Monday, 18 January 2016

A Useful Blog: 'Nik's Learning Technology Blog'

Hello, everyone. :)
As my first posting on ICT tools and websites for ESL teachers,  I would like to introduce a very helpful blog,  'Nik's Learning Technology Blog.'

Especially for teachers who

  • prefer simple blogs with a variety of resources.

  • need specific instructions for how to use tools in actual classroom.

  • want to know both the good things and weak things about the tools as learning methods.


Nik's blog has ONLY five main menus.
Among them just two are enough for getting resources we are looking for!
 

1. HOME

As you can see below if you go to the website http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/, you will see a   "so simple" home screen. Nik's the latest article was posted in 15/01/2016. Since the articles are shown in chronological order, you can see older posts as well if you scroll it down.

2. MORE ARTICLES

 
You can see the whole lists he has posted in More Articles section. He has been introducing not only free softwares and tools you can easily download and use in pedagogical ways in your actual classroom such as Skype, VYou, and Goamimate, but also he gives you information about hundreds of new modern teaching methods related to our daily lives students might be interested in such as QR codes below.




So, How Can I Find the Tools and Websites I Need in Nik's Blog?

Only you have to do to find suitable tools for a certain class is to think about the main skills you are going to teach. Then, you can use the research button on the right side of the blog. For example, I am interested in teaching writing skill and looking for a tool for it, so I searched up"writing skill" and got 64 posts related to it as you can see below.


 
 
 
One thing I really like about this blog is that he is not just giving simple information and how to use it about the websites and tools, but he actually "evaluates"  them as an English teacher.

 
He does mention what he liked about the tool and what he was not so sure about. Also, his personal suggestions on how to implement it with students are found. For instance, he posted about how to use Google Map(hope everyone knows it) to help EFL students and to develop their abilities to give and understand directions. He also tells us what he liked and what he did not about it as a teaching method. I believe his comments will definitely help teachers choose the best appropriate tools in a certain circumstance and use them with less risk of failure for their purpose.

 
Moreover, you can access to related links to a certain topic you have a interested in, but the articles are not the sources from outside the blog.







I hope you enjoyed my first post and find it useful.  Any comments will be appriciated. :)

Yuna Choi
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4 comments:

  1. Unknown19 January 2016 at 16:06

    Hi Yuna,

    This is a wonderful review of Nik's blog. Yes, I also agree with you that his evaluations and suggestions are what's most attractive about his blog. I think I will do a similar approach to Nik for my ICT blog. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown20 January 2016 at 05:29

    I do like your concise review of this blog. I think you are actually doing something Nik does, that is, evaluating the topic stuff according to personal experience. That's brilliant! I'll try doing that in my later post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. ky24 January 2016 at 07:02

    Hi Yuna,

    I like this review, which is very detailed, and gives me a great inspiration on my own blog design. I really want to learn something from his blog and adapt into mine. :p

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mohammed Omer24 January 2016 at 15:18

    Hello Yuna,

    I have to admit that my review of Nik's blog was not as comprehensive as yours. The details you added makes it easier and clearer to visiting teachers who have not seen the blog.

    Thumbs up :u

    ReplyDelete

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