MY ADVENTURE

Hello my followers...😃😃This post is about a reflection on my teaching with technology philosophy statement. 

Before I wrote this post, I read my older post about teaching with technology and I tried to reflect back on it.

While writing my older post, I used to believe the technology was an indispensable part of our teaching. Today, I believe that technology is not only important for teaching but also is crucial for learning. In other words, teachers should integrate technology into teaching and students should utilize technology to improve their learning process, so technology is significant for both teachers and learners. In addition to this, teachers and students should have a purpose while using technology. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                   Taken here.

Specifically, teachers should use technology appropriately to their pedagogy. Otherwise, using technology doesn't make any sense. 

Now I want to talk about the course. When I see the syllabus of our course, I was really surprised because we were supposed to create a blog and write posts about different topics. I felt overwhelmed at the beginning of the term. Then, our teacher, Gökçe Kurt (If you want to learn more about her, you can click here and visit her blog😉) informed us about each topic and gave us an opportunity to search on the internet. 

I really enjoyed the course, and I discovered my learning process. Sometimes, I confronted adversities. For example, while doing the digital story assignment, I and my groupmate created our story, but we couldn't determine the appropriate tool to create our digital story. We searched on the internet, discovered different tools, but some of them didn't allow us to give a voice to a character. Moreover, we asked our friends and learned some tools. Finally, we used one of them in our digital story so I think that this course taught us how to learn 21 st century skills. Furthermore, I discovered a great number of Web 2.0 tools, I learned the importance of wiki projects and so on.

During the course of the term, I tried to do my best. I submitted all my assignments before the due date, embedded all the links successfully 😃, tried to be creative, and adhered to the instructions of the teacher.

I'm really content with the result. Also, I know that I learned a lot and gained awareness of my own thoughts about teaching English. Thanks to Gökçe Kurt, I improved my technology skills and started to build my pedagogy. 

Now, I know that teachers are the facilitators in the classroom and they should be aware of their pedagogy and technology knowledge. Teachers should constantly upgrade themselves and always be ready to implement new developments in the classroom. I feel confident about designing materials for any students of different ages. 

Taken here.

This is not an end of my story, my adventure is starting now.😃 I'm going to continue to share posts about different topics related to ELT because I like blogging.

See you soon...😉

RSS FEED

                                                                                                     Taken here

Hello my followers 😃😃😃 This post is about RSS Feed.

RSS refers to " really simple syndication". If you are following different websites, blogs, you should use RSS. It is a service for delivering regularly changing web content. Once you install RSS on your computer, you don't need to visit each blog. It helps you to learn new contents about your favourite websites or blogs.

I'm using "Feed Reader" to follow my favourite blogs. After I installed it on my computer, I don't spend my time visiting each blog. Instead, I open Feed Reader and lean my back, then I start to read new posts. I highly recommend you to use RSS because it facilitates your life.

As you see in the screenshot of my RSS, I'm following 6 blogs.

*The following screenshot shows the blogs that I'm following. Also, numbers refer to the posts that I haven't read.

*The following 🔻🔻🔻screenshot shows all the post chronologically.

My favourites blog is Helen Chapman's blog. She is an English teacher and she creates materials for young learners. She has taught English in different countries. She specifically shares materials for young learners. Helen chooses various themes and shows how these themes can be taught in the classroom.

In addition to this, she announces Elt Conferences. I also like her writing style, it gives me pleasure. Briefly, English teachers who work with young learners and prospective English teachers should follow her to improve themselves and their teaching.

Do you use Rss or are you following any blogs?

MY FAVOURITE WEB 2.0 TOOLS

                                                                                         Taken here

Hello my followers.😃 This post is about my favourite Web 2.0 Tools.

This week we were assigned to create an infographic about our favourite Web 2.0 tools. Briefly, Web 2.0 tools are websites or applications that allow users to create their own content and share on the internet. These tools are widely used to increase collaboration between teachers and students.

Personally, I really like using Web 2.0 tools and discover them. My favourite Web 2.0 tools are  Voki, Easel, Story Jumper, and Canva. (If you click the name of the tool, you can visit it). I created an infographic to inform you. My infographic consists of four categories.

• The first category includes general information about the tool, 
• The second category consists of the affordances of the tool,
• The third category includes the restraints of the tool,
• Finally, the last category involves factual information about the tool.

In this task, I tried to give information as much as possible so I chose an infographic which involves a lot of space to write. Then, I added some objects to make the infographic more attractive. I hope you enjoy and get information about my favourite Web 2.0 tools.

You can click here to see my infographic.

Do you use Web 2.0 tools? 🔻🔻🔻🔻

A POSTER PRESENTATION

                                                           

Hello my followers😃😃😃

This week's task is creating an online poster. We were given two options to choose and I chose to create a magazine cover. I imagined a magazine about desserts because I'm addicted to sweets. I like eating and tasting different kinds of desserts. My audience is sweet lovers.💗💗💗 

I used CANVA to design my magazine cover. If you click here, you can start to explore this website. I thoroughly enjoyed this task as it gives me an opportunity to create a poster about my addiction.😊

I would give this task to my students since this task would help them to create an online poster about their favourite books, games or artists. My students will use English as a tool and focus on the task. Thus, they will have a good time and improve their language skills.

You can click here to see my magazine cover.

What do you think about creating an online poster?

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Hello, my followers,😉😉😉 My new post is about digital storytelling. 

Me and my classmates were assigned to create a digital storytelling project in two weeks. Actually, there were three tasks and we had to choose one of them and worked in pairs. Me and my friend Sibel decided to create a fictional story, we had to decide the right tool(My friend's name is Sibel Aksoy and you can visit her blog if you click here). What do I mean with the right tool? There is a lot of websites about creating a digital story on the internet so I searched a useful website for my project.

Deciding the right tool was the most challenging part of this project. I want to give some examples of different tools. For example;

• If you click here, you visit www.zimmertwins.com/splash. This website is a good tool, but you can't record your voice, only you can add speech bubbles. 
• The other website is www.storyjumper.com, you can only create your own story with narration. You can't create a video on this website (Click here to visit story jumper). 
• The other website is www.vylond.com. It is my favourite website because it allows you to create different scenes with high quality and it is easy to use but unfortunately it is only 14 days free. After 14 days, you can't reach the project even though you create it (Click here to visit Vylond). 

Finally, we decided to use Toonstastic 3D as a tool. You can visit it by clicking here. It a fascinating tool and you can create your own story with high quality. Also, it allows you to choose different scenes, characters and music. I highly recommend you to utilize it for your digital story, but it is not a website. In fact, it is an application so you should download it before starting to use.

Creating a story was also one of the hardest parts of the project but the narration was full of fun.We spoke in higher pitch and intonation to give emotions of scenes. Moreover, we added different kinds of music to every scene. In the end, we were satisfied with our digital story.

Briefly, I'm eager to use digital storytelling with my students. I may assign them a project or share my digital stories with them. I believe that digital storytelling will increase collaboration and creativity of students.

If you click here, you can watch our digital story. I hope you enjoy.

                                                                           (We shared our story on youTube)

                                                               What do you know about digital storytelling?

WEBSITE EVALUATION:BREAKING NEWS IN ENGLISH

Hello my followers! 😊😊😊 This post is about the evaluation of an ELT website.

I'm going to evaluate https://breakingnewsenglish.com/, you can click "here" to visit the website. I prepared this evaluation for Instructional Technologies and Materials Desing course.

• Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or credentials?

Sean Banville is the author of this website and he has a master's degree in teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). He created this website to provide useful materials for English learners.  Also, he has got 9 websites. If you want to visit and improve your English skills you can visit them by clicking here.

The screenshot of the "Breaking News in English" is here:🔻🔻🔻

• What is the content of the website?

The website includes free lessons which are based on current news in the world. Every lesson can be studied online or downloaded in pdf. Lessons are organised according to learners level (There are 7 levels from elementary to advanced).
Every lesson includes print, listen, read, grammar, spell and words sections. I'm going to give detailed information about the content of the website.
I chose a topic about "Lesson on Sri Lanka Blasts", you can see it below:

As you see, learners have 6 categories to study.

• Print: There is a ready-to-use lesson about "Sri Lanka Blasts". You can click here to reach the document. This document includes listening tasks, comprehension questions, matching the sentences, quizzes, etc. Learners or teachers can download and use it later.
• Listen: Learners can listen to the news either in North American English or British English. After listening, there are 20 questions about the lesson. Also, learners can decide the listening task's speed. In this section, learners can listen to the news and then do some spelling exercises. Finally, learners have a dictation option while they are listening to the news.
• Read: Learners can read the news at different speeds with the help of a prompter. When you click this link, you can understand what I meant. Learners can match the sentences in Jumple1 and Jumple2 sections. Moreover, learners can take quizzes, you can see the example of a quiz:🔻🔻🔻🔻

• Grammar: In this section, learners can find articles, prepositions and tense exercises. Also, they can type the correct form of jumped words.
• Spell: Briefly, learners can do some spelling exercises such as filling in the blanks with consonants and vowels and check their spelling online. 
• Words: Learners can use flashcards to memorise the vocabularies or they can solve crossword puzzles. You can see the screenshot of the crossword puzzle.🔻🔻🔻

• Who is the target audience?

English language learners are the target audience of the website. Also, English teachers may benefit from it, because every news includes lesson plans, warm-up activities, classroom activities for English teachers. Moreover, teachers can find pdf files about specific activities which depend on the news on the website. I want to give an example to make it clear; as a teacher candidate, I may use the news which is titled "Japan starts nuclear power removal from Fukushima" in the class. I may use the pdf file of the news which includes speaking, listening, writing and reading activities.

• What is the purpose of the website?

The purpose of the website is to provide materials for English teachers and learners.

• Is there a date shows when the site has last been updated?

New lessons are updated every two days. The website is updated today, you can see it in the following screenshot:🔻🔻🔻

• Accuracy of the information: Are there any errors?/ Are there any broken links?

There are not any errors and broken links on the website.

• Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience?

I cannot find a lot of images on the website and existing images are not appealing to learners and teachers. I think the website should be modernised in terms of images and visuals.

• How can it be applied to EFL teaching?

English learners can develop their listening, reading skills when they do the exercises on the website. They can also improve their grammar and vocabulary knowledge with the help of it. They can choose to study the news which they are interested in.
I think that this website is extremely beneficial for English teachers because it includes multiple materials which can be used in the classroom. Teachers can utilize them to create different tasks for students. When I become an English teacher, I'm planning to use them. 

What do you think about this website?🙋

MY INTERNET-BASED PROJECT

Photo is taken here

Hello my followers!!! 😄This post is about an internet-based project.

I was assigned a padlet project for Instructional Technologies and Materials Design course. It was a group project, so firstly we created a group which consisted of 6 people. My group members are Sibel Aksoy, Elif Beyza Özan, Gamze Erol, Reyyan Hacer Hünerli, and Emine Arslan. 

We were given two options to choose for this project. The first one was about a global or local problem such as climate change, refugees, and water pollution. The second one was about freedom.

Me and my friends preferred the first option and decided on refugees as a subject matter. We were expected to create a padlet wall for the subject which we had chosen. The content of the wall had to include a description of the problem, causes and effects of the problem, some public opinion on the problem and finally solutions to the problem.

We determined our responsibilities for the project and searched on the internet. After that, we created a Padlet wall. If you want to have a look at our work, you can click here.

I think that Padlet is a user-friendly tool because we worked on the same padlet wall at the same time. Also, I hardly faced any problems during the task. Padlet allowed me to make different designs. I really liked using it because it was easy and handy.

I think our project is an example of 21st century learning. Before we created the project, we had brainstormed on the subject. Also, I believe that our project is a product of collaboration. After we had finished it, I realized that my global awareness about the refugee problem increased. In my opinion, using Padlet as a learning tool helps students to develop 21st century skills such as communication, global awareness, collaboration.

Have you ever used padlet as a 21st century learning tool?