Things to consider

So far, we have seen some very good ideas presented on the blog, with a number of aspects considered. With regard to web sites, you will, of course, find many available, often with approaches that are specific to various learning needs. If you think that a web site is too narrow in its uses, don't be afraid to say so, because that could be as important to know as the age-group that a site is aimed at.

Something else to consider is: How long will be required to learn to use a particular aid? Web sites are generally fairly easy, but software may require more time, particularly to learn the more advanced features.

Another thing that is sometimes forgotten when considering software and devices is: How much will it cost? Someone always has to pay the bill: the school, the teacher, the student, the parent. So, always keep that it mind. Will the cost be justified by the potential benefits?

Illustrations on a blog are always good to see, because they will sometimes make a device or software program far easier to understand in a short time. Clear, simple diagrams and photos, with labels when necessary, will sometimes save a lot of words - and a lot of time for the blogger and the reader.

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Microsoft PowerPoint as an ICT resource

What is Power Point?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a program that’s part of the Microsoft Office package. It’s built up as blank “sheets” that you fill with what you need to make your presentation. When the first sheet is filled with what you want in the form of text, pictures, audio or video clips, you make another one and so on, until your presentation is ready. Then you can share your PowerPoint presentation with others as a slide show. 

What do you need to use Power Point?

You need a computer and the PowerPoint program. It’s also possible to use PowerPoint in smartphones, even thou all PowerPoint functions aren’t supported in all of these items. The program for Iphones costs about 55 SEK at Itune store.

If you want to share your PowerPoint presentations with others, it may be a good idea to have a projector or an interactive whiteboard available.

How does PowerPoint Work?

When you open up the PowerPoint program, you will see a sheet of “paper” on the screen. On this sheet, there is a suggestion for a layout, in my program there’s a box for a header or a text at the top, and a larger box where I can choose to insert text, pictures, charts and so on at the bottom. This layout is easy to change to whatever form suits you best, by either clicking the “layout button” or simply moving your things around to different places after you have inserted them.

When you’re pleased with your first presentation sheet, you click the “New Slide- button”, to get your second page.

Under Animations you can decide how you want your slide show to function and even add i.e. applause or bombs as complimentary sounds.

If you want to see the result of your work, you go to “View”, and then “Slide Show”. At the Slide Show, you can either let the program itself change page after a preset time, or you can go to the next page by clicking anywhere on the page you’re on.

The easiest way to learn about the different functions in PowerPoint, is to simply try them out in different ways. If you still are interested in more information about PowerPoint, there are help programs on the web. Just search for PowerPoint, and there will be lots of different guides to provide help with the program.

How can Power Point be useful in teaching English?

PowerPoint is useful when you’ve got material that you want to share with a larger group of people. It can be used for introducing new words or grammatical features, for making a story together or for presenting a topic for discussion in class. The opportunities are basically only limited by the teacher’s fantasy.

The most common way to use PowerPoint is (as I imagine) to make a slide show of pictures and text. I would like to point out another way of working with the program, thou.

PowerPoint can actually be used for constructing games for the class. As an example, I’ve made a sort of Jeopardy by using a “Smart Art graphic” under Insert.

Each of the three shapes, I’ve named to different categories: “Animals”, “Colours” and “Food”. Then I named the underlying shapes “100”, “200”, “300” and so on. I want to be able to press the button with “100” and then go to a question decided for that level, and that’s manageable if I right click the “100” button and then choose hyperlink. In hyperlink I can choose which page in the document I want to access with clicking the “100” button.

This means that when I choose Slide show, the pages doesn’t come in the order they were made, but I can jump between different pages by clicking the different buttons on the first page. This will make a fun game for any class since you as a teacher can fully decide which questions are appropriate for your pupils, and the pupils can decide which level they dare to try and master.

How can Power Point be useful for learners?

PowerPoint can be used by learners to present different kinds of work, both individual and in groups. It can be used for making stories, presenting things the pupils have learnt, showing the classmates pictures or video clips etcetera.

When working with presentations in PowerPoint, pupils practice reading, writing and speaking while they can rely on pages that are set in a specific order. They communicate with their classmates in a fun and easier way supported by pictures, text and audio, I imagine.

Sabina Ahlqvist 

Listen to English - learn English

This is a BBC web page (http://www.listen-to-english.com/index.php), which has rapidly become one of my favourite web pages for class room activities. The activities available on the web page are plentiful. The main idea is listening exercises. All recordings are podcasted; they can be downloaded to smart phones or saved on computers through Mp3 recordings. There are pdf files which can be printed and used as support for pupils and for further exercises. The recordings are in a very understandable English and clear.


Topics vary, from Halloween to good behavior, breakfasts etc so they are very usable. The recordings are 5 – 8 minutes long so there is plenty of time for preparation before listening, as well as discussions and questions after the recording. Most of the recordings are suitable for pupils age 10-13. By using only the pdf it is possible for teachers to tell the same story using a simpler language and pictures.



There are a number of different ways to use this web page.
Listening – straight forward listening exercises, with the pdf for support if necessary.
Listening – with the pdf but with words missing, the pupils are to fill in the gaps when listening to the recording.
Reading – only using the pdf, allowing pupils to read the text, looking up any difficult words and in smaller groups discussing the text with the help of some questions.
Vocabulary/comprehension – after having listened to and read the text, pupils are to explain, in their own words certain, underlined words. Not using the dictionary but rather by comprehending the text.
Group assignments – pupils are divided into groups of 3-4 pupils. They choose one recording per group (different recordings). It is important that no group choose a recording already used in class. They then produce a work sheet with sentences, gaps or whatever is the point of the exercise. They tell other groups what the text is about, what the exercises are about and help other groups to manage the tasks. For example, the aim could be to spot as many adjectives as possible and put them into right columns for absolute, comparative and superlative, alternatively to spot as many nouns as possible in the texts.
Drama – using the recordings to perform a short play using the topic given in the recording but adjusting it to fit the play.



Pupils benefit from hearing English, the fact that there are so many topics available is good as that means that there is something for everybody’s taste. Pupils also learn vocabulary, comprehension, team work and responsibility. It is also good for the pupils to learn to take charge of their own learning, of course supervised by a teacher.



For the teacher it is a useful website as the texts are so versatile and useful. Setting up various tasks does not require a huge amount of hours, downloading the recordings means that the recordings can be used without internet access or more than one or two computers. As most pupils like to do new things, this is a perfect website to use as an alternative to the course books as there are so many topics to choose from.



The website, does not however offer listening comprehension in various dialects, which to me, is the only negative point. It would have been great if some of the recordings had been done in Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Australian etc as that would have made the material even more useful.

Susanne Guildford

A message from Bruce

Hi everyone,

My main advice about the blog is that you should not rush. Think about what you want to write, then write it, then paste it into the blog.

If you have any questions about your writing, just send me an e-mail:

bwh4305@gmail,com

All the best,
Bruce.

LearnEnglish Kids

British Council offers free online resources for learners, parents and teachers. LearnEnglish Kids is a website for children who are learning English. They have done everything to make this page available to use for everyone regardless of which browser you use. It has got free online games, songs, stories and activities. You do not need to become a member but if you do, you have more things to use. If you want to sign up, it costs nothing. But you can create yourself a character and participate in various competitions, answer questions and do some comments in forums. You may also be able to do tasks based on your own interests. Parents and teachers can also register as a user. Parents can participate in forums which may mean that you ask each other for advice and share ideas. This page consists of five main themes, games, listen and read, read and write, make and explore.

Games: Here you will learn English by playing different games.

Listen and watch: Here you can listen to songs and sing along. You can also listen to short stories. You learn interesting things from children’s talking. You can listen to the news clips of children and practice pronunciation through tongue twisters.

Read and write: In this part you can read and write. You may, for example, practice word of the week by watching and listening to other children who speak.

Make: In this theme, you'll learn to do things in English.

Explore: Here you watch the videos of how other children learn English. There are also links to other sites where you can learn English.

How the resource can be used by pupil.

Students learn a new language through various activities such as playing games, listening to songs and stories. Students will be able to communicate in English. It learns English by means of play. They have the opportunity to hear the language from native speakers. By playing games, they can hear English while they are having fun. There is an opportunity to learn from their learning style. They are free to adapt the exercises according to their needs.

How the resource can be used by teachers.

As a teacher, I can take advantage of various resources such as links to games, songs and stories. I can also print out worksheets and flashcards that I can use in teaching.

I can give instruction to the pupils that will allow them to use the website. If the pupils are going to learn about animals, I choose animals as a topic. Then I choose what skills they will use, for example, listen and watch. Then I choose activities so these skills can be trained such as fun games, shorts stories and songs. I can give the pupils homework to do on the side.

Other considerations when using this resource.

You need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player on your computer. It can be downloaded for free on this page: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

You can change the font size on which browser your computer has, on page http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/accessibility. There you will also learn how to use keyboard as touchpad if you have difficulty using the mouse.

All new

Hi,
I have never used a blogg before so this will be interesting. I think that if I get confident enough I'll start using a blogg and asking my pupils to read it as well. Perhaps formulating thoughts on class room activities etc and hopefully my pupils will comment and add suggestions:)

Regards
Sanne Guildford

How to make a post on the course blog

This is how to make a post on the course blog:

1. You need to make sure that you've logged on to Blogger as the person who has the permission to make posts (i.e. using the ID you used when you accepted the invitation to become an author).

2. Then when you access the blog, you'll see a link (in small, light-blue letters) at the top of the page called 'New Post'. Click on that link and you'll see a text box that looks like this:

I'm in the 'Compose' function right now, but if you wanted to do fancy things with html, you'd click on the 'Edit HTML' tab instead. 'Compose' works fine for most of the things you might want to do.

3. You can either write directly into the text box, or copy and paste your text from, say, a Word document.

The tools in the bar at the top of the text box are fairly standard - you use them to change the formatting of your text after it's in the text box.

4. Blogger saves your draft text automatically at fairly short intervals (the Save Now button goes dark when everything's been saved). When you're ready, though, you could click on the Preview button for a last check on what it looks like … and then you click Publish Post when you're ready.

5. If you notice something you want to change even after you've posted your Blog Post, you've always got the 'Edit Posts' option at the top of the page, or, if you click on the little pen at the bottom of your post in the blog, you come straight back to this Edit page.

Don't forget to add your name to your Blog Post!