Okay, so sometimes I need to be “hit with a 2X4″ before I see the connections between things — especially things that are outside my usual scope of activities. Or, as my son would say, “Dad, you need a little 2X4 technology!” (Yes, he used to watch the “Kids next Door” cartoons :-)

One of our student teachers metaphorically hit me with a 2X4 the other day when she was presenting at our end of the year student symposium. She was discussing teaching foreign language vocabulary and conversation skills to high school students. Well, a couple of weeks before a colleague had pointed out a few software applications. I looked at them and thought, “Interesting, but I don’t know what I would use them for..” Now connection hits me, “Oh these would might be handy for people who are teaching languages! We have some pre-service teachers doing that!” (Duh!)

So I will point them out here so I won’t forget them — and for others who make connections faster then me:

italki.com is features include (in their own words):

• “Helping students find native speakers to practice speaking a foreign language
• Giving language learners the ability to communicate online in text, voice, and even video
• Using social solutions to solve problems, such as harnessing the community to answer language questions
• Providing a platform for sharing free open-source language learning materials (download and upload)
• Recommending other resources on the web
• Providing a space for people from around the world to experience and learn about other cultures”

The second is the Mnemosyne Project. It is open source software that “resembles a traditional flash-card program but with an important twist: it uses a sophisticated algorithm to schedule the best time for a card to come up for review.” Apparently, this is based on the work Piotr Wozniak who worked out the “ideal moment” to practice what you have learned. If any of this is interesting you might check out Piotr Wozniak’s own company and web site Super Memory.

As I mentioned, this is outside my own disciplinary boundaries. So if you actually use any of these please leave a comment so I have some idea how well they work. Thanks!