A Short Presentation on Using Google Wave in the Foreign Language Classroom

We've been using Google Wave quite a bit in Latin class. Here's a short Jing presentation to show you the different things we've found helpful about Wave. The majority of the tricks were figured out by the kids.



(Watch in Full Screen Mode)

I love to hear from other teachers using Wave in class. I am finding it a great tool for collaboration in the foreign language classroom; and with the ability to run gadgets inside Waves as well as the ability to export Waves to Google Docs and track student participation, it's becoming an indispensable tool for gauging formative learning in group projects.

More on Using Google Wave in the Foreign Language Classroom

I've really taken to Google Wave as a scratchpad for collaborative translation work.

Splitting my Latin II class up into small groups, I requested that each group create a Wave in which to help one another translate a chunk of a larger passage from the Gallic Wars.

Here's a screenshot of a brief section of translation being worked on by one of the small groups. Among the things that I love about working like this, foremost is the fact that I can watch live as each student helps contribute in real-time to the same document. Wave automatically tells me which student is doing what; so, if I see that one student is having problems in one area, I can easily give them a little more attention in real-time or link them together with other another student for some quick peer-tutoring -- or even make a new Wave to use as a 1:1 tutoring block in which I can directly help the student (or multiple students having the same problem) without disrupting the flow of the class, forcing faster students to slow down, or causing anxiety by publicly "pointing out" the kids who need extra help.

Another thing I like about Wave is that it archives everything typed into it and allows me to play back the Wave's history. So I have a complete step-by-step record of the kinds of mistakes my students are making. Which of course lets me address any common problems quickly and effectively.

Using Google Wave in the Foreign Language Classroom

I'm not the one who thought to use Wave. That was a student's idea. 

I just came up with the task: for the kids to write their own epic poem in Latin. Google Wave for writing Latin Epics? Of course... I should've thought of that to begin with! 

It's actually a no brainer. (Or that's what I discovered over two days watching the kids work with it in class.)

Basically, creating the poem is a four step process: 

1) Collaborating on the writing of the poem in English. 

2) Editing the English version into a cohesive whole. 

3) Rendering the English into Latin. 

4) Making adjustments to fit the Latin version into epic meter.

We began by chunking up parts of the narrative -- beginning, rising action, climax, etc -- between the students. We were all sitting around a big table with our laptops, so it was easy both to chat between one another f2f and at the same time follow what was happening on the Wave (which I projected on the wall).

I find that this is often the key: hybridizing f2f and online experiences.

The students developed a humorous story about Greek heroes on a quest to save the last ice cream cone. (Okay, so it's no Homer... but it's a start!)

As students wrote their chunks, I flipped through the Wave commenting on each student's work -- it being a Wave, of course, I am able to comment as they are working rather than waiting for them to turn something in. This is a great way both to gauge formative learning as well as nipping problems in the bud before they blossom into full-blown misconceptions -- it's so often those ingrained misconceptions that we spend so much time trying to help kids unlearn.

Once the English versions were rendered and edited into five-line chunks, students began the process of morphing their poem into Latin. We started with the verbs.

As students suggested verbs and verb-forms, I was able to check through quickly and again figure out who needed extra help and who was ready for greater challenges (and as I've found over and over, it's not always the kids at one end of the 'grades' spectrum or the other that needs more of the former or more of the latter). Wave actually lets me gauge each student individually in real-time and cater my teaching to each individual student. 

I'm coming to think of Wave as a 'differentiation and formative assessment' device.

Tomorrow, we'll start on the process of rendering the rest of the Latin and fitting everything into the confines of the old ancient meter. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on the conclusion of the project and hopefully will have a nice bit of Latin Epic to offer you all -- courtesy of the kids -- in two days' time.

Waving

TeachPaperless is spending the evening learning how to use Google Wave.

Here's the first three things that have popped into my waved-out mind:

1. It could be a remarkable way to keep track of differentiated instruction and individualized learning.

2. The real-time collaborative power puts curriculum maps to shame. Not to mention the ability to turn on a dime and respond to spontaneous current events and situations without everyone getting lost.

3. Talk about a way to rethink school-wide organization.

More on all of this soon.

A Wave is Headed Our Way

(How) will it change things? And (as important): are we ready (whether it does or doesn't)?

Today's the day folks signed up for the early invites are supposed to start hearing back from Google.

I'm thinking a year out from today, the social tech landscape looks a whole lot different. Now, that's not really much of an audacious claim given what's happened over the last year or two.

So for us teachers, the real question is: what's your school's plan for dealing with the next evolution of the Net (Wave or otherwise)?

Is your faculty using the war stories related to the pain of pulling schools into the age of social tech as a foundation and a strategy of how to be prepared for the next step rather than have to play continual catch-up with the culture at large?

Because if we're not ready for the real-time hoopla of the coming semantic web and its visual and idiomatic offshoots, then the only thing we've proven is that we really don't understand how to capitalize on the means of engagement and connection that the Web ever more exponentially keeps offering us.

You wanna still be debating whether to let your students use Twitter three years down the road?

Let's push this thing. Let's get this century started.