Lots of Fun Through KidsWorldFun !

Hello everyone ! All of us know that in our present day internet is the powerful media to whom wants to learn english and there are many websites which are designed for learning english. But are all of them really beneficial to learners ?  To determine which of them are beneficial or which of them are useless, there are some certain criterions like accuracy, currency, content and functionality. Yeah, I am here today to evaluate website related to EFL. And as you can see from the picture I'll  evaluate the KidsWorldFun which is a free online portal website suited for small children and has variety of activities for them. Also this website is quitely helpful for both parents and teachers. As a teacher or parent you can find a lot of suitable resources that can be used in school practice section and at home. Okay lets evaluate this website step by step to decide whether it is useful or not !

What is The Content of  The Website ?

KidsWorldFun has a lot of activities intented for young learners. These activities are subdivided into four different sections, which are Fun Time, Reading, Activities and Learn with Fun.

Fun Time section includes activities that a child can do to have fun like Animated Stories, Animated Movies, Online Games. Most of us know that reading stories develops kids' imagination and thinking. Therefore the reading section which is dedicated to various types of short stories is really exclusive. The Learn section allows children to strengthen their English, Science and Math subjects through a variety of handpicked websites that provide that material. And finally the activities section comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill.

What is The Purpose of The Website ?

The aim of the website is providing a fun-filled learnig environment through games, stories and much more.

Is There a Date that Shows When The Site Has Last Been Updated ?

Although there is not a certain date of sharings you can understand that the site is constantly updated. Because when I enter the website, I generally come across new stories or games. Furthermore in the blog section you can see a lot of post with their dates.

Are The Images of High Quality and Appealing to The Target Audience?

Colors' effect on children can not be denied. Colors make a big impression on children's young mind.Also kids will remember and return to a website if their experience is a happy one. Therefore element should be cheerful and attractive. According to these KidsWorldFun is definetely suitable for kids because the design of the site is full with bright colors, attractive pictures, animated characters and interesting sharings which can easily capture and hold a child’s attention for long periods of time.


KidsWorldFun is safe online space to learn while having fun and as far as I examine, I did not come across any harmful thing for kids in the website. The only shortcoming of the website is although the website has a About Us section, there in no information about author(s) of the website.

I can recommend this website to English teachers who need resources that they can utilize in their proffesional life. Because it offers a lot of useful and attractive materials that every teacher can do in classroom. Furthermore parents who would like to give their kids something to work on while they finish some job, can do this. Both parents and teacher can benefit from the Resources section.

Useful Tool RSS !

If you spend much time online to follow new content in the blogs or websites, certainly you know that it is very hard to check these websites individually. But using RSS you can easily scan through headlines and read each article to decide which ones are worth reading right away. But what exactly is this technology? And, more importantly, how can it benefit you ? Let's learn together ! 


What is RSS ?

RSS means that Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary however it is often referred to as the feed or news feed. In the early days, if you wanted to keep track of updates on your favorite website, then you had to bookmark it in your browser and manually visit it frequently to see if there were any updates. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could tell your favorite websites to let you know every time they update? Well, this is exactly what RSS does. RSS allows users to keep track of their favorite websites without having to manually visit the website each time.

Exactly I had no idea about RSS until the Tecnology and Material Design Course class. In the lesson our teacher said that we have to follow blogs about education or anything attract our attention. And when she showed a lot of educational blogs as an advice, firstly I thought that "Upps how I read these blogs one by one ?" Fortunately, right after she mentioned about RSS and I felt great relief. RSS reader (software) can be downloaded on a computer or used as an online. I use Feedreader. Thanks to the feedreader I can follow blogs regularly and manually. 

This is my feedreader's secreenshot:

I am following several educational blogs and my favorite is ozgekaraoglu. Because her sharings are about teaching English through technology and web tools and applications to help educators to develop themselves. Her blog is really impressive and I totally appreciate her projects which inspire me about being effective teacher in the future.

I'm glad if this post assists you :)

Wikispace Experience !

Hello everyone !

This week's creavity task for our Technology and Materials Design Course is Wikis which are website that allow its users to freely add, delete or modify content. And so we created a wiki page to write a film review. As in the podcast project my partner is Nazife İnan. For the wiki page project we choose a movie "3 Idiots" that both me and Nazife watched fondly in advance. The film is about two friends who are searching for their long lost companion. They revisit their college days and recall the memories of their friend who inspired them to think differently. You can already find more knowledge about the movie in our wiki page clicking here.

 

This project is really entartaining to me and nazife bacause of watching movie is great delight for us so we worked eagerly to create a wiki page and we had a good time. In these project like wiki, podcast ex. collaboration is definetely helpful to the participants. Since collaboration develops higher level thinking skill and create an environment of active and involved, it promotes a positive attitude toward the subject matter instead of increasing the anxiety about the project. And also it provides a sense of responsibility in individuals.  

When I think advantegeous of using wikis in class, based on my experience in wiki page project, I can say a lot of things. Firstly they encourage students to create a fun corner on website to share their interests and matters about lesson and create an opportunity that require students to work together continuously communicating as part of team as they would in the real world and this sitution provide broader perspective thinking among students. Also both teachers and students can read other people's and classes' wikis and this can give ideas and inspiration to them. Briefly wikis are really effective tool to use in class since they provide very different kind of online experience. 

I hope you like our wiki page

See you in next project :)

Vocaroo Voice Message

Vocaroo Voice Message


Hi everyone!


I'm here to share my first project: Podcasting ! In this project I worked my classmate Nazife İnan and our project is related to creating a rich sound story. Our story is about a magical lake and we created that story according to the A1 level students. In this project, we expreienced some difficulties like creating a different and inventive story, finding suitable sound effects to the mood of the story and also we tried to compose the appropriate story according to the level of learners. In spite of these difficulties, I'm pleased to have a oppurtunity to take part in this project because this task is really helping to inspire both teachers and students. And also instead of the reading activities, using audio materials in the lesson more attrack the attention of learners. So as a teacher of the future I will use podcasting exactly...


Hope you enjoy it :)

Sharing & learning with technology

Rather than being lost inside the books or encyclopedias , using technologic materials is an easier way to learn something, isn't it ? In the past, students had to spend more time to their investigations. Because you need to go library or book store first, you need to be lucky about the book you need is there or not, and you need to look everypage to find the section you want to learn about. This is a weary, time wasting process for a student now. Today, we have computers and internet connection everywhere. We have 'The mighty Google', Wikipedia, E-books etc. Even if you don't know what are you searching for, you can just write some words or clues about it and it will satisfy you. You can find every information you need in seconds with graphics, pictures, sounds even with videos. This development depends on internet and technological materials such as computers, tablets and smart phones. Furthermore, you can not also find the information you need by internet, but also share it by social media. And this sharing may make other people to learn something about that. With this vicious cycle, you can share and learn easiliy. :)