Why not Join the College Writing 2.1x MOOC?

Register NOW!

Don't Miss The Macmillan Online Conference 2013!

 
When: 

Nov. 11-15, 2013

Where:

The Macmillan Online Conference uses Blackboard Collaborate. Check this link to register for the sessions you would like to attend.

What are you waiting for? 

Let's Enter the Project Competition and Win ...!

Are you interested in doing a creative project with your students? 

Then, 
Why not enter the Project competition. It is an international competition that encourages the use of language through projects.  

The task is very easy:

1. Ask your students to create a class poster on "Communication in the 21st Century" either online or physical. 
2. Once your students finish, complete the entry form posting either the link to their online poster or a j-peg image of the poster.
3. Click here to find all about this competition and the attachments you need.

Ghost: A New Blogging Platform is JUST Born

I have just received an e-mail that the new Ghost blogging platform is ready to the public. Ghost is a free platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customizable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do. It's simple, elegant, and designed so that you can spend less time messing with making your blog work - and more time blogging. There are a lot of features of Ghost that can make it the future of blogging:

Don't Miss 6 FREE e-Conferences in October 2013

Retrieved Oct. 4, 2013 from here

I can't travel by my body, but my mind can go around the whole world connecting to a variety of  brilliant networks in minutes. These FREE online conferences add a lot to my expertise, skills, and knowledge. As a teacher, I always search for such opportunities to update myself professionally and academically. They provide me with a solid theoretical background and applicable ideas of the most recent trends in education and teaching English in particular. In such online conferences, I meet new educators, follow them on their various social networking websites (e.g., Twitter, Google+, Facebook, ....), collaborate with them in international projects, share ideas, build online communities, and create new collective knowledge. During this month (October 2013), there are SIX online educational conferences that will be hosted online and can be attended for FREE:

Register for Google New Online Course "DAF"

Digital Analytics Fundamentals

Registration is now open and the course begins October 8. 
Register Now 

This three-week course by Google provides a foundation for marketers and analysts seeking to understand the core principles of digital analytics and to improve business performance through better digital measurement. Check out the course FAQs for more details.

15+ FREE Webinars Stations to Update Your ESL/EFL Practices

Do you want to update your ESL/EFL practices for free? If yes, webinars (i.e., web seminars) can be a great way to promote your professional development. They not only provide you with opportunities to know the most recent trends in teaching English, but also connect you with a variety of professional educators from all the corners of the world. You can share and discuss ideas, collaborate with other teachers via a variety of social networking websites, and create new personal learning networks. You just need a computer with an internet connection to get started.  

Below is a list of the most wonderful stations to drop by and attend a webinar. 

Have you Tried to Draw Like Picasso?

 

Picassohead is a lovely digital tool that allows users to create their own masterpieces using famous features drawn by Picasso. Teachers can use such an amazing website to unleash their students' creativity and bring the magic of arts into their classes. 

Humanizing Your Online Class

This title completely captured my attention when I first saw the announcement of the webinar by Michelle Pacansky-Brock. I always stress the importance of the socio-affective touch between students and their instructors. In this digital era, it is considered the key behind any successful learning. Knowing more about students, what, how, and why they learn inevitably lead to an enjoyable and memorable experience. Students also want to know more about their instructors and connect with them for extended interaction. The question is "How to use digital tools to humanize this relationship?

Let Pictures Speak!

Blabberize is a web 2.0 tool that allows users to upload a picture, draw a "mouth" on that picture, and then record or upload a sound clip to make it speak or sing along with the sound. 

Chat on the Fly using TLK.io

Thanks to Kaushalya Mandaliya, I managed to embed a live chatroom on my blog. You can create your own using TLK.io [talk·eeo]. It  is a web chat that is open to anyone and channels are owner-free. It seems so easy to use and embed into websites and blogs. I love to use it with my students.They always need instant feedback when working on new projects. However, the public feature is not secure. Anyone can join the discussion and write their messages. The only way to create a little bit private chatrooms is to choose complex names using numbers, letters and character, so spammers can't see them easily. This tool is a little bit new and of course they will add more features in the future. Let's wait and hope!

Check THREE Promising Courses by Coursera

Coursera launches many courses on September 2013. There are just three courses that catch my attention. My only criterion of choice is watching the instructors' introductory videos. You will not believe it. I know that these short videos are not enough to judge the quality of the whole experience, but they have a very great impact on learners before starting their journey of learning. Please check this great article by Sarah Linden to know more about the reasons behind using video introductions rather than text-based ones when creating your online courses.

Kindly explore each course info and choose what you need and add to your expertise:

Give Students a Voice by Audioboo

listen to ‘Give Students a Voice by Audioboo’ on Audioboo

As I said in my boo above, Audioboo is a free tool that allows users to create podcasts or audio files up to 3 minutes in length using the website directly or the mobile app. There are a lot of features that make me choose this tool to use with my students:

Cool FREE Site 4 Creating Cool Logos

I'm working on a new blog for my students. I'd prefer to build it from scratch. That's why I search for some tools and codes to add more features and touches. I always choose free and  simple tools, so students can use them easily without any problems. Cool Text is one of these tools that helped me create a simple, but an impressive logo. It is a FREE graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you need a logo without a lot of design work. 

Please follow these simple steps below to create your first logo: 

2nd Round of DLT MOOC-Ed 4 Educators

DLT MOOC-Ed Introduction from The Friday Institute on Vimeo.

 

Audience:

Digital Learning Transition in K-12 Schools massive online open course for educators (DLT MOOC-Ed) is designed for school and district leaders, such as superintendents, principals, curriculum directors, technology directors, financial officers, instructional coaches, library media specialists, and lead teachers, as well as university faculty, consultants, parents and any others involved in planning and implementing K-12 digital learning initiatives.