PECHA KUCHA: Our last ECO II Project.

PECHA KUCHA is a short presentation that consists of 20 slides which are shown for 20 seconds each. The 20x20 format allows each presenter to talk for 6 minutes and 40 seconds on a personal project or interest of their choice.

PECHA KUCHA is a Japanese word literally meaning "Chit Chat".

20x20 presentations are awesome because they force the presenter to focus on the point and to say what it's really important. Pictures help listeners to follow and understand the presentation.

This year we made two PECHA KUCHA presentations. The first one was a practical work for Diction and we tried to answer the question "WHY CERTAIN SOUNDS ARE MORE DIFFICULT THAN OTHERS?". The second one is our last ECO II project and we will present it in our final exam.

Writing the script is the most difficult part of PECHA KUCHA presentations. You have to decide what you want to say and say it in only 20 seconds. It took us hours and days to finish both scripts.

Making powerpoint presentations were the best part of PECHA KUCHA. There are two ways of doing so: you can choose funny pictures or you can choose pictures which represent what you are saying. In our first presentation we chose funny pictures but for our second one we decided to do it more formal. 

My biggest problem is to memorize the script. I cannot study by heart and for this kind of presentation this point is crucial. Let's see what happens tomorrow in the final exam!!!

EDMODO

EDMODO is a secure social learning network for teachers and students. It is also called "Facebook for Education".

We have been working with EDMODO from the Student's perspective since the beginning of the year. 

In one of our last projects, we had to work with EDMODO from the Teacher's perspective. We had to plan a lesson and design the activities using authoring tools and upload them to the EDMODO group we had created. The topics given were: revision of GO, HAVE, GET and PAST SIMPLE IRREGULAR VERBS. We decided to upload all the steps to the EDMODO group beginning with the homework and finishing with the Warm up stage of the lesson so students could see the activities and tasks in the correct order. We created a crossword and a word search using EDUCAPLAY and a multiple choice together with a fill in the gaps activity using HOT POTATOES. 

We really enjoyed using the tools. My favourite one is the fill in the gaps activity. We chose the song "Because you loved me" - Celine Dion for students to complete all the verbs in the past form. We also added a link to the clip of the song in YOUTUBE and we wrote the verbs in the infinitive form to help them complete the activity.

I think that using EDMODO is an interesting and different way of teaching a lesson. Students are motivated because they can work at their own pace, communicate with each other using their computers and complete the activities as if they were games. However, we must take into account that the Internet connections in our schools are not so good  and this reality can change our innovative lesson into a complete failure.

POPPLET: Another WEB 2.0 tool.

POPPLET is a platform which allows users to visualize connections between ideas and bits of information by organizing them into a graphic map. 

It is easy and simple. It provides blank "bubbles" and the tools to fill them in with images or texts. Each of the bubble contains individual ideas. A single mouse click allows users to zoom in on a specific area of the graphic.

POPPLET offers an appealing option for supporting visual learners. It can be used by students to present online research projects. Teachers can also use POPPLET to help students organize their ideas before writing a story, letter, article, among others.

I created a POPPLET about HALLOWEEN. The aim of this graphic map is to activate previous knowledge using pictures related to the topic. It is thought to be used in the Presentation stage of the lesson. It can also be used to help students write about this celebration. They can add more information and connect the ideas in a different way. Moreover, students can look for information about the origins of HALLOWEEN, its traditions and supersticions.

Source: Education World.

WORDLE: How to use it in the EFL classroom.

One of my favourite WEB 2.0 tools is WORDLE because it is really easy to use and you can create word clouds in a few simple steps. However, I was not sure in what way it could be effectively used in an EFL classroom. "The Teacher's Magazine" Nº 127 (August 2010) gave me some useful ideas. According to the magazine, Word clouds can be created to revise vocabulary and grammar and to develop different skills such as Reading and Writing.

In order to revise Vocabulary, the teacher can create a word cloud with five or six words, all but one of which have something in common in order to make the students find the odd one out. Or s/he can show the students a cloud with words belonging to a certain semantic field (food, animals, etc) and ask them to make sentences. Or the teacher can ask students to find pairs of opposites/synonyms in a word cloud.

For Grammar, word clouds can be created with scrambled sentences for students to put the words in the right order. Or they can identify words and classify them as nouns, verbs or adjectives.

For developing Reading skills, word clouds can be used to brainstorm ideas about the text before reading it. Or they can retell the story read using only the words in the word clouds.

For Writing, they can create or predict the ending of a story using the words given or they can write their own stories.

These are some of the ideas given in the article. They can be adapted to different ages and levels. I think they are great ideas and they can help the teacher to make lessons more attractive. And what's more important, designing this teaching material is not time-consuming!!!!
Source: Starc, M. (2010, August). WEB 2.0 tools for EFL teachers. WORDLE. The Teacher's Magazine, (127), 24, 25.

Source: http://teacheng.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gatsby2wordle.png

WORDLE and VOKI

I really enjoyed last lesson. We began to explore some web 2.0 tools. I learnt about two of them: WORDLE and VOKI.

WORDLE is a tool for generating "word clouds" from texts that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Source: http://www.wordle.net/

VOKI is a tool for creating speaking avatars. 

During the lesson, we were asked to use WORDLE to create a word cloud with the definition of one of the Web 2.0 tools. I created this "Word Cloud":

The word clouds were used as riddles for the rest of the class. 

We created a VOKI to provide the answer to the riddles. This is my VOKI:

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=6522592&height=267&width=200

Both tools can be used as effective learning tools because:

• They motivate students to participate.
• They introduce technology in a fun way.
• They are easy to use.

Source: http://www.voki.com/

My First Powerpoint

WHAT CAN THEY DO?

The aim of this powerpoint is to revise the modal verb "Can" in affirmative and negative form and also with direct questions.
It is thought for beginners between 10 and 13 years old, but it can also be used with older students.
It is advisable to use this powerpoint to correct the exercises. The idea is to give the students hand-outs of this powerpoint. 
The first slide is oral. The teacher asks the students what the smurfs can do while she shows the pictures.
From the second to the sixth slides, students do the exercises on their own and then the teacher uses the powerpoint to correct them. 
The seventh slide should be done orally with the whole class.
The Guessing Game is in the eighth and ninth slides. The instructions should be explained by the teacher and then she should show the example.
The tenth, eleventh and twelveth slides are resources for the students. If the students have netbooks they can find the information on the web. If not, the teacher can help them. It is advisable for the teacher to show the cartoon characters and ask the students what they think each of them can do.
Homework should be explained by the teacher.


I invite you to watch my first powerpoint:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B66G-rLukr1VajVkR0tRaHVfc0k

You should download the powerpoint to your computers in order to watch it in the appropriate way.

Google Search

After reading the article "Trucos para buscar mejor en Google" I decided to look for more tips in order to continue improving my use of Google. I think this article sums up the most relevant tips and tricks. But I have a huge problem:

                  

 How do I remember

   all this information??

     

      

How To Get Better Google Search Results - Tips & Examples

Basic and Advanced Operators.

A lot of people would be surprised if they knew how much of a powerful tool Google can be. Stats are showing that the biggest percentage of users, actually don't know how to perform a well-executed search on Google! Google provides all the neccesary tools in order to help you find almost anything you want in the web. In addition, even people or web developers who own a website could improve their site management or SEO tactics by using those same simple tools, known as operators!

Here is a list, with tips and tricks, to help you improve your search results in Google:

Basic Operators.

Before start using those "tools", keep in mind, that although Google is not case-sensitive when you are typing in a word or a phrase (color = CoLOR , for example…), it becomes case-sensitive when you use those operators:

1. Double Quotes
Including one or more words into double quotes [ "" ], means that you want your search results to include exactly these words in that specific order. Including only one word can make you avoid synonyms, you didn't want to appear in your results in the first place.
Example: [ pizza "margherita" ]. 

2. OR 
By using this operator between two words, you actually looking for results that may include either one of those words. Without it, Google would search for results including BOTH words. This is quite useful, especially when you are looking for annual events, stats, etc.
Example: [ Chicago Bulls  2008 OR 2011 ]

3. Minus
Using the minus sign ( - ) immediately before a word, means that pages that contain this word, will be excluded from your results. Example: [ pizza -margherita].

4. Wildcard
An asterisk [ * ] inside a search query, symbolizes an unknown term that Google will try to replace with the best possible match. Example: [ pizza with * ].

5. Tilde
This symbol [ ~ ], if placed immediately before a word, can bring results relative to the search term and synonyms. Example: [ ~football ].

6. Number Range
[ .. ] Shows all results in a specified range of numbers. Example: [ 1..4 minutes ].


Advanced Operators

7. Definition
Using [ define:  ] and a word after it, returns the definition of this specific word. Example: [ define:web ].

8. File Types
[ filetype: ] Followed by a file type, returns links to relative file formats. Example: [ nameofbook filetype:pdf ].


9. Site Related
This [ site: ] operator, followed immediately by your domain name, will bring up all your websites pages that have been indexed by Google. Example: [ site:yourdomain.com ].

10. Backlinks
[ link: ] Followed by your website's domain name can show you all the backlinks your site is getting. Unfortunately it will only show up links from websites with pagerank 3 and above. Example: [ link:yourdomain.com ].

11. Cached Pages
[ cache: ] Followed by your domain's name can give you the cached version of your website. Example: [ cache:yourdomain.com ].

12. Relative
[ relative: ] Immediately followed by your website's domain name, can bring up relative websites (at least this is what Google thinks…). Example: [ relative:yourdomain.com ].

13. Webpage Information
By using [ info: ], followed by your website's domain, gets you a list with all the above operators, site:, link:, cache:, relative:, and "yourdomain". Example: [ info:yourdomain.com ]

14. Specific Locations
You can search into a specific URL, title, text or anchor text for a word, by using [ inurl: ], [ intitle: ], [ intext: ], and [ inanchor: ]. Note that this way you search for only one word (the first of the query). If you want to search an entire phrase you should use [ allinurl: ], [ allintitle: ], [ allintext: ], [ allinanchor: ] with the exception that these last operators cannot be combined with others. 
Example: [ site:artofdeveloping.com  intitle:Google ] or [ allintitle:Google new service ].

15. Google Advanced Search
If for whatever reason you cannot remember any of those operators, you can always use Google Advanced Search.

Extra
Here are some extra terms you could use in order to find out about the time, the weather, the stockmarket and more.

Google As A Simple Calculator  Or A Unit Converter.
Note that by using these symbols you can convert Google into a simple calculator 
+, –, *, /, %, ^. You can also use sqrt(), sin(), cos(), arctan(), tan(), ln(), log(), !.
Example: [  ((3+2)*4)^2 ].

You can also use Google search in order to convert any unit into another.
Example: [ 5 cm in inches ].

One Last Thing
Keep in mind that these operators may change at any time.The AND, + operator for example is no longer in use.
You could also visit Google help for more information.

http://www.artofdeveloping.com/2012/01/how-to-get-better-google-results-tips.html