After being presented with all of these tools, I know in the near future I'm going to be thinking: I wish I knew how to use that tool I learned about in class. Is there an emergency hotline I can call for getting help using animoto or voicethread? That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, even though I wish we had had more time to master skills. I think voicethread could be a really good tool to use in foreign language classes. It seems that our language lab, which only consists of a bunch of computers, has regressed from the time when I was in high school, when we had booths with headphones and cassette tapes (but no computers). Maybe there could be a workshop specifically targeted at foreign language teachers, so their students could improve their speaking and listening skills using new technologies.

On my website, entitled "Amusons-nous," I have presented several pages in French showing different aspects of the students' community. The purpose of the site is to serve as a starting point for a more comprehensive site which will include students' work, featuring what students choose to present related to their community. To see how this site works, go to http://sites.google.com/site/woodsidefrench3/

Integrating Technology in the Classroom

As I'm working on my site that I'll incorporate in class, I feel no shame in keeping it simple. It's by keeping it simple that you really think of the one feature that would really enhance the learning experience. The other part of the story, for me, is: while I like experimenting with a bunch of new features, too much stuff becomes just too much, and I can't digest it all.

Economics and Technology

I wonder if this push towards integrating new technology in the classroom and the move to reduce expenses wherever possible are on a collision course. What if a school can get a bunch of state-of-the-art new computers at the expense of laying off a teacher? As we see the state-of-the-art technology work wonders, are we not whetting our appetite for products that we can't afford? Are we becoming reliant on spending more money in order to keep students engaged?

Voicethread

Today all my students opened a gmail account, so next time I can have my students open a document by doing the following simple steps: 1) Sign into your account.  2) From the google home page, go to the "more" drop-down menu and select "Documents."  3) Go to the "New" drop-down menu and select "Document."  4) Type your homework assignment. 5) Save it by clicking "File" and selecting "Save as new copy."  6) Share by clicking on "Share with others."  7)  In the box below "Invite people," type in my address, which is esimon@seq.org, then click on "Invite collaborators."

My idea for a project is to have all my students get a gmail account, then create a document within google docs, inviting me and allowing me to make corrections to their work, and then have them incorporate their corrections in their document.  At the moment, I don't know how to make corrections, and I'm not sure how to guide them through the process of creating a google doc.

Being specific now, thinkfinity.org has some useful material for French.  Students are learning the conditional, so I'll have them access http://french.about.com to take a test on that site.

It's unclear to me how I will use a blog, but I will consider its potential as I progress through this semester.

One question at a time...

Where do thoughts originate?  Do they have a lifespan?  How does an individual's thoughts relate to the thoughts of others?  Who am I?  How do I relate to others?