Welcome to Week#3 of TES531. I enjoyed ‘Hanging out’ with some of
you last Thursday. This week I hope to virtually meet with the rest of
you.
Virtual Office Hours on Sunday, March 22 at 3pm. You can RSVP at: the Google+ Event Page
Watching all of this week’s screencasts and
experimenting with the tools they describe might take a while. Next week will be an easier ‘single-topic’ week, so don’t be
too stressed. Hopefully, you’ll have some time to catch-up next week
if necessary. As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with
questions – before you spend too much time making frustrated faces at
the computer š
Week#3 Tasks
PART 1
Feed Me!
up with the endless stream of great content out there can be
overwhelming. One of the tools that can help us ‘sip from the
firehose’ is an RSS Reader. This is a way to have new content come to
you rather than having to constantly check sites you follow. The
screencast below shows how to use Feedly.com to subscribe to sites you like. It was recorded for last year’s TES531 course, but most of it is still up-to-date.
. Once it’s all set up, you can spend some time exploring the sites in
your Feedly (and perhaps adding others). As always, use Diigo to
bookmark any interesting sites you encounter. By the end of the week,
please create a blog post about useful sites and/or posts you’ve seen
and how you might use them in your teaching and/or learning.
in different parts of the Google Universe.
Google offers a variety of useful tools which are included for free with a Google account. Below
are screencasts that describe some of these tools. There were also
recorded last year, but are mostly up-to-date.
Gmail | Drive | Google Plus & Photos |
Calendar | Translate |
Screencast YouTube Video File |
Screencast YouTube Video File |
Screencast YouTube Video File |
Screencast YouTube Video File |
Screencast YouTube Video File |
- Add a forwarder from your Gmail account to your main email account (if gmail isn’t your main account)
- Create a short Google Presentation (2 slides is OK) , post it on your blog, and make ‘[email protected]’ an editor.
- Upload a photo or two (or 100) to your Google photo space and share them with your TES531 classmates in Google Plus.
- Use Google Translate (online or mobile) and see if it can accurately transcribe you speaking these Pronunciation Practice Sentences and Minimal Pairs
Chrome TOOLS
There are also a variety of ways to ‘extend’ Google’s Chrome browser to add functionality.
You can see all extensions in the ‘Chrome Web Store‘. (despite the word ‘store’, extensions are free)
Below are some CALL-related extensions.
Watch this Screencast Guide>>>: YouTube Video File
Screenreaders
Speakit: Chrome Extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speakit/pgeolalilifpodheeocdmbhehgnkkbak?hl=en
List of other screenreader options at: http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/
Dictionary Extensions
This can be useful for quickly checking the meaning and pronunciation of words online. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-dictionary-by-goog/mgijmajocgfcbeboacabfgobmjgjcoja?hl=en
Other Options
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-chrome-extensions-lookup-words-meanings-browse/
Week#1 & #2 Reminders
If you didn’t get around to doing these yet…
- Use Diigo to bookmark at least three sites of interest from the Megalist Buffet of Websites and the Activity Guide
- Create either a Quizlet Set or a Profprof Quiz and post it on your blog
- See How can I embed videos, presentations, and other items into a post? for information on how to embed something like into a blog post.
- Create a short blog post about your thoughts on activity resources and using them in your teaching and/or learning
(Coming up next week. Feel free to take a sneak peek)
Video
In-class overview of the Video Guide
- Sites that use video for language learning
- Posting Videos on your blog
- Downloading YouTube and other online videos
- Editing videos with Windows Movie Maker
- Watching TV Shows and Movies online
- Screen capturing & sharing