Thing 4 - Photo Sharing

New ideas.

I am wild about images as a tool for learning but in the past have kept the images limited to clip art. It is new for me to think about photos as the primary image resource to connect English and Spanish but there seems to be great opportunities to do this. I try whenever possible to connect new Spanish vocabulary to a concrete image, to skip the English word translation step, to try to mimic first language acquisition by creating flip-up flashcards that show the Spanish word and underneath an image. My mind is shifting this skill to a tech flashcard that uses a photo sharing site like Picassa. Having recently gone through a new text adoption, I know that the online supplementary content for new texts have flashcards on line but I am excited to have the kids go find our vocabulary, take pictures of them, add them to a photo sharing site that our class can access, and have this as a study tool. If I were to use these photos on a power point site like Voice Thread, the kids could add audio using these new vocab words in sentences or brief stories depending on the level. I can see incorporating the photos into digital storytelling, journal prompts, conversation warm-ups, and in the creation of a classroom dictionary online.

As a learner it is new for me to learn to navigate the possibilities of these technology options. I do agree with the video clip supporting the strength of images in learning and want to incorporate this into my instruction. As I progress through this course I am constantly trying to decide how I blend my content knowledge with the technology medium so innate to my students. So as they are learning the Spanish language content, I am learning interactive technology.