July 11-sixth blog post

Today we explored how video can enhance language learning. The one idea that really resonated with my practice was that students can use videos at home to prepare for the next day in class- ideally so that students can use class time to interact with one another in the target language.  It seems that there is never enough time to practice speaking and listening in a language course- but that in many cases these are the skills that the students most desire to improve. I think the idea of doing the 'lecture at home- practice in class' to be a logical and creative use of student and teacher time. In a high school, language classes are option courses. If students feel that their time is being wasted, they will drop out.


As ambitious as I am to implement many of the tools that I have learned about in this course, I had a bit of a reality check this afternoon. Technology is fantastic- when it works. When it doesn't, it can result in wasted time and frustration. The videos I took on my camera would not import into imovie, so I wasn't able to create my movie that way. As a consequence, my teacher graciously spent a significant amount of time trying to help me sort out my issue- which took away from his chance to help my classmates.  What did I learn from this?  Many things:

•  I need to have patience with the tools and with myself;
•  I really need to learn more about macs; 
• There is always more than one way to solve a problem;
•  If I were to do a project like this with my students, I should expect glitches and budget extra time for such anomalies to occur. 

*This evening I will create my film on movie maker- an alternative to imovie- without the benefit of the in-class tutorial. Hopefully I will be able to navigate the program without too much swearing. :)