Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

The Sydenham River is a “choose your own adventure” game about early settlers in Canada. You get the play the part of a couple coming from Europe.

The language is fairly simple and is accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Europe’s Power Grows Greater.

I learned about a great site from France that teaches English idioms through the use of cartoons, audio, and games.   Because I couldn’t really figure out what to call the site in English, I settled on Cartoon Idioms.

I found this link through the Resources For The College site, which I’ve posted about before.

I’ve placed the link on my Intermediate English page under Idioms and Analogies.

“Meme” is a term used to describe a question or series of questions that a blogger asks another. Usually, a blogger “tags” several others to respond.

Some bloggers love ‘em. Some like ‘em. And others, like me, are not fans of them at all, and try to procrastinate responding (sorry, Gail at Blogwalker).

I’ve been recently “tagged” by Kate at Teaching Learners With Special Needs and, since her meme is easier to respond to then Gail’s, I decided I should at least get one out of the way! And I know Sue Waters encourages bloggers to share a bit about themselves personally, so I figured I could hit two birds with one stone.

I’m listing the questions I’m supposed to answer, followed by my answers:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was working as a community organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation at its Sacramento Valley affiliate, assisting low-income families to build political power.

2. What are my 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Work on a writing project about parents and schools; write a post for my blog; play basketball; call my daughter; and go to a Mother’s Day dinner at my mother-in-law’s house.

3. Snacks I enjoy…

Reeses Peanut Buttercups; tomatoes and bellpeppers dipped in hot sauce; and bananas.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

* Provide long-term financial security for my family.
* Start a foundation to support progressive school reform and broad-based community organizing.
* Start a political action fund to support progressive political change.

5. Three of my bad habits:

Procrastinate on writing projects; be lazy around the house; and can be more self-centered then I like.

6. 5 places I have lived:

New York City, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Vermont, and Portland (OR).

7. 5 jobs I have had:

Running a soup kitchen & emergency shelter; community organizer; produce manager at a food coop; teacher; and bread driver.

8. 6 people I want to know more about:

Kevin Hodgson; Alice Mercer; Anamaria; Ronaldo Lima; Gail at Blogwalker (if she’ll forgive my not responding to her meme– yet); and Mathew Needleman.

These six should not feel obligated to respond — just write if you feel like it!

I think having English Language Learners create short online animations is a great benefit the Web provides. Students can work individually or in a group very methodically by making well-thought-out storyboards and then implement them, or they can make “quick and dirty” ones right on the spot.

Their creations can then be posted for all to see and comment on, both online and in-person.

Because they can be so useful to English Language Learners, and to other students, I’ve decided to create another “The Best…” list — this time highlighting the sites that I think are most accessible to English Language Learners (and are free).

You can also find links to these sites, and to other animation sites that didn’t make this list, on my Examples of Student Work page.

All of these sites are very good (or else they wouldn’t be on my list!). However, there is one that stands-out among the rest. So even though I’m not ranking them all like I usually do, I will be highlighting one as the best.

Here are my picks for The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations:

I’ll start off with the site I think by far is the best (and which has appeared in other “The Best…” lists) — Dvolver Moviemaker. It’s so easy, no registration is required, and it can be done quickly. Very new Beginning English Language Learners have been able to use it very effectively. You can see many examples of their work here. The company also has a more advanced application called Digital Films. You can create a more complex animation, but it is far more complicated to use — so I stick with the first version.

Junior Net is an easy animation site that’s comparable (though not quite as good) as Dvolver. You don’t have to register here, either, in order to create a show, get its url address, and then post it on a blog or website.

Myths and Legends is a United Kingdom site where students can create animations of……myths and legends. It’s pretty neat and easy, and has the added great benefit of letting students record the narration for their story. Teachers have to register, and they’re very open to schools participating from around the world.

The Zimmer Twins are another popular animation site among ESL/EFL teachers. You have to register for it, but doing so is quick and easy. One nice feature it has is that you can make a movie from “scratch” or it gives you pre-made scenes and plots (I guess its the animation equivalent of sentence-starters or sentence frames).

Kerpoof is a great site where you can make an animation and a lot more. You have to register here, too, but the process is also easy. Up until recently you weren’t able to get the url address of what you’ve created, but they’ve now developed that option.

Fuzzwich is a new site that is in the process of developing a full-blown animation process. Right now, though, you can easily create a “mini-animation” called Minivids. One advantage they offer is that, in addition to providing their url addresses, you can embed your Minivid in a blog or website.

Feel free to offer feedback and suggestions.

If you’ve found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free. You might also want to check-out my other “The Best…” lists.

In a continuing effort to broaden the content in the Religion section on my English Themes For Beginner page, I have added a link to Animated Buddhist Stories.

It has animation and audio, but no text, so it’s not ideal for English Language Learners.  But they can certainly get a sense of Buddhism from the site.

It joins links on my pages about Krishna, the Old and New Testament, and Islam.  I would like to add more links about the world’s religion, so please share any content that you think would be accessible to English Language Learners.

I’ve posted before about our Sister Classes Project, where classes of Intermediate English Language Learners ranging from the early teens to the early twenties have exchanged presentations (VoiceThreads, slideshows, etc.) and comments at our Student Showcase blog.  We have teachers from seven countries who participated this semester.

It’s been fairly low-key,  hasn’t taken up an enormous amount of time and been a great experience for students and teachers alike.

It looks like we’ll be starting-up again in the fall, and we’ll be open to additional classes joining us.  Let me know if you might be interested.

I recently posted about Dipity, a new online timeline-maker.

Dipity has added a neat new service called Time Tube. You enter a topic — for example, World War II, and it will immediately create a timeline of videos about it. It could be a useful tool in social studies and science (maybe looking at the history of specific science discoveries?) classes.

That is, it could be a useful tool if you’re in a District that doesn’t block YouTube. All the videos appear to come from there, and I know they won’t get through our District’s filter.

I’m placing the link on my website under Student Timelines.

English Movie Trailers is a nice site that’s been around for awhile. It has a large selection of movie trailers (commercials) from recent movies, along with clozes, quizzes, and other activities connected to each one. From previous visits, I had thought it was a neat idea and that it had quite a collection, but the lay-out seemed a little tricky for my students when they tried it.

I hadn’t visited it for some time, though, and stopped by to check it out again earlier today. I still have the same concerns about the lay-out. However, it either has a great new feature or I might have just missed it the before. Now teachers can set-up virtual classrooms and monitor the work and assessments that students complete at the site. And it’s free!

In our Family Literacy Project, we provide computers and Internet service to immigrant families so they can study English. In addition to our website, they log-on to three sites where we can monitor their progress — Raz Kids, I Know That, and English For All. English Movie Trailers will be a nice fourth site they can use.  We’ll be doing a group orientation to the site for them.

In the future I’ll be posting about another site we’re adding to the list that is more appropriate for high-Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners.

I’ve place the link to English Movie Trailers on my website under Favorite Sites.

Kids Past World History For Kids is a great website for English Language Learners.  It’s not deep, but provides a very accessible overview to many eras of world history.  It also has fun history games.

It’s clearly going to be on this month’s Top Ten list.  I’ve placed it on my World History page.  It’s so good that I’ve placed the link under several sections on that page.

Edukate has quite a few simple and interactive online Science activities.  They don’t have audio, but they still would be very accessible to Early Intermediate and above English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my Science page.

I “save-up” web applications that would fit into this series of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly, and then periodically post new installments containing seven or eight new sites.

Each new site meets the criteria of being free, usable without having to register, accessible to English Language Learners, and able to be used for making engaging online content quickly & easily.

Here’s the latest crop of additions:

MAKE A WISH IN PICTURE POETRY: Nokia has a Picture Poetry tool that lets you write a short wish and then the application will find appropriate images that go with the words. You can then email your creation to a friend or teacher for posting on a website or blog. I think it looks pretty cool.

CREATE YOUR OWN YARD: I’ve posted about this site previously. You can design your own backyard in this vocabulary-building activity.

DESIGN AN ARABIAN CARPET: Design a carpet and email the url to a friend or teaching for posting.

MAKE A FACE: Create a portrait in this nice vocabulary-learning exercise for Beginning English Language Learners. Email the url address and describe it.

DESIGN YOUR OWN WALLPAPER: Come-up with your own antique wallpaper design and email it for posting on a blog or website.

SEND A SIGN BOARD: In yet another example of viral marketing, design a sign board held by a very animated person communicating your message. Email it the url address for posting.

SING ON STAGE TO YOUR FRIENDS: Anyone can sing with Juanes (I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of him, but he apparently just won a Grammy). Upload your photo, and choose one on the site, play the song, and sing along via telephone or computer microphone. Email your performance to a friend and post the url on a website or blog.

I’ll be posting most of these links on my Examples of Student Work page.

You might want to look through my other sixty-plus “The Best…” lists.

And you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Fyrebug is a new site where you can easily and quickly create a “personalized” game using a variety of templates. As in several of the sites I highlighted in my The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games, the games themselves have zero educational value.

However, the learning occurs for English Language Learners when they have to describe the game and then comment on the games created by their peers. The games that are created are embeddable, so they could be placed on a student Jottit page or blog for others to leave comments. That way, students won’t be tempted to play all the other games available on the Fyrebug site.

I think some other sites on my “The Best…” list are better, but this one is worth a look.

I’m placing the link on my website under Student Video Games.

Reebok has a fairly engaging, and somewhat complicated, activity where you can create various animations of you scoring a spectacular soccer goal.  You can then save and email your creation to a teacher or friend for posting on a blog or website.

The tutorial is a bit long, but accessible to English Language Learners.   Just getting through the tutorial is an excellent language-development activity.  Describing what students create is another way to maximize the benefit of this site.

You do have to register for the site, but it only takes a few seconds to do so.

I’ll be placing it somewhere on my Examples of Student Work page.

The Birmingham Grid For Learning has a good activity to teach prepositions of place.  It’s called Location.

It has several steps and I have the direct link to most of them on my English Themes For Beginners page under Prepositions.

Boy, there sure are a lot of web applications that let you make free slideshows. Because of this glut, I thought it would be helpful to my students, readers of this blog, and me to do a quick review of many of them, and identify my picks for the best ones. So, here’s another “The Best…” list.

In order to make it on this list (there is one exception), a site had to…

* be free.

* be simple. There are a number of web tools that just have too many “bells and whistles” for me, and they certainly don’t improve accessibility for English Language Learners.

* allow you to grab images off the Web, and not just from your computer.

* not have content inappropriate for classroom use readily available, at least not during the multiple times I visited the site.

* allow for the creation of captions and other writing.

I’ve come up with nine web tools that I think are worthy of being on this list. They all have some unique qualities, though, that make them ideal for different projects. So they are not ranked first-to-ninth. Instead, I’ve put them into different categories.

AUDIO-NARRATED SLIDESHOWS

Having said that I wasn’t going to rank the sites, however, it’s clear that one site is clearly the best, especially for English Language Learners. The ability to combine audio narration (and comments) with the written word at VoiceThread , along with its ease-of-use, make this a great application. Combine that with the special free educator membership and its benefits and you have the best site out there, period, for English Language Learners.

You can see a lot of samples at our Student Showcase blog, where Intermediate English students from various countries created VoiceThreads.

Just FYI, at our school we’ve been having a problem logging-in the regular way recently at VoiceThread. However, we can also log-in easily here. (Thanks to Alice Mercer for that tip!)

And since, for English Language Learners, having that audio component trumps other special effects, Show Beyond is another option if you can’t access VoiceThread for some reason. It’s not as easy to use as VoiceThread, and doesn’t allow you to leave audio comments, but it’s certainly accessible to English Language Learners.

You can easily embed slideshows from VoiceThread and Show Beyond into an online journal, website or blog. You can also just post the link to your creation.

SITES THAT DON’T REQUIRE REGISTRATION

There are several slideshow creation sites that don’t require you to register and still meet all my criteria. I think for most classes, if you don’t need the audio narration feature and you’re okay just posting a link instead of embedding the show in a blog or website, these should work fine.

Bookr is another great tool for anybody, including Beginning English Language Learners. You just type in a “tag” to search Flickr for images, drag them into a book and write about them. Here are samples made by my students.

Big Huge Labs is a site that lets you grab any image off the web — not just Flickr. The interface is not as easy as Bookr’s, but you do have access to far more images.

And, for the very Beginning English Language Learner, there’s the Colgate Smile Slideshow. You just drag-and-drop from a small number of images, and then do the same for captions. This would also be a good introductory activity for younger native English speakers, too.

A SITE WITH A FEW BELLS & WHISTLES

Magtoo is a newer site that has a number of features like being able to add music, show your slides in a variety of formats, and even create panoramas. But even with these extra features, it still seems pretty simple to use. Plus, you can embed your slideshow on a blog or website.

SITES WITH A FEW BELLS & WHISTLES — PLUS THEY LET YOU COLLABORATE

There are two sites in particular that, like Magtoo, have a few easily usable bells and whistles, can be embedded, and let you create slideshows with others over the Internet (not in real-time, though). I was attracted to them because of the collaboration feature and the possibilities of using them with our international sister classes, but they are also excellent sites to use without taking advantage of that aspect of the site.

One is Mixbook, which I think is very accessible (though I wish their tool to write text was a little bit better). Fliptrack is the other site worth considering.

A SITE WITH A HISTORY FOCUS

Digital Vaults from the National Archives has an incredibly easy-to-use tool to create online slideshows related to history. You can access images from historical time periods and easily drag-and-drop them into your show, along with writing captions. It’s just one feature of this extraordinary site.

All feedback on this list is welcome.

You can find links to these sites, and to many more slideshow creators, on my website under Student Slideshows.

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Karaoke Play is a new online site that lets you sing a favorite song and record it online.

Singing karaoke is an excellent way for English Language Learners to develop language skills. Students can do it individually or as a group.

There are several other online karaoke sites. What makes Karaoke Play a bit different from the others is that, in addition to showing the lyrics you need to sing, it shows a music video of the song. This difference also makes it more problematic for students. The videos are from You Tube, and most school districts block it. So, even though the site itself might get through District filters, students won’t see anything when they pick a song because the video will be blocked.

If you one of the few Districts that don’t block YouTube, it’s certainly worth giving Karaoke Play a try. If not, stick with the excellent Sims On Stage site for singing practice.

You’ll find karaoke, and other music links, on my website under Student Songs.

One of my next “The Best…” lists will be ranking online applications that let you create slideshows. I’m still trying to rank them, primarily in their ease of use and accessibility to English Language Learners.

There are a lot of them — that’s for sure.  I just learned about a new one that I have to investigate further, but I think it has the potential to be very highly-ranked in my list.  It’s called MagToo.

It seems extremely easy to use. You can grab images off the Web just by knowing its url address. There are many different formats you can choose. Music is easily available to include, and there are no problems adding captions. You can use map features, and it even lets you help create your own panoramas.

I’ll be putting the link on my website under Student Slideshows.

David Warlick just wrote a post about a new and pretty intriguing website called iCue. It’s a collaboration between NBC and MIT. David heard about it from Stephen Downes.

There’s a lot to the site. It’s basically an extremely interactive way to learn about the news, but that’s an understatement. It’s designed for students thirteen years-old and above. You can play games, watch videos (which all have very easy and simultaneous access to its transcript at the same time — great for English Language Learners and, in my experience, unusual on the web), save student work, and a ton of other activities.

You have to register, but it’s free and easy to do so.

I’d suggest you take a tour of the site and read David’s post on it.

I’ll be placing the link on my website under News.

I’ve had a Thesaurus section on my English Themes For Beginners page for quite awhile.

I recently decided to also add specific new sections on Antonyms and Synonyms.  I haven’t placed many links in those categories yet, but will soon.

Aghinan’s School in Ireland has developed a very accessible site on Ancient Egypt.   I’ve placed it on my World History page under The First Civilized People.

If you click on the link to the school’s main page, you can also find excellent sites on St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween.