avealmec

Digital course book workshop run by Nik Peachey

Description

Many teachers feel bound by course books and the syllabus and materials it provides. It can stop teachers from experimenting with new approaches or technologies and confine them to often dull and limited materials.

As publishers start to explore how they will move from producing paper based course books to digital ones, perhaps we as teachers can take advantage of this hiatus to explore how we can make that step ahead of them.

This session will explore how we can use web based resources to replace the kinds of tasks and activities we commonly see published in course books and in so doing free ourselves from the limitations of published materials and open up a world of real communication, creative tasks and authentic materials for our students.

Biodata

Nik is a freelance educational consultant, writer and teacher trainer specialising in web based technologies for language learning and development.
He has been involved in English language teaching since 1992 and has worked all over the world for companies like the British Council, International House and IATEFL. As well as working as teacher and teacher trainer, he has also been involved in managing a number of online and software projects including websites for teacher development, CD-ROM projects and has developed online and blended learning courses for the web and for virtual worlds such as Second Life. 

Guidelines for participation

This is a face to face event jointly organized by the British Council - Venezuela and AVEALMEC in order to explore different e-tools to create Digital Course Books. The event will take place at the British Council on the 12th and 13th, February, from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm with one hour for lunch break.

Please note the workshop itself is free of charge, but limited to 11 places.

These are the requirements you need to meet:

1. to be a foreign language teacher with an advanced level of English.

2. to have Web 2.0 skills and be familiar with several Web 2.0 tools.
3. to be involved in IT projects or have designed online lessons using Web 2.0  tools (You need to send your links).
5. to have a special interest in taking part of AVEALMEC events and projects actively.

We will choose the first 11 people who first sent email with the following information:

I am interested in participating in this event and fufill the follwoing requeriments:

1) I am foreign language teacher and have advanced level of English.
2) I have Web 2.0 skills and I am familiar with the following tools (mention at least 6).
3. I am involved in IT projects using Web 2.0 tools. Here's the URL: (You can add all the URLs you want)
4. I have designed online lessons using Web 2.0 tools. Here's the URL: (You can add all the URLs you want)
6. How you can actively participate in AVEALMEC?
7. Name:
8. University / High school / Primary School / Language Institution (name)


Note for Executive Board AVEALMEC members and Co-AVEALMEC members:

    * To take part in this event you need to have your membership payment up-to date.

You need to send an e-mail with the information required before the 24th January 2010 to:
Miguel Mendoza: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Once we have made a decision, on the basis of the criteria stated above, we will inform you as soon as possible.

If you get selected to attend this workshop and you cannot attend it for unforeseen reasons, please let us know immediately so that we can offer your place to someone else on the waiting list.

Teadira Pérez
Miguel Mendoza
Elvina Castillo
Evelyn Izquierdo
On behalf of AVEALMEC

Participants

1. Teadira Pérez

2. Dafne González

3. Evelin Izquierdo

4. Miguel Mendoza

5. Maricarmen gamero

6. Rosynella Cardozo

7. Yohimar Sivira

8. Yuraimig Rivero

9. Gabriel García

10. Edward Hammond

11. Rubena St. Louis

12. José Pernía 

The workshop was aimed at exploring Web 2.0 tools in terms of creating Digital Course Books to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. In this two-day hands-on workshop we had the opportunity of navigating different e-tools and looking at how we could integrate them to foreign language learning and teaching.
These are some of the tools we looked at:

Todaysmeet – back channelling e-tool
http://todaysmeet.com/
Penzu –  to create an online private journal.
https://penzu.com/
Posterous – a blog to share ideas, videos, photos, mp3, and files.
http://posterous.com/
Primary pad – a collaborative online word processor
http://primarypad.com/
280 slides - create online slides, access them easily and share them with your friends.
http://280slides.com/
Flickrpoet – write a text and flickr will find matching photos to create your story.
http://www.storiesinflight.com/flickrpoet/index.php
Phrasr – write a text and Phrasr will find matching images for you.
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/
Safeshare – edit your videos before sharing them
http://www.safeshare.tv/
Bookr - create and share your photobooks
http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/
Tokbox- multimedia chatting
http://www.tokbox.com/
Google battle – try this tool to make your students aware of how vocabulary or grammar is used.
http://www.googlebattle.com
Twurdy- twurdy the web and search for topics:
http://www.twurdy.com/search.php
Tagbul – multimedia search engine
http://tagbulb.com/
Simply box – visual bookmarking.
http://simplybox.com/
Wallwisher – an online notice board maker (post notes, videos, pictures).
http://wallwisher.com
Cuepromter – copy and paste a text selection and control reading speed.
http://www.cueprompter.com
WordMagnets – play with grammar
http://www.triptico.co.uk/flashFiles/wordMagnets/WordMagnets.html
Memorize now – copy and paste a text selection from the web, start deleting words and try to remember them.
http://www.memorizenow.com/
Cloze test creator - copy and paste a text selection from the web and choose what words your want to omit.
http://l.georges.online.fr/tools/cloze.html
Wordia – visual dictionary
http://www.wordia.com/  
Flickriver – picture dictionary
http://www.flickriver.com/
Blachan – visual dictionary – images with content
http://blachan.com/shahi/  
Wordnik – Definitions, examples, pronunciations, etymologies, related statistics, comments.
http://www.wordnik.com/  
Howjsay – pronunciation dictionary
http://howjsay.com/
Forvo – pronunciation dictionary
http://www.forvo.com
Spellingcity – get your words spelled correctly and play with them
http://www.spellingcity.com
A wallwisher to Nik
http://wallwisher.com/wall/saythankstoNik

Nik Peachey asked us to think about ways of digitalising text book tasks and integrating the e-tools covered during the workshop, Mike and me (Tea) met and found ways of digitalising one unit using a Wiki.

An example of a digital course book:

Only Unit 6 is available:

http://dibook.intodit.com/

Please include your digital course book link here and add a brief description of it (send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )