New Media in foreign language classes - Obligatory tasks

     New Media in foreign language classes is one of the two new media classes I attended during the summer semester 2011. In this course, we got to know the didactic background of using new media in class and also got to know many different tools that can be used in school. In the first week, we learned how to create an e-mail account and were introduced to new tools like delicious (social bookmarking) and netvibes (personal learning environment). As homework, we were supposed to write about those tools and our personal experiences with them. In the next lesson, we got to know the JIM-Study about the use of new media by children. As this study really impressed and astonished me, I decided to write about it as one of my five free tasks.Following this class, we went on a fieldtrip to the Martin Luther school in Marburg. There, we investigated the media equipment of this school and were introduced to the usage in class. During this field trip we got an impression of how well modern schools are equipped and could realize the importance of new media. After this fieldtrip, we gathered ideas about which additional media equipment schools could need. Among the ideas were printer, scanner, mp3-player, USB-sticks, laptops and even interactive whiteboards. Our homework task for the next lesson was then based on the ideas we came up with in class and was to create two suggestions how a school could spend 10.000€ or 50.000€ on media equipment. In order to be familiar with some reasons why new media should be used in class and how they can support and improve learning, we also focused on three different learning theories (behaviorism,  cognitivism, constructivism). After the lesson on learning theories, we were now provided with sufficient didactic background knowledge and started to analyze and to comment on already existing teaching ideas. In this context, we looked at whether the tools suggested to use are suitable for teaching purposes and if the ideas really improve learning. By doing so, we also collected a list of aspects that can be taken into consideration in order to decide whether a tool or website can be recommended or not. After we discussed some teaching ideas that can be found on the web, we tried to create our own teaching ideas, too. The teaching idea I came up with is about creating podcasts with audacity. In the last sessions, we finally presented our own teaching ideas and discussed about what we learned in the course and what we should definitely keep in mind as future teachers.
    If you are interested in the tasks I published on my e-portfolio, you can either click on the links in the text, or you can use the drop down menu.