Sample MEC Class Blog

Using VoiceThread with MEC

2008-05-06T13:41:00.044+02:00

VoiceThread is particularly useful for preparing students for the speaking part of the Cambridge Suite of exams (KET to Proficiency), in the section where candidates are asked to describe/compare photographs.

If you let students to choose the photos they like best for the task, they are much more likely to be enthusiastic about what they have to say: an important learning experience that they can carry forward to the exam.

Here's an example of a VoiceThread from a post FCE student:

You can also use VoiceThread with your students for making presentations, storytelling, anecdotes and giving directions.

VoiceThread is very teacher-friendly. It has privacy controls, comment moderation, and a system of identities that allows all students in a class to work within one account.

Again you'll need a microphone attached to the computer(s) that you're going to use.

Creating an account with VoiceThread

Go to www.voicethread.com, and click on Sign in or Register.

Fill in your details and click on register.

VoiceThread offers you a series of tutorials to help you out.

As a teacher, you have the option to register for a special K-12 educator's account which gives you all the features of a paid Pro account. If you're interested, click on Go Pro! at the top of the page.

Now click on K-12 Educators click here.

Fill in your school's details and VoiceThread will send you an email confirming your Educator's account.

When you want your students to use VoiceThread, get them to sign in using your account login (see creating separate identities for them below).

Configuring your account

On your My Account page, you can add a picture

And add a new identity for each of your students to use when they create a new VoiceThread.

Creating a VoiceThread

1. Selecting and uploading photos

When you or your students want to start a new VoiceThread, click on Create

You and them can upload photos, videos or documents from an individual computer or from Flickr (if you already have an account there containing photos).
The method I prefer is to use FlickrStorm which searches through all the photos on Flickr. (You can also use Google Image Search but the quality of the photos often isn't so good.)

Open FlickrStorm and write the topic of the photos you want to search for in the box provided .
Click on Advanced and select Search Creative Commons photos - which means that the photos you find will be of free copyright (as long as you are not going to use them for commercial purposes).

Now click on search, and after a few seconds you will get results like these.
Click on the photos you like and then Add To Tray.

Your students will only need to select 2 when practising for the Cambridge speaking exams.
Now click on the Download & link to your tray button.

This will take you to a page like this. Save it using the Save as option on your web browser's menu.

The photos will be downloaded to your computer in a folder and each will be in .jpg format. It's a good idea to change their titles to something comprehensible.

Now you're ready to upload them to VoiceThread. Click on Upload From My Computer.
First select the folder where your photos are, then each of the photos and finally, click on Select.

Give your VoiceThread a description.

2. Recording a comment

Click on Comment

If you have created separate identities for your students, you and them can switch between them when recording a comment by clicking on the icon below the photo.

Click on record and this dialogue box will appear. Click on Allow.

As soon as you've clicked on Allow, recording begins, so make sure you're ready!
When you click on Stop, your recording is automatically replayed to you so you can decide whether to Save or Cancel it.

To continue recording your comment on the same photo, just click on record again.
If at any time you decide you don't like what you've said, you can delete the entire comment by clicking on the bin icon.

Another interesting feature of VoiceThread, that's particularly useful for presentations, is the doodling tool. Click on the series of coloured circles that are visible when you are recording and you can signal what you're focussing on.

3. Sharing your VoiceThread

You have complete control over who can see and comment on your VoiceThread. You can make it public or private and decide to allow all comments or to moderate them.

To include your VoiceThread on your class blog, copy the code that's displayed when you click on the Embed button.

Paste to code into your blog posting (remember to click first on the Edit Html tag).

Here are the results that you can expect.

As with Vokis, your student's VoiceThreads provide a record of your students' speaking skills that you can share and comment on with them and also use for assessment purposes.

Using Vokis with MEC

2008-05-04T18:42:00.043+02:00

Vokis are great for practising pronunciation, particularly sentence stress and intonation, plus all question forms.

Creating an animated character is real fun to do and gives both you and your students the opportunity to unashamedly exaggerate what your character has to say.

To create a Voki, you will need a microphone attached to the computer(s) that you're going to use. (I use a very cheap one that comes with my headphone set).

Creating an account
Create an account with Voki beforehand and get your students to use your login or, if you have time, they can create a new account for themselves.

Instructions for your students:

Go to www.voki.com and sign in.

1. Creating a voki character

Click on Create

Now Customize your character
You can change character, change his/her hair, clothes and accessories
When you like your character, click on DONE

2. Recording your character's voice

Now you're ready to Give It A Voice. Click on the microphone

When this dialogue box appears, check Permit and then click on Close

Click on RECORD and now record what you want to say
If you like your recording, click on SAVE. If you don't like it, just record again.

Give your audio a title (very important)

3. The final touches

Choose a Background

Choose a Player

Now click on PUBLISH and give your scene a title (very important)

4. Embedding your voki character in your class blog

Now create a new post on your class blog. Give it a title
Back on the Voki site, select and copy the code that's displayed

Back on your class blog posting, click on the Edit Html tab and paste the code you copied from Voki

And enjoy the results!

Get a Voki now!

Voki tasks for your classes

A simple, initial first step is for your students to introduce their characters using a model like this :

"My name is ... (student thinks of a name).
They call me .... because ... (student thinks of a reason).
I love ... (student thinks of something their character loves doing).
I hate ... (student thinks of something their character hates doing)."

This task fits well with MEC exercises on Likes and dislikes and Gerunds and infinitives.

Tip: type "likes and dislikes" into MEC's Word and Phrase Search and you'll find 3 good exercises: a language activity, a listening, and an activity based on a Grammar Reference Unit.

You could also use it when you're working with the theme of identity, for example with Unit 1 of the Inside Out Advanced course or with individual exercises such as: New Identity - a listening activity.

Once your students have presented their characters, they can pair up and conduct a question and answer session.

(Important: to do this they will need to remember the settings they used when they created their character):

First, they listen to their partner's character's introduction
Then they think of one or two good questions to ask him/her
Now they take turns in recording their characters' questions and answers
Finally, they create a new posting on the class blog blog and paste the code for the questions and answers in the same posting so that they form a conversation

Here are some examples from a PET level group of students.
Conversation - Hilary + Wonder

Conversation - Michael + Yogi

This task fits well with MEC exercises on Wh - questions and can be extended for students at higher levels to the use of Enbedded questions (see my earlier Voki for an example). Again, type the phrases in MEC's Word and Phrase Search to find a good range of exercises.

While your students are working tasks like these, take the opportunity to listen with them each individually to their recordings. Being able to stop and start the sound is a great aid for focussing on any particular problems they may be having with individual sounds, word/sentence stress or intonation.

Moreover, if your students publish their vokis regularly on their class blog, you will have a handy record of their speaking capabilities and be able to measure their advances during the course.

Suggestions of MEC course content that Vokis can be used with:

In Company Elementary Course

1 Who are you? – Information – Resources: Who are you?

3 Daily routine – Information – Resources: Practising Wh- questions in the present simple
5 Eating out – Survival – Resources: Restaurants and eating out

In Company Pre-intermediate Course

3 Telephone talk - Connecting – Resources: Hotel requests

In Company Intermediate Course

10 Small talk – Networking

In Company Upper Intermediate Course

5 Problems on the phone - Desk work Resources: Embedded questions

Inside Out Pre-Intermediate Course

1 Me – Resources: Wh- questions + Ask some questions ...

Inside Out Intermediate Course

1 Friends - Resources: Sentence stress + Wh- questions: subject + Wh- questions: object

Inside Out Advanced Course

1 Identity

And in combination with all Pronunciation exercises: Sentence stress

Task: The life and music of ...

2008-04-10T13:42:00.001+02:00

Choose a singer or member of a music group
Check out if s/he is on myspace
See what information is available on him/her on wikipedia
Use the information you’ve found to write about what you consider is important in his/her life and helps to make up his/her sense of identity
Look for a video of one of his/her songs on youtube
Copy the code you will see displayed in the Embed box (to the right of the video on the youtube page) and then create a new post on the class blog
Give your post a title, click on the Edit HTML tab and paste the code you copied from youtube into your post
Click on the Compose tab and now write about what you think the song and the video reveal about your chosen singer/musician’s personality
Do a Google search for the lyrics of the song
Make a link to the lyrics in your post by clicking on the link symbol in the toolbar of your post and pasting there the URL (address) of the web page you found
Revise carefully what you’ve written before publishing your post and run a spell-check on it
Next, write a comment on your classmates’ postings: say what you find interesting about the lives and music of the singers/musicians they chose.
If you found any of the lyrics difficult to follow, say where you had problems

The life and music of Rihanna

2008-04-10T12:49:00.000+02:00

Rihanna has an electrical personality and was born in Barbados.

Her latest song is called Unfaithful and these are the lyrics.

Welcome

2008-04-10T10:13:00.000+02:00

I'd like to welcome everybody to our class blog!