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.

Portfolio Task 3

Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools

I have found a huge website called Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools. This is a website that is full of cool tools that can be very useful for students and teachers in school.

Here is the address:

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

You can can get help with ýour students presentations, images, drawings, research and much more from this website. Here is a list of tools that you can choose among:

• Presentation tools
• Collaborative tools
• Research tools
• Video tools
• Slideshow tools
• Audio tools
• Images tools
• Drawing tools
• Writing tools
• Music tools
• Organising tools
• Converting tools
• Mapping tools
• Quiz and poll tools
• Graphing tools
• Creativity cools
• Widgets
• Teachers Resources
• File Storage & Web Pages

This is a useful website for teachers who have a lack of own ideas. Any tools on the website contains many useful links to other sites. Under teachers resources there are many resources to choose among. Here is a list of teachers resources:

• Classroom resources
• Reading resources
• Oral and written language resources
• Mathematics Resources
• Science and social studies resources
• Inquiry Resources
• Health and Physical education resources
• ICT resources
• Foreign language resources
• Art and craft resources
• Quizze, games and activities
• Professional development
• Tests and assessment
• Planning and classroom management

I as a teacher can get help in many different ways through this website. It is a well filled website, but still easy to find what you are looking for. The website is easily foreseeable. The negative of the website is that it provides me with many choices and it can be difficult wich ones are best. I would really recommend this website, it is worth a visit.

Portfolio task 2

eTwinning - The community for schools in Europe

I would recommend a useful website for teachers who want to work internationally in their schoolwork. Maria Estling Vannestål (2009) writes in her book Lära engelska på internet about this organization, which is a part of a Comenius Programme of the European Commission. This website is for teachers who want to find partners in Europe to cooperate with. The website is full of information on how to find a suitable partner and information on how to move forward in their cooperation.

Here is the address:

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm

On the eTwinning website you are able to search for schools, individuals and projects. You as teachers can choose what topic you want to work within and through this way find appropriate cooperative schools. You can choose which country you want to find a cooperative school in. There i a start page that helps the teacher with the most necessary details. You and your school must register and create your own eTwinning profile.

Here are some of the subjects available to choose among:

• Art
• Foreign language
• History
• Mathematics
• ICT
• Music

There are designed project kits for teachers who are looking for concrete ideas on how to implement a European collaborative project in their on school.

In inspiration you can choose among:

• Kits
• Moduels
• Gallery
• TwinSpace
• Subjects

eTwinning is a difficult webside to understand, much because I personally find it difficult to know how to get started with a collaboration with students in any other European country. It has taken me a long time to figure out how this website is working, but I know now that this website is very useful and valubale for teachers how want to work internationally. I have used this website in my ICT project.

Portfolio task 1

Students in a 6th grade, where I use to teach, showed me a web-site where they practice their vocabulary. The web-site is called glosboken. This is a fun way to practice vocabulary, better then the old fashioned way with pencil and paper. This is one way for the pupils to use ICT in their English learning. I think this is a useful and creative way to learn new words, that is why I want to tell you about this web-sit. I hope you will like it too.

Here is the address:

http://www.glosboken.se/pages/go.php?&language=en

You just have to create a user and the logon to this web-site, you can logon as a pupil or as a teacher or as a parent. Glosboken is useful in many ways, you can create exercises and make vocabulary lists. You do not have to make your own exercises, you can fetch pre-made exercises if you want to. You can learn your vocabulary by using this friendly exercise system, where the computer asks you questions based on the Flashcard theroy. You can print the vocabulary list as Flashcards, if you want to. You may even print the vocabulary list if you want to practice them in the old fashioned way.

This is not a complicated web-site, just follow the instructions and do as you are told, then everything will work out just fine. The teacher, parents or students writes the word that the student will practice. This is a fun way to learn new words and the pupils may use ICT and their computers in their learning. I hope you will find this website useful and fun.

Starfall.com

When searching for an ICT resource to share with you in my blog post, my mind fell on Starfall (http://www.starfall.com/ ). It is a free phonic based “learn to read” website. With the remission of the English syllabus and its modifications, such as the introduction of English in the 1st grade, Starfall could be an excellent early exposure to the language in a fun and interactive manner, without any emphasis on the learning aspects. In the early years children are enthusiastic and keen on new experiences. English from an early age creates a significant opportunity to stimulate learning in an informal and playful manner. Starfall presents such a method using a motivational approach. It induces laughter and gives a stress-free acquaintance to the language.


What you need in order to use Starfall:
(The minimum system requirements)

o Windows 95, Macintosh OS8, or Linux
o Internet connection
o 64 MB Ram
o 200 MHz processor
o Internet Explorer 4 or Netscape 4
o Flash Player 4
o Speakers
o Adobe reader


How Starfall is constructed

The Starfall website opened 2002 and is primarily designed for those who are in the beginning stages of reading. It has both an educator´s and parental guide. It is highly interactive using both sound and pictures, while requiring the user to participate actively with the mouse or keyboard.

The website is divided into various stages with reading activities. The ABCs Let´s get ready to read section has activities and games where users view and manipulate pictures to distinguish the letters of the alphabet. E.g. a train would appear with the lower and upper case letter t/T while the sound of the letter is heard. This exposes users to the letter- sound relationship in a fun and relaxing environment. Sign language is also presented in this section.

The second stage, Learn to read, takes the learner beyond the sound-letter relationship where they get the opportunity to enunciate and blend words as they read along, or write a letter to grandparents by clicking on their choice of word etc.

Thirdly, the category It is fun to read presents texts in different contexts and genres such as poetry, music, riddles, tongue twisters, and also has a section called “It is all about me” which gives the pupil a chance to construct a character to look like themselves. This stage even uses a TPR approach in some activities.

Finally, the I´m reading stage is more advanced and present learners with a variation of frequently used words. It focuses on fluent reading, intonation and expression etc.
In addition to the above mentioned categories there are thirteen links to different topics. For example Earth day, an interactive game where users work to clean the planet.


How teachers can use Starfall

Starfall presents a nonthreatening and supportive environment for students new to the English language. With anxiety and feelings of embarrassment removed from the process, the user can learn without inhibitions.

The website is extremely content rich so guidance in the beginning might be necessary. No official lesson plans are offered but there are many possibilities for a creative teacher, almost limitless. Usually there are some pupils in first grade that already can read. Others are on their way and some have not yet realized the purpose of reading. This is a flexible tool for the teacher despite their different stages. Additionally, the site is equally practical for use in collective learning, with the whole class or groups. Practice pages can be downloaded, and teachers can create portfolios for each student.


How pupils can use Starfall

Children in the first grade are of course at different stages of reading development. Starfall gives a useful tool for pupils despite their level.

Beginning readers with no prior knowledge of the English language can independently explore activities and games; they can let their curiosity lead the way. All the words in the activities are clickable and read out aloud. The website’s various categories can also be used with pupils who are already fluent readers in Swedish. A child with pronunciation difficulties could turn to the section of the website that aids in the improvement of pronunciation and students with difficulty repeating the alphabet will find immediate practical help etc. Starfall’s approach is extremely user friendly for beginners.

Their work can be printed out, saved or emailed which makes it possible to have their own electronic portfolio or to email tasks to parents.


Other conciderations

Starfall’s ease of navigation along with its read aloud features and slow moving graphics, presents an effective environment for young children wanting to learn or improve their English skills. There are no distractive links to other website, minimizing the risk of children being accidentally lured away to other websites.

As earlier mentioned, my reason for selecting Starfall was its appropriateness for exposing young learners to the English language in a fun and interactive setting. Older students starting to learn English according to the previous curriculum might find the site more juvenile.

My son learned the English alphabet before Swedish because he loved navigating the activities of Starfall. Through browsing the various activities, listening to the sounds and viewing the pictures, it never occurred to him that he was literally acquiring the language.

I hope you will find this useful.
Helené