Spanish Cooking Show – Technology Integrated

My students recently suggested that they study their Spanish commands by creating a cooking show in Spanish and filming it with their video editing skills (mostly done in Imovie).  Because our thematic unit currently covered foods in Spain, they chose to cook Spanish menu items such as la paella, la tortilla de patatas, los churros, y el gazpacho.  Knowing that my students were suggesting a project that, if done properly, would require more work than they were expecting I gave them the week off from homework so they could organize an awesome design, create clear scripting, practice cooking, talk and cook at the same time, film, and edit that film.  I also made sure that they knew that a fracaso (failure) was OK to film as well as un éxito (success).  I felt it important to let them know that they did not need to make the same thing more than once and that the experience was just as important to film as well as anything.

To help them organize responsiblities, I divided them into groups of three where each group had un cocinero (chef), un presentador (show host), and un videógrafo (video editor).  I gave them basic responsibilities, but my students at Chatsworth Hills Academy were able to use that scaffolding as a launching pad for even more creative shows and unique outcomes in their videos.

The project overall was a success, and while I don’t feel comfortable sharing their videos at my blog site, I might get permission from their parents to use this in a presentation or a conference in the near future.  The students relished the fact of using their video creation skills learned in our tech classes for academic work, and they enjoyed cooking, eating, using Spanish commands, and working together outside of school speaking Spanish.  The project was so successful that I would do this in the future because it promotes outside usage of Spanish in unique ways that I did not expect and the community of students in my classroom became stronger as human beings and responsible students. I highly recommend finding time to provide activities like this that allow students to merge video technology skills with learning Spanish.  There are so many more ideas that I can now attempt because of this success, and I can’t wait to do more interview shows with other grade levels.

Educational Technology from Absolutely Learning – Matt Moore

Instructional Design Siting

This current year I have been teaching Spanish to superior middle school students at Chatsworth Hills Academy and using the Spanish textbook series Avancemos published by Holt McDougal.  The series design begins with a stellar textbook that weaves cultural units by country with common grammatical standards.  Students experience each unit with highly contextualized, authentic, and relevant photographs, side stories, written dialogues, and activities with clear objectives that reinforce state standards, speaking and writing objectives of language educators, and learning improvement opportunities for students.

In addition to this extremely well designed and published textbook is a fantastic web site that reinforces grammar, vocabulary, and cultural objectives with interactive quizzes based upon video dialogues, grammatical reference, and other listening comprehension activities via the web.  Students can also explore web quests, animated grammar, verb conjugators, and more.  It is truly a language tutor with quick feedback for students who want answers immediately in this information rich era.  It also allows students to work out some language questions from home and build confidence for the speaking needs in the classroom.

With these facts in mind I am siting this textbook series as wonderful example of educators collaborating with educational technologists to create a product that is working for my students and I am sure many others.  It works as a classroom tool, an individual tutor, a project platform, and a blended environment.  There are so many resources (even audio visual materials and a workbook series that I left out) that this series deserves kudos.  It is a instructional design masterpiece worth research by future instructional designers and current graduate students in education, educational technology, or language learning.  Learn from what has been done well.  It save a lot of time.

Educational Technology from Absolutely Learning – Matt Moore

A Manifesto from a Spanish Teacher and Educational Technologist

Next year, I am embarking upon a mission to teach Spanish full time to middle school students, and I will be implementing educational technology methods and products that I have been designing and advocating for many years.  I am not planning on supporting those who can not use technology well, trying to convince administrators and teachers how to incorporate technology into the classroom in the best ways, or solving network and hardware problems for students and staff.  I am planning on teaching, and I am expecting students to learn.  I am planning on incorporating technology directly into the everyday life of my classroom, and I am very happy that my liberal arts education has afforded me this transition with such ease.I will also ask questions about how to improve language learning for middle school students, and I will test out best practices that use digital, blended, and traditional techniques.  I may even design some products and new lesson plans like I have done in the past.  And finally, if all is well I may develop projects for the web and mobile devices in my spare time.  Yes, it is time to blend skills, to design methods, to program prototypes, and to test and release new products and methods.  Lookout! (as my friends from Chattanooga say) There will be more in the future. ( no pun intended students )I wish all the best to my past students, their parents, my friends, my colleagues, and fellow educational technologists.  You can feel free to contact me should you have further questions.

Educational Technology from Absolutely Learning – Matt Moore