Skype Part 2 Online Workspace

Anyone who uses their whiteboard for ELT / EFL classes will know what a really useful teaching aid it can be, so how about using one with your distance learners?

In Part 1 of this series on Skype plugins, I looked at how and where to find and install plugins for Skype and I also looked at how to use Pamela to record audio materials and interviews with Skype.

In this posting I'd like to have a look at an online collaboration tool called Yugma which allows you to share files, share your desktop, make live presentations and have a shared online whiteboard all running along side your Skype application.

This quick tutorial takes you through some of the basic features.


You can download a version for your computer in Quick Time here.
Or
Open the tutorial in a new window here.

How to use this with ELT / EFL students
Well I think this is definitely a distance learning support tool rather than some thing to use in the classroom / multi media lab with students. It could be ideal for teacher who wants to teach online 1 to 1 especially if you are doing this independently and don't have the support of a company to provide you with specialist software. I think it's also a pretty useful tool for teacher training and development if you have groups of teachers spread around the country or the world even.

• You can show students how to use specific software for their course and talk them through the various processes.
• You can show students around websites and use them as the basis for online discussion
• You can share documents with your students and get them to work on them collaboratively
• Students can share projects they have been working on with other group members
• You can play games online such as Pictionary (a game where one player draws a picture and the others have to guess the word it represents)
• You can share notes as you deliver presentations
• You can record presentations and reuse them
• You can set up a whole programme of different online business simulations such as
• Presenting information about a company
• Presenting a sales report of the results of survey findings
• Students try to sell a fictional product to investors (your other students would be the investors)
• Carrying out online interviews, with students presenting and talking about their CVs

• The ability to record these presentations would make it much easier for your students to review them and for you to offer feedback on their work.

What I like about Yugma

• As tools like this become a more widely used and accepted part of international business, developing the ability to use such tools is going to become a valuable 'real life' skill.
• It's free (at least some parts are) and quite easy and quick to install and use.
• I really like that you can record your meetings to watch later etc.
• Great that this integrates with Skype
• It seems to offer a pretty comprehensive package of functions

What I wasn't so sure about

• Some of the functionality is limited after the first 15 days, unless you choose to pay for an account.
• You have to be sure that your firewall / anti-virus doesn't block it, so if you have any problems getting it started, then that's the first thing to check.
• You'll also need to get your students to download and install it.

Well I hope you find this tool useful. As I said, this is really one for the distance / online tutor and I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried it out with their students.

Best

Nik Peachey

Advertisement Project

Rollmio is an ingenious new website base around the idea of user produced advertisements! The site seems to be able to get commissions for online advertisements (they're only on their forth so far, but it is a start up site), then users come along, read the brief and produce and submit an advertisement (10 - 60 second video)that should fit the brief. The advertisement that the company likes best wins a prize ($500) and there are also some runner up prizes.


For more videos, rollmio.com

How to use this with students
This seems like the ideal site to build a project around and get your students creating and uploading their own advertisements. You could even try to win the prize for your school.

• You might need to do some preparation work first discussing their favourite ads what they like about the etc.
• Then you'll also need to do a bit of analysis of ads thinking about who the target of the ad is and the kind of profile of people the company wants to sell to etc.
• You could also get your students to think about advertising techniques and genre of advertisements (story like, expert, celebrity endorsement etc)
• Your students could then discuss and story board a possible advertisement and decide who will do what in the production of the advertisement.
• Then if you have a camera try to get them to film, edit and upload the ads (If you have young learners make sure you get the parents permission before uploading anything)
• You can see the latest creative brief here: http://rollmio.com/projects/brief/4
• You could even use celtx with your students to help develop your project
  

The ads on the site aren't of a terrifically high / professional quality, they're mainly novel, so it isn't beyond the means of your students to compete with these.

• If you don't have filming facilities / camera then you could just get your students to have a look at the ones that have been made in the archive and decide which they think is most effective / which will win.

What I liked about the site

• Really attractive and user friendly interface
• Really very authentic, motivating and a chance to make some money!!
• It's free
• It's easy to get an embed code so that you can add the videos to your own materials if you don't want your students to actually view the site.
  

What I wasn't so sure about

• Still early days for this site, so it could be a huge success or by the time you read this it may have disappeared along with a great many other Web 2.0 type sites!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and get to use it before that happens.

Best

Nik