TACCLE 2011

So I attended the course TACCLE: Creating your own e-learning content in school education and adult education, which took place in Ancona, Italy (3rd - 10th April), and organized by GO! onderwijs van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap. I had previously applied for a grant to PROALV, the Portuguese National Agency (Comenius Program), and I was lucky enough to receive it.
Everything about this course was great! The organization was perfect (thank you Jens, Kylene and Elmo); the trainers were very competent, helpful and friendly; the contents interesting and motivating; the other participants very nice and friendly; the food in generous quantities.
From all I've mentioned before, I'm sure you've already guessed that I loved the course and I sincerely advise everyone to apply next year. It will also be in April in Ancona, but I'll provide more details in a few days.
I'll also be posting more information on the contents (eXe, Mindmaping, Moodle, Mahara...).
Take care!

ICT Training Courses

I recently received three invitations from different organisations to partipate in ICT training courses. All three courses are included in the Comenius - Grundtvig training database. That means that all interested teachers can apply for a grant - they will need to complete the Application Form and send it to their National Agency until 15th of September 2010.

Here is information on each of the three training courses:

Reference number: GR-2011-123-001
Title: ICT tools and Hands-On Training on developing Interactive Language Learning Units and Exercises
Athens, Greece
Date of start: 03/01/2011
Date of end: 08/01/2011
More information here


Reference Number : BE-2011-156-001
Title: TACCLE: Creating your own e-learning content in school education and adult education
Ascona, Italy
Date of start: 03/04/2011
Date of end: 10/04/2011
More information here
Pre-registration here
(I have been accepted by the organisation so I will attend this course if my application is approved by the Portuguese National Agency)


Reference Number : GR-2011-121-001
Title: Collaborative Learning and Sharing about Politics: Digital Storytelling and Web2.0 Tools to Enrich EU Citizenship and Activate Engagement and Dialogue
Crete, Greece
Date of start: 10/04/2011
Date of end: 16/04/2011
More information here

Web 2.0 tools for teachers

Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

Online Voice Tools For Language And Literacy

Online Voice Tools For Language And Literacy

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: coghlan literacy)

Visuwords: online graphical dictionary and thesaurus

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus!
Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
No membership required.
Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. Combined with a visualization tool and user interface built from a combination of modern web technologies, Visuwords™ is available as a free resource to all patrons of the web.

XMind

XMind is an open source brainstorming and mind mapping software tool developed by XMind Ltd. It helps people to capture ideas, organize to various charts, and share them for collaboration. Supporting mind maps, fishbone diagrams, tree diagrams, org-charts, logic charts, and even spreadsheets. Often used for knowledge management, meeting minutes, task management, and GTD. XMind is compatible with Freemind. The latest version is XMind 3.

XMIND can export the mind maps into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, PDF and Mindjet MindManager documents. A mind map/fishbone chart is created by simply hitting Tab and Enter to create new topics and subtopics. Boundaries, relationships, markers, labels, notes, audio notes, attachments, hyperlinks and graphics can be added into a mind map/fishbone chart.

PollDaddy

PollDaddy provides polling and survey widgets to over 500,000 users around the world. Launching in October 06, they have become the number one provider of poll widgets online. Their polls are used on social networks, blogs, corporate websites etc...

Web 2.0 tools for EFL teaching

web 2.0 tools for ESL/EFL teaching (how to become web literate)

From: thiagoedu,
6 months ago

web 2.0 tools for ESL/EFL teaching (how to become web literate)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2.0 web)

You shall see most apps and site from the web 2.0 here, in a ppt designed to help ESL/SFL teachers cope with the web 2.o in class. Topics disscussed: efl teaching, esl teaching, web 2.0, delicious, tagging. social bookmarking, microblogging, blogging, twitter, alice in wonderland, digital native, digital immigrant, digital voyer, digital refugee, podcast, rss reader, feed, aggregate. Care to leave a comment? Thanks! Thiago Eduardo - thiagoedu@gmail.com (presentation made for a Braz-Tesol one day seminar in Brasilia, Brazil on May 30th, 2008)

SlideShare Link

A dialogue between two teenagers

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Podcast created during a workshop...not bad but I still have to practice much...

SpellMaster Games

The SpellMaster.com software is ideal for those who wish to create a range of activities for their website or classroom. The activities are very easy to create. The new version allows to add voice sound files to the activities.
The game creation pack includes all files and instructions.

Why people should learn a foreign language...

Languages online

Languages online offers free downloadable templates to create your own multimedia language games and activities. Use your own text, pictures or voice recordings. Suitable for all languages!

The picture above is from a memory game that I created last night. It's very, very easy and my students will love it!

Slideshare

Halloween

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: halloween)

Slideshare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations & slideshows. You can upload your PowerPoint, OpenOffice or PDF files, tag them, embed them into your blog or website, browse others' presentations, and comment on individual slides. What's more, the transcripts of your presentation will be indexed by internet search engines and show up in search results. It's a great way to share your ideas with others, or to learn from other people. And it's completely free.

Scratch

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.
Scratch is available free of charge.

I've never tried this tool but I will because it seems really interesting.

Magazine Factory

MagazineFactory is a popular and versatile concept for developing web magazines for various purposes and contexts. The web magazine may be a single project, or a magazine which is edited continuously throughout the school year. MagazineFactory is an easy and enjoyable publishing tool which provides the teachers and the pupils an opportunity to work as editorial staff in the class and to publish a web magazine of their own. The teacher is the editor-in-chief, while the pupils are journalists.

Web Poster Wizard

Web Poster Wizard is a free tool that allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or class page and immediately publish it online. Teachers can also set up classes and assign projects to students. Students complete the assignments by creating their own online projects or reports. Teachers and students can even add images and links to their pages.
I've used it more than once to create Treasure Hunts. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it.

Zimmer Twins

The Zimmer Twins is a Canadian children's website and broadcast animation project. It is known for its unique format which combines online participation and broadcast delivery. Children are invited to create and share 1-minute animated episodes using a story editor and library of animation. The audience creates endings to short, professionally-produced story-starters. Kids tell their stories by choosing actions, characters, props and settings. They can also add their own dialog and on-screen text.
If you have younger students, try it with them. They will love it!

Pixton

Pixton for Fun™ is a social media website where people create comics − without having to draw. People can share, remix, and publish their ideas, opinions, and stories to a worldwide audience. And the best part: it's free! You only have to register.

Characteristics:
Easy to use comic creator: build a comic from scratch or choose from a library of templates.
Fully customizable characters: any age, ethnic background, or gender by choosing hair and skin color, height and girth, and much more.
Articulate characters: bring them to life by rotating individual body parts, or selecting from preset poses and facial expressions. Simply click and drag!
Share with the world: publish, email and embed comics in your blog. Comics and comments are automatically translated to and from other languages.

www.pixton.com

Quia

What is Quia? It's an online learning environment which enables us to create 16 types of games and learning activities including: Matching, Jumbled Words, Concentration, Ordered List, Word Search, Picture Perfect, Flash Cards, Pop-Ups, Challenge Board, Scavenger Hunt, Columns, Cloze, Hangman, Rags to Riches, Patterns, Battleship. Unfortunately it's not free, but it is possible to sign up for a 30 day trial for free. You can check Quia's pdf presentation at:
http://www.quia.com/company/quia-presentation.pdf

You can always try the shared activities, over 1300, and use them in class.
http://www.quia.com/shared/

Why Let our Students Blog?

Rachel Boyd from New Zealand created this presentation on the benefits and reasons why we should let our students blog. You can check her blog at: http://rachelboyd.blogspot.com