Trying typing “blogs” into www.google.fr - thre are literally billions of French language blogs.
Narrow down the search by typing in a specific subject into http://blogsearch.goog.fr
There is probably no topic unblogged - always worth reading yourself, before letting a class loose on them, you never know what’s out there!
David Cameron is a bit late on the blogging scence, the French Prime Minister has been blogging for a while
http://www.carnetjpr.com/carnetjpr
Useful perhaps for senior classes, you could of course comment and see if he replies (he certainly seems to reply to comments).
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle
Essential reading for language teachers. Loads of ideas for using technology, for drama, downloadable podcasts, blog giving updated language news, a careers section and ideas for primary and nursery French.
Only Scottish teachers can access the discussion forum, but everything is open.
http://www.talkingteds.blogspot.com
My first real view of what a good class blog could look like. These two classes of infants collaborated on this writing project - if infants could do it, why not two classes writing in French (or any other language). The motivation and enthusiasm of these two classes is clear when you read this blog.
You can see my class reply (under the guise of Flappy the Crow) on my French blog http://lmhtob.edublogs.org (under April in the achives)
The cameras are used in various ways, sometimes just to record pupils going about their work. Pupils may use them to take a creative approach to their work. S3 are using both to bring the topic of Daily Routine to life, some using photos and powerpoints, some making short films.
The use of cameras has been a big success in S2, my biggest class with 26 lively 13 year olds. They have made Comic Life books about hobbies, and videoed their fashion show. For the fashion show they were amazingly well organised and the actual show were filmed in under 15 minutes.
Both these classes of pupils were allowed out of class with the cameras. Trust plays a big part here - anyone reported (or worse still, sent back for dsturbing another class) is not allowed out again.
As the song says, what will be, will be - but will we be prepared??
One could argue that schools largely failed to acknowledge and use the most significant media of the 20th century – film and television. Now, at the start of the 21st century, many of them seem to be trying to head back to the 19th. This divide or gap between school and the world outside school may in fact be growing – or at least the task of building bridges may be getting harder.
Professor David Buckingham
The fact is we cannot ignore technology, or we do so at our peril. Access Denied is the bane of my life, but often things are denied because people aren’t keeping up with technology and cannot see the benefits it might bring to education.
As a language teacher, where would I be now without the Internet - pop videos, the news, up to date football reports, today’s weather forecast, all there at the touch of a button, and updated daily.
Today’s digital kids think of information and communications technology (ICT) as something akin to oxygen: they expect it, its what they breathe, and it’s how they live. They use ICT to meet, play, date, and learn. Its is an integral part of their social life; it’s how they acknowledge each other and form their personal identities.John Seely-Brown, 2004
Although there are definitely some pupils who are not as confident as you would expect with ICT, most cannot exist for more than a few minutes without their phones and iPods. You only need to see the explosion of phones out of bags and pockets at lunchtime to understand this.
http://www.acurriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/
The Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland hightlights 4 capacities for students. They should be Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens, Effective Contributors and Confident Individuals.
The use of new technology has an important part to play here. Learning and Teaching should of course be at the heart of everything we do and we need to apply this to the use of ICT. If ICT doesn’t contribute to the 4 capacities or improve teaching and learning, then is it really needed?
Of course it does contribute. ICT has the potential to motivate and enthuse, it gives a sense of achievement and contributes new ideas, giving us new ways of learning and teaching. It may not have occurred to pupils to use some of the technology at their fingertips, but we can show them the way.
Pupils can take the ways they use technology in languages and use it in other subjects - why can’t languages blaze the trail? Technolgy can give us the wow factor that other subjects take for granted. I enjoyed supporting a Science class last year, but was a bit envious of the experiments. However pupils will often come to borrow equipment from my room to use in other subjects, to film an experiment in Science or to record things in RME.
Most of the technolgy I’ll talk about here encourages collaborative learning in class, but there is also opportunity for independent learning as well.
Although we have put this to good use, it is still an underused resource. It can be difficult to use during lessons as it is situated in a different building. Timetabling can be an issue, if trying to set up something with another school, but these problems can be overcome (sometimes by swapping lessons with another subject - flexibility is the key!)
We have used video conferencing in many ways. Before a visit from a group of students from Cairo, we met them by video conference - the Cairo students used British Council facilities in Cairo - there is no doubt that we were all - students and teachers - impressed when we answered the call and we saw “British Council, Cairo” appear on the screen.
As part of the S6 course on International Issues students were able to interview Alyn Smith, MEP - he was unable to visit Mull at that time, but we were still able to speak to him.
Last year some Gaelic students were able to take part in a short project with Hayle Community School in Cornwall - they prepared a short lesson to teach greetings in Gaelic and taught it to a class in Cornwall (there were around 30 pupils at the other end). The powerpoint presentation and worksheet had been emailed in advance. A couple of weeks later the students in Cornwall were able to teach our students some Cornish. We intend to try something similar this year. It’s easy to set up with the Cornish teachers - we just meet by video conference.
Lastly classes of junior pupils have video conferenced with their counterparts in another two Argyll schools (Tarbert and Tiree). They had short conversations based on agreed questions. This was very popular and gave all pupils a sense of achievement.
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