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AU Case Studies - Podcasting and Wordle in Foreign Language Teaching

Please see the follow-up report by Ursula Byrne, Tiwtor Cymraeg.

(Image created by a student in the Lifelong Learning Spanish class using Wordle http://www.wordle.net. Please see the original word cloud here: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1331988/Sobre_la_lectura).

On Saturday, November 7th 2009, a workshop about the use of IT in the classes was held at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning.

We discussed the rationale behind the IT activities: the place of IT in the class, the place of IT in the syllabus, and how IT could be an element of enhancement for the learning and the teaching experience.

We did also discuss about the role of the student and the teacher with IT. Reflecting on how we engage with the IT in the class, what attitudes and aptitudes are necessary for this to take place in a constructive way, not as an add-on.

All our discussions and group work were recorded and they can be found on our PodOMatic page.

After this part of the workshop, we needed to try our ideas using the software available - Wordle, Audacity, Podomatic - to create activities that reflect our ideas and points of view for the use of IT in the class.

These activities can be found on our page as well.

I am also including my internet page. about Podcasts, Google sites, Wordles and Podomatic. It is in Spanish, but you can find all the links mainly in English, and those links there could help you develop other skills as well.

It was a very rewarding experience being able to reflect on our teaching and on the student learning with the help of others. Apart from the technical side of things, we considered that if you have the right attitude and you consider IT activities as an integral part of your class, not as an add-on, then this will be a very good enhancement.

We just would like to share all this with you, and we are open to any suggestions for future workshop within our University. If you have pages, podcasts, Wordles, etc that you have created for your class or in your class, just let us know, and we will add it to our page. You can leave messages, tell us what you think, point us in other directions, etc. We strongly believe that it is very good to share what we do. Please contact me at aob@aber.ac.uk.