Web 2.0 tools for the Language classroom

 I'm at the pre-conference workshop for the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures. I plan on posting a short description of all of the sessions I will be taking tomorrow afternoon.

MCTLC Pre-conference Workshop: Web 2.0 tools for the language classroom
Presenters: Elizabeth Valencia-Borgert and Dr. Phyllis E. VanBuren

Web 1.0 = downloading / Web 2.0 = uploading

Wordle.net: One of the presenters puts her texts into Wordle before giving it to her class because the more times a word appears in the text, the larger it is; this gives the students an at a glance understanding of which words are the most important in the text.

Wiki: A bulletin board. The professor who presented has her students submit their work to her Wiki so that each student has access to all of the other student work. This is good for collaborative learning. The other presenter uses two Wikis, one that the students can collaborate on, the other that is controlled by her, her students can access the Wiki read-only. She uses an Avatar (a Voki account) that is embedded in her Wiki to communicate with her students. She also has Skype and TokBox embedded into her Wiki.


 www.360cities.com You can travel around the world looking at Panoramic pictures. Here is one of where I lived in Montpellier:


Saint-Anne, Montpellier in Languedoc-Roussillon

http://www.360cities.net/image/saint-anne-montpellier#-50.39,-25.30,70.0



Here's the Voki I'm embedding into my Wiki site in order to communicate with my students:

Get a Voki now!