My Brainshark.com

It's been a while since I've put a new entry on here - a combination of being away all summer and struggling to get back in the swing of things since we got back!
This site is a real winner, though, so I hope you find it useful.  It does the same kind of thing as Present Me, but with audio instead of video, but it is sooooo much easier to use - I really like it.
Essentially, it's a tool to record presentations, but you can also use it to narrate over a document or over pictures.  You have to register on the site, but it doesn't take long and it's free.  Once you've done this, you can upload a Powerpoint presentation or a document, or pics and then record your presentation over it.  I've used it for Powerpoint and the nice thing about it is that you create the presentation for one slide at a time, so (for learners) if you make a mistake, you don't have to re-record your whole presentation, just the last slide, and you have the option to listen to each slide again before you save it.  When it's saved, you can embed it into a blog (see below!) or send the url link to a friend, or your teacher.  This is brilliant for Business and Academic English, but your general English learners might like it, too.  The other way you can use it is as authentic listening practice.  There are loads of interesting presentations on the site that are freely available.  You could assign one for the learners to listen to (maybe with some comprehension questions) or ask them to find one they like and tell another learner about it when they come back into class.

If you want some help using this, here is Russell Stannard's video to show you how.

Quizlet

Quizlet is a great site for giving your learners practice in vocabulary that you want them to learn (or they can make their own!)  You can make vocabulary lists with definitions and send them the link and they can use the flashcards to learn the vocab, or play different games with it, or test themselves as many times as they like. You can also print out the flashcards if you want a set to use in class.  Another great thing about this site is that it gives you an automatic sound fgile for each word (ie it says it for you) - great for pronunciation. The only thing I would say is that it doesn't always seem to work :( but hey ho, you can't have everything!  You have to register witht he site, but it's free.  You can also look at other people's quizzes, which is nice - perhaps you won't have to make your own...

Here's an example of some flashcards I made for my celta trainees to help them learn the names of tenses....

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Study these flash cards | Study grammar flash cards

Glogster

This site is a really nice idea if you want to start your learners blogging but a blog is a bit intimidating! With this tool you can really easily create a page with pictures, text, music, videos etc. It's quick and easy,lots of fun and free!

Here's my example - I had to put it in as a pic, but there is music, too, if you follow this link you can get the full experience!!

You just go to the site, register (it's very quick) and you're ready to go! Nice to find other Glogs that you like, too...
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Present Me

Present Me is a really nice tool for encouraging your learners to get speaking/ presentation practice  outside class.  Learners can register and then upload a Powerpoint presentation and record themselves talking through the slides.  If you have Business English learners, or people studying for IELTS/ academic English, this is brilliant, but even some of the ESOL exams (eg the City and Guilds Level 1 and 2 Speaking and Listening that I'm currently doing with a class) involve learners giving a presentation, so this is a good way for them to practice, send it to you and get feedback before they do the real thing in class.

It's relatively easy to use, but here are Russell's detailed instructions, which are very helpful.  There are various levels of it, but the most basic is free, and frankly would be fine for most learners.  This allows you to upload up to 50MB of material and speak for 15 minutes.
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Voki

Vki is a really cute tool that will make your learners smile!  It's a website on which you can make your own 'voki' avatar and record messages for it to say, taking messages via e-mail or you can embed them on your website (like this!). In all honesty, the fun is in making the avatar, and the messaging is a bit secondary, so it's not all that applicable for language learning, but it's a bit of fun!

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My Website- ELT-Training.com

I haven't been blogging very much over the past few weeks as I've been madly busy with other things, not least trying to get my website off the ground!  It is now airbourne and I'm quite pleased with it!

This is what it looks like and I will be running on-line grammar courses and FREE monthly teacher training webinars from it. Have a look - any feedback gratefully received.

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Scoop it!

Scoop it is  brilliant tool that I just discovered through Nik Peachy (another winner!). I've already loaded up three different pages and it's a quick and easy way to put all of your internet 'goodies' in an easily accessible basket for people (learners/ trainees/ fellow teachers etc) to view.  In some ways this is like an on-line noticeboard.  You can add links to sites that you like and readers can follow the page (and get new links as they are posted) and/ or comment on the ones that are there. 
Here's a peek at one of my pages that has lots of ideas for lesson plans and materials to use in class.

I've also made pages with ideas for teacher development and with useful sites for learners - have a look and see what you think.

One of the best things about the tool is that it makes it so easy to share informatin in an attractie way.  All you need to do is add the url to the site you like and all of the text/ pics etc come up automatically, so it takes no time at all to do.  I particularly like the idea of having one for each class you teach with sites customised to their needs on it.  It searches the net for sites that might be useful to you, too, if you put in some key words.  The only problem with this is that there is a bit of information overload, so you need to be able to scan through and sift!

To get started, you have to send an e-mail to get registered.  You are then given an access url and you can put up as many different pages as you like.  Simple!

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