1. Andrea Buroni
ICT Applied to English Teaching- 2010
Unit 4
Assignment N° 4: Web 2.0 Applied to English Teaching
Due date: Week 14 (November 10th 2010)
I created a wiki in which I published the different parts of this assignment (samples
and ELT activities included). The link of my wiki is: http://ict-in-english-
teaching.wikispaces.com
I have also chosen seven Web 2.0 tools and created an account in each of them.
Here you have the samples.
5. I have chosen the following 4 websites for my students to work on:
Xtranormal
Xtranormal.com appears to offer 3D animation software that you can either
download onto your computer or use the online version. In order to use the web
application you have to register and be over 13 years old. It is very easy to apply
and anybody can cope with it.
Why should we use this tool in teaching ESL or EFL?
I believe that this software can really motivate your students. They can produce
their own short movies and afterwards, send them to friends or/and schoolmates
by email among others.
This tool can be used with individual students or with groups.
You can also use this application as a new technique to recycle vocabulary and
some grammar structures.
6. It can be a fun tool to practice functional language for presentations, testimonals,
giving the news, etc.
Apart from typing the monologue or dialogue, students need to choose a scene in
which the story will take place, suitable ambient noise, background music,
expressions for their actors and camera movements, etc. I also feel that this
application will help learners to become aware of the role body language and
sounds play in ordinary conversations.
Voki.com
Voki is an application that allows you to produce personalized speaking avatars and
use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. You have to choose an
avatar from a list that is provided by Voki and you can add your own voice to the
character or type a speech and a “mechanical” voice will read it.
You can also select from a list of different backgrounds the one you like the most
and place your avatar in it.
Why should we use this tool in teaching ESL or EFL?
First of all, I think students will love this kind of activities in which they can put
their voices to their characters and make them speak. I believe that it would be
interesting to write a short speech, especially if you are working with young
learners, where they can use and recycle some of the grammatical points and
vocabulary items they have covered during a period of time.
It is very easy to handle and learners will have a great fun with it.
Slide.com
“Slide.com website, is a Web 2.0 company […] originally formed to make photo
sharing software for social networking services such as MySpace, the company
achieved its greatest success as the largest developer of third-party applications
for Facebook. The company was acquired by Google on August 4, 2010.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide.com)
Slide allows you to organize and classify photos on your computer and post them to
personal wikis or blogs.
Why should we use this tool in teaching ESL or EFL?
I believe that learners can take full advantage of this application! They will find it
highly motivating and easy to handle.
7. Students can invent a photo story, take pictures of each of the main scenes and
upload them to slide.com. Once this web 2.0 organises the presentation, each
group can show it to rest of the class and ask them to jot down the story or to
retell it orally.
Eduglogster.com
“Glogster EDU is the leading global education platform for the creative expression
of knowledge and skills in the classroom and beyond. We empower educators and
students with the technology to create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with
text, photos, videos, graphics, etc.” (http://edu.glogster.com/what-is-glogster-
edu/)
This application is quite easy to use and I believe that students will have good fun
with it!
Why should we use this tool in teaching ESL or EFL?
Students can create online multimedia posters using this Web 2.0 as a follow-up
activity, I mean, after being working on a topic, learners can summarize it in a
poster! How? By including pictures, sounds, graphics, a short text, drawings and
more!
Lesson plans
Plan #1- Xtranormal
Level: intermediate
Group dynamic: small groups (no more than 3 students)
Timetable: 3 periods per week
Students will create a dialogue between two or three people using the following
functions: Would you like…? What about…? How about…? I’d like… I prefer…
The aim of this activity is to recycle some functions related to suggestions and
offerings. Once students have written the dialogue in their notebooks, they will
transfer them onto the computer using the Xtranormal application. Teacher will
explain to learners how to use this tool and learners will have to choose
characters, scenes, movements, face expressions, sounds and obviously they will
add the dialogues they have created previously.
When all the groups finish, they will exchange presentations so everybody enjoys
everybody’s work.
8. Plan #2 - Voki
Level: beginners
Group dynamic: individual
Timetable: 3 periods a week
Students will be asked to create their avatars to whom they will provide with their
own voices and speeches. The task will be designed to be achieved by fourth
graders so probably the topic they are going to deal with is introduce yourself, but
as if you were somebody else. Learners will have to make their avatar say its
name, its age, what it likes and dislikes doing and what it can and can’t do.
Plan #3 - Slide
Level: pre-intermediate
Group dynamic: in pairs
Timetable: 3 periods per week.
Students will be asked to invent a photo story, take pictures of each of the main
scenes (they will have to include between 7 to 10 pictures) and upload them to
slide.com. Once this web 2.0 organises the presentation, each group will show it
to rest of the class and ask them to jot down the story or to retell it orally.
Afterwards, the group which creates the phone story will read it aloud and the
whole class will check if this coincides with the stories they have told before.
The aim of this activity is to revise past tenses (Simple Past and Past Continuous)
Plan #4 – Edu-Glogster
Level: elementary
Group dynamic: in pairs
Timetable: 3 periods per week
Students will be asked to work on the Webquest page we created on “Stay Healthy
and fit”: http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=71285
The second task on the webquest has to do with the development of a brochure for
parents with tips about helping their children stay healthy. In this case I will ask
my students to create a different follow-up activity instead of a brochure, they will
create a poster. Once, they have designed a draft of the poster they will have to
9. produce an online one using edu-glogster application. They will have to include
pictures and some important tips to stay healthy, of course.
Apart from recycling food items, students will review imperative form of verbs in
the affirmative and negative form.
