Let´s Use Voki

Let´s Use Voice Threat

Let´s Learn with Google Drive

Do you know what Google Drive is?

VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence.
 With VoiceThread, instructors and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload. (Indiana University, 2019)

Linguistic skills can be reinforced with this tool

Whis tool provides an excellent option to reinforce students´ speaking skills. Also, it can be sused to help student pratice listening by listening to teacher´s or other classmates´audios. 

Activities That an EFL Teacher Could Carry Out Using Voice Threat

Activity #1- The teacher creates a forum on Voice Threat based on the topic that he/she and his/her students are working on. He/she can start the forum by uploading a video of he/she introducing the topic. At the end of the video, the teacher asks students a question about that topic that includes students giving their opinion about it. Students will watch the video, and record a spoken message in which they asnwer the question that the teacher posses at the end of the video. The teacher can assessed this assignment with a rubric scale.

Acrivity #2- The teacher asks students to make groups (number depends on the quantity of students). Then, the teacher will assign each group a specific topic; or give them options of different topics, and let each students choose the one that they like the most. After that, the teacher will ask each group to record a video in which they talk about that topic (the teacher should be specific about what he/she wants students to include in the video and the legth of the video). At the end of the video, each group will posse a question that promotes discussion. When the video is ready, each group will create a forum using Voice Threat in which they upload the video and include the question. When all the forums have been created, the teacher will ask all students to participate in all the other groups´forums. Each student will enter to the other´s groups forums, watch the video, and asnwer the question of each forum. The teacher can assess the oral production and  participation with a rubric scale.

Activity #3- The teacher will ask each student to choose one of his/her favorite tourist attraction of the country. Students will create a video in which the talk about that place (the teacher should be specific about what he/she wants students to include in the video and the legth of the video). The teacher will create a forum using Voice Threat. He/she will star the forum with an introduction of the topic tourist attrataction and talking about his/her favorite one. After the video, the teacher will asks students to upload their videos as comments. All students will watch to their classmates´videos and choose the one that caught their attention the most, and will comment on it orally. The comment can be brief; it depends on what each student wants to comment about the video.  The teacher can assess the oral production and  participation with a rubric scale.

Tips

I have some recommendations if you as a teacher can use Voice Threat for teaching.

1. First of all, you have to make sure that all your students have acces to good internet connection.
2. Also, you must consider that for using this tool, students will need a smartphone or computer, so make sure all of them have one.
3. If you use this tool for evaluating writing, you should prepared a scoring rubric to assess your students´ production and participation.

I want to include a Protocol that I had to prepare for one of my major courses. In this Protocol I created some activities for EFL students in which they use Voice threat, so I invite you to take a look at it. It may will give you ideas about how to implement this tool with your students. This is the link https://bit.ly/2QfNhcs

Voice Threat is really useful for teaching and learning purposes. The speaking interactive option that it offers can be usefu for teachers if they want to hepl students improve their speaking as well as listening techniques. It a very interesting tool that teachers should take advantage of.


Reference

Indiana University. (2019). About voiceThread. Retrieved from https://kb.iu.edu/d/bduw

Let´s Use SpiderScribe

Let´s Learn with SpiderScribe

Do you know what SpiderScribe is?

SpiderScribe is an online mind-mapping tool.  Its users can use SpiderScribe to organize thoughts and ideas into maps, adding text, images, files, geographical maps, and calendar events to create unique displays of information.                             

It is a place ideal to organize ideas or information related to a certain topic, to collaborate on a project with a classmate or colleague,  or to brainstorm ideas for an important meeting.  

SpiderScribe can be used as a collaborative tool; users can share maps with others and multiple people can edit in real time, allowing people to work together on projects or activities.  Finished maps may be embedded into websites.  The possibilities for collaboration and ability of users to contribute their own content and ideas to the site are what make SpiderScribe stand out. (Glass, 2013)

Linguistic skills can be reinforced with this tool

Since it involves writing, it can be used for making students pratice their writing skills. Teacher can assess writing and all aspects in involves, such as grammar, mechanics, coherence, among others.

Activities That an EFL Teacher Could Carry Out Using Google Drive

Activity #1- In class, the teacher will give students a reading about the topic that they are learning (length and complexity of the reading will depend on students´ linguistic level). He/she will ask students to read the reading passage carefully, highlight the main ideas and most important details of the reading, and take notes as they read. Then, the teacher will ask students to make groups (number depends upon the quantity of students). The teacher will ask eah group to create a mind map using SpiderScribe at home that summarizes the main information of the reading. They will include what they consider most important. The teacher will ask students to be creative when elaborating the mind map. Then, each group will share the mind map with the teacher and the rest of the students. The teacher will check the mind map using a rubric scale.

Acrivity #2- The teacher will explain a topic in class, using a power point presentation. Before presenting, the teacher will ask students to take notes of what he will say. After the teacher´s explanation, he/she will ask students to create at home a mind map using SpiderScribe in which they summarize what the teacher explain. Then, students wil share their mind maps with the teacher. This could be used for formative purposes; for the teacher to make sure his/her students understood what he explained or to discover if they did not understand, and therefore, be aware of where to focus his/her instruction. 

Activity #3- In groups students will carry out an oral presentation. During each presentation, the rest of students who are not presenting will pay attentio and take notes of what their classmates are presenting. After all the presentations, the teacher will ask students to create a mind map using SpiderScribe that summarizes what all the groups presented. When the mind map is ready, students will sahre it with the teacher. This is another way for the teacher to make sure his/her students pay attention in class, and to be aware of what they are actually learning.

Tips

I have some recommendations if you as a teacher can use SpiderScribe for teaching.

1. You must consider that for using this tool, students will need a smartphone or computer, so make sure all of them have one.
2. Also, you have to make sure that all your students have acces to good internet connection.
3. If you use this tool for evaluating writing, you should prepared a scoring rubric to assess your students´ production.

I want to include a Protocol that I had to prepare for one of my major courses. In this Protocol I created some activities for EFL students in which they use SpiderScribe, so I invite you to take a look at it. It may will give you ideas about how to implement this tool with your students. This is the link 


SpiderScribe is really useful for teaching and learning purposes. The interactive option that is offers of working together in real time but in different places is amazing. Teachers should take advantage of tools that offer this ease.


Reference
Glass. A. (2013). SpiderScribe: A creative take on online mind mapping. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/30A96rC 

Let´s Use Google Drive

Let´s Learn with Google Drive

Do you know what Google Drive is?

It is a free cloud-based storage service that enables users to store and access files online. The service syncs stored documents, photos and more across all of the user's devices, including mobile devices, tablets and PCs.

This tool offers different options such as Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. Those options make up Google Drive's office suite. Google Docs is a word processor, Google Slides is a presentation program and Google Sheets is a spreadsheet program. Respectively, they can be compared to Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. Although the Google versions lack some capabilities that those Microsoft Office applications have, they are simple, collaborative and free.

When an user creates a file or folder, he or she becomes its owner by default. Then, the owner can control the level of visibility (public or privately shared with specific Google accounts) and transfer ownership to another user using Gmail addresses. The owner can also regulate permissions for both folders and files, using access levels such as "can edit," "can comment" and "can view." In that way, users can work on different options it offers at the same time while being at different places, just by accessing to the cloud. (Rouse, 2018)

Linguistic skills can be reinforced with this tool

This tool is a good option to reinforce most reading and writing skills. However, I think that it can be best used to make students practice their writing skills in an interesting and interactive way. The use of the diverse options that this tool offers usually includes written information. In that way, teachers can assess students´writing skills. 

Activities That an EFL Teacher Could Carry Out Using Google Drive

Activity #1-Using Google Drive to assess writing: The teacher asks students to make groups (number depends upon the quantity of students) and assigns each group a specific topic, or gives them options of different topics, and let them choose the one that they like the most. Second, once each group has a topic, the teacher will ask students to investigate about that topic (the teacher should be specific about what he/she wants students to include in their investigation) at home. At home, students will investigate about the topic and create a document using Google Docs in which they include what they investigated. The teacher asks students to be careful with plagiarism and try to use their own words when writing the document. Finally, students can share the document with the teacher so that the teacher can check it online reducing the use of paper.

Acrivity #2-Using Google Drive to assess speaking: The teacher asks students to make groups (number depends upon the quantity of students) for preparing an oral presentation to be presented in class. Again, the teacher can assign each group a specific topic, or give them options, and let them choose the one that they prefer. The teacher will ask students to create a presentation at home so that it serves them as support when presenting in front of the class. The teacher will ask them to use Google Slides to create the presentation so that all students of each group can work together at their homes, give ideas to each other as well as feedback. When the presentation is ready, students will share it with the teacher. Finally, students will make the oral presentation using the presentation that they prepareda at home.

Activity #3-Using Google Drive to assess grammar and punctuation knowledge: The teacher will upload a collection of paragraphs in Google Drive (the number of paragraphs depends on the number of students; there should be one paragraph for each student) and share it will his/her students. The teacher will assign one paragraph to each student. He/she will ask students to check their correspondig paragraph, look for all the mistakes they can find, and correct them. After all students have worked on their paragraphs, the teacher will show the paragraphs in the class using a projector and ask each student to go in front of the class, read aloud his/her paragraph, and explain to the rest of the class what he/she did; what he/she corrected. 

Tips

I have some recommendations if you as a teacher can use google drive for teaching.

1. First of all, you have to make sure that all your students have acces to good internet connection.
2. Also, you must consider that for using this tool, students will need a smartphone or computer, so make sure all of them have one.
3. If you use this tool for evaluating writing, you should prepared a scoring rubric to assess your students´ production and partipation. 

I want to include a Protocol that I had to prepare for one of my major courses. In this Protocol I created some activities for EFL students in which they use Google Drive, so I invite you to take a look at it. It may will give you ideas about how to implement this tool with your students. This is the link https://bit.ly/2JTOyEW 


Google Drive is really useful for teaching and learning purposes. The option it offers for users to work together in real time but in different places is amazing. Technology is aimed to ease and improve many aspects of human lives. Therefore, teachers and students should take advantage of what technology offers.


Reference

Rouse. M. (2018). Google drive. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/30lktUv 

Using Voki for Teaching and Learning Porpuses.

Voki

Voki is a technological tool that allows people to create their very own talking character.

This tool can be used for educational purposes. Teachers can take advantage of this tool to improve the teaching as well as the learning process. In English teaching it is very useful since it involves talking.

There are three different ways in which teachers can take advantage of this tool:

1. Teachers can ask students to record themselves and then listen to their voices in order to notice their weaknesses when they speak.
2. Teachers can ask students to create a character using their own voices that talks about a specific topic and then show it to the rest of the class, so it is a way to make an oral participation more fun.
3. Teachers can record themselves talking about an specific topic or explaining something and then show the talking character to the class so that they learn in an interesting way.

I invite you to visit Voki.com and discover how fun and easy it is to teach and learn with technology .

Mind Maps and their Importance in Learning Process

Mind Maps:

Their Importance in the Learning Process

A mind map is a diagram that is used to visually outline information. It is also a large brainstorming web, where a central word or idea branches out into related subjects. Mind maps uses words, pictures, and diagrams.
  









   How to Mind Map. Pietro Zanarini. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2HUHTJs . Lincensed under (CC BY 2.0).

Mind maps are very  effective visual aids that help students  group together different ideas and help teachers to present ideas visually and assess their students’ conceptual development and understanding. Moreover, they are also able to increase their critical thinking and memory skills.

Benefits for Students

Mind maps make it easier to communicate thought processes so that teachers and classmates can better understand their ideas.

By using software to create a mind map, students are not limited to the space available on paper. Instead they can develop collapsible branches off of their main idea and constantly move items around as needed. 

Some additional student benefits are:

• Stay current on assignments
• Collaborate more easily with classmates
• Create presentations faster

Benefits for Teachers

Not only can educators use mind maps to lay out lesson plans and prepare lectures for a class, they can also use it to promote creativity among students.

This technique allows teachers to show students a new way of thinking about and approach problems, as well as a way to create discussion and debate about a topic.

Mind maps also allow teachers to gain insight into their students’ thought processes and see the development of their work. 

This allows them to assess strengths and weaknesses, while also monitoring learning growth. 

Reference:

TeachThought Staff. (2018). Drawing ideas: the benefits of mindmapping for learning.           

 Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2HTz8iJ 

3 effective ways to use Blogger

Perro. a.camacho_photodesign.https://bit.ly/2Hhwkf9.(CC BY-SA 2.0)

Advantages of Using Blogger in the  Teaching-Learning Process

Colaboration: One of the new skills stuents will need in the future is that of collaboration and the ability to work with colleagues to produce work that has shared authorship.Using the comment feature of blogging for peer review can help stuidents develop the trust and ability to provide and accept constructive critism in their learning community.

Connections: the public nature of blogs provides students with a wider world than the teacher as reader. The audience can include people in the community and beyond and peers can be students around the world. Understanding that the words can have a global impact encourages students to hone the craft of writing.
Critical thinking: Writing for an audience means thinking about the ideas first and then writing the ideas so that  others understand what you mean. To acomplish this students need to develop a logical set of facts, ideas, and persuasive arguments. 

These are some techniques in which teacher can use blogger with students: