Continuing my exploration with tools suggested by different edtechers (check PART 1 and PART 2 for more ideas), this time I've decided to try https://edji.it/#/dashboard
With EDJI. IT, as the website says, you can ensure your students have a voice when reading.
Basically what it does is to invite readers to highlight parts of the text which call their attention and leave comments. With the free version students cannot interact with each other, but everyone can read all the comments. It could be a great starting point for a class. Another plus is that the more students select the same part of the text, it becomes red and the teacher can start face-to-face discussions from these parts.
HANDS ON MOMENT 1
Click the image below to take part in the activity and experience the website. I've selected a text from Edutopia about Teachers.
THE CODE IS qgvf
HANDS ON MOMENT 2
Another idea I found in the website is to ask students to react to the text by selecting a gif and then explain their reactions as a comment. Click HERE to participate.
THE CODE IS zpcf
What I liked about it
It's free.
It's very user-friendly.
You can see how students are interacting with the text.
Students can collaborate on the same reading with their classmates.
The activity is less guided by the teacher so students have more voice.
What I didn't like about it
It would be great to have some feature which would allow students to reply to other comments (in the free version, of course lol).
My previous post explained the reasons for writing this post and also brought the results of my exploration with a tool called ACTIVE TEXTBOOK suggested by Shelly Terrell.
This time, I focus on a website called NOWCOMMENT recommended to me by Nik Peachey.
At first glance, NowComment was exactly what I was looking for: a tool which allows teachers to turn documents into conversations and is appropriate for a large number of students.
It's free and you can upload different sorts of files.
Once you upload the document you want your students to read and discuss about, the site will alert you to possible overlays it may find on the document you've uploaded. I had problems with pdf files with images, graphs and also a pdf in two columns. I advise you to check the preview on the website to see if the formatting of the text is ok or not.
Check what happened to the PDF file I tried to upload.
Now, if the same thing happens to you, you can edit the document right there or try a different document with text only. And that's exactly what I decided to do next.
I copied and pasted the text into a Word file and also decided to try out something else, to embed a video to my word file. Following the instructions found in the website, I selected a video about the same topic and grabbed the embed code. Next, I pasted the code directly into the Word file I was going to upload to the NowComment website.
I clicked the blue button SAVE AND CONTINUE and Voilá, the video "magically" appeared.
You can use different color schemes to highlight parts of the text.
And you can also select specific paragraphs around which you can start a conversation by clicking on the speech bubble with a plus sign.
The conversation can be viewed by students in two ways: 2 panes or combined.
If you select the 2-pane view, the text is on the left and the conversations appear on the right side of the screen.
The other possibility is the combined view, with the text interspersed with conversations.
The conversation can be started by the teacher or the students themselves. And to interact with a previous comment, all you have to do is click REPLY.
Another plus is the possibility to develop discussions around videos. If you add a Youtube video embed code to the Word file you upload to the website, it's fairly easy to propose a discussion.
Above the video player, when you click ADD COMMENT, you can add a comment/question to a certain point of the video or to the video as a whole. The image I've added below shows a question I add at a certain time in the video.
HANDS ON MOMENT
Would you like to try it out with us?
If so, click HERE and feel free to leave comments, highlight parts you find important and play with the website. Be aware the text is not complete as I just wanted to test the website.
WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT
It's free.
It works well with Word files.
You can easily create Word files + embed code to different videos to create conversations around videos or flipped assignments around videos.
You can create great conversations around images you add to a Word File you prepare beforehand.
Using the COMBINE page view, you can create reading tasks which ask students to pause reading, discuss and then continue the reading.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT IT
PDF files are easily deconfigured once uploaded to the website and it's really time consuming to edit the whole text.
The documents are private as default so it takes some time to locate where to edit the document properties so that large groups of people can participate (especially if you don't have everyone's emails)
Point is a Google Chrome Plugin which allows you to quickly share links to websites and videos with other people. And how does it work? You install the plugin to your Google browser, then every time you want to share a link with someone, press the key @ on your keyboard and a small box pops up prompting you to choose the person or email to share it with.
Check the video below with a demonstration.
What I liked about it is the possibility to work collaboratively. By sending the link to someone, whether they are online or not, we can use the chat box which pops up to develop a conversation and reflect together. You can highlight the parts of the text you find relevant and discuss about it as I did with a colleague, Juliana Gense, tonight (we are reading in English but discussing in Portuguese).
You can share and discuss about articles and blog posts:
You can share and discuss about Youtube videos:
And even share and discuss about pdf files which have been embedded to https://www.scribd.com/
Another amazing feature is the possibility to share the whole chat with someone else via email. And how to do that? After finishing a chat, you click the key @ again and type the email. This would be perfect for sharing a chat with the teacher. The screenshot below is an example of what the chat thread would look like after being sent by email.
How can we use Point with students?
Brainstorming uses with Juliana, we imagined some possibilities:
Have a whole group of students discuss about an article synchronously or asynchronously.
Divide EFL students in trios and have them get together synchronously to discuss about texts or explore new vocabulary in a text. Then, when they finish the task, the can send the whole chat to the teacher.
Invite students to discuss about a video they watch together.
Invite undergraduates or post graduates to analyze academic papers and discuss about the parts they find relevant, then email the chat to their professor or tutor .
You can type any text and they flip it for you. It's a pity they don't provide you with an embed code, therefore, you have to copy and then past the flipped text to use it.
HOW CAN WE USE THIS SITE WITH STUDENTS?
Type a series of questions, flip the text . Ask students to copy the text in their notebooks as fast as they can. Then students use the questions to ask each other .
Type any text with target vocabulary / structure and ask students to copy it in their notebooks. Then, ask them to underline the recent words they've learned.
The Crazy Professor Reading Game is a reading technique which helps students see meaning in the words they´re reading. Students become active as they move their hands and read dramatically. Honestly, when I saw the video I wished I were in that classroom as a student, learning and having fun w/ them.
The steps are:
ask sts to read the text aloud to themselves (dramatically).
sts read again using their hands to represent what they are reading.
pairs ask questions to each other about the text.
One st is the crazy professor and the other is the eager student. The teacher really wants to teach (summarize the text) and the student really wants to learn.
This is an interesting site to recommend to intermediate or advanced EFL learners. LOUDLIT.org has a collection of novels , short stories, poems and children stories you can both read and listen to. Besides enjoying the story you can also learn the pronunciation of words.
1. Select the story 2. Then look for the Read & Listen button
3. You'll be taken to a browser where you can Read the page and listen to the story being read.
This is a lesson activity that could be used with Upper Intermediate students dealing with biographies. The tools used are http://wordsift.com and the site http://www.biography.com/ 1. Before reading: show the first image (word cloud) to class on IWB and ask sts to discuss in pairs what they think the text will be about.
2. Ask the whole class ideas about the text.3. Then ask them the most important words in the text are. Ask them if there are any words in the word clouds that they don't know and click on the words. Below they will be able to see images and a word web in the visual thesaurus. (example with the word ILL in the second image). Teacher avoids giving definitions but can use the tools below to help students grasp the meaning.
4. Teacher tells students the text is about a famous person who has already died.
5. Teacher asks students what they know about Mother Teresa. Use the word cloud to predict information about her.
6. Reading: Students read a biography about Mother Teresa. Then without looking at the text , only looking at the word cloud , pairs try to see how much they can remember about the text.
7. Post reading: For Homework , students have to go to http://www.biography.com/ , choose a famous person they admire, read their biography.
8. The following class, students in groups of 3 tell each other about the person they read about.
I'd like to share a site I've come across which offers you the experience of reading, watching and listening to great books. The storytelling is done by well-known actors. I had such a nice time reading the books! http://www.storylineonline.net/
This is a part of one of the stories I loved : "Stellaluna"
iWise is THE place for searching for quotes. You can search it by key words, by person, you can listen to the quotes and even share them in facebook and twitter. I literally fell in love with the site.
I found the AUDIO SLIDESHOW GALLERY a wonderful site to practise listening. It´s a different way of listening with the help of images. The slideshows summarize key news events. Thinking of Brazilian EFL Learners I would advise this activity to high-intermediate + advanced learners.
Next trial was an online KaraokeSINGSNAP.COM. I had so much fun. So, bear with my voice. I decided to sing "The Scientist" by Coldplay.
First, you run the setup wizard which is very straightforward, then, you select the song you´d like to sing and finally just gather up your courage and let your voice out. It takes some time while the site sends your recording.
Making sts sing and record their voices isn´t easy but if you teach a song to a group, find one or two who are more keen on singing and have them hold the microphone in class while the whole class sings with them, this way, I think it could be done. Yes, it´s great pronunciation practice and much fun.
The next site is great for reading + listening practice. These are simplified news stories with listenings or video plus a recording with the pronunciation of new words, a memory game with new words + definitions, and more exercises. REALLY GOOD!
The everyday life project is FANTASTIC. It´s great for listening and reading practice. By solving everyday problems, interacting with the lesson, and making your choices, you end up learning a lot. There are good lessons for people teaching topics such as FOOD, MONEY, COMPUTERS and WORK.
I remember when I had to ask friends travelling abroad to kindly buy magazines in English for me as this was the only way I could read magazines written in English!!!!! Whenever I got a hold of the magazine, it felt like something precious to be savoured slowly and at its most.
Now, you can read magazines in any language you can imagine, online, FOR FREE!!! I´ve just come across a site via Nik Peachey´s blog which offers various magazines you can read online. You can experience magazines, leafing through pages, you can zoom in/out, you can even embed the magazine in your blog! It´s fantastic, isn´t it? http://issuu.com/publications
I´ve just found this site in Elena´s blog and I was literally in SHOCK. It´s great how well you can read with this tool, my only doubt are the rights to publish this material. Below, I´ve embedded a player from Calaméo from one of the Harry Potter´s books. If you select Full Screen you can read the story very well. Check it out.
I´ve just heard about Mixbook in the Langwitches blog. I imagine you can create wonderful books with students using images from the web or even downloading images from your computer. You can write stories collaboratively, publish them, get the embed code or URL and even have the option of buying a printed copy of the book you have created.
You could:
write stories with your students.
write funny stories which students have to continue using their creativity.
have students create dialogues with drawings they have done...
Have a look at this mixbook created by Third Grade students starting poems with " Roses are red, Violets are blue ..."
I found this site in Larry Ferlazzo´s blog. It tells the story of 25 myths from different parts of the world. Choose a region and learn about the Incas, the Celtics, the Navaros, the Chinese, The Hindis, the Aztecs and others. After you choose a region you watch an animation with sound and text with explains the origin of these people.
How can we use this with students? One would be to choose one region related to something you´re teaching and ask all your sts to watch the same story and answer comprehension questions afterwards. Another would be letting sts pick different regions, have them watch the animations and then each students would tell the class or write about the different people. Any other ideas?
It´s definitely worth MANY VISITS!!!!!!! Not only can you learn English but also Culture. FANTASTIC!
A teacher from Argentina, Jennifer, shared a wonderful site with us, The Learning Edge. You can read the newspaper articles, listen to them and do comprehension and vocabulary activities. GREAT!
