The English Fez

MindMeister is a tool that helps students to see what they are thinking by laying out a map for easy organization in a visual way, helping students create a clear thought process. But that's just the surface use. This tool is full of features and applications that allow it to be integrated into the classroom as a great in-room asset as well as hybrid or remote learning aid. It features an Education specific tab, filled with ideas from the MindMeister blog to make it even more helpful! I have used MindMeister to make a mindmap about learning theories which you can access below! You can access my mindmap here!

Edpuzzle is an online video editing and tool that lets teachers cut, crop, and organize videos. But it's not too basic like you might imagine! Unlike a traditional video editor, this is more about getting certain clips into a format that allows teachers to engage directly with students on a subject. It also has allow teachers to provide assesments on videos. The result is a modern platform that's engaging for students but is also very easy to use for teachers. It even has a search tool where you can look up the works of others on the subject of your choosing and possibly save a lot of time!

 Google Jamboard is a  digital whiteboarding tool that works with all Google apps (namely Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Docs, etc). Available to very different user types, this tool can be incredibly useful to collaborate and design together with your team virtually. Jamboard allows you to visualize and map out your innovation or design thinking project from start to finish! 

  Trello enables you to organize projects and everything related to them into boards.  Trello is a collaborative work management app designed to track team projects, highlight tasks underway, show who they are assigned to, and detail progress towards completion.  At its core, Trello relies on the principles of Kanban project boards to visualize workflows, providing teachers and students with a simple overview of a project from start to finish. Trello’s key components are boards, lists, and cards. You can use all of these tools to create your board according to your project in any way you can imagine!

  Flipgrid is a video-based tool allows for discussion across digital devices, but in a way that make it look like as if it's Snapchat but for education! This powerful discussion tool does have Microsoft behind it but, despite this professional backing, it's not too complicated of an app and everyone can use it with ease! What you can do on Flipgrid is that teachers can post "Topics" that are essentially videos with some accompanying text. This is then shared with students, who can be prompted to respond.  You can  click here to watch my Flipgrid video on my favorite education tool  and  click here to watch my Flipgrid video on ELT

 Miro is basically a digital whiteboard that makes it easy to collaborate with others online. The software allows you to create notes and designs, move things around which would make it really easy to have group projects without even meeting! And most importantly Miro allows you to communicate through embedded video calls or online chats! You don't even need an extra app to do all of this. The tool also comes with a series of pre-built templates that can help you figure out what you wanna do and act as a  starting place for your own project work. I think I will make quite some use of Miro myself in the future to allow my students to collaborate with each other through online means, and the design of the app makes it very easy! Click here to view my mindmap on TPACK and SAMR!

  This semester we did a telecollaboration project with students from University of Malaga! What we did during our meetings Group 5 of the Valiant project from IUC and UMA had 4 meetings in total. In the first meeting we introduced ourselves and some of us made use of apps like Storybird. For the second week we all took turns to read the paragraphs that discussed the issues we faced while learning English. We had a fruitful conversation where we decided that we all had issues with pronunciation and wanted to create an activity based around this issue. On week three we all presented the apps that we found that we might use for the activity we are planning. We have discussed many apps that could be of help during these meetings and decided to take a closer look into three apps. These were Wetoku, which is an app that allows students to provide feedback. English Accent Coach which is an app where student could learn about the phonetic alphabet and Youglish which is a site where you can

 Pear Deck is an app that allows teachers more in-depth and graphic control when using Google Slides. The app is used as an add-on, to Google's service Google Slides. By using Pear Deck you can create formative assessments easily using templates that are designed to work at the beginning, middle, or end of class. From custom questions to audio additions, Pear Deck offers lots of personalization for teachers that include questions that students can react to with a thumbs up or down, drawing questions that allow students to express themselves creatively, free response questions that allow students to respond with short text, long text or even numbers and your regular multiple choice questions. If you wanna turn you slides from boring to amazing I'd heavily suggest using Pear Deck!

 Here is a link to a video I made explaining ''Future Perfect'' using Animoto. https://animoto.com/play/PydsejDI8IzJw4N00cjXoA 

 Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology in schools and other educational institutions. Its learning games (called kahoot), are user-generated multiple-choice quizzes that can be accessed via a web browser or the Kahoot! app. Instead of forcing students to solve a test all by themselves Kahoot turns this concept into a game show almost. Teachers can create tests themselves or find pre-made ones in the Kahoot platform to use. Once the game starts the students are given a code to access the platform and start answering the questions. Through making the tests a game where students can compete, students feel as if they are on Who wants to be a millionare instead of their classroom. I'd argue the music that plays in the background adds to this effect! Students are awarded extra points for being fast, giving correct answers and keeping a streak of correct answers. At the end top three students will be celebrated on a virtual podium with confetti which wi

 Second Life is a 3-D online virtual world where avatars do the kind of stuff real people do in real life: Buy and sell stuff ,listen to music, create movies, buy property, play games, watch movies and well...fly! Second Life doesn't have much limits when it comes to physics so if you wished to do so you can fly. While spending time on Second Life I realised that this is basically the Metaverse that most people are going crazy over right now, albeit with worse graphics. But most of the promises of the metaverse are present in Second Life already! You wanna have an online meeting? You can simply create a meeting room in there and fly over there with your character that could either wear a suit or dragon costume! As you can see below I rather went with a 60's look. What will you do on Second Life? Comment down below!

 Storybird is an app for storytelling. It's available on the web, iOS, Android. Students act as authors, pairing their words with the pictures they can find on the website. Students can write as they with, but they can't upload any pictures to the platform instead they must use Storybird's curated collection in their picture books and illustrations. Storybird is an app that can allow students to be creative and write on various subjects that don't have to be limited to literature. You can find a page from the book I created to introduce myself as part of a project!

Sutori is an interactive teaching tool that lets teachers create story timelines that are very similar to PowerPoint presentations which can include photos and documents. But Sutori goes one step further and gives teachers full control over how they present their topic with a variety of different options that you can use. You don't have to just add documents and photos to your presentations, you can instead add a flashcard or a quiz with the help of Sutori. All of these different tools can be complied into one page which can work as a module. Sutori's website also asks you to fill out a short form that takes less than a minute to better suggest pre-made slides for you. It also has an entire section dedicated to slides made by other teachers that you can download and start using right away. Only thing you have to do is typing away what you wanna find and Sutori will give you tons of premade slides!

 Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. Applications of virtual reality have quite the range.Most common of which is video games. This is the most common type of virtual reality people are familiar with. Even though most of us didn't get the chance to try on a VR set ourselves, we have came across them online (Likely through watching gaming videos on YouTube!). Another field is education. Through VR we can allow students to be in environments that we couldn't give access to. We could create entirely virtual classrooms that students could connect to without leaving the comfort of their home. (Which would come in handy during the pandemic). But a more common way of using VR in education lies in the fields of military and healthcare services. Instead of paying millions to create facilities that soldiers can practice in, a small lab with a VR headset can now do the job. Doctors and paramedics can also make

  Busuu is an online language learning app that allows it's users to learn languages at their own pace. Busuu achieves this by dividing the languages into parts in accordance with CEFR and using gamification to draw people in to keep learning. It also uses a more slick design that draws people in (even though it lacks a mascot like that of Duolingo's Duo). Busuu allows it's users to practice all skills required for language learning including speaking! Busuu has a feature where you can join chatrooms with native speakers to practice your speaking skills, which I think is a great bonus. I've been using Busuu for a while now to practice French. We shall see how far I'll get!

 Quizlet is an online tool that lets it's users create flash cards. Studies have shown that using flash cards to memorise certain things has been quite helpful to learners. Quizlet allows this to be done way easier than traditional ways of creating flash cards. You can use flashcards in various ways such as writing, listening, listening and writing, tests and so on. Quizlet also allows you to share the flash cards you made, with other people on the platform. You can also look up the topic of your choosing to find the flash cards of your liking without having to make them on your own!

You can now access my blog through this QR Code!

 Wikipedia defines networking as ''A network is a set of human contacts known to an individual, with whom that individual would expect to interact at intervals to support a given set of activities. In other words, a network is a group of caring, dedicated people who are committed to maintain a relationship with a person in order to support a given set of activities. Having a strong network requires being connected to a network of resources for mutual development and growth. Networks are intended to be mutually beneficial, extending the concept of teamwork beyond the immediate peer group. The term is usually encountered in the workplace, though it could apply equally to other pursuits outside work.'' Now that we have the definition of networking settled, I want to share links to my friends' blogs who are also creating content regarding technology use in ELT! https://englishchateau.blogspot.com/   languisticsm.wordpress.com Material Design with Özge (materialdesignwit

 I have completed HarvardX's ''Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles'' course. Which was thanks to a program I was part of called ''Aspire Leaders''. Thanks to them I didn't have to pay any fees for my certificate.  Click the link to access my certificate

You can access my Edmodo Class through this link!  https://new.edmodo.com/joincg/jvekc6 Edmodo is an educational website that takes the ideas of a social network and refines them and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. A teacher can assign and grade work on Edmodo; students can get help from the entire class on Edmodo. It is a safe environment. There is no bullying or inappropriate content, because the teacher can see everything that is posted on Edmodo. Also parents can join the class to bring a level of transparency that is difficult to achieve without technology. All in all Edmodo is a grat companion to just about any class. I have discovered Edmodo through a teacher of mine whom asked us to submit our homeworks through the app. Later on I have started to use this app myself as part of another class and realised that this is something I can use as a

  Seesaw for Schools is a digital app-based platform that allows students, teachers, and parents or guardians to complete and share classroom work. As the company itself says, Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Using the Seesaw app, students can show what they know using various media, from photos and videos to drawings, text, links, and PDFs. This is all on the Seesaw platform, meaning it can be seen and appraised by teachers and even shared with parents and guardians. The student portfolio grows over time, allowing users to carry it through their academic career. This is a great way for other teachers to see how the student has progressed over time – even showing how they worked to get the final result.  You can join the class I created on Seesaw by scanning the QR code above!