Week 3: A delicious week!

My third week is almost now finishing, with new resources and ideas to implement in my classes.
Starting this week's assignment I created my own delicious site:
http://www.delicious.com/arriagada

How great it has been to collect all my resources in one single site and be able to share it with others. And moreover, to be able to access to my favorites from any computer is fabulous.My list of favorites grows day by day, so this tool is simply delicious. I will share it with other colleagues and my thesis and methodology students.

The reading assignments for aural and oral skills were interesting and challenging. They made me reflect on my current practices with technology and some ideas to apply that are engaging and entertaining, especially to promote speaking skills.


One article I found of great interest was "The Best Sites to Practice Speaking English" by Larry Ferlazzo. He compiled a significant number of sites that provides tools for students to record their own voices in a number of different ways and post their speaking assignments online. One of the tools I would like to try along with my Moodle course is Voicethread: http://voicethread.com/#home

Voicethread can be easily integrated into any specific college class or can be opened to the entire world for open discussion. This tool has three main functions (1)You can type text as well as record audio, (2) You can grab images off the Web to reinforce understanding,and (3) You and your students can leave audio comments.

Voicethread provides great opportunities to extend class discussions and to encourage thought provoking debates. This online discussion creates a sense of learning community which invites quiet and shy students to participate more actively. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to provide more individualized feedback and to address students' comments more directly.

I also learnt about Voki http://www.voki.com/ which is also a free tool that can be combined with blogs, wikis, journals, and emails.This tool allows students to create their own avatar and record their voices. I would like to try this tool with my first year students along with the use of a class blog.

This was indeed a delicious menu ... I look forward to starting week 4 and discovering new tools and strategies to teach with technology.