Inspired by many other educators around the world, this is the third school year in which I have engaged in the adventure of getting my students to connect with people that speak the language they are studying. I teach both French and Spanish so I will just tell you about the tools I have used, how successful each has been and how I have found these connections so far.
Tool number 1: Edmodo
As a rather impatient person, I naturally decided to use the Internet from the start (as opposed to hand-written letters sent by regular mail). However, as I was teaching primary-aged children (from Years 2 to 6) in a school with limited computer access, I also could not rely solely on computer-based tool for the whole process. I decided to combine hand-written letters with the use of the platform Edmodo (edmodo.com).
If you are not familiar with it yet, its look is very similar to that of Facebook. You have a trail of messages that everyone in your group can see. You can include pictures and links to other websites in your posts.
As a rather impatient person, I naturally decided to use the Internet from the start (as opposed to hand-written letters sent by regular mail). However, as I was teaching primary-aged children (from Years 2 to 6) in a school with limited computer access, I also could not rely solely on computer-based tool for the whole process. I decided to combine hand-written letters with the use of the platform Edmodo (edmodo.com).
If you are not familiar with it yet, its look is very similar to that of Facebook. You have a trail of messages that everyone in your group can see. You can include pictures and links to other websites in your posts.
The way I posted the messages of most students was by scanning or taking a picture of their hand-written letters and sending them to their pen pals in various French-speaking countries (I had so many students I had to find several classes around to match them all with someone). The replies came in various forms: some would post their letters on Edmodo the same way I did, while others would type their answers on the computer. Either way, I would literally deliver the printed letters to the students as soon as I got them. Each time the excitement was evident!
I continued using this platform for several months but, when I moved to teaching in a high-school, and the students had control over their accounts, it became cumbersome to login to the platform (mainly because the students would often forget their login and password!).
We still received some amazing authentic resources and students shared videos of their favourite singers for instance.
Tool number 2: The class website
After Edmodo became problematic in the new school context, I created a relatively simple class site using the platform Weebly.com (there are a few others equally good). The main purpose behind the class website was for the students’ work to be visible to the wider community. It was important to me that the website allowed for external comments to be made so the students would receive feedback from people outside the classroom.
As you can see in this attempt (french15.weebly.com.au), there was some student work published and some comments made by our French pen pals. The French sent a video of their trip to Paris (they lived in a town in the north of France) and I proposed some writing activities using it.
After a few months, and despite some initial enthusiasm from parents, there was little activity in the website and I ended up dropping this idea.
Tool number 3: Google Drive folders
The next step was the simplest and did not require any particular platform. I simply used a Google Drive folder that I shared with the teacher and students with whom we were connecting in Argentina this time. I had my Year 11 students creating introduction videos of themselves in both English and Spanish and put them in the shared folder. That became our sharing space. We would create a shared Google Doc with the names and email accounts to start the individual conversations for instance. We also shared a Google Drawing with pictures that we would label with the personal information the students had found from each others’ video introductions. It has been such a simple and versatile way of sharing documents!
The students could add resources (for instance their videos) themselves and could edit any document I shared with them if I had given them editing rights. Otherwise they could simply view them if that is all I needed them to do with them.
Tool number 4: Google+ Community
When we started a exchange with a group of Mexicans, I decided to try a Google+ Community. It was initially challenging to set up due to restrictions the school had on students joining Google+ communities. However, I persisted asking them to join using their personal email accounts as I had already set up the space and the Mexicans had already started sharing pictures and videos with us. All the students needed was a Google+ account, which is free to set up. This has proven to be another very practical and versatile way of sharing resources with our now epals.
I set up the community as “private” (which means only people that are invited and approved to join can post and see the posts) and this ensured the safety of the potentially sensitive information they would post in there (we posted videos of their houses as they described in English and Spanish for instance).
Students were able to post videos, links to websites, texts, pictures and comment on each others’ posts in a very simple manner.
This has been our favorite tool so far!
Tool number 5: Individual emails
I recently received a request from a teacher in Spain to exchange emails with my students. However, as their school year is coming to an end, we needed to act quickly and simply. We decided to share students emails and set up a few prescribed topics for their weekly communication so we could make the most of the little time we had.
This has proven really successful, especially as the teacher in Spanish had the simple but really effective idea of asking the students to Cc both teachers in all their correspondence. This has allowed us to not only follow their conversations, but to ensure the quality of their writing in both languages, providing individual feedback when necessary.
As you can see, there is a variety of ways in which you can engage your students in engaging with the world outside the classroom. There are many advantages I have found in these exchanges, some are listed here:
These are the advantages and disadvantages I have encountered with each of the tools described:
These are some of the things to consider when setting up these very beneficial exchanges:
I hope you have been inspired by some of these ideas and will get your students to engage with the target language community in some meaningful way.
I continued using this platform for several months but, when I moved to teaching in a high-school, and the students had control over their accounts, it became cumbersome to login to the platform (mainly because the students would often forget their login and password!).
We still received some amazing authentic resources and students shared videos of their favourite singers for instance.
Tool number 2: The class website
After Edmodo became problematic in the new school context, I created a relatively simple class site using the platform Weebly.com (there are a few others equally good). The main purpose behind the class website was for the students’ work to be visible to the wider community. It was important to me that the website allowed for external comments to be made so the students would receive feedback from people outside the classroom.
As you can see in this attempt (french15.weebly.com.au), there was some student work published and some comments made by our French pen pals. The French sent a video of their trip to Paris (they lived in a town in the north of France) and I proposed some writing activities using it.
After a few months, and despite some initial enthusiasm from parents, there was little activity in the website and I ended up dropping this idea.
Tool number 3: Google Drive folders
The next step was the simplest and did not require any particular platform. I simply used a Google Drive folder that I shared with the teacher and students with whom we were connecting in Argentina this time. I had my Year 11 students creating introduction videos of themselves in both English and Spanish and put them in the shared folder. That became our sharing space. We would create a shared Google Doc with the names and email accounts to start the individual conversations for instance. We also shared a Google Drawing with pictures that we would label with the personal information the students had found from each others’ video introductions. It has been such a simple and versatile way of sharing documents!
The students could add resources (for instance their videos) themselves and could edit any document I shared with them if I had given them editing rights. Otherwise they could simply view them if that is all I needed them to do with them.
Tool number 4: Google+ Community
When we started a exchange with a group of Mexicans, I decided to try a Google+ Community. It was initially challenging to set up due to restrictions the school had on students joining Google+ communities. However, I persisted asking them to join using their personal email accounts as I had already set up the space and the Mexicans had already started sharing pictures and videos with us. All the students needed was a Google+ account, which is free to set up. This has proven to be another very practical and versatile way of sharing resources with our now epals.
I set up the community as “private” (which means only people that are invited and approved to join can post and see the posts) and this ensured the safety of the potentially sensitive information they would post in there (we posted videos of their houses as they described in English and Spanish for instance).
Students were able to post videos, links to websites, texts, pictures and comment on each others’ posts in a very simple manner.
This has been our favorite tool so far!
Tool number 5: Individual emails
I recently received a request from a teacher in Spain to exchange emails with my students. However, as their school year is coming to an end, we needed to act quickly and simply. We decided to share students emails and set up a few prescribed topics for their weekly communication so we could make the most of the little time we had.
This has proven really successful, especially as the teacher in Spanish had the simple but really effective idea of asking the students to Cc both teachers in all their correspondence. This has allowed us to not only follow their conversations, but to ensure the quality of their writing in both languages, providing individual feedback when necessary.
As you can see, there is a variety of ways in which you can engage your students in engaging with the world outside the classroom. There are many advantages I have found in these exchanges, some are listed here:
- Authentic communication
- Easy collaboration
- Authentic resources (including models of authentic texts)
- More authentic audience
- Facilitates perspective taking
- Can foster relationships outside of the classroom
- Open to the community (only the class website)
- Cultivates digital presence / online ethos (especially if open to the community)
- Ability to provide useful feedback and peer review seen by all
These are the advantages and disadvantages I have encountered with each of the tools described:
- Edmodo
- All can see each others posts
- No connection to the community
- Students need to remember login and password
- Class website
- All can see each others posts
- Connection to the community
- Somewhat time-consuming to maintain
- Google Drive folders
- Can be shared with anyone and sharing settings are very flexible
- Large files can be added
- No open connection to the community
- Google+ Communities
- All can see each others posts
- Large files can be added and easily shared
- No open connection to the community (unless it is set up as “public”)
- Emails
- Fast and direct communication between individuals
- No open connection to the community
- Not everyone can read all texts or see the resources
- The risk of some students not receiving anything
These are some of the things to consider when setting up these very beneficial exchanges:
- Language(s) to use in the communication and how it can benefit all
- Topics in conversations
- Frequency of communication
- Privacy and “netiquette” issues
I hope you have been inspired by some of these ideas and will get your students to engage with the target language community in some meaningful way.