Material Design for ELT

A student blog that focuses on material designs and usage of technology in language teaching . 

[igyrave]

Hello Everyone!

Today I'll be writing a review post on my Material Desing course as I am done with my classes. At the beginning of the term when I attended the very first class of this course I can say that I was a bit confused about this course. But as I took the classes and followed the steps I started to like this class. Because it thought me things that I wouldn't be able to learn in any other course. There wasn't really a thing that I didn't like about this course. On the contrary, I can say that it was one of my favorite courses with my lovely teacher.

This course assisted me to learn how I can use existing sources on the internet for ELT purposes. I even enjoyed while I was working with the tools, I can't wait to introduce them to my future students and encourage them to use these tools! I want them to get used to these tools, do assignments and make the best use of them. Speaking of assignments; In this course, we had to do lots of assignments. All of them had their own benefits. From book reviews to creating podcasts and even to blogging! And so far I can say that my favorite was the one we did with our best friends. And the blogging part.

What I'd suggest to students that will take this course next year is just to enjoy the course and make the best use of it by doing the assignments. I'm sure many of them will also like this course and see how beneficial it is!

[igyrave]

[igyrave]

[igyrave]

PosterMyWall

Hello Everyone! Today I’ll inform you about an interactive tool called Poster My Wall. Poster My Wall is a simple online tool to create posters. Make and download simple posters for free and without registration. Choose or upload photos, backgrounds, Flickr photos, and clip-art. You can move and re-size using the floating symbols. It is fun to work with it. As well as pictures we can also upload videos and create video poster. It can be used for any purpose. Creating invitation cards for events, for announcements, for fun purposes. It can alos be used in a classroom after an assigned reading, students can be asked to create posters about what they understood from the reading, or introduce us their favourite books, movies, actors etc. It will be a fun way to trigger kids to work with that app. I created two sample posters for classroom activities. One is abut their favourite books and the other is about the vocabulary they learned after the ‘Environment’ unit in 7th grade. I’ll uload them here and aso the link of the tool so that you can check it. Hope you like it ! 

https://www.postermywall.com/ 

[igyrave]

A Fun Way To Learn English! LINGUALEO

Hey there! Today I’ll be talking about a new and fun way to learn English. As the technological developments occur, we get to have new opportunities in all aspects of life. Starting from one of the main ones; Education! We can easily reach any source of information nowadays. So I’ll introduce you an app that helps us to learn English. Don’t worry if you’re just a beginner. This app will help you from the beginning. It’s called Lingualeo! ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lingualeo.android&hl=en )

It has all of the activities for reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar. First, it helps you to understand the topic then it offers you some activities so that you can apply what you’ve learned. I especially liked the - put the words together- part. My brother also started to use the same app and he has been getting lots of help from it. The app also keeps your track and you can see your development. You can also check the pictures to understand it better. And I’ll also leave the link here so that you can check the app. I hope you like it.

[igyrave]

BESTIES AT HEART!

We created a story of our everlasting friendship with my lovely pair! We hope you enjoy it! Peace and Blessings!

 DIGITAL STORYTELLING! 

Hi there! Today I’ll be talking about a fun and creative way to learn&teach English. And it’s not even as hard as you think it is. You don’t need to have advanced computer skills to do that. You just need to use some tools that are presented for that. Some pictures, a background music, a script and a friend. Voila! You’re done. 

I and my lovely pair did one for our Material Design assignment. First, we decided on our topic which is our wonderful friendship. Then we wrote down a script to read it out loud and record it to mix it with our background music. Then we picked some pictures. And finally we put them all together and we were done! It was a very fun project to do. Students can socialize with their mates and practice on their writing&speaking skills. I had a lot of fun with my pair while doing this project. What’s more, it didn’t even take us long to make it happen.

I hope you can also get to do a fun project like this and get to discover new horizons to learning English and your friendship. I need to thank my lovely pair for doing this project with me! Please do check her blog too. https://beystechteachingjourney.wordpress.com/  You can also check our video from the link I uploaded. I hope you enjoy it!

[igyrave]

Hi There! Today I’ll talk about a software that reads content from blogs and websites we follow. It’s called RSS -  Really Simple Syndication. We can either download it or use online versions. I’m using an online one called Online Feedreader. I’ll also put the link below so that you can check it. When we open the reader it lists the new feeds from the blog we follow. It’s really easy to use it! On my screenshot you can see the blogs I’m following. And I want to suggest one f my favorite blogs in here called ‘Oscar Learn, Oscar Teach!’. The blog is owned by an English teacher, she shares her materials, designs, and ideas on how to turn the classroom into an amusing learning place. I especially like her dashboard designs. You can also check her blog  http://oscarlearnoscarteach.tumblr.com/  .   This is all about RSS, it’s not a complex software and it’s really practical! I hope you that it'll b helpful for you. 

[igyrave]

Hello Everyone! Today I wanna talk about a website that I've discovered a few days ago. The website is called EWE - Easy World Of English. The website is so easy to use -just as mentioned in its name- The site is authored by a group of young experienced teachers in the US, to help ESL learners. Contents have been separated into sections such as Grammar, Pronunciation, Readings and a Picture Dictionary. The target audience is generally anybody that past the age of 14. But the Picture Dictionary can be used even for kindergarten students. We can say that it’s ranging from content to content. There aren't any errors or broken links on the website. And the information posted in there is accurate. The design may not have the quality look but contents are quite pleasant. It can look boring in the Grammar section but still, it’s really useful and helpful. It can be applied to EFL by using the Picture Dictionary to teach the little kids how to pronounce.  

 I recommend it to teachers, the site is so easy to use and the information within is really easy to reach. They can use the site for examples for topics and classroom activities. They can also recommend the site to the students for them to study individually.

I’m posting the screenshots of the website and the link so that you can check it. I hope you like the site and use it because I really liked it!

[igyrave]

Hi Everyone!

Today I wanna talk about a project that I've done recently and also inform you guys about it. It’s called ‘Wikiing’. Wikis are pages that allow you to search for something very quickly and easily. You can create them whenever and however you want. You can choose any topic of your interest and start typing down. And ‘click’! Share it with the world.

It contributes to the development of your writing skills. You can discuss or introduce any topic. What’s more, you can also view other entries and comment on them. I did my wiki on a book review. I'm uploading screenshots so that you can check mine. I'll also leave the link, you can also take a look at the wiki page.

http://bookreviewelt.pbworks.com/w/page/124748099/The%20Royal%20Game

I hope you enjoy it!

[igyrave]

Hey Guys! Remember my last post ? One about the CALL. Here I’m posting a link for an article that helped me a lot with my timeline. Hope it also helps you guys to understand it better and see the developments.

[igyrave]

Heard of CALL ?

CALL is the abbreviation for Computer Assisted Language Learning. The term was heard in 1960s for the first time when they came up with that project. Also called Brown Corpus. Throughout its development CALL has been through three stages. 1st stage is known as the Behavioristic CALL. During that stage CALL was provided by Teaching Machines. These machines were working with a system that can check students’ answers. 2nd stage is known as Communicative CALL in which the computers started to the their shapes. During this stage computers were used as Tutor & Stimulus & Tool. And the last stage is the Integrative CALL. CALL takes its shape fully and with developed sources such as Internet, it continues to serve still today. 

We were asked to create a timeline for CALL’s development, for our course. I’ll be posting mine. I’ll also be putting a link that will help you understand this issue more. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo 

[igyrave]

On Learning

Our minds never stop. Always produces,always recieves. And each day it expands with the new things we get to learn. And with learning there are so many opportunities nowadays. When I first started to learn english we didnt even have a computer. I was trying to read some english story books for kids and every other thing I could use for learning, I was using. But luckily now we have Internet and it allows us to discover new horizons in learning. We can find so many sources to help us with grammar,spelling etc. And all we have to do is search for them and get them. Because the 21st century is the time that we can reach all kinds of sources for learning easily.!!

-We were asked to make a word cloud with the words we remember from the very first class. I’ll put it here as well. -

[igyrave]

Welcome !! About me & the blog

Hi Everyone! I’m an ELT student in Marmara University which is located in Turkey. As a second-grader we are taking Instructional Technology & Materials Design course. In that course we are learning about the usage of technology and its development from the very first day it connected ties with language teaching. And we design various materials for that course. On my blog I’ll be posting some of my works along with some extra information about how technology plays a big role in language teaching.