ICT+and+Learning+Languages

**BYOD Bring Your Own Device - iPads, iPods and more ... **  || **Open Educational Resources in Second Language Learning Contexts **
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/BYOD-Consumerization-Policies-419x336-17Kb-300x240.jpg width="420" height="336" align="center"]]

This document outlines a range of varied web2 tools and e-learning platforms that could be integrated effectively into the second language classroom.


 * Using iPads and iPods in the Learning Languages Classroom **

Language on demand with the iPod Touch 

Joe Dale is an Independent Consultant working in the UK. He has developed a highly informative PowerPoint presentation on using iPads to enhance language learning. The link to this presentation (which is too large to upload here) can be accessed through //Bring languages to life: teaching tips, tech and ideas//

"There has been a significant and very positive impact on learning and teaching which, in time, should be reflected in achievement and attainment, thanks to both pedagogical changes and new ways of learning engendered by ‘anytime anywhere’ access to information and learning tools.'

@http://www.agent4change.net/resources/research/1658

ClassTools.net is a site where you can create free templates, games, quizzes, activities and diagrams. There is no need to sign up, have a password, and the resources are free! ||  || || Quality language learning experiences are generated by creative effective teachers who have high expectations, create authentic, relevant and challenging language learning experiences by supporting and scaffolding their students to success.
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2012-04-12_at_2.43.46_PM.png width="312" height="236" align="center"]]

Digital content in Learning Languages programmes is most effective when:
 * embedded into an existing programme of learning
 * supported by relevant offline experiences (before and after use)
 * selected according to the needs and interests of the learner (informed by evidence)
 * supported by effective teaching
 * combined with other relevant digital content and learning
 * learners work collaboratively

The integration of ICT is not be a panacea for poor pedagogy - **PL + ICT = EPL.**

Resource Sheet with notes on strategies and links to sites:



Creating e-books www.storybird.com www.flipsnack.com ||  ||
 * Other useful sites: **
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/social media and creativity width="301" height="192" align="center"]] || =Tried and tested Internet resources for the classroom... and beyond=

Emerging technologies are opening up a whole new dimension of teaching and learning opportunities. Drawing from real-life examples of students' work, this website aims to demonstrate how to make the most of the possibilities afforded to us by the effective use of the internet in order to raise achievement and participation, as well as to increase motivation and engagement.

This site offers an A - Z of some of the best free Internet resources for education and is constantly being updated. ||  ||
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/Screen shot 2013-02-19 at 1.16.18 PM.png width="299" height="224" align="center"]] || **Developing Creativity in the Languages Classroom with Social Media **

@http://coursecast.soton.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer/Default.aspx?id=f16668cf-cb85-4b2a-ab8f-232b847b2977

@http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/social-media-and-creativity-in-the-language-classroom ||   || Promote visual literacy - encourage students to use digital cameras! **Visual Literacy can be defined as the ability to understand and produce visual messages.** Students can benefit by developing their abilities to create, use and evaluate visual resources. "Visual literacy includes such areas as facial expressions, body language, drawing, painting, sculpture, hand signs, street signs, international symbols, layout of the pictures and words in a textbook, the clarity of type fonts, computer images, student produced still pictures, sequences, movies or video, user friendly equipment design, critical analysis of television advertisements and many, many other things." Allow students to create their own visual messages. Digital cameras can be used to enhance any project you would normally use photos or clipart. Below you will find many projects listed to help spark your imagination and get your creative juices flowing. The list below is divided into General and Subject Area. As you look over this list, remember many of the projects can crossover from one curriculum area to another. ** Curriculum Benefits ** ** Ideas ** Create a recount of a typical day in the life of a student - The students keep the camera for a day, take as many pictures as they want, and as a group create a booklet of that day. You can gain great insight into their thought processes doing a project like this. Publish photos for many projects. Take photos of cultural events, field trips and special events and put it together as a PowerPoint presentation. * Take a digital scavenger hunt. ** Bottom line is, you are limited only by your imagination! ** ||  || You can create attractive and colourful Glogster posters with your students in a variety of contexts, such as festivals, or for illustrating presentations on a current topic in your second language programme, for example,, My Family, I Like .... Using glogs is not too demanding when it comes to the use of the second language and a glog can be a good alternative to the traditional format of poster presentations. ||  ||
 * [[image:wiki_camera width="158" height="218" align="center"]] || **Digital cameras** are one of the single most successful Information and Communications Technology purchases you can make in a school. They enhance communication for students and teachers.
 * Students can learn better when teachers support a variety of learning styles.
 * Students can improve reading and writing skills through the use of visual literacy techniques (studies have shown that processing in competent reading involves both phonological and visual information).
 * Visual literacy can contribute to visual-spatial (one of the Multiple Intelligences identified by Howard Gardiner). It can also be involved in other intelligences such as bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical-mathematical.
 * PowerPoint Presentations;
 * Parent Night (Open Day) Displays;
 * Web pages;
 * Bulletin boards;
 * Screensavers;
 * Journal writing;
 * School Newspapers;
 * Document Classroom Projects;
 * Snapshots to send to local media;
 * Daily announcements;
 * Art projects;
 * Show and tell;
 * create posters or flyers for activities.
 * Have students write captions for the pictures of field trips and post them on the web/school intranet as a virtual field trip.
 * Have students write captions for the pictures of field trips and post them on the web/school intranet as a virtual field trip.
 * Use photos to make a map of your communities.
 * Journal Writing.
 * Classroom newspapers.
 * Autobiographies.
 * Insert student photos in a biographical poems.
 * Demonstrate vocabulary, emotions, compare/contrast.
 * Use a photo as a prompt for narrative or descriptive writing.
 * Use the digital camera to take photos of students then incorporate the photos into interviews written by other students in the class. (Students are assigned someone to interview and write about.)
 * Students can create a book of their school or community including pictures of all the classes, teachers, and important people.
 * Have students create passports during a travel/culture unit in the target language.
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/Glogster.png align="center"]] || ** Using Glogster in the Second Language Classroom **
 * [[image:Video.jpeg width="357" height="284"]] || ** Using Video in the Learning Languages Classroom **

Benefits to Learning


 * Students today live in a multimedia world and appreciate variety in their learning environment.
 * They find a mixture of text, still images, sound and video is more interesting than traditional approahes.
 * They gain opportunities for higher level thinking when producing their own digital video clips.
 * Collaborative.
 * Students find video motivational and enjoy greater control over their own learning.
 * Provides teachers with additional resources.
 * Teachers and students with limited technical ability can record and playback easily.

** Practical Aspects of using Video in the Foreign Language Classroom ** @http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-Video.html

**Literacy Strategies to Develop Students' Understanding when using Video ** A useful resource to support this is available on the Literacy page of this wiki. ||  ||
 * [[image:Blogging Infographic align="center"]] || ** Using Blogs in the Learning Languages Classroom **

This study seeks to determine the usefulness of using blogs in the foreign language classroom, and to assist foreign language professionals interested in developing learner independence in their own learners by using this computer-based learning forum. 

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">See also the the 'ICT Workshop notes and links' file below.

http://lewebpedagogique.com/blog/10-conseils-pour-creer-votre-blog-de-voyage-scolaire/
 * 10 conseils pour créer votre blog de voyage scolaire ! **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">To blog or not to blog: how does it impact on writing in a Japanese classroom? **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This article reports a small scale ‘inquiry learning’ project undertaken by Sharonm Henry and Rosemary Erlam as part of TPDL. It investigates whether requiring Year 10 students of Japanese to write blogs in Japanese would have a positive impact on their writing both in terms of quality (i.e., variety of language features used) and quantity. Students (n = 20) were required to write blog entries (posts) on three different topics that were concurrently the focus of their classroom language instruction. The requirements that students needed to complete as they wrote their blogs were designed to also fulfil requirements for a task (Ellis, 2009). After students had completed their initial blog entry for each of the three tasks, they received written comment and feedback from their teacher. They then rewrote their blog entry and received a final comment from the teacher. The students were also asked to fill in a questionnaire with a view to finding out students’ impressions and reactions to keeping a blog in Japanese. Findings showed that all students made gains in writing quality and quantity. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://www.tpdl.ac.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=PUthuP3-qa4%3D&tabid=1193 ||  ||
 * [[image:podcast width="405" height="301" link="@http://newmediainteaching.weebly.com/podcasts-in-foreign-language-learning.html"]] || **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Top of the Pods—In Search of a Podcasting ‘‘Podagogy’’ for Language Learning **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The popularization of portable media players such as the iPod, and the delivery of audio and video content through content management software such as iTunesmean that there is a wealth of language learning resources freely available to users who may download them and use them anywhere at any time. These resources vary greatly in quality and follow different approaches to learning. This paper provides a taxonomy of podcast resources, reviews materials in the light of Second Language Acquisition theories, argues for better design, and outlines directions for future research. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09588220701746047#.UlNy5VOp4qU ||  || || ===<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Using Google Docs & Sites: improving learning & achievement for NCEA ===
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/Screen Shot 2013-09-04 at 11.21.02 AM.png width="292" height="171" link="@https://sites.google.com/site/onajourneytogether/"]]

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">@https://sites.google.com/site/onajourneytogether/home

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Anne-Louise Robertson of Waikato Diocesan shares her own experiences and those of her students in exploring how Google Docs could be used to support language learning on her site //Learning and Sharing// which is a repository for her presentations and other resources related to those presentations.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This includes her presentation at the Waikato Langsem 2013 on //Language Learning Tools// ||  ||
 * [[image:Screen Shot 2013-11-22 at 11.37.38 AM.png width="353" height="261" align="center"]] || **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Interactive Websites for the World Language Teacher **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Source:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://www.slideshare.net/kbrooks/interactive-websites-for-the-world-language-teacher

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Resources for Languages**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">An online group to share links to resources or ideas to teach world languages.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">@https://groups.diigo.com/group/resources-for-languages ||  ||
 * [[image:learninglanguagespld/Screen Shot 2013-11-22 at 2.19.36 PM.png width="440" height="244" align="center"]] || **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Secondary Modern Foreign Languages Using ICT **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvYESav2IK8 ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**ICT and Creativity in Learning Languages Programmes - National Workshop**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The following file includes the links and brief notes of the Web2 tools that were investigated during the series of national workshops held in 2013. Where a 'Handout' or 'File' is indicated these have been included as additional files.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**'Handouts' or 'Files'** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Bloom's Taxonomy: What's old is new again **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> @http://educationalelearningresources.yolasite.com/resources/guildresearch_blooms2013%20%281%29.pdf <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> ||  ||
 * [[image:Screen Shot 2014-04-17 at 9.25.37 AM.png]] ||~ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creating WebQuests** is as simple as creating a document with hyperlinks! Webquests can be created in Word, Powerpoint, and even Excel!

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The critical attributes of a Webquest: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">•It is wrapped around a doable and interesting task <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">•It requires higher level thinking, not simply summarising – synthesis, analysis, problem-solving, creativity, judgment. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">•It makes good use of the web and class time <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">•It isn't a research report <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">•It isn't just a series of web-based experiences

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The Internet acts as a stimulus which generates analysis, critical thinking, discussion and writing.

||  || **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Integrating technology into the Learning ** **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Languages ****<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">Classroom using the SAMR model ** Chitose Izuno's presentation at 2014 NZALT Conference in Palmerston North about how to integrate digital technology into the Learning Languages classroom.

**[]**

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">Recommended Readings: **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">The lives of our students are increasingly invested in reading and writing online and in other networked collaborative, social, or gaming activities. This paper examines the challenge this poses for languages teachers in finding creative and effective ways to leverage their students' heavy investment in social networking to promote and facilitate languages learning. @http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2010/emerging.pdf
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">//Emerging Technologies// Literacies and Technologies Revisited **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">Teaching in a digital world: Using Moodle to support online language learning ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">This research project investigated the effect of participation in an online classroom on fifteen Year 11 students studying German at Hamilton Boys' High School. It aimed to answer one question: how the opportunity to access interactive language learning activities within an online classroom can develop and enhance boys' engagementand achioevement in the study of German. @http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=012617077556677;res=IELHSS <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">Biting the Hand that Feeds Me: The Case for e-Language Learning and Teaching ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> This article investigates best practices in e-language learning and teaching which are described as those that are productiove, informative, collaborative, communicative, and aggregative. PICCA offers best practices. Best for us. Best for our learners. Best for our profession. http://journals.sfu.ca/CALICO/index.php/calico/article/view/79 <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> In 2007, Andrew Churches updated Bloom’s work one step further when he introduced Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. His intent was to marry Bloom’s cognitive levels to 21st-century digital skills. Churches added ways to use Web 2.0 technologies to each cognitive level in Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Churches’ model can be used to select digital activities appropriate for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Many of these suggested activities are tried-and-true classroom traditions. Others require learners to use new digital literacy skills, such as collaborating and validating information. All are suited to second language learning contexts. @http://educationalelearningresources.yolasite.com/resources/guildresearch_blooms2013%20%281%29.pdf <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">ICT in the Language World: sources and resources **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">Bloom's Taxonomy: What's old is new again ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">

Keeping up with tech-savvy pupils and the pace of change are challenges and also opportunities to enhance teaching and learning. Incorporating new technologies into the classroom and the process of learning beyond the classroom has the potential to motivate and engage pupils, to involve and empower them, and, hopefully, retain them as language learners. There are many examples of teachers of languages using ICT imaginatively and effectively with their pupils and there are already digital resources around for you to access easily. This special supplement to Language World Newsletter focuses on some examples of good practice and points you towards resources, and support, that can save you time!


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">The effects of ICT on learning/teaching in a foreign language **

To meet the requirements and the challenges of the globalized world, developing digital practices in the language class has become a necessity. Learning a foreign language and in a foreign language is meant to train citizens of the world open to languages and cultures but not only... To that end, the introduction of ICT in language teaching seems to have become a prerequisite to the modernization of the education system and learning methods. In this paper, the positive effects of ICTs on teaching languages is considered. @http://conference.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL2011/common/download/Paper_pdf/IBL69-437-FP-Houcine-ICT4LL2011.pdf

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">The Positive Effects of ICT of integrating ICT in Foreign Language Teaching **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18.7167px;"> There has been much debate over the use of computers and the internet in foreign language teaching for more than two decades. Thus, the Information Communications Technology (ICT) in foreign language teaching has been the researchers’ focus of attention. Education, especially foreignlanguage teaching, has to adapt and renew itself tobe compatible with the globalized world. The purpose of this study is to examine the necessity of ICT and highlight the positive effects of it in order to keep up with the modernized communities in the current digital world. To meet this end, theenormous advantages of integrating ICT in foreign language teaching will be presented. With the enhancement of ICT, teachers and students will be able to communicate and collaborate with native and non-native speakers around the globe. The application of ICT is also beneficial in that theyprovide a wealth of resources for the students to become active learners by creating content for a worldwide audience. When students write or speak for a broader and more international audience,they become more enthusiastic about learning and beactive participants in the information age.

Furthermore, by using the authentic material provided by the internet, the students will have a betterinsight into the culture of the country and peoplewhose language they study. In the later parts of the study, reasons for using technology in foreign language teaching and some strategies and techniques for integrating ICT in foreign language teaching will be presented. Therefore, it is stated that integrating ICT in foreign language teaching will have positive effects on both the teachers and students to help them be aware of the modernized world and meet the current demands of the new era. @http://conference.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL2012/common/download/Paper_pdf/235-IBT107-FP-Isisag-ICT2012.pdf


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and on the Riole of Teachers of Foreign Languages **

The aim of this report was to survey current developments in ICT, to measure its impact on FLT & FLL in Europe and to predict possible future developments. One important fact that has emerged from this study is that Foreign Languages as a subject area is “different” from most other subject areas in the curriculum, namely that it is skill-based as well as knowledge-based, and in this respect it has more in common with Music than, say, History or Geography. This has implications both for the types of hardware and nsoftware that are used in FLT & FLL, but also for FLT pedagogy and methodology. <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> @http://ec.europa.eu/languages/documents/doc495_en.pdf

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">The Potential Role of ICT in Modern Foreign Languages Learning 5-19 on learning/teaching in a foreign language **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> There is no one best way to learn a foreign language nor a single optimal set of teaching materials. This is because learners will vary both in how they learn and what they need andwant to learn. It follows therefore, that there is no single 'magic bullet' that can be offered by ICTs to support language learning for all pupils and across all ages (see the Futurelab Literature Review in Languages, Technology & Learning by Jim Milton for further discussion of this position). @http://archive.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/discussion_papers/ICT_in_MFL_Learning_discpaper.pdf

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px; text-align: left;">**To blog or not to blog: how does it impact on writing in a Japanese classroom?**

This article reports a small scale ‘inquiry learning’ project undertaken by Sharon Henry and Rosemary Erlam as part of TPDL. It investigates whether requiring Year 10 students of Japanese to write blogs in Japanese would have a positive impact on their writing both in terms of quality (i.e., variety of language features used) and quantity. Students (n = 20) were required to write blog entries (posts) on three different topics that were concurrently the focus of their classroom language instruction. The requirements that students needed to complete as they wrote their blogs were designed to also fulfil requirements for a task (Ellis, 2009). After students had completed their initial blog entry for each of the three tasks, they received written comment and feedback from their teacher. They then rewrote their blog entry and received a final comment from the teacher. The students were also asked to fill in a questionnaire with a view to finding out students’ impressions and reactions to keeping a blog in Japanese. Findings showed that all students made gains in writing quality and quantity. @http://www.tpdl.ac.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=PUthuP3-qa4%3D&tabid=1193

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Encouraging Students to use Technology **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">One of the specific educational goals at many colleges is for students to achieve technological competence, by which is usually meant facility with the tools of information technology. Here are some ideas and techniques that will encourage the achievement of this goal. A particularly attractive factor of these techniques is that most are self-assessing: completion of the assignment by the student demonstrates that the student can use the tool or perform the skill.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> ||  || =Use of "gaming" in the Learning Languages classroom=

The following article contains some simple ideas for the use of digital games such as Mario Kart in a Learning Languages classroom. This may be of particular use in junior classrooms. []