Welcome to the sixteenth issue of Edtech News, a free newsletter bringing you the latest in new technology for teaching English. Each issue 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 or search for a topic of interest, visit our archives.

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What content do you share online with your students?

This question could generate a lengthy discussion, but often the first answer teachers give goes along the lines of:

Making documents available electronically for students can be great to aid revision, and to support students who couldn’t make it to class, but is a PowerPoint file on its own really that useful?

After all, as one expert in the field of public speaking points out: in good presentations, the text on slides shouldn't be a transcript of what the presenter says. This means that if you're doing it right, when you share just your PowerPoint file, your students miss out on many of the gems you presented in class.

Present.me uses your webcam to make it look like you were able to “film yourself presenting to camera, encode that, edit it, convert your slides to video, synchronize the timings, render the 2 streams together and then export to another video file.” In plain English, it allows you to record yourself talking through your presentation slide-by-slide, and share the whole thing online as shown below.

Apart from one Beta Bug that is likely to be ironed out, we found this works well, is free for limited (but reasonable) use, is easy to use, works on a range of devices, and if you’re not too much of a perfectionist, needn’t take a lot of your time.

Have a look for yourself.

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There are lots of ways to reveal the answers using an Interactive Whiteboard, but it’s not always easy to reveal them all at once. Number 16 of the IWB Activity series is a tip that shows you how to do it quickly and simply.

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And finally, Techno Defoe is back to answer another reader's question!

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, Camila from La Reina writes:

"Dear Techno Defoe,

I've realised that more and more students are using smartphones. I know there are apps that can be used in the classroom, but I don't really know where to start."

Thanks for your question Camila. We've just come across, which contains free or inexpensive apps that can be useful from nursery to secondary school. You can search for apps by topic/subject area. For younger children you can read this article in which has 16 app suggestions for primary and even kinder-age kids. Not all of them are related to ELT but it's worth taking a look at. You'll find apps for everything from spelling to how to make origami to completing stories.

I hope you enjoy these suggestions and please, let us know how they go down with your students.

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