I'm doing a hands-on workshop tomorrow for teachers and service providers in my local area on ways to use ICT to connect more with learners and create more dynamic management and language practice tools.
To that end, I've prepared some screencasts of some of my very favourite edtech tools and thought it natural to share them here on the blog as well.
First up is Voxopop, which I personally think is THE best tool out there for creating online recorded discussions which YOU can set up easily and which your learners can access easily and use in ways to really maximise spoken English practice. The screencast below gives you some examples of my own Talkgroups, how to join, how to record and edit, and how to set up your own Talkgroups for your learners.
A larger HD version of this tutorial is available on YouTube here.
Next is Lefora, a really attractive and easy to use forum tool which in some ways is something of a blend of a forum and a blog. I've been using this for years to manage and apply online language tasks as part of both blended and fully online programs. The video below shows some of the features and set up considerations, examples of how to post media-rich topics and respond to learners' submissions, and how Lefora can be used to track the contributions and activity of individual learners.
A larger HD version of this tutorial is available on YouTube here.
Finally, I have an example here of how to use Screenr to do make screencasts. In this particular example I am demonstrating how to use it with something like Google Maps to explain an excursion meeting place, drawing on not only a street map but also the satellite view and Streetview application. Of course, this is only one of endless possible applications for a screencast!
A larger HD version of this tutorial is available on YouTube here.
These video tutorials are going to be added to one I've already made about using Gmail and Google Video/Voice and a Facebook Groups page I have created to showcase how students' familiarity with Facebook can be drawn on to create a very active and helpful targeted social network.
Anyway, I hope those screencast tutorials give you some tools to think about and try with your classes!
Wish me luck for the workshop tomorrow morning :-)
- J
