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Recently while I was at home with a virus, and indulging in a bit of day time TV, I heard about a website that I'd like to share with you. Although VIKI could certainly be for classroom use, I actually got excited about it for an entirely different reason. As teachers, we give a lot in many ways. There's always room for one more way to make a difference though isn't there? Especially when it involves volunteering, putting your language skills to use (and yet in such an easy, peasy way!!)


Honestly, I can't even say for sure which TV show it was, but Marlee Matlin gave a plug to Viki.com which is like a wiki, but its goal is to provide subtitling to a wider range of video. She talked about what it was like growing up without closed captioning on many TV programs, and what she did to fight against that. Now the same issue exists for YouTube and other online media. (I previously wrote a blog post about how terrible YouTube's auto-captioning is.)

What a perfect opportunity to contribute to the world you want to see! Personally, I've often been heard complaining about the dearth of quality, accessible materials (especially of an audio or visual nature!) to explore in French class.  And the new curriculum for French in Ontario has a much bigger focus on culture than in the past... but that does not have to mean just francophone culture.

So what on earth am I talking about? How does Viki make it easy to contribute? When you visit the website, you are met with a floating invitation to jump right in and provide subtitling for even just ONE line of a video. I tried it out & it's easy, rewarding, and a little bit addictive, like a word puzzle game!

(Any other 4 Pictures, 1 Word fans out there?)

Really, if you speak ANY language, pop on by to see what video project you might like to spend a few minutes contributing to. Yes, there are even English videos that need English subtitles. As an educator, I feel like making the world more accessible to all if definitely a way to give back!

That's my "Bright Idea" for this month.  Be sure to pop by any of the following Sales-Pitch free posts by edubloggers listed below WITH an indication of grade level, and if we're not all that well acquainted yet, I'd love for you to follow me on Twitter, facebook or even TpT.