What kinds of technology training have you received in the past? From these workshops or classes, which skills do you continue to use? Why do you think some skills "stick" with you, while others are quickly forgotten? If you know of a "best way" for you to learn and remember new skills, describe this process.

I haven't received much training as I have never had the opportunity to be in a course which involves learning about all the skills I have tried to develop so far. I had the opportunity to be in an 8 hour course of learning how to use the Internet to teach English. Another opportunity I also had was an e-tutoring course, where I could develop ideas to use in CMC (platforms) systems in order to be able to do on-line tutoring. It was a very useful course and I learned to appreciate all the options we have on-line to use with our students.

A way that I think helps me keep the things which I learned from my courses is by doing it, that is to say, if I learned to use the Internet, I have to look for places which can be useful for my students, take my students to the language laboratory, pilot them and then see whether they could work or not and see how useful the activity was for my students. If I learned to e-tutor my students, create some activities which could help them be directed from the computer so that they can work from the laboratory (or if possible from home) so that they can see how useful the computer can be as a tool.

With this, I think I just can sumarise that for me the best way to keep things with me when I learn something new is by "doing" them, try as much as possible to develop the ability and keep practising so that I don't forget it quickly. I could also say that when I don't practice that what I have learned for some time, obviously I forget and when I try things again, it takes me longer to remember and sometimes I even get discouraged from doing the thing I wanted simply because it took me too long to do it.

That's at least what happens to me. What about you all?

LINKS

http://www.mansioningles.com/ La Mansión del Inglés.
This site offers exercises in the four skills, lessons and very useful information. It is suitable to levels from elementary to pre-intermediate.

http://a4esl.org/ Activities for ESL-EFL STUDENTS.
A site to practice English, specially focused on the practise of grammar and vocabulary.

http://www.nelliemuller.com/ Nellie Muller’s Page.
A site to practice English for the four skills. It brings ideas and projects to handle with students through the web. Easy to access and very interesting.

http://www.english-zone.com/ English Zone.
A site to practice English for the four skills. The only disadvantage is that students have to be registered and pay a fee to access most of the exercises and activities to do.

http://www.english-at-home.com/ Learn English as a Second Language
An interesting site with quizzes on grammar and vocabulary.

http://cla.univ-fcomte.fr/english/sites/read.htm English as a Second Language.
A great site to practice the four skills. This site offers links to other very good sites, where the students can practice the four skills, grammar and vocabulary. Suitable for all the levels: Elementary – Advanced.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/bilder.htm
A site to practice specially grammar, vocabulary and listening comprehension. This site offers exercises of different types to different levels. Suitable to levels from elementary to intermediate.

http://esl-lab.com/
A site to practice Listening Comprehension, this site offers exercises with downloadable mp3 files in real player mostly, excellent sound quality and very good comprehension exercises. Sutable for all the levels.

http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/communication/commindex.html
A site to practice Listening Comprehension, this site also offers downloadable files in real player and windows media. With very good sound quality and a few comprehension exercises, this site is suitable to levels from elementary to intermediate.

http://soundsofenglish.org/
A site for speechwork practice. This site offers information about phonetics and phonology along with some listening exercises. There are some very useful exercises.

http://lc.byuh.edu/CNN-N/cnnhome.html CNN Student’s Page.
A site to practice grammar and vocabulary, within the news context.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/quiznet/countdown.shtml BBC ESL service.
A site to practice English, specially reading, listening and quizzes, within the news as context.

http://www.ahajokes.com/ Clean humour
This site is a suitable reference for students to improve reading skills. It is a very nice place with clean jokes which can help improve the class environment. Suitable for pre-intermediate-advanced levels.

http://www.nelliemuller.com/ Nellie Mueller Page.
This site is a very good reference to find information, sources and very good ideas to be used in the language classroom.

http://www.nelliemuller.com/task2.htm Nellie Mueller Page, Tasks
This part of the site offers tips for tasks which can be used in the language classroom. Excellent ideas to be developed with clear goals and instructions.

http://evaeaston.com/pr/home.html Eva Easton Site.
This is a very suitable site to practice the four skills.

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/ The British Council
The official site of the British Council. This site offers activities, information, communities, exercises, etc., to be used by students from all the levels.

http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp Urban Legends
This site offers very good ideas for reading comprehension. It’s very suitable for students of all levels. The stories are very interesting and motivating.

http://www.english-at-home.com/ English at Home.
This site offers quizzes for different levels, specially focused on grammar.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/index.php
A very nice place to practice vocabulary. Suitable for levels from elementary to pre-intermediate.

http://www.manythings.org/el/at/ Songs in English.
This is a site to practice songs in English. The student can listen and do some exercises which can be very interesting. Suitable for all levels.

http://aliso.cnice.mecd.es/~jchamero/songs/partofme1.htm More songs in English
A good place to practice English through songs. It offers different sorts of exercises to improve listening comprehension and reading comprehension as well.

TEACHERS' RESOURCES

http://www.reusability.org/read/ The Instructional Use of Learning Objects

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIE/AOP/learningobjects.html Center for International Education, Milwakee

http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v03/i04/Polsani/ Journal of Digital Information

http://www.eduworks.com/LOTT/tutorial/learningobjects.html All about Learning Objects.

http://www.learning-objects.net/ Learning About Learning Objects

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/womeninscience.html
Women in Science. A conference held with panelists
that can be used as a video with questions.