Blog #7: Mobile App Review- The Economist

I once studied for an exam called "GMAT".
It was the most difficult exam I've ever taken, and at first I felt helpless studying it.
Studying GMAT, I began to appreciate the value of high level writings.

 

The Economist, published weekly, is a magazine for the intellectuals. Many college students know its importance, so they subscribe it and carry it in their bags or backpacks. However, They actually don't read it and just store them in their room.
This magazine has mobile apps that are available on both iphones and ipad tablets. It serves 4 editor's choice articles for free each week in the text and audio format at the same time. For me, 4 articles are just enough amount to cover in a week so I use this app to improve my reading and listening skills whenever I have free time.

https://www.theeconomist.co.kr:446/appeco.php

Blog #6: Digital Storytelling - Domo Animate & Comic Master

I use Domo Animate as an animation creator and Comic Master as a comic book creator.

1. Domo Animate http://domo.goanimate.com/
I like its simple, direct interface. Student's can make their own animation on their own.
Teachers can give a topic or a storyline for students to make a simple story.
I myself made one too.
http://domo.goanimate.com/go/movie/0HNNPq39mQpM?utm_source=emailshare&uid=0X5HM8TqJYYY

2. Comic Master http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/
Like Domo animate, this tool knows the virtue of 'simplicity'.
If I make a page with empty speech bubbles and give this to students to fill out.
or, I can give a conversation lines and have them design a cartoon.

Blog #5: Corpora, Concordance, Collocations, Word Frequency

Check out the following sites:
Compleat Lexical Tutor: http://www.lextutor.ca/
Corpus of Contemporary American English: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/

1. Compleat Lexical Tutor: http://www.lextutor.ca/

This site is Amazing. Though the site design is somewhat humble and cheap, it gives a lot of  high quality information. Just like a billionaire lives in a small apartment having full of high-end compartments, this site is composed with several precious features.

- The vocabulary level assessment: Many ESL/EFL degree holders know that Nation is a famous figure in vocabulary. His test is very reliable for the level assessment and accessible in this site.

 

- Sentences using target vocabulary: If I search the word "like", it give lines of sentences used in the context in the order of frequency.

- Collocations: The search engine determines the possible collocations based on 'the frequency of use'.

  

2. Corpus of Contemporary American English: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
Most words have more than a single meaning. In other words, each has different meanings in different contexts. This site finds the possible variations of meanings in different contexts.
Students can learn many uncommon usage of a word using this site.

 
3. Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/
This site is simple and powerful in showing word importance or usage frequency. It differenciates the words in size and color, so we can identify which words are prior to learning.

However it is not easy to determine between the words that has the similar difficulties.

Blog Post #4: Podcast Review-Grammar Girl and American Rhetoric

I chose two podcast sites to review: Grammar Girl and American Rhetoric.

1. Grammar Girl http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/








+ It's a podcast site which provides almost every grammar tip on which people usually make mistakes. I liked the simple interface and a lot of different ways to share or subscribe.

- Although it covers most of the grammatical terms, this podcast is for intermediate or advanced learners because It's more focused on the confusing details of usage than general grammar terms. For example, if I type in 'subject' in the search box, it give only text information on the subject. In order to listen to the audio, I have to search more detailed topic such as 'who or whom'.

2. American Rhetoric http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

+ I think it's a convenient website which contains several American speeches of all time. It is sorted in the time line or in the rank so I can find the important speeches easily. One thing I liked was the 'movie speeches'. You can find many famous movies that contain speeches.It even has the speech from the movie 'Avatar(2009)'

- I don't think it's a good tool for general speaking practice because most of the speech speakings are not similar to everyday speaking. Rather, it's good for the people who prepares some presentation or speech related speaking.
Also, as it's site design tells, it doesn't cover recent famous speeches, which means I can't find 'Steve Jobbs' here. In other words, I prefer Youtube to this podcast site.

Blog Post #3: Scribblar and CLEAR Audio Dropbox

What are Synchronous and Asynchronous CMC Tools?

 

in short,

Synchronous CMC Tool = allows teachers and students to interact at the same time.

Asynchronous CMC Tool = allows teachers and students to interact. but not at the same time.

 

I chose the "Scribblar" (click to link) as an example of synchronous tools,

 

 and "CLEAR Audio Dropbox" (click to link) as an example of asynchronous tools.

 

1. Scribblar

 

1) It's a 'virtual whiteboard' that a teacher and students can write on at the same time. When I write "This is cool", students can add more to it.

2) Students can get immersed in the lecture with this tool very easily. Sometimes you need to 'block' students from writing on the board, if not...

Since it's an interactive tool, you need to control the involvement of the students.

3) Scribblar could be very useful in making students participate in the lecture. However, in order to activate the interactive whiteboard, every member should have his/her own computer.

 

2. CLEAR Audio Dropbox

 

1) Don't get confused with the dropbox you're using. When you sign up, you have access to several micro sites that use the same account.

Don't panic. just scroll down.

I like to use the Audio Dropbox. it's very easy to use.

 

Just make a folder and get the embed code.(click the button in the red color lines)

 

2) This tool could be very powerful in improving students' speaking skill, because they can record their voice very easily. Different from Scribblar, you can check the students work without any interference.

 

3) There's normally 30 seconds limitation, so teachers can control the difficulty of the task by the amount of the speaking. For me, I made an easy pilot recording homework by giving just three short sentences. You can give it a try.

Blog Post #2: Prezi. Say goodbye to Powerpoint

There's a whole new way of making a presentation file. It's called prezi.
Just click the link below and find out what other people have made.
http://prezi.com/

Describe the presentation or activity you created using the tool.  Provide a link to the location of your embedded presentation on your Google Site.
I've made a presentation using prezi, and it took me just a few minutes. Check out what it looks like. I embedded in my google sites.
https://sites.google.com/site/gkistestsite/homework

I totally recommend this tool, because it mixes up the advatages of the Powerpoint and the Flash presentation files. I've used Flash tool for a while because it can give a lot of great visual&audio effects which powerpoints cannot provide. The only problem is that it consumed a lot of time making a Flash files.
However, Prezi file can be made with the brief period of time, providing vairous visual effects that once only could be provided with the help of Flash. Also, it's much easier to make even than to make powerpoint files. Most importantly, Prezi is web based, which means you can access to the file you made any time, anywhere if you're accessable to the internet.

In Korea, most people can access internet almost freely. If a teacher makes a google site and links to a site, students could look over them and share freely to others. I think it could be a powerful tool for everyone.