WEEK 09 (30 November – 6 December 2009)

Class Site; Creating Exercises

Final Projects due December 6
Learning Objectives
Teacher tools: Class site
Condition: After thinking about how they might use Nicenet, a blog, or a wiki in their teaching
Audience: Participants in the course
Behavior: Will create and share a course site that they have created on Nicenet, Blogger, or Google Sites
Degree: In at least one post on Nicenet that includes the URL, a description of the target class, and plans for using the site.

Teacher tools: Exercise generators
Audience: Participants in the course
Condition: After exploring the different options for exercise generators on the course website
Behavior: Will create and share on the course wiki one or more exercises that they have created, and will talk about how they will use it on Nicenet
Degree: In at least one post on Nicenet that includes the URL, a description of the activity, and plans for using the site.

READINGS

TASKS
Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Readings

We’ll work on class sites and exercises this week – different types of teacher tools. Try at least two different things this week, then talk about what you did in our discussion.

You can also share the web address on our Google site at sites.google.com/site/eltfall09/home/useful-links and exercises you create at sites.google.com/site/eltfall09/participant-projects. For Hot Potatoes exercises and other html files, please email them to Deborah to post.

Create a class site:

Choose any of the following tools. Start by thinking about what you might want to do with the site, then select the most appropriate tool for that purpose. For class discussion, it would be Nicenet. If you want learners to post their own comments, then Blogger is good. If you want to share sites and files with students and have them share with each other, then Google Sites is best. You can try SnapGrades as a way of keeping a grade book online.

  • Create a Nicenet class at www.nicenet.org for one of your courses (Word .doc file to download)
  • Create a class blog on Blogger: log into www.blogger.com, (make sure you log in first!) then click on Create a Blog.
  • Create a class website on Google Sites: log into sites.google.com with your Blogger username and password, then click on Create New Site. This is the most complicated of the three tools. You will need to click on Edit Page, then Save Page to make changes to each of the pages.
  • Try SnapGrades at www.snapgrades.net as an electronic grade book. It’s most useful if your students have email, so you can email grade information to them.

Make exercises online to print out:

Make exercises to use online or offline on a computer or to print out:

  • Hot Potatoes – download this program at hotpot.uvic.ca/ to use it on your computer. It’s easy to use and lets you create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. You can get help online or download this how-to PDF.
  • Xword Puzzle Generator – create crosswords to save and use on a computer or print out:
    www.edict.com.hk/xword/generator

Make exercises online to use online:

  • Web Poster Wizard – free website for teachers and students to use as part of a course. It uses a very plain format, but it’s very easy to create something with text, one graphic, and links on each of 4 pages: wizard.4teachers.org
  • SMILE- a variety of web-based activity generators. Requires a free registration. This is more complicated than other options:
    clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php

Weekly Requests and Reminders:

Work on your Final Project/Action Plan this week – what can you do to apply some of the things we’re talked about in this course to your own classes? Use the Final Project/Action Plan checklist to help you with this. Your action plans will be due on December 6.

Make sure you add to your Delicious page – you will get up to 5 points for your Delicious page this week.

Continue your blog at www.blogger.com. Post a reflective comment on this week’s work, where you talk about what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply that information in your teaching. Post at least one comment on another participant’s blog. Add good sites to your Delicious.com page. Remember to have tags and notes for each site you add.

 Discussions: Go to Nicenet, log in, and participate in this week’s topics. Read and comment on about learner autonomy, then read and comment on either the one-computer classroom or using a lab for language learning.

  1. Create a class site. This might be a Nicenet class, a class blog on Blogger, or a class wiki for files and weblinks on Google Sites. Share with the group
    1. What you created
    2. The location (class key on Nicenet; URL for the blog or wiki)
    3. The type of students you would use it with
    4. How you would use it – please be specific
    5. How you will encourage learner autonomy with this tool
  2. Create an exercise that will be useful for your teaching. Use one or more of the sites on our course website to create an exercise, test, flash cards, or other tool. Share with the group:
    1. What tool you used (please list the website) and what you created
    2. How you will use it in your teaching
    3. How you will encourage learner autonomy with this tool
    4. If it’s an online exercise, please share the URL; otherwise, post your creation on the class wiki in the Participant Projects section.

Make sure you save good sites on your Delicious.com page!