Languages ICT: ICT news update

Flashmeeting on blogging and podcasting

Flashmeeting is a one-click video-conferencing tool created by the Knowledge Media Institute (KMI, part of the Open University), which is easy and safe to use. All you need to do is set up an account by contacting Jeff Howson at jeffrhowson@gmail.com or John Warwick at john.warwick@stlukes.herts.sch.uk who promote the free service and then install Macromedia Flash Player along with a webcam or microphone on your computer.

The straightforward interface allows you to communicate and record video, audio or text chat and account holders can pre-book timed sessions in a secure non-public meeting area. Have a look at this QuickStart guide for an overview of Flashmeeting's main features; for ideas on how to use the service to promote language learning, you can listen to an interview Jeff gave at a recent eTwinning conference in Brussels.

On 8 March 2007, around 20 MFL teachers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Malta took part in a 2 hour Flashmeeting on Blogging and Podcasting: Creative and personalised ways of engaging and extending your pupils in the modern foreign languages classroom. The meeting was booked and hosted by Joe Dale, leader of French at Nodehill Middle School on the Isle of Wight and lead practitioner for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust who then posted a record of the event on his blog which includes:

a summary of the discussion
a link to the replay of the Flashmeeting
an offline version
an audio only version as a mp3 file
appropriate show notes

Joe plans to organise further Flashmeetings to give colleagues more opportunities to share their ideas on using technology to enhance language learning. Watch this space.