Genial.ly: A Tool to support learning.

Hi everyone!!!

It has been a long time since my last post. But I was looking for the perfect entry. During those days I have signed up to Twitter and I have been investigating Genially. (https://app.genial.ly). I had never used this online tool to create anything...but I have discovered it is a world of opportunities.

First of all, I am going to explain what genially is. It is a tool to create interactive contents: any type of didactic resource, presentation, game, interactive image, infographic, maps, temporal processes... You can use it to support your lessons or to assess students and check their knowledge.

Why is it so interesting? I think it is a perfect way to present new contents in a different and interactive way that engages your students. Its main pros are that it helps hoarding - the interactive content makes students to actively participate-; engagement -the more interactive the tool is, the more attention it gets-; memorable, -interactive content is more likely to remember than static contents-; gamification possibilities - learning through games increases motivation, improves concentration and favors work based on problem solving-. Here you have many reasons to include this type of content in your CLIL lessons.

Now I am going to tell you how you can join genially. It is very easy: you have just to sign in with an email address. Then, you select your plan (there is one for free; and three plans with more options and premium content and options, for which you have to pay monthly). Finally, if you want, you can take a tour and learning how to use the tool and... you are ready to start creating new contents! For so, you have different templates or you can create a new one. It is up to you!

I decided to create my own presentation from zero. You can have a look:

You can also see it in this link: Solar System Support

Below you have a video in which I explain my project. I have recorded it using QuickTime Player. You have to open it and, then, click on new screen record. You select the part of the screen you want to record. For recording your voice, you have to click in "options" in the record bar, and then in microphone you have to select intern microphone. Finally, you press REC and you can start talking and showing whatever you want. I recommend you to press REC in 5 seconds or REC in 10 seconds, so you will have time to start your presentation or prepare in the screen the content you want to show.  I have uploaded my video to Vimeo and then I have embedded it here. I have chosen Vimeo over YouTube because the videos have more quality and no publicity is included.

It has been very easy to create it, but I needed a lot of time and work on it. Anyway, I think it was worth it!! Once you create one, you need less time to create the next one and it remains always. Don't forget that, sometimes, you can use the templates they have, so you will need little time to have your contents ready for the lesson. 

I think this tool is worthy for teachers to use in their lessons because we can engage and motivate our students... So I highly recommend it!!!

Start investigating and creating your interactive content!!!!

Cheers!!!