Online resources to support student tasks, projects and self-study

There are lots of online resources you can use to support task or project-based work and to encourage student self-study – and you can find out about many of them by thumbing through this blog. So in this post I'm just going to talk about some websites you can use for digital storytelling.

My favourite are:
ZimmerTwins
StoryJumper 
StoryBird

ZimmerTwins

This is a website where you can make attractive, short animated films. It's easy to use and intuitive, students pick it up in minutes and works well for age groups from about 7 – 12.
As with all these types of resources, you need to create an account first (which is free with no strings attached). You can either get your students to login with your account details or create a class login.

Ways to use ZimmerTwins in class
It's great for focussing on vocabulary related to actions, settings and emotions.
I usually make a demo movie to show to my class. In it I introduce the 3 characters that appear in every movie: a boy called Edgar, a girl called Eva and a cat called 13.
I show:

• the different things they can do: fly, hide, laugh, sing, dance etc 
• the different places they can visit: a desert, a jungle, outer space, a Chinese restaurant etc
• the different emotions they experience: angry, sad, scared, surprised etc

Sometimes, I've got students to write out their story beforehand in class or for homework and talk about it in a whole class situation before going to the computer room. You can also set the movie making part for homework. After students have made their movies, have a film premier session where they see what their classmates have done and vote for the movie they like best.

As with all these resources, I ask one of the students to help demonstrate how to use them on the IWB for the rest of the class. This enables you to check for any difficulties they may have in using them (that haven't occurred to you) and also is a good way of introducing important lexis: click there, scroll down a bit, not that one, this one etc. Moreover, you'll probably find that students pay much more attention to a classmate than to you!

Another tip: tell your students that they can work at the computers for the first 10 minutes or so in their first language. However, one of them has to note down the phrases that they say most. Then, stop work and ask them to write their phrases – or a translation of them in English – on the board. This gives them a language bank to work with when their back at the computers and is also a practical way to call their attention to the fact that you want them to work in English. You can back this up by having a barometer diagram displayed on the IWB with students' names at the side. As you go round the class monitoring your students, you can increase or decrease the barometer according to whether they are working in English or not and make it clear to them that this will form part of their speaking evaluation.

StoryJumper

You can use this for creating online picture book stories – here's an example from my Silver 3 class. The site is very teacher friendly and you can create a simple fun login for your whole class. I advise you to play with StoryJumper a bit before launching it on a class but it's quite simple to use and comes with a good tutorial. It will appeal to is the same age-group as for ZimmerTwins, about 7 – 12.

Ways to use StoryJumper in class

I've used this for practising writing descriptions but you can really adapt it for any topic or language focus you want. Again you can start in class and let students finish their stories for homework.

StoryBird

This is similar to StoryJumper but suitable for older students – basically of any age. It has a very helpful tour which will give you and your students an overview of what to do and how the site works. Like StoryBird, you can easily login a whole class and it offers a dashboard where you can check students' progress and give them stickers or even marks on their work. It also encourages collaborative work and students can invite each other to work on a story, so it's ideally suited for work outside the classroom.

INSETT - Using ICT with young learners

EFL software installed in CALL Room, Room 8 and 6 for use with young learners

• Storybook Weaver - a creative tool enabling young learners to write and illustrate their own animated storybooks. Learners can choose from hundreds of images and scenery combination.
• Story World 1 and 2 - a collection of popular children’s stories brought to life with pictures and music. The program also includes simple games based on the stories. Learners can also record their own versions of the featured stories.
• WordBird's Word Land - has a range of 20 topics (such as numbers, colours, school, family, farm animals, transport and ‘at the sea’). Each topic is divided into four activity screens

For more information on these programs plus teaching ideas go to http://bcnet.britishcouncil.org:8000/ee/thestaffroom/preparing_lesson/teaching_software/index.htm (this is a BC intranet page, so you'll need your login)

• English with the Finglies – for Primary 1 and 2 particularly. A story with interactive exercises that’s divided into 4 units. Includes a Teacher’s Guide with lesson plans, worksheets and flash cards.

Finding material and ideas about how to use it
Handbook4ICT (follow the instructions of how to sign in as a guest) has:

• ideas on how to use Storybook Weaver. Go to ICT Integration > Practical integration ideas
• a list of ELT software mapped to the CEF levels with tips on how to use them in class. Go to ICT Integration > Syllabus Integration then choose the level and skill that interest you

BC Links for ELT materials Use this to search by category, key words and level

BBC Schools although the material is not ELT, there’s much you can use.

Kids' sites where there’s a whole list of sites with their descriptions from which you can choose material to brighten up the topics you’re covering in the course book

Funbrain for a selection of interactive educational games

Creative publishing web resources

• Voki – students can create their own animated character and then give them a voice. Great for practising structures and pronunciation
• Voicethread – students choose photos and then can record themselves talking about them
• Bubbleshare – students put together a photo album and then add captions
• Zimmertwins – students produce an animated movie using the character and scene options that are provided.
  

Easy-to-follow instructions are provided on all the sites.
For teaching ideas and class instructions on using Voki and Voicethread, see an earlier post and for Bubbleshare see a later post on this blog.

Suggestions for whole class activities (Room 8 and 6)

• For very young primary learners, there are stories and activities on learning to read at the Starfall site.
• For primary-age young learners, choose a topic at LearnEnglish Kids – and select a song or a story. Follow it up with one of the worksheets that are provided and then do one or two of the games or activities related to it. Divide your class into teams and let them take it in turn to use the wireless mouse and keyboard
• For primary-age young learners, choose a story from BBC Schools
  
• For secondary-age young learners, choose a video from the BBC’s or the National Geographic’s youtube channels to practise comprehension skills
• Review and vote on the work that your students have completed using Storybook Weaver, Voki, Voicethread, Bubbleshare or Zimmertwins

Classroom management tips

• Make sure you have alternative material in case your run into technical problems
• An easy way of dealing with naughty students is to have some worksheets or Activity Book exercises handy so that you can take them off the computers and give them these to work from. Usually the threat is sufficient to bring them back in line.
• If you’ve chosen various activities from LearnEnglish Kids or another kids site, create a Word document with a list of the links to the activities, and save it in your folder on the T:drive. Show your students how to open the document at the beginning of the session and demonstrate some of the activities to the whole class with the data projector. Back on their work stations they work through your list of links, this way they won’t get so lost and distracted as they do when looking for links on a web page, and you can see what activities they have done by checking the colour of the links (the colour changes once they’ve been visited).
• Finish the session on the computers a few minutes before the class ends. Do not let students leave before they have closed program windows, hung up headphones and pushed their chairs under the tables. Please make sure you leave the CALL Room tidy and ready for the next class.

Dealing with technical problems:
The web site or program doesn’t function properly

• Most of the participatory web sites and programs (Storybook Weaver, Voki, Voicethread etc) require Flash Player. If they don’t work properly (you can’t see a video or animation or you can’t record sound), it means that Flash Player didn’t install correctly on start up. The solution is to re-start the work station. (Some of the CALL Room computers don’t respond to the re-start menu command. In this case, switch off the computer and then switch it on again.) You then have to give time for the updater to finish its installation process (5-10 minutes) before the work station becomes fully functional.

No sound when working with the data projector

• Make sure the Sound Manager (the box with slide controls on the teacher’s desk) is switched on. When you finish your session, please switch this off to get rid off the annoying buzz from the speakers. But don’t switch the speakers off, it’s a hassle to turn them on again.
• Make sure that the Sound Manager cable is connected to the sound socket on the CPU (marked with a headphone symbol on the computer box on the teacher’s desk). It may be that someone has connected a set of headphones (instead of the Sound Manager) into the socket.

No sound or you can’t record from one of the work stations

• Make sure the sound output hasn’t been muted by double clicking on the speaker symbol (bottom right hand corner of the screen) and unchecking the box.
• Check that the headphones are connected correctly with the input jack in the green socket (headphones) and the output jack (microphone) in the pink/blue socket.
• If neither of these solve the problem, replace the headphones with a new set from the cupboard by the door (key on hook under teacher’s desk). If it’s only a problem with recording sound i.e. that headphones still work, put the faulty set in the box provided. Otherwise, if you’re sure that neither the headphones or mike work, throw the set away.

(All these are covered with helpful screenshots of the relevant equipment in the red Help folder in the CALL Room.)

If you are unable to solve a technical problem or there are not enough headphones/ splitters for each work station (2 sets of headphones, one splitter per work station) or the CALL Room was in a mess when you arrived for your class, please fill in one of the forms provided.