appedELT

In this post, I want to look at some of the “comic”  apps that are available.  I’ve seen a number shown in sessions that I have been to recently and it reminded me of how useful these apps can be in English language lessons.

Comic apps are an excellent way to address creative writing both in and out of the classroom. They are also a good basis for project-based learning. For example students can work in small groups into plan a story, take photos to create the story and then work together on the text. They also add something extra to photos students may have with them on their mobile devices. 

One of the easiest to use is ‘photocomic’  which is available for Apple devices.  It costs 69p for the basic app (though is often one of those you can get free in daily giveaways).  It is very easy to use and you can make everything from a one photo cartoons fruit to a four-frame strip. As you can see from the photo below everything to be done at the touch of the screen. 

Once you’ve done you can save the strip or share it via email and social media. The downside of the app is that without paying extra to unlock more templates you are limited to a strip of four photos.  I enjoy using it with students to create cartoon captions over a photo they have taken.  Give them a topic, ask them to create a caption and then share and see who came up with the best one. 

A step up from that is comic heads. This is available for apple and android. I use the lite version which is free but that means having ads and some limitations. For example, the lite version lets you save but only the paid version allows you to edit once you saved. Comic heads allows you to use photos, draw and use pre-designed characters and animations. While again limited to four frames there is more room for creativity. 

The final one I enjoy using is the most expensive but provides the best outlet (of the three) for fuller creative writing opportunities (it also available for a computer). Comic life costs £2.99 and best suits the collaborative writing I mentioned at the beginning of the post.  This allows students to produce more than the four frames. In fact they can produce a whole comic, which when viewed on the device reads as a comic. However for readers without the app, the completed work can be sent as a pdf file.

So there you go my three favourite comic apps, enjoy

It’s the time of years when we start thinking of first lessons and the best way for a class to get to know each other.  One idea I got recently from reading an article is tapping into the concept of the ‘selfie’.

Not sure what a ‘seflie’ is – have a guess using this word cloud of the guardian text.

Recently the guardian seems to have got a bit obsessed with the ‘selfie’ following up its article by asking ‘famous’ people to submit their own selfie. This seems like an excellent way to break the ice in a class and help students get to know each other.  As a way into the topic you can begin with either rogue’s gallery from the guardian and / or use the word cloud above (made using the cloudart app).

It’s been a while, been off talking to and working with teachers in South America.   Had some good fun in the hands-on sessions and in the conference sessions I managed to attend.

In one of those sessions at the LABCI 13 conference, we had a bit of dogme meets technology moment. The session A space for stories: stories in space

Valeria Franca explored ways to encourage story telling. One of the activities, Valeria showed us was based on one of our memories. By answering 6 questions we provided cues for a partner to try and piece together the memory. The 6 questions are:

Think of an object you have a strong memory about, what is it? Where is the object? Who do associate with the object? What age is the object / memory from? What sights and sounds do you associate with it? What is one other thing that you can add about the object (apologies to Valeria if these are not exactly what you said).

Having provided answers to the questions, the partner then tries to orally reconstruct the memory, comparing it to original memory.  Obviously a task like this generates a lot of language.  In the workshop we were asked what the next step would be, how could we tap into this language.   For me the obvious thing would be to record the students as they speak (well, actually to record themselves).  There are a number of free apps that can be used for this but my current favourite is recordium, which is available in Itunes.

I prefer it to the soundcloud app (though admittedly that is available  on both Itunes and android) as I find it easier to use.  Open the app and press record and that's it.  The joy, especially when dealing with students' language comes from what can be done after.  With a press of a button you or they can leave feedback in the recording. 

You have the option to highlight elements of the recording, tag elements (useful for follow up work), insert a picture (a lovely addition to a task like the memory one above) and add notes.  Adding the notes, allows the teacher to give feedback, help etc for the student. Simply press the note as per this image and add what you want. 

These touches make it a really useful recording tool for students, not only to deal with emerging language but in most ELT contexts such as speaking exam practice, honing a business students presentation and so on.  Leaving the notes means they can listen back, read the note and decide how best to correct or home what they said. 

There seems to be a plethora of apps coming out at the moment that can give an added benefit to the ELT classroom especially in terms of speaking and listening.

One such app is Movenote, which a friend introduced me to last week.  At first glance this is an app like many out there that allows you to record a voiceover to the photos. However in reality it is more like a presentation app and this is what makes it an excellent ELT tool.  What makes it stand out from other apps is the fact it utilises the video camera so you do the voice to camera. The website for app has some excellent instructional vides so it's easy to get started.  You can use movenote either on an apple device or on the website.

When you open the app you need to have an account or login in with one of your social media accounts.  When you create you get this screen: 

You can see the video screen in the top left (you can also flip the camera so it films outwards). In the main screen you upload the photos you want to use (make sure you upload them in the order you want to talk about them). Then simply hit record and you're off. Once finished and you are happy you get to share the video on social media platforms or you can send it via email.  It is a disadvantage that you can't download it but overall  the video gives a personalised touch.  Having shared the link (here's one I made earlier), a viewer can leave a text reply or record a comment (with video) back to the maker. This opens itself up to lots of out of class activities, authentic listening tasks, and proponents of the flipped classroom could use it for task setting and reporting.

Given it's simplicity it makes it a useful classroom tool as part of any classroom project. For example if the topic is hometown then students can take photos and provide a voice over for them. If the students are working on a collaborative task then they take photos to show their work and then record what they have done.  With the impending summer school season, the app come in handy for the 'day trip' projects. The students provide a presentation of their day trip. This can then be shared with their parents to show not only what a good time they are having but also how much their English has improved :-) 

I came across this app when it became a free app of the day (it's still free). It's a lovely little app with lots of ELT potential. At first look it reminded of the software that comes with IWB as it has the potential to do the same sorts of things in terms of exercise creation.  However it has the advantage over the board in terms of portability.  As students can also download it, it also has the advantage of handing over creation to the them. 

It works by creating 'projects'. In simple terms a project is created by using text and images. Once created, a project is saved on your device so you can access it anytime. You can also share it by email. The app also comes with access to the a drop folder where there are lot of already created projects for you to download. Many of these would supplement the ELT classroom. 

Here is a screenshot of me playing with a project.

(note photos are from http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets/72157625304912259/)

As you can see, you can choose a background for the project and then by tapping on the screen you create a text box. You can choose the colour of the text board,  decide the size of the text or even add a photo. You can also clone any box over and over.  In the example you can see how I have used text boxes to create a sentence.  So one possible way this can app can be used it is to create 'put the sentence' in the right order tasks. In the lower part of the screen I have added three photos to show how you can use the app for drag and drop (well, move and match) vocabulary exercise. 

It would also be very easy to make activities such as gap fill  - create a sentence with a gap on one text box and then create options to fill the gap in other boxes. Thus using move and match to fill the gap.  Another exercise type, though a little time consuming is categorisation, as shown by this image taken from the move and match dropbox on food. 

The app is quite versatile so can be used for everything from grammar exercises through to vocabulary practice, either prepared by you or given to students as a project that they can then share with their classmates. 

I was planning a training session today on adapting secondary coursebook tasks to make them more engaging for students.  Two of the books had lessons on sending postcards.  My first thought was who sends postcards these days!  Before you post comments saying do, I accept that some people do but I suspect that many people (especially teens) would simply send a photo from their mobile. Surely, then such a lesson would be difficult to get students motivated and engaged?

But then I remembered an app I’d learned from @joedale during one of apps swaps at IATEFL.  Bill Atkinson’s photocard app.

This is app is a simple way to send a postcard. What I like about this more than a number of similar apps, is that you don’t have to order (at cost) the card and pay for it to be printed and sent (though that option is there if you want). In this one you can simply email or share on social networks.

The app is free and comes with a set of ‘nature’ photos that you can use. However you can take and use your own photos. Having chosen a photo for the front, simply press back and you have the flipside of the card to complete as you would a paper post card.  However, unlike that you also have the ability to add your voice.  Choose a stamp and complete the address and then send the card.

While sending a postcard might never appeal to a teen, at least that app is a way to try and engage and personalize the task. 

Back from IATEFL with a head full of apps to explore and share with you over the coming weeks.  The last I heard mentioned was one familiar to me and one in my folder of story telling apps. In his talk on creative pedagogy language learning and technology, Graham Stanley spoke about giving prompts to help creative writing and mentioned Rory's story cubes 

During one of last week’s eltchat the subject of student vocabulary notebooks came up and I made the comment that these days students could use their mobile device as a notebook instead of the more traditional paper and pen ones. 

Having made the point I was asked a few times what I would use, so this is my answer.  The obvious advantage of a mobile device is that a student is unlikely to forget or misplace it as they would the paper version.  Given a paper vocabulary notebook allows to you record a word as you like – definition, part of speech, example etc then using a device has to add something more.  One example would be the IH app I posted about last year, which utilises a device's camera so you can add a photo of the word. 

The other obvious advantage an app can bring is to record sound and thus deal with the pronunciation of the word (something a paper notebook can’t do). Added to that if it builds in some way of practicing the words then it may well help the students.  These are two things that app A+ Spelling Test can bring.

This is an app that deals with spelling. As such it loses out to the notebook in terms of being able to record definitions and sentences.  However it is easy to use and addresses spelling very nicely. 

You simply add a new category of words then add words to the category by typing it then recording the sounds. That’s it. Once the list is created you can then practice the words in four different activities.

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Of course many of the ‘notebook’ apps can do what the other two apps do combined though without the practice. An app such as phatpad would allow a student to record everything they want about the word including the sound but would not have the same ease of practice.  Perhaps this is were the suite of apps made by evernote has the advantage  - use skitch to write on photos of words, use evernote to keep the photos, write info about the word (assuming it has not been written on the photo).  You can also record the words so the pronunciation is stored.  Then to practice the student can use peek. An app that works with an evernote book and the magnetic cover of the Ipad. When it’s running you can ‘peek’ at a word  by lifting part of the cover. So depending on how the student has recorded the word they can either see the definition and guess the word or vice versa. 

There are of course many other options for creating a moblie vocab book - combining internet with app with somethiline quizlet or using imovie to create a pod/vodcast version. However one thing all the notebook have in common, be it paper or device, is that none actually show the students can use the word in a correct situation or context :-).  

Many ELT teachers are familiar with world clouds and have been using them in their teaching for the last few years (there are 1000s of mentions of it in ELT of you google it).  From ‘getting to know activities’ through to jumbled sentences and vocab revision. The word cloud has proven a versatile tool, and now teachers using Ipads will be pleased to see that the cloud art app brings word clouds to the tablet. 

Those of you familiar with with wordle will note that cloud art works in pretty much the same way. Clouds are made by either typing in words or directly from a url (like this one of the blog).

One advantage the app seems to have over web based clouds is that you get more flexibility with easy saving and sharing and a greater ability to customise the created cloud. This includes removing indvidual words, making words bigger and of course changing colours and fonts. 

One disadvantage it does have over web-based clourds is that is costs 69p. However I think the added features and ease of use are worth it.