ACKY English

Hello everyone. I just made a podcast explaining the present perfect tense. You can listen to it below or click here to listen to it on its website.  

Today, I made a Thinglink. For those who don't know what it is, Thinglink is a website where you can create informational interfaces like this one . This is a great tool that can be used to teach certain subjects besides various other things. Other than boring images you can also use videos and 360° videos. It also supports VR and this can bring the materials that you can create to a whole new level. Here is the Thinglink I made. Just click on those icons. And here it is as a link: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1321843713453850625

Augmented Reality is a new kind of technology that augments reality. It can be said that it is a combination of VR and reality. If you don't know about VR I suggest you to read my previous post . In VR all we see was virtual stuff but in AR that virtual stuff is experienced together with reality. The picture above explains it well actually. There is no chair in the room but the phone adds it using the AR technology. There are marker based and markless AR technologies. In marker based AR to see the virtual model a marker is needed. In markless AR however, we don't need to use any other material. If the device you are using is compatible with AR technology you can download and experience the AR right now. There various apps you can use and some of them are even free. One is Sketchfab. People like you create 3D models and upload them to this platform and you can summon those models on  your desk or on your hand whenever you want. This technology is already used in language teachin...

One of the factors that hinders the process of learning is the lack of motivation and will. The world is full of fun things to do and among them learning a language for example won't be found attractive for many students. Reading stuff, translating sentences, memorizing words are not appealing enough for people. Making it appealing however, is possible. For example, learning the names of animals in another language in a zoo is far more fun than doing it in a classroom. Students won't get bored and lose focus and the information will be more persistent. However, taking students to a zoo to learn vocabulary is expensive and time consuming. But there is a way out: VR. VR is the technological advancement that is able to take you to a zoo without removing you from your seat. Basically, it is glasses with screen on them. You take them on and you are in another place. With the help of this technology, teachers can enable their students to experience the same zoo environment in the cla...

Nearpod Nearpod is another app that connects teachers with their students. With Nearpod you can create a virtual classroom and add your students. This is a place where you can share lesson materials and assignments with your students. Besides assigning homework to students which they can do whenever they want until the due date, you can start live sessions and teach a lesson as if you are in the school with your class. You can ask them a question and see their answers instantly. Also you can share a true/false question, ask them to draw something or share a slide or a website with them. This website also has an "Explore" section which teachers can use to share content and use the content that other teachers had made. Another great feature is the VR implementation. This is a really nice touch because VR technology can make learning more appealing and fun. Mindmeister Sometimes for various reasons like thinking about an assignment or planning a party, we find ourselves in a mes...

1. Duolingo Duolingo, if what they claim is true, is the most popular language learning app. The app is free and with less than 100 MB of download, you can create your profile and start learning a language right away. Currently there are 30 million English learners in the app.  The process of learning is very easy to understand. There modules and each of them has vocabulary and grammar rules for you to learn. Activities contain listening, translating and writing. Repetition is also a key factor. As you move forward, the app tracks your progress and if one of your module knowledge is weakens, it warns you so that you can practice it again and strengthen your skill. You can also set daily goals and discuss the language rules in Duolingo forum.  2. Busuu This app is very similar to Duolingo. The process is just a bit different. The first thing I realized was that Busuu is more explanatory. Rather than letting you to deduce the rules, it gives them clearly. This app has an also a ...

Hi! I just finished preparing a short comic. It is a dialogue between a child and his father which begins with the son asking his father the meaning of the word winter. With this short comic, learners of English can familiarize themselves with seasons and their features. I used Pixton to create this comic. Pixton is a useful app where you can create comics. There a lot of characters, backgrounds, face expressions and many more content available to use. So, it is definetly get the job done. It is possible to create a teacher account where you can create a class and add your students. Besides them being able to read the comics you made, you can assign them to make one and read theirs too. I left mine below for you to see what you can do with Pixton as a link and also as a picture. The comic: Seasons

Hi! With this post I'm going to introduce you Quizlet . This is a website where you can create activities such as mine which I'll leave the link below. The activities you can create with this tool is great for language learning. For example, while doing my activity, you are first introduced to the words with related images, then you learn them by doing tests. After, you try to write those words from your memory. That way the information becomes more persistent. You can also practice your listening skills with those words and finally take a test to see if you learned them or not. There also games that you can play that are made for the activities. Here's my Quizlet activity:  Colours

In modern day world we can use technology to do many things. There are so many things to do that we can almost have a second life in a virtual place. Second Life does this. Just like in real life, you have a body, there are locations to visit and you are not alone. You can interact with other people. These advantages of Second Life can help us in language learning. Right now there some islands that people visit to practice their language skills. You can visit them and meet people like you who are trying to learn a new language. They can help you and you can help them. Teachers also can have another classroom outside the real world. In here they can try different methods that are impossible to do in real life.

Here I am again with a different app that is going to help you in your journey of learning English. It is called Gistory and only available in Google Play and App Store . Gistory is a platform where people like you create language related content. I find the app really helpful in terms of practicing. Let's say you just learned about the present continuous tense at school and you want to strengthen your skills. If you do the gistory about the present continuous tense, it will have provided you enough practicing  experience. Gistories created on the app are not just true/false or fill-in-the-blanks questions. They can also have short passages, videos etc. You don't also see only grammar related gistories. There are also stories in the app that some people made. They are great beacuse the story continues according to your choices. As a creator, you can highlight the potentially unknown vocabulary and add the meanings of them for the learner.

Hi everyone. I just wrote a short story about the planets in our solar system and the Sun. I used Storybird to create this book. Storybird is a website where you can create books. It is easy to use and really fun. Also, it great for English teaching lessons. Teachers can give writing a short story as an assignment their students. They also can write a story themselves to teach a certain subject and share it with them. The book can be downloaded and printed, so it is easy to share. You can see what you can create by reading my book. Enjoy! The book I wrote:  Recollection - A Short Story

Here is an animated dialogue between a tourist from the UK and Mustafa. I used Animaker to create this animation. Animaker is a website where you can create these kind of animations and more. It gives you a lot of content to use and more if you pay for them. It also gives you so much control over your videos that if you are creative enough and have time, you can make amazing videos with this tool. You can see a simple example by watching my video here. Enjoy!