Time for Infographics

Hello everyone!

This post is about our recent task which is to create an infographic about Web 2.0 tools.

An infographic is the visual representation of information, according to Wikipedia. They can include charts, diagrams, etc.


Why Are Infographics Better Than Plain Text?

• The brain processes visuals better and faster than texts.
• Infographics are fun and unique.
• Infographics are eye-catching.
• Infographics make you look like a professional.

It is very easy to create infographics now that there are so many tools out there. But the one I chose is Visme. I've been using Visme for my classes a lot this year and I can confidently recommend it to you.

 So here is my beautiful infographic! Hope you like it.

sources that were helpful:

Benefits of Infographics

Infographic Benefits

 Web 2.0 Tools

101 Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

I Made a Movie Poster

Hello!

This week our task was to create a movie poster based on a book that we have read. I chose to go with the novel I most recently have read. It's originally in Chinese but it was translated into English with the title "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation". While creating the poster, I chose to simply call the movie "Grandmaster" because... the simpler the better, right?

Here is my poster! Click on it see it in full size.

(The original picture belongs to Yukina Emi.)

In the future, I definitely would want to give this kind of task to my students. Personally, I found the process extremely fun. When something I love gets integrated into course tasks, it motivates me. 

See you in my next post!

Website Evaluation: News in Levels

Hello everyone! 

Today I'm here with another task. This time, I evaluated an ELT website of my choice. 

The website I chose is called News in Levels which is a website that allows English learners to read news articles that are suitable to their level, therefore helping them improve their language.

Who authored the website? 

The authors of this website are working as a team. They don't reveal respective names; they sign the posts with "the News in Levels Team". The only information about the team is that they are based in the Czech Republic.


What is the content of the website? 

News in Levels is a website that allows you to read news according to your English proficiency. First, the website asks you to take a 3-minute test to see which level of English you are on and then tells you which level of news you should read on their site. 

There are various news articles on different topics you can choose from as you can see in the picture I attached above.

It is possible to change the level of news easily.

The site also provides the voiced version of the articles right under the posts.

News in Levels also has other sites that are connected to each other. You can get directed to Grammar in Levels, Robinson Crusoe in Levels, Speak in Levels, How to Learn English in Levels, People in Levels and Videos in Levels using the bar at the top.


Who is the target audience? 

The target audience is mainly the adult learners of English who want to practice their reading and listening. But it is suitable for every passionate English student. 


What is the purpose of the website? 

News in Levels aims to teach English naturally and fast and help the learner achieve a level where they can finally understand original news from native speakers. 


Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated? 

The site has last been updated on 22-04-2019.

Accuracy of the information- Are there any errors?

The site doesn't seem to have any errors since it is authorized by professionals.

Are there any broken links? 

All of the links work well.

Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience? 

The pictures used on the site are very relevant and illustrative. They are definitely of high quality. All of the pictures are licenced under the Creative Commons. Further information about it can be found here.


How can it be applied to EFL teaching? 

As it is mentioned on the Conditions of Use page, the content on the site can be used by teachers only if they are teaching face-to-face in classes. It is forbidden to use it otherwise if you are making money out of it. 

This site can be used as a reading/listening exercise. It can be given as homework and the students can read some articles daily. It is also very useful in developing the learners' word knowledge. 

So, you might want to check News in Levels, it's pretty useful! Thank you for reading my evaluation.

Tried Out Padlet!

Hello, I'm back again!


Exciting news: After a hectic midterm season (and a few days of being lazy), I finally had time to complete the Padlet my friends and I were working on. 


But before I present you our beautiful work I should explain what Padlet is.


Padlet is an application to create an online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic, as it is described on TeachersFirst. Very basic and easy to use.


Our course task was to choose from one of the given topics and create a Padlet wall about it with a group of friends. My friends and I chose to make it about endangered animals and decided on the parts we were going to write about. Creating the Padlet and posting on it was very easy since we all could moderate it however we want and didn't even need to contact each other in order to do so. That is probably the best part of it. Since projects with more than two people can sometimes be hard to complete because getting in touch with everyone at once can be challenging. Padlet gave us the opportunity to use technology efficiently to make our task easier.


Check out our Padlet here!