Final Blog Post

   Hello, everyone!
   This is my final blog post because we have come to the end of the term and my Marmara University adventure. As I mentioned before I am an exchange student and I am leaving this university with a lot of lovely memories and knowledge. Instructional Technology and Material Design course improved me very much and change my perspective on education and technology. It made me realize that what I have learned and what I witnessed in my past education life are totally different. I learned how I should use technology effectively and what I should not do. It was unusual and a bit challenging for me to keep a blog and create materials but it helped me to understand the importance of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication more. I hadn't planned to take this course before I came here but, at the beginning of the term, I thought that I shouldn't miss the opportunity to develop myself in this way. When I look at myself now, I can see that I made the right decision.
   I want to thank my instructor for providing this course in the most effective way, and I want to thank you for accompanying me on this journey.
   Hope you enjoyed my blog :)

RSS

  Hi!
  In this post, I would like to talk about RSS feed a bit. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It allows you to simply subscribe to the RSS feed, see the new content within a    short time after it's updated and you don't need to check each website you follow every day.
  For my blog, I'm using RSS feeder as you can see below.

   Here, as you can see Özge Karaoğlu is my favorite blogger that I am pleased to follow. Her blog is about teaching English with technology, materials, and new tools. I highly recommend that you should follow her blog also because she's the teacher we need to know and follow her way for effective teaching.



Source: https://www.lifewire.com/rss-101-3482781

Click to see Özge Karaoğlu's blog:  https://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/

An Infographic About Web 2.0 Tools

   Hi everyone!

    Today I would like to share the infographic that I prepared, but first I want to make a definition of infographics. The word infographic combined from 'information' and 'graphics'. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an infographic is a visual representation of information or data. Its main aims are to grab readers attention and to give information to them.
    While designing my own infographic I used Piktochart and it was enjoyable to prepare. Before creating I searched some other infographics to inspire me. Then, I wanted to write about Edmodo, Podomatic, Canva and Padlet because these tools helped me a lot to create and share my works and I think that they are very useful for both students and teachers.
    Hope you enjoy reading. :)
   
 
 

Magazin Cover

                                         

        Hi everyone!
        In this post, I would like to show you the cover that I designed for my imaginary magazine. I love animals so much and I wanted my magazine to be related to them. While creating the cover, I imagined that I am designing for a school magazine and its readers are my young students.
        In this copy, I aimed to discuss feeding the street animals in order to raise awareness of the problems that they face especially during the summer. Therefore, I used cute animal illustrations and simple language that they can understand and enjoy reading.
       I enjoyed designing this cover page so much thanks to the tool I used. Canva is very useful and it helps you create easily. It gives you simple instructions before you start which makes the website less complicated to use. Also, it includes so many pictures, illustrations, and templates.
      I am pleased that I prepared the cover and I can give this task to my future students either. I'm sure that they would enjoy designing too.


   

How to Make a Simple Kaleidoscope?

       Hello, everyone

       Last week we discussed digital storytelling in my classroom and we were assigned to create a digital story or demonstrate the process of something. Me and my classmate Elif Beyza chose to create a video that shows how to make a simple kaleidoscope.
      I didn't know what kaleidoscope was a couple of months ago. Then, I came across a song named 'shine like kaleidoscopes' by Chasing Skies and I really loved it. When I searched what a kaleidoscope looks like, I saw that it looks lovely. Therefore, I thought it may be a good idea to share it. When I suggested this idea, Beyza liked it and we started to create a video after we gathered all the materials. When the recording part was done, we started to bring them together in an order using a program named Camtasia. One of my friends helped us a lot because she knew how the program works better. Only this part was a bit challenging because of adjusting the time and setting the transitions between each picture/video. However, it was a nice experience to produce a video which helped me to show a nice material to you and this task can be useful for my future students, too. It would be a good way to find out what treasures do they have in their mind and how they can show it.
 
     Click here if you want to listen to the song I have just mentioned. :)

Website Evaluation - EWE

      As prospective teachers, we usually get benefit from websites that we can use for improving ourselves in terms of both English language and teaching. Since there are many websites and sources on the internet, we should be capable of choosing which websites are appropriate and know how to use for better learning and teaching.
     This week we are asked to choose an ELT website and evaluate it. For that reason, I would like to evaluate EWE which stands for Easy World of English. Here is a photo of the website.

      This website was designed by a group of teachers for English learners and teachers. Its founder Marco Costillo has more than 12 years experience in The United States and abroad which gives us a sense of that the website is safe and trustworthy. The website includes grammar part, pronunciation part, reading texts with their voice recordings that you can also listen to and a picture dictionary. When you click to one of them you see a small welcoming post and instructions that tell you how to work with it which is very nice. It also includes a link in each section where you can buy books that may you would like to get. All English learners whose proficiency is either beginner or advanced can get benefit from this website. Also, all English language teachers can use it for both young learners and adult learners. All they need to do is to select the appropriate level and continue.

     As it is stated in the 'our mission' section on the website, the purpose of it is to facilitate learning and teaching English. The website is well designed and simple for both teachers and learners. In the main page, the pictures are selected appropriately but they are a bit ordinary. In the picture dictionary section, you can see more appealing and descriptive pictures. Additionally, as far as I see, there is not any error, even it can improve general knowledge while learning English.
   I am glad that I discovered this website because I can use it as a material in my future classroom to help my students improve their pronunciation, listening and reading skills.
   Here's the link of the website. :)

padlet wall - refugees

Hello everyone!
I would like to share a post related to refugees which is a global problem. As you know many people from different countries are leaving their countries for several reasons such as persecution, war or conflict. This is a serious problem for the world. Therefore me and my friends collaborated and we created a page using this website. We were asked to describe the problem, share some public opinions and find out its causes and effects. We made some research about the refugee problem and combined our findings to present it to you. This was a nice experience for us to prepare this and give information about such a serious problem. While we were preparing this, we also learn new things about the refugee problem and saw a different point of views towards refugees. You can visit our padlet from here.

Book Review

Hello there!

This week our instructor assigned us to write a book review and I would like to share it with you. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is one of the books that impressed me very much. I read it at the recommendation of one of my teacher last year and I really liked.

You can click here to read my book review. 😊

my first podcast - a lovely dream

                                                                                                               the link of the picture


        Hello everyone! I'm very excited to share my first podcast with you. This podcast was an assignment given by our Instructional Technologies and Material Design course instructor. For this reason, me and my partner Tuğba Aktürk created a short story and recorded our voice. We also used some sound effects while recording and used this website. If you want to create a podcast, I can recommend it to you with no hesitation and it is for free!
       The creation part of the story was a bit difficult because the duration was too short to make a creative story. We tried to shorten as much as we can do.😅 However, the recording part was very pleasant and easy. We found some animal sounds on the internet and I tried to speak like a man. At first, we rehearsed, then we started to record. We failed at the first try but we achieved at the second try. We liked it and decided to upload it to our blogs. I think that I can use this podcast in my future class too, especially if I have young students. I am sure that they will like it. Also, at the end of listening, I can ask some questions such as 'If you were her, which animal would you choose, and why? What would you want to hear from the animal you chose? If you created this story, how would you end? Write your conclusion.' By this way it would be an enjoyable listening, speaking and writing activity.
      To sum up, I am very glad to share my first podcast experience with you. I hope you like and enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed while recording.😄

      Our Podcast is here 😊

Technology with Teaching

   
      

                                                                                  the quote is from here

                                                                                                                                  


        Teaching and technology. When you look at these words don't you think their spellings and pronunciations are a bit similar like they are two terms that can be related to each other? Maybe they are. I think that they can be a perfect match and do a good job if they come together.

       Since our environment is surrounded by technology and everything undergoes change and develops, traditional education is no longer enough for meeting the needs of today's students and teachers. Now, students are aware that knowledge is not something that they can receive only in the school. They want to access information easily and improve themselves by using many different sources. Also, teachers want students to see them as a facilitator, not as someone who only provides information and tests. They don't want to make students cram their head with information and put it on paper in the exam. Because rote learning is bygone. It means that, for an effective learning environment, the perception of teaching should change, shouldn't it?  We need teachers that open to change, can create a suitable classroom atmosphere to make students engaged and enhance students' learning by integrating technology in teaching. Therefore, I want to be a teacher that has these features in the future and I have a dream class. A class that I can be a guide for my students to awake their curiosity and let each of them show his/her talents by making them draw, sing, write, create... They will discover their potential for learning and it will be possible by being qualified with using technology.

CALL - Development of Language Learning with Computer

Hello everyone!
In this post, I would like to talk about  CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning).
CALL is an approach that combines computer technology with language learning and it gives chance to learners to benefit from useful activities provided by their instructor. It also provides teachers to assess their students and work with them interactively.
In the early 1930s and 1940s, large computers were used for missile guidance and it paved the way for using computers for language learning. Then, in the 1940s mechanical translations appeared. In the 1950s, simple CALL programs for drill and testing and at the next stage of the development of CALL Behavioristic CALL has been termed and some pioneer CALL progress existed. When microcomputers emerged in the 1980s, it had a huge effect on in this field. Lastly, the 1990s is the present stage of CALL.
If you want to read more you can read the article that I benefit from.