Animation making

       Look at the animation I made! Thanks for watching. Here are two interesting websites for animation making. Have fun and learn while play!

http://www.xtranormal.com/

Another site for Animation making: Zimmertwins

http://www.zimmertwins.com/

How could it be used in English class?

• Could be a task for students: focused on the process of creating and negotiating meaning 

• Great combination visual and audio  for teaching materials. Mixing sounds with voice is good for training students' listening L2.

Why is it good for English language learning?

• A perfect place for representing interaction and communication

• Opportunity to research and learn more about the characters

• It engages students' cognitive ability; It stimulates learners' artistic skills.

• The setting is very motivating

• After you finish the task, you can publish your product. Students be attracted by this. It makes the students feel successful.

• Great vocabulary on motions and facial expressions
• it is extremely motivating as the graphic environment and the characters are interesting.

• Students will be very interested in the way the characters speak. So they will perhaps do their best to imitate the native speaker
• Motivate students to do the collaborative task    

Limitations:

• Dialogues robot like
• Distraction on the animation making rather than English learning
• A little difficult for younger learners.

Wikis

What is it？

A wiki is a "website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki)

How to use it in ELT?

• Set up a task for students, group them, assign them to different pages of a wiki, let them cooperate and finish a whole series of pages. they need to peer revise and negotiate. The task could be information searching and organizing, or collection of students' writing work.

Why to use it in ELT?

• It fosters collaboration among students and helps the peer scaffolding
• It  is could be edited at different time by different users, so it could be a long term process for students to renew and revise.
• It could be edited by all the users, so self-revise among students and teachers is available. Each steps of editing is recorded in history and sent through email. Look backward, the learning progress is easy to be reviewed.
• videos, pictures are embeddable, the content is colorful.

Limitation:

• not very user-friendly, hard to learn at the beginning. A little demotivating.

Several free screen capture software and web tools

http://screencast.com/t/xJ37BsLvUt28

Advantages:

• video and audio recoading, easy to illustrate
• authentic listening material for English learning

Application

for teachers                

• assessment
• feed back both for individual and class
• teaching video making

for students:

• peer review to evaluate their own works
• pressentation (including  book or branch story reading together with mixbox, or draw and describe the picture or design through composition or oral language)
• exploration and evaluation of web tools
•  film dubbing
• students' feedback and expectation, or responses to the teacher's comment

Limitation:

• the size of the video may get too big and difficult to send; expression has to be done
• the teacher could give too much feed back and lost of control

Other similar tools:

Screencast-o-matic

• web tool, create a account
• size adjustable
• web camera can be used at the same time
• free 15 minutes time limit
• upload to YouTube, download, flash windows media player

Screen Jelly

• web tool
• 3 minutes limitation
• sign with face book account
• tweet it , embeddable, face book, but not downloadable
• only record whole screen

Screen Castle

• web tool
• no sign in, no account creating at all
• simple to use
• but not dnownloadable

Screenr

• web tool
• tweet, embedalbe
• 5 minutes limit
• sign in with tweeter account

Jing

• have to down load the software
• size adjustable
• format can be chosen
• mark can be made on the screen
• paste the address automatically after sending
• professional edition very cheap

spontinious Screen caprure ----- screen share

 Join  me

https://join.me/























Share the screen with others at the same time.

Second life

The virtual world Second Life!!!
It looks like a game, but it is more than a game!!

What to know about it, and the use of it in English language teaching practice, see the following presentation.

The Usefulness of Second life for Language Learning on Prezi

(the presentation is made by G. Ti and Carina on Feb, 28, 2011.)
Disscusion about Second life from Carina's MA course:

Russell: Why are there not more people using it for language learning?

George: It's time-consuming

Joyce: I think maybe Second Life is not properly introduced to students. Some students may have bias against games for learning

Jean: There are probably technical problems. And it seems that learners have to spend a lot of time being familiar with the functions.

Jessie: Is not that easy to operate. When students try to use this to learn, first they need to learn how to operate the tool.

Jingjing: technique problems, eg. i tried hundred times and still can't log into it

Carina: 1.network connection inconvenience. 2. too much distraction by other activities. 3. hard to control at the begining 4. bad words environment

Costas- Maria: inexperienced teachers concerning second life

Khadiga: I think it needs more technology training

George: Most of the time people just roam in the virtual environment. They are not aware of the opportunities for language learning.

Costas- Maria: tiring for eyes

Jenny: Possibly difficult to operate it at the very beginning; they doubt whether it is a good way to study English, it is quite new.

Jean: Teachers might be technophobia. And if it is not user-friendly, the teachers might be just back off.

Khadiga: and it takes time for students to learn how to use it

Jessie: SL requires the highe quility in network. It will be really frustrated to wait

Jean: Need good instructions

Costas- Maria: you re not sure about the real identity of avatars

Russell: Why is Second Life so suited to Language Learning?

George: Opportunities for "authentic" interaction

Costas- Maria: purpose: communicate in English

Joyce: It's virtual world! Every word can be directly linked to an real object

Jean: Social interation in daily life English

George: Voice=speaking/text=writ​ten discourse

Khadiga: It gives an opportunity for real lif communication

Costas- Maria: reali life-situations and context

Jenny: purpose of communication

Jean: Motivation for learning a new langauge

George: Simulation of contexts

Jessie: avoid being nervous in real life

Jenny: English acquisition rather than learning

Carina: real and authentica "Communicative language learning"

Costas- Maria: opportunities to come together with other people and visit other places - self-discovery

George: Autonomy

Jingjing: interesting than classroom

George: Is is a game -games are motivating

Joyce: Students can reherse the expressions before they are really involved in the real situation. This can also motivate students and give them confidence in using languages

Jean: If the tasks an

Costas- Maria: extra practice out of classroom - expansion of classroom at home

Jessie: improve learning ability and experience the new authentic way of learning

George: you can meet native speakers

Costas- Maria: discover things that in real life you cannot - e.g exploring the oceans

Jean: If the tasks are designed well, learners can learn a real communication with a specific purpose

Costas- Maria: make new friends
George: machinimas could help in practice

ICT in ELT By George: Prezi: My "Prezious" Presentations

This is a simple and funny presentation about Carina's "picky" friend, Zheng. Let's have a look!

zheng on Prezi

This presentation board is made on a website named Prezi. Want to know more details about:

What's this?

 Presentations?

 Why Prezi?
 How can be used in language classroom?

Go and check :
ICT in ELT: Prezi: My "Prezious" Presentations: ".

Resource:
ICT in ELT: Prezi: My "Prezious" Presentations  in the Link: http://ictinelt-george.blogspot.com/2011/01/httpprezi.html?spref=bl By G.Tsiou

Looking for a place online for a class? Come here! 3 places for online class chatting

      Here are three good sites for you to have an online meeting with your students or colleages. You can use them for online classes. These classes are all like a chatting room, but more than a chatting room. They are text only, and easy to use. Let's have a look one by one.

Today's Meet

        Creat and room, name it, get the URL, and let students join. Then you are albe to publish your ideas. Easy and simple.

http://todaysmeet.com/ 

Chatzy

        Similar with TodaysMeet. More functions than TodaysMeet. Each person is color tagged, and ideas on the wall could be printed or saved as domuments for future refernces.

http://www.chatzy.com/442177906200

Sync.in

         Sync.in is a website for people to work collaboratively. The basic panel is just like a chatting room. But believe or not, several users can type in at the same time on different line, and each of them can see the progress of other users simultaneously. Each user's texts are in different colors so that it is very easy to catch other's progress. And the editing history is recorded all the time.

 http://sync.in/

Usefulness in English Class

• a platform to exchange information and ideas
• brain storming for group collabotaion
• writing activity for peer evaluation

Limitation

• text only, no picture or videos could be posted

Two photo book tools! Three places I stayed.

Have a look at my hometown. Is this album nice? Want to creat of your own?



made in bookr (http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/)


This is another photo book.  My university now.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

made in Mixbook (http://www.mixbook.com/)


Do you like the books I made above? Like them? Use Bookr, and Mixbook!


       They are two similar tools which can help you make a photo book of your own. Simply open their web page, find the pictures, customizes the styles and a fancy album will be created.


Some details and difference of the two tools:

• in Bookr: you can only download pics through flickr, shared by others while in Mixbook you can choose from picassa, facebook... and you can upload from your own PC.
• in Mixbook you have to sign up. But not in Bookr.
• Mixbook caters more for you according to your wills and have more choices of backgrounds and layout.

Photo book in English class:

• teacher's presentation. The photo books could be presented in both pics, texts, diagrams. This would be used to replace PowerPoint. This is more fancy than PPT so it might attract students more and motivate them.
• student's public speaking. The students could be given several topics to make mini-presentation or mini-lectures. E.g. a student is given a "how to..." topic and he has to search for the answer and give a informative speech in front of the others with the visual aid of photo book.

Limitations:

• Vedios cannot be inserted. So the form of presentation maybe restricted only to pictures and words.
• too flourish and fancy. The student may be disttracted when designing the layout and photo frames.

Resoures:
Words of mouth. From Russell Stannard.

Two webs for video email! I also write you one!

         Sending visualized email to family, friends, and your teachers or students is not difficult at all, on this website, just one click and you will fix everything! Tidy yourself in the mirror, and go to http://mailvu.com/  and record one now!



To see the video I write to you, click the link below!

http://web0.mailvu.com/msg/4697c2c6-3554-11e0-bce0-000c29112385

What is mailVU?

        

          It is a easy and fast way to send private video messages to family, friends, and anyone else. Connect your microphone and webcam, open their webpage on  http://mailvu.com/  , what you need to do are just these three step:

Why should I use mailVU?

          Family and riends can share video mail on what they are doing. MailVU provides private video email between people. Personalized video greetings can be sent to friends and loved ones in a matter of minutes. Video is remembered more than text, so stand out from the crowd by switching to video messages!  There is no software to download, and you can record video mail from any computer with a webcam. Simply record your personal message and sent it via emial. It's easy peasy lemon squeezy. Why not choose it? 

How should Teachers use mailVU?

• let students hand in their speech practicing or oral homework via this email.
• guide the students to prepare for the class
• give feed back to students of assessment of assignment when face-to-face meetings are not available

Limitations for teachers to use：

• jsut one-way talk, not interactive
• defination of the video is not high enough to show some details

Websites with similar functions: Bubblejoy

       Bubblejoy (http://www.bubblejoy.com) is another website where you can also record your video, add a background and make it in to a fancy card. It is more customized as for adding background than MailVU, but unlike MailVU, you can only send your friend a link by yourself though emails.

                              http://www.bubblejoy.com/card.php?id=atkcv

       This is a sample  Bubblejoy vedio card for my tutor Russel  to wish him Happy Valentine's day!!!

Resource:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/speaking/index.html  in

Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard



Podcasting

What is Vocaroo?

      Vocaroo is a shiny new service for sending voice messages across the interwebs. You can also use it like a recorder and post your record on the internet for cetain use. Click, record, and send. Done! Have a try!

Why use Vocaroo?

 

         Vocaroo can be used as:

• audio mail to save the time and trouble for written mail
• easy and handy recorder rather than complecated recording software

How to use Vocaroo in English Language Teaching?

• Record when brian storming for essay or anything in case that good thoughts may be forgotten
• For teacher to record to inform students of class notice or assignment feedback
• For students to ractice pronunciation or oral English in order to listen to one's own voice to check

Limitation of this tool:

• high demand of internet speed
• It's still under development, so problems may occur.
• just audio version, just for simple use

Resource:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/speaking/index.html in

Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard

Slides research engine

 What is slide share?

        Are you worried about your presentation? Go to Slide Share http://www.slideshare.net/ to find some clue! No matter what area are you in, there will be always slides done by others in the past for you to refer to. You can also share yours. That’s how the resources are getting rich. Here you can give, you can get.

How they are used?

·         Researching for the PowerPoint in any topic

·         Upload and download to share resources

Usage for teachers

·     Rreseach engine for reference when giving presentations

·     Spreading the knowledge or theory of your own through the website

Limitations

• Credibility not guaranteed  
• Copyright not guaranteed

Resource
Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard

Hot potato

            

       Hot potato is a test producing software. It has many types of exercises for teachers to make and design such as matching, multiple choice, true or false etc.

How to use it in English teaching?

• designing and making tests for students to check their study achievement
• designing questionnaires, use it for survey or feed back for classroom teaching evaluation or survey of students' needs and demand.

Why use it in ELT?

• it could replace paper texts. It 's easy and convenient to use.
• the right answer or hint could be shown when students click certain buttons. So students could get instant answer or  result of their test, and know how they have mastered the knowledge.

Limitations

• The panel is simple, and  not fancy enough, so might be not very attractive for students.
• There is no way for teachers to control and get the information of students' performance thought this software.

Easiest Chinese inputting website

        English learning is the theme of this blog. However, in English exposure, sometimes we need to input L1----Chinese to assist the learning of L2 English.

        My Chinese fellows, has it ever occur to that you can't type Chinese on the computers with English system? Installing a Chinese inputting system is too troublesome.  Here your problem will be solved:

click the picture above or here: http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/ime.html

With this website, you will be able to:

• input Chinese and paste them in searching engine or online Chinese-English dictionary.
• chat with your friends (sorry it's nothing to do with ELT!!)

Resource:
Google search engine (http://www.google.co.uk/)

Advanced learner, come and learn some very British English!

     Do you regard yourself as an English expert? Here is a video for you to test if you already knew the difference between American English and British English. Even the American native has never heard of these words. Have you?

     

      This video can help you learn English through:

• two handsome boys’ illustrating and explaining the meaning of some very traditional British vocabulary.
• your listening to the different accent of these two boys

    If you have reached that level to challenge the culture and language difference, have a look!

A small tool: creat own web page on the net.

Good personal webpage.

personal page https://sites.google.com/site/12345tag12345/

visualized dictionary——vocabahead, learning chocolate

Here are several websites for vocabulary learning:

Vocabahead

http://www.vocabahead.com/

    In this web, each word has a video explanation. The user could subscribe though email and get a new vocabulary video each day or use it as an iPhone app. 

Wordia

http://www.wordia.com/cheese

learning chocolate

Why use these web page for English language learning?

• combination of visual, audio learning. Better effect on the vocabulary learning and memorizing.
• Every day Email sending or viewing is simple and easy, and the accumulation makes a learner getting  stronger.

Limitation:

• example sentences are not enough. The learners may only get the meaning instead of usage.

Visuwords: Online graphical dictionary

What is Visuwords?       

     Visuwords is a website where you can look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. The net of produced diagrams will help you learn how words associate.

  

 Click the picture or here http://www.visuwords.com/?word to try now.

How is Visuwords used in English learning? 

• Used as a dictionary to check the words related. It includes synonym,autonym, superordinate words etc. as shown on the right side
• Used as a tool when writing literature works, e.g. when thinking about the wording when writing poem or prose.
• Used as a vocabulary book to broaden student’s vocabulary size.
• Used to know something about culture or the world. E.g. when input “cheese” in you will find all kinds of cheese as a very traditional and unique common sense in western culture.

Limitations of Visuwords in language learning

• No examples of the usage of the word in sentences. Words are just explained on the level of meaning.
• No pronunciation of the vocabulary is given. Not enough information if the reader wants to learn the vocabulary thoroughly.

Resource:

http://www.screencast.com/users/Russell1955/folders/Jing/media/6c463c66-043e-403f-b7be-758dfeba2bab%20%20%20%20in    in

Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard

Two websites for chatting, one of them must fit you!

Boring? Lonely? Find someone to chat with while practicing English. There are two choices for you:
     • If you are too shy to chat with a stranger, go to MyBot
     • If you have no confidence in your English, go to MyBot
     • If you are ready to communicate in English in real world, go to Omegle
     • If you want to meet a foreign friend, go to Omegle

Artificial chat: MyBot

What is MyBot?

        MyBot is your personal virtual companion, capable of learning from you. It’s very intelligent and can chat with you as if it is a real person. Just type with it conversation. It will give you reasonable and intelligent responses, from with you can learn a lot through a normal English conversation.

To start now, click:
http://mybot.a-i.com/mybot.aspx?id=T%2FC8BBXAxr%2Flw4YyQ7plTg%3D%3D








 How is it used?

•  for chatting to kill time
• for language praciticing through coversation (the software can be set in many languages) 
• To learn some facts about the world, and even about MyBot itself.

How should English teacher use them?

• let students try to use their knowlege to make conversation and overcome the fear of speaking English with others
• help advanced students majoring in Linguistics to study on Adjacency Pairs 
• help students to make dialogue practice on a certain given topic

Limitations:

• Artificial intelligence is not flexible as real person
• No setting choices on the language level. So the language could sometimes too difficult for beginners.
• sometimes the conversation could be trapped due to the setting of the programme. eg. Bybot keeps asking your Email if you don’t input some words which doesn’t look like a Email address. 

Reallife chatting: Omegle

What is it?

       If you want to chat with another from the world, Omegle is a great way of meeting new friends. Click here, and you will be arranged with another user at random for youo to have a one-on-one chat with each other.  

 http://www.omegle.com/

In daily life:

• use it to meet new friend. You can know very different countries and their culture
•  use it to have some fun. If you want to talk to someone which can make you feel better, don't hesitate.

In English language teaching:

• Know english-speaking friends and practice speaking English
• Good for linguist majors to study on how a conversation is carried on since “It might take a few attempts to get a conversation going.”(Peachey), and sometimes two persons just cannot find the right way to communicate and keep the conversation moving forward.
• Making advertisement for your blog to spead knowledge about ICT in English language teaching!!! Just like what I did! I talked with a indian and asked him to have a look at my blog. It worked! He liked it!! 

Limitations:

• a dangerous access of revealing personal information
• possibility of meeting all kinds of person (eg. the not well-educated, the filthy ones...) and might get hurt psychologically
• superfacial conversational topic and personal relationship

Nik Peachey's few tips for on line chatting:

• Never tell someone online your address and telephone number
• You may be asked at the beginning "asl?" which means age, sex (Are you male or female?), and location.
• "If at any time you feel uncomfortable with the person you are chatting with or if they ask questions you don't like, simply click on 'Disconnect' and you can start a new conversation with someone else".

Resources:
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2009/04/chat-to-strangers.html   in
Nik's Daily English Activities   

Many sites to preview a text through word frequency: Tag cloud

      There is a serious of similar websites to make tag cloud. Let's first see Wordsift as a typical example.

What is Wordsift?

       WordSift gives a verbal quick-capture of a text material to preview the vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. Just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you will quickly identify important words that appear in the text due to their high frequency in the text. Click to have a try: http://www.wordsift.com/ 

        Wordsift produces a Tag Cloud of the 50 most frequent words in the text, excluding function words (such as is, of, at, the). The words in the cloud are alphabetically ordered, and their relative frequency is indicated by text size.

        The cloud can be sorted according to their frequency in the printed English language from common-to-rare and rare-to-common, and alphabetically from A-to-Z and Z-to-A. The cloud can also be made to disappear and re-appear by clicking on squish and unsquish.



The text:
Universities in England could be stripped of the power to charge tuition fees of more than £6,000 a year if they fail to admit sufficient numbers of students from poorer backgrounds. And those setting higher fees could face large fines for missing targets.New government guidance also confirms universities can admit poorer students with lower grades than other candidates if they show potential.Universities say sanctions would be unfair.

Critics say the government is cutting access to higher education by raising fees.

Annual targets

Fees are due to rise to a maximum of £9,000 per year from 2012, but the government says it wants to ensure this does not put off poorer students from applying to university.Any institution wanting to charge more than £6,000 per year will have to negotiate an annual access agreement with the Office for Fair Access (Offa).

This will set a target for how many students from state schools or poorer backgrounds it must recruit in future years, and will be reviewed each year initially, rather than every five years at present.At the moment just over 7% of pupils in England go to private schools (more attend in sixth form) but they make up about half of those at Oxford and Cambridge.

The government says it wants to help pupils on free school meals (FSM) to reach their potential by going to university.

According to a report by the Sutton Trust charity, in the 25 most selective universities, only 2% (approximately 1,300 pupils each year) of the student intake was made up of FSM pupils, compared with 72% of other state school pupils. The charity produced a table showing how different universities in England compare.

Wordsift

http://www.wordsift.com/ 

Websites with similar functions:

• TagCrowd

http://tagcrowd.com/

• Tagxedohttp://www.tagxedo.com/app.html

• Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/

• Another one with a moving 3D effect (but doesn't work sometimes): http://www.tag-cloud.de/

• To see more tag cloud websites, go to:   Collection of Tools/Sites to Create Tag Cloud

How can Tag cloud be used in English language learning?

• Lesson preparation: A teacher can use tag cloud to review assigned text to identify challenging words or concepts prior to a lesson.
• Previewing text: identify the key vocabulary, practice the ability of skimming.
• Help write gist and summary.
• "Assessment: Whole-class vocabulary assessment can be done on-the-fly by showing the images from selected words, having them identify unfamiliar words, and having students talk about which picture is the best representation of a given word."(http://www.wordsift.com/site/about)

 Limitations:

• some numbers and dates which are not important may also be included as high-frequent words.

Resource:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/wordSift/index.html  in

Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard

 Collection of Tools/Sites to Create Tag Cloud

This web is so good for novel lovers!

       Novel lovers, please look at this web www.loudit.org. It has many novels and their tapes on it. You can download to listen to any chapters of a novel, story or poem.

 http://www.loudlit.org/

How to use it? 

• choose the books you would like to read, and then, the texts and its sound version will be available.
• read while listening. It could help you practice your reading speed.
• It could help you know the pronunciation and intonation of the words and sentences.
• It could assist your reading when you read something you are not interested in so that it is less easy to be distracted.
  

Why to use it?

• visual and audio effect combined for English learning. 
• reading and listening practice at the same time. 

Limitation:

• not very updated
• limit amount of book collections
• reading speed not adjustable

}

listen to songs and write down lyric: lyric listening

English learners may find it much more funny and interesting to learn English from songs and their lyrics. Here is a tool for listennign practicise of lyrics.

say hello to everyone on video

Hello, everyone!

The end.

Haha, I am joking. this my new blog. Nice to meet new friends. Good luck to me!！!