Second Life

Yesterday Hery and I met at the UH Manoa College of Education Second Life island to show you what it looks like. The fire wall in the Imin Center does not allow us to do it live, so here it is a demonstration. If you want to get your own avatar and visit the virtual world of Second Life, go to http://secondlife.com/

Changing the background of your Gmail

When you have more than one Gmail account is a good idea to have different backgrounds so that you can easily identify which account you are reading.

To do this:
1-Open Gmail and go to Settings on the right top corner of the window

Then select THEMES from the menu. Select a theme in the new window that opens 

and that's it!!!

Create a Gmail list with multiple addresses

A useful feature of Gmail is to be able to create a list in which you incorporate several emails. For example a list for each of your classes with your students emails.
The first thing you need is a document with all the emails (and only their emails). You can have them type it in a Word document in your computer (like we did in class)

The first is to click on the Gmail arrow and select CONTACTS

 and press  the icon with several people

Enter a name for the list and click OK

Finally copy all the email addresses from the word/text document and paste them in the space for the email.

 If you want to edit any of the addresses you can see them as a list or individually afterwards by going to your contacts.

WebQuests

What are WebQuests?

“A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.” (from Webquest.org)

Main characteristics:

• They are collaborative activities
• They are long activities
• Students need to be able to read/watch and synthesis materials
• The links to the materials are provided by the teacher (it is not a searching activity)
• There is a final product (poster, brochure, presentation)
• Students know from the beginning how they are going to be evaluated (rubric)

The main place where you can find information about WebQuests is http://Webquest.org

You can find hundreds of WebQuests already created in the WebQuest garden

But if you prefer to create your own, there is a template available that you can use http://webquest.org/index-create.php

You can find more resources in the WebQuest site

Activity: 

To understand better what a WebQuest is we are going to participate in one as students. This WebQuest is about Hawaii and it has developed by Alaine Thomas.

http://questgarden.com/118/83/5/110216083550/index.htm

Voki

We will be examining VOKI as a tool to develop pronunciation for advanced students, and to practice vocabulary (colors, parts of the body,...) with very beginning students.




Voki works best used collaboratively in pairs or groups to negotiate using the L2 to create a character.

A good activity is asking groups of students to develop characters from the fantasy group and then incorporate them in their blogs writing about the character's biography, characteristics, personality, family, etc... [depending on what topics you have seen in class]. Then the groups read each other characters and in groups of 4, they come up with a fairy tale that they then write collaboratively using a Google document (or hey just invent the story and then write it individually for homework at home).

Remember that the free VOKIs that you can save send and see the code DO NOT have a left green line on the left upper corner. For those you need to get VOKI classroom , which is NOT free. When you select a character, if it has a small black hat next to it, that is a VOKI Clasroom character and it is no free.

Video capture software

I was mentioning to you that there are software out there that you can do to create tutorials. You follow the steps of what you want to show your trainees and speak out loud while you do it. These software records your screen and mose, click, movement together with your voice and converts it into a movie

Video capture software

• ScreenCam- Free to try (30-day trial, watermark on output); $199.99. Windows.
• Camtasia Studio - Free to try (30-day trial); $299.00 to buy.
• LiteCam HD - Free to try (30-day trial, 15-minute videos); $29.00 to buy

The free ones:

• Screencast-O-Matic
• HyperCam
• CamStudio
• ActivePresenter
• SMRecorder

You can download them from the CNET site. 

This is an example of a video from Youtube created using these type of tool to show how to use Prezi












Screencastify
There is also a Chrome extension that you can download for free and use call Screencastify.

 A good video tutorial on how to use Screencastify

How to insert audio in your blog

To insert an audio (so you can do a podcast for example):

We need to trick blogger into thinking that we are uploading a video instead of audio. So, a simple way to this (since you know how to use Windows Movie Maker) is creating a movie that only has a title text and the audio of your podcast. Let's try:

1- Open Windows Life Movie Maker

2- Click on the Text button

3- Add the title of your podcast and format the title font, background and color

4- NO go back to HOME and click on ADD MUSIC

5- Find your podcast and select it

 6- It will appear on green over the title frame- Make sure the title is the same length as the podcast

 For that, first go to the MUSIC TOOL, the green tab, and check how long is your podcast

by looking at the End point. Copy or remember than number.

Then go to the VIDEO TOOL, the yellow tab, click inside the Duration box (one click only) and type or paste the number for the duration of the sound.

Check that the TEXT TOOL (pink) also has the same time, and if not, click inside the DURATION and enter the same number.

7- Save the movie by "PUBLISH". Select the computer option and save it to your computer (pay attention to where you are saving it)

Then follow the steps at the beginning of the blog on how to insert a movie.

TADA!!!! You have a place for your podcasts now :)

Multimedia- Inserting media in your blog

One of the most useful characteristics of a blog is that you can present multimedia to your students for them to react in a written form.

For example: You can ask your students to watch the following video and leave a comment about what they think about globalization and how it affects them and their school.

How to insert video in your blog:

1- Find the video that you want to insert in YouTube (The name of the video, for example "Shift happens"

2- Click on the movie icon on the top bar of this editing page

3- Select "From YouTube"on the left and then enter the name on the space

4- From the list of videos select the one that you want by clicking the blue SELECT bottom at the bottom of the screen

To insert a picture:

The process is similar. Select the icon on the bar with a picture, on the right of "link". 

   

Then choose on the left menu, whether you want to upload a file from your desktop or a web camera or from a webpage. If you have the picture in your desktop, click "Choose File" and then find it in the folder where you saved it. If you don't remember, it may be in your Picture folder or in your "Download" folder.

Once you have the picture on your blog, click on it to place it on the right, center or left of your page.

A post on how to insert audio next