Using Multimedia in LOTE

Interactive multimedia activities are a great way to engage students. Young people of today are used to, and in many respects expect, the type of stimulation and learning experience that occurs with using interactive multimedia.

There are two main types of multimedia that can be used in a LOTE classroom. Special purpose LOTE multimedia, and self created multimedia based activities. This page will look at what is available in both areas.

Special purpose LOTE multimedia

Special purpose multimedia are those that we usually have to purchase! Many publishers have a range of CD-Roms and other computer multimedia that they create that can be purchased for use in LOTE classrooms, often accompanying a textbook. These programs are often a good supplement to classroom activities and allow for the reinforcment of vocabulary in a fresh context.

Some other great multimedia includes the following easily accessible resources:

Languages Online

"Languages Online is for students learning French, German, Indonesian or Italian. It contains a series of engaging activities and games that introduce, reinforce and recycle the language. The activities are self-paced and self-correcting and can be repeated as desired. Additional resources such self-correcting assessment tasks, corresponding print activities, Flashcards and answers and translations are also provided. Activities are contained in short theme-based sections. Each section can be completed in one lesson. The site has been designed for easy navigation and use by students. Access to the site is free." - abstract from home page of site.

"Downloadable 'game maker' templates enable teachers and students to build their own multimedia language games and activities. Games can be made using any language installed on your computer. When complete, games can be saved as either a webpage or as a program file. They can be copied to a disc, memory stick or onto another computer or network to share with others." - abstract from home page of site.

Learning Federation Objects

"The Learning Federation's role is to create online curriculum materials and the necessary infrastructure to ensure that teachers and students in Australia and New Zealand can use these materials to widen and enhance their learning experiences in the classroom. The Learning Federation is an initiative of the governments of Australia, the Australian states and territories, and New Zealand." - abstract from About TLF page of website

Learning Federation digital objects are available in the languages of:

Chinese
French
German
Greek
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese

To obtain the materials produced by the Learning Federation you will need to contact the appropriate liason officer for your sector. Their details can be found here. Or if you are a Department of Education, Victoria School you can find them online at Digilearn.

Multimedia authoring tools for building your own activities

In the LOTE Centre of Excellence at Berwick Secondary College we have worked with two excellent programs to create multimedia activities for our students. One program is a free download from the Internet, the other is one that must be purchased.

Hot Potatoes - A free download

What is Hot Potatoes?
Hot Potatoes is an authoring tool that was created by the University of Victoria in Canada. It was a joint effort between The Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) and the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Facility at the University. The program enables the user to create web based interactive activities for students to use in the classroom. What makes this program so great is the fact that you don't have to know anything about web design or programming to build the activities. The program is designed to build them for you with minimal input.

What can I do with Hot Potatoes?
The activities that you are able to build using Hot Potatoes include:

JCloze - Make your own fill the gap excercises
JMatch - Create your own matching activities using words and/or images
JQuiz - Create your own online quizzes in a short answer, multiple choice, or mixed format
JCross - Build your own interactive crossword activity
JMix - Create a jumbled sentence excercise
The Masher - Group a number of Hot Potatoes activities together into an online unit

How do I get Hot Potatoes?
Hot Potatoes can be downloaded from the University of Victorias Hot Potatoes site.
When you first download Hot Potatoes you receive a limited version of the program that allows you to create small activities only until you register the program. Licencing of the program is free under certain conditions. To determine if you qualify visit this link. Once your program is licenced and registered you will receive full program functionality.

How do I learn how to use Hot Potatoes?
There is a fantastic tutorial built into the program that will teach you everything you would ever need to know about how to use the program, including step by step instructions on how each potato works with examples and tips on building your own activities.

What will my Hot Potato look like?
Two LOTE based samples of what a Hot Potatoe activity looks like are included here

German Crossword Puzzle on food - Clues are given in English, but the German words are required

Indonesian text match activity on basic phrases - Students must select the correct translation for each word.

Task Magic - A great resource for LOTE

What is Task Magic?
Task Magic is also a multimedia authoring program that was developed by a software company, MDLSoft, in the UK. The program was originally developed as a general classroom program, but was warmly embraced by the Modern Foreign Languages departments in many British schools. Our staff were first exposed to Task Magic while participating in Professional Leave to the UK in early 2005. Upon their return it was one of the first things that we followed up, purchasing our own copy. It was an instant hit in our classrooms from then on.

Since that time Task Magic has now become readily available in Australia and is finding acceptance in LOTE classrooms across country. So what is the big deal?

What can I do with Task Magic?
Task Magic is an incredibly powerful program because it is so easy to use and creates visually impressive classroom activities with very little effort on behalf of the teacher. One note however, is that it only supports Roman text in written activities, character languages are not catered for.

There are a range of exercise types that can be built using Task Magic. They include:

Text match - set up a vocabulary list that allows students to match the correct words in the target language with the English translation.
Picture match - have students match words in the target language with the correct image
Sound match - have students match sounds with the correct words in the target language
Picture to sound match - match images with sounds or dialogue in the target language
Grid match - useful for verb conjugation work, or any situation where 2 stimuli are required to elicit a specific response
Mix & Gap - create reading and listening exercises with longer passages of language
Dialogue - create exercises based on dialogues
Multi Choice - create multiple choice exercises with up to 100 questions and up to 10 options per question

What makes the Task Magic program so powerful is the fact that teachers only need to create one list or activity for the students and the students can play that activity in a multitude of formats.

For example in Text Match, one single vocabulary list of 16 matching words can be played as 15 different multimedia activities. The activities range from a simple drag and drop, right through to a soccer game or pool. The teacher also has the ability to print off up to 5 different styles of worksheets generated from that same list.

How do I get Task Magic?
Task Magic can be purchased from www.taskmagic.com.au. Unfortunately Task Magic is not free. However it is relatively inexpensive when compared to other programs, and especially when you consider how powerful it is. Another selling point is that it is not only suitable for LOTE, it could be used across the curriculum in other areas. You are limited only by your imagination.