Staying Connected in a Disconnected World

A presentation to the Washington Association for Language Teaching

Description:
A quiet revolution has occurred in our society. As a result of Web 2.0 technologies, we now live in a participatory culture in which we are no longer passive receivers of information. As educators in this culture, it becomes increasingly important that our students learn such skills as communication, organization, and team work. Social media tools such as virtual learning environments, blogs, microblogs, folksonomies, and wikis have revolutionized the educational landscape and helped usher in an era of collaboration and camaraderie among teachers and students.

Where:
The Davenport Hotel
10 South Post Street
Spokane, WA

When:
7:45 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. , Saturday, October 10, 2009

Goals

Participants will:

• Develop a common familiarity with different communication/collaboration tools (current and emerging) through hands-on practice;
• Learn about the use and effectiveness of these tools and see some examples of how these tools are applied;
• Engage in a discussion about how these tools could be used to encourage collaboration among professional educators;
• Predict what to expect over the next few years in the area of communication/collaboration tools and education.

Agenda:

• Introduction
• Social Networks/Ning
  • Innovations in e-Learning Workshops
  • WAFLT Conference Ning site
  • Talkabout Primary MFL
  • Looking Forward: Advances in Language Teaching
  • NextGen Teachers
• Microblogs/Twitter
  • Twitter hashtags
    • #edchat / transcript
    • #lrnchat
  • Tweeting the back channel / Example
  • Twitterfall
  • Tweetgrid
  • Finding educators to follow on Twitter
  • Michael’s Twitter
  • A sample of Michael’s favorite Twitter friends
    • Bernie Dodge/Derek Bruff/Jim Groom/Mindy McAdams/
• Social Bookmarking/Delicious
  • Howard Rheingold’s Delicious
  • Christie Keeler’s Social Studies Links
  • Christie Keeler’s Native American Links
  • Social Media on Delicious
• Voice chat/Skype/Cell phones
  • Skype with Foreign Language
  • 50 ways to use Skype in the Classroom
  • Charlotte-Anne Lucas – Skype / Kyte
• Virtual Learning Environments/Second Life
  • Second Life as an environment for foreign language learning
  • Second Life English / SLurl
  • Second Life Education – SLED
  • Virtual Worlds Offer New Methods to Teach Languages
• Blogging/Wordpress
  • Foreign Language Teacher in an Elementary School
  • Becoming a Better EFL Teacher
  • Michael’s Blog
• Wikis/Wetpaint
  • Classrooms for the Future Foreign Language wiki
  • Wetpaint – Rights of the Criminally Accused
    Dr. Rebecca Wood, UNLV
  • Twitter for Teachers
• Media Sharing/TeacherTube
  • Using Google Earth in the Foreign Language Classroom
  • Technologies for the Foreign Language Classroom
• Slide sharing/Slideshare
  • Teaching body parts in a foreign language classroom
  • Technologies for the Foreign Language Classroom
• Advice
  • Know your privacy settings
  • Create multiple accounts
  • Be suspicious of people you don’t know
• Right here, right now / The Future
• Discussion/Questions

Follow-up workshop:

“Harnessing the Power of New Technologies to Increase Community of Learning in Education”

Learn how to use such Web 2.0 technologies as Second Life, Skype, Blogger, Twitter, WetPaint and Delicious in this two-hour hands-on workshop. You’ll set up your own account, explore best practices, and examine how other educators are using these technologies. (Note: this will be the first time WAFLT has included a ³hands-on² technology workshop at a fall conference. Participants will need to bring their own laptop computers with wireless capabilities.)

Share This