Making editing images a Picnik

Blistering barnacles! Photoshop without the pain

If you (or your learners) are taking digital images that would be improved by a spot of editing, but you haven't got the time to learn PhotoShop (or the cash, at around €980), the excellent Picnik.com is a great alternative, and is also free unless you go for the Pro version.

A minimum previous knowledge of image editing will be handy but, if you don't have that, Picnik is super-intuitive and comes with on-screen explanation (see image, above).

Even if you do no more than auto-fix and crop and remove red-eye, you'll find that you can improve you images no end.

Would you still hate Micro$oft if you took full advantage of it?

Dare to explore those menus!

Everyone hates Micro$oft, don't they? I'm not actually one of them, myself, as I wonder how people would do their jobs today without it.

One of the things I like Micro$oft for is its Insider Newsletter, which you can subscribe to and get tips and tutorials and links that will help you to learn more about Word and Powerpoint and Outlook and so on.

I always read it when it lands in my mailbox, and make a habit of actually picking at least one link in it and going to check see if I can learn something new about programs I've been using fairly proficiently for years -- and I can and do (like copying and pasting multiple items, or things I didn't know about using BCC in email...)

Most people -- myself included -- use only a small proportion of the potential of their computer programs. They learn the basics and then they just stop learning, and make-do with the basics (not something they would encourage their language learners to do).

On the training courses we run at IH, I always suggest the following: explore the menus in whatever program you use (Micro$oft or otherwise), try some of the things on them.

Using Word (or whatever) is like being in a restaurant in a foreign land: are you just going to eat chicken and chips every mealtime, or are you going to try something new that is there on the menu. Try something new, I'd say: you might like it -- and find that it's useful to you!

And here's a thought for you: why do people hate Micro$oft but love Google-is-Evil...?

Short, short stories

10 words...

Updated on Snopes.com is the claim that Ernest Hemingway once won a bet for writing a six-word story (the jury is still out, says Snopes).

Back in April, we actually used the idea with students studying Spanish at IH Barcelona, as the basis for a mini-writing project, which was fun -- Mi vida en solo 6 palabras (My life in just 6 words).

You might try the same -- though you might also consider giving them more words (Hemingway supposedly had a limit of 10), with 25 or 100 giving your students a little more scope for actually writing coherent text.

Snopes has an alternative: how about a story containing religion, royalty, sex and mystery... ,-) ?

Related posts >> Mini-sagas and 100-word stories

MFLE's ICT in Education site

There's an ICT in Education section on Scotland's MFLE that might interest, including a new guide to podcasting, as well as sections on blogging, using mobile phones in language classrooms, and interactive whiteboards, among others.

I also liked some of the ideas on the page about using PowerPoint interactively in the classroom.

There is also an MFLE blog that is worth reading (though, being directed at Modern Language teachers in Scottish schools, English isn't one of the languages it deals with directly).

Book, Boing Boing say so, so it must be true!

Just in case you haven't heeded our previous warnings, .-)!, here on the wonderful Boing Boing, there's a review of a book by Greg Conti Googling Security, a book that opens your eyes to how much you disclose to Google.

Be worried!

Electronic Village Online (EVO) sessions 2009

The excellent EVO sessions are with us again...

The official announcement:

The CALL Interest Section of the international TESOL professional association is pleased to offer the opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2009 sessions. This is a professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL 2009 Convention in Denver, CO. The intended audience for this project includes both TESOL 2009 participants and those who can participate only virtually.

You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate in a free, six-week, wholly online session of the EVO, Jan 12 -Feb 22, 2009. Please visit our Announcement Web page to select one among the various offerings.

If you want to learn more about using technology with your language learners (Internet for Beginners, Collaborative Writing, Digital Storytelling in ELT Classrooms...), these sessions are an excellent place to go.

Registration is January 1-12, with the sessions taking place January 12-February 22.

A Christmas lesson

Christmas...? You know what I think... (and see below!)

Here's my all-time favourite Christmas lesson*... I've used it with lots of classes, and it's always been fun, both with teenagers and adults.

Stages

1. Play word association in order to brainstorm Christmas vocabulary
   
2. In pairs, find out if their partner believes in Father Christmas; and if not, find out exactly when they stopped believing
   
3. Teacher reads out this letter from an 8-year-old, asking the New York Times editor whether or not Santa exists
   
4. In pairs, write a reply to the letter, from the editor, to be published in the paper
   
5. Pin replies up and get everyone to read everyone else's
   
6. In pairs/3s decide which are the best three replies
   
7. Read the original reply
   
8. Decide whether or not their replies are better than the original (and if so, why/why not).

Alternatives
At Stage (5), you could have pairs swop their letter with another pair, with each pair then having to decide whether or not, as an 8-year-old, they would be satisfied with the answer they got.

If you have a class blog, that would be an ideal place to publish the letters, comment on them etc.

Other Christmas lessons
You could have a webquest to discover how people in other countries celebrate Christmas. Here's a peculiar local custom in Barcelona, for example (photo, above), which you can send as a Christmas card, if you wish.

On Nik Peachey's excellent Daily English Activities blog, you've got an activity your young learners might like -- actually chatting to Santa (so he must exist .-)!

And here are more Christmas lessons, from last year.

*I think I invented the lesson plan myself, but I'd be happy to correct that if my memory (at least ten years later) fails me...