Present.me - Great Presentation tool

What is Present.me?

Present.me (https://present.me/) is a web program that enables you to create your presentation with your slides and webcam recording. You can upload your presentation (ppt., pptx., or pdf.) and add a narrative with the aid of webcam and microphone. 

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How to use  Present.me?

• Sign up for free account 

• Fill out form 

• Log in with your own account 

• Start to record your presentation 

       - Start to record 
       - End and review 
       - Publish 
       - Upload your presentation (ppt,pptx,or pdf)
          
        
 Here is a video from YouTube presenting how to use Present.me:

Here is my presentation by using Present.me:

 
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Present.me in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teachers can provide their additional tutorial materials through Present.me and send it to their students. Teachers can make the presentation as if they are facing students in the real classroom. Before recording the presentation, teachers can also prepare a whiteboard to write on to show important notes to students.

• Teachers can give specific topics to students and ask them to present their PowerPoint with Present.me. It is just like a real presentation but students don't need to stand in front of their classmates and reduce the speaking nervousness. By making presentation with Present.me, students would become more engaged and be more aware of their body languages and eye-contact. 

• Before teaching a new lesson, teachers can provide students a task to make a presentation with Present.me concerning the new topic of the lesson in order to elicit students' schemata and scaffold their ideas. At the end of the lesson, teachers demand students provide feedback and review the previous lessons by making the presentation.

• Both teachers and students can share useful resources with Present.me. In the recording with their PowerPoint or PDF file, they can explain the importance of the file and explain some questions for the audiences. 

• Present.me could be regarded as e-portfolio for record and assessment. Both teachers and students can create their own portfolio to store their work (PowerPoints or PDF) and their presentation. After a period of time, they can compare their former work and recent ones to analyse their differences as well as advantages and disadvantages. They can learn from their mistakes as well. 

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Benefits of Present.me

• You can add a narrative to your presentation. In the Present.me presentation, you can see the eye-contact, facial expression and body language of the presenter. 

• Present.me provides more opportunities for presenters to practice their speaking skill. 

• Completed presentation can be shared.

• When rehearsing  the presentation with Present.me, presenters can analyse the completed presentation (observing their pronunciation, body language, eye-contact, etc.) and manage to improve future performance. 

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Limitations

• Limited service for free plan.

• Presenter might feel nervous before the webcam. 

• Video recording might distract audience from the content of the presentation. 

• Presentation cannot show the flash of the original PowerPoint and cannot hide the ongoing content.

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Further Reading

• Present.me -  Free Technology for Teachers

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/presentme.html#.UR1Hy7KBUxU

Wallwisher - A "Magic" Wall for Collaborative Learning

What is Wallwisher

Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) is a free online program enabling user to create a "wall" and add information (e.g. texts, images, videos, maps, slideshows, documents, links, etc.). It is an excellent tool for collaborative learning.

How to use Wallwisher?

• Here is the Wallwisher blog for tips and updates: http://blog.wallwisher.com/
• If you need any technical help, you can write to Wallwisher at hello@wallwisher.com
• Here is my Wallwisher cooperated with my classmates Johnathan, East and Karen http://wallwisher.com/wall/russellmadrid

Wallwisher in Language Teaching and Learning

• In a new class, it is difficult to remember all the students' or classmates' names in a short time. In order to promote interaction between teacher and students, students and students, ice-breaker activities are of great importance. Teachers can create a "wall" using Wallwisher and invite students to post their names and introduction onto the wall to present themselves in the respects of personal interest, favorite color, sports, movies, etc.

• Before a new unit, teachers can post background information of the lesson on the Wallwisher and send the link to their students for preparation. In this process, students can be invited to add their ideas on the topics as well. After finishing the lesson, teachers can post additional materials on the wall for learners with higher ability. Learners can be invited to post their questions on the lessons or language on the wall. Teachers and other learners can facilitate to answer questions.

• In the language classroom, teachers can create tasks for students, e.g. introducing hometown, experience of traveling, family, etc. and students work in pair or group to collect and organize their information with Wallwisher and use it to present their work to the class. With Wallwisher, students can add texts, photos, videos, slideshows, and websites to make their work more elaborated and dynamic.

• Teachers can utilize Wallwisher to collect feedback and comments from their students on their teaching and lessons. For example, talking about problems they have and what kinds of activities they would like to include in the classroom.

• Wallwisher can serve as a public notice board for the class out of the class. Students are encouraged to leave their messages and make comments in target language.

• Wallwisher can also be regarded as a sharing board for learners. They can post new vocabulary they learn from exercises or additional materials and share it with classmates. For example, a student post the new word "philosophy" and its meaning and usage on the wall. Other students can add more information of the new vocabulary, like in which context can we use "philosophy", discussion on the construction of the word (prefix, root and suffix) and other words with the same or similar prefix and suffix. Furthermore, students can introduce their favorite books, articles, music, operas, movies, etc and share their reviews with Wallwisher. In this respect, students' motivation and interest would be increased and they would be encouraged to autonomous learning.

• In some schools, teachers need to plan their lessons together with their colleges. With the application of Wallwisher, teachers can share their ideas of the lessons and useful resources for the lessons. Additionally, they can discuss questions and problems in the Wallwisher and provide solutions for the them. In this way, it would encourage collaborative wisdom of teaching and especially benefit the less experienced teachers.

Benefits of Wallwisher

• Good for collaborative learning and brainstorm in the language classroom.

• Pictures, videos, websites, slideshows, documents, maps, links, etc. are addable in the Wallwisher to elaborate ideas and opinions.

• Increase the engagement of students in the classroom.

• A good place to share useful resources in learning and teaching language.

• Easy operation and simple interface.

Limitations

• Not suitable for large class (more than 25 students). If so many students post their messages on the wall in the same time, the wall might become messy and important messages might be ignored. Meanwhile, it would become difficult to manage the messages.

• Time-consuming.

• When too many people are using the same wall in the same time, it would become quite difficult and slow to edit the messages and post pictures and videos due to the Internet speed.

• It is quite difficult the design the framework of your own wall. Sometimes you may not satisfy with the sizes and position of your messages. You can not enter precise numbers and edit sizes nd position of messages.

Further Reading

• Using Wallwisher in the Classroom

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/using-wall-wisher-in-classroom.html?m=1

Tricider - Collecting Ideas Tool

What is Tricider?

Tricider (https://tricider.com/) is an interactive web application for discussion, brainstorming and voting.  Users can post questions in the Tricider and invite friends, colleges or clients to express their ideas and opinions in the website. 

Simple Steps to Use Tricider

1. Navigate to Tricider (https://tricider.com/)                

2. Enter your question in the text box and press Go.

3. Send the unique URL to invite others to add ideas and comments.   

4. Read and analyse the ideas.

5. Make comments or vote for the ideas.

How to Use Tricider in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teacher can post questions in the Tricider and invite students to give answers and ideas. In this process, students can exchange their ideas and opinions with each other and learn from good views provided by peer. 

• When received collaborative task, students can discuss their task in the Tricider. They can brainstorm for good ideasand vote for the best solutions for the task. 

• Teachers can collect students' feedback on their lessons and teaching via Tricider. Students will feel free to provide their questions and their ideas for improving teachers' teaching. Based on students' opinions, teachers can draw on them and make reflective writing in order to improve their teaching practice in the classroom. 

Benefits of Tricider in Language Classroom

• A wonderful tool for eliciting and collecting ideas
  
  
• Good for interactive and collaborative activities and brainstorming

• Pros and cons comments are provided to show agreement or disagreement  

• No time and place limitations  (You can add your ideas any time any where)


• No registration and free


• Simple interface and operation 

Limitations

• Irrelevant comments might be provided without clear instruction.


• Some participants might stop innovative thinking and plagiarize others' results.


• No privacy for the content of discussion in Tricider (Passwords are not required).

Further Reading

• TeacherTrainingVideos - Free online tutorial for using Tricider                                                                                                                      

          http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/tricider/index.html

• How To Brainstorm The Fun Way With Tricider

          http://www.fractuslearning.com/2011/12/05/how-to-brainstorm-with-tricider/

• Perfect Decision Making in Teams

         http://www.dailywebapps.com/tricider-com-perfect-decision-making-in-teams/

• Crowdsourcing Knowledge with Students by  Nik Peachey

          http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/crowdsourcing-knowledge-with-students.html

• How do you keep developing your teaching?

     https://tricider.com/en/brainstorming/NmxE?wicket:pageMapName=wicket-5


powered by tricider

Breaking News English - News in English

What is Breaking News English 

Breaking News English (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/), operated by Sean Banville, is a gorgeous website providing current news and free, ready-to-print EFL/ESL lessons plans with new lessons every 2 days, including 26-page printable handout, more than 40 online activities and MP3 in American and British English.  

How to Use  Breaking News English in Teaching and Learning

• When preparing a lesson, teachers can tailor their lessons with the help of BreakingNewsEnglish.com. They can apply handouts, MP3, exercises and activities provided by the website to facilitate language teaching. 


• With conditions permitted, teacher can ask students to finish some exercises in the classroom. Some exercises, e.g. Hangman, No Letters, Sentence Jumble can be completed in pairs or in group, which increase collaborative discussion, engagement and practice of using target language.


• Students can arrange their autonomous learning via BreakingNewsEnglish.com by listening the MP3 and finish exercises provided here. After finishing the exercises, correct answers are provided in the website and students can correct their answers by themselves. With questions on the exercises, students can ask their teacher or classmates for help. 

Benefits of  Breaking News English  in Language Classroom

• Fabulous exercises: 20 online quizzes and activities are provided for language teachers and learners

• Exercises are interactive

• Different skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) can be practiced via Breaking News English

• Frequent update on current English news and lesson plans

• Build confidence in dealting with news and reports

• MP3 of the news is provided in US & UK English

• Handouts are printable and MP3 are downloadable

Limitations

• Design of the website: the layout is a bit messy and complicated and the color is not attractive 

• Finishing all the exercises might take quite a long time 

• Too many advertisements in the website 

• Not all the exercises are helpful

 Further Reading

• Sean Banville's Blog        

          http://seanbanville.com/

• Facebook of BreakingNewsEnglish

          http://www.facebook.com/pages/BreakingNewsEnglish/155625444452176

• Websites Similar to BreakingNewsEnglish.com                             

          http://www.similarsitesearch.com/alternatives-to/breakingnewsenglish.com

Voki - Creating Speaking Avatars!

What is Voki 

Voki (http://www.voki.com/) is a website which allows you to create your customized speaking avatars to express yourself and interact with your friends. It is an excellent tool which could be utilized in language classroom to motivate learners and make the class fun.

Making Your Own Voki

This video is taken from YouTube presenting how to make your own Voki.

How to Apply Voki in Language Class

• Students can recorded themselves via Voki and analyse their language. They can practice for many time before saving their satisfactory recording. In this process, speaking anxiety could be reduced and they would like to have more speaking practice via this tool than speaking in front of others. They can also send their own Voki URL to their teacher or friends for feedback and comments. 

• Teacher can utilize Voki to make the text more vivid and stimulating when preparing for lessons. Teacher could record their own voice or text to speech. In the text to speech function, voice from different languages could be chosen. For example, teacher could show the differences between British English and American English by choosing different voices for the character. Students listen to the voices and find the differences.

• Students can learn from the pronunciation  of the character in the Voki by typing the text to add the voice. They can learn different languages and the voice is fairly authentic. 

Benefits of Voki in Language Classroom

• Simple steps to customize your own speaking characters 
• Motivate students to participate in the classroom and encourage autonomous learning 
• Different languages can be selected, e.g. English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, etc.  
• More opportunities are provided for students to practice speaking, listening and writing skills
• Voice can be added via phone call, microphone, text to speech or upload a file
• Voice added via text to speech is fairly authentic
• Helpful to reduce anxiety produced when speaking in front of teacher or students 
• Your own speaking characters can be shared via blogger, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Limitations

• Sign-up process is needed and only 15 days free trial of Voki Classroom
• Customizing characters may need quite a long time
• When adding voice via text to speech, words of your text might be missing when trying different voices and modification is required.
• Conversation activity could not be practiced via Voki since only one avatar can be produced for each time.
• Time limitation of voice added to the avatars is quite short (around 60s)
• Too many advertisements are embedded in the website

Further Reading 

• TechWeb2 introducing Voki                                                              http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/Voki 

• Make your own Voki                                        http://jenniferbarnett.wikispaces.com/file/view/Voki+Tutorial.pdf

Dvolver - Online MovieMaker

What is Dvolver?
Dvolver MovieMaker (http://www.dvolver.com/) is website where you can customize your own animation of your choice. You can design your own scene by choosing provided background, plots, characters, background music and adding dialogues.

7 Steps to Make Your Own Movie
 1. Go to the website www.dvolver.com
  2.   Select background and sky for your scene.
  3.   Select a plot, e.g. Rendez-vous, pick-up, chase and soliloquy.
  4.   Select characters from 30 different animation for your scene.
  5.   Edit your own dialogue.
  6.   Select music for your scene.
  7.   Select a style for your title and add your name and the title for the animation.

How to use Dvolver in Language Teaching and Learning
  1. In the language classroom, teacher can make the class more vivid and stimulating by presenting the animation produced by Dvolver to tailor the textbook.
   
   2. Teacher deliver a task to students and ask them to make their own animation via Dvolver by using key sentences and vocabulary. This task can be done individually or in pairs. In this process, students can learn practice making conversation and using new vocabulary.

Benefits of Dvolver in Language Class

• Increase the motivation and creativity of students, especially young learners.
• Encourage autonomous learning.
• Animation is vivid and stimulating.
• Simple steps allow you to customize your own animation.
• No need to sign up for the website.
• The finished animation can be sent to e-mail, Facebook, blog, etc.

Limitations

• The choice of background, sky, characters and music is fairly limited and may not enough to meet the needs of users.
• The maximum number of characters is only two, which is not enough for making a conversation including more than three characters.
• Voice cannot be added to the animation. It would be better with characters pronouncing the language in the animation.
• The background music is sometimes annoying with repeating playing.

Further Reading

• Teachertrainingvideos                                                       http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/volver/index.html
• 10 Popular Sites like Dvolver                                                                           http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/www.dvolver.com/Top_10_Sites_Like_Dvolver/
• Dvolver Online Animation
  http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/Video-Creation-Websites/p/Dvolver-Online-Animation.htm

Vocaroo - Online Recording

What is Vocaroo

Vocaroo (http://vocaroo.com) is an audio tool designed for recording. The voice message can be sent via e-mail, downloaded as a file or sent to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc.  

How to Use Vocaroo

                                                       This video is taken from YouTube.

Using Vocaroo in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teacher gives students a specific topic for practicing speaking skill, i.e. describing your favorite sport. Students are able to record themselves via Vocaroo and send the voice file to teachers by e-mail or post it on their blog. After receiving the voice message, teacher provides comments or feedback for students.

• When teaching pronunciation, i.e. weak forms and contractions, with Vocaroo, teacher can record themselves reading sentences or passages and demonstrate how to cope with weak forms and contractions when speaking. After recording, teacher sends the recording to students for listening and practicing  their speaking skills.

• When preparing speaking test, students can practice and record themselves via Vacaroo and listen to the recording in order to analyse their own language. Meanwhile, they can send it to their classmates or teachers for comments. 

Benefits of Vocaroo in Language Class

• Easy to operate

• Encourage autonomous learning (esp. developing speaking skills)

• Reduce the anxiety from face-to-face interaction

• Easy to share recording with others

• Create voice recording without sophisticated installation of software 

Limitations

• Device requirement: high-quality microphone is needed for clear recording.

• Technical problems: voice is often unsuccessfully recorded for some reasons (i.e. problems of microphone, computers, noise) 

Further Reading

• Teachertrainingvideos                                                         http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/vocaroo1/index.html

• Other websites like Vocaroo                                                 http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/www.vocaroo.com/Top_10_Sites_Like_Vocaroo/