This presentation will examine the use of four digital tools—Word Press, Audio-Lingua, Vimeo and VoiceThread—to increase students’ communicative skills and cultural awareness in Italian.  We will review the curricular requirements for the AP Italian Language and Culture Course and discuss how many of the core elements can be incorporated into pre-AP levels of Italian instruction.  I will describe four digital projects that we use at Tufts designed for the elementary level: interactive blogs, listen & speak activities, video projects and digital story telling.  My analysis will focus on several key questions:

1. How do I want my students to benefit from using web tools?
2. What types of tasks promote meaningful communication and interaction?
3. How should feedback be provided and by whom?

These digital projects increase student motivation while building language proficiency and cultural knowledge in the L2 classroom. 

Patricia Di Silvio, The College Board, Member of the AP Italian Exam Development Committee & Tufts University, Senior Lecturer in Italian, patricia.disilvio@tufts.edu

Presented at the Teaching Italian Culture Conference Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Saturday, October 19, 2013