Blogs in English teaching

Why a blog?
A blog is a brilliant way to communicate with the outer world. A blog is similar to a journal, a diary or a causerie as the writer posts written text on whatever subject the blog is about. The big difference from these other forms of writing lies in the publicity of the blog. This is also what makes the blog such a brilliant option for teaching - having a real audience provides meaning to school tasks. The students are more likely to care about how and what they write when someone else is about to read it, rather than if the only reader would be the teacher.

How does it work?
What one really needs to get started is simply a computer with a steady enough Internet connection. After connecting to the Internet the first thing to do is to find the most appropriate software. These days there are really easy blog software on the Internet, and some of them are free to. A few examples of a free and easy to use software are Blogger, Wordpress, Blog and Kidblog (click on the word to go directly to the website!).

When one see a blog, or a website for that matter, it´s easy to view it as something complicated, something one-self couldn´t do. But the secret is that we can all do it. To create your own blog you just need to fill in a few boxes, choose a few colours and designs, and of course – decide what the blog should be about. The difference from a blog and a website is that you yourself don´t have to build the page, i.e. the html code, rather you choose from a few options and get a ready made page. (As a matter of fact these days there is also the same kind of idea behind a few free website software, such as Bluevoda, where you similar to a blog choose templates rather than writing html code).

To post on the blog isn’t usually more difficult than sending an email; you write a text, press preview to see if it comes out the way you want, and instead of printing you publish your work on the internet. There is a lot of fun little applications and functions that easily can be used to make the blog become more alive, and to invite the reader to interact. For example one can put up photos and videos straight in to the blog, but also highlight words and make them become links to other blogs, websites, videos, or songs. I would say that the most relevant function is the comments. By being able to comment the reader can become an integrated part of the blog, and the resource by this means promotes interaction rather than monologue. The blog is considered social software because it´s outgoing perspective and the opportunity for readers to comment on the posts - without the readers the blog has lost it´s purpose.

YouTube

Most of you have already heard of YouTube, and used it. But most of you haven't used it to it fullest. It's a website where you can upload your own videos and watch others. Noteworthy is that you have no control over the contents of the website and there is some inappropriate material. With that in mind, I wouldn't let my students click around on their own.

To access the website you need a device with internet connectivity and a couple of speakers, and preferably a Smartboard of some sort so the entire class can watch it together.

When you browse the site you have a small search-window on top of the screen (the red circle) where you can search for specific videos etc. This is probably how most people use YouTube.

Although if you feel uncertain what you're looking for you can always use the "browse channels" tab instead (the blue circle above). 

Here you will find all sorts of topics, for example music, news and politics, science and education, tech and so on. 

On each topic you will find other users browsing similar clips. In the Science and education category you will for example find clips from NASA or Discovery Channel to use in your class. 

My favorite way to use YouTube is on the Smartboard watching short stories, music and educational clips. It's a great way to interact all the school subjects in a both fun and educational way.  

A last minute tip. Remember to watch the clip before you show it in class, to make sure it doesn't contain any improper language or photos.

Using Fun Easy English as an ICT Resource

FunEasyEnglish.com is a web site where you can, efficiently, learn English for free. The site was created by an American teacher called Howie Hayman. The teacher claims that if one follows the lessons correctly, one by one, one is likely to have learned the basics of the English language by the end of one year of education.

A great part of the content on Fun Easy English is appropriate for any person who wants to learn English (even for adult learners) but there are also many lessons which would be good for children around the age of 10 (in Årskurs 9) when the students have to prepare for Nationella Provet. On the website students can read texts and answer questions as well as watch videos made by a native speaker of American English, which can be a very good exercise for training their comprehension skills.

Another interesting resource which can be found in Fun Easy English is specially designed for teachers; it is a page where the author of the site presents some websites that can be very useful for teachers who are well trained primary teachers but not so well trained language teachers. These websites offer information about educational courses, discussions forums for some teaching advice, several ideas for planning lessons, as well as help with creating work sheets and activities for young learners.

Fun Easy English is a very user-friendly website and the students don’t have to pay anything to use the resources offered by the site. The only necessary thing to ensure it works well is to have a good internet connection, which is nothing difficult today and, of course, to have basic knowledge about how to use a computer.

Since Fun Easy English contains a lot of information also for adult learners, the exercises to be used in Årskurs 9 need to be handpicked from the website by the teacher. Here is an example of what reading exercises students can do in preparation for Nationella Provet årskurs 9 (this is a reading exercise, which I believe, is more or less that level):

http://funeasyenglish.com/new-classroom-free-online-classes-english-language-lessons-speaking-listening-writing-reading-january-1.htm

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is a social platform where you can make recordings and share your recordings in networks. You can download the Soundcloud - app to your iPhone, iPad or Android device for free. I think the free version is still enough, even if you get limitations in uploading minutes, number of people at your contact list and the amount of people you can share your recordings directly to. 

My perception is that the platform is quite user-friendly and it is easy to make it work. 

You begin by making a recording, and then you decide if you would like to keep the recording private, share it with your friends or share the recording to the whole world. If you want to share your recording, is it easy to do that by connecting your Soundcloud account to for example, Facebook, Twitter or a blog.

Soundcloud also gives you opportunity to connect with other people. You can create groups, follow people you find interesting and make written comments to other people’s recordings. The comment function can be used in two ways. You can make a comment to the entire recording, or choose to give feedback at a particular point in the recording if you want to highlight something specific.

I think Soundcloud can be useful for both teachers and pupils. 

A teacher can use Soundcloud to recording lectures and share with pupils or upload to a blog. After listening the pupils can use the written comment function to ask question or tell their opinion. Another way is to let the pupils make recordings for the teacher to listen to. By allowing pupils to record a discussion or conversation, the teacher can use the recording to noting the pupil's ability to participate in and contribute to discussion.

Another advantage by using Soundcloud is that the pupils can listen to themselves and improve their pronunciation. The teacher can use the comment function to pinpoint at a particular word in the recording, the pupil need to check the pronunciation of.

Pupils can also be asked to listen to a friend's recording and practise giving feedback. By networking with other teachers/pupils, your pupils can collaborate with students from another school in Sweden or from another country.

                                                                                      Linda Bodin

Voice Thread

Voice Thread is tool for having conversations in the cloud. You can add films, photos or images and your own voice narrative to have a presentation. Then you upload your Voice Thread and others can watch and comment with video, voice or text.

You start by going to http://voicethread.com and register an account there. No software is needed since it is a web based application.

To start you login and begins to create your voice thread. You upload photos or images from your computer or the internet. When you have uploaded pictures you can comment your pictures either by voice, video or text. You can also draw on the media which is called doodling while you are talking. When you are finished with your presentation you share your voice thread. You can choose if you want your presentation to be public or private and if other can comment on the voice thread.

I have used voice thread some times. In the beginning I thought that it was a confusing on how to do, but when I tried it was not that hard. If you need help to get started there are several tutorials on the web (ex.YouTube) that shows how to do a voice thread.

How Voice Thread can be used by teachers and pupils

Voice Thread can be used in many ways both by teachers and pupils. The teacher can make different presentations, either as a lesson or as an introduction to a theme or work area. The teacher can after the presentations ask some questions that the pupils should comment on. The pupils can use voice thread to do a presentation of their work. The teacher and other pupils can comment on the presentation.

Before you share your voice thread you can work and change in your presentation so that you are satisfied when you share it. This can make the pupils more secure than if they do a presentation in front of the class directly.

Voice thread is a way of making presentation a little more fun for both pupils and teachers. Maybe this can capture the pupils’ interest and motivation by using this kind of technology.

Other considerations

When working with pictures you need to be aware of the copyright of the pictures. The easiest way is to let the pupils use a website with pictures without copyright. There are some websites that offers this. The pupils can also use a digital camera and take own pictures to use in their presentation. 

Skype

Skype is a resource which the students' can use to either chat or write to other students' around the world. Skype is a useful teaching tool for both the teachers and for the students' in all ages. For the teacher's part it's a good way to make connections/relations with other teachers around the globe.
Skype is a program that don't cost any money so it's free to download on any computer at your school. When you use skype you need a headset or a small microphone in the middle of the classroom so that every student can participate in skyping. For me as a teacher I can use skype in different ways and the important one (that i mentioned before) is having a corresponding with another teacher in another part of the world. For my students' it's a opportunity for them to improve their english in speaking and on their writing.By using skype it's enhances students' speaking and writing on english and they also get knowledge about the countries culture and their historical backgrounds so it's possible to interact with other school subjects too.

So to end this blog post about the usage with skype it's important to mention one saftey aspect; Skype is something the students' can also do at home so it's necessary to talk with both the parents' and the students' that there are a lot of people on the internet which can cause problems i.e. get the student to meet up with a stranger that  the student thinks he / she thinks is a friend. But fortunately you can block people on skype and just ad people that you know who it is.
/ Martina

Microsoft PowerPoint as an ICT-resource

How the program works
In my teaching I often use PowerPoint that is a program included in the Microsoft Office package. The program can be used in different ways, but it is mostly used in all kind of presentations. To make it work you need a computer with a Microsoft Office package. You also need a cleverboard or a projector if you want to show the presentation for a group of pupils.

To make a presentation in PowerPoint, you need to be familiar with the program. You prepare a series of pages with your own text, sounds, links from webpages and pictures from Clipart, Internet or a camera. To make the presentation more interesting for the pupils, you can use different kinds of effects. For example there are backgrounds and scripts in different colours and styles. When you are finished with the series you can show it in a row, and you can choose if you want the computer to change pages automatically, or if you want to change pages by yourself by a simple click on your computer mouse.

How/why use the program in schools?
As a teacher you can use PowerPoint as a support in your teaching and to make the subject more interesting for the pupils. When you for example introduce a theme or some facts, the program can be very useful. Some weeks ago I started the theme “Animals in the Swedish forest” with a PowerPoint presentation. I used pictures of different animals and talked a little bit about each one. I also asked the pupils if they knew something about the animals. When we discussed the topic I concurrently noted words that the pupils used when they wrote texts about the animals.

Pupils can use PowerPoint as an instrument when they are doing presentations in different ways. In all subjects they can use the program, for example diagrams in Math, write a fairytale in English or show pictures from an experiment in Science. PowerPoint is a program that is installed on all computers in school, so it is easy for the pupils to use. Some problems with the program are that you cannot use your presentation for a group, if you do not have a cleverboard or a projector. The pupils also need time to get introduced, so they can use the program in a proper ways. If the school does not have computers for a whole class, this can take a long time, but the program can be very useful if the pupils can practice it. It is positive that the program can be used by both pupils and teachers because I believe that the pupils attitude is getting better. Teacher can learn the pupils, but do not forget that the pupils also can learn the teachers!

//Johanna Estunger