Wizzy ideas for MFL

‘Techier’ MFL Teaching
Some slightly Wizzy Techie ideas for MFL teachers
using Internet tools in language teaching.
Jon Meier December 2010
jon.meier@verulam.herts.sch.uk
Aims
raise awareness of the possibilities of a range of internet sites and online tools.
examine how some of these ideas can be used in practice, in and beyond the MFL classroom.
share ideas and good practice.
take them back into schools and deliver to pupils and staff who have more time!

Wordle
www.wordle.net
Teacher inputs text on a theme. Generate and display the word cloud.
Pupils could
guess the theme, make up sentences using the words
make Wordlesfor each other,
sort words into different categories (gender, tense, positive, negative etc)

Unusual pictures for discussion
http://www.screencast.com/t/1xdekPGIkvJx
Video material can be used as well:

Keepvid
1
2
www.keepvid.com
Copy Youtube videos
Copy and paste the Youtube URL into the top Keepvid box.
2) Click the top Download button.
3) Choose download mp4 as the download format
3

Voki
www.voki.com
create speaking avatars in lots of languages
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/mflteaching/2010/06/voki-demo.html

Xtranormal
www.xtranormal.com
Text to speech movies
French, German & Spanish
do a ‘soliloquy’ presentation
Simple dialogue
Make a joke
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7933459/

Dvolver
www.dvolver.com/live/home.html

Create moving image cartoons
Pupils can make their own mini movies using familiar language.
Text bubbles only – no speech.
This is a good option for an alternative homework task.
Can be a bit fiddly but most will like the creative process.
They’ll certainly enjoy presenting their work to the class.

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-497659

Glogster
www.glogster.com
Online Poster creator (similar to Publisher)
More interactive as you can easily make objects act as links
Pupils could produce a poster based on a piece of research linked to the target country. e.g. sports personality, region, vocab field, famous person or product
http://jonmeier.glogster.com/techier-teacher/

Toondoo
www.toondoo.com

Online cartoon/ comic strip creator
Idea:
Teacher compiles their own and writes a set of instructions in the TL – don’t show the pupils the picture– include some help regarding categories and where elements can be found - e.g. Background , Characters, Props
Pupils read the instructions, build the image and get as close as possible to the teacher’s version -
compare everyone’s versions at the end.

PicassoHead
www.picassohead.com

Online Picasso style Face creator
Pupils follow a set of written instructions to design their own picture.
abstract but fun – “abstract fun”
You can sign your name in the style of Picasso

Fotobabble –Talking Photos
www.fotobabble.com

Online tool which lets you upload a photo and add audio
Upload a photo and add an audio commentary- great for homeworks about family, pets, home, school, friends, favourite team, hobby etc
Ideal for the new GCSE speaking

http://www.fotobabble.com/m/Vk55V3RocndHYTA9

Prezi
http://prezi.com

Another online alternative to Powerpoint
Creates online presentations, like Powerpoint but you start by putting all your material on one big slide or ‘canvas’.
You can then set up Prezi as a slideshow to zoom in and out of certain sections. Fiddly at first but worth a collaborative go with a friendly class.

Wallwisher
www.wallwisher.com

A live online message board
Pupils can add post-it style stickies to a notice-board.
Pupils could watch a film and add comments, or submit sentences on a theme e.g. leisure- past tense
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/iZjTwupdVL

Photostory
Free Download for Windows PC – just googlePhotostory3

free Windows download. Puts photos into a slideshow, add your own music and titles
great for real photos - homeworks about family, pets, home, school, friends, favourite team, hobby, holiday etc

You can also turn Powerpoint into a movie, or save each slide as a jpeg photo image and upload them to a site such as Animoto which turns them into a lively music-style video. This will only work well for simple, uncluttered slides – simple vocab-style flashcards

Imagechef
www.imagechef.com
Generate captions on fun objects and signs
Pupils could use incorporate these as fun captions into their Powerpoints:
Use recent vocab to create various images
e.g. newspaper headline,
US style road-sign, baseball cap.

Triptico
www.triptico.co.uk

Great IWB style resources – free to download
In the process of a revamp- lots of great resources such as scoreboards, timers, word magnets, random name/word pickers

Jing (also Camtasia) - Screencast tools
Download from
www.techsmith.com/jing/
Screencast software- record what’s on your screen into a video and add audio commentary .
Jing or Camtasia are good but not free.
Screencasts are great for step by step guides to how to do something on the computer.
In MFL you could use Jing or Camtasia for guiding students through a text Here’s a basic example:
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/files/jingexample.mp4
You could also ‘screencast’ yourself marking someone’s work on Word and commenting on it as you go along.

QR codes
take you from print to a website, using a Smartphone.
Needs a phone with Internet access (thiscould bea problem at school unless you are already experimenting with mobile phone use)
Use an App such as Tapster to read the code

And the following sites can be used to generate codes:
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/
You could:
Put a QR code on a classroom display .
Stick a code in a text book or exercise books to take pupils to a related website
You could set up an audio guide, similar to ones in an art gallery. Pupils use the phone to read printed barcodes positioned at various ‘hotspots’ and then access audio files which you have uploaded to the internet. I’ve used www.zshare.net to upload audio files which can then be accessed via the internet on an i-phone.

Use a smartphone to read a printed barcode which opens up a website or a message.
Sometimes known as creating the ‘4D classroom’ – the internet is the extra dimension.

Jigsaw planet
jigsaw creator
http://www.jigsawplanet.com
Create a short text on a Powerpoint slide. Use an 18 or 20 point font
Save as … Pictures (this converts the slide to a jpeg photo). Give it a name and save it somewhere obvious, e.g. desktop.
Go the site
Upload the jpeg
Select the number of pieces
Click create
http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3911b12f35be

Text to speech tool
Voki for grown-ups! l
http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/
Select language (Fr, Ger, Sp)
Type or paste your text
Select ‘Say it’
The voice will read it back
Pupils can generate their own simple listening comps for each other
http://tts.imtranslator.net/DaqE

See this slidecaston …..
Another time, another course: GreenscreeningBlogs & Wikis
I am also working on using ipads in the classroom.
Keep in touch
See also:
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/mflteaching/
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/mflteachingplus/
jon.meier@verulam.herts.sch.uk

Finally ……….
There’s no substitute for
The teacher
Personal interaction
Tried and tested traditional methods
Good old enthusiasm
Personality
And a passion for seeing young people enjoy and succeed

Wizzy ideas for MFL

by jonmeier on Dec 07, 2010

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