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Google voice is a resource that can potentially be used in listening and speaking classes. Essentially, it allows the user to associate a phone number with one's Google account. From there, the user can record messages that the caller will hear when he/she dials the phone number. In a Listening and Speaking context, access to recorders for classroom use may be limited at times. However, many learners have cell phones. To complete a listening and speaking task, during class or for homework, learners can call the phone number, listen to the task, and record their responses. Many concerns with Google Voice arise, however. Most notably, the quality of the recording may be muddy. That is, learners may have a difficult time comprehending the recorded message they hear when initially calling. Additionally, the messages recorded by the learners can be difficult for the instructor to understand. Also, whereas recorders allow learners to confirm that their speech has been recorded, on Google Voice, the learners simply hang up and receive no such confirmation--unless the task is done in a classroom setting whereupon the instructor has the list of messages available. Moreover, the learners are not able to listen to their messages or the messages of other students in the class if they are not logged into the instructor's account. As far as the positive attributes, Google Voice attempts to transcribe messages, and while the transcriptions are not always accurate, even when transcribing messages from native speakers of English, the transcriptions are interesting to read nonetheless. Possibly giving learners an incentive such as extra credit for a perfect transcription due to their pronunciation is an option. Additionally, Google Voice does allow the instructor to download the messages if desired, so saving the files is possible. As far as identifying the callers, each voice message is accompanied by the phone number, so collecting students' phone numbers is probably

Hi, unfortunately, this Google lab seems to be defunct, at least at the moment. However, it really has some great potential for ESL teaching. Essentially, the idea was for Google to go through some of its videos about politics and transcribe the text. Then, someone looking for a video with specific content, phrases, or words could search through the videos without having to rely on the way in which the video was tagged or its title. It's almost like corpus linguistics meets Youtube. You could pick a word or phrase and show a lot of clips about how "real" speakers use it.

I found this article on NEA's website (which I recommend on it's own). The topic is using social media to enhance the classroom. We've talked about most of the technology in here, but the applications of the resources are focused to younger learners and flipped classrooms. Google Docs are used with middle schoolers to prevent them losing track of the documents. Google forms are used to speed up quiz grading, and cell phones are used to help facilitate meaningful (and safe) field trips. If you are considering a K-12 career, this article might help you be on the cutting edge in interviews and in the classroom. Finally, at the end of the article, you'll find links to other online technologies to try. Happy tech-ing!

This blog post discusses how both Google Drive and Evernote can be used to create E-portfolios. Both of these technologies are free and easy to use. For classrooms integrating the use of Ipads, this post has a number of tips on using the Ipad applications of these platforms for portfolio creation online.

"Memorize anything with AnkiDroid! HELP FOR UPGRADING FROM 1.x: https://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/wiki/Upgrading AnkiDroid lets you learn flashcards very efficiently by showing them just before you will forget. It is fully compatible with the spaced repetition software Anki (including synchronization), which is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Study all sorts of things wherever and whenever you want." Many of you may have seen an Anki icon on your desktop in the PIE or another place on campus, but it's definitely worth noting that there's a mobile app that works very well. I'm an Android user so I've posted a direct link to the app there, but it is also on iOS. What's really nice about AnkiDroid is that you can create decks of flashcards (with some nice bells and whistles, including sound, if you choose) on your desktop/laptop, which is a little more convenient, and then download the deck on your mobile device. An instructor can make a deck for a class (or an institution) and any student with the mobile app and the name of the deck can find it and download it. I've personally used AnkiDroid for learning Korean, independently as well as creating decks to supplement a class I was taking. I feel like the mobile app works better for reviewing cards than the desktop program, because reviewing flashcards fits in those perfect little chunks of free time when you're riding the bus/subway or waiting for class to start, and these days you (or students) will always have your phone with you, but probably won't always have your desktop with you at those times.

Here's the Google Doc on podcasts we worked on in class; feel free to add to it as you see fit.

This blog post describes how to set up Google Voice for students to use in classroom assignments or homework. It's a very low tech demand on students; all they need is a phone. The teacher would have easy, computer access to a virtual voicemail archive of all the student messages. It's probably easier than using VoxoPop and seems like it would be pretty easy to make spoken homework assignments a reality, plus there are probably some neat in-class applications as well.

Voxopop is a social network based on talk groups. Talk groups can be set up by a teacher, and the teacher can invite students to join. Within a talk group, the teacher can set up strands based on an assignment. For instance, a prompt (an initial recording post) might ask the students to record five sentences using the present progressive tense. Students would then record themselves providing these sentences. Some of the major advantages of Voxopop include the ability for students to listen to the audio posts by other students in the class. Also, whereas using phones with Google Voice require students to respond to a listening prompt immediately (in real time), Voxopop allows students to listen to a prompt, prepare their answers, and then record. In this way, the site may be beneficial for students in lower levels. One of the major disadvantages of Voxopop is that it can be a taxing process to get every student in a class signed up. Additionally, students must have access to computers with microphones to complete tasks outside of class. Moreover, rumor has is that Voxopop has a history of being "down" and therefore is unreliable.

Our class wiki. During the semester, you will create and maintain one entry for the wiki.

Brainstorming is an important part of the writing process. Bubbl allows students to draw mind maps on the computer. In class we talked about creating mind maps in Google Draw, but Bubbl might be easier to use in the sense that you don't have to create the structure for the mind map itself. By simply clicking the tab key, you can add another idea bubble. By clicking enter, you can add a new "level" of ideas. You can also click on the line connecting idea bubbles and hit delete if you would like to separate the ideas. These mind maps can be saved, printed, or exported. I have used mind maps in my writing classes before (with paper and pencil), but sometimes they can get a bit messy and hard to read. One benefit to using this website is that students can edit their maps and keep them fairly organized and easy to read. My students also appreciate opportunities to practice typing in English, so they may be more motivated to type up their idea maps. However, brainstorming activities in class are often fairly short. Sometimes it is a quick 10-minute activity at the beginning of class to get ideas flowing. Using the computer to create mind maps may not be ideal for these quick warm-up activities since time will have to be spent familiarizing students with the website itself.

A very cool free app! It's basically an interactive whiteboard and you can record as you draw/write. Designed to let you create video lessons. You can then either embed the lessons in your own web page or create a course where your students can view all your lessons. Students can also register and create their own lessons.

Wondering how to structure a Digital Storytelling class? Trying to figure out what kinds of assignments to give your students? This website is for an ESL Digital Storytelling class at Mira Costa Community College in Oceanside, CA. The course is described, and activity descriptions are provided for each Digital Storytelling project for during a 9 week course (click on the link for Handout under the designated weeks). There are also handouts and instructions for how to use Audacity and Movie Maker. Looking for free images or music online? A nice list of links is on the left side of the screen. I think this is an excellent reference website if you ever plan on designing a Digital Storytelling course for ESL students.

At ESL Video, you can create your own quizzes and use other peoples quizzes. You can access beginning, intermediate, high Intermediate quizzes for videos. It was free to sign up, but it is a limited source for borrowing quizzes. These are the guidelines for making quizzes: - If you suspect the video or thumbnail-image violates copyright law, don't use it. ( - Read the "Top 10 Distractors" article by Sharon Yoneda. ( - Read the "Real (Teacher) World Application of ESLvideo.com" article by Sharon Yoneda. ( - Base your quizzes on shorter videos rather than longer videos. ( - Create your quiz first in a Word or text document, then copy / paste into the quiz builder. - Create quizzes with more than five questions. - Check your questions and answers for typos. ( - Music video quizzes - don't skip lines in the lyrics and be sure to add the transcript (often easily found with a Google search). ( - Design distractors that demonstrate mechanical, structural, phonological or othographic relevance. When you create your quiz, you add title, description, tags (past tense, WH questions, Directions), Question for Comments, Thumbnail Image, Video Embed code, level, language, and quiz type.

A brief history of computers/technology in language learning, from the 1940s onward.