'Teachers will not be replaced by technology but teachers who don't use technology will be replaced by those who do' (Sheryll Nasbaum Beach).
Tech tools make teaching and learning 'Fun task tic'
Lyrics Training is an amazing listening tool that can help your digital learners to enhance their listening skills with fun. It will enable them to learn and have fun as it offers thousands of famous music videos. Teenagers love music so this tool will be particularly interesting for them.
About Lyrics training
This website gives learners an amazing opportunity to enhance their listening skills by listening to their favourite songs. Twenty-first century learners are fond of music and are motivated when listening materials encompass music videos. With Lyrics training, your learners can listen to songs while filling in the gaps with the missing words. It offers four levels of difficulty: beginners, Intermediate, Advance and Expert. If a student fails to find the right answer, the song will stop and replay when the gap is correctly completed. Students who get stuck can also click on help to find the right answer. Share this tool with your learners and wait for a positive feedback!
MoveNote is an online video presentation tool available on browser but also as an application on portable devices. It allows its users to make video presentations, with a webcam, screen and voice recording, and with a possibility to add pictures or other files as a slide show. MoveNote therefore promotes flipped or blended learning through mobile devices because it is user-friendly and flexible as learners can download the app and use it on the go. This tool works with any browser and you can easily access it with a google account. MoveNote is a useful tool that can be used in English Language Teaching and can develop your learners fluency and speaking skills.
Click HERE to access MoveNote
Click HEREto view an example made with the mobile app
MoveNote is flexible for teachers and learners
Your Learners can make mini presentations and share their video on google drive or on a closed classroom Facebook page for peer feedback to promote collaborative learning.
They can also use it for homework, i.e. speaking activities such as describing people and places.
Finished presentations can be shared by email or via the social media to access a wider audience.
Teachers can use MoveNote to flip the classroom by recording instructions or lessons for their students to access at home.
You can add powerpoint slides if you are using your computer in order to make presentations that you can share with other teachers for the sake of online collaborative development.
Learners can download the app and upload their files from their mobile devices.
Watch the tutorial
Some limitations
You cannot upload powerpoint slides on a mobile device, but only when you use your computer.
With the free version, your presentations are deleted after 30 days. So you will need the premium subscription to save them longer.
The guest account only stores your videos for 2 days.
An alternative is to share your videos on social media so as to extend their access for later use.
I had the same question, before I discovered how easy and fast it is to make one. As 'a picture is worth a thousand Words', I am just going to show you an example. There are several tools that you can use to generate your own word clouds such as Tagxedoor Wordsift, but today's post is about Wordlewhich is a flexible and intuitive online tool to make beautiful word clouds.
How to use Wordle?
As you can see in the tutorial, you can customise your clouds by changing the font, the layout, the language, or the color. An important feature of Wordle that I forgot to mention is that you can remove words from the clouds by simply clicking on them and on remove, which makes it interesting for classroom use, for various purposes.
What can we use word clouds for?
Creativity is a key word for English language teachers. We are always looking for new ways to bring variety in our classrooms by personalising educational tools to fit our teaching contexts. Original ideas often stem from imagination, therefore reflecting on how best we can integrate any tool for English language learning is a must. Word clouds from Wordle can be used in various ways.
1. Teaching vocabulary through brainstorming: As you can see on the example above, you can make a word cloud by copying and pasting a text that you are planning to use for reading comprehension. Then remove the words which are already familiar to your learners and leave the ones you think are relevant to the chosen topic. Show the word cloud and ask your students to guess topic by prompting if necessary with leading questions in the form of a brainstorming. You can then pre-teach the vocabulary with different strategies. It can be used to identify synonyms, antonyms, adjectives, verb tenses and so on.
2. Building sentences: Giving your learners mixed words from a text and asking them to make meaningful sentences that can be joined to make a paragraph, is another way of using word clouds. This activity can be related to sentence structures such as the place of adjectives and adverbs in a sentence. A great idea from one of my colleagues is to organise classroom groupings according to the different colors on the word cloud. For example, each group can be assigned a color and come up with a meaningful story or paragraph, using only words of that color.
Limitations
As mentioned in the tutorial, Wordle only works with internet explorer and cannot be opened in Chrome or Firefox. Macbook users can use Safari but need to install java.
Screencast-O-matic is an intuitive and flexible screen recording tool that makes screen capture videos. It is easy to use and does not really require technical skills. It works on Windows and Mac PCs, so you do not need to download or install the software if you already have java. You can download the recorder launcher as a stand alone application and use it as a short cut.
Screencast-O matic offers a fifteen-minute screen and webcam recording for free, the possibility to share your video on YouTube and save it as a compressed Mp4 file on your desktop. A big advantage is that you can pause the recording and reorganise your ideas when you get stuck before resuming. This tool is useful for both teachers and learners, and can be personalised for different educational purposes.
Benefits for teachers
Screen capture tools were not originally made for Educational purposes, but they are currently being used in many ways to enhance English language teaching and learning. Screencast-O-matic enables you to flip your classroom by recording tutorials or giving learners recorded instructions related to a particular tasks that they can do online before the face-to-face class. It is an easy way of video recording your powerpoint presentation at home and send it to your students and peers, or share it online for teacher development purposes. The tool can also be used to give feedback on written work. You just need to open your students' work on the screen of your computer and highlight the different areas you wish to comment on. Giving video recorded feedback has several advantages compared to written feedback. Giving visual or oral feedback with this tool allows you to focus on more details, in a more personal way. It builds in teacher presence as learners listen to the teacher and can see him at the same time with the webcam recording. Recorded feedback is also useful for revision and can be efficient for distance learning. It can therefore be personalised in order to motivate learners.
Benefits for learners
Develop learners' speaking skills: Because Screencast-O-matic records the computer screen, your learners can use it to record their own voice while making mini presentations that can be adapted to their level. For example, beginners can start with describing pictures of places they have uploaded, describing people such as classmates or family members.
Enhance your learners' presentation skills: You can also urge your students to use this tool in order to develop skills in making presentations. We always ask our learners to present their work in front of their peers without preparing them in advance. So allowing your learners to rehearse before class presentations by video recording a preview, to get feedback, and to correct pronunciation mistakes before performing is of paramount importance.
Watch the tutorial for more
Limitations and possible back up plans
Despite its affordance and flexibility, using Screencast-O-matic with your students will certainly require a little induction to show them the different features before getting started. They need to build confidence, so a little bit of scaffolding will be very helpful for beginners.
The free version does not allow editing, drawing or zooming but it offers a fifteen-minute recording, which is enough for any task because good recordings (feedback or presentation) should not last more than two minutes.
Giving feedback to all students in a large class can be jaw breaking and daunting for teachers, therefore give a general feedback on common errors for example.
Twenty-first century learners are digital natives who interact with the world with mobile technology on a daily basis. Smart phones and tablets are part of their daily lives and they use them for different purposes such as communicating through social media, listening to music, watching videos, playing games and learning (sometimes).
To date, enabling these learners to use their mobile devices for learning is a must, because mobile learning is gaining ground in the evolving field of English Language Teaching where most courses are becoming technology enhanced.
From a pedagogical perspective, Kearney et al highlight 'three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation' (2012: 1) which fall under the socio-cultural theory of learning as a socially mediated process. Engaging our learners with the piece of technology in their pockets is therefore worth considering as they can enhance collaborative learning with authentic tasks that can be personalised to fit any teaching context.
About Nearpod
Nearpod is an up-to-date and must have online mobile application that will offer you the dreamed opportunity to implement mobile learning in or out of your classrooms. It can be used on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs and MACs with internet connection. Nearpod allows teachers to create lessons and design the content by creating or adding powerpoint slides, videos, pictures, polls and different types of quizzes. It is a flexible tools, therefore you can personalise the content according to your learners needs and levels. By sharing the code of a lesson with your students, you can manage the content on their mobile devices and have a control over each of them.
The best way to learn about a tool is to explore and put it into practice, so download the app on your mobile device or computer and make the most of it. Click HEREfor more information or watch the tutorial.
Why Nearpod?
There is often too much hype over the use of technology tools in English language teaching but Nearpod is so far one of the best educational application that I have ever come across. It promotes collaboration, authenticity and personalisation, thus fosters learner motivation, engagement and interactive learning. I personally think that teachers who wish to bring variety in the classroom and engage their learners should give it a try because:
it offers synchronous learning opportunities where teachers can give real-time assessments and feedback by sharing answers with all their learners after each task.
It works on mobile devices, hence the possibility to give homework or project work that can be carried out outside schools for the sake of flipping the classroom
Creative teachers can design engaging lessons that can develop their learners' skills in listening, speaking, writing and reading.
The tasks are authentic and students can make interactive presentations using their smart-phones or tablets.
The explore tab displays ready-to-use lessons that were designed by other teachers.
It facilitates distance learning as students can use a code and access the lesson anytime anywhere.
You can add web content, youtube videos and activities such as open ended questions and several other captivating activities.
Example of lesson made with Nearpod
Some limitations
Using Nearpod requires mobiles devices connected to internet so schools or classrooms must be well-equipped before implementing it. Even though the free version offers interesting features for creating engaging lessons and tasks, the access to the core features is limited unless you upgrade your account. Some schools have banned the use of mobile devices at school, so it is your role as a teacher to collaborate with the administration and set up clear rules.
It is unarguably true that Continuing Professional Development (CPD), therefore teacher-learning may not be effective if teachers as classroom practitioners are not intrinsically motivated to improve their practice. In other words, teaching is a long-term process of self-assessment, and critical reflection that leads conscious teachers to what Smith (2003) refers to as teacher-learner autonomy.
Teacher learning has to a large extend a great impact on students' performances, therefore taking control of our own professional development is a must for the sake of self-improvement and growth.
There are a couple of Websites that can help teachers to upgrade their knowledge and students to learn autonomously. You can also visit the blogs' pages and links for more insights.
Benefits of using websites
Websites can benefit both teachers and learners as they represent a wealth of online resources that can be used for teaching and learning. They can be accessed everywhere as long as you have internet connection. Some websites offer training courses, teaching tips, practices, useful videos and a bank of materials. Many sites are specialised in English Language Teaching, so they offer professional development opportunities such as recorded webinars and conferences that can be beneficial for every teacher. Websites also enhance teachers' and learners' autonomy.
ELT websites for teachers
Because of inadequate or 'short-track teacher training programs' (Korthagen, 2004: 78) in some contexts, many teachers are not trained to integrate ICT in English Language Teaching. Even though CPD programs focus on the overarching importance of using technology for teaching and learning, there is no practical emphasis on the issue. However, ' using websites is one of the easiest and least stressful ways of getting started with technology' (Dudeney, 2007: 27). This post aims at raising teachers' awareness on the use of relevant ELT websites that can help them and their learners to learn more about ICT, useful educational tools and classroom practices.
TeacherTrainingVideos.com, known as TTV, is Russell Stannard's wonderful website which offers ELT practitioners and English language teachers key technology tips with insightful video presentations. All the videos are free and will guide you through the use of up-to-date technology tools such as Moodle, Edmodo, Camtasia and so on. You can also follow his channel on youtube (Teacher Training Videos) and benefit from complete courses for free. Teacher training videos is a bank of educational tools and useful courses that will guide you through making your own website or blog in a short period of time. You can also follow him on twitter at Russell 1955.
Watch the introduction to Teacher Training Videos.
Another website that I highly recommend is elt-training.com by Jo Gakonga, ESOL teacher and teacher trainer at the University of Warwick. This website offers online support and training for trainee and novice English language teachers with a variety of courses and free training videos on grammar, classroom techniques and using the internet. You can also watch a couple of short video lessons on her youtube channel elttraining.
Even though websites are easy-to-use learning tools, they should not be the only resources that teachers resort to for their own professional development. Learning online also requires critical evaluation and reflection on any tool, material or classroom activity before putting them into practice.
2. Useful websites for learners
It's very difficult for learners to find appropriate online materials that can enhance their proficiency as internet is a huge repository of countless resources. The best way to guide your students is to find suitable websites rather than asking them to do research on google which is an ocean of genuine and fake information. There are a couple of websites that you can share with your students in order to promote autonomous learning, but remember that it is your role as a teacher to evaluate the content of websites to make sure it is relevant for your learners' needs.
Below is a list of English learning websites
Lyrics Training: Great website for listening and writing as learners can listen to a song of their choice and complete the lyrics while playing it. Failure to fill in the gap will cause the song to stop until they find the right answer. They can choose from beginner to advanced level.
Simple English Videos: This website by Vicky Hollett offers a bank of simple learning videos for your students. Videos are powerful learning tools so let your learners make the most of it.
Giving your learners a list of websites is not enough and can be daunting if they do not know how to use them. Therefore, presenting different websites in class and showing them how to fend their way is a good start, particularly for young learners. Choosing interesting and captivating websites is also crucial because it will determine how long and how well your learners will be interested in using them.
With the advent of Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), English Language Teaching has adopted the blended learning approach so as to maximise student learning outside the classroom. The term blended learning refers to 'Subjects that utilise some significant online activities in otherwise face-to-face learning, but less than 45 per cent' (Thomlinson and Whittaker, 2013:12).
Introducing e-learning is thus a logical stage in education due to the plethora of online and digital resources that learners can access with mobile technology.
About Blendspace
It is a a free virtual learning environment (VLE) which gives teachers and teacher educators the opportunity to implement the blended learning approach by offering learners an online platform for digital content and interaction. It's intuitiveness encourages less tech-savvy teachers to fend for themselves and use their creativity to design their own online lessons.
Blendspace enables extensive learning outside the classroom as educators can use it to supplement the face-to-face courses. Teachers can quickly create insightful lessons with the wealth of available resources that TES provides from google, youtube or from ready-made teaching materials. they can also add a text, a quiz and track their learners' performances.
Ten reasons to use Blendspace
1. It is an authoring tool which helps teachers to flip or blend their classroom and reach learning objectives by designing attractive and interactive activities that can be done online.
2. It exposes students to a wide range of learning materials therefore gives them enough time during the face-to-face course for extra interactions and tasks.
3. Teachers can use it as a supplementary platform for lessons, homework and useful links related to class-based topics.
4. Blendspace can serve as a bank of videos related to relevant topics to strengthen learners' weaknesses and magnify their strength as they represent powerful instructive materials.
5. It enables learners to design, present, and share their project work with the whole class.
6. It is easy to use therefore does not require high technical skills and motivates the tech-timid ones.
7. It engages learners in an autonomous learning environment where they build confidence by completing tasks in their own pace.
8. It promotes mobile learning as learners can download the app and log in at home or school.
9. The tool also fosters collaborative learning or reflective practice among teacher support groups as they can share ideas and teaching tips on a daily basis.
10. Blendspace offers free ready-made lessons and embedded videos which cover a wide range of topics.
Watch the TES video tour and clickHERE to create your first lesson
Some limitations Since blendspace is an online platform that can be accessed only with internet connection, using it in some areas might be daunting for teachers and learners because of a lack of relevant facilities such as computers. However, urging your learners to use their mobile devices can be a viable solution but requires scaffolding and guidance in order for sustainability and effectiveness. Example of lesson made with Blendspace: The island of Goree
Develop your learners' writing skills with Storyboard
It's intuitive and inspiring
Storyboard is a web-based storytelling tool that enables English language learners to create their own stories and comic strips with visuals. It's well designed, user-friendly and inspiring for all levels. It offers a flexible layout and about 45.000 editable elements with various scenes, characters and textables. Finished versions can be re-edited several times, printed, downloaded as pdf or powerpoint files and embedded for online sharing.
How can teachers integrate it in English Language Teaching?
This tool can be implemented in various ways. It can be used for classwork (free or guided writing), to enhance learners' writing skills and learner-generated content. With a variety of visuals, Storyboard is a powerful tool which enables beginners to learn new vocabulary as in the example above. Young learners are engaged when they take responsibility of their learning, so giving them the opportunity to create their own digital stories will reinforce autonomy, interaction with peers and motivation.
Teachers can also use it to design their own materials for reading, vocabulary, grammar and writing.
Grammar is generally taught in a mechanical way, out of context, hence the students' inability to use the rehearsed grammar rules effectively in real life conversations. Storyboard can therefore be used to present grammar points in a more contextualised way. For example, young learners can recite the whole table of irregular verbs but cannot use them properly when asked to write about a past event. In this light, teachers can use this tool to emphasise several points such as verb tenses, phrasal verbs, the use of prepositions, sequencing and so on.
Watch the tutorial and give it a try
Some Limitations
Storyboard offers only two trials per week for unsubscribed users with a limited access to the basic version. However, special educational pricing is offered to teachers according to the number of students they want to register. For example, single teacher pricing with 200 students is 59.95 pounds per year that can be paid monthly or quarterly. Even though many teachers resort to free tools, storyboard is worth purchasing to bring variety thus engagement and motivation in the EFL classroom.
Doctor Bernie Dodge, professor of educational technology at San diego State University and creator of the Webquest model defines it as 'a constructivist lesson format, wrapped around a doable and interesting task that is a scalable-down version of something adults do'. It promotes task-based learning and enables students to learn by doing, by using pre-selected online resources and by following the instructions set by the teacher or the task designer.
The content
Introduction: The main task is presented and each group member is given a role.
Task: It tells learners what they are supposed to do.
Process: The different steps that participants need to go through to complete the task.
Evaluation: Webquests use a rubric to guide learners and show them how the work will be evaluated.
Conclusion: It enables participants to express how they felt during the task. They can talk about what they liked or disliked or how they perceived collaboration with peers.
Credits: This page displays the source of the materials that were used to make the Webquest. It can be a lesson plan adapted from another web page, images, videos or rubrics.
Teacher page: Here the teacher gives the aim of the lesson, the level of the learners and the pedagogical context in which the task was designed.
The answer is yes. There are several websites such as Education World or Zunal that teachers can use to create their own webquest. However Questgarden is the place 'where great Webquests grow' (Dodge).
Questgarden offers ready-made examples and a free thirty-day trial to create your own Webquest.
Benefits
- It engages learners in authentic tasks and allows them to play interactive roles.
- Webquest also encourage the use of the target language through interactions and negotiations.
- Learners develop collaborative scaffolding skills by correcting each other.
- It creates a supporting learning environment that fosters intrinsic motivation.
- It promotes social interaction, co-construction of knowledge and collaborative learning.
- Students learn through problem solving and critical thinking.
- Teachers in EFL contexts can adapt the content according to their learners' proficiency, sociocultural needs and learning environments.
Are Webquests relevant for all learning contexts?
Some webquest tasks require high level of thinking, so they might not be relevant for young learners in English as a Foreign Language learning environments. An effective use of Webquests also demands access to computers and internet which is not the case for many schools in the contexts aforementioned. Therefore, teachers can use computer rooms for such activities, or resort to project-based learning which can be designed as online inquiry-based tasks that learners can carry out in groups outside the classroom.
Like any other good tool, Questgarden requires its users to subscribe with a monthly cost after the free trial.
Quizletoffers a wealth of tools for teachers and learners who are looking for fun tasks for class or homework. With piles of free flashcards, games, and quizzes, you will improve your students' skills and build confidence through practice.
2. Why Quizlet?
It provides a wide range of study tools and enables you to enhance your creativity by designing your own activities because it is an authoring tool. It provides ready-made tasks that can be implemented, and Students can also download the app on their smart phones and study everywhere. For example, there are various available activities that can help young learners to memorize a large number of words for free. They can improve their pronunciation and spelling skills by practicing with the audio. Quizlet will motivate your learners to engage in game-like tasks in an autonomous learning environment.
3. It enhances Second Language learning
This tool is relevant for Language learning in all contexts including for English as a second Language learners. Teachers in low-resource classrooms where there is a limited access to internet can resort to computer labs or to mobile learning. Most students in my classes have smart phones or can use the computers room to practice with Quizlet. They can work in pairs to complete the tasks and teachers can use the data projector for feedback. Evaluating each student's progress and helping them individually to overcome their weaknesses is a real challenge in large and heterogeneous classroom. With this tool, teachers can thus design and post different tasks on the class blog in order to give learners the opportunity to practice their English outside the classroom. In doing so, they will bring a fun touch on form-focused lessons and enable students to learn and have fun.
4. Some limitations
Even though Quizlet can foster learners' autonomy and motivation to engage in tasks, it does not encourage meaningful interaction in the target language, particularly for students who use it outside the classroom. Game-like tasks are attractive for kids but they do not always enable them to interact with their peers though they are learner centered.
Unleash your creativity and make the most of Quizlet.
Voki is a fun educational and technology tool for teachers and learners. It is authorable so teachers can demonstrate their creativity and adapt it to their learners's needs and context. Your learners can choose and customize their own avatar by choosing different features and by adding a voice and sound effects. voki users can record their own voice or type in their text to make their avatar speak.
Watch the tutoral
2. Is it relevant for all teaching contexts?
Teachers in large and heterogeneous classes can use Voki to stimulate their students' interest and motivate them to do homework, classwork or projects. It enables them to enhance their speaking and writing skills while having fun, but also to share their final product with a real audience. Voki can also be used as a classroom tool to foster autonomous learning because it enables shy students to air their ideas and develop their creativity. There are different advantages for using fun tools in the EFL classroom. They engage learners in meaningful interactions, break the routine of long boring teacher-centered classes, encourage communication and collaboration, and develop creativity.
3. My experience with Voki
I personally use Voki to encourage my young learners to engage in writing tasks. Writing is generally perceived as a boring activity, however, using Voki triggered their inhibited desire to complete homework because they were eager to share their product with the whole class. This tool 'offers digital contexts and communication' (Walker et al, 2013: 17) and is a great opportunity for your learners to practice fluency and pronunciation by recording and listening to their own voice.
4. Adopt and adapt voki for your learners
Meanwhile, like any other technological tool, Voki has its limitations as regards to its adaptability in certain learning environments. Second language teachers in contexts similar to mine (Senegal) should consider the access to internet and to computers for all learners. An alternative to that would be splitting classes into bigger groups, and making sure that all participants have equal chances to interact and contribute. Teachers should also be alert against plagiarism, as lazy learners might be tempted to copy and paste texts from the internet. Lack of control during tasks may also lead students to use it for other purposes.
Introduction: 
