Bubblr or bubbles?

BUBBLR

hello peeps! :)

its time for me to write about something this time. But what is it??

Ok, this time I will write about BUBBLR. What is bubblr? well Its not bubbles obviously, but a tool that we could find on the net to create presentations or comic strips. This tool allows us to choose any pictures from everywhere, any pictures that we want to use especially from flickers and it comes with bubbles for us to write dialogues or thoughts.

Now, HOW TO USE BUBBLR?

1. Open the website, bubblr.com

2. Search tag word that you want to find, related to your presentation or cmic strips. For example, flower and click 'go'.

3. There will be photos related to your search appear and you can choose any pictures that you like and drag them to the white box.

4. If you want to add more pictures simply click 'after current' or before current.

5. To add text box or bubbles for your dialogues or thoughts, drag the bubble icon and place it anywhere  you like on the picture. If you want to delete it, just drag out the bubbles.

6. when you already think you are satisfied with your presentation or comic strips you can now click publish and view them in archive.

7. You can publish your bubblr in your blog by embedding the codes or share its link anywhere you like such as facebook and twitter.


WHY BUBBLR?

1. this tool is very simple and easy to navigate. So, it is suitable for all level of learners.

2. It is free. As a teacher we dont want to put burden to students if they have to pay.

3. It has ownership elements as it allows learners to decide almost everything in their presentation or comic strips. It inculcate sense of personalisation in students.

4. It encourages creative thinking in learners. Students will have to think about suitability, presentations when they are using bubblr to make it as interesting as it can be.

5. It is very interesting compared to the normal activity of writing dialogues and power point presentation that has been used in the classroom. It should be another motivation for learners to learn better.

Despite having numerous advantages, teacher should look forward to some limitations and problems as well. Bubblr could be very interesting if the students manage to deal with it very well. For example, there are numerous pictures that appear in any tag words that students may choose. Selecting a few pictures from hundreds of pictures coud be quite stressful and time consuming. Teacher needs to be really aware of this and make sure that she/he will inform students and give clear instructions before the activity is carried out. In addition to that, some times, the tag used for pictures are not accurate and could be another factor that will demotivate the students as they get bored looking for pictures they want. Also, there are inappropriate displayed when we search for certain tags even though it is not related. It could be quite dangerous for young learners as they might not be able to handle it appropriately. 

Considering a few limitations and problems in using this tool, it is safer for teachers to make sure that any activity using this tool suits their students and provide the students with clear instructions.

Story Bird

hello again! :D
Hope everyone is doing well.

Today I am very excited to tell all of you about another tool that is not just interesting but very helpful in language learning specifically. So, what is it?

The tool is called STORY BIRD. What is story bird? sounds peculiar and at at the same time attractive right? :)

Story bird is a tool that contains lots and lots of attractive and pretty images illustrated by artists> From those images students will be able to create their own story book based on their chosen set of images!
Don't worry about how interesting the students' story book could be or the students' worries about 'don't know how to write based on certain genre' because it contains all kinds of set of images in many different themes! such as, FAIRYTALE, GIRLFRIENDS, LOVE and many others.

Now, how does it works?

First of all, we will need to ask the student to open the website, http://storybird.com/ and ask them to sign up and create their account so that it will be easier for them to create stories especially with their friends later on.

Now, its time to write and create a story book!
As the teacher, we can ask the students to choose any themes that they like or we can assign certain themes that is suitable and appropriate for the lesson. After choosing one specific themes, a whole load of set of images that come under the theme would appear and again the student will select their preference.

Then, they will just continue by clicking "Start a Storybird with art tagged 'love'". After that, a page like this would appear :

To start their story, students can choose any picture to be their first page and continue with any sequence of pictures they like based on their story. After choosing a picture, students will start writing their first page as shown below :

So, the process of selecting a picture and write continues until the end of students' story. Then, they can save it and publish it. Students can choose to share it just through emails, by choosing the option private or public which the story will appear in searches and the public library.

Why Storybird?

In my point of view, storybird would be helpful for learners in WRITING. This is because :-

1. It is another way of getting the students to write rather than giving them a piece of paper and asking them to write.

2. It could also be something that is more motivating and enhancing the students' ability to write better as it consist of many themes and sets of pictures that could cope with the students' imagination.

3. Students would feel more appreciated as they could think they are really a writer that write stories, save, and publish them!

4. Students will also get the sense of owning their work as they started it from scratch! They even decide the tittle of their storybook and put their name as the author.

However, teacher needs to be careful in using this tool as it might be too complicated for some students who probably struggle with the tool and also lack of ability to write narrative essay. this if not carefully monitored will demotivate the students. One solution for that is to get the students to work in pairs rather than individual. 

That's all, thanks! :)

Dvolver

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great day. I am going to write about another tool that could be useful in the classroom that is DVOLVER.
So, what is Dvolver?
Dvolver is a tool that allows students to make a short movie or a film strips. It is a very interesting tool as it provides a wide range of characters, background, scene and sounds.

How does Dvolver works? Very easy.

Firstly, open the website Then, let the students pick their choice of background and click 'next'.

Secondly, students can choose any scenes that are available which interest them. As shown below:

After selecting their scene, students can now choose two characters that they like and suits their short movie.

Now, students will write the scripts for their characters depending on their own story line. They can make it as interesting as they want.

Then, they can choose if they want to put any background music. Lastly, they can put their movie title and put their name as the director.
DONE!

Now, what is it good about Dvolver for learning, especially language learning?
 1. Students are able to use language creatively, depending on their story.

 2. It is an interesting way to get the students to write rather than using a typical way of writing a long essay.

 3. It contains the sense of owning something. Its very personal and very close to the students as it is their own work and its is fully made by them.

 4. It allows the students to practice real communicative language as they need to create dialogues.

 So, why don't we try and use it class?? bye for now and good luck! :D

BUBBLR

Lyrics Training

     What is lyrics training? I know, some people might think lyrics training is just a tool that we use to have fun. But lyrics training is more than that if we look thoroughly at it. Lyrics training is a tool that indirectly promotes language learning because it helps learners to learn language through listening, writing which includes spelling skills.



HOW?
     Lyrics training is a tool that students can choose a song from various music videos that they like/enjoy. While listening to the song, the lyrics of the song will appear at the bottom with some words missing. Therefore, it is the students' job to fill in the missing spaces with the correct word while listening to the singer who will be singing the song perfectly. That is where the student will carefully listen to the song and try their best to fill in the empty spaces with correct words and perfect spelling.

                           


     Lyrics training is a free website and suitable for all level of learners (primary and secondary schools) as the students can choose the level of difficulty that suits their level of english proficiency. For instance, if the student choose the easiest level which is "beginner" the missing words will be only 10percent of the song lyrics  and if level of difficulty chosen is the hardest one students will have to fill in all the lyrics. Another thing that is good about lyrics training is it will stop the song until the students are able to fill in the empty space correctly and the students can pause or keep on replaying the specific line that they could not figure out the answer. Lyrics training could be a good tool of learning language as it also encourages students to learn language on their own. The use of song is a good approach as it is a fun way of learning and we all know most students especially teenagers love songs.

Dvolver

Heyyyaaa this is my first short movie using dvolver! You should try and find out how cool is this tool!
Enjoy and Bye for now! :D