Last Saturday 10th July saw the first Modern Foreign Languages Show and Tell event at Nottingham High School, following a series of very successful Show and Tell sessions based on the inspired -and inspiring- TeachMeet model.

The event attracted many language teachers and educators from all over the country who came to Nottingham to share good practice on the use of technology in the classroom in what hopefully was a relaxed, informal environment.

The morning session saw presentations by those teachers who volunteered in advance by signing up to the event’s wiki. Presenters were chosen at random to start with and showcased what in their view was good, effective use of ICT in the classroom.

My most sincere thanks go to these volunteers who selflessly gave away their time and effort to share their experiences in both the classroom and the staffroom. The presentations ran as follows:

• Joe Dale‘s presentation was titled Recording Skype and Editing in Audacity. In the face of adversity -embodied by continuing technical glitches – Joe did brilliantly well to explain to us how to record authentic foreign language using Skype, Pretty May and Audacity for use in the classroom.
• Lisa Stevens talked about Things that Make my Pupils Smile. Her presentation was a brilliant reflection on the often inspired strategies she had used this year to enthuse her pupils with the passion to learn languages.
• I talked about Innovative Creative Technologies and looked back at my top ten internet resources that I have used this academic year in the classroom (a slightly extended version of my presentation can be found below).
• My colleagues Kerry Turner and Andrew Winter wowed us all with their astounding Cross Curricular Work with MFL, History and ICT, using the very versatile CrazyTalk software, among other things.
• Clare Seccombe showed us her Talking Pen and how easy it was to make listening resources by recording sounds which where then encoded onto tiny stickers which could be placed almost anywhere.
• Dominic McGladdery talked about his experiences Persuading Collagues to use ICT in MFL. His was a very entertaining presentation which, although centred on how hard it is to engage colleagues in using technology in the classroom, made some very sharp observations on the survival of languages beyond KS3 in the state sector.
• Finally, Mark Purves presented his simply excellent Song Phonics to Improve Pronunciation. He soon had us all dancing to the phonics haka and singing and dancing along to French songs and lyrics.

All the presentations were live-streamed on Ustream by the very excellent Leon Cych (thanks ever so much Leon!) and are now available for viewing here, where you can find links to all the resources cited in the presentations.

A full programme of the day’s events can be found here.

This event would have not been possible without the willingness to participate shown by the committed teachers who travelled sometimes hundreds of miles to chat, share and develop professionally. It couldn’t have taken place without the help of my colleagues at Nottingham High, especially Kerry Turner. And it couldn’t have happenned if it weren’t for the generosity of our sponsors Links into Languages East Midlands, Naace and Scholastic. My most sincere thanks to you all, I hope you found the day fruitful and worthwhile.

This post is tagged edtech, internet resources, modern languages, web 2.0, web applications