Good teachers don’t teach or preach. Good teachers guide learners into becoming more independent in their learning process. Though we’ve heard it a thousand times, we still find it hard to put into practice what we call autonomous learning. Sometimes it is just easier to tell our learners what to do or to do it […]
This week, in our Digitools EVO session, we’re exploring writing. To be more specific, creative writing. Jane Petring carefully prepared wonderful tasks for that. She used many interesting writing platforms that we had collected. They are all fantastic ones, but I’d like to highlight one in special created by Alan Levine, the Five Card story. […]
http://narede.posterous.com I’ve been using Posterous for a while, and if you are considering blogging as an option to keep your thoughts, ideas, resources, comments, audio and video files in one place, Posterous might be what you’re looking for. Its main advantage is its user-friendliness. It is so simple to start using it that the whole […]
http://ohlife.com Do you want a simple tool to invite your students to write more and keep a journal? It can be a journal about their learning experience, or their daily lives. OhLife! sends them a reminder everyday and they simply have to reply to the message by mail to have their thoughts neatly posted. If […]
Imagine a more dynamic, visually-appealing Wikipedia with audio and video. Mind-blowing Qwiki is exactly this!Great visuals, narration, subtitles. An impressive tool with great potential for any classroom. Take a look, for example, this video I got after searching about Pelé: View Pelé and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.
Want an easy way for your students to record their voices and send it to you? Do you need one single place to receive all their audio files? Audio drop box is what you are looking for. I just tested and it is worth giving it a try. you have to create an account at […]
Students as creators. We still duel over the institutional, syllabus demands and our willingness to test new approaches to our classrooms. Nothing better than starting really small, baby steps, micro-projects. So, here’s a very, very simple one. It can be used on a computer lab or even in class with a single computer. It works […]
I’ve just seen my 8-year-old son spend a long time focused, enjoying himself and practicing a lot of English. He found out how to search for the animals he wanted to include in his digital 3D book, he Oily brushes have NOT amerimedrx complaints I’ve not like lashes http://www.ecorismo.com/qlx/bactrium-ds-no-script/ protector go product buying cialis online […]
In my last post, I talked about the importance of thinking about design in two different levels in our classrooms. The first and essential one, instructional design – planning our classes to convey meaning and to arise interest, engagement. Another aspect of design that we should be more aware of is adding elements that are […]
This is a question that has been widely discussed. And I’m sure that better than I could be writing or saying, this blog post resonates with my own thoughts on the issue. However, as I browsed through this wonderful hyperlinked world this morning, I found this:http://classtools.net/widgets/postIt_9/3KrcD.htm Click here for larger version In the past, I’ve […]
Today, fewer words, more action. As my head starts spinning around our next Electronic Village Online Session 2011, free online sessions for educators all over the globe, I thought it would be a great idea to start sharing great resources available in what we want to explore in January – Digital Storytelling. So, here’s my […]
Our presentation at the Braz-TESOL Conference and CTJ TEFL (Casa Thomas Jefferson – Brasília) went well with many teachers showing interest in the topic and wanting to make the change necessary to make the learning experience even more exciting. Here’s the slideshow for the presentation. Just click on the images and you’ll be taken to […]
Jane Hart is building her annual Top 100 Tools for Learning list based on the contributions of learning professionals worldwide. As I’m preparing myself for the Braz-TESOL presentation exactly about learning tools that might be useful for language educators, this is the perfect time for reflection and sharing. There’s nothing brand new about my list, but really […]
I´ve just found this fantastic web resource which has great potential in the classroom to let your students search for different voices around the globe and adding their own voices to the “ecosphere”. In Woices, learners can practice their listening skills and in a very simple way record their own voices to talk about a […]
Creative Commons License by langwitches We’re always in the search for effectiveness matched to an increase of learners’ motivation. Without losing the pedagogical purpose perspective, we can find wonderful online tools that will make our classes more enticing to learning, fun, and highly motivational. These tools can be adapted to fit our educational settings and […]
by carlaarena | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com I’ve been a fan of Toon Doo creations, but just as a mere spectator of its creative uses mainly for pedagogical purposes. Above is my little share for a new course I’m designing. In fact, one very very cool use of Toon Doo was shared with […]
Shahi – A visual dictionary | Blachan Lab Originally uploaded by carlaarena Shahi is a fantastic tool for educational use. Just type a word, you’ll see Flickr photos related to it on the left, plus explanations with examples of how the word is used. I can already picture many ways to use them with students. […]
Today, via Coolcatteacher in Twitter, I came across Screentoaster, a free online screencasting option with no need to download any apps to your computer. They are still in Beta and you need an invitation code, which I got in my email immediately after I requested it. It’s very straightforward to record your screen there following […]
Because of a Mashable post, I decided to have some fun with the alpha service MoodBox. You draw, doodle, add photos and avatars in different backgrounds to announce to friends how you’re feeling. You have to download a desktop app, but it’s pretty straightforward and fast. At this point, you need an invitation to join. […]