Online tools can be fun ways to make otherwise ordinary exercises motivating. Blogs, WebQuests and podcasts can be more complicated projects which need a bit more time and thought. But they’re well worth it!
If learners are engaged with the technology, then language development will
happen naturally.
People like blogs because they are usually very easy to
set up, and they’re free! They can be very useful for the language classroom.
Here are some ideas for using them:
• Set up a class blog where you post interesting information for your
learners, including information for homework assignments or further references
for your topic.
• Set up a shared blog for a topic you are doing, e.g. endangered species.
Then ask learners to add a photo and a short piece of writing on the topic.
You’ll need to decide whether to let learners add comments to other posts.
• Get in touch with a teacher from a different country and use a blog to
allow learners to share information about their cultures.
As blogs are part of teenagers’ everyday lives, they can be very powerful
in motivating their learning.
Learners don’t usually lose interest in blogs if they’re available
for a limited time
How to set up a class blog
1 Go to www.blogger.com, or a similar website, and set up
a class blog.
2 Decide what you want your learners to post on your blog.
Choose a topic that is relevant to your learners and that they will be able to
talk about.
3 Ask each of your learners to post on the blog and to comment
on at least three other posts.
Examples of free blogging websites are:
www.blogger.com
www.wordpress.com
http://ru.jimdo.com/
A WebQuest is an investigation which gets learners to find information on the Internet. They use the information to complete a task and then evaluate their work. WebQuests can be short or long, depending on your aims.
Here are some features of WebQuests:
• group work
• thinking skills
• decision-making
• real-life information
• real-life tasks
Do a WebQuest
1 Choose an interesting topic.
2 Look for and choose or adapt a WebQuest on the Internet, or
design your own.
For help to design a WebQuest go to: http://webquest.org/
For WebQuests to use or adapt go to:
http://www.theconsultants-e.com/resources/webquests/repository.aspx
http://www.onestopenglish.com/teenagers/topic-based-materials/city-webquests/
http://webquest.org/index-create.php
3 Carry out the WebQuest with your learners.
A podcast is an audio file that is made available on the
Internet. You can create audio files on your computer using software such
as: www.audacity.sourceforge.net
There are also websites where you can create and post audios, e.g.:
www.podomatic.com
www.audioboo.fm
Record and share podcasts
1 Choose your recording software/website.
2 Choose an interesting topic and a genre (e.g. a dialogue, a
poem or an interview) for your learners’ recording.
3 Get each learner to record their podcast. Make sure they’re
not too long.
4 Get learners to post their podcasts on your recording
website or upload them to your class blog.
5 Ask your learners to listen to at least three other podcasts
and comment on them.
Links:
http://cambridgeenglishteacher.cambridge.org/pages/view/927202
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