WEB TOOLS for language learners

"Web tools to develop projects with language students"

This flowgram was meant to share some web tools I´ve been using with my students in order to develop projects (long-term/ short-term). Some are great to practise reading/writing and others speaking/ listening.


http://www.flowgram.com/p/4jtztzwvrpjvd7/

Two SONG TOOLS

Have just discovered two cool ways of sharing songs in your blog. First, it is by getting a link in TWITTER from someone who has blipped in blip.fm.From the link you can get an embed code to add it to your blog, like I´ve just done.



The other is the scrool tool offered by stlyrics for the songs you want to embed in your blog. I found it so cool to be able to listen and see the lyrics at the same time.


Lyrics Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow lyrics

Week 1- LWC course

This is week 1 of the online course being offered at the "Learning with Computers" community led by Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima. This week, we are exploring two tools: Proprofs and Script-o.

This is a quiz I´ve created using Proprofs for my upper-intermediate students. The quiz aims at helping students work with word formation, showing them the different variation a word can have. After you create the quiz, you can get the link to your exercise so that you can e-mail it to students or get the embed code to post it in your blog or webpage.

Word Formation - UIA 2C… » Quiz Question Maker

I´ve started creating a quiz with Script-o but found it a bit more complicated than Proprofs. Let´s see if I work the problems out.

LWC course: ONLINE EXERCISES

The "Learning with Computers" community is offering a new course on creating online material. This session is being led by Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima, EFL teachers in Brazil. If you´re interested in joining this free course, here are the instructions:

• first, join the LWC community at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningwithcomputers/

by clicking on SIGN UP, then wait for your approval.

• as soon as you´ve been approved, you can start doing the weekly tasks at http://learningwithcomputers07.pbwiki.com/Online+Exercises

It´s a wonderful warm community of English teachers who learn with each other.

POSTCARD.FM

This is another interesting tool I´ve just found out in http://www.killerstartups.com

It´s very simple. YOu can upload any picture from your computer+ upload a song + write a message and finally send it to someone´s e-mail.
This is my trial postcard.fm http://www.postcard.fm/72d266

The image below is my trial:

POSTCARD.FM via kwout

So, here´s what I thought:

• you can have students send pictures, songs and messages to each other.
• you can also have students select pictures, a song that matches with the place and describe their dream place.
• You can ask students to write about the place they would like to be at that moment but can´t ( adding picture, song and message)
• Any other ideas?
  

Daily English Activities

Daily English Activities via kwout

Nik Peachey is a learning technology consultant and has just started a new blog for EFL/ ESL teachers and students. He writes about sites which can help students improve their English and also suggests specific tasks to be done.

Nik has an interesting way of writing. He tries out the tools he writes about and comes up with wonderful suggestions. I´m a confessed fan and have been reading both his personal blog and this new blog as well. Great idea and thanks for sharing your discoveries with us!

Blip.fm

Blip.fm | Global Music Radar | Page 1 of 1063 via kwout

For those who like music and meeting new people, blip.fm is the site for you. I decided to write about it only now because I´ve been noticing how much pleasure it gives me to discover and rediscover songs through people´s suggestions. You can give people (DJs) props for songs you like and also add them to your favorites. The image above was taken from my blip.fm channel. BLIP.FM is also connected to other social network sites such as twitter, pownce, friendfeed, so whenever you blip a song, your updates go directly to the sites you´ve selected in your settings.

Give blip.fm a try!

How can we use this site with students?

• Well, I guess if you discover your group is really interested in music, and most of them do, then you could have your students share their favorite songs with each other.
• They can use the blip box to write about the song or the band using English.
• Any other ideas?
  

Firefox SHORTCUTS

I know many of us are aware of these keyboard shortcuts but many of us are not. And this is the reason for sharing these shortcuts that have been making my computer life easier. I can´t recall where I learned them from (I know it was from a blog) but they were a true find! Hope you enjoy them too. So you are a Mozilla Firefox user, here it goes.

New Features in Animoto

Using animoto is incredibly easy! You can make 30-seconds videos (longer ones are not free but the fee is cheap) using your images and music from their library or your own computer. Then you can get the embed code, download it to your computer or export it to youtube. Short and sweet! Check it out!

This one I made with animoto and exported it to my youtube account.

Video: The Zoo

This is one more video made by 11 year-old Brazilian students who are learning English with Flávia (a colleague) at the language institute where we work. Students drew the comics throughout the semester and then recorded the audio. This one is called "The Zoo".

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=KSSbY5XapHA