The learning website of Starfall

http://www.starfall.com/

I found this website when I was looking for the teaching materials for teaching children. It's interesting. The first part is "ABCs", the second part is "learn to read", the third part is "It fun to read" and the last part is "I 'm reading". It's suitable for those children who have reached the specific degree of ability on reading. Even though it not focus on the grammar sections, on the other hand, it more emphasizes the reading part. Besides, according to the difficulty levels, the reading part is divided into four parts with different topics. Children can learn how to read step by step. It's just like the previous article that I've mentioned, I think computer-assistant program is a good way in children's learning. In nowadays society, parents always have to spend a lot money on their children's in learning English. They will buy many materials to help children learn like colorful flashcards and the card reader. Through computer, they also can accompany their child in learning English. It more convenient. We also can find other free websites.

Self-study Grammar Quizzes

Today I want to introduce one of a great website which has many activities for ESL students such as grammar, crossword and some vocabulary. It has different difficulty levels that you can choose any one depend on your ability. If you are interested then you can try it!!

http://a4esl.org/

The pros of using a commercial program for kids to learn.

My pros of using such a commercial program for kids to learn can be divided into three parts. The most important thing is comprehensible input. In the video, they use many vivid audio and visual stimuli that not only can attract children’s attention but also can make English learning become more interesting. The content of the video creates more meaningful learning surroundings and try to let children understand easily. Besides, through the computer, it can provide children the sense of safety. The reliable learning environment will make them feel relieved. Then the learning effect of learning will become better. They may not afraid of expressing what they have learned. Finally, it can save money because the learning software can always be updated. There always have latest materials and information that can let you get. Therefore, I approve this kind of commercial program for children.

How to use Windows Movie Maker

This useful tool to make my own movie.

Reflection 3：3/26 -About my blog project

I want to share my favorite songs with others because t think listen to music is a good way of learning English. Even though it's a common way but it's also effectively. Song has rhythm and melody that can help us to remember. It also can train and improve our pronunciation. Besides, I will introduce some grammar learning websites. To me, I think grammar is also important to us because it's the basic knowledge to everyone.

My own voki ^^

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Slideshare -http://www.slideshare.net/

Now I want to introduce one of the website which has many professed PPT. We can see many kinds of PPT and how those people design their data. Designing the PPT is not as easy as we think. How to let everyone realize our points in your PPT at first sight is important. We can't just put the whole article which full of words. Sometimes when you're introducing something, put charts and pictures are more effectively and convincingly than describing only in words. The following are the introduction of SlideShare:

SlideShare is a free service for web sharing presentations and slideshows. It supports several different types of presenting programs: PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote, and PDF files. Besides, SlideShare implements most common Web 2.0 design and interaction patterns. Like other social networking services, users are able to add tagging to their presentations. Rate and comment on others' work, and embed their presentation into a blog or other website. The site was created in late 2006 by an international pair--one in India, one in the US. The goal of the website is to help people share ideas.
There is no fee to use this service, though a login is required for uploading presentations. The maximum size for a slide show is 30MB. Shows that are larger, must either be edited or split into two (or more) presentations. Once a file is uploaded, it is visible to the public. Terms from slides can be searched via search engines. The user who uploads a presentation can choose to make the slide show available to be downloaded. Slideshare is linked with Creative Commons so various attribution licenses are supported. In addition, these presentations can be retrieved at any computer without need for USB drives or other storage devices. In other words, presentations in Slideshare can be held before a conference for the presenters use and then reviewed afterwards by guests. Like YouTube, a presentation can be viewed in the small screen or take the full screen of a monitor.


From Wikipedia

Reflection 3：3/12

Today teacher taught us how to embed video of Youtube into PPT in two situations. First, the data is from the Internet (on-line). Another is from your computer. I think it is useful to me, no matter on designing my report or preparing my teaching materials. I also can put some teaching video on my blogger. It no needs to type your materials only in words anymore. It too boring if we can only read words. When we add the visual and sound video, it will become more interesting to readers and can attract their attention.

Reflection 2：3/5

Today teacher introduce anther kind of browser, Mozilla Firefox. It is the browser which is differ from IE. After class, I tried to install it into my computer. Then after I used it, I found out that it can open many windows at the same time in one browser. Thus, it makes me feel easier when I look up information on the Internet. I don't need to open many browsers when I'm surfing. Firefox also has lots of accessories such as "delicious" tag. Another interesting helper that teacher taught us was Yahoo mini pencil. I think it is so tiny and useful to me. When I read the newspapers or some articles on the Internet, I don't need to look into dictionary word by word. I can just move that pencil onto the word that I don't know then it will show me the meaning of the vocabulary automatically. It's too convenient. But I consider it has little disadvantage, the quantity of vocabulary are insufficient and limited. sometimes I even can't find what the word is.

Web 2.0

Reflection 1：2/27

That day was my first class of CALL. It refers to Computer-Assisted Language Learning. The teacher taught us lots of general ideas about this course. She mentioned about that now we’re in the trend of Computer –Support Collaborative Learning and Computer-Mediated communication. The Internet has become the important part in our daily life. It connects everyone in every places. We always write e-mails to our friends or use msn and skype to chat with others. It’s more convenient to us. Even as teacher, blog is also the good way of assessment to evaluate students’ performances. Students can record something down and give some feedback about what they have learned. Besides it is the spaces to let students share some of their good learning experiences. Teachers can design their own teaching materials such as audiovisual that can give students stimulus. By doing so, it can let students feel interesting and the learning situation will be better than traditional way of classroom teaching. Some people may worry about that teacher will replaced by computer because learners also can learn any kinds of knowledge they want through the Internet. In my opinion, I think teacher will never be displaced. Even though some of us are intelligent, not everyone are genius. Most of us still need teacher’s help to guide and teach us that how to learn. Most teachers are experts that they experienced in teaching after all.