flynn089

In my two previous features, I've looked at how to create a wiki and how to use them with EFL students . In this posting I'd like to look at a couple of technical aspects, how to embed video in the wiki and how to add hyperlinks, and how we can use them for teacher development. Let's start with the technical bit. Here are two video tutorials. The first shows how we can embed videos into a WetPaint wiki. To view this movie in a separate window click here Right click and the use 'Save as' to download a Quick Time version of this movie This second one shows how to use hyperlinks to link together text and pages across the wiki. To view this movie in a separate window click here Right click and the use 'Save as' to download a Quick Time version of this movie Wikis, through sites like Wikipedia.org have shown us what incredible power we have to create and share knowledge through the internet. We can also use the power of wikis for teacher development. ...

In this feature I want to share another tutorial that you can use with your students showing how to edit your wiki and have a look at a live demo wiki that you and your students can play around with. In my previous post I looked at how to create a wiki using WetPaint and a few of the reasons for using one. This tutorial shows you how simple it is to edit the wiki. As a demonstration I've set up a wiki using the Cinderella story so once you have had a look, by all means register and have a play around with this. View this tutorial in a separate window Download a QuickTime version of this tutorial (Right click and then 'Save as' ) So how can we use wikis with our students? You can upload student work for collaborative editing, though you should make sure they are comfortable with this first. If they aren't you could try uploading some other documents which need correcting or redrafting and get them to work on those instead. Get students to create a story collaborati...

In this feature I'd like to show you how to create your own free wiki using 'Wetpaint' and look at some of the reasons for using wikis to achieve educational goals. First, for those of you who don't know what a wiki is, here's a quick definition which comes from one of the most famous wikis, wikipedia.org . "A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content [ ...]. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites." So, what really differentiates a wiki from a normal website is the fact that anyone who has access to the site can modify its contents (this is often, though not always, restricted to people who create a login or register to use this feature), unlike a normal website, on which the content is usually edited only by the company or person who owns the website. To show you how easy it is to create your own free wiki, I've recorded these tutorial mov...

Product review sites are becoming ever more popular on the internet, and why not after all? If you are going to spend money buying something, it's always a good idea to see what other people who bought that same product think of it. ExpoTV is just that kind of site. It has a collection of, mostly home made, video clips made by ordinary people, mostly from North America, talking about the products they have bought. There is a huge collection of material here on a whole range of products from computer accessories to clothing, make up, cars, video games, children's toys and even trucks! Here's an example product review. This one is of one of my favourite products, Apple's i-pod touch What I liked about the site The clips are reasonably short and download quite quickly. It's free and you don't have to register unless you want to add comments or upload your own video. The site is rich with the kinds of language and vocabulary that students find quite useful in thei...

This is the first in what is going to be a series of postings looking at Skype and the range of plugins freely available for it and how these can be used for teaching languages and creating ELT materials. As most people know, Skype is a freely available VOIP program which allows users to make computer to computer 'telephone calls' for free. What many people don't know is that there is also a huge range of 'plugins' available for Skype which expand and enhance its functionality and turn it into an even more useful tool for teaching and learning. This first video shows how you find and install these extra plugins and focuses on one in particular (Pamela) which helps you to record your Skype calls. Click the play button and turn up your sound I hope you can see how easy it is to start installing and expanding the functionality of Skype. Having this ability to record calls really helps as us language teachers and as materials creators to get a lot more out of this f...

If you enjoy working with images with your EFL students, especially on an IWB (interactive whiteboard) or a data projector, then PicLens is exactly what you need. PicLens is a plugin (small program) that works within your web browser (there are versions for Firefox, Safari and IE 7) and it converts many of the standard image sharing websites, like flickr , Photobucket , Google Images , Yahoo Images etc. into "3D immersive environments"! To understand what that mean have a look at this short flash video tutorial which shows how to use PicLens. Click here or on the image to view the movie (5Mb Flash) OR Download a version of this movie for i-pod / i-tunes here At the click of the mouse the normal 2D web pages are converted into a wall of images which you can explore and enlarge. How to use this with ELT students on your data projector or IWB Pull up a wall of images and describe one while your students try to guess which one it is. Then get a student to describe an image an...

Love them or hate them, you have to admit that Google does offer us all manner of useful free tools. One of my favourites is Google Maps, especially useful on my odd trips to London (when I never seem to be able to remember my A-Z!) So, I've been thinking about how we could use this 'real world' tool to help our EFL students and to develop their abilities to give and understand directions. It's actually quite simple to use. You just go to http://maps.google.co.uk/ or http://maps.google.com/ Click on 'Get Directions' and then enter your start point and destination. Click the Google logo below for a quick video tutorial that shows some of the features. Click for flash video tutorial (1.4 Mb) So how can we use this with students? Choose a location and destination and get Google Maps to create your directions, then print up a map of London with the two destinations on and ask your students to mark the route on the map. A variation on this would be to have the ma...