This week we write to you from FutureEdtech in London's Old Street. This is the first of three conferences in the UK this month. Apologies in advance if the content gets a bit Eurocentric, but I hope to still bring news, useful tech tips, and interesting websites.
On Tuesday afternoon I moderated a panel that discussed the last 15 years of Edtech and together we highlighted particular moments of disruption, including the arrival of WiFi, iPads, MOOCs, Apps, and now VR.
The panel also talked about mistakes we are still making, for instance putting the tech before the teaching, and we reminded ourselves that good teaching & learning should be the guiding principle, listening to our students, engaging them with good ideas, and thinking creatively in the classroom.
We discussed the work of the Global Languages & Cultures Room and included some footage from the new films that were created for Multicultural Pittsburgh.
Please let me know if you would like to include any events or upcoming projects that you'd like me to mention in this newsletter, thank you again for your great comments - keep them coming!
Links and Stories
This interesting article about the use of e-flashcards highlights a new study that found that students shown flashcards on an iPad in preparation for a test, successfully outperformed those shown paper versions. The e-flashcards provided were designed with more multimedia output, including moving image (gif), audio, and video, and accounted for increased engagement for those students learning Chinese as a foreign language.
How three Modern Languages teachers are successfully incorporating VR and AR in their teaching. I had the pleasure of listening to Prof. Nicole Mills talk at NEALLT this year and was blown away by the sheer excellence of her study. It's a benchmark in terms of how we should be approaching this area and how they work in the Global Languages & Cultures Room could be captured and shared.
These inception-style photos of European cityscapes by Lestnica are cleverly created using a drone. They provide startling views of familiar places and could be used as a great ice-breaker in French, Spanish or Italian classes. (via Kottke.org)
Textivate is a brilliant tool for creating activities for students based on any text that you want them to learn. It really comes to life with languages, practicing spellings, putting sentences and phrases in the right order, creating games, and revision exercises. There's more info here on the Textivate Blog.
The Women's World Cup kicked off in France, with 19 languages represented by the 23 teams. You can follow the action on Hulu and there's more info about the team on the Fifa site. Come on England!
Global Languages & Cultures Room - Funding
The steering committee for the Askwith Kenner Global Languages & Cultures Room invites students and faculty to apply for funding for new projects that provide opportunities to create media content highlighting multi-cultural activities and contribute to the resources of the room by way of exhibiting screening, or publishing outcomes. We will also consider proposals to investigate the effectiveness of multimedia technology to foster cultural learning and intercultural competence. Visit the Global Languages & Cultures website for more information.