ICT tools
Collaborative activities with Voicethread
Voicethread is a tool to make presentations to combine images, documents and videos. The chance to add comments to the different pages of the presentation in either text, audio or video format make it an excellent application for the development of collaborative work.
In the project Let’s give Breath to Earth!, led by four schools in Poland, Greece and the United Kingdom, we can see an example of their functionality. In this case, Voicethread has enabled children aged 5 to 7 to create a joint story through images, as well as share with their partners their ideas about what is behind each picture, using their different mother tongues. Some beautiful work, undoubtedly.
In addition, Voicethread supports PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and can even import images from Flickr and Facebook.
If you wish to learn more about Voicethread, visit their official website and the following tutorial.
Add subtitles to any Video using dotSUB
This tool allows us to easily transcribe and create subtitles in various languages for any video file.
Dotsub is a very productive tool. Ángel Luis Gallego has used it for two different proposals in his project “An ET (winning project) between us”: the first one in Adeste fideles, a very well-known Christmas carol, where the subtitles allow students to learn new words or even translate them, thus understanding their Christmas meaning.
In the second case, we have chosen a video for a very popular song, “I gotta feeling”, which has been subtitled into Latin. Why? Firstly, so that students can learn more about the meaning of the song through Latin (used as a living language), using a contextual inductive methodology for accessible vocabulary. On a secondary level, we can assure interaction between students from different schools by dividing the song and trying to make each one sing a different part - in Latin!!! - and then join them. Probably, by the time we have completed the experience, students will have learnt some aspects about the grammar in the song (demonstratives, imperatives, infinitive sentences, etc) in a motivating and long-lasting way.
Ángel Luis also suggests other possibilities: recording a video and asking students to subtitle it in another language; about a conference, pointing out where and which are the main contents...It's a matter of imagination.
Learn how to use the tool by accessing the dotSUB tutorials from here.
Convert your documents into attractive presentations using Issuu and Scribd
Both of them are Web 2.0 applications to quickly and easily convert a file into a Web document. Whereas Scribd transforms almost any file (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) to be shown and shared on the web, Issuu converts a PDF file into a great quality flash that can be read like a magazine.
Students in the 4th year of ESO at IES Marina Cebrián school, together with other students from other European schools, used Scribd to publish the "EU-topical" newspaper, which was integrated in the Into news! project. This way, various issues were edited, and in each one students collaborated in the treatment and publishing of different topics.
On the other hand, an example of how to use the Issuu application is provided in the EU online magazine project, where 14 schools from different countries took part, such as the Colegio Rural Agrupado de Aragón school. In this case, they chose to compare some cultural aspects (Christmas, national symbols, Easter, etc.) in partner countries, in various editions made using this tool.
Please bear in mind that the Issuu application has a 100 Mb or 500 page limit per file.
You can learn more about these ICT tools on the official websites:
They both have their own tutorials to make it easier to use them. From here you can access the Scribd and Issuu tutorials directly.
Communicate using Skype
This free software can be used to speak, send instant messages or make free videocalls through the Internet. You can use it from a PC or download it from a mobile phone to stay in touch from wherever you are.
In the case of the TRIÁNGULO project, we have used the free call service offered by Skype. Students from Vic (Cataluña) and Faro (Algarve, Portugal) agreed to hold a videoconference. Once the time had been set, it began with a greeting from teachers Marta Pey and Isabel Monteiro, and then it moved on to the introduction, one to one, of students from both countries. As they have said on the main project Blog, it has been an enriching experience that has allowed them to get to know each other after several months working together.
Through the development of this conference, communication has become an audiovisual language that - above all textual, visual or oral communication - has enabled the use of various audiovisual and multimedia means.
Should you wish to learn more about this versatile ICT tool, visit its official website. In addition to this, you can also find many tools to complement Skype, such as SuperTintin (to record videoconferences).
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Other ICT tools
- Uso de mapas mentales para estructurar la información
- Dale la vuelta a tu clase con eTwinning
- Responsible use of Internet resources
- Learning communities: eTwinning
- Programming in the classroom with eTwinning
- Emaze presentations
- Ingenio y Talento eTwinning: Cacoo para integrar diagramas en proyecto eTwinning
- The importance of visual learning: infographics in the classroom
- eTwinning Ingenuity and Talent: using Pinterest in an eTwimming project
- eTwinning ingenuity and talent: presenting 2.0 tools at the 2013 Lisbon Conference