- First we were shown two interesting websites by Sean Banville. They both offer tasks based on the news.We tried out a few exercises ourselves. Next we tested our skills with a website containing quizzes.
- We recorded news reports.
- We started working on our own blogs.
What technologies did you cover?
- Websites
1. Breaking News English is one of the largest sites for learning English. It contains lessons based on the current news and followed by numerous varied activities. There are plenty of tasks that can be used as interactive activities related to listening, reading, speaking, writing, grammar and vocabulary for all levels of students. In fact, you cannot appreciate the comprehensiveness of the source without looking at it.
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| Breaking News English.com |
2. Listen a Minute is another interesting site by Sean Banville. It is similar to Breaking News English but it is more focused on listening and reading skills for lower level students.
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| Listen a Minute.com |
3. Quizicon contains a few interesting quizzes.
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| Quizicon.com |
- Tools
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Blogger may turn out to be extremely useful in your teaching. If you decide to design a distance or blended learning course, it will be necessary to know two sorts of technology tools. The first one includes these devices with which you will create the content, such as Google Forms for quizzes, surveys; You Tube for videos; SoundCloud for podcasts, Snagit for screencasts, etc. The other type refers to places which provide space for all the content, in other words these tools constitute repositories. Namely, Blackboard, Edmodo, Moodle, Blogger and others are examples of such repositories.
| Technology Tools |
2. Vocaroo is a very easy free tool for recording your voice and sending the file anywhere on the web.
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| Vocaroo.com |
Example: Vocaroo
How might you use the technologies in your own teaching and learning?
- Blogger - a useful tool for creating courses, in particular blended learning and distant courses; blogs can be written by students as writing activities, for example: diary, set of reports, set of completed assignments; both teachers and students can develop their own interests.
- Breaking News English and Listen a Minute - teachers can select activities based on authentic texts for their classes, especially their blended learning classes; student can use both websites for self-study.
- Vocaroo - students can record their oral texts for teacher or peer feedback, for practice and assessment. Teachers can record their instructions and comments. If you want your students to record in class, you will probably be able to do it with only less numerous groups of students because of the background noise.
- Quizicon - quizzes from the website can be used as a warm-up in class or in self-study.
Important Texts
You can learn about these technologies from Breaking News English, Listen a Minute, Introduction to Blogger, Making you Blogger site more interesting, Vocaroo sections on TTV by Russell Stannard.
