Xerte- for blended learning

Today, I want to introduce one software for blended learning, Xerte. This is a very useful tool for the blended language learning courses. Since the teacher can put all the material on this webpage and share it to the students to work on themselves, which can help students with their listening, reading and writing skills. During the face-to-face class, the students can have more time to have group work with others, which can be a boost on speaking practice. So, I believe the efficiency of class can be improved with this tooklit.

Xerte

Now I want to show you the talented tool. When you log into this website, you will see an interface like below. You can choose to a type of project from the right side. And you can edit or preview the project as you wish. If you delete one project unintended, you can find it back via the recycle bin.

Since this software allows teachers to add different types of materials into it, such as videos, sounds, images, or even the Google map. All these materials can be authentic materials, which relate to the students' daily life, so the purpose of language learning, to communicate effectively, can achieve. I'm sure these sources will help the learning process interesting.

You may want to also add some interactivity into your design, and Xerte provides you several types of task model. Some of them are similar to the tasks we adopted from course books, and some are very interactive which are unique with the technology support.

For example, the Hotspot Image can be used in vocabulary teaching, and it helps students establish an awareness of the meanings of words. As the image showed below, the students can understand and memorise the name of different organs by clicking different parts of the picture.

You may ask if this tool will be very hard to use? No! Definitely NO! You can find out that once you insert a new section into your project, the main interface on the right will give you instructions about the content you need to edit in different part. The only thing you need to do is to follow the instructions (as the picture showed below). But I have to say that some names of the activities are not very clear, so I have to try to find out the functions myself (maybe it's my problem, since I'm not a native English speaker :P).

Once you finish your task design, you may need to publish it to your students or your colleagues, you can manage the access of your project. It provides four routes of access. You could choose one according to your need. This function can be found after you click the 'publish' button, which can be found once you log in this website. 

Merit

For the learners, they can learn at their own pace, which allows the users to practice times and times. Secondly, it can help the teachers save the time for face-to-face classes. Since the basic exercise can be done off classes, and it leaves more time for the pronunciation practice and group activities. Lastly, the traditional language exercise may be boring for the students, but by putting it in an interactive way, the students may have more motivations.

Disadvantages

This software is not free :(. I only have the access with my institution's account, but as far as I know the full version have more functions, for example you can export your design into a ZIP. Moreover, I don't like the UI. Although it allows the users to change the colours, the choices are very limited, and the fonts are not lovely as well. I worked with that for hours, and the UI makes me feel very exhausted.

My Design

I designed one IELTS reading exercise with Xerte. Since in China from June of 2016 except the speaking test, the rest skills of IELTS will be processed on computers, it is necessary for the candidates to get used to this mode, and I think this tool can be a great help for their exam preparation. Here is the link of my design. Please feel free to give me some comments on that. I know it is still very rough.

Useful links

If you need more detailed help on this tool, you can discuss it with me. Although I haven't used it for a long time, I'd love to explore it with you together. And you may also find this link very useful, which is a video about how to use it.

I do hope this tool can be a friend for your teaching process :).

Teambition

Today, I would like to introduce a group-work software, Teambition. Teambition is a software which is designed by a Chinese group. Here is the link of this website: https://www.teambition.com/.

This software can also be used in different devices, It can not only be accessed in web, but also for Android and iOS system. With the era of  “information fragmentation”, this software can improve the efficiency of working. Additionally, it is totally free.

This software can be used for students’ group working. Once the students have been divided into groups, the leaders can establish a task with this software, and the group members can be invited into that software. Since this software can be linked with most of the SNS, the process of registration is pretty simple, and the invitation can be sent by email with a link, or a QR code. Really easy.

Furthermore, if each group of the students can invite their teachers into group, it will be very helpful to the monitor process, and the teachers only need to simply click on each project, and the process of each group can be found easily. Compared with the other technologies for group working, this one can involve teacher into group working. Although the teachers may not give any comments while the students working, the troubles students meet or the mistakes will give the teachers a direction for further teaching.

Main Tasks

Now, I’d love to introduce functions of this app. Now, I’d love to introduce functions of this app. When you log in this website you may create a new project as you wish. You can edit the project page and name. At the bottom, you can also choose who can get access to this project. 

After you create a project, you can add tasks in it. You can divide one task into different stages, and the stages can be edited by the button which showed in the picture below. You can add new tasks in each stage, and tasks can be dragged into different stages as demand,  without editing them again.

For each task, you can add notes and some other content into it. Leaders can add detailed information for one task, such as the due time and priority. You may also separate on task into subtasks, so that you can complete them step by step. This is my favourite part. Because the students can claim for different part for one task, which will be very systematical in group work. In addition, since one task could be very complex, if the leader can divide it into parts, this will be very helpful in confidence establishment, and members will keep the motivation on working. 

All the contents relate to this part could be added into this table. At the bottom of one task, members can give comments on this task, and they can also share resources within this stage. Each edit action can be found in history, if you roll down the box.

Posts

You may want to share some ideas or give a draft to the whole group, and you can do this under the subtitle of “Posts”.

This part can be regarded as a discussion forum. You can change the colour or font according to your needs, which will contribute information transmission. Similarly, group members can add comments here. You could attach documents with different formats here, such as PDF, doc, ppt. Tables can be added into it as well, similar with Microsoft softwares.

Files 

Sometimes, you want to share some documents with all teammates. With this software, you don't need to rely on email or some other technologies to share documents. Teambition provides a zone for sharing, and it has already given some clear classifications. If you need, you may create new folders. The best thing is you can add many things as you wish into this website, because there is no limitation.

Meetings and Tags

You can arrange meetings at this software, and the organiser can choose to alert members before the meeting. "Tags" is similar to the function in Blog, when you add anything into this project, you can label the tags, which will be helpful for information searching and activities arrangement. 

Me

"Me" can help you complete your tasks. Your timetable, your tasks, your meetings can be all found from here, and you'll find it is in order. Moreover, sometimes you'll have some ideas, you can add notes here, which can only be only accessed by yourself.

Chat

You may want to have a live chat for discussion when working with your task, you can just press the button showed below, where you can select a person to chat with, and the history can be found in the inbox. The person you talk with will receive the notification immediately. Very convenient. 

App for SmartPhone

This software can be used in phones as well. In this information age, the smartphone plays an important role in daily life. It provides the channel for individuals to connect with others all the time. You can send voice message as well.

In this app, anyone edits anything will send notifications to each teammate, unless you switch off the notification function or you will receive the update information anyway. Of course, every task can be found in this software as well, and you can check it at anytime.

I haven't used this software for a long time, but I really like the design. Since this software is free, and can be learnt easily, I believe it will have many users. This software can be used in different languages, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, English, and Korean. I think it can provide other languages' UI will have more consumers.

This software overcomes the distance issue for group work, however, it might be a little bit complex for young learners. If this software can allow the users to edit one document together lively, it will be cooler, like Googledocs. 

Triptico

Triptico is an interactive software. Since this software can be edited and saved, and it is easy to get working, it can be utilized in the English language teaching process. I personally believe this software can motivate the students to participate in class actions, because of the bright colour design and cute sound.

Today, I’d like to brief introduce how to use this software. Firstly, you have to link up to the net and create an account, and I believe this is a disadvantage for this software, which may cause inconvenience sometime. For example, when the internet cannot be connected, the process of classes will be disturbed.

When you click the “Resources” (as below), you can find several templates for different purposes, including tools, timers, selectors, and quizzes. Thanks to the designers of this software, who keep developing new templates, I believe more interesting and cool aids will suit for more types of classes.

If you think you have no idea about how to use these templates, please don’t feel worried about that, because each template has its own demo and instructions, which will help you design your own class aids. If you still find any difficulties while using it, you could ask questions at the “Activity” page (as below), and some colleague will help you.

After you finished your edit, you can save your works in your account, and when you log in, you can find it under the page of “My Saves”. So it is very convenient and helpful, right?

Now, I want to introduce some tools that I prefer. The first one can help the teacher organise the class activities, and the second one can be used in knowledge passing process.

Student Group

This tool can help you divide your students into groups randomly or manually. After you design the group, you can save it, which will be used for later. The benefit of this tool is that can provide students chance to work with different pupils, and this is important for improving their communication skills, which is necessary for a language class.

You may find the instruction on the left of the edit page (as below).

Now I type a group of students’ name into it. Then I choose to save and use it again in the future (as below).

You can create groups according to your need now. I’d like to create five groups randomly, and then I press the green button “CREATE THE GTOUPS”. Magic happens! The name of the students has been painted in different colours, and sorted into groups (as below).

Very easy going! You may also change the font of names to meet your need. If you hope to keep this group list, you can snapshot by clicking the green camera button (as below).

Order Sorter

This is also one of my favourite tools. I think this one can help in the reading class, which can be used as a reading task. This can help the students establish the logic thinking ability. Since this tool has the checking function, the students can check if they have already got the right answer.

So, let me introduce how to use this tool. At the beginning, you should tap a title of this task (as below).

And then you need to click the triangle button at the bottom. Now you’ll find several options, and click the “ADD PANEL”. You type sentences into panels, when you finish it press the green square, then the panel will appear on the showing place (as below). At once you can duplicate this action, until you end up adding all the sentences you want.

It’s time to set your design into teaching. Similar to the student group, you can find this new aid in “My Saves”. When you unfold it, you will find the sentences have been disordered, and you may ask your students to reorder them in a good manner.

Your pupils may want to know if they have found the correct answer, you can add the check button into it. You can find it after you click the options button at the bottom (as below). At the top right corner, there is a “CHECK BUTTON” switch bar. When you slide the blue piece into the right side, the check button will appear on the top. When the students completed the task, they can press this button to find out if they are in good order. If you feel unhappy about the font, you can change it as well.

This software is very interesting and usable. If the designer can allow users to download their design, it will be more convenient. In addition, I hope that the designer can allow teachers to share their task to the students, which can be used as homework. Because in China, the size of a class is usually around 25-40, although the software is interactive, some of the students may still have no opportunity to participate in. So I think if it can be accessed by every student, it will be more practical. Owing to the nice design of this software, I believe it is very suitable for young learners, this can stimulate their motivations for learning. All the same, one negative aspect should not be neglected. Because of the lovely user interface, I’m afraid that the students, particularly the young apprentices, may get distracted by it; in other words, the users may pay more attention on the amusement part, rather than the content and the knowledge the teachers want to pass.

My Review

In this post, I’d love to give some comments on Richard Byrne’s Blog, whose name is Free Technology for Teachers.

In this blog, I can find some introductions about useful tools and apps, and the author makes some detailed videos about these software. Although I never learned about some of them before, I'm sure I can understand how to use them quickly with these instruction videos.

Organisation and Layout

When I first open this Blog, I felt a little bit messy, since he puts some links with logo at the right side of the home page, which are so “colourful”. Additionally, the title bar of navigation is not organised. Since all the fonts of this Blog are the same one, sometimes it is a little bit dizzy.

(from: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/)

Ease of use and Navigation 

It is ease for audience to look around this Blog, since they can find out the articles via the time point. In the middle column, the author organised his archives in terms of time. 

(from: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/)

Although the title bar is not a looking-friendly bar, the function of it should not be ignored. It classified the author’s blogs in different themes, which can help audience get access to demanded information easily.

Target Audience

The Blog introduces some useful technologies to teachers, however, the comments of it are very rare, but fortunately, some of the blogs have been shared by readers, which can enhance its influence.

Though the design of this Blog is not so attractive, the content of it is really practical. This is my personal opinion on this Blog. The detailed information about these technologies and software really bring support to language teachers, especially the videos made by the author, and I'll keep following this Blog. If you are interested in this Blog, here is the link: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/