Pedagogical Approach
These materials are rooted in findings from research (including from the BLC team) and a robust theoretical framework, including ecological theory, digital literacies and global citizenship.
Activity templates are classified by level (foundational/any level, beginning, intermediate, advanced) and by learning objective (tool use, tool functionality, tool ethicality).
Importantly, the activity templates are designed to be integrated into existing curricula, where space allows; they do not need to be used sequentially.
Learning Objectives
The activities were designed to focus on different aspects of functional and critical digital literacy skills:
- Tool Functionality: These activity templates target the affordances and limitations of tool functionalities, in other words, their inner workings, including the identification of embedded biases and ideologies, in order to support the development of both functional and critical digital literacy skills.
- Tool Ethicality: These activity templates focus on digital accountability to develop awareness of the digital tools and the ethical issues they present that may impact when, where, and how they are used. This exploration includes both classroom practices but also considerations of online tool use in personal and professional settings in order to support the development of digital global citizens.
- Tool Use: These activity templates take into account the implications of tool functionalities to foster the critical use of MT and other digital tools to support language learning.
Templates
The activity templates are designed to be adaptable to any language learning context. They are all open-access and can be downloaded for use immediately.
The templates are organized in two ways: 1) by instructional level and 2) by objective.
In addition to the templates, you may find this Guide to Templates and this Guide to ChatGPT Add-Ons helpful.
When you click on links to specific templates or guides, you will be directed to a view-only document. To use the templates (i.e., adapt them/edit them), please download them.
Level
In this section, the templates are organized by level: Foundational/All Levels, Beginning, Intermediate, & Advanced.
Foundational/All Levels
These templates are designed to be used at all levels. They do not contain language specific content. Preview the Foundational activity templates here.
Beginning Level
These templates are designed to be used in first and/or second semester (or, alternatively, first, second, and third quarter) of language instruction. They contain language-specific content. Preview the Beginning Level activity templates here.
Intermediate Level
These templates are designed to be used in third and/or fourth semester (or, alternatively, third, fourth and/or fifth quarter) of language instruction. They contain language specific content. Preview the Intermediate Level activity templates here.
Advanced Level
These templates are designed to be used beyond the fourth semester (or, alternatively, beyond the fourth quarter) of language instruction. They contain language specific content. Coming FA25
Objective
In this section, the templates are organized by objective: Tool Functionality, Tool Use, & Tool Ethicality.
Tool Functionality
These templates target tool functionality: how machine translation and genAI tools work. Preview the Tool Functionality activity templates here.
Tool Use
These templates focus on tool use: how to use machine translation and other online tools to support language learning. Preview the Tool Use activity templates here.
Tool Ethicality
These templates help students explore the ethical issues inherent in machine translation tools. Preview the Tool Ethicality activity templates here.