tips, news, reviews on educational technology

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Many teachers know already the great things tech can contribute to their classes, but if you are just starting out with this topic it can be difficult to find the things that work. If you are in this position, you might be asking yourself, What is the first step?

Say you are a teacher and you are curious about introducing technology in the classroom. You might have read about different tools or heard from colleagues all about Facebook and blogs and twitter and digital storytelling and...

Well, it's just hard to decide where to start. You are not afraid of computers, but who can be brave in front of the avalanche of information that you start to find when you jump online?

Well, here's my two cents. Take a look at what you are already doing in your classroom without technology. What activities are you doing regularly? Do you ask your students to keep a journal? Are you giving your students lots of worksheets and quizzes? Do you ask them to keep a portfolio? Are you lecturing a lot?...

Once you find an activity that you are using more or less regularly, find the technology tools that will enhance that activity. For example, if you are already asking your students to keep a personal glossary of the new words they learn each week, then it would make sense to use something like a wiki to get students to submit their words and help each other out by enriching the definitions.

The main point is that you have the activity first and then find the tool that will enhance it. If you start the other way around, it will be more difficult to get started and to motivate your students to use technology.

Approaching educational technology this way will help you achieve a successful introduction for you and your students.

Almost 2 years ago, IGA implemented a series of readers for their ESL courses, and in my Skyline 2C course,  as a post reading project, my students prepared a roleplay of the book.
They had a lot of fun, made their own costumes and props.

Here are two videos for you to enjoy !!!

Gabriela Reyna

I have to admit that I was one of those people who just logged in to sites like YouTube in order to watch music videos and stuff and it's awesome! you can find even what you're not looking for, which is the reason why YouTube has become an excellent source of information for everyone, you can find all kind of videos including lessons of all types. Not going any further, This was an excellent way to teach people like me (who's actually learning all this technology things for the very first time) new vocabulary and an excellent way to present new content. YouTube is not a difficult tool to use and yet it can be very helpful and practical, specially taking into account how our society is moving nowadays and how children and teenagers are in contact with technology and personal media 24 - 7 (in some cases much more than the teacher)

Podcasting made simple. This new service can help you get into the world of podcasting with very little struggle. Listen to the description in English or in Spanish. I recorded these audio descriptions in less than half an hour and was ready to post them in this blog or any other. check them out.

Bookemon is a free website where you can create an online book and share it with you friends, you can choose one of the templates they have available, or you can start using a blank template. II think a nice feature about it is that you don’t necessarily have to work online because you can upload Word, PDF, or Powerpoint files and they will be loaded to the book, so if students don’t feel comfortable working with their platform they can create their document and just upload it to the site. They also have some images you can use to illustrate your story, or you can also add any personal images, or images you find online. Another thing I like is the fact that you have all your books online, but you can also print a copy of your books and have the “real” version, something I think is really cool because you can tell your students that the most original book is the one that your going to print, or something like that.

Video tutorial.

What's better to say? "For example" or "for instance"? "You should" or "You ought to"? Have you ever gotten this kinds of questions from your students? if you have then you know that the answer is somethimes difficult to give. It all depends on what is more commonly used. Here's a quick tip to check what is more commonly used in these cases. You can use a search engine to check the occurence of phases. The higher the number of occurrences, the more commonly used a phase is.

Songs are ideal for making repetition fun. Most books have their songs, they fit in the content we want to teach but sometimes we over use them or they don’t have a song for every structure or vocabulary.
I use tunes of songs children know and change them, they fit perfectly because young children learn chunks of grammar.

Social Networks have great potential for education. they allow us to communicate with friends and share ideas and content. Why not with students.

Chances are your students are already a part of a social network site and probably check it daily. The video shows you how to use Facebook or Friendfeed to manage a class, give out assignments, make anouncements, collect homework, and much more.

The video is in spanish.