Education application of blogs, Hot Potatoes Exercises and Webquest.

A BLOG.
A blog is a type of website or part of a website. In class we have been learning how to create a blog and we also have been learning its good utilities for everything. Each blog have different purposes, in my case I have tried to create one that I can use for teaching English to my future students. I think that it is a very useful tool that teachers can use to teach because we can update the information that we have been using in class and then students can review if they have any doubt or if they want more information about the content that they are learning.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. It is very helpful for teachers because it makes the lesson more dynamic. Those are the reasons for what I think that it is very useful for teaching.
The web page that I have helped us to create the blog is www.blogger.com . It is very easy to create one and to update information. We have to create an account and also you can have more than one blog, it is up to you.

When you create a blog, you have to choose a title for it, so you have to decide a topic because is better if the blog have a linking topic. You can also change their appearance and you can add gadgets that are very useful, for example a clock, some interesting links to other web pages that people who visit your blog can find more information, you can also follow other blogs… There are so many gadgets that you can include in your blog. It is very important that the appearance is attractive for the readers to catch the attention of them.

When you edit a blog you can write the information but you can also add images and videos which is very motivating for the readers. So, it is very important that when a teacher is showing information, includes images, songs and videos, because they are a really useful to follow the information, as vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening comprehension.... They learn in a funny way and in a dynamic way. Also, if they see the information in a simple way, I mean, more visual, it is better for them to catch the general idea and to understand it better. So, a blog helps to achieve that.

A blog has the opportunity to join slide presentations. When a teacher is explaining some content, he or she can update it and students can see it whenever they want. It also has the opportunity to update the documents (with Scrib) that you create for your students, so it is very useful to remind them the information and to send them for homework. It also has de opportunity to upload our own speaking or songs that we want. And in the other hand, parents can see what their sons and daughters are learning and helping to them.

You create a blog gradually. The information appears depending when you have create it, so it is very useful for the diary learning of our students. It also helps to their homework, to have feedback about the tests and we can include extra information.


In my opinion, a blog is a very useful tool for teachers and for students because they are using the target language, they continue lessons with more information and even in a clear way. Students are used to use Internet so teachers have to know the good points of it and show them how to use in an appropriate way, because internet has very good points but we have to know how to use it and to know its positive utilities.








HOT POTATOES EXERCISES.
Hot potatoes is a program that you can download free. It is a very useful resource for teachers because with it we can create some exercises in some different ways; it helps, for example, to work with the vocabulary or grammar in order to remember it in a better way. I have created one with the topic of the professions.
Hot potatoes offer a wide range of exercises to prepare our lessons . It is a very good program to organize our exercises and to present them in an attractive and interactive way.
You can choose between jquiz, jmatch, jcloze, jmix and jcross to create your class in a funny way because they enjoy learn with the computer and also because it is very motivated to them. All the exercises have a feedback so they know if they have the correct answer or if they have to try again in order to achieve the correct answer and also it has the opportunity to include some clues in order to adapt to the students level. Moreover, you can introduce images and videos in the exercises and it is very useful, so they are working their social skills, how to work in groups, how to organize work and what parts they want to explain. In my webquest I have decided that students have to create one explanation about the information that they want to talk about, so each of them have to prepare the explanation and to know all parts, not only the parts that they have to explain.








A WEBQUEST.
A webquest is a oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. So is helpful to develop a project about a topic that the teacher wants to explain to their students.

The lesson planning in a webquest is divided in some different parts. First, you have to introduce the topic in order to motivate your students. Then, you have to explain in what consist the task, and then in the process, which is the main part of the webquest, the teacher has to guide to their students to work. This part consist on, the teacher includes some different web pages that students have to have a look for preparing their work. This is the most important part because the teacher has to find some different resources and web pages according to the students level. In the next part of the webquest wich is called evaluation, you decide what are you going to evaluate. You can include a evaluation rubric to help you to evaluate according some different points and it is very useful that students know what are the main points that they have to concentrate in order to have a good mark because it helps to motivate them. In the last part, you can include a conclusion in which you can decide your main purpose or objectives of the webquest.

I think that it is very useful for projects in groups because they can follow their own rhythm and they can know in which parts each of them can concentrate on. I will used very often but not for all the projects, just to change the methodology in some cases.

To sum up, I think that all of these resources from Internet are very useful to teach, not only English but all the subjects. It is very important that the teachers have knowledge about Internet because students love it and it helps to teach in a very meaningful way and children learn in a subconscious way.

Webquest

To see the webquest that I have created click here.

web page for teachers.

click here to see a very interesting web.

Is very good to teaching English.

Hot Potatoes Exercises

Hot Potatoes is a very interesting programme where teachers can create exercises as a help to follow the units.
In class we have been working with this programe and I am sure that in my future as a teacher I will use this programme.
If you want to see it you can click here.
This exercises have been created to teach some proffesions.

How to multiplicate without calculator!

I have found this video and I think that it is very interesting.
As a teachers, we focus on the traditional way to teach the content, but we have to know that there are other ways to teach, and moreover they can be easier for the students.
Have a look to this video and maybe you will start to practice this way to multiplicate numbers.

CALL and ELF presentation

Here you can see the presentation that my classmate Irati Berraondo and me have prepared for class.

A game about energy

Here you can play a game.
In this web page you have a lot of kinds of games that your students can play and they will learn and have fun in the same time.