Welcome to Issue 6!
Welcome to the sixth issue of Edtech News, a free monthly newsletter bringing you the latest in new technology for teaching English. Each month we look at the latest online resources for teachers and students, and introduce you to useful ICT tips and tricks. We also feature a multi-level interactive whiteboard activity in each issue. We hope you enjoy reading and if you have any comments please get in touch at tecnologica@britanico.cl. To read past issues, visit our archives.
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In this issue:
- Phrases, sayings and idioms at
- Teacher development resource:
Teacher Training Videos
- Top tech tips:
chop YouTube videos down to size
- The IWB activity series: Nº 6 - Phrasal verb noughts & crosses
Techno Defoe has some tips on alternative ways to use Google
Have you ever been stumped by a question about a particular phrase or idiom you’ve heard or read in English? Or perhaps some research into the origins of a saying has left you in a pickle? Don’t be down in the dumps, you’ll be as happy as Larry when The Phrase Finder helps you find what you’re looking for in the twinkling of an eye!
The Phrase Finder is an extensive online resource containing everything you need to know about English sayings and idioms. There are over 1,500 phrases listed, each accompanied by an explanation of meaning and origin. There are examples from literature and the media (for more up-to-date info about current usage you could try Wordnik - see EdTech News Issue 2) and citations of the first record of usage. There are whole sections on Shakespeare, the Bible, and phrases coined at sea, and even a set of quizzes to test your knowledge of these phrases. There's also the option to subscribe to the "Phrase a Week" email, and in the event that your question is not answered by the site, there's a well-attended message forum where you can discuss your question with other linguaphiles. So what are you doing if you put pearls before swine? And what in the name of Odds bodkins is a kettle of fish!? Find out now at The Phrase Finder .
The worthy winner of this year's ELTON awards for innovation in English Language Teaching is the website created by teacher and teacher-trainer Russell Stannard from the University of Westminster. Teacher Training Videos provides a huge range of video guides which take teachers step by step through using technology on the internet for a wide variety of purposes.
From cartoon-creation sites for kids to How to use iTunes for podcasting, to our own recent favourite, English Central pronunciation website, there really are guides for every ELT teaching context. Some of the guides focus more on how to get the most out of the free technology that's out there, while others are specifically directed at English Language Teaching, like the instantly appealing '5 Simple but brilliant ELT tools'. There are lots of links to blogs which Russell uses as sources for his guides, and a site newsletter which you can sign up for too - if this one's not enough for you! Check it out and explore to your heart's content.
YouTube has been a revelation for language teachers, providing quick, easy access to a wealth of examples of language used in a variety of contexts. However, we're sure most teachers have been in the situation where you just want to focus on a small part of a long video, but you have to wait while it loads, find the section you want, note down the timing etcetera, just to expose your learners to the piece of language you're interested in. TubeChop makes things much easier! This very simple tool allows you to select the section of a video you want to use and "chop" it out, creating a new, shorter video without any of the other stuff you don't want to use.
It's very easy to use. Simply copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to use, and paste it into the TubeChop website:
.
You then get the option to chop the video to the length you want...
...and when you're done chopping, you get a new URL to use when you show your class the video, which now begins and ends exactly where you want.
- Phrasal Verb Noughts & Crosses (IWB activity series Nº6)
In this month's interactive whiteboard activity we again use the Mimio Notebook software in order to show you how to make a student-centred gameboard to revise knowledge and use of target vocabulary. This activity allows the teacher to hand over control of the whiteboard to the students and encourages collaborative work on identifying words and phrases, and using them appropriately within a sentence.
Click on the image to watch the video guide on how to build and use this interactive whiteboard activity for our example target language: phrasal verbs.
And finally, Techno Defoe is back to answer another reader's query!
Hi! I'm Techno Defoe, EdTech News' resident tech expert, and I'm here to answer your questions. Whatever you need - website suggestions, help with computer software, advice on using technology in the classroom - I am here to help. Drop me a line at tecnologica@britanico.cl and I'll answer in the next newsletter.
This month, Andrea from Los Andes writes:
Dear Techno Defoe,
This sounds silly but whenever I'm trying to think up examples of items in a lexical set for a class, I get to two or three and then get a mental block! I use up lots of valuable preparation time just trying to think of words...any tips?
TD says:
Not silly at all Andrea! It's a common problem - teachers can't be founts of imagination and creativity all the time! Luckily, we can turn to our old friend Google for a helping hand. 
Google sets is a very handy little page to help solve your problem. You type in a few examples of items within the lexical set (for example car, bus, train, bicycle), and Google sets provides a long list of related words. No more racking your brains Andrea! This could also be useful in the classroom, too - you could provide your learners with the initial search words, and get them to predict what other items will appear when you search.
While we're on the topic, Google has a large range of other facilities that you may not know about. For example, the Google image search facility now contains a "find similar images" option for each result, allowing you to really refine your search for the image you need. Google image swirl may also help you with this, and it looks pretty cool too! Google trends allows you to compare how often topics have been searched for over time, and gives continuous updates on the current "hottest topics", while Google squared will build an easy-to-read table of information about your search topic. You can even use the regular Google as a calculator. See for yourself the array of other options at Google labs.
See you next time everybody, and remember: technology is not the enemy!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the sixth issue of EdTech News. Watch this space for
the next issue, coming in June.
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