Language and Technology

As a foreign language teacher, I use technology as a means of encouraging students to express themselves in Spanish and to enhance classroom discussions about literary texts, film and current events. Students are involved already in digital dialogues through interfaces like Facebook, email, instant and text messaging, so why not capitalize on their technological time as a teacher?

I am using Voicethread (Voicethread.com), which is a free web application that provides a way to record text and audio comments about uploaded images or even short videos. This technology is a simple program that offers as many creative activities as one can imagine for the classroom, but it can be particularly outstanding for improving fluency in a foreign language course. Click on the link below to see two short demos on how I incorporate Voicethread in my class:

Voicethread Demos

Another technology that has been very helpful in conducting my courses is the use of a blog as a Course Management System (CMS) instead of WebCT. The simple layout of the blog eliminates the need for searching for items in subfolders because all of the material appears on one page and posts are chronologically organized. I would like to give credit to my collegue, Dan Walker of the University of Colorado, Boulder, for introducing me to this idea of using blogs as a CMS. It has allowed me to better connect with my students and facilitate dialogues inside as well as outside the class within the target language.

Class Blog