This blog provides really resourceful sites about teaching and learning English with ICT. I think I can use a lot of the materials here for my teaching. It’s simple and easy to use, so I can hardly find anything I don’t like about this blog.
Some examples:
TED talks: From the entry TED Talks Launches “Playlists” I found videos which can be used for student practice of listening comprehension, note taking, debate (agreeing and disagreeing with the presenter), e.g. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity at http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/w/page/19958133/Sir%20Ken%20Robinson%3A%20Do%20Schools%20Kill%20Creativity. This is authentic, and I hope it would inspire students to work harder just to understand the ideas being explained, then appreciate them. If they find the video difficult, the subtitle function is available. Nice.
“Burbank Students Use Blog To Learn English” — Sacramento Bee Story On Our International Sister Classes Project This post provides some ideas on using blogs to learn English. It’d be useful for my students to join the international blog world to learn and use English to reflect, describe their own culture in comparison with other cultures as food for thoughts.
Larry Ferlazzo’s English Website leads to an English learning website where a tool to turn text to speech can be found. My students can use it to check the pronunciation of their presentations before they deliver them. They write their speeches and paste them here, listen to it and correct their pronunciation errors themselves.
His post about Screenshare at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/11/15/the-best-screenshare-tools-to-help-others-with-computer-problems/ should be listed under any rubrics targeted to my students who are learning English with ICT. It’s another way for both Ts and Ss to get connected with international communities on the Internet, besides solving computer problems. Can it be categorized as a Crowsourcing way?
Here Are My Nominations For This Year’s Edublogs Awards! Here I clicked on Best educational use of a social network — EFL Classroom 2.0 and found another interesting website. On the home page is the idea of the walking classroom. Yes, stay away from the classroom walls, the ICT with all fancy softwares, web links and stuff for a while. Time for physical exercise, for a healthy body besides a healthy mind. Walking around campus and practising a little conversation in English was what I did before, several years ago. How come I forgot it? Will do it again. Fun and new.
From Edith: The flipped classroom: Here is a summary of main points THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM
to be continued
Thanks a lot, Larry.
Tien Hung's blog 
Hi Hung,
Was there anything that seemed especially useful from Larry’s blog? Something that really fits well in the Vietnamese context and the aims of Project 2020?
Hi Hung,
Please don’t forget to update your blog regularly. Take some time to reflect – what has been interesting in the past day or two? What ideas are new to you? Are they useful? Why?
Have you had a chance to read the aritcle that Edith put on Blackboard yesterday? Any thoughts?
I ❤ that post, Hung. It would be great to share this with the class on the data projector!! Sir Ken Robinson is a great ptesenter because he uses conversation and storytelling when he talks to an audience! This is in my opinion the best way to transmit information; storytelling has been the way to transmit knowledge for as long as humans have had conscience of their existence and language to express it!!
Thank you, Edith. I didn’t think of it when watching this video – storytelling. I’m not good at telling stories, especially integrating it into a presentation – way too advanced for me, so directing students’ attention to it is not my comfort zone. However, it’s always a good learning point. I think my students and I would learn this technique together, meaning I would change my role in the class from teacher to student. Hopefully, it would encourage my students even better. So, that’s another way to use this great video 🙂 What do you think?
Don’t change your role from teacher to student, you remain the boss at all times! But you might want to review some if your delivery techniques sliwly from a strongly hierarchical teacher —> student method, trust your students to work eith each other, be more independent from you and your course content so they can learn to learn differently et continue learning once their studies are over! (Lifelong learning in the current buzz word). Developing teaching / learning identities is a topic that I find interesting as we evolve in various environments everyday (family, classroom students, colleagues, etc..) It us even more important now that you also evolve online as well with this blog and other tools you might choose to select! Please remind me to bring this subject up in the next class! Or you might want to ask this question to our coming online guest speakers next week 🙂
Like your comment. Will do: teachers’ role in an ICT-oriented class, lifelong learning, teaching/learning identities.
An online identity – sounds good 🙂
Sorry for the typos I am writing from my iPod 🙂
Have a look at this on the Educause ELI website: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7081.pdf . It is about “Flipped Classroom”. You can recommend this resource to the class too 🙂
Wooow.. What an excellent idea, Edith!! I’ll try it. And a great website too! Lovely 🙂
How can I get access to Educause library, Edith? Do I have to pay for an account?