Speak out your "wish" on a magic wall--Wallwisher

What is this?

Wallwisher is an online notice board which can be created with a topic. Others can add their comments and post it on the wall. Besides, videos and images can also be embedded on the wall which can make the wall colorful and attractive. The most important thing is that users can exchange ideas on the wall for free! You can find this magic wall at http://www.wallwisher.com/

The benefits of this website:

                                        

1. 1. The wall can be created easily without any registration process.
2. 2. Users leave comments in an anonymous way if they do not log in.It will motivate shy students to actively take part in the discussion.
3. 3. The comments can be only published and viewed after the creator approves if he sets this function.  
4. 4. Users can add images, songs, and videos other than words on the wall.
5. 5. The posts can be edited, deleted, and rearranged by the users easily.

How might it be used in English language teaching?

• In a writing class, teacher can use this online wall to help students brainstorm ideas about a specific topic.
• Teacher can introduce a language point, e.g.a grammar point or a new word, and then ask students to find the usage of the language point online by themselves and post their findings on the wall. In this way, students can be motivated to study on their own and also learn from each other on the wall.
• Teacher can ask students to give feedback of the lesson and then adjust his or her lesson plan accordingly.
• Teacher can organize group activities and ask students to talk on the wall, so that teacher can monitor their working process and mark it.

Limitations:

• This website is not a simultaneous platform.
• If there are a lot of comments, the wall will be messy and difficult to read.
• There is 160 words limit on the text. 
• The wall can not be downloaded or saved.

Send your video email for free

What is this?
Instead of sending email with words, MailVU provides you an opportunity to send video email. You can record your image and your voice through this platform and send it to your friends anywhere instantly. You can find this amazing tool at http://mailvu.com/index.htm



How to use it?
It is very convenient and easy for you to send video email by mailUV. You even do not need any special training. The following video will help you understand how to use it efficiently.

The advantages of MailVU

• You do not have to download any software, you can access to it online whenever you want.
• It is so easy to apply, just follow the instruction of the button.

                            

• It has a function of self-destruction. You can set the self-destruction feature by a certain days or views or delete instantly after it is sent.
• The video can be played on computers as well as mobile phones.
• You can also edit words attached to the videos.

                            

How might it be used in English language teaching?

• Teacher can ask students to do the oral practice at home and send it back to them.
• Teacher can give "face-to-face" feedback and evaluation which can help give a concrete guide.
• When a task is supposed to be carried out in a large class, teacher can tell students to record their performance after class and send the email. In this way, teacher can save time in class and give feedback to each group.
• Teacher can keep the video to monitor the progress of students' oral English.

Limitations:

• Teacher need spend a lot of time to give and record the feedback to each group.
• The time of the video is only up to 10 minutes.
• The user can just email the video, not download the video.
• The recorded video can not be played forwards or backwards to check.
• It requires students and teachers to have internet access.

Write your own story and make it into a movie

What is this?
Dvolver is a funny website which provides you with an opportunity to design your own story and then create a movie accordingly. The most interesting thing of Dvolver is that you can choose characters, contexts and music as they like. Now your dream of becoming a movie maker is coming true. What are you waiting for, click http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html and have a try! The following is a simple example made by myself, and I hope you will enjoy it!



Why is this website excellent?

• A couple of background and sky for you to choose and create your unique context of the story.

Here is a combination effect of my context.It is beautiful and romantic, isn't it?

                                

• You can choose the scene of your plot to make your movie funny.

•  You can also choose funny and interesting character to carry out your story.

• Then you can make up the dialogue of your story as you wish.

                        

• You can also add amazing background music to your story to make it attractive.

                        

• In the end, you need type in the title and your name and design a special way of presenting your title.

                       

• After finishing your movie, you can send it to your friend or your teacher by email. Just type in the email address and name of the recipient and your email address, then the movie will be sent immediately.

• It is also easy for you to embed your mini movie in your blog by copying and pasting the link given by the website.

                    

How might it be used in English language teaching?

• Students can practice their English vocabulary and grammar when making up dialogues.
• Teacher can set up a specific scenario to let students practice particular English expressions in certain situations.
• Teacher can ask students to create a story after reading a material to let students explore further about the topic or check their understanding of the reading texts.

Limitations:

• The movie has a short time limit.
• There is no sound of the movie, viewers just can read the dialogue on the screen.
• It demands teachers to spend a lot of time to watch individual work and give feedback.
• If there is no internet access, students can not apply this technology.

Capture your screen and share it instantly for free--Jing Program

 

What is this?

Jing is a free software to capture your screen and make a narrative video with it. Jing can record and show everything you do on the screen.

How to use it ?

This video is an introduction of how to use Jing effectively from youtube. Hopefully, you can have a brief overview of the usage.  

The advantages of Jing

• The user can capture a window or a region just by clicking sun like coin button.
• The user can add their voice, edit texts and then make a short video while showing the screen of his or her computer.

• The user can share it or send it to others instantly after he or she finishes.

• Jing provides a storage place for free where you can save your video forever.Then Jing send you back the URL of the video for your reference. 

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

• Teacher can use Jing to record the feedback of students' writing or English exams.
• Students can ask questions about their online English studying outside the class. For example students can ask questions about vocabulary and grammar when they are reading English news online. Then teacher can send the explanation back to students also by Jing in an efficient way.
• Students can use Jing to dub of interesting movies to practice their oral English skills, and then send it to their teacher for evaluation.
• Students can describe an object by speaking English as well as show the features of the object on screen.
• Teachers can save the students' performance and put it in their portfolio to monitor their English skills progress and adjust teachers' lesson plan accordingly.

Limitations

• Jing videos are only limited to five minutes.
• It will take a long time for teachers to give feedback on individuals' work.
• The application of this technology requires internet and computer access. 

                                        

So easy to create your presentation online

Are you worried about taking a long time to make a presentation? Now bubblr makes everything easier and efficient. Come and make your wonderful presentation online!

The following presentation is a simple example made through using bubblr, and I hope you can have an overview of the magic of bubblr.

What is Bubblr?

  Bubblr is an online tool to create comic strips by using photos and pictures from flickr.com. Just searching images and add bubbles to them, your presentation is done! It is so easy to use, why don't you have a try? (this introduction is referred to the website of Bubblr) The excellent tool can be found at http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

Why is this tool particular?

• just type in the keyword of your presentation, lots of beautiful images pop up for you to choose and add in your presentation.

• You can add texts in the picture and put it anywhere you like. You can also add strips before or after the current one to rearrange it as you wish. 

                                               

                     

• When you finish your work, you can publish it online. Others can see it and make comments on your work.

                    

• You can also send your work to your teachers or classmates by email at one time. Just type in their email address and use a comma to separate one from another.

                    

• It is easier for you to share your work on blog and other websites.

                        

How to use it in English language teaching environment?

• Teachers can ask students to make oral presentation by using bubblr.
• Teachers can requires students to do homework by using bubblr and send their work to the teacher.

Limitations

• The picture stock is limited.
• The user can not add too much words and change the size and color of the texts.
• The user can not add audio and sound document to their presentation.

Free experience of creating WebQuest lesson--QuestGarden

WebQuest model is a way of creating lessons which can help students make good use of the web and apply higher level thinking to solve certain problems or complete specific tasks. This kind of model can be efficient when employed in English language lesson in that students can learn to apply language for some purposes  through accessing online resources by themselves. This link http://webquest.org/ can give you a deeper insight of WebQuest. But the challenge during the past 14 years is how to make it faster and easier for teachers to design WebQuest lesson. Now an excellent website--QuestGarden http://questgarden.com/-- is emerged as an end result of years of efforts (Bernie Dodge).

What is QuestGarden?

QuestGarden provides a platform for teachers to create a high quality WebQuest lesson easily and quickly. Users have complete control of the final lesson with the aid of the guidance in each step. Images, videos and other documents cab be easily attached in the process. Besides, users within each group can refer to other teachers' work and give feedback if they set up a group page. The most attracting point is that QuestGarden provides a 30-day trail of the lesson creation tools for free.  Here is a example made by myself, maybe you would be interested in http://questgarden.com/138/10/5/120127053741/. What are you waiting for now? Come to experience it learn the magic of it!

What is the advantage of Questgarden? 

• It gives guidance step by step through the whole process when you are creating the WebQuest lesson.

• It is easy to insert images, videos and upload other documents.
• Users have complete control of the colors, fronts and the layout of the final lesson. 

                              

• It provides a lot of online resources of pictures and images.

                  

• There are five checkpoints for users to self-assess during the process of designing the lesson.

                                 

• It gives you an opportunity to preview before publish and read others' comments about your design.

                            

How to use it in English language teaching environment?

Teachers can design a WebQuest task as a homework for students to do after school, and then shows and discuss their results in the next lesson. In this way, students can cooperate and learn from each other outside school as well and save the activity time in class.

Limitations

• Students may distract their attention from other online resources.
• It requires students to have access to computer at home.

Learning vocabulary just like eating chocolate

Today, I want to share a vocabulary learning website for young learners--learning Chocolate. This website can give you an enjoyable experience of learning vocabulary just like eating chocolate! Go and have a try by yourself: http://www.learningchocolate.com/

What is this?

Learning Chocolate is a website designed to help  young learners learn and recognize new words in an interesting way. Plenty of vocabulary exercises are followed to help consolidate previous learning for students.

How can it make vocabulary learning like eating chocolate?

• The website divide the vocabulary into different categories clearly for various individual needs.

• The colorful pictures can help build connection between the image and the new words.
• Each word has added a pronunciation for learners to imitate. 

• It provides translation of the instruction and different target languages 

• Each vocabulary category has three types of exercises, including matching, dictation and filling with pictures.  

How can it be used in English teaching environment?

• Students can learn vocabulary and do exercises online by themselves after class
• Teacher can use the pictures in class to organize some vocabulary actives in class

Limitations

It is appropriate for beginner learners, because the vocabulary is a little bit easy.

Online English news with a lot of excercises

English news can be taken as a useful material for language learning. I want to share with you a website--Breaking News English which is pretty good for English teaching and learning.

Here is the link of the website http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

What is this?

This website provides some updated news articles on current events. There are plenty of exercises centering on one piece of news from different aspects of training language skills. It offers insights on the English lesson plan for teachers and as well as gives an opportunity for learners to facilitate self-study.

The advantages of this website

• Every piece of news is attached with a MP3 recording for practicing listening.
• Exercises including gap filling, multiple choice, and questions design, which can be used as pre-reading and post-reading activities in class.
• It offers PDF version for printing handouts. 
• The website also provides some interesting exercises including no letters, sentence jumble, and missing words, which strengthen students' memory and improve the ability of retelling the news.   

• In the end of various exercises,a survey form for students can help teachers get feedback of the lesson and adjust next lesson accordingly.
• Some homework are suggested to encourage students continue studying after class.

How to use it to foster English language teaching?

• Teachers can refer to this website when preparing their lesson plan
• It is good for cooperative learning in class, esp. completing the quiz together.
• Students can practice reading skills by reading the news online and do some exercises after reading to check their learning effects.

Limitations

• The website update the news articles every two days.
• the keys and the  exercise are in the same page, so that students are likely to refer to the answers when they have no idea of the questions.
• the quiz only can be done or effective by using computer in class or after class.

Lyricstraining--an excellent tool for practicing English listening skill

I would like to introduce an excellent tool for English learners to practice listening skill.

What is this?

Lyricstraining website contains a lot of beautiful songs in different languages. The songs are presented in video format, so that learners can learn English and enjoy themselves as well. This website can be used by English teachers or by learners themselves in many different ways. You can have a try and experience it by yourself. The link is  http://www.lyricstraining.com/.

Why is the tool good for English language learning?

• The songs are not played in traditional MP3 format but in MP3 format, which would arouse the interest of the language learners when they visualize the singer and the story in the song.

• The website has a good exercise which requires learners to complete the lyrics after listening.Teachers or learners can choose the level of the exercise based on the context or specific needs. They can also choose to withdraw, restart or receive help by clicking the button on the right corner at the bottom. The exercise record the time, words and skipped words automatically for evaluation.

• The songs can pause automatically to wait for the learners' answers, so that learners can take their time to think about it carefully. If the learner still have no idea, they can continue by clicking the play button again. It is convenient for learners to adjust their study progress.

How might you use it to foster language learning?

• Teachers can use this website as a warm-up activity in listening class. Through filling in the blanks of the lyrics, students can review the vocabulary as well as practice listening skill.
• Learners can make use of this website to practice listening skill in their free time after class. They can also practice their speaking skill if they find the song is beautiful and sing with the lyrics. 

Limitations

• Students may distract their attentions from the lyrics, only focusing on the image shown in the video. 
• There is no translation version for beginners to fully understand the meaning
• The resource is limited and the speed of updating is a little bit low.

Self-introduction by using 'Brainshark' software

What is "My Brainshark"?

The website "My brainshark" offers an opportunity to add the author's voice to his or her presentation. The dynamic display and attached explanation make the presentation vivid and attractive to the audience. The above presentation is an example of using "my brainshark" by myself to give you an overview.

The advantages of this website

• The software is user-friendly and totally free for anyone.
• It can be shared in many ways, like embedding in the blog, and emailing to friends or teachers after registration.
• Users can refer to the examples sorted in different categories in the website.
• Users can share their own presentation and change ideas with other users.

How is the website used to promote English learning

1.      Teachers can record a short lecture based on the PPT used in class for students to review the main points of the lesson.

2.      Teachers can ask students to practice their oral English at home by telling stories or expressing opinions with vivid pictures or graphs and then send it to teachers for feedback.

3.      Teachers can present the background information of a particular topic to be introduced in the lesson to arouse students’ interest beforehand so that students may find it easier to settle in the lecture.

4.      Teachers can use it to conduct listening exercise. For example, teachers can narrative an unforgettable experience by showing pictures to impress students and enhance their understanding.

5.      Teachers can ask students to record their pronunciation of some new words and correct the mistakes.

Limitations:

1.      It can record only up to 15 minutes.

2.      It requires students to have internet access and other equipment like microphones.

3.      Registration may need some personal details and take a few minutes to complete.