The World A.T. Ways

Posted By Kevin Gaugler on December 28, 2008

As 2008 comes to a close, I wish to present a list of my top ten tools for language educators in 2008. These are tools that have become part of my regular routine as a technology-oriented language educator. I might even venture to say that these tools have been indispensable to me in 2008.

1. Lingro

   We’ve covered Lingro extensively on our blog. Barbara created a series of screencasts on Lingro and we interviewed Aurtur Janc one of the creators of the site. Lingro creates an overlaid dictionary to just about any electronic document or website. Best of all, the tool remembers the words you’ve clicked on in their original context and allows you to return and reorder these word lists to build up your vocabulary. My students were blown away by Lingro when I showed it to them and you will be too.

2. EasyAccent

   One of my first posts was about adding accents and other diacritical marks to documents, particularly when working in a browser. Mac users have no issues with this, but Windows (and perhaps Linux) folks struggle with the issue. If you are on a public computer, for example, you might not be able to change the the configuration of the keyboard. For a long time I’ve sung the praises of ZombieKeys, a Firefox plug-in that allows you to add accents as if you were using Microsoft Word. However, ZombieKeys has not been updated to work with the past several versions of Firefox. You can read my earlier post for the details on this issue. Welcome EasyAccent. I installed this plug-in and all of my accent troubles went away.

3. WordReference

   WordReference has been on my list for a very long time, particularly because every word in every definition is clickable. In addition, one can create and participate in forum discussions on words or phrases that don’t appear in the dictionary. Clearly, the creators of WordReference are people who understand the complexity of language. What has kept WordReference at the top of my list is that they continue to innovate. The WordReference team just created an iPhone application and have made it available for free. Simply go to the iTunes App store and search for WordReference. Now you can have a robust multilingual dictionary in the palm of your hand, too. For more on dictionaries, see my post from earlier in the year.

4. CoolIris

   I mentioned CoolIris in a previous post but I have to mention it again. CoolIris is another Firefox plug-in that I use every day in class. Simply enter a key word and watch thousands of images or videos float in front of you. You can then flip through the images quickly to find the perfect illustration to support your lecture.

5. VoiceThread

   Barbara and I interviewed Steve Muth, the founder of Voicethread as well as Bill Ferriter, a power user of the product. VoiceThread allows groups to hold asynchronous discussions around any piece of digital media. What more could a language educator desire in a tool? Perhaps the ability to enter diacritical marks in written comments. Once that feature is added, VoiceThread might very well become the perfect tool for the language classroom.

6. Diigo

   Every educator needs professional development and this year Diigo has become my main, always-available, personalized learning network resource. Diigo has allowed me to not only save and annotate my own discoveries, but to see what other like-minded intellectuals have discovered, too. Barbara and I inteviewed Maggie Tsai of Diigo earlier in the year. If you haven’t already listened to the inteview, I invite you to do so.

7. Google Maps

   Every teacher of languages eventually uses a map. However, with Google’s addition of the “My Maps” feature in Google Maps, you or your students can annotate and share maps. You can add text, audio, video or any other embeddable media.  For more information on Google Maps, read my previous post on the tool.

8. The Pulse SmartPen by Livescribe

   I need to write a full post on this pen, but it has become my must-have tool for evaluating oral presentations in the language classroom. Simply turn the pen on and take notes, every word will be recorded and synced with your notes. Just click on a word on the page to play back what was sent when you took that note. I’m sure there will be more uses for this SmartPen in the language classroom so I expect it to climb up the ranks in my 2009 list.

9. Quizlet

   Well yes, there is grammar too. For traditional drill and kill exercises I recommend Quizlet. It’s simple to use and share what you’ve created with others. I mentioned Quizlet breifly in a previous post on “the word”.

10. Sakai

    I feel strongly that Sakai should become the course management system for any higher education organization. Because it’s open source, you and your institution can modify it to fit your unique needs across and within your institution’s varied constituencies, which is not an option with off-the-shelf products. Moveover, since an international community of volunteers is building Sakai, it’s a natural fit for language educators. I expect Sakai to rise in the ranks on my list in the years to come. For more information on Sakai, read my previous post on the tool.

I would love to hear about your top picks as well. Please share your tools and your annotations of them by joining the WorldatWays group on Diigo.

In which the top 10 tools for language educators in 2008 are revealed by Kevin Gaugler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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Categories: Creativity, Mass-Customization, Productivity, scholarship, social networks, Teaching, web 2.0
Tags: Kevin, language educators, language learning, tools, top ten, web 2.0