adobe connect

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have you ever heard about CONNECTED CLASSROOM?sounds familiar, isn't?

yes, it is actually about how technology can be used to connect students/learners to the outside context of their classroom. One of the tools that we can use to apply this kind of classroom is called 

This is a website where people can connect with others online in order to share information, to have a meeting, discussion, chat, or virtual classroom session. So, because this tool can be used for these purposes, it is parallel with the connected classroom concept.

So, today we are going to discuss this tool, ADOBE CONNECT!

before that, MAKE SURE you have installed the Adobe Flash Player software to make it work nicely =).

then what do you need to do next??

1. go to this page . Create an Adobe account.

 sad to say, it's not free (maybe because it's good =) hopefully)

you get the 30 days free trial package. If you find that it's worth paying, you can pay for it.

 

then you'll have to fill in your details

then, log in

accept the terms of service first

30 days. a date to remember

this is how your HOME looks like

if you click on create a virtual classroom, you will have to fill in these things.

  

 next steps

then, TADAAA!!

this is how your virtual class looks like. so get connected then!

example of online classes with Russell Stannard

then, if you go back to HOME and try to create another thing, eg: sharing content

 

you have to fill in these information first before you can share your content with others

So, back to the connected classroom thing, how can you get benefit from this tool and use it in your classroom?

1. teacher can make an extra online class session in the weekend or maybe during the holiday time. teacher will  give students the details of the class (date, time, and url) and just do an extra lesson with the students. Teacher may ask a few students to participate and give ideas either by speaking or writing in a chat box. *so what's good here is that both teacher and students don't have to come to the class to do an extra class. So, it saves time and space* 
2. teacher can ask students to do a homework like discussing a topic in groups by using  this. then tomorrow the students will be asked to present their discussion to the class.*this is also good because students will have opportunities to find more supports quickly as they can share the links, pictures, videos together with the member in their groups. so this kind of discussion is much more effective in my opinion*
3. in the evening, teacher can ask students to give feedback about the previous lesson in classroom (what they feel about the lesson, is it easy to be understood, how can they connect it with other things, sharing additional information about the lesson, and asking questions). *Here, students will more likely to participate more than they do in their classroom because it is not a face to face interaction. So here, students will be more relaxed and confident to express their opinion/maybe to express their criticism as well*

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT ADOBE CONNECT:

1. we can share content such as mp3 files, photos and others.
2. whilst having a virtual classroom or a meeting, the host can give permission to participants to view their video, audio and their screen, not only him/herself can share them
3. it's a new and different ways of learning. basically people will like new things the most and this will make them become more interested and eager to participate
4. it encourages collaborative learning in which students or people (of course between teachers as well) from all other the world can connect together, EASILY
5. input and information can be shared/discuss more lively with the supports from other parties (links to related websites, photos or pictures or videos)

BUT THERE ARE THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT IT:

1. it's not free! Why? Why?
2. it doesn't really help students in presenting skills (communicative strategies) because the interactions that happen is not really face to face
3. technical problem might occur especially when there are too many participants join the class. this will cause a problem where students might get disconnected with the class
4. quite difficult to be used, and require many things to be filled in before you can really start using /creating a room for online classes and etc
5. since it is not a face to face interaction, teacher can't really know what the students are doing (maybe they are doing other things and pretending to join the class)

That's it for today!! thanks Russell for introducing this tool to us! =))

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ellloenglish

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ELLLO ENGLISH!!! 

triple L.wow!

WHAT IS IT?

it is an English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO), where people can do listening activities, learning vocabulary and downloading audio files, notes and etc.

LET'S EXPLORE IT MORE!!

this is the homepage

content and categories available

can connect with tweeter

LET'T LOOK INSIDE:

one example, scenes

this is a list of scenes topic. there's a lot more actually

choose one

basically, this is how it looks like.zoom for bigger view

in the transcription above, there certain phrases highlighted in blue colour. when you click in the play button, the phrases will be pronounced twice and after that it will pronoun the next highlighted phrases using correct pronunciation

there's also an audio slide show

and audio notes as well

there are also exercises available on the right hand side of the page

LET'S TRY THE OTHER CATEGORIES, VIDEOS

list of videos available

videos created by people from all over the world

an example

there are transcription and quizzes to be looked at

THEN , NEWS!

there is a news reading, exercises and vocabulary explanation

THEN THE LAST ONE THAT I'VE TRIED, MIXER

quite similar to the other categories. some audios or notes can be downloaded

IS IT A GOOD WEBSITE? yessss. WHY?

1. it is a very well organised website because

-easy to be accessed because there's a home button there in which people can go back to home anytime they want

-the lesson is nicely arranged in order, people can see it clearly at the left hand side of the page

-it is arranged according to the categories, and under that it is arranged by topics

-it is easy to download, just right click on the linked words

2. it gives the transcriptions of all the listening audio, so it is very useful for people who want to check whether they listen correctly or not

3. we can click on certain phrases to listen to the right pronunciation of the phrases. the phrases are pronounced twice, then the descriptions of the phrases and the examples of sentences are also given straight away and questions are given as a practise. 

4. there are 3 types of exercises given based on the vocabulary highlighted, comprehension, listening activities where students can listen to the vocabulary highlighted and how to use it. possible answers are also given

5. people can download both notes and audio files for free

6. you don't have to sign up to use this website, so you can freely use this anywhere and anytime you want provided that you've got an access to the internet

7. there are many choices available (eg:views, games, mixer, videos, news, scenes, songs, points and many more)

IF IT IS A GOOD WEBSITE, WHY CAN YOU USE IT IN THE YOUR CLASSROOM AND HOW DOES IT IS CONNECTED WITH THE CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE LEARNING?

-it is important for a language learners to listen to a variety of accents so they can know what are the differences between native speakers and non-native speakers of english and ways of how different people around the world use English

-it helps in vocabulary enhancement in terms of pronunciation and information on how to use the words correctly

-the materials are authentic because most of the videos are recorded by themselves so students can learn how do people actually use/communicate in English (english that we won't hear on the script) *real language use vs. language in the book*

-it encourages autonomous learning in which students can learn and doing tasks without teacher's help, independently

-students will be exposed to different types of texts, how the language is used in everyday situations (different text require different styles, vocab, jargon)

-it provides variety of topics so students can choose the topics of their interest, in addition increase their general knowledge can be expanded (content learning through language *CLIL*)

-it helps in developing variety of skills (eg: writing, reading, speaking, listening)because it offers students with the opportunities to practise these skills.

-it provides context (real audience and purpose so there will be a reason to listen/read (language is learned through context, not isolated)

-it contains a variety of levels, so students can choose levels that are suitable for them

-students can enjoy while learning language by choosing the audio that is lower than their levels

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

-some of the audio/videos have low quality in terms of background noise, the video resolution, the flow of the speakers' voices, the sound of the voice itself

-there are errors after certain times using it (it happened to my friends, i don't know the reason why)

-On the homepage, the categories appear randomly. Suddenly, there will be more options/categories appear, so you can't really see all the categories at one time

-some of the activities (eg: scenes) are not really authentic (it is made as authentic), so it's not really helping students in communicating in reality (videos is a different case)

THAT'S IT!!! TRY IT!!

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audioboo

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boooooooooooOoo!
=))

i need you boo... i gotta see you boo...

when i was typing the title of this post, i suddenly remember this nice song by chris brown. let's listen to this song while reading this post. SHALL WE??

so, let's get back to audioboo. What is the meaning of boo really? to be frank, i still don't know. when i look up in the dictionary, it says that boo is a sound that people make when they don't like a person. I know that sound, but i can't see the connection with audioboo. haha. WHATever!

Below is my audioboo. Listen to it if you want to. As usual, nasal congested-like behaviour sound.

HOW TO USE IT??

go to the page HERE. 

this is how the homepage looks like. easy, right? they've got an audioboo application downloader for smart phones. Firstly, of course, SIGN UP/LOG IN if you already have an account

don't forget to tick the small box before joining audioboo

you can either follow friends or invite friends to view you audioboo

random audioboo that can be listened to, recorded by people from all over the world

your profile. you can upload your photo, record new audio, or listen to the previous audioboo that have been recorded

THESE ARE THE WAYS/QUICK STEPS TO RECORD AUDIOBOO:

 

you can either upload your own files, or just record a new audio directly. if you are not happy with the recording, you can restart another recording. then gives it a title. You can add pictures, location or some descriptions if you want to. published audioboo will be saved into your profile

this appears when you click on one audioboo file.here, you can edit your audioboo, you can publish it on tweeter, like it on fb, embed it onto your blog, or email it to someone

dropping comments in two ways: i) written and ii) audio comment

when dealing with files and sounds on the internet, we'll always connect it to the word podcasting. What is it really? Based on the online dictionary, podcasting is a series of digital video files that can be downloaded through web. In my opinion, podcasting is VERY USEFUL to be used in learning language, especially in improving speaking skills. 

of course AUDIOBOO is one of the podcasting tools that can be used by students and teachers in the web.

the question here is:
  HOW AM I GONNA USE IT IN MY CLASSROOM??

• I can ask students to record their reflection on certain issues in about 2-3 minutes long at home and email it to me. This activity is suitable to be done monthly, for lower intermediate level of students. So teacher can assess their students' performance/improvement in speaking. As for students, they can express themselves more compared to when they are learning in the classroom. *this is because audiboo only record your voice, not your face and not in front of the class, so students will be more relaxed and confident*
• Students can practice their own speaking skills every week in which they can record their own voice talking about a topic per week, then compare it to each other at the end of the year. So here the students can evaluate their own improvement. *I think this can be a good practice for students as when they are doing the recording by themselves and get familiar with it, they won't feel shy or afraid to make mistakes because there's no teachers' control (Willis and Willis). This will also encourage autonomous learning where students will be independent
• students can be exposed to different ways of people using English from all over the world, so they can learn not only about language difference, but in cultural aspect too. So, this can help them to be more lenient towards the use of English in their daily life
• can be used as a materials to improve listening skills as well, where teacher could ask students to listen to people from different culture speaking in English and make them familiar with it. From this, i believe that students' listening skills will improve. They can grab difficult words faster as they are familiar with how certain people from certain cultures pronoun certain words.

I LIKE IT BECAUSE:

• it can be connected to other pages such as tweeter, iTunes, facebook, blog and email it to your friends
• it offers application for smart phones, so the audio can be recorded and uploaded by using phones as well, not only laptop
• it allows people from all over the world to share information
• it's easy, quick, free and effective (it doesn't give people headache)

I DON'T LIKE CERTAIN THINGS ABOUT
AUDIOBOO, WHICH ARE:

• it is limited to 3 minutes only, and because of that students can't talk much
• it can't be downloaded
• it doesn't have real life interaction (one way of communicating only, absence of distruption, backchanelling, etc)
• can't be done frequently because it will discourage students to be more active, brave and confident enough to talk in front of the class (though it may help, but it is a long term result)
• requires access to internet connection

IF YOU STILL HAVE TROUBLE USING AUDIOBOO, GO TO THIS LINK BELOW:

Help Videos for Audioboo

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/audioboo/index.html

.that's it for today.

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click and learn

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Click AND Learn!!

WHAT IS IT?

Find it HERE

this is a very interesting website to be used by students to learn English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and general knowledge. It is actually a website made by French government for their students to learn English so this websites contain some of French instructions that can't be translated.

HOW TO USE IT??

EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES THAT I DID:

There are three activities that i have tried. So far, these activities have both pros and cons. I'll list it based on every  activities:

(1) PRONUNCIATION ACTIVITY

WHAT IS GOOD:

-it models Ss with the right pronunciation of the words ending with -ed suffix

-Ss can repeat the sound of the words are pronounced

-the next activities are related to the previous activities and I think this is a good thing since Ss learn by using i+1 concept where they have some kind of comprehensible input in learning new lesson

-some of the activities are repeated activities so that Ss can train themselves (like a drilling activity and then be familiar with the structure)

-Ss can learn the rules of grammar effectively by the aids of visual and sound

-score is given so that Ss can know their level and this can motivate them as well

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

-We can't go back to the previous page because there's no button for it and this can make Ss lost interest of the activities that are more challenging as they can't refer to the previous activities

-there's an activity that Ss need to drag the words, but it's not working well (the way it is dragged is sometimes out of control)

-sometimes the sound by the speaker is not clear enough and confusing, so it will cause Ss to give a wrong answer

(2) GRAMMAR ACTIVITY

WHAT IS GOOD:

-it gives some information about the use of the grammar structure so Ss can have a little knowledge about that or refresh their previous lesson about the structure in order to do the task

-fill in the blanks exercise with the given answers is quite traditional and Ss is familiar with it so they can manage to do the exercise without having to write and type the words since they only have to drag the word to the correct place

-the nest task require Ss to type the answer themselves but the choice of words are given so it will help Ss to answer the questions without having a spelling error

-the exercise are also given by using the context of everyday life and this is quite effective because it is personal to the students, in addition their motivation level will increase

-Ss can learn from the incorrect answer because they won't be able to proceed to the next task without giving the right answer

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

-can't go back to the previous page to view the information

-the dragging activity is out of control (can't drag it properly so it may cause Ss to drag the words to the incorrect places then it will deduct the score)

-it deducts score for every incorrect answer and this will make Ss lost interest in doing these activities

-(IN MY CASE) if i make a spelling mistake and want to delete it by pressing the "backspace" button, the websites go crazy to HOMEpage again. It happens twice and I'm really fed up to continue the exercise. it could happen to Ss as well.

(3) ISSUES ACTIVITY

WHAT IS GOOD:

-it gives visual information (which is good) at the beginning before Ss do the tasks so that Ss will have a general idea regarding the topic so this can prepare them before doing the actual task

-the activity is TRUE and FALSE activity where Ss need to read a short question then mark whether the statements are true or false. If the Ss get the answer right, more detail information about the statements will appear on the screen

-At the end of the activities, there is a game which is a quite interesting way to arouse Ss' interest

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

-it is too wordy (contains too much words which can make Ss lost interest because they need to read a very long text) *I don't like it either*

-The game as well, too many options of answers to be read before choosing the right one. I think it is not worth reading all that for only one answer because you have a lot of doors to open (one door one question) and this will consume much time.

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GENERALLY,

I think this website is good to be used by students, BUT the teacher MUST be selective. Try to do the activities by yourself first before asking your Ss to do it in the classroom. So, if you encounter any problem, you can prepare for it or avoid using the problematic part. While doing the activities yourself, try to FIND any pros and cons especially, then how to deal with the cons (if you really want to use the activities)

FOR ANY HELP/SUPPORT, this websites prepare these:

these can be used by teacher as a guidance before choosing what activities can be used before teaching Ss


happy CLICKING and LEARNING!!


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