Sunday, May 31, 2009

iTunes and Italian

Free audio and video resources for Italian

There are several audio and video resources out there for Italian grammar practice, listening comprehension, vocabulary building, as well as fun cultural information.  iTunes is free to download.  In the iTunes Store, click on "podcasts" on the left hand side of the page.  Once in the podcast, scroll down to click on "education", and from there you can click "language courses".  You can search in the browse field with the subject "italian language" or "Italian podcasts".  Or simply, from any page in the iTunes store you can search the following that I have found:
ItalianPod101.com
Learnitalianpod.com
Radio Arlecchino   (a little advanced)
Italianpod.com
Italy from the Inside  (Very cute and well done cultural information and vocabulary from an Italian and his family living in the States - ***don't show the hand gestures video podcast to your young students!)

These also have their own websites from which you can access the audio and/or video if you don't have iTunes.

You can download audio and video podcasts onto your mp3 player or play them in the classroom.  They are great for students for on-the-go review and practice of grammar or listening comprehension.  Once you click on one podcast (in iTunes) you will see on the right hand side of the page other related links.  Divertitevi!

Jackie

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Photofunia

What is PhotoFunia?

PhotoFunia is an online photo editing tool that gives you a fun filled experience. You upload any photo and just wait to see the magic. Our proprietary technology automatically identifies the face in the photo and let's you add cool photo effects and create funny face photo montages.PhotoFunia is free and very easy to use. Just select an effect you like from over 100 different effects, upload your photo, and PhotoFunia will handle the rest for you.

http://www.photofunia.com/

This is a cool tool for our students. They can create a story line..putting themselves or their friends in the scenes. It looks like fun!
buon divertimento,
Lucy

p.s. and when did they change from la lavatrice to la lavabiancheria?? It's amazing the things you can pick up when you look at a store ad from Italy.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Itacny blog

Ciao a tutti!
È stato un vero piacere rivedere tutti alla nostra riunione.  Le presentazioni di Roseanne e di Fred erano fantastiche e molto informative.  Ho già sperimentato con voicethread.com e lo trovo facile da navigare e usare!  Vi ringrazio tutti delle vostre idee e della vostra partecipazione.

Come vedete, ho anche creato questo blog che, per adesso (fino a quando abbiamo un sito web ufficiale), possiamo usare per parlarci, scambiare delle idee e teniamoci informati.  

Comincerò ad aggiungere qualche informazione mia, ma se avete qualcosa che voreste "post" e non sai esattamente come farlo, fatemi sapere e posso aiutarvi.  È abbastanza facile caricare documenti, foto, files, ecc.  Devo ancora giocare un po' con il format del blog, ma mi sembra una bella partenza...

a presto
Jackie