A Post to Say Goodbye

Hello, friends. This is my final post. It’s been really good to be here, but it’s time to say goodbye now.

As you know now, this blog was about my Instructional Material Design course. Now that the term is over, it’s time for me to write my very last post about the course.

In some of my posts, I said that I didn’t like writing, blogging and even sharing my thoughts with everyone. I still don’t like sharing my thoughts here, although I’ve been writing for a while now. But I must add that while writing some of the posts, I actually liked blogging. However, it is something I’m not planning to do in near future.

In my first post about the course, I stated how everything changes and that we need some new qualities as a teacher in 21^st century. I still think the same. However, when I first started taking this course, I didn’t think that I would be using technology that much. I don’t think the same. As doing the tasks, I liked using technology. I think I will be using technology more in the future than I used to.

First, I didn’t think the course was actually necessary. However, taking it, I understood it was a need for us to use it effectively. I do not think I could use it effectively before taking the course.

The only thing that I did not like about the course was that the tools were not given to us. For some of the tasks, it was easy to find the right tool. However, for some of them –like digital storytelling or podcasting, finding the suitable tool was really difficult. I think a few tools could have been suggested to us.

This is all I will write in my last post. Like I said, it’s been really good to be here. Goodbye.

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Infographic

Hello, everyone! For this week, we were supposed to create an infographic about our favorite web 2.0 tools. Below, you can see mine. I chose Voki, Kahoot!, Voscreen and Duolingo for the assignment since they are my favorites. You can see brief information about each.  

While creating it, I used Canva, again. It is my favorite tool for this kind of assignments since I think it is really, really easy to use.

Here is my infographic, I hope you like it!

Necla the Producer

Hello, friends! This week, I am a producer, as well as a thinker! Because our topic is to create an online poster. For this assignment, I worked with Şeyma, as usual. We created an online poster for one of her favorite books. To do it, we used Canva, which is a very easy tool, we didn’t have any difficulties while making our poster.

I had a good time doing this homework, and I think my future students would love such homework, as well. Also, I think it is beneficial for their creativity.

Here is our poster. We really liked it, I hope you like it, as well!

Friendship

Hello, everyone! This week, I am writing about digital storytelling. This one was a group assignment, and I worked with my lovely friend, Şeyma, to create a digital story of our friendship.

It was a pleasent procces, except for the part which we searched for a suitable tool for our work. That part was really difficult, because the tools we found were either not suitable for our work or too difficult to use. Finally, when we could find the perfect tool, we had lots of fun creating our digital story. But, in the end, we had another problem; because we used the trial version of the app, unfortunately, in the video, you wiil see watermarks on our faces, at least on some of the photos.

I will willingly give a similar task to my students, because with the right tool, this is a task that they can have fun while doing, and also, I think it will improve their grammar and pronunciation as well as their creativity.

So, if you like to see our video, and the watermark, you can click here.

ISL Collective

Hello, everyone! In this post, I will be explaining an ELT website called ISL Collective. It aims to give teachers activities, tasks and games on any topic that they can use in their lessons, both for young learners and adults.

Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or credentials?  

You can find information about the founders of the site in the About Us section. The section gives you personal information about the founders, but you can’t find much about their qualifications or experiences.

What is the content of the website?

You can find materials for grammar and vocabulary in every proficiency level and for both young learners and adults. Also, for adults, you can find materials for business and professionals.

Who is the target audience?

The target audience is teachers around the globe.

What is the purpose of the website?

The purpose of the site is to provide teachers from all around the world with activities and materials that they can use in their lessons. The site also provides materials for German, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese language teaching, as you can see in the picture below:

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Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated?

Unfortunately, you can’t find information about when the site has last been updated. However, you can find newest printables, most downloaded printables of yesterday, and weekly most downloaded printables.

Accuracy of the information- Are there any errors?

I looked at the Grammar and Vocabulary sections, and didn’t find any errors. 

Are there any broken links?

Every link in the site works perfectly.

Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience?

Images are appropriate for the target audience.

How can it be applied to EFL teaching?

Since the website offers you activities, it is really easy for you to use them in your lessons. And, the best part of the site is that you it gives the Word format, which means you can edit them and use them as you want in your lessons.

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I Have Something to Say!

Hello, friends. It’s been a while since I last posted, I found that I really missed it!

My new subject is about searching on the Internet. In high school, I had lots of homework that required research on the Internet, but I was never informed about how or where to do it. It felt like I never needed it, it was something simple for me. However, on the Internet you can find lots of things, relevant and irrelevant to your topic. In my previous Instructional Technology and Material Design course, I found out that it is actually not that simple, and this kind of homework requires some limitations

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Let’s talk about my homework for the course. For this homework we used a padlet wall. You can create a pedlet wall for any topic you want, you can share anything you want –links, images, videos, and your own thoughts on any topic- and it is really easy to do. This assignment was one of the easies for me.

For the assignment, we had a group of 8 people, my friends were Şeymanur, Saliha, Cansu, Sare, Gamze, Dilruba and Gizem. Our topic was Endangered Species, and we shared interviews, posters, videos and some facts about endangered species on our wall. I loved our topic since it is a really important issue, and I also loved sharing on padlet. I think it was really simple, and creating such things easily made me feel really good!

Here is our padlet wall!

picture taken from here.

Creating a Wiki

Hello, everyone! We all know about Wikis. I like reading them a lot, but I have never tried creating one. So, that was my assignment for my course; creating a Wiki. It was easy and really fun. If you are interested, you should try creating one, or you can edit one, which is really easy to do. I believe you’ll like it.

If you’d like to know about mine, you can find it here.

picture taken from here

Story of Our Voices

Hello, friends! This post is about something which is really difficult but could be funny when worked on, it is about podcasting.

            Me and my friend Şeymanur created a story, and recorded our voices. The part that we created the story was actually fun. However, I can’t say the same about the part that we recorded our voices, because we did it again and again, and each time, we listened to our own voice, and we almost memorized every word we said! Also, I really didn’t like listening to myself from a voice recorder. It wasn’t fun at all!

Editing the podcast was the most difficult part to me. Trying to adjust all the voice effects was really hard. I must thank my friend, Şeyma here, because we did this part thanks to her.

I think podcasting could be funnier when you work more on it. And, I think, the more you know about it, the more enjoyable it gets. I’m not sure to use it in the future as a teacher. But, I think I will, if I will be able to use it better than I did in this experience.
You can see my partners blog from here : Şeymanur Demir

From Old to New

I have already written that this blog is a new experience for me, and it is for one of my courses. If I didn’t have to, I would probably never keep up a blog. I have never been this kind of a person, to be honest. I actually don’t like sharing my ideas with everyone. It is just who I am. So, as you can guess, writing for this blog was a bit difficult for me at first. I sometimes still find it difficult, but I can say that I like it more now.

Every week, we are supposed to do things with technology, and sometimes I find it very tiring. I use technology, everyone uses it, it is a fact, but using it for different purposes is something new for me since I’m not much of a technology person. But I’m not against it, of course, since it is a huge part of all of our lives. New generations, especially, are nearer to technology since they are born into it. They start using it at a very young age, and by the time they are at our age,  they learn a lot more than we do. So, in the future, if I don’t want to have difficulties or problems with my students, I should be using technology very well.

So, yes, I am thinking of using technology in my classes in the future. I think it will be really helpful for me. Firstly, it will save my time and energy. Also, since the students will be familiar with it, I think, learning will be more enjoyable for them. I know I also should be careful using it, because if I do something wrong, problems may occur between me and my students. They may think that I’m using it without knowing how to use it, or that I’m not using it effectively.

            So, using technology will be really helpful as long as I learn how to use it well, and use it well.

Computers as Teachers

Computers are part of our lives for a long time now. We don’t use them only for our daily life activities, but also for learning. When we talk about language learning in particular, it is called Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). In this post, we’ll see the history of CALL.

The Brown Corpust of Standard American English, which was the first electronic corpus, was developed in the 1960s. In this period, the programs wanted the learners to choose one of two answers. In the 1960s and 1970s,  Behavioristic Approach was dominant, programs were based on drill and practice. In the 1980s, learner interaction was made possibile with the challange of Communicative Approach against the Behavioristic Approach. In the 1990s, the aim was to help students to become active learners.

This is a little bit of the history of CALL. It has changed a lot. We’ll see what will happen in the future. So, to be continued…

Education is Organic

“The only thing that is constant is change”, a quote from Heraclitus. We’re in a world that is changing constantly. The time changes, people change and, as a result, our needs change. So, how do we fulfil these needs? What should we do to fulfil these needs?

First, everything starts with the education. Now, in the 21st century, we raise people differently, with different qualities –critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. In this century, education should be student-centered, where teachers guide the students to learn, acquire the information they need. They should help them to think critically, in other words, to analyse and interpret the information, make decisions and solve problems. Also, teachers should help students to communicate with others effectively and, collaborate with other students. In this student-centered system, students should be able to creative as well. While being creative, they also learn to take responsibilities. Of course, to apply this education system, the curriculum and the teachers should also change. When all of these changes have taken place, the needs the needs of the 21st century will be fulfilled.

This is all I am going to say about the topic. Stay changed!

The Vampire Rule: You are Invited

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my blog. In this blog, I will be sharing posts about my Instructional Technology and Material Design course. This is my first time keeping up a blog, so I’m really excited. I hope it will be a good experience for me and, I really hope you enjoy it as well!