Word(le) clouds, Paint pictures

Wordle cloud, Paint fish

Here's one that came from one of the sessions on our CELTA course in the last week...

I suggested Ananova.com (specifically the bizarre news stories in its Quirkies section) as a great default home page for both teachers and learners, with the Dead angler becomes fish food story an example of a text you could do in class.

We then took the story -- assuming that we'd already "done" the text in class -- to Wordle.net and converted it into a cloud. By a bit of simple editing, first with Wordle, then with Paint (which we used to add an eye to create a word cloud fish), we've then converted the text into a picture which we could use to decorate a class blog.

As I suggested earlier, I still have my doubts about using Wordle as a classroom activity -- principally because your learners will be manipulating the image, but not the words themselves: they want to be tinkering with the language not just looking at it, if we want people to learn language.

But as an "after reading" activity, to add some color to a class blog, to add some fun, you might still justify it...

And as one of you pointed out in at least one of the sessions this week, we might also possibly use the word cloud as either a prediction or a reconstruction activity...

>> How to change the default start page of your browser

Mobile phone pix

In the bar: "He was cutting a pineapple"

Here's one that came from the session on our CELTA course, July 24. I sent six of you out with your camera-equipped mobile phones to take pictures of people doing things. My instructions were to ensure that you asked politely for permission to take the photo, and thank the person for their assistance.

My assumptions were that you were teens; that you had such technology in your pockets; that we had been doing either the present or the past progressive; and that we had a class blog on which we could afterwards post the pictures with an appropriate caption (in the example, "He was cutting a pineapple...").

The point of the exercise was to raise the question of how much language would be learnt and/or practised and/or used relative to the amount of time invested in the activity. What is the return on investment, in other words, a question I would always ask myself with technology.

This isn't an idea that I've actually tried out with language learners, but I think I would: when are teens -- or adults -- more likely to learn: "doing" the language via a photocopied exercise or doing an activity in a way that is actually significant to them (and fun!)?

CELTA session, June 9

Hello, and welcome if you've come to today's session...

Your task
I'd like you to rank the items below, from most to least, in terms of how much language learning you think they would produce.

You should justify your decision. If your answer is "it depends", please specify: it depends on what?

Write your answer here on this blog, using the "comments".

Items

1. You finding images to use in some way in class (what way?)
   
2. Persuading your learners to change their default start page to the BBC World Service and to spend 5 minutes there every time they log on (ie. every day), listening or reading
3. A project in which your learners take photographs on their mobile phones of objects of value to their partners; write texts describing their partner's objects; and publish their work on a blog [see another example]
   
4. Using Glogster to create collages which they then describe orally (present) to the rest of the class; also then sharing their work online
5. You writing grammar exercises, posting them (and the answers) on a class blog
   
6. You sharing a blog with teaching colleagues (but not with your learners), on which you share problems and successes and reflect on what happens and what you are doing in class (etc)

Notes

• (2) is being done outside class, at home and/or at work
• (3) to (5) w0uld depend on our sharing a class blog with our learners, and could all be done on the same blog at different times of the term
  
• (6) might indirectly produce more, better language learning by improving the quality of the teaching
• There is, obviously, no right or wrong answer....

See also

• More about blogging
• Where to start if you know nothing about technology
• More basic things you should know
  
• Bibliography
  

CELTA session, May 9

Hi, and welcome if you've come to this morning's session...!

I'm going to divide you into three groups, and ask you to look at 3 different projects which involve language learners using technology:

1. A creative writing project
2. Pictures on mobile phones
3. Score your own wonder goal!
   

You've got about 20 minutes to actually do the project (or as much of it as time allows).

Then I'd like you to use the "comments" feature to answer the following questions:

1. Could you have done the project (or something similar) just as well without the technology?
2. What would the advantages/disadvantages of using the technology be?
3. Do you think the technology leads to a lot of language learning with these projects?
4. What else do you like/dislike about the project, and why?
   

Answer the above questions in the comments on the appropriate post (ie. via the links above, not in the comments to this post).

>> See also
For any of you who feel that you don't know much about technology, you might find the Technology 101 section here on this blog useful.

There are some books on using technology in the Bibliography section that you might also find useful.

And here's how to change the default start page of your browser, which was mentioned during the session.

Celta Session, April 7

Hi and welcome if you've come to today's session...

You have 15 minutes to do 3 of the 5 tasks below.

When you've done them, with your partners decide whether or not you think they are good tasks for the language classroom.

Use the "comments" to record what you think.

Task #1: Creating an animation

Go to www.dfilm.com, create an animation and email it to me.

Don't forget to add a comment (below) on what you think of this activity for use with language learners.

Task #2: A six-word biography

With a partner, create a six-word biography of a famous person.

Example: So much talent, all blown away (Ronaldinho)

Click "comments" (below) and add it to those already there.

Don't forget that you should create a second comment to record what you think of the task.

Task #3: A photo and text

One of the images we produced (text in comments, below)

Take a photograph of an object belonging to your partner (watch, photo in a wallet, piece of jewelry, etc).

Open a Word document, save it in "My documents" and then write about your partner's object: why is it of value to him/her?

Task #4: A blogging project

We're going to use the "comments" to this post (below) to brainstorm a list of the 25 greatest rock albums of all time. With a partner, agree on one that should be on the list, name it in the comments, and add up to 25 words justifying your choice.

If you disagree with an album someone else has suggested, say so (in a separate comment).

Don't forget that you should also create a comment to record what you think of the task.

Task #5: Podcasting

With your two partners, take the following roles: (1) interviewer, the Director of Studies (DoS) in a language school; (2) candidate, a newly qualified teacher looking for a job; and (3) observer.

Interviewer, you have 1 min to decide what questions you are going to ask.

Role-play the interview (max. 2 mins).

Observer: advise the candidate what s/he should have said...

Role-play it again, with exactly the same questions from the interviewer, and the candidate following the observer's advice.

Note that we are going to record the interview and post it on the Internet.

And here's one that we created:

CELTA sessions, January

Something of personal value: a Star Trek keyring (plus USB stick!)

One of the things we looked at in our sessions this week was an "image plus text" project, with the above picture being one that one of you took during the session. Here's a further example which we have been doing with people learning Spanish at IH Barcelona.

And here's a similar idea, suggested on Nik Peachey's blog.

That latter idea I picked up this morning via something else I mentioned in our session, an RSS feed, which comes to me via my Bloglines news aggregator.

One of the things I didn't mention was an excellent book on drawing pictures for your classroom, 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy. Highly recommended!

You'll find a lot more ideas on images on the blog you are reading now.

A single digital image... plus text!

Things that matter to me...

In the CELTA session we had this morning I suggested a project using a digital camera -- and the image above is one that one of you took.

What I would suggest is passing the camera round from pair to pair and getting the learners to take the pictures, and then writing about each other's objects (which will lead to more interaction than if they just write about their own object...). In our session, we didn't have time to produce the texts, but basically the text would involve writing about why the object photographed means a lot to your partner.

Incidentally, among the pictures taken this morning there were some lovely pictures of the photos of your kids which some of you had in your wallets. I chose not to publish them, and picked the one above, because -- on the grounds of privacy issues -- I'm always very reluctant to publish images of children (and would never do so of my young learners without written, signed parental permission).

The original idea came from techlearning.com and we've used it with people learning Spanish at IH Barcelona, publishing the text and images on our En mi bolsillo blog.

From sessions August 9

One of the photos Aitziber (I think) took, as an example of project work. The project suggested was producing a "picture plus accompanying text..."

A couple of things from today's sessions on our CELTA courses...

This was the BBC article on the Yangtze river dolphin, which I suggested as the basis for a webquest. It comes from the BBC's Words in the News section, a great one to suggest to your learners as their default start page -- so that they get some reading and listening practice every time they log on to the web.

The link to the Dfilm animations that you created didn't actually reach me. If anyone likes to provide them...

In a separate post, Dan tells us about yesterday on the course, which he did as an example of podcasting.

And for any of you that feel you really don't know that much about technology, I think I mentioned the Technology 101 section here on this blog, with some of the basic things that it is useful to know.

Day 6 on the CELTA course

Celta course trainee Dan Arp tells us a little about Day 6 on the course which, among other things included looking at various language analysis issues:

At times it can be hard to take all the information on board, Dan tells us, but he sees what his tutor Gerard is doing as being "planting seeds to cultivate over the course of [our] teaching careers".

Footnote: We produced the audio as part of a demonstration of podcasting in the session on technology on Day 7 of the course.