Timeline

There is a new feature Twitter included in its tools: a widget that allows you to keep track on a Twitter user. That user could be yourself, if you want to keep your website visitors informed about your latest news or maybe another user whose information you want to share among your blog's readers.

What you post on Twitter is called 'tweet' (that is the famous 140-character text). When you post several tweets, they are organised chronologically and that canvas of information is called 'timeline'.

The Twitter timeline of a particular user is exactly what you can have embedded in your website or blog.

Ir order for you to have an idea, I'm posting here Edmodo's twitter timeline (i.e. we will have access to Edmodo's latest news through Twitter). Sometimes it takes some seconds to display:

Tweets por @edmodo

We said in a previous entry that Twitter can be a great tool to keep your students updated with whatever you want them to know. In this way, you can use a blog or a website to deliver these Twitter messages and it won't be necessary for your learners opening an account and registering on Twitter.

Google Street View

Nowadays there is a web revolution in Argentina because the latest news say that Google had implemented its street tool: Google Street View.

I used to look for places in Google Earth, which shows you almost any place you want to see from a satellite perspective. Now this new tool allows you to ‘walk’ the streets of the major cities.

Last year, they started to send their cars, all equipped with cameras, in order to recollect images; and yesterday, September 25^th, we could see them all at last.

Isn’t it a great tool for your students to move around the city without leaving the classroom? Don’t you think it would be great for learning how to give and take directions? You can even ask them to look for particular things or people that are displayed on those street images.

Google is, again, helping us in so many ways!

I leave you all for now showing you a capture from Google Street View. Do you know the place?

See you!

Folding Story

Searching the web for a tool that would allow me to play ‘Exquisite Corpse’, I ended up finding a very interesting site that could be useful for a classroom in which ICT is present.

It is called “FoldingStory”. Remember when you were a little kid and played with your friends that game that consisted of the creation of a story in which each participant had to add a sentence or a word? Well, this is a very good game for exercising language with your students and they can do it online –once registered, of course. Bureaucracy is everywhere-.

After logging in, they have the following options: CREATE (that is to begin a story), ADD (to continue an existing story) or just READ (to take a look at other people’s stories).

There is a twist, though. We all know about the increasing popularity of Twitter. FoldingStory borrowed that particular feature of Twitter that makes it unique: you have a 140-character limit for each entry. That is: 140 characters if you begin writing a story, and 140 characters if you add lines to another story. People who collaborate with your work will also have that same limit. This characteristic makes the creation of the whole story very dynamic.

Here you have the link: https://foldingstory.com/ and I hope you and your students enjoy it!