A Brief Evaluation

Here comes the end of this term!

I’ve opened up this blog (happily) for one of my courses called Instructional Technology & Materials Design, which was the the most interactive and innovative course of the year!

We completed our course syllabus and when I look back I think we did a great job!

What I most liked about the course was the richness of the syllabus. I've used some of the tools for the first time and I really liked being updated in teaching. As a future teacher, I’ll probably use most of the tools to richen up my pedagogy! All of my future students will be technology natives and I have to catch up with them.

My favorite assignment was the one about Podcast. It convinced me that podcasts are great and easy to reach sources for learners, and creating our own podcast is also a good way for language practice. I am sure I definitely will use podcasting while teaching.

There are no weaknesses at all! Maybe it is just because of the big effort of our lovely instructor!

And I want to say something to the students who would take this course next year; once you have taken this course, you won’t be the same anymore! Make the most of it!

And I want to say thank you to our instructor Gökçe Kurt, for everything she has done for us, with a cute word cloud! 

(I've created it by using Wordart) 

:)

Little Bird Tales

In the past few days, I’ve mentioned briefly about digital storytelling, a great source in language learning/teaching process.

Now I am going to introduce a digital storytelling tool which is pretty good.

Little Bird Tales is a digital storytelling tool which is simple and easy to use both for kids and adults. It fosters creativity in learners. A great source for learners of all ages, even for the ones who can not read or write because it allows you to record your voice! So easy to get learners exited and involved. For that matter, it is a good way to practice language! And for the teachers it allows you to create a class and assign a lesson to your class. Also, there is an excellent app for mobile learning (available only for IOS).

So easy to create your tale!

After logging in (you can try it for free for 21 days!) you click on the ‘Create a Tale’ option on the homepage. You’ll go to the edit page. First enter the title and the author of your tale. Then create your cover page. You can draw it, import an image from your galleries, or upload a photo/image from your computer. Next record your voice to the title page and click ‘save’ (you can see the edited pages in the page list to the right). Follow the same process for the adding pages with a single difference: add your text. To watch your tale, click on the preview button. If you want to share it with someone, go to your homepage and click on the ‘My Tales’ button. Find your tale and choose the ‘share’ option in the pull-down menu. It’s that simple! Here is a cute example. 

You can repeat the same process to create lessons. There are so many lesson templates for grades K-6. You can choose one or create your own lesson.

It can be implemented in hundred ways … You or your students can use Little Bird Tales;

-to share vacation photos,

-to create digital stories,

-to create interactive lessons,

-to give presentations,

-to conduct interviews,

-to send an e-card

-to create how-to videos

-to practice reading (poetry, story, new, etc.)

-to prepare class projects, and so on…

It’s totally up to your imagination...         

Want to try it? Then click here and start your digital storytelling journey!

A Useful Mobile App for Teachers, Padlet!

taken from here

Padlet is an online ‘post-it’ or ‘bulletin’ board, which can be used by teaches and students collaboratively. Padlet allows you to insert images, videos, and links to your ‘Padlet notes’ and you can share share a link to your Padlet with any student, class or teacher. You can also modify your Padlets any time you want (edit or move).
                                                    

Padlet is free and user-friendly! What’s more, it can be used with any Internet ready device. If students have the Padlet board, they can immediately check all the ideas and posts gathered on the teacher board.

How can Padlet be used in language classrooms?

It is a great source both for teachers and students and can be implemented in hundred ways in language classrooms (you can create one class Padlet at the beginning of the school year and share all links throughout the year). Let’s see the best activity that can be done in classroom via Padlet;

-It can be used to brainstorm on a topic or project. Here is the Padlet that I’ve created as an example (yes, you can embed your Padlets into webpages). I think this one is the best option for teachers!

Good news! You can also record your voice if you use a Firefox or Chrome web browser.

Here are the other ideas to use this tool in class;

-You can ask students about what they understand or remember from the previous lesson.

-You can share a picture or the beginning of a story and want them to predict the story, or you can have an interactive storytelling!

-Make students prepare and present their posters on Padlet where they can add images, videos, links, and information.

-You can use Padlet also for book reviews. Students will love it!

-Students can upload a picture from their computer and explain it by adding every type of notes on it (this list goes as far as your imagination).

Apart from the classroom activities;

-It can be used as a student portfolio, and can be shared with parents!

-It is also a good one for formative assessment.

Looking for more information about Padlet? Do not hesitate to ask your questions as a comment for this post.

Digital Storytelling in Education

Digital storytelling is a term which has been very popular recently, but what does it actually mean?

taken from here

First of all, it is not only about telling a story. It’s about telling stories with a variety of multimedia tools like graphics, images (still or moving) text, audio narration, video, music, sounds etc. and it is a powerful instructional tool in education both for learners and teachers. Telling a story itself is a perfect way to communicate with others and when it is combined with these digital tools it becomes more and more attractive, especially for kids. For this reason, digital storytelling is an engaging and efficient learning activity. Teachers can either create digital stories or guide learners to create their own stories.

Digital storytelling refers to different forms of digital narratives. A digital story can be;

-               - a personal narrative

-               - a story about an event

-               - a biography of a famous person

-               - a description of a process

-               - a description of a place

-               - a story about experiences or interests

-               - a fictional story

-               - a book trailer

-               - an examination of historical themes and events and so on.

Some of the benefits of digital storytelling in education are;

-it develops critical thinking and creativity

-encourages research

-gives learners a voice

-develops learners’ communicative skills

-promotes the notion of independent learning

-develops proficiency with digital tools

There are so many tools to create a digital story online, but you can also create a digital story by using simple technologies such as Microsoft Movie Maker, Photo Story and PowerPoint, which are available for free. 

Here is an example digital story which I’ve created with my friend Büşra. It is a ‘how to’ project and we have given some tips to stay focused.

It was a little bit challenging for us to create a content and find appropriate images to convey the feeling but still it was fun and engaging! I would probably give the same task to my future students because I think digital storytelling gives learners an opportunity to experiment independent learning and create an individual content, also learners have a chance to see how much they know or remember.

Want to know more about digital storytelling or see more examples? Then take a look at the Web. You can find countless examples and maybe you create your own one!