Timeline

Hi everyone! In this post, I will talk about an application that allows us to do many amazing things. This application belongs to readwritethink and its name is Timeline. Here is simply how it looks:

As you can see, there three main categories: Date, time and event. By clicking on them, you can see examples from each category. The examples are like the following:

After writing your and your project's name on the mainpage, you can start forming your project. After clicking on the timeline, you can start adding your items.

If you didn't like the item you added, you can delete it by clicking at the button at the right corner of the page. Here is how it looks when you are done with your project:

After clicking on finish, you can see both the front page and the printout notes of your project.

You can save either the draft or final versions of your project, send it or print it.

With this application, teachers can direct their students for a project by visualizing every step here, teachers can form timelines for historical events, they can ask students to form a timeline about their one day and many other things. This tool is very useful. One other good thing about the tool is that you don't have to sign in to be able to use it.

So, that was all for this post. I hope you liked it, see you. :)

bubbl.us

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Hi everyone! My task for this week is to write about a website called bubbl.us. I and my friend Canan presented this website at our class; and now it is time to write about it! Basically, it is a website that allows you to form mindmaps. You can use it without registering but if you do so, you cannot save your work or works which is a disadvantage. You can simply sign in without paying any money but then, you cannot use some of the advantages of the website such as attaching pictures. If you want to benefit from all the advantages of the website then you have to pay money. Here is the main page of the website:

You can click on the sign in button at the top of the page to start using it. After signing in, you will see a page like the following:

You can start forming your mindmaps by clicking on the bubble. You can form sister bubbles, or child bubbles. Here is an example:

You can name your mind map, print it, export is as an image or as a website outline, or you can share it on a website by clicking on the options at the top of the page. You can also move your bubbles. When you place your mouse on any of the bubbles you formed, you will see options like the following:

When it comes to the education side of this post, teachers can use this website to visually present a concept;

This picture is taken from this website.

or to describe a process;

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or to grow an idea.

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Using such a website for classroom activities is really enjoyable for students. They like forming things by themselves, colouring them, etc. So, instead of brainstorming by using a paper or a blackboard, such a way would be better.

This is all for this post, I hope you liked the website. See you. :)

A LANGUAGE TEACHING APPLICATION

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Hi everyone. :) This week, I will try to talk about a language teaching application as part of my task. Applications are one of our best supporters at language learning. The application I will talk about is Anki. Anki is a free service that enables you to either use the flashcards that are already prepared or prepare your own flashcards. You can use it without downloading, but if you download it, either to your computer or to your mobile phone, you'll have a lot more opportunities such as being able to add pictures and sound to your questions, and to be able to get shared decs. Downloading it is completely free. I will talk about the downloaded version on computer here. First, you'll see a screen like the following picture, click the add button to start forming flashcards:

 You can form them by using the instructions on the following picture.

Then, if you want to add more flascard into the same deck, then click on "add"; but, if you're done with the deck, then click on "close". After this, your screen will be like the following picture. If you want to get the already present decks, then click on "get shared".

Then, you'll be directed to the website of the application. There, you'll see some categories. By clicking on them, you can see the decks and download one of them. You can also see how many starts are given to each deck there. I chose Arabic and downloaded a deck about it.

After downloading, your screen will be like the following picture, Now, you can choose a deck and start studying it.

You can still edit the flascards, even the ones you get shared, while studying. When you see the question, try to guess the answer, After seeing the answer. you can rate question. The frequency of the question will chance according to your answer. For example, if you click on again, the question will appear more.

We can ask the students to list the sports they like and prepare a deck about them by using this app.

So, that was all. I hope you liked the application. See you. :)

MY DIGITAL STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE

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Thanks to technology, new ways of practising language have developed. My task for this week is also about this; about something new, which is a relatively young way to practise. I studied with my friend, Canan, for this project.

To tell the truth, I had a lot of difficulties while working on my project. Those difficulties were mostly about using the application I chose for the task, not about English. Firstly, me and my friend tried hard to find an application suitable for our purpose and we decided on Animaker. It is a good and relatively easy application to use when compared to other options. Since we were accustomed to voice recording from our podcast task, that part was not that hard for us. Still, to be able to form an animation, there are a lot of details to be considered. For example, we were almost done with our animation but then we decided to add a new sound. After this, we had to arrange all the sounds and pictures from the beginning. Neither of us knew a lot about technology. :) It was also hard for us to write a story. Here, I should thank to my friend Canan. :) We collaborated effectively with each other. It took three days for us to complete the project.

I believe that asking students to form a digital storytelling can be quite challenging for them, especially if they are young learners or kids. The steps of the process should be explained in details. If the steps are not explained, then the students will probably focus on animation, not on English and they will most likely to hate it when it is over. So, the students will probably not benefit from the digital storytelling process. However, when they have clear explanations, the process of forming a digital storytelling can be very funny and enjoyable way of studying English; because they form their own story, they form their own animation. Such things are very important for young learners and kids. When they watch their animation once the process is over, they will probably be proud of themselves and they will want to do the same task again.

To sum up, whether digital storytelling will be beneficial for the students or not heavily depends on teachers. If the teachers really want their students to benefit from it, they have to make some effort and prepare an outline for their students.

Here is the link of our digital storytelling: The New Friendship

AN EFL WEBSITE

Hi everybody. :) This week, my task is to write a post about an EFL website. I hope you will like my post and the website I will introduce here.

Teaching English has many different aspects including grammar, vocabulary, etc. However, one of the aspect is generally ignored; which is phonology. There are many learners who can use the grammar of English but they fail when it comes to speaking. They say that they neither understand native speakers nor they themselves are understood by natives. There is a website about pronunciation of English developed by the University of Iowa; which is Sound of Speech. Here is the picture of the website's main page:

In the website, there are some categories such as manner, place, stop and fricative. You can click on them and see the English sounds that belong to that category. When you click on a certain sound, you can see an animation showing the production of he sound, the production of the sound in different places of a word. Here are some pictures:

This website can help learners a lot when used effectively by teachers. Teachers can ask students to imitate those animations, for example. This is all for this week, I hope you liked the website. See you next week. :)

THE IMPORTANCE OF RSS READERS

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Hi everybody. :) This week, my task is to write about the importance of RSS readers. RSS readers allow its users to follow blogs regularly, without being have to visit those blogs everyday. Every time you turn on your computer, RSS readers get activated and show you a page on which you can see the posts of the blogs you follow. If there is a post which you have not read yet, you can easily read it by clicking on its name. I use Feedreader as an RSS reader. I use it, because it is very easy to use, its instructions are clear. Here is a screenshot from my RSS. On the picture, you can see the blogs I follow.

Among the blogs I follow, I can recommend you to follow Filling My Map. It is not focused on English teaching, but the writer is an American teacher and she writes about her experiences in different countries. For example, she once visited Finland and listed the things that make Finland succesful when it comes to education. So, thanks to this blog, you can learn things about the education systems of different countries.

So, that's all for this week, I hope you liked the idea of using an RSS reader, see you. :)

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

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Hello everybody. :) Our task for this week is to write a film review by using wiki! For this task, me and my friend Canan formed a wiki page about the film Bridge to Terabithia. Wiki is a useful website for especially teachers because students can share their own projects there and teachers can see all the projects in just one page. Other websites such as blogs are not that useful for such projects because teachers have to visit every blog prepared by studens in such a case. Again, this is also an advantage for students because they can see all the works done there.

A group work for a task like ours is better because while writing a film review one person may have difficulties with describing the film or may miss some points. So, in such a situation, the other person can help his/her friend. When it comes to our collobarition, the only problem was that we couldn't watch the film together. Other than this, everything was good for us.

The link for our wikipage is here, and below, you can see the screenshot of our film review.