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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/)