Online materials (Learning and teaching English)

How many of you wanted to look for an online material, be it an activity or an exercise for teaching and learning English, and felt a little lost among the wealth of materials? I felt that several times and although there are several materials online, knowing which ones are good or have no strings attached is a bit nerve-racking and time-consuming exercise.

That is why I have been collecting (or much rather bookmarking) several websites and have listed here with short descriptions in the hope that it might be of some use to anyone reading this blog. So, here it goes..!

1. My all time favourite is the Boggles website (not that I use it very often). It has no registration conditions and you can download roleplays and flashcards for free!Check the following two websites. The second homepage consists of exercises specifically for adults but could be used for young adults as well. I personally used one of the roleplay situations and the complimentary flashcards recently and the students (16-17 years) loved it. Besides, as the role play sheets are in word format, you can also make minor changes to fit your class.

http://bogglesworldesl.com/

http://bogglesworldesl.com/adultesl1.htm

2.      I think ESL printables is an online resource that is set up in a very smart way. Everytime I google for a materials, this site seems to be on the top and as I surfed it and found that it had some cool lesson plans and ready-made materials. But oops! I realised that I need to sign to have access to one. I did that but that was not enough! I was required to contribute my own materials and I have access to the materials contributed by other teachers around the world only if I have contributions in my account. So, no chance for lurkers or whatever you call those of us who like free materials :-). To check it by yourself,  here goes the link:

http://www.eslprintables.com/

Once you send in a contribution, you will have access to the wealth of mostly good quality materials and I think it is good give and take system.

3. This is a website that students have frequently recommended me. I think it has good online exercises and also grammar explanations.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/

4. www.businessenglishonline.net – as the name suggests, it’s useful for teaching business English. Some of the worksheets could, for instance, be used for conversation sessions.

5. www.handoutsonline.com –  This is a pay-page, with some freebies. Resources include conversation and grammar builders, crosswords, flashcards, games and more.

6. www.examenglish.com – This contains free online practice tests for a variety of exams such as all the Cambridge exams CAE, FCE, BEC, TOEFL, IELTS etc.

7. http://www.ego4u.de/  – This is an English learning site in German and it would be good for German speaking students who need the instructions and the guidelines in German in order to pave their way towards learning English.

8. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Daly-CaseStudies/  – If you are doing incompany courses, this link has some good guidelines on how to do case studies in the classroom.

9. http://www.ihes.com/bcn/tt/business-links.html  This link could be given to your students or if there is internet connection in the class, you could use this as a filler. It has some great online games on learning businesss vocabulary, such as hangman and so on. I tried some of the exercises myself and should say they´re fun!

10. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teach/ – This link is for teacher and contains authentic audio and video clips, idioms, articles, news clipping. This could be used in integration with the main course.

11. http://www.real-english.com/ – I just discovered this link. I don´t know how regularly it is updated but I think the video link in it where real people are interviewed is great for picking up words and expressions. Besides, it has subtitles in case the audio is not very clear. I think this could be used as a ice breaker, a conversation starter or a stimulator for discussion. Check this out!

I have also collected some postcard and blog links. You can check out for yourself and make learning and teaching English more fun!

Podcasts

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ Grammar Girl provides short and friendly tips to improve your writing.
http://www.listen-to-english.com/   Voted top language blog of 2009, Listen to English is a podcast read in British English twice a week, with grammar and vocabulary notes and quizzes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/   Six Minute English lets you listen to and read the podcast online and do the interactive exercises, or download the podcast and print out the script to take offline. The script is available in Word, so you can edit a worksheet for yourself.

http://www.spotlight-online.de/audio/podcast   The Spotlight weekly 5-minute audio show is published on Wednesdays. Download both the podcast and the transcript.

Blogs
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ Breaking News English has been published every 4 days since 1 November 2004. Audio, worksheets, interactive quiz. Also see the lower intermediate site, http://www.newsenglishlessons.com/

http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/ Nik Peachey shows you how to use the Internet more creatively to learn English. Technically challenging, but very motivating.

http://esolcourses.blogspot.com/    ESOL Courses provides multimedia activities with videos, games, tests and worksheets.                                                                                             http://www.esolcourses.com/  has complete courses from beginner through upper intermediate.
http://bite-sized-english.com/    Bite-sized English is a daily blog/ podcast by an American teacher living in Germany. Topics are presented in a series of “bite-sized” posts over several days.

http://www.der-englisch-blog.de/  The Englisch Blog gives English language advice in German every day, often with a video or a game. With a forum for students and teachers.
http://www.spotlight-online.de/blogs  Spotlight blogs by Dagmar Taylor, Eamonn Fitzgerald, Jan Stuermann and Mike Pilewski. Vocabulary glossed. With the Macmillan Dictionary widget.

Other useful sites
http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx and http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html   Concordancer sites let you find out how words are really used in context.
http://dict.leo.org/forum LEO (Link Everything Online) has a forum to let you ask translators working online for tips.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/   The Visual Thesaurus provides word maps. Copy any text into the integrated Vocabgrabber    http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/ and the system will sort the words for you.
http://www.wordle.net/ Use Wordle to create word maps that present the words from any given text according to their frequency. Essential tools http://delicious.com/ delicious lets you bookmark your favourite sites online, tag them systematically using your own categories (grammar, listening, India…) and write a short summary.
http://www.google.de/reader Google Reader is the best RSS feed organizer for your subscriptions to blogs and other publications.

http://www.apple.com/de/itunes/   Use iTunes to download, save and archive your podcasts.

Youtube video on Effortless English. The host talks about finding English teachers online.
Linq.com and Craigslist, do chats in English and so on.

reference: All the websites and links listed above.

How to create a webquest

I am writing this as I am doing a web research on creating a WebQuest for an imaginary target group in our Állegemeine Didaktik´project work. The target group are about 20 Sek II students who are around 17 years old. They have German lessons 3 times a week and the duration of the lesson is 90 minutes. Our WebQuest is intended for about 20 lessons during which students will mainly work independently. They will be given different options for earning credits, for example, by doing grammar exercises, writing film reviews etc. However, a major part of their work will be bigger cognitive and metacognitive oriented tasks that they will have to do by reading a book called ´Die Welle´.

This book revolves around a history teacher Mr. Ben Ross, his high school students, and an experiment he conducts in an attempt to teach them about how it may have been living in Nazi Germany. Unsatisfied with his own inability to answer his students’ earnest questions of how and why, Mr Ross initiates the experiment in hopes that it answers the question of why the Germans allowed Adolf Hitler and the genocidal Nazi Party to rise to power, acting in a manner inconsistent with their own pre-existing moral values. However, in the process he sees himself and the students falling in the same wave and finally terminates the experiment.

In connection with this book, student will have the option of choosing from different bigger tasks or projects that could only be done by either reading the book or watching the movie.  One option will to do a WebQuest project in groups and we have chosen this task as one of the options because it is constructive, encourages independent learning and of course a higher level of thinking. Besides, it makes good use of the web.

I have personally found Questgarden as a promising webquest hosting service. The lessons created on this site are available for use by educators everywhere. Instructors of courses and workshops can request that a group page be set up so that participants can give feedback to each other as they develop new WebQuests. A free 30-day trial of the lesson creation tools is available and a 2-year subscription that offers additional features costs only $20.

I registered myself for a free trial and surfed in the Questgarden homepage. I think what is good about Questgarden is that it guides you through each step and provides you with useful tips. Besides, even as a non-member you have access to example webQuests.

Now how am I going to make my own WebQuest with ´Die Welle´? I think this is easier said than done, especially for a beginner like me. But of course the wealth of information on this site and the examples could help me. (So, off to check examples and read the tips: http://questgarden.com/author/create/design2.php )

Well, the most important thing in creating a WebQuest for your class seems to be the following:

• Alignment: As it is written in the WebQuest site, successful WebQuests hang together with elegance and coherence. The goals should match the task, the process should support the task, and the task itself should be doable, interesting and plausible. It would call this alignment.

• If you go under  ´overall design´under ´Goals and Context´on the left side of the page, you will find different examples. (http://questgarden.com/author/create/design2.php)  I checked through the list of design patterns with different themes. For example, as our project is on a book I think it would be sensible to choose the template called ´beyond book´. Here, the goal of the WebQuest is to discuss about issues or topics beyond the book or by mapping it onto an entirely different domain. For example, my idea would be to either relate it to current political or social issues that have something in common with power and dominance or to investigate further on the power of propaganda. I think this task, if set up well, will prove to be interesting, challenging but still doable.

I checked this youtube video and this guides you pretty well into how to create one in Questgarden.

References:

http://questgarden.com/author/create/design2.php

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

http://questgarden.com/62/23/5/080311151212/process.htm

http://questgarden.com/

WebQuests in your classroom

I was quite  a novice when it comes to the understanding (leave alone using) of webQuest in classrooms.  So, I did a little internet research and I must tell you that I am totally fascinated by it! I think it´s a great way of integrating technology in your teaching and also encouraging students to be more active in their learning.

However, I am also a little intimidated by the workload and the experience that it takes to create one as a teacher and I hope that ´ learing by doing´, as we like to call it, will help me overcome the intimidation.

Ok, here´s what I have summarised on webQuest and the summary will follow the references that I have used. Here´s a mindmap on the essential points.

1. History

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.

The WebQuest model has been around since 1995 when I developed it for use in a course at San Diego State University. The goal then, and now, was to create lessons that make good use of the web, engage learners in applying higher level thinking to authentic problems, and use everyone’s time well. Since that beginning, one of the ongoing challenges has been to make it faster and easier for teachers to do all these things. QuestGarden is the end result of those 14 years of effort.

— Bernie Dodge, PhD

2. Benefits

• Cooperative learning: Students typically complete WebQuest as cooperative groups. Each learner within a group can be given a “role,” or specific area to research. A webQuest may take the form of role-playing scenarios, where students take on the personas of professional researchers or historical figures. Hence, in the process they learn to share and work in a team!

• Constructive: WebQuest encourages constructive learning because information is not spoon fed but rather students have to actively involve in the project to develop a project at the end. It extends students’ thinking to the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy; analysis, synthesis and evaluation. WebQuest also supports a variety of instructional and cognitive practices such as critical thinking and problem solving through authentic assessment, cooperative learning, scaffolding and technology integration.

• Integration with technology: Technology is fast becoming more and more necessary in our lives and it is essential that students and teachers become more familiar with it. WebQuest therefore provides a practical experience in learning with technology.

3. What you need: WebQuest, as I found out is not very demanding in terms of the software that you need create one. Once designed and set up, it is really just a Web page in a particular format. A Web editor is the only specialized equipment needed to get started, and that’s no harder to use than a word processor. In fact, most new word processors even allow you to save your work in HTML form, which is the basic language for designing Web pages.

4. Downsides: Well, let´s also talk about what is not so ideal about WebQuest.

• Not for factual knowledge: It is not the best way to teach factual recall, simple procedures, or definitions. Since many curricular standards address content of that type, there are chunks of the curriculum that are eliminated from WebQuest territory. However, once the students gain the factual knowledge, WebQuestcan be great to use those knowledge and information.

• Time: Such a great learning method but where is the time to create one in the first place? A lot of teachers face this time problem, and thereby, lose their interest in making the effort. However, as I understand it, the first attempt requires that you learn to use some new tools. The benefit then, is that once you have made your WebQuest, most of your work is done. Then you no longer have to worry about daily lesson plans or scintillating lectures. Besides, it is more fun for the students as well!

• Ss reading problems: This perhaps will be a problem if your student are either too small for this kind of independent work or if their level of the language is not high enough to read and understand the internet resources. This means that WebQuest may not be very ideal for children younger than the third grade or for those with language or reading difficulties unless you can find highly visual sites.

5 WebQuest in conjunction: It incorporates cooperative and collaborative learning, since students work on projects in groups. These concepts can play a role in teaching with this kind of method. It can also help students meet standards focused on critical-thinking and analysis skills, and may be particularly useful for social studies and science. By using multimedia, WebQuest also helps with multiple intelligence work.

Here´s a youtube video on how to create a WebQuest.

References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4rel5qOPvU

http://www.webquest.org/

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html

Hotpotatoes in L2 Teaching

What is Hot Potato (HP)? If you encounter this term for the first time, it might sound like a restaurant menu. In English slang, it also refers to an awkward or delicate matter. For example,  You might say, ´He dropped the topic like a hot potato´. HP is also a party game that involves players gathering in a circle and tossing a small object such as a beanbag or tennis ball to each other while music plays. The player who is holding the “hot potato” when the music stops is out.

However, the HP we are dealing with here (as far as I found out) has remotely anything to do with a delicate situation or an object passing game. It is rather a set of Computer Assisted Language Learning tools that lets teachers easily create interactive web-based exercises. (But of course, I wouldn´t necessarily call it easy if you are a beginner).

The Hot Potatoes suite was created by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre, and is marketed by Half-Baked Software.

Types of Applications:

The HP suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source.

JQuiz: to create multiple-choice, true-false, text-entry or short-answer quizzes    JCloze: to create gap-fill exercises
JCross: to create crosswords
JMix: to create jumbled-sentence exercises
JMatch: to create matching and ordering exercises.

The Masher: This is a tool for automatically compiling batches of Hot Potatoes exercises into units.

All of the exercises use JavaScript and HTML for their functionality, are fully XHTML 1.1-compliant., and can be automatically uploaded to the http://www.hotpotatoes.net hosting service.

Pedagogical Benefits

1. Learner Independence

The interactivity of the exercises motivates leaners to act independently and provides them a feeling of control. This means that the teacher is not forced to analyze each word to see whether each learner is familiar with the use of this word in this context. The ability to use a slightly more advanced vocabulary without risk reinforces this vocabulary for those who have seen it and allows others to rapidly acquire the vocabulary, giving them the confidence to take on more challenging texts. The value of this risk-free uncertainty certainly depends on the cultural and personal importance of embarrassment for the learner.

2. Change of attitude towards learning:

Both children and adults view computers as ‘fun’. The context in which they use computers is generally to play simulation games, access pleasurable sites on the internet, or to explore the capabilities of any given machine (e.g. their possible range of clip-art images) in a non-directed context where adult guidance is minimal or covert. They feel empowered and at play.

Langer (1989) talks about the ‘mindfulness’ of play, in other words a heightened awareness of the task we are undertaking, and compares it to work

“Ironically, although work may often be accomplished mindlessly, with a sense of certainty, play is almost always mindful. People take risks and involve themselves in their play…In play, there is no reason not to take some risks.”

Hence, the change of context to a ‘play’ environment should help to break down some of the attitudinal barriers and are more ready to take risks.

3. Induces reflective teaching

Teachers mostly find ready-made exercises from the internet. However, by creating exercises on HP, teachers are more inclined to reflect on the needs, demands and interests of the students. For example, if you have a class who has problems with the use of past continuous (mostly A2-to B1 level) and you have dealt with it in the class, they would definitely appreciate it if you provide some tailor-made exercises concerning this grammar to work deeper on it.

In the following mind map, I have summarised several learning advantages of HP.

Are there any limitations?

An experienced user may say ´none´, but I think as a beginner, you as a teacher will definitely have the challenge of starting your first few ones. Besides, if you have a hundred other things on your plate, learning to create HP exercises from the beginning might not sound very realistic. But if you think about the benefits that your students can draw out of it, you won´t really hesitate to take the first step forward.

Download Hot Potatoes for Windows from here:

• Hot Potatoes 6.3 installer (Hot Potatoes for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista, version 6.3).
• Hot Potatoes for Linux users running Wine (version 6.3). This is a zip file containing the folder structure of the Windows version of Hot Potatoes. You can extract this to create the Hot Potato program folder without running the setup program if you prefer.

Download Java Hot Potatoes:

• Download Java Hot Potatoeswhich will run on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux or any computer running a Java Virtual Machine. To install and run Java Hot Potatoes on Mac OS X:
  1. Download the file javahotpot61.zip from the link above.
  2. Unzip that file on your computer, you will have a folder called JavaHotPot6.
  3. Drag the JavaHotPot6 folder to the Applications directory on your computer.
  4. Open the folder and double-click the JavaHotPotatoes6 application icon.
  5. Trash the javahotpot61.zip file.

When you first start up Hot Potatoes, it will ask you for your user name. This name is stored on your computer, and not sent to anyone; it will be inserted into your exercises to identify you as the author. You must provide a user name before you can use all the features of Hot Potatoes.

So, all the best in creating your own HP exercises for your students!

References:

http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hot_pot.php

http://lookwayup.com/free/hotpotatoes.html

Machu, Pierre (2001) The Internet and Foreign Language Teaching. French as an Example. Unpublished M.Sc. dissertation, Dublin City University Somekh, B and Davis, N. (eds) (1997) Using IT effectively in teaching and learning:studies in pre-service and in-serviceteacher education. Routledge, London

Wikis in learning English

I find wiki fascinating when it comes to communicating, learning and producing something together without actually having to meet up face to face. The challenge is, how can a teacher who hasn´t really used wiki herself encourage the students to use it and guide them through. However, like everything else in life, there is always a beginning and to start on, I did some internet research on how wiki can be used in teaching.  In the process, I selected several things that I can imagine using in the classroom myself.

1. Wiki Study guides

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers: each group prepares the guide for one aspect of the unit or responsibility rotates: one unit guide per semester.
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students (ongoing throughout the year).

2.  Glossary: Get the class to create a glossary of terms they use and learn about in new units, adding definitions and images. For example, if I am teaching a particular unit, let´s say, on ´Our Changing World´, I could ask students to collect words related to this topic in a glossary. They could also add images etc.

3. Lesson Summaries: I found this idea from a blog (coolcat teacher). After completing a lesson, students post “their lesson” to the wiki. This includes vocabulary but also concepts that are part of the lesson. This is a collaborative effort after the initial information is posted. The advantage of this lesson summary is that students can access it from everywhere and can also use it when preparing for exams.

Student Portfolios – A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students improve their writing skills.

Fan Club: Start fan clubs for your students’ favourite figures from history or their favourite actors, sportsman etc and ask them to contribute quotes, photos, and other tidbits together. I can imagine this wiki activity being a success among students (especially teenagers) because they are naturally passionate about their stars and idols.

Literature Circles: Host a book club on your wiki where students are required to read the same book, then discuss it on the wiki. Another possibility would be to ask students to list their favourite book and write a short review on it. As a teacher, you could also list some interesting books.

Track Participation: Assign a wiki page to a group project, and then individual pages for each student to show their participation. I think this is a cool idea to work together on a group project. Here is a link to a wiki supported group project:http://b22geotopias.wetpaint.com/

Now the question is what are the softwares available for wiki? Here goes my little research:

1. Wetpaint: Wetpaint headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington, USA. Incorporated in Delaware, Wetpaint was originally named Wikisphere.^[1] Wetpaint was founded in October 2005. Here is the link: http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/
Check out this youtube video on wetpaint wiki in plain English. Very creatively explained.

2. Mediawiki

Mediawiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wiki around the world also use it to power their websites. It is written in the PHP programming language and uses a backend database. Here´s a link on how to create a wiki using mediawiki. http://www.ehow.com/how_4730968_own-wiki-using-mediawiki.html

3. ReachBeat: This is an already existing wiki.

Check out this video on how to create your Wiki in ReachBeat.

 

Well, after doing this e-research on wiki, I am so excited to start my own WIKI! So, I´m off to do that!

References:

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom

http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetpaint

http://reachbeat.wikispaces.com/

Kommunikations-Kooperations-Tools

Asynchrone Tools

Lernenden können zur gleichen Zeit am PC sitzen und über den Bildschirm miteinander kommunisieren. Es ist optimal wenn es um darum geht schnell und unkompliziert miteinander Temine zu vereinbaren, das Gruppengefühl zu stärken oder ein gemeinsames Dokument zu bearbeiten. In die Mind Map habe ich die Punkte zusammengefasst.

Asynchrone Tools

Dieser Tools eignet sich für anspruchsvolle Aufgabe wie das Verstehen und Vertiefen von Fachtexten, die Entwicklung eines Konzepts, das Erarbeiten eines Texts oder anderen Dokumentens. Das Vorteil is, Lernenden können Zeitunabhängig arbeiten. In die Mind Map habe ich die Punkte zusammengefasst.

source: eModeration (Maja Graf)

a video on digigtal classroom

Communities of Practice (CoP)

Communities of Practice /CoP

Während dem 18 Jahrhundert, fand die französische Revolution statt. In dieser Zeit kam das ´Salon´ Konzept auf. Es war zumeist ein privater gesellschaftlicher Treffpunkt für Diskussionen, Lesungen oder musikalische Veranstaltungen. In diesen Salons konnte man Wissen austauschen. Auch kleinbürgerliche Schichten gehörten zu den Mitgliedern dieser Salons. So war das Konzept, dass möglichst alle Bevölkerungsschichten von diesem Wissen profitieren konnten.
Quelle: Sabine Büttner: die Französische Revolution-eine Online Einführung.

http://www.revolution.historicum-archiv.net/einführung/politik-kultur/kommunikation.html

Ich sehe CoP als eine moderne Version von ´Salons´. Durch CoP können Personen welche die gleichen Interessen haben miteinander Diskussionen führen und dafür müssen sie sich nicht untereinander kennen. Sie können Ideen austauschen und einander helfen. Es ist eine Win-win-Situation. Wie ich es verstanden habe, hat CoP das nötige Potential konstruktives Lernen zu vermitteln.
Aber meiner Meinung nach, ist CoP noch nicht genug fortgeschritten im Entwicklungsstand. Gemäss einem Artikel welchen ich gelesen habe „Developing Communities of Practice in School´s“ (p38) kriegen die Lehrer sehr wenig Unterstützung von dem Education Policy System.

„ Education Policy System invested so little attention and resource in developing school-based teacher learning communities.“

Ich denke, dass CoP (especially among teachers) ist sehr wichtig für die gesamte Bildungsentwicklung des Lernenden, weil „teacher collaboration promotes student achievment.“

Teaching can be really a solitary job where individual teachers are the solo performers. Therefore, it will make a world of difference if we can help each other and thereby help our students.

Ich kann mir gut vorstellen, dass Lehrer mit Hilfe von Blog´s, Social Bookmarking, Diigo, delicious, untereinander Informationen wie auch Lehrmittel oder Methoden austauschen können, Probleme diskutieren, Lösungen finden. Kurzgesagt sollte der Lehrerberuf effizienter und produktiver werden.

Introduction to Communities of Practice

http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

more from de.wikipedia.org

more from www.ewenger.com

http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

Developing Communities of Practice in School (S.38)
Schaffert, S. & Kalz, M. (2009): Persönliche Lernumgebungen: Grundlagen, Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen eines neuen Konzepts. in: K. Wilbers und A. Hohenstein (Hrsg.): Handbuch E-Learning. Expertenwissen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis – Strategien, Instrumente, Fallstudien, Köln 2009, Gruppe 5, Nr. 5.16.

Definition of different graphic format

The Bitmap Image File (BMF) or a Bitmap, is a graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images independently of display device. The term map comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits.

Size:	508 × 400                                  Size: 511 x 388
Type:	17KB PNG                                      Type: 10 KB GIF

When a bitmap displays a colored image, such as a lake scene, there are several shades of gradation in colors and lighting. In this case, each pixel in the bitmap might have 16, 24, or 48 bits of information associated with it. The more bits, the greater the resolution of the bitmap – and the larger the file.

Joint Photographic Experts Group or JPEG

It is a standardised image compression mechanism. It works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or black-and-white line drawings. JPEG handles only still images, but there is a related standard called MPEG for motion pictures. It is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices and also storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.

Graphics Interchange Format or GIF

It is a bitmap image format that was introduced by Compuserve in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability. GIF supports up to 8 bits pixel thus allowing a single image to a palette of up to 256 distinct colors.

(a glittering tweety and a painted puffy in GIF)

It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame. However, the color limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.

Portable Networks Graphics or PNG (pronounced “ping”)

It is a bit mapped image format and video codec that employs lossless compression data. PNG was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. The motivation for creating the PNG format came early 1995, when there were problems with the GIF format which made a replacement desirable, notably its limit of 256 colours at a time when computers were able to display far more than 256 colors were growing common.

a normal PNG image

a PNG image created Diana Todd using various 2D and 3D tools

sources:

wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-bitmap-jpeg-and-gif-files.htm

Das Prinzip des Mind-Mapping

Mind-mapping ist eine Visualisierungstechnik die einen Sachverhalt ´sichtbar´und verständlicher macht. Es ist auch eine effiziente und universelle Notiz-und Merktechnik, bei der die Funktion des Gehirns optimal genutzt wird.

Das bildliche Vorstellungsvermögen bei den Meisten Menschen in der rechten Gehirnhäfte angesiedelt, d. h. Hier werden Formen, Farben, Muster und Rhythmen verarbeitet. Durch Mind-mapping wird die Leistungsfähigkeiten des Gehirns bestmöglich genutzt.

Die Anwendung von Mind-Maps

Wir denken nicht linear, sondern Denken ist ein äusserst komplexer Prozess bei welchem in userem Gehirn durch Schlüsselwörter hervorgerufene Assoziationen und Strukturen gebildet werden.  Deshalb ist es empfolen, Informationen nicht linear zu listen, sondern in Bilder oder Netzwerk darzustellen. Statt überflüssige Füllwörter sind kurze Schlüsselwörter zu benutzen. Diese werden zur späteren Erinnerung des Inhaltes ausreichen.

Wo werden Mind -Maps eingesetz?

Mind maps sind meistens für Gruppenmeetings, Vorträge, perönliche Notizen, Aufsätze, und beim Lernen eingesetzt, besonders im Unterricht ist Mind-mapping ganz nutzvoll. Aber der Lehrer muss zuerst seine Schüler anleiten um selber eine Mind Map zu erstellen. Dazu gibt es einfache Computer-programme und später Änderungen und Anpassungen zu machen. Z.B. der yEd Graph editor (http://yworks.com/de), smartdraw (http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/mindmapping.asp)  Check this website for more info: http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/93177.aspx

Ich habe  versucht in Freemind eine Mind Map für ´Mind Map´ zu erstellen.

Links zu den Mind-Map softwares:

1: MindManager Smart ( http://mindmanager-smart.software.informer.com/ )

2: Freemind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download#Download )

3. yEd Graph editor ( http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_download.html )

Check this FreeMind Tutorial

Praxis der eModeration

Weil eLearning auf der Grundidee des Selbständiges Lernens basiert, ist es eigentlich egal wann und wo die SuS lernen. Wichtig ist, dass die folgende Infrastruktur vorhanden ist und die Lernenden diese verwenden können. Z.B.

Eigene E-mail Adresse, mindestens Win 2000, Internet am Arbeitsplatz und zu Hause, Multimedia PC, CD –Rom Laufwerk, ISDN Anschluss, ADSL.

Selbstlernzentren

Selbstlernzentren sind eine mögliche Antwort auf die heutigen fragmentierten Lernverhältnisse, indem sie eine Alternative zu fixem Präsenzunterricht bieten. Organisationen, die Lernen als Teil der Arbeitszeit verstehen, stellen den Lernenden darum auch separate geschlossene Räume, wo Lernende ungestört lernen können. Im besten Fall bieten solche Organisationen Betreuer an, die bei technischen oder inhaltlichen Schwierigkeiten helfen können.

Lerninseln

bezeichnen eine Form der beruflichen Aus– und Weiterbildung, die am Prozess der Arbeit orientiert ist. Dafür wird in räumlicher Nähe der Arbeitsplatzes eine PC-Station die Speziell für Lernzweck eingerichtet. Wer Zeit hat, schaut ob die Lerninsel frei ist. Vorteilhalft von solchen PC-Station ist allenfalls, dass Lernende Ideen, Meinungen und Wissen austauschen und dadurch das Gelernte zu vertiefen können.

Kontakt Aufnehmen

Meistens starten eLearning vor der Präsenz Start-veranstaltungen, d.h., bevor Kursleitung und Lernende zum ersten Mal begegnen. Deshalb ist es wichtig, dass der eModerator Kontakt auf den Teilnehmenden nimmt, begrüsst sie im Kurs und gibt eine Übersicht über die gesamte Lernveranstaltung. In dieser Phase sind die Lernenden meist hoch motiviert und es lohnt sich darum, sie schon einzubeziehen und aktiv mitzumachen.