E-books as a form of ICT

Electronic books sound like a futuristic phenomenon or something from a sci-fi movie. 
The thought itself may even seem intimidating to those who still consider themselves to be computer illiterate. But the fact is, that E-books are creeping their way into our society and life, and how the public reacts to this technology may determine the future of written literature. It is not surprising therefore, that a great amount of attention, both positive and negative, has been placed around these books and what the technology could accomplish. My opinion is that E-books will slowly infiltrate society, eventually replacing much of the printed text as we begin to rely on the electronic medium for our literature and information.

ICTs in English

Continuing the topic about ICT, I found some interesting articles and want to share them with you guys. Hope you enjoy and will find information interesting!                                                 

• ICTs in English
• ICT in the classroom
• ICT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
• Using ICT in the English classroom
• The use of ICTs in the English class: an enriching experience

ICT in the English Classroom

What are ICTs ?

Here you have some advantages of using the ICT:)

What are ICTs?

The Board of Studies in its cross-curriculum content requirements has embedded ICT into the English syllabus as follows:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) content in English enables students to develop and apply skills, knowledge and understanding of ICT in their composing, responding and presenting, and as part of the imaginative and critical thinking they undertake in English. The ICT content has been incorporated into the content of this syllabus to ensure that all students have the opportunity to become competent, discriminating and creative users of ICT and are better able to demonstrate the syllabus outcomes of English through the effective use of ICT.

Skills include:

• importing images and graphics into folders and documents
• formatting documents
• desktop publishing using graphics in a multimedia presentation or webpage, evaluating appropriate layout and design principles for a specific audience.

The use of ICT in the English classroom extends beyond its motivational value to address key outcomes of the syllabus, and allow students to become competent users as well as consumers in English.

Research suggests that incorporating ICT into the English curriculum can:

• improve writing and reading skills
• develop speaking and listening skills
• support collaboration, creativity, independent learning and reflection (Becta,2003a, Becta,2003b, VTC,2003) (cited in Becta 2005)

As an interactive and collaborative medium, ICT allows responding, composing, and publication to be easily shared and offers students the opportunity to explore the language of texts more creatively and develop as speakers, writers and readers for an ever widening range of purposes and audiences. ICT can enable students to:

• access information and respond to a widening range of texts
• organise and present information in a variety of forms
• broaden the range of audiences for their work
• compose a widening range of texts for a broad range of purposes
• compose for real audiences. ICT can support them in their choice of genre for audience and purpose.
• identify key characteristics and features of text
• develop understanding of language and critical literacy (Becta,2006,ICT in the Curriculum)

Podcast. McCartney Unplugged!

Hello, my dear friends! 
Today I want to share you the podcast on The Beatles topic! My favorite episode 74: McCartney Unplugged!

In 1991, Paul McCartney performed on MTV's Unplugged and released a very successful and unique album of the concert. In this episode, they discuss the recording of the concert, the setlist, go through the tracks, and wonder why Paul hasn't played concerts like this since.


You can download it for ios or android. Hope you’ll enjoy it, as much as I did. So, here you are:

McCartney Unplugged!

How to create a podcast?

Hello, guys! Have a look at this video, maybe you want to create a podcast by yourself, it will be interesting to listen to you!

20 incredibly useful websites

I think you should know them if you’re a student.

• Stack Exchange – a collection of question-and-answer communities. If you’ve got questions about chemistry, math, programming, or pretty much anything else, you’ll probably find an answer here.
• Wolfram Alpha – a “computational knowledge engine”, this site can calculate basically any math problem and come up with data on all kinds of things (including all Pokemon data!)! Step-by-step solutions to math problems used to be free, but they cost money now. For a free (but less easy-to-use) solution, try SymPy Gamma.
• StudentRate – a site that aggregates student deals and discounts on clothes, travel, textbooks, electronics, and lots of other things.
• Sleepyti.me – uses the sciences of REM cycles to calculate the optimal time you should go to bed in order to feel well-rested, based on when you plan to wake up.
• Habitica – formerly HabitRPG, this is my favorite tool for building habits and you probably know I’ve talked about it before. If you end up using it, check out the CIG guild – we’re up to around 1,500 members now!
• Todoist – my task manager of choice. I like the clean design, organizational features, and the fact that all my tasks sync across multiple platforms. However, I will say that the bulk of my task management happens on paper/whiteboards these days. Todoist just functions as one of the quick capture components of my system.
• Google Calendar – old and trusty. I’ve been using GCal since I was a freshman, and while it hasn’t changed a whole lot since then, it really doesn’t need to. It accessible in any browser, has great smartphone apps, and just works.
• Dropbox – another app I’ve been using since my early college days, Dropbox keeps all your files synced, updated, and backed up across all your computers. Recently, their browser interface has gotten much better – you can now preview most file types right in the browser without having to download them.
• Lynda – a huge library of video courses that can help you learn tons of skills, mainly centered around computing and media production. Lynda is particularly good for learning the ins and outs of computer software.
• Mint – a tool that lets you view all your financial account in one place, track your spending, and set up budgets.
• Rate My Professors – a site that allows students to write reviews of professors. I don’t take this site’s ratings as the golden truth, but it has steered me towards some great professors in the past.
• Coggle – a cool little mindmapping (one of my favorite note-taking methods) tool that lives in your browser.
• Your university website! – If you’re not familiar with it, get on it. Most university websites have course catalogues, schedule planners, financial aid information, scholarship listings, academic calendars, student job boards, and other useful things.
• Written Kitten – potentially the greatest writing aid ever invented. Set a target word count, and whenever you hit it, you’ll get a new picture of a cat. What could be better? Note: There’s currently a bug that prevents pictures from showing when you set count to 100 words, so set it to at least 200.
• Cheatography – a really cool site that collects cheat sheets that condense information on all kinds of topics. This could be helpful for building study guides.
• Bibme – a tool that can help you automatically generate bibliographies and source citations. I like it better than similar tools because it lets you search for books and other sources; if it recognizes what you searched for, it can often auto-fill all the citation fields.
• Ankiweb – the web component of Anki, my favorite spaced-repetition software. I kinda used Ankiweb as an excuse to put Anki on a list of websites, but it’s legit because it’ll let you study your flashcards in the browser. However, you do need to have Anki downloaded first.
• Instructables – a site where people can post DIY project tutorials. I put my hanging desk and hanging loft bed projects on there, but you’ll find much more practical projects as well.

What are your favorite useful websites?

TIPS FOR STUDENTS

Hi, guys! Now I want to share with you tips for students! Being a student myself, I know how it difficult for us to concentrate on studying. It takes a lot of time and efforts to make our homework. Especially, it’s hard for us to wake up early in the morning in order to catch a bus in time. So, I hope that these pieces of advice and this video will help you and encourage you! Take your best shot!
                            
1.Don’t allow technology to make you unaware of your surroundings
Everyone with headphones, a smartphone and an MP3 player knows – the minute you’re plugged in, you barely exist anymore! You stare at your phone, zoned out; not knowing what is going on around you. This, in essence, is exactly what you should be avoiding.
When you start to find yourself becoming unaware of what’s going on around you is the time you need to consider turning the music down, putting your phone away and opening your eyes to what’s happening.
The key to getting out of a potentially dangerous situation is to recognize it as such. This is nearly impossible if you aren’t even aware of the situations you’re walking into.
2.Never walk alone at night
Walking around alone and in the dark is basically asking for trouble. Sure, there are times that you need to get from point A to point B which may occur at night, but you should always abide by the buddy system so that, should something happen, you’re not on your own.
3.Utilize locks
While it’s easy to become relaxed in college life, there are some habits that should always remain standard. Locking your doors, especially when you’re alone or asleep, should be one of them.
Aside from allowing yourself to be vulnerable, it’s also much easier for theft to take place if you’re essentially providing easier access to burglars.
4.Carry some emergency cash
It’s good to have some cash on you at all times, just in case. Perhaps your credit card won’t work or your debit card gets lost. You never want to be stuck in a scary situation because you don’t have the necessary funds to get out of it as quickly as possible.
5.Locate the emergency system areas on campus
Most campuses have emergency call buttons or phones scattered throughout campus for students to utilize in the event of an emergency. Find out what your campuses system is and locate the areas in which the systems are placed. Should you ever find yourself in trouble, it will be much easier if you know where you can call for help.
6.Know your way around campus
In addition to paying attention to your surroundings; you should know your surroundings as well.
Take time to become familiar with campus landmarks and streets so that you are able to navigate your way around – or out of an area, should you need to.
7.Never stay at a party when your friend leaves
No, you don’t need to call it an early night just because one of your friends does. But, what you should do is ensure you always have a minimum of one person with you that you know (and know you can trust).
Being alone in a party setting isn’t smart – go home if you’re going to be alone because it is not worth the risk to stay – no matter how nice everyone there seems.
8.Avoid becoming inebriated and losing control
If you’re getting to the point that you don’t have control of yourself or your surroundings, you need to stop and think about the types of situations you’re putting yourself in.
It’s far too easy for others to take advantage of you or a situation if you can’t think or act rationally.
9.Always have emergency contacts on you or in your device
If you have a smartphone, program emergency numbers into it. It’s one of the first spots hospitals check if you’re admitted alone because they are able to bypass your pass code in order to access your contacts.
Additionally, list your important emergency contact numbers and information in your planner, if you carry one. Whatever items you have on a regular basis are good spots to keep emergency information.
10.Consider carrying pepper spray, a whistle or taking a self-defense course
The hope is certainly that you’d never need to make use of these defense mechanisms, however, having them with you can make a life-saving difference in harmful situations you otherwise might not be able to get out of.

Tips for teachers

Best Websites for Teachers

How did we teach without the Internet? My favorite sites simplify lesson planning, keep the classroom running smoothly, and engage students.

1. Best for Young Readers: The Stacks

At The Stacks, students can post book reviews, get reading recommendations, play games based on the latest series, watch "Meet the Author" videos, and more. It's like Facebook for reading and it's safe for school, too.

2. Best Way to Start the Day: Daily Starters

Establish a morning routine with Scholastic's Daily Starters — fun, fast math and language arts prompts and questions, including Teachable Moments from history and Fun Facts, such as "Before erasers, people used a piece of bread!" Sort by grade (PreK-8), and project them onto your interactive whiteboard or print copies for your students.

3. Best for Current Events: Scholastic News

For topics too current for textbooks, Scholastic News classroom magazines offer engaging nonfiction reading online, drawn from the latest headlines. Subscribe to receive news-related, age-appropriate Common Core lesson plans and skills sheets, and free access to the app that comes with each issue.

4. Best Multimedia Tool: Glogster

Glogster bills itself as a tool for making interactive posters, or glogs, containing pictures, text, video, links, and animation. A glog on To Kill a Mockingbird might contain a link to the Scottsboro trial, a clip from the Gregory Peck movie, and a drawing of the tree where Boo Radley leaves gifts for Scout. Fun!

5. Best for the Interactive Whiteboard: SMART Exchange

Go to SMART Exchange before creating any lessons for your interactive whiteboard from scratch. Chances are you'll find an existing lesson ready to grab and go, or inspiration from other teachers who've taught the same material. Plus, the customizable Whack-A-Mole game is a must-have for test prep and review.

6. Best for Video Clips: TeacherTube

TeacherTube is the best source for instructional videos in a safe environment. We especially love the clips of teachers showing off the catchy rhymes they've made up to teach certain topics — check out the "Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap" and the "Mr. Duey Fractions Rap."

7. Best for Tough Topics: Teaching Tolerance

Along with an excellent blog that tackles some of the more difficult aspects of education, Teaching Tolerance offers activities and teaching kits on topics ranging from the civil rights movement to the separation of church and state.

8. Best Professional Development On the Go: Annenberg Learner

Many of the PD series from the Annenberg Foundation are available on demand here, with videos on teaching measurement, writing workshop, and more. You'll see master teachers at work and undoubtedly snag an idea or two for your own classroom.

9. Best for Your Career: National Education Association

In the hustle and bustle of the classroom, it can be easy to lose track of the outside forces affecting education. The National Education Association explains how to take action regarding the issues you care about most — including merit pay, the No Child Left Behind Act, and funding for education.

10. Best for Inspiration: Scholastic Top Teaching Blog

Reading the Top Teaching blog is like paging through a cooking magazine. Just as you might be inspired to try a 12-course meal instead of your usual mac and cheese, you'll leave wanting to push your teaching to the next level. No matter what you're interested in — Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards, savvy tech-integration tips, or how to save money on classroom materials — these veteran teachers' wealth of experience and knowledge will leave you satiated.

Being a blogger

Hello, guys! 

Welcome to my blog! So, here is the video of charming Sarah Says about blogging. It was rather informal and interesting for me. Take a look at it! Hope you enjoy it!