Rana's EdTech Blog

Hi everyone. The term is about to end. It means that it is time to write my final post. Taken from here . As I have mentioned before, this blog is for one of my courses that is called Instructional Technology and Material Design. At the beginning of the term, I remember that I felt a little bit concerned when our instructor said that we had to be responsible for a blog. While I was writing my first posts, I had the worry whether I could do or not. Now, I get used to blogging. I enjoy writing posts and I feel self-confident. When I share a post and see the final version of my task, I am proud of myself. At the beginning of the term, one of the tasks was writing our own teaching with technology philosophy statement (if you didn’t read my post, click here ). I’d written about my thoughts, being a 21st century teacher and the importance of using technology in English lessons. My thoughts haven’t changed in general. As long as I wrote posts and completed tasks, I realized th...

Hi everybody! In this post, I am going to talk about RSS Feed . In fact, I haven’t heard about RSS before this course. So, I searched what RSS is and I am here to tell you everything that I learned about it. Taken from here . What is RSS? According to Wikipedia , RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a type of web feed which allows users and applications to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. RSS presents a lot of advantages to both subscribers and publishers. I recommend that you read this post to learn about the advantages of RSS. It could help you understand RSS better. Which service am I using? As I mentioned before, I haven’t heard about RSS. So, I searched and found the list of the readers that I can use. I tried some of them. Finally, I decided that Feedly was the easiest one to use. Here, you can see the screenshot of my reader showing the blogs that I follow: Also, I used the service that is Blogger’s . On...

Hi everyone! It's me again. Today, I’m here to inform you about Web 2.0 tools . I created an infographic about my favorite Web 2.0 tools. My infographic includes affordances and constraints of each tool, factual information about the tool and the reason why you should use it. I chose the tools that I experienced to prepare my tasks on this blog. What is Web 2.0? According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary , Web 2.0 refers to the developments in the way that people use the Internet that allow users free access and give them more control over the information. Also, it is defined as a second stage in the development of the World Wide Web, involving ways of sharing information such as blogs and wikis on Macmillan Dictionary website. The Web 2.0 tools that I recommend            Blogger           Edmodo           Padlet           Visme          ...

Hi! This post is about digital storytelling. I created a digital story with my friends  Deniz  and Eda (you can also visit their blogs and learn more about our project). For this task, the option that we chose is ‘‘how to’’ and the topic is how to have a good relationship with your teacher . The tools that we prepared our digital story are Movie Maker and Adobe Premiere Clip. The Process of Creating a Digital Story At the very beginning of our project, we decided the option that we wanted to choose. Then, we found a topic that everyone could like and benefit from. While we were preparing our speeches, we used this page on Wiki How website. After editing sound recordings, we added visual aids and background music to our video and finished our project. While creating this digital story, we didn’t experience difficulty in general. When we needed, we always helped each other. Digital Storytelling as a Learning Tool Digital Storytelling is a great learning too...

Hi everyone! This post is about poster presentation . I designed a magazine cover for the task of my course. The title of my magazine is The Chocolate Monster . As you can guess, my target audience is everyone who loves chocolate. Poster-making as a learning tool I think poster-making is a very effective task to facilitate learning. As you know, 4Cs of 21st century learning are the keystones that must be in every task given to students. Poster-making is one of these tasks. Students can communicate , collaborate with their friends, think critically and create a product. Because of these reasons, I believe that I will give such a task to my future students. Also, I highly recommend you to read this post that explain the advantages of the poster-making task well. Websites that you can design magazine covers I chose PosterMyWall to design my magazine cover. I think it is a great website to create a poster. There are so many options and ideas that you can find on thi...

Hello everyone! Today, my assignment is evaluating an ELT website . The website that I evaluated is Enchanted Learning . It is an ELT website that aims to provide K-12 educational materials published online. It covers a wide range of topics and materials. Its target audience is ELT teachers who have students whose grades range from kindergarten to 12 th . Enchanted Learning Home Here, I have answered some questions to evaluate this website in detail: 1. Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or credentials?  Enchanted Learning was founded by Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector in 1993. Their first aim was designing educational games for our own children and they created Enchanted Learning in late 1995. Audrey Col-Spector joined the team in 2014 as a content developer and writer. She is also a site administrator and social media coordinator. 2. What is the content of the website? The website provides online educat...

Hi, it’s me again! The midterm week is over. So, it’s time to share a new post. This assignment is using padlet as a group project. Our topic is endangered species which is a global problem. In general, our project includes 4 main steps: 1. Describing the problem 2. Sharing causes and effects on the problem 3. Sharing some public opinion on the problem 4. Offering solutions to solve the problem Taken from here . I was responsible for the 3rd step. For this, I prepared a survey to present whether people are aware of this problem that animals become extinct or not. As a group, we collected data. Then, I analyzed results and showed them as charts. Personally, I haven’t heard padlet before this course. Then, I’ve learned that padlet is an easy tool to use and to reach the information. At the end of our project, I loved the way that our padlet looked and I believe we inform people about the problem. Padlet is really useful as 21st century learning/teaching to...