Web Tools in TEFL - Recently Updated Pages

Day Five

preteach — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:30:33 CST

By the end of DAY Five you should know

- how to work with WIKIs, RSS (feeds, aggregators), google docs, blogs, online voice mail, voice threads, forums, podcasts
- how grab video/audio from the web (e.g. youtube)
- how to save docs in pdf files
- how to search for information and share huge files (up to 1 Gb)

Do you think you can answer these questions?

Platform
What is a wiki? What are wiki's strengths?

Writing
How should the work be marked? Evaluated?
Should online collaboration be obligatory?
How will the students be encouraged if you ask them to post their writings online?

Speaking

What websites/software can we use to develop our sts' speaking skills?

Listening

What is a podcast?
What websites can we use for extensive/ intensive listening?

Reading

What websites can we use to develop our sts' reading skills?

Making use of internet and software.

YouTube grabber http://keepvid.com/

teaching grammar http://www.learn4good.com/languages/toefl/toefl_stan_test1.htm

http://esl.about.com/

teaching vocab http://quizlet.com/

Online survey http://www.surveymonkey.com

Good resorces for teachers:

http://edtechtalk.com/

http://developingteachers.com/

http://eslcafe.com/

File archives:

www.yousendit.com

http://zshare.com/

http://www.rapidshare.com/

Print files into PDF format (virtual printer) http://www.pdf995.com/

Torrents:http://thepiratebay.org/

Social Bookmarking http://delicious.com

Bookd in PDF for free, movies, Cds, etc http://englishtips.org/

A program to record streaming audio: FREECORDER http://www.applian.com/sound-recorder/

E-mail lists: http://groups.google.ru/ http://groups.yahoo.com/

MORE WEBTOOLS http://baw-08.pbwiki.com/Tools

Online Seminars on webtools (free) Jan - Feb 2009 http://evosessions.pbwiki.com/ or http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/TESOL/EVOL/portal.htm see how this worked in 2008 http://baw-08.pbwiki.com/

______________________________________________________

My websites:

http://preteach.pbwiki.com/

www.preteach.wetpaint.com

Good luck in teaching with Web Tools!!!

Zhenja Bakin

Day Four

preteach — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:08:40 CST

NB Group project on Reading skills due ;))

Extensive listening! (listening for gist)

1) Radios

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

2) Podcasts

http://www.businessenglishpod.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/station/radio4/

http://englishpod.com/lessons

http://www.eslpod.com/website/

3) Lectures online

http://oyc.yale.edu/

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/

4) Audiobooks

http://bigaudiodrama.blogspot.com/

http://librivox.org/

5) Videos

The "Russian Idol" on American Idol

Youtube

TeacherTube

Listening for details

http://www.esl-lab.com/

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

The Dead by Billy Collins

http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/introduction-to-psychology

Yale University Lectures Psychology Lecture 9 LOVE 1) Who is the older gentleman onstage? Tell about him. What is his name? Position? Status? Describe him. 2) According to the Peter Salovey, what are the three parts of love? 3) What is “empty love”? 4) How does competence influence attraction? 5) How does “failure experience” of a competent person influences attraction? 6) What did the professor say about Bill Clinton? 7) Describe the best pratfall experiment ever 8) What is Peter Salovey’s personal example of pratfall experiment? 9) Describe the experiment in the Starbucks café. What does it mean? 10) What is the experiment with the bridge in Columbia University? Why is this not a true valid experiment? 11) How do physical exercises influence attraction? How does stress/pain/shock influence attraction? 12) How many lab experiments were given? Describe the one where participants listen to heartbeat? 13) What is the experiment with Playboy pictures involved? 14) What is the story of Peter Salovey colleague and friend? How does it relate to the lecture?

Yale University Lectures
Psychology
Lecture 9
LOVE

1) Who is the older gentleman onstage? Tell about him. What is his name? Position? Status? Describe him.
2) According to the Peter Salovey, what are the three parts of love?
3) What is “empty love”?
4) How does competence influence attraction?
5) How does “failure experience” of a competent person influences attraction?
6) What did the professor say about Bill Clinton?
7) Describe the best pratfall experiment ever
8) What is Peter Salovey’s personal example of pratfall experiment?
9) Describe the experiment in the Starbucks café. What does it mean?
10) What is the experiment with the bridge in Columbia University? Why is this not a true valid experiment?
11) How do physical exercises influence attraction? How does stress/pain/shock influence attraction?
12) How many lab experiments were given? Describe the one where participants listen to heartbeat?
13) What is the experiment with Playboy pictures involved?
14) What is the story of Peter Salovey colleague and friend? How does it relate to the lecture?

Day Three

preteach — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:17:31 CST

Speaking

HI! Hello1

http://voicethread.com/share/184928/

http://www.chinswing.com/

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

http://www.wimba.com/demos/voiceemail.php

HW

Please, go online to VoiceThread (www,voicethread.com), register and leave a message at my voicethread page. Feel free to watch a tutirial for better understanding. Start your own voicethread. Make sure you know what you want from your students! (creativity, comments, new vocab, etc) To make your page visually attractive you'll need a picture, which you can find easily at Goggle Images. To add text to your picture use any image editor you have (say, Paint Brush which comes with Windows). Do you think you want to upload your photo to make your profile look catchy? You may need to record a demo yourself so the first students won't be confused.

Will you dare to send a 30 sec voice mail to one of your peers? :)) (see WIMBA)

Please, think of five different ways how you can use the tools from above to develop your sts' speaking skills. What would you do if you needed to give practice in speaking for fluency? Accuracy? How can you develop sts' creativity in terms of speaking in English? Do you think you can make your tasks communicative? What about feedback? Error correction? How will your sts get the link to your voicthread/chinswing?

Be ready to answer these questions on Day Four.

e-Z Start

preteach — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:03:44 CST

Teacher training seminar

Web Tools in TESL

November - December 2008

American Center, Moscow

sponsored by Fulbright

facilitated by Zhenja Bakin

Dates	Time
Nov 8	10:45-12:45	Creating a platform (wikis)
Nov 15	11:00-12:30	Developing writing skills online
Nov 22	11:00-12:30	Developing speaking skills online
Nov 29	11:00-12:30	Developing reading and listening skills online
Dec 6	11:00-12:30	Helpful software. Tips!

About the course

This course is designed for the teachers who want to implement new technologies (and first of all, internet tools) into their work. No special training is needed. The course should NOT be confused with “teaching English via internet” or “teaching English on-line”, though many of the tools we’ll explore may be used for on-line teaching. In spite of the fact that all course instructions, resources and tasks are in English, teachers of other languages are very welcome to join.

The course takes 5 face-to-face sessions of 2 ac hours. Each session is followed by homework. During classroom sessions we'll explore the basics, practice new tools and discuss crucial problems such as how much time we should spend on internet teaching or what are possible advantages and disadvantages of virual classrooms. One group project is due week 4. The main idea of the course is to give participants a chance to explore (which might mean “sign up”, “upload”, “rip”, “record”, “resize”, “burn”, “download”, etc), use and give feedback on internet tools from teacher’s perspective.

Participants must have:

Personal computer (at home; a laptop in the classroom is a GREAT advantage)
Access to internet (unlimited access is a plus)
Headset or earphones with microphone
All necessary video and audio codecs to play youtube “flash video” clips
Teachers are highly recommended to bring laptops to face-to-face sessions.(don't forget to charge your batteries)
If using Mozilla Firefox browser, you may be sure that you will be able to read/embed/upload/download/see/delete/link/paste/cut/copy/etc during your studies without any problems.

Course Structure

Register here!

To participants

Dear all,

I'm really excited about this course and I want you to know that this website was created for you; so get the nerve, register and take part in on-line collaboration. Feel free to ask/answer questions, start new threads, add photos, change colors, etc. I promise, you will not be able to ruin this website and I truly believe that the more you play with it (or should I say "practice"), the more fun you have (or "learn").

Virtually yours,

Location:
American Center
Library for Foreign Literature
Nikoloyamskaya St., 1

NB: You will need an ID card (passport) to get inside.

Day Two

preteach — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:08:04 CST

Writing

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=417030093&blogID=439182448
www.preteach.wetpaint.com

http://www.hypertextopia.com/library/read/507
www.writefix.com
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html

Home task

You need to develop your student's writing skills, so think of a group you are currently teaching (or a group you want to teach).
Are group collaboration and sharing among your goals? Ideally, you want your students to post their HW answers online (the tasks may be taken from the course book you are using) and you need some peer correction / group feedback.
Start a blog of your own (www.myspace.com ; www.blogspot.com or anything else are just fine). Please, make sure you know how it works before you ask your students to register.

Start a new thread under this page (DAY 2) and offer some ideas how you can use internet for teaching writing. Please, make sure you give detailed recommendations!

Do you think your students can use a WIKI to create a project and work completely online?

Open a google account. If you already have one, go to Google Docs. Create a page (any language) and share it with someone you know (you can share it with me, if you want to).

Good questions to ask yourself:

- How should the work be marked? Evaluated?
- Should online collaboration be obligatory?
- How will the students be encouraged if you ask them to post their writings online?

From Google page go to Google Reader. Learn how to collect FEEDs and try it on any of the websites which says RSS of has a small orange icon. How can you use this web tool in teaching? In teaching writing?

-----------------------------------------

Group project on reading skills (due Day Four, 28 Nov)

Create a wiki or a shared document where your group will place links, concepts, ideas, approaches and examples of reading tasks. Feel free to start your group research with googling "reading tasks online".

Announcements

preteach — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:18:03 CST

I've uploaded these 3 photos from Day One - Just go to PHOTOS!!!

z

Ted's_America

tedbwalls — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:47:08 CST

NO-no-no, it's Barak's America now

It's Joe's America......Joe Mamma!!!

Ted's provincial area

tedbwalls — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:43:03 CST

This is where I would probably put a text or special link for my students to make comments on below in the thread section.

Do you think the world is ending? If it doesn't, what will be a good strategy to keep slogging through this monotonous existance?

Yulia's page

preteach — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:25:39 CST

This is a template page

Use this template when you want to use photos and text to tell your story. Click EasyEdit, then highlight this text with your cursor and type over it with your own words: You can write as much as you want!

This sample photo is easy to replace with one of your own: Click the EasyEdit button, highlight the placeholder image at left and hit "delete." Then click the "image" button in the toolbar and use the "browse" button to find the image you want to insert from your computer. It's that easy.

The text can be wrapped around your image, or you can have the text start below the photo. You can also move the photo to the right side of the page. See your choices for photo and text placement by clickin on the photo with your mouse and then clicking "image" on the toolbar.

You can also change the size of your photo by clicking on it once to highlight it, then by clicking the "plus" or "minus" sign in the "Edit Image" toolbox. When you're all done, save your page.

Group FAQ

preteach — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:18:29 CST

Hi I'm Yulia.
it's exciting because it's working!

Day One

preteach — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:38:20 CDT

Day One Task

1) Please, go to www.webtoolsinmoscow.wetpaint.com and register. After you open a WETPAINT account, update your profile. Let us know who you are. What are your professional interests? Hobbies? What's your credo? To watch your colleagues' profiles just go to MEMBERS (a top tool bar)
You may want to upload your photo. If you have a nice photo but it's huge (like 2 or 5 MB) go to http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/, download a program (Easy Thumbnails) and work on your picture (re-size or compress ). If you think you want to cut your face out of a group picture, go to MS Paint editor (or any other you like) which is on your computer. Your path will be Start - Programs - Accessories - Paint

2) Go to youtube (www.youtube.com) and watch short video clips "... in Plain English" (Wikis in Plain English, Blogs in Plain English, RSS in Plain English, etc)

3) Think of a group (or a class) you are currently teaching or will teach soon. What are your students' interests? Hobbies? Lifestyles?
Create a wiki page for your class. Feel free to choose between

www.pbwiki.com
www.wetpaint.com
www.wikispaces.com

You will need a short introduction for your front page, short self-presentation and a couple of pages on different aspects. You first project might be "School website in English" or "New Year Activities"... You will add the content in future (after Day Two), at this point you need an outline only.
Make sure your website contains pictures. BTW you can find gazillions of funny pictures at Google Images!!!

4) Finally, let us know about your newly created web-page (see an example below). Please, make sure you add a link (and not address) - this will make your life harder a little bit :-)

If any questions appear, post them in GROUP FAQ section

Your name	Web-site
Zhenja	Here's the website I use for teaching TOEFL! My students collaborate on exam vocabulary and writing.

Course Structure

preteach — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:40:48 CDT

Course plan

During the course we'll cover the topicts mentioned below.
For more details (links and/or home work) go to Days 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

Getting together with students: collaboration and sharing. Why teach with a personal website.

wikis
group mail lists

Language to teach: WSLR skills, typing, vocab, grammar

Developing writing:

blogging
social networking
group editing
group commenting / forums
projects (wikis)
cartoons / video clips

Developing speaking

voice recording tools
voicemail
voice threads

Developing listening

radio / youtube
podcasts
audiobooks
voice threads

Tools that help us. Full stop.

printing to *pdf files
Grabbing youtube clips
Recording streaming audio
Sending BIG files to groups
www.surveymonkey.com
Social bookmarking
Burning images
www.englishtips.org
Audio/video codecs
RSS / online office
Online dictionaries
www.rapidshare.com

Project task: Developing reading

Project task: Tools for teaching vocabulary and grammar

Group feedback / sharing