Technology in the EFL Classroom
Teachers and students may or may not have access to technologies such as computers, projectors, and the internet, but, as these resources become more wide-spread, teachers may wish to incorporate them into lessons as a way of enhancing learning. Most of the resources listed below provide opportunities for students to practice writing in English, but I will describe in more detail each individual resource and some thoughts on how it could support student learning.
- Domo Animate: http://domo.goanimate.com/
- Students can create a free account on the Domo Animate website, and, in doing so are able to create and save their own animations using backgrounds, images, and music provided by the site. This is a fun way for students to practice using English and could be used in a variety of ways. Students could research a topic, tell a story, or practice using new vocabulary by incorporating the content into an animation to share with peers. Teachers could also create animations to introduce vocabulary to students for the first time. Animations can be emailed or shared on popular sites such as blogger.com and wordpress.com as well.
- Evernote: https://www.evernote.com/
- Evernote, another free resource, is a tool that helps people to be more efficient. Teachers could use Evernote to collect information and ideas for lesson plans as well as to collaborate with colleagues. This is probably not a teaching tool in the EFL classroom, but it could help teachers to create richer, more engaging lesson plans.
- Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/
- Copy and paste or type as many words as desired into Wordle, and this website will create a visual using those words. This would be another way to introduce vocabulary to students.
- Glogster: http://www.glogster.com/
- Glogster is an online poster-making website, and there are as many potential uses for it as there are uses for a physical poster. In fact, a project that makes use of Glogster might be even more useful than one that makes use of traditional posters because students can incorporate videos and audio into their online posters, something that would be nearly impossible to do using a paper one. Students could create online posters to represent their learning in a research project, to demonstrate an opinion, or even to introduce themselves (Reid).
- Edmodo: http://www.edmodo.com/
- Edomodo has the appearance and social-networking utility of Facebook, but it provides additional security in that a teacher can limit who can view student profiles. This would be a great way to provide resources to students outside of class and to allow students to practice English online with one another after school.
- Storybird: http://storybird.com/
- Storybird is an online storybook writing website. Artists upload copies of their paintings and drawings so that users can illustrate their books. This would be a really wonderful way to have students write creatively in English.
- Lyrics Training: http://www.lyricstraining.com/
- One popular classroom activity is to provide students with song lyrics that have words missing and to ask them to fill in the blanks while listening to the song. Lyrics Training builds on this concept by providing YouTube videos of songs matched with scrolling lyrics that are missing words. Students type the missing words in, and the song will pause automatically at the end of each line to wait until the correct word is submitted. While teachers might not want to use this site in class, it would be worthwhile to pass the link along to students.