Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/

Purpose:

A Wordle is a creatively designed collection of words taken from a text with the most frequently occurring words appearing in large print. The website also allows users to work with texts written in a host of other languages such as French, Spanish and Dutch.

Relevance:

A Wordle can make vocabulary and grammar learning more interesting.

It facilitates group work.

It allows both teachers and students to be creative when working with texts or vocabulary lists.

A Wordle can be used to encourage use of the target language in the classroom.

This tool can also be useful in giving feedback to students about common spelling or grammatical errors.

Tip:

A Wordle can be an interesting way to start off a grammar lesson. Select a text from a newspaper, song or magazine. Create your Wordle and distribute among students. Ask students to work in groups to identify a particular grammatical structure, suggest a rule indicating how the structure operates and, using other words in the Wordle, create examples of grammatically sound sentences. Once you are satisfied with the results, introduce the original text and have students compare their sentences with those found in the text.

Limitations:

It is not possible to save a Wordle in a jpeg or pdf format. 

WebQuest

http://questgarden.com/

Purpose:

A WebQuest is an educational tool designed to develop higher learning and linguistic skills in students by having them use Internet resources to accomplish real life tasks. It allows students to engage in both group work and autonomous learning.

Relevance:

I am particularly impressed by the potential this tool has to develop students' higher learning and linguistic skills. Carefully designed WebQuests provide students with the opportunity to give sufficient attention to each linguistic skill: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Well-designed WebQuests also result in students engaging in meaningful lifelong learning since they allow them to analyze, synthesize and evaluate information as they work on real life tasks.

Using this tool could contribute to increased motivation in language learning since students will feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing a task in the target language and will also have created something tangible that can be shared with others.

This tool can also be useful in classroom management in that a well-designed WebQuest ensures that each student must make a meaningful contribution in order to successfully accomplish the task at hand. Engaged students mean a more orderly, productive classroom environment.

Tip:

In designing a WebQuest for your students, in addition to your educational goals, you must also think of your students general interests.

For example, it might be interesting to use comments from an online magazine as the text for a reading comprehension (The What Shall I Wear WebQuest illustrates how this can be done).

Also, an online video recording tool can be embedded into the WebQuest so that students can record themselves conducting an interview (job, sporting event, celebrity, etc) or engaging in a role-play activity.

Limitations:

Designing a WebQuest is extremely time consuming. It involves finding the right resources, constantly checking that your choice of activities suit your objectives and constantly remembering to save all changes that you have made before moving on to another page.

It is not the most user-friendly website, some knowledge of web editing is required.

There are many poor quality WebQuests published on the Internet and therefore you need to be very selective to ensure that the WebQuest you choose fulfils your educational goals.

MyBrainShark

 MyBrainShark.com

Purpose:

Mybrainshark, originally designed for the business community, has amazing potential for use in the foreign language classroom.

The free version allows users to create, share and track video presentations of their PowerPoints, documents, photos or video clips.

Relevance:

An important aspect of language learning is review/ revision. This tool allows students to make, edit and replay their audio recordings.

They therefore benefit from an increased awareness of their pronunciation and fluidity in the target language.

It would also allow them to track their progress in developing their speaking skills.

Tip:

Outside the classroom, one great way to use this tool to develop speaking skills is by asking students to make an audiovisual presentation on a chosen topic: family, food, favorite hobbies, life accomplishments, vacation, etc and then email the link to the teacher. My video illustrates how this can be done.

In the classroom context, as part of a lesson, students can work in pairs and record themselves conducting an interview, which can then be shared with the teacher or their classmates in a larger online forum.

Limitations:

While the basic service is free, sign-up is required in order to upload documents.

Also, the quality of the content created depends greatly on the teacher/ student’s ability to manipulate the software used, for example PowerPoint.

Todays Meet

http://todaysmeet.com/

Purpose:
This user-friendly website provides a free basic service that allows teachers to create a virtual log of questions, answers and/or suggestions raised by students while engaged in group work. 

Relevance:
If you believe that language learning is enhanced through giving/receiving feedback or through social interaction then this tool should prove quite useful.

Tip:
In the classroom context, you can use this tool for realtime record keeping. Consider for example, the traditional brainstorming activity. This usually involves students calling out ideas while you take note of them on the board. This can be time-consuming, disorderly and pointless if students do not themselves write down the ideas. Using this tool can therefore help with classroom management, rather than calling out their ideas, students can simultaneously enter their thoughts online which will then be automatically updated and saved online, with the possibility of downloading and distributing for later review. 

Limitations:
This tool's most obvious limitation is that it is only available online. Classrooms must therefore be equipped with Internet-access in order to use it.

Also, in larger classes, it becomes difficult to ensure 100% student participation, since pair work can easily result in one student taking the lead while the other does not participate.