TEAMLAB GOOD PRACTICES COLLECTION
Version History
Version Number
Contributors
Remarks, Summary revision
Date 1.0
24/11/2012 Nikolaos Floratos
Template created
1.1
26/11/2012 Onno Hansen
First good practices added
Abstract This document is an open collaborative document that collects contributions from all WEB2LEARN partners in regards to educational practices based on innovative web tools that are applied by training organisations in order to create and deliver unique learning experiences to their target group (parents, teachers, adults, etc). It will remain open during the whole duration of the project and partners will add continually contributions. This document is expected as an increasing knowledge repository to provide tips and guidance on how various Web based tools can be used in the context of the project by the partners. The information collected is based on a table format for providing concise information.
Please repeat and use one table per web tool
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Skype
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
One-to-one and one-to-many communication tool for chat and video conferencing
URL to be found
http://www.skype.com
User Scenarios in education
Contact between organizers of an education event among each other and with young performers
Target Group
Educational event organizers and youth performing on the event
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
TedXYouth@Amsterdam
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Very effective and cheap
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Evelyne Peeters: @Evelyne_P TedXYouth@Amsterdam http://www.tedxyouthamsterdam.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
A cross-platform mobile messaging app
URL to be found
http://www.whatsapp.com/
User Scenarios in education
Contact between parents and children
Target Group
Parents and their children
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Ouders Online
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Quick, short, nonintrusive
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Justine Pardoen: @JustineP Ouders Online http://www.ouders.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Twitter/ Tweedeck
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Germany
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Creating customized Twitter feeds
URL to be found
http://www.tweetdeck.com/
User Scenarios in education
Show news events from established media and on screns next to it customized Twitter feeds from people at grass-root level
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Bonn insternational School
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Brings multiple perspectives
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
http://www.bonn-is.de/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Customizable stream of short public messages
URL to be found
http://www.twitter.com
User Scenarios in education
Collect spontaneous ideas from the audience during an educational event
Target Group
Educational event audiences
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
TedXYouth@Amsterdam
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Nonintrusive interaction with the audience
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Evelyne Peeters: @Evelyne_P TedXYouth@Amsterdam http://www.tedxyouthamsterdam.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Rebelmouse
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Social media aggregator
URL to be found
https://www.rebelmouse.com/
User Scenarios in education
Students in a class search for sources on a topic and publish their findings on Twitter or Facebook under precondition of a previously defined hashtag. All posts will be gathered automatically on a Rebelmouse page.
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Tabor College Hoorn
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Great looking overview page with input from all students
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Peter Lakeman: @PeterLakeman Tabor College Hoorn http://tabor.mwp.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Customizable stream of short public messages
URL to be found
http://www.twitter.com
User Scenarios in education
Creating cheat sheets
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Tabor College Hoorn
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
By creating cheat sheets of a lesson students summarize the lesson and interact with its content
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Peter Lakeman: @PeterLakeman Tabor College Hoorn http://tabor.mwp.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Hootcourse
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Online classroom which leaves teaching materials and format to the teacher
URL to be found
http://hootcourse.com/
User Scenarios in education
Create an online dialogue on a topic
Target Group
Students and external experts
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Tabor College Hoorn
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Topic selection of Twitter and Facebook feeds is by filtering on hashtag. There is a subdivision option so that questions, links and teacher messages can be separated. It is social learning with external experts potentially involved.
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
An alternative is Wallwisher - http://wallwisher.com/ - used by Marcel Kesselring @Marathonkeje van Innofun http://www.innofun.nl/. Peter Lakeman: @PeterLakeman Tabor College Hoorn http://tabor.mwp.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Google Docs
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Online document and storage creation tool
URL to be found
http://docs.google.com
User Scenarios in education
Student collaboration on a report in one document
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Tabor College Hoorn
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired) Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Peter Lakeman: @PeterLakeman Tabor College Hoorn http://tabor.mwp.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Facebook page
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Dedicated page on social network Facebook
URL to be found
http://www.facebook.com
User Scenarios in education
Create a Facebook page for a lesson so that teacher and students can interact on that page. Teachers can add assignments. Students can add found material to the timeline.
Target Group
Students, teachers
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Tabor College Hoorn
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
No social network friendship on a profile level is needed to interact on a Facebook page
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Peter Lakeman: @PeterLakeman Tabor College Hoorn http://tabor.mwp.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Diigo
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Social bookmarking tool
URL to be found
http://www.diigo.com/
User Scenarios in education
Sharing online sources
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Unic Utrecht
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired) Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Jelmer Evers: @jelmerevers UniC http://www.unic-utrecht.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Blogging tools
URL to be found
https://www.tumblr.com/; http://www.blogger.com; http://www.wordpress.com
User Scenarios in education
Student writing on topics and subsequent interaction
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
UniC Utrecht
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired) Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Jelmer Evers: @jelmerevers UniC http://www.unic-utrecht.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Wix
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Website creator
URL to be found
http:www.wix.com
User Scenarios in education
Create a website with students while discussing what elements are essential and why
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Mijn Kind Online
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired) Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
@remcopijpers Mijn Kind Online http://mijnkindonline.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
citesulike
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Scientific articles and references search, manage and share tool
URL to be found
http://www.citeulike.org/
User Scenarios in education
Share sources
Target Group
Students (university)
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
CWI – Center for Mathematics and Informatics – University of Amsterdam
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Multiple format
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Arjen de Vries: @arjenpdevries CWI http://www.cwi.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Social Network
URL to be found
http://www.facebook.com
User Scenarios in education
Share sources and articles
Target Group
Students and peers
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
CWI – Center for Mathematics and Informatics – University of Amsterdam
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
High reach, many useful functionalities present
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Arjen de Vries: @arjenpdevries CWI http://www.cwi.nl/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
IDentifEYE
Contributor/Partner
Ezzev Foundation
Country applied
Netherlands
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Serious Augmented Reality game
URL to be found
http://identifeye.ezzev.eu/
User Scenarios in education
Start a dialogue on digital identity related subjects
Target Group
Students
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Ezzev, Mijn Kind Online, Oake associates, CNTI
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
High student engagement, high student satisfaction
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Onno Hansen: @onnoh Ezzev Foundation http://www.ezzev.eu
Resource Number 1
URL
Skype
http://www.skype.com
Category I
Keywords
Communication and Web-conferencing Tools
communication, web-conferencing, phone calls
Rationale Communication is one of the most important skills anyone can have, in business, education and in life. Thus the need for developing communication on-line technologies which enable building bridges between geographically distant subjects and lowering barriers in communication. Potential benefits of unlimited global communication are obvious. Skype allows direct interpersonal engagement which is necessary for all kinds of classroom and educational situations. Description Skype is a computer programme used for communication via Internet. It allows written communication between two or more simultaneous users and can be the means for sending and receiving files. Its possibilities range from effectuating calls, organizing conference calls or video conferences between multiple parties simultaneously and for registered Skype users for free. This program enables information flow, trainings of educators, on-line language lessons and exchange of data of multiple nature. An important factor is the easiness of use of Skype which makes it a widely accessible tool.
Resources required To ensure a smooth and high quality voice transmission through Skype only a basic functional Internet connection is needed. Skype is user-friendly and very simple and can be handled by even less technically skilled users helping overcome communication anxiety related to the online environment and allowing concentration on the learning process. Obligatory resources • desktop computer or laptop • reliable and stable Internet connection (preferably broadband) • download of the programme Skype (for download go to www.skype.com) Optional resources • headphone and microphone or headset for phone calls • built-in or external web camera for video calls Cost Partially: Basic functions like instant messaging, Skype-to-Skype calls, video calls and screen sharing are completely free. Additional features like calling on mobile and landline phones, sending text messages to mobile phones and call forwarding are paid. Setup and Configuration Downloading Skype to the computer is free. A file of about 2MB is downloaded which you then run on your PC and the Skype application file is downloaded in the background. This file is about 20MB. Then you must create a user account. To set up a personal Skype account, you have to choose a username and password. These data are required to run the program. After signing in you are able to use all the above-mentioned types of communication with contacts in the list of contacts that you have build very easily. Through a simple search for contacts, you add usernames of individuals you wish to add and if they eventually confirm the wish to share contact details, these are added to your list.
Styling • • • • •
It is possible to upload a personal profile photo from the PC, use a picture from the picture library of the program or take a photo using a webcam. In the section Tools/Options questions related with General, Audio, Sound, Video, Access and Privacy Settings can be handled. In the section Tools/Extras additional third-party features can be chosen – games, business tools, call recorders – some are free, some are charged. The Skype conversation window can be resized without losing content or styling during conversation. Icons symbolizing basic functions of the program – add a contact, make a phone or video call – can be easily spotted and used for effectuating the requested action.
Navigation and operation Skype is an intuitive interface that enables to access easily the most frequently used and important applications. Skype window is clearly-organized and the icons visibly marked. This ease allows to concentrate much better on the message rather then on the means.
Implementation methodology Educators count with numerous possibilities how to explore this tool in educative environments. Its implementation in language education can enhance lessons and make the course more interesting for students and teachers. Usage in classroom situations: • distant learning form of delivering language content • blended learning lessons • raising ICT student's awareness • holding training for students and teachers located in various locations at the same time • simulation of videophone calls and videoconferences in business language lessons • task-based learning • practising writing skills and spelling as a peripheral competence • foreign language learning through reciprocal peer communication The implementation process should follow the procedure suggested in the Communication and Web-conferencing Tools Template. Example of implementation Type of lesson: Skype Learning General English, A2 of CEFR Lesson number: 9 Age group: Adults Number of students involved: 3- 4 Duration: 20 lessons of 45 min
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Introduction: All students and teacher log in Skype, use their headsets and eventually turn on their webcams. As following, the teacher (T) welcomes students (SS) and envisages the content of the lesson and check homework. T starts a brief conversation to warm-up. T sends SS their edited essays and comments on them with them. A short revision exercise of last lesson content aimed at practising will future, present continuous and going to future is sent
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to SS and checked. Conversation topic: Festivals and customs. Discussion is held around major holidays, traditions and special days organized in honor of some historical figure, organization, cause or object, both in the Republic and English speaking countries that people are familiar with. Also special events like birthdays, graduations, wedding and special customs associated with them can be commented. T can present more events unfamiliar to students and share interesting links related with the topic. After discussion T draws SS’s attention to the most common errors which appeared in the conversation and corrects them. Vocabulary: T writes in the Skype writing box important expressions and vocabulary related with the conversation topic and asks for definition of those the SS are familiar with. Students can look for new expressions also in an online dictionary. Grammar: T presents a new grammar unit – comparatives and superlatives of adjectives, regular and irregular forms. T sends SS text document containing rules and exercises. They go through the rules together and after an example exercise, SS complete a new exercise to practice. After certain time, it is checked and all questions and doubts are addressed by T. Reading: SS are sent a file containing a text connected with the conversation topic and given time to read it and to accomplish the comprehension task(s). SS retell the text in their own words and check the answers within the group. Listening: T sends SS a link to a video related with customs or chooses a song and sends SS the link and a file with comprehension questions or gaps. Students listen or watch and complete the exercises. Conclusion: T assigns a task to prepare for the next on-line lesson - Welcome to The Czech Republic. SS’s tasks is to prepare a brief presentation about the Czech Republic as if they would like to present it to a business partner. They can include its historical, geographical and cultural background, grown crops, imported / exported products, interesting places and as well can mention a few details about their home town or city in which they live or work. SS are given a limit to hand it in. In the next lesson they will present their task and share links for the storage place where they placed their presentation (e.g. www.slideshare.net).
Other issues Explaining students the fundamental principles of operating Skype before starting using it may be considered as it takes some time to familiarize with the programme. Experimental lesson through Skype might be also essential on account of making sure the connection between all participants is smooth and mellow. Useful tips Students might need to look up some word while communicating through Skype. The easiest way is an on-line dictionary. www.macmillandictionary.com http://dictionary.cambridge.org Other issues Explaining students the fundamental principles of operating Skype before starting using it may be considered as it takes some time to familiarize with the programme. Experimental lesson through Skype might be also essential on account of making sure the connection between all participants is smooth and mellow. Useful tips Students might need to look up some word while communicating through Skype. The easiest way is an on-line dictionary. www.macmillandictionary.com http://dictionary.cambridge.org
Resource Number 11
URL
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com
Category IV
Keywords
Collaboration Tools – Wikis
collaboration, editable, shared resources, word processing
Rationale Collaboration is a critical job and study skill and Wikispaces allows one to model and develop this skill online. Wikispaces is a tool to collect and collate web finds, report on your activities, organize teacher’s and student's online portfolios, update and build together materials. The page set up allows the visitor to explore the finds and use this tool as a web 2.0 learning journey. The optimal benefit of using a wiki for classroom education is the ability to facilitate and document collaboration among class members. It can be explored also by educators as a great tool for Continuous and Autonomous Professional Development since it allows working asynchronously and synchronously on collaborative projects regardless the location of the participants. Description A wiki is a Web site that can be edited, organized, and collated by anyone who is in the wiki's user base. Wikispaces are collaborative, community effort building application that allows updating information, discussing with invited members and keeping track on changes that have been done on the wiki by others. Wiki offers a 2G space for collaboration and processing information and adding an unlimited number of users on your wiki. Resources required Wikispaces is built to work immediately without any downloads. The tool is very user-friendly and suitable for less experienced technology users. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • An Internet connection (not necessarily broadband) • An e-mail address • Registration and logging in at www.wikispaces.com Cost Wikispaces offers two options: • Wikis for individuals and groups: All the features needed for a relatively small group are free. That includes the ability to invite up to 100 members to your wiki and 2GB of storage space, as well as some customisation options. • Wikis for organisations: For more features, subscriptions start at $1000/year. Eliminates advertisements and allows customisation (colours and the layouts).
Setup and Configuration All you need is a web browser and an Internet connection. After choosing a Username, Password and introducing an email address, you are transferred to the welcome page where you can type in the name of your wiki. You will proceed to Welcome to Your New Wiki site where you can get a help
and view some tutorials guiding you step by step in the creation of your wiki.
Styling In the section Manage Wiki you can click on Settings and then select Look and Feel. In Themes and Colours you can choose from a pre-select range of Themes for your Wiki. The range is limited but if you wish to design your own or get more options you can purchase an upgraded version. You can also add a logo. More options are available only for paying members. Navigation and operation Wiki Service well organized and intuitive. It's designed to provide all of the benefits of wikis while being very simple to use for non-technical users. The main Navigation menu offers some options: • By clicking on Page and then the Edit button, you can start composing your first entry. You can use the typical range of options for text editing, insert links, widgets, pictures, files, spreadsheets, etc. Each entry can be easily edited. • By clicking on Discussion you can start a discussion with the members you have invited into your wiki. You can set a topic, see replies and views. • The button History helps you orient in the posts and updates of invited members. • The button Notify provides a service that sends you an email on the email address you have typed in. The function of the Wikispace manager (the author of the wiki) and anyone else given "administrator" permission is able to handle the organization of the wiki. He can: • Set permissions for the whole wiki. • Manage wiki members. • Change the look and update. • Lock pages so no one can edit them. • Delete or rename files and pages. • Look at the history logs and see who has spent time and effort learning the technology and collaborating. If you need assistance, there are several video guides that will show you how to work with a Wiki.
Implementation methodology A wiki is an excellent platform for content storage, sharing and collaborating. This makes it ideal for organising course content in a variety of contexts: distance, contact or blended learning. The emphasis on collaborative editing and ease of access in a highly customisable yet very secure environment renders Wikispaces can be exploited by users of all ages and levels of proficiency. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Organise and deliver course content in a variety of formats. • Organise assignment work, deliver contents, keep track of grades, attendance, and feedback. • Encourage project work in classroom and task-based learning activities. • Have learners edit each other's assignment work. • Get classroom feedback. • Provide learners with further resources, additional reading, videos to watch, useful links and resources. • Assign each learner their own individual page, where they can upload their work and receive comments and feedback. • Keep records of learner work and progress.
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Help learners and educators create their own professional e-Portfolio.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Teacher Development Lesson Title: Using Wikispaces as a class syllabus Age group: Applicable to all levels and types of lessons Number of students involved: 30 Duration: 90 minutes (basic outline)
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Introduction: The aim of the presentation is to explain how collaborative tools as Wikispaces can be used as a class syllabus. Lead-in: T discusses the idea of on-line class syllabi and that includes course information such as a list of required textbooks, necessary prerequisite courses, assignment due dates, and other expectations. Then, the possibilities of taking advantage of Wiki tools while designing a course are commented on. T introduces the concept of Wikispaces and explains how to operate the application, show the basic options and discuss what the usage might be. Then he explains the goal of the course – to compose an on-line syllabus for one of their lessons. Lesson flow: Participants will work individually or in pairs to compose the basic outline of an imaginative course or use some of their real courses as inspiration and basis for further expanding and use. Typically, the sections that an on-line syllabus might include are course information, course requirements, attendance, grading criteria, week-byweek schedule, recommended study literature and online resources, course assignments, course documents, bookmark course websites, www.delicious.com, etc. At the end of the session, a basic outline of the class personalised dictionary should be built. • Follow up: The outline of the syllabi can be reviewed, expanded, updated and edited as many times as wished. This way, SS can keep track of what the aims and requirements of the course are and organize how to meet them.
Other issues
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You can embed Glogs using the Glogster EDU, http://edu.glogster.com, into your Wikispaces services. A Blogger account, www.blogger.com, can be added to your wiki too. Visitors can read your blog right from the wiki. Add videos from You Tube to your Wikispaces wiki, www.youtube.com. Add chat to your wiki using Gabbly, www.gabbly.com.
Resource Number 12
URL
PBworks
http://pbworks.com
Category IV
Keywords
Collaboration Tools – Wikis
collaboration, editable, shared resources
Rationale PBworks aims to support collaborative learning and is connected with the assumption that learning can be much more effective when not done in isolation. Moreover, it decentralises learning, since the teacher is not necessarily the central figure. Advantages of using wikis such as PBworks, include the development of learner independence/autonomy, the negotiation of learning objectives and methods between teacher and learners, and choice of activities. PBworks and all wikis, more generally, facilitate sharing ideas, resources, teaching and learning materials and the learners' own work, i.e. projects, assignments etc. In this way, learners can learn from each other as well as from the teacher. Needless to say, teachers can also learn from their learners, as well as from each other, so sharing ideas, opinions and resources among educators is a key feature of collaborative learning. PBworks is also a great tool for Continuous and Autonomous Professional Development for Teachers as it is ideal for collaborative projects for teachers from the same institution or from a variety of countries within and outside the European context. Description PBworks is one of the best known wiki platforms. It is a very simple version of an editable website, which allows multiple participants to contribute and edit pages and documents. It is extremely versatile in form and structure and this makes it ideal for sharing and shaping content in a variety of contexts. A PBworks wiki can be as public or as private as preferred, by adjusting your preferences in the Users and Settings tabs on the top bar. The administrators can choose who can have access to the wiki and at what level. One has to be authorised as a Writer in order to be able to use the Edit option or to create a new page, upload a file etc. Additional options can be seen at the top righthand corner. Resources required All that is needed is a basic functional Internet connection. This tool is very user-friendly and suitable for less experienced technology users. Obligatory resources • desktop computer or laptop • an Internet connection (not necessarily broadband) • an e-mail address (although it is possible to register students who do not have one) • registration at http://pbworks.com Cost PB works offer two options: • Free Plan All the features needed for a relatively small group are free. That includes the ability to invite up to 100 members to your wiki and 2GB of storage space, as well as some customisation options. • Paid Plan For more features, subscriptions start at $99/year. Setup and Configuration There is no need to download any software. In order to get started, a user account has to be set up at http://pbworks.com. This requires a username and password, as well as a valid e-mail account. The next step for a free wiki is to choose the Personal option from the home page menu and choose a name for the wiki. This generates a link to the wiki that looks like this: http://name.pbworks.com. The option I agree that this workspace is for non-commercial use only has to be ticked and then there are two more choices: select whether the wiki is for individual or educational use and whether it is going to be public or private (by invitation only). Then the front page is displayed and customisation may begin. Styling • •
There is one customisation option for free accounts: the colour scheme. However, since it is very easy to add pictures, videos and sounds to any wiki page, the final look can be quite polished and distinctive. Furthermore, a set of 5 ready-made templates is available, which can be used to form the layout of the new pages created. Of course, there is also the option to start with a blank page and build it up from scratch.
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Finally, there is an excellent word-processing tool at the top of each page, accessible through the Edit tab. This looks similar to Word, is very easy to use and allows for further customisation: along with all the usual font and colour options, tables can be inserted and coloured, pictures can be inserted and edited and widgets can be embedded.
Navigation and operation There are four tabs on the front page: Wiki, Pages and Files, Users and Settings. • The first one leads to the main content. • The second provides access to content management and organisation. • The third allows administrators to control the level of access the current users are to have. • The fourth deals with privacy, security, notifications and more advanced technical configurations. The main navigation tools are on the sidebar on the right. All that is needed is to left-click on any of the links in these two windows and the relevant page or file is displayed. The Navigator window automatically classifies pages and files in alphabetical order. The Sidebar window is editable and it allows for complete control over content structure and navigation. In order to create new content - once the necessary permissions have been granted – one goes to Create a page. Apart from the above-mentioned template, table, image, video, colour and widget selections, there is one more very important option available: by left-clicking on any of the links provided in the Navigation and Sidebar windows, this link appears on the new page, is clickable and enables cross-referencing. There is also the option of uploading new content from the hard disk: once in Edit mode, the sidebar looks like this: By clicking on Images and Files, the option Upload files becomes available. Having selected and uploaded your files, they automatically appear as links in the window on the right. Left-clicking on a link will automatically insert it on the page. Please note that this function is available not only for document formats, but also for image and audio files. After adding the desired content, left-clicking on the Save button at the bottom lefthand corner allows you to exit the Edit mode and saves all your content. The same procedure is followed if one wishes to change or add to the content of any wiki page. Finally, it should be mentioned that, depending on the Notification settings, there is the option to immediately inform all wiki participants about new content directly through their e-mail accounts.
Implementation methodology A wiki is an excellent platform for content storage and sharing. This makes it ideal for organising course content in a variety of contexts: distance, contact or blended learning. The emphasis on collaborative editing and ease of access in a highly customisable yet very secure environment renders PBworks wiki suitable for use with learners of all ages and levels of proficiency. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Organise and deliver course content in a variety of formats, all in one place if so desired. • Organise assignment work, deliver products and feedback. • Have learners work together on a project. • Set up task-based activities in general. • Have learners edit each other's assignment work. • Provide learners with further resources, like additional reading, videos to watch and other relevant online content. • Assign each learner their own individual page, where they can upload their work and receive comments and feedback. • Keep records of learner work and progress. • Facilitate self-access work. • Help learners create their own work portfolio.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: A2 of CEFR Lesson Title: Composing Class Dictionary, Stage 1 Age group: Primary school students (aged 11 to 14) Number of students involved: 30 Duration: 90 minutes + work on the dictionary during all classroom sessions
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Introduction: T presents the SS the aim of today lesson. Using the PBworks application, SS will create a foreign language dictionary to catalogue new words encountered throughout the lessons. Lead-in: T introduces the class to the format of PBworks and explains what the usage might be. Then he explains the long-term goal of the course – to compose the class dictionary. It is up to discussion if the SS consider more useful to keep the dictionary sorted by topics or if they prefer to build one personalised but general dictionary. Focus: SS will work together divided into groups or pairs to compose their task on the dictionary. T assigns each group or pair a letter or letters they will be working on. Each group needs to come on the first session with basic expression they already know that start with the letter they were given and write them down using the PBworks application. T can provide help if SS are not sure how to do it. At the end of the first session, a basic outline of the class personalised dictionary should be built. Follow up: The dictionary can be viewed online and updated and expanded very easily. This way, SS can keep track of what vocabulary they have come across with and should be already aware of.
Other issues Teachers should be careful when deciding on the Notification settings: it may be important for participants to be kept in the loop, but too many e-mail notifications can be quite disruptive. One has to strike the right balance, depending on the learning context. The following PBworks wikis have been used in a variety of contexts: • http://msburtonisonline.pbworks.com/w/page/21844024/FrontPage is an example of a wiki created by a teacher for her students • http://biz-e-tech-training.pbworks.com/w/page/5929154/FrontPage is an example of a wiki created for and by teachers of Business English • http://technology4kids.pbworks.com/w/page/33346396/graphicorganizers a wealth of technology resources for young learners, organised by Shelly Terrell and Ozge Karaoglu • http://weconnect.pbworks.com/w/page/23985640/FrontPage offering tips, instructions and resources on creating a PLN to teachers and learners alike, again by Shelly Terrell. Useful tips
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There is a very comprehensive user's manual here http://usermanual.pbworks.com/w/page/11632089/FrontPage Pages and files can easily be organised into folders by clicking on Options in the Navigator window. The entire content of the wiki can be downloaded in a Zip file and saved to a hard disk, by selecting Export in the Settings tab. There is a very handy Comments box at the bottom of each page, with a Reply option for a nested format. Finally, a recently added feature: the Check for Plagiarism button on the top right-hand menu, just above the Navigator window.
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Resource Number 13
URL
Typewithme
http://typewith.me
Category IV
Keywords
Collaboration Tools – Wikis
collaboration, editable, shared resources
Rationale Distant collaboration and sharing of ideas has become an imperative need in the modern word and for work and education. Some of the simplest online tools that allow this come in a document sharing format. This involves creating a document online and then sharing it with multiple online users who can add or edit the content synchronously with ability to see the changes (each user’s addition is highlighted in a different colour) and finally store it in the cloud for immediate access and future use. Description Typewithme is a very user-friendly document sharing tool which requires little technical expertise and offers ease of access, since there is no registration process to go through. Once the user is connected to http://typewith.me, a new document can be created immediately, as shown on the right: Typewithme features a basic word processing tool, on top of the text window and various editing, exporting and saving options on the top bar. Sharing the document is very easy through the sidebar: a unique URL is created to sent to contributors via e-mail or instant messaging or by using the inbuilt e-mail form if you so wish. On the sidebar there is also a chat window, for further synchronous communication. One of its most useful features is that it highlights the content added by each separate user, assigning a different colour to each contributor. In this way, one can view what has been contributed and by whom at a glance, which facilitates pinpointing necessary changes in content and avoiding repetition, while working on the document synchronously. Resources required All that is needed is a basic functional Internet connection. This tool is very user-friendly and suitable for less experienced technology users. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Internet connection (not necessarily broadband) • Active e-mail account Cost Completely free Setup and Configuration Minimal action is required, as demonstrated in the Description section. After clicking on Create a New Document, all that is needed is typing a name for each contributor in the box provided on the sidebar. This step is not necessary if you have used Typewithme before, since it automatically saves the name you have used in your previous documents. Styling • •
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There are the options of hiding the sidebar and viewing the text in Full Window mode, both of which provide more screen space for the actual text and are accessible by clicking on the corresponding buttons at the bottom, righthand corner of the screen. Basic text format options are accessible through the word processing tool, but there are no font options offered. By clicking on the Options tab on the top bar, automatic line numbering and authorship colours may be deactivated, if so preferred. Finally, each user may choose the colour their content will be highlighted in from a limited selection of eight colours.
Navigation and operation There are four tabs on top bar of a Typewithme document, available to all contributors:
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Options: This has been covered in the Description section. It should be added that it also offers a choice of two fonts.
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Import / Export: This enables importing full documents in a variety of formats from the the hard disk into Typewithme, for sharing or editing purposes. It also allows exporting the created document – in a slightly different and larger variety of formats. The document is saved on the user’s hard disk.
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Saved Revisions: Through this feature all saved versions of the document can be viewed, a previous version can be restored if necessary or desirable and each version can be assigned a different name.
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Time Slider: This innovative, dynamic feature records all the changes made to the document along a time line, on the top of the screen. By clicking on the Play button next to it, one can watch the document evolve as if in a short video clip. Various options are offered on the sidebar, enabling the separate editing, sharing and downloading of each individual saved version of the document at any given point along the time line. Apart from being a valuable recording tool, this makes working on Typewithme much more versatile and flexible.
Implementation methodology This tool can be used for sharing and editing content in a variety of education contexts. A teacher may create a Typewithme document and share it with learners, who can add to it or edit it. The learners themselves can create their own documents and share them with classmates and eventually their teacher. Finally, teachers can collaborate with each other in producing written content for various purposes. Teaching/Learning ideas: Here are some ideas on what it could be used for in a distant or blended leaning context: • brainstorming activities • collaborative story writing • editing and providing feedback to written assignments • collaborative work on a reading text, using the chat feature to negotiate content before recording it on the document itself. • project work, as a drafting platform • other task-based learning activities • note-taking during a plenary speaking activity, in which one or all of the contributors can add to the “minutes” • practising negotiation of meaning in a written context generally, e.g. agreeing on a timetable In all the above situations the time line feature can be used to record the stages of the work in progress and provide valuable data for further analysis. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Writing collaborative stories and practicing past tenses using Typewithme format Age group: Primary school students (aged 11 to 14) Number of students involved: 30 Duration: 90 minutes + work on the
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Introduction: T presents the SS the aim of today lesson: To help SS to move past passive learning to active learning, to find better ways of engaging themselves in the learning process and practice use of past tenses. Lead-in: T introduces the class to the format of Typewithme and explains what the usage might be. Then he presents the aim of today’s lesson – to tell a story using past tenses. Focus: SS will work together divided into groups or pairs to compose their task. In groups the SS are asked to choose 10 or 15 verbs and to use the past tense forms of these verbs into a short meaningful composition. Each SS will contribute to the creation of the story by adding his or her text using Typewithme. The final version of the group's composition is sent to the T.
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Follow up: The composition can be viewed online. All the updates can be viewed marked in a different colour. The next screenshot shows how Typewithme can be used for commenting on a piece of written work:
By following the link below, you can view a screencast of the timeslider function on Typewithme which shows how the various changes were made to this written work submitted by a student: http://www.screencast.com/users/MarisaConstantinides/folders/Jing/media/dee50971-4dab-441a-9db4-41e63e79dfff Other issues Typewithme is a very safe online environment, suitable for use with young learners. Useful tips Before using Typewithme for the first time, it might be useful to watch one of these excellent tutorials: • http://vimeo.com/10203828
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http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5794629/type_with_me
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TSFNhtwyz8
Resource Number 14
URL
Our Story
http://www.ourstory.com
Category V
Keywords
Digital storytelling
digital storytelling, writing, creative
Rationale The traditional text-oriented teaching/learning cannot offer a global vision of the learner's needs. As educational landscape is constantly growing, also the incentives need to be multifarious and creative. Our Story format offers possibility of engaging students actively in composing texts and stories inspired by their everyday life, and searching for additional material. Our Story also fosters teamwork and collaboration with classmates and develops student's ability to reflect critically on their own L2 experience which are the core necessities for making progress in L2. The rational for using this tool, and simultaneously its greatest benefits, are: • To improve students´ writing skills. • To support students´ creativity. • To express their personality. • To encourage research by helping students invest in issues and engaging them in interactive processes of learning. • To reinforce connections between teacher – student – lesson content and improves communication. • To lowers students´ constraints and inconformity related with productive skill. It is a proved fact that some students prefer to share their digistories rather then read them loud. • To promote classroom discussion, community awareness, global awareness, and a connection between what students do in the classroom and the wider community. This tool utilizes audiovisual aspects to support a learners´ digital text-based product and allows a professional result that learners can feel proud of displaying, even if their writing skills are limited. Its enjoyable format also helps enhance student’s motivation to learn languages by using an active learning tool. Description In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is an important classroom tool popular as well for its affordability and accessibility. Our Story is a tool that offers creating stories to express information. It is an innovative platform for capturing and sharing life events using text, photos and video. After you write and save a story to your profile you can share it with your friends by email. You can create a contact list using your current online contact lists. It is possible to embed your story into your MySpace, Blog, or your own website. There is also very useful Recent Stories Mosaic tool which provides links to the most recent stories created by your family and friends, and the most recent comments added to those stories. By clicking on an image in the mosaic you can read the story and comments. Resources required No special equipment to use this tool is needed. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Internet browser and connection Optional resources • Printer if required Cost Partly Free • Basic options are free. • Premium features like font size, colour, bold, italics and spell-check are paid services. If you are a premium member you can add as many photos per story as you wish (standard members can only add 6 photos per story for free). Setup and Configuration Registration is required. An account has to be found choosing Username and Password. After logging in you can start using the platform easily. Results can be embedded in a blog or wiki or other web page, or either shared by email.
Styling The website is very simple and user-friendly. • It’s an easy and clean way to create and present a story. In section Add Story you fill in Title of your story, Timeline Date, write the text of your story, add photos and/or video and click on Save to save the story. • You can view all your saved stories in section My Timeline and Stories. They are ordered according to the date of saving. Navigation and operation Navigation is intuitive and as a mature tool is normally reliable and consistent. The main window is clearly-organized and the icons visibly marked. By clicking on Add Story you can start writing and adding stories. You can also add photos and video to go with your story. No special IT skills are required. This ease lowers barriers caused by unfamiliar e-environment and concentrate on the result. Once you have finished, you click on “Save” and your story will be saved to your profile in section My Timeline and Stories. A date of creation of each story is automatically added to enable creation a timeline of all your stories. There is also Quick Add button which allows you to quickly choose a topic of your new story. You just choose an icon from Life, Family and Friends, Children, Education, Work or Travel section and it automatically creates a template with chosen title so you can start writing your story straight away. Implementation methodology The entire process of digital storytelling consists of three phases: (1) pre-production, (2) production, and (3) post-production. Usage in classroom situations: • Reflect on a particular life experience or event. • Express opinion on certain topics. • Illustrate a language problem. • Collect vocabulary illustrating with examples. • Talk about family, education, travel, work. • Draw attention to each student's life experience and adventures. • Deal with a topic or problem given which might be personal or wider social. The results can be printed, emailed, embedded into a website or blog, and/or placed in the classroom. Another possibility is to select the most interesting or the funniest story between all the students and place it on school websites or in a school magazine. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B2 of CEFR Lesson Title: Childhood stories Age group: Young adults (aged 18 - 21) Number of students involved: 17 Duration: 90 min.
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Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use Our Story format to present funny and interesting stories from each student's childhood.
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Lead in: T asks SS about their childhood, their family and family members, family trips and adventures. Modelling: T presents to SS the new resource showing it on a projector screen connected to a PC with Internet access. As an example, T shows SS how to set up an account and create a story. T produces a sample story adding a photo or/and a video to give them a clear idea of how to work with the application. Task: In the lesson, or as homework, SS are asked to create a story introducing some experience or adventure from their childhood, including photographs and videos. The task is supposed to be carried out individually so that each student makes his/her own active approach. Lesson flow: SS choose a single adventure or event from their childhood and they use a text, videos and photos to describe it. After this, they email their results to T’s email address. Output: T receives to his email account SS’s stories and comments on them in the next lesson. Follow up: As a final step, the result can be shared by email, embedded to a website or blog or seen directly in the screen. In the classroom blog, results can be compared and commented.
Useful tips
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Students can browse for videos in the platform www.youtube.com.
Resource Number 15
URL
Glogster
http://www.glogster.com
Category V
Keywords
Digital storytelling
digital storytelling, writing, creative, multi-media posters, web quest
Rationale The traditional text-oriented teaching/learning cannot offer a global vision of the learner's needs. As educational landscape is constantly growing, also the incentives need to be multifarious and creative. Glogster format offers possibility of engaging students actively in composing texts and searching for additional material, fosters teamwork and collaboration with classmates and develops student's ability to reflect critically on their own L2 experience which are the core necessities for making progress in L2. The rational for using this tool, and simultaneously its greatest benefits, are: • To improve students´ writing skills. • To show creativity. • To express their personality. • To encourage research by helping students invest in issues and engaging them in dynamic, interactive processes of learning. • To reinforce connections between teacher – student – lesson content and improves communication. • To lowers students´ constraints and inconformity related with productive skill. It is a proved fact that some students prefer to share their digistories rather then reading them loud. • To promote classroom discussion, community awareness, global awareness, and a connection between what students do in the classroom and the wider community. This tool utilizes audiovisual aspects to support a learner's digital text-based product and allows a professional result that a learner can feel proud of displaying, even if their writing skills are limited. Its enjoyable format also helps enhance student’s motivation to learn languages by using an active learning tool. Description In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is an important classroom tool popular as well for its affordability and accessibility. Glogster is a tool that offers creating posters to express information. Glogs are in fact multi-media posters that can include text, images, video or links to additional web resources that relate to the topic. For the classroom usage the possibilities are boundless. Teachers can create glogs for their students to use and students can make their own to present their school work, present themselves and their project creatively. Teachers or students themselves can link to websites that contain valuable information. Videos and graphics can be embedded right into the glog so the information is neatly in one place. They can express an event in history, information about culture events, or L2 related concepts and many more. Each contribution in the glog needs to be structured in order to provide valuable information, but should present them creatively and allow self-expression. For teachers it is a valuable and versatile tool that can be integrated in diverse areas including not only languages but as well other curricular field (science, history, art, music...). Other advantage relies in improvement of student-teacher relationships by allowing both to explore Web 2.0 and learning concepts together. Use of Glogster in the classroom for producing personalised and original text-based results keep teachers and students up to date with modern technology in a very amusing way. Resources required No special equipment to use this tool is needed. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Internet browser and connection Optional resources • Printer if required Cost Free Setup and Configuration
Registration is required. An account has to be found choosing Username and Password. After logging in you can start using the platform easily. Results can be embedded in a blog or wiki or other web page, or either shared by email.
Styling The website is very simple and user-friendly. • It’s an easy, clean way to present information. In the glog, you can change the background, add graphics, add music and videos, and create text. You can use graphics from the programme, or to upload your own pictures. You can also upload images and video from your computer, or link right from the web. • Each graphic, video, or text can also be easily edited by clicking on it. They can be rotated, resized, and moved- or the font and colour can be changed. You can also create hyperlinks with the graphics. Navigation and operation Navigation is intuitive and as a mature tool is normally reliable and consistent. The main window is clearly-organized and the icons visibly marked. By clicking on Enter here! you can start choosing the outline of the comic and filling in. No special IT skills are required. This ease lowers barriers caused by unfamiliar e-environment and concentrate on the result. Once you have finished, you click on “save” and the glog will be saved to your profile. You will also receive a link so you can embed it in a blog or wiki or other web page, or share it in an email. Implementation methodology The entire process of digital storytelling consists of three phases: (1) pre-production, (2) production, and (3) post-production. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Reflect on a particular life experience. • Express opinion on certain topic. • Illustrate a language problem. • Gather vocabulary illustrating with examples. • Talk about family, present hobbies, likes and dislikes. • Draw attention to a local or national events, cultural life, social trends. • Deal with a topic or problem given which might be personal or wider social. The results can be printed or emailed, and/or placed in the classroom. Another possibility is to select the best comic between all the students and place them on the school websites or school magazine. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B2 of CEFR Lesson Title: Travelling in the past: Age of Discovery Age group: Young adults (aged 18 - 21) Number of students involved: 18 Duration: 90 min.
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Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use the glogster format to reflect on travelling in the past. Lead-in: T asks SS about travelling in the past, their ideas, differences, constraints, etc. Modelling: T presents to SS the new resource showing it on a projector screen connected to a PC with Internet access. As an example, T shows SS how to set an account and create a glogster. T produces a sample multimedia poster using the
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widest range of options for designing the glog to give them a clear idea of how to work with the application. Task: In the lesson, or as homework, SS are to create a glogster poster introducing some aspect of travelling in history, including photographs, videos and solid topic-related information based on research of websites. The task can be carried out either individually or in groups. Lesson flow: SS following T’s instructions to produce a glogster poster based on the outcome of the previous researching stage. They choose object, videos, audios and text which they would like to use in their piece of work. After this, they email their results to T’s email address. Output: T receives to his email account SS’s glogs and comments on them in the next lesson. Follow up: As a final step, the result can be shared by email, embedded to a website or blog or seen directly in the screen. In the classroom blog, results can be compared and commented using e.g. Audioboo programme (audioboo.fm) which can be embedded to blogs.
Useful tips
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Students can browse for videos in the platform www.youtube.com.
Resource Number 16
URL
Slideshare
www.slideshare.net
Category VI
Keywords
Presentations
presentations, tags, sharing documents, dissemination online
Rationale Presentations are an essential part of lessons and an effective means of getting students involved. Teachers can use the site to share lessons, and other classroom materials so those who are interested have access to them outside of the school building. Storing presentations online also helps to cut down on printing costs, and gives a more permanent record of the work done. Description Slideshare is probably the most well-known presentation tool online, and rather than helping you create presentations or content, it’s a way to help your presentation go viral. It provides a way to share already created Powerpoint or other presentations online, tag them, email them, get comments on them, and get html code for embedding them to your own blog, wiki or website. You can add audio, notes, and even YouTube videos to Powerpoint presentations in SlideShare. You can also find presentations others have created on the topic and communicate with those who have similar interests through system of tags. You can also synchronise an MP3 audio file (podcast) with the slideset to create a slidecast to obtain an even a more powerful way of distributing presentations/tutorials.
Resources required Slideshare can be used from any desktop computer or laptop which meets the basic requirement which is the Internet connection. Otherwise, no equipment or downloading is required. Obligatory resources • laptop or computer • Internet connection Optional resources • None Cost Free Setup and Configuration Signing up is easy and free. Enter the address www.slideshare.net into your web browser and click on Sign up for a new account. Fill out the information on the Sign-Up Page and press Join Now. A confirmation email will arrive to the email address
you have entered. After logging in, you can start using the application which is easy and intuitive. You are allowed to upload up to 100MB using free account. Styling Slideshare is a format which displays previously prepared presentations. As such, it does not allow creative possibilities of customizing the presentation. Navigation and operation Once you are logged in, you can: • Browse what others have uploaded. • Do a search by key term (tag) or browse by category. There are also Featured Presentations and the Top Presentation of the Day. • Upload your presentation or document click the Upload link. Implementation methodology This tool comes in very useful when you have prepared a presentation of a school project or any other subject you would like to spread online, share with others and receive comments of colleagues or, in case of students’ presentations, of their peers. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Upload presentations and provide a link for absent students to access presentations. • Have student to create their accounts and upload class project presentations for review by their peers. •
Download presentations to supplement school curriculum and enrich your lessons.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Business English Lesson content: Business presentation Participating group: Adults Duration: 45 minute + home preparation • Lead-in: Students are introduced to the aim of today’s lesson – preparing business presentation and use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources. The final point is to display the presentation on Slideshare. SS are assigned the task for the next lesson – to prepare a presentation. Depending on the line of business or their position in the company they prepare a short presentation about the course of action in their department. • Lesson flow: SS need to browse the Internet to find suitable photos and materials and prepare a rich presentation. They need to create a presentation and prepare a speech to present the slides. SS are advised to rehearse at home. The presentation has to be uploaded on Slideshare and the link sent to the teacher. • Follow-up: The final outcomes can be embedded in a classroom blog (www.blogger.com), shared via email, Facebook (www.facebook.com) or Youtube (www.youtube.com) as well. Useful tips For more information visit www.slideshare.net/faqs .
Resource Number 17
URL
Prezi
http://prezi.com
Category VI
Keywords
Presentations
presentations, online dissemination online
collaboration,
sharing
documents,
Rationale Presentations are an essential part of lessons and an effective means of getting students involved. Prezi is a presentation application which also makes online collaboration possible by letting its users share and create content together online. Prezi offers educators: • an innovative presentation format. • an opportunity to design engaging and collaborative activities for students. • an online platform where they can collaborate with other teachers. Description Prezi is a web-based presentation application that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map. Prezi can either be used directly from an internet browser (e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari) without the need to install anything or can be installed (it is called Prezi Desktop) so it can be used without internet access. By using Prezi from an internet browser, you can: • Share your presentations for collaborating with others. • Send your presentations and show them to non-Prezi users. • Log in from any computer, access your presentations and work on them. By using Prezi Desktop, you can: • Work on your presentations without internet access. • Insert large media files. • Upload presentations to Prezi.com. Resources required Exported prezis are supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X operating systems and no additional software is required. Obligatory resources Prezi can be used from any desktop computer or laptop which meets the following requirements: • Reliable and stable Internet connection • Installed Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher • Minimum 1GB memory • A scroll mouse / touchpad • Supported browsers are: Internet Explorer 7 or higher; Firefox 3.0 or higher; Safari 3 or higher Optional resources • Download of Prezi Desktop to use the application off-line Cost Partially Prezi has three pricing structures: Free, Enjoy, and Pro.
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The Free version gives you up to 100 MB of storage on their site, includes the Prezi logo on your presentation, and makes your presentations public. For an annual fee, the Enjoy (approximately $59/year) and Pro (approximately $159/year) versions let you create private presentations and access additional online storage space. Pro allows you to download a desktop version of their editing software. Free and Enjoy users design online by uploading content to the Prezi server.
In addition, students and teachers can have Prezi Desktop at a special price. Upon verification of student/teacher identity,
Prezi EDUEnjoy is free and Prezi EDUPro comes with a special educational discount (approximately $59/year). All versions of Prezi allow users to use the simple editor; download your presentations and show them from your computer; create groups to share and collaborate with; import images, videos, PDFs, and Flash files; and embed presentations into blogs and websites. Setup and Configuration You need to create an account first. If you are going to sign up as a student or a teacher, you need a certified educational email address. If your institute does not provide email addresses, Prezi accepts the email addresses provided by Gaggle.net (https://gaggle.net). If you are going to use Prezi from an internet browser (Free and Enjoy versions), no setup and configuration is needed. If you want to create presentations offline (Pro version), you need to download Prezi Desktop. After the download, you open Prezi Desktop and sign in once by entering your username and password in order to activate the application.
Styling Prezi Editor Theme Wizard allows you to create themes for your presentations, change colours and more. Paying users (Pro, EduPro and Enjoy, EduEnjoy) can add their logo to their custom theme. Navigation and operation
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You create Prezi presentations using Prezi Editor. You can create presentations using Prezi.com from an Internet Browser, or using Prezi Desktop. The best way to understand how Prezi works is to watch some example presentations. You can see very good examples on Prezi website http://prezi.com/explore Prezi provides very clear guidelines and tips about how to use the Prezi Editor to create presentations. http://prezi.com/learn
Implementation methodology Prezi is very different from other presentation applications like Powerpoint. Instead of traditional slides, Prezi gives you a blank canvas on which you can create a big picture. You can insert details in the big picture and zoom into these details in order to create a dynamic presentation. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Create engaging presentations. • Ask students to create their own prezis. • Create mind maps. • Present new vocabulary. • Design group work activities that require students to work on Prezi presentations online and share them with each other. • Build global learning collaborations (students from different countries can plan and work collaboratively on Prezi
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presentations). Collaborate and share resources with other teachers online. Design an engaging online CV.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Possibilities of disseminating an EU funded project Lesson content: Prezi presentation of the EU project aPLaNet Participating group: Teacher training Target group: Educators and interested public Duration: 90 minutes (30 min. discussion and demonstration, 40 minutes preparing the presentation, 20 min. presenting results)
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Lead-in: Students are introduced to the notion of online tools suitable for presentations. Participants share their experience in using such tools (if they have none, trainer should be ready to demonstrate some of them). Prezi is then presented to everybody and its basic functions and benefits are commented. Stage 1: All participants sign up for free accounts at Prezi using valid email addresses. Then they can start working within the application. Stage 2: Participants are encouraged to explore the space to get idea of how it functions. Lesson flow: Participants are assessed a task to perform. In this case, the objective is to prepare a short introduction of the project in question, its rationale and solutions for the audience in their home country and abroad as well. After logging in, participants start creating a new Prezi placing videos, pictures, plain text, etc. according to what they think is the best to present throughout the project. Conclusion: The outcome is stored in the page and can be disseminated through the link. Follow-up: The final outcomes can be embedded in a classroom blog, www.blogger.com, shared via email, Twitter, www.twitter.com, Facebook, www.facebook.com, or Youtube, www.youtube.com, as well.
See aPLaNet project´s Prezi: http://prezi.com/fmy4mpnbisyv/aplanet-eu-funded-project Other issues Some good examples of Prezi. • Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool: http://prezi.com/rfsnedhqmhqa/thoughts-on-using-prezi-as-a-teaching-tool • Classical Greece: http://prezi.com/r0hubhczg9ui/chapter-8-section-1-classical-greece • Mixing Mind and Metaphor (Talk by James Geary, given at TED Global 2009 July): http://prezi.com/mojdt36mrozf/mixing-mind-and-metaphor • Playing to learn: http://prezi.com/rj_b-gw3u8xl/playing-to-learn Useful tips A very useful article series about Prezi: http://teach-me-tech.blogspot.com/2011/01/tech-me-prezi-part-1-what-is-it.html http://teach-me-tech.blogspot.com/2011/02/tech-me-prezi-part-2-basics.html http://teach-me-tech.blogspot.com/2011/02/tech-me-prezi-part-3-bubble-menu.html .
Resource Number 18
URL
Make Beliefs Comic
www.makebeliefscomix.com
Category VII
Keywords
Writing skills training
digital comic, writing, creative, language
Rationale Enhancing writing and creative literacy skills is an important support to many aspects of learning. Digital comics offer a way to experiment and utilize these skills in a way that removes constraints caused by psychological barriers to production in L2 learners and minimize stress connected to productive skills as this instrument allows them to express contents confidently through the comic characters. A digital comic utilizes the included clipart and images to support a learner's story and allows a professional result that a learner can feel proud of displaying, even if their writing skills are minimal. This is particularly true with language learners. The tool helps maximise the use of simple language for lower-levelled students, but as well to use a variety of language registers for the higher-levelled ones. Its enjoyable format also helps enhance student’s motivation to learn languages by using an active learning tool. The possibility to quickly produce results and edit results is a second advantage. Description Make Belief Comix is one of the oldest and simplest digital comic tools on the Internet, originally founded by Bill Zimmerman in 2006. There are a large number of educator supports including: • how to play • story ideas • writer prompts • educator ideas The tool is available on the website and is extremely simple to use. It includes: • a set of character clip art, • a set of object clip art, • choice of panels (1 – 4), • backgrounds, • speech and thought balloons, • panel prompts, • characters, • objects. The images placed in each panel can be: • moved • scaled • brought to the front • flipped • deleted Results can be printed and emailed. Resources required No special equipment is needed.
Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Internet browser and connection Optional resources • Printer if required Cost
Free (the owner of the resource is a retired teacher and journalist in New York and requests donations to help support the resource) Setup and Configuration No download or setup are required. You can directly start composing your comic and after completing it, it is possible to print it directly or send it by email to selected email addresses. Styling The website is very simple and user-friendly. • Icons symbolizing basic functions of the programme - adding a character, resizing it, adding objects - can be easily spotted and used for effectuating the requested action. • In the central part there are the comic windows ready to start completing them. Bellow the comic panels there is a number of comic characters in offer, on the left you can choose move, scale, bring to the front, flip or delete the characters and object which appear in the strip. On the right you can add objects, speech or thought balloons, change background colour, make choice of number of panels and select panel prompts. • Above the comic panels there is a possibility to name the comic and add author’s name. Navigation and operation Navigation is intuitive and as a mature tool is normally reliable and consistent. The main window is clearly-organized and the icons visibly marked. By clicking on Enter here! you can start choosing the outline of the comic and filling in. This ease lowers barriers caused by unfamiliar e-environment and concentrate on the result. No special IT skills are required. Implementation methodology Lessons based on exploitation of the digital comic format can be done directly in the lesson, in the language classroom equipped with computers or equally, completed as homework. Students can work either individually or in groups to come up with a solution. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Have students place value or reflect on a particular experience in a comic strip • Use comics to talk about holidays, school, work, etc. • Illustrate a language problem. • Have a character to go through a vocabulary SS were taught in the lesson. • Have a character to explain a grammar point. • Create a comic book using the strips created by students. Students may serialize their comics by creating a new. strip each day as part of a continuing story. • Encourage students to use comic’s characters to comment on local or national events, cultural life, social trends. • Create a comic in which the characters deal with a topic or problem given which might be personal or wider social. The results can be printed or emailed, and/or placed in the classroom. Another possibility is to select the best comic between all the students and place them on the school websites or school magazine.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: A2 of CEFR Lesson Title: Using Comic Strips to Graded Reading of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Age group: Teenagers (aged 14 -17) Number of students involved: 15 Duration: 90 min.
• • •
Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use the comic format for reading practice. At the end of the lesson, SS will be able to read and comprehend the writing style of L. Carrol and fit their ideas related to the reading impression into a condensated format. Discussion: T asks SS if they know what the story contained in the book is about, what characters appear there and what actions take place in the book. Together they bring the information. Reading: T brings photocopies of graded reading book of Alice in Wonderland adapted for A2 levelled SS and
• • • • •
divide the class into groups of two or, if the class is small, individuals. Each group is assigned a chapter to work on. SS read in pairs or individually the content of the chapter and ask for unknown expressions. After this stage, they are asked to make an outline of what happened. Modelling: T presents to SS the new resource showing it on a projector screen connected to a PC with Internet access. As an example, T shows SS how to create a comic and produces a sample on using the widest range of options for designing the comic to give them a clear idea of how to work with the comic strip creator. Preparation: T asks SS to come up with a list of scenes, a script, and a storyboard based on the content of the chapter and define 4 panels as a basis for the comic. Lesson flow: SS following T’s instructions to produce a comic strip build their own comic based on the outcome of the previous stage. They choose characters, settings, and complete speech bubbles. After this, they email their results to T’s email address. Output: T receives to his email account SS’s comics. These are printed and ordered according to the chapter sequence. SS go through them and are asked to retell the Alice story by looking at the comics and imagining what happened. SS working on the strip can correct or complete the story. Follow-up: As a final step, a PPT presentation using the comic strips can be built as an e-book and placed in a storage place for presentation (e.g. www.slideshare.net).
Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 7 - A Mad Tea-Party.
Other issues Building digital comics in which the characters speak for the creator also provides a mechanism to help autistic and deaf students to communicate. Useful tips
•
A European project EduComics http://www.educomics.org created resources and case studies in using digital comics in education. • Teachers' forum Teaching Degree. Article “Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers”. Includes numerous links to get more information about the comics in the classroom www.teachingdegree.org/2009/07/05/comics-in-the-classroom-100-tips-tools-and-resources-for-teachers • Find a list of tools at https://sites.google.com/site/onlinecomicstools Other digital comic Internet resources: • Dvolver Moviemaker – a more sophisticated cartoon tool • Concept Cartoon www.conceptcartoons.com - Teaching examples using comics • ΚΑΒΑΜ! Comic Creator www.bam.gov/sub_yourlife/yourlife_comiccreator.html - Interactive self assessment using comics. .
Resource Number 19
URL
Toondoo
www.toondoo.com
Category VII
Keywords
Writing skills training
digital comic, writing, creative, language
Rationale Enhancing writing and creative literacy skills are an important support to many aspects of learning. Digital comics offer a way to experiment and utilize these skills in a way that removes constraints caused by psychological barriers to production in L2 learners and minimize stress connected to productive skills as this instrument allows them to express contents confidently through the comic characters. A digital comic utilizes the included clipart and images to support a learner's story and allows a professional result that a learner can feel proud of displaying, even if his writing skills are minimal. This is particularly true with language learners. The tool helps maximise the use of simple language for lower-levelled students, but as well to use a variety of language registers for the higher-levelled ones. Its enjoyable format also helps enhance student’s motivation to learn languages by using an active learning tool. The possibility to quickly produce results and edit results is a second advantage. Description Toondoo is based on a Flash download in the browser. The website also includes other tools that can be used with the comic generation tool, these include make a Toonbook, make a Character, digitally edit a user imported image, add user generated image. There is also a large repository of user created cartoons and other users can comment on created cartoons. Completed cartoons can also be embedded on other websites. The tool is available on the website and has many features and tools. You can: • Use a very large set of characters, backgrounds, clip art, props etc • Select tools to create user generated images • Import and edit/adapt user images • Add character expressions based on template or user imported image • Email • Edit, save, save as, publish The images placed in each panel can be: • Moved/ Rotated • Scaled • Brought to the front/back • Flipped • Clone/swop a panel • Deleted Results can be printed, shared (published) and emailed. Resources required No special equipment is necessary. Obligatory resources • Internet browser and connection • Flash plug-in in the browser Optional resources • Printer if required Cost Free (shop available for upgrading) Setup and Configuration
Requires registration and login. The application is a Flash-based browser tool. After entering the website, you need to register – to select a Username and Password and type in also your email address in case you forget the password. Styling A complex interface with many included resources and the possibility for user generated images, text, ebooks etc. • In the section TOONS, you can choose between composing your own comics called toons, see the most popular, viewed, recent, argued toons etc. for inspiration. When you enter Create toon, you can start creating your own comic quite easily. • In the section BOOKS, can be seen again the most popular, recent, argued. If selected Create book you can start your own comic book. • In both cases, icons symbolizing basic functions of the programme – adding a character, resizing it, adding objects – can be easily spotted and used for effectuating the requested action. Navigation and operation Navigation can, initially, be a little confusing as the website has many tools available and the cartoon maker is not prominently displayed. Once registration is complete and the user has logged in and opened the application, the use is simple.
Implementation methodology Lessons based on exploitation of the digital comic format can be done directly in the lesson, in the language classroom equipped with computers or equally, completed as homework. Students can work either individually or in groups to come up with a solution. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Have students place value or reflect on a particular experience in a comic strip. • Use comics to talk about holidays, school, work, etc. • Illustrate a language problem. • Have a character to go through a vocabulary SS were taught in the lesson. • Have a character to explain a grammar point. • Create a comic book using the strips created by students. Students may serialize their comics by creating a new. strip each day as part of a continuing story. • Encourage students to use comic’s characters to comment on local or national events, cultural life, social trends. • Create a comic in which the characters deal with a topic or problem given which might be personal or wider social. The results can be printed or emailed, and/or placed in the classroom. Another possibility is to select the best comic between all the students and place them on the school websites or school magazine. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Using digital strips for creative form of viewing the Endangered Animals topic Age group: Children (aged 10 -14) Number of students involved: 15 Duration: 90 min.
• • •
Introduction: T presents the goal of today lesson – to use the comic format for creative work on the topic of endangered species. Lead in: T starts a discussion with SS about the topic of endangered animals. Together they bring the information. Modelling: T presents to SS the new resource showing it on a projector screen connected to a PC with Internet access. As an example, T shows SS how to create a comic and produces a sample on using the widest range of options for designing the comic to give them a clear idea of how to work with the comic strip creator.
• •
• •
Preparation: T asks SS to come up with a list of scenes, a script, and a storyboard and define 4 panels as a basis for the comic. Lesson flow: Guide students' research by starting them off with the following questions to answer: What sort of animals belong to endangered species? What problems have to face exotic animals nowadays? What are the reasons? What can be done about it? SS following T’s instructions build a comic based on the questions given. They can choose characters, settings, and complete speech bubbles. After this, they send their final products to T’s email address. Output: T gets to his email account SS’s comics. These are printed and ordered according to the chapter sequence. SS go through them and a small competition may be held in order to choose the most appealing one. SS can design an informative chart and display there their works to share information about this topic with the rest of class. Follow up: The best comic can be embedded to Blog, e.g. www.blogger.com.
Other issues Building digital comics in which the characters speak for the creator also provides a mechanism to help autistic and deaf students to communicate. Useful tips
• •
• .
A European project EduComics (www.educomics.org) created resources and case studies in using digital comics in education. Teachers' forum Teaching Degree. Article “Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers”. Includes numerous links to get more information about the comics in the classroom http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/07/05/comics-in-the-classroom-100-tips-tools-and-resources-forteachers Find a list of tools at https://sites.google.com/site/onlinecomicstools
Resource Number 2
URL
WiZiq
www.wiziq.com
Category I
Keywords
Communication and Web-conferencing tools
communication, web-conferencing, live interaction, education online, virtual classroom, e-teaching, e-learning,
Rationale Most of the current major educational approaches call for extensive, meaningful collaboration and interaction as vital component of the learning process and teachers' professional development. For teachers, collegiality breaks the isolation of the classroom and brings career rewards and daily satisfactions. Teachers who work closely together on matters of instruction find themselves better equipped for classroom work and take considerable satisfaction from these professional interactions, Virtual classrooms are perceived in this sense as being very important. WiZiQ is unique in the way that it is not only a tool but a set of tools for teachers and students stringed together in a web 2.0 social networking interface. as it caters exclusively to education. Description WiZiQ is an online teaching and learning platform, which provides a free virtual environment for users interact online and communicate in real time. WiZiQ’s target audience is teachers (Virtual Classroom). Nevertheless, it can be easily used for online conferences and meetings, too. The tool features the most common web conferencing solutions: • Schedule and conduct Virtual Classroom: live audio-video communication options, integrated chat, file sharing (presentations, PDFs, images, etc.), and live session recording capabilities for self or for attendees. • Store audio, video, and writing tools and share contents as "public" or "private". • Take advantage of the multiple whiteboards plus effective and intuitive whiteboard toolbars to see what the trainer or teacher is demonstrating. This allows for easily setting up an environment to learn in. • Create interactive questions and tests, interact in communities. • Browse through gallery of educational tutorials by tags and categories (Business, Undergrad, ICT, Professional development, Career, etc). • Maintain a content library, which is associated with their profiles, by uploading PowerPoint presentations, Word, Excel, PDF and other file formats. • Users can also build a profile, keep an availability schedule. • Share and embed presentations/tutorials on your website. • Import and invite contacts from Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail. Resources required The same as for other communication systems on the web, running WiZiQ requires: Obligatory resources • Desktop Computer/Laptop • Internet Connection (broadband) • Creating an account on WiZiQ (www.wiziq.com) • Adobe Flash Player • Headphone and microphone or headset Optional resources • Web camera
Cost Partially Free: The application offers two plans – one for free members with limited range of tools and second for premium paying members. The platform offers the Premium members 30-day free trial for all plans. The paid plans include plans for individual teachers and trainers wishing to use WiZiQ for business reasons and organizations. Plans for inviduals
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Solo Plus: $9.95/month – Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), 5 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. • Solo Pro: $19.95/month – Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), 50 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), 15 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. • Solo Unlimited: $39.95/month – Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), • Unlimited attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), 40 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, • 1-business day email support. Plans for Organizations • Org Small: $39.95/month - 3 Teacher accounts, 50 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), Admin console, 40 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. • Org Medium: $79.95/month – 10 Teacher accounts, 100 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), Admin console, 80 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. • Org large: $199.95/month - 25 Teacher accounts,
1. Unlimited attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), •
2.
Admin console, 200 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce,
3. 1-business day e-mail support. Setup and Configuration Works in Flash format and requires no installation on the client side. To use the application, you must register. To create your account in WiZiQ , first click on Join Now. Fill in the blanks with your name, email address, and password. Keep this information with you, it will be asked when joining a class in WiZiQ. WiZiQ will request further information from you, fill in the blanks and tick whether you are a teacher or a student. If you are a teacher, click on ‘Teaching or Training’. If you are a student, click on ‘Learning’; and then submit. If you are a student, WiZiQ will ask you further questions. Fill in the blanks if necessary; if not, Skip this step. You can find your friends in the net, make contacts and invite others to join WiZiQ. If you just want to attend a conference, skip this step and come back later.
Getting into virtual room: To get into the virtual room once you have registered, go to the main menu and click on Classes. Then, click on Upcoming classes to join the conference. If you are late, click on Live now. Finally, click on Launch Class to get into the virtual room. After connecting to the server, you will see a screen with a chronometer indicating time left for session to start. Click on Device Settings to set up your audio and video features. Then you will see the corresponding options to test your speakers (headset) and microphone. In Video Device, chose the camera option if available. Finally, click on OK. Observe the icons you have on the upper menu, the tools on your left, the column on your right and the text chat box on the lower side of the screen. Styling WiZiQ does not allow many customisation features. Users can build their own profiles as a summary of their teaching and training experience, educational qualification, expertise, interests, association and awards, teaching preferences,
publication and research, etc. Navigation and operation WiZiQ might look for the first time slightly confusing but in fact, all the features are well-organised. The home page contains a number of very helpful tutorials guiding you through the features on offer and how to use them effectively. The following is a screenshot of such a tutorial: WiZiQ’s features for teachers and trainers • • • • • • •
Complete online teaching management system to its registered teachers without installing any software. Teachers get their own virtual classroom at no costs (in case of public courses). Ability to schedule a session online through a calendar at teachers’ convenience. Teachers can interact with students through an online whiteboard to share text or documents, and through a twoway audio and text chat. Teachers can build their professional profile. Provides ability to conduct one-on-one or group sessions online. Payments from learners can be accepted.
•
Teachers can maintain a learners’ corner.
Implementation methodology WiZiQ is a platform supporting collaboration between both teachers and/or learners. There is a plethora of different ways in which this tool could be integrated in an L2 environment. The following points comprise a brief list of some of the aforementioned ways: • • • • •
•
Teaching/ Learning ideas Share teaching and training experience with people all over the world synchronously. Provides opportunity to pursue (free) professional development in online learning. Participating in presentations actively / review presentations already given. Giving presentations. Implementing lessons with learners of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds from all over the world. Familiarisation with technology as an integral part of modern society.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Teacher training course Lesson title: Scheduling online session on WiZiQ Level: Teachers Age group: Adults Number of students involved:25 Duration: According to duration desired • Introduction: The trainer explains the goal of the workshop: be able to design online workshops and sessions on WiZiQ. After a short discussion about possibilities of professional development in online environment, the trainer introduces the application and its features. He invites the participants to enter the page and create their own free accounts on WiZiQ. • Lesson flow: Participants working in pairs are explained the basic steps that must be followed to schedule a class: 1) Go to Classes tab and click on ‘Schedule a Class’ link.
2) Fill in details like Title of the class or About the class. You find a date and time by default. If you want a different date and time, enter them in the relevant fields marked for them.
3) Decide whether you want to hold classes only for your students, and then click on ‘Private’, or if you are
•
willing to welcome new student contacts, choose your class as 'Public'. A public class is first approved by WiZiQ administrator and is then listed (as WiZiQ Public Class) on the WiZiQ Public Class page. 4) Finally, click on ‘Schedule and Continue’ button. This schedules your class. 5) As soon as your class gets scheduled, you may invite your students to the class. You may choose to invite your webmail contacts. 6) Finally, on the scheduled date and time, you have to launch your class to enter the Virtual Classroom. It is a good idea to open the classroom 10 minutes before the scheduled time in order to test headsets and get accustomed to the platform. Follow-up: Trainer shows the participants how to handle some useful features like the whiteboard for live writing and drawing, using live videos and audios or shifting classroom control to other participants, at the discretion of the instructor/moderator. Follow-up discussion is opened then and all the questions are answered by the trainer.
Other issues
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•
If you are a premium member, you can create both public and private courses on WiZiQ. A private course does not appear listed in the WiZiQ marketplace and allows only invited students to enroll. A public course, on the other hand, gets listed in the WiZiQ marketplace and is open for anyone to see and participate. Your invitees need to register before entering the virtual classroom.
Useful tips
• •
The modules and video tutorials for installing and using the modules are available here: www.wiziq.com/downloads/moodle If you have a blog on Blogger or Blogspot, you can embed the WiZiQ class on your blog.
Resource Number 20
URL
Posterous
http://posterous.com
Category VIII
Keywords
Audio resources
posting, audio files, video files, listening
Rationale Nowadays people want to share different formats of information through the Internet and Posterous is an easy way how to do it. You can send a file of any format and Posterous will accept it and automatically convert it to the most web friendly format available. It is possible to send audio and video files, documents, links and photos. Description Through Posterous you can upload images, audio and video files, links and documents. Posterous lets you post things online fast using email. You send email at post@posterous.com and Posterous replies instantly with your new Posterous site. If you use email, you can have your own website to share thoughts and media with friends, family and the world. There are no limits to what you can post. Posterous will accept any file you send and convert it to the most web friendly format available. It will host everything and publish it online instantly. You can attach any type of file and it will be posted along with the text of your email. You get up to 1 GB of total space for personal use. When you approach 1 GB, the application will contact you and if you need the space they will increase your limit. Resources required
¨
Obligatory resources • desktop computer or laptop • reliable and stable Internet connection • download of the programme Posterous (for download go to http://posterous.com) Optional resources • mobile phone • iPad • iPhone Cost Completely free Setup and Configuration First of all you have to register and set up a user account. It is necessary to have a valid email. After you activate your user account by clicking on an activating email sent by Posterous to your email address you can get started posting. You can easily switch to Posterous from other blog and posting networks. Styling You can customize your Posterous account by selecting a theme, editing colours of text, post title, link, date and background. You can also upload a header image, use mobile themes, choose a number of posts per page and view posts in reverse.
Navigation and operation Posterous has a very useful feature Autopost. If you also use other networks as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and others you can post only to Posterous by email and it will automatically update all the other networks you are a part of. Implementation methodology The application is ideal as it offers a simple web presence you can send your students and parents for quick and simple information which might be enriched with multimedia content. Teaching/Learning ideas:
•
• • • • • • •
Share useful documents, song saved as an MP3 or web link you want to share with students or educators. Store materials and resources. Host online discussions: By setting up a blog you can also start an online discussion panels. Participants can comment on the blog posts and share points of view. Replace your newsletter: Blog can be also a space for publishing class information, news, events or recommend links or activities. Encourage students to blog and contribute to class blog. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions. Integrate recorded parts of lessons or speeches for others to view. Get feedback from students, educators or parents.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: A1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Finger puppet plays parade on Posterous Age group: Children (aged 8 to 11) Number of students involved: 10 Duration: 90 minutes
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•
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Introduction: SS will work together in groups to perform a very simple finger puppet play. Posterous will be used to upload and share the video with classmates and parents. T presents to SS the aim of the lesson which is: 1. To create a very short play with finger puppets, 2. To design simple dialogues between two puppets, 3. To use a mobile device to capture the little plays. 4. To utilize Posterous application to upload the plays to a school on-line space. Lesson flow: The classroom is divided into groups. T asks SS to decide upon the characters and plot of the play. Each group needs to select characters and think of a short story. SS rehearse their plays and when they feel they are ready for it, they record the plays on their mobile phones and send the file to Posterous email address to get them uploaded. SS compose a short email telling basic facts about their small play, write the main protagonists and the plot. T can provide help if SS are not sure how to do it. Posterous will accept the files and publish it online in the most web friendly format available. It will be posted along with the text of the email. Follow-up: The plays can be viewed online. These can be commented using Twitter or Facebook.
Other issues You can allow users to comment upon the Posterous blog using their Facebook (www.facebook.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) credentials.
. Resource Number 22
URL
Wordle
www.wordle.net
Category 9
Keywords
Funny Text-based Tasks
word processing, spelling, word formation, collaboration
Rationale Maintaining students´ motivation and attention is very important for effective language learning. Improving writing skills is necessary for students´ future professional development. Using Wordle enables teachers to put these two necessities together. By active approach and participation in a task students will widen their vocabulary, learn how to spell properly and also develop and improve their collaborative skills. Description Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. If you choose to save your Wordle cloud to the online gallery, a link appears after doing so and you can paste the link into your blog or home page to link to the Wordle. The Wordle front page will never feature images or links that are inappropriate for classroom use. Therefore, it's possible to configure an institution's "site-blocking" software to keep Wordle safe for classroom use. Simply have your networking administrator block the following base URLs: • http://www.wordle.net/gallery • http://www.wordle.net/next • http://www.wordle.net/random and your users will not be inadvertently shown anything that's not safe for classrooms.
Resources required There is no need to install any additional software to your computer. Obligatory resources: • desktop computer or laptop • reliable and stable Internet connection • Java web-browser plugin (you must ensure that Java applets are enabled in your browser) Cost
Completely free Setup and Configuration To start using Wordle, you do not need to set up an account or register. You only operate within your internet browser. All you have to do is to go to www.wordle.net and click on Create on the main page. Make sure you have installed Java web-browser plugin to your computer and that Java applets are enabled in your browser. If Java does not work on your computer, neither will Wordle. Test if Java is working on your computer on http://www.java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp Styling In terms of styling, Wordle supports many formatting features. There are many options in font size and styles. You can also choose from different layouts and colours of your words. If you click on Randomize, the application will randomly choose different styles of the word cloud you created. If you wish some words to be bigger than the others, you need to write them down repeatedly. The more times you repeat the word, the bigger it will be in the created word cloud. That means the more times the word appears in the used text, the bigger it will be in the final cloud. As there is a public gallery of user word clouds, teachers can direct students to browse the gallery for inspiration. Navigation and operation To create your own word cloud you need to go to www.wordle.net and click on Create on the top of the main page. Then you have three options how to create your word cloud: • paste bunch of text in an application window provided • enter the URL of any blog, blog feed, or any other web pate that has an Atom or RSS feed • enter a del.icio.us user name to see their tags If you use the application window, write all words you want to use (using comma or a space among the words) and then click on Go button below the window to create a word cloud. Created word cloud can be printed out or saved to public gallery on Wordle web page. If you enter a blog's URL, the application will create a word cloud using all words found on the blog's front page. If you use URL of any blog feed, the word cloud will be created from words found on the specific page. Entering a del.icio.us user name you create a word cloud using the user's tags. Implementation methodology Wordle can be used in the classroom as additional activity to maintain students´ motivation and attention. As it helps practise students´ writing skills and spelling, the teacher may give individual students or small groups of students a task to create a word cloud using different groups of words. Groups of words can be related to different topics worked on within the class. Teaching/Learning ideas: • collaboration on a task with fellow students • practising spelling and writing skills • foreign language learning through creative and active participation Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Creation of word clouds using Wordle Age group: upper secondary Number of students involved: 20 Duration: project work - 1 week deadline
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The aim of the lesson is to ask students to use a group of words related to a specific topic and use Wordle to create a word cloud. Students can work individually, in small groups or pairs. Group work maintains collaboration among students. The lesson will be based on online collaborative writing. Warm-up: Present the topic of the lesson – creating a word cloud; direct students to www.wordle.net and show them some of the created clouds in Wordle gallery for inspiration. Lesson flow: Students are shown how to create their own word clouds and are shown the gallery of already created clouds. Students are given a word group related to a specific topic and are asked to make a list of words they would like to use. Writing, creating a word cloud: After searching the Wordle gallery to gain inspiration, each group of students will start creating their own cloud. They will use the application window to write as many words as they choose to use or they can think of. Some of the words will be written repeatedly in order to have different size of words in the final cloud. Class management: Students will be divided into pairs or groups of three to work on the task. Students will have one week to work on their tasks online. During the week they will share their ideas using social networks, blogs or email. At the end of the week the students will present their printed word clouds to other groups. When all word clouds are presented, the students will vote for the best one.
Other issues To practise spelling of particular problematic words the teacher can choose a group of verbs in gerund form, plural nouns or adverbs. Useful tips http://translate.google.com – Students might need to translate some words into English or check correct spelling of words www.blogger.com – Student can create their own blogs to share their word clouds with friends.
Resource Number 23
URL
WordItOut
http://worditout.com
Category 9
Keywords
Funny Text-based Tasks
word processing, spelling, word formation, collaboration
Rationale For effective language learning it is very important to maintain students´ motivation and attention. Involving students actively using their creativity also helps to raise attention. Improving writing skills is necessary for students´ future professional development. Using WordItOut enables teachers to put these two necessities together. By active approach and participation in a task students will widen their vocabulary, learn how to spell properly and also develop and improve their collaborative skills. Description WordItOut is a word cloud generator. A word cloud is an arrangement of randomly positioned words, where the most important words are bigger than the others. WordItOut is free to use and no sign up is required. It allows you to customise many settings: • Create word clouds from sentences, whole documents, web addresses or tables • Decide how to filter the text, which words to display or remove, and tweak their importance with ease • Design your word cloud as you wish, find the perfect layout, choose your own colours, fonts and sizes, or let WordItOut find a random look of your cloud You can also keep control of your word clouds: • Share your word cloud with the world or keep it secret • Easily embed them on your own website • Download your own copy as an image file • Get any word cloud as a present or gift on a T-shirt, card or more You can embed your word cloud on your own website or blog, or save it as an image to your computer. To save the word cloud to your computer you need to save it on WordItOut first (this requires only your email address, no sign-up). After saving your cloud on WordItOut you click on Download button to save your own copy to your computer. WordItOut enables you to make multi-word phrases by using tilde "~" and/or underscore "_" to link the words. These symbols are replaced with a non-breaking space which will keep words together. Resources required There is no need to install any additional software to your computer. Obligatory resources: • desktop computer or laptop • reliable and stable Internet connection Cost Completely free Setup and Configuration To start using WordItOut, there is no need to set up an account or sign up. You only operate within your internet browser. All you have to do is to go to http://worditout.com and get started creating your own word clouds. You can enter a document, a web address, a simple sentence, or even a table (common formats are recognised). There is a gallery of already created word clouds which might help you to create your own cloud. Styling WordItOut offers many formatting features. You can either use Random settings and Redraw buttons above your created word cloud where you can also set target (the point where your words centre around), or there is a table with settings just below your word cloud where you can customize: • word list settings • colours of the cloud's background and the words • font and size of the text
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layout of your word cloud
Navigation and operation To create your own word cloud you need to visit http://worditout.com. On the main very well-arranged page there is a Create your own button or Create bookmark. When you click on either of them you can start creating a word cloud. You can enter a document, a web address, a simple sentence, or a bunch of words in the application window that appears on the top of the page. After entering the text you wish to use, click on Word it out! button in the right top corner of the page and your cloud will be created in a few seconds. Then you can customize your cloud. Implementation methodology WordItOut can be used in the classroom as additional activity to maintain students´ motivation and attention. As it helps practise students´ writing skills and spelling, the teacher may give individual students or small groups of students a task to create a word cloud using different groups of words, or even a story or an article. Groups of words or an article can be related to different topics worked on within the class. Teaching/Learning ideas: • collaboration on a task with fellow students • practising spelling and writing skills • foreign language learning through creative and active participation Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Creation of word clouds using Wordle Age group: upper secondary Number of students involved: 18 Duration: project work - 1 week deadline • The aim of the lesson is to ask students to write a story related to a specific topic and use the text to create a word cloud. Students will be asked to work in pairs or small groups. Group work maintains collaboration among students. The lesson will be based on online collaborative writing. • Warm-up: Present the topic of the lesson – creating a word cloud using WordItOut; direct students to http://worditout.com and show them some of the created clouds in WordItOut gallery for inspiration. • Lesson flow: Students are shown how to create their own word clouds and are shown the gallery of already created clouds. Each group of students is given a specific topic which they should use to write a story they will later use to create a word cloud. • Writing, creating a word cloud: After deciding on a plot the group starts writing their story using a word processor to save the story on their computers first. • Class management: Students will be divided into groups of three or four to work on the task. Students will have one week to work on their tasks online. During the week they will share their ideas and pass along the text document using social networks, blogs or email. Each student in the group will have his/her own task – one part of
the story (the beginning, main plot, solution, the end). They will take turns in writing the story so each student in the group will have the document for a day and will write his/her part. On the last day of the task week the group will make final editing of the story and will create a word cloud entering the story in WordItOut text window. All created word clouds can be placed on school websites or printed out and presented in the class. The students can then vote for the best one. Other issues The teacher might advise the students to write only a page long story in order not to slow down the process of entering the text in WordItOut application window too much and also to limit the amount of used words. Useful tips http://translate.google.com – Students might need to translate some words into English or check correct spelling of words. www.blogger.com – Student can create their own blogs to share their word clouds with friends.
Resource Number 24
URL
Diigo
http://www.diigo.com
Category X
Keywords
Social bookmarking tools
online reading, offline reading, website browsing
Rationale It is a known fact that project-based learning is an effective way to teach students and cultivate their skills of finding, organizing, synthesizing, and presenting information, as well as the social skills of working in groups, all of which are necessary in the knowledge-based economy. Diigo is a great tool for this kind of exploratory and collaborative learning. On the Internet there is an inexhaustible amount of information and it is very difficult sometimes to find what we are looking for. Sometimes we need to travel from one place to another and search a website but do not have an access to the Internet. Therefore it is important to find our bearing and save all important information in case we need it later. Diigo comes with useful tools as Bookmarks, Capture feature, Highlights, Sticky notes, Screenshot and a lot more. We can save all important web pages, bookmark them and read them offline, highlight important parts of the text, make our own notes and send them to others. Description Diigo is a cloud based personal information management system. It provides users with tools on all main web browsers, Android, iPad and iPhone to help you to collect and access a variety of information. All the items you collect from anywhere are saved and stored in My Library on a Diigo server. Diigo offers useful tools while reading online. It allows you to add digital highlights and interactive sticky notes in the text. You can bookmark a page and use tags to find it easily and upload the web page into an archive using a snapshot to read it later. The page is saved as HTLM as well as an image. You can also capture a part of a text with shapes, arrows and added text. This is an easy way to share visual notes with others. With Diigo Offline Reader for iPhones you can download web pages and files, access and search your Bookmarks and read them offline when there is no Internet access. Thanks to Giigo you can collect, organize and access any information anywhere.
Resources required To download and install Diigo we need a computer, Android, iPad or iPhone with Internet access. After installing and creating an archive of websites we do not need the Internet access anymore and can operate it offline. Only a basic functional Internet connection is needed. Diigo is easy to operate and does not require any special skills. Obligatory resources • desktop computer, laptop, Android, iPad or iPhone • reliable and stable Internet connection to download the program and useful websites • download of the programme Diigo (for download go to www.diigo.com) Cost Partially free Registration, setting an account and all tools are provided free of charge. Some of the tools are limited by a number of uses
per month or year. You can buy unlimited use of these tools, e.g. unlimited screen capture and annotation, save image from a webpage or number of highlights, and set up a premium account. Setup and Configuration After registration you can set up your account. You can decide if you want to open a link from you bookmarks in the same or a new window after clicking on it, if you wish all Diigo users or only your friends to send you messages, if you want the messages to be forwarded to your email, you can or do not have to receive emails when someone starts following you and you decide if everyone or no one can follow you. You can set up a group for your company, class or a team where you can share information with a group of people. You can also set up an educator account and create a group for your students. Styling Using a Diigo Toolbar you can choose from different colours of highlights. Setting up your user account you can upload a profile picture to your account and save some personal information about yourself. Navigation and operation Navigation is intuitive and as a mature tool is normally reliable and consistent. The main window is clearly-organized and the icons visibly marked. By clicking on My Library you can start by adding new bookmark, image or note. In My Network it is possible to search for updates from your contacts and be in touch with the people you follow. In My groups you can set up your own collaborative Diigo group which allows to search through bookmarks, highlights and sticky notes. Diigo enables you to share the content via Twitter, www.twitter.com, Facebook, www.facebook.com, or posts it directly to a blog account like Wordpress, www.wordpress.com. Implementation methodology First you have to register and set up a user account on www.diigo.com and install Diigo Toolbar into your computer, Android, iPad or iPhone. After installing Diigo Toolbar you can start using it. After free download of Diigo to the computer, you must create a user account. To set up a personal Diigo account choosing a username and password is required. After setting up your account you can follow your friends by searching their usernames or you can set up a group and share information with a group of people. Teaching/Learning ideas: Diigo is an effective tool for teaching. Its features allow educators to: • Highlight critical features in text and images. • Write comments directly on the web pages. • Collect and organize series of web pages and web sites into consistent and thematic sets. • Facilitate online conversations within the context of the materials themselves. • Teachers can collaborate and share resources among themselves. Diigo is a new kind of online research and collaborative research tool that integrates tags and folders, highlighting and clipping, sticky notes, and group-based collaboration. It enables a whole new process of online knowledge management, learning, and teaching in the 21st century. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: A2 of CEFR Lesson Title: Using social bookmarking tools to prepare a term essay on famous inventions and inventors Age group: Teenagers (aged 14 -17) Number of students involved: 15 Duration: 90 min.
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Introduction: SS will work together in groups to learn information about inventions and their inventors. Diigo will be used to organize and share their information with classmates. T presents to SS the aim of the lesson which is: 1. To conduct a research and become familiar with famous inventions they already know, 2. To conduct a research and become familiar with famous inventions that is new to SS, 3. To use Diigo to organize and collect the information that will be needed to complete their project. 4. To utilize bookmarks, captures and highlights in order to organize information. Lesson-flow: T asks SS to research two famous inventions. The classroom is divided into groups. Each group needs to select one invention that they know anything about, and one invention that they are totally unfamiliar with. All research must be completed on the Internet and Diigo must be used to compile the research and share with
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teammates. Found materials must be shared with others in the class. SS need to search for information to provide answers for answers in the worksheet which will be handed in to SS. The answers need to be complete sentences. Worksheet: T creates for SS a simple worksheet containing a basic guideline for SS throughout their task. Some of the possible points for SS to consider might be: Name of the invention. Who invented this? When was this invented? Why was this invented? Have you ever used this invention? Circle "yes" or "no." If "Yes", explain how your life would be different if this had never been invented. Follow-up: SS complete their worksheets and display the results on school blog (e.g. www.blogger.com).
Other issues This application is particularly helpful for teachers or students wanting to conduct a specific research. The basic service is for free and is a great way to build a body of links and resources for a paper or any written assignment. The marked content can be shared with teachers or peers for review as well.
Resource Number 25
URL
Delicious
http://www.delicious.com
Category X
Keywords
Social bookmarking tool
social, bookmarking, storing and sharing information
Rationale These days Web pages are mushrooming and it is becoming very difficult to keep track of every interesting piece of information, every memorable image or worthwhile site one comes across. People are using different computers – at home, at work, at internet cafes, etc. and the bookmarking tool available from their browser may no longer be an option in the process of managing and storing important information. This can now be done using a social bookmarking tool such as Delicious – all bookmarks a person has are stored on the Delicious website and can be shared with other people who have Delicious accounts thus making the most of the present-day collaborative use of the internet. Description Delicious (a product of Yahoo) is a social bookmarking tool. It is designed in a way that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. Delicious users can add "tags" to their bookmarks (tags can be used to find these bookmarks later). Users of Delicious can also view the bookmarks of all other users featuring a particular tag. In short, Delicious can be used as a tool that helps users build their own “catalogue” of information relevant to them and it also allows them to benefit from others’ “catalogues” as well as share their own findings. Resources required There are no special resources required here apart from a desktop computer or a laptop and reliable and stable Internet connection. Obligatory resources • Delicious add-ons for the browser you are using • a Yahoo ID Cost Free Setup and Configuration Go to http://www.delicious.com/help/tools and download the Delicious Add-Ons and Bookmarking buttons for the browser/website you are using in order to integrate the tool to your browser and start managing your bookmarks. To start using Delicious, you need a Yahoo account so create one if you don’t have one yet (at https://login.yahoo.com - hit the “Create new account” button). Styling There is not much room for personalised styling but the organization of the website is generally reasonable. Navigation and operation Overall, the navigation is relatively easy. Delicious helps users to attract followers of people who share the same or similar interests. This leads not just to exchanging information but to exchanging information on a particular focus. Implementation methodology • • •
The tool is suitable for exchanging information searched for according to some special criteria among students (both secondary and higher education). These virtual collections can be built to resemble virtual bibliographical (or any other type) database. They can be used in project-based learning and in various forms of out-of-class individual and group assignments thus allowing both teacher and students to use the web more efficiently. The process of sharing findings among teacher and students and among students themselves and outside users leads to expanding the community of learners.
Teaching/Learning ideas: • Develop classroom collaborative projects. • Assign task-based activities.
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Conduct professional research, collect material for papers or field studies. Orient students towards credible science websites to develop their written assignments. Create personal online dictionaries. Build lists of useful sites for teacher’s and student’s needs. Keep track of useful sites and picking back up when the work has to be interrupted.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Blended learning based on Social Bookmarking and web resources Lesson content: Using social bookmarking tools to track the most useful ESL websites Participating group: Pre-service training of future teachers of English Number of students involved: Immaterial (regular group) Duration: one 30-minute class in a computer room with computers/laptops with internet connection, followed by two 45minute sessions online, followed by a 30-minute session in class.
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Lead-in: Students are introduced to the notion of social bookmarking. Students share their experience in using such tools (if they have none, teacher should be ready to demonstrate a couple of them, e.g. Delicious, Diigo, etc. Students brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of using such tools for educational purposes. Step 1: Students practice downloading the Delicious add-ons and signing in. Step 2: Students are invited to find other people’s bookmarks using the tag “esl”. (See attached screenshot.) Setting the out-of-class task: Students are asked to: 1.) Browse internet resources already tagged with “esl” and rate them according to their practical applicability as sources of extra materials that can be used in class with secondary students of English 2.) Browse the Internet in order to identify three resources that can be of help in terms of methodology support and tag them with “esl teaching tips” using Delicious 3.) Look though the bookmarks with the same tag their colleagues have made and decide on the top 5 bookmarked resources. Summary (back in class): students report on their findings and reflect on the experience.
Other issues • •
Arbitrary nature of tags might be difficult to track down the most relevant information when looking through other people’s bookmarks. Delicious tags must have no spaces, e.g. PersonalDevelopment
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The social and sharing side is very important to exploit but might be difficult to set up.
Useful tips •
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It’s important to establish how many students are already used to using Delicious and invite them to be co-tutors during Steps 1 & 2. Ability to see what your colleagues are tagging is inspiring and helps to grow professionally.
Resource Number 3
URL
Vyew
www.vyew.com
Category I
Keywords
Communication and Web-conferencing tools
communication, web-conferencing, phone calls
Rationale Collaboration and interaction are both important aspects in language learning as well as professional development. They promote autonomy and lead to better and swifter internalization of knowledge, which can also go beyond descriptive rules and linguistic features, due to the fact that they are based on the learning theory of constructivism. Colleagues/Teachers-Learners interacting and exchanging opinions, experiences, ideas and knowledge is bound to lead to motivation and genuine learning as opposed to the theory of instructionism. Description Vyew is an online VLE, which allows users to meet online and collaborate on a project synchronously or asynchronously. Documents, pictures, files, and/or videos can be uploaded and shared/used by all the people who have been invited to join in and contribute to a specific project/discussion or lesson. In addition, presentations and webinars can be hosted, viewed and reviewed (even at a later stage) using a full set of drawing, commenting and discussion tools, such as recording messages, writing comments, drawing shapes, importing pictures, etc. Participants in such online events can: • Directly download the materials used in the presentation/lesson/meeting in real time. • Revisit already given presentations/ lessons by entering the appropriate URL address in the navigation bar of their browser. • View and download the materials used in a presentation/lesson which has been given/taught in the past. • Review and comment on presentations/lessons which has been given/taught in the past. Vyew terminology: room = online classroom (in previous versions if still using them called a vyewbook)
Resources required The same as for other communication systems on the web, running Adobe Connect requires: Obligatory resources • Desktop Computer/Laptop • Internet Connection (broadband) • Creating an account on Vyew (www.vyew.com) Optional resources • Headphone and microphone or headset • Web camera Cost Partially Free: With regard to features, there is no difference between the free Vyew and the paid Vyew versions. The same tools are at the users’ disposal in either version. Some differences between the two versions are: • The number of participants in the same room (synchronous use). • The room is not cluttered with advertisements.
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The number of pages available to the users. The capability of hosting more meetings than one at the same time (Pro-version only). Custom branding and interface skinning.
Setup and Configuration Vyew is easy to setup and configure. First, you need to visit www.vyew.com and create your account by clicking on the “Sign up” button in the top right corner of your screen. Then, you will need to register by typing in your email address and a password of your choice. Next, you will be presented with all the different versions Vyew provides you with, i.e. ‘Free’, ‘Plus’, and ‘Professional’ versions. You need to click on the option of your desire and then click on the ‘Continue’ button to proceed. Finally, you will see the following message on your screen provided you have filled in all the previous gaps with the correct information. You should go to the email account you have entered and open the confirmation email you have been sent in order to activate your account. Once you have completed all the steps mentioned above, you can log in on Vyew and watch some very interesting and helpful tutorials on using your Rooms effectively to the maximum of the software’s capacity.
Styling Vyew cannot be adapted unless you opt for either the ‘Plus’ or ‘Professional’ version which are not free. If you do so, you can change the colour of the interface to match your brand colour or even put your logo in a banner in the Vyew interface. Navigation and operation Vyew has been redesigned in a very user-friendly mode in order to assist even those who are not computer savvy. The home page contains a number of very helpful tutorials guiding you through the features on offer and how to use them effectively. Implementation methodology Vyew is a platform supporting collaboration between both teachers and/or learners. There is a plethora of different ways in which Vyew could be integrated in an L2 environment. The following points comprise a brief list of some of the aforementioned ways: • • • • • •
Teaching/ Learning ideas Communicating with people from every niche of the world synchronously or asynchronously. Exchanging opinions, ideas, and experiences thus promoting collaborative elaboration. Participating in presentations actively / review presentations already given. Giving presentations. Implementing lessons with learners of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds from all over the world. Familiarisation with technology as an integral part of modern society.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English
Lesson title: Thought on criminality developed through Vyew Level: Teenagers Age group: 15 – 19 Number of students involved:30 Duration: variable • Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson: 1) Develop Speaking skills: Practise learners’ fluency (sustained speech) commenting on offered solutions to tackle the issue of criminality; 2) Using functional language (standardized lexical chunks) to agree/ disagree & justify their answers. The learners have had a lesson revolving around the context of criminality and have been introduced to certain topic-related lexis through an authentic piece of text. They have also discussed the topic regarding its gravity and have looked into several cases where members of a community have taken measures to tackle the problems they face. They have been exposed to the language described in the aims and have received appropriate practice. •
Lesson flow: Example A: The teacher has decided to set up a Vyew meeting where learners will meet (any time convenient for them) and do the following: Read a text offering solutions to the problem. Give their opinion on the text using a recording feature at their disposal on the platform. Listen to their peers’ comments and comment on them as well. Example B (in case there is an additional aim, i.e. turn-taking skills): The teacher sets up a meeting for all the class to meet at the same time (synchronous) and do the following: • Read a text offering solutions to the problem. • Give their opinion on the text using a headset. • Listen to their peers’ comments and comment on them as well. Example C: Watch a short video walking you through a teacher’ preparation for an online reading lesson using Vyew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyRmOzr2yVE
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In the interim, the teacher monitors the development of the discussion and perhaps prompts less talkative / willing learners to join in. Follow-up: Feedback could be implemented either right after the end of the discussion or in the next lesson. For instance, learners could be asked to play the role of the teacher and prepare corrections for their peers thus promoting a “Learning by Teaching” constructivist method.
Other issues Training learners how to use the platform effectively is of essence. Poor training might eventually lead to the learners not being fully aware of all the potentials of Vyew which could give way to demotivation and gradual lack of interest in the web-tool and the concept underlying its use in an L2 environment. Useful tips The following are helpful links demonstrating the wide range of how Vyew can be used to: • Implement online lessons • Hold conferences and meetings with colleagues/students: • Collaborate on projects There are many tutorials for users both on the application website as well as tutorials created by teachers who have made good use of Vyew – here are a few: • Once you register and log into Vyew itself, you will find a series of tutorials which take you through the application step-by-step: http://vyew.com/s • A ning created by a Vyew enthusiast which contains many useful tutorials and examples of lessons; you need to join the ning to view these resources: http://vyewvirtualclassroom.ning.com • Introduction to Vyew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGXDG8q51vI .
Resource Number 4
URL
Adobe Connect
www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
Category I
Keywords
Communication and Web-conferencing Tools
communication, web-conferencing, phone calls
Rationale Since communication is the key stone of successful dealing in business, education and life, the need for developing communication on-line technologies is huge. With all the web conferencing features Adobe Connect offers including the use of whiteboard, or sharing documents and screen, remote group meetings can now be truly collaborative. Description Adobe Connect is an enterprise web conferencing solution for online meetings, eLearning, and webinars used by corporations and government agencies. It's based on Adobe Flash® technology. Within the online environment it provides audio and video communication for small or large teams, for example up to 100 concurrent users. The system can be integrated in enterprise audioconference providers. Besides, Connect shows content (pdf, ppt, and other) and allows interaction with a Whiteboard, sharing of screen, breakdown meeting rooms, and integration in Learning Management Systems as Moodle, Blackboard or Sakai. You can see what is Connect here: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-adobe-connect-8/what-is-adobe-connect-8 Resources required The same as for other communication systems on the web, running Adobe Connect requires: Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Reliable and stable Internet connection (preferably broadband) • Licence for the host, the rest of participants only need Flash 10. Optional resources • Headphone and microphone or headset for computer calls • Built-in or external web camera for video calls Cost Partially: Adobe Connect is free for participants. For hosts there are several pricing solutions. It is recommended to talk directly to sales assistant, as Education sector can have in some countries special prices. Check here: http://www.adobe.com/uk/education You can find examples of purchase plans here: https://service.acrobat.com/cfusion/bots/purchase/index.cfm Now it is possible to buy up to 9 hosts per account. Each host can hold meetings with up to 100 attendees. If an annual plan is chosen, then the costs will be US $45.00/month/host. Setup and Configuration Once the licence is on, the host creates a meeting in the administration backend and he can send an email directly to participants so they can enter the virtual room. The room can be publicly available, private with password or private with URL. To use the system it is needed to have installed Flash 10. Regarding languages, Acrobat Connect Pro is available in English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Simplified Chinese. However, plan descriptions, account management features, and credit card purchase instructions for Acrobat Connect Pro Monthly and Annual and Pay-Per-Use plans are available in English only, and credit card transactions will be processed in U.S. dollars. Styling Customization is possible, under certain plan conditions. Navigation and operation For new users the system can be a little bit difficult first time, as it is based on pods and it is needed a comprehensive vision: for participants, for whiteboard, for chat, for notes. Once this first impression is passed, the use is easy and friendly. A lot of support is available on the web to help users.
Here you can find a list of videos illustrating the operation: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-adobe-connect-8 Implementation methodology Depending on what you want to do through Connect (meetings, webinar, training session), the implementation will be different.The basic idea is that this tool allows the delivery of materials and the communication on live. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Distant learning form of delivering language content. • Blended learning lessons. • Organise training sessions for educators located in various locations at the same time. • Simulate videophone calls and videoconferences in business language lessons. • Practice task-based learning. • Create reusable set of class materials. • Hold project or business meetings. • Invite guest speakers to class conversations. • Promote foreign language learning through reciprocal peer communication. Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English Lesson title: Online meeting with an interesting personality from another country Level: B2 of CEFR Age group: Young adults Number of students involved: 20 Duration: 1 session of 90 minutes
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Prepration: Before class, T creates class materials, including presentations, videos, homework assignments, reference documents, and quizzes using tools available for producing quality online content. T can design an attendance list of enrolled participants. T opens an Adobe Connect meeting room for the needs of the meeting. This room can be reused for more than one class. E-mail invitations. The invitation includes a link to test their connection settings and system requirements. Suggest that students review reading assignments or other prerequisite materials prior to class to promote greater understanding, discussion, or collaboration during the online class. Ask students to come to class with prepared questions for the guest. Lesson flow: When the class begins, change to the Sharing layout and display your class agenda for review. Allow a few minutes to orient students to the Adobe Connect meeting room. After introducing the host, he or she can start going on with the prepared materials and present the topic. After the initial words of the guest, promote discussion and activity. SS ask prepared questions and come up with new ones. Follow-up: When presenting to a large audience, you may get more questions than can be handled so it is a good idea to have an assistant to answer them while the T keeps the meeting on track. The meeting can be recorded.
Other issues When designing video files for use in Adobe Connect, keep in mind that Adobe Flash video (FLV) files can be loaded into an Adobe Connect meeting room Share pod, but to show other video (such as AVI or MOV documents), you must share your desktop and play the video from your computer. For this reason, FLV is the best format for use in Adobe Connect.
A comparative study among four similar systems: Karabulut, A. & Correia, A. (2008). Skype, Elluminate, Adobe Connect, Ivisit: A comparison of Web-Based Video Conferencing Systems for Learning and Teaching. In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 481-484). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. http://www.editlib.org/noaccess/27212 Useful tips Find examples of implementation in different sectors: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm? event=finder&mode=search&loc=en_us&term=connect&submit=Search .
Resource Number 5
URL
VoiceThread
http://voicethread.com
Category II
Keywords
Voice Discussion Tools
languages, audio, language production, writing asynchronous communication
Rationale VoiceThread provides a tool where users can add audio messages (with images or video) in to a conversation or to describe a single topic. Its potential for education is being utilized particularly within languages to make use of the innate and incessant desire of human beings to interact. VoiceThread has two distinct advantages for classrooms that are communicating and collaborating across time and space: 1. It is asynchronous: There is no need to be connected at the same time while adding comments or files. 2. It is engaging and motivating: While digital communication between user through email and discussion boards is based on plane written text, VoiceThread appeals to user in many audiovisual aspects, and in addition, hearing the speakers voice turns the digital communication more personal. This desire to connect provides a unique opportunity for educators to prepare their lessons or present their own ideas and projects. Matching students´ motivation and growing fluency with IT communication tools with required elements of the curriculum represents the first step into space of digital mastery. Description VoiceThread is basically a Web-based media album that allows users to share impressions, opinions or notions through text messages, audio files, images or videos. It enables visitors to make comments on their stories in five different ways: • voice with a microphone • voice with telephone • text • audio file • video with a webcam. Practically, VoiceThread is similar to a text based forum except users leave an audio message instead of a text message and can include their profile image as well. The application allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, and accessed from anywhere in the world or they can be kept private for selected individuals. Resources required To ensure a smooth and high quality voice transmission only a basic functional Internet connection is needed. VoiceThread is user-friendly and very simple and can be handled by even less technically skilled users helping overcome communication anxiety related to the online environment and allowing concentration on the learning process. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Reliable and stable Internet connection (preferably broadband) • Microphone for recording audio Optional resources • Built-in or external web camera Cost Partially • Basic use requires free registration. • VoiceThread has realized the potential for the tool in education and have created paid for options for educators that increase the functionality for schools and classes. The prices start at $60/year or $10/month (single educator) or $1.00 per student per year (school subscription). Setup and Configuration
There is no need for downloading any software, installs or updates. The application runs inside the web browser and makes possible to transform storage of media into a place for a conversation. Conversations are not live but can be held whenever it is convenient for each side of the communication. Website registration is required to save your work. The application has created a throughout guide for teachers to get started with the programme called Educator's Getting Started Guide. It is an introduction to using VoiceThread written by an educator with educators in mind. http://voicethread.com/media/misc/getting_started_educator_mpb.pdf. Styling
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It is possible to upload a personal media from the PC (Powerpoints, images, documents, movie files, PDFs or Excel spreadsheets) or to explore the contents of the existing database accessible in the Media Sources area. The orientation is reasonably easy and the application is manageable enough. All the sections are clearly labelled and organised. It is possible to create a VoiceThread directly from the home page.
Navigation and operation Navigation and operation are clear. Once you have signed in, at the top of the page there can be seen three basic tabs: Browse, Create, and MyVoice. • Browse: By clicking on Browse you can go through all the VoiceThreads ever created that their creators have decided to place in "Browse." You will also have the choice to place yours VoiceThreads in this section or exclude it for more privacy. • Create: By clicking on Create you can start composing your own VoiceThread. After you are done the newly created VoiceThread will appear in the MyVoice tab. • MyVoice: After accessing this tab you will view thumbnails of all your VoiceThreads. The unread comments are signalized by a small yellow quote bubble icon. It is possible to embed a VoiceThread in three different places: 1. In MyVoice can be selected a VoiceThread to be embedded. Click the gear menu icon on your VoiceThread and select Edit. The Embed button appears at the bottom of the screen. 2. While viewing a VoiceThread, click the gear menu icon in the top left corner and select Embed. 3. Select Embed from the final share slide. After getting the embed code, it is necessary to copy it and place it in the website or blog you wish. Implementation methodology To create a new VoiceThread there are several basic steps: 1. Signing in and clicking on Create: it is essential to think of an engaging topic which will promote conversation and discussion between students 2. Uploading of images or video from a user's PC, the web or a weblink: images should relate to the topic and act as incentive to start a conversation 3. Script out opening comments (it is advisable to keep them short) for each image that will contain a question for participants to consider. Scripting comments prior to recording allow organizing the process as well as images in a logical order. 4. Recording of the initial comment using the microphone. 5. Saving and sharing of the voicethread publicly or privately (embedding and email sharing are an option) A further example for educators in particular is called, Where are you? This voicethread has received 2,235 comments from
educators globally http://voicethread.com/?#q.b1191.i13695. Teaching/Learning ideas: • classroom discussions around a topic that will promote conversation and debate between students • presentations about books the students read • professional development training • storytelling based activities with additional multimedia content • virtual class spaces • task-based learning • practising writing skills, sentence composition, vocabulary and spelling as a peripheral competence • foreign language learning through reciprocal peer communication See website examples, includes general education and specifically for languages http://voicethread.com/community/library. Example of implementation Type of lesson: Teacher training session Lesson Title: Using VoiceThread for presenting an EU language project (EuroLib) Number of participants involved: 7 Duration: 45 min
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Introduction: Go to the home page, log in and create a new VoiceThread placing video or picture according to what you would like to present. Lead-in: All participants sign up for free accounts at VoiceThread using valid email addresses. Then they are added as contacts and invited to the VoiceThreads that you make. Lesson flow: Participants are assessed a task to perform. In this case, each participant prepares a short introduction of the project in question for the audience in their home country. They can refer to the video used in the centre and comment on it freely. Their voices are recorded via microphone and their pictures are taken through the built-in webcam. Participants can comment by microphone and text an unlimited number of times. Conclusion: The VoiceThread is enriched by participants´ comments in target languages of the project. The outcome is stored in the page and can be disseminated through the link. Follow-up: If required, participants can evaluate using verbal and visual cues. In disciplines where students create a portfolio of their work, VoiceThread provides the opportunity to create annotated presentations that contain voice, video, and text explanations of what has been done. The final outcomes can be embedded in a classroom blog (www.blogger.com) as well.
EU funded project EuroLib: http://voicethread.com/?#u223711.b1091095.i6054582 Other issues The application might require a rethinking of traditional approaches to assessment as well as spur the conversation by fairly interesting media.
Explaining students the basic principles of operating VoiceThread before starting using it may be taken into account as it takes some time to familiarize with the programme. As with all open tools where users can add content, moderation should be considered. Useful tips Social networking communities for VoiceThread: • VoiceThread - Classroom 2.0 - http://www.classroom20.com/group/voicethread • Digitally Speaking / VoiceThread – wiki http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/w/page/17791585/Voicethread .
Resource Number 6
URL
Voxopop
http://www.voxopop.com
Category II
Keywords
Voice discussion tools
voice discussion, online communication, talkgroups, speaking assessment
Rationale Being an effective L2 communicator requires time, coherent practice and good incentives so that communication skills could be developed, honed and added to an on-going basis. They are the heart of interpersonal skills and building them systematically ensures effective exchange of information. Discussion forums are widely explored within the classroom practice and create essential part of many distance learning environments. The main aim of this voice discussion resource is to bring people together in an on-line environment to provoke thoughtful and constructive discussion among the participants no matter who they are. Voxopop aims to provide that kind of bridge to bring about social change. There is always need to add communication some dynamics, discover new resources to build learning skills to improve your communication, and promote interpersonal relationships. With the addition of voice tools educators can communicate with their students and other teachers by recording and listening to voice messages through a simple graphical user interface online for free. Description Voxopop is a web based audio tool that enables users to record their speaking as well as to comment on an image, video or graphic. In fact, Voxopop is essentially a message board system that uses voice instead of text. Messages are recorded in a group which is referring to the same commenting incentive. These groups are called "talkgroups" - communities of real people discussing various topics using their real voices. There is an option to join an existing community or to create your own. You can even set up a private talkgroup that will be kept aside from the public which might be ideal for classrooms. An invite mechanism has also been added, to help spread the word about your favourite talkgroups. One of its major advantages are: • web-based platform – no need to download any software • ease of use • learn from peers • building learning/teaching community • accessibility and affordability (completely free) Voxopop uses Flash Player for playing audio and Java for voice recording.
Resources required Required resources to run the application are very basic. Obligatory resources • Internet access (access to voxopop.com) • Headset or microphone and speakers to record and use voice in discussions • Image in .jpeg or .gif format to add to your profile Cost Free Setup and Configuration To use this application it is necessary to register using a valid email address. Non-registered users can listen and explore the application but only signed up members can open talkgroups or join in on discussions. Registered members get access to other features offered by the platform like being able to add discussions to a watchlist or receive notification when others contribute. Registration process to Voxopop is free and easy. Registration allows holding unlimited discussions. Styling The page and all its sections are user-friendly oriented and easily orientable. Navigation and operation It is possible to listen to most messages without necessarily signing in. In the section Explore talkgroups you can search by tags or by category of your interest. So that you could start a discussion or add some voice message, you need to be signed in. Once you have joined a talk group you can subscribe to it so that you are automatically updated when new entries appear. To record your own voice message, after signing in you simply click on the record button and add your message. To create your own talk group you need to be a registered user. Then you click on the option Start a Talkgroup and write down relevant information to define your Talkgroup’s aim and purpose and set the access levels. Voxopop Talkgroups can be public, private or restricted. Then you simply share the URL with your students or other educators. Implementation methodology Voxopop offers for the users very versatile ways of usage. Teaching/Learning ideas: • Discussion points: Teacher starts with a contentious statements and ask visitors to comment on them • Collaborative narratives: Only the first sentence of a story can be recorded and students are asked to listen and to continue it. • Dictations: Teachers can record their own dictations for students to listen to the text and write down what they hear • Pronunciation practice: Teacher can record some pronunciation drills and get students to listen to them and then record themselves saying the words or sentences • True false statements: Students can create their own true false statements about themselves and question each other about them to find out the answer. • Activate background knowledge about a topic which is going to be worked in class. • Assess oral skills. • Find collaborative solutions for questions regarding teaching process and teacher’s work.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: A1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Picture of you Age group: Children (aged 10 - 14)
Number of students involved: 18 Duration: 90 min.
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Preparation: T goes to the home page, logs in and creates a new talkgroup for his SS uploading a picture. T clicks on Record a message and states clearly the task which SS need to accomplish. Introduction: All participants sign up for free accounts at Voxopop using valid email addresses, usernames and passwords. Then they can join T’s group. Lesson flow: Participants are asked to prepare a short presentation about themselves, their work or studies, hobbies and interests. They can rehearse first with their classmates without being recorded. Then, after practising for a while, their voices are recorded via microphone and their pictures are taken through the built-in webcam. Participants can comment by microphone and text an unlimited number of times. Conclusion: The recorded messages are stored in the page and can be commented and reflected upon. Follow-up: If required, participants can evaluate using verbal and visual cues.
Other issues It is possible to upload and share created messages on blogs and social networks as Twitter (www.twitter.com) or Facebook (www.facebook.com).
Resource Number 7
URL
Blogger
http:// www.blogger.com
Category III
Keywords
Blogging
blog, collaboration, writing
Rationale The world wide web has become part of our everyday life nowadays. The need to share ideas, reflect on experiences, keep a record of those reflections, network with other colleagues, keep up to date with current techniques and practices, and express personal views freely and publicly has become an essential ingredient in modern teachers´ lives. It is an integral part of their professional development beyond basic training courses. Blogging has come to add to older publications in print format which aimed at providing essential information regarding advances in the field of ELT. Description Blogger is a web-tool that allows people to become authors by creating and maintaining their own free, journal-like website where they can publish a text, photo and/or video on the internet for deliberation. It includes navigation links and other standard website features such as a homepage, etc. People who know the weblog’s URL can visit the page, read the posts, and, leave their comments in any format desired, may that be text, photo or video. Eventually, a collection of comments revolving around the topic can be gathered for either further deliberation or for future reference. The main benefit of blogs is that offer bloggers the opportunity to openly post ideas and reflections on a given issue putting it up for discussion thus facilitating collaboration with peers and colleagues from all over the world. There are many free blogging platforms and Blogger, offered freely by Google, is one of the most popular and versatile.
Resources required Obligatory Resources: • • • •
Desktop computer/laptop Internet connection (not necessarily broadband) Creating an email address / using an already existing email address Creating a Google account visiting www.blogger.com or using an already existing Google account
Cost Completely free Setup and Configuration Blogger is surprisingly easy to use as it is only a matter of few minutes to create your own blog. No software needs to be downloaded on your computer since all steps taken towards creating one are done online. First, go to www.blogger.com and sign in using your Google account (if
you have one). In case you do not have a Google account, click on the “Get Started” button in the centre of your screen and you will be guided through the steps necessary to create a Google account and, of course, your blog. After you have created a Google account, you will be taken to your Dashboard, which is going to be your blog’s main page. By clicking on the “Create your Blog now” button, you will be guided through some steps to finalize the creation of your weblog. These include giving your blog a title, choosing a template, etc. After you have completed all of the above steps, you can start publishing posts inserting pictures, videos and other features. In case the author wishes to change and/or add the content of posts or even moderate comments, they can always edit them through the main page of the blog (dashboard). Blog Posts Blog posts can be simple text but they can also include photographs, videos and animations which can be inserted by copying their html code and pasting it on the blog page while viewing its html code. • Posts can be edited as many times as their authors wish. •
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Comments Comments can be left on the blog by anyone. However, if using a blog with learners, it is a good idea to activate the “Moderate Comments” function so that the teacher can check the writer, their content and post or delete as appropriate. Viewing of Posts The blog can be either viewed by anyone or only by invited users and it is on the teacher’s discretion and good judgement whether to allow the blog to be viewed by anyone. Styling
Blogger comes with certain ready-made templates in different colours and layouts satisfying a wide range of aesthetic preferences. On the blog’s main page (dashboard), you can experiment with the hues of the colours chosen and, also, change the layout of the features, i.e. position of sidebar, of the actual posts as well as the date/time/author, etc by clinking on the “Design” button. The overall styling can be changed by the administrator of the blog any time they wish. In case none of the templates are attractive / imaginative enough to meet the administrator’s aesthetic criteria, there is a plethora of other free available templates on the internet ready to be downloaded and used. Administrators can upload pictures from their computer to replace the title with a photo or even insert it as a background on the website. When composing a post, the font, size, and colour of the letters can very easily changed since the actual box where the post is composed is a simulation of standard word processing software. In addition, Blogger allows the use of Widgets, which can be found either as ready made options within the Blogger platform itself, in which case the user simply selects the widget (e.g. visitor counter, You Tube video box, and many others), and move to the appropriate position within the layout of their chosen template. There is also a multitude of third-party widgets available from websites such as www.widgetbox.com ranging from a clock, blog translation tools, to favourite quotes and more. Navigation and operation Blogger has been redesigned in a very user-friendly mode in order to assist even those who are not computer savvy. The dashboard is the main page through which all settings, posts, comments, design, traffic, etc. can be viewed, edited, or deleted by the administrator and those who have been invited as authors. Implementation methodology Blogger is a tool supporting collaboration between teachers emulating what is better known as “staffroom conversations’ but in more depth and adequate time for reflection on a given topic for discussion; however, as is the case with almost all web-tools, it can be very effectively used in the classroom. There is a plethora of different ways in which Blogger could be integrated in an L2 environment. • • • • • •
Teaching/Learning ideas: Collaboration for preparation of projects and discussions. Posts contributed by learners on topics set by the teacher or chosen by the learners. A data resource bank of a learner’s written work throughout the course resembling a portfolio. A data resource bank of extra materials/links for the teachers’/learners’ reference. Blog challenges and competitions of short stories or poems. Commenting on other students’ blog posts to encourage critical thinking, as well as raise awareness of errors.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Using blog to discuss differences between formal and informal writing based on samples of texts Age group: Young adults (aged 18 - 21) Number of students involved: 10 Duration: 90 min.
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Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use the blog format as a follow up stage in a reading lesson (alternative to what is known as the “pyramid-structure” speaking activity). Lead-in: The learners have read and exploited a reading text in sufficient depth and detail. After the teacher has involved learners into pair discussion – incorporating the use of any language focus whatsoever – he asks each pair to highlight the difference between written and spoken discourse. After the features have been elicited, T invites pairs to work together and write down their previous ideas in a more elaborate style. Lesson flow: T asks each group to enter the school blog and upload their ideas. They can either scan their page and upload it on the blog as pictures or even compose the written sample straight onto a computer. Follow-up: As homework, learners have to log in the blog and leave their comments on what their peers/classmates have produced. These comments can vary from content and structure to style and appropriateness. As a final step, T evaluates each contribution and opens a discussion about the events presented. The T has the capability of monitoring the learners work and comment on it by praising, highlighting areas for further improvement, prompting and so on.
Other issues Training learners how to use the web-tool effectively is of essence. Poor training might eventually lead to the learners not being fully aware of all the potentials of Blogger which could give way to demotivation and gradual lack of interest in the webtool and the concept underlying its use in an L2 environment. Another important factor is that teachers need to make learners aware of certain potential risks when using a blog by giving out a list of Do’s and Don’ts. E-Safety for learners is, finally, a major issue, especially if learners are children or teens. It is important to create nicknames and not reveal the learners’ real names as well as find suitable pictures to use as blog avatars instead of using the learners’ real photographs. Useful tips Other useful links related to Blogger are the following: www.wordpress.com www.edublogs.com www.tumblr.com .
Resource Number 8
URL
EduBlogs
http://edublogs.org
Category III
Keywords
Blogging
blog, interaction, writing, social networking
Rationale Web 2.0 is changing the face of the traditional classroom. Blogs are resources available to teachers and students creating an appealing environment for participants to work on common interests. The use of blogs has grown popular in educational spheres and become an important tool for sharing useful information and tips among co-workers, dispersing information to students, or keeping in contact with student. Effectively, teachers can use weblogs to provide an area to point students to useful resources and discuss issues arising as part of a teaching and learning program. The emergence of blogs as a component in the two-way flow of information on the web has opened up exciting new avenues for the educational community. Also, blogs are easily linked and cross-linked to form learning communities. They promote cohesiveness and social interaction. Blogs maintained by individual students or a class enable and learning together and are mechanisms of self-motivation. Description Edublogs is a free WordPress-powered platform specifically designed for teachers, students, librarians, researchers, professors, administrators, corporate trainers and other subject involved in education. EduBlogs can include specific content practiced in the classroom or exemplary lessons that is wished to share with other teachers or regarding any issues in education including classroom management techniques and policies. In this way the blog often acts as a support system for teachers where they can access ideas, tools, and gain support and recognition from other professionals in their field. Some of these blogs have become nationally recognized as useful tools. Blogs are used for multiple reasons: • enhancement of classroom instruction among students • allowance of editing and adding content at any time • increased exposure to other students or educators from around the country or world • mechanism of improvement of writing and communication skills • function of notice board - important information such as homework, important dates, missed lessons projects, discussion boards can be opened • ease of operation and accessibility • group projects, peers collaboration platform • function of reflective journals for educators and students The use of blogs in education gives students a global perspective. The use of blogs in the classroom embeds technological literacy in children that will help them in adulthood. Teachers and parents can also use blogs in order to communicate with one another. Information can be posted for parents on special events occurring in the classroom such as field trips, celebrations, and presentations. Resources required No special equipment to use this tool is needed. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop with Internet browser and connection • Account in Edublogs Cost The platform offers three different types of EduBlogs: 1. EduBlogs Free – characterised as “Free, easy and basic option, great for students” – completely free, supported by advertising. 2. EduBlogs Pro – stated as “The ultimate blog package for individual teachers” – from $3.33/month (no ads on up to 50 free blogs). 3. EduBlogs Campus – Designed for institutions, manage and control as many blogs as you need – from a single class to 10,000+ blogs. The page says contact for details (from less than $1/year).
Setup and Configuration To get started requires registration. Users can choose between the mentioned three applications – Free, Pro and Campus. Otherwise, the configuration presents no other complications for users. Styling Getting oriented in the websites is reasonably easy enough. The free basic version allows uploading any type of files including docs, PDFs, slideshows, movies. The site provides lots of useful information, e.g. how to use your blog with your students and how to start a conversation using your blog. An ideal site for educators who want to blog with support. Created blogs can be private between student and tutor or tutor and tutors or can be shared with the class. Navigation and operation When effectuating the registration, next steps are intuitive and manageable for everyone. No special level of ICT literacy is required. When you acceded to your space, operating the blog is not a problem. Implementation methodology Setting up a blog is extremely easy. Each teacher and as well each class can have their own blog where they write about their experience related with school, learning, posting their book reviews or similar. Typical of weblogs employed for teaching would include: • links to websites as resources • observations on learning/teaching content • discussion forums • learning/ teaching resources • syllabus • teacher professional development events Teaching/Learning ideas: • Storage place for materials and resources: On your blog you can upload or copy and paste materials to be instantly accessible by everyone who is allowed to visit the blog from school and from home. You can easily manage who gets to access the blog through password and plug-in safety measures. • Host online discussions: By creating a blog you can also open an online discussion space. Visitors can simply respond to blog posts and comment on topics you have set. Commentators can also sign up to receive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit all responses through the blog's administrative panel. • Create a class publication: On Edublog you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce an engaging collaborative online publication by your class or your PLN. • Replace your newsletter: A blog can be also a space for publishing class information, news, events or recommend links or activities. • Encourage students to blog and contribute to class blog • Engage with educators in the world: Using an Edublog can turn planning and reflection on classes into a genuinely productive - and even collaborative - experience. Sharing your plans, your reflections, your ideas and
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your fears with other educators both at your school and around the world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions: It is easy to embed online video, slideshows, presentations and more into an edublog and mix it up with written text to produce an multimedia content. Get feedback from students, educators or parents Create a fully functional website: In fact, you can use your edublog to create a multi-layered, in-depth website with a rich multimedia content.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: General English course Level: B1 of CEFR Lesson Title: Culture events of the month - review Age group: Young adults (aged 18 - 21) Number of students involved: 18 Duration: 90 min.
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Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use the blog format for creative writing practice. At the end of session, SS will have produced several contributions referring about some of cultural events taking place in their region. The class blog will act as a recommendation site of cultural events and place to get to know about what is happening in the region. Lead-in: T starts a classroom discussion about different culture festivals, concerts, films or theatre plays which can be attended in the SS’s region, their characteristics, venue and dates. Lesson flow: T divides SS into groups of two or three and asks each group to select a cultural event which they have attended and to compose a review. Then they are asked to enter the school blog and upload their review which they can enrich by adding photos or short videos regarding the cultural events. They can add useful tips and recommendation for other SS to take into account when interested in participating in it. Realisation: SS following T’s technical and methodical instructions produce a blog entrance based on the outcome of the preparative stage. They choose photos, videos to accompany the event they would like to present and they type in the blog information about it. Follow-up: As a final step, T evaluates each contribution and opens a discussion about the events presented.
Other issues Blogs may be viewed in public as any other website. Students must be trained on issues regarding access, privacy, security, and free expression. They should be warned about need for carefully consideration the content of postings to avoid anything defamatory or an infringement upon the rights of others. Teachers can create, monitor and edit blogs to ensure that the postings are appropriate and pertain to the classroom.
Resource Number 9
URL
Wordpress
http://www.wordpress.com
Category III
Keywords
Blogging
blogs, writing skills, digital storytelling
Rationale Education’s mission is to provide critical solutions that significantly improve learning and the accessibility of education worldwide and an education blog can be a powerful and effective technology tool for students and teachers alike. Blogs can be very useful for students and teachers because they can be worked on at virtually any time, in any place with an Internetenabled computer. They also can be used by teachers to create a classroom that extends beyond the boundaries of the school premises. Using them is a way to engage students or colleagues trough a multifarious medium. Description Wordpress is web software you can use to create a fully functional website or blog. Resources required Wordpress is software that is installed on your web server. To create or edit your website, just login the site from a web browser and access the backend admin panel. This acts as a control to do everything from change the look & feel of the site with one click, to add new pages or posts, change themes, edit comment and more. Obligatory resources • Desktop computer or laptop • Reliable and stable Internet connection (broadband if possible)
Cost Partially free If your blog becomes very popular and grows in site traffic and branding beyond the given limitations, you will have to buy paid upgrades. Setup and Configuration To set up a blog at Wordpress is very easy and the site offers good tutorials, too. You need to go to Wordpress.com and click the sign up button. After this, it is time to choose a domain name for your blog. This is the unique address that visitors will be using to check out your blog. Using yourblogname.wordpress.com is for free. If you are interested in using a custom domain name, you can purchase it. After getting the activation link on email you can get started. If you do not wish to create your own blog and you just want to comment on the others’ blogs, you can select “Sign up for just a username.” When you’re signed in, you’ll see a tab at the top of the page saying “My Blog.” It shows all the blogs registered to your username, and enables you to quickly access your dashboard.
When you’re logged in, you can see two sets of dashboard menus. The left-hand navigation menus are a way to access almost all the powers of your blog. Your other menu is the toolbar across the top of your blog. You can adjust the Wordpress blog with these tools to your linking. Styling In order to achieve customization of the site themes can be updated to match your expectations. There is a preselected number of themes which you can choose from. However, if you want to create your own unique design, you need to pay. Navigation and operation Widgets, tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebars of your blog, can help you to customize the content of your Wordpress blog sidebar. If you need help to fix an issue or require to take blogging to the next level, the Wordpress forums have lot of active members to guide and provide support.
Implementation methodology The benefits of using bogs are vast for educators not only in their lessons but also for their professional development. In addition to providing an excellent tool for communicating with students or colleague educators, they are able to: • motivate students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms • provide opportunities for students to read and write targeted contents • serve as forums for collaboration and discussion. • enable scaffolded learning or mentoring system • be means of collaboration or professional presentations of educators Teaching/Learning ideas: As an educational tool, blogs may be integrated in a multi-faceted manner to accommodate all learners. Blogs can serve at least four basic functions.
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Classroom Management: A Wordpress blog can serve as a space to foster community of learners or educators. Setting up a blog is not difficult and updating is easy. Therefore, it can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and discussion springboard among educators. Collaboration: Blogs provide a space where both teachers and students can practice their writing and other skills with the advantage of an instant feedback. Teachers can post instructional tips enabling online mentoring. Learners can benefit from peer collaboration and review. Groups of students can also take part in cooperative learning activities that require conducting and sharing research findings, ideas, or suggestions. Discussions: A class blog opens the opportunity for learners and teachers to discuss topics regarding the lesson content, classroom management, games, etc.. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Students have time to react to ideas and reflect on learning. ePortfolios: A nicely organized and maintained Wordpress blog can be a storage place of students’ work as digital portfolios. Since older entries are archived, author’s progress may be analyzed more conveniently. Additionally, the notion that a personal contribution will be published and viewed have a strong motivating effect to produce better writing.
Example of implementation Type of lesson: Composing an ePortfolio entry Lesson content: Building an ePortfolio entry Participating group: Teacher training workshop Target group: Educators and interested public Duration: 90 minutes (30 min. discussion and demonstration, 40 minutes preparing the presentation, 20 min. presenting draft results or ideas)
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Introduction: T presents the content and aim of today lesson – to use the blog format for T personal development. The workshop trainer presents the benefits of the ePortfolio to educators. A paper published by JISC about ePortfolios (2007) identifies a range of purposes that e-portfolios might serve across a lifetime of learning: 1)
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Application – providing evidence in support of an application for a job or for admission to further study. 2) Transition – providing a richer picture of learners’ achievements and needs as they progress to a new environment, and supporting them through the process of transition 3) Learning, teaching and assessment – supporting the process of learning through reflection, discussion and formative assessment, and providing evidence for summative assessment. 4)Personal development planning (PDP) and continuing professional development (CPD) – supporting and evidencing the pursuit and achievement. Lead in: Trainer starts a discussion about the uses of professional ePortfolios. After a short discussion they elicit possible answers which can include some of the suggested answers above. Lesson flow: T divides trainees into groups of two and asks each group to come up with ideas that might appear on an ePortfolio and what kind of entries they suggest producing. Typically, these might be About me, My work, My projects, Contact me, Useful Classroom resources, etc. The blog can inform about upcoming projects, interesting studies, post samples of teacher´s work, adding multimedia content and similar. Realisation: Trainees following T’s technical and methodical instructions produce a blog entrance based on the outcome of the preparative stage. They choose photos, videos to accompany the ePortfolio entry they would like to present and they type in the blog information about it. Follow up: As a final step, contributions are commented and a discussion is opened about the entries presented.
Other issues In Wordpress, you can open or close individual pages to comments and you can select who can leave comments: anyone, logged in visitors, etc. Teaches can moderate comments on a school blog powered by Wordpress. Useful tips Wordpress allows you to use widgets in your sidebar. http://year9reaction.wordpress.com http://bakinginboots.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/catching-up-citrus-some-bubbly .
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Edmodo
PAEPSM Contributor/Partner
Country applied
Greece, (but also in other places in Europe and all over the world and especially in US)
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
It is an online elearning platform that follows the look and feel of FACEBOOK and is used in classes and groups in order to complement or sometimes in order to substitute face-to-face courses with discussions, access to online training content, etc. It is used extensively in school education between teachers and students and in addition provides the option to provide special access to parents in order to follow the discussions and achievements within the platform. The user interface language is in English, Spannish, Portuguese, French, Greek, Dutch and German but the content can be in any language. Also the teacher can create assignments to students and grade them. The teacher can give badges (best student, most active speaker, most innovative idea, etc).
www.edmodo.com URL to be found
User Scenarios in As an online platform it can be used supporting (preferred) and education substituting conventional training practices. Some ideas can be taken from How I use edmodo in my class link
Target Group
Students, teachers, parents
PAEPSM Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
High student engagement, high student satisfaction
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Nikolaos Floratos PAEPSM
Engrade
PAEPSM Contributor/Partner
Cyprus, (but also in other places in Europe and all over the world) Country applied
Unifies all of the people, tools, data, and curriculum in your Brief description of
Web 2.0 tool
schools on one user-friendly platform.
www.engrade.com URL to be found
User Scenarios in An online platform to facilitate teachers’ job and parents’ follow-up by education combining essential tools, as gradebooks, calendars, attendance.
Target Group
Teachers, administrators, parents
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
1st school of Dromolaxia, Cyprus
High student engagement, high student satisfaction
Antonis Zarintas Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
http://www.ekpaideusi.com/DROMOLAXIA/
http://www.zarintas.ekpaideusi.com/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Youtube
PAEPSM Contributor/Partner
Greece and worldwide Country applied
Publishing short videos. Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
www.youtube.com URL to be found
User Scenarios in education
Target Group
A very famous tool of publishing videos online used to promote class activities.
Teachers, children, parents
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
5st primary school of Rhodes, Greece
High student engagement, high student satisfaction
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
http://psifiakitaxi20102011.blogspot.gr/
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Slides hare
Contributor/Partner PAEPSM
Country applied Greece, Europe, Intl.
Brief description of Web 2.0 allows users to upload, store and share powerpoint slide tool presentations.
URL to be found www.slideshare.net
User Scenarios in education
to embed powerpoint slides on a wiki to share with students and parents, to have an easy, online access for home/school use.
Target Group teachers, students, parents
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
2nd EPAL of Amaliada, Greece (secondary school providing formal education)
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
http://gree.ilei.sch.gr/joomla/ http://blogs.sch.gr/eupdede/archives/651
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Lin ked in
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied Turkey, Europe, International
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Social Network Connection to trusted networks, exchange of knowledge, experience and idead.
URL to be found www.linkedin.com
User Scenarios in education
Connection to trusted networks, exchange of knowledge, ideas, experience and opportunities
Target Group All professionals, teachers, parents.
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
It is a free tool. Users are free to accept or deny invitations from other users. Good opportunity to create professional networks.
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use guldankalem@gmail.com the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it) www.izmirab.gov.tr
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
D oo dl e
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied
Turkey, Europe, International
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
It allows you to make polls to show when your contacts are free for a meeting, course, appointment, or whatever you want to schedule
URL to be found http://doodle.com/
User Scenarios in education
It allows you to know when it is better to set up a meeting, lesson, etc avoiding overlappings with your contacts’ other duties
Target Group all professionals, students, parents
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
It is free, easy to use, automatically crosses your contacts’ answers and tells you the preferred/most popular one
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email,
phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
guldankalem@gmail.com www.izmirab.gov.tr
Dro pbo x
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied Turkey, Europe, International
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
Dropbox allows you to share photos, documents, videos Download is free of charge. Free hosting up to 2 GB (up to 18GB, 500Mb are added when you invite a new user).
URL to be found https://www.dropbox.com/
User Scenarios in education easy sharing of files and folders among users
Target Group students, professors, parents
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
free (up to 2GB), easy to use, you can have access to other peoples’ files as soon as they share them with you
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
tcanbaz@gmail.com www.izmirab.gov.tr
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Ha ngo ut
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied Turkey, Europe, International
Brief description of Web 2.0 Hangout is a Google+ application for video chatting between tool gmail users
URL to be found https://tools.google.com/dlpage/hangoutplugin
User Scenarios in education video chatting with up to 10 people
Target Group students, all kinds of professionals
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the cheap, you can connect from every device (computer, trainers and the trainees cellphone, tablet), you can complete your virtual meeting (optional but desired) with screen sharing and Google docs
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
srknkurtulus@gmail.com www.izmirab.gov.tr
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Khan Academy
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied Turkey, Europe, Int.
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
URL to be found
free online collection of micro lectures via video tutorials on almost every subject of study and skills that can be learnt
http://www.khanacademy.org/
User Scenarios in education
as a support for students and teachers in education. It allows students to watch videos on many subjects and have suggestions on what they should learn next. It allows teachers to improve their teaching by watching videos and sharing ideas, materials with other teachers around the world.
Target Group students, parents, teachers
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the free, it deals with a wide variety of trainees (optional but desired) school subjects and skills
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Mi nd 42
Contributor/Partner T.C.Konak Gov.
Country applied Turkey, Europe, International
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
An online tool that allows people to create mind mappings, brain stormings whether alone or in group
URL to be found http://mind42.com/
User Scenarios in education
it can be used in class with the group or alone to organize thoughts, ideas, knowledge on a subject
Target Group students, teachers, all kind of professionals
Specific Training organisations that use this web based Izmir Governorship EU tool for creating learning experience Coordination Center
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
free, no installation needed, organizing tool
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)
tcanbaz@gmail.com www.izmirab.gov.tr
Web Tool (Web 2.0)
Contributor/Partner
Country applied
Brief description of Web 2.0 tool
URL to be found
User Scenarios in education
Target Group
Specific Training organisations that use this web based tool for creating learning experience
Benefits any feedback from the trainers and the trainees (optional but desired)
Contact details (Contact person, Organisation name, email, phone, website etc) of educational organisations that use the web tool (Repeat row if more organisations use it)