1. GIANT KITES OF GUATEMALA Magnificent Works of Art
ALL SAINTS DAY FESTIVAL
NOVEMBER 1ST
RAISING A GIANT KITE

2. Presented by Adrienne Merlo
Culture & Technology – Giving Students the Opportunity to Learn from Each Other via Blackboard Learn
CCCFLC Conference
October 14, 2011
Orange Coast College
Presented by Adrienne Merlo

3. Overview Why teach culture in a foreign language class?
Culture & Technology, the Perfect Marriage
Embajadores culturales (Cultural Ambassadors)
Multiple Goals of the Activity
Details of the Activity
Immediate Results
Higher Results

4. Why teach culture in a FL class?
Stimulate the senses
La paella valenciana
Culture is tangible.
Receta para paella
Discover the language by investigating the cultures that mold it.
Un hombre sincero
Culture helps to bring the language alive!
El tango argentino

5. Culture & Technology, the Perfect Marriage
Culture and technology when combined serve to captivate and sustain students’ attention.
Easy for the students to investigate culture via the internet with resources such as: YouTube, Google Images, Wikipedia, Google Earth, etc.
Culture can be readily incorporated into any activity using technology: an online discussion board, blog, powerpoint presentations, etc.
On Blackboard students can post a variety of cultural information: videos, web links, recipes, photographs, music, art, cultural blogs, etc.

6. Embajadores culturales Multiple Goals
Introduce our students to various aspects of Hispanic culture.
Have them work with technology, specifically to do research on the Internet, to post a link on Blackboard, and to create a hyperlink.
Practice their writing skills in the target language.
Make them responsible for their own and their classmates’ education; ownership of knowledge.

7. Embajadores culturales Details
Pre-activity: At the beginning of each chapter I shared various cultural links as examples.
Approximately 1 month prior to the due date we carefully reviewed the instructions together.
Students had approximately 3-4 weeks to do their research and choose a link to post.
They were to write a simple description, in the target language, of the link they chose.
They also needed to create a hyperlink.
I reviewed the links prior to in-class portion.

8. Embajadores culturales In-Class Review
I gave them approximately minutes to work in pairs or small groups reviewing the various posts.
If the classroom is not equipped with computers it is likely possible to reserve a room on campus that is.
The Discussion Board as it looked for the review. Blackboard Discussion Board
Students chose 3-5 favorites and wrote down the name of the classmate and the title of the post.
The papers were collected and I tallied the results.
We later reviewed the top 5-10 posts as a class.

9. Embajadores culturales Immediate Results
Students often became so involved in the activity they would post multiple posts even though they knew there was no extra credit.
Being aware that their classmates would review the posts motivated them to find a link that would be particularly interesting.
Students tried to top each other...
Students discovered more websites and cultural resources than I could find on my own in a month.

10. Embajadores culturales Higher Results
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the activity and learned something about Hispanic culture and the Spanish language, i.e. new vocabulary.
Students were thrilled to see their link voted as one of the top 10 favorites.
Most important, students helped to educate themselves, their classmates, and me.
They became the teachers thereby shining a light of knowledge onto the entire class.

11. Some of My Favorite Links Posted by Students
¡Conozca México!
La leyenda de los volcanes
¡Conozca Puerto Rico!
Arroz con gandules
Puerto Rican Dance
¡Conozca Centroamérica!
Guatemalan Quilt Art
¡Conozca Cuba!
Cuban Food
Franklin Alvarez (artista)
Celia Cruz
Salsa