Monthly Archives: January 2013

Blog blog blog! Win win win!

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Before you …… We are here to help. 🙂

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http://www.britishcouncil.org/hungary-english-teach-english-blogathon-2013

 

All you have to do is to apply and blog hard between 1 and 28 February.

Thanks to British Council TeachingEnglish, you can win valuable prizes, even an all-inclusive trip to the IATEFL conference in Liverpool!

That’s a massive reason to start/go on blogging indeed. But once British Council has started the ball rolling I feel the topic of teachers blogging worths a bit of attention.

Why is it good to write a blog? What is good in it for a teacher of English?

Having asked my Facebook friends this is what has been put together:

WHY IS IT GOOD FOR A TEACHER TO START A BLOG?

“In that way a teacher motivates, inspires & helps other teachers to develop & improve their current teaching styles:)”
Tamara Petrovic

“It’s journaling out loud…to the world…with lots of helpful feedback both in writing style and in thinking. AND it becomes a chronological archive of your professional and personal growth in your ideas!”
Walter McKenzie

“Well, why is it good for students to practice writing? Same thing, teachers are lifelong learners. That’s one thing, being able to reflect on what we wrote is a great advantage as well, see how we build and develop our own way of expressing our thoughts…. and above all, blogging is a form of written dialogue where you can get a reaction and build a whole conversation on…”
Vladimira Chalyova

“I was inspired to start my blog after reading http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/britishcouncilturkey/why-do-i-blog-janet-bianchini-guest-post. But I started blogging later jumping into Brad Patterson’s challenge and thanks to him wrote my first blog. Challenging is also inspiring.”
Larisa Dubova

“I like to think of my blog as a space for me to reflect, but by doing it in public I’m inviting people to offer their opinions on what I write, which in turn makes me reconsider and evaluate them. It’s also a very useful way of arranging my thoughts into a coherent shape and logical order.”
James Taylor

After all these wonderful thoughts you may want to have a look at the update and the comments. Some of them are truly outside the box!

If you also have ideas, experience, opinion to share with us, please comment.

 

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Mobile

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Remember Christmas? The fragrance of roast and the Christmas tree gently mingled with the slight but pervasive smoke of sparkle throwers, beigli and potato salad, mayonnaise, red and gold everywhere, Home Alone on TV, the silence of souls and kids’ joyful expressions of delight and surprise over the presents under the tree: “Mom! Wow! A tablet/iPad/smartphone/iPod touch!!!”, shouted out loud into the sacred night?

But seriously, I bet the little angel’s bag (or pocket) was heavy with mobile devices in the holiday season. (One of my pre-school students got a cheap tablet. I hear the public outcry “a 5-year-old shouldn’t be given a tablet.” What I think is … well … she could have been given a decent Barbie house with a garden, same price. I’d rather go for the tablet, get at me …)
Most probably your students also have new gadgets and chances are they use them for anything but learning.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing but I feel there is a lot to do here.

You may want to know more about how to use these and what cool apps there are available.
Earlier on Mary already presented the fantastic tool ‘Explain Everything‘. She really convinced me, I downloaded it, although not for free. It has proved to be a silver bullet, I use it nearly every day, with various types of learners and in many ways, thank you for that!

Where can we get more information on apps available and how to use them? Google?

Search keywords:
Mobile learning
iPad for schools
Android for schools
BYOD (bring your own device)

Household names:
Nicky Hockly
Gavin Dudeney
Isil Boy
Elinda Gjondedaj
Ozge Karaouglu
Shelly Terrell
Nik Peachey

Some inks:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/learningmobile/?fref=ts

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Educational-Technology/202077286473233?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
http://ipadapps4school.com/
http://android4schools.com/
http://www.scoop.it/search?q=mobile+learning&type=topic&page=1&limit=24

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Made with apps Phoster and Skitch


If you have already implemented using mobile devices in ELT please share your adventures with us. Also feel free to add search keywords, names, links to the ones above. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, not sure we can answer. Hmm … what if yes?

 

P.S.
I nearly forgot the cats! This is a photo of my living room. No, I don’t have cats nor a tiger. It’s a picture dictation activity with young learners. You know, “there’s a tiger on the sofa”.
The app is Cat Effects.

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Shepherding cool links: Content Curation

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Do you know why I’m into ICT in ELT? Because I love cool links! It is definitely cool links that keep me going. Finding a cool link is like a birthday present each.
I mean not only funny cat videos but also classroom resources, articles on topics of my interests (learner autonomy, cooperation, etc.) and all sorts of web-based digital multimedia content.

Great! The only problem with cool links is that they just seem to flood at random (not when you would actually need them) making you feel suffocated in the multitude of cool links, which is obviously an uncool condition.

How on earth can you handle this overload of cool links after all?

One option is bookmarking, either in your browser or social bookmarking, another one is using content curation tools. (The two are of course totally different functions, it’s about how to survive the flood mentioned above.) I prefer the latter option, it has to do with my nature. (Chaotic.)

In very simple, content curation is when … let’s see … there is a bunch of cooool links, there is someone who is kind and motivated enough to categorize and filter content and compile it in an easy to handle and attractive (magazine-like) format with the help of a handy tool. This someone can actually be you yourself.

Ok, before getting lost in that explanation, let’s go to my favourite content curation tool: Scoop.it!

Let’s say you have a brand new tablet and you want to know about apps. Write your search term ‘apps ELT’ in the search box.

You will find three tabs as marked by the orange arrows: scoops (compilations), nice and helpful people, and topics. You can register and follow the topics, thus ensuring you will always be well informed.

 

Photo Skitch Document

Do you want to be nice too? You can curate your own content if you like by clicking on ‘my topics’ and ‘create a topic’.

If you want to know more about it and find other content curation tools, just ask us or don’t hesitate to ask your friend: Google.

Feel free to comment and share your experience and thoughts on content curation or anything else ICT ELT related, funny cat videos are also welcome. (Just kidding. Mmmm.)