Webquest... A well-planned project

I have to make a confession here. I regret so much that I didn't have discovered Webquest.org earlier.

What's this

Dudeney and Hockly(2007: 54) define webquests as 'mini-projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied through the web'. From the same book and the classes we had in the ICT in ELT module I learnt that Bernie Dodge, a Professor of educational Technology at San Diego State University is the pioneer for this educational tool.

How it works?

There are specific guidelines, in order to design your own customised webquest. The under-pinning langugae learning theory is, in my opinion, Task-based learning. In Webquest design there are stages as exactly there are stages in a language learning task. However, Webquests are classified more as projects than tasks (Dudeney and Hockly 2007:57). In order to design a webquest you will need an authoring tool. QuestGarden is the one.

For extra help on how to do it check this out:


A tip: Bear in mind all the steps and the level of the students in order to create a successful WebQuest.

Benefits

• Learner develops  research skills.The learner is looking up information on the web in order to complete the task.
• Learner develops analytical skills. Questions are designed to stimulate analytical thinking.
• Learner develops word processing skills. Students need to write down the answers and edit  texts.
• It is virtually motivating as each webquest is tailored to students' interests.

Limitations

• It is not free (well it's pretty cheap-a two years subscription to QuestGarden is $20)
• The design of the quest is a bit poor and might be a bit blunt.
 

 References

Dudeney, G. and N. Hockly 2007 How to Teach English with Technology Harlow: Pearson Longman

 

 

Quizzes

“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”

Nancy Willard

Socrates use to make his students getting interested on a topic by answering questions. Asking questions is the only way to find the truth. I strongly endorse this view as the majority of the teachers does. On the web there are thousand sites for quizzes. I have tried many of them but here there are two quite useful in language learning:

BBC is one of my favourite site for authentic material. The learning English pages are extremely useful. There are many games that you can use in the classroom such a crosswords and beat the keeper(It's fun!). BBC's quizzes could be extremely useful in teaching idioms or colloquial expressions. Try it!

 
One of the largest quiz databases in the Web. You can find some really good quizzes of general knowledge and some of them , belive me, are really challenging! Quizzes come both in HTML and Flash form.
I really enjoyed a quiz about what is sarcasm!(For those of you that find it difficult to teach abstract concepts).  One drawback of this site is the advertisements(sometimes there are pop-up windows as well).

Alternatives to YouTube and how to use them.

You can find million and millions of videos to consume in YouTube for consumtion either in or out of the classroom. The sites featured here contain videos intended for more educational use than the funny videos in YouTube. However, there are educational channels aor universities channels quite interesting and I will try to cover them in the future.

Why to use Videos?
 The answer is simple: To stimulate your students' brains. If you have the appropriate equipment for showing videos can be a part of a warm up activity or an excellent source of information or even the prompt to start a conversation.

TeacherTube


Good site specially designed for teachers. Contains loads of educational videos and also some interesting resources such as lesson plans. Here is an example of a video and how to use it in the classroom:

Fashion



Last year I had to teach a unit about fashion in B1 level. In the course book there were activities for all skills and the last activity of the unit is always the writing and speaking activities. The text about fashion at the beginning of the unit was a bit blunt. The classroom had an IWB so what I did was to show students a video like this in order to stimulate them and motivate them to take part in the speaking activity first and then come up with some ideas for the brainstorming pre-writing part of the writing task.



BBC learning zone

BBC's educational portal is extremely good and full of ideas. Although it is mainly attended to native speakers it is ideal for a CLIL(Content and Language Integrated Learning) context. One of the benefits of using BBCs videos in language teaching is that it is an authentic material specially designed for learning. Well, I won't write more, go and check it out yourselves.Here is a video about the climate change:

Hot potatoes: Creating exersices is easier than baking spuds!

What's this?
It's an authoring tool to create your own exercises. Basically it is a programme you can download here and install it to your computer.

Why to use it?
To create on-line quizzes for the classroom of course. Quizzes are fun and capture learners' interest.


How to use it?

Hmmm... This might take some time just to get used to the interface. To get an idea start watching tutorial videos like this one below or go to website's tutorial list here



Limitations

• The same old good six typical exercises you will find in books.
• It is time consuming to create an exercise(10 items took me half an hour-but then maybe it's because that's just me)

Enjoy your spuds!

Learning chocolate- A ''tasty'' picture dictionary.

http://www.learningchocolate.com/node/350?st_lang=en

Computers 1 | Learning Chocolate

This Website presents words in groups using some interesting pictures as a visual aid in order to memorise vocabulary.
Special features:

• You can listen the word(good for racticing pronounciation)
• There is a bunch of exercises useful for further consolidation.

Why is this useful?
As most of us did we learn by seeing. And the fact that they are grouped makes the site interestingly useful.

In the language classroom?

 I would use it in presenting a group of vocabulary with an interactive white board.


Limitations
The vocabulary list is a bit limited and the exercises are unimaginative and a bit blunt.

Audioboo!! Recording-Sharing-learning!!

audioboo

What's this?

Website for recording and sharing your sounds. Create you podcast and share them instantly!! Watch this video tutorial for more details.



Why is it useful?

Podcasts  can be used both by learners and teachers.

Teachers can:

• Record feedback and share it with the learners.
• Record a conversation among teachers(native and non-native speakers), another lesson, record learners.
• Create ''improve your pronunciation'' podcasts.

Learners can:

• Record themselves reading a text (improving intonation and pronunciation)
• Create their own podcasts.
• Record themselves discussing a topic and then sharing it with the classroom. 
• Sing...

Audioboo's most significant feature is easy sharing. You can publish your podcasts anywhere! a

Second life and language learning presentation.

The Usefulness of Second life for Language Learning on Prezi

 That was the presentation Carina and I did in classroom about second life. There are so many things to say about Second Life. Many universities already use it to deliver some of their distance learning courses.

Of course, SL is used in language learning with success. 

Watch this video:

Benefits:

1. It maximizes experiential learning through the interaction with virtual word. Learners have the opportunity to see, hear and touch objects and learn their names or read floating text etc.
2. Inter-cultural communication takes place more often than in traditional classrooms.
3. Interaction with native speakers who use second life.

Of course the list of the benefits could be expanded and we could discuss further the above statements. But when I was working on this presentation I thought that SL is to good to be true.

Drawbacks:

1. It is for adults not for children. When you enter SL you might experience cyberbullying or sexting. \Linden Labs ,which is the company that launched SL, has set the age limit at 18.
2. It is a virtual not a real world. Yes, simulation can be really good for practice but I am not sure how "prepared" the learner would be when faces a real-life situation.
3. It can become addictive for some learners. Being whoever you want to be and do whatever you like in a virtual world might be extremely appealing and therefore addictive.  A dystopian possibility could be that people spend more time in their virtual lives rather than in real life. 

Conclusion


SL could become the future in education. The graphics will improve and the environment will become more real. However, it is not only used for educational purposes. Users(or residents in SL context) should be responsible on how they are using it.

''Have your head in the (word) clouds'':Wordle, Wordsift and Tagxedo

There are many tools for creating word (or tag) clouds out there but these three here drew my attention.The first one is simple, the second is fancier and the third is more artistic. Creating word clouds is quite simple as it require the basic skills in digital literacy of copying and pasting(you all know them). Copy any text and paste it to the necessary field. The application will automatically generate a beautiful word cloud for you.

http://www.wordsift.com/

Here is a word cloud created using Wordsift. Can you guess  what is the text about? Read the whole text here.

If you observe carefully the words are sorted alphabetically. You can chenge that and sorted them in different ways. The size of the words indicates the frequency in the text. I have a feeling that most of you guessed right!

Here is the same text using Wordle

Impressive layout and many options to change it and pick whatever you like.Change the colour, the font, sort the words vertically, horizontally or both! Print it and give it to your students! They would love a hand out like that.

Taratata!! The third dish in this three-course meal is Tagxeedo. As you realised it is my favourite and that's why:

Here you can shape your word cloud in any shape you want by just uploading a picture. I uploaded a picture of Parthenon. And I used a larger text from Wikipedia.

Use it in the language classroom. 

Wordcloud are ideal for warming up activities. Here are two examples having in mind intermediate and upper-intermediate learners.You can adapt this activities making them appropriate to the level you teach. If you have any good ideas don't forget to send them in the comment area!

• Pre-reading activity:

1.  Create a wordcloud with the help of one of the tools above using the text to be teached. 
2. Print it and distribute the handout to your learners.
3. Ask them what is the text about letting them discuss your question in pairs first.(Speaking/ communicative skills practice)
4. Explain some of the unknown words (not all of them!) -Pick the key words or those that are difficult to understand their meaning from the context.
5. Then let them skim the text and carry on with deeper comprehension questions. 
6. Keeping notes on the word cloud should be encouraged!

Tips: This could be a pairwork activity which in my opinion is better to promote collaboration and negotiation of meaning.

• Writing activity 

Wordclouds can be used for brainstorming. So if you want to brainstorm your learners about environmental issues

1. wordcloud an appropriate text.
2. Print and handout.
3. Discuss and add ideas.
4. Let the learners write short sentences using words from the cloud.
5. Expand this activity by letting them create a paragraph or an essay.

Limitations

The main drawback is that the word cloud is generate by a computer-programme and you might have words that you don't like them or don't need them. In Wordle you can delete them but still you need to be careful what words are in your cloud!

Enjoy teaching with the clouds !

Telescopic text...Chinese boxes with words...

http://www.telescopictext.org/

What's this?

This is an application  that helps users to create texts that they can gradually expand by clicking on words. It works like Chinese boxes(or nested boxes) each word functions as a box and you can hide more words or phrases in it and so on...

How to use it ?

If you want to create your own telescopic text you can check this video tutorial here. I tried it and it is simple. The site also offers a rather detailed tutorial. I tried it myself last night expanding the sentence "I realised something" to the over dramatic

"Suddenly, this cold and rainy morning I surprisingly realised that Sophie, the only woman I ever loved had left me forever because she felt emotionally insecure...". I wish your sentences are better than my tacky example.

In the language classroom?

Building sentences as a pre-writing activity is sometimes a boring activity for the learner to follow. Using this application in classroom or encouraging learners to use it at home is an excellent opportunity to understand what is creative writing is all about. Expanding thoughts by expanding sentences. Start with the verb the subject and the object and add adverbial phrases such as temporals or circumstances of manner. In telescopic text there is no formal way. It is not necessary to be an expert in syntax to create a short story. The only prerequisite is  some imagination. I think your learner would love it because it works just like the nested boxes it is like a game, it is surprising, fun and motivating. High levels of motivation increase their attention which is extremely important when you teach writing skills.

Limitations

Some technical limitations but not very important:

• Doesn't work with Internet Explorer but works perfect with FireFox, Safari and Chrome.
• You have to register in order to create your own telescopic texts (it takes about 1 minute if you type as slow as I do).

Tips

• You need to prepare an appropriate for your target level text.
• It should be used as a component activity in teaching writing skills.
• Present your text and then make your learners work in pairs and create their short story- provide them with additional vocabulary and useful phrases if  necessary.

Enjoy "opening your boxes"

"Let's meet in TodaysMeet''

What's this?
It is basically a site for creating meeting rooms.
How it works?
Very Simple. Go to TodaysMeet website:

1. Name your room(tip: pick a simple name so your students would be able to find it easily)
2. Choose the time you want your room to be active
3. Create your room
4. Write your name
5.   Join the meeting(or start the meeting if you are the creator)
6. Start asking questions.( Ok...What's your favourite animal is a daft example...)

 Using it in language learning
A very good activity to start with TodaysMeet is to  set a question and brainstorm answers from your students. Use it in pre-teaching writing. Learners can answer the question or questions from their home PC or their internet phones.

Benefits

•  The fact that is text-based communication may reduce anxiety of your learner in producing the written output.
• It is motivating because it works like the SMSs which is the most popular way of communication among young people. 
• 140 characters that is the limit for each entry  would make the students to form more concise opinions.
• Asynchronous text-based  peer communication promotes error notification and feedback. The errors in this environment are more easily observed and the possibilities to correct grammatical and syntax mistakes are higher.
•  The content could be saved and be adapted to a useful teaching material or it could help teachers observe classroom's progress.

There are of course many benefits that depend on how you use TodaysMeet. 

Limitations

Abbreviations(e.g. CU2morrow, me2, UnI2gether, 4ever etc) is a way of writing used in SMSs in order to write more in the limited space of 140 characters. Spelling skills decline by this kind of writing so be4 -oops!- before using TodaysMeet you'd better ask your learners use full spelling instead of abbreviations and telescopic text.

Loudlit.org- Reading literature aloud

Loudlit.org
What's this?
This is an online collection of some classical pieces of literature accompanied by audio files. You can either download the audiofile(MP3) or listen to it in streaming.

Texts available
The collection is still quiet limited but hopefully will be expanded in the future. Authors such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Edgar Alan Poe are available and you can choose to read and listen to poems, novels or short stories.

How can be used in language learning?

In my opinion, this site is more suitable to be used by autonomous learners at home as a component for improving their pronunciation. It is also an excellent way to introduce learners to some english and American Literature. Furthermore, it would be interesting to use it in a reading classroom activity or a literature lesson. The lively reading by native speaker would stimulate your learners' interest and improve their reading and pronunciation skills.

Limitations

The list of texts is rather limited and you might be concerned of which text is suitable for your learners' level.

Lyrics Training. Language Learning tool and fun for everyone!

What's that?''Lyrics Training'' is a site using music videos and requires to type the lyrics. There is a range of levels starting from the Karaoke mode in which you actually have all the lyrics subtitled to the video. Then you can choose among three levels. The beginners and Intermediate level integrates gap filling activity and the 'experts' level requires typing the full text. The list of songs is still growing so the chances to find your favourite songs in there daily increase.

Why Lyrics?Teaching a foreign language with the aid of lyrics is not something new. I still remember my English teacher playing a tape of "Imagine" pausing regularly and making us write down the lyrics. Writing down the lyrics help learners improve their listening, speaking as well as writing skills. Lyrics Training is ideal as a dictogloss activity and will certainly help your students improve their pronunciation.

In classroom or out of it?In both cases works fantastic! In classroom of course there might be some limitations. If you're gonna do it using the whiteboard then learners will write down everything in their notebooks. If there is a possibility of one computer-one learner then it's easier. A headset is also required if used in classroom. In my opinion, it is better to introduce it in classroom and then let your learners use it at home. Believe me, the more you use it the more hooked on you get. I have sent the link to some friends and they all enjoyed themselves only in their leisure time but also in their office hours. My friends are not learners of English or any language and yet they still enjoy it. This is an example on how your learners' autonomy can be boosted.
My Top 5 on Lyrics Training

1. Stand by me -Ben E. King
2. We will rock you - Queen
3. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra

and something more updated:
4. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
and to refresh my French:
5. Le Vent Nous Portera - Noir Desir.
Have fun!!

Prezi: My "Prezious" Presentations

Prezi homepage

What's this?

This is a web-based presentation tool that differs a lot from the traditional powerpoint. Instead of a series of slides a single canvas that can include text, video, charts or whatever a presentation usually includes. The unique feature of zooming in and creating a path of storytelling make boring presentations to be unpredictible and fun!

Presentations?

Presentation is an essential part of lesson planning. In language teaching presentation of grammar requires use of charts and presenting examples on the board, or in teaching writing presenting a topic. Therefore, a tool like that would be extremely useful for a teacher who uses e-presentations.

Why Prezi?

Prezi presentations are fun because everything is there. The teacher just zooms in and out showing the learners the big picture or particular elements of the presented theme. This spatial diversity in presentation helps the learner to classify the newly acquired information.

How can be used in language classroom?

You can try create your own lesson... Include pictures or videos, zoom in and out... It is as fun as playing a game both for the teacher and the learner. It is motivating, learners would be interested to create their own presentations. Use it in an activity or a project. For example, a vocabulary activity would be to write on the canvas a group of words and then let learners zoom in and out, add some synonyms or their definitions. Create a path and boom! Everything is right there on a single surface everything is on the same page not in a series of slides. The interface is so user- friendly that you will enjoy making changes in your draft all the time. There is a bunch of tutorials on the site useful both for technophobics and technofreaks.

Limitations

An interactive whiteboard or a projector is necessary. A decent internet speed is also important but not necessary because you can still perfom your presentations in the offline mode of your browser. The most serious drawback would be to create a bad presentation and bad means a presentation that would make learners dizzy because it's too complicated. I wouldn't suggest to let your students create their presentations in classroom because they might get distracted with the unlimited creative potential.

How much is it gonna cost me?

The basic version is FREE,you have to pay for the professional version. The Enjoy version which I use at the moment is FREE for people who have a professional e-mail provided by educational institution. I am completely satisfied with the Enjoy version. See here for more details.

Have fun!