Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Merriam-Webster’s Word Central has added new neat word games to their site — BigBot and Robobee.

They’re probably most accessible to Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners.

I’ve placed links to both games on my Intermediate English page under Word and Video Games.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about GWAP (Games With A Purpose). It’s been developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and the site has several games that are designed in some way to help computers become smarter at identifying things like images and music.

The games themselves are quite intriguing. Out of all the places I’ve been reading about GWAP, the post from the SEGA Tech blog seems to be the most concise and informative, so I’d encourage you to read their descriptions of the activities.

All the games would be accessible to English Language Learners. Players are connected to anonymous partners, and that’s where its usefulness as a language development tool suffers. It would be so much more effective educationally (and more fun) if students could choose their own partners. Connecting an English Language Learner with someone who is probably not an ELLer (plus who won’t know that they are partnered with one) could create frustration.

I’ve emailed the site to see if they anticipate developing the ability for players to choose whom they want to play with, but haven’t heard back yet. I don’t think I’ll place a link to the GWAP on my website until that feature is added — unless I can be convinced of its usefulness in the ELL classroom as it is.

The TechCrunch blog just posted about a new web tool called Backboard. It allows you to easily upload a document/picture, or grab an image/webpage off the Internet; describe it (or write whatever you want); and then you can email the url to anyone you want who can then give feedback on it.

It’s very simple to use and, best of all, no registration is required (which is the primary reason I’m posting about it).  I think there are a lot of other more useful tools out there, but it could be an easy assignment with English Language Learners, especially Beginners.  They could be assigned to find a picture of something on the Net, write about it, and then others could give their feedback.

On negative aspect of the site is that there is no comment moderation and, in fact, it didn’t seem to me that there was a way to even delete comments you didn’t want.

I’ve used rubrics periodically in my classes, and often have had students themselves work together to develop them for class projects.   I then have students use them to grade themselves.  Ninety percent of the time I keep their grade as it is, five percent of the time I raise it, and five percent of the time a student and I jointly decide to lower it after having an individual conversation.

Once we’ve figured out what should go on the rubrics, I’ve found that Rubistar is the easiest online application to actually create a good-looking one.

There are many other rubric-makers out there, though.  You’ll find four others on my Teacher’s Page under Rubrics.

Students creating online videos can be an excellent language-learning experience. Certainly, students can film their own videos, edit them, and then post their finished product online. For me, though, that’s just seemed too time-consuming and technically-complicated (however, I have convinced my school to purchase three Flip video recorders next year, so I might change my mind).

There are many online applications that allow you to create your own videos using content that’s already on the Web. For English Language Learners, these can be great opportunities for developing listening, reading and writing skills. All of these sites are very easy to use, and finished products can be developed in one class session.

I’ve decided to make a “The Best…” list highlighting these video-creation sites.

Links to these same sites can also be found on my Examples Of Student Work page.

In order to make it on this list, these online tools had to be free, accessible to English Language Learners, easy to use, use video content from sites other than YouTube (since that’s blocked by so many School Districts), and not have content available that would be inappropriate for classroom use (at least, not that I could see). This criteria really eliminated a lot of potential sites.

I haven’t necessarily listed them in order of preference, though I have saved my second-choice and my absolute favorite for the end (and believe me, they’re winners!).

Here are my picks for The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content):

Blink Box is a site I’ve posted about previously. The site is designed to sell DVD’s of movies and TV shows, but you can cut-and-paste scenes and add a short text message to your own creation. It’s pretty neat. However, it appears that some content is limited to only residents of the United Kingdom.

Harvest Of History helps you explore what agricultural life was in New York over 150 years ago, save video scenes from the site, and then create an online presentation comparing life with how it is today.

Who can resist making your own Star Wars clip? You can mix-and-match hundreds of scenes and add titles and audio, plus you can even add your own media.

Make a shark video from the Discovery Channel. Use sound, music and graphics to relive the movie “Jaws.”

Make a wildlife film at National Geographic. As the site says: “Make a custom nature film with animal clips, sounds, and more. Then share your masterpiece with your friends.”

Graspr is different from the other sites on this list. It’s an instructional video site. You can skip around the videos to get to the scene you want and actually write notes which can be saved and shared. It’s an intriguing site, though I’ve been having some difficulty signing-in lately and don’t know if this is indicative of larger technical issues.

You can make your own United States history movie at Digital Vaults from the National Archives. It’s super-easy, and is clearly my second-favorite site on this list.

And now, for, unquestionably the very Best Way For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content)… it’s Bombay TV. You can write subtitles, or actually dub with your own voice, over-the-top Bollywood movies. It’s a ton of fun, and a great language development exercise for English Language Learners. Russell Stannard, who has a site that is the gold standard for how-to Web 2.0 videos called Teacher Training Videos, has a couple that give clear instructions on how to maximize using Bombay TV.

Let me know if you have any feedback or other recommendations.

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Here’s another section in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly.

You can see what this series is about and the criteria I use to determine worthy sites by looking at previous parts of this series. I think there are some particularly engaging activities in this post.

Here are the newest web applications to make this rapidly-growing list:

WRITE A “LANGUAGE OF FLAVOR”: This Spicy Pickle viral marketing site is a perfect-fit for English Language Learners. Users first write a word, or a series of words in a sentence. Then they mix the letters up, while also writing the correct words elsewhere. Then, the link is emailed for posting on a website or blog where other users can try to figure out these word and sentence “scrambles.” When they give up, or they want to check if they’ve got it, they just have to click to get the answer.

COMPOSE MUSIC WITH FRACTIONS: Create a fraction pie musical composition. I don’t quite get it, but I’m assuming it somehow helps students understand math. Basically, with the help of some instruments, you use fractions to compose some music. It’s not real obvious how you save your creation, so here are the instructions: Click on “Email it” and copy and paste the “code for the current rhythm.” Then, when you return to the site, go directly to “Email it” again and paste that code in the box labeled “paste a code for a new rhythm” and then click “done.” Your composition will then be played. Thanks to Alice Mercer for sharing this site.

SEND A TALKING PICTURE (& HAVE PEOPLE LEAVE AUDIO COMMENTS ON IT, TOO): Earlier today I wrote a post about the online version of Qlipboard. It’s a pretty neat web tool that, like all sites that I write about in this series, does not require registration.

BUILD YOUR OWN VERSION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON’S HOME: Build Your Own House lets you create your very own Monticello and email the link to a friend or teacher for posting on a blog or website.

WRITE A SECRET MESSAGE USING A CODE FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON: As any reader of recent cheap historical thrillers knows, Thomas Jefferson was “into” secret codes. You can use the Jefferson Wheel Cipher to write a message that others would have to decode using his online decoding machine.

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Mapdango is called a “mash-up” — a combination of a variety of web applications. It’s a neat geographical and map search engine that, after you enter the location you’re interested in, will show you the area’s weather, areas of interest from Wikipedia, Flickr photos, and other items.

One particularly useful feature is that it shows all of the above connected to its geographical location on a map, too.

It’s a easy way to get a sense of a community. My students will be using it tomorrow to learn a little more about the places where our international sister classes are located.

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

Ronaldo Lima, Jr., a very talented EFL teacher in Brazil, and my colleague in our growing international Sister Classes Project, wrote a great post in February comparing VoiceThread, Splashcast, and Qlipboard. These are three web applications that, as Ronaldo wrote, “unite pictures and voice in slideshows.”

I’d strongly encourage you to read his comparison of the three sites. I, for one, clearly did not read it very closely.

I say that because I just saw a Splashcast by Sudanese students taught by Hala Fawzi, another participant in the Sister Classes project. It’s a great presentation, and I was surprised to find that you could easily leave audio comments on it. Of course, if I had carefully read Ronaldo’s post from a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

I agree with Ronaldo that Splashcast doesn’t seem quite as easy to use as VoiceThread, but it’s nevertheless another viable alternative. One advantage it does have is that you don’t have to be registered with Splashcast in order to leave an audio comment (like you do with VoiceThread). So it’s easier to leave comments. However, it also doesn’t have comment moderation. You can easily delete comments that are left, but you can’t review them before they’re posted.

Ronaldo also wrote about Qlipboard. The last time I had looked at the site, it required a download to use. However, as Ronaldo pointed out, and which I missed, they have since added an online version.

In the online version, you can only use one photo. A major advantage, however, is that you don’t have to register for the site at all. You can just grab the url of an image off the Web, leave a voice commentary (it has a few other features, too), and you get an embed code and a url. Others can leave comments, too, though it doesn’t appear to me to be quite as obvious how to do that as with VoiceThread or Splashcast.

I’ll be posting links to both Splashcast and Qlipboard on Examples of Student Work page. Of course, VoiceThread has been there for quite awhile.

Sunsite is an interactive explanation of how solar power works.  The language is pretty simple, and should be accessible to Early Intermediate and above English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my Science page.

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.

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