Nowadays you can see more and more ads where teachers offer language tutoring via the Internet. They all tell you that you only need to download one of those free PC to PC calling programs, install a webcam, and you are all set to go. I understand that this set-up could be really good and convenient if it's a conversation class, but what if you want to teach vocabulary, grammar, reading and/or writing where, at least in the classical set-up, you would write notes on the board to illustrate your meaning and draw your students' attention to important bits and pieces. How can you do this in a virtual classroom?
With regards,
Stromfi
Language teaching via the Internet - the HOW TO-s
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kathyfelts
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:45 pm
Whiteboard and application sharing
Hi Stomfi,
Although I have used other applications to teach online, I am currently using MSN. MSN has a number of allowable ACTIONS including WHITEBOARD and APPLICATION SHARING.
The WHITEBOARD is like a shared page of Powerpoint. You can use it as a blank sheet to write, draw, or import objects such as pictures, diagrams, charts, audio or video clips. Or you can prepare a PPT to use with a student to interact. You share this space with the student - both of you can write, draw and import on it. For instance, you want to work with a student to use a graphic organizer to brainstorn her day at school. She can talk and you can write, or you can ask questions and she can either write the answers herself, or you can act as scribe. The toolbar on the whiteboard has tools to write, erase, type. highlight and draw. This functionality gives the lesson INTERACTIVITY, which is essential for a good online lesson.
APPLICATION SHARING allows both of you to work the web at the same time. For instance, if I want to work on parts of speech with a student, I go to Paintball on [email protected] and I work with the student on that activity. Or if I want a good reading and vocabulary activity, I might go to the Virtual Knee Surgery at edheads.com. The activity would be too difficult for the student to do on his own, but I can help him through the activity by explaining vocabulary and otherwise facilitating his progress through the activity. You can also repurpose online activities to make them suitable for teaching English. In the engineering sction of iknowthat.com is an activity called Widgets. Most students need help getting started with these Rube Goldberg-type activities and you can help your student verbally. I should mention that the activity includes a "help section" but since the point is to work on listening and conversation, I don't even show students where it is - which isn't to say they don't use it when we are online together.
Appliation sharing can also be used to preview books and materials. A number of textbooks are online now. You and your student can look at online books together if you decide you would like to use a book.
Finally, there are applications you can use to teach classes online. The best know is probably a Macromedia product called Breeze. It is very expensive but good. Breeze allows you to teach an online class. You can get a free trail of it and invite some folks to use it with you. Very cool! You can also look into cheaper products that do about the same thing with some variations.
There are loads of good applications out there to use to teach online. I am really surprised that online teaching has not gotten more popular sooner. I suspect that the reason is that a good online teacher needs to have a good command of the resources on the Internet and the technical abilty to use those resources, and the pay is not commensurate with the demands. I think that in the future, we will see people put together good productions for lessons. You might want to check out the insynch center to see how corporations are using synchronous and blended instruction for folks who have money.
I am still working on my latest PPT about using content area online resources to teach science, socail studies, and math, but I have been busy lately and don't have much time. I will send you a copy when I get it finished.
Good luck,
Kathy
Although I have used other applications to teach online, I am currently using MSN. MSN has a number of allowable ACTIONS including WHITEBOARD and APPLICATION SHARING.
The WHITEBOARD is like a shared page of Powerpoint. You can use it as a blank sheet to write, draw, or import objects such as pictures, diagrams, charts, audio or video clips. Or you can prepare a PPT to use with a student to interact. You share this space with the student - both of you can write, draw and import on it. For instance, you want to work with a student to use a graphic organizer to brainstorn her day at school. She can talk and you can write, or you can ask questions and she can either write the answers herself, or you can act as scribe. The toolbar on the whiteboard has tools to write, erase, type. highlight and draw. This functionality gives the lesson INTERACTIVITY, which is essential for a good online lesson.
APPLICATION SHARING allows both of you to work the web at the same time. For instance, if I want to work on parts of speech with a student, I go to Paintball on [email protected] and I work with the student on that activity. Or if I want a good reading and vocabulary activity, I might go to the Virtual Knee Surgery at edheads.com. The activity would be too difficult for the student to do on his own, but I can help him through the activity by explaining vocabulary and otherwise facilitating his progress through the activity. You can also repurpose online activities to make them suitable for teaching English. In the engineering sction of iknowthat.com is an activity called Widgets. Most students need help getting started with these Rube Goldberg-type activities and you can help your student verbally. I should mention that the activity includes a "help section" but since the point is to work on listening and conversation, I don't even show students where it is - which isn't to say they don't use it when we are online together.
Appliation sharing can also be used to preview books and materials. A number of textbooks are online now. You and your student can look at online books together if you decide you would like to use a book.
Finally, there are applications you can use to teach classes online. The best know is probably a Macromedia product called Breeze. It is very expensive but good. Breeze allows you to teach an online class. You can get a free trail of it and invite some folks to use it with you. Very cool! You can also look into cheaper products that do about the same thing with some variations.
There are loads of good applications out there to use to teach online. I am really surprised that online teaching has not gotten more popular sooner. I suspect that the reason is that a good online teacher needs to have a good command of the resources on the Internet and the technical abilty to use those resources, and the pay is not commensurate with the demands. I think that in the future, we will see people put together good productions for lessons. You might want to check out the insynch center to see how corporations are using synchronous and blended instruction for folks who have money.
I am still working on my latest PPT about using content area online resources to teach science, socail studies, and math, but I have been busy lately and don't have much time. I will send you a copy when I get it finished.
Good luck,
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Thank you very much again for your reply and help. You wouldn't happen to come to Massachusetts in the future to give a presentation on on-line teaching, would you?
If you don't mind, I have a few more questions. Do you know if WHITEBOARD can support foreign characters, too? Can students save each WHITTEBOARD page you create onto their computer for their records.
What advice would you give on choosing a webcam?
Thank you very much again for your reply and help. You wouldn't happen to come to Massachusetts in the future to give a presentation on on-line teaching, would you?
If you don't mind, I have a few more questions. Do you know if WHITEBOARD can support foreign characters, too? Can students save each WHITTEBOARD page you create onto their computer for their records.
What advice would you give on choosing a webcam?
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kathyfelts
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:45 pm
Hi Stromfi,
I don't plan to go anywhere in the near future - but no need - I would be happy to show you how to use MSN to teach if we can work out a weekend time. Teaching online is my hobby and I am always happy to share what I am learning. In addition to teaching online in the early morning, I teach in an elementary school and a middle school during the week and am pretty tied up M-F.
You most certainly can use other languages on the whiteboard. I forget what I did to set up Korean and Chinese, but I think I just downloaded the language service pack from MS.
Yes, you can save your work on the whiteboard. You can also prepare custom-made PPT presentations and then load them for the lesson. The student can work with the lesson online while the two of you talk. I once prepared a lesson on Pascal's triangle for a 10-year old. Here we are a year later and a half later, and he still remembers who Pascal was, where he was from, and how to fill in the numbers on the triangle.
You can also copy and paste web pages onto the whiteboard. I got a free trial of Snagit (which I later bought) so that I could easily do that kind of cut and paste - very useful little peice of software.
The great thing about using PPT for English teaching is that you can include so much graphic information. Since you share the whiteboard, you can ask your student(s) to find visual information to support the text. One time I was teaching 20 male high school students. They were from Guatemala and most didn't know their ABC's, much less how to use a computer. They had a great time with a list of 50 countries. The made a card for each country and then found a picture to show what folks from that country looked like. I think they would have been happy to do that activity all year. Another thing they really enjoyed was doing a PPT about their hometown or village. They included slides showing the place, the people, the clothes, food and a voice clip of their language. Some of the young men cried while they did the activity. I have also used this idea when doing video conferencing between my students here in NC and Korean students. It is so much trouble to set up video conferencing when it involves a public school, so I try to get the biggest bang for my buck. I get the elementary students in both countries to do a PPT on their own countries and situations and then present them on camera to other group.
I think that once you start working with this you are going to love it. My advice on the camera is to get a cheap one. I have only had to buy one since I started teaching online in Oct 2004. It is a Logiech Pro and cost me about $60 on ebay.
The next thing I want to do is play around with my daughter's iriver. It is a tiny MP3 player with video. I think this kind of device has a lot of possibilities.
Talk to you later. You always ask the best questions!
Kathy
I don't plan to go anywhere in the near future - but no need - I would be happy to show you how to use MSN to teach if we can work out a weekend time. Teaching online is my hobby and I am always happy to share what I am learning. In addition to teaching online in the early morning, I teach in an elementary school and a middle school during the week and am pretty tied up M-F.
You most certainly can use other languages on the whiteboard. I forget what I did to set up Korean and Chinese, but I think I just downloaded the language service pack from MS.
Yes, you can save your work on the whiteboard. You can also prepare custom-made PPT presentations and then load them for the lesson. The student can work with the lesson online while the two of you talk. I once prepared a lesson on Pascal's triangle for a 10-year old. Here we are a year later and a half later, and he still remembers who Pascal was, where he was from, and how to fill in the numbers on the triangle.
You can also copy and paste web pages onto the whiteboard. I got a free trial of Snagit (which I later bought) so that I could easily do that kind of cut and paste - very useful little peice of software.
The great thing about using PPT for English teaching is that you can include so much graphic information. Since you share the whiteboard, you can ask your student(s) to find visual information to support the text. One time I was teaching 20 male high school students. They were from Guatemala and most didn't know their ABC's, much less how to use a computer. They had a great time with a list of 50 countries. The made a card for each country and then found a picture to show what folks from that country looked like. I think they would have been happy to do that activity all year. Another thing they really enjoyed was doing a PPT about their hometown or village. They included slides showing the place, the people, the clothes, food and a voice clip of their language. Some of the young men cried while they did the activity. I have also used this idea when doing video conferencing between my students here in NC and Korean students. It is so much trouble to set up video conferencing when it involves a public school, so I try to get the biggest bang for my buck. I get the elementary students in both countries to do a PPT on their own countries and situations and then present them on camera to other group.
I think that once you start working with this you are going to love it. My advice on the camera is to get a cheap one. I have only had to buy one since I started teaching online in Oct 2004. It is a Logiech Pro and cost me about $60 on ebay.
The next thing I want to do is play around with my daughter's iriver. It is a tiny MP3 player with video. I think this kind of device has a lot of possibilities.
Talk to you later. You always ask the best questions!
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
I would love to take your offer and get initiated into the HOW TO-s of online teaching on one of the coming weekends. I don't have MSN, though. I'm a total beginner with these online gadgets, you see. I have just discovered the beauty of Skype, but I haven't even used its chat program.
So, if you're up to spending your well deserved free time with a layman over the net, let's arrange for a date.
Stromfi
I would love to take your offer and get initiated into the HOW TO-s of online teaching on one of the coming weekends. I don't have MSN, though. I'm a total beginner with these online gadgets, you see. I have just discovered the beauty of Skype, but I haven't even used its chat program.
So, if you're up to spending your well deserved free time with a layman over the net, let's arrange for a date.Stromfi
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kathyfelts
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:45 pm
MSN Whiteboard and Ap Sharing
Hi Stomfi,
The first thing you will need to do is to get a hotmail account from www.hotmail.com. It is free. Next you will need to download MSN Messenger 6.0. That is free, too. Here is the address of a PC Magazine review of the software:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1383196,00.asp
Let me know when you have downloaded the software and read the article and we will set up a time to use it.
Take care,
Kathy
The first thing you will need to do is to get a hotmail account from www.hotmail.com. It is free. Next you will need to download MSN Messenger 6.0. That is free, too. Here is the address of a PC Magazine review of the software:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1383196,00.asp
Let me know when you have downloaded the software and read the article and we will set up a time to use it.
Take care,
Kathy
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kathyfelts
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:45 pm
MSN 7.5
I just tried to download MSN 6.0 and got 7.5 instead. Let us hope that 7.5 will work as well as the older version.
Hi Kathy,
I tried to download MSN Messenger 7.5 but nothing seems to have happened.
Before I tried the download I tried to set up Widnows Messenger on my computer. My computer runs on Windows XP (Professional) and I went over all the steps you are supposed to take to have Windows Messenger up and running. I got a hotmail.com e-mail address, but I still can't sign in to Windows Messenger because every time I try, I get a message saying "Signing in to .Net Messenger Service failed because the service is not compatible with this version of the program." To be honest, it's all Greek to me. What is going on? I sent an e-mail to the Customer Support of MSN Account Services, but so far I haven't gotten any answer. What do you suggest?
I tried to download MSN Messenger 7.5 but nothing seems to have happened.
Before I tried the download I tried to set up Widnows Messenger on my computer. My computer runs on Windows XP (Professional) and I went over all the steps you are supposed to take to have Windows Messenger up and running. I got a hotmail.com e-mail address, but I still can't sign in to Windows Messenger because every time I try, I get a message saying "Signing in to .Net Messenger Service failed because the service is not compatible with this version of the program." To be honest, it's all Greek to me. What is going on? I sent an e-mail to the Customer Support of MSN Account Services, but so far I haven't gotten any answer. What do you suggest?
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
Hi again Stromfi!
I think I might have figured out what the problem is. Note that you have mentioned two different programs: 1) Windows Messenger and 2) MSN Messenger 7.5.
Even with PCs that use XP, the Windows Messenger that's supplied on the C drive as part of the initial set up/permanent suite of programs can be quite an old version (e.g. version 4.something), and if you've made the mistake of selecting 1) from your start button/program listing or desktop shortcut rather than 2), then you will obviously be trying to sign in with something that is too old and therefore no longer supported (=is incompatible with the current MSN Messenger service).
Assuming that you have indeed made this mistake (I did it myself once, which is why your plight seems familiar to me!), what you should therefore then do is exit the older version, delete its shortcuts (or better uninstall it totally, if possible) and then try signing back in with the newer (latest) version - here's to hoping that this will solve your problems (i.e. that the new version will become the default one that your PC signs you into automatically).
If the above doesn't help, you might need to consider starting afresh by reformatting your C drive, reinstalling v.7.5 and ensuring that you use ONLY the 7.5 from the very beginning, but like I say, hopefully you won't need to resort to such drastic measures!
I think I might have figured out what the problem is. Note that you have mentioned two different programs: 1) Windows Messenger and 2) MSN Messenger 7.5.
Even with PCs that use XP, the Windows Messenger that's supplied on the C drive as part of the initial set up/permanent suite of programs can be quite an old version (e.g. version 4.something), and if you've made the mistake of selecting 1) from your start button/program listing or desktop shortcut rather than 2), then you will obviously be trying to sign in with something that is too old and therefore no longer supported (=is incompatible with the current MSN Messenger service).
Assuming that you have indeed made this mistake (I did it myself once, which is why your plight seems familiar to me!), what you should therefore then do is exit the older version, delete its shortcuts (or better uninstall it totally, if possible) and then try signing back in with the newer (latest) version - here's to hoping that this will solve your problems (i.e. that the new version will become the default one that your PC signs you into automatically).
If the above doesn't help, you might need to consider starting afresh by reformatting your C drive, reinstalling v.7.5 and ensuring that you use ONLY the 7.5 from the very beginning, but like I say, hopefully you won't need to resort to such drastic measures!
He-Hey, fluffymaster:
It's working!!!!! I have my MSN Messenger up and running!!!! I decided to uninstall Windows Messenger from my PC, and when I clicked on Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to update Windows Messenger. Apparently clicking on OK was all that I needed. It guided me through a series of questions and now I'm all set.
Thanks for your help again.
It's working!!!!! I have my MSN Messenger up and running!!!! I decided to uninstall Windows Messenger from my PC, and when I clicked on Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to update Windows Messenger. Apparently clicking on OK was all that I needed. It guided me through a series of questions and now I'm all set.
Thanks for your help again.