To talk about the Environment to my students, this time I have created a simple Emaze online presentation.
Emaze is a very interesting web tool, you can select a pre-designed template (or make your own slides from scratch) and easily create your presentation (slideshow, video and even a 3D presentation) by adding text, images, charts and videos.
You can also save the presentation to view it offline.
This work is just a starting point to talk about many topics related to the environment. Students will learn:
the meaning of the word environment
to consider that we belong to a global community which shares resources
to become more responsible and care about the planet Earth
to think critically about the impact of people on their planet
to take some real actions for the environment
to understand the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling
Click on the image below and watch the presentation:
What is your opinion, after having surfed the above sites? Do you know any other stereotypes about your country or about a foreign nation? Do you think that travelling could help better understand another culture? Why?
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Now, let's listen to this song.
"Englishman in New York" by Sting
Can you recognize any stereotypes in the song?Which adjectives or nouns are used to describe a British man? Are there any adjectives that refer to American people? Can you understand any differences between English and Americans?
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Now watch the following video from the BBC and listen to what the British think about their own country's stereotypes.
How would you describe British people? What do you know about the British? Have you ever been to the United Kingdom?
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Take a look at the following presentation. I have tried to compare British culture to my own culture summarizing the most popular stereotypes about these two countries. I have surfed the Net to take the pulse of the situation (I considered both the Italian and the British point of view) and I found some interesting and funny opinions (and videos)!
Sometimes it's good to laugh at some particular aspect, characteristic or attitude but, remember: we should never disrespect anyone!
Now prepare a presentation about some other cultures, using videos, links, songs, people's opinions or whatever you like! Remember to use irony alwaysrespecting others!
What do you do to keep yourself fit? Describe your diet and your habits using apresentation tool.
You have a lot of information about food and cooking, now. You are ready to create...your digital magazine! With Glossi you can publish your own magazine with text, images, links or videos. It's very simple, have a look at my short example:
Click on the image to open
Students' task
Create your own web magazine withGlossi! Write your articles, add images and videos and have fun!
In EFL classes it is always useful associating words, ideas and concepts with images. Through their visual memory students can better understand and remember information. Thanks to images you can explain complex information in a simple way. Images help learners manage their ideas and make connections between pieces of information. Moreover, images enhance students' creativity as well as their language skills. In some previous posts I have already talked about the importance of images in EFL classes and I have tried some digital tools that can be very useful to create graphics or mindmaps. Now I'd like to take stock of the situation and suggest again some interesting tools.
I tried some freetools and I prepared some short and simple examples. This way it's possible to see directly the final result and it's easier for you to see what is possible to do with each tool.
GRAPHICS, INFOGRAPHICS AND POSTERS
are visual representations of concepts, thoughts and ideas. They help students better remember information, improve their reading comprehension, enhance their learning skills and critical thinking. The following tools allow to cretae interactive infographics. 1)Piktochart
MINDMAPPING helps students focusing their attention, enables teachers to organize ideas and concepts, allows to present information in visually attracting and comprehensive way, promotes inquiry and problem solving, enhance learners' note taking. Moreover its organizational structure help students understand effectively. Also the following tools allow to make your maps interactive!
VIDEOS Audiovisual material can be very helpful for both teaching and learning. Also videos, as images, can effectively communicate complex information to the learners. You can use videos with your students in three fases (pre-viewing, viewing and post-viewing) or you can also create your own videos with your students. It can be a really rewarding experience and can enhance students' creativity. The following tool allows you to choose a video from the web (or use your own) and embed anything you like in it (questions, lesson information, links to websites). Educanon My example: http://www.educanon.com/public/10011/23475 CARTOONS You can make your own animated cartoon with: Goanimate My example: http://goanimate.com/videos/0rcV1JZ_xBL8?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent
From now on I'll post some information for teachers who want to become more "digital".
There are plenty of apps and tools that can help our didactics, but it takes a lot of time to try all of them to see how they work.
So I will try some of them for you showing you the final result. I'll create quick and very simple examples. That way it should be easier to choose what tool is appropriate for you and which is not.
If you want to prepare some attractive presentations(besides PowerPoint), you can use the followin tools: The first tool I tried is Powtoon http://www.powtoon.com
You can create digital posters with images, videos and audio files . Very interesting! Students could also create some glogs for homework! This is my example.
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To talk about the Environment to my students, this time I have created a simple Emaze online presentation. .jpg)
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