TES531 Week#3 – Google/Chrome Tools and Feed Me!

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Welcome to Week#3 of TES531.  I enjoyed ‘Hanging out’ with some of you last Thursday.  This week I hope to virtually meet with the rest of you.
Virtual Office Hours on Sunday, March 22 at 3pm. You can RSVP at: the Google+ Event Page

If you’re unavailable at that time, please let me know days and times when you will be able to connect. 

Watching all of this week’s screencasts and experimenting with the tools they describe  might take a while.  Next week will be an easier  ‘single-topic’ week, so don’t be too stressed.  Hopefully, you’ll have some time to catch-up next week if necessary.  As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions – before you spend too much time making frustrated  faces at the computer 🙂


Week#3 Tasks 
PART 1
Feed Me!

Keeping up with the endless  stream of great content out there can be overwhelming.  One of the tools that can help us ‘sip from the firehose’ is an RSS Reader.  This is a way to have new content come to you rather than having to constantly check sites you follow.  The screencast below shows how to use Feedly.com to subscribe to sites you like. It was recorded for last year’s TES531 course, but most of it is still up-to-date.
Please watch the screencast and then  Download the LearningCalFeeds2015.opml file here. Once it’s all set up, you can  spend some time exploring the sites in your Feedly (and perhaps adding others).  As always, use Diigo to bookmark any interesting sites you encounter.  By the end of the week, please create a blog post about useful sites and/or posts you’ve seen and how you might use them in your teaching and/or learning.


PART 2
Explorations in different parts of the Google Universe.
Google offers a variety of useful tools which are included for free with a Google account.  Below are screencasts that describe some of these tools.  There were also recorded last year, but are mostly up-to-date. 
Gmail     Drive    Google Plus
&   Photos 		 Calendar    Translate
Screencast
YouTube
Video File		 Screencast
YouTube
Video File		 Screencast
YouTube
Video File		 Screencast
YouTube
Video File		 Screencast
YouTube
Video File
(the video file links are there in case you want to download these for offline viewing)
To Do: 
  • Add a forwarder from your Gmail account to your main email account (if gmail isn’t your main account)
  • Create a short Google Presentation (2 slides is OK) , post it on your blog, and make ‘[email protected]’ an editor. 
  • Upload a photo or two (or 100) to your Google photo space and share them with your TES531 classmates in Google Plus. 
  • Use Google Translate (online or mobile) and see if it can accurately transcribe you speaking these Pronunciation Practice Sentences and Minimal Pairs

Chrome TOOLS
There are also a variety of ways to ‘extend’ Google’s  Chrome browser to add functionality.
You can see all extensions in the ‘Chrome Web Store‘.   (despite the word ‘store’, extensions are free)
Below are some CALL-related extensions.


Watch this Screencast Guide>>>:   YouTube    Video File 

Screenreaders
Speakit: Chrome Extension  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speakit/pgeolalilifpodheeocdmbhehgnkkbak?hl=en
 List of other screenreader options at: http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/


Dictionary Extensions  
Google Dictionary 

This can be useful for quickly checking the meaning and pronunciation of words online. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-dictionary-by-goog/mgijmajocgfcbeboacabfgobmjgjcoja?hl=en

Other Options
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-chrome-extensions-lookup-words-meanings-browse/

Week#1 & #2  Reminders
If you didn’t get around to doing these yet…

(Coming up next week. Feel free to take a sneak peek)
Video
In-class overview of the Video Guide

  • Sites that use video for language learning
  • Posting Videos on your blog
  • Downloading YouTube and other online videos
  • Editing videos with Windows Movie Maker
  • Watching TV Shows and Movies online
  • Screen capturing & sharing


1 thought on “TES531 Week#3 – Google/Chrome Tools and Feed Me!”

  1. The best chrome extension for English learners (ESL) is Skalkaz's app:
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/english-dictionary-transl/neomigpibafpboiknmijddgnncengfnm

    Its rating is 4.7 which is the highest in this genre (compare with the list above). The app gives everything what an English learners need:
    – automatic pronunciation
    – English definition of the word (based on Oxford, Longman)
    – example sentences
    – phonetical transcription
    – translation to your native language
    – even etymology

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