Archive for the ‘Best Bytes’ Category
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A ton of tongue twisters for Tuesday.
“Poquito a poquito Paquito empaca poquitas copitas en pocos paquetes.”
“¡Qué triste estás, Tristán, con tan tétrica trama teatral!”
“Bene memini pantomimi minimi et amantium mimi.”
“Tilia sub tilia filat subtilia fila.”
“Ob er über Oberammergau, oder aber über Unterammergau, oder ob er überhaupt noch kommt, ist ungewiß!”
“Una cactrepa trepa tiene tres cacatrepitos.”
“Je les vends six sous, six sous ci, six sous ça, six sous ces six saucisses-là.”
“¡Esmerílemelo!”
“Cane decane, cane! Non de cane, cane decane cane; decano, cane decane cane.”
“Wenn mancher Mann wüsste, was mancher Mann wär, gäb mancher Mann manchem Mann manchmal mehr Ehr’.”
“Die Katzen kratzen im Katzenkasten, im Katzenkasten kratzen Katzen.”
“In Ulm, um Ulm, um Ulm herum.”
“Pepe puso un peso en el piso del pozo. En el piso del pozo Pepe puso un peso.”
“Es klapperten die Klapperschlangen, bis ihre Klappern schlapper klangen.”
“Ñoño Yañez come ñame en las mañanas con el niño.”
“Amore, more, ore, re, probantur amicitiae.”
“Babette a fait bombance à bord du bateau de Bob.”
“Paulus Paulam amat, sed Paula alium amat.”
“Bonjour Madame la saucissière, combien vendez-vous ces six saucisses-là?”
“Quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua maledicere temptant.”
“As-tu vu le tutu de tulle de Lili d’Honolulu?”
“As-tu étè à Tahiti?”
“Der Cottbuser Postkutscher putzt den Cottbuser Postkutschkasten.”
“Der Zweck hat den Zweck den Zweck zu bezwecken, und wenn der Zweck den Zweck nicht bezweckt, dann hat der Zweck überhaupt keinen Zweck.”
“Der Schweizer Schweißer schwitzt und schweißt. Der Schweizer Schwitzer schweißt und schwitzt. Schwitzend schweißt der Schweizer Schweißer.”
“Selten ess ich Essig.”
“Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenbäumen zwitschern zwei Schwalben.”
“Bonum nomen, bonum omen.”
“Malo malo malo malo.”
“Zehn Ziegen zogen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo, zum Zoo zogen zehn Ziegen zehn Zentner Zucker.”
“Mater mae sus est mala.”
“Sator arepo tenet opera rotas”
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
“Ah! pourquoi Pépit sans répis m’épies-tu, dans le puits Pépita pourquoi te tapis-tu? Tu m’épies sans pitié, c’est pieteux de m’épier, de m’épier Pépita ne peux-tu te passer?”
“Summergimurne?”
“Âne et vers et taupe ont-ils os? Âne a os, vers non, taupe si.”
“Te tero Roma manu nuda date tela latete.”
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Don’t ever let me catch you singing like that again, without enthusiasm. You’re nothing if you aren’t excited by what you’re doing.
—Frank Sinatra to his son, Frank Jr.
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Visual dictionary might be used to start a conversation and give students the vocabulary they need just in time to continue a class discussion.
http://www.infovisual.info/index_es.html (SPANISH)
http://www.infovisual.info/index_fr.html (FRENCH)
Filed Under Best Bytes, World Languages
Come to Judd 126 to see amazing May Projects by our graduating seniors. Andrew Zich and Peter Zich have created a proof-of-concept rubric tool that is way cool. They will be demonstrating the tool regularly between 7 and 9 pm in the World Language Lab (UH207).
Check out example uses of the tool on our wiki!
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I learned about a new site at IALLT that allows teachers to quickly find native speakers in many languages to either speak with or correct the writing of second language learners. I haven’t used this yet myself, but I’m looking forward to it. This kind of a real-time access to real language is exactly what language learners need, and lots of it!
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A quick reflection on the IALLT conference.
I was really impressed with the congeniality and originality coming out of this year’s IALLT sessions. These are instructional technology professionals who are consistently hunting for that “sweet spot” where technology and pedagogy enhance one another. Most of the suggestions I heard from fellow IALLTers were both practical and helpful. They are also a good-humored bunch. =)
I would highly recommend that language teachers who enjoy the challenge of integrating technology go to IALLT. They are sure to come away with some great ideas.
Highlights from Saturday’s session included how to better manage a language center, using Adobe Connect for professional development regional conferences, and how to track usage of computers and applications utilized in a language lab environment. I liked this page at Oberlin, which gives an instant snapshot of which machines in the lab are being used. Sehr kool.
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This morning, I attended a great workshop about an experimental distance learning language class that was simulated around starting a non-profit to serve the local immigrant hispanic community. Great ideas and very inspiring! I love the idea of creating entire syllabi around meaningful, longer-term projects.
Then I saw some wonderful videos produced collaboratively by Lower School and college language learners that are just gorgeous. Must take time now to watch a few of these videos based on the topic of fairy tales (all made in iMovie HD).
In the afternoon, attended a great presentation about Professional Development and ideas for making it more effective.
And finally, watched BYU’s presenation on designing learning spaces that reflect a more student-centered pedagogy. Great stuff.
You can read more about what is happening at IALLT ‘09 by checking out the #iallt09 Twitter stream.
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The DiLL presentation went great today. One of my big take-aways was the idea that language labs/learning spaces, just like classrooms, are moving away from being teacher-centered professional development corners to being student-centered. The Language Center will be a Language Resource Center where STUDENTS can come and get the resources that they need to make learning happen versus TEACHERS coming to get help to develop new materials.
I think both of those activities are important. But we should be adjusting things to meet student needs directly as well as indirectly (via the teachers).
More tomorrow!
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This morning, we had a great discussion with six other language lab coordinators about various language resource center designs. It was great to see how different schools have approached this problem working withing their own unique constraints. I wish I could post some of the photos, layouts, and materials I saw. They were very interesting. Felix Kronenberg will be compiling some of our info in a single place.
This afternoon, I’ve been working on Camtasia and we’ve been talking about all kinds of different issues: VMWare Fusion, Dual Boot labs, Teacher development time, and potential language uses.
Here are some of the resources we talked about:
TubeCaption
MacTubes
TubeTV
Jodix.com
3PlayMedia
Hot Potatoes
Firefox Add-In for grabbing YouTube videos
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Today, I’ll be popping in and out of Second Life for the SLanguages 2009 Conference. I haven’t completely given up on the idea of language learning in virtual worlds, although the students I talk to seem to think that it’s a really bad* idea. I like the idea of learning in a 3D virtual space, but I think perhaps the tool would have to be designed to make it really easy to do activities that are specific to language learning, such as:
* conversing with programed avatars to get something done
* quickly designing objects to respond to commands (it’s still too complicated in SL)
* find student tutors who are pre-screened and ready to interact in the target language with my students 24-7
* find a way to create student-only usernames whose activity can be logged
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There are a ton of sites out there where you can list your favorite books, books you’d like to read, books you are reading, books you have read, etc. etc. For now, I’m going simple with the google books option. Their search is fast and easy. Here’s my online compilation of dictionaries and other references for Spanish to English translation. I’m hoping they’ll add categories, so that I can make separate collections.
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Please join Information Systems for Basement Bash II this TODAY (Friday, May 1), from 2:30-4:00 PM.
Not only will IS kick off the Garage Sale, where we will have details, documents, and display models available of the desktop and laptop computers for sale, but you’ll also have a chance to play Nintendo Wii games, earn a chance to win a digital photo frame by answering IS trivia questions, make and share funny faces in Apple’s PhotoBooth program, and enjoy music, light snacks, and some welcome “down time” with your friendly neighborhood IS team.
See you there!
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Personally, I go in and out of using twitter, depending on how busy I am. Other people I know thrive on it; they love to be the first to know what’s up, what’s hot, what’s not. I usually just surf for interesting links. I am less inclined to track people’s conversations or want to be privy to the casual banter that fills my stream.
This week, I discovered a new tool for the mac called tweetie that has made it easier than ever before for me to track the conversations people are having or to responsibly reply to or re-tweet cool links. So I’m back on twitter and I’ve noticed a discernible increase in both the quantity and quality of conversation amongst my “tweeple”.
IS Support Associate Brian Ruby was talking about how TV media has been making a big deal of Twitter during the last week. It seems as though twitter has finally passed that threshold of normality, meaning that if you aren’t on twitter, you’re not normal. 
People like this blogger, who guffawed at the web service a year ago, are finally accepting that twitter might become a mainstay in their social media lifestyle.
Educators for the last two years have been excitedly promoting the tool as a way for teachers and students to develop their own PDN (Professional Development Networks) or PLN (Personal Learning Networks).
Twitter can also be used for unconventional purposes (check here and here). Last year, we used twitter to track what teachers were doing with technology.
Filed Under Best Bytes, World Languages, YuperStars
Lab owes a big thank you to Wayne Brasler and the myriad students who have helped him write and publish the Midway through the years. The maroon-bound volumes of Midways gone by, currently stored in Judd 014, are probably our single best source of Lab’s history. I found a photograph of the original Language Lab built in 1967 when I was looking for ArtsFest history. I went hunting again today to see if I could scan that photo. Couldn’t find it, but I found another article about “Electric Classrooms” that made me smile.
Apparently, we are on a thirty year cycle, since it was in 2006-07 that our current lab was installed. If the pattern continues, I expect that we’ll renovate again and get some kind of a huge video conferencing language lab (for easily talking to and recording conversations with students from other countries) by 2036.
Retroactive kudos and a “YuperStar” to Ms. Susan Joseph for her exemplary “differentiated instruction”, made possible by the small class size she describes in the first column of this article.
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Flicker has some great sequences that are only 5 photos long, which could be used for telling stories and generating conversation.
Another site has made it easy for users to design their own sequence of five cards from creative commons photos.
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I found a site that might help our language students preparing for the AP exams next week. These tips on cramming might be particularly appropriate.
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This just in from the LLTI listserv. I know our teachers are always looking for rights-free images, so this site should be a big help. Another place to look is in the Creative Commons area in Flickr.
CAPL (Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon) is a “free, online, non-commercial visual glossary comprised of authentic photos for language and cultural instruction. Created at Washington & Jefferson College, CAPL seeks to provide teachers and learners with high-quality authentic images for their classrooms and teaching materials. Currently, CAPL has a large German and ESL database of photos that are constantly expanding. The following languages are being developed and should be online in 2009.
-Arabic
-Chinese
-ESL (North American)
-French
-German
-Italian
-Japanese )
-Portuguese (Brazil)
-Portuguese (Portugal)
-Russian
-Spanish (Central America & Caribbean)
-Spanish (Mexico)
-Spanish (Southern Cone)
-Spanish (Spain)
The pictures in this database may be viewed, downloaded, linked, manipulated, copied, displayed, and redistributed free of charge for educational, non-commercial purposes as specified by the Creative Commons license. Please cite CAPL @ washjeff.edu as the source.”
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Skype for the iPhone was released March 30th. One review here. I tried it over the weekend and I thought it worked rather well. There will likely come a time (5 years hence? 10 years hence?) when powerful wifi networks are free and ubiquitous. And gadgets like the iPhones or iPod touch rest comfortably in the pocket of every walking human over the age of 10. And when that happens, we shall bid a fond farewell to the telecommunications industry as we know it.
Meanwhile, we’ll be watching for signs of how this state of ever-connectedness impacts education and personal learning practices. If knowledge is everywhere and always accessible, what is learning in school buildings for? My two cents: learning environments at their best will speed up the acquisition of global-market-worthy skills. Those that don’t deliver on that expectation will be pushed out of the education business, sooner or later.
