My Class has a Conversation with the World
An old trick:
It's an old trick, you send out a message to the world on Twitter and wait for the world to reply. (read on for the twist)
We did this at the start of the lesson yesterday in Yr 8 French:
"This is Mr Collis' yr 8 French class in Sydney. Please answer within 60 mins: How many languages do you speak & where are you right now?"
Within the hour we had 36 replies from all over the world! (Helped along by www.twitter.com/suewaters who retweeted the message)
The Result:
8 of the people who replied only spoke 1 language. The others spoke 2, 3, or more. A great way for students to understand language learning from a global perspective (the typical Australian perspective of the value of languages is not necessarily positive).
But here's the twist, I copied and pasted the 32 replies into www.umapper.com and it instantly made a map of the word showing where we had received replies from.
Here's the map:
Link: http://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/30556/
So the students could see without any doubt that they had just had a conversation with the world.
A class of any age, any subject could benefit from this sort of conversation.
PS: If you're interested, here are the messages we received:
nadinedickinson@Steve_Collis Hi yr8 French students! Am in Manila, Philiippines right now. I speak 3 languages.
manning11@Steve_Collis Bonjour! Je suis à Palm Springs aux États-Unis, et je parle cinq langues. Bravo à votre prof pour utiliser Twitter comme ça!!
deerwood@Steve_Collis Hi yr8 French class. I speak 3 languages, English, French and Spanish. I'm in Gloucester UK
moodleman@steve_collis Are you going to join @lasic and the rest of us for dinner on Sat? I think you two would get on like a house on fire :)
myr221@Steve_Collis only speak English, at home in TH.
oxleyj@Steve_Collis only 1.1 (a little French from Junior High) - Brisbane, Australia
stevencahill@Steve_Collis 2 languages ... English and Jibberish. I am in Melbourne Victoria
barbsaka@Steve_Collis Hi Mr. Collis' French class. I speak 2 and 1/2 languages (my Spanish is dreadful!) and am right now in Kitakyushu Japan.
mikecogh@Steve_Collis English and Dutch and I'm in Adelaide
cathyarreguin@Steve_Collis 2 languages, Northern California, USA. Hi!
perfal@Steve_Collis Hi from Stockholm Sweden. I speak Swedish, English (been in France though) - good luck class!
StevenCaldwell
@Steve_Collis I speak 1 and a bit.(French being the bit) I'm at a really self-congratulatory conference in Canberra.
harlemlibrarian@Steve_Collis 4 languages, Harlem, New York
elearningnews@Steve_Collis This tongue only speaks one language but I'm a big fan of words no-one uses anymore: http://phrontistery.info/cl...
astrang@Steve_Collis Greetings from British Columbia, Canada and only speak 1 language :(. My kids are in a French immersion class so 2 for them.
ivyclark@Steve_Collis Hiya, I speak 3 languages and 1 dialect, from Singapore and now based in Perth. :)
DishMopTop@Steve_Collis I only speak English. I live in Melb but am going to France for a holiday soon so need a crash course!
bryanhughes@Steve_Collis Hi from Vancouver, Canada! I've studied French, Thai, and Indonesian, but really I can only speak English.
marksmithers@Steve_Collis Hi Steve - I speak a bit of English and a bit of French - I'm in Melbourne
winsongreen@Steve_Collis In Melbourne. Only speak English fluently. Did French to Yr 12. Maybe should do a refresher!!
lasic@steve_collis Hi class from Perth, speak three langauges (not computer langauges :) and hack my way in another two. Enjoy learning
yeah_mate@Steve_Collis hello. I'm at my Physio in north Sydney. Je parle francais but not very well. Zut alors!
windsordi@Steve_Collis ... and it's 12:36 at night... bed time!
paulfuller75@Steve_Collis I am in Perth and speak English et un petit peu de la Francais.
jurgen@Steve_Collis I speak 3 languages, but only one fluently. Je peux parler allemand, und ich kann französisch sprechen. I live in Melbourne.
mickgwyther@Steve_Collis I speak English and live in Ballarat- windsordi@Steve_Collis Hi class! Je parle en français ...and I speak english! Windsor, Ontario, Canada
flexnib@Steve_Collis four languages, I'm in Perth, Western Australia. I wish I spoke French!
hfeldman@Steve_Collis I speak English, I'm pretty good at Spanish, and I'm beginning Russian! I'm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and I'm 16. Hi!
suewatersPlease tell send tweet @Steve_Collis yr 8 French class Sydney within 60 mins: How many languages do you speak & where are you right now?
deantregenza@Steve_Collis North Sydney, speak - English, read (v. v. slowly) - Latin, A.Greek, Hebrew, German- suewaters@Steve_Collis one language English and Perth Western Australia
lucybarrow@Steve_Collis Hi Mr Collis and your French students from Ballarat in Victoria! Unfortunately, I only speak 1 lang, but wish I spoke more! :)- Jo_Barrett@Steve_Collis one and I am watching Toy Story and marking Year 7 spelling!
vnarayan@Steve_Collis In New Zealand -- 1 Lang (English)
mikejisrael@Steve_Collis 1 language and I am in Wahroonga NSW