Thank you again for tuning in, it's been a busy week, and have been preparing for courses in Spring 2020. I thought I'd experiment a little, let's see how many more people prefer a Sunday newsletter to a Friday one?
It's given me some time to reflect on what has been working or challenging for our students. The opportunity to refine courses each year is an opportunity that shouldn't be passed over, whilst bearing in mind that the students will be a little different, the context and your own teaching will have moved forward.
This week we're looking at sketchnoting, video activities, and looking ahead to next year's conferences.
People, Places, and Things
Following on from last week's note about doodling and sketching in the classroom, I came across this article further espousing the positive benefits of visualization in the form of sketchnoting. It’s not about creating a piece of art. It’s about creating a piece of thinking.” says one of the contributors.
Those of us interested in technologies are often accused of putting the tool before the pedagogy, and, indeed, it can often look like this, in this article we talk about some of the guidelines teachers can draw on to avoid this mistake. In all aspects, it should come down to a simple choice about the best way to tackle a learning goal, if it's using an iPad then great, and if it's using a wipe board then that's fine too!
Quite impressed by vialogues, which provides a space for people to hold meaningful and dynamic time-stamped discussions about videos. It proves videos are not only powerful educational resources but also the ultimate conversation starters.
Interesting slide deck from Manchester University's pre-sessional program, looking at the challenges and support for international students looking to transition into their new university.
Don't forget the proposal deadline for next year's ACTFL conference is coming up on 10th January. Online submission is available here.
Finally, if you want to give an email address that will expire then the best one to use is trashmail which is incredibly useful when signing up to hotels, rentals, demos, trials, or any website that you can't explore without giving an email address. (from @documentally).
On Screen
Ever heard of Truckistan? Hop-on with Pakistani truck drivers to discover this imaginary country in their thrilling and vivid playground!
With shared economic, environmental, and humanitarian concerns, communities of local planners, designers, and citizens work toward cross-border collaboration. Ronald Rael, an architecture professor, takes an opportunity to use art to prove the uselessness of building borders.