Incorporating Technology into my L2 Classroom

Salvete omnes, I know it hasn’t been very long since we last spoke, but I’ve never had a penpal before so I hope you can forgive my overbearing enthusiasm. I’ve always really liked the idea of having a penpal, especially in a foreign language classroom, because there are so many benefits to being able to practice your second language with a native speaker.   The most amazing, and possibly most scary, thing about technology is its ability to affect even the most ordinary aspects of our lives. Snail-mail is steadily becoming a thing of the past, soon to be reserved only for Amazon orders and unwanted bills. While I personally think that is a little sad because I love snail mail, I can acknowledge that many life skills needed in today’s world and in the foreseeable future will require computer literacy. This brings me to a website called ePals which is an online education platform that allows teachers to connect with other educators and classrooms from all over the world. I...

The first rule of fight club is to…. Oh wait! Wrong club... Beware the Ides of March Salvete omnes! I was visiting YouTube the other day, my home away from home if you will, and in between my usual viewings of cat videos I was able to watch a video titled, New Media Consortium . In the video the presenter, Adam Levine, discusses the importance of establishing a network of colleagues, both in and outside of your discipline, to experiment and explore new techniques of integrating technology in the classroom. The most important thing, I think, Adam says in the video is, “ it is really important for us to stay connected to people who are smarter than because we can’t know everything ”. I think it was important for me, and for other people who may be like me, to hear that it is okay to reach out for help. Being someone who wants to be able to do and know it all, this is not something that comes to mind easily. Adam’s whole video really emphasized the necessity of having a Perso...

Salvete omnes! For today’s post I want to discuss the concept of connectivism, but first, have you ever heard of Moore’s Law? For those readers who have not, simply put, Moore’s Law states that processor speeds, or overall processing power of computers will double every two years. This statement was coined in 19 6 5 by George Moore who is one of the co-founders of Intel and is still a popular trend that can be observed among technology today.  If at this point you are thinking, “well that is a neat fun fact, but what does that have to do with education?”. I’m so glad you asked because to me, a learner is like technology. We’ve all heard this saying before but I’m going to say it again now, what students are learning today, and how they are learning it, has drastically changed from when I was in school. So too has technology. Just as we have discussed before on this blog, changes in policy, the incorporation of technology in our classrooms, and the amount of informatio...

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...