Release Students' Creativity with Pixton

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 Hello! Technology use is spreading like wildfire in today's world. Even young learners deal with computers or cell phones better than we can. For these students, simply writing topics on the board is not enough. They need teachers applying innovative activities in the classroom. Under these circumstances, today I will inform you about one of the web-based tool, Pixton which my friends Seçil and Yağmur gave a presentation about.
  Pixton is a tool which enables you create comics or characters by adding speech bubbles, props and backgrounds. This website offers you three options to work with: for personal use, Pixton for fun, for teacher & student use in the class, Pixton for school and for other all uses which require payment, Pixton for business.

  Once you choose your using option, you can sign up or log in with your facebook or google+ account.

  Then, in order to create comics click on my comics tab from main menu and decide whether you will create a comic or a character. ( I chose to create a comic to show you) As you can see, you have many options about choosing a layout, again. I will create a comic strip.

 Firstly you should add a character into your comic. You can make your own character, choose among community which includes comics other people created or add preset characters. But, the last one requires payment.
  I recommend you to create your own character to explore this tool in details and make your comic special. Here, everything you need is divided into tabs: you can edit expression, looks, proportions or color of your character easily. By dragging or clicking on the part you want to move, you can change the position of the head, body, hands etc. By clicking and hold, you can also change hair style, costumes, shoes and add some accessories. Do not forget to give a name to your character!

 You can add speech bubbles, write your message here and add props, insert background where your comic takes place, or upload an image (for this, you should pay). Insert a panel whenever you need and finally write a title to your comic and save it. Downloading and printing are reserved for only paying members. So, you should pay for it.

  As for Pixton for schools, it enables students share their comic strips on Edmodo. For example, they can turn in their assignments from here and teachers can grade it and also comment on it. By the way I should say that it is more suitable for adults since young learners will probably be confused while trying to create a comic.

How this tool can be used in language teaching?

• You can create a comic that includes full of grammatical errors and ask your students to correct them.
• Students can create comics about the places they have been to so far or want to visit. 
• Students can create a comic based on the theme of the book they've read or of the movie they've watched most recently.
• After covering a health unit, you can assign them to create a comic about healthy foods and some tips for a healthy life. 
• They can create comics about their dreams, future plans or barely about themselves (their hobbies, personal characteristics etc.)
• Once you teach a specific grammar topic ( i.e. modals) or vocabularies, you can ask them to create a comic using modals or that vocabularies etc.

  Pixton shows them a totally new way to tell stories, practice their writing or grammatical skills, express their opinions and work collaboratively. I think, after experience this tool, they will participate English lessons more eagerly and effectively. Enhance your students' creativity and your lessons' quality with Pixton. I embedded an example below. See you!

The Final Piece of The ELT Puzzle: Tools

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  Hello everyone! Long time no see, however; I returned here with great tools which you can integrate your lessons. Today, I will introduce you one of them, Microsoft Office Publisher, which my classmate Hatice and I presented in the class.
  Microsoft Office Publisher is a  tool which enables its users create numerous publications by means of templates. From brochures to newsletters, you can enhance your creativity by preparing many simple yet useful projects. Then, let's explore the tool in details: Firstly, when you open Publisher, it offers a menu with many templates: calendars, greeting cards, flyers so and so forth.

  After selecting your template, you can decide among many options according to your task. If you want specific colors or text font, you can change them on menu which is at the right side. Once you have finished this part, click on create.

  On this page, everything is divided into tabs which make easier for you to find what you are looking for. Home menu enables you change the font, font size, text color. You can make selected text bold or you can italicize or underline it. You can also align text to center, left, right or both left and right margins.

  From insert menu, users can give a magic touch to their publication. It allows you insert images, clip arts, tables, ready-made shapes, decorative texts, current date & time, text boxes and so on. 

  Page Design tab give a chance to change your template completely without loosing your existing content or your publication's color or font.

  What I see as a great feature is mailings tab that lets you share your publication at once with your friends or colleagues. Create a recipient list or use existing one if you have, then just click on send without any problem.

  When you click on one particular image or text box, there will be appeared new tabs like drawing tools, picture tools or text box tools at the top. These all have simple touches that make your publication more splendid and different. Finally, you can print your product or send as PDF or XPS from the file tab easily.

  When it comes to products we prepared with this tool, we created lots of publications. I attached some of them below.

How this tool can be used in language teaching?

• Students can be given a task which includes creating a brochure about their city. They will add photos, clip arts etc. and write a short introduction to the city and the most important places (2 or 3) to visit in the city.
• Students can create a friendship greeting card. They will add photos with their best friend. Then, they will write the meaning of true friendship in briefly. They will publish it and give their best friend.
• Students can be asked for creating a mother's day/father's day greeting card. They will write their message and insert photos with their mother/father.
• Students can prepare a short restaurant menu. Then, they will choose food they want to cook and show how to prepare it in a video as a demonstration process in the target language. Thus, they will reinforce their knowledge about words like foods, desserts, prices or they will learn new words including vegetables, fruit etc. As a teacher, you can easily evaluate their pronunciation in the target language.
• Students can also prepare a flyer. They will watch a movie or go to the theater and add photos of the movie/theater and write stars, plot, genre etc. in briefly.
• As a teacher, you can create reminders with greeting cards. You will write weekly or monthly homework & assignments lest students make excuses like "I did not know the homework", "I was absent on that day". Then, publish it and hang it on the wall of the classroom.
• Additionally, as a teacher you can prepare a classroom newsletter so that parents will be informed about what their children do in class. Thanks to newsletters, parents and teachers can contact easily and this cooperation will affect students' performances or behaviors positively.

  All in all, Microsoft Office Publisher is really easy to use and prepare useful and enjoyable products for both students and teachers. It has many affordances which provide opportunity for student - centered lessons. On the one hand, students will learn grammar topics, vocabularies or general knowledge & cultural things; on the other hand, they will participate activities effectively and enjoy. While nearly everyone have an easy access to this program, why not try it? It's worth to give a chance, believe me.

 Do you think how this tool can be integrated to ELT over and above my suggestions? Are you using tools for improving your lessons, and if so, what are they? Please leave a comment below. See you!

Get The Best of Both Worlds: Applications

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  Hello everyone! "According to information collected by Android App Locket, the average user actually checks their phone around 110 times per day." We are so addicted our mobile phones that we cannot imagine living without them. Even the youngest generation use mobile phones proficiently, today. When we take into consideration these situations, one thing comes to our minds: We can turn mobile phone overuse to a beneficial condition. But how? And the other idea preoccupies us: That being the case, why do not we use applications? Today, I would like you to introduce an English language learning/teaching app called Johnny Grammar's Word Challenge.




  This app is developed for English language learners by British Council. It has 60-second quizzes which include grammar, words and spelling categories. It is completely free and really simple to use, download it, register or play as a guest. When you click to play button, three categories will be appeared.

  There are 12 topics under the section "grammar" which is available from easy to hard level. Choose the topic you want to practice and start your 60-second quiz and facilitate your learning. At the end of the quiz, you can also see your correct and wrong answers and receive feedback which is crucial for improving your language skills.

  When it comes to looking "words" section, there are 10 categories which include common topics like hobbies, food&restaurants, idioms etc. You can choose easy, medium or hard level according to your proficiency, for each topic again.

  The last section is called spelling. You are given 2 options, one is misspelled and the other is correct form. You can also earn badges and challenge with other players.

  After learning a grammar topic, your students can play a 60-second quiz about that topic as an extra practice so as to consolidate their knowledge. They can compete with each other entertainingly and help one another by explaining why the answer is wrong. Student - student interaction will facilitate learning much better. Do not forget, what the key point is improve your target language and enjoy it at the same time. Therefore, I highly recommend you this simple, free and helpful app. If you have any comment or favorite app to suggest me, please leave a comment below. See you!

You can download the app:

Reference: www.dailymail.co.uk

Fall Into Stories with Digital Storytelling

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   Hello there! Do you love to read? Are stories catching your attention? If your answer is definitely yes, it is so nice to know that there are bookworms among us like me, too. But what if your answer is no? What if you don't like reading books or novels? When we ask someone, who literally avoid reading books, about the reasons for this issue, nearly all complain about they are bored while they are reading: The length of the book, lack of visual items, not focusing on the book exactly make the process difficult for them. But as you would appreciate, in the golden age of technology, we have an easy solution for this complaints: Digital Storytelling

What is Digital Storytelling? 
  Digital storytelling is activities which are based on telling stories with the help of technological tools or software in a nutshell. It enables you tell stories through a great variety of audio, images, voice, videos, musics or text.

How did the process develop? What were the steps we did?

  In this project, we worked in pairs and my project partner is my dear friend Kıymet Yasavul. We chose to create a fictional story, out of 3 options which are telling a story about friendship or a demonstration of how to process. Our story is called "The One Eyed Hero" (you can also find it at the end of my post) which is about a girl, actually our hero, stopping at nothing. I should admit that it was a really long process for us. Firstly, we wrote our script and created a storyboard which was the basic issue of this project. Inasmuch as we haven't limits while we create it, finding a story which satisfied us took time. We tried to make it a creative and entertaining one and we also created it based on a social meaning. After we had finished our story, we searched for images in compliance with our characters and events on the Internet, especially on the site Deviantart which includes great pictures people drew. We printed out pictures and drew them again by ourselves with carbon papers. On the following day, we painted them, it was the most entertaining part of this process because it has been a long time since we painted pictures, then we cut them. We downloaded some musics which support the points of our story. We thought we could record our voices, music and video simultaneously, however it was a more difficult process than we thought and it made us really anxious at the beginning. Firstly, we recorded our voices and music. For music part, we used "Aero Playlist Player" program which enabled us play two songs at the same time. Since our voices were echoed in the empty classrooms, we did it on the outside. At this point, everyone's laughing or talking was heard in our recordings -hopefully we could be successful at the final trying- Finally, we adjusted the voices-music and video clips via Windows Movie Maker. So, it was a difficult but mostly entertaining process for us. In order to we really satisfied with the result, we have already forgotten problems we encountered. :)

While we were painting pictures :)

What is the role of the collaboration in this process?
  Two people means two different point of views, more creative ideas, less fatigue and saving time. Throughout this process we also motivated each other and we both take responsibility which was the key point that took away us the satisfying result more easily. All in all, thanks to collaborative learning, we developed our project and finished it in a better way in every aspect.

Will student's creating digital stories contribute to their foreign language development? 

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 There are numerous advantages of Digital Storytelling for educational purposes. It provides encouragement and motivation for students as they learn how to use technology for the purpose of their EFL improvement and their development will be faster and easier under favor of these enjoyable activities. Digital stories can addresses both visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners at the same time. Additionally, students who play a part in a digital storytelling will enhance their language skills by developing ideas in foreign language, writing scripts, pronouncing them and so on. This also improve the formation of collaborative learning which is a plus for development of empathy and responsibility. The only thing you should do is keep your students informed about tools and create the task's processes step by step.
  As a teacher you are the one that make a choice. You can keep away from innovations or provide your students with creative tasks or information. "In the age of information, ignorance is a choice" as Donny Miller said. But, if you ask me, for the sake of your students do not make a choice like this. You can see our digital story below. See you in my next posts!

Gold Resources for ELT: ESLGold

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  Hello everyone! Hardly a day goes by without people using technology in today's world. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest generation, integrate technology to their life in some way. What about integration of technology into learning/teaching process? As you know educational technology is so popular. However, to what extent we can implement it in education is still a problem. We are acquainted with such complaints as from language learners and teachers: "Learning/teaching a language is so difficult. Monotonous lessons facilitate problems as well. How can we alleviate this situation?" Easy. One of the answers to this confusing questions is websites.
  Websites are really good options which provide various sources you can benefit from them with fast and easy access, all you need is only an Internet connection. Finding ELT websites which involve good quality and confidential information, on the other hand, is quite difficult. Today here I am with an English Language Teaching/learning website recommendation to you: ESLgold

What is this website exactly? What are the target audiences? 

 Eslgold is an ELT website which gives you opportunities to improve your English skills in several fields according to your level. All materials are free of charge to teachers and students. Unfortunately, I could not find any information about authors team. But if you want keep in touch with them, you can send e-mails and follow them on other social media accounts. (Facebook, twitter, youtube, google+)
  This site involves flash cards, grammar explanations/exercises, topics for conversations, videos for grammar rules or speaking tips about some topics, podcasts, textbook recommendations, some links for reading materials and so on. Are you a beginner? You choose beginner section and start by checking topics under this section. Are you need help with reading, writing or listening? There are various quizzes, conversations and exercises about each of them. Are you looking for TOEFL/TOEIC resources? Knowledge about  these exams, textbook recommendations, strategies as well as guides to preparation are available. Do you want to practice your English for business skills? You are in the right place. So, everyone learning English, from the beginner to the advanced, are the target audience. But I'm not sure whether children like this site or not since it is a little bit complex for them.
  As you can see below, there are also 2 sections called talk and learn which include such topics as word of the day, places to study, phrases for conversations etc.

What about the purposes of this site? 
  This website aims to facilitating english language learning/teaching process through rich resources which provide students with improving their language skills whatever their level is and teachers with hundreds of materials, inspiring ideas and lesson plans. As far as I experienced, I did not encounter any broken links or any spelling or grammatical errors.

Pros and Cons

• There are so many advertisements which divert your attention, thereby irritating you. 
• There is no date shows when the site has been updated which requires searching for it one by one every time. 
•  Images about almost each topic are available. These are full of happy people, so it can be motivating and appealing for you. :)
• I did not come across any games which are really impressive for especially young learners. 
• Thanks to site map, you can access easily what you are looking for. 

  By the way, you can apply this website to your lessons under favor of various materials. For example, you can use conversation topics with images on this website as a speaking task. You can ask for students what they feel or see when they look images and discuss in pairs and then perform it to the rest of the class. You can give this site to your students as an extra practice in order to reinforce their grammar knowledge. You can also take advantage of a lot of podcasts which I introduced to you here.
  Lastly, the authors of this website are open to your comments and suggestions which you can share with them in an online survey. Please have a look at this website and fill out the questionnaire. Are you using websites for your English language learning/teaching process? If any, which websites do you benefit from? I'm looking forward your comments. See you!

A Really Simple Site

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 Hello everyone! Those who want to read daily news online or follow some web pages or blogs, generally waste their time in vain: finding web pages, going these pages, reading news, looking for other recent information and so on. While technology enables us access information easily, catching up the latest news may not be so easy for those who follow a lot of blogs. Then, is there a solution for this issue? How can we keep informed of the recent news easily?
  Fortunately, technology lend us a hand again, at this point. I want to introduce you to RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary). When you subscribe blogs or webpages, RSS presents updated information, which prevent you from controlling blogs one by one and thereby, saving your time. At the same time, you do not need to share your e-mail address for using this technology. It means you can get rid of unnecessary e-mails.
  When it comes to reaching it, hundreds of RSS readers are available. I use a free software, RSS Feedreader; however, you can also use any online reader. The process of downloading something may seem troublesome, yet I guarantee it is really easy to download and use. There is even no need to register to Feedreader. Once you have finished the setup, you click to "new feed", write websites' names and add feeds. By clicking to "new folder" option, you can gather blogs in the same folder. As you can see below, it is also possible that you edit the update period however you want.

  I added the screenshot of the blogs I follow below and I want to recommend you my favourite blog.

  In Özge Karaoğlu's Blog you can find really inspiring and useful sources for converting your lessons to innovative ones by means of technology. She is an English teacher and educational consultant. Her blog is quite encouraging especially for teachers who avoid using technology in their lessons. This blog involves lesson plans, applications and digital games which will enhance your students' interest to writing, listening or reading comprehension activities in an entertaining way. She shares posts frequently, I think it is a plus for keeping in touch with new activities. I have also realized that she shares each week's blog posts briefly in case you have missed any. But, let me assure you, when you follow her blog, it is not possible that you have missed any post not just because of RSS but because of benefits of the blog. Whenever I glance at her blog, I find myself lost in various beneficial activities. All in all, I strongly recommend this blog to ELT teachers. Please, look at her blog and I'll be glad if you share your favorite blogs with me. See you in my next posts! 

An Exciting Wiki Experience: A Film Review

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  Hello! Here I am again with my second assignment which is writing a film review on Wikispaces. It was a group project and I worked with my dear friend, Sevilay Yıldırım. We chose a quite popular film, 3 Idiots we both watched and really enjoyed. You can read our review here.
  Firstly, our lecturer created a Wiki page and we all wrote our tasks on the same page. We imagined that we were supposed to write a film review for a school magazine. We tried to write it in compliance with our instructions. We added some images and the trailer of the film. I also added screenshot of the page below for those who cannot reach Wikispaces.

  As regards my opinions on Wikispaces, I think it has a rather easy interface. While writing it, we did not encounter any difficulty, except for avoiding giving spoiler and some technical problems. Because of that we like the movie so much, we wanted to give all details about it, fortunately, we did not for fear of ruining it. I think, the most important reason for doing it without have any difficulty is working with a friend collaboratively. It enables us save energy and time. We correct each other's mistakes, develop more creative ideas together and above all, provide mutual support. Thanks to collaborative learning, students can learn to take responsibility. In these kind of activities they learn also how to criticize each other's ideas constructively rather than being destructive and this foster the formation of empathy. As a future teacher, I think provide such benefits for students' personality development is really significant.

   Lastly, I highly recommend using it on a classroom environment. Because, for students, it is easy to reach, use, make comments on others' opinions or even edit each other's pages. I think, it will be  beneficial to use this technological tool to enhance students' writing or comprehension skills in an entertaining way. What I see as a disadvantage is Wikis can be changed or deleted by anyone easily. So, you should take precautions for this beforehand. I hope you will enjoy it. See you!