SlideShare is a website where you can search and view thousands and millions slides of presentations in various topics and contents from people all over the world.
Type your interests in the search bar, and you will see a list of slides that people have already post.
you can email the slide to you and your friend and you can get the HTML code as well to embed the slide in your blog; if you signed up an account, you can also download the slide and add it into your Favorite.
If you want to create your slideshow, you need to upgrade your account and it is not free.
Value:
People present their brilliant ideas and organize these ideas well in one slideshow. They are great teaching and learning materials.
Clear, simple and pointed with pictures(visual aids), making some complex concepts can be easily understood.
Teacher can inspire their ideas by others and also can make their own slides for students.
There are lots of topics related to the business. Good materials for ESP.
Usage:
For teacher:
some of them are good teaching materials; some of them can inspire their thinking. Anyway, for teachers, it is a good place for them to prepare their lesson materials and content of the class.
For students:
It is a good place for advanced students to self-teach or extend their study outside the classroom.
For classroom:
Good place for brainstorming. It is a place for sharing where can inspire students' thinking. Better for pre-task;
Reflection: Students can also make their own slides on the topic or knowledges which they learn in the class and present them to their classmates or embed them in the class blog.
Limitation:
If I search for 'fast food', most of the slides focus on the food industry and health. Thus on the one hand, we can discover the 'focus' of the public on the specific topic so that to improve our sensitivity towards the world; on the other hand however, for young learners, what they need to know is what is 'fast food' and what happen to 'fast food' which can not found in SlideShow. So maybe the website is not suitable for them.
It is a wiki tool for online collaboration. firstly, you need to create a account so as to create a wiki or be invited into others' wikis as an editor or just a reader. Then you can write your texts or insert pictures, videos or links(like a blog) in the FrontPage. Also, you can edit the page whenever you want. One of the fantastic tool is that you can upload any files in the page and visitors can download by simply clicking it in the page(different from blog). After that, to achieve the collaborative work, you can invite others to this wiki by sending them a inviting emails. you also can set permission lever:
Page-level onlycan only access pages you explicitly give them access to. Readerscan view pages, but not edit. Writerscan view and edit pages. Editorscan view, edit, move and delete pages and folders. Administratorsalways can do anything on pages and folders.
People who receive the email will be accessible to this wiki only after they have signed up a PBwiki account through the same email.
If we choose invite people as editors, then they are able to view, edit, move and delete pages and folders. See the wiki we have created in the class, everyone has create their own page :
Through Navigator, we can view others' pages. Absolutely, I can edit their pages and they can also edit mine.
If you click 'Share this page' on the right hand, you can send this page to any emails. Moreover, 'Put this page in a folder' can help you to put the related pages into the same folder.
My classmate Jean Hu and Khadiga give us a presentation on Wiki, and they have selected a article by Zorko(2009): ‘Factors affecting the way students collaborative in a wiki for English language learning’. In this article, Zorko held the view that wiki is:
The Hawaiian "wiki wiki" ="to hurry"(Wheeler et al., 2008:989)
A web-based publishing tool
An easily editable virtual space
Sharing information and knowledge
Suitable for collaborative learning
Collaborative interactions that facilitate effective learning (Zorko, 2009:645))
Also, wikis based on Constructivism and Collaboration. It is because while learners have great control and responsibility over the cognitive learning process whereby they construct new ideas and concepts by making use of their own knowledge and experiences, they also need to work together with two or more learners to achieve a common goal in this scaffold learning process.
Usage and Limitation
it is possibly suitable for long-term project because it underlies the process-focused learning method. Another reason is that all the editing are remembered in the 'history' and wikis are able to protect any articles that revised by any editors, while blog can only show the final draf. It is absolutely also a learner-centred tool that is very different from the Webquests, which is pre-designed by the teacher and has well-organized structure. Therefore, possibly it is hard for teachers to control in case of everything going into disorder or disorganized. Thus, whether for advanced-level learners or English beginners, the design of the TASK is quite important.
To design a task, context and purpose should be taken into the consideration firstly. Context includes lever of the student and the teaching environment. It is arguable that whether wiki is an effective tool for young learners because some maintained that the tool itself is very difficult for children and some also argued that what the teachers need to do is to teach language skills through the collaborative learning rather than teaching the collaborative learning skills. However, the problem lies in the fact is that we cannot design the task appropriately. Obviously, it is unnecessary and unrealistic to ask children write an article in the wiki when they can just recognize very basic vocabularies. However, it can be regarded as a platform for children to construct the knowledge together. For example, we can ask children to study the vocabularies in LearningChocolate and LanguageGuide respectively and create a page named ' clothes', then children can insert pictures and words they have learned by themselves in the page. Also, children study in a different website and possible they can be encouraged search for more vocabularies online can add more information in the page. Thus, the wiki can help young learners to share information together which is more focus on constructing knowledges. For advanced-learners, wikis can be used in the collaborative writing task since learners are always cautious to post and edit texts in the page with serious writing attitude.
So, teachers firstly should convince this tool and then can adopt it into the language classroom according to different learners. Moreover, it is important to motivate and encourage learners to edit others' work, telling them the the goal and purpose of the task is not assess the achievement of a single person but to work together to construct the achievement.
Something important when using wikis:
1. Disorganization of wikis : it is developed step by step
teacher need to create the scaffolding (for low-level learner)
2. Create chance for communication but students try to use mother tough
3. Cautious construction of work : Not using friendly
4. compared with blod :
blogs: personal; fixed entries; better for opinions, reviews; good for autonomy; sequential; see the fact
wikis: communal; editable entries; better for facts,summaries; food for collaboration; not fixed sequential;see the procedure(for teacher's feedback)
references:
Zorko, V. 2009. 'Factors affecting the way students collaborate in a wiki for English language learning'. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 25(5), 645-665.
Wheeler, S. Yeomans, P. and Wheeler D., 2008. 'The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning'. British Journal of Educational Technology. 39 (6), 987-995
Using Vocaroo, you can easily record your voice and send it to people via mail.
What you need are a microphone, a internet-connected computer and an email account. There is no time limit for the recording and you can re-record it if you don't like it. You can also post your recording in the internet by embedding HTML code.
For students: improve their speaking skills by podcasting their recording. Activities can be mini-presentation, answering a specific questions or self-reflection; self-reflection on the pronunciation.
For teachers: giving spoken feedback to students; spoken instruction about the homework or the assignment.
chances for everyone to speak: students can podcast their ideas in the internet about a same topic, teacher will randomly play the recordings in the class and collect students' ideas. It can motivate everyone in the classroom to speak out.
There are some real gems in Ozge's latest blog for Valentines Day. However, some of them are not only useful for you to express your love to your lover, but also offer you, as an English teacher, an opportunity to change your traditional teaching way in the English language classroom.
1. The first one is BooKr, in which you make your own photobook; you choose a title for it and you search images based on tags (from flickr) and you drag and drop them in the book pages. You can add as many pages as you want and you can write a description or title underneath them. Then, you can publish the book for the rest of the users to see, you can send it to your email and embed it to your blog.
Here is my photobook:
In the language classroom, we could have students create their own books and write about them developing the feeling of learners' involvment and at the same time offering an opportunity to practice their writing and speaking skills (could work in pairs or small groups). Also, teachers can use this, creating their own book and giving to the students to work with. Also, teachers can upload pictures of the classroom on flickr and have students make their books using them, writing about their reflections at the very end of the course.
Also, there are others' comments on BooKr: (classroom discussion)
Bookr is a site for creating your own photobook. Starting with searching pics from flickr's enormous database you can upload them to your photobook(everyone's photos could be uploaded in Flickr). Add the title and the author's name and then add subtitle description. Some of its features include blog sharing. It could be used as an excellent tool for short and simple projects for younger learners. An interesting project could be a creation of a photoalbum of their favourite pet or their family or their favourite job. A presenattion could follow so all the social and language skills are practiced.
Bookr is a tool that you can use to create your photobooks using flickr images. Once you drag on the images you like, you can add some texts, or comments. You can also adjust the position of the image (up and down), and you delete the images if you are not happy with it. After you finish the photobook, you can embed it into your blog or your website.
Students can create their own photobooks about their hometowns or any place they went to and introduce them to their classmates.
it is convient for students/teachers to make presentations. There are plenty of resources that students can refer to when they try to find their pictures. It is easy to find pictures that you want and drag it into your photobook.
BooKr: This is a tool that allows us to create our own photobooks by combining pictures with texts. There is a large data base for pictures. For instance, you can choose your topic and include it on the cover of your book. In addition, you can describle the photos or even create a whole story. The site can arise student's interest and ccreativity.
2: the second one is Bubble Joy This site gives you the opportunity to create your own video greeting card. It's free and easy, you record yourself using your webcam and you can add a message and send the link to the one you want via your email account. Very easy and straight forward. Just one minute available for recording, pretty short.
In an ELT class: you can broaden the field of greeting to whatever you want, it could be a means of sharing information between students or recording oneself talking about a topic for a minute and sending it to the teacher as homework on speaking (practising speaking under time limits - for exams for example).
Classroom discussion:
A site to create your own greeting card. Requires a webcam and imagination. Record yourself speaking up to 60 sec(short for a speech enough for a wish!!). Ideal for using it with younger learners to practice their speaking skills. Self recording is beneficial for both the learner and the teacher. In the end you can add a background and sent the link via e-mail or tweet the link.
It is the website that help you make the short time vedio and produce the web link that you can send to your freinds through email.
As for the ELT classroom activities, it can motivate the students at young age to practice their speeking for real life use. The teacher can design a task to ask the students to make a wishing vedio. The students need to decide what to say with their pairs( practice listening, speaking and communicative skills ).Then they make the vedio together. By doing this, ss are motivated to practice.
3. the last one is Acapela TV It is a funny website where you can just choose a character (mainly an animation one) you like and type a short text.After that, the cartoon will repeat what you've just said in a humorous and funny way!
There is a variety of languages to choose from as well as different accents like American and British ones;
Students can use this as dairies to practice their speaking skills.
Future of Screen Technology This is the result of TAT's Open Innovation experiment. It is an experience video showing the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few.
How do you think the technologies might change teaching and learning? I have selected some useful and valuable views of my classmates in the discussion from TodaysMeet and summarized their ideas below
1. Materials, Recourses and Learning environment Advantages:
Learners can have access to any materials.
Students are exposed to 'real-life' materials and authentic language environment.
They can learn anywhere,not restricted to classroom
Drawbacks:
Too much overloaded input will add pressure on students' mind which distract students' selection of the valuable information
handouts and coursebooks may no longer be used
2. Learning Process
Advantages:
Technology can build up students' autonomy in learning.
really learner-centered language teaching
Drawbacks:
enhance interdisciplinary studies
the edu is mostly test-oriented so spending time on the Internet and computers can regarded as a waste of time.
Overload psycho- cognitive processes- might be too much
There might be the danger of how to utilise all this knowledge.
Less face-to-face communication
HOW TO USE THE TECHNOLOGY IN ELT?
For teacher, as the technology has strong power to influence the leaner's learning, teacher firstly should comprehensively understand the technology that he or she wants to use in the language teaching. Teachers should have the ability to control the technology so that to avoid the discipline learning process or ineffective input.
Secondly, there are large amount of technologies available in the internet, teachers need to be cautious about selecting certain technology in teaching, considering students' needs, learning environment as well as the aptitude and motivation of different learners.
Finally, tasks needed to be well-designed when using technologies; use the technology appropriable. Consider the sequence and manage the time well.
The website provides the vocabulary quizzes, grammar quizzes and quizzes based on the topic.
A. vocabulary quizzes
B. grammar quizzes
C. quizzes based on the topic.
Different from other quizzes, this website focus on the more practical usage of the vocabulary, grammar and daily life English. Moreover, the quizzes will help the learners to correct some ordinary mistakes that even advanced learner will possibly make.
After finish the quiz, you will have the score and the right answer. If your answer is wrong, it will offer a clear explanation. You can also download the quiz and get a pdf document.
Value:
for advanced learners to use English practically and flexibly
The classification of the vocabularies is very practical. For example, the quizzes will put all the vocabularies that can deliver the meaning of 'thinking' or 'pleasant' together and it will help the students to distinguish them.
Each question have a picture to give learner some hint to answer; also, it is a kind of visual aids that can arouse students' motivation.
Download material is great sources for teaching materials
Usage:
Teacher can use the quizzes as the assessment . (online or pdf materials)
Students' self-testing of study. they can get quick feedback after finishing the quizzes.
Limitation:
It is only suitable for advanced learners.
We can not search the topic or grammar points that we want to practice and some of them are not available in this website.
This website provides a large amount of grammar and vocabulary quizzes for students in different levels. There are two columns in the website: English Only and Two Languages:
From this menu, students and teachers can easily find the exercises they want to do. This is an example for GRAMMAR-EASY QUIZZES. According to different levels, different grammar rules are tested in the quizzes
Choosing 'Preposition 1', you will see a flash quiz.
Simply click the possible answer and you will get a quickly feedback whether your answer is right. If you are wrong, it will give you the right answer; if you are right, the quiz will automatically move to the next question.
Value and Usage: Actually, the website offer different kinds of quizzes including flash, multiple-choice, blank-filling, word cross, etc, which are designed by different people. However, the quizzes are comprehensive and almost cover all the grammar rules and basic vocabularies that students in different level need to understand.
They are also precious materials for teachers to assess students' studies and outcome. Because most quizzes are short and easily to operate, they are great sources for the warming-up activities.
Learning in the quizzes fit the theory of behaviorism that help students to remind the knowledge.
Limitation:
Lack of clarification so that not suitable for self-study
The design of the quizzes are old-fashioned and sometimes very boring. Students will be demotivated if work on the it for a long time.
According to the website, CNN Student News is ' a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for middle and high school students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN'.The website is totally free for charge throughout the school year.
Value:
Reliable and valuable resources that can be used as the teaching and learning materials: 'you'll find a wealth of teacher materials presented free of charge, including Daily Transcripts for each show, Daily Discussion questions, the Media Literacy Question of the Day, in-depth Learning Activities, downloadable Maps and additional support materials to help students understand the news.In addition, the educators at CNN offer Discussion Guides for CNN documentaries and initiatives, including Black in America, Latino in America and CNN Heroes.' (from CNN Student News )
Diverse and latest topics
Videos in the website are authentic which can provide visual and audio input
Usage: I recommend using this website for self-study or extending materials because it offers everyday news and also includes lots of activities that easily be held by students themselves. The video is very short and it is suitable for the busy high school students to listen everyday. As a teacher,I don't think we need to spend too much time on listen to the news and practice the designed activities because all of these can be done outside classroom by students themselves. I think it is better to demonstrate students how to use this website and then motivate them to insist on the listening everyday.
1. you can choose a news and then listen to it
2: There are two options for you to 'study' the news:
1). quick guide and transcript: where you can download the image maps and have the whole transcript of the news
2). daily discussion: where some specific questions will be arranged for you; some of them are listening exercises that base on the news; some of them are just general question related to the topic
However, daily discussion is really good for students to work together. we can combine the wiki with this website to let students finish the listening task outside the classroom. Offering the question above, and embed the video in the wiki, students write their answers in the wiki. Teacher will update the news video everyday and students can choose two days of a week to do the task.
limitation: CNN news, with its own political views, will affect students' world views; some political issues may be sensitive to discuss.The questions design make students to think in CNN way.
