Wordle

What is Wordle?
Wordle is a word cloud making tool created by Jonathan Feinberg. It makes pictures of words according to your needs.

How it works?
You may go to the free website, Wordle and make a word cloud in just a minute. You can type a text and generate a word cloud. The more frequent the words appear in the text, the more prominent they become in the Wordle. You can delete words that you don't want to focus on. You can also choose the colour combination and the ways that the words are arranged.

Benefits
- Word clouds are more attractive than merely words.
- The tool is easy to use and free.

Limitations
- You may need to amend your java settings to operate Wordle.
- The image itself does not have any educational potential. It is all about how you use the image.

Some ideas to use Wordle
1. I've used it a lot when I was teaching in Hong Kong. As a teacher, using Wordle can show the key words in a text. Some vocabulary can be emphasized and shown to students. The Wordle created can also be used as the pre-reading activity to get students think about the theme of the text, or predict what is going to happen next in the story. Students can also use Wordle in the same way to find the key words of a text on their own and know what the text is about. They can compare two texts in terms of the theme and probably the complexity of the language as well.

2. I talked about VoiceThread in one of my previous posts and one teacher used Wordle in her VoiceThread as hints for sentence making activity. You can put the key structures or vocabulary and create a Wordle for students to make sentences. This is more visually appealing compared to a list of key words and lines.

3. I also used it when I was doing presentation in staff meetings. In the school that I worked at, teachers would go to different professional development training and share with the team on what they have learnt afterwards. I find Wordle a useful way to summarize some points of the workshops before moving on to discuss them in details.

To Find out More
My friend Cliff has also talked about Wordle and I do agree that it gives only limited affordance! Cliff's idea about Haiku looks interesting, too. I know very little about Haiku but I'll find out more about it! He also mentioned Greg in his blog as Greg has come up with 35 ideas of using Wordle! I'm really amazed! I could never think of so many ways. Yet, I'm afraid I would do some of the activities using other ways, or simply pen and paper, as Wordle may not be the most effective and economical.
If you are interested in Wordle, you may find Wordsift useful too. They share some similar features but I personally think Wordsift has more functions. Cliff has blogged about Wordsift and I'm sure you'll enjoy his blog as I did!

Nearpod

What is Nearpod?
Nearpod has both web version and apps. It is a useful tool that can make your powerpoint become more  interactive by adding quiz, polls, videos, links and so on. The activities can happen in the classroom and act as formative assessments. You can also assign it as homework if you have the paid version.

How it works?
You may watch a tutorial prepared by Nearpod. The video is short but the explanation is clear!

For teachers:
After logging in, teachers can create a new lesson and import resources such as PPT files by clicking 'add content'. They can adjust the order of the pages and add activities. This is the most important step to transform PPTs into interactive Nearpod assisted lessons!The activities include Polls, Draw It and so on.
When they are ready to use it, they make the lesson ‘live’ and receive a classroom code. I suggest teachers to launch it live using a desktop and use a tablet to join the session as a shadow student.
For students:
Simply entering the classroom code provided by the teacher and enter the presentation.

Benefits
- Using Nearpod instead of PPT definitely make the lesson more interactive if you add interesting activities.
- Compared to doing it using paper and pen, teachers can read students’ responses on the same screen within a short period of time.
- Teachers can share students’ work to the whole class more conveniently. If students have written something on a piece of paper, it is either too small or too far for the other to see. This can be solved by using projector but if the teacher wants students to work on it (e.g. circle the nice phrases/ underline the mistakes) then Nearpod would be more useful.

Limitations
- Only 30 students are allowed in each classroom. If the class is too big, students may need to work in pairs or in groups.
- Some features  (including a bigger class size) can only be used when you have the paid version.

Some Tips
I'd like to share my experience of using Nearpod in class. I remember once I created an activity using 'Draw it' but students couldn't write on it as the lines are too close. Try to imagine this on an ipad screen.....

Hahaha the work that I received was so messy, but that's not my students' fault! I would not write better than they did. I didn't think of this when I planned the lesson. I'm glad that only one of the tasks were like this. We have to bear in mind that when we are using tablets, even if we have smart pens, we can't write as if we are using pen and paper!

So I learnt the lesson. I used 'Open-ended Question' function instead, (YES even though not all of them are open-ended questions, most of them are in fact structured practice).
As I'm always using a desktop and an ipad for the live session, sometimes I show the questions on the master screen in the classroom, just like this:

  Students type their responses in the box.

Or I use the same feature again, but attach an image in it and students can alway tap and look at the image in full screen.

I still used 'Draw It' a lot.

This activity seems easy because they only have to circle, but the linguistic and cognitive demand is in fact a little bit challenging! My students worked in groups and discussed the answer. I think this is appropriate to their level. Ahhhhhh writing this blog entry brings back lots of memories. It was so interesting to see them turning the tablets in different direction to find out where they were! I then taught them they should keep the tablet fixed, and use an eraser to 'walk' on the screen' instead.

Lyrics Training

What is Lyrics Training?
I think we all agree that music is a universal language. I enjoy Korean and French songs even though I don’t understand the lyrics. For music lovers like me, Lyrics Training is a fantastic tool that can help improving listening skills while enjoying music.

How it works?
On the website, there are numerous videos in different languages extracted from YouTube. The texts used are the lyrics of pop music. First, choose the language you want to learn. Then you choose a music video. If you have something particularly like, you can search by the singer’s name or the title of the song and see if it is available. If you have no idea where to start with, you can begin with the popular videos in the “Top Lyrics” section on the website.
After choosing the song, you can also choose from four levels of difficulty: beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. 10% of the text is left blank in beginner level, while 25% in intermediate level , 50% in advanced level and all the lyrics in expert level is left blank, and the words are randomly chosen.
It is like a dictation, you listen to the song and type the missing words in the gaps. You can always listen to the same line if you are not sure about it. You can also skip by clicking the arrow and the answer will be shown.
The lyrics in the chorus section are usually repeated a few times throughout the song, some lines are repeated within the same part, just like the example below. (AND YES the examination is coming and I use Lyrics Training and other tools to practice French. Don't really like doing grammar exercises in the book hahaha)

Repetition is one of the useful ways to practice English. This is a good way to practice listening skills, and speaking too if students sing along!

Lyrics Training can also allow students learn new vocabulary. Some may argue the dominant theme of pop music is love and the lyrics may be discrete items, sometimes about feeling and sometimes are not meaningful at all. This depends on the music that you choose. Take Rihanna's Take a Bow for example:

Take a Bow Rihanna
How bout a round of applause?
Standin' ovation
OhYeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

You look so dumb right now
Standin' outside my house
Tryin' to apologize
You're so ugly when you cry (Please)
Just cut it out

Don't tell me you're sorry cause you're not
Baby when I know you're only sorry you got caught
But you put on quite a show
You really had me goin'
But now it's time to go
Curtains finally closin'
That was quite a show
Very entertaining
But it's over now
Go on and take a bow

Grab your clothes and get gone
(You better hurry up)
Before the sprinklers come on
Talkin' bout "Girl, I love you you're the one"
This just looks like a re-run (Please)
What else is on?

And the award for the best liar goes to you
For makin' me believe
That you could be
Faithful to me
Let's hear your speech out

The lyrics highlighted, such as a round of applause, standing ovation, take a bow are vocabulary related to shows. Therefore vocabulary in lyrics are related to each other, sometimes loosely, sometimes more closely, as the words should go together to covey the same message that the song is about.

Benefits
1. It motivates students, especially the music lovers to learn the language while enjoying music.
2. The texts are from lyrics, which are authentic and if the website is updated regularly, the material are more attractive as the songs and popular.
3. Learners can choose the level of difficulty.
4. The tool is very simple and only focuses on listening skills.

Limitations
1. Listening to songs is a nice way to motivate students to learn the language but not the best way to train their listening skills. Songs do not show the rhythm and intonation of real conversation. The structures of lyrics are more like poem, which does not resemble conversations neither.
2. The lyrics, or sometimes the Music Video may contain content that is not appropriate for young learners. There is a Children's Music Section for young learners, but what I'm worried about is young adults who are not interested in those songs anymore, and can get easily affected when exposed to some inappropriate behaviour appearing in the music videos.


Some ideas
I think this will be a nice tool to be used as a warm up activity in ESL classes for adults. Take my experience of teaching ESOL class for example, participants are mature students who come to class after work and some arrive a few minutes late. This will be a nice activity for the punctual students while they are waiting, especially if we can find songs related to the topic the we’re going to teach that day.

Webinar tools: Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and Adobe Connect

What is Webinar?

A webinar is a web-based seminar. Basically it is a seminar conducted over the internet in real time, using video conferencing software such as Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and Adobe Connect. There are so many tools out there, but so far I have only used these three for webinars so I’d like to introduce them.

How it works?

For Zoom and Adobe Connect, you will need to download the software first. You only need a link to join a webinar if it is delivered via Blackboard Collaborate. You have to be in the conference room at the right time. This reminder seems unnecessary but the truth is, many participants forget the time and miss the webinar they want to join! I almost missed one hosted by an illustrator because I forgot the time difference. So, always mark it in your schedule or google calendar!

Benefits

1. Webinars make learning more flexible and convenient. People can join it almost anywhere, as long as they have the internet. This increases the diversity of participants as people from all over the world can join the section as it is online. Such convenience also enables learners to explore different fields as they no longer need to worry about transportation. I could join a webinar hosted by an illustrator in California. This webinar was about something that I’m interested in, but not very passionate about. I wouldn’t join it even if it was a seminar held in Birmingham or Coventry, very close to where I live, simply because I was not that eager. However, it was a webinar so I joined it cosily at home and learnt a lot.
2. From the university’s point of view (or the organiser of the webinar), the cost is comparatively lower as there is no need to book a room)
3. Webinars are expected to be interactive as the host and attendees are in an equal position. They can type their comments and express their ideas easily.

Limitations

1. Connection is always the first concern. Once participants are disconnected, they may have missed something when they are reconnected again. The problem is more serious if the host or presenter get disconnected as the webinar can only go on when they are reconnected. 
2. Try to imagine if the speaker wants to ask if the participants have heard of ‘fish and chips’. He or she can immediately have some chorus response if it is a seminar. This is not easy to happen in a webinar as attendees are not likely to use their microphone (everyone just turns it off all the time so as not to capture noise from the background). 
3. The third point mentioned in the Benefits section above is about interactivity. It is noteworthy just like using any other technology, that doing a webinar will not automatically turn the seminar into an interactive one. The parts that enable interactivity may require extra preparation compared to seminars, for example, making a PPT or a link for a poll (webinar) vs. simply ask students to raise their hands to respond. This is easily solved these days as many online conferencing tools have functions for polls.

Using online conferencing tools in Hong Kong

Those tools are very popular for online teaching. A lot of teacher conduct their lessons using those platforms. I’m thinking about introducing these tools to students so that they can use those tools to practice speaking among themselves. These meetings can be recorded and they can send it to their teachers to give feedback.

To Find out More:

1. Some feature of webinar
2. This article is about both Webinar and Blogging! They are still relevant even though they are about Chemistry, not English Language Teaching.

VoiceThread

What is VoiceThread?

VoiceThread is a network where students develop the “Four Cs” that will benefit them for the whole lifetime: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.

It is an online interaction space that you can upload pictures, documents, videos and so on  to create a slideshow or a photostory. You may wonder, why do we need VoiceThread when we already have movie maker and imovie to make slideshows? It is what comes after making the slideshows that matters more. Students not only looking at the slideshow passively. They make comments on, critique, present their ideas, respond to others and sometimes even defend themselves using VoiceThread. Doing so help them develop higher order thinking skills that are essential for successful learning. They will engage in an ongoing conversation with their classmates, teachers and even some VoiceThread users they don’t know. The diversity of users also allow students to interact with people and learn more about different cultures.

How it works

There are training videos on the official website and the page below is specific to using VoiceThread in school.

The videos shows you how to import different forms of media (e.g. pictures, documents) to create a slideshow. Then you and your students can record audio comments by clicking the microphone button.

https://voicethread.com/products/k12/

Benefits

1. In terms of speaking and listening skills, VoiceThread is very useful as it increases the number of opportunities to speak up. The time in class is short and when teachers use IRF sequence a lot, not all students get to answer. Study also finds that even in an interactive classroom, the amount of students talk is still limited.
2. VoiceThread also increases the quality of responses as it is self-paced. Students can rehearse and rephrase, practice as many times as they can before submitting. This reminds me the concepts of equality and equity in education. Equality means that we make sure all students have equal access to resources. But the truth is, some students do need more support to get to where they are supposed to be. I don’t think we should lower the standard, so here’s where equity comes in. The students who are falling behind should be given more support, which does not necessarily mean extra teaching from teachers. Sometimes they just need more time and practice. Take speaking for example, if they use VoiceThread to give comments, they can succeed if they are willing to spend more time on it. This narrows the achievement gap between the more able ones and the weaker ones.

Limitations:

1. Although the fact that the commenting is not synchronized allow students to practice more before submitting, some may argue this does not resemble the authentic conversation.
2. It is not easy to organise the comment when they are audios rather than in written form.
3. Teachers may need to spend extra time to listen to all the comments before giving feedback.

Some examples of good VoiceThread

Example 1. Focusing on pronunciation and intonation

-This is created by a teacher for reading aloud practice

https://voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/1629138

Example 2. Structured practice

-This is created by a teacher. She put a Wordle with some useful phrases and recorded a sentence as a demonstration. It is interesting that some participants not only completed the task by making sentences using the structure but also complimented the Wordle made by the teacher. So even VoiceThread is not synchronized, people can still have authentic communication and express themselves, as long as the environment (be it real or virtual) is friendly.

https://voicethread.com/about/library/infinitive_or_gerund/

Example 3. Freer talk

-This is created by a student. She imported a may and explained how she got to school. The teacher gave her feedback in the comments. If you listen to the comments you will find users from different parts of the world, who do not know the student at all also left comments and encouraged her. This shows VoiceThread allows us to interact with users from different backgrounds.

https://voicethread.com/about/library/Language_learners_use_VoiceThread_to_practice_speaking/

Example 4. Maths Instruction

-This is a pre-lesson activity created by a Maths teacher and is an example of CLIL and a Flipped classroom. The teacher used the comment moderation function of VoiceThread and we can see students can have different solutions to the same problem! It will be so useful and interesting for students to see this and learn from each other. Teachers can also make use of the function and turn this into an assessment activity, either before, in-class, or after the class to check students’ understanding.

Visit https://voicethread.com/products/k12/

And then click ‘Math Instruction’ in the list of videos.

Example 5. Collaborative VoiceThread

-This is incredible. I’ve never thought of doing something like this.

This is a collaborative VT from three different classes across the United States

1st stage

Second graders from Utah first drew a place they love to visit or imagine visiting.

2nd stage  

9th graders from Colorado used a Wiki to divide up the artwork. They composed poems for the drawing and attached it as a comment on the VT.

3rd stage

5th-6th grade music composition students from Texas composed an original piece of music for each picture using GarageBand. Overall, it took about 2 1/2 months to put together.

As put by the VT team:

“This VT is an example of the power of collaboration using technology. This encompasses art through words, visuals, and music.”

https://voicethread.com/about/library/K12_art_poetry_and_music_from_Erin_Berg/

Using VoiceThread in Hong Kong Context

I particularly like example 5 but I can imagine how much time and effort have been spend on organising that project. It is nice for schools to work together. I think we can start with something similar to be done within a school. The project can be a cross-level and cross-subject activity. For example, making water rocket is a common task in General Studies lessons in Hong Kong but usually only higher form students can participate. Now I’ve got some ideas to get the entire school involved by using VoiceThread.

Stage 1. P.3 students: Look for a video explaining how water rockets work and created a VT.

Stage 2. P.5 students: Writing up procedures of making one and record it on the same VT.

Stage 3. P.6 students: Commenting on the VT, make changes to the procedures if they need to, and make a water rocket.

Stage 4. P.1-2 students: Draw the water rocket made by their seniors and add it to the VT.

Stage 5. All the water rockets will be launched on the same day as a mini competition. P.4 students use Canva to design a flyer to promote the activity and invite their family to come. The flyer will be printed out (small amount for each design) and also scanned to the VT.

***Students work in groups in every stage

Canvas

What is Canva?
Canva is a free online poster design tool that help users create professional-looking posters. It was created by Melania Perkins, Cameron Adams, and Cliff Obsrecht to help users who want to learn graphic design. It is accessible in eight different languages.Canva can be used to create a variety of images, including event flyers, resumes, cards and certificates. It has a very focused function- the creation of graphics and so far there have been over 100 million designs created.

How it works?
Please watch this video prepared by MA in ELT graduate Laila Mufidah.

Benefits

1. It is very easy to use. There are a lot of templates and you can also customise your poster. 
2. Teachers or student activity organisers may find this particularly useful when they need to design posters for some events.

Limitations
The tool itself is focusing on graphic design only. There is not much room for providing language input or having interaction.

Some ideas to use Canva

Canva would be most helpful if the teacher teaches it to students to create their work.

1. Young students can use Canva to design some Christmas cards and send it to their classmates. This is easy and also environmentally friendly. 
2. Students can use the graphics to summarize the chapter and their work can be published and put on the board in the classroom or in school. 
3. Students who take up responsibilities (e.g. Student Union or societies) can use it for promoting school activities. 

Useful links
Canva teaching materials by Canva
Canva YouTube channel

Nicenet

What is Nicenet?

The full name of Nicenet is ‘Nicenet’s Internet Classroom assistant’. It is a virtual classroom where students can share their resources and participate in learning activities.

How it works?
Teachers will need to register and create a ‘Class Key’ for their students.

For students

1. To join a virtual classroom in Nicenet, students have to go to the website. http://www.nicenet.org/
2. Then click ‘Join A Class’ on the top right hand corner and enter the ‘Class Key’ given by their teacher. 
3. After filling in basic information to create an account, you may ‘Join the Class’.
4. After logging in, you will see the topic set by the teacher in ‘Conferencing’ section. There may be more than one topic and you can choose which you want to (or need to ) work on. 
5. Within that topic, you may create a new post to tell the others your thoughts by clicking ‘Post New Message to….’ and respond to a particular post by clicking ‘reply.

Benefits

1. Nicenet is a reliable website which is not only free, but also free of advertisements.
2. It is very straightforward and user-friendly.
3. There is no time limit in enrolling the class. PArticipants can be still in touch when the course finishes and all the contributions will be still available.
4. Class schedule is also available in the virtual classroom so students are clear about the time for joining discussion, handing in their work or even something happen outside Nicenet, such as the dates of their outings.
5. Students can perform tasks or join discussions in real time, without worrying the physical constraints. This means Nicenet can supplement face-to-face teaching and even support distance learning.

Limitations

1. Documents cannot be uploaded. You will have to type the content in the text box and post it to Nicenet. It is still inconvenient even though we can simply copy and paste our documents. Try to imagine you make some changes to the content and forget to press the ‘Edit Document’ button at the bottom, all the amendments will be gone! Also, this limits the form of files shared among students. They cannot share audio files or other media on their computers. The y can only share those available online by sending the links.
2. Teachers can’t clone the lesson materials or copy the whole classroom. This means they will need to repeat all the steps to set up another classroom in Nicenet when they are teaching two classes in the same grade, or when they teach the same grade again the next school year. 

Some ideas to use Nicenet
In my opinion, Nicenet itself cannot stand alone as a virtual classroom due to the drawbacks I mentioned above. It can be quite useful in supplementing a face-to-face classroom, though. Nicenet is often regarded as a Learning Management System, but I think we have other better options such as Moodle. I find Nicenet particularly useful, however, if we narrowed down the things we want to work on. For example, it is a nice tool for helping students pariticipate in writing tasks. They can share resources they find online and discuss their ideas on Nicenet.

Webquest

What is a WebQuest?

WebQuest is a model created in 1995 by Professor Bernie Dodge at San diego State University.

You may already have some clues by looking at the name of the tool. ‘Web’ shows that it makes good use of the vast range of information and resources available on the internet, except that students do not need to search for information using the search engines as the resources from the internet are already pre-selected. ‘Quest’ hints that it is an inquiry-oriented learning tool. You can find out more in Professor Bernie Dodge’s interview or read his old blog posts, but I’ve summarised some key ideas for you.

In Professor Dodge’s words, WebQuest is simply ‘good teaching with the web’, or, in a longer definition, ‘'a constructivist lesson format, that is wrapped around a doable and interesting task that is a scalable-down version of something adults do. Most material, not necessarily all comes from the Web, and they are pre-selected by the teacher or the designer. WebQuests often but not always require students to take on roles’. He emphasizes the word ‘real’ as WebQuests deals with ‘real problem using real data, with real people in the real world’. 

How it works?

Basically, a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity that gives students a task and at the same time provide them with access to online resources to help them complete it. There are six components in a WebQuest.

Introduction: The main task or activity is introduced here. This section tells you what the WebQuest is centred around and can enhance students’ interests when this is well-written. If there are roles involved in the activity, they should be given out here.

Task: This tells learners what they need to do to complete the task, but broken down yet as the steps should be explained in Process.

Process: The process that students need to go through in order to complete the task is broken down and explained in detail to help them do it in small and manageable steps. This requires students to apply knowledge, most likely from the information they get from the resources provided, and analyse it or even synthesize knowledge.

Evaluation: This gives a rubric to show students how their work will be evaluated. This gives guidance to them as they know more about the assessment.

Conclusion: This is not only a summary of what students have learnt. To me, this section seems more to be a reflection as students can think about the the learning process and voice their opinions and feelings. 

Credits: This not only gives credits to the source of the materials that are included in  the Webquest, but also allows other teachers who want to modify the WebQuest to get to the original material and create their own WebQuest to suit their needs.

****There is also a Teacher page to give a bit more information of the context and the learning objectives. 

Benefits

- WebQuests are created by teachers and the materials are likely to be what students interested in. This helps promote intrinsic motivation.

- The materials are extracted from the real world, they can be more up-to-date than textbooks. Besides, the language is more authentic.

- Students work in groups and are usually assigned different roles. This gives them the sense of ownership, and helps them develop collaboration and interpersonal skills. It also helps language learning as there will be a lot of interaction and negotiations while they work together to complete the task. This helps them co-construct knowledge. 

- The nature of WebQuests allows the development of higher order thinking skills not only because it enables students to ‘find the answers’ by themselves, but also because they are given lots of opportunities to engage in activities requiring problem solving skills, analysis, reasoning and creation. There is the element of metacognition in the Conclusion part of a WebQuest when students reflect on their learning process.

Limitations

- The benefits mentioned above can only be brought by GOOD WebQuests but not all of them are good. In fact, not all of WebQuests in the database fulfill the definition of  WebQuests as the activity itself does not align with the purpose of using WebQuests. They seem to me like webpages explaining some common internet activities. 

- Some people may argue that WebQuest is too teacher-centred as all the materials are pre-selected. I personally think it is more effective if teachers choose the resources before giving them to students because students do not learn much even if they spend hours looking for information on Google. I’m not saying that the process of finding and selecting useful information on the net is useless, in fact they can be useful, but how students USE the information is far more useful in helping them learn the language, the content, or develop higher order thinking skills. Time is limited, I would not let the entire class drown in the sea of information on Google if I can simply find what’s useful for them. 

- Ideally, WebQuests assign students with different roles and learn but honestly some learners may be free-riders and do not contribute. Therefor the reflection component in the Conclusion part is very important and teachers should observe and check it with students from time to time during the process of completing the task, rather than only when they’ve completed it.

- I realize that there may be some hiccups when students work together as those who are more proficient in English not necessarily have higher order thinking skills, whereas those who can think critically may not possess the language to express their ideas. I thought this is a limitation of WebQuests if not enough negotiation and interaction happen among learners, but then if they can help each other, this echoes to the point about co-construction of knowledge I mentioned above. Therefore teachers may need to give a bit guidance to help students work with each other.

Developing critical thinking skills is a hot topic in Hong Kong and while I was studying in high school I often needed to work in groups to complete some ‘projects’. After exploring WebQuests I don’t think those projects are good activities to help us develop higher order thinking skills as we only copied and pasted what we found on the internet and made powerpoints and presented it to our classmates. We did learn while we searched and selected information we needed, but nothing more. I like that WebQuests allow students to embrace uncertainty, but in small and manageable steps, with support from their teacher and their peers. 

I’ve come across a lot of metaphors about the roles of teachers and one of the metaphors is that teachers are maps because they guide us on our journey. Now I’ve come up with a more complicated one after exploring WebQuest. I think thanks to technology, anything can be maps these days as students can find resources easily and learning happens anytime, anywhere. The information we find online can be maps too, but not allo of them are correct, and not all of them are useful. I will regard myself as a fire torch that sheds light on a useful map (and burn those that are not useful hahahaha), and students have their group-mates as companions in the journey. They can decide when and where to go on as long as they can reach where they should be on time. WebQuests tells them where to go and what to do, and would also keep reminding them to look at the beautiful scenery during their journey. Isn’t that amazing?

If you want to find out more about Webquest:

1. Article written by Tom March, ‘The Learning Power of WebQuests’

2. Dr. Bernie Dodge's old blog posts

3. My friend Alexandra has also talked about Webquest in her blog. She gives a very detailed analysis with ideas about critical thinking skills such as Bloom's Taxonomy, and she found some examples of good Webquests.

Stormboard

What is Stormboard?

It would be easier to explain how Stormboard works if we imagine it as a virtual white board. We can brainstorm and write our ideas on memos of different colours, and then put on the white board.

I've used Stormboard for the first time last week and found it very useful in helping students develop their writing skills and collaboration skills. I like that we do not need to be physically confined to the same place while brainstorming ideas. It is usually very time-consuming when we need to sit together and talk about our ideas. 

How it works?

The beauty of this digital white board is that we not only can add our ideas but also elaborate and discuss them. There is a speech bubble on each sticky note, a chat box will be opened up once we click it. Then we can start discussing on the topic. We can also put relevant information on the Sticky notes, such as videos and images and mention hyperlinks.

Stormboard is more than a white board as there are a lot of templates to help us organize our ideas, and you can modify the templates to suit your needs. For example, my groupmates and I chose a regular template with three sections and deleted one section because we thought we would only use one for brainstorm and one for the writing. Students may need more sections if they are engaged in a process writing as they may need to write the draft, edited version and the final version for publish. Those templates are useful in helping students structure their writing. If they have to decide on ideas to be included in their writing, they can even use the voting function of Stormboard. The Stormboard created can be exported as PDF, Powerpoint, Word and Excel files. Students can bring it to their meeting or hand it in to their teachers for comments. Besides, Stormboard is very convenient as it works on tablets, smartphones and desktops, you can put up your ideas whenever and wherever the inspiration strikes you. I personally think it is very easy to use and will introduce to my students for their writing tasks.

Cullen, Kullman and Wild (2013) have conducted an online collaborative project to illustrate the benefits of such tasks. They used wiki in their project and I think Stormboard may be even better as it is visually more appealing, and have some features like the chat box and voting functions as mentioned above. If you are my classmates the article is on Moodle (week 3).

Benefits

-       Allow students to work collaboratively without being physically confined to the same place

-       Help organize ideas with colour coded sticky notes and templates

-       Helps the exchange of information as the content posted can be in varied forms, such as images, videos and so on

Limitations

-       Even though users can edit the Stormboard at different times, it may be more effective if they are all online at the same time and discuss their ideas

-       Students need to express their ideas in written form. Those who are weaker in writing may find it hard to express their opinions

-       Students who type slowly may not be able to contribute as much as the others in discussion

Some ideas to use Stormboard
- Flipped classroom: at the beginning of a unit or module, students can be given the theme or the topic that they will learn, and they post their ideas about the topic, and find some relevant information online and share them using the sticky notes. This is usually done in the class to activate students' schemata and let teachers know how much students have already known about the topic.
- Teacher con-constructs the writing with class as a model of their writing. Teachers usually do this in class with the board but once the lesson is finished, the writing will be erased and students can no longer look at it again. Although this can be solved by writing on a flipped-chart and post the writing on the wall, students still can't see it when they leave the classroom. Stormboard would be useful as the writing can be exported as PDF or other files. Students can keep it for their reference.

Visit the official website of Stormboard to find out more!


Update on 13/2/18
I particularly like Nusrat's sample task. Should definitely check it out when you have time!