WEBQUESTS AND PODCASTS

This session was long and intensive. We started by skimming through a lot of useful information about types of search tools, search engines, some web bibliographies and some advice on how to search websites. We learnt about the meta-search engine, used to search for information in different search engines at the same time. This was something very relevant for our future activities as all the necessary information can be easily got without spending too much time using the different engines separately. From the list suggested we tried one which had an interesting layout.

1- WEBQUESTS

The information on webquests, structures that bring different pieces together and combine them to perform a task or project, seemed very interesting. They are projects that use the web for information under the teachers’ instructions about relevant websites and follow a standard frame (Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation and Conclusion).  Nevertheless it's a topic that requires much extra and demanding work, which we'll have to develop later after this training course has finished.  Besides the reference about the WebQuest’s father, Bernie Dodge,  we were given a list of webquests with interesting materials for our lessons, such as this one about aboriginal studies. For anyone who wants to create a webquest visit this site.

2- PODCASTS FOR ELT

The Word podcast comes from the words i-Pod and broadcast. Podcasts are digital media files (audio or video) we can download for free, after a simple free subscription process and use in class for different types of lessons or activities. We can even create our own podcasts. We skimmed through the Russell Stannard’s website. If you want to get tips on the use of technology and videos in ETL click here. 

Software like Audioboo, iTunes   and PodOmatic was explored. We learnt about creating and messaging up to 10 minutes’ private videos by using mailvu. If we want to record any audio material we can also use Vocaroo. Audacity, free software we can record with, was also searched and analysed and we came to the conclusion that it is very professional and interesting.

From the examples of Podcasts it was given emphasis to the BBC Podcasts and the BBC and British Council Audio Bank,  source of both podcasts and downloadable activities which can be very useful and usable.

There were examples of directories for the English language learning like this one.

The final activity involved skimming through some podcasts by students such as this one.

All subjects along this training course were followed by useful bibliography and sitography.

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Along these twelve sessions we came across a great variety of materials, activities, sites, sources of information, which enables us to improve and innovate the teaching- learning process.

The training course was very inspiring, motivating and interesting. We learned a lot and became aware that we still have a long way to go but step-by-step we will go further. The materials are in our hands, so all we have to do is to put some heart in our effort and work hard.

Activities for Different Skills and Learners

This session enabled us to skim  through a huge list of websites grouped into skills. Some of them seem very useful for the level of our students and present very interesting ideas and resources. We knew some of them like the BriTlit  

However, we think we’ll visit soon the sites for writing resources as that is something our students tend to resist and there we may find one with interesting activities for a motivating lesson.This is a simple example of materials we have for planning a unit on writing. Of course it has to be designed for higher level students, but there are many options for different skills, levels and topics.

Resource Directories

We were asked to deal with five different Resource Directories.

1) http://www.teachers.tv

The homepage provides videos, community, classroom resources. Classroom resources  like lesson plans, ideas to use in classroom, and videos to be used, watched in classroom or downloaded for free.

Folders like the community with a discussion place, a forum, but only UK teachers can become an associate.

Free registration for receiving e-mails updates – download videos – post comments.

We find all subjects for primary and secondary level and early years.

For example for secondary there are Drama, Literature, Poetry and other topics.

The homepage is well organised and simple.

2) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

The homepage provides several folders.

Folder Try – we have resources with many suggestions to classroom activities, namely(concerning), reading, writing, listening, vocabulary; lesson plans with attachments and worksheets and Britlit.

Folder Think which provides articles about teaching process.

Folder Talk with discuss areas of interest – blogs, foruns, debates etc.

The homepage is simple and interesting.

3) http://www.teachit.co.uk

 There are English teaching resources like worksheets, links, online lessons that we can download, and they are free.

In the homepage we have join us, resource libraries, whizzy things, including, games, anagram, scramble, and special resource collection with plays, poetry, creative approaches, speaking and listening.

We have to log in, but it’s free.

4) http://www.teachitworld.com

ELT resources by topic.

 News – based lesson by date for example Food and Drink . The resources include lesson plan, interactive material, worksheets. We have to log in, but it’s free. Besides these, we have audio resources in which some of the materials are only for the members and the free ones require registration.

5) http://www.byteachers.org.uk/sites.htm

Homepage with teachers in general with different subjects.

We chose English and Media, and we can copy online resources.

It has links to other sites and a list of teachers websites.

Blogging

Creating our own blog was a very enjoyable part of this training course. Led by our trainer, everybody joined the activity with much heart and it was very exciting watching the results. However, we will have to be ready for going on practising and improving our skills.

Any one interested in having a blog can start it here.

I have some problems to name mine, all the names weren't available. I chose this one, because it's the city where I studied,lived and I consider it as a very delightful place.

Designing a Teen Journal

We were very interested in the magazine for teenagers because it gave us ideas for our activity since we work with students of this age. Moreover it is an example of what we can do with all the students’ work that deserves being published.

By using the Microsoft Publisher the trainer showed all the procedures for creating leaflets, newsletters, postcards or websites for and by our students. This software when used in a measured way, like any other tool, may be a motivating and effective tool in the learning process.

Journals and Magazines

Sites for teachers

Within the sites for teachers The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language gives teachers access to much information related to their activity. But if you want another interesting site try here. 

Sites for learners

Two magazines online for teens and kids were chosen:

1- We found the one for teens appealing and rich. The interesting thing is that teenagers write it, which assures us of finding materials that attract this age level.

-The homepage includes links to the twitter, youtube and facebook.

-The archives range from poetry, fiction nonfiction, hot topics, forums, art and photo to a Summer Guide with online enrolment in summer programmes about arts.

-Teens may receive a Print Magazine provided they subscribe.

2- The National Geographic has a magazine for kids, which is worthy of note.

- It’s according the interests of kids.

- It includes a variety of contents: games, videos, animal and pets, photos, countries, fun stuff, community, news, animal jam, little kid.

Mass Media and Education

Searching newspapers and other mass media online to check the usefulness and relevance of the resources available was also a very dynamic part of this training course about the multimedia resources in the teaching of English as a second language.

1- Our first challenge was to analyse the impact of the Oscars night on four newspapers. Two of them are British: The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian Online. The others are American: Newsweek and New York Times.

While the American newspapers gave no prominence to the event on their homepage, with just a simple piece of information included in a list of general information on cinema and no photos, both British media emphasised this worldwide famous night with headlines, captioned pictures and even with a video of the ceremony,in The Daily Telegraph, unfortunately not available any longer.

This difference of approach arose some curiosity and made us check another British publisher, The Mirror, to come to the conclusion that the Oscars night was also treated with great significance. The truth is that, as someone suggested, the winners of the night are British.

2- As a second challenge of the session we skimmed a newspaper online for children we chose   timeforkids.com. We focused on the resources and tested out its possibilities of classroom uses. The website seemed colourful, usable and motivating. This material could be used to develop different skills either in a lesson of the unit about the topic Multicultural world or as a warmer or follow-up work inside the same topicand maybe as background information and practice for the extensive reading "Names" by Maya Angelou.

Concluding, the mass media online can be an important help whenever we want to use authentic models (texts, videos, images or even audio materials) and introduce some pedagogical innovation in our activity. There’s a wide range of resources to develop the different skills – listening, writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, any other.

The Electronic European Language Portfolio

We had the first contact with the ELP and discussed about the advantages of using the e-ELP as a pedagogical tool.

Some information was given to lead these first steps and about how

-        to download the application of the ELP;

-         to use it;

-         to modify it;

-        to understand its sections, contents, objectives, possible documents.

We found this portfolio could be an interesting tool to support one’s learning process. It can be used to enrich our future activity as teachers and to provide the students a more complete and motivating learning process

Cambridge Dictionary Online

We have to admit that the first impression this dictionary arises is not favourable as the homepage is little imaginative. However its simplicity makes the research easy, which can be an advantage.

Although some of the areas of the site have free access, many others, like the Teacher Zone, require a registration. We didn´t make the registration and so had no opportunity to evaluate those resources but, after going through the Student Zone, we felt it might worth it because we were positively impressed by them.

Among the resources there are more than Activities. We can find The Word of the Day, Data for Researchers, Topic Areas like Business, Clothes, Education, etc. Of course there's the possibility to buy dictionaries online. The catalogue shows a large list of dictionaries for sale: British English Dictionaries, American English Dictionaries, Bilingual Dictionaries.
In  the archive Dictionaries there are interesting links, too - Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary   and Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary, which include Worksheets and Infoquests.

The word staff was used to try the dictionary online and we got all the entries for the word and a link to VISUALTHESAURUS an interactive tool that allows us to discover, among other things, the connections between words. However, it is a trial version.
The folders for the students include four areas and we could open the archive Interchange Arcade, providing activities to review the learning. We also opened the students' book nº 2 and chose the article "Listen for the stress", where they can practise pronunciation. Another archive, Touchstone, has links to self-scoring activities. Different levels of learning can be chosen.

Very relevant it is the fact this site enables us to copy worksheets, tests, projects that we can use in our lessons. Moreover most of the materials are interesting and amusing and there's a great variety of activities.

How We Used Dictionaries Online

From the great variety of dictionary activities suggested by the trainer we chose OEDS_Activity_5_word_class. We had to use different dictionaries online to clarify our doubts about some of the words we had to deal with. We had the chance to find out about words like puffin, a seabird, or Krypton, which is a chemical element of atomic number 36.

We went through another activity, OEDS_Activity_1(origin of words), and, with the help of an etymology dictionary, we learnt that phobia is a Greek word and calf comes from the old English.
The dictionaries online were also useful to complete nursery rhymes and find out about the meanings of some idiomatic phrases.The phrases were very amusing, particularly this one: "Lose one's marbles". It means to lose one's mind, something that often happens to us.

In our opinion all these tasks have a great interest for our activity as teachers of English. They are very useful, motivating and usable and can provide good resources for Warm-up or Follow-up activities.

Encyclopedias

We've searched four different encyclopedias online and these are two of them chosen for different reasons:

1-)http://www.britannica.com/

- An interesting list of contents ( History and Society, Arts and Entertainment, Travel and Geography, Science and Technology, Featured Videos, Advocacy for Animals).

- Appealing side and bottom folders with specific subject and links to spotlights.

- Useful and usable reading, writing and listening resources.After checking some examples we concluded that they include short, clear and motivating texts, with a variety of possibilities of multimedia and well organized learning activities.We tried the classroom activity "Black History", which gave us a good impression for the text, the image gallery, the timeline, the videos and a wide range of activities.

- Access to a dictionary online and a blog.

- Anyway, it requires subscription but its interest is worth the effort.

2)http://www.encyclopedia.com/
- More than hundred sources (encyclopedias, dictionaries, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins and abbreviations).

-Imaginative top folders, opening the topics like Martin Luther King, Socialise Medicine, Global Warming, Immigration,etc.

-Writing, reading and listening resources.

-Access to reference links,   dictionary,further reading,videos from the youtube and also images.

-We've tried the folder "Immigration" and we could adapt part of those materials for our students.

-This is a very good encyclopedia to get information.  However we found it difficult to work it out in class because it has too much information and may become time consuming.

-It's free.

21st March!!!!!

21st March!!!!!!!!

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination!!!!!!