tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43149416297955428732024-03-05T21:57:54.888+00:00Nik's QuickShoutEducational Technology and ELTNik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.comBlogger395125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-11751769821925351242021-09-20T12:37:00.006+01:002021-10-11T10:59:49.393+01:00Teachwise - A platform to save time and reduce stress for teachers<p style="text-align: left;"> Over the last couple of years the teaching profession has gone through huge changes and most of these have seen more demands put on teachers and greater pressure to spend more time using and adapting to new digital technologies for the remote and hybrid classroom. Many of the demands and tools teachers have been presented with have required more of their time and a wider range of skills, so it's great to be asked to look at Teachwise which is one of those few technological tools that does the opposite. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QMgazSkgu6W-8EAzyMYHaoFxSKRhCdTlybmcwSGiy1XdqjawD1bBQdRAQP4CVC7T9SBD3jA58NmCjR7PjoFD78zGQE6b_Y-fdzKvIKky0wvzSpYx14mJYC9-IBOqslItEGYxe7pd5RI9/s1610/TeachWise.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Teachwise logo" border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1610" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0QMgazSkgu6W-8EAzyMYHaoFxSKRhCdTlybmcwSGiy1XdqjawD1bBQdRAQP4CVC7T9SBD3jA58NmCjR7PjoFD78zGQE6b_Y-fdzKvIKky0wvzSpYx14mJYC9-IBOqslItEGYxe7pd5RI9/w400-h235/TeachWise.png" width="400" /></a></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> is a planning, time-management and productivity tool that can genuinely help teachers to cope with the demands of teaching and save time planning.<br /><br />Once you have registered with <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> you can add your class schedule to the calendar. This is simple to do, and you can schedule classes for groups or individuals and add the students' names and the locations for the classes. This will also populate an attendance register so that Teachwise can help to track attendance for you.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbBovFujVRiMZHEpvqm_c4AIqxsiR-lciIVdzxWT74DTcBFRgIRrIbG3RbIaMVSXCIF1eRxlb-QzhfTKRgfUkhwm6WFFcs0yhkXNz49q-PwnuRjh3l3npET88bQ7NNjN3uPCCPVqBoR7gN/s2034/Teachwise.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Teachwise calander" border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2034" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbBovFujVRiMZHEpvqm_c4AIqxsiR-lciIVdzxWT74DTcBFRgIRrIbG3RbIaMVSXCIF1eRxlb-QzhfTKRgfUkhwm6WFFcs0yhkXNz49q-PwnuRjh3l3npET88bQ7NNjN3uPCCPVqBoR7gN/w400-h278/Teachwise.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The next thing to do is start planning your lessons, and this is where you really start to save time. Teachwise has a huge collection of complete lesson plans or activities that you can simply add to your schedule. All the plans and activities are editable, so you can make changes to suit your students or drop out any activities you don't want to use.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGvz_uHXCbplbBCrecEhjRLWzzV0wvwM-OTIx7vUULj9U45v3ChljBt2PtVoL2d_o2QFmVKJNSffmBgIrqWGxdh62XrXbye-w4P6RGR1FKeNlphk_jkxTH9NKqNvfDsUOJrmXysQuv633/s2048/Teachwise+6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Teachwise lesson" border="0" data-original-height="1705" data-original-width="2048" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGvz_uHXCbplbBCrecEhjRLWzzV0wvwM-OTIx7vUULj9U45v3ChljBt2PtVoL2d_o2QFmVKJNSffmBgIrqWGxdh62XrXbye-w4P6RGR1FKeNlphk_jkxTH9NKqNvfDsUOJrmXysQuv633/w400-h333/Teachwise+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">You can also add in your own activities or your own complete plans if you wish. You can store these in Teachwise and if you choose you can also add them to the <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> community.<br /><br />The <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> community is a great innovation and enables you to share materials, knowledge, tips and suggestions with all the other users and develop your expertise together.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRM-WaSMk4En7vyCa1LFP9PlpwP_0IWLZg9ZLRiYo7JLVzYOOmGum-F9FJx2fR0nuaJDE7TQRAMd9x2V2kkAd-5wUoAirNCMgRabwDU5iqTeZtKmJ4aHwICxyC8SPVYZzsK1KqytJZg22/s2048/Teachwise+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Types of activities in Teachwise" border="0" data-original-height="1837" data-original-width="2048" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRM-WaSMk4En7vyCa1LFP9PlpwP_0IWLZg9ZLRiYo7JLVzYOOmGum-F9FJx2fR0nuaJDE7TQRAMd9x2V2kkAd-5wUoAirNCMgRabwDU5iqTeZtKmJ4aHwICxyC8SPVYZzsK1KqytJZg22/w400-h359/Teachwise+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />One of the other great things about <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> is that once you sign up for your free trial you'll be added to their email training list, so you'll get regular emails with tips and video tutorials which will gradually help you to get the most out of the platform and the resources.<br /><br /><a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> has 3 tiers of membership:<p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Free (for teachers who just want to access the community and the activities) </li><li>Individual (For teachers who want to schedule plans and manage their classes through the app) </li><li>Schools (For schools that want to use it as their main teaching admin platform).</li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">See: <a href="https://teachwise.app/pricing" target="_blank">Pricing</a><br /><br />If you work in<span style="font-size: small;"> or run a school, particularly a remote one with teachers based in different locations, this is definitely worth looking into as it could make your administrative processes much easier to handle and provide the much-needed support and development through community that many remote teachers lack.</span><br /><br />I think <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> well worth signing up for a 1-month free trial that gives you access to all the features. I hope you find <a href="https://teachwise.app/" target="_blank">Teachwise</a> useful, and it helps you to save lots of time and stress.</p><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><p>
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications/collection/teacher-resource-books">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications/collection/all">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my e-books at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></p></div>
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</p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Kind regards</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Nik Peachey | Director of Pedagogy - PeacheyPublications Ltd</span><br style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://peacheypublications.com/">https://peacheypublications.com/</a> </span><br /></span></p>Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-59139675577036490712021-05-28T11:02:00.001+01:002021-05-28T11:02:20.319+01:00ELT Songs to get your students singing, dancing and speaking<p> </p><div><span style="color: black;">I often dread looking at 'made for ELT' songs and music (I actually have a degree in music and studied jazz performance), but I was recently nicely surprised to see what </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://eltsongs.com" target="_blank">ELT Songs</a></span> have been doing on their site. They really seem to have got the knack of approaching and creating songs for younger learners well and with obviously very high production values.</span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjharvlDRo3SHch_YewY4S7sHFubhfT9wcwRN_qijxKG3tVSrsNZJxvSlm_Fhj7qw0AlGS9IRtV2NplHakM7ypf6lOVL8Ey8sPmlS-IgOT0SnJYzaq_3agf0TJ9c0cll-En4vaOuBlzBB/s900/ELT_Songs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="900" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjharvlDRo3SHch_YewY4S7sHFubhfT9wcwRN_qijxKG3tVSrsNZJxvSlm_Fhj7qw0AlGS9IRtV2NplHakM7ypf6lOVL8Ey8sPmlS-IgOT0SnJYzaq_3agf0TJ9c0cll-En4vaOuBlzBB/w400-h178/ELT_Songs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">If you check out the <a href="https://eltsongs.com" target="_blank">ELT Songs</a> site you can find 58 units (with an additional 68 new units coming later this year). Each consisting of 6 videos per unit all of which are 100% aligned to the Cambridge Young Learners curriculum (starters, movers and flyers). The videos are great and really tap into the current K-Pop style with songs and synchronised dance moves and even UK sign language integrated in to help students understand the words while they sing and dance along and enjoy learning.</span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiTOgTe6zpU0IIFqzwauMFFVInG-DzlngzbnKFyibdUhGTIpQlBcyMhWNJRbpJpXPpxHMt9gbxOvYXYJQfAgEd484o_00W_Ez2T9WQ0lTU1SOKZ6dkXDWTIb4jOyE-n_4oL6dRR6ybBeS/s1800/ELT_Songs2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1800" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiTOgTe6zpU0IIFqzwauMFFVInG-DzlngzbnKFyibdUhGTIpQlBcyMhWNJRbpJpXPpxHMt9gbxOvYXYJQfAgEd484o_00W_Ez2T9WQ0lTU1SOKZ6dkXDWTIb4jOyE-n_4oL6dRR6ybBeS/w400-h226/ELT_Songs2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">The lesson videos from each unit cover conversation practice, pronunciation, vocabulary rap and grammar tutorials as well as karaoke where students can just sing along. The videos are hosted on Vimeo, so they are all high quality, can have closed captions on or off, and you aren't going to be surprised by any unsuitable ads.</span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"> </span></div><div><span style="color: black;">As well as the videos they provide teachers with <a href="https://eltsongs.com/app/uploads/2020/09/Starters-Unit-7-teaching-notes.pdf" target="_blank">downloadable lesson plans</a>, <a href="https://eltsongs.com/app/uploads/2020/09/Starters-Unit-7-worksheets.pdf" target="_blank">worksheets, and flashcards</a>. You can see a nice example here in the 'Downloads' section underneath the video panel: </span><a href="https://eltsongs.com/unit/planet-pop-unit-7/" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color: black;">https://eltsongs.com/unit/planet-pop-unit-7/</span></a></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"> </span></div><div><span style="color: black;">As well as the core offer they have a great <a href="https://eltsongs.com/resources/" target="_blank">resources section</a> </span><span style="color: black;">that has videos with tips and advice from some of the best young learner materials writers in ELT publishing. These include:</span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Katherine Bilsborough with speaking tips for young learners:<br /><a href="https://eltsongs.com/resources/teach-tips-kath-speaking/" rev="en_rl_none">https://eltsongs.com/resources/teach-tips-kath-speaking/</a> </li><li>Amanda McLoughlin with tips for help students with numbers: <a href="https://eltsongs.com/resources/esl-lesson-plan-numbers-1-10/" rev="en_rl_none"><br />https://eltsongs.com/resources/esl-lesson-plan-numbers-1-10/</a></li><li>Michelle Worgan with tips to help students with grammar structures: <a href="https://eltsongs.com/resources/lesson-plan-31-michelle/" rev="en_rl_none"><br />https://eltsongs.com/resources/lesson-plan-31-michelle/</a> </li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYJ4a2pVmNQRkXkXc-CBlXwMK4KQphLnCz6tW1QxDcmbM4RJknDgmZeWlqXfReoxS8Z5wTfDcMch0m0mj7bh43e5L5xBMJ0IvdX2DptOE4CjJCAcM4S-A7ERlzBvBOMjhtR1LFfWKOHKl/s2970/Resources_Archive_-_ELT_Songs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="2970" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYJ4a2pVmNQRkXkXc-CBlXwMK4KQphLnCz6tW1QxDcmbM4RJknDgmZeWlqXfReoxS8Z5wTfDcMch0m0mj7bh43e5L5xBMJ0IvdX2DptOE4CjJCAcM4S-A7ERlzBvBOMjhtR1LFfWKOHKl/w400-h119/Resources_Archive_-_ELT_Songs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div></div><div>The blog is also another great resource and it has lots of materials, and activities around a wide range of topics.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://eltsongs.com/blog/" target="_blank">ELT Songs Blog </a></li></ul></div><div>I love this posting about <a href="https://eltsongs.com/gender-equality-esl-lesson-iwd/" target="_blank">International Women's Day</a> and ideas for helping make students aware of issues around gender equality and download able <a href="https://eltsongs.com/app/uploads/2021/03/ELT-SONGS-GENDER-EQUALITY-WORKSHEET-FOR-ESL-LESSONS-.pdf" target="_blank">lesson plan</a>. This can be a difficult but really important issue to address with younger learners and they handle this in a really positive way.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://eltsongs.com/gender-equality-esl-lesson-iwd/" target="_blank">International Women's Day </a></li></ul></div><div></div><div>Not all the materials are free but there is a free trial that runs until the end of July, so that's lots of time to try things out and maybe even convince your school to make the purchase so that you get access to additional features like student tracking, fluency and pronunciation activities, Google Classroom integration and some free training.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://eltsongs.com/pricing/" target="_blank">See pricing </a></li></ul></div><div></div><div>If your school isn't interested then individual teacher pricing is under $4 a month and that can save you a LOT of planning and preparation time so that seems like really great value for anyone who is teaching young learners.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall <a href="https://eltsongs.com" target="_blank">ELT Songs</a> is a really great resource with lots of really great speaking and listening activities for kids. I hope you and your students really enjoy it.</div><div> </div><div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my e-books at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li></ul>
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Nik Peachey <br /></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span data-markholder="true"><br /></span></span></div>Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-9657377780616266172021-02-13T12:41:00.005+00:002021-03-17T07:45:51.080+00:00Create Video Word Clouds with Quillionz Skimthru<p> If you’ve read my QuickShout blog before then you probably already know a little about <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2020/10/create-reading-comprehension-activities.html" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> and their awesome <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2020/10/create-reading-comprehension-activities.html" target="_blank">AI based app</a> that analyses text and creates comprehension questions in minutes. Well now they have a new tool for us to enjoy.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ehzLt__hIRERmtTT7m22OYfhQG9I0TwN2H5Pm-pwlHU07RFJv2d95Ip_n3uEpLXQ-Vm52HJMiibCJqKwCYqO1t3ZDR6QXqolXJmZx34tWepyoLnuQRtGB0L8EteC7QN-Jew4IiG5j2K8/s2048/Quillionz-ballet.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ehzLt__hIRERmtTT7m22OYfhQG9I0TwN2H5Pm-pwlHU07RFJv2d95Ip_n3uEpLXQ-Vm52HJMiibCJqKwCYqO1t3ZDR6QXqolXJmZx34tWepyoLnuQRtGB0L8EteC7QN-Jew4IiG5j2K8/w400-h225/Quillionz-ballet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://www.skimthru.ai/" target="_blank">Quillionz Skimthru</a> is a word cloud creation tool with a difference. It actually analyses the closed captions from videos and creates word clouds that play in parallel to the video.<br /><br />This is really simple to use, just register on the <a href="https://www.skimthru.ai/" target="_blank">Quillionz Skimthru</a> site, then copy the link from your video and paste it into the interface field.<br /><br />Next add a title and select a domain for the video based on the type of content.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUz0xQh2Svcjlrg6AF3Sql26aEQfAdPT52Ki-vWYKkYTPbDbMTTYDtLfktcFuXjzAtB6tJ5kS0My7O0rrFwfDVbYdD9wPmsq-UZYG_yAZfER_6lrv-FmUAhTuFhv5dNDCNVWgTLkjwDXv/s2048/Quillionz_Skim_-_Hit_the_High_Spots_in_Videos_Quickly.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="2048" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUz0xQh2Svcjlrg6AF3Sql26aEQfAdPT52Ki-vWYKkYTPbDbMTTYDtLfktcFuXjzAtB6tJ5kS0My7O0rrFwfDVbYdD9wPmsq-UZYG_yAZfER_6lrv-FmUAhTuFhv5dNDCNVWgTLkjwDXv/w400-h205/Quillionz_Skim_-_Hit_the_High_Spots_in_Videos_Quickly.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>Then just click on proceed. Wait a few minutes and the word cloud will appear beside the
video.<br /><br />To skim through this video quickly, drag the dot on the progress bar of the Skimthru panel or video for a minute or more and release it.<br /><br />I really like
this combination of word cloud and video, and it seems like a nice bridge
to helping students understand the content, without going all the way
to subtitles.<br /><br />If you make copies of the word clouds you can use them in a number of ways. <ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You can pre-teach vocabulary from the word cloud.</li><li>You can get students to predict content based on the word cloud.</li><li>You can use the word clouds to prompt students' memory of the videos and help them to remember the content.</li><li>Students can use the words from the word cloud to write summary statements about the video.</li></ul><p>Here’s an example I created from a short animated poem '<a href="https://app.quillionz.com/QuilliVideo/Index?id=0xD2Rr" target="_blank">The Peace of Wild Things</a>'. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut9GefvJ1bp_HvMUdVdz4l5wJ02G7OuLbZy0tA6ZpxiDuJ-uj9qmC2m2LUBfBfftm8R5d3lHCiv5DF2I0aoO6GjBEK3BX1kBRN-5XI4xtuUBU8-6nRxWrRepb88N9Y5qfxwhupsBsKF5X/s1200/Quillionz-poem.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="1200" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut9GefvJ1bp_HvMUdVdz4l5wJ02G7OuLbZy0tA6ZpxiDuJ-uj9qmC2m2LUBfBfftm8R5d3lHCiv5DF2I0aoO6GjBEK3BX1kBRN-5XI4xtuUBU8-6nRxWrRepb88N9Y5qfxwhupsBsKF5X/w400-h215/Quillionz-poem.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />There are lots of useful videos on <a href="https://thekidshouldseethis.com/" target="_blank">The Kids Should See This</a> that you can use with students. They are very content rich and most have closed captions.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.skimthru.ai/" target="_blank">Quillionz Skimthru</a> has some limitations:<br /><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>It only works with YouTube videos at present</li><li>The videos need to have closed captions</li><li>The quality of the word cloud depends on the quality of the captions (mistakes in the captions cause mistakes in the word cloud)</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.skimthru.ai/" target="_blank">Quillionz Skimthru</a> is an early release of a new tool, and it will be interesting to see how the company develops this.<br />It would be great to have a bit more control over which and how many words appear in the cloud and also when and how often it changes, but even without these features it’s a really useful tool for supporting students understanding of video content.<br /><br />I hope you use and enjoy it with your students.<br /></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>More Teacher Resources</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my e-books at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
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To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
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</span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li></ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br />Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-50131051166737320332020-10-16T08:47:00.000+01:002020-10-16T08:47:34.343+01:00Create Reading Comprehension Activities for the Remote Classroom with Quillionz<p>I first wrote about <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2018/12/create-reading-activities-from.html" target="_blank">Quillionz back in 2018</a> and it’s great to see how far the product has come since then. At that time it was a free product that used AI to generate questions based around any text that you entered. You could then select and edit the questions you wanted to use and print these for the classroom.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCL1qz66D12KU0t8tFi1NveuKRnrJOuCAwlJFAJomXVogmlW3J2o974vPOKeF6icsD6gf0lT87UtReNiz2bo59j6PKShz4HQae7ocF0gHyYGO90RfsZ4HenWKyE0mdLr-Yzc838nlSH_B/s2048/Quillionz_-_World_s_First_AI-Powered_Question_Generator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1099" data-original-width="2048" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCL1qz66D12KU0t8tFi1NveuKRnrJOuCAwlJFAJomXVogmlW3J2o974vPOKeF6icsD6gf0lT87UtReNiz2bo59j6PKShz4HQae7ocF0gHyYGO90RfsZ4HenWKyE0mdLr-Yzc838nlSH_B/w400-h215/Quillionz_-_World_s_First_AI-Powered_Question_Generator.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div></div><div>These features are still available and there is still a lifetime free subscription available, but they have now added more features and developed some premium features that make this a product worth investing, especially if you need to create a lot of reading materials based around authentic text.
</div><div><br /></div><div>Just to recap, creating questions is very easy. You can just copy paste in your text, give it a title, select the educational domain it belongs to and then choose the keywords from the text that you want the reader to focus on. You can also bypass the keyword selection process and get <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> to choose for you if you choose.
</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> will then review your text for you and highlight any weaknesses in the writing, such as lengthy sentences, subjectivity or incomplete sentences.
</div><div><br /></div><div>Next <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> uses AI to analyse the text and generate sets of questions for you to choose from. Once the questions appear you can select and edit the ones you want to use with your text. <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> creates a number of different types of questions for you to use. This includes short answers, multiple choice and ‘recall’ questions (these are ones where they have to fill a gap in a sentence with the missing word from the text). The premium version <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> also includes WH questions and interpretive questions which push students to give more complex and open ended answers. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjak8C5SfBxmlgA6Uyh68pVcsoud9n3S6-qJ7utBUVEwpgBZEKcMWFoSWR2J_1ucLCT2-P-abL4ZGao82iXUJdWBvtlAOnWM7EvG-hAlxx7FJL67efCzG1pRlWCH0rhchnh6xLg6UnxEThd/s2048/Quillionz_-_World%25E2%2580%2599s_first_AI-powered_platform_for_creating_questions__assessments__quizzes__and_notes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="2048" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjak8C5SfBxmlgA6Uyh68pVcsoud9n3S6-qJ7utBUVEwpgBZEKcMWFoSWR2J_1ucLCT2-P-abL4ZGao82iXUJdWBvtlAOnWM7EvG-hAlxx7FJL67efCzG1pRlWCH0rhchnh6xLg6UnxEThd/w400-h255/Quillionz_-_World%25E2%2580%2599s_first_AI-powered_platform_for_creating_questions__assessments__quizzes__and_notes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div></div><div>Once the questions have been created and you have chosen the ones you want to use, you have a number of ways of sharing them with students. You can either download them as a document by clicking on ‘Export’ or you can click on ‘Create Quillionz’. This option creates a sequence of flashcards that you can share with students. The students can then read the text and try to answer the questions and click on the flashcard to see the answer. You share the flashcards by using a link, so this will work really well in the remote classroom and it will allow students to each work at their own speed.
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5X_IM5AnyVIzy2JzM6iFz9BExXHsqw8CRrApXLf939tAL3Qq8J-7NaN2VAPta2vGpgISBtBiafZSjsMNh8V4xSbEVCuC6CGr3xi12-nCRw3i_BvJEjrcups9r5AAoGN1UfkRcMHCCDpSD/s2048/Quillionz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1335" data-original-width="2048" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5X_IM5AnyVIzy2JzM6iFz9BExXHsqw8CRrApXLf939tAL3Qq8J-7NaN2VAPta2vGpgISBtBiafZSjsMNh8V4xSbEVCuC6CGr3xi12-nCRw3i_BvJEjrcups9r5AAoGN1UfkRcMHCCDpSD/w400-h261/Quillionz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div></div><div>There is another option for exporting the questions to <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2020/03/add-learning-activities-and-games-to.html" target="_blank">Raptivity</a>. This is another product I’ve reviewed on this site. <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2020/03/add-learning-activities-and-games-to.html" target="_blank">Raptivity</a> enables you to turn the questions set in to a range of html5 interactive learning objects that can be deployed in online courses. So this can speed up the process of creating online courses considerably.
</div><div><br /></div><div>Another great new feature is that <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> will also produce summary notes of the text featuring the main points. Again you can edit this for accuracy before saving the notes.
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpPA3A9EOzl8vH7JnVnFlyYk2iipzpy91_gBY00Da6-oh3nliD3ybuj1jpteVkk7I26hiGeSebG9b2xm1lh73oJkDTrCpulX2pue8tG48gQwLmAtji5Y1awmlyZh0vJ7L_ijca5ZxLoG4/s2646/Quillionz_-_World%25E2%2580%2599s_first_AI-powered_platform.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="2646" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpPA3A9EOzl8vH7JnVnFlyYk2iipzpy91_gBY00Da6-oh3nliD3ybuj1jpteVkk7I26hiGeSebG9b2xm1lh73oJkDTrCpulX2pue8tG48gQwLmAtji5Y1awmlyZh0vJ7L_ijca5ZxLoG4/w400-h180/Quillionz_-_World%25E2%2580%2599s_first_AI-powered_platform.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div></div><div>All of the texts you use and the questions you create can be saved in the dashboard so it’s easy to retrieve texts and re-edit them for revision or for a different group of students.
</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the things that I really like about <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/" target="_blank">Quillionz</a> is that you can quite quickly and easily teach students to use it and then they can create their own revision quizzes and create quizzes for each other. The summary notes will also be really useful for students.
</div><div><br /></div><div>You can click here to <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/#pricing" target="_blank">check the price of a premium subscription</a> and compare packages.
</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope you enjoy using this tool and that it saves you some time when creating comprehension activities. </div><div> </div><div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>More Teacher Resources</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
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<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b> </b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li></ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br /></div>Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-30205564942403794042020-10-02T06:34:00.004+01:002020-10-02T08:26:07.726+01:00Create blended and flipped learning materials on the fly with TeacherToolsDigital<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBaxGlP1LPXFkmtVO4LhCJsbpcrkMlN28m34nif0eaRrL14UQNsTkZHEl_gQ7N1hNNbuNmF_9QEBJQEwUI11Xe8oD_veChjNShulAix8Y2hAOaQjTACsi-k2F_en1DSlpeysq2cnPfLju/s1504/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder_%25F0%259F%2594%258A.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>With the rapid and sudden increase in remote teaching and learning many schools and teachers are finding it hard to manage the smaller class sizes that remote learning supports and still give students the hours of study and practice they need to move their learning forward.<br /><br />Many schools have turned to blended learning to fill the gap, but soon discovered that creating high quality blended learning courses takes time, money and a specific set of skills which many of their teachers don’t completely cover.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpu1hO034FH4eaI7t8r4Ac8jl72gGadhzSGiB3sIJ0fEWHHmw7JzgOSdvgYyU19Hc0EmZHd8zEFxCEnI8s4HeFHc0Z6HdDwMfU2Wz_vO3h62BRBQ_84sOVlptTjVfWnK4iiw97BsthzWz/s2527/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1244" data-original-width="2527" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpu1hO034FH4eaI7t8r4Ac8jl72gGadhzSGiB3sIJ0fEWHHmw7JzgOSdvgYyU19Hc0EmZHd8zEFxCEnI8s4HeFHc0Z6HdDwMfU2Wz_vO3h62BRBQ_84sOVlptTjVfWnK4iiw97BsthzWz/w510-h253/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><p>Luckily there is a solution to this problem that will enable teachers to create pedagogically sound online tasks and activities that can be adapted to students’ needs with minimal time and effort. The solution is <a href="http://TeacherTools.Digital" target="_blank">TeacherTools.Digital</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://TeacherTools.Digital" target="_blank">TeacherTools.Digital</a> has a great collection of skills based language practice activities that can be quickly adapted and deployed to get students producing language outside of class time whether it’s in a flipped, blended, hybrid, or fully online learning approach.<br /><br />The site has eight basic activity types and these range from the usual gap filling types exercises to ones that students can submit using voice, text or even their video webcam.<br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBaxGlP1LPXFkmtVO4LhCJsbpcrkMlN28m34nif0eaRrL14UQNsTkZHEl_gQ7N1hNNbuNmF_9QEBJQEwUI11Xe8oD_veChjNShulAix8Y2hAOaQjTACsi-k2F_en1DSlpeysq2cnPfLju/s1504/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder_%25F0%259F%2594%258A.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="1504" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBaxGlP1LPXFkmtVO4LhCJsbpcrkMlN28m34nif0eaRrL14UQNsTkZHEl_gQ7N1hNNbuNmF_9QEBJQEwUI11Xe8oD_veChjNShulAix8Y2hAOaQjTACsi-k2F_en1DSlpeysq2cnPfLju/w400-h234/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder_%25F0%259F%2594%258A.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>The easiest way to get started with <a href="http://TeacherTools.Digital" target="_blank">TeacherTools.Digital</a> is to try some of the ready made and then just adapt them and add your own content and ideas.<br /><br />If you click on browse underneath each activity type you can scroll through a range of activities. When you select one you’ll see how it is structured and then you can easily change the various elements of the activity to suit your needs.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASY3xKWXnrrhG0jbG32ZuoKLnv9Grr8l5qVTxcLBn_tlkWrH4630SyoGCNzdRJgv3ENWh_h0gfl1d7DByS_l0Ir_oEnL9wUaVgpzATp1mqS2q3iJBieIcSIuKPnslFAYe8aN50RTGG4h5/s1930/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder_%25F0%259F%2594%258A+2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1930" data-original-width="1448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASY3xKWXnrrhG0jbG32ZuoKLnv9Grr8l5qVTxcLBn_tlkWrH4630SyoGCNzdRJgv3ENWh_h0gfl1d7DByS_l0Ir_oEnL9wUaVgpzATp1mqS2q3iJBieIcSIuKPnslFAYe8aN50RTGG4h5/w300-h400/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder_%25F0%259F%2594%258A+2.png" width="300" /></a></div><p>One of my favourite activity types is the one that enables students to submit a video response using their webcam. I think this is a great tool to help students work on their visual communications skills and with the move towards more remote working, this is becoming a vital work/life skill for many of our students.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSkh1MYVWSf9QLRwjcaJftyVpBwTq42x4M_P_9UAo7XMVNHBBqDuFooMSCWTEAx8bXeZQTKhF6zMddHPxGg4sCBMBBrfi-wcsVjsg0xZkWko-e_USEj5-1BS53hfnxTNY3H8AUMwtqvtP/s2048/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+7.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1419" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSkh1MYVWSf9QLRwjcaJftyVpBwTq42x4M_P_9UAo7XMVNHBBqDuFooMSCWTEAx8bXeZQTKhF6zMddHPxGg4sCBMBBrfi-wcsVjsg0xZkWko-e_USEj5-1BS53hfnxTNY3H8AUMwtqvtP/s320/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+7.png" /></a></div><p>The Read Aloud activity type is also really useful as it enables you to set speaking activities for students that they can do at home and they get instant feedback on their performance as they read each line. This can increase their speaking practice time and reduce your homework marking time.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0jporKYnx0rpaSqDpXR28FwFWEu8vMvLjRQ9w8oNCoDakIjY0PcXXr8hTMvMQERdQExjXTVKaK2zVwLLtjnyVtuK5FStTXfTHXp7HtpEf8hDhizr8ySMk_SLP1qClKl3KKQJVGlM3GP2/s1582/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1432" data-original-width="1582" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic0jporKYnx0rpaSqDpXR28FwFWEu8vMvLjRQ9w8oNCoDakIjY0PcXXr8hTMvMQERdQExjXTVKaK2zVwLLtjnyVtuK5FStTXfTHXp7HtpEf8hDhizr8ySMk_SLP1qClKl3KKQJVGlM3GP2/s320/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+3.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>When you have created an activity you get a link that you can share with students and all of their results are tracked into the <a href="http://TeacherTools.Digital" target="_blank">TeacherTools.Digital</a> LMS, so you know how your students are progressing and which ones are completing their homework assignments.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgKyiHT7BhNjICTVXoTQBylmax3YjMavcpNhsnYVH3kClAn3y2LTG0PY-Wtdou-CoMPt0K8crqQNBySzSqMOE5zCWmNzZocjaLZI_goSyse7nB-ibpMl_dQsjAaUWpdhxkQ4dfUwdosxM/s1472/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="1472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgKyiHT7BhNjICTVXoTQBylmax3YjMavcpNhsnYVH3kClAn3y2LTG0PY-Wtdou-CoMPt0K8crqQNBySzSqMOE5zCWmNzZocjaLZI_goSyse7nB-ibpMl_dQsjAaUWpdhxkQ4dfUwdosxM/s320/TeacherTools_Digital__Manage_Folder+2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>As I said, I think this is a great solution to increase the amount of meaningful practice students have with language and to reduce some of the workload being placed on teachers. <br /><br />You can try <a href="https://www.teachertools.digital/index.php">TeacherTools.Digital</a> for free for 30 days, after that you’ll need to pay $9.99 a month (<a href="https://www.teachertools.digital/pricing.php " target="_blank">See pricing</a>). This can be really worth the amount of time it can save you. At present there is no price on the schools account, but it may be worth trying to get your school to enquire as substantial discounts are available when signing up multiple teachers from the same institution at the same time.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.teachertools.digital/index.php">TeacherTools.Digital</a> is also integrates with a wide range of LMS, so if your school already has a platform for building blended learning then it's quite easy to use <a href="https://www.teachertools.digital/index.php">TeacherTools.Digital</a> to extend the range of activity types that you can offer.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><b>As a special offer for readers of Nik's Quickshout. The good folks at TeacherTools.Digital are offering an additional 10% discount on top of the already discounted yearly rate of $99, bringing it down to only $89. What's more, your subscription will continue to renew at this price in subsequent years! </b></p><p><b>This offer is only available to the first 25 users to redeem the following coupon code: PEACHEY-YEARLY-2020.</b></p><p>I hope you enjoy using this great tool and that it helps to reduce your workload and increase your students’ learning. </p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>More Teacher Resources</b></span></div>
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
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<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b> </b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face=""roboto" , sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
</span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li><li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li></ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-57468160852164913312020-04-28T12:25:00.001+01:002020-04-28T12:25:11.274+01:00Ready to Run with authentic video lessons that are classroom-ready for levels A1 - B2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Over the last decade, video has become one of the key drivers of online learning and nowhere more so than in language learning. It has the power to reach beyond words and sounds and show students a range of non-verbal communication features as well as taking them to places and peoples around the world that they may never be able to access physically.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="166" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Despite the power of video, one of the greatest difficulties of using authentic video with language students has always been level. Authentic video has often been seen as too challenging for lower-level students, and much of the graded, made for language teaching material is so cringingly inauthentic that it is almost too embarrassing to use, especially for teenagers and young adults.<br /><br />Finally, though it looks like Digital Learning Associates (DLA) have solved the problem with their award-winning <a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/" target="_blank">Ready to Run</a> series of videos and learning materials.<br /><br /><b>The Ready to Run Videos</b><br />If you check out <a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/catalog" target="_blank">the Ready to Run catalogue</a> you’ll see that they have a great range of really diverse, inclusive and most importantly interesting videos that cover a really broad range of geographies, topics, cultures and lifestyles.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="800" height="196" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
The videos have been categorised using the CEFR so it’s really easy to find the ones that are appropriate for the level of your students and there is a range of video at each level from A1 up to B2.<br /><br />The videos are professionally produced with really high-quality camera work and audio and as I mentioned earlier they are engaging enough to hold the attention of a native speaker solely on the interest level of the content.<br /><br /><b>The Teaching and Learning Materials</b><br />The series is entitled <a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/" target="_blank">Ready to Run</a> and it is exactly that. Most of the videos have PDF materials that you can download and use immediately with your students as well as a teachers guide and copies of transcripts.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="800" height="275" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-3.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Another of the great things about the videos is that it’s also possible to open the captions so that students can read the transcript as the watch and for students who are really struggling the settings allow you to slow the video down. <br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Here’s an example video from a South African Vlogger. The video is about what she’s doing to pass the time during the lockdown.<br />
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<a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/programs/bokangs-vlog-in-quarantine-keeping-busy-at-home" target="_blank"><img alt="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/programs/bokangs-vlog-in-quarantine-keeping-busy-at-home" border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DLA-5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Subscriptions</b><br /><a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/" target="_blank">Ready to Run</a> is a subscription service with a range of <a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/pages/subscribe-now" target="_blank">subscription packages</a>.<br />
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<li><b>Video Star</b> - Which is <b>free </b>and gives you access to 10 videos with lesson materials from a range of levels. These are updated with new content every month.</li>
<li><b>Video Pro </b>- Which gives you access to 35 units of material ranging A1 to B2. At present, you can also get the <b>Video Pro package for free for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic</b>.</li>
<li><b>Video School</b> - This gives you and the teachers at your school unlimited access to the complete catalogue for <b>£79 a month</b>.</li>
</ul>
<br />Finally, if you check out the <a href="https://readytorun.digitallearningassociates.com/pages/blog" target="_blank">Ready to Run blog</a> you’ll also see some interesting postings about how to use the materials online for virtual teaching as well as some posts about new and upcoming content.<br /><br />So whether you are teaching online or looking forward to getting back into the classroom now is a great time to sign up and get some really interesting and engaging materials that can save you hours of preparation.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>More Teache Resources</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
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<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
</span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-36095735875020320352020-04-24T12:59:00.001+01:002020-04-24T12:59:08.425+01:00Using the bulb digital portfolio to keep up with qualitative assessment of student work online<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the rapid shift to online learning that’s taking place at present, there’s one thing that can easily get overlooked - the value of qualitative evaluation. What better tool to do that with than a digital portfolio tool like bulb?<br /><br /><a href="https://www.bulbapp.com/">bulb</a> is simple to use, works on mobile as well as in the browser and it gives your students the opportunity to collect and showcase their work using a modern and stylish design.<br /><b><br />Creating a profile </b><br />To get started, all you need to do is <a href="https://www.bulbapp.com/">create a free profile</a>. All you need is an image and a short description of who you are.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Nik_Peachey___bulb-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="800" height="238" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Nik_Peachey___bulb-2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Once you have your profile created you can start collecting together any digital assets you would like to include in your portfolio.<br /><br /><b>Collecting your work </b>You can access your asset library by clicking on the icon in the top right of the screen. You or your students can add a wide variety of digital assets to your library. These could be an audio recording, documents, images, videos, or work they have stored on Google Drive or OneDrive. Interestingly, students can also record audio directly into the asset library, which may well be useful for collecting examples of student’s spoken work.<br /><br />The asset library is a great place for students to collect their work as it’s totally private so they can wait until they are ready to publish something before they add it to a page.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Asset_Library___bulb.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="800" height="256" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Asset_Library___bulb.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Once students have their work in the asset library they can create Pages or Collections. A Collection is a number of Pages collected together, much like a folder. This makes it easier for students to collect and categorize their pages into different topics or subjects.<br /><br /><b>Creating pages </b>Creating pages is very easy. Click to create a page, give the page a title and add a cover image. Then start typing in content. Click on ‘Enter’ to start a new line and you will get the option for adding assets from your library or uploading new media assets such as images, video, audio and more.<br /><br />Apart from its simplicity, one really nice feature of the editor is the ability to create image carousels. Once you have added one image you can simply click on the image icon to add additional images. This makes the collections of images look more professional and users don’t need to scroll down a long page.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/create_an_image_carousel_and_Conversation___Listening___bulb.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="569" height="232" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/create_an_image_carousel_and_Conversation___Listening___bulb.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Once students have completed their page they can publish it. They can either make the page public, create a private link, or share it with specific users or groups. This makes it much easier for students to share work with peers to get feedback and comments or just their teacher or parents.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Conversation___Listening___bulb.png"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Conversation___Listening___bulb.png" width="291" /></a></div>
Another nice feature of the site is that you can create pages and share them as templates. This enables other users to make copies of the page and use them to add their own content. This is a great feature to enable you to create worksheets for students that they can complete or to provide a format and structure for the work that they do.<br /><br /><b>Creating groups </b>If you are using <a href="https://www.bulbapp.com/">bulb</a> with students and particularly if you are using it with multiple classes, then the Groups feature is going to be really useful. <br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Nik_Peachey___bulb.png"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Nik_Peachey___bulb.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />To create a group you go back to the menu and select groups and then ‘Create Group’. Give your group a name and description, then create a unique URL.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My_Authors___bulb.png"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My_Authors___bulb.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Once you have created a group you can add members by either entering their email or username or you can give students a code to add themselves as members of the group.<br /><br />Now that students are in a group they can easily share and comment on each other's work and you can share work and templates with them as well as assessing and evaluating their work.<br /><br /><b>Sharing </b><br />
One last feature that I really like about <a href="https://www.bulbapp.com/">bulb</a> is once pages are published they can be used in presentation mode. This opens them as fullscreen without all the editing and navigation tools, so that students can present their work in the classroom.<br /><br />If you are a Google Classroom user you will also be happy to know that bulb works alongside Classroom.<br /><br />That’s about all there is to it. <a href="https://www.bulbapp.com/">bulb</a> is a really stylish tool to use with your students, that they or their parents can access in the home that enables peer to peer evaluation as well as tutor evaluation and assessment of work.<br /><br />I hope you find this a really useful addition to your digital teaching toolset.<br /><br /><br />
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
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To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
</span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br />
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Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-74461269063452750012020-03-31T12:14:00.001+01:002020-04-03T05:38:50.281+01:00Add learning activities and games to your zoom classroom with Raptivity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In these difficult times when schools and universities are rushing to develop credible and engaging online learning, <a href="https://www.raptivity.com/?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Raptivity 2020</a> looks like a really useful low-cost tool to enable that process.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/eLearning-development-simplified-with-Raptivity-2020.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="800" height="167" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/eLearning-development-simplified-with-Raptivity-2020.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Raptivity 2020 is a great content authoring tool and is capable of creating dynamic and media-rich learning that is adaptive across mobile, tablet and desktop screens.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_adaptive.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="800" height="178" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_adaptive.png" width="400" /></a></div>
One of the striking things about <a href="https://www.raptivity.com/?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Raptivity</a> is just how simple it is to create great looking materials. When you log in, there are two parts to the dashboard, one area where your work is stored and the other where you create content.<br />
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There are a good range of content types with a good balance between presentation formats and gaming/testing types.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Interactions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="800" height="187" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Interactions.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Each content type has an example so you can see how it works and what it looks like to students and then you can just select the ones you want and customise them with your own content.<br />
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These are some examples of the presentation types:<br />
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<li>Layered Display: This content type allows the students to choose from a range of topics within the main theme. <a href="https://app.raptivity.com/default/preview/3?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Understanding sexual harassment</a>. </li>
<li>Panning Slides: This content type is more like a linear presentation with a menu at the side so students can jump around a little. Example: <a href="https://app.raptivity.com/default/preview/2?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Fruit and Vegetables </a></li>
<li>Horizontal Parallax: This content type is more like a timeline that students can work through. Example: <a href="https://app.raptivity.com/default/preview/1?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">The #MeeToo Timeline</a> <br /><span id="goog_1323075580"></span><span id="goog_1323075581"></span></li>
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity-Mobile.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="370" height="400" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity-Mobile.png" width="183" /></a></div>
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These are some examples of the game type activities:<br />
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<li>This one is based around a bowling alley. Students answer question to get the opportunity to bowl and see whether they got the answer correct. </li>
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<li><a href="https://app.raptivity.com/default/preview/12?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Example</a></li>
</ul>
<li>This one is based around a mouse trying to get cheese. Students answer questions correctly and the mouse gets the cheese, but if they make enough mistakes, the cat scares the mouse away. </li>
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<li><a href="https://app.raptivity.com/default/preview/11?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Example</a> </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Game2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="800" height="298" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Game2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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All of these content types can easily be customised with your own content. This includes adding audio narration for each slide and embedding your own video from social media.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Video.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="800" height="167" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_Video.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once you have added your content to the slides and games you can see what they look like on either tablets or phones in both horizontal and vertical mode.<br />
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Once you have saved your finished activities they are stored in the 'MyWork' section and from there you can either publish and share them through social media or email or export them for use in your own learning platform. All of the content produced is SCORM compliant.<br />
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You can also run the published content while screen sharing during a live class in Zoom or any other online classroom, or pass links to students through chat so they can do activities in pairs or breakout rooms.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_game1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="800" height="297" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raptivity_game1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.raptivity.com/?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Raptivity </a>has a free 14-day trial which should be more than enough time to learn how to use the tool and produce some engaging content. Signing up for a year is very economical compared to other similar platforms. There doesn't seem to be a monthly plan at present, but at time of writing there is a 25% reduction.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://www.raptivity.com/raptivity-2020-pricing.html?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Pricing</a><span id="goog_717553062"></span><span id="goog_717553063"></span></li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.raptivity.com/?utm_source=quickshout&utm_medium=review" target="_blank">Raptivity</a> is well worth a try if you want to quickly create online learning content that's both engaging, media-rich and which looks fresh and professionally designed.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey </div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-27963539232620658812020-03-18T06:54:00.001+00:002020-03-18T06:54:20.495+00:00Plexie for collaborative online creation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><a href="https://plexie.com/plexie-for-teachers?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=peachey&utm_campaign=peacheymar2020" target="_blank">Plexie</a> is a really interesting web-based app and quite a hard one to define. Basically it allows teams to work collaboratively in a web-based document to produce digital content that can either be published and shared publicly or kept private for only limited team members.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie-1024x683.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie-1024x683.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />When you create your first <a href="https://plexie.com/plexie-for-teachers?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=peachey&utm_campaign=peacheymar2020" target="_blank">Plexie</a>, you create an online workspace. This allows you to create a number of digital documents that you can either work on with a team or keep private.<br /><br />Creating a new document is easy, you just click on ‘Create Plexie’ and give your document a name.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="800" height="187" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Once you have your document in your workspace you can start adding different ‘Cards’ to it. It’s a good idea to start off with some idea of what you want to create and figure out how you want to layout your workspace. This is particularly true if you want to work with a team.<br />
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<br />You could assign different team members different cards to work on or everyone could work together.<br /><br />Once you have your layout created you can start adding content to each card. You can easily add a wide range of content, from images, video and documents to text and hyperlinks to other content.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="704" height="185" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /><br />At each step of the way, you can just click on ‘View’ to see what your final product will look like.<br /><br />You can also add additional pages to each <a href="https://plexie.com/plexie-for-teachers?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=peachey&utm_campaign=peacheymar2020" target="_blank">Plexie</a> in a similar way that you would if you were designing a website with multiple pages.<br /><br /><a href="https://plexie.com/plexie-for-teachers?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=peachey&utm_campaign=peacheymar2020" target="_blank">Plexie</a> is a simple to use tool, but can also be used to create quite high quality visually pleasing content if you want to work with it and develop your skills a little.<br /><br />When you have finished you can share your Plexie by clicking on 'Share’ and then turning on link sharing. This will make the Plexie visible to anyone who has the link.<br />
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To make this whole process easier, Plexie has just introduced a number of templates that you can choose from that you just need to select and add your own content to. Like this one for collaboratively creating a lesson plan.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="800" height="332" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie6.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b><b>Why use Plexie?</b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I think this a great tool for working with younger learners to develop their digital literacy skills. It provides you with a very safe collaborative environment that you can then share with parents once the work is finished.</li>
<li>This would be a great tool to enable teachers to develop and share lesson plans within their school or staffroom. They can work on the plans collaboratively or individually and then access each others’ plans and materials online.</li>
<li>You could use Plexie to get students doing language analysis of grammar points. Just set up a Plexie for the grammar point you want them to explore. Add cards for each of the aspects of the grammar point you want them to investigate, such as form, meaning, pronunciation, </li>
<li>Students could use Plexie to create the framework and plan for a project as part of a PBL cycle. This would enable them to work on the project output together and then share and make it public when they have finished.</li>
<li>Plexie is ideal for creating video-based lessons. You can embed the video into one of the cards and have your instructions on a second card. Answers could be set up on a second page.</li>
<li><a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="800" height="345" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/plexie7.png" width="400" /></a></li>
<li>Similarly, you could add an infographic to a Plexie and get students to fact check the information in it and use a card each to share what they discovered about the topic. This would help them to develop their digital literacies and critical thinking skills.</li>
<li>Students could use a Plexie as a ‘vision board’ and collect examples of things that inspire them or that they aspire to do.</li>
<li>Students could use Plexie as a digital portfolio and collect and keep examples of their best work there.</li>
</ul>
There are also some nice examples on the Plexie site that show some of the range of uses for Plexie. I especially liked the idea of having <a href="https://demo.plexie.com/app/#/public/project/e7d6ac09-575f-47fb-a0c1-ad442bf10c16/board/46e1d0ed-2144-4645-b534-8bd13e825478" target="_blank">CV/Resume on the site like this one</a>. <br />
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As you can see, <a href="https://plexie.com/plexie-for-teachers?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=peachey&utm_campaign=peacheymar2020" target="_blank">Plexie</a> is a very flexible and adaptable tool with a wide range of potential uses. The free pricing plan is also very generous and enables teams of up to 100 people to work on one workspace. I guess that should be enough for most classes.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
Best<br />
Nik Peachey <br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-6228882814339263712020-02-28T09:00:00.000+00:002020-02-28T09:02:34.977+00:00Actively Learn - A Huge Resource of Ready-Made Interactive Learning for English Language Learners<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/" target="_blank">Actively Learn</a> isn’t just a great source of learning content for grades 6 through to 12, though if you are teaching adult learners much of the grade 12 content would still be appropriate. It’s also an LMS that enables you to create and track the use of learning materials across your classes, and a teacher development tool that enables you to train teachers in aspects of materials development and instructional design.<br />
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Ready-Made Content for ELA</h4>
<a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/" target="_blank">Actively Learn</a> already has a really substantial amount of <a href="https://read.activelylearn.com/#teacher/catalog" target="_blank">readymade interactive learning content</a> when you log in. The content is easy to browse or search, initially by subject (ELA, Science or Social Studies) and then by a range of different parameters, from grade to topic to theme or genre.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="800" height="246" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once you have found some interesting looking content for your students you can click through to see the activities that have been designed for it and the guidance notes for the teacher. There is also a brief introduction to the text. The questions that you can see as you scroll through the text are interactive and when the text is assigned to the student their responses will be tracked into the reporting part of the site.<br />
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If you want to change some of the questions or add cultural notes or word definitions through the text you can also do this, just click on the ‘Customize’ button at the top of the screen.<br />
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To add notes, questions or definitions to words, just highlight them and you will see a menu appear.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="800" height="228" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once you have your text and all of the tasks ready, just click on ‘Assign’ and the text will be sent to the class that you choose. <br />
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Creating Classes and Measuring Learning</h4>
Setting up classes is simple. Just click on ‘Add new class’ on the main menu and you’ll be able to give the class a name and select the grade of the students. You get a simple code to give to students that enables them to enroll in your class. Once the students start to interact with the content you’ll be able to track their work through the Gradebook and Student data. You can also get an overall view of the class data.<br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn5.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Creating and Customizing Content</h4>
<a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/" target="_blank">Actively Learn</a> isn’t just for the development of reading skills though, you can also access or create your own content based around online video. Just select ‘Video’ on the ‘Genre’ tab and you’ll see the selection of ready-made video content. When you select a video you’ll see that it has question marks beneath the video play bar. When the students get to this point in the video it will pause and show them a question. By clicking on ‘Customize’ and then clicking on the play bar you can either edit or add new questions to the video.<br />
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If you decide you want to add your own content, then click on ‘Import’ and select the type of content you want to add. You can then start to add interactions and questions to it before assigning it to a class.<br />
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Actively Learn for Teacher Development</h4>
As I said at the beginning of this article, <a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/" target="_blank">Actively Learn</a> is also a tool for teacher development and has some really well-structured learning activities for teachers that will help them use the platform more successfully. To find these materials click on ‘Professional Learning’ in the menu.<br />
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The Professional Learning section starts with a research paper that teachers can read and comment on. The interactions around this paper will be shared with other teachers who are registered at the same school. The platform then has a collection of sequenced activities that teachers can work through to develop different aspects of their professional knowledge whilst helping them to use the platform more effectively with some ‘hands-on tasks’. <br />
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<a href="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="800" height="248" src="https://peacheypublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Actively-Learn3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Actively Learn Plans</h4>
<a href="https://www.activelylearn.com/" target="_blank">Actively Learn</a> is a pretty impressive platform with a great and constantly growing bank of materials. As a teacher you can sign up for an individual account and use Actively Learn for free, but for the real power of the platform, along with API integrations into Google Classrooms, SIS or another LMS, you’ll need a premium plan. These plans are negotiated with schools according to what elements of the platform and integration they need and the number of students involved. At the school level, it’s clear to see how Actively Learn could have really clear and measurable benefits that could have genuine impact on students’ learning.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-85476396641572983362020-01-15T05:57:00.001+00:002020-01-15T05:57:04.857+00:00Vocab Victor for developing vocabulary knowledge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/" target="_blank">Vocab Victor</a> is a great app and resource for developing vocabulary. I say app and resource because as well as the free app you can download from the site, there are also some great resources on the website.<br /><br />Let's start with the app though. The Vocab Victor app is a really useful example of gamified vocabulary development. The app has 14 levels and the user has to work through the levels playing different kinds of games to learn different types of word knowledge for hundreds of words.</div>
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There are 5 different types of game for developing vocabulary.</h4>
Word strike which is like a word association multiple choice game.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WSSteal.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WSSteal.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
Word find which is like the classic word search activity.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WFSauce.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WFSauce.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
Word drop which requires students to choose which of two words has the strongest association to the keyword.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WDSectorIdiotic.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WDSectorIdiotic.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
Word lock which requires students to match words to definitions.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WordLock.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WordLock.png" width="240" /></a></div>
And a daily challenge game which focuses on collocations and word grammar.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/DailyChallenge.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/DailyChallenge.png" width="179" /></a></div>
The games are attractive and very intuitive. Students can also review the words they have studied and as they work through the games they earn charms. They can use these charms to get help or to move on when they get stuck with a word.<br />
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<a href="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WordReview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://vocabvictor.com/img/WordReview.png" width="240" /></a></div>
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There's also a leader board that they can use to see how they are doing in comparison to others playing the game.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrnHJjbkF4UF7AOCyxfinxtUALprbccdhElNRRjP6ojhCqoXtBdr-PoZQQhGzLEqLgIy4LCgF5UIhfOssFXAjlQ1q4egmWLxu9SpQKK3wUYFXVFTSCLwetUf4QTpr-qCH4VpDoxHeaeIF/s1600/IMG_9855.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrnHJjbkF4UF7AOCyxfinxtUALprbccdhElNRRjP6ojhCqoXtBdr-PoZQQhGzLEqLgIy4LCgF5UIhfOssFXAjlQ1q4egmWLxu9SpQKK3wUYFXVFTSCLwetUf4QTpr-qCH4VpDoxHeaeIF/s400/IMG_9855.PNG" width="223" /></a></div>
The web site includes a <a href="https://words.vocabvictor.com/" target="_blank">word study resource</a>, which lets students find more information for selected words, and even a video which gives an example of the pronunciation in use in a YouTube video.<br /><br />There is also a <a href="https://vocabvictor.com/course/" target="_blank">vocabulary challenge course</a> that has videos and information to help students learn 20 new words a week over 25 weeks.<br /><br /><a href="https://vocabvictor.com/" target="_blank">Vocab Victor</a> is a great free resource for students. It's probably best suited to students who are around an intermediate (B1 +) level as some of the words are quite difficult, but it can adapt to the students level, so if students are getting a lot of words wrong then it will find lower-level words.<br /><br /><a href="https://vocabvictor.com/" target="_blank">Vocab Victor</a> is a great tool to use in class as a filler activity or better still get your students to download the app and practise in their free time. The app works on both iOS and Android.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>You can find links to many more resources like this and activities for the digital classroom in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a></li>
<li>I also curate a collection of tools for developing vocabulary her on Mix: <a href="https://mix.com/nikpeachey/vocabulary-building-tools" target="_blank">Vocabulary Development Tools </a></li>
<li>To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Check Out My Books:</b></h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-36557441123982481892020-01-08T06:01:00.000+00:002020-01-08T08:47:33.564+00:00Eduflow for building online, blended and flipped courses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
If you are looking for a fast and simple way to build online courses or digitise your existing courses then <a href="https://eduflow.com/?utm_campaign=peachey+publications" target="_blank">Eduflow</a> could be the tool for you.<br />
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What I really like about Eduflow is that it takes a lot of the work out of the course construction process by having ready-made blocks or 'flows' that you can just select and add your content to.</div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Using Eduflow to create an online course</h3>
To create a course on <a href="https://eduflow.com/?utm_campaign=peachey+publications" target="_blank">Eduflow</a>, just register and then click on 'Create or Join'. This will enable you to give your course a name and create it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7F6o9HtavQFbApOlmc3uhGzw8QQ04uCJJ1VYXMuHaS6qJqLQwGKf6l_wdI0fxZVzDNLc4MgGkNULPlGDFFMKcGxdCBd19m6bWBvAJdnT5tgjwhvoEmCUttId57VRk2cSc3LAfcuMKoAZJ/s1600/Create_course.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1091" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7F6o9HtavQFbApOlmc3uhGzw8QQ04uCJJ1VYXMuHaS6qJqLQwGKf6l_wdI0fxZVzDNLc4MgGkNULPlGDFFMKcGxdCBd19m6bWBvAJdnT5tgjwhvoEmCUttId57VRk2cSc3LAfcuMKoAZJ/s400/Create_course.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once the course is created it simple to add activities to it, just click on 'Add activities & flows'.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4NmQSxfMzm1wfuW7hyEkNsz_FCIF-pvpW4rFpj_3mjlA1_zY_OrV52n4oDB5-H7r3VVwjRBqj5FJzSHpVAjEjT46qRpPA63fR2zHbTBDRFD0WE8kROCUUW2GHXwcTVyQh-fvTmOsdfuT/s1600/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students_and_C1-S1-T6-Benefits-diversity_pages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1082" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4NmQSxfMzm1wfuW7hyEkNsz_FCIF-pvpW4rFpj_3mjlA1_zY_OrV52n4oDB5-H7r3VVwjRBqj5FJzSHpVAjEjT46qRpPA63fR2zHbTBDRFD0WE8kROCUUW2GHXwcTVyQh-fvTmOsdfuT/s400/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students_and_C1-S1-T6-Benefits-diversity_pages.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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You can then add content to your course. Content could be a mixture of text, images, links videos or you could upload a file for students.<br />
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Once you have created your content you can set up rules to define when and for how long students can access the content. This is really useful if you want to blend the course with work you're doing in the classroom and ensure that the online work is done at a specific time. It should also help to reduce student procrastination, which is one of the big negative impacts of online learning.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvft_uXmQUwzCwg5FOGRySVDc26YUDWl-GTuPg1al-dU8M4vYRbbxkctxQMua61_ssY-hAbego0nit_tXWPK6_djqzJ_CpEQZTGcsZcXxkSppnlva5ryyCE4r-1g7PIwHzcNNTYuZyGFiA/s1600/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="886" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvft_uXmQUwzCwg5FOGRySVDc26YUDWl-GTuPg1al-dU8M4vYRbbxkctxQMua61_ssY-hAbego0nit_tXWPK6_djqzJ_CpEQZTGcsZcXxkSppnlva5ryyCE4r-1g7PIwHzcNNTYuZyGFiA/s400/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Once the content is created you can use flows to define how your students will respond to it and who and how their response will be evaluated.<br />
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There are two kinds of ready-made 'flows'. These are peer-reviewed assignment flows or instructor reviewed assignment flows.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXBuIFIyufgQkbAtEr7_PTe99BYLIxTHcIGCAACESlx1pYXya94Yoin9E2VLS_ZLh2pHGz9ivwaIIrOMV8TzxYy2TSoU4E6TuLXGNsQOIi8WeqES3AB4zzBYDDZj-pvBn92837jirLOGx/s1600/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="807" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXBuIFIyufgQkbAtEr7_PTe99BYLIxTHcIGCAACESlx1pYXya94Yoin9E2VLS_ZLh2pHGz9ivwaIIrOMV8TzxYy2TSoU4E6TuLXGNsQOIi8WeqES3AB4zzBYDDZj-pvBn92837jirLOGx/s400/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The flows are in three parts: The student submits their work, the work is reviewed either by a peer or the instructor and then the students submit a reflection on their feedback. This three-part flow really encourages deeper learning and puts far more emphasis on the quality of feedback and understanding rather than just whether students have got things right or wrong. Again this approach helps to combat one of the most common weaknesses of online courses that rely on computer configured responses to students' input.<br />
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If you aren't happy with these flows or you want to customise them you can create your own or add additional stages.<br />
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Once you've created your course content and assignments you can easily add students to the course by giving them a simple link or you can invite them by email.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnO0LzpzqmDfQoxWAXw4I_F5ZePd_wHTKG-j8rKEps21yc9Yv2MA5qoqJ-_At1fqIR3RTG9aCDNVdHaK_eZJd37JIZecdzKIyqXL8wJO2qpMOEQ4e4Lh6uMHqZk7nUF-_ndh6i6qcgc_j/s1600/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1150" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnO0LzpzqmDfQoxWAXw4I_F5ZePd_wHTKG-j8rKEps21yc9Yv2MA5qoqJ-_At1fqIR3RTG9aCDNVdHaK_eZJd37JIZecdzKIyqXL8wJO2qpMOEQ4e4Lh6uMHqZk7nUF-_ndh6i6qcgc_j/s320/Writing_Digital_Materials_for_Students+4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Tracking student progress is also simple and you can also set up notifications so that you know when student work has been submitted.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
So that's how to create a course with Eduflow </h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://eduflow.com/?utm_campaign=peachey+publications" target="_blank">Eduflow</a> looks like a great tool to create blended or flipped courses on the fly as you teach the face-to-face element of the course.</li>
<li>You could set up a totally online course and invite your students via email or a link.</li>
<li>Eduflow's focus on feedback and reflection also makes it an ideal e-portfolio tool to collect student work over the semester. </li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
What does it cost?</h3>
You can use <a href="https://eduflow.com/?utm_campaign=peachey+publications" target="_blank">Eduflow</a> for free to create two courses for up to 50 students. After that, you do have to pay, but <a href="https://www.eduflow.com/pricing" target="_blank">prices are very reasonable</a> so whether you want to use it for a whole school solution or to get started delivering online courses independently, then <a href="https://eduflow.com/?utm_campaign=peachey+publications" target="_blank">Eduflow</a> is a great, fast and easy to learn solution to get you up and running quickly.<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Check Out My Books:</b></h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-73215086124207421702019-12-02T11:52:00.003+00:002019-12-04T18:04:11.328+00:00What is the role of automated writing assessment in ELT?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Whenever I share a link to some form of tool that helps students or teachers to evaluate writing skills, it is inevitable that within a few hours I'll get a comment from somebody saying "I typed in xxxx error and [enter whatever tool you wish here] didn't spot it or correct it." Usually, the sentence with the error in is complete gibberish and one that a teacher would instantly see as such but one which can sometimes fool computer-based assessment software for exactly that reason. Gibberish can be very difficult to correct.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx-lAy2aZ_ZXG-8wlfliEiouH-mAOjyHNJ1k0efnr2Qtuyqr62G-NYQ6Bp2Deo8h-4ZlOkK_YKfJdynKgfZZQakx8zG-3yfHlxaHHxFHs3Er6p5MnE7drRyaVMCwr15htp-Z9qCuoTpqL/s1600/daria-nepriakhina-9uEHFjGXnCE-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx-lAy2aZ_ZXG-8wlfliEiouH-mAOjyHNJ1k0efnr2Qtuyqr62G-NYQ6Bp2Deo8h-4ZlOkK_YKfJdynKgfZZQakx8zG-3yfHlxaHHxFHs3Er6p5MnE7drRyaVMCwr15htp-Z9qCuoTpqL/s400/daria-nepriakhina-9uEHFjGXnCE-unsplash.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Having said that though we all know from spelling and grammar checking that all digital tools for the assessment and correction of writing still lack the judgement and expertise of experienced writing teacher and most will always miss something or spot something that turns out not to be an error. I have, however, found the same to be true of human markers. Especially when faced with piles of essay assignments to mark after a long day in the classroom, people make mistakes too. Interestingly, The Educational Testing Service in New Jersey has been working on an e-Rater system to automate admission test scoring. They have concluded that a human rating combined with an automatic rating is more reliable than two human raters since humans tend to diverge in their judgements.<br />
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<b>So the question is: If these tools are fallible can they still be pedagogically useful?</b><br />
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For me, the answer would be yes. What this means though is that we need to teach our students to use these tools in combination with and to develop their own powers of judgement to become more independent learners. Let's be clear that doesn't just mean independent from the teacher but also free from the dependence on writing support tools.<br />
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Whenever I work with any kind of writing support tools I'm reminded of an episode of the sitcom Friends in which the character Joey needs to write a formal letter and discovers that using a digital thesaurus can make the words he uses sound more intelligent.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LcM4zWiikKQ?start=56" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>You can watch the clip here to see the outcome: <a href="https://youtu.be/LcM4zWiikKQ?t=56" target="_blank">The Thesaurus</a> </li>
</ul>
What this highlights is that teachers and students need to work with these tools with a clear understanding of their limitations and a need to develop and use their own judgement when deciding whether to take the advice of the program.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQB0IMKFh8zvP1KGDST85kyU02jZLJOX3HOhl8r3epfwg9YaLs42pbiGWJNq1K7IfE4iB7AjiS0lliNcM1u8Q3tMIhPpmK1Ii1vzRLjeTCNjaYGJsu-3w4gh5UNt5_XDT4fJclSkH42qEg/s1600/laptop-2562325_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQB0IMKFh8zvP1KGDST85kyU02jZLJOX3HOhl8r3epfwg9YaLs42pbiGWJNq1K7IfE4iB7AjiS0lliNcM1u8Q3tMIhPpmK1Ii1vzRLjeTCNjaYGJsu-3w4gh5UNt5_XDT4fJclSkH42qEg/s400/laptop-2562325_640.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Personally, I think this makes for a great classroom activity. If you can get a text with a variety of mistakes and different feedback suggestions from the online tool that students want to use, then you can get the students to evaluate the feedback and try to decide how accurate and useful they think it is. This is a great way to get students thinking more critically about language and encouraging them to reflect on their own writing. Once they are familiar with the tool, students should write their own essays and use the tool again to get feedback on their draft. <br />
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As time progresses though I'm sure these various writing support tools will continue to develop and evolve into better versions of themselves. Through the use of AI and machine learning, computers are becoming much better at understanding context and its connection to the use of language. This is particularly true when the computer has a clear framework understanding of what the student needs to achieve. <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>A great example of this is the <a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/tests/actively-engaged-in-academic-writing/t1-film%20analysis%20essay" target="_blank">Film Review Analysis tool on the Virtual Writing Tutor site </a></li>
</ul>
This tool gives students clear guidelines and rubric for what they need to write and then measures their input against those criteria. This narrows down the risk of error and enables the program to give very detailed feedback on the various criteria the assignment is being marked against. The program then checks:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>for a question at the beginning of the introduction</li>
<li>thesis and topic sentence strength to help students strengthen their claims</li>
<li>the count of citations in body paragraphs to encourage students to use evidence to support their arguments</li>
<li>thesis reformulation in the conclusion to promote paraphrasing as contextualized skill</li>
<li>literary and film analysis vocabulary scores to encourage students to increase the active range of their vocabulary</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The other great strength of these tools have over teachers of course is time. A digital platform like <a href="http://grammar.ly/" target="_blank">Grammar.ly </a>or <a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/">https://virtualwritingtutor.com</a> can handle tens of thousands of texts each minute and students can keep coming back to them with written work every hour if they need to, whereas teacher-marking-time is expensive and very definitely finite and I would be surprised if on average a teacher marks more than one or two pieces of written work from each student in a week.<br />
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With demands on teacher time growing and the capabilities of automated writing support improving all the time, I feel these tools can deliver an increasingly important contribution to the development of our students writing skills.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-6225004581642987342019-11-25T15:48:00.000+00:002019-11-27T05:58:21.565+00:00Setting students speaking tasks for homework with Extempore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
More than any other skill, students and employers tend to value the ability to speak English most, and yet speaking seems to be one of the more difficult skills for teachers to develop and refine in the classroom.<br />
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There are many reasons for this including class size, the amount of noise created by speaking activities in the classroom and the need for a more personalised learning approach which deals with the individual needs of the student. Having the ability to listen to and deal with the needs of each student in a class of only ten or twenty can put huge demand on the teachers during classroom speaking activities, but with <a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a>, there seems to be a solution to that problem.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLbQ5e1Gy02tpvcedACLaKCtUfRm-4Z-8AYN3TrEFJZVL36J_q3D5YkmCZWJFRXo_flugzypyBAiXOwVTMS53KfFrg1ZA4ujHXytvVjIlbDq-5TFneYA7ApxO-MmzrCLviADPSx43mKq8/s1600/timed.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLbQ5e1Gy02tpvcedACLaKCtUfRm-4Z-8AYN3TrEFJZVL36J_q3D5YkmCZWJFRXo_flugzypyBAiXOwVTMS53KfFrg1ZA4ujHXytvVjIlbDq-5TFneYA7ApxO-MmzrCLviADPSx43mKq8/s400/timed.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> enables teachers to create and set speaking activities for students as homework. Using the extempore LMS and app, teachers can create speaking activities for students that they can do at home using their mobile phone or computer. They can record their homework using either voice or video, which is then pushed to the teacher through the LMS. Teachers can then listen to each individual students and record personalised feedback for them using audio, video or text.<br />
<br />
This process really enhances the teacher's ability to listen carefully to each student and respond to them in on a very engaging and personalised level.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> makes it very easy to create tasks. Once you register on <a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> you just create a class and then start adding tasks and assignments. When you create these tasks you can set a due date for the task and decide whether it is a group task or an individual task. When using individual tasks, only the teacher can see and respond to the task, whereas group tasks will enable multiple students to interact with each other.<br />
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You can then decide whether you want to enable students to submit audio or video. Audio will be easier for students to submit, but using video can also enable you to work on some of the visual aspects of communication and help students to get used to communicating through video online (a very useful 21st-century skill).<br />
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You also have the option of showing students what the assessment criteria will be for their assignment and set a limit to how many times students can review their recording before submitting it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvdAOMxmLpDAxEhSV-AFxL3-XBuZvtBQrlW604twgW_DK0AGPkIS2HiiwpS87zQU33wfUjtF-tAexTMn708F_W07xO7yGsmZRfGtmtsBvsbDtHipz-CyHiTyIMmCirXlLBz8OOH1WXgvp/s1600/extempore-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="591" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvdAOMxmLpDAxEhSV-AFxL3-XBuZvtBQrlW604twgW_DK0AGPkIS2HiiwpS87zQU33wfUjtF-tAexTMn708F_W07xO7yGsmZRfGtmtsBvsbDtHipz-CyHiTyIMmCirXlLBz8OOH1WXgvp/s400/extempore-1.jpg" width="331" /></a></div>
Once all this has been done, you just need to add some questions or tasks to get students talking.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UFuuBZoksl82wKSvmHpUeLKoy0EaMSVXfM33esLLCT8TvoaB7E2WR_K2dKNG70ANV1H_-NImp5J1qp8fVkL9KwzEwr8OIGf1obg9Dw9UQ2ZAkoxWGBqJj1FVPih4Zn1kTGSVLArvBHdV/s1600/extempore-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="653" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UFuuBZoksl82wKSvmHpUeLKoy0EaMSVXfM33esLLCT8TvoaB7E2WR_K2dKNG70ANV1H_-NImp5J1qp8fVkL9KwzEwr8OIGf1obg9Dw9UQ2ZAkoxWGBqJj1FVPih4Zn1kTGSVLArvBHdV/s400/extempore-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
There are lots of different types of assignments you can set for your students.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>You can use the assignments as part of a learner diary and get students eating and reflecting on their learning goals after each class. (You can find out more about Learning Diaries in an article I wrote for the <a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/learner-diaries" target="_blank">Teaching English website.</a>)</li>
<li>You can send students texts or short stories to read in a dramatic and expressive way.</li>
<li>You can get students to record themselves reading a favourite poem.</li>
<li>You can get the students to interact and share opinions on controversial issues.</li>
<li>You can get students to create a collaborative story by sending them an introductory sentence and asking each to add a few lines to it.</li>
<li>You can get students to record project reports or research assignments.</li>
<li>You can control time to review and respond, so you can use it for high stakes exams and to set assessment tests. </li>
</ul>
Once you have created your assignment you can share a link with students and they'll be able to register with extempore, see their assignments and download the free <a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> app for their mobile device.<br />
<br />
Once they have completed their assignment you can find them in the 'Grading' section of the LMS. You can then listen and respond to their assignments. All scores are then added to the Gradebook. This also enables you to build up a digital portfolio of each students' work which you can reflect on to track and evaluate their progress over a longer time span. To find out more about how this works check out the <a href="https://extemporeapp.com/extempore-user-guides-and-instructional-videos/" target="_blank">demo videos</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> looks like a really useful application for developing students' speaking and one that will make your life as a teacher a little easier and make your feedback on students' speaking abilities more impactful.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://extemporeapp.com/" target="_blank">Extempore</a> isn't a free service, although there is a <a href="https://store.extemporeapp.com/new/institution-paid" target="_blank">free 30-day trial</a> which is well worth trying.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://store.extemporeapp.com/new/institution-paid" target="_blank"><img alt="https://store.extemporeapp.com/new/institution-paid " border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_W9yDDhzXZ8AS01PtQ74rGjye1o-ChTNcDYAb78tquPl8ZLG9VYJP1psXlRmkPXUP5NrODJOmsRPEBWlpe13e7nhkxNlwYmBJdPRdQ9QLUbAIGUTHQcPc4sz1jQz_pF157CU1MV_ry3fs/s320/Request+a+Free+Trial+%25281%2529.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="https://extemporeapp.com/how-to-buy/" target="_blank">Payment for the service </a>can either be charged to the individual students (which may be useful if you have private clients who want to develop their speaking skills) or schools can buy sets of licenses for their students. the cost is really very reasonable especially given that each license is for a year rather than a month.<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="18" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<br />
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To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-66006592926944569582019-11-08T11:00:00.002+00:002019-11-08T11:00:42.671+00:00Video-based Lesson Plans for ELT and ESL Classroom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've just had the great pleasure of looking around the <a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">Fluentize</a> website and I have to say that I'm really impressed.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">Fluentize</a> is a collection of really high quality lesson plans and materials based around authentic online videos.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmDkZscYdp6rG6N1BxdaYFEBcXxJAFlGWMBeRT_ZgR0E9dYb2VifHrCoD2VaQ9RICDI4drXMxcRjjaNx71ZPKl7zkrPSfKyVBad5dAl4hUzb2NeIs-sk18o5rRqBgkifE8SVWClPKLWJb/s1600/Home_-_Fluentize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="549" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmDkZscYdp6rG6N1BxdaYFEBcXxJAFlGWMBeRT_ZgR0E9dYb2VifHrCoD2VaQ9RICDI4drXMxcRjjaNx71ZPKl7zkrPSfKyVBad5dAl4hUzb2NeIs-sk18o5rRqBgkifE8SVWClPKLWJb/s400/Home_-_Fluentize.jpg" width="303" /></a></div>
The lesson plans are very detailed and in most there is enough materials for around a 2 hour lesson, although it would also be easy to select a few of the activities and leave some of the others.<br />
<br />
The lesson plans are really well structured with listening, vocabulary, writing, speaking and grammar focus activities that all look well thought out and appropriate for the level.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">Fluentize</a> offers plans for Level A2 to C1. At present it looks like the bulk of the material is around the B1 and B2 levels, which is the point at which it's great to start encouraging students to use authentic materials.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S4_TjLNeamTcD5CW0zaiUe4hbIpRAUWrxuVCFHbUfJsG52kh5yXCOhVQ2FhL5BcBikQT4uaJpgi00r1IlEK2FagvmGvNg9BwvfjBvZIZBZyE5wI45RGM5pcOwO6FKeRBamI5iOtjQBkR/s1600/All_Lessons_%25E2%2580%2594_Fluentize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="1186" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1S4_TjLNeamTcD5CW0zaiUe4hbIpRAUWrxuVCFHbUfJsG52kh5yXCOhVQ2FhL5BcBikQT4uaJpgi00r1IlEK2FagvmGvNg9BwvfjBvZIZBZyE5wI45RGM5pcOwO6FKeRBamI5iOtjQBkR/s400/All_Lessons_%25E2%2580%2594_Fluentize.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The videos have been really well chosen. They are high quality, short and are based on interesting and engaging content.<br />
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I really enjoyed one based around Will Smith having a date with a robot and another showing an interaction with a Google Assistant.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEV7L7vzwHxWL69vxz2AbAhVvms4ZBXy5CVkDm-4hwfOgLdo07Yd6DR2R-ZWtdOcNP0VWZnEnajIiaMbJ93jxyiaHfysImrjat49KuvAHjT31qcoMECzYja40eDdOAL7wAJ_3AxdAPV-JI/s1600/Sample_Lessons_%25E2%2580%2594_Fluentize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="1025" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEV7L7vzwHxWL69vxz2AbAhVvms4ZBXy5CVkDm-4hwfOgLdo07Yd6DR2R-ZWtdOcNP0VWZnEnajIiaMbJ93jxyiaHfysImrjat49KuvAHjT31qcoMECzYja40eDdOAL7wAJ_3AxdAPV-JI/s400/Sample_Lessons_%25E2%2580%2594_Fluentize.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
All the plans also have teachers' notes guides, so these are pretty much no prep ready to go materials.<br />
<br />
Fluentize isn't a free site, although there are some free sample plans which you should try out: <a href="https://app.fluentize.com/lessons/sample">https://app.fluentize.com/lessons/sample</a><br />
<br />
If you like the plans and want to get more then you can buy individual plans for as little as $2.99 or you can buy packs of 10 plans and get a 17% discount. You can also take advantage of their monthly or quarterly subscriptions for a better value.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://app.fluentize.com/pricing" target="_blank">Check out prices here</a></li>
</ul>
The cheapest way to get the <a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">Fluentize</a> plans is to sign up for a subscription. If you think other teachers in your school will like them then it may be worth getting your school to subscribe as school subscriptions are very reasonable and white labelling is also a possibility.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">These plans</a> are really great and very professionally produced. They are ideal for anyone working with teenagers and adults. I hope you and your students enjoy <a href="https://www.fluentize.com/" target="_blank">Fluentize</a>.<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more resources</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="33" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="34" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="35" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="36" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="37" href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="38" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="39" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="40" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="41" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="42" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-72906521140446655072019-10-08T05:42:00.001+01:002019-10-08T05:43:56.401+01:00Using Computer Games to Improve Students' English<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I’ve had a long interest in the <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2017/08/using-computer-games-to-raise-global.html" target="_blank">use of computer games for English language teaching</a> and have looked at lots of games over the years that have huge potential for language learning, from platforms like <a href="https://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2007/06/materials-design-for-virtual-worlds.html" target="_blank">Second Life</a> and <a href="https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/" target="_blank">Minecraft </a>to more structured educational games like PowerUp and <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2017/08/learn-english-while-saving-planet-with.html" target="_blank">Tyto</a>, so when I spotted <a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/" target="_blank">Real English for Gamers</a>, a site that sets out to help students use a variety of multi-player games to improve their English, I was really fascinated.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxo0Udz697eNS8ABW7nvI4AMfgzkp7WEmc79zlvS4oN-I7OngeAB0svT5cJi-5BXo369qPxnHZHoGJYS3G6QtCBnSpQGiUOHIYLdEy_aBUHaaABcYXMqHvLK75ry5q47vHfEBFOs3jFHWN/s1600/Learn_English_Through_Video_Games_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="1539" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxo0Udz697eNS8ABW7nvI4AMfgzkp7WEmc79zlvS4oN-I7OngeAB0svT5cJi-5BXo369qPxnHZHoGJYS3G6QtCBnSpQGiUOHIYLdEy_aBUHaaABcYXMqHvLK75ry5q47vHfEBFOs3jFHWN/s400/Learn_English_Through_Video_Games_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>What it’s about</b><br />
<a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/" target="_blank">Real English for Gamers</a> isn’t a game but it is at the most basic level, a YouTube channel full of videos of game in game interaction between players that have been turned into learning resources.<br />
<br />
The creators of the channel have taken clips of world famous gamers playing the games, transcribed them, analysed the vocabulary and interaction between the players and turned them into instructional videos that help students to learn English with the aim of enabling them to play their favourite games in English.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLe9VLUakp_zB73POCFMhpv4pYd-HepRAFU-xmDn4XkHCJc6KX4hC3FyB3-E9Bsi9H4GwlY-s0S7ZaOgjMyl-QqHQVdXQCEQEc44IPGInbbaOW7MYExfHGrcHMDedVB07g1edJ9-NhPlQw/s1600/Best_Gamers_in_the_World_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="1010" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLe9VLUakp_zB73POCFMhpv4pYd-HepRAFU-xmDn4XkHCJc6KX4hC3FyB3-E9Bsi9H4GwlY-s0S7ZaOgjMyl-QqHQVdXQCEQEc44IPGInbbaOW7MYExfHGrcHMDedVB07g1edJ9-NhPlQw/s400/Best_Gamers_in_the_World_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
This is a great idea in many ways as so many students find playing video games so engaging and to combine this enthusiasm for the games with the chance to interact with other speakers of English can really be a boost for their motivation. <br />
<br />
<b>How to use it</b><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRkPfGnOm_lxAr7SyWBJ8g" target="_blank">The Real English for Gamers YouTube channel</a> has around 130 videos at time of writing and these are mostly clips from multiplayer games. Their website helps to structure this collection of videos and make it more accessible. Some of the best places to start are:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/examples/" target="_blank">Examples</a>: This section has links to YouTube playlists with sections on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTHGWlipL36kGKpyjXXRK0FD87EFc72Yf" target="_blank">grammar for gamers</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0C0t5P3KV8&list=PLTHGWlipL36k-NcGEwZHBohHybQjU7OKU&index=1" target="_blank">vocabulary for gamers</a>, general help for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTHGWlipL36lkDygYzi-PzDPsGqkRD0-X" target="_blank">learning English through games</a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/basics/" target="_blank">The Basics</a>: This section has a collection of useful language for gamers that they can use whilst playing the games. This includes a section on <a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/asking-and-answering-questions/" target="_blank">questions</a> they can ask their gaming partner during the game, common <a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/vocabulary/" target="_blank">game related vocabulary</a> and tips for how to <a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/preventing-misunderstandings/" target="_blank">avoid misunderstandings</a> during the game.</li>
<li><a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/practice-listening-to-fast-speech/" target="_blank">Practice Listening</a>: This section helps students to deal with fast authentic speech by using short video clips with video script annotation. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/gamers/" target="_blank">The Gamers</a>: This section has information about each of the celebrity gamers featured in the video clips. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/games/" target="_blank">The Games</a>: This section has information about each of the games featured in the clips.</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5RFMgnPaP3llEDCL0uHII6CkzmPs2IhjE3gXr6qzEd5gzwZvpYBcHqaMeo_VgLSauUMQMWTvOKtC3f_dkViIUm49GwG6t81buStLo4q9FMSJH-GTsY_dpF79VS70YYTsyEGvvl9CKfCF/s1600/Examples_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="982" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5RFMgnPaP3llEDCL0uHII6CkzmPs2IhjE3gXr6qzEd5gzwZvpYBcHqaMeo_VgLSauUMQMWTvOKtC3f_dkViIUm49GwG6t81buStLo4q9FMSJH-GTsY_dpF79VS70YYTsyEGvvl9CKfCF/s400/Examples_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The site is being regularly updated and apart form watching and listening to the videos, students can also leave comments and chat with other users using the comments feature in the YouTube channel.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/" target="_blank">Real English for Gamers</a> is an interesting concept and a great resource to recommend to students who are interested in games or as a source of learning material for homework or the classroom. It is of course a good idea to select videos that you feel are age and culturally appropriate for your students. Due to the nature of the content, some games will have language related to violence in them and others may have some bad language, so you’ll need to decide whether your students are mature enough to deal with these elements.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9o_HLv2onYcXIZW-WvIL_Odtc7WtwHyCrWmWQpq3oh-eJFVYi-4GbuCihfu5YdTNADg3g_O1qua0fMyfZdjmCCylmJlaa_kxKuMHs10mMZd-b3KeEML_FJLIORSwjhUcPfnnVAOf48gP/s1600/Vocabulary_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1037" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9o_HLv2onYcXIZW-WvIL_Odtc7WtwHyCrWmWQpq3oh-eJFVYi-4GbuCihfu5YdTNADg3g_O1qua0fMyfZdjmCCylmJlaa_kxKuMHs10mMZd-b3KeEML_FJLIORSwjhUcPfnnVAOf48gP/s400/Vocabulary_-_Real_English_for_Gamers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
For students who are already keen on games this could be a tool to help them to make the shift to playing them in English and for students who are interested in games the content could form the basis of some motivating lessons that exploit authentic materials.<br />
<br />
I hope you enjoy <a href="https://realenglishforgamers.com/" target="_blank">Real English for Gamers</a> and that your students find it useful.<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="15" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="16" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="17" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
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<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/aclR" target="_blank">10 Business English Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-11601737315466291972019-09-30T14:32:00.001+01:002019-09-30T14:43:29.056+01:00Redacto for Intensive Listening Practice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my first experiences of computer assisted language learning back in the mid 90s was of text reconstruction programmes.<br />
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My students would go to the computer room and spend ages trying to reconstruct a text they had studied, gradually typing in the missing words until the text was complete.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUAZF-uMe_bZtKb3i3p76tD6E00b3Rsa3CI5ImmGYv-ajs527NtQ38IlwOMuxDN3Bccl-4l2TjXh2NIHs54Ts4edLWTstROLvqEZgQdXRez-E3JW4fmqXeBAz9EJEzrCc8ODe5HRItKw9x/s1600/Intensive_Listening_Squared+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="1060" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUAZF-uMe_bZtKb3i3p76tD6E00b3Rsa3CI5ImmGYv-ajs527NtQ38IlwOMuxDN3Bccl-4l2TjXh2NIHs54Ts4edLWTstROLvqEZgQdXRez-E3JW4fmqXeBAz9EJEzrCc8ODe5HRItKw9x/s400/Intensive_Listening_Squared+5.png" width="400" /></a></div>
I always thought this was great practice for them and could see that they really enjoyed it, so it’s great to see <a href="https://redacto.co.uk/" target="_blank">Redacto</a> has combined these text reconstruction activities with authentic audio to build a really useful suite of learning materials.<br />
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<b>How it Works</b><br />
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The site has a range of different subjects that students can choose from. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK903xXeDsIhaxonrq5Nja6WLg1Gx_BwZ1dqU1YZwD2ES5lS8aWkEQxkElnlekNPGzXwIDpmHf87j0zKYXN4lbBo15PaxIl-Wrs2gNrVldFcN4TK8_pranKIWsqcsocuGbo269V_DkcAZ/s1600/Intensive_Listening_Squared.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="765" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK903xXeDsIhaxonrq5Nja6WLg1Gx_BwZ1dqU1YZwD2ES5lS8aWkEQxkElnlekNPGzXwIDpmHf87j0zKYXN4lbBo15PaxIl-Wrs2gNrVldFcN4TK8_pranKIWsqcsocuGbo269V_DkcAZ/s400/Intensive_Listening_Squared.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Once they have selected the topic they have a range of article to choose from. These are graded according to the CEFR scale.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hmabK2L7yMrS8IiFxktaADPcn_cyrW9Qhgz73HWVRJjGvK3hbgniZ43-R4R9z7P2vpAAoNdC3rw7hEKlLVBLLHAWF49Ed-Gmk7paeS3rG6YlJJRAhoNiL90CU9klmFOn4Go0lk7z7qN4/s1600/Intensive_Listening_Squared+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1266" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hmabK2L7yMrS8IiFxktaADPcn_cyrW9Qhgz73HWVRJjGvK3hbgniZ43-R4R9z7P2vpAAoNdC3rw7hEKlLVBLLHAWF49Ed-Gmk7paeS3rG6YlJJRAhoNiL90CU9klmFOn4Go0lk7z7qN4/s400/Intensive_Listening_Squared+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once they select an article students can click on the play button to start listening.<br />
They then type any of the words they hear into the field at the bottom. The words will then appear in the text.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWhmunUeUOfupMi6EzipNBIIXppNmfEWTzQLdzIDkW1bMH5iV_aFMpo5FaTQp6KgA_DCQIWC1l6-InI_8aeW7Jti065bWgLAN2QU-A9KA3juJKtx-j8ggLHOtkbb7sl0GUTTwrBV4yZYc/s1600/Intensive_Listening_Squared+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="1206" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWhmunUeUOfupMi6EzipNBIIXppNmfEWTzQLdzIDkW1bMH5iV_aFMpo5FaTQp6KgA_DCQIWC1l6-InI_8aeW7Jti065bWgLAN2QU-A9KA3juJKtx-j8ggLHOtkbb7sl0GUTTwrBV4yZYc/s400/Intensive_Listening_Squared+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It’s not necessary to type the words in the order they appear in the text and, for example, if students type in the word ‘and’ this word will appear anywhere in the text where it occurs, so these aren’t just dictation exercises. <br />
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If the student is using Google Chrome (recommended), and they have a microphone connected to their computer, they can click on the mic icon and say the word(s), these will then appear in the text search box.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzq124PKjCMA9Lm2mYb6yYGp1izPnNqMKVx0XNpSkNMYeMZNpHdGrsEXybR4hEkqI29YMvp3MfSQ8H_jr6Z0C9Ui4LDX-ynB_M3cf2tSSW4U7kdnHQZPMPo2bcGe3OXrgPo8c2JbjgzPBy/s1600/Intensive_Listening_Squared+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1210" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzq124PKjCMA9Lm2mYb6yYGp1izPnNqMKVx0XNpSkNMYeMZNpHdGrsEXybR4hEkqI29YMvp3MfSQ8H_jr6Z0C9Ui4LDX-ynB_M3cf2tSSW4U7kdnHQZPMPo2bcGe3OXrgPo8c2JbjgzPBy/s400/Intensive_Listening_Squared+4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Students can listen again as many times as they wish and can even slow the audio down if it helps them to listen for difficult words. In addition, they can click on the gapped word to get a hint, or to see the entire word.<br />
<br />
All the time the students are working their score and the time taken is also being collected.<br />
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Once they have completed the transcript, there are follow up activities to consolidate the language they have listened to. There are also further vocabulary flash cards to revise.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Premium</b><br />
<a href="https://redacto.co.uk/" target="_blank">Redacto</a> also offers premium tools for schools, including a results tracker, and a classroom mode where teachers can select activities for students and send them a pin. The students then log in using the pin and a name and they have a simple multiple choice clicker so that they can respond to exercises, in a style similar to Kahoot! These are mainly based on much shorter audio clips and students have to count the number of words or listen to see which words are included in the text.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://redacto.co.uk/" target="_blank">Redacto</a> looks like a great free tool for students who want to develop their listening skills and learn from authentic materials.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
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<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
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<br />
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Nik Peachey<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-26418129453198399662019-09-30T14:12:00.001+01:002019-09-30T14:12:07.621+01:00Using QR Codes to Deliver more Effective Feedback<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We all (I hope) know how important feedback is to students as part of their learning. Often though the people who understand this least are the students themselves and they can find it easy to overlook or disregard feedback as soon as they have seen their grade.<br />
<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> seems like a very good solution to that problem and is a great way to get students to take notice and follow up on feedback.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyeQ92cj8d7hYQWwWf2OTyGq68kryg9TL_4LZRYWSryCHKQkaZnaEXtp5LZuDCFTOwfmxYSMlpjUQqGMfTKRBI8N-qv_Vyc52crWMxkybqaD1HSrYX_K7pGzeHxrLVYnto4nOpvCVsq0y/s1600/Qwiqr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="523" height="97" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyeQ92cj8d7hYQWwWf2OTyGq68kryg9TL_4LZRYWSryCHKQkaZnaEXtp5LZuDCFTOwfmxYSMlpjUQqGMfTKRBI8N-qv_Vyc52crWMxkybqaD1HSrYX_K7pGzeHxrLVYnto4nOpvCVsq0y/s400/Qwiqr.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
<b>How it works</b><br />
<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> uses QR codes that you can attach to homework that provide digital feedback for students that they can access through their phone. <br />
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This feedback can be written, audio recorded or can come in the form of a web link or video. Students just scan the code with their phone and they’ll instantly be able to access your feedback. This is an ideal system for language learning as the audio element enables you to provide models of pronunciation, target language and new vocabulary that students can listen to repeatedly.<br />
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Using <a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> you can even make feedback an interactive process and students can record a reply to your message and send it back to you.<br />
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<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> is very safe for students, as only someone with the QR code can access the recordings.<br />
<br />
To create your <a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> QR codes you <a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/stickers/" target="_blank">simply print</a> and select the number of QR code stickers you want and then just print them off (using sticky paper will work best).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbjd19ltTR2IXyg8FeMFF0N7GIgY6abCqliI5ahFkVCx_-U45HrgWY5T80m3yAbGSSsFhyphenhyphenU6-kcjwpkPfNyiSp9wFAs4Wl6pSwTOqybBNyHHtB2mITftPx3Q2GdpP-QKI9rCisyqUZZiMb/s1600/Qwiqr+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="799" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbjd19ltTR2IXyg8FeMFF0N7GIgY6abCqliI5ahFkVCx_-U45HrgWY5T80m3yAbGSSsFhyphenhyphenU6-kcjwpkPfNyiSp9wFAs4Wl6pSwTOqybBNyHHtB2mITftPx3Q2GdpP-QKI9rCisyqUZZiMb/s400/Qwiqr+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Then when you want to give some feedback, you scan the code with any scanner and then record and save your message. This will store the message on the <a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> server. Then you just give students the same QR code and they can scan it and access their feedback and review it at any time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdC4EtTreq9VpKMZDeCvWvr8jIe4Y9JXRVAtleje5-Fn43CcoLFS1exrTKrra8_lNzF9Xg4ZnD1jWnkL27SKkpI6lQCUl4CU4VaGfVAKjLI8K0S4ZNn6aAN0WJUC0ty7ai3VnvyDGXXy-4/s1600/IMG_8873.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdC4EtTreq9VpKMZDeCvWvr8jIe4Y9JXRVAtleje5-Fn43CcoLFS1exrTKrra8_lNzF9Xg4ZnD1jWnkL27SKkpI6lQCUl4CU4VaGfVAKjLI8K0S4ZNn6aAN0WJUC0ty7ai3VnvyDGXXy-4/s320/IMG_8873.PNG" width="179" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> doesn’t require that students download a specific app and work in the browser with any QR code scanner. <br />
<br />
This is a really great way to get your students really engaging with their feedback and to create a dialogue around their work so that they can check their understanding of anything they got wrong or still need to know.<br />
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<br />
<b>Pricing</b><br />
On the free account you can send audio, image, text or links as feedback and the feedback stays on the server for up to 3 months.<br />
<br />
If you like it and find it works with your students you can upgrade to <a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/premium/" target="_blank">premium</a> for just £1.50 a month (that’s about $2) and this will enable you to send video feedback and your students will be able to reply and your feedback will be editable, reusable and on the server forever.<br />
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<br />
Personally, I think this is a great way to get students to really take notice and engage with their feedback. If you have a collection of code stickers ready in the classroom you could also be recording individual feedback for students while you monitor their speaking activities or you could record an overall summary for the end of the lesson that all students could scan.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://qwiqr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Qwiqr</a> isn’t limited to being used only for feedback though. These are some other suggestions.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Record video of pupils talking about their work and put the QR next to the work on display boards.</li>
<li>Record spoken conversations that students can listen to at home.</li>
<li>Create treasure hunts using images and videos that give clues for students to follow.</li>
<li>Create ‘praise cards’ and let students take them home to play for parents</li>
</ul>
This is a really great tool and I hope you enjoy it and can use it with your students.<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="17" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="18" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-46099601357086270672019-09-25T13:51:00.002+01:002019-09-25T14:49:19.087+01:00EDIA Papyrus - A Tool for Materials Writers and Publishers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a materials writer, editor and publisher, I’m constantly looking for tools that will save time, increase quality, and make my life easier. One of the best of these I’ve found recently is <a href="http://bit.ly/2JU4ir7" target="_blank">EDIA Papyrus</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>How it works</b> <br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/2JU4ir7" target="_blank">EDIA Papyrus</a> is a very simple to use tool that analyses the level of any text I write against a target level and shows me how close to my target level the text is.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTBoG6XeKO4YR8ZMx5PqH2jdIdIG8HAgjk3MSlsNUehThCQ8HIE3hP5npszwgaOjDIC5AhPnRzpUW2wbDDi6jhSWi94E8ueGy36gDbCzgVLek50jyEDVRpiCB6vrwf19zBXvXKSKu2Rg-/s1600/EDIA_Papyrus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1600" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTBoG6XeKO4YR8ZMx5PqH2jdIdIG8HAgjk3MSlsNUehThCQ8HIE3hP5npszwgaOjDIC5AhPnRzpUW2wbDDi6jhSWi94E8ueGy36gDbCzgVLek50jyEDVRpiCB6vrwf19zBXvXKSKu2Rg-/s400/EDIA_Papyrus.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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More than that, it can show me which words will be difficult for the level and if I click on the words it will offer me some substitute words and show me what level those words are.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaaCOumOKUNVVkBb-8-JltbgwlK7KScNlprfxjWZ-CDqIg0mKmO1XD-OpO2LDBYWSQiOKfgvIZ2Qc-A2_dwyNHA45eU2EtQ7_hAsS9aWi3u1RZZHH3ec_vwhC6O63doK-gxaUv7LkVNfM/s1600/EDIA_Papyrus+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1600" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaaCOumOKUNVVkBb-8-JltbgwlK7KScNlprfxjWZ-CDqIg0mKmO1XD-OpO2LDBYWSQiOKfgvIZ2Qc-A2_dwyNHA45eU2EtQ7_hAsS9aWi3u1RZZHH3ec_vwhC6O63doK-gxaUv7LkVNfM/s400/EDIA_Papyrus+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The tool is based around analysing text in relation to the CEFR, so it’s great for TESOL and TEFL teachers who want to create their own materials and professional materials writers, but it can also cross reference to a range of other measures, so almost anyone who writes educational text should find this useful.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUXkUCUJxt-1R6QVC59W9FWcnxXkUoeCixbqnz00Nk0eiFDEq7INVllcvKlksIE9Z-sDchCHegMNS5wyZKCA342VsoX2CaDhpsoONOX-dtCppbo8lmWtwbYrkirdSALeZeqhNCHj77Ki2/s1600/EDIA_Papyrus+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="875" data-original-width="1374" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUXkUCUJxt-1R6QVC59W9FWcnxXkUoeCixbqnz00Nk0eiFDEq7INVllcvKlksIE9Z-sDchCHegMNS5wyZKCA342VsoX2CaDhpsoONOX-dtCppbo8lmWtwbYrkirdSALeZeqhNCHj77Ki2/s400/EDIA_Papyrus+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It is possible to write directly into the <a href="http://bit.ly/2JU4ir7" target="_blank">EDIA Papyrus</a> interface, but I tend to copy paste between my own documents and EDIA Papyrus as at present there is no way for free users to save their documents there.<br />
<br />
<b>Pricing</b><br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/2JU4ir7" target="_blank">EDIA Papyrus</a> is a free tool for any individual teacher, but there is an API for any publisher or content production company. This is really useful if you use a number of writers and you want to help support them and standardise the level of their content across a product.<br />
<br />
The API can plug into a number of different tools such as MS Word or Google Docs and this enables writers to check the level and change vocabulary and sentence length as they type rather than having to go to the <a href="http://bit.ly/2JU4ir7" target="_blank">EDIA Papyrus</a> site to do it.<br />
<br />
The API is based around a per-text costing and if you are interested in finding out more about the API it’s best to contact: walter [at] edia.nl <br />
<br />
I have to say, I’m becoming a regular user these days, as it is a quick way to check the level of a complete text and get a really good understanding of how I need to change it.<br />
<br />
I hope you find it useful too.<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="17" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="18" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
To sign up for my free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> go to: <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="http://eepurl.com/dtgL79">http://eepurl.com/dtgL79</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey</div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-44367947825098805942019-09-24T16:52:00.000+01:002019-09-24T16:52:04.129+01:00Hypersay - For Creating Engaging Training and Conferencing Presentations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://hypersay.com/" target="_blank">Hypersay</a> may well be my new favourite tools for going paperless in the classroom and ensuring conference presentations go smoothly.<br /><br />For a number of years, I’ve struggled with a mixture of QR codes, Backchannels and shortened links added to my presentation slides, but with Hypersay those days may be over.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvABg72-YHvY4CzTVDmCzg5x5ketAj0tiYLAdllN16TDCrZg_q8vXsrnZa5rlHsT1oKYWekXFBx6l4wXjZ2Dt90RhfhF4ZIUbP96d6_2_OGZNB9CZn9Q8GGuJsCHvsW2pXL61rqHDSE6O/s1600/Hypersay+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="1529" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvABg72-YHvY4CzTVDmCzg5x5ketAj0tiYLAdllN16TDCrZg_q8vXsrnZa5rlHsT1oKYWekXFBx6l4wXjZ2Dt90RhfhF4ZIUbP96d6_2_OGZNB9CZn9Q8GGuJsCHvsW2pXL61rqHDSE6O/s400/Hypersay+3.png" width="400" /></a></b></div>
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<b>How it works</b><br /><a href="https://hypersay.com/" target="_blank">Hypersay</a> is a great tool for making presentations both interactive, multimedia and digital.<br />All you have to do is upload your existing presentations (PDF, PPT or Google Slides) to the platform and then you can start to add interactions such as questions, polls and surveys to each slide as well as links to websites and embedded videos.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguob4XLh6hEnASmTP03zF-EXngjLDqc8mIuv_AMQquJRAqWN9C78v8Krih7Whsv-htUFJtwc5wmvoEgWOWm7GBkbav_Jsd8wwc_N3xACovnFxOnLvMskjBCGUusKpKwx1ZqwqEhQRrV3tp/s1600/Hypersay.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1164" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguob4XLh6hEnASmTP03zF-EXngjLDqc8mIuv_AMQquJRAqWN9C78v8Krih7Whsv-htUFJtwc5wmvoEgWOWm7GBkbav_Jsd8wwc_N3xACovnFxOnLvMskjBCGUusKpKwx1ZqwqEhQRrV3tp/s400/Hypersay.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drag interactions onto different slides</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Once your presentation is ready, you just click a button to<b> 'Go Live' </b>and your audience can log in to the presentation and follow it on their device.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dUMIx5iOVEK_0pL9vGJLVtPHt5vNZIs9WinTXi6FMixtBhMemEEIA_7czHiuKFzIo6WMb32a-_QOa_Neyuf5bvFmeukzdG66Nzw09N1a80Y-AvB5z7EPjZzqm8BVNBhXmAg0NOnaFN3A/s1600/Hypersay+2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="1219" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dUMIx5iOVEK_0pL9vGJLVtPHt5vNZIs9WinTXi6FMixtBhMemEEIA_7czHiuKFzIo6WMb32a-_QOa_Neyuf5bvFmeukzdG66Nzw09N1a80Y-AvB5z7EPjZzqm8BVNBhXmAg0NOnaFN3A/s400/Hypersay+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Presenting</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This gives them all the links to materials and references as well as tasks to do and questions to answer as you move through your presentation. In addition to this, they can feed questions in through their device that you can answer at the end of your session, they can give you feedback and they take notes about each slide that they can then save along with the presentation for when they need to revise or review the lesson.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVoXZ8-tRsGd0Xb94zbyiy5qSWiNR75gfsdkM1OQj7uVMxSfG9onR_VonhOFYAV9yuGShyWtS3Y241KQPQeLKCa9iWevlK1XeEOExskofc5Q7Y_4rYb4-bI3uLTYuJc9J8OVbuDm2J3Hy/s1600/IMG_8874.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1334" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSVoXZ8-tRsGd0Xb94zbyiy5qSWiNR75gfsdkM1OQj7uVMxSfG9onR_VonhOFYAV9yuGShyWtS3Y241KQPQeLKCa9iWevlK1XeEOExskofc5Q7Y_4rYb4-bI3uLTYuJc9J8OVbuDm2J3Hy/s400/IMG_8874.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Students' Mobile Interface</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In addition to this, you get a full report containing a range of engagement analytics about the presentation.<br /><br />This includes the feedback and questions your students left for you as well as their answer to your questions and information about any notes they made or links they clicked on from your slides.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrEIapLpqKRfgbhiWeu7siPM64pG1SwpwaMoInpPPKz1NE6oPRbovxjwgXrKjuTWHvdofKi1nx36uYyAf4jWgjlyQgoHLgQUDsC5bY5fUw0eoC6CLWK7NSpjpZHXEua8Rxg-4Yc6V-7fp/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-24+at+13.52.22.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1280" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrEIapLpqKRfgbhiWeu7siPM64pG1SwpwaMoInpPPKz1NE6oPRbovxjwgXrKjuTWHvdofKi1nx36uYyAf4jWgjlyQgoHLgQUDsC5bY5fUw0eoC6CLWK7NSpjpZHXEua8Rxg-4Yc6V-7fp/s400/Screenshot+2019-09-24+at+13.52.22.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reports</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is a really great tool to keep students engaged on their devices and give you some real data about the impact of your teaching.<br /><br />It’s really easy to use, syncs your slides with your students’ device and you don’t have to convert your materials to make them compatible.<br /><br />For students, it can help to make the lessons more engaging and enable them to streamline their note-taking and ensure that they have a voice and their questions aren’t lost during the lesson.<br />
<br /><b>Pricing</b><br />There is a free version of <a href="https://hypersay.com/" target="_blank">Hypersay</a> which you can use with up to 20 students.<br />If you have a larger class or a conference size audience you can pay a one-off fee (about $4) to upgrade your presentation for the larger audience size (up to 200 people). There are also plans for conferences and individual monthly plans. You can check out the prices at: <a href="https://hypersay.com/pricing/">https://hypersay.com/pricing</a><br /><br />I’m seriously trying to get the courage to try this out at my next conference plenary in Turkey at the end of the week, so keep your fingers crossed for me.<br /><br />I hope you find <a href="https://hypersay.com/" target="_blank">Hypersay</a> useful with for your teaching and training work too.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
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<b> </b><br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />Best<br />Nik Peachey<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-1697611366414959132019-09-17T10:31:00.003+01:002019-09-17T10:31:56.676+01:00The Virtual Writing Tutor - A Suite of Tools for Developing Students’ Writing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For tech-savvy students there are many ways to get their grammar checked, from online grammar checkers to the inbuilt grammar checks that they can find in MS Word or Apple’s Pages, so in order for another grammar checker to be useful, it needs to do more than just check grammar, and that’s what the Virtual Writing Tutor offers.<br />
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The Virtual Writing Tutor is more than a simple grammar checker, it is a suite of tools and activities that you can use with your students to help them improve their writing.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>On the home page, there is a standard field where students can enter their text and get the usual kinds of feedback and analysis, such as word counts, vocabulary checks and punctuation checks.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ4qdwmJwa6bSa4yk8GTLHoUkHDh5HIHsgLQrgQzZQ_4Lc2Zd8piX-7d-7wTmFS3uAWfkIA8jtFJd1pMgBP1Yt2Ys9XdHal1Nnfn7KCQUJPz7sjcTj4Wx9swdxCcM7y6R8g0duOEiWs4U/s1600/Virtual_Writing_Tutor.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="1176" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ4qdwmJwa6bSa4yk8GTLHoUkHDh5HIHsgLQrgQzZQ_4Lc2Zd8piX-7d-7wTmFS3uAWfkIA8jtFJd1pMgBP1Yt2Ys9XdHal1Nnfn7KCQUJPz7sjcTj4Wx9swdxCcM7y6R8g0duOEiWs4U/s400/Virtual_Writing_Tutor.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>When the students click on grammar check, they get a list of their errors with explanations. They can also get the explanations translated if they are lower levels.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFPUFWEmvcPsIPNtVh9bQwv6lyahn9rTxiM8AW3hk95u-_CUU212ZEEBMY7EQa5RYy_h1GRVh4n9D4fklFpL6Bj-NmlUNJ6y86KllMDz8OtMLP1JqM0wLchYKBBILLNa_3t3M1It1sxbH/s1600/Virtual_Writing_Tutor+2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="1111" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFPUFWEmvcPsIPNtVh9bQwv6lyahn9rTxiM8AW3hk95u-_CUU212ZEEBMY7EQa5RYy_h1GRVh4n9D4fklFpL6Bj-NmlUNJ6y86KllMDz8OtMLP1JqM0wLchYKBBILLNa_3t3M1It1sxbH/s400/Virtual_Writing_Tutor+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Another nice feature is that they can actually hear their text spoken using text to speech and even download the audio file, so this is useful for helping to support pronunciation skills too.</li>
</ul>
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Across the navigation menu at the top of the site, there are also some interesting features.<br />
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<a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/games" target="_blank">The Games section </a>has an error correction game that shows students a number of random sentences with errors that they have to correct. Once they have corrected the sentence they click on ‘Help’ and this will give them some feedback on whether they have corrected the sentence.<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>There is also a ‘My error game’ which uses errors from the student’s own texts in the game, so if students are registered users and regularly using the site it also becomes a great way to review and try to eradicate regular errors.</li>
</ul>
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Another interesting feature is the <a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/ielts" target="_blank">IELTS section</a>. In this section, students can practice answering IELTS writing test questions. These tests include a timer so that students are working under test type conditions and when they have finished, they can get some feedback on their answer and an estimated band score.<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The feedback is informative and tells the students the kinds of words and structure the examiner would be looking for. There is also some grammar feedback on the text the students entered.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://penpal.virtualwritingtutor.com/dashboard" target="_blank">The Pen Pals section</a> of the site also looks really interesting. Using this, teachers are able to set up and manage their class and using some example templates to manage a range of tasks. The VWT then handles giving the students feedback, correction, and a score, so this is a huge time saver for teachers who want to do this kind of writing exchange.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Find out more about this at: <a href="https://blog.virtualwritingtutor.com/a-pen-pal-exchange-for-communicative-writing-practice/" target="_blank">A Pen Pal Exchange for Communicative Writing Practice</a></li>
</ul>
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Last but not least, there is a section of the site for <a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/hypertext-narrative" target="_blank">developing Hypertext Narrative</a>. These are the kinds of texts where students read about a situation and then have choices. Their choices can guide their path through the narrative which can have a number of different final outcomes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeL5AJIYz3QwRyFYZJ0kabt4hM2Grz_3NQoHvubc6fzbUKetusGlriMdPL2tEDlKhimKia7DiNtL_f-Z5zcTauctpDx3E2KD1rqfCnSanEaaVTvtna9_pKzUryS7UupeaFZZPxKlyc7yKm/s1600/Virtual_Writing_Tutor+6.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1193" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeL5AJIYz3QwRyFYZJ0kabt4hM2Grz_3NQoHvubc6fzbUKetusGlriMdPL2tEDlKhimKia7DiNtL_f-Z5zcTauctpDx3E2KD1rqfCnSanEaaVTvtna9_pKzUryS7UupeaFZZPxKlyc7yKm/s320/Virtual_Writing_Tutor+6.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Using this part of the site teacher or students can easily construct their own hypertext narratives using simple editing tool. You can also access a number of texts that have already been written, so this might be a good place to go to introduce your students to the concept or to find some content for your lessons.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Example <a href="https://virtualwritingtutor.com/published-hypertext-narrative-examples/" target="_blank">Hypertext Narratives</a> </li>
</ul>
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As with most grammar checkers, The Virtual Writing Tutor looks like it’s still a work in process and the analysis of writing isn’t always going to be perfect, but this looks like a great suite of tools to try out and to keep an eye as there are obviously lots of good ideas here.<br />
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
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<b> </b><br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="28" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="29" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="30" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="31" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="32" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />Best<br />Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-49303593258222958952019-08-07T09:31:00.001+01:002019-08-07T09:31:08.213+01:00TeachVid for Developing Listening Skills<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've always been a huge fan of using video for language development, so I was really delighted when I was sent a link to <a href="https://www.teachvid.com/" target="_blank">TeachVid</a> and asked to have a look at it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWyVzN6Z8BMUTl4AaSNJkD1PRSQrl3rAaKPKGTEUCP-LyvuYgZClsxOYfnvMn6tpQx5i90CpyhFMXkLfrV6uZHp4j6yjN6kwTW6ScgUoy8zvQaTLIuc-J3FCpkyV_CwGL0MDK34-LvyM3/s1600/TeachVid_-_Home__Teach_languages_with_videos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1136" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWyVzN6Z8BMUTl4AaSNJkD1PRSQrl3rAaKPKGTEUCP-LyvuYgZClsxOYfnvMn6tpQx5i90CpyhFMXkLfrV6uZHp4j6yjN6kwTW6ScgUoy8zvQaTLIuc-J3FCpkyV_CwGL0MDK34-LvyM3/s400/TeachVid_-_Home__Teach_languages_with_videos.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.teachvid.com/" target="_blank">TeachVid</a> is a really great resource for developing listening skills multiple languages, not just English. The learning is based around short video clips but there are a whole range of different activity types that students can select.<br />
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The activities use a parallel text technique that combines the use of L1 subtitles with L2 transcription so that students can understand the content they are listening to even if they are quite low level learners.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MHpiPAxJWCE4hX8jffC1ldCqXpq6HMmc-TC_e-P2nXIBC1UJyKmOveLF8fH-znn6uy-EEQ8UwO_lmyaXTJHkp0ZgOYIns77mUoRxTuQ38zT7tHfKMb1s-HnSUjvAacbC6jcUzP27RJdP/s1600/TeachVid_-_Resource__El_Perdo%25CC%2581n_-_Nicky_Jam_y_Enrique_Iglesias+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1600" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MHpiPAxJWCE4hX8jffC1ldCqXpq6HMmc-TC_e-P2nXIBC1UJyKmOveLF8fH-znn6uy-EEQ8UwO_lmyaXTJHkp0ZgOYIns77mUoRxTuQ38zT7tHfKMb1s-HnSUjvAacbC6jcUzP27RJdP/s400/TeachVid_-_Resource__El_Perdo%25CC%2581n_-_Nicky_Jam_y_Enrique_Iglesias+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
At the most basic level students can watch and listen to the videos with both languages visible, but if they click on 'Activities' this opens a whole range of choices for different ways students can challenge themselves to reconstruct the text.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7oiZrG51J7g1gIHjqr4hZ5yTm9d-RasKW1ki2Tlq_cs75hTJHaM3rD3lgO40yeOwGSYZOeBgtZ_qH1tKPUeZL0EDO74mXbL-Kbq1A2f8H0h8SH6K4yYdR7xFkw5LHcnhvnziu5m6o61C/s1600/TeachVid_-_Resource__El_Perdo%25CC%2581n_-_Nicky_Jam_y_Enrique_Iglesias+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1600" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7oiZrG51J7g1gIHjqr4hZ5yTm9d-RasKW1ki2Tlq_cs75hTJHaM3rD3lgO40yeOwGSYZOeBgtZ_qH1tKPUeZL0EDO74mXbL-Kbq1A2f8H0h8SH6K4yYdR7xFkw5LHcnhvnziu5m6o61C/s400/TeachVid_-_Resource__El_Perdo%25CC%2581n_-_Nicky_Jam_y_Enrique_Iglesias+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
When the students are in activity mode they watch chunks of the video and then reconstruct the text. This could be line by line with the words jumbled up or they may have all the letters and have to find the word boundaries. Once they complete a line the video advances.<br />
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All the time students are working with the activity their progress is being tracked.<br />
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There is also a great LMS feature for teachers called '<a href="https://www.teachvid.com/classroom/example" target="_blank">Classroom</a>'. This allows you to <a href="https://teachvid.blog/2019/04/01/setting-assignments/" target="_blank">set up assignments</a> for your students and track their progress. You can select a video for an assignment and choose the types and sequence of activities you'd like your students to do. You can even set a due date for the assignment.<br />
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There are quite a few video resources already on the site, but if you can't find what you are looking for you can also <a href="https://teachvid.blog/2019/03/10/create-resources/" target="_blank">create your own resources </a>using TeachVid's resource creation tools, accessible via the '<a href="https://www.teachvid.com/resources" target="_blank">My resources</a>' tab on the resources page.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEesrOxhYryvU8ph5p8y7pjSlg6J4XhT3v2vWDtQhfY3cLzFsYB3mfkvTA_439nN5BxLgMvJIxQcReiZLzVO8IC2VbS1_04NC9qlSkaU86YeLzuKufR1zmq-2sO3dj1mUztMSWnw82r2V/s1600/TeachVid_-_Home__Teach_languages_with_videos+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="949" data-original-width="1156" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEesrOxhYryvU8ph5p8y7pjSlg6J4XhT3v2vWDtQhfY3cLzFsYB3mfkvTA_439nN5BxLgMvJIxQcReiZLzVO8IC2VbS1_04NC9qlSkaU86YeLzuKufR1zmq-2sO3dj1mUztMSWnw82r2V/s400/TeachVid_-_Home__Teach_languages_with_videos+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.teachvid.com/" target="_blank">TeachVid</a> is based on a freemium <a href="https://www.teachvid.com/pricing" target="_blank">business model</a>, so you can register for free as a teacher and create five resources for your students and track their progress. Students can also register independently for free and access any of the featured resources on the site. Registering for a paid account gives you access to many more features and is very reasonably priced. The best deal though is to register as a school. <a href="https://www.teachvid.com/pricing" target="_blank">Prices</a> will depend though on the number of student accounts you create.<br />
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I really recommend <a href="https://www.teachvid.com/" target="_blank">TeachVid</a> as a language learning and development tool. I used it to try to improve my Spanish and found the activities really motivating and engaging. This is a great tool to get your students learning independently or in class.<br />
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="16" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="17" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="18" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
Sign up for my twice-monthly free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> at: <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/">https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/</a><br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey</div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-66860632072569933132019-05-21T09:17:00.000+01:002019-05-21T09:23:23.967+01:00Building Quizzes with Artificial Intelligence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back in December 2018, I <a href="https://quickshout.blogspot.com/2018/12/create-reading-activities-from.html">reviewed an excellent web-based application </a>called <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/?utm_source=qzproreviewnik&utm_medium=proreview">Quillionz</a>. The site was developed using AI to instantly produce a wide range of questions based on any text of 300 - 3000 words.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSeaXB_WCbgSxJG9gcTEUxS-bYvO4ShUq-0J5jo90-hhA_rMYaNykuI3qKIY0OzMch7_gSGJWVLBpoZtPGsBq95O9OH7RkGpZLktxWf2PQmYLeIM4iePDl1gjPIHxgWK-J4BeOjVscUpF-/s1600/Quillionz_-_Add_Content.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="1358" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSeaXB_WCbgSxJG9gcTEUxS-bYvO4ShUq-0J5jo90-hhA_rMYaNykuI3qKIY0OzMch7_gSGJWVLBpoZtPGsBq95O9OH7RkGpZLktxWf2PQmYLeIM4iePDl1gjPIHxgWK-J4BeOjVscUpF-/s400/Quillionz_-_Add_Content.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Since then the tool has been a great success and I've had some very positive reports from many English and subject-based teachers who have used it to save time and create instant reading comprehension tests based around authentic content.<br />
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<a href="https://www.quillionz.com/?utm_source=qzproreviewnik&utm_medium=proreview">Quillionz</a> has now released a Pro version, which I've just tried. I have to say it's really impressive.<br />
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These are a few of the new features the pro version offers:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Generate Wh questions</li>
<li>View the context of a question</li>
<li>Generate unlimited question sets per day</li>
<li>Save unlimited question sets</li>
<li>Input content as text and PDF</li>
<li>Export question sets as a text file or QuilliQuiz</li>
</ul>
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The new feature that I like best is <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/?utm_source=qzproreviewnik&utm_medium=proreview">QuilliQuiz</a>. This is a feature that turns the questions into virtual quizzes. Here's an example of a QuilliQuiz abut a newspaper article on Brexit:<a href="https://app.quillionz.com/Quiz/Index?id=UIi9wC">https://app.quillionz.com/Quiz/Index?id=UIi9wC </a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq24LQEf9Zo5Fl8O7yZ3BQJX_UzydhQ-BAllpOu92GVW1HGmFMMaq1X8NvsLAQxFXvc6N0UupDjCWFZzYZUXvRGn2LQ-55w04yTjwTIMRlwdO6IAN3aMpOIeATYYwS8JdJsIBPaRCHqPPZ/s1600/Quillionz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="996" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq24LQEf9Zo5Fl8O7yZ3BQJX_UzydhQ-BAllpOu92GVW1HGmFMMaq1X8NvsLAQxFXvc6N0UupDjCWFZzYZUXvRGn2LQ-55w04yTjwTIMRlwdO6IAN3aMpOIeATYYwS8JdJsIBPaRCHqPPZ/s400/Quillionz.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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So once students have read and done their comprehension exercises, you can use this feature to have a group class-quiz or students can use it individually to review and revise the content.<br />
They simply look at the questions, try to remember the answer and then click the flashcard to see if they have it right.<br />
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<a href="https://www.quillionz.com/?utm_source=qzproreviewnik&utm_medium=proreview">Quillionz Pro</a> is priced at just under $10 a month, so if you are creating lots of materials based around text then it can be a really economical way to save lots of time.<br />
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If that is expensive for you, you can still continue to use the free version and quickly create some great quizzes and content for your students.<br />
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<div>
I hope you enjoy using <a href="https://www.quillionz.com/?utm_source=qzproreviewnik&utm_medium=proreview">Quillionz</a> with your students.</div>
<div>
</div>
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You can find links to many <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">more tools</a> like this and <a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">activities for the digital classroom</a> in my ebooks at: <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://payhip.com/peacheypublications">https://payhip.com/peacheypublications</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s1600/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7QjjFiNxAcKqCToGAagPenoiqETGkDpadYJSLHo27hzmhQ3m-lZR1aBX80cHd1akz1cwr7p3915gCbYeG-UsoqppwxVdACb7AEo5a-7_92U7vJ2WwZ0gsAdJUITgriZfjPJeITwleCu/s320/digital-tools-4-teachers-cover.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
Sign up for my twice-monthly free newsletter and get a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> at: <a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/">https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Check Out My Books:</b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/HDeb">Hacking Creativity</a></li>
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/LrCG">10 Short Image Lessons</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/oxeb">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/5n90">Digital Video</a></li>
<li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/CjXN">Thinking Critically through Digital Media </a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Best<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-68891887374808282632019-04-15T10:03:00.002+01:002019-06-21T05:48:13.313+01:00Ediface - The Whole School Solution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</div>
Are you looking for a simple IT solution that can help drag your school into the 21st century? If you are then <a href="https://www.ediface.org/" target="_blank">Ediface</a> may be what you are looking for.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqq4HXKYGlbRP58LCPf2-xQaXHW12xkZwkRxLxGw6JbfFnqsu1vSRABcTD-JJWTpZTjpCbKh8muV10zrH6_aYrKfpxbfZzMRxk_FqdwzoEkiGZo1X30-6h1kah0neWd7hX6kVeqMaKfVXE/s1600/ediface.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqq4HXKYGlbRP58LCPf2-xQaXHW12xkZwkRxLxGw6JbfFnqsu1vSRABcTD-JJWTpZTjpCbKh8muV10zrH6_aYrKfpxbfZzMRxk_FqdwzoEkiGZo1X30-6h1kah0neWd7hX6kVeqMaKfVXE/s400/ediface.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ediface.org/" target="_blank">Ediface</a> has been designed to support the complete curriculum and manage students across subjects. It's able to track students on their complete journey through the school experience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WHijiITk7LXPk63T56UIyalBxNTUCA2t2VHb-RaU95uVGV-kslcX7BTLtN2K3UUZkG9yQsDqHloyQiYlIynYYuqAKMujiTBQ7hExzTN5zoCV1JVZ9TEVR6iStwmgmEShkTqnIjQK-Gf_/s1600/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="1169" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WHijiITk7LXPk63T56UIyalBxNTUCA2t2VHb-RaU95uVGV-kslcX7BTLtN2K3UUZkG9yQsDqHloyQiYlIynYYuqAKMujiTBQ7hExzTN5zoCV1JVZ9TEVR6iStwmgmEShkTqnIjQK-Gf_/s400/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once students have been uploaded they can be easily added to classes and teachers can assign a range of digital materials to them.<br />
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As well as homework assignments which can be posted, tracked and marked through the platform, teachers can also set up their classroom materials and slides. These can be shared across the school, enabling considerable time saving and the development of a community of practise among your teachers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhifR-ZxlLFsO0-uwcD5IurayzpVyQhrOf4suMgk4H49_GC2F5_2PDWrLWw1UsgLh2ofEHW51u5igi1s2QZug4ul67sXDXQUwA1D4e6JdVuwHB1qN_7rpxyKbq_oCMgZFL-wrFnUDD-TRv3/s1600/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="956" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhifR-ZxlLFsO0-uwcD5IurayzpVyQhrOf4suMgk4H49_GC2F5_2PDWrLWw1UsgLh2ofEHW51u5igi1s2QZug4ul67sXDXQUwA1D4e6JdVuwHB1qN_7rpxyKbq_oCMgZFL-wrFnUDD-TRv3/s400/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then it's easy for teachers to launch lessons which students can then work through on any digital device. lessons can be media rich and include video content, audio and images. Teachers can also set up simple test questions to check understanding at the end of each unit of work or at the end of term.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwK1h6e2XfVOVzgc_kmWDYXHIZITzrUJLqLUrQ2Nuwk2Vw2SzkDMdIDEF1GtnC25zs6mxTXi1dQk9HvUN60wxu2gZVDumtPNMjTBTcnmcT5w2GoaWIv3sdhwbMaLf4kUXgoaNsMUlB1OJ/s1600/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1152" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwK1h6e2XfVOVzgc_kmWDYXHIZITzrUJLqLUrQ2Nuwk2Vw2SzkDMdIDEF1GtnC25zs6mxTXi1dQk9HvUN60wxu2gZVDumtPNMjTBTcnmcT5w2GoaWIv3sdhwbMaLf4kUXgoaNsMUlB1OJ/s400/EDIFACE_-_Demo_School+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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As and administrator, it's easy to come into the platform and see how students are doing across topics and as your bank of data grows you will be able to measure the overall impact of teaching within the school and make decisions about curriculum changes that are based on data rather than instinct.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.ediface.org/" target="_blank">Ediface</a> is an efficient solution to what is becoming a complex problem. It isn't free, but they do have a very simple per student per year pricing plan and you can get up to 50 students registered before you have to pay, so that's enough for a pretty good trial or for a single teacher to run their class.<br />
<br />
I hope you find Ediface useful and that it helps to make life in your school a little easier.<br />
<br />
Sign up for my monthly free newsletter and get more tips and reviews like this one and a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="18" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> at: <a data-unique-btn-id="19" href="https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/">https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/</a><br />
<br />
<b>Check out my ebooks:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">20 Tech-Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom </a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">Digital Tools for Teachers</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="http://peacheypublications.com/thinking-critically-through-digital-media">Thinking Critically through Digital Media</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/exploiting-infographics">Exploiting Infographics</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/10-lessons-in-digital-literacy">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-video-a-manual-for-language-teachers">Digital Video – A Manual for Language Teachers</a> </li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Best<br />
<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4314941629795542873.post-1608362069372504522019-03-17T06:30:00.001+00:002019-03-18T06:18:55.903+00:00Bite-Size Teacher Development from Language Fuel <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the last few weeks, I have been looking through <a href="https://elt.training.languagefuel.com/index">LanguageFuel's </a>online <a href="https://elt.training.languagefuel.com/catalog/index">courses for EL teachers.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0mQ5-pCAH9AFJQT1SqHB2EF2MFdnu6vR8R4U0vzWB4D_rsRFVMRMY6N53_aS3XNky80g457VbXI1pYz-fjg8Kf5tiR6tE0_RyFcEAktI82IjHYTur-AZSD_8-wtvz6LXYEJLgNBz3lcq-/s1600/elt+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1184" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0mQ5-pCAH9AFJQT1SqHB2EF2MFdnu6vR8R4U0vzWB4D_rsRFVMRMY6N53_aS3XNky80g457VbXI1pYz-fjg8Kf5tiR6tE0_RyFcEAktI82IjHYTur-AZSD_8-wtvz6LXYEJLgNBz3lcq-/s400/elt+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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They have a great selection of teacher development courses, around 35 at present, with some really interesting content and a great selection of different topics, that vary from basics like Using Flashcards to more complex issues like Intercultural Awareness.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcgrjANgr9JF80KVHQ7D91IZ1_WpsEos7UOqZJZJraABaoB39ds8EPZhO6N-3m0dVc-Q0dsgxs0qp1ZB_nOp3zaE9MzkL6-ynvfFf2NbYBjWm1HuL_yQsqPEI5xmjh57cAo84bsQ_cIr4/s1600/elt___Course_catalog.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="889" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcgrjANgr9JF80KVHQ7D91IZ1_WpsEos7UOqZJZJraABaoB39ds8EPZhO6N-3m0dVc-Q0dsgxs0qp1ZB_nOp3zaE9MzkL6-ynvfFf2NbYBjWm1HuL_yQsqPEI5xmjh57cAo84bsQ_cIr4/s400/elt___Course_catalog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The courses are ideal for short bursts of study on your laptop or mobile as they have been divided into bite-size learning tasks and input. To do a complete course takes between 15 mins and about an hour.<br />
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The main content is delivered through a mixture of text, interactive activities and animated videos which visually reinforce the concepts being introduced.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChsto9CBibva_gCywz4R98e3VMJjc9qXtFsx0jt832BYWfdtGeDTiMVZT-OhJ5Dhfd9fdQRA7h9x9gzxz1Z77e7ig2Usdbi27vEznkMbLlFY-e2FUp9HwkVhY4TRj7snqLCsFlH6ioTP7/s1600/elt___Getting_Started_with_English_Verb_Forms___Getting_Started_with_English_Verb_Forms.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1014" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChsto9CBibva_gCywz4R98e3VMJjc9qXtFsx0jt832BYWfdtGeDTiMVZT-OhJ5Dhfd9fdQRA7h9x9gzxz1Z77e7ig2Usdbi27vEznkMbLlFY-e2FUp9HwkVhY4TRj7snqLCsFlH6ioTP7/s400/elt___Getting_Started_with_English_Verb_Forms___Getting_Started_with_English_Verb_Forms.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Many of the courses also include some useful practical tasks that you can try to do with students and some templates for classroom planning or activities.<br />
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What I particularly liked about the courses was that many of them integrated some digital skills development for teachers and links to useful web-based resources which can help save some time with the day to day business of planning and delivering lessons.<br />
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These courses are great for novice teachers or to fill in or refresh some knowledge gaps for more experienced teachers.<br />
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<a href="https://www.languagefuel.com/">Language Fuel</a> is still at quite an early stage at present so it will be interesting to see how they grow and what else they come up with.<br />
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You can join their community for free (<a href="https://www.languagefuel.com/community-membership">https://www.languagefuel.com/community-membership</a>) and this also gives you access to their facebook group at: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LanguageFuel/">https://www.facebook.com/LanguageFuel/ </a><br />
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The courses aren't free, but they are very reasonably priced and one price covers all courses. You can get a free 14 day trial at <a href="https://www.languagefuel.com/memberships">https://www.languagefuel.com/memberships</a> <br />
If you sign up for premium membership you can also get private one to one training through video conference.<br />
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<a href="https://www.languagefuel.com/">Language Fuel</a> is a great way to boost your training, especially if you are working in isolated conditions as so many teachers do these days.<br />
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Sign up for my monthly free newsletter and get more tips and reviews like this one and a free copy of <a data-unique-btn-id="20" href="https://payhip.com/b/Y1TA">Digital Tools for Teachers</a> at: <a data-unique-btn-id="21" href="https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/">https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/</a><br />
<br />
<b>My Books:</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="22" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/20-tech-enhanced-activities-for-the-language-classroom">20 Tech-Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom </a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="23" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-tools-for-teachers">Digital Tools for Teachers</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="24" href="http://peacheypublications.com/thinking-critically-through-digital-media">Thinking Critically through Digital Media</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="25" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/exploiting-infographics">Exploiting Infographics</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="26" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/10-lessons-in-digital-literacy">10 Lessons in Digital Literacy</a></li>
<li><a data-unique-btn-id="27" href="http://peacheypublications.com/books/digital-video-a-manual-for-language-teachers">Digital Video – A Manual for Language Teachers</a> </li>
</ul>
Best<br />
<br />
Nik Peachey<br />
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Nik Peacheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13397596906147004693noreply@blogger.com0