bookr

These lovely pics are from the Flickr website. Bookr lets us choose photos from Flickr to make some highly polished publications and presentations. Bookr is another idiot friendly website where the book pages are waiting when you open the website and you simply type in a topic area in the tag box. You select from an array, or keep scrolling if you can't see what you want. Keep turning the pages with your cursor, add more pics and write in the text box on each page if you want to. Once you're happy, type in an e-mail address and copy the embedding code if you want it. The book is tagged in their archive.


I made these two books using some published students' stories. The first shows how bookr can be used as a speaking prompt - if you are looking for presentation-type practice and you have a large screen in the classroom. It would be more interesting for students to find their own pics of course and spend some time rehearsing. The second version shows how simple it is for students to add text. Although the boxes look small, they can write a considerable amount and add more pages. This is particularly motivating for beginners - rarely does the end result of 4 sentences look so impressive! 


However - problems?   There's not a lot to say here.  You can't save your products except in their archive.  You might find the Flickr archive a bit annoying.  It has a definite cultural skew.  But definitely worth exploring!

MailVU

This is one of those multi-purpose tools not necessarily designed with learning in mind which seem to have "here I am, language teacher" written all over it.  As long as you have a webcam it allows you to record a video for up to 10 minutes, save it in a repository and e-mail it to someone else.  You can click and record as soon as you access the website, though there are three versions you can sign up for. I've tried the free one which gives you a repository to save your recordings to but doesn't allow you to embed.  It is ridiculously easy to use: one click and you are recording. 

My first thought was to use it to record stuff to take into the classroom.  Listening to teachers talking has now become acceptable practice again - teachers are great resources for authentic, but roughly tuned input and add a personalised and context-sensitive motivation for listening. HOWEVER, I find spontaneous, unscripted story-telling, for example, quite difficult to get right first time (and we often ask our students to do this!)   So I've made recordings at home, with an off-screen audience, and I was a lot happier with the result. Click this and see what you think?  http://ml.vu/yUBlvL It also meant I could think about some of the language I was using and decide which bits might be useful for students to notice.  Of course, the next step is to prepare students to make their own recordings and this needs to be done in the classroom.  The teacher's recordings can be used for more than one listening so students can be encouraged to notice the structure of the story, the tenses or typical narrative discourse markers.  Students need time to think about, prepare, elaborate, rehearse and correct: the classroom environment is ideal for this.  They have a critical but receptive audience for each stage in peers and their teacher who provide feedback about meaning, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.  All this and the prospect of recording should challenge students to 'raise their game' (as in the reporting stage of task-based learning) and develop greater accuracy and complexity. The actual recording, on the other hand, can ideally be done from the students' homes and e-mailed to their teacher and other students.  This enables the teacher to send back individual feedback, which is usually quite difficult to achieve for speaking activities.  You can imagine how much students might appreciate this as they approach their speaking exams.  Thinking of assessment in more formative terms, once students start saving their recordings, they are beginning to assemble a portfolio with evidence of their progress.  They should find this motivating and your quality assurance-minded managers would certainly be interested in this method of tracking. Once you have the students' recordings, there is more motivating learning potential in playing one or two strong ones and encouraging peers to analyse what makes them successful. 

It's difficult to find  any problems with this tool except where your classrooms or your students don't have webcams: this is certainly a problem in my own context.  It would also be ideal to be able to  save these elsewhere. 


http://mailvu.com/

Learning Chocolate

This is a friendly little vocabulary site that obligingly offers you the same items in many other languages as well as English.  It seems to get updated - new items have appeared on the site recently.  For each vocabulary field there are opportunities to click a picture and hear each item, match sound and spelling (3 different ways) practise spelling and then do a dictation.  Each activity has a timer and a feedback button.  This is the key to its usefulness: it enables students to come across the same item in many different ways, links pronunciation, meaning and spelling, and provides the consolidation students really need to acquire a new lexical item.  The site has three  full pages of different vocabulary fields: what I also like is that they include collocations.  It has a dual language option for Spanish, Japanese and Chinese speakers (it has its eye on the big markets).  You can show the most IT timid students how to navigate this site and hope they will find this experience so easy they will go away and use it at home.  Your tech savy students will have found it already. 

Unfortunately for my students, the accent and variety is U.S. English, which UK-based beginners in particular find a bit confusing (period? - fullstop!).  I'm just waiting for the Brit English version.  Also, as you might expect with a site which is picture-based, it only offers a basic level vocabulary list.  A further thought - once your students start matching up randomly and then going straight for the checking button, it's time to think of more creative ways of using this site - there's not much learning going on.   



http://www.learningchocolate.co                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Phrasr

 This tool can be found on the Pimpampum website, home of bubblr and bookr and, like them, draws on the repository of flikr photos.  It is ridiculously easy to use: it offers to find photos to illustrate any phrase you care to type in.  It tries to find a match for each item in the phrase and if you don't think much of any of the matches, you are offered others or the option of a blank.  Once you are happy with the collection of pictures, you write a title for your row of pictures and e-mail it to someone.
 
At first glance this is a dodgy idea, but as long as you remember this is not attempting to be an elementary photo dictionary then your learners can use it to explore their understanding of the meanings of new words and phrases.  If they type in a vocabulary list of concrete nouns, they will be presented with a straightforward collection of pictures to choose from.  With more idiomatic phrases the pictures start to become  more idiosyncratic.  Used in this way it becomes more challenging to find the best (sometimes quite personal) fit between word and picture.  Students could work in pairs with their vocabulary lists compiling then comparing their illustrations.  Successful acquisition of vocabulary requires a lot of recycling like this, and the process of making a personal selection of pictures can only help to make it more memorable.        

I typed in a number of phrases to see what it would come up with.

  

However...

Some phrases and words will never trigger an acceptable match - the pictures draw from one repository.
YOu can't save the illustrated phrases: you can find them again in the website's public gallery or by e-mailing them.  

  http://www.pimpampum.net/en/content/phrasr

WebQuests

Webquests are task-based projects in which most of the input is sourced  from the internet. There are many free webquest banks on the internet or you can design one yourself using an on-line template.  Making your own webquest is technically straightforward because the templates found on websites like QuestGarden are user friendly and highly schematic.  There may be nothing stopping highly motivated students creating one themselves.  


There is much potential satisfaction and value for language learners in working through one of these internet projects.  If learners work collaboratively - and this may depend on the task design - there could be a lot of purposeful spoken interaction and motivational higher order level problem solving.  If the tasks are well staged and the links well chosen, learners will be able to engage with authentic texts without being overwhelmed by them.  

However...

Finding the perfect ready-made webquest may not be easy.  Many repositories are of very mixed quality; be careful with quests designed for a content rather than language learning context; some of the websites aren't being maintained and the links remain broken. Making your own may seem the perfect solution, because you know your students and their context.  However, this is not a quick solution and it's rather like designing a good test, if you want a really motivating one, it's more difficult than you think.   

 http://questgarden.com/  

Listen a minute

This is another Sean Banfield site and, like his Breaking News English, you wonder how such a huge and well-designed bank of resources can be free.  As the title says, the listening texts are all short, though he must have forgotten about the one minute bit when he went on to develop all the gapped texts, word order, spelling and discussion tasks.  You print off the writing tasks (pdf) and download the listening file.  The listening titles cover a vast range of subjects and are arranged alphabetically, which makes them very user friendly.  He reads and writes the texts himself, so they all have a personal and slightly quirky spin - not your standard course book fare.  The printable format and the pair work speaking tasks mean they work for well for classrooms. However, there is also a nice, on-line interactive 'dictogloss' type activity with each recording which is very satisfying to do and would encourage students to do some intensive listening and language processing at home.   

However...

Being read by the same 'sympathetic' reader, these recordings don't pretend to be 'authentic' conversations: they don't challenge students with a variety of accents, situations and speakers or with natural speed. 

 They are all roughly the same kind of level too, so perhaps not challenging enough for advanced learners.  Still, we teachers can get too hung up on levels: the more exposure learners get to spoken English the better.  So, if they find his topics and 'voice' attractive enough to seek him out at home, they are away! 

http://www.listenaminute.com/

dvolver

dvolver is one of the easiest tools you could introduce to your students in the classroom.  It's a simple movie-making website which you don't have to register with or log on to.  You choose from a range of settings, select two characters and a (very) simple plot, some music, a title and then start dialogue building in the speech balloons. Once done, you need to e-mail it to someone if you want to see it again, or embed it in a blog or website.  The choices are not infinite and the dialogues quite short so I thought it would be ideal at the end of a lesson where your students are practising functional or situational language (asking for/giving directions, inviting/accepting, etc).  Students could have quite a lot of fun after oral work, choosing (suitable or unsuitable)characters and settings and then having a whole class film show.  Errors can be corrected and language polished up while students are working on the dialogues before publishing them.  If your students feel fairly confident using this tool they could compose a dialogue at home and e-mail it to you for homework.

So, it's great if you have younger learners with five minutes' concentration spans.  If they are working in pairs, they will be motivated to negotiate as they compose their movies. In addition, the issue of choosing the right language becomes much more important if there is a 'polished' product and a performance at the end of it. 

However...
The backgrounds, scenes, plot lines are limited and it would be nice if they kept expanding them.  Don't be tempted to overuse this tool.  To continue to be motivating it must used where it works best.   Finally, if you have everyone doing this in the classroom, the noise will drive you crackers once they have selected the background music.  Suggest the mute button, until the final performance.   

http://www.dvolver.com/

Videos

Of course, videos have been around for a long while in language teaching and likewise ideas for using them.  What is new is the quantity and range we can now access on the internet.  That is the plus.  The minus is that you need a lifetime to sift through it all and find the gems that will create brilliant and motivating speaking and listening activities.  I have done a bit of my own sifting, but I tend to look for people who are good at doing this for me.  However, this is one of choices - a Mr Bean favourite from Youtube.   

I do the usual things with it: students work in pairs, one with their back to the screen while their partner describes what they can see.  The only frustrating thing for the listener is that their partner generally breaks down giggling.  It's usually a good idea to pause and swap roles.  Beforehand, they brainstorm what you would take on a trip to ...Groups then have to agree on what they would need to get rid of if they could only take hand luggage.  'Silent' movies like Mr Bean are ideal for generating speaking and listening activities.  Alternatively, you turn the volume down. 

There are a few free gems to be found in the National Archive of Public Information films and the British Film Institute Digital Archive.  This screen shot is from a public service film, ie a government ad to educate people in the 1950s about pedestrian crossings and it's a hoot. You would brainstorm lots of street furniture vocabulary before watching it.  It would be a good one to get students to improvise or describe and also to pause and invite them to predict what happens next.  It has a voice-over that you could turn off at least to begin with. 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_pc.htm

If you are looking for different ways of introducing functional language to beginner students, the British Council have some more traditional ELT videos: the 'How to...' series are quite entertaining and a bit hammed up.  To help your students to catch some of the detail give them cards with little chunks of the dialogue to listen out for.     

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

Once you start visiting elt blogs and websites many more (better) ideas emerge.  Visit elteachertrainer (see my blogroll) for some excellent ideas for using the National Geographic videos.
So, videos can bring a motivating multimodal dimension into the language classroom.  Listening is at its most naturalistic, including visual and situational clues, introducing varieties of English you may not meet in course books.  They can also be fun, though this depends on your video.  They don't have to be just for listening either, as you can see.

Finally, there are the videos your students make themselves. Below is an example of a project in which a group of women students decided they wanted their own voice in the campaign to get proper funding for ESOL in the UK. See what multimedia can empower your own students to do: you can imagine how much work, in English, (students and teachers) went into this clip.

However...

If you haven't planned something quite purposeful for your video lesson, it can be unfocused and de-motivating.  It takes some while to find the perfect clip for your purpose and it generally is needs to be very short.  Sometimes, your favourite videos somehow, don't have the same appeal to your students.    

Breaking News English Lessons and Jing

First, Breaking News English.  This is literally about Breaking News, because Sean Banville posts a current news text every three days on this site and, with it, a huge range of linked activities.  Unlike many text-based English language sites which offer quantities of comprehension questions designed to keep students quiet, his tasks are largely intended to have the opposite effect.  The tasks are mostly designed to be downloaded as pdf and mp3 files, but there are also some  clever little on-line interactive reading activities.  The paper-based tasks are ideal for classroom use because they include speaking and group activities.  If the text has been meaningfully explored in the classroom, the interactive tasks would be good to set for self-study: they would be motivating  and extend the range of reading sub-skills and vocabulary development. 

There's no login, it's free and there's no chance your students will have met the material before.  Click on the screen below and I will take you through one of the news items.

However...
Any cons?  None, really.  Like anything else, it might be tempting but, don't overuse it. 

 http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ 



Sharing websites like this is just one of the many possible uses of Jing.  This tool enables you to 'draw' a screen around a text and then activate a video recorder so you can record a commentary,highlight or move the cursor to the part you're talking about and at the same time scroll down. Your recording can be stored in your own account but, more usefully, you can sent the URL to whoever you want to share it with.  You can embed your video recording like this into a blog, but I've starting using it more frequently to comment on lesson plans my trainees send me before their teaching practice.  I e-mail them the link: they click and run the video.  I know some people prefer to see their feedback in black and white, so I checked with them and, so far, they've been very positive.  I suspect it feels like a (one sided) tutorial but it has the added bonus of being able to rewind your tutor and for your tutor it's so much quicker to do.  Though I haven't explored this possibility yet, there is no reason why your students shouldn't download this tool onto their own computers at home and start using it to record and send reading and pronunciation homework. Most people should manage with the free version, though there is a paying pro version for longer recordings and larger storage space.  

However...
The recordings in the free version only run for five minutes. 
 
http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html?gclid=CPbV49aTma4CFcEntAod0TTxJw

my.Brainshark

This is a great tool for bringing the outside world into the classroom and giving students a real focus for speaking and listening. I've used it to prepare a presentation I could use as a listening activity.  Pairs would then prepare their own presentations about a familiar area or country.  It's a very task-based learning activity and the recording encourages students to pay greater attention to their accuracy.          



Once your students have registered for this - and it couldn't be more straightforward - they download their powerpoints, pictures or videos and click the record button.  They will need headsets.  They are offered an infinite number of opportunities to re-record and preview, which is ideal.  As long as it's done collaboratively, I would expect a lot of planning and talking before they come up with the final presentation.

However...
The main problem I've had is trying to sequence the pictures.  They seem to pop up in the presentation quite randomly.   If anyone has got this one sorted...? It would be particularly hard if students were using them to tell a story.

http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark

Word Clouds

TagCrowd is one of easiest but not the prettiest word cloud tool I've tried out.

adult africa amused birmingham blog born camping childhood country decided different discovered earth english esol holidays kingdom later local married nightmare parents parts primary round school siblings sons spent studied teacher teaching things training united university variety wandering years

created at TagCrowd.com

http://tagcrowd.com/

I've been trying to make my own word clouds for years, but there are these wonderful tools that do a much better and quicker job and have huge visual appeal. Copy a text into the site and you get all the content words to appear in different sizes depending on their frequency in the text.  The more I look into this tool, the more ideas I get.  Here are a few which I've come up with, inspired by Nick Peachey's blog. 

• Paste a reading text or transcript in, print it off or put it on your smartboard and students can predict  its content, register, title or genre,  before reading or listening.  They can also use the words to compose a list of yes/no questions about the text.  You can answer them and students can compose their own text before reading the original.  Otherwise the questions just make a good focus for reading and listening. Nick Peachey's idea of using the word clouds to review these texts later in the term is  great one. The 'gorilla joke' word cloud was made in 'wordle', a more visually attractive tool.  If you don't know the joke, you're welcome to guess how it goes.  It's at the end of this post, if you're interested.  It demonstrates quite well how useful variable wordsize is in helping you to guess the main characters, setting, etc.

• Dialogues could be put into a word cloud to get students guessing and reconstructing.  The tool can be set to include all the words from the text so students can reconstruct it fully.  Spot  the way this word cloud highlights the informal emotive register of an 'embarrassing accident' anecdote below. Make sure your students notice the sizing isn't just random.  There must be many other ways of exploiting frequency analysis with this tool. 
  
  

• I love the idea of using these for reviewing vocabulary.  Over the years I've kept boxes of cards to pull out for a ten minute review at the end of a lesson.  You can see how a stock of these on your computer would be immediately more memorable and appeal to the visual learner in everyone. 
•  I also like the idea of students pasting texts about themselves into wordle, printing them off, randomly distributing them and asking each other questions to help identify the writer. Beginner literacy students can use it more like a word search, looking for recognisable words they have recently met in a text. 

The previous two word clouds are made with http://www.wordle.net   

At the moment, these tools seem to me to be wonderful for teachers and classrooms.

However...
I haven't found enough ideas for students working on their own.  I've tried a few word cloud tools and there are pros and cons with each: some (like Wordle) don't save easily except by screen capture though they can be captured onto a smartboard or printed off; others come with a thesaurus, though this is not very ESL friendly.

A gorilla joke

 

A gorilla went into a pub, walked up to the bar, and ordered a whisky. The barman was rather surprised, but he gave him the whisky, and then he thought, gorillas probably don’t understand much about money, so he asked him for £15. The gorilla gave him the money and started drinking. There was a silence for a few minutes, and then the barman said, “Excuse me, but you don’t often see a gorilla in a pub.” “It’s not surprising,” said the gorilla, " with whisky at £15 a glass.”