I’ve recommended Twitter already, in Tool #53, but here is a long list of ideas about how to use twitter for learning and teaching.
Twitter is very, very popular these days. It is gaining in popularity in Japan. You post short messages about what you are doing thinking or discovering, and people follow you, they can read these posts. It is easy to set up a class like this and get feedback on your lectures, but there are many more ways to use this tool.
A simple mis-communication game. Remember “Telephone” or “Chinese Whispers?” This is done with a chain message like that, but online, and with pictures and writing instead of whispering in your neighbor’s ear. Broken Picture Telephone.
Teaching is no longer tethered to geography. If I want to learn German, I can get a German teacher from Germany, living IN Germany right now. If I want to teach English to someone in Argentina, I put up my rate and other details at Myngle. Students find me and I teach using Skype, with up to 4 other students. The simple interface and ease of matching students with teachers made this a recent winner at a teachers conference in Europe.
Doing interviews is an essential part of many podcasts. Podcast Academy explains in text or in audio how to make your interview interesting and successful. Then read James Fallows write in the Atlantic about how to give a good interview. He’s famous for it.
Great little site MSTAGG with short clips from recent movies used to teach grammar points. This is definitely upper intermediate though, but he has gone through the material and done a good job of presenting examples. The clips are sometimes too long, but you can further filter them if you want to spend time preparing.