Google and Education

Have you ever used Google or Google Apps?
I'm sure you have! 

Today every phone except Apple products has Google which is integrated in the operating systems. It helps us to search the information, to create documents and edit them online sitting in the coffe shop or somewhere else, it gives us so many possibilities.

Now, take your phone and check which apps do you use every day? I guess that if you are having not Apple gadgets you use Google and some of its Apps everyday. But which of them can help us in studying languages or teaching?

Make a cup of tea and I'll tell you ;)

•  Google Docs
• Amazing App, similar to Microsoft Office, will help you with saving all your homeworks, lectures and other uni stuff. Everyone from the domain has an access to it and can work with it. It's really convenient for working in groups from distance.
• Google Slides
• It's clear that this App is for creation presentations of your reports or for your classes to show your students.Pretty easy, with cool designs
• Google Tables
• Rarely used one, but it can help to put all the information about student's marks, their attendance and other stuff which can be expressed in numbers.
• Google Scholar
• It will help you to search scholarly literature across a range of disciplines and sources. I've used it for several times while I was writting my academic articles. Must see!
•  Google Earth Education Resources
  
• Wonderful source! Using the search filters there you’ll find easy, step-by-step guides and tutorials on Google Earth and mapping tools, product information, and classroom resources to help you integrate Google’s Geo technology into your instructional practice.

What can you add to this list?)
Let me know, if you have any ideas!

Bookmarks

 Hi!

Today I'd like to share my opinion on some services which helps you to gather bookmarks in one place. 
First, I want to say that I find this resources useless as I have all my Bookmarks in Chrome where I've created some thematic folders and this resources require to have another web site to be open.

But may be for you it would be a good thing to try ;)

For example, you can use this quite good resource Onlinezakladki.ru

Here you can make an unlimited number of bookmarks and there is also a search bar with 2 search engines. A special feature of this service is that you can configure the window grid. The number of columns can be configured both vertically and horizontally by setting an arbitrary number of Windows on each line. There is also no registration due to authorization via social networks.

Advantages

• unlimited number of bookmarks
• ability to download bookmarks on another computer
• search bar with 2 search engines
• no registration Cons

Disadvatages

•  no mobile version

There are plenty of them in the Internet, so you can just Google it ;) 

Services for presentations

What's up?) Today I'm going to share some thoughts on the process of making the presentations

At first, I think it's a must. I mean in 21st century when everything is in digital almost everyone had to present some material to others, and even to present it online vie Internet. So we really need to know how to create them, which apps to use and how to present yourself in public.

Software developers took care of people and created some apps which can help you to creat a beautiful presentations. Here is my top 3 apps which I use:

1. Canva

It's a wonderfull website (there's also an app for mobile phones) which have lots of designs anf features for creating presentations. I always use them when I have to create a presentation for some uni project. You have to pay for some cool pictures and other things, but there are also lots of free material which you can use.

2. Google Slides

It's also cool website which allows you to work with your colleges or groupmates together online. You'd better chek it yourself ;)

3. Power Point Presentations

It's a bit oldschool, but I use it. Don't blame me!

Of course, there are lots of other services, which I think can be pretty useful. Like SlideRocket , Slideshare , Projeqt or Prezi It has general functions, allows you to share your presentations with others, work together and create really cool and attractive presentations.

Here some examples of the presentations that I've created:

• In Google Docs 

• Inserted Power Point presentation in Prezi

Enjoy!

Second Life language learning

Forgot to mention about Second Life language learning ;)

First of all, I'd like to mention that Second Life is an online virtual world, developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003.

Second Life users create virtual representations of themselves and are able to interact with places, objects and other users. They can explore the "world", meet other residents, socialize, participate in both individual and group activities, build, create, shop, and trade virtual property and services with one another.

It's used by universites to create an educational platform, especially who studies only online. It helps students to communicate with each other and, of course, with the lecturer. It's pretty useful for practicing your speaking skills as you can sit and talk with someone using your microphone. It seems to be like Sims but with educational purposes ;)

Actually, I find the graphics really strange, so I'm sure that I will never use it. But if you decide to try it, let me know :) Want to know more personal experience of someone. 

Сharacteristics of Web 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0

Hi! Today I want to speak about such things as Web 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0. Here you will find some of their  characteristics.

Web 1.0 

Web 1.0 refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web evolution. Earlier, there were only few content creators in Web 1.0 with the huge majority of users who are consumers of content. Personal web pages were common, consisting mainly of static pages hosted on ISP-run web servers, or on free web hosting services.

Web 2.0   
The Internet is very much alive and kicking the first generation. Sites primarily gave information but with the rise of sites like Facebook and Amazon the web has become increasingly interactive. It's mostly the user produces the content without contributors. Meanwhile most people have become familiar with web 2.0 blogging, tagging, social networking and social bookmarking. It has paved the way to a next step in the development of the web, the step to the intelligent and omnipresent web 3.0. 

Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is not totally different from the web we know now. It is in many respects a continuation of existing techniques think of the so-called recommender systems that make a personal approach by a website. Possibly amazon has cleverly used this system for a long time now by offering their clients products that other people with the same interest bought before them and on last.fm you can listen online to music that caters  to your personal wishes by using smart systems. These sites are in a continuous learning process and they anticipate what their users like or dislike.

The Internet is a web full of appliances that communicate with each other by exchanging information as more and more everyday appliances are connected to the Internet.  So, now the Internet contains almost all your personal data.

Some useful table :)

WEB 1.0	WEB 2.0	WEB 3.0
Mostly Read-Only	Wildly Read-Write	Portable and Personal
Company Focus	Community Focus	Individual Focus
Home Pages	Blogs / Wikis	Live-streams / Waves
Owning Content	Sharing Content	Consolidating Content
Web Forms	Web Applications	Smart Applications
Directories	Tagging	User Behaviour
Page Views	Cost Per Click	User Engagement
Banner Advertising	Interactive Advertising	Behavioural Advertising
Britannica Online	Wikipedia	The Semantic Web
HTML/Portals	XML / RSS	RDF / RDFS / OWL

Learning with TEDEd

Hope that you liked my previous post :) 

Here I'd like to share some ideas on how to use one of the services which you can add to your teaching or studying plan. And it's TEDEd

It's an educational platform where you can register and have your own account. It is suitable for parents who are engaged in teaching children, as well as teachers and students. It is based on the videos on different topics from The Arts, Business and Economics to Health, Literature and of course Languages. 

Each "lesson" consists of :

• Section "Watch" — video on some topic
• Section "Think" — section with some open and close questions on the topic 
• Section "Dig Deeper" —  some additional material
• Section "Discuss" — link to the forum where you can discuss the topic or ask some questions

I think it's pretty useful as an extra activity during the class. For example, you can choose the video, share the link to your students and then they will do all the tasks and send their results back to you. 

OR you can use it as a part of the hometask :)

It's also possible to use it as a pasrt of self-learning. You can choose any topic you like, not only languages, then find  the video and enjoy.)

For example, if you are the English teacher, you can use this and find more on the website:

1. Fun video about punctuation for children link

2. "When to use Me/Myself/I" link2

3. Amazing preposition song :) link3

To find more, follow the link on the top of the page. Good luck and have a nice day!

Online Services for Language Learners

Good afternoon!

Today I'd like to share my opinion about some online services and apps, which are made for language learners (especially English learners). There are so many of them therefore you may find it difficult to decide which one to use or not.

Actually, such online services and apps are pretty useful as they help to add some interactivity and fun during your classes, or you can use them as a part of your self-learning. We are all the children of technology era, so using some multimedia soft means that we move with time.

I've decided to choose different services which focus not only one aspect of language but on several aspects or on all of them. So, let's start!

1. Extensive Reading Central

It has two sections: for student and teacher, which have some interesting materials on training your reading and listening  skills. And it has one interesting feature for students: something like online dictionary where you can enter a text and then to get the definition of dificult words. It ranked by levels of English proficiency. Must visit!

2. The Purdue OWL

Absolutely amazing website with gorgeous materials on writting. It will be helpful for students, teachers, workers and other people, who need to write a thesis, an email or an article. No more words, follow the link and discover it yourself!!!

3. ESL Tower

There you will find Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation Exercises, quizes and even games. It has very colourful materials for students and teachers. It is very easy to understand where to click to start the quiz or to go to the next page. BUT be aware that your version of Adobe Flash Player should be updated.

To find more follow the links and enjoy!) 
If you find some other usefull services, please, write them in the comments :)