The A-Z of ICT in MFL - The Language Show 2009

A Z Of Ict

View more presentations from Alex Blagona.

It was an honour to be asked back to the Language Show following on from my presentation last year on Blogs and Wikis. This year, I've gone a bit back to basics and produced a list, with some timely help from Joe Dale, Jose Picardo, Lisa Stevens, Suzi Bewell and a few others from my twitter network, of an A-Z of useful ICT based resources that can be used by teachers of MFL. I hope that you will have heard of a few of them, and that you may have even used some of them. I also hope that there are a few here that you might not have heard of and that you would consider having a go at using. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch!

Exchange and Smart?

I've been teaching 12 years, and in that time I've been on countless foreign trips, visits and exchanges. Viewed all too often by my non-MFL colleagues as 'jollies' or holidays, these trips, while priceless in the experiences that can be gained by the students, as any teacher who has run such a trip will testify, can be a nightmare in terms of stress and worry.

The cause of this stress is not to do with the conduct and behaviour of the children. I'm very fortunate in that respect. The cause of my personal stress has more to do with the numerous health and safety issues and child protection issues that we have to remember and be constantly aware of.

I'm not trying to belittle the risks that are ever present, but the situation in UK schools appears so restrictive compared to our European neighbours, who don't seem shackled by the same chains that we are.

As many of you may be aware, I've just come back from Spain, where one of our days out included a visit to a beach. The Spanish students, effectively unsupervised, were allowed to dive into the sea and enjoy the full benefits of the hot weather. Our students on the other hand were not even allowed to get their feet wet, as we had not managed to pack a trained lifeguard with us.

I'm also aware that we're not allowed to give paracetemol to students with headaches, or apply plasters to children for fear of 'assulting' them.

I know it's not just teachers. I know that in many other walks of life, a common sense approach, and a reliance and respect for a professional judgement call have been replaced by a higher authority who have no faith in trained adults being able to make their own decisions.

If a train driver crashes his train he faces the consequences, but train crashes are rare because those that drive them are trained to do so. Teachers are trained for the job. It seems a bit ironic to me that the councillors and politicians who play the 'protecting our children' card are in careers that actually have no training.

We are now so submerged in a nanny state that it is impossible to get back out again. CCTV cameras everywhere, professionals being dictated to by here-today gone-tomorrow politicians. Many of my colleagues, working in a sector that traditionally leans to the left politically, are now unfortunately moving to the right in the hope that we can bring some common sense back to the job.

In France, Spain and Germany, teachers laugh off the concept of running criminal background checks on families who host students in exchanges. Why? Because it's stupid and impractical. The politicians claim they have to protect people, but in 12 years, and over 20 exchanges, I have had to move one student who I had serious concerns about. Can't we be trusted any longer to make these decisions?

Photo by Darwin Bell

At the Language College Conference...

I'm been fortunate enough to have been allowed to attend the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) Language College conferences for a few years, since I started work at my current school. This year, being held at The Belfry, the home of a fantastic (ly expensive) golf course not too far from Birmingham. For the uninitiated, the two day conference gives teachers from the various Language Colleges around the country to meet up and have a nose at what everybody else is doing. The SSAT has a list of Lead Practioners, Language teachers who are chosen by the SSAT to deliver training to other teachers, and they are all here, with most doing a session of some kind.

I really enjoy coming here, seeing some familiar faces, and meeting new ones, but again I'm struck by the size of the event compared to previous years. Having also attended Language World many times as well, it would seem that the recession has had an effect on the exhibition. Maybe I'm wrong, but it would just appear that way.

So far today, I've heard Dr Lid King update us on the state of MFL at the moment, and have also seen Neil Jones deliver a very rapid presentation full of creative ideas for language lessons. One to download from the SSAT site when it gets uploaded. (Next week, apparently). Sara Sullivan is also doing a session worth going to, and I might pop along to Louise Royd's session on blogging, just to see how another school do it.

How can I podcast, when I can't powerpoint?

Seriously. As I was doing some training this week at another local school, having just spent about an hour on looking at podcasting for linguists, one of the teachers there uttered that kind of soul-crushing phrase that tech-savvy teachers like me just hate to hear.

"What you've said is really interesting, but in all honesty, how can you expect me to be able to make a podcast, when I can't even use powerpoint properly?"

"Oh."

Frustrated humour aside, this teacher raised a real issue, which I think many of us tend to ignore as we look for the latest Web2.0 feature, or as we find out what other teachers are doing to tech up their teaching. I'm quite keen to try and find an answer for this, and have come up with some sensible (and some not so sensible) solutions.

Firstly, you can categorise many teachers into a number of categories.

The Technophobe

The teacher who still insists on writing all their reports everything. They don't send emails, and certainly won't reply when you send them one (or even read it). They won't use interactive whiteboards, and still have a years' worth of lessons on overhead transparencies. Nicola Woolcock of The Times wrote an article highlighting the fact that despite UK schools investing millions of pounds in new IT systems, infrastructures and software, much of it goes unused by technophobic teachers. How much of a percentage of staff in your school would you place into this category? In reality, what is there that we can do for this genre of teacher other than let the technology continue to evolve around them?

The Forward-Looking-But-Fearful

These are the teachers who are keen to make the effort to use the tools of new techologies, but are truely fearful of either getting stuck at the first hurdle, or of just breaking their laptop into small pieces when the computer won't read their mind in terms of what they want it to do. ("Why won't the text just appear where I want it to?") . We can work with these people, we can be patient, and get them working efficiently with a few Web2.0 bits and pieces. However, it is the teachers who fall into this category that we can really use to shape how our schools approach effective ICT use that benefits the students. I have often listened to fantastic teachers who are truly at the cutting edge of how to use technology in their teaching, teachers who create phenomenal resources, and teachers who are just bloody good teachers, and who don't need a computer to inspire and motivate students.

So as schools rightly look to the future, setting up VLEs and creating the necessary e-portfolios, many of these same establishments are lacking in knowledgable staff to use them effectively. It would sometimes seem that the technology learning curve has almost skipped a generation. My experience with training PGCE students and NQTs reveals a greater, more indepth knowledge of new technologies, but this is not in evidence in the here and now. Will those at the front of the high speed educational IT train stop at any point to look behind them and see who is actually on board. I don't think so. It's a case of 'you snooze, you lose'.

So what happens next? Staffroom dinosaurs remain in the dark, with traditional approaches becoming increasingly frowned upon by colleagues? ("What? You mean he made them write it down?)

I don't know who is in charge of all this, but I wouldn't mind a bit of a comfort break.

Photo by photographies libres

Using Twitpic and Evernote for Peer Assessment

Wow. It kind of came to me by accident, yet it was just so obvious. My Year 9 class had to create an email for their homework, asking for information from the tourist office. If you're a languages teacher, you know exactly the exercise I'm talking about. Of course not all of the students emailed their work in. For some the internet 'unbelievably failed', others got my email address wrong, and so on and so forth. A couple of students wrote the homework down into their books, and handed that in. Hmm, I thought, that's not really what I was after. But then I had an idea, which seems so obvious, I'm sure that other teachers have done the same. I took a picture of Laura's work (above) with my iPhone, and uploaded it to my Evernote page. I then logged on to Evernote and had Laura's work up on the screen for all to see. I then thought - I've two twitter accounts - @blagona for me, and @northgatemfl for my department. Why not use the my department's twitter account to take pictures of students' work, send them to twitpic, and get students to log on and comment. It's simple! You can keep things anonymous if need be, and for those of us with iPhones, you can instantly take a picture of a student's piece of work and within seconds, with no USB pens or memory cards have the work on display on your interactive whiteboard. It formed a key part of my lesson today, and it only came to me because Laura's computer had crashed at home. There just has to be someone somewhere who has done this already...please get in touch if you have!

ALL London Event

It was a real honour to be at the ALL London Event yesterday at the French Institute, and it was a short, snappy burst of information, knowledge and amusement. A really nice venue - exactly the sort of place that would be great for bringing a group of students. With well over 100 people present, it was also great to match up a few twitter faces with names!!

As promised, here are the slides that relate back to my sessions today. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!!

Galaxy

View more OpenOffice presentations from Alex Blagona.

Twenty Techy Tips

View more OpenOffice presentations from Alex Blagona.

Ict @ All London

View more OpenOffice presentations from Alex Blagona.

Also, with many thanks to Peta, who you can follow on twitter @pollyglott, here is a list of useful websites for Spanish. Don't forget to check out her website here.

Web Sites , Spanish

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Research websites languages

My day with the Lords

A few weeks ago, my headteacher informed me that we'd been invited to the Houses of Parliament to talk before the All Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages. We were asked to talk about what we do at our school, and how we think language teaching and learning will evolve in the future. We were talking really about the state sector, and coming from the comprehensive school viewpoint. Across the committee room were students and staff from the Whitgift School in Croydon, an independent school for boys.

We travelled down on the train, and it was a totally event free journey, and with the Head treating us to a very nice meal in Covent Garden, it was a challenge avoiding a food-on-tie scenario!

Despite the fact that the Speaker of the House of Commons was delivering his statement, and making all the headlines, there was still a pretty good turnout, and it was great to see a couple of familiar faces in the room!

I delievered a short 15 minute presentation, using Prezi, to briefly highlight some of the key aspects of our school, and whilst I talked about how we use ICT to enhance our MFL provision, I wasn't entirely sure that my audience were following the technology I was talking about. I was honoured to be talking to people who have done so much in their lives and who had CVs longer than most of my 6th form's coursework submissions, but by the same token, I was more hopeful than expectant when it came to pitching my talk at the right level.

Having done my 15 minutes, it was over to the chaps from Whitgift, who spoke very well about some of the fantastic opportunities they are offered at their school. I was very jealous listening to tales of Japanese exchanges, and learning Arabic and Chinese as a matter of course in their school. I know that we can't compete on that sort of level with independent schools, but nevertheless I felt we gave a pretty good account of ourselves, and what we do for our students.

I was particularly pleased with the two students we took with us, who also spoke very well about their language learning experiences, and especially about the value of exchanges.

We were made to feel very welcome by Baroness Coussins, and to all the members who attended the meeting, and I know the students really enjoyed the experience of a day in Parliament.

Surviving the Subject Survey Ofsted

Allow me to take you back to last Tuesday.  I'm free first two periods, and as is the trend at our school, the day when you have most of your non-contact time is also duty day.  The Deputy Head comes over to the office to tell me that he's found someone to cover my duty, and can I come over to his office at break along with the Heads of French and German.  I'm worried, as he hasn't elaborated on his request, and my first thought is that a parent had complained (is that always my first thought?)  

Anyway, break time in the Deputy Head's office, and we're told that Ofsted are coming in for two days to evaluate the teaching of the department, and will be looking closely at, as the letter put it, the impact of national initiatives in our school, and how ICT enhances the learning of our students.

Cue much cursing and annoyance.  Not so much with the fact that we're being inspected, but much more to do with the timing of the visit.  Oral exams, and coursework mean that our department is already working at full pelt, and to have this was just the straw that broke le dos du chameau. (Using target language - very important)

Thankfully (!) we were inspected as a whole school only a year ago, so most of our paperwork was in order, but nevertheless, we spent hours going through it all, making sure we had answers for any and all of the inspector's questions.  I even went so far as to 'google' the HMI to see what other inspections had been authored, and to see what sort of things they would possibly be likely to say.  Maybe a touch over the top, but I was curious!  I also checked out the other schools in town to see why none of them had had a similar inspection, only to find that actually most of them had.  Oh.

So Thursday was spent tidying up the languages building, sorting out the displays, making sure they were all up to date.  I couldn't help but think to myself that they wouldn't even look at the displays, as I was pinning up yet more photos of the recently departed Spanish exchange at 8.30pm, whilst the caretaker painted another wall.  Friday was making sure that all teh classrooms were in order, and that all those who were being observed were clued up, knew what they were doing, and that lesson plans and ideas were checked out.  I had planned my lesson for Y13, and put it online, and thanks to a few of my contacts on twitter, tweaked it a touch.  Then tweaked it again.

So after the Bank Holiday, the inspector turns up.  His train didn't get in until 11am, so when the Head brought him into school, it was a fairly brief 15 minute introduction, a few questions about our GCSE results, and our KS3 levels, and then off to his first lesson.  He wanted a range of languages and abilities, so right off the bat it was our Applied Language French group in Y10.  

Lunch, and a meeting (my second with him) along with our county advisor to tell the inspector all about the Language College, then he was off to a Y8 Spanish lesson.  Meeting after school with the Heads of French and German, and then another meeting with myself and the Head (Number 3).  As he left, he asked, "Could I come in before school and have a look at the displays?" Inwardly I smiled at the irony, before he said, "Would 7.45am be too early?"  I nearly choked on my coffee.

Wednesday, and the very punctual inspector was let in to the building to have a nose around the place, as I went to set up my Y13 lesson to be observed.  The students were brilliant, and everybody managed to 'get stuff learnt' so it seemed to go well.  There then followed yet another meeting with the inspector to talk about ICT, and our links with our school's Science College.  I felt I was getting to know the HMI quite well, even if he was not really engaging with my light-hearted banter!

An afternoon of going through our marking, the students' books, 3 pupil panels, made up of KS3, KS4 and KS5 students, all of whom were asked to speak in a different language.

So 3.30pm, and we find out that we're 'good with elements of outstanding', which is pretty much what we would have said ourselves.  Despite being pleased with the outcome, the timing was just so lousy.

Teaching, Learning...and Understanding

To avoid the craziness that would have been having to come in to school on a Monday in July, our school decided to have a number of compulsory/voluntary twilight sessions on Teaching and Learning, and earn the staff an extra day of holiday.

So, Wednesday was a compulsory one, and school even ended 40 minutes early so we would benefit from 2h30 of listening to Mike Hughes, renowned author and trainer. He was also a Headteacher/Mentor and thousands of other things. On the whole it was a good session, with lots of useful advice. It was quite nice to be able to just sit and listen to someone talk rather than actually have to do anything! Amongst covering other topics, Mike emphasised the difference between students' learning, and their understanding, and looked at how our attitude to questioning students in our classes could make a tangible difference to improving the kids' understanding of the things we are trying to teach them. He made a suggestion, which was for a teacher to go in to the last 10 minutes of a lesson in a different subject, and to carry out a plenary activity, to gauge what the students had learned, and to also assess what they had understood, I suppose by their ability to explain it to a non-specialist.

To that end, I am going to a Y12 Chemistry lesson on Tuesday to attempt to carry out a plenary, with the Chemistry teacher coming to my Y10 French lesson on Thursday. Is it going to be a worthwhile exercise, something worth repeating? Have you tried something similar? I guess I'll let you know on Tuesday!

Chirping about Twitter

Article on using Twitter in education, published in the TES.