In Search of Enlightenment

TakF is off on exchange to Japan. At least he thinks he is. Just before he leaves for Japan his Grandfather gives him a letter - a rather cryptic letter for 15 year old Takeru. It seems his Japanese born grandfather wants him to do something while in Japan; he needs to contact his great uncle. There is some sort of family secret that needs dealing with.

So in late December 2011, Takeru left for Japan and within a few days had forgotten the letter he still kept scanned into his phone. Then one day he finds a note in his pocket and things start to get creepy. Someone wants to meet him and discuss his father - his father who disappeared several years ago.

In early March, Takeru decides it's time to visit his relatives in Izumo and find out a little more. Not long after his host family in Tsukuba lose contact with him. He seems to have gone off on his own, leaving a cryptic video (see below) on his blog asking for help.

Meanwhile, some students in Australia have received an email asking for their help in locating Takeru. It seems they have been reading his blog and may know something.

Now to find his 'secret' blog and find out what he is really doing...

"this is getting fun…I keep checking the Edmodo and Docs in my spare time…" (teacher)

"I loved the way that the Rosetta mystery challenged my thinking and my creativity" (student)

Rosetta2032 - a project for languages with Year 7 is now over. Some members of the Resistance were able to locate all the hidden coins, placed in various locations around the school by the mysterious BenK. These students followed the clues left in various places - in online tasks, on websites and in the online profiles of the two main 'characters' - Glen Agua and BenK.

I had planned on writing some more updates as Rosetta2032 unfolded but it wasn't long before all my channels of communication were being monitored. For some reason students thought that I may have been behind the whole 'Glen Agua' scenario (at least I knew someone was reading my blog).

So how did it work?
There were 6 Phases in this journey towards saving the world and it all began with a worksheet...

A worksheet that revealed a website (edmodo) and a code, this was the code which gave you access to your language group. Once in edmodo, there were instructions left on the 'wall' and tasksheets left in the library (on edmodo). This worked well but would have worked really well if I had used it a little more effectively - I found it harder than expected to stay ahead of some of the students. As a result, some students found it a little difficult to locate resources whilst other students did some of the tasks out of the intended order. Furthermore, with time being taken up staying ahead of students, I also neglected the staff a little :(

In the end there were far more positives to come out of it than negatives and there have been lots of lessons for next time, which is the result we were hoping for.

Fake accounts have been created, fake websites are up and running and the Phase 1 task sheet has been sent. The Bunker (edmodo) is also ready. 

Students have just been sent the following: 

We are organising our Yr7 programme for languages a little differently this year and this has resulted in a Term 4 where students have already chosen their language for Yr8. Their choices are French, German or Japanese and the most likely scenario for Term 4 has always been that they will work on that language in a class where not everyone is learning the same language, or where the teacher who is in the room is not skilled in that language.

Essentially, we had to come up with a Term 4 'project' that students could work on independently but also be able to receive feedback. When we, as a department, were first discussing the possibility of this new structure for Yr7, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try something new. Now, I'm just hoping it will all work.

Inspired by a conversation with Jess McCulloch earlier in the year and more recently by her fantastic Blackline Mystery, I have been slowly trying to piece together a unit of work for the 3 languages that students will be able to work on semi-independently for about 5-6 weeks. My initial plans were to simply use edmodo: students could then join, complete tasks and use the discussion threads to ask questions. But, the more I read and explored and saw what Jess was doing, the more I realised the potential to go out on a limb and try something completely new. It may not work but hopefully we'll learn from the experience. The challenges were to make it work across all 3 languages and ensure that language learning was actually occuring.

The more I have learnt about and explored the worlds of "Alternate Reality Games", "Interactive Fiction", "Minecraft" and "Transmedia", the more I see the potential that this has, and that this would be an awesome way to learn. I am by no means an expert on the pedagogy of all of this but when I start to worry about those things, I am reminded of a tweet from Steve Collis: "so many sins are compensated for by the level of engagement". For me, engagement is critical. Engagement is the first step in finding a passion for something.

So, as for Term 4, we have: characters, a storyline, a headquarters (The Bunker, more commonly known as Edmodo) which contains our 'Database' (library of links and resources) and accounts across several websites. I will try to blog more of the journey but, for the moment, this is where our Term 4 jorney begins for the students...

Next, they will receive an email.

QR Codes are something I've had a bit of a play with but have not quite worked out how I would use them in the classroom. Mind you this post from Joe Dale has some great ideas. I have, however, used them as part of the corridor display outside the classroom. The aim is to change the theme of the display a couple of times a term but...

Last term's theme was 'Sakura' (cherry blossoms in Japan). I generally have a flickr image collage and some simple signs or words in Japanese but this time I included some QR codes that directed students to websites or videos that explained more about the images or the Japanese words. One code led to a popular Japanese song with 'sakura' in the title and another led to an explanation of 'sakura zensen', which can somewhat loosley be translated as the 'cherry blossom front'. The results are below, though apologies for the quality of the mages. If you're looking for a site to create the QR codes, I used Kaywa which enables you to link to a URL or shows text.

(download)

Click here to download:

corridor-display-qr-codes-EonlhAxwzpqxrgFEebxD.zip (464 KB)

Quizlet is a great tool for revising vocabulary in a language or for learning definitions in any subject. It allows you to set up class groups and when students are logged in and completing the tests or games their scores are recorded. So, for part of our 8 French lesson today we logged in to quizlet and the whole class jumped on to the recently created set to practice conjugating the verb 'aller' (to go).

Students were given 10 minutes, which was counting down on the board thanks to the Countdown Timer over at classtools.net. At the end of 10 minutes jelly snakes were handed out to those on top of the leader boards for each "Set Champion" - the 'Scatter Champion', 'Space Race Champion' and the champion of the 'Most Right Answers' category. All in all, it was a great way to round off the lesson and all were on task.

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Student created posters promoting Japan and some reasons for learning Japanese:

(download)

Click here to download:

from-the-classroom-student-posters-DpIJvboBqFzxtssGqznq.zip (333 KB)

I don't always call the roll at the start of the lesson for some of my classes, as by mid-way through the lesson I usually know who is there and who isn't. We complete our rolls electronically and so when there's an opportunity during a lesson, I complete it then - either on the school laptop or on my iPod Touch as I wander around. However, I do call out the roll for my new Year 7 classes at the start of the lesson as I don't yet know them so well. 

Over the past couple of weeks we have been learning numbers and so rather than have the students call out 'Hai Sensei' (as in "Yes Teacher"), I had them call out their favourite number in Japanese. This has worked really well and so from next week I plan to do this for Year 8, who have been learning the subjects in French. They will be asked to call out their favourite subject in French.

So next time you are calling the roll in your language class, pick a topic for the week and have them call out a word from their vocab list in the 'Target Language'. You could do it sequentially for something like numbers or you could place limits on the number of times a particular word is called out. Please share your ideas in the comments.

There have been a mass of articles recently on how learning languages is good for you; how it stimulates brain function and staves off alzheimers. Then there are the articles that highlight the need for more native English speakers who can speak more than one language. Those who can speak another language provide benefits for business, the economy and indeed for international understanding. But it is clear we do not have enough speakers of languages other than English. The demise of Indonesian in Australia, for example, means that less and less people have a real understanding of one of our closest and most important neighbours. Surely this is not a good thing.

For too long have we had the attitude that learning language is unnecessary as 'everyone else' speaks English. With such a self-centred view it is not surprising that the rest of the world is overtaking us or moving further ahead. Simply because others speak our language doesn't mean we can just sit back and do business with them or interact with them in comfort. Put simply, it means that the rest of the world understands us, but we perhaps do not understand them as well as we should.

In order to fully understand those around us, hopefully we can continue to broaden our horizons, take on more of a global mindset and encourage our young to take up languages at an age when it will benefit them in so many ways.

So, as we enter the last week of Discover Languages month, let someone know how language has changed your life and how cool it is to be able to really get to know someone from another land by talking to them in their language.

Recently I've been playing around with apps on my new iPod Touch, enjoying the camera, video and audio recording functions that my previous Gen1 iPod Touch were lacking.

Over the past year or so I have been using Posterous to post reading exercises and student work for an increasing number of classes. It is simple to use and the fact that you can email posts straight to the web makes it great for creating things on the iPod before emailing it up to the class site. The amazing array of apps available for the iPod meaning you can add bells and whistles to your reading passage.

The following are some of the apps I have so far found useful. I use the free version of most of them though they do have paid versions with extra features that I may soon upgrade to.

I have more and more students appearing in class with iPod touches or iPhones and am trying to show them how they can use these devices for 'good' in my class. Some of the weaker students have used these devices to create simple comics or images with speech bubbles and although it doesn't sound like much, it is so much more than they have done before.

Comic Touch Lite (free)

• Add speech bubbles (and a couple of effects) to your photos. 
• In class: students can take photos of themselves before adding captions to the photos in the target language (Japanese). We did this during the 'Daily Routine'. You could also have students search for images of people, take a screenshot (by holding down the 'home' and 'on/off' button on the ipod) and add captions introducing themseleves in the target language.

SodaSnap (free)

• Turn photos into postcards with the image on one side and your written note on the other. Great for writing in the target language and then emailing to your class blog.
• In class: great for writing virtual postcards on where they have been, what they did, etc. The amount of text is limited but is useful for Junior classes. Connect with other classes using it and have students write comments on each others posts.

PhotoCard Lite (free)

• Another app where you can create postcards, this one uses Bill Atkinson nature photos. The images are great and although they may not suit what you are writing about, you can write more than will fit into the SodaSnap postcard.
• This one allows you to send it to yourself via email and also has a 'print-and-mail' service if you want a 'real postcard' to arrive in someone's mail.

Strip Design ($3.99)

• Use your photos to create comic strips with a variety of templates, speech bubbles and other effects.
• It's useful to remember that you can use it with any image on your device. Take a screen shot, use an image that you have enhanced via another app or use a map (with directions in the target language). With a little imagination the possibilities are huge.

SonicPics Lite (free)

• This is something akin to a "Photo Story" type application. You can record audio over images and create a slideshow.
• In class: you could use it for listening and speaking exercises, describing images (people or places) or giving directions on a map. Describe daily routine, a holiday, your family and so on.

StoryKit (free)

• Create little electronic storybooks with pictures. This app is quite simple but an effective tool for writing in any language. Although it does not allow you to email the finished product, it does give you a web link to your product. Great for digital storytelling.
• This is my little experiment with Mr Happy and the camera on the iPod Touch.

There are a lot of apps out there and because many are designed for having a little bit of fun in English, it makes them extremely useful for helping to engage the students and, in the process, for creating a variety of texts using the target language. Then, once you post them on the class blog / site, they are there for reading practice and for all to admire. Check out how I've done it here.

So, download some free apps that you think might be useful, play around with them and, if necessary, get the paid for version before showing the students how they can be used to help them engage with the target language and improve their ability to use it.