Category: voki

My session at the wonderful Practical Pedagogies conference centred around the use of technology to enhance Primary Language Learning.

Key points I made included:

• technology is not  just for the pupils but also for the teacher;
• it is just one tool we have to use;
• it is not always the best tool for the job.

I went on to suggest online tools as well as apps that might be useful in a range of contexts and situations.

My presentation is below and there is wiki with links to tutorials, examples and ideas that accompanies it. Feel free to ask questions via the contact form or @lisibo on Twitter.

Today I was part of an ICT and Creativity in MFL day run by Links into Languages West Midlands at Aston University.

Below is my presentation about free tools that can be used to enhance language teaching and learning.

Thanks to @joedale, I picked up the news yesterday that Voki has a new service.  I’ve never made any secret of my passion for these talking avatars and their uses for a variety of purposes, especially in the classroom.

The good news – classroom friendly, ad-free Voki

The bad news – you have to pay ‘ a small license fee’ per year

On balance, I’m not convinced of the benefits of paying $199 (which seems rather a lot to me) when I can use it perfectly adequately now for free.

However, I will await further details!

However, this news was accompanied by the realisation  that there is a ‘featured Voki educator’ section on the Voki home page.  And guess who features a the moment?

Oh yes – it’s me! If you want to see me in action, click here!
Very flattered! And wandering if they need a Voki poster girl…..? ;o)

Lisibo Voki has a message for you!

I was privileged to be asked to speak at the Primary Language Show once more this year. Having presented last year on El Carnaval de los Animales and You and Youtube, this year I had two new topics on which to speak.

The first of my presentations was entitled

Audaciously using Voices to make Voki!

During the session I aimed to explain how Audacity, Voki and Voicethread work, and how they can be used to enhance learning in the Primary Language Classroom. I gave examples from my classroom, made a Voki there and then and also drew ideas from others including Esther Mercier and Royds School.

Below is a Slidecast of my presentation, and here’s a link to further resources to help you – a guide to making Voki, embedding on a Wiki and notes on all 3 tools – and others – including tutorials!

Hope you find them of use.

Here’s a Voki I made yesterday in my session at the Primary Language Show, using a song I’d recorded for a non-Spanish speaker to use with her class.

Click here to comment on this Voki.
Get a Voki now!

This evening I will presenting at Teachmeet EdTechRoundup on the above subject, sharing how I use sound recording in my classroom and suggesting why it is such a valuable tool.

Jayne Jackson, one of the delegates who attended the Next Steps in ICT for the Primary Languages Classroom (And active member of Talkabout Primary MFL) has made the following in response to the course. She tried to embed it as a comment on the blog post but unfortunately the comment feature in Blogger is limited in its use of html code so I’ve posted it here.

Jayne also let me know that she’s started a wiki for her school following on from the course.
It’s always good to know what happens ‘after the event’.

AC_Voki_Embed(300, 400, ‘4affb83a3247802aa8e435b684bab9f8’, 1458056, 1,”, 0);

PS I’m in the middle of making all the Slideshares of my presentations into Slidecasts – it is taking some time but the first session is done!

I had the pleasure of delivering the Next steps in ICT for the Primary Language Classroom at University of Cumbria in Lancaster on Tuesday. I had delivered the same in Cambridge last month, and whilst the presentations were identical, the days were quite different with the delegates taking a greater lead this time in guiding where we went. That always keeps you on your toes!

Below are my presentations from the day – you can also find these on the event wiki which was set up for us to ‘play around’.

Thank you to my 6 ‘victims’ as I referred to them on Twitter; to my Tweetmates who responded to my request to say hello; and to CILT for giving me this opportunity to share my enthusiasm for ICT and Primary Languages with others.

On Tuesday I made my way to Cambridge for the second time in four days to deliver a day’s training on behalf of CILT at Anglia Ruskin University.

The course was entitled NEXT STEPS IN ICT FOR THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE CLASSROOM and promised to address collaborative working, whole class ICT, digital voicerecording and assessment amongst other things.

I had a lovely day with the delegates and hope that they all went away with one or to things to try out in their classrooms – there was great enthusiasm for wikis and Voki, and TTS should expect a few orders for their sound recording products in the near future – especially as I need a new Easispeak as I seem to have left mine behind :O(

I made a wiki for the event on which I’ve put all my presentations and also as a place for the delegates to ‘play around’ with using wikis. I did record the sessions – mostly!- but in the afternoon we went off at a tangent and the audio won’t fit my presentations so i won’t be making slidecasts of everything. However, I have put the presentations below as they are full of hyperlinks to useful resources.

Hope you find it useful!

And if you want to go on the course, it is repeated in Lancaster on 19th May. Contact CILT for more details!

NB the first slideshow actually starts on slide 18 as slide 22 was triggered to the first 20 slides as examples!