The Techno-human paradox: How “keeping up with the kids” fosters community.

Presenter

• Dr. Sarah Glasco – Instructor of French, Foreign Languages, Elon University

Background – everything focuses on collaboration. Not just one way learning, but teachers learning from students and students learning from teachers.

The world is changing, and while it has it’s downfalls, it also the ability to bring us together in new ways. Never use technology for the sake of technology.

Evolve
Collaborate
Inspire
Be Inspired

This is all about creating a community in your classroom!

These are all tools to conjure up conversation… not dominate the discussion. Not passively sitting in front of a screen.

Transform this social and media entertainment into conversation.

Tools that she uses in Foreign Language Classes:

Facebook

• Discussion Board on Facebook (Better response than on Blackboard… Blackboard is for school… this is for fun, so school becomes naturally more fun)
• Create a Facebook Profile for your ideal roommate – This is the same as what you would do in any class, but when you throw Facebook it, it get’s to be more fun.

YouTube – You can reserve these type of activities for when you are going to be out of town.

• Virtual tours of houses and apartments in Paris (Drills and builds vocabulary from an authentic space)
• Give students an assignment to find authentic material on YouTube
• Listening Exercises and Movies you can post yourself. (Blackboard has a limited space.. you can put more there. Universal access.) (Some are already on YouTube… just need to find and create questions out of them)
• They can listen as much as they want.
• Contextualize Visual Cues

Music and Popular Music

• Music Video’s on YouTube
• Stand up Comedy on YouTube
• Promoting Tolerance and Discussing Cultural Differences
• Talk Radio

Other Tech Stuff

• Press – Newspapers and Magazines – Choose a topic you are passionate about to do some research.

Collaborative Projects involving Video Creation

• Presentations using PowerPoint and iMovie
• Students write and perform skits on a project with images and music in PowerPoint as a backdrop.
• An assignment where they research issues, write a narration, gather digital images to create a storyboard, add music and record the voice-over narration of their stories.
• Collaborative Documentary

She had some really great sum up information about why this is important in foreign language learning and the pedagogical goals and outcomes of using this type of technology. I have emailed her and asked for the power-point. I will post a link when I get it. 🙂

Thoughts Overall and Application at UNC

• You know… as I watch these projects I realize that this is the type of project that students can really sink their teeth into. This is one of the great things about using this technology in the classroom
• This was really good for me to see some of the ways we can use this technology in the classroom.
• Anyone interested in sitting down to see how we can use some of this in your classroom? Need some help getting started… let me know! 🙂