Kevin Ryan in Tokyo

Kevin putting it out there

  • Tool #17: Headset

    When your students are learning languages with the web, they will need to listen to sounds and to speak into a microphone. The easiest way to do this is to buy a headset, which is a set of headphones with a microphone coming out one of the earpieces. There are hundreds of models, and they aren’t very expensive, ranging from Y1,000 to about Y10,000.

    This headset is made by Plantronics
    This headset is made by Plantronics

    Many manufacturers make models that are good enough for language learning for about 3,000 to 5,000 yen ($30-50).

    A few simple things you should pay attention to when buying:

    1) Get stereo, ones with speakers on both ears, not just one.

    2) Get a noise canceling microphone if you can, it helps when you are in a noisy room.

    3) Get a USB model, one that plugs in using the USB. The quality of sounds is better than the old fashioned ones with the “regular” plug.

    Sony makes decent ones, but they are usually overpriced. I like Plantronics, and people I know in the radio business like them for podcasting too.

  • Tool #16: Web 2.0 for Learning: A directory

    Web 2.0 is a way to say people are using the web in a different way now than they did a few years ago. More on the details of this later. But with that, there are hundreds, no, thousands of new tools, just for language learning. I will include my favorite 100 in this series, but there some people might like to explore more widely. For that you need to find a good directory of learning tools for web 2.0 activities. Here it is. Learning tools

    Learning Tools
    Learning Tools

  • Tool#15: YouTube videos

    YouTube has millions of videos
    YouTube has millions of videos

    YouTube was the most important site on the web in 2006. Millions of people are putting up videos of every possible subject, so if you need some authentic language for your class, it is easy to find. It is still a very popular place to put up videos. This really does spice up your classes. Be careful, though, some of the language and images can be a little rough.

  • Tool #14: iGoogle

    iGoogle is a great portal, a web page that acts as a window onto the web.

    You can move parts of the page around with your mouse
    You can move parts of the page around with your mouse

    Using iGoogle, I can access all of my important information with a single click. My Gmail and appointments, my To-do list, my RSS reader, even a quote for the day. I leave this open on my desktop all day long, and use it as my channel to the web. You sign up for Google, and you can make a page just as you want to. If you want to change the layout, just move the parts with your mouse.

  • Tool #13 Gmail, or Google Mail

    Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are fine, but Google has a feature in their webmail that makes it much better to use. You can tag your email with labels, and then dump the emails all into one big folder. Don’t worry, because the search is fantastic. I can always find messages that I have saved.

    Gmail lets you send attachments up to 10 MB, great for podcasts
    Gmail lets you send attachments up to 10 MB, great for podcasts

    And you can save a lot of them. Google gives you many megabytes to store your email messages. I even have Google go get my school email so I can access from anywhere.