Videos and other useful Web 2.0 tools

Videos and other useful Web 2.0 tools

Videos are the combination of audio and image. We usually record videos of many different events. But, what is interesting, is the amount of time we spend watching videos. We usually watch many videos that show different ideas. We watch videos of our favorite songs but also we watch videos of funny people or situations.

Nowadays we can create videos mixing some pictures and music. So we also watch videos we create and the ones our friends and family creates. That is very useful for teaching. We as EFL teachers, can make videos to show some content in a very atractive and engaging way.

 There are many Web 2.0 tools that are useful for EFL teaching, you can upload videos in YouTube so that you students can watch them. You can also find some good videos for EFL teaching that you can share with your students.

Here you have a video I created for my Begginers class. It is about food.  

  

There are some other useful Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr for sharing pictures, SlideShare for sharing documents (text documents and presentations) and Blogger for creating blogs for your classes and keeping updated.  

Wikis

Wikis

A wiki is a page in which the content can be edited by different people, the collaborators of the wiki. To have a wiki may be very useful for groups who want constant contact or agreements for their activities. Wikis are also useful for people to share information about a specific content they are keen to.  The most famous wiki is Wikipedia, they have the largest number of collaborators http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Besides, Wikis are being used actively in the classroom. They have proved to be an excellent tool in the different levels of education. Specially in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Wikis are a very useful tool for both sharing content with colleagues and develop content (a unit) with your classroom group.

Here you have some wikis about EFL:

http://teflpedia.com/Main_Page

http://millersenglish.pbworks.com/w/page/20937326/FrontPage

http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/home

I hope they are useful for you!