Jigsaw Planet: Create your own puzzles

This online tool is great for our youngest students. Because you can create a puzzle with any image, they can complete the puzzle to find a familiar image. Choose the difficulty by choosing the shapes of the pieces and the number of pieces. You can even link to the puzzle from a blog or website, as shown below:


6 Play

Analyze and create: Magnetic Poetry

Magnetic poetry is a great tool for using with the IWB, or a computer and projector. The teacher can create a sentence, then analyze it with the students' help. Or the students can create their own sentences on the board.

Triptico has the possibility of creating your own word magnets. This is perfect if you need specific words.

But if you just want to play with different words, try Magnetic Poetry online. There are two sets - First Words and Kids' Kit - that will be perfect for English language learners. Click on play and off you go!

Why use ICT in our classes?

I think this video gives us dozens of reasons to use ICT in our classes. We need to teach in a way that shows students how to learn and that allows them to fulfil their potential. What better way is there to prepare them for the future? After all, we can't possibly teach them all they'll need to know for life!

Triptico: IWB tools

Triptico is a small program that can be installed on your computer that offers several useful IWB tools. 

It includes the following tools: 

–Randomly choose a student

–Word magnets

–Team scores

–Timer

–Order sentences

–Spinner

Create: Remix

Remixing is gaining a lot of popularity lately, and many young people are already familiar with it (and may have even done some of it themselves!) Allow students to show their creative sides by remixing any video they find on YouTube or creating their own videos.

They can use MovieMaker if they use a PC or iMovie on a Mac to edit the video that they've filmed or captured. They can add music to create the mood, or add subtitles to tell a story. Subtitles can be added using an online tool at http://www.overstream.net. (Registration is free.)

They can even record themselves telling the story using a program like Audacity or the Windows audio recorder and add it to the clip.

Get inspired with some of my favorite remixes of movie trailers:
Mary Poppins as a horror film
The Shining as a romantic comedy

Evaluate: Glogster

Glogster can be used for dozens of classroom activities. Use it to…

–Convince people to do something

–Present an idea/place/person/thing to the class

–Give advice 

Glogster is an online tool that students and teachers can use to create a poster with text, images, videos and more. Ask your students to create one regarding whatever you are studying and have them present it to the rest of the class. Glogs can be embedded into blogs to share with other classes and parents.

Check out this example I created as instructions for students to create a glog on the environment:

Analyze: Infographics

Infographics are a fun way to analyze and display information. Why not survey the class and collect information to display graphically? See these examples of charts I made at http://charts.hohli.com. 

Students may also analyze others' infographics. You can find some wonderful infographics at http://visual.ly. Also, create interactive maps with already-loaded statistics at http://www.sacmeq.org/statplanet/StatPlanet.html. 

See this delicious stack for links related to infographics, including examples and tools for creating them: http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/QopT17

Apply and analyze: Using timelines

You can use timelines in a number of ways in your classroom...

•Show what you’ve done in a week/ day/ month/ year

•Tell someone’s biography (famous/important people)

•Give the history of a company, country, school

•Add pictures, videos, music and more…

For a simple online tool for creating timelines, go to http://www.dipity.com. The site has many timelines already created that you can use for inspiration. Or, why not ask your students to analyze one of the timelines on the site?

Apply: Caption your photos

By simply adding captions to photos, you can apply any number of language or communication objectives. See this example:

You can do this easily at http://bighugelabs.com/captioner.php. Follow these instructions: 

1. Save the photo.

2. Upload photo to the site.

3. Add sentences and choose type of bubble.

4. Place speech and thought bubbles on photo. 

5. Save photo to computer.

Then post your students' creations to your class blog!

Remember and understand: ELT Pics

A picture is worth 1000 words...

ELT Pics is an extensive database of photos under the Creative Commons license, which basically means that you can use them for non-commercial purposes. They are specifically aimed at use in English classes by teachers, and organized by category to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics

To contribute your photos to the database, see Sandy Millin's blog for complete instructions.

For ideas on how to use these photos, check out http://takeaphotoand.wordpress.com/ and read other posts on this blog.

Remember: Quizlet

Starting with the bottom level of Bloom's Taxonomy: Remember.

Quizlet is a nice resource for students to create online flashcards to study with. There are also a few simple games that can help them with vocabulary or other definitions. Teachers can even use this in class on the IWB.
Great for studying any subject!

Bloom's Taxonomy with ICT tools

This image shows how ICT can be directly related to Bloom's Taxonomy. Imagine the possibilities that ICT can offer to your students!

Image from http://esleld.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/blooms-taxonomy-and-technology-pyramid.html.