Fun with Typografit, Flickr Poet, Vizlingo, and More for Jan 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival

This is my “fun” contribution to the Jan. 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival hosted by David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0.  In deciding what to contribute, I came to the realization that so much is fun to me, particularly when it includes technology that spurs critical thinking and discussions that my students connect with.   Have fun with a few of the sites and ideas I enjoy, and consider taking my “challenge” at the end!

A.      9 Simple free web 2.0 sites

TYPOGRAFIT and STORIES IN FLIGHT: FLICKR POET

When Tech:  Type text into Typografit or Stories in Flight: Flickr Poet and create something like the image above.  It's fun!  Give Typografit a whirl here and Flickr Poet a try here. Create a word picture and share it.  

Met Ed:  In ESOL or language, students can type in sentences in Typografit and then discuss punctuation and spelling. One of my classes typed in short paragraphs that used our vocabulary.  They then discussed the pictures and how closely they reflected their writing.  Sometimes the pictures were quite different than they expected, and this led to some interesting discussion.

Flickr Poet suggests typing in poems or music to visualize them. I couldn’t resist and typed in a poem from one of my favorite poets, Since Feeling Is First by E.E. Cummings. I then captured it using Jing; it’s viewable here.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have students write poems, use Flickr Poet, and then use a screencast such as Jing to record music that captured the spirit of their poems or their voices reading their creations? Of course, they could just simply read or discuss the results if a low tech route is preferable.  Any of these are bound to be fun and lead to language acquisition. How can Typografit or Flickr Poet be used in your class?

VIZLINGO

When Tech:  Type text into Vizlingo and create something like the video I made below.  You have some choices of videos to include in your final product.  You can even upload your own videos.  Create and share a video here. It’s almost too much fun!

Met Ed:  This can help students visualize vocabulary as well.  It can lead to some interesting discussions about idioms and multiple meanings of words.  Here’s a great post by Nik Peachy that explains it.  Don’t miss Nik’s suggested activities for using it. How can Vizlingo be used in your class?

*A word of caution is that not all the pictures generated on these sites may be appropriate for younger learners.

See more suggested sites on a recent post called, Six Fun Educational Sites.  It highlights Wonderopolis, Shel Silverstein, One World, Many Stories, Geo Greetings, Draw a Stickman, and Balloons of Bhutan.  Explore more fun educational sites on our Ed Sites page.

B.       A few past fun posts that I have done with students’ help.  The potential of fun is unlimited when tech and creativity are at play and the products are shared. 

• Who thinks SLA theories are fun?  I know I do and didn’t think they could get much more interesting until teachers in my College of Ed course helped me create this post using fakebook, Prezi ,and online comic strips.
• How can vocabulary class be spiced up?  My adult ESOL class showed me when they pulled together a Glogster mashup highlighted in this post. 
• Again, although browsing dictionaries is a delight, my adult ESOL students show in their reviews in this post how online dictionaries can make one fall in love with words and definitions in a new manner.

A thank you to David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0 for hosting this carnival.  I highly recommend checking out his site and its many resources!   Oh, and writing this post was a blast!  

Challenge for both of us:  Either A: Use one of the sites in this post and blog about it.  Or  B.  Use one of these sites for educational purposes, drop me a link to one of your creations, and I will compile them together some fun way that I share on this blog.

Happy creating!

24th Edition of EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival

Check out the ESL/EFL/ELL 24^rd Blog Carnival.  It is hosted by Eva Buyuksimkesyan.  The topic is Warmers, Fillers, and 1st Week Activities.  I have just began to browse the numerous links and ideas in her post which contain contributions from around the world.  Perhaps this will be a good place to go to gather a few fresh ideas.

Some of the sites that I use on occasion for warmers and fillers are found in our Students tab (More Vocabulary/Games/Dictionaries and Can You Describe These Pictures? sections). I also use selected sites on our Ed Sites tab as a whole class activity or refer students to sites as appropriate for the content, level, and age I am teaching.  In addition, I have fun using some of these Icebreakers, Warmups, Energizers and Deinhibitizers here.  I use the Prezi/Jing video I created, which can be found in this post, to introduce myself.  In my online classes, I encourage my students to introduce themselves on a Voicethread that I begin for the class.

Although we didn't participate in this carnival, we were happy to be a part of the 22nd Blog Carnival. You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.  You can see my previous posts about the Blog Carnivals here.  The following edition will be hosted by Berni Wall in November.

Happy exploring!

ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Special Edition and Other Young Learner Sites

The latest ESL/EFL/ELL 23^rd Blog Carnival is up.  It is a special Young Learner’s Edition posted on Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Reboot Camp.  I am happy to pass this post on to my College of Ed students who work with the little kiddos in ESOL and bilingual settings.  The post can be accessed here; it is divided into two parts: 1. Tips, Lessons & Issues and  2. Teaching YL’s Effectively with Technology.  

The next Blog Carnival will be hosted by Eva Buyuksimkesyan in September.  You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.  We were pleased to be a part of the 22nd Blog Carnival.

Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Reboot Camp is worthy of a post in itself.  She is a prolific blogger with an amazing presence on twitter as well.  In keeping with the theme of ELLs, here are some of her posts related to What Works for English Language Learners .  I particularly liked her Let’s Play! 20+ Sites for Young Learners post.

Grammaropolis, GoAnimate4Schools,  Into the Book, International Children’s Library (for teacher use), Kindersay, Learn English Kids, Little Bird Tales, Picture Book Maker, Mingoville, Smories, Storybird, Storyline Online and Zoo Burst are a few more sites that look promising for young learners.  Let us know about your favorite sites for young learners.

Happy exploring!

Check Out the 22nd ESL/EFLELL Blog Carnival

David Deubelbeiss is hosting the current 22nd ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival.  I highlighted the 21^st Carnival in a previous post.  I recall reading my fist Blog Carnival with excitement, discovering other bloggers in the field with a common interest sharing a wealth of ideas.  This edition carries that same excitement.  All of the links I have followed so far have either ideas worth contemplation or practical possible applications for the classroom.

Although I still feel like such a newbie and think it is possible in the field of technology to always feel that way since there is so much to learn, I am thankful for the welcome that people in the field such as David Deubelbeiss and Kareene Sylvester have extended!  Thanks David for giving me a platform to share some of my ideas and my students’ work in this 22nd Blog Carnival. 

Shelly Terrell will host a May 1st edition on early learners!  Eva Buyuksimkesyan will host it on September 1st.  Past Blog Carnivals can be linked to via Larry Ferlazzo’s site here.

Happy reading!

Check Out the 21st ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnival

Alice Mercer is hosting the Twenty First Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnival!  (Wow, people in ESOL really do like their acronyms!  *See the bottom for an explanation of these fun letters.) This is exciting  for a few reasons.

• These carnivals offer a wealth of information and practical teaching ideas in one single post.  I am getting ready to teach a vocabulary class and am excited to explore the link about vocabulary.  I've also been thinking about incorporating TED Talks into my ESOL class, so the link on Alice's blog about this very topic has me anxious to read on.  

• This also serves as a motivator to explore past ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnivals accessible here on Larry Ferlazzo's site.   (Yes, it takes as long to type those acronyms as it does to say them.) 

David Deubelbeiss, whom I recently began reading, will host the April 1st edition.  I am pleased to hear that Shelly Terrell will host a May 1st edition on early learners!

Check it out now!  As a demonstration of enthusiasm, I will try my first tweet in keeping with my 2011 goals for trying out new technology-- it's called a tweet isn't it? (Thanks Alice for following a newbie on Twitter.)

Happy Exploring!

ESL = English as a Second Language, EFL = English as A Foreign Language, ELD = English Language Development, ESOL = English Speakers of Other Language, and the list goes on and on in the field...