SECOND LIFE

             

           This week, the topic was Second life. It is one of the most interesting applications I have learnt. The second life was developed by Linden Lab in 2003. It  is an online virtual world where users can interact with each other via their avatars. Each avatar stands for a real person. Also, every place you visit is built by people. Everything you see there is real.

           You can start the game with creating an avatar for you. Also, you can decide its features such as weight, height, hair etc. you can talk with your friend as in real life. Moreover, thanks to your avatar, you can earn money.

           In the lesson, we watched a video about it. Then, we downloaded it to the computers but we did not manage to do everything in it, it is hindered. Also, MEB does not allow it because it is thought to be harmful.

            

 

WEEBLY…

           

            This week, the topic was Weebly. It is one of the easiest way of creating a website. As I said, creating a website via weebly is very easy. We can add text, photos, videos to our website easily by dragging and dropping them into place. For example, if you want to add an image, drag & drop the image and find a picture from your files: that’s all

           

           In the lesson, we signed it up and it is free. After we signed up, we selected a theme and we gave a title to our website. We chose a domain for it as well. Then, we add some pictures, videos to our websites. If you want to add your blog in it, you drag and drop RSS image which is in the left side and write your wordpress address there.

           In conclusion, working with weebly is very easy and amusing.

PODCASTING

       

             

             This week, we talked about Sugata Mitra in the first hour of the lesson. Then, the teacher gave information about Podcasting.

            Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines podcasting as ” the process of making digital recordings of radio programmes which people can download from the internet”. Incidentally, it is a portmentou word. It is the blending of ‘ipod’ and ‘broadcast’. Morever, our teacher showed some websites about the topic. The first one was eltpodcast.com.

                     In that site, there are lots of listening materials for language students.

            The second one was ‘ NPR.org’. It is USA’s National Public Radio.

                              This is a good site to develop listening skill but It can be difficult to use it in class because all the conversations are in the target language. And the last site was audioboo.fm. We signed it up in the lesson.There are lots of listening materials. Also, we can record our audio files via it. It is not free if your record lasts for more than 3 minutes.

                                          

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

         We are our stories. We compress years of experience, thought and emotion into a few compact narratives that we convey to others and tell to ourselves.                  

                                                                                                                                  Daniel Pink      

          The topic of the week was about Digital storytelling. It is the application of using computer-based tools to make and tell stories. Thanks to this application, we can make our own stories as well. Then, the teacher showed us several sites related to the topic. To give an example, the first one was storynory.com.

                  

          It is a free website of audio stories. If you visit the site, you will find lots of good and funny stories under different titles.

          The second one was storyjumper. It is a place to create and discover stories. We signed it up in the lesson and we tried to make a story in the lesson

                          

           We can make e-books via it. There are some sections on the left like props, scenes, photos. We can choose whatever we want to add our story. For example we can get photos and use them in our story. When we want to change the character’s side like from right to left, there is a ‘flip’ key on it. However, there is one important thing that you must do. Your story is not saved automatically, you must save it using the key at the bottom of the page.

         And Dfilm.com ( Dvolver )

         It lets us make our own movies using moviemaker. We can select animated characters, background, skies, a soundtrack and we can add dialogue. Then, our movie will be ready. We can save it and send our e-mail as well.

                     

PREZI

        My name is Elif Olacakoğlu. I am from Bolu. I started my education in Behiye Baysal Primary School. Then, I went to Canip Baysal High School. And now, I am studying in Abant İzzet Baysal University, department of English Language Teaching. This is my last term in the university as well.

         http://prezi.com/psttb8y9zrwk/elif-olacakoglu/

 

WizIQ , Google + & Google Hangouts

           

       The first topic was wizIQ. It is an online teaching setting for teachers and students. Thanks to this setting, the teacher can create courses, it is very simple. But there is one limitation of this setting. Unless you use premium account, you can only add 10 students to the each course. However, its advantages are more. For example, when the teacher makes a presentation, the students can see what the teacher is doing on their computers that are connected. There is a ‘raise hand’ part. If the teacher asks a question during the presentation or if you have a question to her/him, you click ‘raise hand’ and start to talk. Also, there is a white board part. You can do whatever you want with it.

       After that the teacher talked about Google Plus . Google +  which is like Facebook is a social website. And Google Hangouts. You use this application with your Gmail account. It gives you chance to communicate with others by using a microphone and a camera only. You can do online speaking activities via it as well.

          

NICENET, EDMODO, DOKEOS and PREZI

         The teacher gave information about different topics. A very informative lesson it was. The first topic he mentioned was NICENET. It is a communication tool which can be used for teaching by all educators. It is like Edmodo and it is a non-profitable organisation as well. Then, the second one was DOKEOS. At the beginning of the course, we were using it but there were some problems that some students face , so we began to use Edmodo instead of it. Also, there was one problem very important. When the site renews, we can lose our data .At one time, Dokeos was free ,but now it is not. And EDMODO: we use it in our course. As is known, we can create different groups for different courses, we can prepare quizzes, surveys. The last topic was PREZI. We signed it up in the lesson. It helps us create Presentations but it is not like traditional slide based presentations, Prezi is much better than it if we learn to use it. However, there is one problem with it. If you want to change something on your presentation that you prepare with Prezi, you have to go on the internet to change and then you have to download it to your computer again.

HOT POTATOES

         This week, I did not attend the class because of some reasons. But I learned the topic from my friends. The topic was ‘HOT POTATOES’, I missed one of the most important lessons I think. I hope the teacher will revise the topic again. I talked with my friends about it and they said: ‘after creating a free account, you can prepare quizzes, close tests, exams etc.’. Then, I searched it on the internet also. I learned more about it. Hot Potatoes includes 6 applications that create exercises. These are: JCloze, JCross, JMatch, JMix , Jquiz and Masher. As it is understood, it enables us to create interactive multiple-choice, short answers, crossword, matching, gap-filling exercises etc. So, I can benefit from this application and prepare activities with the help of it in the future.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

         The topic of the week was Online Communities of Practice. Firstly, the teacher showed some definitions of it and gave information as well. For this, there must be common communication point and aim is how to do something better. In these groups there are experts, people entered new as well.

         Later, I learned Webheads. It is a community of online language teachers and learners since 1998. It has nearly 1100 members in the world. If you want to create or become a webhead, you must get a Yahoo account. Then, the teacher talked about Dropbox. It is good for people working with several computers and you don’t need to carry external disc. I can say Dropbox  is like a hard disc but in the internet. The only thing that you need is to create an account for it. Then, you add files that you want in it and you can reach them whenever and wherever you are. So,this is a very useful service I think. The last topic was Delicious. It is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. It has been used since 2003. Like Dropbox service, it is also free. This week, thanks to this lesson I learned very useful services that I had not heard before.

THE WEEK’S TOPIC: MOBILE APPLICATIONS

          This week, the topic was mobile applications. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher talked about blogger and he said the reason why he chose wordpress instead of it. Morever, he informed us about some dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster. Also, Kingsoft Office: It is nearly the same as MS Office. Later, I signed in Socrative. It is a good application to use in class to get  immediate feedback from the students. We can login it both as a teacher and as a student. As a teacher  we can create quizzes, ask questions. As a student, we go a room with a room number given by the teacher and do whatever s/he wants. This week I have a task about this as well. In the second lesson, he informed us about Qr (quick response) code. I do not have a smart phone, so it is all Greek to me. For this application, we must have smart phone and barcode scanner application. We use phone’s camera to scan the barcode and then we can load the information in it. This week the lesson was very informative like the others. The applications that I’ve learnt are very useful I think.