Make an ePal

     Have you ever had a pen pal?  Waiting for the reply from the pen pal is always exciting, isn't it?
     How about a pen pal from a different country, culture, and background?  ePals makes making a pen pal, or that's say "ePal", a possible thing!

Photo by ihave3kids 

     This is a helpful tool for language learns.  L2 learners can continue learning their target languages out of class as well.  Just click on the Collaborate column, and you will see ePals Classrooms, which are available.  This is a good way to make friends all over the world.  Besides, it is a option to do language exchange.  What if I were the teacher of a language class, I would ask my students to make an ePal on this community website.  I will not require them to show me their mails, which received from their ePals.  However, in order to make sure they are really doing this assignment, I will ask them to ask help from their ePals to send at least one postcard from their countries, so that I can be certain that students do make ePals on-line, and practice using the language.   There is one thing I regard important.  If the teacher plans to make this a task in class, it will be better if the teacher can help the students to check the ePals they choose.  This prevent them from beinig cheated or scammed.


     What is more, I personally like the Storrytelling part of this website.  It provides not only the guideline on how to tell a good story, but also some interesting links for the students to make their own stories.  All of the links are easy to operate, and there are various options for students to choose from.  It can be making an animation cartoon or write a story.  The teacher can take some teaching idea from this website as well.

Do it Differently

In the past, students learn things from the textbook.  Nowadays, it is an old-fashioned way doing that.  With the help of technology, teaching/learning can be more interesting and interactive!


Here is an example, which was made by me on Strip Generator.

What is Your Hobby? by chingwen722


The feature of this tool is that there are many scene, characters, items, and so on, for the user to choose.  Thus, the teacher can create his/her own work based on the need in class.  Besides, not only the teacher, but also the students can find it really easy to use.  Therefore, it is possible that the teacher assigns students to make one by themselves as homework.


I think the tool is ideal for teaching conversation.  Students can take roles in the comic, and practice speaking with their peers.  The teacher can set a goal on specific grammatical structure of phrase that s/he wants to teach, and ask students to practice using it.  Take the comic above, for example.  If I were the teacher, I will focus on the "What is your hobby?" sentence, and ask students to work with a partner to practice using it in the conversation. They also have to take turn playing rold A and B.  In this way, I can make sure that each person knows how to ask and answer this specific phrase.

Let's start using this updated tool in class!

Use Digital Storytelling Tool in a Language Class

Here is my self-made sample of digital storytelling book.




This is how I am going to use this in my class: First, show my students the process of planning a trip.  Second, tell them one of my experiences in planning a trip.  Third, ask them to plan a trip, and to write it down.

By showing them the words and pictures together, I believe that they will have a clearer idea about what the teacher is talking about.  Students can learn some travel-related vocabulary at this part as well.  Besides, for students, it is always good to listen to a lecture with lively material. After showing them the slides on Bookr, I will tell them one of my stories.  It could be either the problem I encountered while planing the trip, or what I have seen during the trip.  I feel that by doing this, the students can feel that they are really learning something useful and can be applied in their daily life.  Last but not least, I will ask them to write down their own trip plan.  This trains their writing skill, too.  What is more, they will be asked to do a presentation with the help of digital storytelling tool.  They can share their ideas with peers, and it makes the presentation much fun!

The objectives of this activity will primarily be improving the students' listening, writing, and speaking skill.  They will have to listen to the teacher's introduction of how to plan a trip first.  Then, to write down their own projects.  Finally, they will be asked to show their ideas with peers on the stage.

Tell a Story in a Digital Way

Digital storytelling, what is it?

Photo by Scottish Libraries


The article, 7 Things You Should Know About Storytelling, states the concept of it: Digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a sort movie, typically with a strong emotional component.  It is also explained here (Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling) that "Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories."  Now we have a better idea about what is it, but for whom is the tool can be used?  The answer is "Anyone who has a desire to document life experience, ideas, or feelings through the use of story and digital media" (Center for Digital Storytelling).

     Since it is a computer-based tool, the language teacher has an easy access to it, and can apply it in the class to help the learners.  Through using the digital storytelling tool, students can easily combine what they have seen with what the teacher expects them to learn.  This helps students who learn with visual/spatial intelligence, especially.  Besides, with the help of this tool, it is likely that students will not feel bored because the pictures/photos can catch their attention if the teacher pick the suitable and attractive ones.  It is a tool for every level of language class.

Are you ready?

Let's tell a story!

Let's Tweet!

There are more and more tools, which can be used on teaching and learning, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

I’ve heard about Twitter, a kind of microblog, a long time ago, but not until I learned how to use it and read the artile: How Twitter will revolutionise academic research and teaching, do I realize how potentially it can be used in teaching/learning. 

I personally feel that Twitter is suitable for students to turn in vocabulary assignment.  What if I was the teacher, I would upload a new word or phrase, and ask the students to write down its meaning and make a sentence.  Since every tweet is limited to 140 characters, and the answer to the assignment is going to be short, it would be a perfect tool to apply.

Besides, the function of @name of Twitter is a really convenient.  The teacher can directly reply to specific student and give suggestion or make correction, and s/he can make sure that the student sees the reply. This function can save time and make things easier.

What’s more, the hashtag function helps people to search a precise category they are looking for.  Once the students click on the hashtag, they can reply to the particular question directly, which makes it organized and time-saving. 

For teachers, they can receive the latest educational concept since they can follow educators on Twitter.  Also, they can reply to the tweet and have discussion with other education experts.  

You can learn more advantages and ways of using Twitter as a teaching tool by reading 28 Creative Wyas Teachers Are Using Twitter.

Networking Webstie

     I just found this website, EFL Classroom 2.0,  interesting and useful.

     It has over 20,000 members all around the world.  Each one of them can share their thought and experience.  Once one had posted an article, people can share or comment it.  It will make you feel really interacting with each other, and feeling being supported.  Besides, in the Tool column, it has many tools for the teacher to download or use in his/her teaching.  Also, there are many educational videos which the teachers can watch and learn from them.  It provides some teaching method about listening, grammar, phonetics, pronunciation, and so on.  There is one item called “karaoke” raises my interests.  It lists some songs with catchy tune which the teacher can use in class to help students learn in a happily way.  What’s more, there are links of various library websites so that the user can choose whichever website they want to visit.

     It is really a cool website, which can give the teacher many resources and support, especially when almost all the members are educators.  The teacher can learn and share experience with members.  After the teacher gaining some new knowledge from this website, and apply it in his/her teaching, it can lead to a better educational circumstance in our real life.

A Teacher Is...

     A teacher is like surveillance camera today.

       As the technology is developing in an amazing speed nowadays, the students are able to gain knowledge from various aspects, such as through the Internet, TV programs, etc.  However, in this info-exploded society, students may not know what is right and correct, and will probably take whatever they have seen.  The teacher then plays a crucial role to keep a watchful eye on his/her students.  George Siemens states in his article: New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital.  It is the educators’ responsibility to oversee the behavior of the students, and to teach them what is true and false on the Internet.  Besides, the students should be taught how to tell what is important and unimportant information among  overwhelmed data.

     Moreover, Siemens, G. stresses, “Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.”  It truly easy and convenient to gain knowledge now.  With just one click, we can acquire whatever we want to learn and know.  Thus, some people may be fooled around with the fake information, which is posted on the Internet.  For me, the tool should be just the assistant instead of the commander.  It is us who use the tool, instead of being used by the tool.  How to use the tool properly to make it a helpful material for us is insignificant.

     The rise of community websites, for example, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, and so on, has led a dramatically change on the way people communicate.  He also explains in the video, “The software is a tool allows individual to form communication with each other,” and “Our learning today is one of the forming network with each other.”  Since the communication involves in more technology now than before, we should pay attention to this specific communicate way.  It can interfere in a either good or bad way.  That is why the teacher has to supervise his/her students all the time to make sure they are not distracted from the regular route.