flynn089

There are now a number of online video sharing communities that are specifically designed to support the development of language and communication skills. These websites don't just provide us with video content, but also the tools to help us make authentic video accessible to learners. Dotsub Authentic video can be very challenging for language learners so at times it is useful to have translation in subtitles or a transcription of the text. Dotsub is a website that enables users to upload and add subtitles to their videos. The site is community based, so you can upload your video and request that someone else translates it for you, or you can also help other people by translating or transcribing their video. You can also import videos from YouTube to add subtitles to them. To find out more read: Subtitling your video clips LangoLab LangoLab is a video sharing website designed for anyone who want to learn or teach any language. Users upload videos and add transcripts. Learners c...

I've decided to start naming some of the sources I use to locate new and interesting websites and information. I've decided to do this for a number of reasons I just don't have time to write about everything I find, so this gives people the opportunity to find things for themselves and perhaps write about them. I always feel guilty that I don't acknowledge the sources of much of the information I get. This isn't because I'm guarding my sources, it has more to do with not working in a very organised way. I tend to mark interesting sites and come back to them later, by which time I can't remember the original source. I don't have a blog roll, but I would like to send some kudos to some of the sites and site owners that I feel have really helped me. A number of people have asked me how and where I find great sites to write about. If you have a blog and it doesn't appear on this list, please don't be offended, I will try to make this a regular featu...

Well it had to happen! As every other kind of site these days has a social network attached to it, why not karaoke too? The site I've been looking at is called RedKaraoke and it has quite a few useful features. There isn't a huge range of songs there yet, but users can upload their own, it also has a web cam feature so for potential singers who want to be seen as well as heard you can have your web cam hooked up while you sing. As with most karaoke, there are background tracks and you see the words of the lyrics highlighted as you are supposed to sing them. You can rate other singers too and have your own profile as well as take part in forums (mainly used for technical support by the looks of things) and there's also synchronous chat too. Click image to enlarge The high ranking singers get pushed to the top, and if you like someone you can leave encouraging messages of support. So why use this with EFL students? Anyone who has ever taught a EFL / ELT will know how powerfu...

Social networking is one of the key concepts that is driving Web 2.0 these days. With the opportunities social networks offer for collaboration and communication, this is certainly something we as educators should be thinking about being involved in. In this tutorial I'd like to show you how to create your own social network on Ning, just by following 7 steps. I've published these as a downloadable PDF with screen shots, so that you can print them up and follow them / share them. 7 steps to creating a social network>> (944k pdf) Perhaps though, more importantly it's worth thinking about some of the issues, and pros and cons surrounding the use of social networks. Some advantages of creating your own network. Control over the content You can make sure nobody posts anything inappropriate or irrelevant. Control of who joins and the ability to block or ban people You can protect your members, ban anyone who doesn't behave or just limit membership to people you want t...

I've just seen this site which is aimed at helping people to set up language exchanges. It's a kind of social networking tool. It's called Friendsabroad.com . You simply put in your language and then the language you want to learn and then you can also choose the country where you would like to find the person. Click on search and you get a list of people who fit your criteria. You have to register, but it is free, then you can get in contact and start chatting, emailing through the platform (no email addresses are disclosed) and can even leave voice messages. No 'teachers' as such are involved, there are however a coupe of useful tools on the interface to help you. There is; a text to speech converter, so that you can type in a phrase and see how it is pronounced a multilingual dictionary so that you can get help with translating a phrase translator. Type in any phrase you want and get a translation of it On the whole I think this is a great idea. It looks like th...

The Nicenet Classroom Assistant is a really useful tool which enables teachers to very quickly and simply create their own virtual learning environment. I’ve been using this with various classes and groups of teachers for the last 7 or 8 years and it has remained reliable, stable, safe and free. Features The VLE it creates has a number of useful features. A messaging function which allows registered users to send personal or group messages to others registered on the VLE (this can be configured to forward messages on to email addresses if the user so chooses) A conferencing function. This acts like a bulletin board where threaded discussions can be created around tasks or topics. A link sharing resources where the tutor and / or users can post and share and annotate links to external sites. This can help to focus your students’ use of web resources. Document publishing . This can be used by either tutor, to publish course materials, or students to publish their work. The tutor has ...