Create Video Questionnaires

Intervue.me is a new website I have been using recently. It's another website that is based around the use of webcams. The site enables users to create questionnaires and then get the recipients of the questionnaire to leave video recorded answers. The site is very easy to use.

Register the go to 'My Dashboard' and click on 'Create New' to start your first questionnaire.


First you decide on the levels of privacy you want for the questionnaire and whether you want people to be able to leave anonymous answers or add comments to the answers.


Next you click on 'Start adding questions'.
You can type in your question and give more explanation below the question if you think that makes it clearer. You can add as many questions as you want. You'll also need to click on 'Edit title' so that you can give your questionnaire a name.


Once you have added all your questions you can just click on 'Share' or 'Invite' to either get a URL for your questionnaire or to email it to specific people.

Then once people receive the questionnaire they just click on the questions and record their answers using the webcam in their laptop.

To see all the videos you can just go to 'My Dashboard' and click on the 'Videos' tab.

Here are some example questionnaires I have created. Feel free to leave an answer to any of the questions.

• Blended learning
• How digital is your classroom?
• Mobile devices in the classroom

How to use Intervue.me with students

• Create comprehension check questions to go with reading homework so that students also do some speaking for homework.
• Create opinion polls for students to answer.
• Make action research questionnaires
• Play the alibi game and get students to explain where they were and what they were doing at particular points in time.
• Ask students about childhood memories.

What I like about Intervue.me

• It's very quick and easy to create questionnaires
• It's a great way to provide speaking practice for students.
  
• You can add more detail and explanation to the questions.
• Students get to practice their digital communication skills.
• Students will be able to watch and listen to their replies and rerecord them so this will focus them on accuracy.
• It can be more communicative and engaging than writing down answers as students can also see the other answers that have been recorded.
• You can create long questionnaires or very simple single question ones.

What I'm not so sure about.

• It could take time to get students feeling comfortable in front of the camera, so you might need to help them a little and get them to think about lighting and getting the correct distance from the camera.
• Be careful about enabling anonymous replies or comments as this could be abused.
• Students need a laptop with a reasonable quality microphone.

I hope you find Intervue.me useful and that your students get plenty of speaking practice.

Related links:

• Create a Video Q&A Booth
• So Ask Me a Question
• Create a Video Dictation Activity
• 20 WebCam Activities for EFL ESL Students
• Teach Yourself to Teach with Tech
• Get your Students Listening and Interacting with Native Speakers

Best

Nik Peachey

Adoption Cards!

Hello fellow birthmoms! Reminder: Sunday, May 8th is Mother's Day, which of course means that Saturday, May 7th is Birthmother's Day! 



Below is an important message from Coley Strickland, Founder & Executive Director of Birthmom Buds.   

Dear Friends, 

Just a quick note to let you know that we have adoption cards for purchase in a new Etsy store, Heartmark Designs. Currently we have Birthmother's Day cards, cards appropriate for birthmothers to give their child's adoptive Mother for Mother's Day, and a few cards specifically for reunited birthmothers and their children. We will be adding other cards as we create them. We're currently working on some special cards appropriate for birthmothers to give their children on their birthday, which has been requested numerous times!

Feel free to spread the word about our cards. Bulk orders are available for adoption professionals.  Proceeds from the cards benefits BirthMom Buds. 

Use the code "BMOMBUDS" at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase. 

Thanks,

Coley Strickland,

Founder & Executive Director

BirthMom Buds

The Feminist Case Against Abortion

The Feminist Case Against Abortion -- Tonight at 7:00 pm at UNC Chapel Hill, Serrin M. Foster, president of Feminists for Life, will present her speech, "The Feminist Case Against Abortion," which has been anthologized in "Women's Rights" under the series "Great Speeches in History."  



Serrin has led Feminists for Life of America since 1994. Under her leadership, Feminists for Life has successfully advocated benefits for poor and pregnant women through the State Child Health Insurance Program, worked in coalition with other women's organizations to defeat the mandatory "family cap" and other punitive child exclusion provisions in welfare reform, and helped to prevent poverty and coerced abortions due to threats to withhold child support through passage of the Enhanced Child Support Act.



Serrin served on the National Taskforce Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, which worked to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in support of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as "Laci and Conner’s Law."



Feminists for Life helped to introduce groundbreaking legislation—The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act—that inspired Pregnancy Assistance Fund grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. The grants will help put into hyper-drive new pro-woman solutions on campus.



The creator of the Women Deserve Better® than Abortion campaign has appeared on C-SPAN, CNN International, FOX News and ABC World News Tonight as an outspoken opponent of pregnancy discrimination and has focused on developing on-campus resources and support for under served pregnant and parenting students.



There will be a question and answer discussion after the talk.  The event will be held from 7:00 - 8:30pm at UNC Chapel Hill (103 Bingham).  If you can make it to this event, it will be worth your time!    



**The event is being hosted by Carolina Students for Life. 

Get your Students Listening and Interacting with Native Speakers

Listening in the EFL / ESL classroom can be a pretty dull business. Usually it consists of students all listening to the same thing at the same time and doing the same tasks. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you feel the urge to get away from the course book and get your students listening to and interacting with some real native speakers from the safety of their computer then why not check out some of the people on Vyou.com ?

I've already written about how you can set up your own Vyou Q&A video booth, but it's also well worth looking round some of the people who are already there and seeing if there are any your students would be interested in, as a lot of the people there a quite young and some are quite interesting and quirky and Vyou offers your students the opportunity not only to listen to them and hear a range of accents, but also to ask them questions, though the answers might take a while to come.

It's very simple to use. You just go to : and there you can either search through some of the featured people or you can click on channels at the top and look through the more topic related people.

Each person has their own video channel and you can either type in questions below the video or you can click on the questions on the right of the video to listen to the answers to questions that have already been asked.

Here are a few people your students might find interesting.

This one is a British guy called Jonny and he claims he will write a song about any subject that readers suggest. There a quite a few there already: http://vyou.com/Spontaneoussongs
This one is Loren Rochelle for North America. She works in 'Social Video seeding' (Yes that seems to a job these days). She answers questions about a wide range of things from the personal to the trivial: http://vyou.com/lorenrochelle

It's also worth checking out the channels.

If you and your students are more interested in literature then there is an ask the author channel where writers answer questions about literature and their books: http://vyou.com/channels/simonandschuster
If your students are more interested in music, EMI also has a channel where you can submit questions to some of their recording artists: http://vyou.com/channels/emi

So how can you exploit this with EFL / ESL students?

• Show students some of the people and get them to think of questions they would like to ask. Then get them to submit the questions (try to get them to submit questions to a few different people) then in the next lesson they can see if they have any answers and share the information they got from the answers (Also good for lessons on reported speech).
• Ask students to choose one person each and give them 5 - 10 minutes to discover as much information as possible about that person. They can then discuss and share the information in class.
• Collect some of the questions that have been asked and get students to think of possible answers, then watch and compare to their own answers and see how much they have in common with each person. Then get students to find the person they are most like.
• Get students to watch two different people and then compare and contrast their character and interests.
• Get students to think of one or two good questions and submit them to a range of people. Then in the next lesson students can check the answers and decide who they think gave the best answer.

What I like about this Vyou

• These are real people that students can interact with.
• The use of the looped introduction videos gives a real sense of presence and this can be much more motivating and engaging for students.
• There's a real wealth of listening materials with various accents on a range of topics.
• The answers are quite short so they aren't too demanding on students concentration despite being 'ungraded' and authentic.
• Students can listen multiple times.
• I've looked at quite a few channels and there doesn't seem to be anything inappropriate or offensive.

What I'm not so sure about

• Some of the channels allow for anonymous submission of questions, so students might be tempted to ask something inappropriate (though they are unlikely to get an answer.)
• It is possible that your students might stumble across something they might find offensive or some bad language, but I haven't found anything like this yet.

Well I hope you try Vyou.com and that your students find it engaging, entertaining and useful.

Related links:

• Create a Video Q&A Booth
• So Ask Me a Question
• Create a Video Dictation Activity
• 20 WebCam Activities for EFL ESL Students
• Teach Yourself to Teach with Tech

Best

Nik Peachey

I've been thinking...

I remember when I used to have time to blog.  That was fun.  When I used to have time to blog.



In all seriousness, you may have noticed that I've been a little M.I.A. lately.  Part of the reason is because I've had alot going on in my life, and I'm still learning the tricky concept of balancing work, life, and blogging.  And the other part is just the simple fact that I've had a serious case of blogger burnout.  The good news is that I really have missed Amstel Life and writing about my experience with open adoption, and I'm excited to get back into the swing of things.  So here it goes. 



I've been thinking about Deanna lot lately.  I'm not sure why.  I'm thinking that it may have to do with the fact that I've finally reached the point in my life where I could potentially support someone other than myself, financially and emotionally.  And also because I have ALOT of friends who are having babies this year.  Sometimes it's hard to see friends going through the experience of pregnancy...and enjoying it.  My pregnancy experience was very different.  



One thing I've learned about being a birthmother is that unexpected waves of sadness can happen suddenly, at any moment, an without warning.  (Although, I've come to find out that they tend to occur more frequently in times of excessive drinking, lack of sleep, and stress).  I went to a baby shower a few months ago.  I think it was only the third baby shower I had ever been to (other than my own).   Before heading into the baby shower, I was excited to celebrate.  But I didn't realized how hard it would be for me until I found myself in the actual "baby shower" moment.  I had no idea how difficult it would be to sit there and watch a cute little pregnant woman opening presents and just radiating happiness and joy.   I think I lasted 15 or 20 minutes, and then I quietly excused myself and headed for the restroom... where I had a small pity party before pulling myself together and bolting for the exit.  I wasn't prepared for that to happen, and I was actually pretty embarrassed that I had allowed my emotions to get the best of me.  When you're a birthmom, I guess you have to learn to expect the unexpected. 



A few days ago I went to get some pictures developed at the drug store.  I wandered around aimlessly while I waited.  I entered the Valentine's Day aisle, and I started looking around at the ginormous (is that a word?) selection of Valentine candies, gifts, and cards galore.  My thoughts wandered, and I began thinking about Valentine's Day when I was a child.  I fondly remembered the way my mom used to leave presents for my sisters and I at the breakfast table every morning of a big holiday.  I remember walking sleepily down the stairs and bursting with excitement upon seeing the little gifts and candy hearts, packaged so nicely, sitting there on the kitchen table.  Suddenly, without warning, I was overcome by sadness.  I started thinking about how I wished that I had the opportunity to do that for Deanna -- to surprise her with little gifts on the morning of a holiday.  It caught me off guard because I haven't felt that kind of sadness for a long time. I mean a long time!  I didn't feel too embarrassed though, because I'm sure the Rite Aid employees are probably used to random women getting all emotional and teary-eyed in the Valentine's Day aisle.  



If there's one thing I know to be true about birthmothers, it's that we never forget.  Yes, it gets easier as time goes on, but you never really forget. I remember that I cried a few times every single day in the weeks after Deanna was born.  And then I probably cried once a day during freshman year of college.  Then I cried once a week sophomore year... and weeks turned to months and months turned to years, and suddenly it's been five and a half years since Deanna was born.  To tell you the truth, I hardly ever get emotional or upset anymore.  I truly have peace of mind in knowing that this is the way things were supposed to work out, and I know that Don, De and Deanna are doing great!  But every once and again, and without warning, those ugly adoption demons come out of nowhere and remind me of what I have been through.  Yes, even in the middle of Rite Aid. 



This past weekend marked the six year anniversary of meeting Don and De for the very first time. I think De has a special intuition when it comes to knowing how I'm feeling.  Even though she's an entire state away, she sent me a text saying that she's been thinking of me alot lately and asked if there was anything she could be praying about.  It's funny -- I'd been thinking alot about her recently too.  The nice thing about open adoption is that I can tell De exactly how I'm feeling (although writing how I'm feeling comes much more naturally). :)



I decided to send Deanna a special box of Valentine's Day goodies -- just like my mom used to do for me.  Except instead of seeing Deanna open them, I get to hear the stories from Don and De (or watch the videos on facebook).  And I'm okay with that.  Just like I had my own special memories of Valentine's Day, Deanna will also have her own special memories that Don and De will be a part of.   More updates to come...



 Happy Valentine's Day!

3 More Tasks to Teach Yourself to Teach with Technology

At the end of 2010 I published the first 5 tasks in a series to help teacher learn how to use technology with their students. Now I would like to add 3 more tasks to that collection. The first few tasks are all quite simple to lay the ground work and get teachers started. As the series progresses I hope to get on to more adventurous tasks. Please feel free to use these tasks yourself or to share or use them for teacher training.

Task 6: Creating a video review activity
In this task you’ll learn how to create a film trailer review activity using film trailers from YouTube and an online notice board called Wallwisher. Here’s an example to look at before you start: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/nikstrailers

Wallwisher is a really useful tool for giving students a semi restricted choice of online videos or links to other resources from around the Internet.

• Read the task
• Download Task 6 (pdf)

Task 7: Creating screenshots using Jing
Jing is a really useful free tool that allows you to create and annotate images grabbed from the screen of your computer.
This can be really useful for creating instruction sheets like the ones used in this series and helps you to grab images to add into websites or other documents.

• Read the task
• Download Task 7 (pdf)

Task 8: Create your own YouTube channel
Video has become one of the most useful resources on the Internet for language teachers. There are a great many video sharing websites on the Internet, but YouTube is by far the biggest.
In this task you will create your own YouTube channel. It’s very useful to have your own channel even if you never create your own videos. It enable you to subscribe to other channels, share videos with groups of your students and even annotate and add subtitles to videos. We’ll be doing all those things in future tasks, but in this task you will create your channel and subscribe to some other useful channels.

• Read the task
• Download Task 8 (pdf)

I hope you find these tasks useful and I hope that you'll soon find some more here.

Related links:

• 5 Tasks to Teach Yourself to Teach with
• Using Online Sticky Noticeboards
• Cropping YouTube Videos to Create
  
• Tutorial: Using Videos from
  
• Technogogy for edtech news
  
• 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
• 10 Teacher Development Task for Web 2.0 Tools

Best

Nik Peachey

Breaking down open adoptions

Breaking down open adoptions

Pennsylvania's new law encourages relationships between child, birth family

-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10347/1109827-499.stm#ixzz18JBdNemV