Personalized Video Feedback on Speaking Skills

I'm back....missed me?

Hope so, I missed writing this blog and talking to you all very much.  I thought I'd kick things off by joining in Vicki Hollet's ELT Blog Carnival on Teaching and Learning with Video as this little tip is incredibly effective and something I often do within my own language classes, so know it works well.

In the examples I'll show you below, we are practising for the IELTS speaking exam, but you can use this edtech method of giving personalized video feedback for general speaking practice, as well as for any other type of exam.  It also works nicely for business learners practising presentations. Although it may sound a wee bit fiddly in the write-up, it actually is really simple to set up and do and takes up very little time to share with students - providing, of course, you have the right tools and equipment!

What you need:

• A flipcam (or similar device)
• An IWB 

Optional* but effective

• A Student Blog
• Smartphones 
• Your blogging software's app downloaded on to your students' smartphones

Step 1
Record your students speaking using a FlipCam instead of an audio recorder.

Step 2
Plug your Flipcam, or alternative device, into the computer in your classroom and play this video on the IWB via your media player or other software.  (Note this doesn't work playing from YouTube - if you try to write on the video it pauses so you really need to play the video directly using what you've stored on the flipcam or via your computer's media player).

Pause frequently to discuss their communicative successes and weaknesses.  Additionally, with more serious mistakes or common errors, write these up directly on to the IWB screen and encourage your learners to collaboratively correct these with you.

You can choose to focus on either pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary issues or as I do, work on all of these, it depends on your objectives - don't forget you can colour-code your corrections if you like with the IWB pens.


Step 3
Get students who were featured in the individual videos to open up their blogger app, this allows them to click to open a new post, and to use the camera function in Blogger to take a picture of your IWB screen. They can then publish this new post directly into their student blog.

Step 4
Open up your individual student's blog post(s) to edit it the post, change the photo size if necessary and you can now upload their videos into their blog posts directly.   Alternatively, you can also load up the videos to youtube (keep them unlisted!) and then embed them into each blog post.

Now, both you and they have a permanent record of their speaking which can be reviewed for practice at their leisure or can be used to demonstrate progress over time!


What to do if you don't have a FlipCam
- you could also use your phone, but in my experience, it takes too long to upload to the computer/youtube etc.  FlipCams are really cheap (also try EBay and Amazon for secondhand ones) and they are dead simple to use, especially in class, so actually I would just recommend getting one - one of the most important functionalities is the ability to simply plug directly into the computer's USB and play right away.

What to do if you don't have an IWB
- you could upload the video into a Google Drive Presentation, and type up notes beside the video but these are extra steps that would mean not doing it in the classroom with your language learners in real-time.
- if you have a data projector, you could instead beam the video directly on to a whiteboard and then follow the same steps as above.

What to do if not all of your students have Smartphones
- get the student who does have one to be in charge of posting to Blogger/ taking the picture and uploading it to the blog.  If none of them do, take a picture with a normal digital camera and upload to a shared space you have set up for them.

What to do if you don't have a student blog
- just get the students to take a picture with their smartphones anyway, they can store the picture within their picture galleries.  However, this isn't as effective as being able to watch the video again, which is what you get by permanently storing it in a blog, so actually I would just recommend setting one up.  Blogger is really easy and as the settings allow for privacy, students have a special non-threatening place where you can store samples of their writing, set extra listening and reading tasks, along with doing nifty things like the above!


Enjoy!

p.s. if you have any questions, or something wasn't clear in the write up, please don't hesitate to comment below - if you try this out and find this useful do feel free to share with your classroom teaching colleagues and there is no need to credit this post, simply share how to do it - however, if you are writing up an essay, article, blog post, doing a webinar, how-to video, giving a conference presentation or even creating a book of edtech activities, then please understand this blog post is a creative commons copyrighted material, therefore in all  of these cases, please provide proper citation to me as the originator and author. Thanks!

Getting Students Learning English through YouTube, H2LE (2)

This is the 2nd part of a the H-2-L-E series which contains a sheet you'll be able to share with your adult English language students so they can become more autonomous learners.

Did you know that there are some absolutely fabulous channels on YouTube which students can use to practice English?

In this sheet I will focus on some of the ones geared specifically at Adult English Language Learners.

Here is a quick preview of the ones that I often share with my own students:


Jennifer ESL:  http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL

Viewed over 1 million times, Jennifer's 144 videos range from teaching grammar to common expressions, phrasal verbs, American slang.  She offers help with pronunciation and even basic grammar and understanding prepositions.

Mister Duncan  http://www.youtube.com/user/duncaninchina

This slightly nutty professor has made over 50 videos viewed 750,000 times and topics range from small talk topics, talking about cars or technology and general life issues like discussing health.  Some are serious reports, some are just plain odd!

Soxo Exchange http://www.youtube.com/user/sozoexchange
An extraordinary channel consisting of people simply pronouncing common words and phrases slowly and carefully, showing learners how to do it themselves.














Learn English with Steve Ford  http://www.youtube.com/user/PrivateEnglishPortal
Quirky Teaching English series of linked stories- soap opera style... however interjected with serious lessons and good clear explanations.













Business English Videos for ESL   http://www.youtube.com/user/bizpod

Wide ranging videos perfect for Business English learners.  They cover diverse topics including grammar, business letter writing, email tune-ups and more.   The channel also includes specialized topics e.g IT and Computing, Legal and Financial vocabulary.

Do you know of any other good Youtube channels aimed at teaching English?  Share the information with us if they are sites which you and your students really enjoy learning from.


Miscellaneous extras:
In the spirit of not being judgmental... this, *blush* site is not at all for everyone but as some guys might have fun passing on the link to males they teach, I'll turn in the other direction while I give it to you -  no... I'll say oh heck, it's tacky but good and she is teaching vocabulary... it's just her way of sharing knowledge!
Um... 278 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/user/hotforwords  ((Not listed on the master sheet though)).

Finally, if you teach kids or your students have them, this is a lovely site of very simple songs.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSimpleSongs

Best,
Karenne

Learning English through YouTube

p.s. if you found this post useful, you might also like

• Best videos for teaching Business and ESP English
• Jamie Keddie's blog  (youtube clips + lessons)
• Jamie Keddie's site (lesson plans to take into classes with you)
• Claudio Azevedo's blog (movie clips + warm/follow ups)
• Pronunciation Site at the University of Iowa, see Neil Barker's blog for details.

image credit: www.norcalblogs.com/watts/images/youtube_tv.jpg

A smart way to use your phone in ELT classrooms: TechTip #12

Whenever I see freelance language teachers still luggin' around great big CD players from in-company site to in-company class... I always pause and wonder why.

Because these days, in your pockets, you've got all the audio power you need.

If you've got a smartphone or actually any phone with an mp3 player, or even just an i-pod, all you need to bring audio to the classroom is a pair of speakers.

Here's a video of me using my previous phone and a €10 set of speakers.

I confess I did think about re-shooting this video - now that've got a swishier set of butterfly speakers with powerful enough audio for a large room of 2o students and a rather flashier phone... but Katrin did let me film her face and did such a lovely job of starring in this vid... so I decided to load this one up after all.

The video even shows you the little bit of "faffing-about" that so many teachers complain of when it comes to teaching with technology - I left this in so that you can get a feel on how it really doesn't interrupt our class.

To put audio tracks on to your phone, simply insert your CD in your computer, upload into either Windows Media Player or I-tunes, then download the tracks you want on to your phone's memory card, in the same way that you do with music!

What are some of the other ways we can use our smartphone devices to teach English?

Or better yet, what are some of the ways our students can maximize their jogging, commuter time, walking to the canteen time.. etc, to learn English with their very clever machines?

Best,
Karenne

Useful links:

• More tech tips from Kalinago English
• More ideas on using smartphones - with them off, by Lindsay Clandfield
• Cell phones are their lives - Chwa EeLoon
  

• Smartphone Meetings (downloadable lesson plan)
  

• Don't teach your kids
• Collaboration in social networking

• Gapfillers
• Breaking News
• iBizRadio

The walls that divide us

(A Business English/EFL/ESP:marketing lesson)

After having lived, worked and taught English all over the world, I've noticed that cultures differ from workplace to workspace and this cultural divide isn't limited to the country of residence, nor to the sub-cultures there but, instead, is a part of a company's own philosophy.

Here in Germany, many people work side-by-side for years, never ever reaching first-name basis. Often they think Americans and Caribbeans are far too relaxed and dislike what they perceive to be a level of superficiality.

On the other hand, when you get to know the Germans, they are, deep-down, some of the most warm-hearted and generous people I've ever had the pleasure of teaching and they continually surprise me with their insights and knowledge.

As you've probably had conversations with your own students about cross-cultural business communication issues, no matter where you live, I thought I'd post up one of my older video exercises (you'll have seen it already if you've been in one my training sessions).

This video is a brilliant supplementary activity to take in with you: it's short, the speech of the actors is clear and the advertisement is particularly poignant for a Business/ESP:marketing lesson.

You can use it across a variety of objectives. On one side working on the concepts of business communication/cross-cultural issues or concentrating on the emotive metaphors, expanding the activity further by brainstorming others.

If you're teaching a group of marketing students, discussing the actual effectiveness of the advertisement can turn it into a particularly interesting conversation.

As an extra bonus, the video also provides a great context for practicing the Present Perfect vs the Past Simple.

Worksheet here (pdf)

Video here

Teaching notes:

The video works well with PreIntermediate students right up to Advanced students.

With the latter, the comprehension questions can be quickly glossed over if you wish, spending more time on the discussion, post video.

With the lower levels, watch twice and do the questions which your students can handle comfortably. Prompt your students to give you their general impressions and/or work on the grammar presented in the dialogue.

Enjoy!

Useful links related to this posting:
How to download video on to your laptop/netbook.


Best,
Karenne

List of Business English textbooks this video activity can be used to supplement:
-Business Basics unit 10
-Market Leader PreIntermediate unit 7 /unit 9
-Business Focus PreIntermediate unit 7
-Intelligent Business Intermediate unit 6
-InCompany PreIntermediate unit 4
-InCompany Intermediate unit 17

As a warmer
-Up to Speed unit 6
-Business Result unit 8

As always, if you'd like to add a book title to this list or you've got a suggestion for working with the video in another way, don't hesitate to add your thoughts!

Gr8 edu-tweets June 1-12, 2009

So, I thought I'd really better start saving some of the fantastic links other teachers share with me - that I "favorite" while on Twitter - but as there's just so much great stuff flying out across the world... am never going to be able to keep up with these unless I organize them on the blog!


Teacher, developing

via @lclandfield:

• Does ELT need its gurus?

via @Larryferlazzo RT @shaunwoodnz:

• Student assessment of a teacher

and:


Teaching in a digital age

via @AngelaMaiers

• Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age: A New Model for the Workplace Edutopia

via @datruss

• The ICE CREAM Approach to Online Facilitation by Linda Waddell and Susan Byrne

via @reportertanya RT @web20classroom

• Very organized list of Web 2.0 Tools

via @ShellTerrell RT @Larryferlazzo

• Collection of Photo Effects, Online Photo Editor

and:


Teaching: videos

via @sethdickens:

• 25 incredible TED Talks for Educators

via @tomwhitby

• Will Richardson on social media for schools

and:


Second Language Acquisition

via @cgoodey RT @Blythe_Musteric

• L2 Represented In Different Part Of Brain

via @nealchambers

• Do bilingual speakers have distinct language areas in their brain?

via @ShellTerrell RT @via @CotterHUE:

• Using L1 in the classroom

and:


Twitter

via @neal chambers

• Tweetiquette

via @barbsaka

• Twitter users mentoring teachers new to twitter

via @CotterHUE RT @barbsaka @EnglishProfi by @danzarrella

• The Linguistics of ReTweets GREAT!!

and:



Hope these links are useful for you too - the pics are linked as well - don't hesitate to add to the list of interesting tweets or to ask questions!

Best,
Karenne

Where’s the love y’all –part 2b Art of Teaching Conversation

If you just read the posting above on how important motivation is as a factor in teaching fluency to your language learners and you watched the video of my class in a brainstorming session then you’ll have seen that the Sundance film festival was one of our scheduled topics.

Here’s a look at the short we watched and discussed:

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.

BTW, Neal Chambers of English Spark actually passed this on to me via Facebook, isn’t it just gorgeous?

Had to share it on with you guys too!

To download your own copy go to Youtube here.

Not sure how to, come here.

The History and The Future of the Internet -supplementing your business English textbook with video

As a Business English teacher, you've definitely stumbled across units in textbooks which use the history of the Internet as their introductory theme.

However, they're not always up-2-date or interactive, are they?

Not their fault - history isn't always that interesting especially when it's a subject which is still evolving.

But if you've been looking ahead, racking your brain, thinking about just how to jazz up your next lesson on the internet - yet keep the content and language you've got to teach - then here's an amazing documentary video produced by Melih Bilgil.

Mr Bilgil is a German freelance graphic designer - he made the video (using PICOL icons which he also created) for his diploma in graphic design at FH-Mainz University of Applied Sciences. You can pick up your own copy here (not sure how to download, come here).

One of the complaints revolving around this video is that it only goes up to the 1990's. See article on Time (which you can read yourself to help brief you so you can spice up the discussion with your students) :Brief history of the Internet


My rough lesson plan/ tips for a lesson on the History of the Internet would be:

• Use the video as a pre-task activity before working with the textbook. There's a lot of great jargon which you can extract (or better yet, get your students to note down key business and IT words and phrases themselves).

• Do the exercises in your textbook, possibly skipping what's now out-of-date or redundant.

• Write the words "The Future of the Internet" on the board and challenge your students to fill in the blanks by talking about web2.0, web3.0 and web3D plus the developments they anticipate.
  

• Present this slideshow from Slideshare:

Future Web Trends - at Innovation series with Jimmy Wales

View more presentations from matthewbuckland. (tags: wales jimmy)

• Discuss the ideas presented - what do your students think - do they agree, disagree? Do they have any examples to put forth, opinions, fears?

Business English Textbooks that have internet related units:

• InCompany, Intermediate, unit 13: Technology
• InCompany, Intermediate, 2ndEdition, unit 13: Entering the blogosphere
• InCompany, Upper Intermediate, unit 7: Information age
• InCompany, Upper Intermediate, unit 18: Shaping the future
• Intelligent Business, Upper Intermediate, unit 4: Information
• International Express, Upper Intermediate, Unit 5: The Internet
• IT Matters, Unit 4: The Internet
• Market Leader, Upper Intermediate, unit 7: E-commerce
• Market Leader, Intermediate, unit 13: Innovation
• The Business, Upper Intermediate, Unit 2: IT Solutions
• Technical English, Unit 12: Innovations

• Do you know of any other books/units? Add them in the comments section.
  

If you're not using a textbook and would like to do this as a lesson:
***for IT students mainly, your normal groups might seriously go to sleep if you try doing this with them.
Upper Int/B2

• Wikipedia, The Internet
• Internet society

• Download and then split up the text you've chosen to use.
  

• Divide students into pairs or groups, handing out different sections to different students to read - encourage them to highlight difficult vocabulary and check meanings.
  

• While they're reading, put some or all of the following categories on the board:
  

~ Dates:
1957-1973 / 1974 - 1983 / 1984-1990 /
1991 - 1995 / 1996 +today
~ Uses of the internet
~ Global impact and cultural implications
~ Difficult terminology
~ Your own idea here

• Get your students to walk around the room telling each other what they did/ learned about and what happened in those events.

• Show the video.

• Discuss.
  

• Elicit answers on where the future of the internet's leading.
  

• Show the slideshare.

• Discuss - what was new, interesting?
  

Extending this lesson:

• Watch the video in detail, pausing often, looking for all collocations that go with the word: network. Then get your students to explain what the differences are between the phrases - basically teaching you the terminology!
  

• Create a mural depicting the time-line/ evolution of the internet using items they learned from the video, using the language taught in the textbook and vocabulary and ideas from the slideshare. (Group activity, project work).

• Use my SimplyConversationsTM and SimplyQuestTM material - question prompt cards and post-task activity: shop here
  

Technology - €1.99 (individual trainers) and €4,99 (institutes)
Email and the Internet - €1.49 and €3.99

Do you have another idea for exploiting these materials and turning them into a really effective and interesting lesson?

Share your tips with all of us by clicking on the comments button - if you've already created a great worksheet of your own (or stumbled across one on the 'net) and you'd like to pass on the details, link it here, (even if it's commercial) no problem, am happy for you to share!

Best,
Karenne

p.s More blended learning/TwIT tips here (scroll down). More lesson tips, here
To print only this page, click on the title and then scroll down to the Eco-safe button and hit print as .pdf.

A code of ethics for CEOs

I was browsing around in youtube last night and came across a video from a Columbian youth.

The question was so poignant I immediately knew it would make a great lesson.

Today in Davos, the World Economic Forum begins. To support their activities, other than their website, the WEF have also created an interactive page on youtube for questions and lectures on a number of topics including economy, ethics, environment and politics.

Pablo's answer to the question Should CEOs have a code of ethics was:

You can download the video from here.
Not sure how to take it into class, come here.

I know I'm 100% for this idea, my feelings are "about time" -but what do our business English students think?

Here's a quick lesson plan - don't hesitate to add to it or suggest other uses for these rich and interesting discussions.

• ask students if they know what a "code of ethics" is
• get them to list professions that have one
  

doctors, psychologists, lawyers, journalists, social workers and more

• write on the board - Should CEOs have a code of ethics? Ask why, why not?

• watch the video (possibly more than once depending on your students' levels)
  
• review some of the more difficult vocabulary* (see below, you could also pre-teach)
  
• hold a discussion on the suggestions he makes, feasible?
  

• provide students with these codes of ethics: doctors and lawyers

Quite long: you can split these up into parts or only use some of it,
do a google search for others if you have a large class. Different codes to different students.

• provide this guideline on creating a code of ethics, c.o.e. (or adapt)
  
• get students to brainstorm a new code specifically for CEOs in groups
• encourage them to use some of the 'legal-speak' they've picked up so far
• monitor slightly, remind them of the modals of obligation
  

• choose a presenter from each group to relay their c.o.e, edit as necessary
  
• discuss the pros and cons of their suggestions
  

Important vocabulary

• to be contingent on, to standardize, to compromise
• unethical liberties, human rights, common characteristics, profit-driven
• an international code, international markets
  

Post-task activity

Let your students choose between watching further videos on youtube, listening to podcasts or reading articles, blog postings etc on the WEF and ask them to report back on their activities next week (or next lesson(s)).

You could also ask them to research the people present or behind the scenes. Alternatively, you can also ask your students to look into the history of the Forum and the location chosen.

Or, if you're lucky enough to be teaching a group with great technology skills, teens /youth perhaps, why not get them to make video responses on their cameras or camera phones and actually participate in the debates - such fun!

Best,
Karenne
p.s don't forget you can .pdf this page or send it to yourself/ a friend. Buttons below.

Where does the buick stop?

The news are currently a-buzz with corporations lining up to hold out their begging bowls in the hope that something, anything will rescue them from the worsening financial crisis.

One of the most ridiculous of these is quite probably the BIG THREE, the CEOs of the giant US automakers (Chrysler, Ford and GM) who somehow did not have the vision to implement a change to smaller, high mileage, 'greener' vehicles and who now need a bailing out to the tune of $25bn.

I say 'vision' somewhat sarcastically.

The last few years have seen an outpouring of commercials advertising their so-called greenness which suggests that they did indeed recognize the trends in the market yet hesitated about doing anything about it other than launch propaganda machines.

Instead they dined like kings, sipped Cristal champagne, earned upwards of 40k A DAY and now, surprise, surprise, they must go to PapaUSA (i.e. the American taxpayers) for a little cash injection.

How long will it be before other global car-makers, except Toyota LOL, rock on up with the same plan?

It's not their fault? Pah!

But their errors, if left unsolved, will cost the world's employees in jobs, be the end(!?) of a stable global economy - opinions range and are as hot as they are indifferent - yet can you imagine what will happen when hundreds of thousands worldwide (millions if you count semi-related industries, especially in the US) lose their jobs?

Can you imagine the knock-on effects?

The US government and our governments will probably have no choice but to rescue the car-mega-corporations and their factory workers.

How very, very careless you have been Mr Mullaly, Mr Nardelli and Mr Wagoner (yes, even if you just recently took on your jobs). Shame on you.

Do you really expect the man on main street to pour yet more capital into your extravagant business models with narry a word on how you will effectively restructure and clean up your shops?

Lordy B, I can't help but muse on whether or not big OIL will need bailing out next!

Anyhoo, my rant's over...

Just stirring up the pot to show you how highly controversial and topical this subject matter is and how you can use it to make an exciting ESP lesson: be it with your financial students or those in the automotive industries.

As usual I'll just provide you with tips & some sources, so go on ahead, browse around and use what's useful then construct the lesson the way you'd usually do it...

Articles on the big 3

(3 levels given especially for your mixed ability groups-different articles to different students)

• 'Simpler' English (int: B1-B2)
  

Bloomberg
International Herald Tribune

• A little harder (upper int: B2-C1)
  

LA times (full of good idioms)
US News:6 myths debunked
NewsOK

• Tough going but really worth reading (upper int/adv: C1-C2)

Editorial, truth about cars

• Your audio learners (radio)

4 interesting, short segments from the BBC

Videos

Note: Most of these vids are made up of various car ads and a report on the 'SEXYgreenCARshow'. You can not make this stuff up - if you teach ESP:automotive students you'll have a whale of a time with this video, the language is generally slow and clear.

The "Ripple Effect" video at the end is well, seriously scary - a nice finish to a lesson on this theme (it's fast though so have a finger ready for the pause button).


Sidebar:
In 3 of my classes today, the craziest thing occurred while showing the GM never-seen-before ad - the men (one banking class, one insurance, one automotive) all talked back in English, involuntarily, to the projected screen and text/images.

Some just named the models as they whizzed by - all mentioned Opel, others 'hmphed' and made fun of the philosophy underlying the video. Most interesting -definitely a keeper.

To download the entire playlist or to simply choose which you'd like to use in your class(es), go here.

Karenne's lesson ideas

• divide up and set the various articles as homework by sending on the links to your students (if you can't do this, get them to skim for gist in class).
  

If by the time you read this blog entry, decisions have already been made you might want to look for new articles. A pre-search link to googlenews is set here - as a general rule (in my experience) bloomberg and reuters tend to have shorter and easier business articles, iht is a good link for students because it has translate-a-word functionality, BBC and Guardian Weekly often have topical worksheets for language learners prepared; financial press and blogs tend to be harder - full of lower frequency words. As much as possible try to vary the "slant" if you want your students to really discuss!

• review the vocabulary students had difficulties with, especially concentrating on chunks of text and idioms used in a business context.

• show one or two of the videos as a pre-task, intro and/or to review vocabulary (not sure how to download video? go here) If unable to do this, send your students the playlist and let them choose what they'd like to watch.
  

• discuss the articles for comprehension or simply get them to summarize their articles' slant or positions introduced - encourage students to agree, disagree and generally opine.
  

• ask how this issue is being reported in their own media - should the automakers get bailed out? Why, why not? Are car makers in their own countries turning up with hat in hand?
  

• Roleplays:

Big class - split up your students and ask them to play the role of Nardelli, Wagoner, Mullaly; other students play the role of the government (Pelosi, Obama, Bush, governmental economic advisers etc) and yet others play the role of the union bosses. The rest of your learners can play the man on the street: factory workers and normal joes (themselves).

Ask your students to design the focus of the roleplay themselves, getting them to spend some time thinking of what they will say - then hold the debate.
Small class - with 3 students or less, ask students to play the role of the President's economic advisers who will be interviewing the CEOs. Their task is to prepare hard-hitting questions (regarding future plans, how the bailout money would be spent and on what).

Advanced levels - with your higher students control (!) their language, encourage them to flex their grammatical muscles: to use the future continuous, perfects, passives and perhaps even use some 3rd conditional in natural context! ;-).

Another video, from Sabine- thanks, worked like a charm- but man, rough stuff!
Here are the lyrics.


Purchase conversation lessons:

SimplyConversations prompt cards plus SimplyQuests:

• finance & investment
• auto industry

€1.49 individuals
€4.99 institutes

More lesson-tips blog postings for teachers of ESP-Financial English:

• fatally financial
• company secrets

If you've got a top tip related to this theme, don't hesitate to share - simply click on the green line that says Comments and add your opinions, lesson ideas or any relevant links to websites, blogs on the same topic - I don't mind!

Best,
Karenne

CNN student news

23 September 2008

This morning I woke up late with a headache and the scratchings of a cold on the way.

Instead of my normal 6am start: time for checking my emails, facebook updates, web statistics, reading, etc. I slowly made a cup of coffee, potted about, got dressed and then realized too late that I hadn't prepped my 8am lesson.

My 8am's only 15 minutes walk from home but by the time it occurred to me that beyond their homework I didn't have any materials ready for our lesson, I had 15 minutes to go.

So, what'd I do?

CNN student news, of course.

If you haven't seen this site and haven't used it in an EFL lesson yet then check it out!

The site comes with video (mp4 via i-tunes), transcripts of the text and question sheets. Simply print out what you need, download the vid (free) pack up your computer and go.

In class, watch the video a couple of times (once without the transcript, once or twice with), go through the difficult vocabulary, do the questions and discuss the most relevant story in detail.

This takes an hour/hour and a bit.


If there's something of specific interest to your students within the report (in my case with this week's: the US financial crisis) then their homework is to follow-up on the story in the local press and report back next week.

Easy!

Karenne,

Downloading video

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, one of the questions I get most often asked in my new media and technology workshops is "how do I get a video from youtube on to my computer?"

It's actually very simple.

There are several different options which I'll explain below.

I'll give you instructions for two different browsers, Firefox and IE - but I don't have an Apple so can't comment on Safari. As far as I've been told, it's the same.

By the way, for those of you who are really new to all things techie:

A browser is the thing you use to surf the internet and find webpages. If you hit a blue E when you enter, that's Internet Explorer (or IE). Firefox looks like an orange fox wrapped around a blue globe. You can get it here:

Firefox

The difference between the two browsers is that Firefox is really much quicker and in my opinion, safer and more efficient.

The other thing I like about it is that you have many, many cool 'add-on' functions which are designed to make the whole "falling down the Alice-in-Wonderland tunnel of time" experience better. In their ADD-ONS pages they offer several 'functionality changing' options.

When you open the Add-ons page in the search box, you can type in the words "video download" to find suitable programmes. There are, at the time of this writing, 619 options!!!

Now, you don't want 619 different programs, right?

One key rule I try to follow whenever downloading freeware ...

(downloading means copying a software program (or anything else) from the internet on to your own computer, freeware is software which you are able to download without paying a price)...

...is to always read through the blurb and check how many other people are downloading it regularly. When I see that a program has been used over 100,000 times, I reckon they'd be a report about it and some very unhappy reviews if it's no good/ may cause problems to my program files.

(And yes, I search for these comments).

I know it's time consuming, but I truly recommend reading the comments pages before you download free programs - just in case it's some idiot who is manipulating the numbers. Much harder in general to manipulate feedback/ reviewers which is why I take the time to read them.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked ;-).

Nowadays I use the program called Media Converter. And after trying three or four different programs, this is the one I find easiest and most convenient.

There are 4 steps which you have to go through each time but in the end you have a fully usable video for your class.

Another option (which I used previously) is the
VideoDownloadHelper.

Both of these programs will stick an icon on to your toolbar.

A toolbar is that thing at the top of your page where you type in "google" or hit the star to bookmark a site you like, refresh your page or any of the other icons. An icon is a little picture that leads you to a specific function of your computer or internet experience.

If you're using video download helper, whenever you're on a site where there is permission to download video, the icon starts moving around, notifying you that you can copy the file if I want. This is a nice feature when you're out and about surfing the 'net and then suddenly you realize that the video you're watching is something you could use in class.

It tells you what the format of the video is and if there is an option to select between types of files to download you can choose between these.

MediaConverter doesn't move around and does not support all video sites however once you click on the little bird thing, if you can't grab the video then you can't grab it!

MediaConverter goes through a slightly longer process when downloading than Video Download Helper however so far I have had much better results with it.

Video Download Helper tends to makes a tiny video when you run it on your Windows Media Player and it also adds its company logo (which can block part of your image). Media Converter is a bigger video (easier to watch) and doesn't add a logo.

Anyway, it's pretty simple, right. Told ya!

Okay, so NOW you're ready to grab videos, stick 'em on to your laptop and walk into class...plug in the beamer (or ask your students to, they know how trust me) and bob's your uncle.

But, wait, I still have to tell you the IE way of doing this if you've not got Firefox. If you have firefox, you don't need to read the rest of this entry.

Did I mention that firefox is better, ah, yah... the unbelievers, okay I'll still give you instructions for IE too ;-) I'm gonna go eat something first, before continuing this entry.

Am back...

You can also get copies of the videos you find on youtube or other video sites like: howstuffworks, blip.tv, teachertube , google-video etc. if you are using IE.

It's not difficult, either, just a few more steps is all.

First of all, choose the video you're interested in, from one of the sites I mentioned above.

Then you open up another window so that you can work in more than one location (look at the top of your page below the toolbar(s), there's something there that looks kind of like an office archiving system -in pale blue grey, click on the second of these - which'll open up another window or tab).

In this window, go to leechvideo. And leave the page open.

Go back to the video you liked in the other 'window' and look at the top of your screen in the white box where the internet address of the file is located. Click on this to highlight this address.

Press the CTRL (or Strg in German) button and the letter 'C' at the same time. This will copy the address link.

Tab (move windows or click over) to the leech video website.

Click in the white box.

Press the CTRL button and the letter 'V' at the same time. This will paste the internet address of the file you want into the white box.

Click on the green download button.

That's it!

Karenne

p.s. If anyone's got any other instructions (perhaps for Mac computers) - or alternatives to the above, please add them below in the comments box.

p.p.s Don't want to lug your laptop around, get a netbook instead. See this review of various.

p.p.p.s I have a youtube channel where I collect videos, but so far I've been saving them under "education" - once I've sort through these I'll do another series of blogs on how to use videos in the classroom. These are mainly youtube videos - there's a whole host of other great sites, tho'. Feel free to look around in the playlists though -there's bound to be something useful for your BE classes!

In the meantime, one of my favourite online teaching colleagues, Carl Dowse, has been saving a bunch of video he uses for business classes - he's got a great selection. You can find them here.