This post is a summary of recent additions to textivate and explains how you can now combine textivate resources
with a video, audio file, image and/or parallel text to add all sorts of extra
functionality.
This blog post explains how to add video.
This post deals with adding an audio file.
This one deals with adding an image.
And this one tells you how to add a parallel text.
You can add one of each of the above to a textivate resource, if you like. The student can then click on the relevant icon to view the resource along with the video, audio, image or parallel text.
What does all this add to textivate?
Video means that you can create listening or dictation resources based on the transcript of a video. Here's an example in Spanish. You can also have a video which contains information that the students have to take in an understand before completing the text or matching actvities. e.g a response to a video, a summary of the video, matching questions and answers based on the video content. etc. etc. Or how about a movietalk resource, where the text of the activities describes what happens in the video? See this example based on a Simon's Cat video in French.
Audio adds similar functionality to video in terms of adding listening and dictation based activities. It has the advantage that it's probably easier to create your own audio than your own video too. Here's a Spanish example based on a simple text about food and drink.
Using
an image means that you can have resources based on describing a
picture, or where the text is a comment on something that is shown in
the picture. The image can help to make the text more understandable.
Here's an example based on describing a painting in French. Or how about this resource on the water cycle in Italian?
Adding an extra text to a resource adds several options. A parallel text (ie. the same text as in the activities, but translated into the L1) helps to make all sorts of texts much more accessible for all sorts of levels - students always have the original text to refer to and should hopefully be able to see how the L1 and L2 texts fit together. Here's that Simon's Cat resource again, this time with a parallel text. And see this short Spanish story for beginners. Students have the English text to refer to as they complete the sequencing, gap-fill and text reconstruction activities.
In case you looked at textivate when it first appeared and haven't been back since, here is a blog post on everything that's been added since the beginning.
You can find out about the many different options and ways of using textivate by clicking on the "getting started" link at the bottom of the textivate home page: http://www.textivate.com or via the user guides on this blog.