Fantastic VIRTUAL SOUND experience

Ready for an interesting virtual sound experience? For that, you need a pair of headphones and close your eyes. click on the presentation below and DO CLOSE YOUR EYES. It´s unbelievable how true the sounds seem to be.

Ready for a VIRTUAL HAIRCUT?

Fantastic 3D Sound Experience - Virtual Haircut - Free videos are just a click away

Found the link via Polyana Vida, a colleague of mine.

Readthewords - audio files

Discovered this site via Tony Watt. Readthewords.com converts any text, blog, document or RSS into an audio file you can download to your i-pod to listen to. You can select the reading speed and the voice/avatar which is going to read it (male or female).

Check how it works:




How can we use this with sts?

• Students could convert texts to audio files to help them study.
• Students can use it to see the pronunciation of a given set of words.
• This would be an indefinite source of listening material which could be personalised.
• The teacher could use it to convert a text into an audio file and use it in class for dictation. 
• Or send the audio file to sts at home, have them listen, write down and hand in the dictation.
  

This is a text about a Brazilian composer called Heitor Villa Lobos which I converted into an audio file.



After creating the audio file you can download it to your computer, grab the embed code to post it in a blog , get the mp3 file link or even send it to someone by e-mail.

Creative tools: CREAZA

While checking my subscriptions at youtube I found this wonderful site presented by gigafide. It´s Creaza and its tools: mindomo (which I posted about recently), a movie editor, an audio editor and a cartoon maker.

Watch the video and check it out.








Trying out CREAZA:

- my cartoon

Mindomo - a great mindmapping tool

Thanks to Rafael Parente´s tweet, I found this great tool MINDOMO for online mindmapping and especially this one created by Jesper Isaksson called " E-learning and Web 2.0 tools for schools" . Click on the + symbols to see the sites he suggests.




A MINDOMO tutorial

My radio station - Blip.fm (again)

How can you create your own RADIO STATION?

Easy. Go to BLIP.FM , create your free account and start blipping. You can search songs by artist or track. Some blips have audio only and others include video clips from Youtube. It´s similar to facebook but with songs. You can create your own playlist, listen to what other people are listening, add friends and listen to their radio station too.


By clicking on the image, you´ll be taken to my radio station.

Fairy Tales and Lívia Fernandes

Let me talk about a colleague of mine I really admire, Lívia Fernandes. Not only is she a talented EFL teacher but she also finds time and energy for her second love (or first?), photography.

What I like about her photos? They're creative, innovative, colourful, energetic ...

These are some slideshows of two of her projects. The first one is called "Conto100fadas" and she deconstructs Famous Fairy Tales such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "Alice" and others.



The second project she created for Halloween.



You can find more of her photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lz-fernandes/

or at her blog Atellie Fotografia.

Fun Time: Beautiful videos

Sharing beautiful videos I came accross last week. Watch and Enjoy.

Grammar VIDEOS

This is a selection of links to videos I've been exploring to teach GRAMMAR.

Teachers explain several grammar topics.





From the British Council page, fantastic grammar movies w/ explanations.







Several videos and lesson plans.




A wiki with several Grammar Videos

Grammar sites - a diigo slideshow

I´d like to share some sites I´ve been bookmarking at http://diigo.com under the tag GRAMMAR. In order to share them, I´ve saved them under a list called GRAMMAR , clicked on view webslide and got the widget which is just below. This is a nice way of sharing sites with colleagues or even with your students.

Pocket video cameras in the classroom

After reading so many posts about how teachers have been using pocket video cameras in the classroom, decided to include the Flip camcorder in my WISH LIST.

Watch this video demostration



From the "Ideas to Inspire" blog, these are 42 ways to use Pocket video cameras in the classroom.



Larry Ferlazzo wrote a great post about Flip camcorders.

Another great post about Flip Video Cameras.

Cultura EDtech online course - (Group 2)

Cultura EDtech is an online course for BRAZILIAN EFL teachers interested in integrating technology with education.

A new group starts on 01/12/09 and for 3 months we'll be learning how to create class blogs where teachers can share material with students and we'll also explore several webtools in order to devise lesson plans integrating them to our content.

The course is going to follow a very manageable pace and participants will be able to ask for synchronous and asynchronous help.

Watch a video about Cultura Edtech.



A virtual poster about the course .

If you´re interested in joining us, send me an e-mail to anamariacult@yahoo.com.br and I´ll send you more information.

Chat robots - practising conversation

This is my second post about chat robots. I was reminded of them by Ozge Karaoglu during a presentation and decided to have a second look at them.

Of course chat robots can never replace f2f interaction, but using chat robots in class or showing them so that students try them out at home can be quite fun.



This is a chat robot (Maggie) created by
Cartoon EnglishTV

You type in the questions and you can read and hear Maggie answer them.





Morpheus is another good robot to try.








Athena is another chat robot which moves her lips as she speaks.



Nik Peachey has posted a lesson plan using a chat robot site called Virsona. The difference is that you can chat to the virtual characters of famous people in the past. Nik's lesson plan.


Another bot suggested by Susana Canelo
http://lauren.vhost.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f6d4afd83e34564d

Where to order EASI-SPEAK microphone

Thanks to a comment left by Kinderclips I learned about a site where you can order the easi-speak microphone I posted about at the beginning of October. MY PREVIOUS POST

http://www.edsoft.com.au/shop/p21257/Easi-Speak-Microphones--Black/product_info.html

Educational & Adobe Software Online at Edsoft. Learning software, maths software, science software, English software & teaching tools for teachers, students & schools. via kwout

Good to know that now we can order the product from another country.