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With the growth in interest in mobile learning and the ubiquitous nature of the i-pod among our younger (and increasingly older) students this piece of software looks like a really useful tool we can use to extend learning beyond the classroom. The software I’m referring to is I-Quiz Maker . You can download I-Quiz Maker for free at: http://www.iquizmaker.com/ Once you’ve installed it you can make quizzes using either True / False question types or Multiple Choice questions. The quizzes a very simple to make and you can make as many questions as you like and as many quizzes, as you like. This demo tutorial shows you how to create the quiz This looks like a really useful tool to: help revise and develop your students vocabulary. You can write a vocabulary quiz and up- date it each week with new words that your students have learned get the students to create quizzes for each other and share them set up revision exercises Although there is a bit of work involved in creating the quizzes,...

This is the third part in a series that I’m writing on how to use word processors to create computer-based materials. This one looks at how we can create interactive multiple choice activities using 'dropdown' menus. Multiple choice must be one of the most common question types in the history of education. I’m sure we all answered them when we were at school and we have all given these question types to our students. When I was at school, we used to call them ‘multiple guess’ questions, because we knew that even if we didn’t have any idea what the correct answer was, it had to be one of the choices, so we had a 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 chance of guessing the answer correctly. In the movie tutorial you will see how to insert the dropdown menu, add your choices and also add a ‘help text’ which can be used to give clues or the correct answer. Dropdown tutorial movie Students access the ‘help text’ by clicking on the dropdown field and pressing F1 on the computer keyboard. Here’s document...

I recently came across a very impressive piece of software for making Machinima. It’s still in Beta at the moment, and it’s free, so I’ve spent a bit of time looking at it and seeing how it works. For those of you who don’t know, machinima is a form of animated cinema, which is produced in computer games or virtual worlds. In some case the animated characters are ‘played’ by avatars and in others the characters are figures within a virtual world which are controlled by a ‘producer’. Moviestorm offers the second of these two options, so once you have downloaded it from the Moviestorm site, you no longer need an internet connection and you can work alone or with a group to produce your machinima project. The software is pretty impressive and can enable you to do many things. You can; create stage sets and characters, place the characters on the set get them to move and interact with each other and various props place cameras around the set to film the action from different places creat...

In this article I’d like to look at how we could use two computer based RPGs (Role playing games) as the basis for language development. The two RPGs that I’m suggesting you use are both very similar and very different. They are very similar in that they are both simulations of everyday life scenarios and involve day to day ‘survival’ type choices. They are very different in that the situations they are based around are a stark contrast between life in a rural developing nation and life in an urban developed nation. The first is called Stick RPG and features a small blue man living in a hotel. The player manipulates the man and makes choices for him whilst helping him to survive life in the city. The player has various options each day including fining a job, studying, eating various foods, gambling etc. The player has to maintain health and keep his finances in check and see what he can achieve within the cycle of the game. You can see how the game is played by watching this 'Stic...

Over the last few weeks I’ve been exploring some of the content on Russell Stannard’s http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ website. The videos aren’t pedagogical type classroom videos of teachers working with students, as you might at first assume from the title, but are video tutorials which show how to use various software and websites to develop your teaching. What’s on the site The site is aimed at ELT teachers who are interested in developing their technology skills for teaching purposes. The main content of the site is split into three main categories, which you can find in the left-hand column of the homepage. The first is ‘General teacher training videos’ This contains video tutorials on how to do some pretty useful stuff from how to use ITunes and download podcasts to how to create a Blog and PowerPoint tips. There’s a very useful series on how to create a Wiki and I really enjoyed the ones one PhotoShop basics ( A program that I have tried to master a number of times!)...