QUIZLET

  Quizlet is a mobile and web-based study application that allows students to study information via learning tools and games.It trains students via flashcards and various games and tests.Teacher can use it in class to revise the topic, also students can use it to better understand the topic and study it while having fun.

Click to see my Quizlet

KAHOOT

  Kahoot is a game-based learning platform and it is free.Teachers can use Kahoot in their lessons to revise the topic at the end of the lesson, see if students undertand the topic well. As teachers, they can create a fun learning game in minutes.They can make their students compete which may increase their eagerness to pay more attention to lessons so that they can be the winners of this fun game.

Click to see my Kahoot

CANVA

   Canva allows all members of the classroom community – students and teachers – to create professional, eye-catching graphics that enhance any lesson plan or project.
Students can create designs to be shared with the entire class. They can provide view-only access or give classmates or their teacher an opportunity to collaborate on the same design.With Canva, students are able to create beautiful projects that are engaging which go way beyond the “average project.” Canva lets them take their projects to the next level and share them with the world. 

Click to see my Canva

STORYBIRD

   Storybird is a language arts tool.Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. It is free to use but purchases are optional and not necessary to use the site.With a free classroom account, teachers can create assignments, and review, comment on submitted stories. If the student is part of a class, published stories are shared with the class, any can be commented on by other students in the same classroom. Purchase options are made available so parents can purchase their child’s work as a personal keepsake. Basically it helps students to improve their writing and literacy skills.

Click to see my story 

VOKI

Voki makes it easy for educators to incorporate technology into lesson plans and assignments. Voki is basically the creation of simple speaking avatars. It gives you, as a teacher, the opportunity to engage students in any topic through a simple to use and free resource available anytime and anywhere for almost any purpose. 

You can use it as a teacher for :

• Getting students to share their learning
• Getting feedback from students
• Getting students to add a more human feel to their blog or wiki
• Helping students to express views and opinions easier in their target language
• Engaging students into a subject
• Practising and listening to your students' presentations (e.g. pronunciation)

It would make the lesson more fun for students, that it would enable them to create their own avatars, looking like themselves, with their own voices.

Click to see my Voki

ANIMOTO

Animoto is a video creation service that produces video from photos, video clips, and music into video slideshows and presentations.It is available in both online and mobile platforms, offered for free and paid accounts. It can be used for educational purposes.Even you might want your students to use animoto to make a video about themselves at the beginning of the year, so that it would be more fun to get to know one another.You can watch the video below to see an animoto example that I did.

 Find out more by going to : https://animoto.com/

WHAT IS AUGMENTED REALITY?

  Augmented Reality, AR, is the concept of taking our physical reality and layering useful or creative information so that we can interact better than ever before.For example, in the medical field, doctors can put on an AR headset and practice a surgery with physical feedback before they even open the operating doors. AR allows us to walk the city streets and, look at a building, see detailed historical information pop up before our very own eyes. It truly is reshaping the way we interact with our surroundings.

   Nowadays we may find some excellent examples of augmented reality in education worldwide. Ability to connect reality and digital content has been steadily improving, opening more options for teachers and students.AR, in various ways, could grant students extra digital information about any subject, and make complex information easier to understand.Augmented reality animated content in classroom lessons could catch students’ attention ,as they are digital natives, as well as motivate them to study. While doing homework, students may scan certain elements of a book and receive text, audio or video tips from teachers. 

   By incorporating Augmented Reality into lessons teachers are able to involve students into the process with 3-dimensional models. It may be just a part of the lesson, like a teaser, or the support of the main topic with extra information from a different perspective. Like this case, when a Canadian tech company CASE transformed the wall of the school gym into a ball game by adding Augmented Reality layer to it. Kids are throwing balls onto the wall to hit floating shapes and having fun physical exercises.

There are some apps that especially foreign language teachers can use for vocabulary teaching such as HP reveal and Augment - 3D Augmented Reality. There you can see two examples which are made with Hp Reveal.

SEESAW

   

   Seesaw really is to the core a communication device between parent, teacher and students.It's a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students to independently document what they are learning at school.Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students can “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. It’s simple to get student work in one place and share with families, and nothing is shared without teacher approval. It's also available for both Android and iOS.


You can see an example of seesaw activity in the link:

https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?share_token=gwlEemeGR6K4lcLdbsr1tw&prompt_id=prompt.c8069115-4c0a-40b4-a0ad-07840160ee92

PADLET

  Padlet is an online virtual “bulletin” board, where students and teachers can collaborate, reflect, share links and pictures, in a secure location. It allows users to create a hidden wall with a custom URL. Padlet creators can also moderate posts, remove posts, and manage their board 24/7. Also it is free and easy to use.When teachers prefer this platform to give tips,basic notes about the lesson, rather than giving students papers or telling them to highlight parts from their books, it probably be more useful for both sides.

Here is my padlet:

PODCAST

 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

 Communicative language teaching differs from all the previous teaching approaches.It emphasises to teach learners how to use a language as well as teaching the language itself.Knowledge of register and language functions are important.Register means the formality of the language we use,what language to use in which context.Language functions might be confusing for learners at first.They may have difficulty to understand the function of the statement.For instance, if someone offers a drink and the response to it is "I'm working." then there might be confusion in understanding the function which is to refuse the offer, because it is less obvious.

   The main qualities of communicative language learning can be listed as:

- For effective communication we need to know both the language itself and how to use it.

- Learners best learn a language when they actively use it.

- Learners benefit most from activities that provide meaningful communication.It makes it easier for them to use their additional language in unrehearsed context in real life.

- Teachers are facilitators rather than instructors.

You can listen my podcast about CLT by clicking the link below:

- https://soundcloud.com/ranacandan/hch