Kevin Gaugler | February 26, 2009
I recently discovered a tool called blist, which allows anyone to create and embed spreadsheets into any website. Normally I find spreadsheets profoundly uninteresting, but call it a top ten list and it’s a good read, right? In any event, blist really peaked my curiosity when I heard that the Obama-Biden transition team used blist for [...]
Barbara Lindsey | February 22, 2009
In the past, if I presented at a conference, I could receive some funding support from my institution. That’s no longer the case. I would hazard a guess that our ongoing economic woes have necessitated similar belt-tightening measures across U.S. campuses. That’s why I find myself seeking out more and more online professional development venues, [...]
Kevin Gaugler | February 12, 2009
We’ve all heard the following phrase intended to help instructors remember to be more student-centered. “Be the guide on the side and not the sage on the stage”. “Carpe pulpitum,” I often declare to my students when they hesitate to participate. We’ve also heard of the promise of interactive technologies that allow for participatory learning [...]
Kevin Gaugler | February 9, 2009
In a previous post Barbara and I interviewed Liz Kolb, author of the recently published Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education. Liz got me thinking about all the ways we can use cell phones in the language classroom. It’s surprising that phones are not used more in our teaching already. First, mobile phones are [...]
Barbara Lindsey | February 2, 2009
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. When the Connecticut State Department of Education released its five year comprehensive education plan over a year ago it included, for the first time, a mandatory two-credit world language high school graduation requirement. Over the winter and spring of 2008 a series of open, town hall type [...]