Managing time while using the net

• Do you lose track of time while using the net?
• Do you turn on the computer with lots of tasks to do but after a few hours discover you've done very little because you ended up surfing and doing other things?

Well, if your answer is YES to both questions, you might find this post helpful. Many teachers I'm in contact with use the net for professional development, therefore we have lots of things to do while using the computer. The other day I was talking to a friend and she complained about the amount of time she wasted online instead of doing what she intended to do.

I've walked that road but am happy to say, my time is better managed now. And what do I do? Well, it's pretty simple.

1. Before I turn on my laptop, I write down a list of online tasks I should do that day, such as answer e-mails, check what my students have posted as homework, check direct messages in facebook ....
2. As soon as I turn on the computer, I go to an online alarm clock  http://kukuklok.com/ and set a time limit for surfing through my social network sites. 

These two simple things have helped me use my time better, juggling the different activities I have weekly: answer e-mails, facilitate an online course, prepare my lessons, check what my students have posted for homework, read articles for my M. A. program, write my theses, attend classes at University, teach  and have fun. Want to read more about this? Check out this interesting article http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Track-of-Time-While-Surfing-the-Internet

AND YOU? How do you manage your time while surfing?

Testing Webcam Toys

Do you like playing with your webcam taking different pictures?

WEBCAM TOYS lets you use your webcam to take photos with 60 different effects. I had a great time trying it out. No need to download anything or to create an account. Just, click and SMILE.

This is the slideshow I've put together to show some of the effects available.
 What can we use this for?

• Use photos to personalize your teaching material.
• Use fun photos for your profiles.
• Use it to take pictures of students making different facial expressions to teach FEELINGS.
• Or JUST HAVE FUN !!!!!!

Creating Q & A for a Youtube video

GROCKIT is an interesting tool  which allows teachers to create questions and answers for any youtube video. Each question can be added to the right spot of the video and the activity can then be shared with your students via a link or sent to twitter or facebook. Unfortunately , I believe it's not possible to embed the activity. I've learned about it via David Kapuler.

How to create your activity:

1. Create your free account.
2. Select the video from youtube and copy the URL.
3. Go to  https://grockit.com/answers/ and paste the video URL.
4. To the left of the video thumbnail image, click MODERATE A PRIVATE Q & A.
5. Click on the play button below the video and pause when you want to insert a question. Repeat the procedure, play video, pause, type question and click SUBMIT.
6. Click SHARE to grab the URL to share it with students.

https://grockit.com/r/dcb 

PROJECT: An image a week (with EFL learners)

Let me share a project which has  started this week, the "AN IMAGE A WEEK " project.

An image a week PROJECT - An image a week via kwout

Some weeks ago, while reading about the 365 Project  I started playing with the idea of having my students share images and write texts about them. However, I thought a photo a day would be impractical for my reality. Then, why not AN IMAGE A WEEK? 

Each student would take a photo to represent their week, write a 50-word text about it and send it to an assigned e-mail. My second thought was: why not invite other teachers from different countries to participate as well? I wrote some messages to teachers I know who teach students of similar ages and was thrilled all of them accepted the challenge.

We'll have two groups from Uberlândia (Brazil), a group from Croatia, two groups from Italy, a group from Belgium and a group from Chicago. Click on the play button to watch the presentation Daniela Tomatis has created to introduce the project to students.

The first step was to set up the main page (a posterous blog) for the posts.Then, to help our group work develop better I created a facebook group where teachers involved have been exchanging ideas.

The project will take place from the 8th February to 22nd June, which make 20 weeks altogether. Therefore, by the end of the project each student will have shared 20 images along with 20 short texts.

If you're interested in following our project this semester, please visit the AN IMAGE A WEEK page and leave us comments; every week lots of different posts will come to life.

Thank you, Guido , Daniela Tomatis, Camila Sousa, Grace, Daniela Becchio and Arjana for joining the project.

Creating with HELLOSLIDE

HELLOSLIDE is a site I heard about very recently and was meaning to try out. The site allows you to add voice to your presentations, but NOT YOUR VOICE. What you do is: you upload your presentation in PDF, type the text which you would like to hear with each slide, save and play. It's as simple as that. The good thing is that you don't need to worry about your voice or recording, you can edit it later if you need to, and then easily share it by grabbing the URL or the embed code.

This was my first trial:


I've also made a tutorial if you need help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTFrZWNqxds

HOW CAN WE USE IT WITH STUDENTS?

• You can use the site to prepare presentations of lesson topics using ppts you already have . Then all you'd need to do is to save it as pdf and then upload it to the site.
• You can create stories introducing vocabulary.
• You can have students create their own stories and then present it in class.

Draw and record your voice

Drawing and recording your voice is not an easy task. What I've discovered is that once you start drawing, and your focus shifts to the image, there are few barriers to speaking.

The tool I'd like to share today is EDUCREATIONS . I haven't explored it to its full potential but what I've seen so far is good enough. The free tool allows you use your mouse or your finger (ipad) to draw stick figures while you record your voice. You can also upload an image and draw and record your voice at the same time. Once finished, look at the right side below the twitter and facebook buttons for the URL and the embed code which allows you publish the recording.

This is a tutorial I've created showing how to make your Draw + Speak recording.


These are some example recordings made by EVO participants: