Last week we discussed about Learner Autonomy and this week there were discussions about how a teacher can build autonomy in students and what technology
tools can help him with that.
In this order of ideas
this week we’ve been acquainted with ANVILL. It sounds like the name of a pill
ADVIL) – a pain reliever, but in fact it stands for A National
Virtual Language Lab. It is a virtual “lab” that the teacher can make available
for the students’ practice of their listening and speaking skills as well as
feedback in terms of grading. It is in a way a “Pain Reliever” for the teachers
that have discovered it and use it in the classroom simplifying their work and
in the same time encouraging learner autonomy.
Another tool which can
be used online and offline is HotPotato. I have seen my colleagues write about
it the previous weeks but I thought it is the classic Hot Potato Game which I
also use in my classroom. J
It turns out it is a programme. I am still exploring it but I have checked out
the activities created by other teachers and it seems like a very resourceful
programme and I intend to use it at some point in creating activities with my
students.
I have been using the
Online Crossworsds, Bingo, Domino, Certificate and Puzzle Makers before but I
would print them out and use them as handouts. What was new for me is that I
learned that there are also Test Makers and I thought that tool extremely
useful .
Hi Liliana: I'm glad that you found hot potatoes and Anvill to be nice tools. I am really happy that you tried Anvill out and used it a little bit. It is a very nice tool and is actually quite powerful. We are lucky at the University of Oregon to have the developer of this tool, Jeff Magoto, work with us. Sometimes he has even been able to guest moderate during the week 7. Unfortunately Thanksgiving was this year was bad timing and he wasn't able to join our class this time. ~Robert
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