Job Discussion Forums

[scott14]

I would like to use my computer in the classrooms to teach lower-upper intermediate multimedia English lessons via a projector. We have the equipment but we don't have any multi-focused multimedia English teaching software for the classroom.

The software could be reading material, listening, grammar, composition, conversation or games. It could be internet based or independent software. Audio and video clips would be great, like KTV or something. I am just looking to learn and share with others.

Any software suggestions, referrals or experiences successfully using interesting, readily available and user-friendly multimedia ESL software in the classroom would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Guy Courchesne]

Talk to ChinaMovieMagic (a Dave's poster) on this. He's got some interesting ideas on using film clips in class.

Otherwise, I've been looking to partner up with another teacher on a project like this. What would you think of chat room/audio/video competition or exchanges between similar classes?

PM me if the idea interests you.

[Glenski]

If you want to build PowerPoint presentations every week, that's one way to use it. Time consuming, though.

If you want to just make video clips of your own to demonstrate situations for using English (or to practice it), that's another way. Time consuming, though.

Do you have enough computers and Internet access for students to use on researching various things? Good for background material for presentations (like PowerPoint). Still time consuming, though.

Are you beginning to get a hint as to what multimedia entails?

[Guy Courchesne]

Time...a painful amount of it to be sure. There's also another thread way down the list where I asked for powerpoint resources on the web. I think there were some links posted.

[scott14]

I spent a part of the day yesterday in English teaching resource bookstores and found some independent multimedia programs and some that required internet access to use. The problem is that you can't just open them and take a look first. They are costly!

It seems that others are still searching for methods, like me. And yes, it is painful and time consuming exploring resources, too. I was hoping to learn from other past experiences and try to make this painless for myself and others. The question is, what resources have worked for others?

[lozwich]

Hi Scott14,

I spent a long time developing multimedia (websites, CD-ROMs, videos etc) in both education and marketing and one thing that I regularly came across was the client who wants to use the newest multimedia product available, but without any clear aims of what they wanted to use it for. The thing to remember is that multimedia is a tool and the second step in developing your presentation. First, you need to decide what you want to do, then decide which tool to use.

IMHO, if you have only one computer and are just projecting it for students to look at, its a lot quicker (and cheaper) to make up OHTs or simply write on the whiteboard. A large number of the multimedia products I have seen that can be used for English teaching are the kind where the user sits and uses the computer by themselves, its not really a group activity, and also makes the whole project a lot more expensive if you are going to follow proper licensing laws and buy a copy for everyone.

That said, the internet has a ton of resources, from online quizzes that students could do in pairs, then go through as a class and check the answers online, which would save on photocopies, and give a bit of different kind of interest in the class. You could look at news video clips on the BBC World website, and then talk about the issues, but you need a broadband internet connection for that to work well, or download the video earlier. There are webquests, which give the students a kind of internet scavenger hunt on a particular theme, but that requires at least one computer between each two users, and you have to make the webquest if you can't find a suitable one yourself, which requires some knowledge of web design.

I've made up a very basic website which I used in a presentation I did a year or so ago, but it has some links on it that might be useful. Let me know if you're interested.

Cheers,
Lozwich.

[scott14]

Let me first start by thanking those of you responded as you have not only provided some ideas, but also some direction. We already use OHP, video camcorders and CD's in class, so using video multimedia would only enrich our 10-15 students class lessons.

Time is an issue, so I might first try some of these until we can find some existing useful software,

Current events video clips, like CNN/BBC Student News, with follow up comprehension activities and disscussions.

KTV sing alongs to practice vocabulary.

Chatting with other ESL classes in different countries.

Playing games against classes/countries.

Orally re-telling short video clips.

Writing a summary of video clips.

Using video files to create discussions.

Watch their native DVD with no sound, only read the English subtitles of their characters. Maybe even role-play and record.

Make live audio casts, such as news, presentations or discussions.

I would like to find some story books that have multimedia to suplement the reading material. Like the scavenger hunt idea.

As you can see, I am only getting started. I hope that we all might be able to share some ideas and make our classrooms more interesting.
Please free to keep this post going. It's helped me so far.

[Guy Courchesne]

[ouyang]

I've used web-based Flash animations with lower intermediate classes.
Grimm's fairy tales is one site http://www.grimmfairytales.com/en/main
and Sesame Street animations were also a big hit. http://www.sesameworkshop.com/sesamestreet/?scrollerId=stories

Whenever I used resources like these I had a backup lesson planned in case there was a problem with the network.

[scott14]

I found this useful and interesting page outlining multimedia language teaching.

http://www.esl-lab.com/research/media.htm

I will try the chat rooms Guy, but chatting with other classes through messenger might be another alternative.

I checked out those sites ouyang, thanks. There are some good possibilities there.

The serch continues

[Tamara]

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

For some power point presentations already made up. Interaction without the time, I guess, because someone else did the hard work. I don't think you have to have internet access. I think you can download the presentations, as long as you keep the credit information citing Purdue. I've recommended this before, but I haven't used it in a classroom myself.

One teacher in our program put her entire semester on power point. She's been working almost non-stop since we had a power point workshop at the end of last semester. It was a lot of work, but now she's ready to go for future semesters, with the ability to tweak them a little here and there as needed. Time is an investment.

Some other teachers are working up a "Jeapordy" power point game board, which could be a template for any kind of review game. It's been fun and I think students will enjoy it once it's ready to go.

I'd also recommend NOPD (New Oxford Picture Dictionary) and English Discoveries for some whole class work. They're created for individual computer lab stations, but it works well as call and response, too. NOPD is mostly vocabulary, and it follows the work book/dictionary exactly. I do not know how much that software costs on individual basis. Our program buys software for the computer lab.

Our classrooms are set up with computers that have DVD players, so teachers have brought in a variety of videos to support their lessons. I like to show The Gods Must Be Crazy because the situational humor is so easy to follow, you don't have to be able to hear every word to follow along. I also think it stirs up interesting discussion. We've also added some Charlie Brown episodes to our library. Right now, we've just got holiday themes, but in an ESL classroom, teaching culture is a big part of our curriculum. I don't know how that would or wouldn't work in an EFL class.

[Guy Courchesne]

I'm now using a created yahoo chat room for broadcasting classes over the net. I haven't yet tried it to connect to another class though. Not sure about messenger, but the yahoo chat allows for broadcast video and audion, instead of one to one. Might not be as necessary for class-to-class work though.

[dajiang]

You know about webquests?
Here's a site that might give you some ideas:
http://www.wsu.edu/~wenchihu/page2.html

Also I just came a nice interactive site on Alice in Wonderland:
http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/wonderland/index.htm

This is another nice site with online exercises and stuff:
http://a4esl.org/

I've got these links on my weblog as well:
http://eslmaniac.web-log.nl/

Hope it might help you.
Regards,
Dajiang

[ChinaMovieMagic]

SUGGESTION
KRASHEN's words remain relevant (in effect):

FL acquisition occurs when input is received in a low-stress environment, when real messages of real interest are transmitted and understood.

Visual input and audio input should NOT be boring/pedantic AV-style
INSTEAD...promote magical movie-style involvement in the INPUT...
Role of Teacher can be to energize the classroom w/CHARISMA


Segments of DVD movies w/RolePlays offer so many opportunities for whole-brained acquisition......
...see suggestions on the China Forum--Job-Related "Promoting Change in China's Classrooms"

[lajzar]

If you have your own web site space, you can do some stuff.

Chat rooms...
www.lajzar.co.uk/chat

Forums...
www.lajzar.co.uk/forum

And some basic games...
www.lajzar.co.uk/en (sorry about the Japanese, just click on stuff)

While I admit to being a techie, the stuff above can be done relatively easily. I don' even mind if you copy the code, just as long as you link to me and tell me what you're doing with it.