MAY 2008
ICT Outlook | 2008 developments | 2008 events | 2007 looking back | Archives
This section of the website is maintained by the Association for Language Learning, the independent subject association for those involved in teaching languages. These pages, which are published annually, have been written by José Picardo. Check the Archives for previous editions.
The aim of this section of the website is to keep you up to date with key developments and events in the field of ICT and MFL. ICT Outlook brings you news of what is happening in the current year and throws a retrospective spotlight on the past year’s major initiatives, developments and events.
Hopefully, here you should be able to find what you are looking for quickly and easily. Welcome to ICT Outlook!
2008 developments and initiatives
New secondary curriculum
2008 sees the implementation of the new secondary curriculum for MFL. There are key changes in the Programme of Study and ICT will be a major tool in the teaching and learning of languages in the future. Fortunately, valuable support, and advice is provided by ALL (Association for Language Learning) and the QCA pages dealing with the new curriculum provide both information and case studies.
Routes into languages: widening participation
Routes into languages is an initiative to widen participation and enhance take-up of languages from KS4 to university. Universities work together with schools and colleges to promote MFL and encourage pupils to study languages at a higher level. There’s even a chance to win a video camera!
Using ICT effectively in MFL
Over the first half of 2008 CILT is working on two projects, funded by BECTA, to demonstrate the effective use of ICT in the teaching and learning of modern languages as technologies evolve and teacher skills develop. One project is a series of video case studies on the use of ICT and the other comprises a set of advice sheets on online resources and related ICT opportunities at Key Stage 4. You’ll be able to see everything here online at Languages ICT.
Reshaping languages
CILT’s 14 to 19 pages re-launched in March as Reshaping languages with an ICT section providing articles and case studies on a range of themes including social networking, blogs, podcasts, wikis, digital photos, the interactive whiteboard and more.
There is also comprehensive coverage of awards and qualifications for languages for the 14 to 19 age group. Downloads include video case studies.
Open School
One of the key recommendations of the Dearing review was to develop an 'Open School for languages' in order to engage learners and to help promote the study of MFL post Key Stage 3.
Open School aims to provide a virtual learning environment offering learners a wide range of innovative resources which can be accessed both in the classroom and as self study materials.
The Open School project is currently open to tender. The successful bidder is to provide both the innovative technology and the languages input.
Languages ICT
Languages ICT is undergoing review and the revised web site will be available in summer 2008. There will be many downloadable documents and some new material from the two BECTA-funded 'Using ICT effectively…' initiatives outlined on these pages.
National Educational Network
NEN (National Educational Network), in collaboration with BECTA, invited secondary schools to bid for funding of up to £25,000 as part of the project, 'Repurpose, Create and Share: Are your teachers using and sharing digital resources for learning and teaching?' The project runs from April to December 2008. For more information, go to Call for bids from BECTA and the NEN.
The Byron Review
Safer Children in a Digital World was published in March 08 and focused on the safety of children using the Internet and playing video games. Dr Tanya Byron emphasises the very important role that ICT plays in education; she said her report 'is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of their development by enabling them to play video games and surf the net in a safe and informed way.'
2008 events
Details are given below of events, many annual, which will be of interest and value to teachers of languages.
BETT 2008
'Using film-making to motivate language learners', a talk by Claire Dugard, CILT, drawing on experience gained in CILT’s Digital Video in the MFL Classroom project.
'Blogs and podcasts: ICT in your pocket', a talk by Joe Dale demonstrating the value for language learning of new technologies such as mobile phones or mp3 players.
You can find out more about BETT 2008 at Teacher's TV where you will find two short videos on the show. Find out about next year’s show at BETT 2009.
Association for Language Learning
Language World 'Pulling the threads together': ALL’s annual conference took place at Oxford, April 08. Themes included the new secondary curriculum, and the Dearing Review and workshops and there were talks on new and innovative uses of ICT in the MFL curriculum.
To keep up to date with meetings and events for ALL members across the country, go to Events on ALL’s website.
Primary Languages Show
CILT’s 12th annual Primary Languages Show took place in Manchester, with talks and workshops to suit all, including two talks by Joe Dale on the uses of technology for languages teaching.
Comenius Network
The Comenius Network runs a variety of training and CPD opportunities around the country designed to respond to local demand and to keep practitioners up-to-date with national developments, including ICT. Some of the sessions are listed below:
- The London Central Early Language Learning Regional Support Group is organising a session on 'Hands-on Interactive Whiteboard'.
- Comenius West Midlands is preparing a full day event with TV5 on using authentic resources, delivered entirely in French.
- Comenius North East is running two courses entitled 'Using ICT In The Secondary Classroom' and 'Kar2ouche'.
Comenius Digital Video in Action training days are being held at various centres between February and July. The only remaining day in this series will be held in Cambridge on June 25 under the auspices of Comenius East. The 'Digital Video in Action' courses are aimed primarily at KS3 and KS4 teachers, and provide participants with hands-on editing, a guide to MovieMaker software, and lots of creative ideas for projects!
Go to Languages ICT Action Research for details of the 2006-07 action research project, Digital Video in Action, which ran under the auspices of Comenius E. Midlands, and CILT.
For full details of Comenius events go to Comenius Network at CILT.
Communicate 08 Scotland
Communicate 08, organised by Scottish CILT and Learning and Teaching Scotland, took place in March in Scotland and was a very successful conference which provided lots of opportunities to explore the use of ICT in education. Find out more at the MFLE blog.
2007 looking back
Authoring software
MFL teachers continue to use authoring software, often freely available, to produce interactive exercises for their pupils and engage them in language learning in new and appealing ways.
Alongside more established programmes for creating interactive exercises, such as Hot Potatoes (free to schools) or Task Magic, new applications have appeared, such as Game Makers from the Department of Education and Training of the State of Victoria, Australia.
Following the lead set by schools such as Ashcombe School, or Languages Online at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, teachers have begun to create their own websites of interactive materials both to use with their pupils and to share with other teachers. Two such websites are estrellas from Clare Seccombe, an MFL teacher at Hetton School, and AsiSeHace.net from José Picardo, a teacher at Nottingham High School.
Blogging and podcasting
Blogging and podcasting in the classroom, as a means to enrich the pupils' experience of learning languages and to showcase their achievements, also continued to grow in 07. Here are some good examples of MFL classroom blogging:
Some of the most popular, free blogging platforms are:
Making movies
Lights, camera, action!, published November 07, is a CILT publication by Ruth Bailey and Claire Dugard that examines the use of digital video in the languages classroom to inspire and encourage teachers and pupils alike to work creatively and imaginatively with video.
There are many useful ideas to get you thinking about using digital video with pupils. Valuable tips abound and there is an abundance of practical advice.
Dearing Review
The long-awaited Dearing Review was published in 07. Among the many recommendations made by Lord Dearing there is a clear recognition of the role that ICT has to play in the teaching and learning of languages.
The Dearing Review also highlighted some case study examples of ICT in practice. One of those cited was the case study at Brinsworth School, which was one of the Action Research projects carried out as part of the CILT-ALL Languages ICT Action Research Project. In this particular study, Year 10 pupils worked in groups to create interactive exercises and to make video resources with their mobile phones. This innovative and dynamic approach proved to be a success at Brinsworth School and other classes quickly started following the example set by this project.
Summaries of Brinsworth’s project and all other Action Research projects are archived at Languages ICT Action Research.
Primary Languages Training Zone
CILT launched its new Primary Languages Training Zone in the Spring of 07 at the Primary Languages Show. The Primary Languages Training Zone, which was developed over a period of three years, supports the introduction and development of primary languages in Key Stage 2 by providing access to online training and works closely with teachers, school leaders and trainers from Local Authorities across the country. Its media library contains a wealth of downloadable video clips, which explore aspects of the Key Stage 2 Framework and its implementation in the classroom, including the use of ICT. Each video clip comes with a language file to help teachers develop their language skills and a 'think piece' on how to develop good practice.
Virtual Learning Environments
2007 saw the continued implementation of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) such as Moodle. This is a free, open source VLE championed, amongst others, by Mary Cooch, a former MFL teacher from Our Lady’s Catholic School, Preston in her Moodleblog.
Virtual Learning Environments allow individual schools to create their own online community with discussion forums, interactive exercises and games and online marking. In fact, VLEs offer much of the functionality required of the Open School project recommended by the Dearing review.
Second Life
For those of you with time to spare in your real, first life, Second Life offers new and exciting possibilities to complement language learning. Second Life is a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE), a virtual world in which users adopt a character or avatar to engage in a range of experiences in the virtual world. There are parks, shops and schools and you can build a virtual house.
EUROCALL, the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning, has established headquarters in Second Life. For more on the topic of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), see Graham Davies at ICT4LT Module 1.5, 14.2.
Social networking
Perhaps the most palpable development of 2007 was the boom in social networking sites such as Ning or Twitter, offering new possibilities for pupils and teachers to interact in collaborative environments. These social networking sites have evolved from those with a generalised mass appeal, such as Facebook or MySpace, to more specialised networks of people sharing the same interests. Good examples are the Ning Talk about Primary MFL Network, created by primary MFL teacher Jo Rhys-Jones, and the various Ning Web 2.0 in Education networks.
The concept of microblogging, pioneered by sites like Twitter, has proved so successful that it has sprung an offshoot for use in education called Edmodo, which is still in development but promises to be a very useful tool for teachers.
Action Research
The project on Languages ICT closed in summer 07 after 3 years. Over this period many schools from all parts of the country worked with a specialist mentor from CILT to plan and develop a short-term project exploring ways in which ICT could be integrated to good effect into teaching and learning languages. A one-day event took place in Halifax in March 07 when teachers from over 40 schools heard from Action Research teachers about their experiences and took part in hands-on video and audio editing workshops. Five schools presented their findings in workshops at Language World 07 and one school, Brinsworth Comprehensive, was cited in the Dearing Review (see above).
Summaries of all projects can be found online at Languages-ICT Action Research.
ALL: Language World 2007
In addition to the presentation by Sir Ron Dearing to delegates of the Languages Review, there were a series of presentations on the CILT-ALL Action Research Project. Action Researchers from a range of schools detailed their projects in which they used ICT to enhance the languages classroom:
- Peter Morris of Gordano School: a project to stimulate creative writing in German using wikis. See Gordonocool and Unserewebseite2006.
- Richard Henderson of Billingham Campus School: using digital video with a Y10 GCSE German group.
- Fiona Hilton of Brinsworth School: pupils create interactive materials and mobile phone videos on the theme of healthy living.
- Khalid Mahmood of Holte Visual and Performing Arts College: using PowerPoint in a Year 9 Urdu class to develop confidence in speaking and reading skills.
- Lizzie Hoskins of Redruth School: using the interactive whiteboard to increase pace and motivate a low-achieving Year 8 group.
ICT in the Language World
A hard copy of 'ICT in the Language World', an article written by Terry Cooper, was distributed to ALL members in late 2007. It summarises current developments in ICT in the languages classroom around the country, drawing largely on the work of the CILT-ALL Action Research Project.
A downloadable pdf version of this document is available for members of ALL. Follow the link found on the Issues, News and Policy section of ALL’s website.