Thursday, March 11, 2010

Week 9: Task: Create online course site or exercise

Hi everybody,

This was really a wonderful activity. I was really interested in knowing how to create a class as we have been using for the past 9 weeks and now I know. This was so simple that I asked Sandra if we would be able to continue using the NICENET.ORG after the course because I see many ways to use this website for my students but also for the in-training of our teachers. I thought it could replace some of our training workshops where we ask our teachers to come on their free time on Saturdays at a specific time to attend our workshops. This could be also very useful for our new teachers. We could ask them to enroll in one course we prepare only in order to train them with basic things we want them to apply in their classes as for example techniques, analyzing the learning styles, creating on-line activities, etc.
I also enjoyed last night the HOT POTATO software at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/.
I downloaded it as indicated and started creating a cloze to try the program. My fears were, after reading the instructions, how to save it so everybody could use it. I read that I could save it in HTML but I don't have any website so I just tried and save it as a *.zip file. I tried it and it worked.
I just commented some of my fellow coordinators about that software and they really want to know more about it as it is really powerful to create cloze, etc.
I will continue creating different exercises as I would like to have a full e-teaching course for my high intermediate 9.


Really great.

Raphaël

3 comments:

  1. Dear Raphael,

    I agree that Nicenet and Google Sites offer great opportunities for creating online courses. They are very easy to use and they are free. Even if we have to teach a class face-to-face, we can still use them, because combining face-to-face teaching with online learning is even better.

    Hot Potatoes is really great because it allows you to create different activities that can be used online as well as printed out and used in class even if there are no computers available.

    The other online tools and exercises are also good and easy to use, so that we have no excuse for using the same types of exercises and activities when there is such a great variety of exercises available online.

    Best regards,
    Nina

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  2. Dear Nina,
    The views with which I clicked on 'Comments' button are already expressed by you...
    It seems we are thinking alike or is it that this course has brought us all on common wave-length?
    Dilip (India)

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  3. Dear Raphaël,

    Those are great ideas that you have about the use of nicenet.org with your students and teachers. I definitely think we could use it and have the students work online duriong their free time.

    Like you, I also had a great time learning how to use hot potato. It takes a while to get used to it, but I think that once you are familiar with the software, it makes it a lot easier to create the exercises.

    Cristian

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