Episode 17: I Like Chinese
A small school in country Australia might seem an unusual place to find students learning to speak Chinese, but not for Jess McCulloch’s students. Jess is an extremely enthusiastic Chinese language teacher who is turning to technology to help engage and excite her students about the language. In this episode Jess talks about some of the cool tools she is using, and planning to use, in her classroom.
Jess is also looking to set up her website as a place for language teachers to be able to network and connect, so if you are a language teacher (or know one) take a look over at www.technolote.com.
Some links from this episode…
- Technolote.com - Jess’s main website
- TechnoChinese - The class blogs for Jess’s classes
- So Damn Hard! - Great article about learning Chinese
- ChinesePod - Learn how to say all sorts of useful things!
- Skype - Free communication tool for connecting classrooms
- Langwitches - Silvia Tolisano’s site for language teaching
- Voicethread - Digital storytelling for Web 2.0
- Rudd at APEC - Kevin Rudd’s address to the Chinese delegates at APEC
Comments welcome, in any language, in the comment box below.
Technorati Tags: lote, technolote, virtualstaffroom
October 17th, 2007 at 1:07 am
[…] Then we looked at VoiceThread, and what a cool tool it is. I had heard a lot about it but not really played with it until Jess McCulloch mentioned it again in a recent Virtual Staffroom episode. Intrigued, I just had to check it out. It does look very neat, and as long as kids have bandwidth and a microphone I can imagine some very useful ways to integrate it into the classroom. […]
November 5th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Hi Chris,
I am a Canadian teacher from Vancouver Island. I discovered your podcasts a few months back and have really enjoyed listening to them during my daily 1 hour commute from Courtenay to Nanaimo. As someone who feels he is still catching up to all the changes taking place online and in the world (on your recommendation I am now reading The World is Flat) I really appreciate having access to the kinds of information and interviews you provide. Now that I think about it I really owe you a donation.
I have, however, been a bit taken aback by some of the blanket statements you have made in a few of your podcasts regarding the Canadian education system. In the latest one you comment on how in Canadian schools only French grammar is taught and that the fun component is left out. I actually went to a school that taught French very much like that but I also know of lots of schools and teachers (including the ones at my current school) that are teaching their students to love language and use language and who don’t just teach grammar.
Now that I have written this comment, I guess my challenge is to start to find ways to showcase some of these examples of Canadian teachers teaching students to be lifelong learners. Language podcasting might just be a way to start - thanks for sharing all those links.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Hi Phil,
Glad you are enjoying the podcasts.
I guess the thing about every person’s experience is that it’s just their experience. People used to ask me how I’d compare the Canadian system to the Australian system, and I used to preface my answers by saying that it was only ever going to be based on my impressions based on the handful of Australian schools I’d taught in, and the one or two schools I’d seen in Canada… hardly a comprehensive overview! I suppose my impression of the education system (or anything else for that matter) is really just limited to the things I’ve been exposed to and I should be careful about extrapolating that out to assume it is the same everywhere else… it may not be.
So… apologies for the blanket statements, you’re right I should be a bit more careful about making those. But I will say that, in the school I taught at, that’s how it seemed to work. And they were wonderful teachers, dedicated, competent and very well informed, but they did feel really quite restricted by the way they felt the curriculum tied them down to teaching grammar. That part I’m not making up. It was a genuine concern, and we had quite a few long conversations about it, and every time they would conclude that they simply had no time to go beyond the grammar. I’m not a language teacher, so I didn’t argue, but I did see it as very different to how languages were taught at my school back in Australia, and even when I was a kid at school, and apparently from the way Jess approaches things.
So, I’m glad to hear that you know of schools that take a more expansive view of language education… that’s a good thing I think. Maybe we can get together online some time and have a chat about it?
Cheers, and thanks for the feedback
chris