Incorporating Technology into my L2 Classroom

Salvete omnes, today I want to talk about you about introducing podcasts into your classroom. Now I know what you are thinking. “But Brittany, why should I give podcasting the time of day when I can look up videos on a variety topics on YouTube? What’s the difference between the two?” Ah, my dear reader, as always you bring up an excellent point. Why don’t we take a look at these two applications and decide for ourselves which we would implement in the classroom. The first and possibly biggest point of each one is that anyone can view and create either a YouTube video or podcast. This means that there is a wide variety of videos and podcasts available for users to explore. The second similarity between the two is the ability to subscribe. So if you find a YouTube channel or a podcast that consistently puts out content you enjoy, then you can subscribe to that channel or site and receive notifications about when new content becomes available. The only difference between the two i...

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...