Optional task

For those who have already finished all the assigned tasks, I am going to give you some other alternative web pages for you to carry out an optional task.

For those of you who like comics you can start creating your own comic strips using Toondoo. That way you can continue practising your writing skills. Writing is also the skill required to go into Storybird, a web site where you will be able to create your own tales.

As regards sound you can try Fotobabble, a web application which allows you to choose an image, then record your voice and later embed the player in your blog. Try to think about a task you may carry out using it.

Voicethread is another web application which allows you to upload images, documents and videos as well as recording your own voice. The application will show all your files while you keep talking, a very good way to show people all about you.

Finally, for those of you who like videos, you can make your own videos using your photos and other types of documents while listening to a background music. This is called a slideshow and you can get your own ones in Animoto.

I hope you enjoy them and continue with the blog love. Now it is your turn to find the best way to express yourselves through blosg. Use your imagination and be creative.

10th task: Multimedia poster

Making posters has always been a wide-spread learning technique which pupils have enjoyed. The Internet now allows us to make posters in a very easy and fun way. Glogster is a website which provides you with all the resources you need to make a colourful and eye-catching poster.

You can use glogster without creating an account though I recommend you to create one for yourself as you will probably find the application fun and you will end up doing more than one poster.

Once in your account you can start making your poster from scratch. Use your creativitiy to choose both the glog wall and all the elements to embellish it.

Your glog will be about one of the following topics related to world problems:

hunger

homelessness

war

natural disasters

sickness

poverty

Once you have chosen your topic, search the web in order to find at least a video file and a sound file. Apart from that you will use as many photos as you please and a bit of text to introduce and explain the topic to the potential readers. Remember to provide a link for further reading on the topic.

Once your glog is finished, copy the embed code and paste it in your blog as a new entry.

I hope you enjoy this surprising application and keep using it in summer.

9th task: Other ways to publish sound

Since we all had some trouble using cinchcast we will find other alternatives to publish our short English poem.

Podomatic is another website that allows you to publish sound (that is called a podcast). Once you get a free account, it allows you to either record your voice through a microphone (like in cinchcast) or you can upload the mp3 file from your computer.

So the first thing we´ll do is trying to record the poem directly through the microphone. In case it doesn´t work (you know that technology in schools can sometimes fail), we will use vozme to copy and paste the poem so that the machine will read it for you (remember to switch it to English, otherwise the machine will read it in a very ackward way) and will generate an mp3 file which we will be able to download.

Once you have the mp3 file in your computer, use podomatic to upload it and embed the player in your blog.

7th task: Working with sound

Cinchcast is a web page which allows you to record sound messages and blog them using the embed code. This will generate a sound player. A peculiar thing about this site is that you can access it with your facebook account (same username and password).
The task will consist in finding a short English poem . Read it as many times as you need so that your pronounciation is correct. Record your reading and embed the code in your blog.

6th task: Slideshare

Slideshare is a web page which allows you to upload and share your own powerpoint presentations. One of its features is that you can embed any powerpoint you find interesting and useful in your blog just copying the embed code.
This is going to be a two-step task.
First step:
Go and find any powerpoint which has to do with one of your hobbies.
Copy the embed code and paste it on your dashboard.
In addition, find two web pages which may give readers more information on your hobby and provide a link to them.

Second Step:
Using the powerpoint application in Microsoft Office, make a presentation of your own.
Use pictures of an excursion, a holiday or a party to describe what you and your friends are doing in them.
After creating an account with slideshare, upload the presentation and finally embed it on your blog.

5th task: Describing your city

Go and find three photos of your city and save them in your computer. Go to Picturetrail and open an account. Remember to take note of your user´s name and the password. Once you have the account, upload the images and choose a nice flash presentation. copy the embed code in a new post and then write a bit about your city as the pictures are shown.

Here you will find a tutorial to learn how to use picturetrail. By the way it is in Spanish so that it will be easier for you to follow the instructions

4th task: how to embed a video

Go and find a video of a song you like (youtube.com is perfect for that) and once you have it copy the embed code in your blog (remember to do it in the HTML edition). Look for the lyrics and copy them in the same post and using the following on-line dictionary (which you must include in the side-bar using the list of links widget) you must translate it.
The url for the dictionary is http://www.wordreference.com/es/

2nd task: physical description

In our first post we are going to learn to upload a photograph and we are going to use it to practise describing it. So, search for a photo of your favourite film star, singer...etc and use it to describe him or her.

But before you start writing, let´s remember how to do it. Revise all the information provided in the following links and do the quizzes to test your knowlege.

Vocabulary - List of English Words for Describing Looks and Appearance, With Example Sentences
http://www.elalmanaque.com/English/vocabulary/describing_people.htm
http://www.writeshop.com/article3.htm
http://www.talkeasy.co.uk/link/materials/esl11.htmlWords For Describing Appearance - Gap Fill Quiz
Describing People - Adjective Synonyms - Matching Quiz
Describing People - Adjective Antonyms - Matching Quiz

First task: Let´s introduce ourselves

I want you to have a look at this powerpoint and learn how to use voki and how to create a talking avatar for your blog.
Once you know how to do it, think about the words you would like your voki to say but it should talk as if you were talking to your blog´s visitors. So, say who you are and say something about what people will find in your blog.
You choose the alternative you like best: you can record your own voice ( in that case remember to have a microphone with you) or you can type the words so that the avatar will read them for you.

Once your avatar has been created, put it at the top of the fixed sidebar of your blog.

Voki

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