Top Tens

Top Ten Guinness Book of Gaming Records

By kylemawer | 2010/09/14 03:48 Posted in All Posts, Game Plan, Top Tens | Comments (0)

Here’s a list of World records from the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s edition. Can you identify which numbers below go in the spaces for each record?

376 1 million 24.84 million 2,468 214 156 379,552,748 200 million 45.7 million 161,600 100 million

1 Most people dressed as a videogame character.

On May the 29th 2009 the MCM (Movie Comic Media) expo was held in London and _______ enthusiastic participants got dressed up as their favourite video game character. If you could dress up as a videogame character, which one would you be?

2 The Fastest selling DS title

When the Nintendo DS (dual screen) version of Pokémon Platinum went on sale in Japan in September of 2008, it sold over _____________ copies in the first two days that it went on sale. Pokémon is a combination of the words ‘pocket’ and ‘monster’. How many can you name?

3 The best-selling FPS franchise

HALO has sold over _____________ copies world wide making it the best-selling FPS (First Person Shooter) in history. At the moment the fourth in the series HALO: REACH is set for release in September this year. Do you know the name of the main character pictured on the left?

4 The most money taken by a single arcade machine

The most income generated by a single arcade machine in just one week was $____________ in the states in 1993. The arcade machine played the game NBA Jam which is a basketball game. Have you ever played an arcade machine?

5 The game with the largest in-game soundtrack

The highly rated GTA (Grand Theft Auto) IV has ___________ licensed music tracks that can be heard while playing the game. The previous record holder was, in fact, GTA: San Andreas with _________ tracks. Did you know that Burt Reynolds, Chris Penn, Ice T, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Madsen, Phil Collins, Ray Liotta, Ricky Gervais, Samuel L. Jackson and many more actors have appeared or provided their voices in the game.

6 The most successful movie franchise based on a videogame

The series of Resident evil films have all together generated revenue greater than $_________________ and with a fourth called Resident Evil: Afterlife due for release later this year, it looks like that figure will increase. The story follows the outbreak of a biological weapon that causes monstrous mutations in evryone and everything that it comes into contact with.

7 The most successful game franchise

The honour of this title goes to a short fat character with a black moustache. That’s right, Mario. The Mario series have sold over __________________ copies worldwide. Did you know he first appeared in a game called Donkey Kong? at this time though, he wasn’t called Mario yet. He was called jumpman.

8 The best selling videogame

Wii sports sold over ________________ copies from between the time it was launched in 2006 to May of 2009. With this game you can play a physical game of Tennis, Bowling or Boxing in the comfort of your own living room. Do you know anyone who has played one of these games?

9 The largest environment in a videogame

In the PC and Xbox role playing game called The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall it is possible to explore over ______________ km² of in-game land. This area contains villages, towns, cities and dungeons.

10 The best selling PC series

The very popular life-simulation game called The Sims has proved to be the best selling PC series in the world with over _______________ sold around the world. Did you know that Lily Allen, The Black-eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls (and other bands) have all re-recorded songs in Simlish – the official language of the Sims.

Answers: They are in the right order at the top

10 Reasons Why Video Games Are Good For The Soul

By kylemawer | 2010/07/05 03:09 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (2)

Here’s a brief description of ten online articles about how video games have been seen to successfully teach or educate for real life skills.

1 Computer games make maths fun in school.

An article from the online UK Guardian newsgroup about how a school in nottinghamshire is developing lesson plans and activities for the wii sport. The console game is being used as a platform to enrichstudents learning experience in a maths class and seems to be proving very popular with students.

2. Using ICT to inspire a creative approach to writing

Homepage for the MYST writing project which sees a visually stimulating adventure video game called MYST to stimulate writing. It is being used in over 200 schools in Kent, England.

3 .Video games valid learning tools

BBC article that talks about a study stating that video games may be more effective than reading written text. Looks at a video game set in Victorian England and how pupils retain facts from the game.

4. Research shows video games lead to fewer mistakes on the operating table

Article by the American newsgroup USATODAY on how viddeo games are being used to improve hand eye coordination skills in surgeons. Playing video games before going into surgery increases a surgeon’s success rate.

5 Consolarium on BBC News – Gaming in Education

Scotland’s Derek Robertson explains how gaming education projects with the Nintendo DS are motivating and improving attainment in Scottish Students.

6 Unlocking learning through video games with Clasemovil

Online technology article by Techcrunch about a South American fun learning community project that seeks to target a wide range of the curriculum using educational games.

7 Free online games develop ESL students’ language skills

Tech and learning article by Larry Ferlazzo, an teacher, blogger and materials developer. He talks on how he has successfully incorporated gaming into the English language learning classroom with young learners..

8 How Video games changed a generation of athletes

Wired article on how an American football game win owed its winning strategy to a video game inspired move.

9. Using World of Warcraft to Teach English?

Gaming website Gamasutra interviews Edd Schneider and Kai Zeng who presented their idea for ‘ English Speaking Players as In-Game Content: New Ideas for Marketing to Youth in Asia at a Game Developer’s Conference.

10 Fast ForWord program designed to improve literacy skills

This is a reading intervention program based in the United States that claims to not only improve literacy skills but also leads to stronger memory and greater self esteem. Have a look at some of the sample games they have.

10 Educational Games

By kylemawer | 2010/06/29 03:10 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (2)

Here’s a brief description of ten games with strong social awareness and education in world issues that require very little preparation and some tips on how to use them. All these games were chosen because they are free, easily accessible, engaging and fun for English Language Learners.

1 Against all odds

A game that aims to educate gamers about the problems that face immigrants and political assylum seekers. The games are divided into three stages (each stage has 4 games) that cover war and conflict in an immigrants native country, escaping across to a border country and finally starting a new life in a new country. Links here will take you to previous blog posts with ideas on how to use the game in a connected classroom.

2 3rd World Farmer

A strategy simulation game based on a 3rd world farm that’s great for a connected classroom note taking activity. Use the game notes to stimulate discussion and drive a writing task for homework. The interesting thing about this game is that it reflects the ‘real’ situation 3rd world farmers are in – you can’t win in this game!

3 Ayiti The Cost of Life

This game simulates a a farmer and families life on the farm in Haiti. If you’ve played 3rd world farmer then this is a very similar game. Get your learners to write an instruction manual on how to play the game. Great for eliciting 0 conditionals and contrasting what is ‘always true’ in some parts of the world ‘won’t necessarily be true’ in others.

4 Stop Disasters

A disaster simulation game in which you choose a disaster scenario (tsunami, hurricane, wildfire, earthquake and flood) and “try to build upon an established community; providing defences and upgraded housing to prepare for the inevitable disaster.”

5 McDonald’s Video Game

A subversive look at the business process behind the fast food company ‘McDonalds. Game takes place over four scenarios (agricultural section, the feedlot, the fast food restaurant and headquarters). If you or your learners have ever seen ‘supersize me’ or read ‘fast food nation’ then you will like this.

6 Climate Challenge

BBC commissioned game that looks at the problem of climate from a presidents viewpoint. This is quite a serious and mature game with complex rules. There is a tutorial that helps familiarise a player with the game play but I would only recommend this game to a more mature higher level class. Go through the tutorial on the board but explain you want to learn how to play it as much as they do so help each other out. When the class is familiar with the rules they could then progress to the computer room to play in pairs and later compare how well they did.

7 Disaster Watch

A look at Nicaragua and the the warning signs and possible measures that can be taken in the event of an earthquake, flood or food shortage. Three different levels offer reading practice, some fun timed activities and a great platform for discussions. Ask Learners to make notes, write conditional sentences or discuss possible game strategy.

8 The Peace Doves

A quiz game aimed at testing knowledge and raising awareness of nuclear weapons and the importance of the peace process. Read the clues to identify a country and select your answer by clicking on a country on the world map. You then launch a peace dove to that country. Treat it as a quiz to vote on the answers in open class or as a webquest for pairs in the computer room.

9 Ars Regendi

“Ars Regendi is a browser-based political game that lets you take the reigns of your own, realistically simulated state. You will be asked to weigh in on various matters of state and – faced with a number of choices – any decision you make will have ramifications for the well-being of your virtual populace! In addition, you will be able to form alliances with other countries, initiate reforms and adjust the budget. Ars Regendi is a highly realistic and complex economic simulation that squares you off against other state leaders and puts your political and financial abilities to the test.” Great long term project for higher level language learners with lots of reading and writing practice.

10 Darfur is dying

Darfur is Dying is a browser game about the political and social crisis in the Sudan. The game starts with a race to and from a pumping station in the desert. Avoid roving militia patrols by hiding (space bar also pauses the game) where you can. Get learners to finish a short exercise in their workbooks and let a winner run a section of the game. The next stage of the game requires a little more discussion but great for group work and collaborative gaming.

Top Ten football games

By kylemawer | 2010/06/11 19:26 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (4)

Below is a list of ten football games you can ask learners who are getting ready to watch the world cup. All these games were chosen because some of your learners may well be playing them at home or at friends. As well as being popular, engaging and fun to play they also offer great opportunities to learn some soccer / footie vocabulary or a discussion platform for English Language Learners.

1 Soccer manager

Screen shot 2010-06-10 at 6.05.20 AM

“SoccerManager.com is free of charge. You manage your team using your web browser. Matches are played at least twice a week.

You can log on at any time to check the status of your squad, check results and fixtures, make player transfers or just have a chat with the rapidly expanding SoccerManager.com community.” Learners learn new vocabulary as they play, can discuss matches, strategies and their team in class.

Screen shot 2010-06-10 at 6.08.55 AM 2 Footie Manager

“You take control of a football club and compete against other managers from all over the world in your bid for the domestic championship and international cup glory.

As a football manager, you have full control over your club including managing the club finances, wheeling and dealing in the transfer markets, managing club staff and a myriad of other options that will challenge even the best budding football managers.”

Learners learn new vocabulary as they play, can discuss matches, strategies and their team in class.

3 All football games

A games site dedicated to football. In class I showed this game page (right) in class and went through each one asking learners what they thought they would have to do. As they predicted some very useful football vocabulary was fed onto the board and copied with some enthusiasm by the boys in the class. Topics and vocabulary covered included the role of different players/ positions in a game, football violence on and off the pitch, the pros and cons of penalty playoffs etc Class ended with students writing down and perfecting the best definition of “The off-side trap” in exactly 50 words.

4 Planetarium Manager

“The objective of the game is different from manager to manager. It can be to have one or more players in a national team, to aim for league or cup glory, or simply to achieve stability by raising and training your players properly. You define your own objectives. However, we can say Planetarium Manager is all about starting from the very bottom and achieving planetarium success.” Learners choose their in game objectives and present their progress to the class in the form of a powerpoint pecha kucha presentation. Can they justify their decisions to the class afterwards?

Screen shot 2010-06-10 at 6.25.44 AM

5 FIFA 11

This is a video of a console game that was released by the EA Sports trademark. Turn the watching into a game. Divide the class into teams. Tell the teams that they take turns to say ‘stop’ anytime, you’ll stop the video and they can ask the other team a question about what they can see on the video. Award points on the nature of their questions in the following way 1 = general knowledge 2 = language 3 = Connected question (related to picture on screen).

6 Time Lines

Why not get learners to make their own timelines based on the history of football video games? This site has a lot of information but only three pages which learners can scan read for dates and short event descriptions. e.g.

1980s Atari rules the gaming market

1981 Pele’s soccer is released (passive)

1987 Nintendo release ‘soccer’ (active)

Use timelines to focus on tenses as well as vocabulary items.

7 Premier Skills

A site run by the British Council aimed at football fans of all ages with a definite emphasis on language, fun and football. Either play games in a computer room and test your learners reading skills and football knowledge with a football rules quiz or play a game in open class and vote on the right answers while testing their football vocabulary. There are plenty of games to play here as well as a ‘Behind the scenes‘ section providing listening practice as real footballers talk of their footballing experiences. Definitely worth a look.

8 Freekick Fusion

Use the single player option in this game as a reward for work done well in class or as an incentive to learners to do some more boring work. My class were doing an end of unit assessment in their coursebook which was split into a dozen sections over two pages. The first person to finish a section, bring me their book for me to check, got all the answers right then got to take the freekick. Young learners loved it.

9 Dress a footballer

A great game for low levels to practice colours and clothes vocabulary (top/ t-shirt, long-sleeved top, shorts, trainers, and sunglasses). It was also useful to use ordinals (first, second, third etc). I played this in a connected classroom and had learners sitting at the front of the class in front of the IWB where they dictated their player to me. Because they all had an opinion on what they wanted the player to wear this acted as a drilling activity (even if a little chaotic). I chose learners randomly at first then if I heard any mispronunciations, I focused on that. The activity lasts longer if you ask learners to make the worst football strip, one for their school, one for an enemy to wear, one they would wear etc

10 Football quizzes

A selection of quizzes that cover a wide range of national and international teams as well as football personalities. You can set challenges to your learners and see who gets the best score in one particular quiz, use them for reading practice for fast task finishing football fans. If you find a ‘quiz generator‘ or ‘make your own quiz‘ online you can use the quizzes as models to get learners to make their own.

With the FIFA World Cup starting it seems a wasted opportunity not to use football in the classroom.

10 Online videos to watch

By kylemawer | 2010/05/07 03:51 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (4)

Here’s a brief description of ten online videos for teachers of foreign languages to watch. All these videos were chosen because they are free, easily accessible, engaging and informative to teachers of a foreign language.

1 The Sims teach German

The sims is one of the most commercially successful PC games, notable because of its popularity with female gamers. This video referrences German language learning but is recorded in English and so is great for TEFL teachers to get some good ideas.

2 How to learn languages online by playing video games

Tutorial by gamer on how he sees languages can be learnt by playing video games.

3 A productive approach to video games, learning and school

Lecture by James Paul Gee on the educational implications of video games as a productive activity for schools.

4 Grand Theft Childhood

Most of us assume violent video games can negatively affect children and their behavior. After a multi-year, multi-million dollar study, Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D. Co-Director for The Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry speaks about the findings.

5 Manny Calavera teaches Spanish!

Overview of how adventure video games can be modified to be used in foreign language education. Demonstrates an example mixing the Spanish version of the game “Grim Fandango.

6 Pay attention

Since most of today’s students can appropriately be labeled as “Digital Learners”, why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices. This presentation uses images and facts to convince us to enter the digital age.

7 36 Principles of learning

James Paul Gee identifyied thirty-six learning principles that are evident in the design of good video games. He also argues for the application of these principles in the classroom and here is a video from the classroom in support of this.

8 Rezzworld

A 3D video game based on task based learning that is principally aimed at native American languages.

9 Practice foreign languages in Second Life

A look at the virtual world of Second Life and how it can be used to practice foreign languages. Second life allows you to message other avatars by text or talk to them via a microphone and headphones.

10 Video games and learning

Already covered on this blog (link above) but well worth a second look. This video looks at the development of video games.

Top Ten interesting ipod/iphone apps for English language learning

By grahamstanley | 2010/05/01 21:19 Posted in Top Tens | Comments (17)

The idea of mobile learning (or M-Learning) is starting to become more and more popular as more people get access to smart phones and other devices that allow them to learn wherever they are.

Although only a small part of m-learning, the apps available for the iphone/ipod touch show what some people are using at the moment to help them learn English.

Here are ten of them apps worthy of interest. Most are well worth downloading (they can all be downloaded from iTunes) – a couple really aren’t. Read the descriptions to find out more.

1. Word Challenge

Type: game Price: free

Description: A great new vocabulary game from the British Council. 3 different levels of difficulty and lots of different categories of vocabulary. How many questions can you answer in 60 seconds? When you have finished, the feedback shows you the answers and there is a brief description of why the answer is correct, with other examples of English in use.

What it Lacks: It’s too fast for some. Although this makes it exciting to play, it can be frustrating for some learners. This is just the first version of the game though – later versions will be adding a speed button so you can slow it down.

Summary: Excellent. An engaging vocabulary game for learners – they will love to play it and it will definitely help them increase their vocabulary. Great to see that you can share your score on Facebook too – shame you can’t do the same on Twitter.

2. English Grammar in Use Tests

Type: game Price: Euros 3.99

Description: It’s not free, but it’s one of the best English grammar apps available for the iphone/ipod touch at the moment. Based on CUP’s (Cambridge University Press) best-selling grammar book of the same name, you can work through different levels (1- ).

Don’t be put off by the word ‘test’ in the title, it’s built like a game so it’s more fun than working through the test exercises in the book. When you launch the app, you can choose ‘practice’ or ‘test’. in the test mode you’re presented with a gap fill exercise and three options. If you choose correctly, then the response turns green. If you choose wrong, it turns red. In the practice mode, you can choose specific aspects of grammar (tense, prepositions, articles, etc) to practise. Finally, there is a section on ‘Scores and statistics’ so you can see how you’re doing.

What it lacks: Explanations of grammar (for this you have to go to the book) so students can see where they’ve gone wrong. Some users have complained the interface is too slow. There is a more comprehensive app of the same book (English Grammar in Use, Euros 7.99) with audio and other features, but it still lacks the grammar explanations.

Summary: Definitely one to recommend a student with an iphone/ipod touch who needs to practise their grammar but who wouldn’t go near a book. Good value for money.

3. Free British English Gengo Flashcards

Type: flashcards Price: Euros free

Description: There are lots of different flashcard-based apps out there. This one is one of the best systems. It allows sounds to be played, which helps with pronunciation and includes a game.

What it Lacks: There are only two sets of free flashcards (fruit and weather) – if you want more sets then you have to pay

Summary: A limited app, but does what it offers. Great way of learning more vocabulary for visual learners.

4. Cambridge Advanced Learners Talking Dictionary

Type: reference Price: Euros 17.99

Description: There are so many dictionary apps available that it’s difficult to choose just one. I recommend sticking to the one you have found most useful. And, of course, there are lots of free English dictionaries, but, as usual, you get what you pay for. Although it’ll be too expensive for many, this is a great dictionary for learners that is cheaper than the paper/CD-ROM version but just as complete.

What it Lacks: Nothing. Most reviews on the Apple itunes store are positive

Summary: A great tool for learners for self-study, although it’s expensive for an iphone app.

5. Oxford Delux Dictionary and Thesaurus of English

Type: reference Price: Euros 42.99

Description: If what you want is a fully comprehensive dictionary and thesaurus and money is no object, then this is definitely for you. It’s the entire Oxford English dictionary and thesaurus plus audio for the iphone. It makes it one of the biggest (if not the best) English language reference guide currently available.

What it Lacks: nothing

Summary: Only for those with lots of cash to spend on iphone apps, obviously, but if what you want is an excellent comprehensive dictionary and you don’t want to lug around the paper equivalent, then this is for you.

6. IELTS Master Vocab Guide

Type: game Price: Euros 4.99

Description: If you know any students taking the Cambridge IELTS exam, then this is the app for them. complete with glossary and vocabulary tests, it will help students prpeare for the exam. Cambridge also produce similar versions for other exams (TOEFL, TOEIC, etc)

What it Lacks: Not as comprehensive or as good as the book – designed to be used as supplementary to it.

Summary: Good app for IELTS – a perfect complement for students looking at preparing for the exam and who want to use their iphone/ipod touch

7. Vaughan Radio

Type: game Price: free

Description: Aimed at Spanish learners of English, this app is a simple one which allows anyone with a live internet access to tune into Vaughan radio live from Madrid. Vaughan radio is a radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day for English learners.

What it Lacks: There is no support from the app – just a screen with the log on it – it would be far more useful if there was information about programming and/or exercises sent simultaneously to the iphone/ipad while broadcasts were taking place (perhaps a future possibility)

Summary: Perhaps only of interest to Spanish learners of English, the app nevertheless shows a different kind of future direction for learners wanting to study English.

8. Tongue Mystery English

Type: game Price: Euros 0.79

Description: And now for something completely different. Tongue Mystery English is simply a collection of tongue twisters. You can practise, search for ones containing particular words and then there’s a social networking aspect to them as you can share on Facebook and Twitter. Not particularly designed to help learners with English, but some may find it fun. I was disappointed though – it doesn’t work very well and the content is poor.

What it Lacks: It has very limited in scope and interest. Would be better if it were free as it really doesn’t have much content. Even if it were free, I’d probably not recommend you download it.

Summary: Odd app – one interesting thing about it is the sharing on social networking aspect – it’s surprising that more apps don’t offer this. Avoid this though – if you download it, it won’t be on your iphone/ipod for long.

9. A Cup of English

Type: podcast support Price: Euros 1.59

Description: A very interesting idea in theory – a podcast support app. When you start the app, it gives you a list of the available podcasts and when you choose one you get a transcript and the podcast. However, you can’t listen to the podcast and read the transcript at the same time, and sometimes the background to the transcript means it’s difficult to read. You can’t increase the size of the text either, which means the font size is infuriatingly small.

I also downloaded the app based on the image in iTunes (above). It looked very interesting, integrating Facebook, Twitter, email and allowing iphone users to call the show – what a great idea! But the version that I have installed doesn’t have Twitter/Facebook integration. Neither does it let you call the show, so very disappointing.

What it Lacks: See above, but basically a lot of what is promised on the iTunes page. Presumably the podcasts are available free from iTunes, so this is a complete waste of money

Summary: Cup of English promised something very interesting – if all of the features worked in the way you’d expect them to, then this would have been a very interesting app indeed. But they don’t. And I feel cheated. In short, don’t buy this app.

10. Conversation English

Type: courseware Price: Euros 3.99

Description: There aren’t that many English courses out there for the ipod/iphone yet, something that will surely change. One of them is called Everyday English, uses a video of a teacher talking. It has ten lessons available, priced 0.79 euros each, and aims to give advice to students. However, the choice of language taught is questionable and it’s just a video so it’s not interactive at all. The Conversation English app is much better. It has 20 lessons, each one featuring a short audio dialogue (using an animated video). Once you’ve listened to the video, you can read the dialogue and then there are comprehension questions and other exercises based around the dialogue (sentence ordering, vocabulary-definition matching, fill in the blanks).

What it Lacks: It’s a very good app for the price – you could hardly ask for more

Summary: Following a story, the dialogues take the learner through a range of different conversations that are fun and the exercises that go with them comprehensive and informative.

I hope I have shown with this selection that there is already a lot of content out there for English learners with ipods/iphones. However, you have to be very careful what you choose to download as there are a lot of poorly produced and dubious apps out there. My recommendation is it’s probably best to stick to the established names if you want good quality apps. Beware of low cost apps that seem interesting on the surface but which will probably make you feel you’ve wasted your money. Be wary too of free apps and choose carefully. Even though they are free, they’ll take up your time and energy (and ipod space) downloading them. Use reviews such as this to know what to try/what to avoid and ask people you know who’ve tried apps out to recommend ones too.

10 Search tips to find games online

By kylemawer | 2010/04/23 03:05 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (2)

Here’s a brief description of ten key words to make your online search for games to use more effective. They should help you find some free, easily accessible, engaging and fun activities for your English Language Learners.

1 “free online games”

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.20.34 PM

Learn a bit about boolean search techniques. An example of one of these is to put your search words in quotation marks so that your search specifically looks for a set phrase. e.g. the title of this tip is “free online games” – games that are ‘free’, can be played ‘online’ and that are, er, ‘games’. In fact, tip titles 1-5 here all use Boolean search methods.

2 “point and click games”

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.24.55 PM

Using inverted commas for a set phrase and then adding +word means you get searches on the set phrase plus (+) the target word which helps to refine searches. If you use the tip title here you may like to add:

+online

By the way, Point and click games require the use of your mouse to interact with the game on the screen and this rather prolific genre has some great uses in the classroom and this blog has its fair share of them.

3 “escape the room game”

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.26.46 PM

A sub genre of point-and-click games the escape the room game has a rather self explanatory title. Look for ones that use a context which contains vocabulary that is either of interest to your learners, can be easily graded to their level or simply that they are exposed to day in day out.

4 “online game walkthrough” + youtube

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.28.04 PM

Use google video to find walkthroughs. It’s interesting to see the different search parameters on the left (above). Search for video games in video share sites, such as youtube, and you not only get to see a game without playing it (to check the images for appropriacy, language potential, to see the game in its entirety etc) but you also get a video walkthrough you can use. If that wasn’t enough, down the right hand side youtube will kindly list a whole list of other game walkthroughs on its site to check out.

5 “online game walkthrough” -youtube

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.48.47 PM

The current trend for using screencapture to video a game being completed is so great that it is sometimes difficult to find walkthroughs that are just text. If you want to find a piece of written text that instructs a gamer (or language learner) on how to complete a game step by step then add the:

-youtube

to take the content from this page out of the equation.

6 Delicious

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 11.20.42 AM

If you don’t bookmark or mark as favourite any of those interesting game sites you find you should do. Opening an account at delicious means you can not only see and tag those sites more easily but check out the sites of people who have used the same tags. A great way to find others who may already be doing the site searching for you.

7 Tweetdeck

Open a Twitter account and then download Tweetdeck on your imac or PC to more easily see and organise your tweets. It’s full of people microblogging about the things you set as being of interest to you. Here’s a few columns I’ve set up to help me hear about online games:

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 11.19.25 AM

8 Share and share alike

Create a website or a blog to collect all the games you would like to use in class in one place. In this way you can get sites checked and approved by yourself close together and direct your learners or fellow teachers to with ease. It also means the game, walkthrough, video walkthrough, reviews, fan reviews, screenshots and material are all easily accessible from a single site.

9 Google alerts

Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 1.37.04 PM

Once you’ve refined your searches a little and you have identified key search words you can get google alerts to scan the net for them and send you an alert each time they crop up. Try getting google alerts on certain game types, terminology, people and events. Scan read the summary email you receive and trash it if nothing really grabs your eye.

10 Ask The Experts

Ultimately the people who are experts in knowing what games will interest your learners are your learners. Find out what video games they play (careful as they may differentiate between what is a ‘computer game’, ‘console game’, ‘online game’ etc), when they play them, what kind of games there are and what they have to do in each game. Even just having ‘chats’ like this can generate a lot of English and help bridge a knowledge gap between you and your learners.

10 TEFL Activities for Samorost 2

By kylemawer | 2010/03/30 03:25 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (0)

Here’s a brief description of ten TEFL activities from the site 101 ways (and more) to use Samorost. All these activities were chosen because they cover a range of levels, location (classroom, connected classroom, computer room and home), language and skills practice. The links provided direct you to lesson plans, downloadable material and more.

1 Spot The Difference

Screen shot 2010-03-29 at 6.32.24 PM Use downloadable flashcards for a spot the difference activity with low levels. Alternatively, higher levels can use the same flashcards to practice the present perfect and identify ‘What has happened‘ between the 1st and second picture. If that’s not enough, give out the first flashcard to intermediate learners and get them to predict what ‘will‘ happen and then give out the second picture – now then can see what is ‘going to‘ happen.

2 Who wants to play Samorost 2

Screen shot 2010-03-29 at 6.43.08 PM If your learners have completed Samorost 2 why not do a reading activity with this fun PowerPoint quiz ‘Who knows all about Samorost 2‘ based on the popular Tv show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’. For the ‘phone a friend’ option I usually allow them to text someone outside the classroom (in English) and allow two minutes for a reply. ’Studio audience’ you can take a class vote (some interesting results with that – join in yourself if you like). If your learners like the game so much why not ask them ‘who wants to do a quiz about Samorost 2?‘ and get them to practice question forms and download the PowerPoint template and write their own questions and answers.

3 Poetry with Samorost 2

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An acrostic poem is where you write the name of your subject vertically down a page. Ask your learners to do this with the word ‘Samorost’, and to start a line to their poem starting with a letter from the word ‘Samorost’. Alternatively, try a more traditional poem with an advanced class using a more structured approach.

4 Vocabulary Crossword

Screen shot 2010-03-29 at 6.57.36 PM You may want to do a pre gaming or language activity (e.g. a walkthrough) with your class and a good way to pre- teach some of the vocabulary is to do a Samorost 2 crossword. Learners can get good dictionary work in while they have fun doing a crossword that targets vocabulary from Samorost 2. To change this activity from a primarily reading activity to a writing activity, learners can write down a list of vocabulary from Samorost 2 and write their own Samorost 2 student crossword.

5 Live Listening

If you have downloaded and printed off a copy of the walkthrough you can do a live listening. While your learners play the game in a computer room you use the walkthrough to guide them through the game. If some learners get further ahead than others then ask them to switch their screens off and describe to others how they have got to where they are in the game or direct the slower gamers to an online copy of the walkthrough to help them.

6 Picture dictation

Screen shot 2010-03-29 at 7.06.35 PM Picture dictations are great for lower levels and offers a great opportunity to focus on prepositions of place. The first screen shot of Samorost 2 lends itself well to a description that makes a great picture dictation to learners who are unfamiliar with the game Samorost 2. Either use a Samorost 2 picture dictation text or make your own up. When learners have finished they can compare their pictures with the original either as a downloaded flashcard or on a screen at the front of the class if you have a computer, internet connection and the means to display the game.

7 Comic Books

Screen shot 2010-03-29 at 7.25.28 PM Comic books are visually engaging and can help to both stimulate the imagination and provide a fun way for learners to practice writing. They can focus on direct speech elements (left) and reported speech or narrative tenses (right). Download either of the templates pictured here as well as other comic pages from the Samorost 2 game by clicking on the links in brackets above in this text.

8 Wonderous walkthroughs

8 Walkthroughs

Samorost 2 (part 1) Video Walkthrough

A walkthrough in online gaming can be a written walkthrough text, which consists of step-by-step instructions on how to complete a game, or a video walkthrough of the game being played and completed.hrough in online gaming can be a written walkthrough text, which consists of step-by-step instructions on how to complete a game, or a video walkthrough of the game being played and completed. Why not learn how to use the ‘search this site‘ and look for some ideas on how to use a video or written walkthrough with language learners.

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9 Sequencing events

Download and print off a copy of the Samorost 2 action verb cards and there is plenty you can do. Learners can watch a video walkthrough and sequence the verbs in the order they appear in the video walkthrough (lights! Camera! Action Verbs!).

Once the verbs have been ordered, learners can then tell the story of Samorost 2 (Action speaks louder than words) using the verbs to help them.

Finally learners can use the ordered verbs as scaffolding for a writing activity (The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword) where they write the story of Samorost 2.

10 Verbs + Prepositions

Lots of activities and worksheets to download focusing on verbs + prepositions that cover the whole of the free online part to Samorost 2. Use password codes to skip levels to do specific worksheets or work your way through over the course of a few classes. Worksheet activities include:

Mind the gap Place the verb and prepositions in the gapped walkthrough.

Grammar jigsaw Communication gap where learners match sentences ending with a verb with a partners sentence that starts with a preposition.

Scramble! Order the words to form walkthrough sentences.

Over & Out Gap fill preposition activity

Why not check out The 101 ways (and more) to use Samorost site for other ideas, material and lesson plans.

10 Games That Use Extensive Audio

By kylemawer | 2010/03/05 03:17 Posted in All Posts, Top Tens | Comments (0)

Here’s a brief description of ten games with strong audio elements that require very little preparation and some tips on how to use them. All these games were chosen because they are free, easily accessible, engaging and fun for English Language Learners.

Screen shot 2010-02-08 at 12.25.36 PM 1 Decorate

Do your learners know their furniture vocab? Have your pre-intermedaite learners practice their listening and reading skills as they furnish Roger’s flat. Great for 1:1 learner/ computer ratio classes or set as a fun homework activity. Learners read the speech bubbles and listen to Roger tell them how he wants his flat furnished. Vocabulary sets include furniture, colours and patterns.

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2 Sveerz

This is a musical arcade game which is a cross between Tetris and simon says. It’s great for drilling colours with a primary class in open class. Simply play the game at the front of the class and have your learners sitting in front of the game shouting out the colours. You play the game by clicking the colours they shout. When they know how to play get a volunteer up to take your place at the keyboard.

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3 Arcane season

Use the great video sequences, nice special sound effects and what the in-game characters say to stimulate a creative writing activity with an upper intermediate and beyond class. The good thing about this? Just click here for a more comprehensive lesson plan.

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4 Hot shot business

Disney scored a bit of a hit with this game. Listen to the two presenters and in game newsflashes as you open your own skateboard retailers, comic shop or pet shop. Learners can read the speech bubbles as they listen for extra support. Some nice arcade style games breaks give learners a short break from language and they keep the adrenalin level up.

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5 Case of the crabs

This is a point and click game which is great to use with a walkthrough class activity. Admittably the sound effects are more there to add atmosphere rather than provide some skills practice but it’s still a nice little game. The opening sequence allows learners to read and listen to the storyline. Click here for the walkthrough. Read out the walkthrough, relay dictation from the teacher’s computer screen or tell learners where to access it.

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6 Mingoville

Fun English learning games, grammar and songs all with flamingos that speak English. A popular one with Primary English learners though the activities are very much based on drilling language items. If this is the thing for you and your learners then set this up at the front of the class.

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7 Stage 07

A very engaging point and click adventure game you can use with a walkthrough. Choose how you interact with the in game characters to solve a mystery. Both Listening and reading skills practice. Great for pair work in the computer room for intermediate English learners and above. Click here for the walkthrough.

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8 voki

This website allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on blogs, profiles, and in email messages. Get students to record themselves talking about their voki avatars – likes/ dilikes, habits and daily routines are all good areas to cover.

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9 Cuboy

Lots of audio for your learners to listen to and they can also read the text with the in game characters’ speech bubbles. Nice little game with lots of puzzles to solve. Use the walkthrough to help your learners. Click here for the walkthrough.

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10 Hewitt

Help Hewitt to find a girl for the school dance. This game takes a minute or so to load so be warned. Use YOUR MOUSE to play the game and make sure you read the instructions to the tutorial at the beginning of game. Click here if you want the walkthrough.

10 Sites for Playing With Images of Students

By grahamstanley | 2010/01/25 05:30 Posted in Top Tens | Comments (5)

In September last year, we wrote about the film Gamer and featured a link to a site allowing you to create a Gamer film poster from your own photo. There are lots of other sites like this, allowing you to create altered images of yourself. Here are ten, with ideas of how you can use them in class.

1. Avatarise yourself

It’s quickly turning into the cinematic sensation of the new decade and if you do get the chance to see James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D, don’t worry about the simplistic plot or melodrama and you’re sure to be amazed.

Why not kick off a discussion of the film with your learners by showing them a blue-skinned version of yourself.

If you have an interactive whiteboard or data projector, you can do this and show them a video here.

Please note, this is the German language version of the tool – unfortunately, the English language version seems to have been closed down.

Hopefully, it’ll reappear again soon.

2. Mr. Picassohead

Want something more artistic?

Then ask your learners to create a picture of themselves using the Picassohead generator.

If they do this for homework and email it to you (you can do this automatically from the site), then they can decide how much the images looks like themselves in class.

Great for comparatives and descriptions – your eyes are bigger, etc.

3. Wii Mii

Nintendo’s Wii lets you create a Mii , a cute cartoon character, to represent yourself when you are playing the games on their console.

You don’t have to own one of these to be able to do this, however – http://www.weeworld.com/ lets you and your learners make their own.

Ask them to do this before the next class and send you the images.

Pin them to the wall and see how many of them can guess who’s who.

It’s a good way to start a discussion about the Wii and what console games they like.

You can follow this up with them writing a description of one of their classmate’s miis.

4. Lego-ize yourself

Ask the students if they ever played with lego or any similar kind of toy.

What did they make?

How long did they spend doing it?

Tell them they can build the Lego version of themselves here:

http://reasonablyclever.com/mini/flash/minifig.swf

5. Make a Manga version of yourself

Faceyourmanga allows you to create a Japanese Manga-style version of someone.

Because the menu selection is in English, it’s even worth doing as a computer room activity with lower level learners as they see quite a lot of vocabulary.

Back in the classroom, they can describe each other’s images and/or write a description of a classmate’s.

Alicia Rey, an English teacher who is no stranger to exploiting Web 2.0 tools with learners has created a tutorial for students for this.

6. Simpson-ize yourself

and… 7. South Park-ize yourself

Ask students to compare two similar TV series (such as The Simpsons and South Park) and introduce the topic by Simpsonsizing yourself and creating your South Park version .

South Park Studio is just as easy to use – you could ask learners to create a version of themselves using both and then write a comparison.

8. Ultimate Flash Face

If it’s accuracy you want, then http://flashface.ctapt.de/ gives you a far greater range of features. It’s similar to a police photofit, which means it could be used as a possible warmer for a game of Alibi or when looking at crime vocabulary.

Make a few faces based on some of your students and get them to say who they think the images look like

9. Build your Wild Self

For anyone with young learners, Build your Wild Self is ideal. It lets you create an avatar that looks like you , but also allows you to add animal parts to change the appearance completely – lots of fun, and because everything is labelled in English, a good computer room activity for revising parts of the body with a class.

10. Be Funky Photo Effects

Be Funky lets you take any photograph and transform it into something completely different.

Use it to create altered images of yourself, your learners and/or the other teachers in your school (can they guess who’s who?)

With this site, the only limit is your imagination.

Please note, if you decide to use this with learners, they’ll need to register for an account first (with an email address)

Want more?

If you like using images with your learners, be sure to check out the new blog by Ben Goldstein, author of the book Working with Images.

There’s also a TESOL EVO session on at the moment which is all about ideas for using images with learners. You can find this here: http://evosessions.pbworks.com/Images4Education

Have fun!