GoogleDocs in Ning to collect vocabulary

This is another ELTAS Tech Tools Day task.

Pre-task thinking:

• Does it make sense to keep a vocabulary list for the entire class?
• Or does each individual have his/her own list that can not be generalized?
• How do you collect vocabulary in your classes?
• Have you tried other systems?
• What are the pros and cons of each?
• How does collecting vocabulary in digital form differ from having it in a notebook?
  

What I'm doing:
One of my company courses now has a Ning. We use this collaborative learning environment primarily to get organized, as the participants have rather demanding jobs that make them have to miss quite a few lessons. The Ning lets them check things neatly in our course log. I can embed any media we used, so that means fewer copies of handouts to pass on to those who didn't show up. We also organize our extra-curricular events there.

One thing they've asked me for over the years is a vocabulary list that they could fill in. We've used handwritten sheets and copied them, but that doesn't work well, especially when they are coming irregularly. So what I've done is to make a Google Docs Form using the questions:

• English word
• sample phrase/ sentence
• sample phrase/ sentence
• Definiton
• German equivalent

Any user with the link to the live form can enter information into that form. They don't need a Google acount.
And any user can read (but not edit!) a Google Spreadsheet that has been published as a web page. When new content is added through the form, this web page is updated automatically. On the spreadsheet select the settings: Publish + Automatically republish when changes are made.

So all I had to do is get my students to sign up for Ning. Then I created a text box in Ning and added two links:

• to the live form to enter new words
• to the output spreadsheet to view our list.

The text box also contains some reference links:

Macmillan dictionary
Oxford collocations
Corpus Concordance English
American Corpus
Linguee
Leo


Now they'll just have to start filling it up!

The limits of Google Docs in Ning:
Unfortunately, you can't embed a Google Form or Spreadsheet in Ning the way you can in a blog or in Moodle. This is connected to internal formatting in Ning. Pity! It would be nice to have everything under our Ning URL. Adding a link is only second-best.

Task:
Create a vocabulary list template using Google Doc Form.
Create categories like:

• word
• sample phrase
• explanation
  
• translation

Give it a focus that other EFL teachers can relate to (e.g. words in the local dialect)
Link to it so we can add vocabulary.

VocabGrabber

The VocabGrabber, part of the Visual Thesaurus, is a nice resource for presenting and building vocabulary. Just copy in any text and the system will:
show the number of different words used
sort them by relevance
sort them alphabetically
class them according to subjects
show a thesaurus word web for any of the words you choose
present the sentence(s) the word appears in.

All of the words are hyperlinked, so your students can really explore meaning and collocations. I put in text from a blogpost of mine:



Using the Visual Thesaurus online is free. If you want to save and download wordlists, you must be a subscriber.

Wordia

Wordia is a free online video dictionary where "real people" define words. You can watch - or make and contribute - videos, which the editors go through to select to provide a "word of the day". The videos are uploaded through YouTube, but cannot be embedded the way YouTube videos can, or downloaded through www.savevid.com. But if you do a search on YouTube with the name and the word, you'll find the video you want. I really enjoyed watching Scotswoman Jenny Colgan defining "expatriate". Gin at 10 in the morning?


The site claims:
"We're redefining the dictionary.
1. Think of a word that has a special meaning for you.
2. Record a video defining the word
3. Upload your video."
I might want to define "Weißwurst" ;)

The team running this project collaborates with HarperCollins, The National Literacy Trust and The Open University, among others.

Found through Nik Peachey's Wallwisher wall, "Web 2.0 Tools for teachers" - a must-see collection where you can add your own favorites.

Using Wordle

Hi all,

I've taken up John and Anne's call to contribute and help make this a teacher's site by teachers for teachers. This is my first ever entry to a blog so please go easy on me if it doesn't work out quite as planned. Hopefully the ease I have with making this entry will encourage more of you to do the same.

http://www.wordle.net/ is a great online application for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

You can use them to highlight key points from a given topic, such as this one on Presentations:

You can also create "wordles" of phrases by adding " ~ " between each word you input, such as this one for telephoning phrases:

I recently got my students to create their own word clouds on telephoning phrases for homework. Not surprisingly, they all did it!

You can also create a word cloud of an entire website. The higher the frequency of words on the site the larger they will appear in the word cloud. Here's one I just made by inputting the url of this blog:

Once you've created your word cloud, choose the print option and then save it to your computer as a pdf file before printing. This way you'll have the file saved locally and can then email it to your students, print it out or bring it to class on a laptop / USB stick (if you have such facilities to teach with). They're really great fun and really easy to make.

Have fun!

Creating your own crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles are a great way to recycle new vocabulary and, as you will quickly discover, students usually love doing crosswords.

If you do a search for 'crossword puzzle makers' with Google, you will find there are hundreds of free crossword programs on the www that you can download and use to make your very own crossword puzzles.

I use a program which cost me a few euros, but seems to be able to pack more words in the grid than most of the free software and it also lets you define the size and shape of the grid and type of puzzle you want to make, e.g. a word search, cryptic, clue in box, etc.

I must admit that I got a bit carried away when I downloaded my first crossword program and began using it.

Don't go mad and dish out crossword puzzles for homework every lesson, but don't miss out on a great way to recycle some of the vocabulary you have been teaching.