First of all, the user/learner has to enjoy the game. There are many educational games that simply are traditional language exercises thinly disguised as games; but they are not inherently fun. In order to really leverage the benefits of games, we must not forget about their most important criterion: fun. That may mean to make tough choices: a highly motivating game may not teach you anything about the past perfect, nor will it cover the exact vocabulary items found on assessment lists or a particular textbook. If that is the goal, then games are probably not the best way to learn that material. But if we accept the notion that language learning is often incidental and should be attached to authentic and relevant content, then the number of possibly relevant games grow.

So what makes games good? Compelling narratives, well spaced tasks of increasing difficulty, accommodating different levels of skill and expertise, useful, situation-sensitive feedback information, and a constant stream of rewards (e.g. badges, upgrades, new items or traits, points, ranks, …).

This all sounds good in theory, but which games can we actually use in the classroom or in more informal settings? Here’s a brief list of games I’ve used and their benefits. I’ve written about these before on my own blog, so I’m copying a few sentences from that post here and include links to the different posts.

Buzz
My favorite game because it’s intuitive, social, and adaptable. Here’s how it works: up to 8 players each take a wireless controller, which sports 4 brightly colored buttons and a large “Buzz” button. Players choose their own avatars and buzzing sounds and then compete in a quiz game show, somewhere along the lines of “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and “Jeopardy”. It’s so simple, you give someone a buzzer and he/she knows what to do. It’s available in a number of languages, depending on where you buy it. You can use the quizzes on the disc, or you (or your students…) can make your own for free by using a web interface. More…

Narrative Games: StoryLines, StoryWheel, and Dear Esther
In StoryLines, the player chooses an expression or a saying and draws it on a mobile device. This work of art is passed on to another player, (by passing the device or through the internet), who is charged to title the drawing. The next user creates another drawing based on the previous person’s title, and so on. More…

In StoryWheel player 1 will see a random image and then is prompted to record a narrated voice-over, which should correspond to the animated image. After that, he/she passes the iOS device on to the next player, who continues the story in the same fashion, and so on until the story is finished and published. Of course this could also be played by only one player. The final result an animated, narrated digital story that can be published as an iBook or online. (You can find some online, public examples here). More…

ARIS
The free platform called ARIS combines gaming and storytelling elements by using a location-aware iOS app. You can build your own game by using a web interface, thus being able to adapt everything to your needs and situation. Definitely look at the Mentira project at the University of New Mexico to see one possible use of implementing this augmented reality gaming engine.

Quest for the Rest
Quest for the Rest is a great little browser game that lends itself for one language class and that I’ve been using for quite some time now. The game free and easily accessible here without any downloads. There is no text in this brief adventure game. Instead, players click on different parts of the scene to make certain things happen. No language? Where’s the practice in that? Well, as with most games for learning, it’s the activities, the scaffolding, and the debriefing that are crucial. Students discuss strategies, negotiate meaning, and write down their progress as they advance in the adventure. More…

Other Games
It’s very time-consuming to find good games for language learning and teaching purposes. There are more that I or colleagues have used successfully, for example World of Warcraft, The Sims, and various adventure games. Using games in formal classroom settings can be very challenging as they often do not fit into existing curricula. So very often we use them outside of the classroom, for example during game evenings in the language center. On those evenings, some students choose computer games, while other play board games. Which are excellent for language learning, by the way. That’s why I’ll write about them in one of my next blog post!

Are any of you using games for language learning? I’d like to know!

Everyone one who has played a computer game knows a few basic things: they are fun, sometimes to the point of addiction: “Just one more round, then I’ll stop!” Great games lead to a state of flow, when we are in the zone, when we are lost in the game. When we play, we technically work: we repeatedly click the mouse button, we play the same sequence over and over again to succeed, we practice, we learn and look up information to find clues or hints.

The vast majority of games are unsuitable for educational purposes in general and for language learning and teaching in particular. Many games involve only minimal use of language, and others contain inappropriate content. Indeed, many games are mindless or violent, and their reputation casts a shadow on the whole medium. Also, games that are culturally relevant for the target language are rare.

sometimes I wish during a conference presentation that I could draw over my images. During the last SOCALLT conference, for example, I showed blueprints of the new language center. It would have been nice to draw on these images and interact with them.

Air Sketch

Just a few weeks ago a fantastic new iPad app was released: Air Sketch.

It provides a blank surface on which you can write. Other computers on the same network can display that iPad image in an HTML5  -compatible browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, …). I can also put an image on top of that blank canvas and doodle over that. Fantastic. No installation on the computer is required, just a browser. You can, and may want to, password protect it. Otherwise everyone on your network could see your air sketches.

It tried it out on my home network and at my institution, and it worked like a charm. Actually, it worked on my laptop, a classroom computer, and even my iPhone! If you don’t have a network available (think conference hotel…), you can establish an ad-hoc network with your laptop.

Missing Functionality

It’s of course not completely a smartboard. You can’t type anything, only draw and highlight. You can’t interact with it on the screen, only on the iPad. (Which is actually great, as I can walk around the room with it, write and annotate anywhere while teaching or presenting. I can even give it to a student.) It only accepts images so far, so you have to take screenshots or export your ppt into individual jpgs. (That may be a good thing. At least it will keep you from using too many slides in your ppts…). But it’s a fairly new app, and the first updates added some nice functionality. So it’s somewhat limited, but it’s fairly inexpensive (if you have an iPad…), mobile, and simple to use.

See for yourself, here’s a little video I just made to show how it works:

Air Sketch / iPad

Concrete Plans for the Fall Semester

Teaching a film class and a first semester German course, I can see many uses already. First thing that I will do is buy an iPhone/iPad stylus, like this one. Then writing will be faster and more natural than using my fingers. For the film class I think using stills and being able to annotate then, draw, doodle, mark, and write will be great. I can even make screenshots right on the iPad and upload the images onto moodle. Well, I’ll give it some more thought. It will certainly be cool during upcoming workshops and presentations.

Test Version

Before you pay for the full version, I recommend testing your networks with the free, very basic version. Please share your ideas and comments with me. Do you think this might be useful for your classes or presentations?

Air Sketch

Note

As I write for my own blog, http://www.languagetechnologybootcamp.org/, and collaboratively for http://www.languagelabunleashed.org, I will publish some posts on both blogs. I you subscribe to both, I apologize for any duplicates!

• Find ways to make scheduling meetings with students, faculty, and staff easier.

I’ve been using timebridge for about two years now, and have been very happy. It is fantastic, and it saved me countless hours, and possibly my sanity. But one problem is that I have to be the one to initiate the meeting and suggest times. But what if a student wants to met with me? So far I’ve told them to send me an e-mail. Of course then I have to at least check my calendar and send an answer back, if all goes well. If not, a back-and-forth of e-mails ensues.

In comes tungle. After feeding the system my calendar dates and preferences, anyone who wishes to meet with me can “grab” some time slots and the system alerts me. In theory this should work great, and I’ve tested it with friends, so hopefully this will save me some more minutes during the hectic weeks of the upcoming semester. First test: scheduling sessions with my advisees. I’ll keep you posted.

And if you wish to see how this works, here’s a preview on my faculty page.

http://www.rhodes.edu/academics/6214_16103.asp

Rest assured, we’re just working too hard. Well, it’s Friday and I’m finding a minute to finally write a post.

I like web 2.0 tools because they’re interactive, communicative, creative, and… because I don’t have to install or update anything. But more and more web apps allow me to do things I couldn’t possibly do so easily with desktop applications.

For example, how do you share web links with your students (or they with you or each other)? How do you communicate information about these sites? What about if you want to add your own media? How can you record your voice and mark things while looking at internet content? Complicated stuff for many.

In comes Flowgram. It’s one of my favorite apps at the moment. It solves many of the issues described above. But go and see for yourself:

There’s so much you can do with this in language instruction and learning. Give homework assignments that way. Explain web sites to your students and faculty (for professional development). Enhance your blog. Have students create project or homework assignments. Have them read a poem, create a digital narrative…

Well, my faculty instantly found a thousand uses, and I’m using it for projects for my advanced (German) media course this semester. I’ll post the results in a few weeks – only if they’re good…

One last thing: I had a professional photographer take pictures of our new language center. Here’s my favorite shot:

But that program is a behemoth, sometimes overly complicated. So I am also a big fan of little apps that get the job done. For language learners (and Mac users), this free little app might be useful:

DialectX

It’s very simple: you speak into the microphone and then hear yourself – with a (customizable) delay. That’s it. Definitely plug in a ear buds or a headset before starting the software. Enjoy.

Link: http://www.muddybranch.com/DialectX.html

Everybody can join us or just use the materials that will be made available.
Those of you from NITLE institutions can attend the grant-funded conference:

Language Technology Boot Camp

With this grant-funded project, the Language Technology Boot Camp, co-sponsored by Occidental College, we will further develop the language-assistant training that began at Pomona College in 2005. At this conference we will develop a high quality, self-contained training program. It will be selective, open-source and adaptable for various settings.

The Conference will take place April 10-13, 2008.

Participants will be asked to contribute to this project before, during, and after this conference.

The grant covers the participants’ expenses for the conference, including flights, hotel, and food. The application deadline is January 5, 2008. Participants must be from a NITLE member institution.

Please visit http://bootcamp.pomona.edu for further information, contact information, questions, comments, and suggestions.

Chinswing: Students leave weekly messages on this online voice board that is completely open to the public. I subscribed to it as a podcast so that I can multitask even more. The best part is that German native speakers have started to chime in. We’re actually having a skype conference call with a native speaker that contributed to the voice board.

Podcasts: Students are following two podcasts loosely. The first one deals with two different cultural topics each week. It’s great because the text and word explanations are provided as metadata. The other one is a German TV show video podcast, Die Sendung mit der Maus, which seemed to be quite popular.

Apple’s Keynote, screen capture, Comic Life Deluxe: Those make my life so much easier, but I think I’ll cover that in another post. Never using bullet points in my presentations!

Presentation Remote: Never having to to go to my laptop during class saves time and makes everything look so much more effortless. But it requires a bit more prep work. I like the Presentation Remote Pro by Keyspan.

YouTube, Google, the web in general: Well, nothing new here. It’s still simply amazing how there are so many resources. How did we ever teach with them?

Vocabbulary Wiki: Since there is no textbook, there are no lists of vocabulary items. Oh my goodness, is this a real language course? Well, we do have our vocabulary list, which is actually a wiki, so that students can enter the new words they have learnt. Yes, they are actually doing that, and yes, I also occasionally enter words, especially those from the blackboard.

Creative Projects: A third of the grade is actually determined by the students’ creative work, finding resources and information about a topic of their choice, and finally organizing and presenting the results. I can’t wait, everything sounds very promising so far.

Whew, that seems like technology overload, right? Maybe, but then someone has to put those technologies to the test, otherwise the faculty will not use them. And most of the course consists of discussions. After all, we want to keep all that technology nicely hidden in the background.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo’s blog for providing the link. Also check out the Virtual Village.