LIFE photos: something actually useful from Twitter!

Among my Twitter litter...

I'm not a big fan of Twitter (I actually have never yet cluttered up cyberspace with a message of my own) but I check it every day, largely because I'm "following" LIFE.com, which sends me links to fabulous pictures for use in class every day.

As we've got PCs and projectors and interactive whiteboards in many of our classrooms there's no need to print them out -- you can just beam them up at sizes which are so much more impressive than on A4 photocopies...

Click here for those black cats and the unusual phobias you can just make out in the image, above...

>> See also: RSS, which would be an alternative way of following LIFE

Halloween videos and lessons

Halloween lessons and lots more on TEFLClips.com

Among the YouTube videos and lessons on Jamie Keddie's award-winning teflclips.com blog you've got a Halloween Horror Story that's fun (and topical!).

If you prefer a more student-centred approach to listening, you could alternatively, and as a lead-in, get your learners to brain-storm the vocabulary they think will come up in a "Halloween Horror Story" and then listen and watch to see how many they got "right".

There are in fact two YouTube videos there. I prefer the second because it's so much shorter (one minute, not five).

Jamie also has a book, Images (OUP 2009), with activities that can be used for teaching of productive and receptive language skills, grammar, vocabulary and so on.

Previous Halloween posts:

• Witches and more stuff for Halloween lessons
  
• Halloween lessons
  
• Halloween project

You've got more Halloween links on the excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk and on the British Council's LearnEnglishKids site.

Project work: Detroit, Barcelona, in decline

Waiting for the bulldozer: Barcelona in decline

One of my favourite blogs (and RSS feeds), Boing Boing, brought me this Time.com photographic essay of Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline by French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre [ >> website, for more images].

You don't have to live in a city like Detroit to see ruined buildings (see image above, of Barcelona) and getting your students to photograph them (or construction sites or graffiti...) might make a great project which they could share via a blog.

Those less gifted with a camera, or interested in photography, could participate in the design of the blog, the writing of accompanying text, etc. If your learners have to either take pictures or write the text, they have to interact and communicate.

As I suggested in a recent workshop, one of the attractive things about such a project is the opportunities it affords for real language use to take place: you are setting up enjoyable, creative, real tasks, not fake role play.

A card reader for getting photos off a camera

Don't have the right cable? You want a card reader...

Someone asked during my workshop the other day how problematic obtaining photographs off digital cameras was likely to be if, as I had suggested, some of your learners bring their own cameras but forget to bring the appropriate cable with them.

You download photos from a digital camera by connecting the camera to a USB port (the same slot you put a USB memory drive into, that is). Cables for most digital cameras are fairly standard but a card reader (approx. cost 12-20 euros) is sometimes useful -- and very easy to use.

You simply remove the memory card ("A" in the photo, above) from its slot on the camera ("B") and place it in the right slot in the card reader ("C"). In most cases you are probably using an "SD card", which -- not surprisingly -- goes into the "SD" slot.

All you then have to do is plug the cable ("D") into the USB port on your computer and then either view the photos directly from the card or else download the pictures on to the computer.

That is possibly the easiest way to share photos with a class and the same can be done directly from the camera, if you do have the appropriate cable.

If you have a projector and can turn the photos into a literally wall-sized image (simply by clicking on them), your learners can then orally "present" photos that they have taken, in class, for homework, of their families, from their holidays...

You could do the same with your photos, but photos the learners have taken themselves are surely much more meaningful to them...

Easy, fun, meaningful tasks with technology

Easy, fun, meaningful...

Welcome to those of you who came to my talk on Easy, fun, meaningful activities with technology at the IH Barcelona ELT Conference today...

The tasks I proposed assumed that at least one, preferably more digital cameras (or mobile phones, or webcams...) were available to your learners, either at school and/or at home. Below, how I defined "easy", "fun" and "meaningful" and, although the tasks suggested involved cameras, I think the same criteria apply to any other technology you might be considering using in the language classroom.

Easy...
The "ease" is particularly the easy and speed of set up -- and the time involved, before and after class. You don't want to be editing images, for example, afterwards -- though, as I suggested in my talk, your learners could be doing that (and I suggested using Picnik).

Having no programs to instal can be important in a school: can you, as a teacher, actually instal programs on your school's network? Probably not.

As much as anything, you want to limit the time you the teacher have to spend on the technology; what you want is a huge return-on-investment, i.e. for the amount of pre- and post-class time you invest, your language learners in- or post-class get a huge return in terms of the language they practise and learn.

Fun...
In my classroom experience, what is creative is fun; and because it's creative and fun it's enjoyable; and if what is created is also shared with other learners, it's motivating and thus more fun. If it is motivating, if learners want to do things, and (provided you ensure that they speak in English doing well-designed tasks maximising interaction) it's also and most importantly, successful in terms of language learning. They learn more, in other words.

And then they are more motivated, and learn more, and have more fun... It's a cycle of success -- and of enjoyment.

Meaningful...
In my talk, I contrasted photographs taken by learners with cloze tests [define]... The picture that my learner has taken (not stolen from Google-is-Evil, note) matters; it's an end-product that you can share and care about.

When did the answers to a cloze test ever really matter to a learner (unless it was on an exam)? When did a learner ever really feel truly proud of a completed cloze test...?

I've been having my learners complete cloze tests for nearly thirty years and I've never, ever, seen a learner enjoy one.

But most importantly...
I've highlighted in my slide (above) how I'm suggesting using technology: to create and share end-products. But that's merely how I'm suggesting using it...

What really matters in language classrooms is that lots of language learning takes place.

That's what is important, the learning, not the technology. The technology is merely the tool that affords opportunities for language learning to occur...

Task #1: A single image with text

A single digital image plus text

This was the first of the easy, fun, meaningful tasks I suggested in my talk today at the annual IH Barcelona ELT Conference.

I highlighted the importance of the things in red on my slide, above:

• The learners taking photographs of things of personal value to themselves (a watch, a necklace...) -- something that they care about
  
• The tasks being done with a partner, your partner taking the photo and writing the text about your object, and vice-versa -- so that learners interact meaningfully in English
  
• The photo itself -- the end-product that is being created
• The text -- which will afford more opportunities for meaningful interaction to take place
• The sharing of the texts and images -- creating something to look back at and be proud of
  

Sharing images
For sharing the images and text you could use the classroom noticeboard (which is certainly the simplest); or Flickr (which is also very easy); or a blog (which is also very easy to set up [how]).

The problem with Flickr would be including the text, but you could go for an image and a short oral presentation.

My personal recommendation would be a class blog, with Blogger.com being among the best choices for setting your blog up.

See also:

• techlearning.com's Portraits of Learning (the source of the idea)
• enmibolsillo.blogspot.com (an example)

Task #2: Mystery photos on a throw-away camera

Pictures on a throw-away camera: about as simple as technology gets...

The second task that I proposed in my workshop at the IH Barcelona ELT Conference last week was "Mystery photos on a throw-away camera", a task originally suggested by my colleague Susana Ortiz.

As you can see from my slide (above), the tasks has learners working in pairs to take up to 3 "mystery" pictures per pair on a throw-away camera (for costs, see the first "comment" below), and then passing the camera on to the next pair, with the photos being developed when the film runs out.

You could do the same thing with a digital camera, a mobile phone or a webcam, all of which would have advantages over the throw-away camera, most notably the digital image you will get from them (and can thus edit and upload, etc).

The disposable camera, however, is more of a challenge (you can't just go on taking pictures until they come out right) and the mystery of not knowing until the end what photos other people have taken (no "telling" when the camera is passed on to the next pair), and the shared experience are all reasons for considering turning to what I described in my talk as being "the pond scum" of technology -- the lowest of the low.

But learning should be a challenge and it should be an experience, something which is memorable...

See also
On our Formación ELE blog, for Spanish teachers [content in Spanish], you can see some of the pictures of Barcelona taken by students in Susana's class.

Task #3: A photograph of learning actually occurring

Follow the steps and the task isn't as impossible as it might look...

This was the third of the easy, fun, meaningful tasks I suggested in my talk today.

It is easy -- from the technical point of view. All you your learners have to do is point the camera and shoot, and then share it in some digital way (eg. on a blog, or as a PowerPoint presentation, as I suggested).

It is however more of a challenge. Can you actually photograph the actual instant learning occurs, and actually capture it on film? I've been trying for years and never really ever got close to it.

What your learners should aim for is a photograph in which they can then say "What we were trying to capture was...". The end-product is less important than the meaningful interaction that precedes it -- though it is also true that working towards producing an end-product makes that interaction meaningful.

And, as I suggested, discussing the subject of when learning takes place first, before taking out the camera, will make it slightly less of a challenge, as well as creating the opportunity for the interaction to occur.

Stick figure storyboard

The stick figure storyboard (example above) will also help, and is again creative and fun to do...

The interaction -- the use of language -- is what is most important, together with the appropriate language assistance you (reactively) provide. But I think the challenge is what I like about this task: we should be challenging learners in classrooms...

Graffiti creator: would I want to use it?

Editing the letters individually, with greater contrast between them, would have made the word ("create") more legible

Here's one I'm not so sure about: graffiticreator.net...

It's fun, though I'd have liked an un-do button, but maybe that's just me: I've never actually had a go with an aerosol can and reckon true graffiti artists don't, ever, "un-do"... ,-)! But would I actually want to use this with students?

Criteria for using technology
When I'm lesson planning and look at a website or an activity of some sort involving the use of any technology, I ask myself the same questions I suggest in the technology session on our CELTA course:

• Is it a suitable level of difficulty, language and maturity for my learners...?
• Will my learners enjoy doing it...? Will it engage them...?
• How can / must I adapt it...?
• What are the aims...?
• What are the stages...?
• What language is being used, practised and learnt...?
• What are we going to do with what we've found / created...?
• What is the return-on-investment (time spent setting up, in class...)?
  

With graffiticreator.net, my doubt is really over the language that is going to be produced and used: is it merely going to engage my learners at the visual level and absorb them in understanding how the site works, or am I going to be able to create a task that will really produce a lot of meaningful (linguistic) interaction?

Decision time...
On balance, that looks to me like one that will go into my "For the kids" file in my favourites -- for my own kids, that is, they'll like it, but I don't think I'll be using it in the classroom with learners.

Now, on the other hand, if we had a class blog, and I wanted to decorate it, and we had -- say -- a new "graffiti word a week", and the kids wanted to do it in their own time, at home, or when I'd got someone finished all their other work, then I might consider it -- but my aim would not then be a linguistic one.

Working with images

I've only just flicked through it quickly but Ben Goldstein's Working with Images (Cambridge 2008) looks interesting, with "75 practical teaching ideas for the language classroom".

Apart from the general information about the book, the information on the Cambridge website includes a page of useful links for working with images.

Working with Images, which comes with a CD-Rom image bank, is in the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series.

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.

Photographing what we eat for breakfast

Greek yoghurt with muesli; black coffee...

Here's an idea that comes from IH Barcelona's Spanish Teacher Training blog -- getting your learners to photograph the week's shopping (information in Spanish).

As you can see from the photo above, a possible variation might be photographing what they have for breakfast, with the idea being to post the pictures on a class blog. I'd suggest that there's a lot of mileage to be had out of discussing such things as a healthy diet, ranking who eats the healthiest breakfast (etc.), particularly if your learners are from a variety of origins, and -- once again -- the fun of creating something together appeals more than the exercises on food in my coursebook.

The idea came from a wonderful exhibition by US photographer Peter Menzel, in which the week's shopping was photographed along with the families from around the world that bought and consumed it.

Eyes: an idea for a class blog

Mystery eyes: someone in our class

Here's an idea that might be fun if you have a class blog: every week, we publish a photo of the eyes of someone in the class, and we then attempt to guess who our "mystery eyes" belong to.

By a "class blog", I mean one on which your learners author and publish the content and, besides class projects [example], and what you might publish as being of interest to your students [example], having a different pair responsible for the blog each week will get the students interested and involved. You could have such things as a "YouTube video of the week" or "Album of the week", which the students would be responsible for picking -- and "Mystery eyes of the week" would also be fun.

You want the students to take the photos and edit them and want to ensure that other students do comment on the blog, something they could be doing before class, during class, or at home...

An important issue is privacy, so do make sure you have appropriate school/parental permission before you start publishing photos, especially if you are doing this with young learners!

Flashcard Maker

Teacher, Doctor, Painter, Photographer...

If you like to make flashcards for your learners, you might like the flashcard maker available at cambridgeenglishonline.com (a sample produced with it shown above). It's easy to use, free, comes with quite a large selection of images and, among other features allows you to write not only text but also phonemic script.

The flashcard maker was one of the teaching links I came across on teachingenglish.org.uk.

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.

Superb images (not from Google)

One of the reasons I'd suggest that you don't turn to Google-is-Evil for your images is that, chances are, they're not going to be that good.

Google has zero interest in the quality of images it steals from other sites; if you want good images, you have to go to a site with a vested interest in providing quality pictures -- a news website, for example.

Here's a good example -- the National Geographic's International Photography Contest. The National Geographic -- now there's a site with an interest in the quality of its images!

Try finding pictures as good on Google...

>> Sources of images for class

50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story

Another link, suggested by Ana Falcon, that came to my mailbox in the ELTECS Latin America news list -- 50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story.

I think storytelling -- getting your learners to write stories, to tell multimedia stories -- is one of the most interesting things you can do in a language class. Apart from the obvious opportunities for learning and using language that such a project provides, it's the creating things aspect of it that attracts me -- and it's one of the best possible uses we can make of technology, as it takes much fuller advantage of the potential of technology than, say, seeing and using the Internet as a bank of images for use in class.

You want good group dynamics in your class? Get your learners to create and share something together.

The article (or wiki, to give it its proper term), contains lots of useful ideas and links, including links to audio, images and video available under Creative Commons licences -- ie. that you can use without infringing copyright.

The author, Alan Levine, has the commendable rule that "the media files you use in your story have to be ones that are licensed or shared with permission to re-use". However, my suggestion would always be that your learners create their own images, audio files, etc.

The more they create themselves, the less they steal from other websites, the prouder they will be of their work; the "pride in creation" is wonderful for motivation, for wanting to learn...

>> ELTECS news lists
>> More good stuff in your mailbox
>> Creative Commons
>> More on digital storytelling
>> Er... What's Web 2.0?

More image links and ideas for using them

Yet another useful link from Larry Ferlazzo's amazing collection, to Nations Illustrated, which has over 7,000 images -- free for non-commercial use -- organised by countries of the world.

I like Larry's idea of exploiting the fact that you can send the photo's as e-cards to a friend (or your teacher)... Perhaps you could also have your learners create a story based on a series of e-cards sent to you from different places around the world...?

Note also the "play puzzle" feature, if you're a jigsaw puzzle fan, which allows you to turn the images into jigsaws. I wonder if you could have people doing that in class in pairs, perhaps with one person having the original picture, which their partner isn't allowed to see... Or have them work together to work out how the puzzle must fit together logically ("that bit must go there", "that can't be right...").

>> In the same post, on About.com, Thirty Free Image Resources on the Web

More sources of (good) images

Things that matter to me... the pictures of my kids in my wallet

In one of the CELTA sessions this week I mentioned the website of the freebie newspaper 20Minutos as an alternative source of images. They have a great Fotogalerías section, which is a much better source than Google-is-Evil if you are looking for topical photographs, especially ones that will be relevant to Spanish students.

An alternative is Yahoo News, which has a similar, magnificent news photos section.

Newspapers have a vested interest in providing quality images; Google has zero interest in the quality of the billions of images it steals from other websites.

I still think that an even better alternative is for your learners to create their own images (above, another one someone took during the session Wednesday -- my own kids, so I gave myself parental permission to publish ,-) !

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.

Single digital image, plus text

Here's one from my CELTA session September 18th...

My suggestion was that getting the learners to produce a single digital image, plus accompanying text, would make a great project, for example on a blog.

My example was to take a picture of an object of personal value to the person concerned -- hence the shoes in the picture at the top of this post, which were brand new. You wouldn't of course have to limit pictures to that.

None of those of you who attend the session seemed terribly impressed by the idea. However, personally, I think it's a good one. Getting your learners to create, not merely consume -- that's what makes for good use of technology in the classroom. It gets them involved, it gets them caring, it gets them creating; they are active, not merely passive consumers of photocopies.

Still not convinced...? Here are two great examples, one by students learning Spanish here at IH Barcelona, the second the Portraits of Learning project on techlearning.com.

Ungoogle your cats!

Titi the Cat...

Someone asked me the other day whether or not an image of a cat found on Google (not that shown above) was going to print out well for use in class -- on the black-and-white printer they had access to.

As the contrast in the picture was low, I said I thought not and suggested looking for a different one.

And to enlarge it? Possibly the best way to enlarge is by using the photocopier to do it for you.

It was actually for use in a class on our young learners extension course and so I suggested that, rather than using Google, that the young learners themselves should draw the pictures -- and would then be able to describe their cats.

I've got no idea how the lesson eventually went, but I later happened to be in the actual classroom used and noticed the drawings of cats on the walls (see one example above) -- and like to imagine that the lesson meant much more to the kids, that they learnt more because they participated and were more involved in it.

Ungoogle!
I thought I'd just invented the word "ungoogle", but Google itself currently finds around 34,000 results for it.

But, because I think Google-is-Evil, and perhaps sometimes has an adverse effect on the lessons we take into our classrooms, it's one I think teachers should adopt.

There are better places to search than Google, there are better places to find images...

Why is it wrong to steal images... and text

Not actually stolen from Google, legally downloaded flashcards... But, if there's no involvement, that's almost as bad!

Why is it wrong to steal images?
First a misconception most users are under: no one has given Google (or any other search engine) permission to grab all their images off their websites. It is therefore wrong for Google to steal images in the first place -- and that doesn't make it right for you to steal the same images from Google. Neither does the fact that "everyone else does".

As an educator, I think that you have a moral responsibility: you cannot condone and must condemn theft, and therefore can neither steal other people's images and use them, for example, on a blog, nor allow your student's to do that.

Images or content -- text, that is.

Why bother creating your own?
But there's more to it than the moral considerations, which I imagine are not going to convince many people nowadays.

For example, with text, in a webquest you have asked your learners to find the answers to certain questions, and then to "publish" them in some way -- in a Word document, as a PowerPoint presentation, on a blog. If they merely "copy and paste", as many will do, they are very unlikely to be doing very much manipulation of the language; they are not getting to grips with it, getting "under the bonnet" and getting their hands dirty, tinkering with it and reformulating it in any way. Merely copying and pasting it isn't going to do a lot for their language learning.

Teach your learners not to copy and paste, but to copy and paste; select judiciously, cut ruthlessly and quote correctly... And provide the language for that ("(....), according to Yahoo News"; "says a report on CNN" [+hyperlink]; etc)

And images...
If it's images, it's far better for them to create their own, than handle stolen property from Google. Why?

What you want, for learners to be truly engaged in their learning, is for them to be creative, to be imaginative. Google Images is not creative.

You want affective involvement in their learning -- you want them to care. When they do, they learn more.

What you want is for them to be proud of what they've created. There isn't a lot of pride to be had in handling stolen goods.

How do they create their own images?
Images can come from digital cameras, from mobile phones, from hand-drawn art work (which is then either photographed or scanned), or be created in a simple image editing program like Paint.

Is it worth the effort?
Yes. Why? Because of the pride to be had in the creation...

Steal and photocopy... or draw your own images?

A monster in the Internet Room! It's got a tail! It's got 3 eyes!

Rebecca is currently taking the CELT YL course with us at IH Barcelona and brought this into the Internet Room before class... Wow! It's so impressive, and so much more so than a monster she could have stolen from Google Images.

She was going to get her kids to draw monsters too, and then say what body parts their monsters had got.

You could pinch the pictures off of the Web, but how much more engaging for your young learners to draw their own!

>> 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy

Arts and crafts with your learners

More from the very excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk site:

• A new article on Art in the classroom
  
• One on Arts and crafts with young learners
• Full list of articles

Looking for something to do with English teaching...? Don't go to Google! Go somewhere like TeachingEnglish...!

Images, and where to get them from

Born to create... I could have stolen it, but created the image myself... Which is better for your learners?

My thanks to Jordi Castells, who came to a session I gave this morning, for suggesting the Hungarian site SXC.com for free stock photos, sometimes a very useful resource.

Free stock photos [definition] are basically ones you can use without worrying about infringing copyright. Jordi also suggested Wikipedia as another source, as Wikipedia uses images available under creative commons licence.

A single digital image, plus text
The subject of images came up as we were talking about a project which involved the learners producing a single digital image and a text to accompany (explain) it.

My suggestion was that the learners also produce the image, not just the text, with various possible sources:

• A digital camera
• Mobile phones
• Artwork (pens, crayons, etc) which is then scanned
• A photograph from home (eg. of when the learners were very young), and then scanned
• A program like Paint, which is very basic, but which young learners especially enjoy playing with
  

Alternatively, you could use a stock image from a site like SXC... But which is better, an image the learners create, or one they find on the web?

The worst option of all would, of course, be to steal it from Google-is-Evil... Who cares? Well, for starters, the learner doesn't care about the image if that's where it comes from. And caring is where real learning really starts...

See also

>> An example, "image plus text" project
>> Finding images for use in class

Digital photography

Image plus text: "This are our hands. We are begining a game of basketball. We won 98-33!"

21st Century Connections has a very basic introduction to digital photography, and suggests some of the ways you could use it in your classroom.

The article says:

You're set to have your students "go digital" - shoot, edit, organize, and share digital photos - as they create information about the subject matter they study.

But it then perhaps gives the impression that you -- not the learners -- are doing all the work.

If instead you get the learners to produce the images, you save yourself a lot of time for starters, and end up with a much more interesting project. A project could be each kids (or pair) producing a single image plus accompanying text, like TechLearning's Portrait's of Learning, or the example that heads this post (uncorrected, from my daughter Isabel, 11).

See also
>> Digital Photography School, for photography tutorials
>> Can you post pictures of young learners?

Using pictures in class

Picture from a Picasa album projected from a laptop (foreground) on to the whiteboard

I liked an idea Jamie Keddie demonstrated at a teacher development workshop here at IH Barcelona the other day.

Using a laptop and projector, Jamie accessed his Picasa photo album and used images in it for a variety of classroom activities. One fun thing he showed us was how easy it is to crop images in Picasa, show only half of the picture and get learners to predict what they think is happening.

Of course, if you wanted to get hi-tech, with an interactive whiteboard, you could cut out the cropping part, and just access images on a USB drive, using a mask to hide or reveal as much as you wanted.

You also need to spend time actually finding the images that are going to work like that. Hating to spend time trawling the Web for things, personally I like a no-tech solution: one of the freebie newspapers we have in Barcelona is ADN. Check it out, if you can -- there is a great picture nearly every day on page 2 which is often the makings of a class.

Granted, projected on to a large whiteboard, Jamie's images (see example, above) looked more impressive than something torn from the morning's paper...

1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy

I would say Andrew Wright's 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy is the best, most useful book I've read in 25 years in English teaching.

It's practical, it's useful, it will save you (and your learners) lots of time, it's fun -- and it teaches you a skill that I think all teachers should have, especially anyone teaching young learners.

You can't draw? You don't need to be able to draw -- all you've got to do is learn how to copy a few simple images.

Publisher: Longman ELT, ISBN 0175571007. Available from Amazon.com.

Don't waste time looking for pictures on Google

Of course you could get your images off of Google-is-Evil (assuming that you don't mind a spot of stolen property, that is...)

But one problem with that is that Google has zero interest in the quality of the images... or in how much language you could get out of them.

An alternative soure are newspapers and magazines -- which do have a vested interest in presenting their readers with striking, interesting photos (including ads:..).

I habitually rip images out of the newspapers and magazines that are about to go in the recycled bin, and store and classify them in folders (in the image above, you can see my "transport" and "sports" folders)... just in case they might be useful in class one day...

Are texts more important than images?

Some one asked the question after the session in July. No, text isn't really more important. Or necessarily more useful. I'd suggest that it depends...

I'd also suggest, however, that as teachers, we can easily fall into a number of traps.

We assume that (1) all pictures are intrinsically good, intrinsically useful to us when we are teaching language, and useful too to the people learning it. That's not true.

If it's a picture of a mobile phone, then it's not true: it's no more useful than actually reaching into your back pocket for the real thing (which would be a lot faster, for one thing). Or Zidane head-butting that Italian in the World Cup Final.... You just don't need that picture!

People also (2) waste a lot of time looking for, printing and photocopying images, when it in many cases it would be far quicker just to draw the picture on the board. You can't draw a picture of (say) a parrot? So, how about you imitate one...? (And which is more memorable -- a picture nicked off of Google, or your imitation...?)

It also sometimes worries me that if we spend hours looking for, finding and editing the material, we are (3) forgetting that it's not really the material that matters; what really matters is the interaction and the language the material leads to.

Spend less time on getting the material together and more on thinking about what the students are going to be doing... then you are heading for a successful language class.

Texts are important too!
Perhaps because we image pictures to be so important, it's easier (4) to overlook text. Text is important too -- apart from anything else because, in order for our learners to learn the language, they need to be "exposed" to, and have to "deal with", lots of examples of language in context, ie. texts.

And images as well!
Of course, you can find great pictures that will lead to a lot of language... But which of the two images below do you think you could get most out of...?


What does it "depend" on...?
As with all resources that we might be using in the classroom (whether technological or otherwise), it depends... on the amount of language (and response from, and interaction between our learners) that we are going to get out of the resources.

Where to find texts and images
See the "links" in the sidebar (right) to access the various sources you had on the handout from our session.