PicLits

PicLits website allows users to write on a set of pictures. It can be useful to create short stories, haikus, picture labelling...

An example:

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Storybird

Storybird allows the user to choose from a set of pictures drawn by a professional artist in order to create thir own stories. It somehow reverses the process of visual storytelling, i.e. from words to pictures, and requests the creator of a new story to start with the image and "unlock" the story inside.

This video explains the process

A couple of examples of books created by Storybird users:

Two Ways on Storybird
Colors Of The Rainbow on Storybird

Several activities created with LIM

LIM (Libros Interactivos Multimedia) is a free authoring tool that allows the creation of activities for the classroom. Some teachers of English have shared their outcomes in this webpage.

Example: INVERTEBRATES

Using mobile devices in the classroom

In this post from TeachingEnglish website the following video presents some ideas about how mobile devices can be used in the EFL classroom. The topic can be debatable especially when related to some teaching contexts: wouldn't there be a risk of overusing or misusing these devices in large groups?

Voki

Voki is a simple online tool often used in the EFL primary classroom. It is based on the selection of an avatar which will utter any word or sentence (up to 60 seconds long if using the free option; 90 seconds are allowed to Classroom Voki users). It works as follows:

1. Select a character

2. Change the look
3. Add voice via microphone, text to speech or upload a file.
4. Choose a background
5. Click Publish to email or get code

The Voki web site also includes a set of teaching ideas.

Several online resources presented in a Teachers' Day in Donostia

These are the links to some websites mentioned at the 2011 MacMillan Teachers' Day held in San Sebastian earlier this month: Moshi Monsters Glogster. Examples: grahamstanley, forever, blankglog. Web Tools for EFL

Using photography in the classroom

An interesting article on the use of photography to support learning.

Searching the web for particular types of documents

Juhuj is a search engine that allows refining our quest according to the type of file we are interested in. It can be useful when we are looking for presentations related to a topic, we prefer a Word document in order to edit it easily, etc.

Webquests

From this Matrix of Webquests we have access to some webquests in English that could give us ideas for designing projects.

Creating videos from Power Point presentations

Slideboom website offers a free tool to convert Power Point presentations into Flash videos. After installing the required software, presentations can be uploaded. Once the the file is converted (it maintains transitions, sound, etc.), an embedding code is provided.

Comic Book Creator

EduComics Project is a European Comenius activity which will deal with the use of e-comics in education. They intend to use the following software for creating the classroom materials:

Comic Book Creator is a tool that allows the creation of dynamic web comic books. An author can create an e-comic book by combining images of characters, pictures, background, text in balloons which can be placed in the frames of the pages of the book in that way and style desired. The produced dynamic web comic books are highly interactive flash based books that provide a great page flipping animation control opportunity as well as features like zooming, printing and easy navigation.

Subtitled videos

dotSUB is a tool that allows anyone to translate and subtitle video content into multiple languages. Although at the moment there are not many suitable videos to be used in the Primary English classroom, it is worth browsing through the clip collection and try to find something useful.

See an example below. You can change the language of the subtitles from the options bar.

Getting sound files to enhance oral productions

These are a couple of links to collections of sound effects that can be downloaded from the Web:

Sounddogs
Banco de imágenes y sonidos

TEFL Clips

TEFLclips is a site dedicated to the use of YouTube and other video sharing sites in the English classroom. They upload a new lesson plan every week.

How to make a podcast

Once we have decided to create a podcast, there are different ways and tools we can choose from. These are two simple ideas:


1. Using an online recorder such as Vocaroo or Clear Dropboxes (see gadget below):




2. Using Windows recorder (it creates 'wav' files) or free software such as Audacity. Recordings can be stored in sites such as Goear. Take into account that wav files should be previously converted to mp3 format.

Podcasts

A podcast is an audio or video digital-media file which is distributed over the Internet and can be listened to in portable media players and personal computers. Further information can be read in these Wikipedia entries: in English / in Spanish.

Podacastsinenglish.com is an example of website focused on English learning through podcasts.


This other site collects a series of podcasts recorded by children. The result is an audiobook with a version of Homer's Odyssey in Spanish.

Simpler use of podcasts can be found in blogs. This example of a post in a classroom blog presents students' recordings in Basque about some animal categories.

This video can help us understand the characteristics and uses of podcasts:

Converting text to speech

VozMe is a Google utility that allows converting written texts in English, among other languages, to mp3 sound. Users select between feminine or masculine voice and files can be saved. Although the pace and intonation may sound a bit 'robotic', the pronunciation and stress are good enough.

Downloading videos from YouTube

I read in this post about an easy way of downloading videos from YouTube. It allows two formats: flv (Flash Video), and mp4 when that second option is possible.

Karaoke

These are some links to resources related to karaoke materials or teaching ideas:


VanBasco Karaoke Player is free software to play MIDI Karaoke files. Lyrics can be displayed in full-screen. It allows to modify the tempo, volume and key of a song. It requires program installation on the computer.

Karaoke Party allows users to record their performance while reading the lyrics. Access to the computer mike is requested. More information.

The British Council site for English learning resources includes many songs accompanied by pictures, useful for sing-along activities. LearnEnglishKids Songs. Some guidelines and teaching suggestions are given in this handout.

This text gives 10 reasons why to use karaoke in the EFL classroom.

Furthermore, many videos with songs and lyrics can be found on the Internet. Thse are several examples:

A Whole New World (from Aladdin film)

Beauty and the Beast (just lyrics and tune)

All My Loving (Beatles, lyrics and tune)

Rainbow Song

Downloading videos

Links to some videos commented in the last seminar session:

- LEMON TREE
- COOL WATER CYCLE SONG
- THE WATER CYCLE SONG
- WALLACE AND GROMIT: CHRISTMAS CARDOMATIC
- WALLACE AND GROMIT: SNOWMANATRON
- SESAME STREET THE ALPHABET SONG
- SESAME STREET FAIRY ABC
- SESAME STREET SIGN ALPHABET
- THE THREE LITTLE PIGS: FRACTURED FAIRY TALE
- LITTLE RURAL RIDING HOOD

These are the two ways of downloading and saving videos which we tried:

- Using Keepvid.
- Installing RealPlayer 11 Gold.