1. Using email, voiceboards, & discussion boards
BETT Technological Applications in Teacher Training

2. Introduction
, voiceboards, and discussion boards or forums are easy ways to give your students writing or speaking practice outside of class.
Keep in mind our overall goals:
To use technology to reach teaching goals
To expand our student’s ability to use the target language outside of class
To give them meaningful practice

3.
In groups of 2-4, brainstorm how you might use to reach a particular teaching goal
Identify the goal
Brainstorm possible uses of to reach that goal – what types of activities or lessons could you do?
How to give feedback?

4. Discussion boards What are discussion boards or forums?
Places for students to write in response to a question or topic
Organized in “threads”
So students can respond to original topic, and/or respond to each other; students can read all responses
Teachers can easily give written feedback, but feedback is public
Example from Blackboard

5. Discussion boards Where can I find places to use discussion boards?
Moodle –
Lefora –
Free site to host forums and discussion boards

6. Voiceboards What are voiceboards? Advantages: Disadvantages
Like discussion boards, but for audio rather than written text
Function in the same way
Advantages:
Easy way to get students to practice speaking (and listening to others, possibly) outside of class
Can be short, targeted answers to questions
Easy to give voice feedback
Disadvantages
You need a microphone to be able to record – not all computers have one built in (but potential to record with phone)
Quality of audio may vary
May not work on all browsers

7. Voiceboards Where to find them? Blackboard, Moodle
Voxopop – free site –