Edmodo is a free and simple web 2.0 tool. I have decided to write my contribution on it because I first heard of it during my first practicum as my tutor uses it to comunicate with the students and it is also really useful to do online exercises and to ask or share doubts both with the teacher and classmates/students at any time.
Edmodo was founded by Nicolas Borg and Jeff O'Hara, technologists working at separate schools in the Chicago area, as a secure microblogging medium for students and teachers. In 2010 Edmodo launched, "subject" and "publisher" communities, a digital media library, a help center, and a parent accounts for communicating with teachers, parents, and students.
Edmodo is a private micro-blogging platform built for use by teachers and students for use in the classroom.
The problem with traditional web 2.0 tools in a k-12 classroom environment is concerns over privacy of the students. Edmodo has been built with the privacy of students in mind.
Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files. Teachers also have the ability to send alerts, events, and assignments to students. Edmodo also has a public component built by allowing at the teachers discretion to post any item to a public timeline at the teacher’s discretion.
Edmodo's user interface has been described as similar to Facebook. Using Edmodo, teachers can post grades and assign homework to students. Students can then submit the homework and view their grade. The transmission is fast and paper-less. Teachers eliminate crossposting through the creation of sub-groups within a course.After each course period is completed the teacher closes out the network and creates a new one for the next course.
I hope you find it useful and just in case you find diffucult to use it, there you have the link of a tutorial!!
I want to share with you the Voxopop tool, a voiced-based e-learning tool that enables users to record their speaking for others to listen and to respond. Students and teachers can build discussions about any topic through audio, thus, it helps students develop their speaking skills through fun talk groups. All the 2.0tools I haves seen are very interesting for teaching language trough technology, but I have focus my attention on Voxopop because I think is the one who deals with student’s pronunciation, something essential in a language acquisition. This toll allows for real communicative speaking and listening practice outside and inside the class. In this way, the teachers get a great amount of examples of student’s speaking that you can listen to assess any pronunciation problems and to record and assess their progress as their speaking develops.
In the link below, it is explained how to use Voxopop in class, the procedure to get an account and to start recording speech data. It also contains some usages from this tool in class, which I am going to mention because Voxopop not only is used for working on pronunciation; it is an interactive way of using the language orally. There are five basic activities we can develop with students using Voxopop:
• Discussion points - You can record a series of contentious statements and ask Student’s to respond to each one. • Narrative building - You can record the first sentence of a narrative and then listen to the thread and add a sentence each to the story. • Dictations - You could record your own online dictation texts. Get the students to listen to the text, and write down what they hear and then record their own version of the text for you and other students to listen to. • Pronunciation drills - Record some pronunciation drills and get students to listen to them and then record themselves saying the words or sentences. • True false statements - Record some statements about yourself and get students to leave questions for you to find out which of the statements are true. You can leave your answers to the questions online too. You could allow students a week to leave questions for you to answer, then in class you can get them to tell you which statements are true or false. You could also get students to create their own true false statements and question each other about them.
The link I provide includes also many other 2.0 tools examples very interesting that could be useful for you. I hope they help you. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19576895/Web-20-Tools-for-Teachers
Friday, March 4, 2011
Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab launched on June 23, 2003, and is accessible on the Internet. A free client program called the Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (which residents refer to as "the grid"). Second Life is intended for people aged 16 and over, and as of 2011 has more than 20 million registered user accounts.
Built into the software is a three-dimensional modeling tool based around simple geometric shapes that allows a resident to build virtual objects. This can be used in combination with the Linden Scripting Language which can be used to add functionality to objects. More complex three-dimensional sculpted prims (colloquially known as "sculpties"), textures for clothing or other objects, and animations and gestures can be created using external software. The Second Life Terms of Service provide that users retain copyright for any content they create, and the server and client provide simple digital rights management functions.
There are over one hundred regions used for educational purposes covering subjects such as chemistry and English. Instructors and researchers in Second Life favor it because it is more personal than traditional distance learning. Research has uncovered development, teaching and/or learning activities which use Second Life in over 80 percent of UK universities. At least 300 universities around the world teach courses or conduct research in SL. New educational institutions have also emerged that operate exclusively within Second Life,taking advantage of the platform to deliver content to a world wide audience at low cost.
Language learning is the most widespread type of education in virtual worlds, with many universities, mainstream language institutes and private language schools using 3D virtual environments to support language learning.
Constructivist approaches
3D virtual worlds are often used for constructivist learning because of the opportunities for learners to explore, collaborate and be immersed within an environment of their choice. Some virtual worlds allow users to build objects and to change the appearance of their avatar and of their surroundings. Constructivist approaches such as task-based learning and Dogme are applied to virtual world language learning because of the scope for learners to socially co-construct knowledge, in spheres of particular relevance to the learner.
Task-based language learning
Task-based language learning (TBL) focuses on the use of authentic language and encourages students to do real life tasks using the language being learned. Tasks can be highly transactional, where the student is carrying out everyday tasks such as visiting the doctor at the Chinese island of Monash University (in Second Life). Incidental knowledge (about the medical system in China) can also be gained through such immersive TBL. Other tasks may focus on more interactional language, such as ones that involve more social activities or interviews within a virtual world.
Some useful links with tips and recommendations on how to use Second Life for educational purpose:
Storify is a web 2.0 that can be used, as they say, to "create stories using social media". By using what people say and comment on the facts that happen every day in the world, we can compel stories and see different opinions and visions of our world. Each user may collect the best photos, videos, tweets to publish them then as simple stories that talk about every day facts around the world. People get connected to the world and are then able to know what is happening in different countries, and they get to see these situations from a new perspective.
We could use this tool in class so that students discover which the reality of the world is. They often live in their world, where they only know what is happening in their family, in their friends circle or in their school. Besides, they think that they are the person who has more problems and difficult than anyone else in the world, but they are completely wrong. With this tool they would realize that they world is full of difficulties. By reading the stories of real facts and news, they will get informed of the real world and the stories of different countries. They may also comment on the stories created by other users and write their opinion on them, so that they get engaged in a debate about new of the world. Plus, they will be able to create their own stories from the information they get from the news on TV or from pages of important newspapers in their country. So, they will get informed, but they will also inform other users about their own situation in their country.
This is a tool that should be oriented to high-level students of high school. Although the use of this tool is really easy (it may work as a facebook, or something like that) the problem is that students have to deal with news and information that may be difficult to understand because it may include names of important people in the world that they should know. And it may also include terms and situations in the world that may affect their sensitivity, so we had better to avoid showing kids situations and problems, or any images that may make them feel sad.
This tool makes students work on writing and reading skills. They have to practice on reading what people want to tell them, and they have to answer to all the information that they have received because they want to show their opinion, too. This way, the also develop their conception of the world and their critical thinking, because they have to make an opinion on what is happening around the world. It is unavoidable that they think something about a situation and they will always be in favour or against it. And finally, they will be able to communicate with the world and develop communicative skills. They will practice their practical use of English, the one they need to express their opinions and their emotions. So, I think it would be an interesting web 2.0 tool to use in our future classes.
Scrapblog is an easy and funny way to share and print photos. With Scrapblog, you can easily create stunning multimedia scrapbooks featuring your photos, videos, audio and a bunch of creative elements. Scrapblog is very easy to use; anyone can tell their stories and share them online or turn them into high-quality photo books and DVDs. Signing up with Scrapblog is free; you just need to create an account. Best of all, there is nothing to download.
Scrapblog is all about self-expression and your imagination is the only limit to your creativity. You can elaborate different types of scrapblogs and talk about your family, your holidays, your life, create stories or projects… I have found some school scrapblogs projects that were just great. Scrapblogs can be shared with friends, schoolmates and family. You can send your creation by email or share it on your blog or social networks.
If you want, you can check out in the webpage what other users are creating and what are considered the favourite scrapblogs:
By searching on the Internet I found out a Web 2.0 tool named Museum Box that has caught my attention. It is a website that allows the users to create an argument, a description of a person or a historical period by placing items in a virtual box. To build up the box you can use any sort of files such as texts, imagines, audios and videos. It also allows you to share your work and make comments on the museum boxes done by the others.
Personally, I found out that this was a useful tool to use in CLIL sessions or even in ordinary English lessons. As it is a tool which offers similar applications to Glogster, I think it could be nice to use it so that students learn how to work with other Web 2.0 tools. I particularly like the idea of sharing and commenting the others’ work because that is something that fosters interaction between learners. Apart from having a look to the others work, Museum Box also allows the learners to present their works to the class.
I’d like to introduce a web 2.0 tool that can be used to foster collaborative writing among learners of English as a foreign language. It is storybird. Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print. Story bird creates a virtual collaborative learning environment between teachers and students and also between students and students.
As a teacher, it gives you a lot of benefits and privileges. Use can use a free Class account to manage students, create assignments, and build beautiful libraries. You can invite and ‘uninvite’ students to the site, you can send emails or comments to all or any particular student, you can give students assignments and set the submission dates. Once students login to their accounts they see the assignments immediately and a link that tells them to start doing the assignment. As teacher, once you click on any assignment you see all the tasks that students have submitted so far. You can make the stories available to the general public or you can restrict the access to only the members of the class. It has many other benefits.
It also has a lot of benefits for students. It stimulates creativity and imagination. Students can create stories in minutes and enjoy them for life. They can eventually publish their stories, sell their art, connect with fans, maintain bonds and share traditions. A student can invite another student to collaborate with him or her in the same task. There are so many images to inspire them to start writing. They receive alerts by email and, thanks to the interactive nature of this tool, they can see the work done by other students and make comments on them. For the above mentioned reason and many more, I think that this tool could be used to inspire and facilitate collaborative writing and publishing among students and I also believe that it is nice way to teach students to start using modern tools of e-learning between students and teachers, so that when they eventually come to the university they would be very familiar with tools such as virtual campuses, online programmes etc.
Here is a little example of a class account under construction. Thanks for finding time to read this.
My first suggestion for a 2.0 tool was Google Sites because it makes it possible to create e-portfolios, which I consider quite useful as a reflection logbook for students. Then I remembered there is another similar tool, called Mahara, which goes even beyond, as you can see from the following description:
Mahara (meaning 'think' or 'thought' in te reo Māori) is an open source e-portfolio, web log, profile and resumé builder, and social networking system, connecting users and creating online learner communities. Mahara lets students keep a portfolio that they can use and add to throughout their schooling, allowing them to keep files, write blogs, build resumés, submit work for assessment, and contact and interact in groups with other Mahara users.
It provides tools for the student to be able to arrange selections of their learning material and reflection on them for others to view, facilitating assessment, peer and teacher review, or parental interaction. Mahara is designed to provide users with the tools to demonstrate their life-long learning, skills, and development over time to selected audiences.
For teachers, the Mahara environment can facilitate the recording of and reflecting on their own professional development, networking, resumés, research and peer review, sharing and collaborating, and be used as a teaching tool.
Mahara is a learner-centric, stand-alone system that can be integrated into a wider virtual learning framework. Designed to be a modular system that takes advantage of the burgeoning range of Web 2.0 tools available, Mahara is inspired by Moodle, and in fact can be networked together with Moodle with a single sign-in.
Taking advantage of the Portfolio and Repository APIs in Moodle 2, a student's Moodle work can be saved easily in Mahara and files that already exist in a student's Mahara account can be linked in Moodle.
Mahara started as a collaborative New Zealand venture that is constantly evolving through the collaboration of the now world-wide open source community. You can register here to explore the demo site of the latest version of Mahara, read more on the about Mahara page, and look through some of its features here.
First of all I must say that with this activity I am discovering lots of interesting tools that can be useful when working as a teacher. I think that everybody is presenting very useful and original tools. The 2.0 tool I am going to talk about is not that original, it is Google Groups. As you can see, Google has got several tools that can be useful when teaching, so having a Google account is a great idea for us and for the students.
Google Groups is a great tool where everybody can create groups to talk and to discuss. This page allows anybody with a google account to create a group about any subject. In fact, when you go to the website, you can choose the subject in which you are interested. Everybody can create groups but not anybody can access and participate to any group. In fact, when you create the group you invite the members you want to access it and if anybody that is not a member of your group wishes to access it, he or she can send you a request.
I think that this tool can be very useful in English lessons because it is very interactive and it promotes reading and writing. For example, we may create a group where all the students in the class can participate and we can put there some discussions, activities, information about the course... I see this tool as very useful but, as always, it depends on the use that we give to it.
Maria
Palabea. The Speaking World
I've been looking for Web 2.0 tools on the Internet and I've found a website with many of them that you may find interesting. These tools are organized by topics (music, video, e-learning) so you can find easily what you are looking for or interested in. This is the link to the website:
Among the Web 2.0 tools that I've seen, I've found very interesting the social networks that focus on language learning. I've found especially interesting one called Palabea since it offers many ways to improve your language: by interacting with native speakers, by using audio and visual tools as leaning aids, by offering material to improve your writing and grammar skills...
In my opinion, using social networks like this one is a good way to make students use the language for a real communicative purpose and besides, social networks are tools they are used to and this makes them feel comfortable while using them. I think that a good idea to introduce students to this kind of social networks could be by devoting 5 or 10 minutes per class using them in order to encourage students to use the language for real communication. Once they get involved in them and establish a permanent contact with a native speaker, we can let them use social networks like Palabea on their own.
I don’t know if you knew that kind of social networks. In any case, I hope you find this information useful.
I know we are all already familiar with this tool, Google Sites, but I will just include it in our 2.0 tool list since I think it can be quite useful for creating e-portfolios. Students can use it as a logbook in which they explain their learning process and progress, their comments on the activities and tasks done in class, or just the general overview of the subject.
I really think it can be motivating because students can improve their digital skills, and also because they are free to choose their own tools (images, maps, gadgets and so on) in order to express themselves.
However, teachers should be careful when using this tool since, as we all know, students need guidelines to create an efficient and meaningful learning product.
Yesterday I discovered a Web 2.0 tool I had never heard of and thought I would share with you, because I consider it quite useful and entertaining. The tool is called Cramberry, you can check it here:
Apparently, it is something very simple, as it consists of a way to create cards with information and thus, organize the information you are studying at the moment. The reason why I think it is interesting in this specific case is because, as a future English teacher, I know that some things must be learned by heart, and vocabulary is one of them. By being granted the possibility of creating cards in such a funny, easy way, we will be motivating our students, as they will find out that studying does not have to be something boring. Apart from the fact that these cards allow you to put all the information you want, as one must not learn only the form of a word, but also its meaning, context of use, translation, maybe pronunciation and so on.
Even though there is only a 14 day-free-trial, I think it would be worth paying for a service like this, as it is not only about designing cards: the tool can even translate the content you write at the back of the card if you select that specific feature when creating one set (that would be a pro feature, meaning you have to pay). Another useful aspect is the fact that you can also add pictures to the cards, so if you are studying vocabulary, you might add an image related to the word so as to quickly grasp the meaning (and we know an image is worth 1000 thousands). To be able to do this, you must know html language, and this could bring an interesting opportunity: to use Cramberry in CLIL classes (computer technology in English, for example).
I don’t think this tool limits the age of their users, as no matter how old you are to start learning whatever you want to study. In this specific case, I would focus the use of the tool for students between 12 and 18 years old, but I’m almost 25 and now that I know this tool exists, I’m going to use it too. I think it can be used in pretty different contexts, but the best for me is the one I’m suggesting: vocabulary cards, especially in CLIL lessons. I have created one myself to encourage you all to start using it too:
Do not hesitate to post here your own contributions if you want, I would be very happy to see that you find this tool useful.
Myriam.
Google Docs
I would like to speak about a tool I have used a lot during my life as a student, and it’s Google Docs (https://docs.google.com ).
Google Docs is free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form and data storage service offered by Google and can be used for creating and editing documents online while collaboration in real-time with other people. Documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations can be created within the application itself, imported through the web interface or also sent via mail. They can also be saved to the user’s computer in many formats. All these documents are automatically saved to avoid data loss, and a revision history is automatically kept.
Why can Google Docs be useful for students?
I’m sure all of you have ever had to write a document in group, haven’t you? Maybe, you remember how many times this document had to be sent by mail to the whole group because someone’s changed something in it, even an only word. It’s probably at the end you didn’t know which the final version was or how many changes had been carried out. Google Docs it’s useful if you want to avoid it, because there is an only copy, so all the changes appear in it. You can know who edits it, what everyone writes and so on. The teacher can also have a look at it and check the process.
From my point of view, it can be useful, and I know from my own experience, can also make the task easier and better.
Did you know this tool? Have you ever worked with it? Do you like it?
I would like to present another web 2.0 tool: MapWith.Us
This site is not only a tool, but also a social network.
It allows users to create and share custom maps with an online community. Users maps are created by uploading and geotagging media. When media is associated with a location on a map, the media is known as a map article. Map articles may include text, photos, paths, icons, video, Web links, and RSSfeeds. (source: Wikipedia)
I believe that this will be quite useful for CLIL lessons on Geography&English.
Also, a good project to develop with this tool would be to ask students to create a joined, comprehensive map of their town/city.
Splitting the class in groups, each group would be in charge of researching a specific topic (markets, hotels, restaurants, museums, etc.) and make their contribution to the map.
Another option would be to do the same, but with a different city from another country.
