Photostory

There are many inspiring and useful ICT recources that can be exploited when teaching and learning English as a foreign language. However, in this blog post I've chosen to restrict myself to one of all these recources. I'd like to recommend Photo Story and its usefulness in the education of English.

How it works

Photo Story is a Microsoft provided software, which is free and available for anyone who has a modern version of Windows, i.e. from Windows XP and onwards. This software is used for creating presentations out of digital photos. These photos could be own taken photos, scanned pictures or pictures found at the Internet. A useful sight on the Internet to find photos without worrying about the copyright issue is Fotofinnaren. This is an archive of photos which constantly grows larger and it is available to anyone. You'll find the sight on: http://fotofinnaren.se/
Besides working with pictures, Photo story allows to add narration, background music and many other effects. Once a photo story has been created, you will need Windows Media Player in order to able to play it.
It's easy to learn how to work with Photo Story and the best part of it is that it'll cost you nothing, since it's freely downladable!

Instructions of how to use Photo Story are found at:
http://www.rexnet.se/larwei1/it_stordammen/html/photostory/index.htm

Photo Story is downloadable at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx


How teachers and pupils can use it

A positive part with using Photo Story in your English education is that it allows you to create learning situations that could be suitable to all your pupils. Photo story can be used as a creative tool in order to suit all pupil's levels of language.
The many different ways of how you could use Photo Story in your English education are more or less unlimited. As a teacher you are able to create a lot of different tasks to your pupils and here I'll give you a small selection of topics of presentations that I think could be approprate to work with at earlier levels:

• My holiday
• My pet
• My family
• My trip
• My interests
• Create an ending of a story

As you probably understand, I could make an endless list. Photo Story is definitely a tool to make your pupils the producers of their own work.
Once a photo story has been created, you also have the possibility to have it published at You Tube for example. Publishing work created by your pupils on the Internet will probably have a highly motivating effect. Knowing that it'll not only be your teacher or your peers but also your parents, relatives and friends who will be able to see what you've created will most likely have the effect of pupils making harder efforts to have their work done correctly!

CleverBoard and Lynx

I would like to recommend CleverBoard and Lynx 4 for you in my Blog post. CleverBoard is an interactive whiteboard and Lynx is the software that follows. Many schools have got this already or are going to. In my school we have those in all our classrooms and we have been using them for a couple of years now. With CleverBoard and Lynx you can create lessons by using resources from the internet or from your computer and mix it with “traditional teaching”.

What you need to make it work

First of all you need a computer, PC with at least Windows 2000 or a Mac with Linux. Then you need a CleverBoard. The CleverBoard can be installed instead of a whiteboard, you can use it like that as well. Or you can have the CleverBoard somewhere else in the classroom. The CleverBoard is connected with the computer. You navigate the computer with a pen by clicking on the CleverBoard. The pen has the same function as a computer-mouse. A scanner can also be useful to have, if you for example want to use a page in a textbook or something like that.

How to be used by teachers

Lynx is an “empty” program, e g it is you as a user who creates lessons or presentations in the program.

You can for example do notes on the whiteboard with the pen or by using the computer- keyboard and then save them on the computer. Next time you can continue with the notes or print them out or send them as an e-mail. If you want to put in pictures you can use the clip-art gallery or use own pictures. You can also use music-, film- or sound-files in your lesson or presentation.

You have a remote control which helps you to manage the computer and in the same time use the tools in Lynx. If you are watching film with your class, you can save parts of it in Lynx. After the film is finished you can put the scenes on the CleverBoard and work with them, the same with websites. If you have a scanned page in a textbook or a storybook saved on the computer, you can do a lot of things with it by using the tools in Lynx.

How to be used by students

The students can interact in the lesson by using the pen and moving things on the whiteboard. They can also do exercises from websites on the internet together or write answers with the pen. Often the students learn to work with Lynx faster than the teachers and they also find and explore the functions easier.

Other considerations

The CleverBoard and Lynx is a really good resource in your teaching. You need though use it often in otherwise it is easy to forget how to work with it, because it takes some time to learn how to use the tools. Time is not a thing we have lot of in school, at least not time to plan lessons, so you have to decide yourself to give priority to this.

Sometimes the technique doesn´t work, someone has pulled out a cable or it has been a power outage. It is frustrating when the CleverBoard doesn´t start and your lesson plans go up in smoke. If this happens I bet you hope that another classroom is available, so you can be there instead.

You can read more on these pages:

http://www.saharaplc.com, about CleverBoard and Lynx

http://wiki.iwbsupport.com, about Lynx

Camilla Sunesson

2010-11-25

Fronter – a Course Management Systems

Fronter provides many different tools for teaching and learning
· You can find tools to make folders where you can put learning activities and weblinks.
· You can find tools to assess the pupils.
· You can create tests and hand-in assignments.
· There is a news tool where you can write the news from school.
· Fronter provides tools for collaboration and communication.
· Shared documents allow the pupils to work together and comment on each other’s work,
· while the chat and discussion forum can be used to share ideas.


You need access
The school or the school aria needs to pay for this service. In Gislaveds kommun, all schools can access Fronter. In Fronter you participate in different rooms and you have to be a user to enter the room. I have a room to my class where the pupils are users and their parents are guests. The teacher can decide who can be able to enter the room by inviting them.


You do not need anything else than Internet unless you have posted a document or want to open a document. Then you need a text processor like Microsoft Word or Open Office Writer that is a free software to download.


A resource to the teachers, pupils and the parents
There are different ways to use Fronter as a teacher and a pupil. I have folders where I submit pictures, homeworks and other tasks so all pupils and parents can access them. Then they do their tasks and hand-in them in the hand-in-folder. There are also portfolios with all the work they have done.



Fronter provides a link tool where I submit useful web links. The pupils use the links in school and at home to do their tasks or to play a game. There is also a sound-recorder. I use it when I want my students to tell something or read something in English. Then they can do it by their own in school or at home and I have a chance to listen to everyone when they are talking.


I also write all information to the pupils and to the parents on Fronter – in the news tool.
I think Fronter is an easy information tool to use between the school and the pupils and the parents. I think the parents now know more what we do in school. They always have the homeworks at home – not forgotten at school. If the pupils are ill, a lot of what we are working with is available in Fronter.