20 Tech Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom

I'm proud to say that I've just published another ebook through PeacheyPublications.com

20 Tech Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom was designed to be the first in a series of collections of the simple activities and ideas I have used over many years when delivering teaching and teacher training sessions that incorporate the use of digital technologies.

The ideas use simple free tools that have stood the test of time and remained consistently reliable. The teaching ideas and activities themselves are ones that I have adapted from my pre-technology teaching days, so they are all built on sound classroom teaching practice.

The activities are ideal for the modern connected classroom in which students come to class with a variety of devices, but they can also be used in a blended context and students can be assigned some parts of the tasks to do outside of the classroom.

I have also included a collection of 8 video tutorials to help less tech confident teachers deal with the technology side of using the materials.










I hope 20 Tech Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom will act as a bridge for teachers who are newer or less confident at using digital tools and materials and help them provide engaging and motivating language learning experiences for their students.

I hope you find this ebook useful.

Related links

• Digital Tools for Teachers
• Thinking Critically through Digital Media
• Exploiting Infographics
• Digital Video – A Manual for Language Teachers

Best
Nik Peachey

Exploiting Infographics for Digital Literacy and Critical Thinking

This is just a short post to anounce the publication of my new ebook 'Exploiting Infographics for Digital Literacy and Critical Thinking'.

Exploiting Infographics follows on from 10 Lessons in Digital Literacy, which is a collection of lesson plans based around infographics, and looks in more depth at the genre and how infographics can be used as both sources of information and as creative learning tasks for students.

The tasks that accompany the infographics are intended to encourage students to think more critically about the information they are exposed to and to question the sources of information they find whilst browsing the internet. Exploiting Infographics should help teachers to start creating their own tasks, activities and lesson plans for students and to integrate infographics in a way that will enhance students’ critical thinking, digital literacy, language and communication skills. Exploiting Infographics was conceived as part of The Digital Classrooms Series which started with the award winning Digital Video - A Manual for Language Teachers.

The series is intended to help teachers, teacher trainers, materials writers and course designers integrate digital technologies into their classroom practice in a pedagogically sound and impactful way. I hope you enjoy these books and find them useful. Related links:

• My Lesson Materials

Nik Peachey

Lesson plans and activities for exploiting video

Well after many months of hard work I'm really pleased to say that my iBook on exploiting digital video has finally been released.

There are now more than 40 step-by-step lesson plans as well as chapters on different approaches and paradigms for exploiting video, such as how to use video in blended learning, task based learning (TBL) or content and language integrated learning (CLIL).

Here you can download examples of some of the activities:

• Video comprehension activities
• Video creation activities

In addition to this, the book has a chapter full of useful web and mobile based apps and this includes video tutorials and tips and advice on how to use these apps with your students.

Here you can download and example:

• Video based apps

It's available here on Scribd

Digital Video - A manual for language teachers by Nik Peachey

And it's also available through the iBook Store for iPad and Mac users: Digital Video

The book has been something of a labour of love and has grown way beyond what I originally planned.

I hope you enjoy the book, find it useful.

Related links:

• Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers
• Creativity in the English language classroom

Best

Nik Peachey

Where do you build your PLN?

PLN (Personal Learning Networks) have grown in prominence and importance tremendously over the last few years and with good reason. They are a great way to extend your professional network beyond your physical environment and tap into a huge wealth of knowledge about your profession. This makes them one of the most effective autonomous means of developing your own teaching in a way that is most immediate and relevant to your ambitions.

Building an effective network though, is dependent on knowing the right places to go, which tools to use and how best to use them. With technology changing and new tools developing so rapidly, this can be a challenge to keep up with.

With this in mind I have launched this quick research survey to find out where you prefer to build your networks and what the pros and cons of each of those networks might be.

Please feel free to add your suggestions, pros and cons, and vote for the ones you find most useful. You maybe asked to register when you submit and idea, but you can just click on the X in the top right hand corner of the window and continue.


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I hope you find this information useful and continue to build your network.

Related links:

• Learning technology news portal
• Web Tools for Learners
• How I use social media for my professional development 
• Online Teacher Development Works Best - 15 Reasons Why
• Developing your digital study skills

Best

Nik Peachey