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Using Technology These are some great FREE technology resources that can be used by both, teachers and students. If you know of any other great resources not listed here, please email me! 
Lesson Writer - an online application that creates lessons
It is a web application that creates lesson plans and instructional materials for teaching English language skills from any reading passage. The only thing you need to do is copy and paste (or write) the passage that you want to use and Lesson Writer analyzes the text for vocabulary, grammar and usage, pronunciation, and word roots and stems and then creates a lesson plan and a lesson designed to teach any, some, or all of these skills in the context of the passage - automatically.
http://www.lessonwriter.com/April_2_demo/April_2_demo.htm Yolango -- video based ESL exercises
Yolango is a site where students can watch videos (from movies, TV, etc) and then do exercises based on the videos. The exercises go from easiest to most difficult. There is also a transcript of the scene so students can follow the dialogue as they listen to it. Some of the exercises I found too difficult for the students such as the fill-in-the-blanks. There isn't also a way for teachers to customize the exercises. The site says that it's in "Alpha" release so there may add more features later on. http://www.yolango.com/
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website. Previously if you liked a website you would bookmark it using your web browser; which means you can only access those bookmarked websites on the same computer you bookmarked them on. With del.icio.us you store your bookmarks online; this allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. When you bookmark websites using del.icio.us you can allocate tags to your bookmarks and assign these tags into bundles; this allows you to easily locate your bookmarks. See this great video which explains "in plain English" how del.icio.us works. Just like del.icio.us but for pictures vi.sualize.us allows you to remember your favorite images around the web, and share them with everyone. According to the description on their webpage: "Within two clicks, you can save the image reference in your account, and easily look at it whenever you want to, just as your new favorite picture deserves. All without thinking about what computer you stored it in: always online, always available."
 Flickr - A Photo Management and Sharing Website
It's one of the best photo sharing sites. I especially love the "maps" feature. This is a great resource for teachers: ask your students to bring a picture of them in their country (it'll be better if it's a digital picture so you don't have to scan it and upload it to Flickr) Then, pictures can be drag-and-drop into a world map. This is a great way for students to introduce themselves. Check this out.  Ning- A Social Network Website
Ning is an online platform for creating social websites and social networks, and is designed to appeal to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills. Your network can be customized to your preference and you can add any feature that you'd like from a variety of available options such as videos, blogs, photos, forums, etc. As a teacher, you can easily create your "class page" and each student who joins your network will automatically have a customizable profile page and will be able to message each other. If you would like to easily understand what "social networking" is all about, see this video from Commoncraft about "social networking" in plain English.  Wikis- Using Wikis for Collaborative Learning
A "wiki" is software that allows registered users or anyone to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize the content of a website, usually for reference material. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. These wiki websites are often also referred to as wikis; for example, Wikipedia is one of the best known wikis. Wikis are excellent for encouraging collaborative learning. You can use your wikis with students wikis for: collaborative essays, group study guides, online lesson plans,classroom notice boards,sharing information and ideas, group based learning assignments. For a great example of how wikis are being used for collaborative learning, visit the Flat Classroom Project. Also, you can use Wikis to coordinate, manage and collaborate the projects you are working on. Instead of having documents that go back and forward; or meetings to discuss the points; all the involved people can collaborate together using the wiki. A wiki offers increased ability to collaboratively plan and coordinate projects because staff involved will be able to access the wiki site online, anywhere, anytime and are easily able to add content and track changes to the wiki. One of the most important aspects of a wiki when a group of individuals are collaboratively contributing is to be notified of changes. This is important because these notifications let you know of a change on a page. By switching on notify me you will receive emails whenever anyone makes a change. Added text will be displayed in green and deleted text will be in red. This is the best way of keeping track of how the collaborative work. I can think of lots of applications for our department at work like using a wiki to sign in for classes, for example! To understand what is a wiki, below is a video from CommonCraft in plain English. PODCASTING
The term podcast came from combining the words "ipods and broadcasting". Originally it referred to audio programs on the Internet which can be subscribed to using a RSS feed (i.e. RSS = Really Simple Syndications, a RSS feed automatically alerts subscribers to a podcast site of updated podcasts). Subscribers use open source software like Juice (podcast aggregator) or iTunes to manage their subscriptions (i.e. downloads what they want, when they want, where they want onto their computer). Podcasts can be listened to on a computer, ipod, mp3 player, PDA or phone. Podcasting now encompasses subscribable video (alternative names used are video podcast, vidcast or vodcast). Podcast hosting sites, like PodOmatic , Odeo or Blip.tv, are set up so that anyone can easily create podcasts and host their podcasts free on their sites. These sites have recording software that podcasters can use in their browser to create the podcast. Alternatively podcasters use open source software, like Audacity, MovieMaker (which you already have if you have MS Windows), MS Encoder (which you can download for free if you have MS Windows) to create and edit their audio or videos for posting on the podcast site. (NOTE: If you have a Mac PC they have an excellent range of programs for podcasting). Audacity is an open source cross-platform sound editor and recorder suitable for podcasting. Audacity is easy to use for recording and editing sound files. It is a handy program for creating podcasts, especially for beginners in this area A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. Do you remember when you used to bring a picture to your class and asked your students to talk or write about it? Well, this is what you could do with voicethread. Students can make comments on a picture by going online (and using a microphone) but if they don't have online access (or a microphone!) they can leave comments by phone. Some classroom uses: Post a picture depicting the weather and have students describe it, describe how they feel about it, what they like to do during this kind of weather, etc. Post a picture depicting people doing different things and ask students to describe what people are doing (and practice the present progressive tense!)
It also has a cool "doodleing tool" which allows you to "doodle" on a picture while commenting on it. To see Voicethread in action watch the video below: To see the doodleing tool, watch this video. There is also Ed.voicethread.com. This is a paid service especially designed for K-12 educators. According to Ed.Voicethread, this is "a space for creating digital stories and documentaries, practicing language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, collaborating with other students, or simply finding and honing student voices." Bombay TV - Add Captions to Real Movie Clips
Bombay TV is a site where your students can have great fun with English. Basically, they can add comic lines (captions) to real movie clips from Indian movies. It's great fun for native as well as non-native speakers.
Ustream TV is a live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience (sort of having your own TV show)According to their site, "In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel." Since Ustream TV is interactive, viewers can personally interact directly with you.
Asterpix For slightly adventurous technology users. It allows the user to upload video and create hotspots that follow an object or person on the video. The user can mouse-over the hotspots and click for more information: text, weblinks, etc. (Hence the "interactive" part.) You can create an interactive video (hypervideo) through the use of hyperlinking. Just like hyperlinks in a document, create hot links to notes, websites, and other material you link to from parts of the video. The links appear as little circles (hotspot markers) that are clicked to reveal the information you "attach." Add more information to your video for students to access during the playback. Easy-to-follow directions and quick tours to get you started. When the video is done, you can generate and embed a code in your blog or website. Video can also be emailed.
 Snapvine - Online Voice Recording by phone Snapvine as an online voice recording service that allows mobile phone users to add voice comments to blogs -- broadcasting whatever message they would like. It allows anyone to use their mobile phone (or landline) to audioblog or record voice. Snapvine allows you to post directly to a public blog on their site, or to a private "voice comments" page. Besides posting audio to a blog, you can also call a number (from any phone) to send voice comments to anyone with an email address. Additionally, you are also give a "permanent" number where people can call and leave you a voice comment on Snapvine. Oral Quizzes
Teachers could use Snapvine's voice comment system as a way to administer and collect oral quizzes from students. Snapvine allows you to create a "greeting" that will be heard by anyone who calls in to send you a comment. Therefore the teacher could create a greeting with the assignment for the students, so that when the students call in to Snapvine, they hear the "assignment" and then take their oral quiz (by creating a new comment). Snapvine can be set up so that the quiz automatically post into the teacher's private account. Snapvine also allows the teacher to send a voice a comment back to the student. One additional feature that I like is that the teacher can check the oral quizzes at anytime, since the teacher can call in to Snapvine to hear them (thus not needing to have Internet access to evaluate the quizzes). I see this application helpful for any subject but especially for English/LA, ESL, Foreign Language, Science, and Social Studies.
Cast UDL Book Builder - Create your Own Book This fabulous, FREE online tool allows you to create your own interactive "books" to help young readers learn reading strategies to build comprehension. The tool allows you to enter your own text, images, and hints. The finished product is a very polished-looking book in a form that you can save on your computer or burn to a CD and use over and over and over with students for years to come.
If you are concerned about your privacy, but you'd like to share something you can do it here. They call this space "A drop." A drop is a ‘discrete’ chunk of space you can use to store and share anything (pictures, video, audio, docs, etc) privately, without accounts, personal registration, or an email address. Most importantly, "Drops" are not ‘searchable’ and not ‘networked’, they just exist floating in space, as points for exchange for individuals or groups.
Twitter is a "microblogging" tool for anyone who wants to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? In teaching, Twitter can be a great tool for "study groups" or "learning communities" to stay connected. Here is a video that explains Twitter
.And here is a great post from Tom Barrett about Twitter's use as a teaching and learning tool.
Gliffy is a free, easy to use graphical creator/editor, ideal for generating diagrams, flow charts, etc. It provides a set of simple shapes and icons that can be dragged to the campus, edited for size, shape, and color, and can be connected by lines and arrows. You can invite others by email to co-edit the same document. When it is all done, you can export it as a graphic or you can use built-in tools that provide the steps to publish it on a weblog site.
SlideShare is a service that lets users upload PowerPoint or Open Office presentationi files and share them online through a You Tube-like interface. The only drawback is that it doesn't support PowerPoint animations or music. On the other hand, Power Point documents (or any office documents) can be stored on the web with a permanent URL. No need to email the file to recipients, or carry a copy around on a USB drive. The presentation can easily be shared. (Here are my PowerPoints which I uploaded with Slideshare.)
BubbleShare is a service that lets you upload your pictures and create a slideshow that you can share with your family. There is no software download and it has a simple and quick registration process. You can add written comments (captions or "bubbles") animations, or audio comments. Then the service generates a private link that you can share with your family and friends. If you have a page or a blog, you can add your album to your blog.
Thumstacks is like PowerPoint but free and webbased. With Thumbstacks, you can create fully designed presentations in an easy drag and drop interface right in your web browser and share your presentations with anyone just by sending them a link. It has a very friendly interface and best of all, it's free! Empressr is another free webbased service, but it allows you to create presentations which incorporate rich media features, like streaming video and animation. Your presentations can be dynamic. It is easy to use. You can create a rich media presentation in minutes and you don't need to have experience with Flash in order to create it. It has an intuitive wizard that assists you in selecting the text, fonts, images and multimedia assets you wish to use - making it a snap to create an impressive presentation.
Difficult to explain, I guess you have to see it, but it is like having you own "digital whiteboard." You can “draw” on a whiteboard and record an audio explanation at the same time. You’re given a URL for your creation and/or you can embed it into your page a blog. This is something which I created in a couple of minutes just to try the service. Of course, I am sure that you can do great things if you spend a little bit of time.
Create a Comic Strip even if you don't know how to draw
Zamzar is an online file conversion tool "Converts just about anything on the fly and offers a simple downloadable file" How many times someone gave you a document written on a program that you don't have? Here you can easily and very quickly convert it. It can also convert images, movies, and audio formats. Nothing to download. Great service!
To learn languages, this is a great FREE place: Mango Languages You are visitor # |
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