Class 5: Software

In this post you will get to know very useful software called "Hot Potatoes" and "Quandary".

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like.

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hot_pot.php

Here are some examples of what one can create with the help of Hot Potatoes:
http://hotpot.uvic.ca/wintutor6/index.htm
http://www.finchpark.com/courses/hotpot/

Tutorials for the program: http://hotpot.uvic.ca/wintutor6/mashertutorial.htm
http://hotpot.uvic.ca/tutorials6.php (for Quandary as well)

Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze".

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php

Here are 2 examples of Quandary (for you to experience it and just have fun)
http://www.hlw-dl.at/content/maltaexperience/
http://surfingwithsarah.com/Documents/FairyCrystalHunt.htm

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary/version_2/tutorial/tutorial.htm (tutorial)


Here are 3 more websites with tools you might want to use:

http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx

http://busyteacher.org/wordpuzzle/

Your assignment is:
1. To explore these two programs
2. To choose one of the following topics (and subscribe for them in the comments - do not choose the topic that is already chosen!):
1) Appearance
2) Family and relatives
3) Houses (inside and outside)
4) Household chores
5) Food
6) Eating out (all over the world)
7) Weather
8) Education
9) Shopping
10) Clothes
11) Character
12)Sport
13)Health
14)Leisure
15)Art
16)Cinema
17)Traveling
3. In groups of 2 or individually to create examples of activities on your own (at least 1 assignment for each type of activities):
1) Quiz
2) Crossword
3) Matching exercises
4) Fill-in gaps
5) Jumbled-sentence exercises
6) Quandary

Send your files to my email: olga.anikina@gmail.com

Class 2: WIKIS

Wikis

"Wiki" is the word for "fast" in Hawaiian. A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses them to contribute or modify the content easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative sites and to power online communities. Wikis are used in education to allow students to co-create documents and research topics collaboratively. Watch the video on wikis (4 min.)

The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is the most popular example of a wiki today. Wikis have several key characteristics, which include:

• May invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Website, using only a simple Web browser.

• Promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.

• Seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Website landscape. A wiki enables documents to be written collaboratively, iteratively, in a simple markup language using a Web browser. A single page in a wiki Website is referred to as a “wiki page”. The entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Many wikis are open to alteration by the general public. Many edits can be made in real-time and appear almost instantly online.

Taken from: http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=28813

Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki and http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Watch these videos and create your own wiki workspace following the instructions below.

This video will help you to understand what wikis are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&feature=youtu.be

This video will give you a clue on how to create your own projects in wikis.




Directions:
1. Follow the link (pay attention to the number of the group in the URL)

541m

541s

543-544m

2. Press the button "Edit" (at the upper left corner). Ask for a permission to edit this posts by sending a request to the page administrator (that's me). You will have to enter your email address.
3. Enter your email box and wait for a confirmation to arrive.
4. Follow the link from your email box and create your own account on pbworks.com.
5. Edit the post (the task is set in the comment under the poem).

Your home assignments are:
1. Finish translating the poem.
2. Watch the video below and leave a comment on the usage of blogs versus wikis.
3. Create your own wiki page in PHILOLOGY2010.pbworks.com and add your ideas about usage of wikis in teachig

Class 3-4: WEB QUEST

WebQuest
WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning, says workshop expert Bernie Dodge. This means it is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. Beyond that, WebQuests:
* can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit;
* usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives;
* are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher.
Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for it.

This is the website where teachers can create their own WEbQuests and find the existing ones: http://zunal.com/

Your assignment:
1. To complete the following WebQuest (50 minutes: 25 minutes for viewing the WebQuests and 25 minutes for analyzing them in groups of 4
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestwebquest-hum.html
Please read carefully and follow all the instructions in the WebQuest!

2. To present the results of your research (last 30 minutes of the class).

3. To create your WebQuests (individually) and to add links to the comment section of this post.

4. To analyze each others' WebQuests (the next class) and to comment on them (whole group discussion during the class).

Class 1: BLOGS

Hi everyone!

During our classes we are going to work with different media that can be used for teaching and learning foreign languages (English in particular) and literature.

Before we start I would like to ask everybody to think How often do you use computer technologies in your everyday life?

What about Internet? What do you use it for?

How often do you communicate with people on the Internet? Search for information? What language(s) do you use? Why this particular language?

In groups of 3-4 discuss the following questions:

Do you think computer technologies could contribute to the process of teaching English? How?

Why use technology at all? What are the advantages?

Our first class is devoted to Web-logs.

Today your assignment is to create your own weblog (if you already have one, please create another blog in English )

GO TO blogspot.com

CREATE A BLOG

CREATE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT (if you do not have one)

NAME YOUR BLOG

CHOOSE A STARTER TEMPLATE

START BLOGGING

TITLE

TYPE YOUR MESSAGE IN THE WINDOW

PUBLISH POST

VIEW POST

To view blogger control panel

GO BACK

SETTINGS

PERMISSIONS (here you can assign who will be able to read your blog)

COMMENTS

SAVE SETTINGS

VIEW BLOG

Here you go! Congratulations on creation of your own weblog.

Here you can find some examples of how to use blogs in the classroom: 1 2

Home assignment:
1. In your own weblog create a post with an assignment (connected with the use of weblogs) for your students of English language or foreign literature. Give as detailed description as possible. You can use pictures, audio and video material, links to other websites, etc.
What to include:
1). Title of the class.
2). Age of students.
3). General topic(s) of the unit that is being studied.
4). Topic of the class.
5). Goals of the class.
6). Goals of the activity.
7). Description of the activity (including what should be done before, during and after it, and home assignment if necessary).
8). Additional comments and conclusions

2. Read your groupmates' web-logs and leave your critical comments under their posts (with your evaluation and suggestions). You have to leave comments on at least 5 web-logs.