Creating Online material

joinwia2This year in February I moderated week 5 of Becoming a Webhead 2009. As a natural researcher I had to investigate these tools and their educational potential. Below you will find a list of the different tools that can make our teaching excel and our imagination grow. Be ready  to create quizzes, online sheets, interactive exercises and online surveys.

Tools to Explore

Discovery Channel

Example 1: quiz

Example 2: puzzle

Script-O!

Teachers can create online quizzes, tests, and activities. Each response can have a specific score value, and immediate feedback and custom explanations can be provided. Teachers can access results online as individual scores or in an Excel sheet format.

Video Tutorials

Examples


proprofslogo

ProProfs

Tutorial on how to create a Quiz

Quiz Do you think you know the Web 2.o?

Tutorial on how to create a Flashcard

Flashcard

quiz_maker


ClassMarker

The ClassMarker online testing website is a professional, easy to use online quiz maker that marks your tests and quizzes for you

Frequently asked Questions

header_logo

WordLearner

At WorldLearner you can learn words in almost any language using online exercises, printalbe worksheets and flashcards and free mobile phone software.

Quizlet

The mission for Quizlet is to make learning vocabulary not a chore. Amazingly it was created by a 15 year old student.

Demo tutorial

Tutorial

Examples

Business English Examples

sidelogo2

logo_quiabanner

Quia (free 30-day trial period)

Online worksheets

Worksheet Wizard Registration needed

Online Surveys and Poll creators
SurveyMonkey Tutorial
Doodle Doodle Help
MyStudiyo MyStudiyo FAQ

II Jornadas Internacionales de Tecnologías aplicadas a la enseñanza de Lenguas

logoticsiiI would like to thank the conference organizers for inviting me as a Guest Speaker to the II Jornadas Internacionales de Tecnologías aplicadas a la enseñanza de Lenguas.

I owe a special thank you to Jeff William and Liliana Anglada who have been in every detail. Together with Jeff we prepared a presentation on Social Networking for Learning, Teaching and Research. Google doc and Skype allowed us to prepare it together eventhough we are 750km away. They gave us the big Auditorium and once our presentation finished we continued answering questions for 20 minutes.

Social Networking for Learning, Teaching and Research

1320818407_7b7fb4abdb

In particular, I was delighted to see so many teachers and graduate students engaging in the debates and  questions over the three days. One presentation that was a great eye-opening experience was the one presented by Open University.

Escuelas de Lenguas is an example for many Argentine Universities that have not started to invest in technology. I was highly impressed to observe classrooms with projectors and computers. Every teacher can use Moodle or E-ducativa with their students. Several presenters showed us wonderful examples on how they are using these platforms with their students.

I am looking forward to seeing you in Córdoba in 2011.

Article in JALT magazine on ARCALL

Some months ago a vibrant webhead Mary Hills interviewed our experience in World Call Japan. The interview was published in The Language Teacher. Below you will be able to read a copy.

 

 

A unique teacher

Once you start integrating ICT in your daily teaching you join several online networks in order to become a constant learner. We learn from the ones who constantly share their knowledge. Most of them are inspiring teachers that show different ways of learning and teaching.

I fell so honoured to have Dafne Gonzalez as my Second Life mentor. She is an excellent example of constant sharing and collaboration . After watching the video below you will realize that she is a unique teacher. Whatever she does she inspires and motivates teachers to do their best for their students.

Thank you Daf for showing me a different world where your imagination is the limit!!!!

Using Tag Galaxy to Search Flickr Images

Every time I have to prepare a presentation I search for different pictures in Flickr. Now there is a new and better way to search for the pictures you are looking for . Tag Galaxy allows you to browse through Flickr photos in 3D with this flash application.

Below you can watch a video created by Nik Peachey explaining how to use Tag Galaxy,

Vicky´s blog is finalist!!!!

This started as a love story. My daughter as every child who is 4 years old loves to watch cartoons.

One day I had the idea of creating a blog with links to help her practise English in order to replace the TV and add the computer with links and information that I managed. At this stage I was only experimenting!!! It turned out to be a blast…she was thrilled!! Her friends came over to play and they wanted to learn the new songs that were in the blog.

If she was grounded she could not use the computer for a week….well to make a long story short the blog started out as a way of improving my daughters English through songs, videos and many other activities.

Last week her blog was selected as a finalist in the III Premio Espiral Edublogs 09.logo_edublogs_finalista200

Now my daughter is using her blog not only to learn English but also to communicate with other girls who live in Sudan, Japan and Venezuela. It is just amazing to see the outcome of something that started with love and continues spreading love all around the world because different mothers inspired by Vicky´s blog created a blog for their daughters.

Let´s continue spreading love all around the world!!!!

A blog post thanks to Evelyn

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Avealmec and ARCALL bound together

Last April 3, Jennifer Verschoor (president of the Argentinian CALL Association – ARCALL) and Evelyn Izquierdo (ESP teacher at Universidad Central de Venezuela and Avealmec member) got together to make a presentation on Social Bookmarking. It was a presentation offered to participants of the blended course “21st Century for the EFL Class” currently carried out by Professor Doris Molero at Universidad Rafael Belloso Chacín, Maracaibo-Venezuela.

This course, sponsored by Integrating Technology for Instruction and Learning and led by Nellie Deutsch and Doris Molero, is being supported with live presentations every Friday by Webheads in Action members.

It was not only a real pleasure to work with Jennifer again, but also to share knowledge and experiences with colleagues from all over the world. We appreciate very much Nellie and Doris’s invitation to collaborate with this course, and also congratulate them for such a great contribution to the ELT community.

Below you will find the PPT presentation.

Evelyn

First Webhead Meeting in Buenos Aires

What is a webhead?

A webhead is according to Dictionary.com a compulsive or frequent user of, or contributor to, the World-Wide Web.

If you look for the word webheads in Wikipedia it says: You searched for webhead No article title matches.

It is just amazing that the most famous free encyclopedia doesn´t have the definition of WEBHEADS.

How do webheads describe themselves?

Let´s read what they  say about themselves.

  • I always find it difficult to tell in a few words who the webheads are. There’s so much to tell…
  • Webheads is a family of specialist on F.U.N!
  • Webheads is a group of enthusiasts keen on learning as much as possible about the role of technology in education and just as eager to help one another on our individual paths to learning and discovery.
  • Webheads  encourage one another to enhance our networking skills, learning the tools most appropriate for this as we use them with each other. We model for one another the most appropriate systems for enhancing connectionism and the sharing of knowledge within our distributed learning networks. 
  • Webheads is such a community of online practice which addresses the needs of the educator’s changing role in the Digital Age. 

Webheads is the most active online community involved with computer mediated communication in the field of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Members from nearly every country on the planet are represented. Its 700+ active members represent the most robust online manifestation of the 40-year-old, 14,000 member TESOL organization.

Who created Webheads in Action? The creators of this community in 1997-98 were Vance Stevens in Abu Dhabi, together with Maggi Doty in Germany and Michael Coghlan in Australia.  What started as a writing and grammar online experimental class for students (http://wfw.webheads.info) has evolved into a thriving online community of educators with common enthusiasm and shared interest in exploring the uses of computer-mediated communication (CMC).

Webheads in Action

Webheads in Action itself (http://webheads.info) was created as a TESOL Electronic Village Online EVO session in 2002.  Many of the members are language learning professionals. Webheads is a community of practice which offers learning professionals, both seasoned onliners and novices, the opportunity to self-direct their professional growth in a supportive online environment driven by their own enthusiasm, energy, generosity, and the support of the resulting collaborative community.

The purpose of the community is to help learning professionals understand the potential benefits of the appropriate integration of available Internet technologies into their teaching practice by first experimenting and learning in a hands-on, low-risk online environment before engaging their own learners.

You can read more about webheads in the Index of Webheads’ sites and blogs compiled by Teresa d’Eça 

Did you know they even have a song?

Lyrics of Michael Coughlin’s new song - A Webheads Theme (December 2008):

CHORUS
Webheads – all over the world
Webheads – we’re all over the world

24/7 – we’re online
It doesn’t really matter – whatever the time
Someone’s there to answer the CALL

CHORUS

You want to know how to do it right
Or maybe you’re lonely in the middle of the night
Someone’s there to answer your CALL

CHORUS

You want to join your class up across the world
Or you want an expert to talk to them live
Someone will answer your CALL

CHORUS

You’re going on a journey to a foreign land
Want to meet a friend there to show you around
There’ll be someone there to answer your CALL

CHORUS

Learning together – sharing our views
Living together – sharing our news
Always someone there – on the same wavelength

CHORUS

By Michael Coghlan

On Sunday 18th Argentine Webheads met for the first time. In the following pictures you will be able to observe the wonderful time we had. I want to thank all Argentine webheads 

Rita Zeinstejer, Nelba Quintana, Susana Canelo, Vicky Samuell, Gladys Baya, Alicia Barbitta and Laura for being there and special thanks to the International webheads that made us all meet Gavin Dudeney and Nik Peachey.

I want to expess my gratitude to all the International webheads that are constantly inspiring us Vance Stevens, Dafne Gonzalez, Teresa D Eca, Moira Hunter, Barbara Dieu, Dennis Oliver and so many MORE….all this would have never been possible without your constant sharing and shinning around the world. Big KUDOS to all Webheads and thanks for making Argentine Webheads dream come true….to finally meet face to face.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book
Sources for this blog post

IATEFL Poland Computer Special Interest Group

http://realenglish.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/webheads-in-action/

ICT in the classroom

Some months ago I was really thrilled because I was granted a scholarship to take the ICT in the Classroom course offered by The Consultants e validated by Trinity College London.

My inspiring tutor during this course was Valentina Dodge who was always ready  to help and full of great ideas. The course started in October but one week before we had full access to take a look at how moodle works.
We were 7 participants from different countries. Several games and online activities throughout the course made us know each other better. By the end of the course a sense of belonging to a community was generated among the participants. The Consultants e participants community could be created!!!

The moodle platform was easy to use and each week was divided into: Weekly Tasks;
Discussion Forums and Documents. There was a summary of all the activities before starting each week that was really useful. This course is based on a Constructivist approach.
Due to my experience using some of the ICT tools we dealt with during the course I found that week 4 The Internet: Lesson planning & teaching was key for myself.
This is a topic teachers should always review and bear in mind. Luckily this course allowed  me to review most of my previous knowledge and blog posts available online therefore I had the chance to evaluate my learning process.

Some of my conclusions integrating ICT are:
- You can´t expect your students to blog if you as a teacher don´t have a blog.
- When you plan to integrate a blog remember  that blogs have different purposes and lengths. I created a blog that was only used during 3 months.
- Planning is a key component when integrating ICT and there must always be an alternative plan just in case something goes wrong.
- Evaluate how Technology integration worked with your students. (what went right and what went wrong). This important step should not be left out.
- Teachers should start to use different technologies in their daily classroom work as natural as a blog or a coursebook. However, despite impressive advances in the range and possiblilities of computer-related technology, with blogs, wikis, podcasts Business English language teachers on the whole still treat computers as marginal and have not incorporated them in their daily teaching. Where are the Business English blogs, wikis created by teachers???

Are you ready to Integrate Technology?

Below you will find an article I wrote for ARTESOL.