www.starfall.com as an ICT resource

Introduction

I would like to introduce you to starfall.com which is a website designed to develop phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Starfall.com address groups of students in the younger years like preschool, kindergarten, first and second grade and ESL learners. The website presents four different levels of learning. They are leveled as followed;

·         the alphabet (ABC); with speech sounds

·         when you first start to read

·         when you read shorter texts

·         when you are reading

www.starfall.com for teachers

The website shows different strategies of English learning. With the Starfall ABC you develop a phonemic awareness since the whole alphabet is based on speech sounds. The next step is to apply letters into your first words, also based on speech sounds, when you first start to read. All the exercises are on levels from beginner to advanced.  Teachers can choose to do these exercises in class (everyone), one-to-one with a couple of students or in groups of just students. All the material online has teachers manuals and downloads for further, more advanced studies.

www.starfall.com for students

The students might use Starfall for improving their pronunciation and to get a better understanding of letter-sound relationships and all this with child-directed instructions. They can play word games, sing songs and do different tasks according to subject. The pictures are colorful and funny, and the sounds are happy and motivating for students to copy and later on to learn.

Considerations when using www.starfall.com

When you first start using Starfall it is essential to be oriented and familiar to the website before introducing it to the students. This is to avoid students starting at a level that is too easy or too hard to work with. With both ways it can be frustrating and boring instead of motivating, educational and fun!

// Jenny Engkvist

A comment to the active board blog

I think that active boards are good ICT recourses too. You have everything in the classroom, access to movies, newspaper clippings, facts, photos and much more. It is an inspiring working that I think will appeal to students to. They are accustomed to look on the computer screen and to have access to many things quickly.

If the teacher is proficient in the use of active boards, there are many things that can make them easier to implement, for example to send home completed lessons on activeboarden to students who are absent.

There are many advantages, but I would also mention the disadvantages, or perhaps the barriers to the use of active boards. When you talk about the economy and particularly bad economy in the world of school, we have to learn to argue and to prioritize our purchases. Active Boards are incredibly expensive to buy in to the schools. We need much knowledge to use them to and the time for teachers is also widely reported.

If the active boards are purchased, it is great demands on teachers to learn to deal with them. This means that much time must be added to this. The use of active boards may look very different in different classrooms. A teacher who is very interested in it, adding a lot of time to learn, certainly given a lot of private time when he or she think it is interesting, while another does not. So it is with everything, of course, the interest of teachers affect learning and more. But because it is so expensive tools, it is important that everyone use them to all the benefits you have to work to compensate for the expensive price. You have to take up the pros and cons and weigh them against each other. Can we afford this and the staff will sacrifice time and effort. If it is doubtful we should probably look for other options that can suit finances and operations.

ICT in English Teaching - Group 4: Active board as an ICT resource

ICT in English Teaching - Group 4: Active board as an ICT resource: Active board as an ICT resource What the Active board is, how it works and what you need to make it work : Active boards are fantastic tool...

AV-media

AV-media – A great resource for teachers in Sweden

I would like to recommend the resource where teachers in Sweden can borrow films, see
films streamed and listen to recordings. It is through the site sli.se you have
access to this and there are links between sli.se and AV-media. AV-media has
different addresses depending on where you live in Sweden but they are listed
on www.sli.se. You have to do a registration as a teacher. You got to have a computer with internet connections.
When you enter the site you can log on and then get access to a lot of different media.
You can search for titles, subjects and different media forms. If you got a
projector in your classroom that is connected to your computer, you can show
streamed films to a whole group or class. If you do not have the possibility to
watch films streamed, AV-media distribute their material to your school. When
you search for material you can see if it is available as streamed, VHS, DVD or CD.
Teachers can use this in many ways. There is almost a film in every subject you might want
and there are sound recordings too. I use it to show one of the English series called “The Ghost Hunter”. The pupils watch it together and then they list words and expressions they don’t know and look them up. They talk in groups about what has happened in the story and how
they think it is going to continue. Sometimes I give them writing tasks too.
The pupils I work with are from 10 to 12 years old.
Sometimes we use the resource to listen to English news. It is called “Newsreel Junior”. This
radio show comes from ur.se and there you can print both scripts of and
questions on the news. The recording is adapted to young learners so they talk very clearly. I think that is good for a start but I think you have to present news from real English news shows after a while.
Pupils can get access to the resource if you make an account for them. Then they can watch
or listen on an internet connected computer at school or at home. In other words,
if your pupils got internet connections at home, you can give them a film or
recording to watch or listen to for homework. I have not done this with my
pupils myself but I guess it is a good idea to look through it very closely
first.
There are lots of other things you can do on these sites. You can find courses for
teachers and you can start blog groups with your pupils. There are lots to do
and lots of information on how to do it. If you still don’t know how to do
something or have questions about anything there are people you can get in
touch with and they will help you. I think it is a wonderful resource to be
used in many ways and I think it is easy to use. //Monica Lundahl

The ICT resourse:Skype

Hi everyone!

The ICT resource that I have been using when I have my English lessons (I’m studying to become a teacher) is Skype. I’m fortunate enough to know an American family living in the USA and they have children that can Skype with my students. The really good thing with this family is that the children are being homeschooled, so we can work together. The American children will get a task from me and their mother to, for example explain how they celebrate Christmas in the USA. Then we all will Skype together with them so they can tell my class about Christmas in the USA.

In order to use Skype you have to be a member and know someone else that also is a member. If both of you are online you can just call them up and start a video chat with them. To be able to make this work you need a computer with internet access, a web camera and audio. The program is free to download from www.skype.com and it does not cost anything to use it.

This resource can be used together with the teachers and everyone in the class. Or if you want the students to practice talking to an English speaking person you can have them talking one and one on Skype. The students can practice making themselves understood. And if you are lucky to have a class from another country as a pen pal, the student can both see and talk to their pen pals.

This resource is harder to use if you do not know people living in another English speaking country. But if you do know people this resource is so appreciative to use. The students really enjoy seeing other children and talk about how they live. For a lot of the students it’s eye-opening seeing and hearing about how they live in other countries. This tool makes everything seem more real for the students when they can interact with other English talking people.

/Malin Karlsson

Smart Response as an ICT resource

Since spring 2007 I have used a Smart board (an interactive whiteboard) in my classroom. Sometimes I also use an interactive response system. With the push of a button on their wireless remotes, students can instantly tell how much they know. They do not need to raise their hands and wait to give their responds. Everybody answers at the same time.

How it works
Smart Response interactive response system combines handheld wireless remotes (or clickers), a receiver and assessment software that allows the teacher to create test and manage, track and evaluate the results. Questions may be oral or shown at the IWT (interactive whiteboard). The students respond with their remotes. They can be anonymous or log in with a personal ID. The result can be saved or shown with tables and charts.

What you need to use this resource
To use Smart Response you need a Smart board with the software Notebook (where Response is an integrated part), a set of handheld wireless remotes and a receiver that connects into an available USB receptacle on your computer.

The Smart Response interactive response system is available in four models to suit a variety of learning environments, such as 1:1, K-12, early education, special needs and advanced math and science. Our school uses a model called Smart Response PE interactive response system, which is suitable for K-12 classrooms. Our system consists of 24 remotes and one receiver stored in a bag that makes it easy to move the system between different classrooms.

How teachers and pupils can use this response system
The Smart Response system makes it easy to prepare quizzes, tests and exams or spontaneously add questions to lessons. The software allows you to create your own test material that can be integrated into any lesson or assessment activity. Compile tests for formative and summative assessment, prepare quizzes or exams in advance and ask spontaneous questions to gauge student comprehension at any point during a lesson. Design assessments using six question types – true or false, yes or no, multiple choice, multiple answer, numeric and text response.

You can also choose from hundreds of ready-made Smart Response question sets available on Smart's education website (www.exchange.smarttech.com or www.smartklubben.se), or import question and quizzes from third-party software applications, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and PDFs.

Once students respond to questions using their remotes, the software summarizes results in a pie chart or bar graph. This instant response enables the teacher and students to see if the majority of answers are correct, or if further review is required. By seeing results right away the teacher can adjust the teaching on the fly and be assured that every student in the classroom understands the lesson.

The results are also automatically added to the built-in gradebook and saved in a single file, which helps organize the data. The teacher can create reports, from pie charts showing individual student achievement, to bar graphs comparing class performance. Teachers can generate PDF reports or export results to Microsoft Excel.

All students can respond to the same question at the same time. The response system is a useful tool to investigate student opinions or knowledge. It can also be used at parent meetings or conferences to easily gather opinions and get an instant visual basis to discuss.

Considerations before using this resource
The Smart Response interactive system may seem as rather expensive equipment for a school to invest in. But the system is mobile and can easily be moved between classrooms. One system is sufficient for several classes.

It is also important to consider what type of questions that are used in teaching. Are the questions designed correctly? Do the questions provide answers of what is meant to be investigated? What is measurable?

Therese Lennhager

voki.com

I would like to recommend to you voki.com. It is a fun and motivating website where your students, and you as a teacher, creates an avatar (almost like a virtual cutout doll).  It is a motivational and creative way of learning.

It can be used in many ways in a school. For example the student make presentations of themselves in the classrooms, with other schools or in a classroom half around the world. Some students, for instance, don´t like to talk in front of others, here they get help from a voki. As a teacher you can use a voki to make a different introduction to a lesson or a project or maybe put on a blog.

The students need computers (with internet connections), microphones and help to register. You

will need an e-mail address and a password to register.  Then they create their voki by choosing clothes, hair, voice, backgrounds…

The voice they record directly or include a sound file. The student can also type, and the computer reads it out loud, sometimes this sounds a bit funnyJ. This you can have great discussions about. The recording limit is one minute and you can choose the language that you want.

For teachers, voki.com, have a whole lot of ideas and lesson planning’s for you to get started. As a teacher you need a big portion of patience and please do not try to get at whole class of 20 to get started at the same time, but when you got started and the students starts to get a hang of it, you will get creative young learners!

Anna-Maria Wennberg