After the Deadline is a free, “smart” resource for anyone who wants to improve their writing on the Web. Initially designed as a plugin for WordPress blogs, the program is also available as a Firefox add-on, and it is compatible with both Windows and Mac.
According to the website, After the Deadline “uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology to find writing errors and offer smart suggestions.” The program was designed to “help you write better blog comments, tweet with correct grammar, and compose professional messages.” The video clip above provides a good overview of its capabilities.
After watching the video and exploring the website, I think that After the Deadline shows tremendous potential in the wired ESL/EFL classroom, especially in composition classes.
I wonder if Sue Waters and her team at Edublogs will be offering this plugin to users of their WordPress-based blogging service? Just a thought.
How many times have you sat down in front of your computer with the very best intention of mastering the Microsoft Office suite of applications? Coffee cup at the ready while thumbing through a 1,200-page manual — there’s got to be a better way!
Sure, there are plenty of online training sites, both free and fee-based. But wouldn’t it be great if you could learn the ins and outs of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint while racking up points along the way?
Enter Ribbon Hero. According to Microsoft Office Labs, “Ribbon Hero is a game for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, designed to help you boost your Office skills and knowledge. Play games (aka ‘challenges’), score points, and compete with your friends while improving your productivity with Office.”
If Ribbon Hero sounds like your cup of tea, download it for free.
Note: Ribbon Hero requires that you have Office 2007 or 2010 running on either Windows Vista or 7 (32/64 bit).
If you like to supplement your English classes with video content, you’re going to love this site. MovieClips contains a repository of over 12,000 popular movie clips and it is growing.
At the site’s core is a big search box that lets you query its database by actor, title, genre, and several other parameters, including dialogue. Not every movie is represented, of course. But you’ll be surprised at how many scenes turn up when you enter a famous quote. I got positive hits with “I’ll be back,” “Here’s looking at you, kid,” and of course, “How about a little fire, Scarecrow.”
The beauty is that the work of ripping films into segments and converting them to flash has been done for you. And the developers have apparently cleared copyright hurdles by keeping each clip under 2.5 minutes in length.
In the past I’ve created a number of listening and writing activities based on standard movie trailers. But I think that short, single-scene clips could provide more latitude in focusing on specific language forms and expressions, and cultural elements as well. In this sense I think MovieClips has loads of potential. Now, if they would just add an interactive quiz element …
PDFmyURL is a free online tool for converting any web page to PDF. To use it, simply visit the site, enter the URL of any website or blog, and click the 
icon to the right. Presto! The conversion is virtually instantaneous, and you can download the file to your computer.
No software installation is required other than a PDF reader such as Adobe Reader or my personal favorite, Foxit Reader.
Why bother changing a perfectly good HTML file into PDF? I can think of several reasons. First, PDF files are small, portable and easy to share. Second, no Internet connection is required to view them. And since formatting is retained across platform, they display the same on PC or Mac. But another little known secret is that many e-book readers will display PDF files. Handy for reading news, blog posts, etc., on the go.
There was only one noticeable drawback that I found, namely that flash contents, including movies embedded from YouTube and Vimeo, were not visually represented 0n the pages I test converted. All other pictures seemed to display just fine, however.
I think this tool could be especially useful in non-wired class settings for displaying web content via projector or whiteboard or for distributing printed copies to students.
Here is a great video clip I happened upon which, besides making you feel good, could easily be incorporated into a lesson plan for ESL learners at this time of year.
Before viewing the clip you might ask several warm-up questions, such as “What do you know about the Salvation Army? Are all ‘armies’ military organizations?”
Using a projection device, play the video for the class. Pause at selected spots to solicit discussion. Here are some sample questions:
- Why do you suppose the man is ringing a bell?
- Do the passersby pay attention to him? Why or why not?
- We see a young group wearing aprons and carrying hand bells. Where do you suppose they are going, and why?
- Before long, people are stopping and staring at the Salvation Army stand on the sidewalk. Why this change in their behavior?
- What impact is this attention having on the original sole bell ringer? How do you suppose he feels?
- If YOU were there, would you feel like making a contribution to the Salvation Army? Why or why not?
Don’t know about you, but this video lifted my spirits immensely and encouraged me to make a contribution today. The cold, lonely Salvation Army volunteer standing outside the local Walmart looked me in the eye and said, “Thank you, sir. Merry Christmas.”
While I’m a big fan of Skype for online voice and text chat, I recently came across a program called “ooVoo” that looks like an interesting alternative for those who are into video chat. All you really need is a microphone and a web cam to use it.
Like Skype, ooVoo offers both free and premium plans. The ooVoo free plan includes 2-way video chat. If you want to add more people to the chat, you will have to opt for a monthly plan or the per-use option. However, unlike Skype, ooVoo doesn’t require each chat participant to download and install the program. One installation suffices; all others can chat from their browsers.
ooVoo claims to be the U.S. market leader in video and audio conferencing (see this article), and businesses are clearly its target. But ooVoo could just as easily be used to enhance exchanges between teachers and students in blended and distance learning environments, and among teachers who might be organizing an event or just exchanging notes.
Any ooVoo users out there with a story to share?
I wonder if there is anyone who hasn’t seen A Christmas Carol — a movie favorite at this time of year about stingy old Ebenezer Scrooge, who is forced to face the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come on the path to redeeming his soul.
My favorite version with Alastair Sim (1951) was on TV the other night, and it was, as always, superb.
The newest incantation features Jim Carry in the role of Scrooge. In the trailer above, the narrator asks: “What if you were given a second chance, to get human life right?”
Not that everyone is unhappy with their lot, of course, but this kind of question does seem to stimulate animated conversation in ESL/EFL classes, especially among adults. And it’s great for practicing conditionals.
Shortened URLs such as http://bit.ly/7PVM3 are popular these days as a means for replacing long URLs with shorter ones and conserving space. They are particularly convenient for Twitter users who must limit posts to 140 characters, including any URLs you wish to share with others. But are they safe to click on?
If you know the person who wrote the post, it’s probably OK. But shortened URLs can also be used by less scrupulous types to lure readers to malicious sites. If you want to avoid potential trouble, I would suggest previewing links to see where they really lead.
Twitter users can do this by downloading and installing TweetDeck, a free personal browser for enhancing Twitter account management. TweetDeck includes a preview mode where you can view information about links directly and see where you’re going before you go there.
Others might want to try another free tool called Unhid. <http://www.unhid.co.cc/>
Go to the site, enter a short URL, and click UNHIDE. The real URL then appears below (sorry for the mini text size).
Unhid also offers a bookmarklet that you can install simply by dragging it to your bookmarks tab. Click the bookmarklet to activate it. Then give it a test drive by clicking on any shortened URL. A new web page will open showing where the link leads.
I just stumbled across what appears to be a very useful service for ‘power’ social media users who want to secure a username across multiple sites.
The service, called KnowEm, “allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly across over 340 popular and emerging social media websites.”
The general idea is to make it easier for friends, colleagues, etc., to find you on the various social-networking sites. But online businesses can also use the site to find out if a brand is available, or worse, has been hijacked.
The basic service is free, but a premium plan is available that will automate the process of manual registration at any of the social media sites.
To give it a trial run, point your browser at KnowEm, enter your username (or the one you would like), and KnowEm will check availability on hundreds of sites, such as these:
Teaching with computers? Looking for a fun Halloween lesson? Here’s one that upper-intermediate English language learners are sure to enjoy!
1. Start with a brief schema-building discussion of Halloween, the Peanuts characters, and what Halloween means to Linus.
2. Watch the movie clip together as a class, and then play some or all of the audio file about Linus for dictation practice.
3. Next, have students download this gap-fill sheet and audio file to their computers (alternatively, supply both files via Moodle or other CMS) and do the activity independently.
4. Direct students who finish early to this related listening activity about pumpkins at listen-and-write.com.
5. Check gap-fill answers, and if time allows, do a wrap up of the day’s activities.
Happy Halloween!
