Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

I don’t know about you, but I’m continually amazed at what web developers come up with.   I know just enough about technology to sound like I know what I’m talking about, but little enough to really not have a clue.  So these new web applications seem closer to magic to me than technology.

The latest site I’ve learned about is called Asterpix.  It allows you to take any video posted on the Internet and easily create “hotspots” in it that allow viewers to click on it and get more information.   Here’s an example.

English Language Learners can use it to “annotate” videos they make or watch.  Both teachers and students can use it to create an added dimension to video quizzes they make using ESL Video.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Videos.

Katie at the TEFL Logue blog, which I highlighted earlier this week, sent in a submission for the Carnival just a little late (or perhaps I might have jumped the gun and posted a little early).

Her thoughtful post, which would fit under the “In The Classroom” section, deals with the question if reading skills like predicting and skimming really help with language acquisition.

I have a lot of dialogue practice on my English For Beginners page under Audio Conversations.

However, I have the best sites for simple and basic conversations on my English Themes For Beginners page under Conversations.  I recently added a link called Flash Conversations at the bottom of that category.  It has quite a few nice examples of audio, text, and animation supported dialogue.

It’s time for the first “ELL, ESL, & EFL Carnival,” where teachers and others have submitted posts that they thought were particularly helpful and insightful in teaching English as a Second Language.

And a pretty impressive batch they were (and are).

I’d also like to propose that we do this Carnival bimonthly — more or less.  Which means the deadline for the next one would be November 30th.

I’d be happy to host it again at that time, though it would also be great if someone else would like to do it.  Just let me know.  And it would also be fine with me if you wanted to host it sooner than that date.  I’ll post additional reminders.

Here is the easy submission form for that Carnival.

And, now, for the posts….

Online Language Learning

Jose Luis Cabello shares a post analyzing the differences between online materials and online tools in using the Web to help teach English.

Claudia Ceraso shares her journey towards developing a “wikified” class.

Students using video-conferencing to develop collaborative projects is the subject of a post from Marian Thacher.

Elizabeth Hanson-Smith writes about using Teacher Tube as a teaching tool.

Speaking of “tubes,” Sue Swift posts about using YouTube to help English Language Learners develop their vocabulary.

Dave Deubel, the guiding light behind EFL Classroom 2.0, writes extensively about using the online application Voicethread and provides many examples people can see (and hear).

The Adventures In Daily Living blog writes about software used to help teach English to school-aged children who are adopted internationally.  This is a topic that is also featured in the issue of “Essential Teacher” from TESOL, which just arrived in the mail yesterday.

In The Classroom

Jeremy Aldrich posts about how the effects of the digital divide can be clearly seen in his class of English Language Learners.

The Many Englishes blog writes about the effectiveness of what some might characterize as an old-fashioned way of learning and remembering vocabulary — index cards.

Sabrina de Vita is an English teacher in Argentina who is not afraid of challenges.  She’s not only teaching her students English — she’s teaching them to text-message using English “slang”, too!

Alice Mercer writes about what she thinks English Language Learners need in the classroom, and also concludes that a scripted curriculum probably isn’t on the list.

Error feedback for English Language Learners in their writing is the subject of a post from Charles Nelson.

English Teaching Jobs

Joey’s ESL Room shares tips when being interviewed over the phone for an English teaching job.

Thanks again for all the submissions.  It’s fun connecting with teachers from around the world!

Thirteen submissions is an impressive total for a first round.  I suspect we’ll get even more in the next “go around.”

Here is a post I just wrote for the Learning With Computers blog:

This month’s focus is on sites that promote speaking activities. You can find hundreds of links that relate to this topic on my English For Beginners page under Audio Conversations and on my English Themes for Beginners/Early Intermediate page under Conversations.

However, since the best way to encourage speaking in English is by having students…..speak, I’d really like to highlight the hundreds of links I have on my Examples of Student Work page. There, you can find countless activities where students have to actively participate in speaking instead of passively listening. The best of this category include:

* Ones where students sing karaoke and record their masterpieces. Two of these site are Sims On Stage (formerly known as Singshot) and KSolo.

* Links where students record messages that virtual alter-egos of themselves speak, such as Voki.

* And, of course, there’s Voicethread, which allows students to create narrated slideshows.

Helen Doron Early English has a series of fun and simple online games geared to beginning English Language Learners.

A paid subscription is required, but students can play four sample games about colors, shapes, clothes, and animals.

I’ve placed direct links to each of the games under the appropriate categories on my English Themes For Beginners page, but you can access all four at the main link that began this post.

Caption Bubble allows you to pick any photo off the Internet (or one that you upload) and add a “bubble” to it and then add text.  It can then be emailed, and the url can be posted on a teacher’s website, a blog or online journal.

There are a variety of web applications that provide this ability and more.  I like this one, though, because it is very, very simple.  That quality, along with the actually writing of appropriate text, makes it helpful to English Language Learners of all levels.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Photos.

I just wanted to remind readers, especially those who subscribe via RSS or email, to sometimes visit the actual site of this blog to review my blogroll.

I think I have the top ESL-related blogs who regularly post there.  I’d particularly like to recommend TEFL Logue , which not only provides thoughtful posts but also periodically shares highlights from the greater ESL “blogosphere.”

I just learned about ViewAt from the Webware blog.  It offers extraordinary panoramic photographs from around the world, and lets you use a special application that shows a 360 degree view. 

These images are great for any Geography class, and are especially good opportunities for English Language Learners to describe them verbally and in writing.  Some of the photos might even be from their native countries, which makes it doubling appealing.

I’ve placed the link on my Geography page under Sites That Cover Many Areas.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced today that naturalization applicants will begin taking a new test in 2008 and 2009.  The test will cover items from this new list.

I’ve placed the link on my English Themes For Beginners under Citizenship.

Manners Matter is a series of cartoon animations that teach good (at least, in Western eyes) manners.   It shows a short “right” way and then a short “wrong” way to, among other things, blow your nose and sneeze.

I think it’s useful instruction for some newly-arrived immigrants to become familiar with U.S. culture.  It’s also an opportunity for students to share if and how some of these expectations might be different or the same in their native culture.

I’ve placed the link on my English For Beginners page at the bottom of the Other Mixed Activities section.

A new site called Vastpark is preparing to begin, according to the Metaversed blog.  It’s worth reading that blog’s full post.

Vastpark apparently will allow you to easily create your own virtual interactive world, which you can then email to a friend or teacher and then post it on a blog or online journal.

This would be a good site for English Language Learners, who could create their world and then describe it and what happens in it. 

You can sign-up at the Vastpark website for an invitation to try it — it’s not open to the public yet.  Because of that I have not placed a link on my own website yet.  In fact, this is the first site I’ve written about that is not up-and-running yet — usually I wait until its open.  This one just looks especially intriguing to me.

Many of you may be familiar with the Food Force game developed by the United Nations.  It puts players into the position of having to be relief workers in distressed areas, and teaches about world hunger issues at the same time.  It’s also an excellent opportunity for English Language Learners to read and listen to English.

Food Force is very popular, but it’s generally only available if you download it into your computer.  However, this National Geographic site allows you to play it all online, which, as far as I can tell, is the only place where that is possible.  It obviously makes it a lot easier to for students at school to use.

I’ve placed the link on my World History page at the bottom of the Toward The Twenty-First Century section.

Susan Tsairi, an EFL teacher in Israel, has compiled a nice set of links for English Language Learners.  I found it through EFL Classroom 2.0.

One new site I found while looking through Susan’s collection was one called Amit Yesodi.  It, too, is a well-organized set of links that is probably best for Beginning English Language Learners.  I’ve placed it on my English Themes For Beginners page under Favorite Sites.

Susan has also created a site called Monkey Talk, which is similar to some links I already have on my webpages, only a lot more cute.  Students can have a virtual conversation with a monkey.

I’ve placed that link on my English For Beginners page under Writing.

Houghton Mifflin has a site called Word Sort which has a series of games accessible to beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners.   In these activities, students are given a group of words that they then have to sort, or categorize,  into common characteristics they share.

It provides audio and text support, and has hundreds, if not thousands, of examples.

I’ve placed it under the Spelling section on my English For Beginners page.

I learned about Magic Studio through Janatta Garton’s blog Fusion Finds.  Magic Studio allows you to create “hot spots” in photos that can be clicked on to obtain more information.  You can also use this web application to make timelines.  It seems pretty neat.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under both Student Timelines and Student Photos.

The deadline to submit blog posts for the ESL Carnival is only five days away — Sept. 30th.  You can use this submission form or email it directly to MrFerlazzo@aol.com.

I’ve posted in the past about Online Instructional Videos – sites that have short user-generated videos teaching different skills.

Dave Deubel from EFL Classroom 2.0, the rapidly-growing Ning network of EFL/ESL teachers, just today wrote about another site called Expert Village.

One nice attribute of Expert Village, as Dave pointed out, is that transcripts are provided for many of the videos.  This makes it particularly useful to English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my English For Beginners page under Video.

Geez, there are lots of new web applications being unveiled today that can be helpful to English Language Learners.  Luckily, we got back a little early from our great field trip to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition and I have some time to post about them.

I learned about Sketchcast from Google Blogoscoped.  It’s like “drawing” a video (you can also type text) that can be replayed.  In some ways it’s similar to Imagination Cubed.  The big difference, however, is that in Sketchcast you can easily provide audio narration to your sketch.  Your completed work has a unique url, and visitors can leave comments.

So it works on several different levels for English Language Learners.

Sometime this week I’ll place the link on my Examples of Student Work page.  It’ll be in a new category called Student Sketches.

LiveMocha is a new online free (at least, for now) language learning Internet program.  It looks surprisingly good.

You can learn a number of languages, including English.  Students “enroll” in classes and can track their progress. 

You can “browse” several sample lessons before you register.  English Language Learners who are just beginning can explore lessons here.  High Beginners can try these.  Early Intermediates can check out these exercises and these samples.

I’m going to put the link under Favorite Sites on my English Themes For Beginners, at least until and if they start charging for it.  I’m a little behind on updating my website, though, so it probably won’t be there until this coming weekend.

I’ve asked them if they’ll be able to add a feature that would allow teachers to monitor student progress.  It would be an excellent tool for homework, and would be great to include in our home computer project.

My Favorite Sites section is getting a bit bulky.  It may be up to seventy links by now.  My “To Do” list includes categorizing that section into subgroups to make it easy to distinguish them from one another.