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Those who can Do Those who can do more TEACH

Listen and Write- dictation

To improve your listening skills and dictation, try out this wonderful site.

The Superbook of Webtools for Educators

I've been reading a lot on web technology lately and how exciting it will be if I can use some of these in my classrooms. This is free and it can be downloaded from the link.

The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators -

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Teacher's will be familiar with Bloom's taxonomy but how many of us are familiar with Bloom's digital taxonomy? The old taxonomy comprises of Knowledge-Comprehension-Application-Analysis-Synthesis -Evaluation but the digital taxonomy has been fine-tuned to Remembering-Understanding-Applying-Analysing-Evaluating-Creating. I always have a copy of the original taxonomy in my record book for reference because it helps in preparing activities and questions at different levels. However, Andrew Churches has developed a  Blooms' digital taxonomy which  is more in keeping with Web 2.0 technology and I think it's very creative. It guides us in choosing the best Web 2.0 technology to use in the classroom for maximum impact. It's nice to see blogging right on top of the paradigm :)

Web 3.0- Move over Web 2.0!

(credit-http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/)

 

Web 3.0: The way forward?

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Skyping for the first time..

Skyping for the first time is so exciting! In my bid to improve my tech skills, I skyped today with a dear old friend Kok Keong aka KK Tang. How do I describe it in one word? Wonderful!! Thanks Keong for teaching me how to do it- I owe you that mushroom batter when I'm in KL the next time around- that is if you are not so busy, being CEO and all (all that power to hire and fire). Am trying to do video conferencing during the Co Curricular Day between my school and another. Wish me luck! Here's one ambitious teacher (or simply an idiot!) who will not take 'no' for an answer. If only you know the ICT situation in my school..sob sob sob...still I will not be discouraged by this- with God's will I will succeed!

Using Word Clouds to teach English

While still on the subject of technology (technogogy is the hype now), how about using wordle to generate WORD CLOUDS from a text you have chosen? This is an exciting tool you can use to teach English in the classroom. You have the option of changing the font, layout and colour schemes too. For your creativity,  your wordle creations will be yours for keeps. For a sample lesson on how to use word clouds,  go to Box of Tricks. An example of a wordle below:

   (credit http://www.wordle.net/)

Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers- Get there!

• Do you have a blog?
• Do you twitter?
• Do you use Youtube in your lessons?
• Have you got an active e mail?
• Do you have Facebook?

If you answer no to two of these questions, I say GET THERE PEOPLE!! Despite feeling incapacitated sometimes when it comes to technology in my own school, I try my best to keep abreast with the latest  in technology. Ask yourself when was the last time you use power point in your lessons to provide that variety? Huh? Powerpoint? Are we still talking about this age old tool? I read somewhere that people are just tired of powerpoint (read 'Death by Powerpoint'). This reminds me of that particular lesson where a good twenty minutes was wasted just trying to get connected to an LCD (sweat and all) and one of the students commented in our class journal that she preferred if I didn't use powerpoint at all! Well, who can blame when getting connected itself was a real pain. Having said that, we all know that technology is important to improve our repertoire as teachers and  it is effective especially for the slower learners (I believe there are no good or weak learners, just fast or slow).

Hence,we need to embrace new technologies so learning can be more fun and effective.

'New tools are emerging all the time, many not originally intended for education, but which can be put to good use by students and teachers alike to extent opportunities, enhance learning potential and develop the level of digital literacy that students will need for the 21st century.' (nikpeachey.blogspot.com)

Some of these tools are free and they are very useful tools for the language teacher. For a good explanation of freewares using Web 2.0 technologies for teachers you can download the E-book here- Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers. Happy reading! I've also linked the e-book on the left sidebar.