Word Clouds with WORDSIFT

Hi there,

Today I would like to talk about a good tool called Wordsift. This tool functions as a medium to summarise text into keywords in a form of word cloud. The site of Wordsift helps more in giving more additional tools besides grouping the keywords into a cloud. It has Thesaurus in it, example of the word from the source that has been sifted as well as videos for further reference.

You can learn more to use this website by clicking here.( A tutorial by Russell Stannard).

How can Wordsift be used in language classroom??

Wordsift is a good tool to be used by teacher to introduce a reading text to the students in a classroom. This tool will give out a word cloud of the fifty most frequent word used in the text. Teacher would then ask the students to guess the main theme or topic of the text that the students would be reading for the lesson.

Next, by using this tool, students themselves could use this tool by putting their own essay in tool and sifted it. After having the word cloud, they can always print it out. Then, students could exchange their word cloud with their peers and then guess what their essay is all about.

This shows that Wordsift is a great tool to be used for pre-reading activities in language classroom.

Advantages of using this tool:

• It is free.
• It is a great tool to be used for guessing what a text is all about.
• Students could get to know the synonymy of any words in the cloud if they clicked on it.
• The words in the cloud could be marked in different categories.
• It is user friendly.

Disadvantages of using this tool:

• Its look boring compare to others word cloud making tools.

'FACEBOOK' for Teachers and Students

Hi there

A good social networking site for teachers and students. Let me present to you, EDMODO.

As you can see from the image, edmodo lets us sign up as a teacher or as a students. A teacher could have more than one classes by using one account. Moreover, parents could also sign up just to check on their children activity on this site. The parents just need to have a parent code to sign in to the site.

Here is a tutorial to set up an account using Edmodo


p/s: It a good tutorial. Sorry it is an old video, it has the old interface.

How can Edmodo be used in language classroom??

This is a good tool for teacher to interact with students in a class. Teacher could use it to set up a homework to the whole class. Moreover, this tool can also act as a medium where teachers could leave a reminder to the students as well.
 Besides, students could also use this tool to ask question to the teacher. The question could be directed directly to the group that the students belong to or directly to the teacher. Teacher or other students then could just reply on the post that has been posted. (just like facebook)

Advantages of using this tool:

• It is free!! (we like free stuff)
• It can be used as a means of communication. (teacher-students, Teacher-student, student-student or vice versa)
• It can also be used to promotes discussion among students in class. Where teacher could give question and students discuss by replying to the post.
• Parents could monitor their children activity.

Disadvantages of using this tool:

• Internet connection is needed.
• Looks lame. (compare to facebook)       

vocaroooo

Hi all,

Vocaroo is a cool tool for somebody to use it. It lets anyone to record a recording and share it on any social networking websites, email it to others and also EMBED in in blogs.

here is an example of voice recording via vocaroo



Record music with Vocaroo >>
 p/s:  I told you so that we could embed it in blogs  :) If you want to learn this tools, you can click here. (a lesson by Russell Stannard)

How can Vocaroo be used in language classroom??

First of all, this is a great tool. Teachers could use it as an activity for speaking activity. It helps to check students pronunciation as well as give shy students opportunity to practice their speaking.

One of the activity that can be made via this tool is by making students to do a mocking interview. Vocaroo could come in the end of the class where the students could just record their interview and then submit it to their teacher via email for assessment. The whole process of creating dialogue etc could be done without the usage of any computer devices. This is a good lesson as technology will only come when it is needed.

Since it is difficult to listen to every interview by the students, this tool would come in perfect as teacher could assess it after class time.

Advantages of using this tool: 

• It is free!!
• It can be shared via social networking sites as well as embed it in classroom
• Teacher could assess speaking at home. (save time)
• Most importantly, it is user friendly. (easy to use) 

Disadvantages of using this tool:

• Internet connection is essential.
• Need to have a microphone or else the recording sound would not be good.         

 

myBrainshark

Hi there,

Today I would like to talk about a great tool that almost all teachers should know about. myBrainshark.
This tool gives its users the opportunity to insert audio (narration) to their work such as powerpoint presentation, word document, video and pictures.

Here is an example of how a finished product of myBrainshark looks like:

How can myBrainshark be used in language classroom??

This powerful tool is suitable for teachers to do a speaking practice for the students. Besides, teachers could ask the students to practice a bit of writing as well. A powerpoint presentation about students life, family as well as others related to syllabus topics could be used for students. 

This task could be carried out in a classroom. However, since this will take some times to produce, the planning of this activity could be carried out in the classroom and then the production can be done as a homework at home.

This tools is suitable for students who have the ability to use technology. The reason being, they need to be IT literate in order to handle the tools. Besides, this tool is suitable for students with intermediate to high level of English.

Moreover, this tools is useful for teachers to give presentation slide to students without doing it in classroom. Slides alone usually are not enough for students to grasp the information in a lesson. By having the addition of the teachers' voice, students may digest the lesson input better.

You can have more insight on using this website by clicking here
A tutorial by Russel Stannard.
  
Advantages of using this TOOL...

• It is free to be used
• Allows students to be creative in making a presentation. (can include video, audio, pictures etc)
• Students could improve multiple skills, (writing and speaking)
• Shy students could learn to speak without having the fear of doing public speaking.

 Disdvantages of using this TOOL...

• It requires internet connection and computer to work with
• It takes time to make a presentation with narration
• Some of the narration might not be authentic since the students may write their script first before presenting the slides.
• The presentation could not be viewed offline.   

 
  

Presenting Using Bubblr

Hi everyone,

Today I would like to introduce to all of you a good website, Bubblr. This is a cool website where we can use it for free in our teaching.

Before I start with the implication of using this website let me show you the end product of using this website.

.

Bubblr is a website that allows people to make slideshows presentation using pictures grabbed from Flickr. It is simple, all they need to do is to type on the keyword of the pictures that they would like to search. Then the results will be displayed. Next, students just need to click on the image to put it on the slide presentation. The students may also add more pages to their liking for the presentation.

To know more on how to use this awesome website, you can click here, a tutorial by Russell Stannard.

How can Bubblr be used in a language classroom???  

 

This website is suitable for students from the age of 13-17. Besides, it may also be useful for adult learners. Bubblr is also suitable for students who their level are ranging from low to advance level of English.

Bubblr can be used as a classroom activity where students could work individually or in pairs. It can be used as a medium for students to practice writing as well as presenting in the classroom. Teachers may ask the student to make presentation, for example, place to visit, favourite food, their role models, or hobbies. If the classroom or the school has adequate facilities, students could do the presentation during the lesson. They can do it in pairs. This is because, it is important for students to work with other friend so that they would have more ideas to put in their presentation. Moreover, working in pairs help them to do the presentation better. Then students could present it to the class. This would allow the students to practice speaking in class. They will be required to speak to describe their pictures despite having captions in each of the slide. If the activity were to be set as a homework, teachers could ask the students to email their end product to the teacher. Then, teachers may reply them by giving some feedback regarding their work and language.

Advantages of using this TOOL...

• It is free
• It encourages students to have the sense of ownership when choosing the pictures and writing the captions
• It is also good for communicative activities as the students may discuss and write the description of the pictures in their slides.
• Students can improve multiple skills. (writing and speaking)
• It is easy and user friendly. Just click on the pictures and add captions.
• And most importantly, we do not break any copyright. 

Disadvantages of using this TOOL... 

• Some of the pictures do not match the keyword. This would make it difficult to find a suitable pictures for the presentation. 
• Students might write short and simple sentences. This might not be sufficient to the teachers expectation.
• The activity of making the presentation might be time consuming since there are a lot of pictures to be chosen from Flickr.
• Students from the schools which are lacking in facilities might have problem in doing this kind of activity.
• The published slides cannot be privatised. 
• The published slides cannot be viewed perfectly using mobile devices. (for on the run presentation)   

In conclusion.

Bubblr to some extent can be a good tool for teacher to use it in the classroom. Students can have their sense of ownership in finishing their presentation according to their own liking. However, there are some points that needed to be taken to an account. Schools that do not have enough facilities would not be able to provide their students the chance to use this tools.

Fun in Learning Dvolver

Hi there,

Today I would like to talk about a cool website, Dvolver

Before I talk more about the website, let me show you a tutorial clip on how to use this cool website

here is an example of what kind of product that Dvolver could produce

After looking at this clips and example, it seems that Dvolver is a tool that allows users to create their own movies. It also allows people to create a three scene movie by using up to two 'funky' and 'cool' characters.Users are able to decide on the setting, the background, the characters, the dialogues, the background music, the title as well as the time for their movie.

How can Dvolver be used in a language classroom???

Dvolver can be used by teachers in both primary and secondary school (age 7-17), regardless of what their levels of English are, ranging from low level, intermediate level, and high level of English.

This website can be used by teacher for school homework where the students could work individually at home and e-mail their 'master piece' to the teacher. Teachers could ask the students to create a movie clip regards to any situation that involve dialogues making.

Then, by sending the finish clip to the teacher, teacher could assess the clip and give feedback and suggestion on it.

In addition, Dvolver can be used by the teachers themselves to attract students' attention on introducing any topics in a classroom. Dvolver may also be useful for teaching literature. Teachers may use the tool to introduce a new chapter or a new story of a novel, or short story by making a short movie using Dvolver. This is another way to spark students' interest.

 

Advantages of using this TOOL...

• It is free.
• It is user friendly where anyone can use and do a movie clip easily.
• Dvolver can be used as a another medium where students can have a different kind of activity in doing class work or homework.
• This tool helps the student to think creatively in choosing the characters, background and even writing the dialogue. It is another fun way of having to do their homework.
• Students can have the feeling of ownership where they are the one who create that particular video themselves.

Disadvantages of using this TOOL...

• There will be no control of the language used by the students. They can write anything they like.
• Students and also school might not have enough facilities to use internet access.
• Some of the characters are not suitable for the students viewing. (too sexy and the description are not suitable for the students as well)
• Limited scene for the students to develop a good story.

In conclusion.

This is a good tool where teachers can use it in a classroom. It gives the teacher to create another dimension to do activities in the classroom. However, some of the usage are not practical for Malaysian classroom unless the schools themselves have sufficient facilities to permit the students to use it. Moreover, students who does not have internet access might find it difficult to utilize the usage of Dvolver.