In my role as teacher of languages, I have sought to study and understand how the social aspect of Web 2.0 can be harnessed to strengthen the teaching and learning of MFL. Most interesting to me was the transformative potential of blogs, Web 2.0 applications and social networks, not only to enhance existing practice, but also to create new technology-based tasks which would have been previously inconceivable1, a process depicted below: However, in order to assess whether learning socially online can truly have a transformative and positive impact on learning outcomes and curriculum delivery as accurately as possible, it is important to moderate any inherent positivity and open up the field of study to all viewpoints2, discarding any preconceived notions that may bias the conclusions of this case study and taking care not to avoid any evidence that may be counter to those notions3. A small case study was formulated for this purpose, taking great care to accurately reflect teacher and learner attitudes to the use of social media and, therefore, to ascertain whether the school wide implementation of this kind of technology, beyond the MFL Department, can become a viable prospect in the foreseeable future. The case study describes the use of blogging together with Web 2.0 applications in the teaching and learning of languages in Years 8, 9 and 10. The blog was established by installing WordPress.org, which is a self-hosted, open-source based blogging platform and Content Management System (CMS). The two Web 2.0 applications used as the basis for this case study were Domo.goanimate.com - a tool that allows users to create their own short cartoon-style animations - and Storybird.com - an application that allows students to write stories which can be published in ebook format. Crucially, both applications provide embed codes that allow students’ work to be assembled, published and shared using the WordPress.org blog. Although I started using web applications relatively early in my teaching career, their use initially played an relatively minor, teacher-centred, enhancing role, mainly supporting the introduction of new vocabulary or grammatical structures as part of classroom based, teacher-centred pedagogy. However, after observing the positive reception granted by my students to the application of these tools, I started to encourage the student-centred use by setting tasks and project which would involve their use by the students in an augmentative role, that is to say, using these tools to provide a functional improvement to already existing practice. It was later on, with the addition of the WordPress self-publishing platform, that the transformative potential brought about by the combination of these tools became apparent, for not only could we do what we already did better, but we could do other things we were not able to do before, harnessing the social aspect of our blog’s comment functionality to allow students to learn from one another and peer-assess. As outlined in a previous post, the combined use of these tools is carefully planned in advance and exploited during a sequence of three lessons, generally following this structure: The first lesson focuses on introducing the appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures using standard classroom resources, such as flashcards, video projections, sound recordings and the interactive whiteboard. At the end of the lesson, I set a homework writing task (as is policy in my school), designed to reinforce the new grammar or vocabulary. Students are made aware at this stage that their aim is to increase the range and complexity of their Spanish and that their work is ultimately going to be published on the WordPress departmental blog. The technology used as this stage is merely enhancing existing practice and it is not transformative. The second lesson in this sequence takes place in a classroom fitted with computers, such as ICT Laboratory or a Languages Laboratory, after the homework set in the first lesson has been handed in and after corrections have been added by the teacher and a temporary grade has been assigned. Students are then informed that a final grade will be assigned when their work is improved using the chosen web application so that each student’s work can the be published and shared. In my experience, students readily understand the benefits of sharing their work with one another in order to improve attainment in general. At this stage, I ensure that I give my students clear instructions as to what their task involves and that they realise that there is a tangible outcome. In short, the teacher needs to explain clearly what the purpose of the activity is4 and that, despite students’ own non-academic perceptions of the internet and Web 2.0, the task is indeed real work and not just a game5. Students are then allowed to work on their own or in groups, using their computers to access any website or programme at their disposal. As this lesson becomes student-centred, the added advantage of being able to spend time individually with those students who need extra help or stretching is gained. Technology, used in this way, therefore allows the teacher to plan student-centred lessons, in which an environment is created that allows pupils to learn from one another6. Finally, just before or during the third lesson, the teacher assembles and publishes the completed work on the blog, which is then displayed to all students using a projector or using computer suite. Alternatively, students could complete this last task at home or in their spare time if access to the internet is available to them). Now a process of peer review and assessment begins as people are asked to evaluate each other’s work in turn. Students are encouraged to share their findings with the other students verbally and to take notes. At this point, the lesson tends to become less formal and, as students start to give each other constructive feedback, they begin to learn from one another in an efficient and enjoyable manner, making the sort of contributions which are normally the reserve of the teacher. What begins during this third lesson is the beginning of a peer review and assessment process that culminates with the exploiting of the blog’s comment functionality. The transformative potential of the this combination of Web 2.0 applications therefore becomes apparent as students, who might have lacked the courage to participate in class or to speak their minds, are encouraged to peer assess by leaving constructive comments for one another and to learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. So, did the use of technology bestow in all students a wish to participate7? Did the promise of a large audience on the world wide web become a motivating factor8? And, what evidence is there that the use of these Web 2.0 applications has produced better learning outcomes than standard teaching practice9? In order to answer these questions, we need to study how students reacted to the tasks, what the quality of the work produced by the students was, and whether the peer assessment element impacted positively on learning outcomes. This case study was completed with the help of my colleague, Mr. B, and his Year 8 German (24 students) and Year 9 French (18 students) classes, as well as my own Year 8 German (24 students) and two Year 10 (28 students) Spanish classes - a total of 5 groups comprising 94 students altogether. Both the Year 8 groups used the blog and Domo.goanimate.com for their tasks, whereas the Year 9 and 10 groups used the blog and Storybird.com. Both Mr. B and I followed the scheme of work and sequence of lessons outlined above. We found that students did generally respond very well to the introduction of this kind of technology to spice up their lessons, however, we also noted that a small but vociferous minority of students, some of whom were very academically able and not the usual trouble makers, remained disengaged. I clearly remember one boy saying loudly: "not another website!" when the task was outlined to one of the Year 10 classes. We therefore quickly discovered that not all our students were engaged by the use of Web 2.0 applications. The extent of this disengagement is illustrated by the fact that some students did not hand in the task at all, despite its compulsory nature. Although the table above shows clearly that the vast majority of students (86%) complied with the teachers’ instructions, it also demonstrates that not all pupils were engaged or enthused by the prospects of using Wen 2.0 applications (14%), a finding that is compounded by the fact that an unknown number of students may have completed the tasks simply because they were under compulsion to do so. However, the most interesting part of this exercise for me was to ascertain whether students could successfully peer-assess each other. The table below shows the numbers of comments left on each of the blog entries by individual students: It becomes clear again that, despite the presence compulsion and threat of sanctions, a significant number of students (30%) did not assign the required level of significance to the task, although the majority (70%) did comment as instructed. In fact, compulsion may be emerge as decisive factor in this case study, although, unfortunately, we were not able to devise a reliable way to accurately measure its incidence. Whether the students wished to comply or whether they were forced to go along with the task remains, therefore, a matter of judgement. However, if, rather than looking at the quantity of the peer-assessment comments left by the students, we look at their quality and divide them into categories, it is possible ascertain whether these comments played a significant role in the assessment of the tasks. The comments were divided into categories according to whether they were deemed to be good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as typified by the actual examples shown below: Therefore, a good comment is that which provides detailed and specific feedback and many include examples and corrections. A satisfactory comment is that which provides specific detail, but may lack detail. An unsatisfactory comment is that which is not specific or detailed and does not inform the reader. When we look a the numbers of comments in each of these categories, as shown in the table below, we must bear in mind that all students were given specific instructions to provide good comments: This table confirms that a pleasing 68% correctly formulated comments under the good category, with 94% of the comments left by students deemed either good or satisfactory and only 6% classed as unsatisfactory. In my view, this has considerable repercussions in the assessment of whether the learning outcomes were improved by this exercise because, despite the initial reluctance displayed by some of the students (ironically, the comment chosen to typify the good category was left by the student who shouted "not another website!"), the learning outcome, comprising the initial writing task and the subsequent peer assessment comments, was visibly improved by the employment of these Web 2.0 applications and by the students’ engagement in open epistemological discussions regarding the quality of the target language used. This fact was acknowledged in the school inspection report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which stated "excellent use of peer assessment was observed in Modern Foreign Languages, where pupils used technology to comment on each other’s oral and written work"10. The effectiveness of the application of technology is heavily dependent on how it is put to use11. In this case study, the academic improvement delivered by this application of technology is beyond question in the teachers’ minds but also in the students’, who acknowledged when asked that they had a better grasp of the language and a clearer understanding of what was expected and required to attain highly. They were also able to demonstrate this in subsequent pieces of work. This case study has shown that not all students are enthused or engaged by a more frequent use of Web 2.0 applications, but a vast majority are. However, the most important aspect it has thrown to light is that, regardless of students’ attitudes, whenever technology is used effectively, learning outcomes do improve. The use of blogging in conjunction with selected Web 2.0 applications were unanimously deemed to have been a success by students, teachers and external school inspectors. The written tasks produced by students using Web 2.0 applications after a process of cooperative learning and peer assessment facilitated by the use of social media were found to be of higher quality than would have otherwise been the case. Furthermore, most students were clearly engaged in this process, which is an essential component of successful learning12. However, it would be disingenuous to assert that this engagement was provided solely by the technology. In my view, innovative pedagogy which was transformed by the use of technology was instead responsible. With the appropriate use of technology, learning can be made more active, social, and learner centred—but the uses of information technology are driven by pedagogy, not technology13. The blog and tasks featured in this case study can be found here. Here is an example.

Apple recently announced the launch of its free iBooks Author desktop application, which - they claim - "allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could."  This post takes you through my humble first attempt at making my first iBook using iBooks Author. The gallery below contains screen captures of all the aspects I will cover in this review: [imagebrowser id=2] First Impressions When Apple announced the new iBooks Author app, my first reaction was to say about time! The iPad was clearly a powerful tool for content delivery in schools but, prior to the announcement, content creation and sharing was very much the realm of the professionals, which I was clearly not. Yes, you could use Pages to create multimedia documents which you could then export as ePub files, but the results look positively amateurish compared with what iBooks Author can deliver. Using iBooks Author iBooks looks very much like a cross between Pages and Keynote (Apple’s answer to Word and Powerpoint respectively). As a regular user of both, I felt I knew my way around iBooks Author instinctively from the word go. Even if you are not familiar with other native Mac applications, the ready-made templates and the intuitive tools and layout allow you to start writing your iBooks straight away. An important aspect for someone, like me, who has lots of older word documents already saved in my hard drive, is that importing into iBooks author is as easy as dragging a word document into the application. It then automatically creates an iBook with it with the correct titles, chapters and sections. The same process applies to images, video and sound clips. This is a massive time-saver. Publishing the iBook is a very straight forward affair too. I was first taken aback when the Publish button took me directly to a sign-up screen to become an iTunes Producer, as it made me think that the only way to distribute the content was through iTunes (thereby having to sign up to Apple iTunes’ rather restrictive producer agreement which essentially says: we own you!). I then realised that you could export the iBook as an ibook file, which can be distributed as you would any file and then be synced to any iPad using iTunes. Interactivity This is where the iBook’s real advantage over ordinary textbooks. Videos, sound clips and animations play within the iBooks itself, bringing the subject to life in front of our eyes. This is incredibly engaging for the user - at least for now, while this technology is fairly new and exciting. In addition to multimedia galleries and 3-D animations, the application makes it very simple to add multiple choice questionnaires and drag and drop exercises using its widgets option. In the gallery, above, you can see what these activities look like. I’ve added a number of activities at the end of each section in my iBook that test the reader’s comprehension of the topic before they move on to the next. This is a real big plus for teachers. Readers can also add personal highlights and annotations to the iBook, as you would in any exercise book. This is particularly useful to people, like me, who need to annotate their thoughts straightaway, otherwise they are gone… forever! As a languages teacher, I have found the ability to add a glossary of terms and vocabulary especially advantageous and practical. Once a given word is added to the glossary, it is highlighted in bold in the main iBook, allowing the reader to tap on it to access further information, such as usage or meaning. With it being my first iBook, I have not added any 3D animations (mainly because I could not get hold of appropriate ones, the process itself is as easy as adding a picture), Keynote presentations, galleries or extra HTML code (an RRS feed for example) or interactive images, all of which are widget options within iBooks Author. The result is nevertheless still a stunning interactive book which I hope, will help me deliver content to my students in an engaging, effective and, above all, pedagogically sound way. Drawbacks For many the main drawback will be the fact that it is an Apple only product. You need both an Apple Mac computer and an iPad to create and preview any iBook. The outcome of your labour of love then can only be read by an iPad (and not by any other tablet, like Android based tablets or Kindle tablets). This is quite restrictive, especially given the fact that Apple products tend to be considerably more expensive than the alternatives. I remain hopeful that, as this technology matures, common file formats and compatibility will emerge that would open up iBooks or eBooks to a wider audience. Many have pointed out how an electronic version of a textbook is not really that big a deal in terms of the evolution of education. They are, in my view, right to a degree: iBooks do exploit and, to a certain extent, perpetuate the one-to-many, sage-at-the front model of education, but the fact that we are exploring new ways of creating and delivering content that can be created and shared by anyone (teachers or learners) with the right tools has to be, in my view, a step in the right direction. It has been also said that the technology that iBooks uses is old (it is, after all, HTML based - the same as any webpage on the internet) and therefore an iBook really offers nothing new. I disagree. iBooks Author makes it incredibly simple to create and distribute an iBook. You can do it. Your students can do it. Even if it’s currently tied up with a particular platform, you do not need to be an internet expert or a web wizard to publish your content. Secondly, many have criticised iBooks and eBooks in general for being a glorified offline web-page. In my view, and in a world where wi-fi is not always accessible (I’m talking about our schools, not the third world!), the fact that it is offline is a definite plus, not a drawback, as users do not depend on a flaky wifi or an unreliable internet connection to access the content. That’s all I can think of. I hope this review is useful to you and do let me know what you think. My first attempt at an iBook, still a work in progress, can be downloaded here.

Jux is a stunning image-based alternative to what you might call ordinary blogging and allows the user to make impactful statements and delightful slideshows using their six different posting styles - slideshow, photo, block quote, photo, video, article and countdown. Pictures can be uploaded from your own hard-drive or sourced from services such as Facebook, Flickr or Instagram. Jux can be used by teachers to introduce or reinforce topics or, even better, by the students themselves as the culmination of a research or creative writing project. Currently, as far as I can see, Jux only allows one Jux per user. It would be fantastic if students and teachers could have different Juxes for different topics or projects under the same main account. It would also be fabulous if individual pages from Jux could be printed out to form part of classroom displays. I wonder if Jux is listening… Anyway, here is a Jux I made earlier using the block quote format in Jux, using quotations from my personal blog Socially Networked. Go, play and enjoy.  

My fondest memories of school are of the occasions on which I made stuff. When I think about what other aspects of my learning I enjoyed most, I always come back to the basic principle of creativity. Getting me involved in creative tasks that result in tangible outcomes was one of the ways my teachers ensured that I remained engaged and enjoyed the process of learning. Working on a model of the solar system was a sure way of getting me to remember the planets (9 in those days) and our place in the universe. I was never naturally good at maths or physics, but making tracks and ramps down which to throw ball bearings gave me a much better understanding of Newtonian physics than any number of equations you might want to throw at me. Technology today gives us the tools and the possibility to enjoy making stuff and exercise our pupil’s creativity in new ways: Now you can make stuff virtually as well as actually. My classes and I exploit these new possibilities by regularly embarking on projects which require exercising creative skills and, in so doing, going far beyond the confines of the curriculum. Late in the Spring Term, the boys in my Year 8 class (12 and 13 year olds) decided to write an electronic book in Spanish using a web-based tool called Storybird that allows children to create and publish their own books electronically. The objective was to put to practice all the language we had been learning in the preceding sequence of lessons, trying to use where possible more complex structures and a greater variety of vocabulary, thus consolidating existing knowledge, which is arguably the most important step to acquiring new knowledge. Their excellent work can be seen here. Engaging in activities which pupils see as having a concrete and practical outcome, such as writing electronic books, allows the pupils to be creators of something unique, of which they have ownership. It also facilitates the transition from teacher-centred, class-based learning to one in which the pupil begins to acquire individual responsibility. Because the work is carried out and published online, new, previously inconceivable possibilities of peer- and self-assessment emerge in which pupils cease to be limited by what they could learn by themselves and start learning via interaction with others through our subject blog, creating an environment in which pupils can learn from each other. I have described this process in more detail here and here. See examples below. As you can see, pupils engaged in open epistemological discussions regarding the quality of the Spanish language they had used in their electronic books and had learnt from each other and from the result of our conversations, both in the classroom and online via the subject blog, about the use of more complex sentence structures in the target language and the importance of demonstrating knowledge of a wider range of vocabulary. On this occasion, however, the extended writing exercise became a competition to find the best electronic book which would, as a prize, be turned into an actual book which would then be added to the School Library. My pupils immediately became enthused and motivated at the prospect of being listed in our library’s author search. It has been firmly established that pupilsʼ motivation bears tremendous influence in the process of language learning and acquisition. It follows then, in my opinion, that motivation and encouragement should, per se, be an objective to be sought through the use of technological tools with which our our pupils are already familiar. The competition was won by Mukul and Harry, above, whose work was deemed to be exceptionally good and, through Storybird, was published, not only online, but also as real books. Not bad for a tangible outcome. Their first book in a library. Hopefully the first of many. Pupils had been engaged throughout the task and, although their familiarity with technology was used initially as a motivating factor, perhaps not surprisingly, the most powerful motivator for continued learning and engagement turned out to be the growth of my pupilsʼ confidence in their ability to speak Spanish.

There is a lot of gold on the Internet but sometimes your students can spend a huge amount of time mining for it, searching and getting distracted by content that is not relevant to the task in hand. MentorMob allows teachers (and why not let your students be the teachers?) to focus the students’s attention by creating learning playlists of relevant content which can be enhanced by quizzes and comprehension exercises to test their knowledge as they go. As you can see above, MentorMob playlists can be easily shared and even embedded on classroom blogs. In the above example of a learning playlist, I wanted my students to do some preparation work prior to watching a film - La piel que habito - which we would then discuss and critique. Rather than giving them a worksheet or just asking them to Google the film, I decided to try out the tool after Eric Pitt from MentorMob wrote to me last January to introduce the service. This example is fairly simple - it only contains four steps - but notice how the students are directly taken to the websites I have deemed appropriate and how their attention is immediately drawn to the task at hand - in this case, vocabulary building and comprehension - by the quizzes that you can build within MentorMob. Overall, I am impressed by the potential of this service I look forward to using it more often with my students next academic year. I’m just sorry I didn’t have the time to explore it in more depth this year! Watch the video below for a greater understanding of what MentorMob is about. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YwrGoWIZnk'] Your thoughts, as always, are very welcome.

It was a tremendous privilege to invited to present earlier this month at the Social Media Workshop 2012 organised by San Diego State University’s Language Acquisition Resource Center. My session was titled Glogster for the Language Classroom and the following notes are derived from it. What is Glogster? Glogster is an internet tool that allows users to create and share interactive posters composed of text, graphics, sound and videos, as in the example above. Glogster is a free tool but offers a premium service to teachers and schools, which is great for those who have concerns over privacy and security or would welcome the ability to generate, control and administer their students’ accounts. Why use Glogster? The student’s perspective Tools such as Glogster dovetail effortlessly with our students’ digital lifestyle. You may well remember fondly those fabled times without email and digital distractions when when every student was reputedly exemplary, but those who started secondary education in the past three years do not remember a world without social networking and internet interactivity. Our students are growing up in a multimedia world where they can communicate, learn and exercise their creativity online. The ability to create products - tangible outcomes - that they can share with pride, using tools with which they are familiar, is undoubtedly a motivating factor for most students. However, it is not a magic bullet: using Glogster doesn’t guarantee students will do a good job. The best outcomes will only be achieved if both teacher and students assign the required level of importance and significance to the task. Whenever students achieve poorly in their exercise books, we don’t blame the exercise books and decide to stop using them. Instead we tackle whatever problems led to such poor achievement in the first place and even apply sanctions if deemed necessary. The same principles should apply to using tools such as Glogster. The internet is not an excuse for poor teaching. Why use Glogster? The teacher’s perspective Every language teacher remembers the four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. As you can see, in the example above, there is evidence of all four skills being put to good use in the one piece of work. The student wrote a descriptive piece (writing) and recorded his own voice (speaking) so other students could read (reading) and listen to him and his chosen videos (listening). Teachers can put together lessons that can be shared with pupils beyond the confines of the classroom in a variety of ways, but the real power of Glogster comes from getting your students to do the work, from allowing them to create their unique piece of work and from the peer assessing potential that can be exploited afterwards, once a class project has been completed. And remember that you don’t necessarily have to do this project in the classroom. Because Glogster is an internet tool, it can be accessed from anywhere where there is an internet connection, so the completion of the project can easily be set for homework. On to assessment then We embed our glogs -  that’s what these multimedia posters are called - in our languages blog. A blog is a social tool based on the principles that writers can easily update it and that readers can interact with the writer by leaving comments. However, students must be taught how to write good comments - years of schools’ refusal to engage with pupils using social media has meant that they have not learnt how to interact appropriately online. I believe it’s our job to teach them. We use the two starts and a wish method, by which they are required to leave a comment outlining two things another student has done well and another thing she could improve. And we always model the comments, that is to say, we show them what good and bad comments look like so that they know within which parameters to operate. Dedicating some time to teaching students to write good, meaningful comments is essential if we are to establish purposeful learning conversations. An advantage of using tools such as Glogster regularly is that you can eventually bypass this last step. My classes and I have been using Glogster since 2008, so my students remain familiar with the process and our high expectations from one year to the next. Peer assessing in this way, using the commenting facility in blogs, becomes a very effective way for students to assess each other. In addition, the teacher can also see immediately if there are any areas or topics which may require further teacher intervention, thus informing future lesson planning and completing an assessment loop that was initiated by the setting of the task. The potential of the internet for this kind of learning through social interaction is often overlooked and underrated. I hope this post goes a little way to demonstrating that harnessing social media in this way is actually both desirable and advantageous. Please do not hesitate to share your opinion and your experiences of using Glogter or similar tools in the classroom. Your contribution is always welcome and very much appreciated.

Introducing new vocabulary in an engaging way is one of the greatest challenges for language teachers. Remembering vocabulary is arguably the greatest challenge for language learners. That’s why I’m always on the look out for new and exciting ways to present vocabulary items to students in a memorable way. Wordfoto is an iPhone and iPod app that allows you turn any photograph into a mosaic made up of your chosen words, which can then be used to reinforce vocabulary learning or other concepts, not just in languages, but in a variety of other subjects. Below are some examples of picture-mosaics I created to introduce the topic Healthy Living to my Year 10 class. Once you have created your picture-mosaic, you can tweak the colour and fonts further by choosing from some preset themes. Pictures can be saved as .jpg from within the app. If you don’t own an iPhone or an iPod - or if you don’t fancy spending £1.49 ($1.99) - you could consider Tagxedo, a browser based tool that allows you to achieve similar results for free. For a greater focus on the words, I’ve been using Wordle for years. What do you think?

Earlier today I spoke at the 2nd national training day for teachers and directors organised by FECEI, the Spanish Federation of Language Schools, in Madrid. This is a summary of the talk: Many schools are trying their hardest to keep their heads buried firmly in the sand while the educational landscape changes rapidly around them. Very often a false dichotomy is established between ICT and academic rigour; wordprecessors or pen and paper; classroom learning or home learning. But it’s never a question of either/or, it’s a question of weaving innovative practices into teaching and learning to enhance the education we pass on to our students. We must avoid getting mired in unhelpful dichotomies such as these and focus on what is best for our students. We must also never forget that educational technology is to education what a telescope is to astronomy… it’s just a means to an end, not then end in itself. The internet has a bad reputation in schools. Many teachers see the internet as full of risks and dangers and therefore not worth the trouble. Contrast that with their students, who are avid users and young enough to not remember a time before the internet, a time before social networks and multimedia resources. As a people, we have a tradition of failing to grasp the transformational impact of innovation and we have often assumed that particular innovations are useless, pernicious or here-today-gone-tomorrow fads. Douglas Adams, above, encapsulates the feeling countless generations of parents have felt when confronted by the new and unnatural ways of their children. Teachers and schools are not exempt form the occasional lack of insight: when erasers were first attached to the end of pencils teachers believed they would encourage laziness and lack of academic rigour and were often banned in schools. In fact, we see the same process happening today when disruptive technologies show up in our classrooms, and for the same reasons by and large. The problem is that, whether we realise it or not, the internet isn’t going anywhere. Like erasers on pencils, calculators, talking movies and colour photography - all of which were criticised on their introduction - the internet is here to stay and teachers and schools would be unwise to ignore its potential to transform teaching and learning. When I was researching for my masters degree in Education and ICT, I came across Raul Puentedura’s description of how educational technology is gradually adopted: from Substitution to Augmentation, followed by Modification and Redefinition. The internet has reached such a degree of sophistication and adoption that it is now possible for teachers and, just as importantly, students to be able to devise activities, tasks and that would have been previously inconceivable. Take Voki, a web application that allows users to create a speaking caricature or avatar. At first glance, it could be easily dismissed as a bit of a gimmick without a strong educational purpose, but that would be entirely wrong. You see, Voki is available on the internet, so students can record themselves speaking in the target language anywhere where there is an internet connection, allowing me to, for the first time, be able to set speaking for homework. Because Vokis can be embeded into websites, we can then exploit the social aspect of the internet to get students to peer-assess, as in this example. Voki has allowed us to devise tasks that could not have been conceived without it and the social nature of the internet. The same process can be applied to almost any web application. We have also used Storybird, an application that allows users to create a kind of e-book, to to foster writing among reluctant writers, that is to say any boy between the ages of 11 and 18, providing them with a tangible outcome they can show off and celebrate. Glogster is another of these web applications. In this example you can see how, on the one piece of work, we have gathered evidence of all four skills: speaking, listening, writing and reading. The following video, originally recorded in my classroom by the sadly now defunct Teachers’ TV, charts the progress we have made using web applications and highlights the positive opinions of the students who have used these resources to create and publish material on the web: We need to learn from the past, but we mustn’t use the past as a template for the future, as we often do. Instead we need to look carefully at what we are able to do today that we couldn’t do only ten years ago and, with that perspective, we can then imagine new possibilities. Our students would benefit immensely if we were to stop constantly demanding "square wheels". Not only would they be using the tools they are familiar with, but they would also be learning to use the internet appropriately and for academic purposes. We teachers need to reconquer the online territory that, up until now, we have been happy to let our students occupy largely unsupervised. If we really care for their future and their education, then we need to do better. And a final thought. Why use web applications? Because it’s stands to reason that if we enjoy doing something then we’ll want to do it more. Language learning is no different. Click here for a list of web applications you can use in the classroom. Please comment below if you have any thoughts or comments about the use of the internet in our classrooms.

A week ago I was surprised to learn that I had been shortlisted for a Naace Impact Award in the Leadership category. As part of the process Naace requires shortlisted nominees to supply supporting evidence of the work for which they have been nominated. Since my work here in Box of Tricks is largely responsible for my nomination in the first place, and since the supporting evidence can come in any format, I thought I should write a blog post. So here it is:   I started teaching in 2002. The cheer of the millennium spirit was still in the air. Good times when we were breathing in hope and exhaling expectation. The 21st century was dawning like the first spring day after a long winter. Mobile phones were becoming smarter, web 1.0 was well on its way to becoming web 2.0 and online social networks were beginning to be bob up (and sometimes sink unceremoniously) like croutons in a primordial soup of new opportunities and possibilities. Except if you went to school, that is. Because if you went to school, mobile phones had to be switched off, the internet was fire-walled and, apparently, nobody was really who they claimed to be on social networks - woof! I realised immediately that teaching and learning in schools was like inhabiting an alternative reality in which electricity had just been invented and cutting and pasting could only be done with scissors and glue. The proof was displayed proudly all over the walls. From day one in my teaching career, I was fortunate to work in forward-thinking environments and receive the support of innovative senior leaders who could see that the internet had huge potential and that it would not simply go away by pretending it wasn’t there. I was able to start experimenting with new and innovative ways to use what was then called web 2.0 (today we refer to it as, well, just the web). My pupils and I started creating and publishing content that was instantly available worldwide. This presented us with wonderful new possibilities for communication, content creation, assessment, and independent learning, but it also delivered new challenges. This is how Box of Tricks came about in 2007, when I decided to put all my web 2.0 experience to work and started a blog. It became my way to deal with these new opportunities and challenges, to reflect on what was working well and what could be improved and to share new resources and good practice with whomever was interested, which, to my genuine surprise, was very many indeed. Since 2007, there have been 215 posts published in Box of Tricks, eliciting 1,925 comments from the hundreds of thousands of visitors who, over the years, were gracious enough to stop by and engage in conversation, taking time out of their day to participate in discussions or to point out where I was going wrong, which, let’s face it, was more often than I’d like to admit. So, to the evidence then. In Box of Tricks I have blogged about how my pupils have benefitted from using web applications, online peer-assessment, blogs, social networks and content creation tools. Despite the many nay-sayers who equated academic rigour solely with pen and paper and technology with worthless gimmickry, it was becoming clearly evident to me that the effective use of technology in education could increase pupil engagement; that it could be the catalyst for personalised learning and sow the seed for life-long learning; and that it could bring down the school walls and take the learning to wherever the learner happened to be. Over a decade’s worth of practical experience in and beyond the classroom and the academic depth provided by a masters degree in ICT and Education have meant that a number of schools and other educational organisations have sought my input and advice on the use of new and emerging technologies. During this time, I have been very fortunate to be able to collaborate with universities, NQT networks, Naace, Teachers’ TV, HMC, CfBT, ISC and the Guardian Teacher Network, among others. It feels rather strange to have to write up such supporting evidence oneself. In many respects, I feel extremely humbled at the fact that the words impact and award are being uttered alongside my name deliberately - and not by mistake, as one might imagine might be more likely. So I would like to give thanks from the bottom of my heart to those who nominated me. I’ll never win, but having been nominated and then shortlisted is itself a success. I have one final favour to ask, and it is this: if you feel that this website has been a little helpful or useful in however small measure, would you please take a minute to say so in the comments section below? Thank you so much! You can also tweet me if you prefer. So long as your account is not protected, I’ll be able to display your tweets as and when they arrive: 1/2 @josepicardo @naace great help. Used to get ideas for PGCE investigative research project 2 yrs ago.Go back periodically + look at other — Farid Charidine (@fcharidine) 11 de febrero de 2013 2/2 @josepicardo @naace resources which I then use with pupils then share with colleagues. Has helped improve use of tech within dpt — Farid Charidine (@fcharidine) 11 de febrero de 2013 @josepicardo Your site has been a long term source of professional, proven and innovative ideas & resources - splendid content for all — Andrew Field (@andyfield) 12 de febrero de 2013 @josepicardo Love the site. It is a real life saver at busy times and a great source of inspiration when I am more relaxed and have time! — Marie Sophie (@Mundolearner) 12 de febrero de 2013 @josepicardo I work in EFL not MFL but your advice and tools have been v useful to me in promoting Ed Tech at my FE college. — Charlotte Assomo (@CharlotteLovie) 12 de febrero de 2013 boxoftricks.net/internet-resou… Some great ideas here! @josepicardo — calderstones mfl (@caldies_mfl) 12 de febrero de 2013 @josepicardoalthough I teach at the university, I have found many ideas and resources for my own classes in box of tricks. Really useful. — Juan Fernández (@granainoinuk) February 13, 2013   This is why @josepicardo was nominated for a @naace Impact Award jpic.es/YT68Iy — Digital Maverick (@digitalmaverick) February 12, 2013   @josepicardo Inspirational website for everyone interested in technology and MFL. Thank you! — Anna Lise Gordon (@AnnaLiseGordon) February 12, 2013   @josepicardo I’ve opened the lid on the box of tricks on many an occasion. Very inspiring! — Glennis Pye (@GlennisPye) February 12, 2013 @josepicardoBox of Tricks v inspirational. Definitely using new tech in classroom, so thanks and please keep going! — Luisa Alonso (@LuisaAlonso5) February 12, 2013 #nbea #Iowa1ro1Interesting blog about the impact of technology has to make on teaching-a must read! bit.ly/14PuxSy — Sharon Keehner (@SharonKeehner) 12 de febrero de 2013   #BookmarkThis - your favorite new site MT @josepicardo: Wordfoto: a picture worth a thousand words jpic.es/12uZQn3 #LangChat — Noah Geisel (@SenorG) 7 de febrero de 2013   100′s of reviewed web tools for teaching and learning | Box of Tricks buff.ly/yjoNkw #edtech — Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) 26 de julio de 2012   200+ Reviewed Web Tools for Teaching & Learning! boxoftricks.net/internet-resou… via @josepicardo @theconsultantse #edtech #elearning #edchat — Shelly S Terrell (@ShellTerrell) 24 de julio de 2012   Technology and Education | Box of Tricks j.mp/yjoNkw Jose Picardo’s great A-Z collection of useful sites for educators — Tony Parkin (@tonyparkin) 4 de enero de 2012  

This blog has always focused on those online resources and applications that can be exploited to support teaching and learning. However today I’d like to give you a quick run down of the tools and services that I’ve been using over recent years to help me manage the flow of information and organise myself as a teacher. The following services are mostly device agnostic, that is to say, they will work across all major operating systems and devices, though some restrictions will apply, especially if you have a Windows phone or tablet, though not on Windows netbooks, laptops or PCs. Paperwork Flow As a teacher and a curriculum leader I have often found myself on the verge of being swamped by paperwork and admin. It’s not just pupils’ work and reports but also slips that need signing, budgets that need approving, schemes of work that need revising, books that need ordering, departmental handbooks that need updating and school handbooks that need, ahem, reading. Among the vast array of online tools and services, there are a few whose raison d’être is to help you stay organised and keep your head above water. One such tool is Dropbox, a wonderful service that I discovered a couple of years ago and that stores all your files in the cloud so that you can access them from any computer at any time. It also features a desktop application that synchronises anything that you save into your Dropbox folder to all computers connected to your account, ensuring that any file that you save, say at school, will be there waiting for you when you log on to another computer, say at home. Such is the magic of the cloud. Dropbox also features smartphone and tablet apps for all major platforms, allowing you to access your files and documents anytime and anywhere and to share them instantly and easily with your colleagues or pupils should you need or wish to. The basic account is free and offers users up to 18 GB of free storage (starts off at 2 GB and you can earn free space through referrals). You can open your free Dropbox account here. But it doesn’t stop there when it comes to free online storage. Google now has a service called Drive that amalgamates the old Google Docs as well as giving you a massive 15GB of space to store all your documents. It also offers you the ability to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the fly within your browser - so no need to download or install expensive office software. Not only can documents on Drive be shared easily with colleagues and pupils, but you can easily change the settings so that several people can edit the same document, even simultaneously, opening up fantastic possibilities for collaboration. Google Drive also has apps for all major tablet and smartphone platforms. Storing and sharing documents in the cloud is much safer that carrying memory sticks or portable hard drives, which you are liable to losing.  For this reason, this is what all major operating systems are now moving towards. Microsoft’s (soon to be renamed) Skydrive also offers you 7 GB of free storage and links to its new Office 365 service and brings you access to your documents and browser versions of familiar office applications from any device. Apple’s new iWorks for iCloud is currently in beta testing and will feature similar functionality in the Autumn. So keep an eye for that if you prefer to use Apple products and services. Lastly in this section is Evernote a tool that helps you save anything - notes, pictures, lists, documents - and synchronises it all across devices. It has a desktop application as as well as mobile apps for all major platforms. Don’t underestimate Evernote because is listed last in this section. Evernote is probably the tool listed here that I use most frequently to keep myself organised in the classroom, at home, on the road… anywhere, really. Although I am highlighting how these tools and services can be used to help teachers’ productivity and organisation, they can all be used to actively support teaching and learning by sharing documents, lessons, etc. with your students. In fact, there is a very strong case for these tools to be adopted by schools and be made available to their teachers and students. Information flow Teachers are incredibly busy people. There is lots of planning, marking, report writing, pastoral issues… In addition to this, we tend to be reflective practicioners, always willing to continue learning, not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of those in our charge (well, you are if you’re reading articles like this one in any case). But how can we continue learning if we are always so busy? How can we find the time keep ourselves informed and up to date with the latest theory and practice? The key for me has been harnessing the internet to ensure that timely and relevant information gets to me without my having to seek it. Twitter has been essential for doing this. To this day I continue to meet people who, often contemptuously, tell me that they don’t tweet "because they don’t need to know what other people had for breakfast’ just before they smirk, pleased by the extent of their own wit. Fair enough. Myopic, but fair enough. Each to their own. To me Twitter is, actually, possibly the most effective professional development catalyst I have thus far encountered and it can also be used very effectively to support teaching and learning, as well as to engage with the wider school community. I personally tend to use Facebook to tell friends and family what I’m having for breakfast, whereas I use Twitter for geeking out on educational technology and pedagogy. I do this by carefully selecting lead practitioners and other relevant people who might offer a(n often different) perspective on topics I’m interested in researching, such as education and learning technologies. They may sometimes tell me what they had for breakfast, but they also help me keep abreast of what is going on that is relevant to me. Before Twitter, I used to use RSS feeds - that is: subscribing to blogs and other websites so I would be notified every time new content was published. I find that Twitter has somewhat taken over this role, for it not only helps me follow the blogs and websites I know of, but also those which I don’t through other people’s recommendations. Twitter, used appropriately, shows how important and effective social learning and discovery can be. Having said that, RSS feeds are still very useful to stay in touch and receive updates from familiar blogs and websites. Tools such as Feedly bring the information to you and present articles from your RSS feed in beautiful, magazine-like format in your browser or through its smartphone and tablet apps. If you have already taken the step, as I have, of using a tablet as your primary computer for reading, web-browsing and researching, then apps such as Flipboard are really good ways to create a news feeds based on your interests that delivers news and articles in magazine format from a wide variety of sources. Zite and Prismatic are excellent alternatives for iPhone and iPad users. There are, of course, many other ways to keep yourself organised and up to date with information using the internet. These are just the tools I’ve found myself using most frequently. Tell us what you think. Are there any other tools you would recommend? Photo credit: Stuart Boreham