10 Teacher Development Task for Web 2.0 Tools

Over the last couple of months I've been busy travelling round a bit and doing some face to face training and workshops. As part of the materials for these workshops I created a number of tasks for teachers which I hope will help develop their ability to use technology and to evaluate and create materials using web based tools. I've decide now to share those tasks so anyone who wants to use them to train other teachers or to develop their own skills can take advantage of and make good use of them.

Capturing the art shark http://www.flickr.com/photos/artolog/1693491849/

There are ten tasks and they can be done in any order, except for the tenth one which should be last. Please feel free to use and share these tasks and by all means leave any comments or suggestions for improvement. I will also be hosting a teacher development week using and discussing these tasks and the related tools from 7th to 15th December 2009 on the SEETA Moodle site: http://www.seeta.eu/ so by all means come along for that if you want to share ideas and learn a bit more together.

10 Tasks to help teachers develop their use of learning technology

• Task 1
  This task explores the use of TokBox, a synchronous and asynchronous video conferencing and communication tool. In this task you will look at and evaluate some teaching materials I have created using the tool and see how you can use it to create your own materials.
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• Task 2
  This task explores the use of Voxopop, a tool for the creation of web based audio discussion threads. In this task you will see how other teachers have used the tool and have the opportunity to participate and contribute to an online audio thread.
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• Task 3
  This task explores how Forvo, the web based pronunciation dictionary, works and what it can offer teachers and learners. In this task you will explore some of the entries and have a chance to add your own example pronunciations to the dictionary.
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• Task 4
  This tasks explores the design of Listen and Write, a tool for the creation of web based dictation activities. In this task you will be able to try a dictation exercise and see how autonomous learning is supported through the design of the tool. You will also have the chance to create your own activity.
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• Task 5
  This task explores the use of ESL Video, the web based video activity creation tool . In this task you will be able to examine and compare three different video activities to see how the tool can be exploited. You can then attempt to create your own activity based around a video clip of a bank robbery.
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• Task 6
  This task explores the use of 280 Slides, a web based tool for creating online presentations. In this task you will see how you can use the tool to add video or images to presentations and so create video based learning activities or multi media presentations.
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• Task 7
  This task explores the use of Dvolver, a very simple tool for creating animated movies. In this task you will be able to watch a video created using the tool and then evaluate its potential and limitations whilst creating your own animated video.
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• Task 8
  This task explores the use of Wallwisher, a web based 'sticky notes' notice-board. In this task you will be able to look at how the notice board has been used to share a range of web 2.0 tools and also have the opportunity to contribute your own favourite site to a notice-board to see how it works.
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• Task 9
  This task examines the use of Wordle, a web based tool for creating graphic representation of texts based on word frequency. In this task you will learn how to create your own graphic image based on a news article and explore some potential uses for the tool.
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• Task 10
  This final task looks at Penzu, a simple tool for keeping a web based journal. In this task you explore how to create your own journal and then create your own reflective journal entry based on the work you have done in the previous task.
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I hope you find these tasks useful. Please do leave a comment or suggestion for improvement or any recommendations for links or other examples of materials created using these tools.

Related links:

• 100 + Online activities for EFL ESL learners
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Web 2.0 Tools for EFL and ESL Teachers
  

Best

Nik Peachey

Creating an Online Journal for CPD

The importance of careful thought and reflection on what we do as both teachers and learners can not be overestimated in terms of the learning process and retaining information in a way that we can actually use it and make it part of our experience and practice.


Keeping a teaching or learning journal can be a really important part of this process of reflection and writing entries can help us to reformulate what we have read or analyse our experiences and draw conclusions from them which we can later return to, share and reflect on again.

For me Penzu is a really good tool which can help me and my students or trainee teachers to do this.

How to create your learning journal

• Go to: https://penzu.com/ and click on ‘Sign up’.

• You will need to create a password and enter a username, email address and agree to the terms of use. Then you just click on ‘Submit’.



• You can then start creating your journal entries by adding a text and title. Each entry is dated automatically and you can move from one entry to another using the tabs on the right of the page.

• To add pictures, you simply click on the ‘Insert Photo’ icon at the top of the page and locate an image on your computer and upload it.

• Once you have uploaded your pictures you simply click to insert the ones you want to use.

• The picture will appear in the margin and you can then drag it up or down to line it up with the text. Users click on the images to enlarge them.

• To share journal entries you click on the share icon and this enables you to email your entry to someone else. You can either include your name and email along with a message or this can be done anonymously.

How we can use Penzu as a journal tool.

• We can write short summaries of articles we have read and make a note of what our personal main points of interest or learning were from the article.
• We can keep a journal of our teaching or training work and reflect on how classes went, compare these to our expectations and make notes of things we would like to try differently next time.
• We can use it as an action research journal recording what we do in each lesson and setting out our objectives for the action research project. We can also ask students to use it to keep a journal of their reflections on our teaching and we can ask them to send us entries anonymously so that we can get unbiased feedback from our students on our teaching.
• We can include it as part of a peer to peer development program and partner up teachers to watch each others classes, reflect on what they saw and send each other entries.
• We can use it as a simple record of what we did in the class and what we want to do to follow it up in the next class.
  

The vital thing with all of these activities is that we return to our entries and reflect on what we wrote some time later. Immediate responses to what happens in our classes can be very subjective and emotional. If we record those responses and then come back to them at a time when we can be more objective we are often able to gain much greater insights into what happened in the class. In this way the journal enables us to capture thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be lost.

What I like about Penzu

• It’s free and very simple to use.
• The entries are private, but be can be shared
• We can add images to make the entries more memorable
• It can be accessed from anywhere
• It’s quick and date stamps entries for us

What I’m not so sure about

• It would be nice to be able to add a few hyperlinks (I think this is possible in the ‘Pro’ paid for edition.
• It would be nice to have the option of having images in the text rather than just in the margin (again, probably available in the ‘Pro’ edition)

Well that’s about all I have to say about Penzu for now. I’ve focused on its uses as a tool for teacher development here, but it is also a great tool to use with students too. For more information on using Penzu with students check out my teaching manual Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers, which you can read or download for free.

Related links:

• A Complete EFL Teacher Training Course Online
• Using wikis for teacher development
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Three Views of the Future of English Language Teaching
• Teachers' Stories
• ELT classroom videos
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Creating an Online Classroom
• What are you Wanted for?

Best

Nik Perachey

Create your own social network 7 steps

Social networking is one of the key concepts that is driving Web 2.0 these days. With the opportunities social networks offer for collaboration and communication, this is certainly something we as educators should be thinking about being involved in.


In this tutorial I'd like to show you how to create your own social network on Ning, just by following 7 steps. I've published these as a downloadable PDF with screen shots, so that you can print them up and follow them / share them.

• 7 steps to creating a social network>> (944k pdf)
  

Perhaps though, more importantly it's worth thinking about some of the issues, and pros and cons surrounding the use of social networks.

Some advantages of creating your own network.

• Control over the content
  You can make sure nobody posts anything inappropriate or irrelevant.
  
• Control of who joins and the ability to block or ban people
  You can protect your members, ban anyone who doesn't behave or just limit membership to people you want to invite.
• Increased reach
  You can increase the reach of your F2F activities and get more people involved in the collaborative / collective development of your project.
  
• Good for your personal / career development
  You can learn a lot through being an administrator and develop some useful skills and knowledge.
  

Things to consider before you launch your network

• Closed (just people you invite) or Open (anyone who wants to join)
  I would advise starting off with just people you invite first to see how things take off. Deciding to make the network open could take a lot of consideration and demand much more 'policing' moderation from you.
  
• Do you have the time to manage the network?
  This is always a key question for teachers. Keeping the network active and up to date is going to take time. If you don't have the time / resources to put into it, best not to start.
  
• Do you have or can you find content to input to the network?
  Content is still the main motivation for teachers / students to get involved, even if it's just as stimulation for communication / collaborative work, you need to have something to offer and your members are going to need to 'get something' from visiting your network, or they won't be coming back.
  
• How / Will you be able to nurture collaboration between the members?
  Bit like the point above. Just providing a network isn't going to create collaboration. Ning is just a platform, you have to provide reasons, tasks, activities for members to collaborate on, or it just won't happen.
  
• What functionality (groups, forums, video and photo sharing) do you want to make available?
  Providing all of these on Ning is easy, but don't provide anything you can't use. If you provide the ability to share photos / videos, make sure you have something to share and reasons for sharing those things. You'll also need to think about who can share add and create. Are you going to keep complete control or share it with your members?
  
• Will you want to include advertising or ask it to be removed?
  If you are using Ning for educational purposes you can contact them and ask for advertising to be removed. You can also pay for a Ning platform and generate some money from the advertising yourself. I wouldn't recommend this as the amount may well not justify what you have to put up with from the advertisers. It's also better to get the advertising removed before you invite people to join, as some of the links can be inappropriate.
  
• What information will you want members to add when joining?
  You can decide what information members need to submit when they join and decide who sees the information. You find out a lot about them this way, but people can be put off by having to give away their information, so it could be best just to let them decide.
  
• How long will you want to keep the network live? (limited period or indefinitely)
  If you only intend to use the network for a specific time limited project it might be good to make this clear to your members, so they keep records of anything they develop within the network. Then when the project ends you can delete it with a clear conscience and keep the web tidy.

Looking at other networks
Before you start your own social network it's a good idea to have a look round at what others are doing. You might get some good ideas, see some potential pitfalls you want to avoid, or even decide someone already has your area covered and just decide to join them instead of recreating the wheel. Here a four networks for teachers that are well worth checking out.

• Mexico English Teachers' Alliance
  http://metamexico.ning.com/
• Teachers helping teachers
  http://teachershelpingteachers.ning.com/
• EFL Classroom 2.0
  http://eflclassroom.ning.com/
• Classroom 2.0
  http://www.classroom20.com/

Evaluation criteria
Deciding whether you want to join or recommend a network can be a tricky process, but as I've been looking around for ones I want to be part of I've built up a list of criteria that I find quite useful to have in the back of my mind.

• What features / functionality does the network offer? (Groups forums etc.)
  If there's no interaction, is it worth being a part of this network?
  
• Are the groups / forums active with a number of members exchanging information?
  Just because it has them doesn't mean they are being used. Have a look and make sure there is something there to learn and somebody there to learn with.
  
• Are these features being used? (If the network offers the use of photo or video sharing is this being used?)
  This is a good place to look to see what members are really sharing. Is there original content or is it all grabbed from YouTube / Flickr?
  
• Can you find out when the network was last active?
  Some networks are still online, but have died. Either the members or creator has lost interest. No point joining an inactive network.
  
• How many members does it have?
  Open networks that only have a small number of members, may be less worthwhile. Most networks need a critical mass to keep them moving, unless the members are very committed.
  
• Are any of the members’ photographs inappropriate?
  Many people join networks to pull traffic to their / unsuitable sites. A quick look at their avatar image could well give you a clue to which these are.
  
• Check out some of the member profiles. Does the profile disclose the member’s email address or other personal info that you wouldn't want to share?
  Make sure that the network isn't forcing you to disclose more information than you would feel happy with.
  
• Are there any ‘Google Ads’ on the site? Are these suitable or potentially offensive?
  Especially when recommending networks to others, it's good to check this first.
  
• Is there any interesting content on the site?
  Again, I still believe that content is king. Content + collaboration = learning! No content, don't join.
  
• Who is behind the network?
  Always wise to know who you are dealing with and sharing your information / knowledge with. Is it a group of like minded individuals, or a faceless company with dubious motivations?
  

Why create your own network for teachers?
Some suggestions:

• To support particular dispersed groups doing specific projects / training courses
  
• To record and share examples of practice and expertise specific to their context
• To help train and develop teachers in the use of ICT / Learning Technology

Why create your own network for students?
Some suggestions:

• Class research projects – create a network for your students based around a particular theme that they need to research.
• Inter-class project – create a network for sharing information with students in another school / country.
• Create a fan site with your students dedicated to a particular celebrity they like.
• Create a site to inform visitors about Morocco / your town or city, your culture etc.
• Create an online classroom and add links to materials, activities and tasks the students should do.
• Create a network to showcase students work and keep in contact with and involve parents.

Important

• You should not use Ning with students below the age of 13.
• Always protect your members’ privacy and make sure their email isn’t displayed and they don’t share addresses or telephone numbers with people.

Well if after all this you are still interested in creating your own network, here are the 7 steps again:

• 7 steps to creating a social network>> (944k pdf)

I've created one myself for a training course for teachers that I'm involved with. Personally I've found it really valuable so far.
For more opinions and to find out about alternative platforms, visit Larry Ferlazzo's blog post on Social Networks for the Classroom

Good luck with your networking and please do use the comments below to share your experience of using social networks.

Best

Nik Peachey

Using wikis for teacher development

In my two previous features, I've looked at how to create a wiki and how to use them with EFL students. In this posting I'd like to look at a couple of technical aspects, how to embed video in the wiki and how to add hyperlinks, and how we can use them for teacher development.

Let's start with the technical bit. Here are two video tutorials. The first shows how we can embed videos into a WetPaint wiki.


To view this movie in a separate window click here
Right click and the use 'Save as' to download a Quick Time version of this movie

This second one shows how to use hyperlinks to link together text and pages across the wiki.


To view this movie in a separate window click here
Right click and the use 'Save as' to download a Quick Time version of this movie

Wikis, through sites like Wikipedia.org have shown us what incredible power we have to create and share knowledge through the internet. We can also use the power of wikis for teacher development.

How can we use wikis for teacher development?

• You could use a wiki as a kind of scrapbook to collect together ideas you have on teaching, such as links to or quotes from articles you have read, as well as teaching tips and lesson plans. You could keep your own lesson plans online this way and edit and update them each time you use them. Much of this you could also do on a blog, but using a wiki gives you the opportunity to structure different pages for different topics, like having a classroom management section and a section on teaching pronunciation etc. In this way you could start to collect your own personal teaching manual and, who knows, at some point you might decide to put it live for other people to contribute to or share it with a mentor or peer to help you edit it.
• You could work with a group of trainee teachers and ask them to create a wiki training manual by adding information to each section as they study on their course. You could then see how well they were assimilating the information they were learning on the course and this would give you the opportunity to revise anything they were getting wrong or misunderstanding
• You could create a teaching jargon wiki. At the moment I'm working with a group of teachers and I've created an IT jargon wiki so that anyone who comes across a term they don't understand can add it to the wiki and either I or one of their peers can add a definition. They can also continue to refine these definition and add examples as their knowledge grows.
• You could video yourself teaching, embed the videos, and ask for feedback on your teaching from other peers through your wiki.
• You could use it to collect and share tips on aspects of teaching practice.
• You could work with a group of trainers to create a teacher development course book using the wiki.

I think the possibilities for collaborative projects for teacher development are almost limitless.
I've actually started up a Technology in ELT wiki here which you are welcome to get involved in. http://technogogyelt.wetpaint.com

At the moment this focuses on developing a glossary of IT related terms and definitions, giving access to teachers to ask an answer FAQs, and attempting to define key skills in IT for ELT teacher development. So if you have time feel free to get involved with this. Just register and start to contribute.

I'll be very interested to see how and if this develops over the coming months. If you have any further suggestions or experience of teacher development projects using wikis, please do post a link in the comments.

Best

Nik Peachey

Related postings

• How to create a wiki
• Using wikis with EFL students

To have a closer look at WetPaint and create your own wiki go to: http://www.wetpaint.com/