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GIANT KITES OF GUATEMALA Magnificent Works of Art. ALL SAINTS DAY FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 1 ST RAISING A GIANT KITE. Culture & Technology – Giving Students the Opportunity to Learn from Each Other via Blackboard Learn. CCCFLC Conference October 14, 2011 Orange Coast College
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GIANT KITES OF GUATEMALAMagnificent Works of Art ALL SAINTS DAY FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 1ST RAISING A GIANT KITE
Culture & Technology – Giving Students the Opportunity to Learn from Each Other via Blackboard Learn CCCFLC Conference October 14, 2011 Orange Coast College Presented by Adrienne Merlo
Overview • Why teach culture in a foreign language class? • Culture & Technology, the Perfect Marriage • Embajadoresculturales(Cultural Ambassadors) • Multiple Goals of the Activity • Details of the Activity • Immediate Results • Higher Results
Why teach culture in a FL class? Stimulate the senses La paella valenciana • Culture is tangible. • Recetapara paella • Discover the language by investigating the cultures that mold it. • Un hombre sincero • Culture helps to bring the language alive! • El tango argentino
Culture & Technology, the Perfect Marriage • Culture and technology when combined serve to captivate and sustain students’ attention. • Easy for the students to investigate culture via the internet with resources such as: YouTube, Google Images, Wikipedia, Google Earth, etc. • Culture can be readily incorporated into any activity using technology: an online discussion board, blog, powerpoint presentations, etc. • On Blackboard students can post a variety of cultural information: videos, web links, recipes, photographs, music, art, cultural blogs, etc.
EmbajadoresculturalesMultiple Goals • Introduce our students to various aspects of Hispanic culture. • Have them work with technology, specifically to do research on the Internet, to post a link on Blackboard, and to create a hyperlink. • Practice their writing skills in the target language. • Make them responsible for their own and their classmates’ education; ownership of knowledge.
EmbajadoresculturalesDetails • Pre-activity: At the beginning of each chapter I shared various cultural links as examples. • Approximately 1 month prior to the due date we carefully reviewed the instructions together. • Students had approximately 3-4 weeks to do their research and choose a link to post. • They were to write a simple description, in the target language, of the link they chose. • They also needed to create a hyperlink. • I reviewed the links prior to in-class portion.
EmbajadoresculturalesIn-Class Review • I gave them approximately 30-45 minutes to work in pairs or small groups reviewing the various posts. • If the classroom is not equipped with computers it is likely possible to reserve a room on campus that is. • The Discussion Board as it looked for the review. Blackboard Discussion Board • Students chose 3-5 favorites and wrote down the name of the classmate and the title of the post. • The papers were collected and I tallied the results. • We later reviewed the top 5-10 posts as a class.
EmbajadoresculturalesImmediate Results • Students often became so involved in the activity they would post multiple posts even though they knew there was no extra credit. • Being aware that their classmates would review the posts motivated them to find a link that would be particularly interesting. • Students tried to top each other... • Students discovered more websites and cultural resources than I could find on my own in a month.
EmbajadoresculturalesHigher Results • Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the activity and learned something about Hispanic culture and the Spanish language, i.e. new vocabulary. • Students were thrilled to see their link voted as one of the top 10 favorites. • Most important, students helped to educate themselves, their classmates, and me. • They became the teachers thereby shining a light of knowledge onto the entire class.
Some of My Favorite Links Posted by Students • ¡Conozca México! • La leyenda de los volcanes • ¡Conozca Puerto Rico! • Arroz con gandules • Puerto Rican Dance • ¡ConozcaCentroamérica! • Guatemalan Quilt Art • ¡Conozca Cuba! • Cuban Food • Franklin Alvarez (artista) • Celia Cruz • Salsa