E-L@ng

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I am an English language teacher who has been working with learning technology since the mid-nineties. This is my commercial site which describes some of the services I can offer. Use the left-hand menu to find out more about my work in:

  • materials design for e-language learning
  • blended and face-to-face training courses in technology for language learning.
  • website design and management for educational organizations

News

 

Correction Toolbar

A recent online course on writing has prompted me to do a bit more work on my simple Correction Toolbar – essentially a toolbar with a collection of macros to help annotate student work with a correction code. I have been using this for about twelve years in M$Word – however, these days I use Libre Office instead, and I have a similar set up for that. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to combine the macros and toolbar in an easy-to-install package, and I am going to have to spend some more time on this. In the meantime, I may as well put the package for M$Word up on this site,  So here it is: http://whitetower.e-lang.co.uk/wt-correction-toolbar/

 

jsParagrapher Beta

I have finally finished tidying up the jsParagrapher, and it is now in Beta. I hope to iron out any remaining bugs and release a stable version by the end of March.

Javascripr Paragrapher

The jsParagrapher is a simple authoring tool for making exercises to practice organizing a text into paragraphs. Rather than trying to explain what it does, the easiest thing to do is visit http://whitetower.e-lang.co.uk/jsparagrapher/ to see it in action. Yes, it produces exercises and might be considered a bit web 1.0, but I made it because it does something I and my students need.  :-)

jsParagrapher Exercise


The authoring tool is written in Java and requires Java 7 to be installed. Because of the recent security issues with Java, I recommend that you ensure that your version is up to date (Java 7 Update 15) and that you disable Java in the web browser.

I am looking for Beta testers to help me find any remaining bugs or issues – I have tested it extensively on Windows and Linux, and hopefully there will not be too many problems. The software can be downloaded from the http://whitetower.e-lang.co.uk/jsparagrapher/ – I am using a simple form that asks for a name an e-mail so that I can keep track of things and let people know when I have a final release.

 

11/3/2012 - 19th TESOL Macedonia Thrace Convention

Presentation: How to get the most out of your school website

Blogs, Wikis, Twitter, Moodle, FaceBook; Nings… . There seems to be an ever-increasing number of web based tools at our disposal. It often feels as if we are constantly playing catch up, desperately trying to keep pace with the development of technology and the latest tools for language learning. In the midst of this confusion it can be easy to forget to reflect on what we have already done and how it can be improved.

The most basic web based tool is the website, and virtually all schools have one. However, are they really making the best use of them? How are they actually being used? What are the key factors that make a website successful? What are the things to avoid? How can websites be used to encourage interaction and a sense of community? How can social media, such as Twitter and FaceBook, be used to develop dialogue with clients?

This presentation will argue that effective use of web based technology starts from the school website – it is the foundation on which all the other aspects of internet use will be built. Getting this right can bring many benefits. This is a presentation which will be of interest to anyone who has, or is thinking of setting up, a web site. Based on a survey of educational websites in Greece, this presentation will make practical suggestions for improving the quality and interactivity of educational websites.

The slides from the presentation are available here.

A handout of resources mentioned in the presentation can be downloaded here.

A checklist to use to evaluate your website can be downloaded here.

 

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