Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• Students feel motivated to learn using technologies.
• Motivates independent learning.
• Although at the beginning classes with technology demand a lot of time investment, it can save time later.
• Using blogs and groups works as a bank of activities that remains there for further use.
• Lots of paper can be saved.

Disadvantages

• Problems with the Internet connection can be frustrating.
• There are still many places where there is not the necessary equipment.
• Some teachers and students are still reluctant to use technologies for learning purposes.
• Planning classes with technologies is time consuming.
• It is not worth using technology per se, it is necessary to go beyond and explore its pedagogical possibilities.

Links to post at the blog

To test your or your students learning of English
http://culturalcare.ef.com/master/tests/default.asp?ctr=CO&usergroup=18up
http://www.english.language.webpark.pl/test.htm

To listen and read along
http://www.manythings.org/listen/jazz.html

Newspapers
http://independent.co.uk/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/

Dictionaries
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://www.yourdictionary.com/

Listening exercises
http://www.elllo.org/

Vocabulary games (intermediate)
Speedwords
Identifying nouns and verbs: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_nouns-sw.html
Antonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/opposites_2-sw.html
Antonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/opposites_1-sw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_3-sw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_3-mw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_2-sw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_1-sw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_1-mw.html

Matchwords
Suffix: ation: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/temptation-mw.html
Suffix: tion http://www.manythings.org/wbg/creation-mw.html
Suffix: ness: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/awareness-mw.html
Suffix: ly: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/leisurly-mw.html
Suffix: ment: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/movement-mw.html
Suffix: or: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/sailor-mw.html
Suffix: er: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/worker-mw.html
Prefixes: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/prefixes-mw.html
Antonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/opposites_1-mw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_3-jw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_2-mw.html
Homonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_2-jw.html

Jigwords
Prefixes: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/prefixes-jw.html
Antonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/opposites_2-jw.html
Antonyms: http://www.manythings.org/wbg/homonyms_1-jw.html

Grammar
Grammar games: http://www.manythings.org/e/grammar.html
Irregular verbs: http://www.mansioningles.com/gram53.htm

Grammar games
Irregular verbs
Speedwords
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past7-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past7-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past4-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past2-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past1-sw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past1-mw.html

Irregular verbs
Matchwords
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past4-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past3-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past2-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past1-mw.html
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/verbs_past1-mw.html

To practice pronunciation (advanced)
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

Game to practice pronunciation (advanced learners)
http://www.manythings.org/ac/ac.html
http://www.manythings.org/ac/be.html
http://www.manythings.org/ac/win.html
http://www.manythings.org/ac/leap.html
http://www.manythings.org/ac/deep.html

Games
http://iteslj.org/games/

Changing the layout of the blog

• Enter the Internet and type: www.blogspot.com
• Type your email address and the password on the panel page, choose “plantilla”, “escoger nuevo”
• There you take a look at your preferred one and choose it by clicking: “ Utilizar esta plantilla”
  
• You can go to “Configuración” to set up the options of the blog. Elements such as the description of the blog and how you want your blog to be published are chosen here.
  
• Going to “Formato” you can decide on how you want your blog to appear. Number of entries in each page, the language and the date are the options offered here. After choosing your preferences, you should click on “Guardar configuración”
  
• Going to “Comentarios” you can decide on whose comments you want to have published in your blog.
  
• Going to “Permisos” you can authorize the people you want to participate in your blog. You can do this sending and invitation or including them in the list directly.
  
• Going to “Creación de entradas” you can post any number of posts in your blog. And if you want to edit any of the posts, you just go to “Panel”, “Entradas”.

Let's create your own blog

• Type: http://www.blogspot.com/
• Click on: “Crear tu cuenta ahora”
• Type your email address twice
• Type your password twice (minimum 8 characters)
• Write the name you want to show in the blog. For example: Diana
• Type the characters showed at the screen
• Click on: “Acepto las condiciones del servicio”, “continuar”
• Give a title to your blog, for example: “Our English class”
• Write a name for the email address the blog will have, for example: magdalenamedio@blogspot.com
• Click on: “continuar”

Now you have to choose one of the layouts for your blog. Choose the one you like the most by moving up and down. You can change the appearance of the blog later on.

• Then click on: “continuar”

Once you click on: “Empezar a publicar” you have already created your blog and can start to publish whatever you want. Let’s try out some exercises.

• Write a title for your entry, for instance: “I can see clearly now”
• Then click on the empty screen.
• Let’s suppose you are going to post an activity you want your students to work with the song: “I can see clearly now”
• Open another Internet window and type: http://www.ecogoogler/
• Then type: I can see clearly now lyrics
• Click on the Internet site that has the lyrics
• Then cut and paste the address where you found the lyrics. You have to cut the link from the tool bar at the upper part of the screen. eg http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/hardertheycome/icanseeclearlynow.htm
• Then go to the screen that has the blog entry and paste the link.
• Highlight the link and click on the “link” option, then click on “Aceptar”
• Before this link you can write an introduction for your students to know what they are going to do.
• I can see clearly is a romantic song in English by Johnny Nash. Here you can read the lyrics.
• Then you can follow the same procedure you did to post the link of the lyrics, but now you can post the video of the song or the biography of the singer in English. Let’s try it out by typing “I can see clearly now video” in ecogoogler or in www.youtube.com.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPKpmN1EJ_c&feature=related
  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Nash

• After posting all the links you want in the blog entry, you click on: “publicar entrada” and then on: “ver blog”

You can show your students how to create their own blogs and keep in them a diary of their lives, guided by the topics you are working in the class. For example:

About me: my name, age, hobbies, where I live, who I live with.
My family: how many they are, what they do, what they like and don’t, their physical and emotional description
My city:

Another alternative is that you have your own blog to manage and guide the activities you want your students to do: listening exercises, language tests, reading activities, vocabulary games, pronunciation or access to other academic tools like dictionaries, newspapers or links on general.

What is a blog?

Welcome to this BLOG workshop!

We hope you can learn a lot and put in practice all that might be useful for you in your classes.

Let's start by defining what a BLOG is...

The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Weblogs or blogs for short are simply Web based diaries. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger". Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. Often blogs focus on a particular area of interest. Blog systems are designed to be easy to set up and quick to use. If you can use e-mail, then you can use a blog. An important feature of blogs is that readers can add comments on each entry.

How does it work?

You add an entry to a blog and that entry appears at the top on the Web page that the blog produces, previous entries move down the page.

Readers can add comments on each entry so that you will have a kind of conversation in your blog.

What are the educational uses of blogs?

* Use it as a class diary for a specific group of students, as notice-board for a whole cohort, and even as a space for students to write themselves.

* Write a summary of each lesson.

* Add links to Web pages with exercises, explanations, interactive quizzes or demonstrations.

* The blog can be used by students who were at the lesson as a reminder of the main themes (and homework) and as a guide to carefully chosen and relevant Web pages.

* Students who had to miss all or part of the lesson can find a summary, possibly with text-book readings and some links that will enable the student to get the gist of the lesson and be able to join in a little more next week.

* It allows students to communicate themselves outside the boundaries of the classroom and the institution.

http://bodmas.org/blog/ilt-ideas/blogs-in-education-podcast/

What are the advantages of having students writing in a blog format?

* Students may care more about their work, knowing that it will be read by others.

* Students will belong to a larger community than their class, a community where they can share and develop ideas. They may enjoy having readers submit questions and comments to their blogs.

* Students will learn real-world technical skills.

http://www.blogherald.com/2006/12/21/using-blogs-to-teach/

What's a blog for?

In this video you will learn what a blog is for:

http://blogwritingcourse.com/