FeedJournal Basic
9/3/2007 - 2/23/2008
Nice Surprise! Old friends, New friends! By SusanT Submitted at 10/28/2007 11:16:30 PM
Well, it's been quite a while since I created this blog, but finally found the time to visit in order report on what's been going on in our EFLTech classroom (One 45 min lesson per week). A very pleasant surprise awaited me here, when I discovered a comment from Christine Southard, whom I "met" first on Classroom20. I've been so sidetracked for the last couple of months, translating the Ning platform to Hebrew, setting up a network for my EFL students and kicking off "Edureshet" a social network for Israeli educators (reached 50 members yesterday - yay!!) that I haven't been taking part in the English conversations going on there just doesn't seem to be enough time to fit everything in. Hopefully now that Edureshet seems to be about to take off I will be able to revisit the friends I made during the summer. As I mentioned briefly above, we, Susanb the EFL teacher and I, have set up a Ning Network for our EFL 6th grade students. Registering to the site, working inside the Ning space and creating their profiles and profile pics, takes time for our students, but it's all good! They are using English in an authentic way, and they are enjoying it so much that they visit the site from home too!
Submitted at 11/17/2007 10:58:36 PM
I don't think I have mentioned VoiceThread in this blog as yet, surprising really, as if I were to choose one web2.0 application for EFL elementary, voicethread would be the one. Although a written description doesn't do it justice here is a quick summary of the features. Userfriendly application which allows you to create an online album of photos, pictures, video and documents, invite others to contribute by recording their voices, doodles, text, video(web cam) or even uploading mp3 they have prepared ahead of time. Threads can be public or private,
Twitter @teachable moments By SusanT Submitted at 1/20/2008 9:34:53 AM
We have set up the site so that the profile questions- repeat vocabulary and grammar used in the first few weeks back at school. The profile pics have been used to revise Parts of the Body, ie students create avatars here. Next up they will add an "About Me" text to their pages, and create voki characters and after maybe we'll start blogging. The original intention was to follow the pace of the regular EFL lessons, but so far that has proved impossible - however I think our pace will pick up once the students start to feel comfortable with the site.
short comments they leave on each other's pages, to discover through their profile info that Eshel's hobby is building computer games, or Boaz plays guitar etc.. That Nir "am not so good English" (although he really is), to recieve a message from Adva through the in site mailing system ... ...and of course to recieve "friend's requests" :-) (although I haven't announced it anywhere - anyone sending me a friend request gets a gif of their name in glitter - I'm waiting to see how long it takes them to realize that) as the site is a closed site instead of adding adding a link I'm uploading a couple of screenpics.
For now it is wonderful to see the busy list of recent activity, to read the
VoiceThread as a Collaborative EFL learning space. By SusanT
feedjournal.com
comments allowed or not, moderated or not. Did I mention Userfriendly? VoiceThread is free for teachers, after requesting a teacher's account you can create unlimited VoiceThreads. Although it is neccessary to register with a confirmable email address, one account can be used for a whole classroom, teacher simply needs to add extra identities to his account ie an identity for each student. So why the intro? Until last week I had only tried voicethread with a small group of students, however last week my two 5th grade classes (about 70 students) started working on this thread. I was happy to see that the interface was easy for them to learn, but much happier when I finally got home at the end of the day and could listen to
their work. They did a really good job! I'm now looking for classes to join us on the thread, it is moderated so comments won't show up until I approve them - (yes, a couple of my students recorded things that I'm happy I got a chance to erase before they were seen/heard by others - also a couple of the student recordings were drowned out by a very loud teacher - who has only just realized exactly how loud she is!) I have started a collection of voicethreads for efl elementary it can be seen at http://iteachr.buzka.com/efl_voicethre ads if you'd like to add yours to the list just add a comment to this post.
from Langwitches blog… Teachable Moment Twitter Account Posted: January 19th, 2008, by Langwitches Following an idea that sprung out at me while I was writing my previous post, I have decided to create a Teachable Moment Shoutout account on Twitter. The idea is as follows: We are all looking to inspire and create teachable moments for our students. Many times these are impromptus, non-planned discussions and activities. Sometimes they pass as fast as they came, but will leave a long lasting impression on you and your students. Our Twitter is relatively new for all of us and we are experimenting and experiencing what it dies for our own and for our students’ learning. Several ones of us have had a great experience with a twitter shoutout, followed by a Skype conversation, blog post and comments as well as direct “conversation” with 140 characters or less. Tom Barrett’s GeoTweets: Inviting your network into the classroom Chris Craft & Silvia Tolisano Arabic Mystery Writing Please subscribe to Teachable Moment on Twitter if you are willing to commit yourself to be available, when your schedule permits, to help another teacher with a shoutout. Remember, that you might be someone’s partner from the other side of the world, which means it might not fall between your school hours, where you are with classes, paperwork or blocked access to twitter/skype. So don’t be shy and add yourself as a follower. You can create an RSS to be alerted if anyone is writing a shoutout to “teachablemoment” by going to Tweetscan, searching for “teachablemoment” and then subscribing to the RSS feed.
MixBook Collaborative Flip Books By SusanT Submitted at 1/13/2008 3:56:52 PM
Very slick flash application for creating collaborative flip books. Unfortunately not particularly userfriendly or intuitive. However I love the concept and the final product! See the flippable version here.
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FeedJournal Basic
Free Sponsored Yugma Premium for Bloggers By SusanT Submitted at 1/4/2008 6:37:44 AM
Just come through the twitter vine via Langwitches. Free Sponsored Yugma Premium accounts for bloggers. "Yugma want to thank all bloggers and Yugma users for taking the time to find Yugma, use Yugma, and share Yugma with others." Effective today, and running until January 31, 2008, they'll be donating sponsored Yugma Premium accounts to bloggers who ask. Each sponsored account will be good for 12 months! Request an account by sending an email to blogger[at]yugma.com. Include your email address and blog website address. (Limit one sponsored Yugma account per blog site. "Bloggers! What can you do with your Yugma Premium account? Well, just about anything, really. Meet with others virtually to review software or web apps. Collaborate online with your teams. Help others remotely. The clock is ticking. Request your sponsored account today! After you get your sponsored account, you should consider signing
SpellingCity By SusanT Submitted at 1/2/2008 4:27:25 PM
2. Print out spelling games with your lists such as UnScramble & WordSearch.
http://www.spellingcity.com This new site for spelling practice and games came from tbarrett via twitter. After entering a list of words, students get a choice of activities which include spelling the words after listening to each one read aloud, both alone and in a sentence, word scramble and a hangman game. SpellingCity.com - Home via kwout This is the blurb for teachers from the site "1. Tell your students about this site as the best way to practice for their tests.
3. Save your spelling lists on the site so they are ready for your students to practice with. To save your lists, you start by registering (which is totally free) above. 4. Put a link on your classroom's or school's website so this site is easily accessible to your students. While SpellingCity is now up and running, it is far from finished. We have alot that we will add. For instance, we will provide printable and online learning games which work automatically with your spelling lists. In the meantime, here are some spelling and vocabulary learning games (which are not yet integrated). Bookmark us and come back soon... "
By SusanT Submitted at 12/22/2007 1:40:44 AM
I don't remember why I clicked on http://twitter.com/santaclaus or, once there, why I continued to click on http://twitter.com/heymilly - however whatever the reason I'm glad I did. From there I continued to click on the link to heymilly's blog "Thinking Past The Square". Many interesting and valuable posts and reccomendations to be found. Among them a post highlighting the uses of flickr as a storytelling tool and some useful and fun Flickr mashups. Embedded below a flickr flipbook c r e a t e d a t www.pimpampum.net/bookr/. After
clicking on create book all you need to do is search for a flickr user or tag, drag photos into the book interface, add text and publish.
Or as a link Frozen Pea Fund by social media Why the frozen pea theme? http://twitter.com/susanreynolds Susan Reynold's blog "BoobsOnIce". post pea avatars Frozen Pea Fund Duncan Riley on TechCrunch "Can you spare the peas?"
Hello World
By SusanT Submitted at 1/24/2008 5:13:09 PM
into the second basket. There is a 3rd basket entitled "Remove" any results containing words dragged into this basket will be excluded from the search results. The 4th basket the "dictionary" may be useful for more advanced EFL students, however the definitions are too difficult for
Yugma : Free Web Conferencing, Online Meetings, Web Collaboration Service, Free Desktop Sharing, video conferencing, remote control software, net meeting, mac conferencing: about :: Features via kwout
Random Clicks lead to A FlickR Flip Book and more
SortFix - A New Way To Search http://www.sortfix.com/ "start dragging - stop typing". How many times are EFL students frustrated because they simply don't have the vocabulary to refine their websearches. Sortfix may just be the search engine to solve the problem. A basic search on SortFix returns a results page which includes 4 boxes or "baskets". The first basket contains "power words" and "power phrases" (relevant keywords and phrases) the second basket contains the original keyword. In order to refine the search all we need to do is drag relevant words or phrases from the first basket
up to Yugma's Affiliate Program to earn extra money."
elementary. Clicking on the "more options" link will allow you to add further functions to the search. The SortFix help page includes explanations and videos which demonstrate the different functions.
By SusanT Submitted at 9/3/2007 9:40:02 PM
Welcome to my blog! As the name suggests I will be using this blog to post about EFL and Web2.0. more accurately, the combination of EFL, web2.0 and technology in general. I started out 14 years ago teaching EFL in elementary school, but after catching the technology bug moved away from EFL, to become a tech teacher. This year the 2 come together for me, as I work with the EFL teacher at school, to build a joint EFL-Tech curriculum. I am looking forward to this year for many reasons which I may go into later. Right now I've been online for most of the night and it's about time to drag myself away from the screen.
FeedJournal Basic
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December Holidays Multicultural Lingro - dictionary for any Greetings VoiceThread website By SusanT
By SusanT
Submitted at 12/4/2007 8:01:16 PM
Submitted at 11/23/2007 4:09:30 PM
December or thereabouts is a time for celebrating! Christmas, Hannuka, Kwanzaa and Eid Al-Fitr all fall round about December time. I'm trying to create a voice thread where students can send vocal greetings around the world, to their friends and family. The project has 2 stages. Stage One: add holiday graphics created by your students to a photo pool on Flickr or to a wiki I set up for the purpose. (I've uploaded my G2 Hannuka graphics to get the ball rolling) F l i c k r P o o l : http://www.flickr.com/groups/festives eaon
Lingro.com will pop up a dictionary definition for any word you click on a website. No need to play about with site code. Simply type http://lingro.com/translate/ before the URL of the website. So if you wanted to try it now on this blog all you would have to do would be to t y p e http://lingro.com/translate/http://efl20 .blogspot.com (or click on the link).
Wiki: http://grou.ps/festiveseason Stage Two: (after I add your graphics to the VoiceThread) Have students record Holiday Greetings to their friends and family either in English or in L1. V o i c e T h r e a d : http://voicethread.com/share/27701/
One year mark for Google Apps Education By SusanT Submitted at 11/2/2007 5:05:47 AM
Official Google Blog: One year mark for Google Apps Education Edition Google apps is an excellent opportunity for schools to use a set of web20 tools without having to create multiple accounts on seperate websites. Apps included are Gmail, personalized google startpage, docs and presentations, shared address book, web-based multi-user chat and
more. It's a great shame that the foreign language versions of the apps lag behind as far as features go. Still, maybe the disadvantage can be turned into an advantage! The idea of being able to chat right from within their mailbox, may just be enough to encourage my 5th graders to try the English interface.
Personalized MultiMedia Music Magazine -idiomag By SusanT Submitted at 1/8/2008 1:41:04 PM
ideomag.com This has to be a great way to encourage advanced students to read. Not neccessary to sign up in order to create a magazine which includes music, photos, video and news articles, based on your preferred artists, but if you do sign up you can also keep archives and get a widget to embed in your blog or social network. Great fun!
I'll let you know!
Why Frozen Peas - Social media to support a cause
Twitter - in 140 chars and 30mins
By SusanT
By SusanT
Submitted at 12/22/2007 1:09:22 AM
Why the frozen pea theme in my previous post? Last week pea avatars and "tweets" about peas, started to appear on Twitter, these led me to http://twitter.com/susanreynolds and to Susan Reynold's blog BoobsOnIce. Susan 'Cancer Patient in Social media soul' is using social media to help raise awareness to breast cancer. In her blog she shares her journey with
us. In order to add 'a touch of lightness to what could have been a sad and serious tale' Susan relates how she used a bag of frozen peas as an ice-pack to sooth her cleavage after the initial diagnostic examination. As Twitter followers started to post pea avatars in identification with Susan and her desire to raise awareness to breast cancer the Frozen Pea Fund was set up. See also Duncan Riley on TechCrunch Canyou spare the peas?"
Submitted at 12/7/2007 4:46:23 PM
1) Teacher tweets request for comments on student blog 2) Network responds 3) 30 mins later student has comments+ from around the world
If you register at Lingro.com the application will save a history of the words you have clicked to enable you to practice later. Other tools include, file uploader, bilingual dictionaries, for French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish, audio of the word, add new translations, ajax based dictionary which starts suggesting definitions after you type the first few letters of a word http://lingro.com/dictionary/