You’ve changed lives.
Now change
the system.
EdD—Educational Leadership & Change The EdD program’s dynamic, multicultural learning community promotes change by equipping educators at all levels to become
transformative leaders. Students
remain in their communities and
pursue their professional careers
while undertaking advanced studies.
MA—Collaborative
Educational Leadership
(CA, GA, MN, WI)
Designed for busy professionals,
the MA-CEL program develops
instructional leaders in a collaborative environment. Students also
have the option to pursue a concentration in Charter School Leadership.
Teaching in the Virtual
Classroom Certificate
Developed by renowned Drs. Palloff
and Pratt, this graduate level certificate program provides educators
the skills they need to successfully
develop, deliver, and evaluate
online programs and instruction.
typical U.S. high school schedule.
Edison hopes to send students to India
in the future.
Students say they prefer making
connections through the new technologies to traditional activities. “We do
more real-life situations. We see kids in
India and talk to them,” Priyanka, a
student, says enthusiastically. Neelam
Mishra, a teacher who is a native of
India, notes, “I tell them about India, but
when they talk to the students from
other countries, they get it. The real
connection is when they see with their
own eyes, interact with their own peers.
It’s a great learning experience.”
Trisha, a heritage language student,
believes the class has brought her closer
to her own culture and family. “Now I
feel like I can go visit India and be very
comfortable there,” she says.
A New Face on
Language Learning
Although the entire profession is not
there yet, there is movement toward
greater use of digital connections in
foreign language classrooms. Toni
Theisen, named the American Council
on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
2009 Teacher of the Year, emphasizes the
need to use technology to help students
develop 21st century skills. Theisen has
created a wiki and a blog and uses Ning,
a social networking site, to model the
use of these technologies for fellow
language teachers. She notes,
Our students want to be a part of the
world. They want to use the new tools to
share their stories, find out how the rest of
the world lives, and much more. . . . How
exciting it is to connect students to new
tools, concepts, ideas, projects, and people
from other nations. . . . As language
teachers, this is just the vision we have
had our whole careers! (Q&A with Toni
Theisen, 2009)
The American Council on the Teaching
of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) National
Language Teacher of the Year program is
part of a larger public awareness
campaign, Discover Languages, which
promotes language study through diverse
means, including an annual student video
podcast contest and a Web site offering
the latest language research and program
advocacy ideas (see www.Discover
Languages.org for more information).
“As more teachers use digital tools to
make connections in the classroom,
students no longer believe the old
stories that ‘learning a language takes
too long’ or ‘you have to have a special
knack for it,’” says Marty Abbott,
ACTFL’s director of education. “It puts
a whole new face on language
learning.”
1Skype can be downloaded free at
www.skype.com. Skype-to-Skype video and
voice calls are free; there are fees for using
Skype to text message or call a landline or
cell phone.
References
National Standards in Foreign Language
Education Project. (2006). Standards for
foreign language learning in the 21st century
(3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009).
P21 framework definitions document.
Tuscon, AZ: Author. Available: www
. 21stcenturyskills.org/documents/p21
_framework_definitions_052909.pdf
Q&A interview with Toni Theisen. (2009).
The Language Educator, 4( 2), 26–29.
Author’s note: Marty Abbott, Leslie
Davison, Desa Dawson, Bret Lovejoy, and
Martin Smith contributed to this article.
EL
Sandy Cutshall is Editor of The
Language Educator magazine, published
by the American Council on the Teaching
of Foreign Languages. She teaches
English as a second language to adult
learners in Mountain View, California;
scutshall@actfl.org.
800.340.1099
www.fielding.edu
For more on how schools can “click across cultures, ” read Rita Oates’s
online-only EL article, “How to Learn in the 21st Century,” available at
www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/
How_to_Learn_in_the_21st_Century.aspx.
EL online
