TIMELINE

Hello everyone ! 

This post is the last task of the term and we're supposed to write about one of the useful tools we've seen and experienced in the class.. I chose  Timeline for you ! :)

As a beginning, let me describe what timeline is. Timeline is a graphic design displaying a list of events in chronological order.

Timelines enable us to visualize the historical events, daily routines or sth done step by step horizontally on a line.

Let's look at how Timeline welcomes us :

Before start to create your own timeline, you can see  date, time and event timetable examples on this page. 

Now, let's create a daily routine timeline.

By clicking on a point on the line, I create an event box with an image, a label (name/title of the event), a short discription and a full description for printout.




 I click on finish after complete creating all events.

Lastly,as you see, I can save my daily routine timeline or send an e-mail. The document format is PDF. 

A Useful Mindmap Tool : BUBBL

Bubbl is an online web tool that enables users to create brainstorming diagrams and mindmapping online. Ideas and thoughts are recorded in colorful text bubbles linked to the main bubble. It is simple and easy to make digital mindmaps with bubbl.

Brainstorming is a great way of solving problems and coming up with new ideas. And the basic concept behind brainstorming is to capture ideas as quickly as possible. So, at that point, creating mindmap is an efficient part of the brainstorming process. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those. Mind maps can be used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas when you study and organize information, solve problems, make decisions, and write.

For example, when we prepared for a presentation about this tool, we created a mindmap on bubbl showing what we should tell to the audiences in our presentation..  We didn’t have a difficulty thanks to easiness of the tool but rather we got ideas on the content of the presentation easily and swiftly.. 


As you can see, I can embed that mindmap here. So, it's an important advantage of the tool.
Also, you can export the mindmaps as JPEG or you can share them via e-mail..

It's possible to choose the color or the size of the bubbles.

And lastly.. You know, a tool is just a tool.. So we should know how can we use it efficiently in our classes... Mind mapping triggers students’ creativity, also it attracts students’ attention.
When compared to traditional writing , mind-mapping technique is a powerful tool for improving students’ ability to generate, visualise and organise ideas mind-maps can be used to generate ideas, take notes, develop concepts and ideas, and improve memory.

      

TALK TO THE WORLD BY USING HELLOTALK

Hi guys ! :) I'm going to talk about an useful application for English language learning. 

If you want to use the language for communication, your grammar and vocabulary knowledge is not sufficient for an efficient communication. So, you need to practice with the people. For example, when I was at 9th grade, I wasn't able to write a long sentence or convey my ideas or even, introduce myself by speaking. Then, my teacher suggested me to acquire penpals from the other parts of the world. I searched and found a website which enables me to chat with people from all over the world. I had so many friends. They were from New Zealand, Poland, Finland, Malaysia, China, Indonesia etc. Also, I had two snail mail friends thanks to that website. But after years, we have an easier way to have friends and practice in English. For example, Hello Talk is an application to talk to the people from all over the world. 

                                      

 You have a profile on Hello Talk. On that screen, your native language and the languages in which you want to practice, your age, gender etc. can be seen. 

 You can add friends but it's not necessary to chat..
 On HelloTalk, it's possible to send voice records,photos,videos and emojis..
 If there is any grammar or vocabulary mistake in your sentences, the person you chat with can write the correct form and you see it. This immediate feedback is important and nice in terms of language improvement. 

Let's go to the app, find me there and start to practice English with me ! ;)

A Digital Story: Lassie ! :)

Hellooo everyone ! :)

You know, we have a project in our Technology and Material Design course everyweek. And this week, we created a digital story with my dear friend Özgenur.

Before you watch our digital story video, I want to tell you something about digital storytelling and the process of our digital storytelling adventure :)

What is Digital Storytelling?

    Digital storytelling is a combination of text, voice narration, music, sound effects, images and graphics to create a fictional or non-fictional multimedia narration.

The process of digital storytelling provides a high-quality learning experience because it can help for the improvement in language skills of the students. 

They write a story by using their creativeness and imagination world. Then they narrate the story with the help of voice recorder. And later, they can draw the pictures. If you provide the storyboard for your students as a teacher, the drawing process will be easier. Also, there so many animation websites or tools for creating  a digital story. You should remind them that they must choose a music and add effects.
After all of these steps, they can put the text, narration, visual items and music together with transitions. They'll use an animation program or a software like movie maker for the last step. 

Our Digital Storytelling Process

We used an  animation website named GoAnimate. After writing our story, we started to choose our visual items GoAnimate. At the same time, we recorded our voices and choose a music. We put them together but after all of these, we noticed that downloading the video for free or share it on youtube is not possible. So, we had to use a program to record our video. Then we opened recorded video with Movie Maker, add the voice records and music on it. 

In consequently, we had some difficulties but we enjoyed on this task. :)

Let's watch our digital story ! :)
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A GREAT WEBSITE TO IMPROVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

Hi everybody ! :)
You know, we can improve our language skills thanks to technology and there are so many efficient websites for ESL learners and teachers. This week I want to tell you about one of them : Easy World of English. 

Easy World of English was designed by a a group of young experienced teachers with the leadership of Marco Castillo. They want to allow us to learn English in an easy and comfortable way.
Their mission is to facilitate communication through better understanding and use of English through their multi-media online website. They has been designed it to help the students and teachers.
The website has four main heading : Grammar , Pronunciation, Readings and Picture Dictionary.

The Grammar section is based on three levels. Each grammar lesson begins with an explanation part and then, gives so many examples. You can see and listen the example sentences in different forms. There is a quiz at the end of the lesson to check your understanding. If your score is less than %80, they recommennd you to repeat the quiz.

The Pronunciation section is divided into 6 main units : Alphabet, Minimal Pairs, Numbers, T&D Sounds, Special endings and Verbs.
Students can improve their pronunciation skills by listening and repeating.

The Readings section is divided into beginner, intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. The readings were selected from common topics, expressions and general vocabulary used in The United States. Each reading passage can be listened. So, the students improve their listening skill at the same time. The passages include quizzes to check students' comprehension.

Finally, The Picture Dictionary has been divided into fourty-seven themes including commonly used words illustrated pictures and accompanied by pronunciation. The site enhances students' vocabulary learning process by providing both visual and audial items. So, the students can improve their pronunciation,  spelling and vocabulary progress.




Consequently, I like EWE and recommend it to the teachers. It is a good resource to help the students' English language skills. Especially the EFL teachers who have a smartboard or delineascope in their classrooms can use this website efficiently in reading, vocabulary and listening activities. 

DO YOU KNOW RSS ?

Hi everybody! You're going to read something about Rss on this post ! :)

I think you saw the orange symbol of RSS so many times but you don't know what it represents. I want to explain it to you with a concrete example. :) Well, you like reading blogs and you visit them from time to time. When you write the link of one of the blogs on the adress bar or click on the bookmark , you don't know if the blogger have shared any new post or not. Then, you do the same things for the other blogs. But you aren't aware of the time wasted. So, you do some research about this problem and find out RSS :) After that, you can follow new posts on the sites that you want to follow.
There are so many RSS Readers. I use an online reader service, Feed Reader. I write the blogs' names and then, i can see the new feeds on them.

                                                                                     The blogs that I want to follow 

WIKI PROJECT

Hello everybody ! :)

This week, Özgenur and me want to share our Wiki project. We were supposed to prepare a film review for the magazines on wikispace. So, we created a wiki page which includes some information and our recommendations about Three Idiots. This activity was enjoyable but a bit hard for us while we were writing the review. I think it can be beneficial for the EFL learners in writing tasks. Watching a film and comment about that with a friend may sounds funny to the students..

We hope you'll read our review about Three Idiot and enjoy it :)  

WATCH THE TRAILER ! :)