Week 2, Task 2

I spent a little bit of time familiarizing myself with Five Card Flickr. At this website, you "are dealt five random photos for each draw, and your task is to select one each time to add to a selection of images, that taken together as a final set of 5 images- tell a story in pictures."

Here is a short example from the website.

I think its obvious use is as a fun and interesting way for students to gather ideas for creative writing. I also think it could be helpful when focusing on a specific grammar construct. For example, when studying the simple past tense, students could "draw" 5 cards and write a story using the simple past. Students could then present their pictures and story to the other students in class or post their writing to a blog. Students could also be assigned groups and create a story together in a wiki atmosphere. Each student could be responsible for adding a few lines/paragraph for the next picture in the series. This way, students could also edit one their group's writing (as appropriate). The Five Card Flickr website, then, could be used to add some excitement and creativity to grammar practice.

Week 1, task 5

Task...

• think about the pedagogical uses of one of the tools I've come across this week
• devise a lesson plan with the digital tools and share with my peers

I used Prezi for the first time last week for my introduction. I think that this tool would work well for teacher-led presentations or student-led presentations. On aspect of Prezi that impressed me was that it seems to be rather non linear when compared to PowerPoint presentations. This could be very helpful for presenting ideas that are more cyclical than linear. For example, I could use Prezi to create a visual representation of writing processes like brainstorming, drafting, reviewing, editing, etc. Using Prezi would allow me to visually emphasize the idea that these stages of writing often repeat and feed into one another.

Students could also use Prezi to express non-linear relationships. For example, students could create vocabulary presentations that show picture, sound, and/or video associations with the target vocabulary. They could present their vocabulary collages/presentations to the other students to foster discussion about the meanings and uses of target vocabulary.

Below is an sample of what this might look like...

http://prezi.com/6g95yx7oiaoy/task-5-vocabulary-presentation/

Prezi Introduction

http://prezi.com/hvwhyq5cjvqi/mattson-introduction/

Hello!

Hi all,

I have created this space for use in the Digital Tools EVO session.