Session 8.

Hi everyone! I’m Marta and in this entry I will summarize what we have done today in the ICT session with Yolanda.

First of all, we have presented, in pairs, two games, one of them that already exists and another that we have created and we find interesting for some reasons. For instance, some games that have been shared with each other are the Pacman, Kahoot, TinyTap, PuzzleMaker, etc. All of we have agreed that games provide real contexts for engaging practice (contents and language). They are also useful strategies to learn and make students develop important skills (such as, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, etc.). In addition, games attract students’ attention and actively engage them.

Teachers also have to bear in mind a great deal of things before creating or developing a game in their class: the language involved, including the spontaneous one; respecting turns and establishing roles to avoid classroom management problems; the kind of feedback that is provided in the game if it is good it prevents teachers from being all the time giving approvals and guidance to their learners. Moreover, it is important to choose games that are not too much time consuming both when you create them and when we use them. Finally, it is better if teachers try the apps or the games before using them in class in order to get familiar with them and foresee possible problems.

After that, Yolanda has provided us with different interesting educational resources and apps that we can use in class.   

• Pub Quiz idea: it is an app to create multiple choice quizzes related to any topic you want. There are Pub Quizzes already done and shared in the network that are available for free.
• Promoting Oral Production: using film trailers, documentaries, advertisement or series, among others, like, for example, a Mister Bean video is a good way to set context for real communication and to learn and review vocabulary about different topics.
• Using attachments as Class Materials: photo collections are useful for description, talk about emotions, to begin or invent stories, like imagining or invent situations; speculate; use them as backgrounds. Teachers can use photos of any topic: well-known artists, double vision (you see one thing initially but then you see others), street art (talk about their own experience, what they have seen, what countries the pictures are in,...), etc.

• Some useful ICT tools and resources:
• Snippy (or Skitch on Mac): it is a very simple application that allows you to easily take a screenshot of any user defined area of the screen.
• Voki: this is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars that pass written text to speech.
• Glogster: is a social network that allows users to create free interactive and multimedia posters -adding text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more.
• Lyrics training: this is a very simple game where you have to complete the lyric of a song, writing words in the correct order, while you listen to the song and enjoy the music video. LyricsTap also has a special mode that lets you sing KARAOKE and fully enjoy the lyrics of your favorite songs.
• Movie segments to assess grammar: contains a series of movie segments and activities to assess or practice grammar points through fun, challenging exercises.

We have finished the session with a Food for Thought, talking of the power of yet, which instead of saying “I cannot” or “I have failed”, it says “not yet”. It is referring to the power of believe that you can improve. It is really important for teachers to give a hand and emotional support to the weakest students (character, personality or intellectually).

Hope you have enjoyed it!

Marta