Voicethread/Prehistoric Beasts

I can see how Voicethread could be a useful tool but I’m a little confused by the purposes of the demonstrations on the “Voicethreads 4 Teaching” site. I guess the idea of having a common theme around which to organize the students’ thoughts could have some relevance, but only if the purpose of the exercise is to encourage production. What is the theory behind this approach? It’s sort of a non-linear, theme-based brainstorming exercise, from what I can tell.

I think isolating the program for a specific purpose could work; it could be an excellent way to have students “turn in” their pronunciation assignments. Here we’re starting to see some real potential benefit to the internet as an alternative forum. I would think that Voicethread would still have to be relegated to one aspect of a multimedia course, however; the way it functions here is almost as an audio chat room. And I, too, would probably avoid walking by all those crocodiles if I could. I don’t even like driving near them unless there’s a glass wall between us, or if I know that they’ve recently eaten.

Good French Lesson, Questionable English Lesson

“Ma France” (L2 French)
This is part of the BBC series of language videos. This particular series is for French but they have dozens of others. They seem to have the bases pretty well covered; the lessons are interactive, allowing the user to navigate to vocabulary and grammar exercises in the course of the video. One can also choose to turn the French or English subtitles on or off at will—I think this is a good blend of interaction and passive learning, allowing the user to select the proper approach. There is also an overall choice of topic, but I found that within each theme there is a lot of material to cover.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/flash/#

“Real English” (L2 English)
Um, what? This is a series of interviews with people on the street about their astrological signs. This is purportedly lower-mid-level L1 material, with the purpose of introducing the verb “like”. Problem #1: The introduction of terms like “Capricorn” and “Taurus” into L1 vocabulary doesn’t strike me as being terribly useful. Problem #2: the speakers they interview are often a little awkward and I don’t think their body language really matches what they are saying about their own personality traits. They simply should have some editorial restraint in choosing which videos to use—“dogmatic” is also not an L1 word, to name one example. Neither is “ostentatious.” I’ll stop there.
http://www.real-english.com/reo/7/unit7.html