Modern Languages Community of Practice Symposium
When: December 5th 2008
Where: NUI Galway
NUI Galway will host the first Modern Languages’ Community of Practice Symposium on Friday December 5th. This free, fun-packed event will look at innovative ways of introducing technology into the classroom, give you a chance to discuss ideas with your colleagues, and allow you some time to get your hands dirty and actually use the technologies yourselves.
| Time | Friday 5th December |
| 9:30am | Welcome address: Professor Jim Ward & Dr. Edward Herring |
| 9:45am | Keynote speaker: Joe Dale |
| 10:45am | Coffee |
| 11:00am | Practitioners’ Showcase |
| 12:15pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Steering Group Meeting |
| 2:30pm | Parallel workshops |
| 4:30pm | Symposium close |
Keynote Speaker: Joe Dale
Abstract: Language teachers need to harness the types of technologies popular amongst young people in order to engage them in purposeful and relevant communication with virtual peers around the world and create new opportunities for personalised learning in and out of the classroom. This session will show you practical ways of achieving this bold aspirational claim and how you can create your own personal learning network to support you along the way.
Joe Dale is Leader of French at Nodehill Middle School on the Isle of Wight. He is a SSAT Languages Lead Practitioner, speaks at Language World, BETT and The Language Show and writes for the TES ICT blog. He has also designed games for Heinemann’s new course ‘Expo’, is an eTwinning Ambassador for the British Council and has appeared in various articles in the Education Guardian. His blog was nominated for an Edublogs Award 2007 in the best educational tech support category.
Parallel Workshop 1: Facilitated by Marta Giralt & Hermes De La Torres
Title: The use of film to enhance language teaching
Workshop Objectives:
* Explore the various options of working with cinema in the language classroom
* Create a didactic unit from a range of film
* Reflect on the advantages of working with film in the classroom
The workshop will commence with a viewing of a short clip of a film. Attendees will be advised on how to use film to explore different aspects of the syllabus e.g. grammar, culture, pronunciation, pragmatics,… This example will be used as a model to illustrate the working dynamic. Other clips will be shown and attendees will explore the possibilities within other contexts of the language syllabus. The workshop will conclude with discussion of suggestions and ideas.
Parallel Workshop 2: Facilitated by Paul Gormley (& Michelle Tooher)
Title: Podcasting Workshop
Workshop objectives:
On completion of the workshop attendees will be able to:
* Investigate and subscribe to a podcasting series
* Create, produce, and publish a podcast episode
* Discuss and demonstrate good practice in podcasting in language teaching
* Plan the integration of podcasting into a lecture module
Parallel Workshop 3: Facilitated by Joe Dale
Title: Setting up and using blogs in the language classroom.
Registration is now open. Please email ndlrmodernlanguages@nuigalway.ie with your name, institution and preferred workshop to register. Workshops will be filled on a first come first serve basis. Participant numbers are limited to a maximum of 35 people, so please register early.
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