Lessons don’t need to be boring!

Games can be great fun and they can help us to deal with different topics.

Including games in the classroom can be interesting not only for children but also for teachers. Students usually like playing and many times they learn a lot of things when doing so! Why shouldn't we take this and try to use it in our lessons? We can have a good time and learn a lot of vocabulary from games, for example. Lessons should be enjoyable for everybody. I think that teachers enjoy while teaching, so why shouldn't students enjoy during their learning process?
Now that I've read about it, I think that I will try gamify my lessons; I've never thought about it before. Now, I'm in a position to say that games are not a waste of time but another way of learning! Graham Stanley proposes on his blog a lot of games that you should try. I’ve tried “CharlesDickens’ London.” It’s really interesting to learn about him while playing! But… I’ve lost, so I’ll try again!

Topics + Organization = TO? No! Content Curation

Curation has to do with the selection, organization and documentation of things. This applied to content and technology can be really interesting. There are different tools with which we can archive digital assets. One of these tools is Scoop.it.

With this application you can bookmark articles, blogs, websites, etc, that you find interesting and organize them according to the topic they deal with. Moreover, you can follow other accounts; for example, you can follow experts in the topics you selected.

I find Scoop.it really interesting because I can have as many topics as I want and the page makes suggestions of different articles or websites I may find of interest.

My blog

Here goes a QR Code that should lead you to my blog!

Speaking skills

There are some web tools that are really interesting and useful when it comes to develop speaking skills.

One of them is Brainshark. This web tool allows people to add voice to your PowerPoint presentations.

Another web tool is Voxopop. It’s a good way to improve speaking skills and collaborative work.

The third one is Woices. This is an interesting tool to develop speaking competence and a different way to deal with geography.

Brainshark can be used in order to present the results of a research project. Students can make a PowerPoint presentation with the most important items of their projects. Then, they can add voice to it with Brainshark and share their presentations on their blogs so all their mates can see them at home.

Voxopop can be used for creating a story. You can set up a Voxopop account and start a talkgroup. Each student can have a specific day to record a part of the story. Before recording it, she/he will have to listen to what their mates uploaded.

Woices can be used in order to make small presentations of different places. Each student can be assigned a place to describe (features, weather, most important places to visit, etc.) and create a Woiceguide.

I’ve tried Woices! Here goes the link to my Woiceguide http://woicesguides.com/guides/488

Web Tools

Some days ago, I was reading my mate’s blogs and I found something that caught my attention… “Wordle”

This web tool creates “clouds” of words that can be used as kind of “brainstorming” during a lesson. In order to create a cloud, you can introduce an URL (from where the website will choose words) or a text. I think that giving students the same or different clouds made up with words from a story they know and ask them to write a new one can be really interesting; they are asked to be creative and original and, I think, for them this is a challenge (trying to create something completely different from the things they know).

Criteria:

* Availability: This web tool is for free; so everyone can have access to it.

* Digital Literacy: This is the capacity to efficiently and critically navigate, appraise and generate information using digital technologies. ‘Wordle’ can act as a tool to start thinking critically about a word, as the term literacy implies.

* Accessibility: This criterion has to do with whether the web tool can be used with different platforms. For using ‘Wordle,’ you only need Java applets.

* Prolonged use: This web tool can be used a lot of times since the content of the word cloud can vary according to the topic you are dealing with.

* Registration: There’s no need for registration.

* Security: In the FAQ section, there are some advices in order to report non-desirable content. However, the web tool lacks a moderator or filter.

* ‘Wordle’ is really easy to use and understand. The stages to create a word cloud are explained very well and they should not bring any problem.

So, let me present you my Wordle!

The words were taken from a narrative I wrote for the Language I course.

Twister!

TPCK in action!

This is a case of Cross Curricular Story Writing. At Terakki Foundation Schools (in Istanbul), a class worked on a writing project that involved not only the English department but also the art and ICT ones. The project consisted of “creating an audio-enabled talking book.” Children were asked to write a story based on two characters created by two of their mates; then, the ones that felt more confident when talking recorded it by using special software. After this, using another program, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, the book was created and, finally, published as an e-book.

After this project, the class created a website that consists of different games in order “to help other children learn English.”

You can “read/listen” to this story via iBooks. Here goes the link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bubble-and-pebble-story/id444909635?mt=8

And you can find these interactive games on http://www.bubbleandpebble.com/

In this case, we can see that TPCK is applied to the lessons. The teacher wanted to deal with common themes (content knowledge) through “fun-based activities” (pedagogical knowledge) and used different types of software to do so (technological knowledge). If we have a look at the SAMR Model, we'll see that the Redefinition level was achieved since this task could only be accomplished by the use of technology, and also because, probably, the teacher wouldn't have thought about it without technology.

This Cross Curricular Story Writing project is really interesting since students can see how different subjects are related. Technology, in this situation, was a tool that children not only used to learn but to help other children learn English. I think this is of great importance, because through this project of creating a website, students were asked to apply all their knowledge (TPCK!), be clear, creative and solidary. It is important to bear in mind that while we teach English in our lessons, we are giving our students different tools to exploit in different situations and we should lead them to be cooperative. Many times, technology can help us to do so… We only need to give it a try!