Voki------creat your avatar

Voki (http://voki.com) is an audio tool for recording voice and create your own avatar. The voice message can be embedded in website, e.g. blog,like my home page. It is a great tool for students to practice English speaking skill.

Why is this particular tool relevant to language learning?

• All you need to do is provide a microphone, the in-beded one also works 
• Easy to use. No need to download a special software to use it. 
• Motivate students by creating fantastic avatars and embedding their voices. 
• It offers various languages for learners, for instance, Spanish, French,etc. 
• Reduce anxiety. Shy students could be more willing to talk than face-to-face situation. 
• It is also a tool that promotes 'connected classroom' because students can be asked to practice the language in and then outside the classroom.

Some suggested activities

• Embedding voice into your avatar. This kind of technology-assisted way can arouse learners’ interest in practicing speaking and motivate them largely. 
• Teacher can creat their own voki classroom. lesson plan is provided at the home page. 
• Learners can also share their as ‘audio diary’ with others, It is a more creative and interesting way of interaction compared with traditional writing work.

Limitations

• Simple function. It only can be used as practicing speaking skill. 
• Not suitable for all level students.this tool is more beneficial for younger learners to stimulate interests. 
• Students may spent more time on editing their avatars.

MyBrainshark— a good tool for presentation making

What is it?       

MyBrainshark is a brilliant tool that
users can combine different forms of documents (e.g. voice recording, picture, video, powerpoint, podcast) into one integrated form of exhibition.

Some Advantages/Why is it relevant to language teaching and learning?

• The greatest advantage of MyBrainshark, I think,is that it can have audio, video and written documents synchronised.
• This tool can be used to promote distance learning and learning autonomy since they can do it at home or anywhere else if there is network connections.
• It is interesting and motivating for students to give a oral presentation by combining students' own life, for example, their photos or creative pictures, with their oral expression.
• It provides a good opportunity for teachers to make a mini-lecture! 
• It's helpful for students to practice their speaking and presentation skills.
• The recordings encourage students to pay more attention to the accuracy because everyone wants to show a perfect talk to the public.
• Your talk can be embedded, if you like, into another site, like a blog, as I show on my second page"Echo's talk", to share your information with others.

Some approaches to facilitate teaching/learning

• As individual work, teachers can let student make a oral presentation of his/her life,commenting on his/her photos.Or,give personal opinion of an event.
• As group work, students can make a combined presentation together  which also improve their collaborative working skills.
• There are a number of talks already being uploaded on this website, so it can also be used for listening activities to promote learners' listening skills as well.
• Use this tool to add others' voice in order to give a oral feedback.we can send our uploaded written documents to other people to ask their feedback, such as students sent their homework or presentation to their tutor or teachers send their handout to other fellow teachers.
• Teachers can use this tool to make a mini-lecture, thus students can replay several times until they are fully understand.
• Use this tool to make a product. In terms of "Presentation, Practice, Production" teaching model, after giving instructions at class, teachers can ask students to complete a task as the "production" stage at home by using this tool. It not only saves time but also connects inside and outside class!

Limitation

It can only record for 15 minutes. Maybe it's not enough for teachers to give a mini-lecture while it's quite a long time for students to talk.

Why not post our wishes on the wall?

What is it?

As indicated by its name, Wallwisher allows users to build a colorful 'wall' of a given topic and let others post on it. Like an open forum, it is an exciting website for sharing ideas and comments. One attractive feature is that you can design their walls or ‘stick notes’ in an arbitrary order. Not only the text, you can also draw website links, images and even videos on your wall!!

How might it be used in English language teaching?

1. A warm up activity. After giving student a general idea, teacher can make      students guess what the lesson is and then ask them post their ideas on the wall as a warm up activity.

2. To complete a task. At speaking class, teacher can give students a topic, such as, introduce a historical place or a superstar. In order to complete this task, they need to build a wall, posting whatever they like, for example, pictures, videos and website links etc. Assign students in different groups and let them discuss. At the end of the class, teacher can design a presentation stage, making students show their achievements.

3. To collect feedback. If teacher wants to get some feedback, he/she can use this website. In terms of students, they can choose whether leave their names or not. Since it allows anonymous posts, students can make comments and give suggestions without any pressure.

4. Interaction between teacher and student. The students can ask any questions or share whatever they think useful related to a certain lecture on this particular wall and the teacher can answer them by posting a new sticky. Also, some relative videos or websites can be posted as supplementary materials or for further learning. 

5. Long distance learning. Teacher can put the language point as the topic of a wall, and add some videos, pictures or website links that related to this language point. Students can use this wall and learn this language point at home or review after class.

6. For teacher to prepare next lesson. By using Wallwisher to get ideas, interests, teacher could better prepare for next class. In this case, teacher is closer to their students and may be easier to get to know students’ needs.

Benefits

1.It is a great tool for students to express their thoughts and share ideas.

2.It is excellent when Wallwisher is used for a task or project work.

3.It promotes promote learner autonomy and reflective thinking.

4.It is good for students whose learning type is visual one, since the post is colorful and the background is so attractive.

5.Great tool for long distance teaching and learning. Wallwisher provides a connected classrooms, making e-collaboration and e-learning more easily. Learners can collaborate, communicate and connect with their peers and teachers when they are in or outside the classroom.

Limitations

1.The wall cannot be downloaded.

2.Wallwisher has limited characters (only 160) to use give written messages.

3.It may be hard to read when there are many comments on the wall.

4.Users may waste lots of time on organizing the layout in order to get a clear visual effect.