Skip to main content

Skolinks








Nicolas Rochas sent me a link to this free service which looks very interesting indeed if you are interested in establishing links with other schools, teachers, classes or students. Your school leadership may be keen if they are interested in the global dimension or world citizenship. At its most basic level it may be an opportunity for pupils to communicate with other young people from a different background. They say:

Skolinks est un portail destiné aux jeunes de 8 à 21 ans et aux enseignants du monde entier qui souhaitent nouer des relations et développer des échanges dans un esprit amical et partenarial.

Skolinks is a project from Skolidarité, a non-profit organisation which supports schooling in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its stated aims are:

- promouvoir la fraternité et la solidarité entre les jeunes

- lutter contre le racisme et les discriminations- sensibiliser sur les Droits de l'Enfant

It began with correspondence in 1999 between a young French person and young Congolese. In 2009 Skolidarité was formed. Probably best to quote their own words. Given the current state of parts of the world the aims seem particularly relevant.
  • Pour que la jeunesse soit au coeur de la mondialisation !
La mondialisation ne doit pas se résumer aux seuls flux de marchandises et
de capitaux. Les relations humaines et la mobilité des citoyens doivent
être encouragées et facilitées.

En facilitant la rencontre de jeunes d'autres pays et la mise en relation
d'enseignants pour développer des projets pédagogiques, Skolinks permet à
chacun de devenir un citoyen du monde.
  • Pour la découverte et le respect des cultures
La compréhension des cultures, religions, coutumes est essentielle pour construire un monde plus tolérant, encourager le dialogue interculturel et ainsi lutter contre les extrémismes politiques, religieux...  
  • Pour une ouverture sur le monde et une meilleure compréhension de celui-ci
En échangeant avec d'autres jeunes, vous allez découvrir leur quotidien,
les richesses de leur pays mais aussi leurs difficultés. Vous
comprendrez ainsi les enjeux géopolitiques auxquels les nations et les
peuples sont confrontés au XXIème siècle.
  • Pour une plus grande solidarité
Au-delà des échanges que vous pourrez entretenir avec d'autres jeunes, vous
aurez peut-être l'envie d'aller plus loin en menant des projets de
solidarité et verrez ainsi que chacun à son échelle peut agir pour
construire un monde plus équitable.

You need to sign up to look for links with other schools, teachers or students. In the sign-up process you can describe what type of link or project  you may be looking for. This looks well worth exploring if you are interested in a class link or individual links for your students, or maybe even yourself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a langua...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zaz - Si jamais j'oublie

My wife and I often listen to Radio Paradise, a listener-supported, ad-free radio station from California. They've been playing this song by Zaz recently. I like it and maybe your students would too. I shouldn't really  reproduce the lyrics here for copyright reasons, but I am going to translate them (with the help of another video). You could copy and paste this translation and set it for classwork (not homework, I suggest, since students could just go and find the lyrics online). The song was released in 2015 and gotr to number 11 in the French charts - only number 11! Here we go: Remind me of the day and the year Remind me of the weather And if I've forgotten, you can shake me And if I want to take myself away Lock me up and throw away the key With pricks of memory Tell me what my name is If I ever forget the nights I spent, the guitars, the cries Remind me who I am, why I am alive If I ever forget, if I ever take to my heels If one day I run away Remind me who I am, wha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Longman's Audio-Visual French

I'm sitting here with my copies of Cours Illustré de Français Book 1 and Longman's Audio-Visual French Stage A1 . I have previously mentioned the former, published in 1966, with its use of pictures to exemplify grammar and vocabulary. In his preface Mark Gilbert says: "The pictures are not... a mere decoration but provide further foundation for the language work at this early stage." He talks of "fluency" and "flexibility": "In oral work it is advisable to persist with the practice of a particular pattern until the pupils can use it fluently and flexibly. Flexibility means, for example, the ability to switch from one person of the verb to another..." Ah! Now, the Longman offering, written by S. Moore and A.L. Antrobus, published in 1973, just seven years later, has a great deal in common with Gilbert's course. We now have three colours (green, black and white) rather than mere black and white. The layout is arguably more attrac...
26 comments
Read more