Tuesday 26 August 2008

12seconds.TV and a challenge!


On checking Twitter this morning, I saw that Doug @dajbelshaw was trying out something new - called 12seconds.TV. I'm a nosey soul so when he offered invites, I was there like a shot.

Doug was kind enough to send me an invite so off I went to discover more.

It's one of those 'does what it says on the tin' sort of sites - it's all about 12 seconds of TV, a bit like Seismic but with a time limit. Just as Twitter limits you to 140 characters, here you have to be succinct too. You sign in with a username and are assigned your own channel - mine is http://12seconds.tv/channel/lisibo and then you just need a webcam and microphone - although Doug Belshaw managed here without a microphone ;o)

I had a first try waffling about nothing in particular, and answered today's 12challenge - which is the best Star Wars film?

Then I started thinking of uses for 12seconds.tv, and came up with using it for a challenge - learn and perfect a Spanish tonguetwister.

Here's the first one - from Puerto Rico


Spanish tongue twister #1 on 12seconds.tv

Trabalenguas #1 -
miel de abaja, miel de abeja, miel de abeja ......

I started thinking I'd put the widget in my blog sidebar - which I will do - but then thought I'd add it to the school web page and use it to set the challenge to pupils, staff, parents and the wider community. There's not much going on the site at the moment and in the last year there have been three regular contributors, one of whom has left, one of whom is the administrator, and the other who loves pink and bling ;o) so I think any content will be welcome. I also take pride in promoting languages within the school - as I don't have my own class, it's the way most parents get to know who I am. Added to which, I like the idea of promoting language learning to the wider community - and tonguetwisters are such fun. Using video will help as I always find it easier to see the person's face when I'm learning languages and trying to imitate pronunciation. And the 12 second limit makes it snappy - not an onerous task and within most people's attention span.

I'll let you know how it goes - but I'd love to see others having a go - perhaps you could join 12seconds.tv and post your attempts at the Spanish tonguetwisters?

Or post your own in French, German, Russian, Dutch, Chinese etc. or even a phrase in your local dialect? I've got 10 invites to give away if you'd like one!
We could start a whole new trend for linguistic 12seconds.tv videos!!

I'll post another one in a day or so!

11 comments:

Good stuff, Lisa!

Why is it that every cool new edtech thing seems to have a direct application in MFL?

Or is it just because talented teachers teach the subject? ;-)

Thanks for the comment Doug!
I don't know about talented teachers teaching MFL, but I'd say the ones you know are a pretty imaginative, resourceful bunch :o)
PS perhaps I should install Disqus so people can leave video comments of their attempts at the tongue twister???

Hi Lisa, I love this idea and can see definite benefits, not only for MFL but for other subjects as well. I'm just thinking of various eTwinning projects I've seen - I think the original idea of having students respond to a stock question is something that would cut across the curriculum. For example, if you were doing a project on History, you could ask a question like, 'Who, in your opinion, was the greatest historical figure?' - then have the students record responses and compare the differences between countries - this could be done in English, or any other language in fact (with translation).

Brilliant idea Michael!
I love it when a post sparks more ideas :o)
Lisaxx

One question though, I've got my esafety hat on now and I'm just wondering about the issue of showing kids faces online - I'm presuming that people have the option to choose how public they want to make their 12secondTV?

Good point Michael.

That's where the judicious use of puppets/ masks might come in! See previous blog posts! For example - http://lisibo.blogspot.com/2008/05/puppets.html
Or perhaps you could just use the microphone? Or use pictures like Doug did on his 'silent post' to obscure faces??

Any more ideas?

Lisaxx

Just found your blog and I LOOOOVE it! I'm putting you onto my blogroll right away!

I am so glad I found your blog, you have AWESOME resources. I will be visiting often.

¡Muchas gracias!

Maribel Suardy
"We are Little Amigos"

This comment has been removed by the author.

Thanks for the comments, Diane and Maribel. Gad you find the blog useful :oD
Lisa xx

Hey Lisa - this is Sol from 12seconds. Thanks for writing about our product. I hope that you continue to find awesome uses for it. Thanks!

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