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"By Alvina Lopez It doesn't matter if you're a veteran teacher or a newbie just now taking college courses - finding new ways to get students engaged in the classroom is always a great thing. One way many teachers are reaching out is with the multitude of material found on the web, allowing them to turn everyday lessons into a multimedia experience. You can find a great amount of helpful material on these sites, including videos to augment your lessons, lectures to inspire students, documentaries to show them how things work, and loads of additional videos to help you become a better, smarter teacher."

Another teacher training site for technology. However, this is rapidly spoken and may be difficult for NNEST to follow easily. The front page has a nice explanation of how the site works and how each video is set up. The site is divided roughly into tools for newbies, developing users, and advanced users. Each video also has a link, and all the tools described are free.

This is a nice tech scoop.it blog for the technology-using teacher. Very much mobile-user and classroom-teacher oriented.

Mailvu is a free video messaging system that looks simple and easy to use. R. Stannard's video helps you get started quickly, and he also discusses how he uses the tools with his students for language learning: you can have students send you video recordings and then comment on them. Also has apps for Android and iPhone.

This remarkable concordancer has many quick and easy features, such as seeing visually with a graph the frequency of occurrences of a word, quick links to the word embedded in a concordance, a thesaurus of alternative vocabulary, and indications of "good" and "bad" uses of a word. Stannard doesn't talk much about the pedagogy of the tool, but it is well worth exploring, esp. with your more advanced students. The training tool gives you an idea of how a concordancer is used. JtW works with Wordle.

"Educational Origami is a blog and a wiki, about 21st Century Teaching and Learning. "This wiki is not just about the integration of technology into the classroom, though this is certainly a critical area, it is about shifting our educational paradigm. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. In fact, we know that exposure to technology changes the brains of those exposed to it. The longer and stronger the exposure and the more intense the emotions the use of the technology or its content evokes, the more profound the change. This technology is increasingly ubiquitous. We have to change how we teach, how we assess, what we teach, when we teach it, where we are teaching it, and with what." A most interesting site that tells us what the learner needs to know. [Thanks to Bee Dieu.]

An excellent resource that shows how the language teacher can gradually develop skills in storytelling using the right Internet tools in the correct order.

Links to Nik Peachey's "Developing materials and practices for the digital generation," a webinar presentation for the IATEFL Young Learner SIG. Nik focses on how teacher can combine online tools to encourage students' digital literacy and linguistic skills more autonomously. Both a recording of the presentation (Adobe Connect) and the slides are linked, as well as links to some of his recent informative blog posts.

A pdf book with papers and articles describing pedagogic models and approaches to developing the VITAE e-portfolio "Chapter 1: Teacher competence development - a European perspective, Chapter 2: The VITAE Approach, Chapter 3: Exploring Web 2.0 and Mentoring as Tools for Lifelong Learning, Chapter 4: Guided course development on the basis of an e-learning patterns template, Chapter 5: Fun and Games in professional development, Chapter 6: The VITAE e-portfolio - a catalyst for enhanced learning, Chapter 7: Community-based mentoring and innovating through Web 2.0, Chapter 8: Web 2.0 - Learning Culture and Organisational Change,"

A nice article about how to create a Twitter worthy of a professional. One might use Twitter as an e-portfolio, for example.

A nice set of short instructional videos by R. Stannard on how to set up a Moodle course, add materials, and manage the learning environment for your students. Looks carefully at some of the problematic areas of Moodle. This set of videos looks at Moodle set up on your own school's Moodle; however, much of what is done will apply to one of the free Moodles online.

A video on how to use Keek to make and share short video messages. Although limited to only 36 secs, this might be a good application for beginning learners, or for a quick pronunciation quiz (you will see who is taking that quiz!) You can also embed a finished recording in your blog or wiki, as well as sending it by email. A good way to have students create a short, practiced conversation. Also has smartphone apps for mobile recordings, RSS feed to follow, and links to Facebook, Yahoo, and Twitter.

How to use Twitter for your classroom. Another great video by Russell Stannard. that shows you all the ins and outs of this social networking device as it would be used for educational purposes.

TimeToast is a way to create historical timelines. Could be used for project- or content-based learning, or for personal autobiographies. Also has several good content examples, such as Moon Landings, The Great Gatsby, and Western Civilization. You place points on the timeline and then add text and pictures to go along with the dates.

The Science Genius project is demonstrated through an energetic classroom teacher. The project aims to use students' local culture, in this case rap/hip-hop, to engage students' attention and draw them into science concepts actively. Great video demonstration by Dr. Chris Emdin, including several examples of students' creative projects. The approach also worked with students who hadn't ever written rap music before.Follow the series.

Shelly Terrell offers FREE webinars every Friday at around 21:00 GMC/UTC at americantesol.adobeconnect.com/terrell/. This page gives a list of topics for upcoming webinars. Get somefree prof development with inspiring examples of how to use Web tools with your students.

These are very interesting tools. Besides Moodle, Nik talks about various vide-based conversation tools, Vyou, a learning journal on Keek, and so on. There are also tips on how to use the tools in an online course.

"Drawing and recording your voice is not an easy task. What I've discovered is that once you start drawing, and your focus shifts to the image, there are few barriers to speaking. "The tool I'd like to share today is EDUCREATIONS (http://www.educreastions.com). I haven't explored it to its full potential but what I've seen so far is good enough. The free tool allows you use your mouse or your finger (ipad) to draw stick figures while you record your voice. You can also upload an image and draw and record your voice at the same time. Once finished, look at the right side below the twitter and facebook buttons for the URL and the embed code which allows you publish the recording."

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has made this useful list of educational tools. However there is no info or notes or suggestions for use. Most are already in our Diigo.