Word Cloud - more than just a decoration

As you can see from above, it is just a bunch of words created by this tool. There is nothing really complicated. It can be a piece of artwork, can be a reminder of memories and can also potentially be a means for ELT.

What is Wordle?

The program is a free and user-friendly program that allows people to create "Word Clouds". It is an image made of words where the word sizing is based on the frequency of the word appeared in the source given. It allows users to save and print the picture just by clicking the buttons. If you like your own cloud, you can even save and share to the Wordle community so that everyone can appreciate it. There is a forum for Wordle users to create a community sharing their works and solving encountered problems while using the program. FAQ section is also included on the website to answer the common requests from the users.

Instagram - the most popular ELT tool for teens and tweens

Lately, all the teenagers seem to be highly active and addicted to the social networking app called Instagram. It is so popular that it tops the app store most popular chat all the time. In view of the prevalent photos and videos sharing community, teachers can integrate Instagram in ELT and interact with students' updates to get them interested in English and practice more with the unique format of Instagram. So English teachers who are interested in bringing a refreshing experience to their students by using Instagram in ELT, I will tell you more about how to make good use of the "InstaFever" as an ELT tool.

What is Instagram?

It is a social networking app for sharing videos and photos from a smartphone. Users have their own profile and will receive news feed of the users they have followed. They can set their account to be public or private which means only the approved subscribers can see their new posts.

Users have to upload either a photo or a video together with some texts in order to create a new post. The limit of each video is 15 seconds whereas there is no word limit. 

Screencast-O-Matic: Flipping the language classroom

In the previous posts, I have introduced a few education tools like Nearpod, Blendspace and Voicethread with which students can learn at home at their own pace. But all of them have the same problem - students feel rather distant with the teacher/ tutor as they can't really feel the existence of him/her. The tool that I'm introducing this time, Screencast-O-Matic, will totally solve this problem!

What is Screencast-O-Matic?

It is basically a presentation recording tool which allows users to record all of the actions on their computer as well as audio commentary and save the recording for sharing or future playback.

Nearpod - When ELT meets smart phones

When everybody literally can't live without a smart phone, what's better than incorporating smart phones with ELT? I recently encountered an amazing educational tool, Nearpod, which works fantastically both on a computer and a smartphone to make lessons more interactive than ever!

Twitter - making ELT on trend!!!

Almost everyone has a Twitter account now. You can find almost everything ranging from your friends' most recent status to private lives of Hollywood stars. Although being criticised for amplifying mundane, Twitter is a very powerful sharing community where teachers can find a constant supply of useful articles, website links, lesson plans and many more. Indeed, some teachers have already taken advantage of the Twitter's format to keep their classes engaged and up-to-date on the latest technologies. Like what the famous educator, Russell Standard said, "[Twitter] could replace regular search engines as a means of finding classroom ideas".

Blendspace for blended learning

As the use of internet and technology becomes more and more popular, incorporating digital and online materials in education is apparently inevitable. Therefore, we have the idea of blended learning. It is a formal education program in which e-learning is combined with traditional classroom teaching and self-learning to create a more flexible learning environment for students to learn in their own pace.

Why blended learning?

• less expensive to deliver, affordable and saves time
• flexible - students can access to the materials from anywhere at any time
• students can access to global resources that suit their needs and levels
• students cam learn at their own pace so it can reduce stress and increase sense of satisfaction
• without face-to-face interaction, students may be more willing to interact with other learners and their instructors through email, discussion boards and chat room.
• can track the progress 
• help students to develop knowledge of the latest technologies and the Net