NSU's Shelton receives Excellence in Teaching award

Tahlequah, Okla. Northeastern State Universitys Dr. Donna Shelton, associate professor of Spanish and Spanish program coordinator, received an excellence in teaching award at the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching for her incorporation of technology into teaching foreign language.

The SWCOLT is a conference for world language educators and for all levels of schooling, including elementary all the way through college, Shelton said.

The conference was held in Fort Worth, Texas at the Historic Hilton Hotel, April 7-9.

Shelton speaks Spanish fluently and usually teaches four classes a semester. Her classes are open to all students.

As foreign language teachers, we try to emphasize that students be able to communicate in spoken and written form, Shelton said. We encourage them to do several activities outside the classroom. I myself use a lot of technology in the classroom.

After receiving her award, Shelton gave a presentation about using Web 2.0 tools to create speaking tasks for students. The technologies she presented were Voki, Google Voice and VoiceThread. Voki is a website where students can make free avatars and record their own voices. Google Voice is an online voice mail service, and VoiceThread is a website where students can upload photos or videos and their peers can comment in writing or speech.

Sheltons colleagues say she has been instrumental in educating Oklahoma foreign language teachers about the latest technology tools for use in the foreign language classroom. Shelton has presented summer workshops for the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers Association on the use of wikis, Twitter, Facebook and Google Docs in the classroom.

The Southwest Conference on Language Teaching is a regional foreign language teachers organization that hosts an annual conference in partnership with state foreign language teacher associations. Representatives from Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah attended.

The purposes of the conference include: disseminating and publicizing information, data and materials which promote, develop and enhance the study and teaching of languages with their literatures and cultures; recognizing and publicizing excellence in second language study and teaching; promoting the work and interest of state language organizations; and cooperating with state, national, and international organizations to enhance second language study and teaching.

It felt great receiving this award, Shelton said. This conference is a nine-state organization and there are a lot of really good language teachers among them. So its a big honor to be selected from all these people.