Pixton

What is it? 

Pixton is a social community where anyone can easily create, share, re-mix and publish their comic strip stories with people around the globe. 

There are three versions Pixton for Fun (free), Pixton for School and Pixton for Business.

Tutorial

Application in Class

Pixton is a great tool to engage students through comics. Teachers can introduce it to their students and let them create their own comics and share their creations with each other. 

The comic is a powerful form of visual communication, and when placed in an interactive teaching and learning environment, becomes an invaluable tool for the EFL classroom. This program motivates a wide variety of EFL students because it allows for creativity, it is interactive, and it can be funny. 

The free version of Pixton can be integrated in English classes in a variety of ways:

• Create a traditional scene or event from an English speaking country.

• Create a virtual tour of the setting, country or historical places.

• Create a fictional story about a historical event that relates to the study of the literature.

• Jigsaw a larger unit of study into smaller sections and have groups create comics to teach their section to the class.

• Share and exchange comics with other students in order to comment and receive comments on their creations.

• Connect grammar and reading skills. Students can find grammatical errors in a fun way!

• Research for example, a political issue from the past or current. Then they can create a political cartoon that represents to that era.

• Use the information students had collected from the Internet for the class debate, they can create a comic in which the present one argument for and one argument against the idea of a particular subject. 

• Order a sequence of events using words and phrases.

• Draw a sequence of  pictures to show ideas for a narrative.

• Create a comic where teenagers talk about the kind of diet they should follow when they do sports.

• Use a comic as an example, re-mix that comic and add dialogue using appropiate adjectives, nouns or verbs.

• Create a comic strip based on different chapters of a novel. 

• Reinforce the English vocabulary and grammar through the associative power of words and images.

• Write a joke or an autobiography.

My Example:

Discussion

1.         Have you ever used Pixton before?

2.         In what ways could you use Pixton in the classroom?

Post a comment below with your ideas. Thanks!

Glogster

 What is it?

Glogster is a Web 2.0 tool that allows users to create digital, interactive posters combining text, audio, music, video, images and hyperlinks.

Tutorials

To read more about functions of this great tool, click on the following links:

• Quick Start Tutorial

• Using Glogster

• Tutorial in Spanish

• Voki on Glogster

Application in Class

Glogster is a useful technology tool to use in the classroom because it is so flexible. A Glog can contain whole teaching units, including text, linked video, and audio, can link to resources or assignments stored on the Internet. 

What is more, your students can use it for biographical presentation for a real or fictional person, timelines, presentations of a topic they have researched, book reviews or book reports, travel poster for a city, state or country, new vocabulary and much more. 

There are extensive examples on the Glogster website for you to inspire:

• Explore Glogster

My Example:

Discussion

1.         Have you ever used Glogster before?

2.         In what ways could you use Glogster in the classroom?

Post a comment below with your ideas. Thanks!

Voki

What is it?

Voki is a free tool which can be used to share a message using an animated speaking avatar.

Tutorials

To read more about functions of this great tool, click on the following links:

• Quick Start Tutorial

• Voki on Power Point

• Voki on Glogster

• Voki on Pinterest

• Voki on Prezi

• Voki on Google Site

Application in Class

Voki is a great classroom tool. If you keep a class blog, student blogs, a wiki, or have a different class site, you can welcome others with a little information about you or your class by having a Voki in your sidebar. 

There are so many amazing opportunities with Voki! For example, students can...

• Create avatars that are similar in looks or personalities and record a message that tells about themselves. 

• Practise writing, reading, listening and speaking.

• Record their own voices in order to practise their pronunciations.

• Exchange the avatars with e-pals and generate questions to ask their avatar e-pals.

The list is endless!

Here are a few fun ideas for how you can incorporate Voki speaking avatars in your classroom and lesson plans:

• Voki Lesson Plans

• Voki Twitter

• Voki Facebook

My Example

Discussion

1. Have you used Voki in the classroom? If so, what are some ways you have used it?
2. How could you incorporate Voki into a lesson?

Post a comment below with your ideas. Thanks!

My School Notebook

What is it?

mySchoolNotebook is a useful tool for taking, saving and sharing school notes online and offline.

Tutorial

mySchoolNotebook.com is completely free and does not require any software download or installation. To use it, students can log in by connecting to Facebook or create an account with an e-mail and password. Also, they do not need any Internet connection to use the service,  because it works offline! To read more about functions of this great tool, click here.

Application in Class

Nowadays students enjoy bringing their electronic devices to school and take notes with them. They can create well-arranged notebooks and divide them into individual topics and lessons where they can add text, images and videos. The application allows students to draw into notes, upload files, or print the notes. 

mySchoolNotebook is available to use on the web and as an iPhone/iPad app. Students can export their notebooks as PDFs if they need to have a paper copy of their notes. Most importantly, they can share their notes with friends taking the same course and let them to edit their notes if desired. If students miss a class, they simply ask friends to share the notes with them instantly by one click.

Discussion

1. How do your students take notes?
2. Have you ever used mySchoolNotebook in your classroom?

Post a comment below with your ideas. Thanks!