succeed in my classroom and beyond. The first online platform that I have often overlooked when planning a lesson is blogging. I’ve always thought of blogging solely as a personal online journal/diary that is updated regularly. However, after some reading and research I have come to see t...