Voki

Voki is one of the most interactive technological tools I had the opportunity to use. Teaching a foreign language can be interactive, funny, interesting, and special at the same time using this tool. It allows teachers to work on the four skills. It is free to use. It requires a good service of internet but it is a worthwhile tool. Teachers are able to create interactive lesson by using cartoons as avatars to teach. Students may create their own avatars to perform the language through writing and speaking. It has many interesting applications for teaching.

Types of Activities using Voki

1. Teachers can create a presentation of a topic using an avatar to present vocabulary in an interactive way (regarding slides also).

2. Students can choose their favorite type of avatar (Voki provides different types of avatars) to tell a story using the vocabulary viewed in the class.

3. Students may create a short presentation using slides with images and an avatar to explain the target content (avatars produce the words demanded by the person who is writing or saying the words).

Tips about Voki

1. It is necessary to have a computer and some programs already installed in the computers (adobeplayer for instance)

2. Voki requires a good internet connection to run.

3. I consider Voki a tool for working in specific stages of the lesson plan ( warm-up, presentation, post-activity, consolidation, and even at home)

As a conclusion, Voki might become more a tool for students to entertainment themselves, but, if teachers plan very well prepared activities Voki can become a really useful tool for teachers during the class.

Integration of Voki in a common class

Blogger

Blogger is a tool that allows many people to share their blogs about any topic they want to share. It is free to use. In the case of language teaching, it is becoming useful for teachers to share their tips. Writing and Reading are two skills that can be reinforced through the use of blogger.

Types of Activities using Blogger

1. A teacher can prepare a blog within relevant information about any topic and share it with the students during the class.

2. Students may work on a blog as a way to show their knowledge about what they have learned during the class and share with their professor and classmates.

3. Teacher may also use Blogger to share their experiences or tips with other teachers by creating blogs in which they provide information about it.

Tips about Blogger

1. Blogger is free. It just requires to have an account in it.

2. Blogger is also available in the android store. Students and teachers can have it in their cellphones.

3. Using Blogger for teaching is more interactive and interesting if it is used during the class in a laboratory that provides the necessary tools for it.

As a final point, Blogger is more for training the students' reading and writing micro and macroskills. I consider it can be used just in specific stages of the lesson plan (presentation, post-activity, and consolidation) and also for working at home as a tool for homework.

Training reading and writing micro and macroskills with Blogger

Google Drive

Google Drive is a very well known tool that many people use to save documents. In the case of teaching, it is used to save authentic material or documents. It is completely free to use, and it provides different types of tools to create documents. Google Docs works similar to Word which most people use to write documents. Google Slides provide tools that allow us to create presentations as in Power Point. Those are some examples of tools provided by Google Drive. Writing and Reading are two skills that can be reinforced by this tool.

Types of Activities Using Google Drive

1. Teachers may use this tool to assign some writing paragraphs or summaries. Students may submit their works on Google Drive and allow the professor to check. It helps to reduce paper consumption.

2. By the use of shareable links, the teacher may provide some practice or homework using this tool. 

3. The use of Google Slides allows teachers to provide information during the class in a interactive way. Teachers can save their presentations for several days until they decide to use it.

Tips about Google Drive 

1. Google Drive does not require to be downloaded. Teachers just have to log in their gmail accounts.

2. Any device with internet and a screen allows teachers to access to Google Drive.

3. It can be more interactive if it is used in a laboratory with the necessary tools (computers, internet)

In a nutshell, the use of Google Drive provides teachers with more ways to teach and make the class interesting. However, not all the institutions in our country are provided with the necessary tools to work with technological tools. Despite Google Drive does not required a maximum of internet to be used, it needs a device to be run, and sometimes, students does not have those devices.

Google Drive in the Class