Zimmer Twins + Vodpod

What is it?
Zimmer Twins is a movie maker tool that is very interesting to be used for language learning. It is quite similar to another tool that I have introduced before this - Dvolver. But, Zimmer Twins is way cooler than Dvolver (I think!). Using this tool, the students can create an amazing quality of cartoon animation (seriously!). Zimmer Twins provides several story starters which enables the students to create their own movie endings. Or, they can even creatively create their very own animated movies from scratch. It is easy to use and a video on how to make a movie is even provided by Zimmer Twins. With a little guide, I bet that the students will be able to use the tool successfully.

Suitable for:
In my opinion, this tool is suitable to be used for learners of all ages and levels. However, this tool might be too complicated for young learners (primary school students), so, I guess secondary school and college/university students would be much more benefited from it.

Activity Suggestions:
There are several ways of using Zimmer Twins in the classroom. For instance, the students can be asked to watch a starter video and finish the story however they would like. Ideally, the activities should be carried out by students in pairs so that communication between students can be maximised. Besides, the teachers can also ask them to create animation movies from scratch to encourage their creativity. Besides that, the teachers themselves can use Zimmer Twins to introduce new topics for language learning. After that, the students will have to apply whatever they have learned in a form of movies. How fun the teaching and learning process would be!

The link: http://www.zimmertwins.com/

Treasure Hunt | Zimmer Twins

- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Advantages:

1) It will give so much fun to the students. They will enjoy something light and easy like creating a movie. Therefore, they will engage in the activity until the end.

2) Increase creativity among the students. Zimmer Twins will allow the students to work and think creatively in order to create an animation movie.

3) Personalisation. Since there are loads of choices offered in Zimmer Twins, the students are free to choose whatever they think the best for their movies. It is very important as it allows the students to use language to express their own ideas, feelings, preferences and opinions comfortably.

Disadvantages:

1) Irreversible. Once the movie is saved, it could not be altered anymore. So, no changes can be made if there're some mistakes in the movie. Besides, the bubbles provided in Zimmer Twins have been restricted to certain amount of words only. Thus, the students could not write long sentences in the bubbles since it has word limits.

2) We cannot embed the video to the blog or other website directly. Instead, you have to use other tools that can give the embed link of your video, so that you can embed your Zimmer Twins movies in your blog. The tool that I used is Vodpod.

3) Subscription. In order to share the completed movies or view other movies, the users have to purchase a VIP membership, thus it would not be convenient for language learning if all students have to become the VIP members.

Although the disadvantages are quite a turn-off, especially regarding the subscription, I still believe that Zimmer Twins is a really great tool that can be a huge help for language learning. Since we can use tools like Vodpod, the teachers could embed the movies created by the students to the classroom's blog or teacher's blog. Therefore, the movies can be viewed by all, and the subscription thingy would not be a matter anymore. By the way, Vodpod is totally free, and you need to sign up and after that, it will give a 'tour' on how to use the tool. Cool. Anyway, here's the link:

http://vodpod.com

And, as usual, here is the help from Russell Stannard that you might need regarding Zimmer Twins. But, bear in mind that the Zimmer Twins does not work the same like it did in Russell's video anymore. It is totally free then, no VIP membership whatsoever.

The link: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/zimmer/index.html

Bookr and Bubblr

What is it?
Bookr is a tool to create and share your own photobook using Flickr images. This tool is very fun to use since the students can create their own piece of photobook depending on their own creativity. It is extremely easy to use since the pictures can be simply found from Flickr through the search engine provided in Bookr. Most importantly, this tool is not only about the photos alone, but the students are also required to write a description of each picture that they put in the Bookr.

Suitable for:
I would say that this tool would be a better option for lower secondary school students as you could not add a large amount of text to each page.

Activity Suggestion:
Nevertheless the fact that this tool offer a limited space for writing, Bookr can be used to substitute Microsoft Power Point Presentation, which would be great for students of all levels since it is could be helpful for them to practice their speaking skills.

Alternative:

Alternatively, you could use another cool tool that works just the same as Bookr. The only difference is that the final product will be in the form of comic strips rather than a photobook. It is called Bubblr.

The Link:

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

Advatages:

1) It is fun! And free too! What a perfect combination. Most importantly, we do not breach the copyright infringement of the photos since they come straight from the Flickr. Besides, no sign up required, and it is very simple to use. I believe that the students will enjoy learning the language using Bookr/Bubblr.

2) Develop creativity among students. When the students are given freedom, the tendency for them to work creatively is very high since there is no boundary set for them.

3) Develop the students' speaking skills. They could be asked to present their completed photobooks to the whole classroom. With that, the teachers could use Bookr/Bubblr to help the students to improve on their speaking skills.

Disadvantages:

1) Limited space for writing. These tool is not suitable to be used as a writing activity since it is impossible to write long sentences for each photo.

2) Distraction. Since there could be a lot of photos available, it could cause a distraction to the students. When this happens, using Bookr/Bubblr seems to be time consuming as the students would likely to take time choosing their preferred photos.

3) Irreversible. The final product of the photobooks/comic strips could not be altered after it is published. Thus, if there is a mistake in the photobooks/comic strips, it will remain there. Since it is impossible to make changes, the students have to make a new one, therefore this will be quite a waste of time.

Although there are some minor disadvantages of using Bookr/Bubblr in the language learning, I believe that it is still fun to use once in a while; and the teachers and the students could still be benefitted from these tools. So, if you want more information about these cool tools, do click this link that available on Russell Stannard's website:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/newBubblr/index.html

British National Corpus

What is it?
British National Corpus (BNC) is an amazing concordance tool that consists of 100 million words of English written texts and spoken transcriptions, sampled from a comprehensive range of text types. In fact, it is one of the most important corpus in the field of linguistics. This tool is really great because it can be used to learn about aspects that we did not know about a particular word. We can also check our understanding about the word's meaning with the help from BNC. Moreover, BNC also provides several options, for instance, to know if a word can collocate with other set of words; and we can also check whether it is grammatically right in some specific context or not. To search for a word, we have to type the word or phrase in the search box. After that, the result will show up to 50 selected examples of the use of the word.

Suitable for:
I believe that this tool is suitable for secondary school and college/university students of all levels.

Activity Suggestions:
BNC can be used in the classroom for vocabulary enrichment among the students. Additionally, it will be a great help for the students to find the right collocation, especially to assist them in writing process.

The Link:
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/



Advantages:

1) It is absolutely free! No sign-up required, just type the words, and it will do the job straight away.

2) The example of the use of the words are authentic. It is good for the students since they can use it the their daily lives.

3) The students will be able to learn the correct use of words using this tool, thus it will be very beneficial for them, especially for their writing.


Disadvantages:

1) It is too complicated since a lot of features and options are offered.

2) The layout is too plain and it is too wordy as well. I guess it would not work in attracting the students.

3) There is no audio file available for each word. This means that the students could not be able to learn the correct pronunciation of the words.

While BNC serves as a great corpus tool, I think that it should only be used once in a while during the learning process since I am afraid that the students will get confused seeing too much information provided in BNC. However, it is still up to you - the decision is yours.

Dvolver

What is it?
Dvolver is a website where you can make a cartoon comic strip type movie online using pre-made graphics. There are a lot of characters available to choose from, with several background music as well. The students will have to create a conversation between the characters that they chose to create a short movie.

Suitable for:
This movie maker is suitable to be used for students of all level, aged between 7 to 17. The students have the freedom to write in Dvolver creatively, depending on their language level.

Activity Suggestions:
Teachers can use this tool in the classroom, for example, by asking the students to work in pairs, to stimulate communication between students . Besides that, it can also be done as a homework for the students so as to train them to learn language autonomously.

The Link:
http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/index.html





Advantages:

1) It is fun, thus the students will be more enthusiastic to learn the language. Not like the usual dry and boring, paper-stuff-exercise, the students will be more excited to participate in classroom activity using the technology. Furthermore, it is free!

2) Dvolver provides context for the students, in which the students themselves choose which one they prefer. Therefore, it will provide freedom for the students to work on their creativity. Besides, the context provided will guide the students to choose and identify appropriate words and expressions to be used in appropriate context.

3) It will help the students to improve their communication skills. They will engage in a lot of discussions with their pairs while creating the movie, hence enabling them to enhance their communication skills.

Disadvantages:

1) Not all schools, especially those in the rural area provide the facilities, either the computers or the internet access, for the students.

2) The students might become too engaged with the technology, hence ignoring the Teacher Talk. Thus, they might miss some important information or instruction given by the teacher.

3) Time consuming: It is quite hard for the teacher to monitor all of the students at the same time.

Regardless the disadvantages that I have mentioned above, I still believe that Dvolver is a very useful tool to be used as an activity in classroom since the students will learn the language not by rules of grammar, but by being spontaneous while engaging in the communication activity as they 'connect' themselves with Dvolver. Therefore, if you need more help and details about Dvolver, you can dig into Russell Stannard's website:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/volver/index.html