21st Century Style Courses / Blogging - An Evaluation

Hi everybody!

Today in this post I am going to talk about all my experiences and reviews  about my material class and my blogging process. 

Well my first thoughts about keeping a blog was not positive to be honest. It is because of I always found myself non-creative and not a writer type. Actually I was right about it for a short time. I don't think I did explain my self in a natural way in the first posts but after a few posts I began to get used to it. Blogging became like talking to a friend more than just writing some words. So I can say I liked it.

About our course. Firstly before taking the class, I thought "Oh my god we are going to waste our time by preparing some posters,handouts,papers etc." But when our teacher introduced the lesson for the first time, I got this feeling " I am going to learn something useful, something related to technology."

We were introduced to how to use technology (some websites,applications,wikis,podcasts,web-tools,etc.) in English Language Teaching.We learned  to choose appropriate tool for appropriate tasks. We learned to become not only  21st century learners but also teachers.

Actually during blogging process, sometimes I had hard times to do somethings like adding video, embedding links, creating a proper post etc. Furthermore I had some difficulties while doing my task like recording my voice for podcast, creating a story and making appropriate edits for digital story telling task, but despite all these difficulties at the end of my studies, when I look the outcome, I felt amazing,happy, enjoyed. Because I really like the feeling of achieving something. During this course, I always felt these feelings.

Only if this course has a prequel or sequel course because I think there is no limitation in

technology, there are more and more tools,websites,applications etc. So if there was one more term for this course, It would be great.

I think I will be keeping a blog for other purposes like reviewing about movies,games and TV series. For this blog I will try to find and share useful materials and information about ELT.

The picture above is taken from here.

The picture bellow is taken from here.

Thank you,

Ahmet Enes

StoryJumper - A Web Tool

Hello everyone!

Today I'm going to talk about StoryJumper, a web 2.0 tool. 2 weeks ago my friend Alper and I presented it for our material class.

Firstly Story Jumper is a web-publishing tool, a digital story telling that enables it users to create their own story books with images, texts, and most importantly with a narration. It's totally free.

Everyone can use it, it has simple and basic usage but I personally think that it has material mostly appropriate for  young learners but again if you add your own materials, you can make it suitable for older learners.

All you have to do is create a free account and then you can create your own story book! In your story book you can add a title and your name to cover page. Then you can add as many pages as you want. You can add props, scenes, speech bubbles to your story.

If you don't like the materials Story Jumper offers to you can find more of them by searching via its search engine or upload your own materials.

While you are working on your story, you can share it with your friends to get some help. After you have completed the story you can share it to public(on social media or any web site by copying embedded code), allow other users to see it or copy and improve it, Furthermore you can even print it ( by purchasing it), making a hard copy!

Among all different digital story telling tools, I selected this one as it enables you to add many visual material but most importantly it enables you to add narrations.

On the other hand my friend and I prepared a task. We tried to figure out how we could use this tool in educational way. We come up with a task for young learners. In the task students are supposed to create a story about their favorite pets. We gave them some instructions like; select 3 characters from your favorite pets, use at least 5 speech bubbles... And we gave the main structure of the story. They have to complete it according to their choices. You can see the other details the hand-out we gave.

We created a story to give an example of the task we created. We followed our instructions one by one and completed our story.

I recommend StoryJumper to all teachers who want to make their students more creative and make English learning more enjoyable!

Here you can find PowerPoint version of our presentation:

 Here you can see our task hand-out:

Here you can find our example story

Read this free book made on StoryJumper

Here you can access my friend Alper's blog

The picture above is taken from here.

Thank You,
Ahmet Enes

Lingualeo - A Mobile Learning App

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to introduce you a mobile learning app. I selected English with Lingualeo. It is an interactive application aims to teach English.

Firstly when you enter the app, you have to log-in  with an account. After you log-in, It ask some personal questions about yourself like: your age, sex, how often you want to study, how do you feel about your skills in English and your interests.

After you have done giving personal information then your grammar skills are tested trough a quiz. This test is done so as to the application can determine you grammar level, your strengths and weaknesses. Later the application ask you What is your aim to learn English ? You have plenty options I can say like for an special exam ( e.g TOEFL), for business, for myself, for improve my skills or for my English level.

After you have selected your aim, you have a lot of activities,options and sections to achieve it. In My Profile section you can see and follow your progress. In Materials section you can find a lot of videos about different topics. In Grammar Courses  section you can find grammar topics, in this section you can read the courses then you will be tested if you have understood the topic. In Words and Phrases section you can find lots of words and phrases divided into sub-groups. In this section you can select the words or phrases you don't know to add your dictionary.

Lastly there is  Exercises and My Dictionary section. In Exercises section you can work with word and their meanings while in My Dictionary section you can follow which words or phrases you are to learn or you have learned and you can listen pronunciation of any word you want.

Well as a conclusion I can say I found this application very useful. It is both for children and adults.You can find a lot of material in it. As it is a mobile app, you can take it anywhere you want and you can continue your learning anytime you want. This is what mobile learning means so I like mobile learning ! The only negative thing I found about this app is that there are more contents but only if you are premium user. So if you want more contents you have to pay for it but anyway I think free contents should do good enough.

Here is the link for the application you can look and download it from here.

All pictures above are taken by me while using the application.

Thanks,
Ahmet Enes

What It Means To Be Good Friends? - A Digital Story

Hello everybody!

In this post I am going to tell you about my experiences about digital story. For my assignment I was supposed to find a pair and create a digital story. There were 3 options. As always I team up with one of my best friends, Alper Rahmanoğlu. We selected option 1, creating a digital story about what it means to be good friends?

                                                                                                                         
Firstly we gathered our photos and created our avatars by using Bitmoji. Alper created amazing bitmoji pictures about us. Then we put them in a PowerPoint slide. We briefly introduced ourselves and narrated how did we met. We gave some animations to our photos and we added a music to our story. We gave a message about what it really means to be good friends.

While creating our digital story, we used Bitmoji, Movie Maker, PowerPoint, Audacity, Icecream Screen Saver programs for many purposes to enrich our story. I think we had a great time while creating the story like during recording process or when we look our photos and remembered the past, what we have shared.

I think creating a digital story would contribute foreign language development as when students try to create one, they have to write a story and narrate it. So they will realize their skills when they reflect their work.

You can visit my friend Alper's blog from here.

The picture above is take from here.

Here is the video of our digital story:

Thanks,
Ahmet Enes

Learn English - A Website Evaluation

Hello again everybody! After a long period of time ( after a harsh midterm week) I am here with you again!

In this post I am going to share my experiences about  an English learning website. As you know in 21st century almost everything can be found on the Internet. So why we shouldn't use it to learn English ?

This week,for Material class I was assigned to visit a website, evaluate and introduce it to you. I looked a few sites and I selected Learn English Free website. 


The picture above is taken from here.

While evaluating the website I used a evaluation form which was given by my teacher. It includes 9 question. Lets look at the  questions and my observations one by one.


1.Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or
credentials?

The website  authored by The Learn English Network (voluntary organization) is a not-for-profit organization registered in the UK.
  

Picture 1

2.What is the content of the website?

The website  provides content related to English teaching, such as English grammar and extensive British English vocabulary sections along with a free English magazine, diary, games, lessons and tests and an insight into British culture, traditions and customs.

Picture 2

3.Who is the target audience?

ESL and EFL learners and teachers.



4.What is the purpose of the website?

The purpose of the website is to help learners who want to learn English or improve their language skills. Also supply resources for teachers to enrich their lessons along with lesson plans, handouts and help them share their experinces and give each other some advices.



5.Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated?

Yes at the bottom of the website there is a date.

Picture 3

6.Accuracy of the information- Are there any errors?

As far as I saw there was no mistake in the context or information. As the website is prepared by an organization, I can say there would be no or minimal mistake.

7.Are there any broken links?

I haven’t seen a broken link in the website. As the site is up to date, I think there wouldn’t be any broken links.


8.Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience?


Most of the images seem  high quality for me  and  are suitable for the context.
 

Picture 4

9.How can it be applied to EFL teaching?

Well teachers can find a lot of materials and advices to use. Students on the other hand can learn many different information and test and consolidate their knowledge about English.


To sum up Learn English Free website is very useful both teachers and learners of English.
I think the most important thing about this website is it is FREE for everyone. Another important thing I realised is that there is a calendar system which shows which activites are going to take place when. 

Picture 5

I recommend this website for teachers as they can benefit from it to find materials and take some tips or advices. Also I recommend this website for learners as they can improve their English.


You can visit Learn English Free by clicking here.

Thank you, Ahmet Enes Özdemir 

Suicide Squad - A Wiki Work

Hello everyone!

In this post I am going to tell you about my experiences about the Wiki. Firstly I want to explain what a wiki is then I will share my experiences. A wiki is a free online encyclopedia which Internet users can create and edit collaboratively.

This week, for Material class my friends and I were assigned to create a wiki page about a movie that won an academy award. Well as always I teamed up with my pair Alper Rahmanoğlu. We selected the movie Suicide Squad for our wiki project. In our assignment we were supposed to give some basic information about the movie we would choose, but apart from that we were also supposed to review the movie and give our comments about it. We started with adding a poster then we wrote actors, the director and added a synopsis. Finally we added our reviews, some gifs and a trailer.

I think wikis are useful as they are created and can be edited collaboratively. They are easy to create and as they are Internet based people all around the world can reach it and contribute it. I recommend you to use wikis.

These are the pictures from the wiki page we created.

You can visit and read the wiki page from here.

You can visit my friend Alper's blog from here.

The picture above is taken from here.


Thank you.

The Kid with the Balloon- A Podcast Work

Hello everyone, I want to share my experiences about an assignment. For Material class I was supposed to create a podcast. There were 3 options but I will tell you about the option I selected. In that option my friend Alper Rahmanoğlu and I were supposed to create short sound-rich story podcast around 2 minutes.

The introduction of the story was determined by our teacher. There were some key words, we were supposed to use at least 4 of them. We wrote our story and found appropriate sound for the story. Then we decided who to speak which line. When all the planning was over. We started to record the story. In the recording process whenever we made a little mistake like some slips, mispronunciations we laughed and we started over and over again.I think we enjoyed it.

Making a podcast is very funny as we did some different accents to make the characters real and while doing it actually we felt it. We acted like actors. I think creating and using a podcast in a class would be very useful and enjoyable. I want to use podcasts in my class when I become a teacher. I would recommend you to use podcasts.

-You can visit my friend Alper's blog here.

-You can listen our story bellow here.
Thank you.