LearningPage.com
1. WHAT IS LEARNINGPAGE?
LearningPage is an online source which is reached by clicking on http://www.learningpage.com/. As it is clear from its name, it is a website for learning, and it includes some basic sheets, theme sheets, monthly sets, books, and clipart for the beginner learners, especially children, of English. It is possible to be member and sign up the website without paying for it, so everyone can get benefit from it. There is no need to download anything in order to use the website expect for Adobe Acrobat 4 or higher installed in order to use the PDF resources provided by learningpage.com.
Creators of the website are not directly mentioned; however, there is some information about them. As it is given in the website, the developers of LearningPage.com have been producing educational materials for major U.S. publishers since 1989, and LearningPage.com is among the family of Learning A–Z websites. As the creators of it described, LearningPage provides a huge collection of professionally produced instructional materials which the users can download and print, and lesson plans, books, worksheets, and much more can be found there. LearningPage is designed to provide free teaching resources for both learners and teachers.
2. HOW TO USE LEARNINGPAGE?
It is very easy to use this software. As it seen in the Figure 1, everything is categorized and clear on the page.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html )
Figure 1: Categorization on the page
Basic sheets part includes some sheets related to alphabet, calendar, money, senses, time, measure, and numbers. (http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html )
Alphabet sheets are categorized into three as Zaner-Bloser, D’nealian, Cursive, so it is possible to reach much more types of sheets. All of the sheets can be downloaded as PDF because they are opened in this format. It is possible to download the sheets one by one are as a whole. In the Calendar part, there are twenty types of sheets including days, weeks, and months. The sheets under the title of Money are categorized into different subjects such as Pennies, Dimes, and Dollars etc. Senses, Time, and Measure parts include twenty types of sheets like Calendar part. In the Numbers part, there are twelve types of sheets to write the requested numbers on them as it is seen in the Figure 2.
Figure 2: Numbers- a sheet sample
In the Theme Sheets, Ocean, Zoo animals, Dinosaurs, Reptiles/Amphibians, Inspects/Spiders, and Space parts are included.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_wkshts/fact_oceans.html )
Each of the parts consists of fact files, fun sheets, murals, cut outs, lesson plans, teaching notes, and recommended reading. Fun sheets and lesson plans are categorized according to the grades of the learners.
Monthly Fun Sheets part include a collaboration of monthly fun sheets sets, and only members can get benefit from this part.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/monthly_sets.html )
In the Books part, there are "Ewe Books" which are all downloadable. In printable version part, it is possible to see the version with pages in sequential order and “make your own book” version. There are 38 parts of teaching notes to supplement each story, 37 Worksheets with activities relating to each story, 37 and Fact Files for all the characters that appear in the story in addition to some Clip Arts and Cut Outs. There are also Spanish and color versions of some stories to read online.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/ewe_books/ewe_home.html )
Figure 3: Categorization on Books part
Lastly, Clipart part includes different selection of clipart. The images in the clipart are related to dinosaurs, oceans, zoo animals, insects/spiders, reptiles/amphibians, and Tommy Tales.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/member_home.html )
3. WHAT ABOUT LEARNINGPAGE?
LearningPage is pretty easy to use in terms of both the content and the general usage with computer because it does not require a newer computer or a high speed connection. The website does not include very complexly animated images, videos, or audio files, and there is no need to use a head set or webcam. The only thing required to download is Adobe Acrobat onto your computer if it does not exist.
Teachers can the most benefit from this website because there are many opportunities for them to use in their classroom. They can use worksheets in order to reinforce and practice what the students learn, and s/he does not to prepare worksheets for every subject they teach because the subjects of the worksheets are so various. By using theme sheets, teachers can sum up what they teach just on one page according to the subject and the theme sheets with pictures can be very attractive for the students. Like worksheets, the subjects of the theme sheets are various, so they can be very helpful for the teachers who teach different subjects. Monthly sets give the teachers a chance to reach a wide range of collection of old sheets which they can be use whenever they want, and they can adopt the sheets upon being more suitable for the students in order to design and prepare new sheets for every lesson. Books are also so beneficial because reading improve the students’ language performance and increase learning speed. The teachers can download the books from the books page of the website, and distribute them to the students in the class instead of buying new books. The books in the website looks are much more attractive from the books which are sold on the bookstores because the website provides not only the books but the teaching notes, worksheets, fact files, cut outs, and clip arts of them also, so the teachers can use the books actively in their lessons by the help of these extras which can increase the comprehensibility for the students. As there are many books in the website, it is possible for the teachers to have the students read much more books.
In addition to the teachers, the students can also get benefit from the website. When they want to practice what they have learnt, they can use this website in order to improve especially their vocabulary knowledge. They can download the thing they are interested in from the website, and they can print them. Moreover, they can choose the books they like from the list on the books part of the website, and they can enjoy themselves with the work sheets, fact files, cut outs, and clip arts after finishing their reading. Thanks to joyful worksheets, theme files, books, and clip arts, the students can improve their knowledge of English own their own.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Vocabulary Teaching
www.wordchamp.com: WordChamp is a language learning network in which language lessons, activities, tools, tutors, and many members to connect are provided for the learners. Thanks to WordChamp, it s possible to practice more than 130 languages, use flashcards with language drills, develop reading ability with the Web Reader, find online language partners, and choose tutors. In order to get benefit from the web site, it is necessary to register it freely. WordChamp is also useful for language teachers because it provides teachers with the tools they can need in order to help their students. By using WordChamp, teachers can create a class, assign interactive homework activities, follow up their calss’ progress, etc. The most beneficial side of the website is that it is possible to find and talk with native speakers which can improve language skills, and to find them with different languages from different countries.
Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher
Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher is software which is very useful for language teachers. It includes a lot of sentences illustrating more than 2,600 words with different contexts from which teachers can choose words to study and create gap-fill exercises with these words. The sentences in it can be edited by the users or new sentences and words can be added. Thanks to this software, teachers can design gap-fill exercises, crate interactive exercises by relating their exercises to Hot Potatoes, introduce new vocabulary to study, recycle emphasized vocabulary in differed contexts, test and evaluate vocabulary comprehension, and create discussion activities in order fort he students can practice target vocabulary.
Text-to-speech technology
Text-to-speech is a technology which provides the users with production of spoken words. It converts the texts to speech which is very similar to human speech. Although it is very beneficial in terms of improving pronunciation skills of language learners, it has a drawback which results from emotional shortcoming of the speech it provides.
Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher
Gerry’s Vocabulary Teacher is software which is very useful for language teachers. It includes a lot of sentences illustrating more than 2,600 words with different contexts from which teachers can choose words to study and create gap-fill exercises with these words. The sentences in it can be edited by the users or new sentences and words can be added. Thanks to this software, teachers can design gap-fill exercises, crate interactive exercises by relating their exercises to Hot Potatoes, introduce new vocabulary to study, recycle emphasized vocabulary in differed contexts, test and evaluate vocabulary comprehension, and create discussion activities in order fort he students can practice target vocabulary.
Text-to-speech technology
Text-to-speech is a technology which provides the users with production of spoken words. It converts the texts to speech which is very similar to human speech. Although it is very beneficial in terms of improving pronunciation skills of language learners, it has a drawback which results from emotional shortcoming of the speech it provides.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Content Management System
Content Management System provides the users with a tool which is designed to edit, create, manage, deal with, and publish contents after a process. Content can be video, document, image, graphics, record, etc. If a user wants to store, control, and publish content such as a document for example, Content Management System can meet his/her need.
Summary of Dokeos
www.dokeos.com
Dokeos is an open source e-learning application, and it is very useful to deal with learning activities of courses, and it is web based. It is free software. Dokeos is very easy to use, so anyone who is interested in using it can deal with the process in a quite simple way. It is possible to reach Dokeos in many languages. By using Dokeos, it is possible to create, organize, and manage documents, forums, exercises, activities, presentations, and SCORM for the benefit of students. Thus, it is very effective both for teachers and students.
Dokeos is an open source e-learning application, and it is very useful to deal with learning activities of courses, and it is web based. It is free software. Dokeos is very easy to use, so anyone who is interested in using it can deal with the process in a quite simple way. It is possible to reach Dokeos in many languages. By using Dokeos, it is possible to create, organize, and manage documents, forums, exercises, activities, presentations, and SCORM for the benefit of students. Thus, it is very effective both for teachers and students.
Summary of Moodle
www.moodle.org
Moodle is a type of Content Management System. It is designed to make the students and the teachers meet in order to publish course content, share ideas, communicate, comment and respond, do exercises, send individual e-mails, and share grades when a real classroom environment does not exist. Each member of Moodle has a username and a password, so no one can reach out of the course. This specialty of Moodle provides both students and teachers with a secure environment. Moodle is very easy to use, just as dealing with a Word document.
Moodle is a type of Content Management System. It is designed to make the students and the teachers meet in order to publish course content, share ideas, communicate, comment and respond, do exercises, send individual e-mails, and share grades when a real classroom environment does not exist. Each member of Moodle has a username and a password, so no one can reach out of the course. This specialty of Moodle provides both students and teachers with a secure environment. Moodle is very easy to use, just as dealing with a Word document.
Summary of Nicenet
www.nicenet.org
Nicenet is a free source, and provides services to Internet users. The main function of Nicenet is to provide Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) for the users. Internet Classroom Assistant is designed especially for teachers and students. When it is not possible to create a real class environment because of time limitation or other reasons, students and teachers can communicate and share their ideas thanks to Internet Classroom Assistant offered by Nicenet. Nicenet is very easy to use. It is free, and the only necessity to use it is to have an internet connection, so downloading software is not required.
Nicenet is a free source, and provides services to Internet users. The main function of Nicenet is to provide Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) for the users. Internet Classroom Assistant is designed especially for teachers and students. When it is not possible to create a real class environment because of time limitation or other reasons, students and teachers can communicate and share their ideas thanks to Internet Classroom Assistant offered by Nicenet. Nicenet is very easy to use. It is free, and the only necessity to use it is to have an internet connection, so downloading software is not required.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Summary of The Wiki Revolution: A Challenge to Traditional Education
A wiki is software to create edit, delete and change a web page by the help of a browser. A wiki can be always organized. It is possible for the user of the wiki to create many categories, links, directories etc. Knowledge can be shared by anyone and anywhere thanks to wikis. What are the differences between wikis and blogs? Blogs have been used for the purpose of education for many years whereas wikis have just started to be used for the same purpose. Blogs are more personal and structured than wikis. Process is more important in blogs while content is focused in wikis. Anyone can edit wikis, but not blogs. Teachers can use wikis for the purpose of instruction, group works, handbooks, class projects, running an online classroom, sharing ideas, managing school documents, writing, classroom discussions etc.
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