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!
Monday, 26 March 2018
Saturday, 24 March 2018
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.
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.....
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:
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.
Thursday, 22 March 2018
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.
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)
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.
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
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
- 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.
- 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)
- 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
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
2. This article is about both Webinar and Blogging! They are still relevant even though they are about Chemistry, not English Language Teaching.
Monday, 12 March 2018
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.
Benefits
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- It is not easy to organise the comment when they are audios rather than in written form.
- 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
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)