Hot Potatoes

Initial Impressions

When you first click onto the Hot Potatoes (HP) homepage you might think you've gone back to the 90's, and are doing some sort of dated time warp, but looks can be deceiving. You should never judge a book by its cover. Appearances are often misleading. Beauty is only skin deep. Okay, that's enough idioms. The point I'm trying to make here is that this tool is exceedingly powerful and shouldn't be dismissed for having a simplistic interface. You have to download the programme, but once you've done that you can start building your very own online materials.

The Building Process

The first thing you need to do is find an appropriate text for your learners. Once you've done this then you can start the process. There are 5 kinds of potato (JMatch, JQuiz, JCross, JCloze, and JMix) with each having the ability to produce different exercises, plus the Masher (that acts as a suite, which combines the tasks made). Here are a few screenshots of the stages I went through:

JCloze (Gap Fill Exercise)

JQuiz

The Masher 

End Product

Choice Of Exercises

Gap Fill

Quiz

Verdict?

It's an incredibly powerful tool, which actually requires very little training as it's so simple and straightforward to use. The 'Getting Started' tutorial, once you open the programme, is a useful place to start but being brave, relying on your intuition, and giving it a go is also a good way of doing it. It could be deemed slightly limited with only 5 options (but these can be adapted).

For Language Learning

• Like other tools, giving your learners exposure to the text beforehand is imperative.
• JMatch - Can be used to create a matching exercise with key words and definitions. Or you could get your students to choose the correct synonym/antonym. Verbs and prepositions could also be useful. In fact with high level students this could be a great way of presenting phrasal verbs or idioms.
• JQuiz - A fantastic way of either starting the lesson, as a warmer, or finishing the lesson by testing your students on what they've learnt. Useful for all levels as you can grade it appropriately. Teaming students up would be a good way of promoting collaborative learning, and introducing some friendly competition into the classroom.
• JCross - Semantically it seems like this is for the advanced student as it's a crossword puzzle but, like the JQuiz, it can be easily graded for lower levels. 
• JCloze - This is the classic gap fill which helps students with sentence structure, syntax, prediction, and reading skills. The Auto-Gap is a time saver, but be careful to double check everything before finalising.
• JMix - This is a really useful function where students have to recreate a jumbled sentence into its correct form. Once again this is beneficial as it promotes syntax and word order. Or present gradable vocabulary where students have to put it in order. This could work with lower levels (the alphabet) to higher levels (quantifiers).
• The Hint Button - This is an absolutely brilliant feature of HP as it enables you as the exercise builder to scaffold and help your learners to try and predict the correct answer. Suggestions, and hints I used in my materials were: the first letter of the word, the definition, antonyms, synonyms, and singular/plural forms. All very helpful for language learning.
• The Feedback Button - Once again, this enables you as the exercise builder to give your students thorough feedback on any wrong answers. Rather than just putting 'No,' a detailed justification of why an answer is wrong is more likely to help students for the future.
• The Score System - Useful for students as it could be good for morale, or initiating some friendly competition between groups.
• Could be used in the classroom, outside the classroom as a homework or pre-lesson task, or used in the flipped classroom - it's a very versatile tool.
• For advanced HP users, it is possible to embed audio and video files, with links to youtube too.
• Could be used for in class assessment - obviously all students would need a device, and the teacher would have to keep an eye on wandering eyes but it could be an innovative idea which saves teachers from having to mark written tests.
• It's free!

Breaking News English

Read all about it...

Breaking New English (BNE) is a website that contains a huge resource of content, which provides thorough lesson plans for all types of learners. There will always be one level with all of the resources available, and then the materials are edited and moulded for lower or upper level students accordingly. For lower level students, the new creations of the material provides an opportunity for them to work up to the main version, as this will improve confidence and ease them in gently. There are usually 20+ pages of materials, so it's important to be selective, by picking and choosing the most relevant activities for your students. Listening and reading takes the focus of the 4 skills, but you can tailor your lesson to include the other skills if needs be. There is also a wealth of resources which promotes lexis and grammar. Moreover, the news stories are really engaging and quirky, as can be seen below:

How can this site be used?

• In the classroom - You could print out the PDF of the lesson that you like the look of, and identify the activities and tasks which you think are most beneficial to your students.
• Flipped classroom - You could get your students to read an article or listen to an audio at home, so they're ready to pull it apart and analyse it when they come to class.
• Outside the classroom - You could highlight the activities that you want your students to do at home, but it's probably wise to show them how to navigate the site, and where they can access the activities in class so they're prepared to do it autonomously.

Which level?

Some useful and engaging activities

Jumble

• After students have been exposed to the text, you could put your students in pairs or small groups to try and rebuild the text collaboratively.
• Although there might be some L1 usage in monolingual classes, the students use their language processing to complete the task effectively. Plus they'll be continuously debating, clarifying, questioning, and confirming, which are useful skills for learners to take outside the classroom.
• This will help students vocabulary, syntax and grammar by highlighting other skills such as collocation and colligation.
• The scoring system offers the opportunity for friendly competition between teams.

No letters

• Similar to how a dictogloss used to be. After being exposed to the text, students are required to input the words they think appeared in the text. Students will most probably think of articles (as can be seen above), and prepositions first but will have to cast their minds back to the text in order to recall all of the words.
• Perfect for pair or group work as students will have to negotiate and collaborate to rebuild the text from scratch. They'll be throwing out lots of vocab and previous knowledge too.
• The incorrect words and your score will show on screen which adds a competitive element to proceedings. You could encourage students to use dictionaries. For the incorrect words, as an extension activity, you could get students to think of synonyms or antonyms which obviously helps language learning.
• Helps with lexis, grammar, tests high level discourse analytical skills such as collocation (verbs and noun phrases), and encourages autonomy.
• Teacher's can look at the common words that students are getting wrong and make a point to teach this as a whole class.

A few final thoughts...

• This is a very dynamic site as it presents language in an innovative and non-static way.
• The feedback you receive on the site is instant...but fairly limited as it only tells you if it's right or wrong, but not why. This is where teacher intervention is very important to explain any ambiguity.
• The dictation function on the site is very good for learners to repetitively listen to an audio. For example, this would be great if they wanted to focus on weak forms from a US or British accent. However, non-native speaker accents aren't available which could be a limitation.
• The search function is very useful and can take you wherever you want to go.
• Listen A Minute  is the offspring of BNE - this site is ideal for lower levels (A2 - B1) as it takes the essence of BNE but contains less material, shorter texts, and the lessons are organised by genre/topic so it's easier to navigate.
• It's free and contains a ridiculous amount of resources. The most important things for teachers to be aware of is that you should be selective when choosing activities, and  expose students to the site by bringing it to life in the classroom before asking them to do activities outside the classroom.

Ted Ed

What is it?

Having spawned from the hugely popular TED which is based on innovation and spreading ideas, Ted Ed is an education platform which enables teachers to amplify and expand their thoughts on a global scale. It contains 5 stages called Watch, Think, Dig Deeper, Discuss and Finally, which can be implemented or ignored at the teachers’ convenience. Here's some I made earlier:

How?

As a teacher wanting to incorporate Ted Ed into your classroom, you have two options: to use a video stored on the sites archives, or create your own lesson.

With reference to the former, there are thousands of ready-made, useful, and engaging lessons for teachers to utilise and search for at their perusal. There is a wide range of levels covering primary up to University, and subjects ranging from Psychology to Social Studies.

As for the latter, it really is easy as pie to create your own Ted Ed lesson. This video shows how to do it:

Why?

• Basing a lesson around a video (whether you’ve uploaded it from Youtube, or created one yourself) will engage students from the outset, and contain a context which will hopefully induce learning.

• You can log in through Facebook, or set up a TED account in minutes. Oh and by the way, it’s free!

• It’s exceedingly simple, straightforward and manageable for students of all ages and levels.

• For the teacher, it isn’t very time consuming to make and it’s stored permanently in your area.

• You can give instant feedback to your students on the multiple choice questions in the Think section, and review their work in other parts, therefore as a teacher you can keep tabs on student progress. There is also a space for students to respond to this feedback if they require more clarification, or if they just want to contest it!

• The Discuss section allows the teacher to create discussions based on the lesson focus, aims and objectives. They can be guided or open, which doesn't only aid teachers and students but helps to connect the vast community to each other.

Why not?

• You can’t embed other tools into Ted Ed (such as Kahoot which was reviewed in January on this blog).

• The Think section only allows you to use 2 types of question (multiple choice or open).

• There is only one framework available which could potentially lead to de-motivation or complacency if overused.

Teaching context?

• Could be used as part of a flipped classroom, with the video being viewed before class then the activities done in-class. For example, the Dig Deeper questions could be used to tie in the external, online work back into the classroom. 

• Or alternatively a Ted Ed could be the whole focus of the lesson in a face to face environment. By putting students into groups, teachers would be encouraging collaborative and cooperative learning.

• It could also be set as homework, which would most definitely aid the quieter students in the class as it’d enable them to work at their own pace.

• You could hand over autonomy to your students by asking them to create their own video/lesson, and asking other students to complete it. This would actually be a really innovative and hugely powerful way of encouraging your students to become proactive outside the classroom, as well encouraging them to gain presentation literacy prowess.

Final thought

Here is a webinar I presented about Ted Ed (from 30 minutes – 60minutes) so feel free to check it out:

http://bit.ly/1M2rW1q

Movenote

What is it?

Quite simply, Movenote is a video and audio presentation tool that allows you to communicate with your intended audience in an innovative, and fun way. You can use it with any device, on any platform, anywhere. The easiest way to begin is sign in with your gmail account, then you can upload slides/pictures from your computer or google drive. Once you've inserted your aforementioned material, hit record and start presenting. You can change the slides using your keyboard or the arrows on the presentation, and during the presentation your cursor will act as a laser pointer tool. When finished, press save and preview, then share it with social media or gmail. It's seriously easy and straightforward to use, as the tutorial below will make apparent:

Why?

• It's an asynchronous spoken tool which requires the most time for thinking and correction, therefore students will be able to rehearse and perfect their presentations until they're 100% satisfied with their final product.
• If students are set an essay for homework, teacher's can actually use this tool as a means of giving feedback. You could do this as a separate presentation, or reply directly to theirs. Teacher's could screen shot their essays into a powerpoint presentation, use the laser pointer as a means of emphasising certain points, and use video as a means of making it more personal and fresh.
• Face-to-face error management can sometimes be a problematic notion for some teacher's, however Movenote takes away this potential awkwardness.
• As we know, some students are exceedingly shy especially when having to give presentations to the class. Movenote eradicates this live performance anxiety by giving them the platform and opportunity to present their work under their conditions.
• Could be used for group projects where students have to collaborate and work as a team.
• It's a tool that should increase student engagement and motivation.
• Teachers could set students an assessed presentation where they can incorporate speaking (video) and writing (powerpoint slides) in a dynamic and live performance.
• Most importantly - IT'S FREE!

The Alternatives

• It's similar to Present.me but Movenote seems to have a simpler premise and interface.
• Screencast-O-Matic is much alike, but you have to download this tool. It's free but for $15 a year you can edit videos. It has more affordances for sure, but takes longer to set up, therefore if you were going to use this in class you'd have to make sure everything was downloaded and in place before the lesson as it'd waste valuable class time trying to set up. This in turn is very similar to Camtasia but it's cheaper, slightly easier to get to grips with, but has a lot less functions.

Example

Here's one I made earlier...enjoy!

Interview about Niagara Falls

MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) and Nearpod

MALL - What is it?

A mix of formal and informal learning, in and outside the classroom, across different devices (mobile phones, tablets, laptops, notebooks) in different settings. Such devices are used less prevalently in the classroom as they're predominately used outside the classroom. Although a definition helps to conceptualise the concept, there is no overarching, universal meaning. Why? It reflects the fact that mobile technology is forever changing and evolving therefore there isn't an agreed definition of the term. An example of this is...

Nearpod!

This is a basic, introductory tutorial on how to set it up as a teacher, which also shows the students' perspective:

Why use it?

• Increased classroom interaction, engagement, and participation.
• Easy to create and deliver customised content, or find ready-made lessons in their extensive back catalogue of materials (Explore Lessons).
• It's a good way for a teacher to manage and control a class full of Ipads.
• Real time data collection.
• Good for both deductive and inductive learning.
• Choice between live session (real time) or homework (where students can go at their own pace).
• The participation log lets the teacher know who is contributing, and who's shirking.
• Archive answers as a PDF file which could be sent to students later on for consolidation.
• Learner's don't realise they're learning half the time, they're just performing tasks, which promotes incidental learning.
• No restrictions or learning curve - it's a very dynamic and fluid tool.
• A limitless resource with so much potential for learner autonomy.
• Good for all levels and ages - but the teacher should grade it appropriately.
• Tasks include quizzes, match ups, gap fills (drag and drop), and video analysis (from youtube)
• It's free!

Limitations?

• Reliant on decent devices and durable internet connection for optimum use.
• Once the teacher shares something to the class (a correct answer maybe), the other students can no longer respond. The only way around this is for the teacher to go back and it resets itself accordingly, so it can be somewhat fiddly.
• Issue of teacher constriction - students content is controlled and they're locked into the app therefore ultimately they lack autonomy and have minimal freedom, however this will atleast keep them focused on the task at hand.

The beast in action!

Sign in, click on 'explore lessons,' pick a suitable lesson for your learners, go to 'my library' (as seen below):

Once you pick the lesson you want for that day, you can assign it as 'homework' but this is a premium feature. However, 'live session' is free and once you click on that a PIN code will appear...share this with your students and get them to join the session.

Once shared, this will then take you to the start of the activity where you can scroll through between the slides:

This really is a fantastic tool. It could be deemed quite similar to TodaysMeet but  it's possibly more advanced and technical. Yet, like any ICT tool there needs to be sufficient training, plenty of guidance at hand, and lots of patience. So what do you like/dislike about Nearpod?

Twitter

A social networking site for ELT?

The majority of us have probably heard of twitter since it first launched back in 2006. With over 500 million users, a global appeal, and a simple interface...it's inevitable that people in the ELT profession sought a piece of the pie! But first things first - here's a tutorial explaining how to use it:

So why use it?

• Encourages teacher autonomy in the sense that we should be progressive and innovative beings in control of our own destinies, hoping to avoid complacency and fossilisation.
• Promotes the idea that teacher's should be learners - active in their pursuit of collaborating with others and co-constructing knowledge to constantly trying to better ourselves.
• Helpful tool for professional development. It may not be the only/main string to your bow, but it's most definitely useful for sharing and finding out about topics of interest.
• Directly addressing/retweeting someone will reverberate globally.
• It can be used in real time like a chat room -  EG: Every Wednesday a group of teachers using the #eltchat.org meet on twitter. One of its core members is nominated on a weekly basis to discuss something of interest, which acts as a good repository for getting and sharing information in a friendly, open, online community. At the end of the discussion someone will volunteer to write up all of the links posted.
• The search function allows users to delve into the archives and back catalogues of everything ever posted, which allows you to find information and tweets both quickly and easily.
• It's free, a diverse platform to other social networking sites, and easy to use!

Words of warning

• It can be a one way process - if you follow someone (famous) they might not reciprocate, however twitter is like anything in the sense that the more you put in, the more you get out.
• It has bad press as some people use it to post about their overpriced, over hyped, over cooked brunch they regretted buying from a local cafe. The trick here is to keep it professional - if you want to post about your social life then create a different account for that.
• 140 characters isn't a lot so keep your tweet short, sharp, and snappy! However by using bitly you can post the URL of the website you want to tweet into the box and it'll automatically shorten it for you. Great tool! 
• Once you've created and set up your username you can't change it.
• Low and passive input will obviously result in less successful outcomes, so stay active!

Finally...

Follow me @gjmuddeman 

Oh, and my Taiwanese blogging buddy is also discussing a wide variety of ICT tools for ELT on his blog so check it out.

Blended Learning and Xerte

What is it?

Quite simply, blended learning (BL) is an integration of face-to-face teaching with components of technology use, which can be used to unite and support each other. There is some contention in the literature as to percentages/weightings, but the teacher predominantly designs some online activities/tasks which are linked to face-to-face, real-time classroom interaction.

Why?

• Tool for increased motivation and engagement - it's different to face-to-face, and offers students an alternative to the traditional classroom setting.
• Students can work at their own pace, and go over difficult concepts to increase understanding.
• Practicality aspect - exposure to authentic, real-life experience.
• Time saving tool for both the teacher and student.
• Students who miss face-to-face class can catch up online.
• Learning objectives might be obtained quicker with supplementary online exercises.
• Pedagogical richness of material and better access to knowledge.
• Appeals to a host of different personalities - shy students and lower level learners would especially like this approach as they might have more of a 'voice.'
• Role of personal agency heightened - element of control and choice over how students navigate their learning, which could increase autonomy levels.
• It serves as an extra teacher outside the classroom - further reading, reinforcement etc.
• Flipped classrooms are becoming more and more prevalent and popular - getting students to do some pre-reading before class will save time in class, and they'll be ready to contribute as soon as they arrive. Getting students to get into the habit of this is the tricky part, but it will undoubtedly aid learning in the long run.

Why not?

• Expensive to start and implement a BL course (£50k approx in the initial stages)
• Lots of planning and preparation involved
• High pressure - more so than purely face to face teaching as there's an aesthetic element involved, and clients are paying for quality with no hiccups - it's a high stakes business
• Crucially, the teacher isn't there to physically monitor online (inevitable constraints) therefore you're putting a lot of faith in the students/facilitator
• Reliance on the clients having good technology to make full use of the online aspect

Xerte

Linked with the University of Nottingham, the Xerte project is an enterprise that is aimed at offering top quality, free software to educators the world over. In terms of creating a blended learning course, this seems to be the go-to tool. About Xerte:

• The software is free, but there's a charge of £500 for the institution to host it every year.
• There's a desktop version but it's tricky to use.
• Predominately Ipad and Mobile phone friendly.
• Lots of options when creating - ranging from gap fills to video use.
• Limited interface - you can change the colour but the fonts are fairly standard, so it's not overly aesthetic.
• When you're setting up the course there are step-by-step instructions regarding content and editing, which is very handy!

Articulate Storyline 2 is a more advanced and superior platform to create a BL course, but it costs considerably more money (£1000 for one licence) so obviously justifications have to be made.

My Context

I'm currently involved with a BL franchise called EtonX where the course consists of face-to-face teaching in China, E-Learning, and online tutorials which is where I come in. My students have nothing but praise for this BL approach of learning, and as a Teacher I can honestly say it's an incredibly powerful concept that will only continue to grow and become more prominent within education.

Online Collaboration Tools - Stormboard and Etherpad

Advantages for learners:

• Co-construction of knowledge (Vygotsky,1978,p.90) and a community of practice - students are able to pool their ideas together and learn off each other. It's perfect for group work. Teaming up weaker students with stronger students would help the former as they're able to see the latter's thoughts on screen, then they can go away and research more if necessary.
• Process oriented approach which makes it easier and straightforward to follow
• They can challenge ideas in a faceless environment where they may feel more confident. Shy students are less likely to question things in a face-to-face setting so this gives them more licence to dispute ideas and notions.
• Potentially more L2 use online, than in a face-to-face setting where students could slip into their L1. Teacher intervention is important here though so they should monitor as and when required.
• Autonomy is encouraged in a learner-centred environment - students have real freedom to express themselves in a safe environment.
• Could be a really useful way of summarising something collaboratively that you did in class. It could almost act as an extra class. The teacher could nominate one student per week to review what they learnt, and then get other students to comment on it, in a forum-like setting.
• Cost and time effective - most tools (definitely the ones I mention below) are free, and as it's online, people don't have to travel for a meeting. This way, they can just brainstorm on an online platform where everything is permanently logged forever, and can go back to when needed. Ultimately this encourages learners to revise key concepts which helps with the language learning process.
• Increased motivation, which in turn makes students more engaged (but could this be down to how the teacher sets up the task?)

Potential problems for learners:

• They need to learn how to use such tools, and develop their skills - it involves patience both from the teacher and learner.
• Cultural and gender issues such as marginalisation - teachers should therefore keep tabs on this and deal with sensitive issues as they arise.
• Informal use of language is usually prevalent, which doesn't encourage 'academic' English per se, but they'd be using 'real world' English.
• Danger of some students dominating, or alternatively zoning out (a dangerous dichotomy) - teacher intervention is important here.

Essentially, with reference to most online collaboration tools, what this means is that teachers need to take responsibility for sparking debate, mediating issues and ensuring full class participation; teachers need to be judicious, show awareness, and know when to intervene in order for such tasks to be effective and successful.

Two examples:

Stormboard

Here's one I made earlier:

You can:

• Generate it in real time
• Capture it anywhere on any device
• Add, organise, discuss, vote, brainstorm and act on ideas
• Communicate easily
• Personalise your page
• Prioritise the best ideas
• Export final group projects or tasks

Etherpad (MoPad)

Here's another I made earlier:

You can:

• Jump straight into it as you don't need a login, and people don't need accounts
• Contribute in a group with colour coded contributions
• Use the chat box to talk informally or plan potential contributions
• Easily share the URL with people, and invite others 
• Use the time slider to review the progression of contributions
• Import/export other things
• Edit in real time

Both are free, easy to use, and really useful when encouraging your students to collaborate online. The former is very popular in the business world, so if you were to teach an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) class in business English then your students would most probably be familiar with this platform. The latter is similar to Google docs in some respects, but this offers a different platform with a potentially simpler interface. Give both a go!

Introducing WebQuests

A Complete Overview – The 5W’s and 1H

What

A WebQuest (WQ) is drawn from the internet, which is designed by teachers before a lesson, and it asks students to show high level thinking, progress their understanding and transform ideas in order to complete a task. They’re created using a number of different programmes such as Microsoft office which includes links to various websites online.

The structure of a WQ can differ due to time constraints, teaching context, culture, or one’s own individualism, yet the general consensus on QuestGarden seems to imply that a WQ contains 6 essential stages:

• Introduction – A brief presentation of the focus/task

• Task – A full and formal outline of what the students will be doing

• Process – A step by step break down of what the students are expected to perform, with examples and demonstrations, if necessary, to consolidate or clarify understanding

• Evaluation – A systematic model of assessment criteria

• Conclusion – Reflection, and possibly further discussion of extension activities

• Credits – Acknowledgements, author biography and permissions

A task focus can range from writing persuasive messages to policy briefings, or from creating travel plans to implementing genre analysis. Therefore the teacher can be as zany or wacky as they wish, but like any other task, they should always keep in mind lesson objectives and student goals.

An Example

There is already a wealth of resources on the web for teachers to use and modify. It's fine to adapt WQ's, but you should always recognise the original author/creator at the top of the page.

In terms of making WQ's, become a member and follow the on screen instructions. There is a really useful rubric which tells you exactly what you have to do, every step of the way. And it even stops you at different intervals in the creation process by asking if you're sticking to your aims and objectives...

Where

This a classroom-based concept, which is carried out online. However, as it's all online you could encourage students to proceed with their WQ at home, or during their own time for homework.

Who

Students are expected to show high order thinking when faced with WQ’s. Bloom's taxonomy (Krathwohl,2002,p.212) probably best describes who such a task is aimed at and what it requires – the upper levels (analysis, synthesis and evaluation) should all be shown – therefore huge emphasis is put on students being critical, analytical and hopefully creative! Most tasks predominantly involve group work, with various roles being split between members. If you have multi-levelled classes then it is probably best to team up the weaker students with stronger students to encourage peer learning, and collaboration.

Why

There are many reasons why teachers should incorporate WQ’s into their classrooms:

• It gets students engaged in notions and concepts which require higher level thinking. This criticality and analytical cognitive processing helps progress language learning.

• The resources are given to students therefore this avoids them searching for information online; where they could quite easily copy and paste useless information and not internalise the required aims.

• Authentic, genuine, and every day topics of focus are usually designed by teachers to avoid tasks being artificial, like so many mundane classroom activities…

• Giving students roles will help them to personalise and really embrace the activity. If there were weaker students in the class, you could assign the less taxing roles to those students. 

• Can be used to introduce, conclude or consolidate a topic/unit.

• Motivation tool to encourage independent reasoning and autonomy.

• Makes students more aware of, and to intensify their use of, technology in the classroom. Ultimately this will give them a very real and practical advantage over others.

• Encourages cooperative and collaborative learning through group projects. Getting students to co-construct knowledge and negotiate meaning are key pillars of language learning.

• Once groups have finished their WQ's you could get them to present what they've discovered to the group. Not only does this build confidence, but reflects everyday authenticity which is linked to the outside world.

• Offers students inspiration to go and create their own WQ’s, and be autonomous.

Why not?

• Clearly WQ's rely on the internet so make sure you have a secure connection.

• Not everyone is ICT savvy so training and patience is required.

• They’re not appropriate for every learning aim, so they could potentially be used sparingly to keep it fresh and novel.

• They necessitate competent reading skills so possibly not suitable for young/lower level learners, but teachers can simplify concepts and grade language to fit their students’ needs

How?

Get yourself to QuestGarden!

Check out the resources, examples and tutorials on their website. They offer a free 30-day trial, and once you're hooked you can sign up to a 2-year subscription for only $20. Watch the first video here, and the proceeding three for further information.

When?

Now! Create a WQ and send your students on a quest of the web that they’ll never forget.

Kahoot!

How do you create a quiz for your class?

Instructions for teachers

Sign up, and create a new kahoot! You have three options: quiz, discussion and survey. The former is the only one which awards points for correct answers. So, click on ‘quiz,’ then give it a name and press go! Next, type in the question you wish to ask, decide whether it’s a ‘points question’ and on the ‘time limit’ (5 seconds – 120 seconds) you wish to give your students. You can also drag and drop an image to make the quiz look more aesthetically pleasing, but this isn't mandatory. Finally, you need to enter at least 2 answers into the 4 boxes provided, with at least 1 answer being correct! Then you can press ‘+Add question’ and repeat this procedure.

Not all of the questions have to contain only 1 right answer. In fact, for lower level/younger learners you may wish to ask a question early doors where all 4 answers are correct in order to build confidence and make students feel at ease.

Once you've finished creating your questions, press 'save & continue.' This will take you to the next screen where you can reorder your questions by dragging and dropping them into the desired order. The site will ask if you'd like to give more information regarding the quiz, where you can add information about the language, privacy settings, primary audience, description, difficulty level and tags...but once again press 'save & continue' to proceed! Finally you'll get to the last page where you can give your quiz a cover image, but this is also optional, so press 'done' to complete the procedure. Press 'play now' and 'launch' the quiz.

A new screen will appear detailing where your students can access the quiz, and what the Game PIN is. Inform students that they must use their mobile devices and not laptops to take part. Students will need to keep an eye on both the screen in the classroom and their own device. Once all of your students have joined by entering their details, press start and let the games begin!

Why Kahoot!?

This is perfect for the classroom because:

• It encourages friendly competition between learners of all levels and ages. The top 5 points scorers are displayed on the screen at the end of every question. Although it would be nice for all students to appear on the screen (but not if you’re dead last!), I think it acts as a good motivational tool to try and get on the leader board, and then make sure you stay on there!
• Moreover, these top 5 point scorers at the end of the game can be downloaded as an excel file so this could be used for trying to encourage learners to do better next time. However, it would be more useful to have the option of viewing every students’ performance so you can help those that most need it.
• It's useful at the start of a class as a warmer, or at the end of a class to consolidate knowledge.
• It's colourful and vibrant so it will most definitely engage younger or lower level learners.
• It has a quirky soundtrack so it brings an element of fun to the classroom. But teachers have to be mindful of the fact that the pedagogy behind the questions, and the activity, is useful and worthwhile.
• It allows teachers to give feedback to students after each question. This is integral if the majority got it wrong therefore teachers should stay switched on and give thorough explanations when required.
• It's really simple to follow. Although the answers don’t appear on your smart phone, they’re on your screen so this promotes quick thinking and multi-tasking…two things that are needed in authentic settings, therefore it’s good for preparing students for the outside world.
• It can be used to test individual understanding by asking students to use their own devices by themselves. Or alternatively you could put students into teams, create difficult questions, increase the time limit, and encourage collaborative learning.
• You can make the questions and answers as difficult/easy as you like. For younger or lower level learners it might be worth picking your first question as one with all 4 answers as correct to build up their self-esteem and confidence. Then with higher level learners you could get them to choose their answer, but then get them to write down their justifications on a piece of paper before class feedback.
• There are so many possibilities with this tool so head to https://getkahoot.com/ and get kahooting!

Review

Larry Ferlazzo's Blog

Initial Reaction

At first glance there seems to be a lot going on; it's a bit busy, and bursting at the seams. The large, landscape picture greets its visitor, along with the set of eyes on the front cover of the second book from the left.

Digging Deeper

However the more you scroll down, the more you realise that there's method to Larry's madness. Below the picture, from left to right, everything is compartmentalised into four columns: date stamp, blog post, miscellaneous and self promotion. The latter appears to be a continuous theme throughout, which seems to imply that, to a certain extent, Larry is using this blog as a platform to showcase his achievements and to advertise his success stories within ELT.

Aesthetics and Navigation

The white background makes everything else seem more prominent, and the colour scheme is extremely easy on the eye. He uses pages at the top to good effect, and everything appears to be very well signposted. Moreover, the archives and categories (gadgets) appear in the far right column, along with an email subscription which makes life simple for its visitor.

Content

There is an abundance of content within the blog, as it covers topics and stories, since 2007, from both inside and outside the ELT hemisphere. Therefore the search function comes in very handy indeed! In the lead up to Martin Luther King Day, Larry has commemorated the great man by posting various things such as the jovial song above. Furthermore, he also provides links to authentic materials that could be used in classrooms around the world. There really is something for everyone in this blog as Larry's very active, often posting more than thrice a day. Although there are links to his other social media platforms, this seems to be the lynchpin of his online life.