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. 

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The app is a digital representation of the felt boards many of us grew up playing with.  While some might argue the added worth of the more traditional version in terms of appealing to learning styles, this app can be put to a lot of uses in the ELT classroom. 

The app is very easy to use, which makes it ideal for even the youngest hands. A series of menus  allows you to  choose everything from letters through to items of clothing. After that you use typical Ipad gestures to move and resize.  If you want two items to stay together you simply ‘glue’ them. Once you have constructed your masterpiece you can take a photo.

Take a series of photos and the students are half way to creating a story book.  However, aside from the obvious digital story telling use, the range of  things covered in the different menus makes it ideal for use in and out of vocabulary lessons. 

Teaching clothes, you can shout of the colour and type and the students can respond by choosing from the menus.  21^st century TPR!  This would work both class wide use or one Ipad in the room.  Going beyond words, it can be assist with teaching prepositions (the dog is on the left has a red hat on its head). Having a couple of devices immediately opens up a whole world of describe and draw activities.  And of course should the studetns have the apps themsevles then lot so homework potential as well. Enjoy. 

Simply put Aurasma allows you to overlay a video over an image.  When someone using the app views that image then the video is activated.  

The app is easy to use, first you record the video then you choose an image to put it on and that it's it. You can either record and take the videos via the app or use ones previously made.  The ease of use is a definitely a bonus for the ELT classroom as there are few complicated instructions that need to be conveyed. 

At BETT,  the uses of it that caught my eye were to do with bringing written work to life. One immediate cross over is that of book reviews. Many ELT classrooms use graded readers with teachers setting the dreaded written book review once the students have done. Using Aurasma, the student instead could record their review and overlay that on the cover of the book.  Fellow students can then use the app cover to see what their peers thought of the book.   Alternatively  the covers of the book (or other illustration) can be put around the classroom wall and the app used that way. 

Using the app to bring the walls to life can lead to more clever adaptations of activities.  In many classrooms, students work is put on the wall.  Using Aurasma, the author or the work can record a video to accompany and add further details; activated when the reader waves the app over the work. 

Furthermore the app could be used to bring vocabulary to life. Vocabulary is often put around the walls of the ELT classroom, well if you overlay a photo rather than a video you can do things such as overlay translations, contextualising sentences and so on. Alternatively use the video option to add the pronunciation. 

It seems to me there is a growing interest in augmented reality and the aurasma app is an easy way to introduce this in to the ELT classroom. 

Here are the slides from my talk at the IH DoS conference at the weekend.  They might not make a whole lot of sense without seeing the talk but most of the apps will feature on this blog over the next month if they don't already. 

Sentence builder is the Ipad equivalent of cut up pieces of paper.  You know,  when you cut up sentences and ask the students to manipulate the paper so that they get the right order.  When IWBs made their appearance, this could be replicated into a drag and order exercise. Well this app saves the cutting up and means if you don’t have an IWB you need only hook your Ipad to a projector. 

The app has a free version with a limited number of prefabricated sentences for you to use or a paid version (£1.99 on the UK app store), which gives you hundreds more.  

While I concede that so many sentences might be a bit of chore to link to the grammar point you are teaching; as a whole the app provides a good basis for a team game and general revision of sentence order.  In addition the app has a picture for each sentence thus adding a bit of colour and help for the visual learner and also had all the sentences and words audio linked so students can hear them as well.

However as useful as all that it is, like most apps I ends up reviewing , the best bits come when you get away from the given content and start to create your own and sentence builder lets you do with ease. 

The apps gives you foolproof steps for you to upload your own photos or pics, type in your sentences, record your own voice. You can even add distractor words and in seconds create your own sentences for the class to play with or even better the students can create their own for each other. So not only do students get to play with word order, they get to practice spelling and pronunciation as well.

At the IH teacher’s conference last we launched the ‘my words’ app. The app aims to be a ‘mobile’ vocabulary notebook for students. It is available for both android and apple. Since I work for IH it would be remiss of me not to give it a quick mention on this blog along with suggesting a couple of activities you can do with it.

One of the things I like about the app is that it has the potential to store vocabulary in a number of ways. I have spent quite a bit of time over the years trying to encourage students to do more than simply write down the word off the board and then the translation of the word.  In this app you can store the word in a number of ways. First of all you get to choose the language you want it to work in (though the app itself is in English). Having done that you can enter a lot of information about the word.

The app is by no means perfect and hopefully in future versions things like the search function will have greater useability which would allow for more scope for activities but for a first go, I think it does start to bring the vocabulary notebook to the generation. 

I imagine that many school might recoil in horror at their student getting their phones out to record vocabulary but actually the app can be a good starting point for phone / tablet use in class.  Afterall the app doesnt have to about the words covered in class. When I was piloting the app, I took it with me on trips to record words I came across in a day. This kind of activity makes the basis for a lesson. `Ok your homework is to record ten words over the weekend'.  Then over the weekend the student takes ten picture of words and follows that up by completing all the details about the word.  Alternatively students swap devices and use the search button to  test the owner on vocabulary or to compare their lists on the same topic.  In fact just because it is an app, it doesn't stop you doing all the activties you would usually do with vocabulary notebooks and vocabulary lists. Afterall  the one thing it doesn't do is make sure the students have learned the word they have stored :-)

Last week I was in the Czech Republic to talk to teachers about social networking. On the same conference bill one of the talks was about the use of mobile devices in the classroom.  David Bish, who gave the talk, showed how both phones and Ipads have been utilised in the EF classrooms around the world.  

Almost as much fun was the post conference evening, which had  geek-filled  moments of  ‘have you seen this app, do you use this’.  These show and tell moments albeit somewhat informal were a great way to learn something new but more of that in another post, for now back to the talk.  

Of the number of ideas and activities David showed, three stood out for their sheer simplicity.

The mobile device ring tone as a buzzer for team games. This is such a simple but excellent way of utilising the students’ phones and letting them be used in a meaningful way.  Perhaps as a first step to further use.

Secondly, the talk introduced the idea of using a traffic light on the screen of an Ipad (in this case the teacher’s Ipad). The traffic light can be used to indicate when it is ok to use a mobile device in an exercise. Red means you can’t, green you can and amber only if you must.  Of course this can be extended to it simply being a classroom management device as a whole i.e. for timing an activity.

There are quite a few traffic light apps in the store.  One designed for such a purpose is Stop go! which is also free to download. 

Another free app he showed was Whiteboard, which of course is just what the name suggests.

However Ipads using the app on the same wifi network can connect and colloborate - thus making is great for describe and guess type actitvities (see post on draw something) and if you are like me and my colleague you can send each other messages when you're supposed to be listening.  

A few weeks ago I was giving a talk to teachers on the implications of technology on teaching. At the end of the talk a fellow trainer came up and raised the issue of reading skills in the Internet age,  something I had alluded to in the talk. He asked if I’d heard of wiki wars on youtube and explained how it could be a useful thing to do in the class to develop scanning and skimming skills. 

A quick youtube search later and I knew fully what he was on about. Not only that a google search turned up the rules.  As the trainer had mentioned, this indeed could be a fun and useful ELT activity.  It can be done on Internet mobile devices or laptops. There are a couple of nice apps that allow Idevice users to easily access wikipedia. Wikimobile  is the official wikipedia app and wikipanion an easy to use way of searching wikipedia.

Playing wiki wars in class can promote a number of things. First of all, working in groups with one device per group leads to collboration. Deciding on the best way from A to B promotes conversation and critical thinking as the student. Likewise after the event the groups can analyse the choices they made and why their route worked / didn't work.  Then of course there is the competitve element introduced by getting from to A to B in the quickest way, promoting scanning and skimming.

If you only have one device then most of this still applies assuming you have it attached to a larger screen. 

A few days after discovering this, I found an app called the wiki game 

I came across Decide Now by accident last week and immediately thought it might be a handy little app for the classroom. Basically the app is a ‘fun’ app to help you make a choice. For example if you are at a loss for what to do in an evening you spin the wheel and it will make a choice for you. What is of more use for the ELT classroom is in the paid version (69p) you can create your own ‘wheels’. 

Herein lies its use in the classroom.  There are numerous possibilities it can be put to.  Get the students to put in infinitives of irregular verbs  and you have an instant revision game – spin the wheel and give a point to person who can name the past form etc.  Alternatively add words from a previous lesson and use it for revision or add topics that you want students to talk about, spin and then talk. Learners can even make their own wheels on a topic oftheir choice. 

Ok it is not earth shattering but it adds another way of doing something and therefore another way to engage the class.

Twitter was a buzz with this app earlier this week and I can understand why.  Nearpod is an app, well rather apps, which allow a teacher to send work to students’ smartphone or ipad when they are all on the same network.   What it provides is a synchronous collaborative tool.   It works via a teacher app and a student app. The students join you via a pin code they enter into their devices. Once the student has entered the pin they appear in a class list so as a teacher you can immediately see when they have done a task and how well they did. 

http://edtechdigest.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/interview-getting-cozy-with-near...

When I began teaching many moons ago, one of the first activities that went in my ‘filler tool box’ was one called ‘colour my picture’. The basic aim of which was a speaking exercise based on a black and white photo. The students worked together to decide what the colours are in a black and white photo. They discussed why they thought so and had to agree. Not only a handy filler, but also useful exam practice exercise.  Back then it was black and white photos from newspapers. As technology advanced, computers and digital cameras meant that more photos could be used, students could start to bring in their own and comparisons could be made with original photos. The exercise could also be adapted to paint by number exercise, with students colouring in the pictures. 

Sorry it’s been a few weeks since I posted – what with IATEFL then a holiday (see photos here - all done using an ipad, photos taken in ipad, imovie used to collate them and edit them into video and then uploaded directly to vimeo)  and a growing addiction to dragonvale on the ipad then there simply hasn’t been time .

IATEFL was as ever fun, the Learning technologies SIG was on mobile learning and included an interesting discussion on whether we should talk about mobile learning or mediating mobile use in education. I saved the tweets of the day, which you can find here.

In between everything else, I’ve read a few posts that are definitely worth mentioning. For starters there is the excellent prezi by Clint Stephens which shows off 60 apps for educators. While it is aimed at main stream education, there are definitely a few that ELT professionals can use.  

In a similar vein, the edtechteacher blog lists apps in a handy reference guide according to what you want to do and as such provides another good reference source when looking for suitable apps. 

With so many apps to choose from then knowing how to make the right choice is important and this is what this post from the learninginhand blog tries to address with an excellent post on how to evaluate apps.  You can try that out by the evaluating all the story telling apps that are listed in this blog post. 

So there you go a few things to keep you going, now I wonder if my sun dragon has hatched yet…..

The draw something app has been keeping me amused all week and would be an excellent app for use as a vocabulary game with students.

Draw free (you can pay for an ads free version) brings the classroom time filler and fave whiteboard game of pictionary to the mlearning classroom.

Getting started is easy, you need to give yourself a user name or email and then choose someone to play against. You can play a game against a random player or if you have friends (or in the case of the classroom fellow students) you can invite them to play against you.

Once your game starts you have given the choice of three words to draw. Having different levels of difficulty, the words gain you varying amounts of coins. If none of the words appeal then you can use a 'bomb' to change your choices. But be warned once you run out of bombs you have to carry on regardless.

Having chosen, you then get a white screen on which to draw words - there are five colours you can use and a variable pen size. Once drawn it alerts the person you are playing. They see a video of you drawing the word and you are given the number of letters in the word and a selection of letters. Again you can use the 'bomb' for further help.

Guess the word correctly and win coins. Then the next player gets to draw and so it continues until the chain of guessing is broken and it's game over.

There is, of course, nothing to stop you simply writing the word on the screen but this somewhat spoils the game and I think adopting a no 'writing' rule ale pictionary makes the game more fun.

The words are not difficult in terms of students knowing them but they may have trouble drawing them. Of course it is a bit of disadvantage that you cannot use words that come up in lessons but as a way to either fill some time in the class, or simply to encourage students to engage in English outside of the classroom it is oath day to play and very much fun. In class you can play in teams to help overcome limited devises (or even on a data projector if you only have one). Setting a challenge of how many rounds can you build would add a competitive edge (22 and counting so far). Alternatively who can get the most coins is another way to add challenge (coins open up things such as additional colours).

It is very very addictive so be warned or if you fancy a game just search for my email :-)

[View the story "Sharing apps #ELTchat" on Storify]

“So many great apps out there, & I don't use any explicit language learning apps”

“Some of the best apps for language learning weren't made for language”

And so to another #eltchat summary. On 07.03.2012 possibly inspied the launch of the new ipad  the evening topic was  Share useful Apps and tips for using iPads in the ELT classroom.

There was a previous discussion on the topic earlier this year, which you can read here. 

Advantages of using an Ipad

There are two big advantages 1) Touch screen is very intuitive 2) Speed - very quick to access what you want. Buying a class set is also cheaper than some IWBs.  They are small, lightweight, easily handled by all ages, can do almost everything a laptop can. This makes them good for small group collaboration and puts learning into the students' hands. 

App mentioned during #eltchat: 

iTooch – an app for TOFEL prep

Apps that work with quizlet 

Fetch it – a vocab app for young learners 

Animoto – using photos to make videos with music and text 

Comic puppets -  an app to make comic strips, puppets etc, and here’s a video about it 

Twig –touch dictionary – a visual dictionary

Instagram – Social photo sharing

My Sketch – for drawing

Posterous – a blogging app, syts can blog and share by email (if you moderate it, there is less spam) 

Madpad – good for creating group storyboards

strip design

Peek (goes with evernote and you need an ipad cover) – good for vocabulary revision and self-testing 

Soundcloud – and a blog post about using it 

Talking hippo and Smacktalk - popular with kids & adults - animal photos rather than cartoons repeat your words back to you

Readers for the Ipad 

Puppet pals – make animated movies 

Get across – a free app for practicing phrasal verbs 

Apps for teachers:

Evernote – the multipurpose app that can be used for lesson planning, notes and so on. Skitch is an annotating photo app that goes with it. 

Dropbox – the app that allows you to access your own cloud in the classroom.

Showme, screenchomp, and educreations are all recordable whiteboard apps  

Pronunciation chart  - from the British Council 

It was also noted that an ipad can be good for ones own development I.e. twitter, read it later etc

QR codes

Give the learners questions, and they have to find answers from QRCodes. Kind of treasure hunt

Some advice on creating QR codes, and some more here 

QR code generator

A QR code Xmas treasure hunt 

Some other ideas:

1. iPad can be used with video  to create commercials, digital stories, act as a news reporter, music videos and so on.  In one project -students created videos to define words and upload ed hem to Posterous.

2. Every wk sts can get the #ELTPics theme & take pics as hmwk to support theme. Reinforces voc & learning outside classrm #eltchat

3. The weather apps are great for learning city names in English, Fahrenheit temps, and weather vocab.

4. Tip:  use web based apps that are also apps in case sharing devices! Ex. Edmodo, Posterous, Animoto, Voicethread, Fotobabble, Diigo

5. Use iPad and Evernote for student e-portfolios.  No more piles of paperwork.

6. Get sts take/find several images, import into iMovie app then upload with YouTube. Set a project, text2 images.

7. Get sts to do an App demo presentation in class.

8. My adult students use podcasts from financial newspaper apps

Further Reading:

Teacher reboot camp – 20+ apps for that Promote Student Centered Learning & Literacy

One Ipad is it worth it  - No

Apps for education – a facebook group

@theteacherjames app blog

@shaunwilden app blog

@ElindaGjondedaj teaching with apps blog

Will Ipad 3 change your language learning?

Effective Mobile Learning – 50 Tips ebook

@ELTexperiences lesson plan incorporating an app.

Ipad’s in the classroom

Create your own textbooks for your ipad 

Many teachers dont have ipads but you might consider that sts might have access so it's good to know ones to recommend to them.

And finally....go for generic apps that stimulate creativity rather than specific apps that only perform 1 task. 

This week’s app has to be the ‘The fantastic flying books of Mister Morris “.  If you have been paying attention to the news then you might have heard of it. At the Oscars ceremony, the film won the oscar in the short animated film category.   If you have 15 minutes then go watch it on youtube.

The app (book) came out last year  and is widely regarded by many of one of the best apps yet to grace the Ipad.  It is currently on sale for £2.99 in the itunes store.

If you never use it with students, £2.99 is a snip for an absolutely gorgeous book. With sound, text, and animations it is an excellent example of a multimodal text and as such is a good way to introduce multimodal literacy to the EFL classroom. 

As you can see from the picture, a 'page' has a picture, text and in a gesture controlled animation. However through the menu system on the right you can also jump pages, turn on the audio and sound effects. You can even switch the text off so there is just a picture  or change the text into one of ten languages. All of these options allow for a number of lesson ideas so here are 7 ways you can use it.

1. Pictures only to guess the story - either by screen shooting just a few of the images or  by turrning off the text and audio get the students to work out the story. Then use the pictures to come up with the ideas (or even develop the whole story if the students like writing). Once they have done, they can read / listen to the story and compare.

2. Picture Description

A 'skill' needed for almost all oral exams is picture descption and the book has some wonderfully colourful pictures, perfect for developing spoken skills. 

3. Audio Only - students listen to the story and try to visualise what the pictures are for each page. As well as allowing for creatvity, this checks students comprehension of what they heard.

4. Book versus film - The students read the book on the ipad then watch the youtube clip and talk about any differences and / or how the film was adapted for the app.  Would they have done it the same way? 

5. Translation - since the book has 9 other languages (10 with English) for the written text, students can listen to the English and then compare the translation.

6. Recording the story. Though there are many arguments about the worthwhileness of students reading aloud, students could record themselves telling the story using the written text then compare their way of telling it to the audio.

7. Simply read, listen and enjoy the story making the most of it's features

There a couple of apps produced by Optimum drama presumably as a fun way to use photos that can be utilized for project work in the mlearning classroom.  They are InAWorld…Drama and InAWorld....Comedy. Both cost £1.49.

Both apps turn a chosen set of four photos into a spoof movie trailer. The app give you a set of sentence structures that you can choose from in order to create your dialogue for the trailer and sat at various points you choose a photo to accompany your work. 

It's very easy to use. Once you have chosen to create a trailer, the first step is to give it a title and choose the typeface. You then have to choose your opening line. As you can see from the photo below there is quite the choice, simply tap the one you want to use. 

After that simply choose your music and then review. It's a definite positive that there is a review screen that let's you see all the lines used and photos which allows you to change anyone thing if you want, rather than have to go back and start again. 

Once the review is complete you can watch the trailer. One slightly annoying thing is that in order to get the video to use on your own site you have to upload it to inaworldonline.com and this means making an account. However the whole process is easy and you could also share by facebook or twitter.

So given it provides all the language, how is this of use in the English classroom? Well clearly students could simply use it as part of a ‘film’ lesson.   However like many apps, perhaps it’s best use comes as part of a project.  Put the class into groups and ask each group to come up a trailer. You could set the genre or leave it up to the class. They then work together in English to decide their trailer – they’d need to decide on the photos to use and the story arc of their trailer.  When all groups have done then they share and decide on which fulfils the brief best.

Such a task brings in language work and allows students to consider how a piece of writing is constructed.  The students can use the sentences to analyse areas such as linkers and other discourse markers. In such cases the app acts as a stepping-stone to freer work, with the students using a recording  app to record their own trailer voices afterwards.

Four photos are needed so the students need to collaborate on taking four or finding four. If they are going to use the Internet to find photos then bear in mind copyright. I used pictures from #eltpics on flickr as these have been uploaded for teachers to use.

Pictures used are from eltpics and taken by @aClilToClimb, @ Raquel_EFL, @ pysproblem8, @ dan64pell

As ever there have been a lot of blog posts on m-learning over the last week. So just in case you missed them, here are five I’d recommend to you. I’ve chosen them as they cover a range of m-learning aspects. 

First up a couple of posts that give you some apps to get your teeth into: 

20 Great Apps for Primary Literacy.

The name says it all but don't feel limited by the Primary literacy bit, some of the apps mentioned in here work well in ELT, especially if you like to encourage story writing and telling. I had a number of these apps already including the wonderful toontastic which you can use to make cartoons. Definitely a list of apps worth checking out.

Apps for Learning Grammar Skills

Given our profession, this post is worth looking at to see what kind of apps are available for grammar. Again it is aimed at main stream education but the three apps can cross over and be of use if you teach YL.

Article three is not about apps themselves but how to organize them lifehacker.com suggests a way to organize apps by action rather than a category.

The final two choices are to do with teaching using m-devices.  On the emoderation station, the latest post gives five easy ways to get started towards a mobile classroom.  It outlines simple steps to use the functions of a phone with students, from talking about it through to creating treasure hunts. Finally, the literacy journal blog has an excellent article on using just one ipad in the classroom.  It shows some ways to use it and some apps that lead to collaboration.

Hope you find them as useful as I did to read.

Watching my young niece play with Photocomic made me realize what a good app this is for project work in or out of the classroom. Making comics, magazines and so on has long been a typical classroom project. I remember many years ago asking taking in a pile of old magazines and getting students to cut out pictures to make stories. An app such as Photocomic brings this activity up to date and unlike the magazine allows students to include their own photos. The app works on both the iPhone and Ipad, and costs £1.49 in the UK iTunes store. It a nut shell it allows the user to turn photos in to a comic strip. This can be anything from one picture to a maximum of 5 (admittedly 5 is a bit limiting). You get to choose what layout you want as you can see from the screenshot below.

Having done that the next step is to populate each ''box" with a photo. So at this point the student(s) need to come up with an idea of a story so they can decide the order of the pictures. Adding a picture is simply clicking on the plus (seen above in the middle of the screen) , this opens the photo folder and then you simply choose. Having got the pictures in place the next step is to add text. As it is a comic there is a lovely array of comic book 'words'. You simply click on tool bar and then the sound you want and drag it into place.

The same principle applies to the adding of text, with a simple click to add text. Once ready the finished strip can be saved and shared via email, twitter or email. The good thing about an app such as this is that if the students don't all have access to a pad or phone they can work together. A simple lesson idea would be to give the students a topic and a number of photos they have to include - and then get to work together in groups to produce a strip. The strips are then displayed around the room, collated to produce a student magazine or shared on a blog. In my opinion, an app like this excellent for class use as it is simply and makes use of the camera, app and the ability to share. There are quite a few different ones to look at once you get onto iTunes, so happy comic making.