SSAT Conference 2012 (6) Helen Myers

Making the most of digital media: Helen Myers -The Ashcombe School (me!)

I have created a folder called ‘SSAT 2012’in my public dropbox.

In it there is:

• The PowerPoint presentation
• The list of references
• The letter inviting you to spend a  day at The Ashcombe to experiment with ICT in the computer rooms (Weds 23^rd January; Wednesday 26^th June)

I selected ten things to talk about:

1)      A dedicated computer room, preferably with language management system for the ultimate in effective and efficient use of time e.g.  Sanako (classroom control, classroom monitoring, demonstration, listening, speaking, feedback, vocab testing, internet access)

2)      Subscription to Linguacope which includes access to downloadable images for making your own games.  We also subscribe to Activiscope to make ‘cool’ games like Penguin crossing

3)      TaskMagic – for very little effort of ‘input;’ you get massive ‘output’ of variety of games and activities.  Easy to differentiate within a class using the same source (e.g. contrast inserting gaps into a spaceless text and translating into TL using ‘Type’.  Note the online ‘textivate’ .. example shown with song text.. info gives link to YouTube video

4)      Use of Audacity / Cubase to produce audio  e.g. vocabulary list in French / English

5)      Facility to convert Word table (e.g. containing 2 columned list of vocab) into Powerpoint slides in 6 clicks! (separate doc available with instructions on how to do this)

6)      Facility to make ‘pictures’ of every slide in a PowerPoint the insert these into a movie

RESULT OF 4, 5 AND 6 = TeachProf video (follow link here)

7)      Vocabexpress – rigorous (!) testing of vocabulary – customisable to your text book or GCSE – offers spirit of competiton intra and inter school!

8)      CD ROMs e.g. Eurotalk – competitive element in networked version

9)      Authentic ‘soap’ e.g. ‘Plus Belle la Vie’ – quality video- - current contexts and language – suits short attention span (HEALTH WARNING : This is despised by native Marseillais delegate but I defended you, o pblv!!!! !!!!)

10)  Second Life – (a) recommend teachers can use to maintain currency of own language and learning new language skills (I demonstrated how I am learning Italain in SL and have made real friends there) (b) I invite anyone who is interested and enthusiastic to join me in a pilot project to use the 3D world to motivate pupils  to collaborate and communicate, initially with other UK schools, then eventually with our partner schools in other countries.

Feel free to email me for any further info.