What a semester looks like…

2009 September 25
by alexandersperl

It almost looks like a Gaussian distribution:

Semester Stats per Week

Semester Stats per Week

It also tells you something about the level of involvement, I’d say ;) .

A list I wish I had compiled for this course but someone did it for me…

2009 August 28
by alexandersperl

Thanks to my colleague Anna Maria Gallus, I am now aware of this site:

Ditch the Backpack: 100 Essential Web Tools for Virtual Students

It compiles the things mentioned in its title and there are some good ones I can tell you… Well worth a look.

Expert Talk, Tobias Unger

2009 July 1
by alexandersperl

Here are some links that you might find valuable:

  • www.klett.de, Englisch an Gymnasien (no, I don’t get money for this ;-) )
  • Testen und Fördern
  • A page about “Individuelle Förderung” from the Hessisches Kultusministerium. I think it’s rather interesting that (a) there is no word about the New Media as a means for meeting special needs and (b) to think about how the New Media could be used to put this into action. Please do also have a look at a Musterförderplan to get an insight into what this Individuelle Förderung is all about.

And here are some impressions of Tobias Unger’s Expert Talk on Tuesday.

Vortrag Tobias Unger

read more…

Handout Expert Talk

2009 June 26
by alexandersperl

Tuesday, the 3oth of June will see the expert talk of Tobias Unger. He sent me this handout, so that you can inform yourself in advance what his talk will be about.

Field Trip to Kirchhain

2009 June 18
by alexandersperl

Here are some images from our field trip to the Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain. Thanks again to Carsten Schouler to guide us around the school and for all the information he provided us with. I hope that this was informative for all of you.

"Anwesenheitsliste"

“Anwesenheitsliste”

Gebäude Nr. 8

Gebäude Nr. 8

read more…

Teaching Projects Matrix

2009 June 9

From the teaching projects that you found I have created a matrix which incorporates the areas that the unit dealt with: Internet research, Internet presentation and Internet communication.

Have a look at the resulting web page.

Learning Theories, Session Résumé

2009 May 5

Here are the photos of the posters from the Learning Theories and Principles of Learning session. Pick one of your group for your second blog task. Ok, here we go…

read more…

Uses of Blogs in Education

2009 April 29
by alexandersperl

You came up with a lot of good ideas in yesterday’s session. In this post I’d like to list some links which might be useful if you think about using this in class later on. You might get an insight into what you can do by having a look at what other people already did.

If you stumble upon some other page you found useful, please leave a comment below…

First Session

2009 April 19
by alexandersperl

Oh my. This has been something of a bumpy start, I’d say. Sorry for all this mess last Tuesday. Some things were my fault directly, some indirectly. Of course, I needed to be better prepared for technical difficulties because this is also what the course is all about.

So, probably one of the following two things applies for you right now: Either you knew this all from the beginning—what with the unreliability of a media setup and that it’s always this way—or you are surprised that even in a media room something can go wrong. Well, I’m sure that you are not surprised by technical difficulties, because you all experienced these things before.

In the last semester we had a teacher from the Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain as an expert who was asked for these obstacles. He said that he really prefered the word obstacle to anything else (problems or difficulties, say) because with this word it is clear that you can somehow overcome these obstacles and get things working. I hope that we can focus on the advantages of the new media in this course. I know that many teachers talk about their Plan B when it comes to a new media session. This seems to be a lot more work than just preparing a conventional session. But sometimes also traditional methods don’t work as they should and you’ll have to come up with something else.

To say it with the Beatles: “I’ve got to admit it’s getting better (better) / it’s getting better all the time (it can’t get no worse)”

New Semester – New Course(s)

2009 April 8
by alexandersperl

Welcome everybody to another semester of New Media in Foreign Language Education. The course is divided into two groups this semester.

  • Group 1 meets every Tuesday 8 – 10 a.m.
  • Group 2 meets every Tuesday 10 – 12 a.m.

The course will be an blended course and the online component can be found at the Virtual Center for Teacher Training.

All other specifications will be discussed in the first sessions on 14 April 2009. Be sure you are there!

In the first session we will have a look at and discuss the following video: