it4L

Despite the obvious learning opportunities it offers, sometimes it’s difficult to justify buying a digital video camera for everybody.  There are limitations to using a DV camera; usually you need to connect the camera to the computer to get the video from it, and it’s unlikely that there will be enough for the whole class to use anyway.  What’s needed is a quick and easy-to-use portable device with removable storage, so while one pupil is editing their video, another can be using the camera.

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The seventh eLearning Awards competition is now open and schools are invited to submit entries for the eLearning Awards 2007 that exemplify the best use of ICT in education. Entries are welcome from schools or teachers in EU Member States, EEA Countries, EU Applicant Countries as well as Switzerland and Israel. Entries can be made from now until 31 October 2007 online at http://elearningawards.eun.org.

The aim of the competition is to promote the use of ICT in education and to encourage schools to collaborate. A gallery will showcase on the eLearning Portal contributions from all around Europe. This year’s sponsors include Young Digital Planet (Platinum sponsor), Intel, Promethean and InterWrite (Gold sponsors), Telefónica O2 and MICHAEL (Bronze sponsors).

Prizes (cash and equipment) will be awarded in categories highlighting best practice in the use of ICT in the areas of:

o       School of the future
o       The e-safe school
o       Promoting digital literacy
o       Creativity (arts)
o       Foreign languages
o       Sustainability (environment)
o       Maths, science and technology
o       Social networking for collaborative learning.

A detailed list is available on the eLearning Awards portal.

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts and the winners presented with their prizes at a prestigious event on 6th December at the annual EMINENT Conference in Brussels, to be opened by Jan Figel’, European Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture.

MFL teacher Joe Dale explains the process of setting up an educational blog in this article in TES.  If anyone in Shropshire is interested in setting up their own blog they can obtain a free account at ethink, if you need any help then get in touch with me [steve @ it4l.org]
Joe Dale offers practical tips and advice on using ICT to enhance the teaching of modern foreign languages, on his own blog - a worthwhile read for any MFL teacher.

I came across this website and thought what a great way to engage some of our students with learning German. It would have been nice if they also had the audio for the German so you could also hear what it sounded like.

The World Cup in Germany this Summer could provide an ideal opportunity to engage young people in language learning.

Has anyone already taken this onboard and produced any materials based around the World Cup?

The opportunities are endless. Think of the MFL objectives that could be met with podcasting - small MP3 files could be put into an rss feed ready to go into their aggregator, and they could hear French/Spanish, whatever being spoken.

And if the files are too long, or the content becomes irrelevant, Audacity can be used to discard the parts you no longer want.

And then… the MP3 files can be used in any online course. Or even… pupils with their own blogs can record their attempts at pronunciation and their rss can feed into the teacher’s blog…homework done, handed in and we can rapidly move on to the next learning opportunity.

The opportunities are endless.