Web 2.0 Tools for Languages: RESOURCES

Our students are digital natives, while many of us are humble digital immigrants. How can we make sense of the many excellent web-based tools for teaching languages? Here is a brief description of some of these tools with videos and examples of how other teachers have already used them. The best way to learn about Web tools is to jump in and use them for yourself - so have fun!

For more information about web tools for language teaching, try the new Corwin book: Empower English Language Learners with Tools from the Web. Click here for ordering information.

Web 2.0 (www.Classroom20.com)

• a term referring to a second-generation of Internet-based services such as social networking sites, wikis, and other communication tools, that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users
• a shift from a "read only" web (where users retrieve information) to a "read/write" web (where users can also "publish" to the web).
• For an overview of great webtools for teaching languages, view this PowerPoint presentation

• Blog: an online journal with frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links; it is often updated daily
• Glog (graphical blogs): blogs with an image-rich interface that can include audio and video.
• the term BLOG comes from web + log
• Visit class blogs at: Palabras Pintadas and Italiano III 
• Visit a teacher glog in Mandarin Chinese
• Download a sample blog contract

Wikis (www.WikiSpaces.com and www.PBWiki.com)

• a website that includes the collaboration of work from many different authors
• a wiki site allows anyone to edit, delete, or modify the content on the web; it may serve as an easy-to-edit webpage; the word wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for "quick"
• Visit a student-created wiki in French and a HS Spanish class wiki

 Podcasts (www.PodOmatic and www.PodBean.com)

• a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet
• despite its name, a podcast may be played through a variety of digital audio software and hardware and is not limited to the iPod
• Visit a student podcast in Spanish and a podcast for learning Chinese

VoiceThreads (www.VoiceThread.com)

• an online media album that can hold many types of media (images, documents, videos) and allows people to make and share comments using voice, text, audio file, or video
• Visit student-created VoiceThreads in French and Chinese 

Video Sharing Sites (www.YouTube.com and www.TeacherTube.com)

• video sharing websites where users can upload, view and share video
• unregistered users can watch most videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos
• Visit student-created music videos in Spanish and Chinese. 

Social Bookmarking (www.diigo.com and delicious.com)

• web based collaborative repository of Internet bookmarks (URLs or links)
• the ability to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others
• A collection of language learning and teaching bookmarks on Delicious

Social Networking Sites (www.Facebook.com)

• sites that offer interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos and other applications
• users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a school, hobbies, interests, geographic region, or social group
• Visit Facebook pages about famous people: Salvador Dalí & Nicolas Sarkozy
  

• avatar creation sites allow users to create an online persona - based on your own appearance, or use a pre-loaded character (i.e., animals, fantasy characters, famous people, etc.)
• visit a teacher-created avatar in Chinese, and student vokis in French

• an online interactive virtual reality program influenced by the people who use it
• a program that enables users to interact with each other (i.e., meet, socialize and participate in individual and group activities) through avatars