I believe in the use of technology in the classroom, not because it is fashionable but because it genuinely empowers my teaching, and most importantly, it is a great tool to practise key structures. In many ways, this also mirrors lots of retrieval practice and stickability across all stages of the learning journey. It additionally allows me to take languages outside the classroom and make my lessons accessible to my students once they leave the classroom, which is an essential element in the 21st century, without forgetting how technology allows for real collaboration with real partners in France, Germany or Spain. In other words, it gives my students wings or superpowers!
However, for digital tools to have a positive impact on students' learning, it is important to make its use clear in the curriculum: concentrating on HOW to blend the curriculum. We have to decide on a platform to share our digital resources with students (Google / Classroom / OneNote / Teams?), and think backwards: What do we want our students to achieve by the end of the learning journey? How are we going to get them there? And finally, which digital tools can we use at each stage of the learning journey?
These are some of my favourite tools which I use, together with face-to-face tasks:
Mentimeter
I love to use Mini Whiteboards in the classroom: students need to do translations both ways, dictations, and they may have to finish a sentence or write a sentence with a given word (great for retrieval practice). Mentimeter is an alternative to Mini Whiteboards in the classroom. In a nutshell, it is an interactive presentation tool that enables the teacher to engage with studen