Wallwisher or Padlet: An incredible online board to create your 'wall' as you wish!

What is Wallwisher/Padlet?

Wallwisher or Padlet is a free online electronic board (wall) that you can create, share it with people and they can add sticky notes, comments, videos, links, any content you wish them to incorporate into the wall. It is a great interactive tool and promotes collaborative work.

You can find Wallwisher/Padlet in the following link:

wallwisher.com

How to use Wallwisher/Padlet?

You can watch this video to learn how to use Wallwisher/Padlet:

Why is Wallwisher/Padlet relevant to language learning?

• It promotes collaborative work in the classroom. Teachers can ask students to group themselves, discuss about a topic and add their comments to the wall. 

• It also enhances interaction among students in groups by favoring the practice of speaking to get to some agreements on what they would write or include on the wall.

• Students can develop their critical thinking by expressing their opinions.

• It can be used as a warm up to engage students' attention and they can start thinking in English.

• In the same vein, teachers can also use it to brainstorm and activate some previous ideas. Therefore, it favors constructivism view of learning a language, because teachers consider some previous students' knowledge.

• It contributes to interactive teaching and learning.

• Teachers have the possibility to use it in many different ways to promote the socio-cultural view of learning. This theory states that learners can acquire a language through the interaction with other 'more capable peers'.

• Teachers can also create a real need to communicate in the target language by contextualizing the topics to discuss.

• It is also safe for teachers and students. Teachers, can control what it is seen on the wall after they give their approval to students, so they can participate.

How might you use Jing in class/outside the class?

1. Within the classroom

• As I mentioned before, teachers can propose a topic, for instance, 'environmental issues in my country' and ask students to add some causes and consequences about this problem.

• Teachers might also ask students to describe some traditional food in their countries, add some pictures of it, recipes, or videos on how to prepare it.

• Teachers and students can summarise together the main topics for a particular test.

• Teachers may stick some pictures on the wall and ask students to create a storyboard with these pictures.

• Students can also give some advantages or disadvantages about any topic such as, having a pet, watching TV, playing video games, helping with the house chores, etc., any topic that may be relevant for them.

2.  Outside the classroom

• Students can add some reflections about their learning of a particular content.

• Students might also make a list of the different things they have to do during the week.

• Teachers can ask students to add some pieces of homework to the wall and then they can give them some feedback.

• Students can always use this tool to complete a variety of activities as homework. Some other examples are in the paragraph above or you can adapt them as you wish.

What limitations can you see with the use of Wallwisher/Padlet? 

• It is not appropriate for large classes, because the wall may look busy with too many comments on it and not all of them could be readable.

• The wall you created is not downloadable. 

• Students have to manage well their time because the internet connection may be slow at that moment and they may not be able to edit every post they made.

Here you can find an example of a wall that my colleagues and I created when our tutor Russell Stannard presented us this tool:

Jing: The amazing screen capturer!

What is Jing?

Jing is free downloadable program which allows you to record the screen of your computer, basically, everything you do in your computer and your voice at the same time, it's incredible, isn't it?. It is space saving because it gives you a free account to save your videos, or if you want you can also save the file on your own computer, you can be selective and capture the specific part of the screen you want to show. Within the area of teaching, it gives the opportunity to use it in different ways, for instance, teachers can provide some feedback to their students, guide them how to find some information in websites, give them support on their homework, and also students can use it to record themselves talking.  

You can find and download Jing in the following link:

techsmith.com

How to use Jing?

You can watch this video to learn how to use Jing:

Why is Jing relevant to language learning?

 

• It is a tool that encourages students autonomy because the teacher can provide some feedback about an activity without giving them the correct answer. Teachers can point out or highlight some specific or precise mistakes and students can revise, understand and correct them by their own.  

• When learners get some feedback through the use of this tool they are also receiving input of the language as they can listen to the teacher talking, hence promoting auditive learners. 

• Jing also favors the visual learning style because when students who learn better by seeing check their feedback, they can remember better the mistakes they made and they are unlikely to make them again.

• Students can get highly motivated and engaged by receiving feedback in this unusual way. Moreover, when teachers give them some feedback about an activity by recording their voices they can also add more than just one positive reinforcement  such as, good or well done, because it is easier and quicker to say it than to write it in a piece of paper.

• Teachers can elaborate and explain better a complex content or linguistic point and give more information about it in less time by talking.

• It can be also used to record an explanation to guide students about how to use certain tools, such as Vocaroo or Dvolver to do some activities or homework at home.

• Jing can also help to build up confidence in pronunciation because students can use to record themselves talking about a topic in their own context, at their own time and if they are not pleased with the result they can record as many times as they want to until they feel secured about it and send it to the teacher.

 

 

How might you use Jing in class/outside the class?

 

1. Within the classroom 

• It is important to bear in mind that all speaking activities that students would be required to do using Jing have to be organised, prepared and practiced in the classroom with the help of the teacher, and then, students can develop them on their own.

• Teachers can record the guidance, for instance, on how to use Jing or how to search a certain content in a website in advance and save class time, which is always limited.

• It is also more attractive and interesting to present a content, topic, grammar rules, instructions or vocabulary by using technology rather than doing it in the traditional way.

• Teachers can use this tool to show students how to search for specific information in a certain website. For example, teachers can ask students to do a research project, but during the development process teachers can support them by showing them a recording about what they expect students to include, write, read, etc. to accomplish the activity successfully.

• Teachers can also ask students to write an essay about a particular topic and then ask them to send it to the teachers.

     2.  Outside the classroom

 

• Teachers can provide detailed feedback to students about any written activity in relation to vocabulary, grammar and assess them formatively about their progresses.

• Students might record themselves giving a description about a picture of a place they visited, or a famous person. 

• Students can also discuss or comment about a topic, for example, they can make an outline about the different points they want to talk about in a word document, and use Jing to record themselves.

• Jing not only records a static screen but also allows students to record videos, and give comments on them.

• It gives the opportunity to use it for distant teaching.

What limitations can you see with the use of Jing? 

 

• It might be time consuming to give every student a very detailed and personal feedback if the class is large.

• It may be difficult for teachers to deal with the students who can not complete the homework because they might not have access to computers easily, or face problems to download the program.

Here, there is an example on how you can use Jing to give feedback to your students:

http://screencast.com/t/HJxuhixqAaJ

Vocaroo: A free voice recorder

What is Vocaroo?

Vocaroo is a free online audio recorder. It is a great tool for students to practice the English speaking skill and assess it. It is easy to use because it does not require to download a special software to use it. Once the recordings are ready, they can be shared, embedded and e mailed easily.


You can find Vocaroo in the following link:

vocaroo.com

How to use Vocaroo?

You can watch this video to learn how to use Vocaroo:

Why is Vocaroo relevant to language learning?

• It gives the oportunity to practice and assess speaking, specifically aspects such as, pronunciation, fluency, intonation, stress, grammar and vocabulary use, as well.

• Students can record their voices and in order to access them teachers can have access to the recordings more than once, because it gives you the opportunity to save them.

• Speaking is recognised as the most difficult skill to develop in the English Language because it requires more complex cognitive processes. Therefore, Vocaroo can give the chance to students to practice it by their own in a familiar context, at home, and get more confidence while trying it. In this way, it also lows the affective filter in students who are more anxious than others.

• It is a solution for shy students who are reluctant to talk in class.

• Teachers have the opportunity to listen to every student and provide him/her some feedback of their speaking performances.

• It is also a tool that promotes the idea of the 'connected classroom' because students can be asked to practice the language in and then outside the classroom.

• It is a perfect way to practice speaking because students can record themselves as many times as they want to, before the final version of the recording.

• It also promotes learner's autonomy, and learner - learner interaction.

• It is useful to assess students in the speaking skill individually, it gives you a better view of their levels and progresses.

 How might you use Vocaroo in class/outside the class?

1. Within the classroom

• Students can use this tool in different ways, for instance, to create an audio recording describing their favorite summer vacation.

• It encourages independent students, however, teachers have to guide them so they can be able to build up their autonomy. First, teachers have to prepare the class by recording themselves describing their own favorite summer vacation, students listen to it,  take notes of what they listen to, discuss about it in pairs or groups, and share ideas. Then, teachers have to teach them how to use Vocaroo and they also have to establish the different aspects the students have to talk about in their recordings. Then, students can start thinking about their description, they can decide about the different aspects, make an outline and describe it. During the lesson, teachers can check their progresses,  assess them formatively and give them feedback.

2.  Outside the classroom

• To continue with the idea of a connected classroom, in the first activity teachers ask their students to use this tool at home and create their own descriptions, try it several times until they are pleased with their performances, record the final version and send it to the teacher. Then the teacher can use this task to give the students feedback about their perfromances and also use it as summative assessment of the speaking skill.

• Teachers can also ask students to record their opinions about a piece of news, topic or article they saw during the class.

What limitations can you see with the use of Vocaroo? 

• It gives you  the possibility to record only five minutes.

• You need a microphone.

• It is not practical for teachers who have more than 36 students in a class, it would be time consuming to assess every student's activity. 

This is an example on how your students can describe their last summer holidays using this fabulous and easy tool.

Record audio or upload mp3 >>