View Content #12141
| Contentid | 12141 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Blogs, Wikis, Listservs, RSS Feeds, Social Networks, Oh My! |
| Body | A lot is happening in the field of language teaching and acquisition, and the Internet is full of news, materials, and ideas for language teachers. However, it’s easy for a busy teacher to feel overwhelmed by all of the information out there. In this and upcoming issues of InterCom we’ll be focusing on some Internet-based tools that teachers can use to keep abreast of developments in the language pedagogy field and to find great classroom resources. In today’s issue we’ll define some useful tools and provide links to other sites that explain in more detail what each tool is, how to use it, and what it has to offer. Listservs: A listserv is an e-mail list. Users subscribe to a listserv to receive mass e-mailings. InterCom is a listserv with a twist: when you subscribe, you select what content you want to hear about so that the e-mail you receive is customized to your preferences. Other examples of listservs are FLTEACH (http://www.cortland.edu/flteach ), language-specific groups such as the American Association of Teachers of German listserv (http://www.aatg.org/listserv/33-aatg-listserv ), and listservs of state organizations like the Ohio Foreign Language Association (http://www.ofla-online.org/index.php/ofla-listserv ). Some listservs are interactive, with subscribers freely posting e-mails to the entire e-mail list, while others (like InterCom) are a one-way means of communication. You can read more about listservs at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr062.shtml Blogs: Blog is short for “web log.” Most blog owners frequently add new entries to their blogs, so that new entries appear at the top of the page and older entries are archived by date or topic. Many language teachers have blogs that they use to share their ideas, experiences, and resources with other language professionals. For example, Zachary Jones’s keep his Actualidades blog hopping with frequent culture-based activities for Spanish teachers and learners (http://zachary-jones.com/spanish ). bab.la and Lexiophiles release a list of the top100 language blogs each year; you can see the 2010 winners at http://en.bab.la/news/top-100-language-blogs-2010 . Learn more about blogging at http://tinyurl.com/33j5xsd Social Networks: Online social networks are platforms that enable people to interact with each other via the Internet. Facebook is an example of a general-purpose social network. Within Facebook users can create groups for people who share a common interest, such as teaching Spanish (http://casls.uoregon.edu/intercom/site/view-article.php?ArticleID=10167 ). Some social networks are intended especially for educators, such as edWeb (http://www.edweb.net ) and Classroom 2.0 (http://www.classroom20.com ). Educator City is a social network especially for language teachers (http://educatorcity.com/about-us.html ). See a fuller explanation of social networking at http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#socnet Wikis: A wiki is a website that multiple people can contribute to and modify. Teachers and organizations have created wikis where teachers can share materials with each other, such as the new GermanWiki with its collection of collaborative pages at http://germanshare.dyndns.org/index.php?option=com_jwiki&Itemid=64 . Read more about wikis at http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02wiki.h01.html RSS Feeds: RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. Websites that use RSS will alert you every time new content is added. For example, if you subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed, you will be alerted each time a new blog entry is added. You can learn more about RSS feeds at http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-3.htm#rssfeeds , http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/rss.htm , and http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=79408 Stay tuned for next week’s InterCom issue, in which we’ll tell you about listservs, blogs, wikis, and social networks that you may find especially useful. |
| Source | CASLS InterCom |
| Inputdate | 2010-12-19 01:26:48 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2010-12-19 01:26:48 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | 2010-12-20 00:00:00 |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
