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Creating_activities

Page history last edited by Teresa Almeida d'Eca 14 years ago

 

 

 

INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES

 

Web-based exercises and activities are a wonderful and motivating way for students to practice the four main skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some exercise software allows for separate practice of one or two skills,  other allows for the 4-in-1 model, so to say.

 

We will look at two different exercise-maker programs: Hot Potatoes and Lingt.

 

Hot Potatoes 

Hot Potatoes is probably the most well-known and popular program among teachers. It's been around for quite some time and is upgraded regularly. You need to download the program for free, create your exercises, save them for use in the computer or as a Web page to be uploaded. In this case you need either to upload everything to your wiki (advisable to have a folder for each exercise, especially if it includes images and audio files) or to have a server/computer where you can store your materials.

 

The different types of exercises available are: cloze (gap fill), matching (including the drag-and-drop feature), multiple choice, crossword puzzle, mix (jumbled words or sentences), quiz (you can include feedback for the different answers) and masher (for sequences of exercises). 

 

Let's start with a simple, but very popular exercise: the crossword puzzle.

  • open the tutorials page
    • click Standard Tutorial for Windows > Start (bottom) > The Potatoes, one by one > JCross
    • click "Example JCrossword puzzle" and complete the exercise
    • click the "Next example" button (bottom of the page) to get an overview of two other types of exercises 

 

  • open HotPot and click JCross

 

  • create a crossword
    • click the "Manage grid" menu and select "Automatic grid-maker"
    • enter the number of words you plan to have (bottom left)
    • enter the words and click the "Make the grid" button
    • give your crossword a title
    • click the "Add Clues" button
    • click "Ok" after you enter each clue
    • click "Ok" (bottom)
    • go to the "File" menu and "Save as" when you're finished
    • in the "Options" menu click "Configure output" (do not worry about the "Other", "Custom" and "CGI" tabs)
    • in the "File" menu select "Create Web page" > Standard format
    • click "View the exercise in my browser" 
    • click "Save"

 

Work in class

fruits1.htm

 

fruits2.htm

 

Fruits2

 

Fruits2

 

  • upload your crossword puzzle .html file to the wiki
    • click "Images and files" on the right frame 
    • click the file name on the right frame to create a link to it  colors.htm
    • click the link to open the crossword puzzle and do it

 

  • create a matching exercise (JMatch)
    • open HotPot
    • click JMatch
    • follow the logic used for the crossword (it's simpler in this case)
    • create a "drag and drop" version
    • create a Web version
    • upload it to this wiki 

 

HotPot

 

ViP: how to add more words to JCross (for Julia)

 

Lingt

Lingt Classroom is a simple and user-friendly software to create online activities both with text and sound. However, its main aim is to "help teachers enable their students to speak". It also allows teachers to give "targeted feedback to individual responses to maximize student improvement".

 

Let's take a look at a simple audio exercise to be completed with voice. Then we'll look at the feedback I gave to some of the respondents. Finally, let's see how to create an activity and give feedback.

  • log in to my account
  • click "Curious about you!" (on the left) 
    • listen to the questions
    • look at a response and the feedback I gave
  • click the "create assignment" button (top)
    • "allow" access to mic (and webcam)
    • give your assignment a title: Yakutsk (I didn't "share" it)
    • click "Text" or "Voice" button (top), or one of the others, for whatever you want to add 
    • click "Save" before you leave the session (and "Share" if you want to make it public) 

 

ViP: when you record voice in a bubble, click on it to start recording and click again to stop the recording 

 

 

Computer lab activities (suggestions)

Hot Potatoes 

  • download Hot Potatoes
    • create a crossword puzzle
    • upload it to your wiki 
    • create another type ofexercise 
    • upload it to your wiki

 

Lingt

  • sign up to create an account
  • explore the site and the "Help" page (link in the top right) 
  • create an exercise
  • insert a link to it in your wiki (I suggest that you create an "Exercises" page where you can organize your new productions)
  • leave me a voice comment in Yakutsk 

 

If you still have time, explore one of the other links below and give it a try.

 

 

Links to other activity makers 

Animated films

DFilm moviemaker

  • need to register

ZimmerTwins

  • need to register

 

Comic creators

MakeBeliefsComix

  • need to register

 

Exercise maker

MyStudiyo

  • create attractive-looking multimedia quizzes to link to or embed in your wiki
  • need to register 

 

 

Useful links

Hints about HotPot and Lingt (compilation based on BaW workshop feedback)

Web-based Activities (exercises created by me with different exercise software: organized by grade level, skill and name of software)

EFL/ESL Page (resources compiled by me along the years)

 

 

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