Tools you must know

Since the idea of this blog is to put teachers in contact with technology, here are some tips:

http://prezi.com/ (This is a very nice tool to prepare presentations in a modern way. It isn't linear as power point)

http://www.molleindustria.org/en/home (In this page there are some games)

http://hotpot.uvic.ca/#downloads (Here you can find a very nice tool to help you preparing filling the gap activities, matching up, and so on)

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=1209600&continue=https://docs.google.com/&followup=https://docs.google.com/&ltmpl=homepage (In this list couldn't miss the wonderful tool google created, Google Docs.)

Soon there will be more webpages to put you through technology. Also, if you have any suggestions, please, comment on this post, and give your


OthonDC.:

How do you deal with cell phones in the classroom?

"It has become increasingly difficult to completely ban cell phones in the ESL classroom, especially in ESL schools. Can we ask students to turn them off during class? Absolutely! Can we ask them not to bring them to class? It is very likely that our request will be met with reluctance. So, why not use this tool instead of fighting it? Your students will certainly be more motivated!" (Busy Teacher)

This is a question many teacher from X generation and others have been asking for, "How can I deal with cell phone in the classroom?". For some this can be a difficutl issue, but for others this is just a way of having different, and motivanting activities in class. If you curious about how to solve your problems or just want to have even more ideas about it, enjoy reading this article from the Busy Teacher http://busyteacher.org/6955-7-great-esl-cell-phone-activities.html

Get in touch with new tendencies, learn more about it, and don't forget posting your comments. it is important to keep our connection so that we can have better teachers (The more we are, the stronger we get). This is our job.

Othon DC.:

Pictures that creates ideas

This image was used to give an idea of the text blablablá in blublublu. Acording to this representation of the article, from the middle top to the bottom there is connection. The plane represents knowledge, which nowadays has no limits and no frontiers/ borders. In the past any piece of information used to take too long to spread, and reach other people, and cultures. Now with the advent of internet, and technology, information is like planes. Planes put you in different places taking very little time if compared with the past. In the end of all conections there are media devices or websites, which is the exemple of http://www.com/ where you can download books and interact with others by exchanging books, or in other words, information. Here there's an interesting point, in this kind of connection information is anywhere, what doesn't mean knowledge. Knowledge, in this kind of communcation, is what each person produces with the info they get, so differently from information, knowledge isn't anywhere. In the post above, what represents it are the pictures of the people as in the one of the opera. They were expoused to lots of info during long time, and when they are playing together they produce knowledge as music.



OthonDC.:

Generations X, Y, and Z

If you remember the first landing on the moon or the creation of internet, the Woodstock festival or even the first pc created by Apple, you are probably from  Generation X. But now if you played Atari, remember when windows 95 was launched and used to watch Xuxa in the mornings you are  from Generation Y and for the last but not the least if you are from the generation of twitter, facebook and it is used to listening Justin Bieber so you can say, you are from Generation Z.

Different generations are formed by different moments and historical events.  Here are some characteristics of each generation:

Generation X: It is a term to describe people from 60’s and the mid of 70’s.  The  X describes a lack of identity of this group and a  sense of unbelonging  to nowhere shaped this generation. They were against the  conservative way that their parents lived. They are also called The MTV Generation. They saw the beginning of the technological era: video games, cable tv, internet....

Generation Y:  Also known as Millennial Generation . It’s starts from the mid of 70’s and ends in the mid of 90’s some  people also include de earlies of 2000’s . Sometimes people refer to this generation as Peter Pan generation.  The members of this generation live with their parents, they have the hightest divorce rates. They  followed  the rise of instant communication such as e-mail, instant messenger and so on.  Cartoons like Dragonball Z, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons have been followed this generation.

Generation Z: It stars from the early 90’s  into de 2000’s. It is also known as Generation M (Multitasking Generation), Net Generation. It is the generation of communication. They prefer texting  to talking. They do not spend much time outdoors. They prefer computers to books. The events that shaped this generation were Globalization, 9/11 attack , the creation of  ipods, iphones, ipads, facebooks, twitter.

Carol