Communicate.07
Scottish CILT and LTS joint conference on Languages Teaching and ICT
Communicate.07, arguably the most innovative modern languages technology conference in the country, took place on Saturday 17 March 2007 for 100 selected teachers from across Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
The MFLE will carry material from the sessions at this year’s conference and offer additional ICT support on the MFLE discussion forums for the rest of the school year.
Introductory speakers
Professor Richard Johnstone of Scottish CILT introduced the conference. MFLE development officer Ewan McIntosh was in the Netherlands on Saturday speaking at Congres Frans, but he produced a video for delegates as an introduction to Communicate.07.
Watch Ewan's video on Google and read the transcript here.
Sessions and speakers
This year's sessions included:
Virtual Learning and Teaching: Video Conferencing and the Web for student support
Presenter: Stewart Hay, Anderson High School, Shetland Islands
Anderson High School in Lerwick, Shetland, has pioneered the use of video conferencing to reach out to schools around the world from this northernmost island of the British Isles. Modern Languages teacher Stewart Hay and three senior students from the school revealed how this technology has allowed them to hone their skills with students in Japan, Germany and South Africa.
Positively Mobile
Presenters: Lynne Horn, Principle Teacher of Languages Faculty, Tobermory High School, Mull; Sharon Tonner, Teacher (Junior School), High School of Dundee
After her pupils taught her how to use her new mobile phone, Principal Teacher Lynne Horn started investigating ways to use this ubiquitous technology for language learning. Lynne will be joined by Sharon Tonner, High School of Dundee, who has been trialling many new technologies, including mobiles, as part of her Chartered Teacher action research. This session provided an insight to the technology as well as an opportunity to talk through concerns and see how other schools have managed to embrace the students’ technology of choice.
Try it and you will learn (or how I was inspired by Communicate.06)
Presenter: Adam Sutcliffe, The Gordon Schools, Huntly
French and German teacher Adam Sutcliffe has teaching experience from Cameroon and Yell, Shetland, finally settling at The Gordon Schools, Huntly. Having been inspired by Communicate.06, the first in this conference series, Adam has embraced blogging, podcasting and moving image education, embedding these in his day-to-day teaching. He shared some insights on how he got into this, and how teachers might look at trying out new technology as part of their work.
Getting to know ActivStudio
Presenter: Yamina Sadek, Dunblane High School
Interactive whiteboards appear in more classrooms every session. Yamina Sadek offered a tour around Promethean’s ActivStudio.
You can download the full programme here:
PDF file: Communicate.07 conference programme (62KB)
Communicate.07 was organised by Scottish CILT and Learning and Teaching Scotland.
Remember to head over to the MFLE discussion forums (if you're a teacher or languages professional in Scotland) to tell us what you enjoyed and learned, or to find out more about what went on.