Ideas for Web 2.0 language lessons?

A group of us is compiling a good list of activities for language students to perform online as homework, extra credit, etc. The lessons/tasks are usually things like researching information on blogs in the target language or communicating with native speakers in (SAFE, CONTROLLED) areas about designated topics.

Basically, the idea is to create a set of fun activities, somewhat of an online scavenger hunt where you communicate with users and find info online, that could help students with practice/cultural lessons. Any thoughts?

Thank you all in advance for your ideas and happy (almost) weekend.

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Permalink Reply by Morgan F on April 26, 2010 at 9:23am

I've had success with giving students food-based scavenger hunt-like activities. For example, in New York, a lot of the staff at grocery stores are from Central American countries, so I would have students go into the stores and ask for Zanahoria, and get the price, and conduct the whole transaction in Spanish! This isn't "web 2.0" but maybe we should do something like this online!

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Permalink Reply by Tim Musgrave on May 5, 2010 at 11:52pm

I've been thinking about using google streetmap with the students... start them off in one location and give them directions to another... you could set the area in an interesting location where there's lots of language used on road signs, shops etc

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Permalink Reply by Cameron Foster on May 6, 2010 at 5:25am

have you seen lingt?

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Permalink Reply by Juan Pablo Velez Barragan on May 6, 2010 at 8:48am

i like the idea of real-world interaction (or as close as possible online), but how can we get it to work for students who don't have access to native speakers of the target language?

I, for instance, started teaching Basque this semester and, while there is a large Basque population in Buenos Aires and I have SOME students who grew up hearing Euskera in family settings, I have trouble finding completely fluent native speakers locally to organize communication. what kind of online activity would be both educational for my students and interesting/motivating enough for native speakers elsewhere to get involved and participate?

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Permalink Reply by Marcia Tyrol on May 7, 2010 at 8:00am

Try ePals. I searched by country under the Collaboration tab and went to Spain. Then I searched using the key word Basque and I found several teachers who want to set up collaborations.
I found ePals to be a bit cumbersome in the past, but now many more teachers are looking for international connections.
I'm trying it again. Maybe we will both be able to connect with schools where the languages we teach are spoken.