Museum Box

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.

If you want more information, you can find a video on the Museum Box's website!

Hope it would be useful for your current or future lessons!

 Storybird

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.

2.0 TOOL: MAHARA

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.

It seems interesting to me, I hope you agree :)


Raluca

Google Groups

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:

http://www.go2web20.net/


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.

Ruth. 

2.0 TOOL: GOOGLE SITES

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.

Here you can see an example of an e-portfolio:
https://sites.google.com/site/mastersecundariaub/

Cramberry

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:

Cramberry

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:

My vocabulary card

Hope you liked it!

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 hope you’ve enjoyed it!

Talía de la Torre Ruiz



MapWith.Us

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.

A couple of examples:

- South Waterfront Map

- Portland Farmers' Markets

Hope you find it useful and interesting!

María Balsa de la Mata

Glogster

I want to talk about a web 2.0 tool: Glogster. Glogster is an electronic poster application that allows you to add text, images and video. The end-product is a sort of collage but it's not as messy as the paper ones and it is online.

Here are some examples of educational projects carried out with Glogster:

• EFL - Dead poet
• WebTools4U2Use
  

Can you find any interesting Glogs?

There are many classroom applications of this visual tool. One possible task could be to create a biography of someone the student admires (like this) or to create an autobiography. Can you think of any more ideas?