Foreign Language & ESOL Technology Integration

Block Posters

Block Posters allows you to create any size wall poster from any size image. Upload an image from your computer and choose how many sheets wide you would like the poster to be once it is printed.

Pictures have a direct route to long-term memory!

Have you heard of the the 12 Principles for surviving and thriving at home, work and school? Go to the Brain Rules site.

From John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, 12 Rules are

BRAIN RULE RUNDOWN

Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.

• We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%.
• Pictures beat text as well, in part because reading is so inefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures, and we have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to read them. That takes time.
• Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it's how we've always apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductive opportunity.
• Toss your PowerPoint presentations. It’s text-based (nearly 40 words per slide), with six hierarchical levels of chapters and subheads—all words. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images. Burn your current PowerPoint presentations and make new ones. (from Brain Rules by John Medina)

Tools for incorporating images into your lessons

 
Now that we know how important images are to memory, where are the tech tools that will help us?

Check out the list that Tony Vincent has compiled: Fun & Educational: Manipulating Digital Images

Slideshow maker

animoto: combining pictures into a slideshow. Quick and Easy!