Monday, June 13, 2011

WEEK 7: Videos and other Useful Web Tools 2.0



WEEK 7. Videos and other useful Web 2.0 tools

It is a video free software where you can create and edit your own videos. Windows Movie Maker is almost always installed on the PC and it is really interactive and very easy to use. You can add pictures, mp3 music, background sounds and special effect among many things.

The activities that can be done with these tools are infinites in the English classroom. Students can prepare their own role plays, dramatization and even presentations using the window movie maker because they can add their own recording using mp3 files. Also, they can use it to make presentations about whatever topic (family, food, etc). They can even sing songs and record them in mp3 and put them on the movie maker with some pictures and some effects too.





1. www.pimpampum.net/phrasr: This web page is very interactive for students in order to get fun and learn at the same time. You need to write a phrase and click on start and it will appear an image for each letter you write. You can also have a gallery of pictures for each letter. After you do that, you write a title and your name and your own phrase with pictures will appear with your title and name at the end. Students can make their own presentations using this page and they can explain them in class using pictures. They can use their speaking, reading and writing skills.






2. www.storiesinflight.com: This web page is similar to the one mentioned before, but it is even better. You can write a short story and a picture for each letter will appear on the screen. But the letters you write will not disappear from the pictures as happens on pimpampum. The words will appear in the middle of each picture like a story. Students can improve their four skills with this page and they can tale their stories in front of the class or even in their blogs or wikis.




3. www.penzu.com: You can write whatever you want there. For example, notes, essays and even papers. You can have your e-paper there and send it to your teacher’s e-mail. I, personally,used penzu in another master course last year. I used to write my papers there and my students can also do it. It’s a good way to combine face to face homework with distance homework.




4. www.fonetiks.org: This is an on-line pronunciation dictionary which has nine varieties of the English language and nine other languages with pronunciation. It has pronunciation samples by over forty native speakers. This web page dictionary is very useful for students who always want to know the meaning of words and also the way they sound. I would use it in my class and I know my students will love it.




5. www.howjsay.com: It is a similar on-line dictionary with instant sounds like fonetiks. It is really easy to use and very helpful for the students in order to avoid mispronunciation.



6. www.googlebattle.com: This web page measures which of two terms has a higher Google rating by searching for term1 or term2 and then counting the hits of either in the returned top 100. For example, sex and abstinence.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Adenis. I like the idea of creating presentations by using these tools.Of course, we should not take for granted that students know how to cope with this. That is why I think that training them firstly can be a good starting point.

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  2. Hello Adenis. I was reading about videos and how useful they are to engage students to learn a language. Definitely, they are good tools to be considered when trying to catch students' attention and get them involved in their own learning process. Thanks for the information.

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  3. Hello Adenis. I think this web tool is very interesting and if learned to use apropiately it will be a wonderful tool.It will definitely attract students attention and isn't it what we want?
    Maite Sangroniz

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  4. I just couldn’t leave your website before telling you that we really enjoyed the quality information you offer to your visitors… Will be back often to check up on new posts.

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