John Warnken

It is amazing the things that can happen when people get connected online. John Warnken (italki profile, facebook profile) was teaching US senior citizens in Arkansas how to use the internet, when he found italki. He found that connecting people through italki and Skype was a popular activity for the seniors he was working with. However, one person John met on italki was Endang Palupi, a school teacher from Pekalongan, Indonesia. She asked John if he would be interested in volunteering to teach some basic English to high school students.

John began teaching classes through Skype, and since then, John has become a celebrity in Pekalongan. He’s been featured in the local newspaper, and he’s been introduced to the mayor of Pekalongan. He even gave a graduation address (through Skype) to the high school.

He’s written up his own story on the Oprah Angels Network.  He’s also posted his story in this italki group.

John had a chance to be on a Central Java radio station, and he invited me to join him on the show. During the show, the mayor phoned in, as well as the local school superintendent. A number of students also went to the studio to talk on the air with John.

Unfortunately, at the moment when I was supposed to introduce myself, and talk about how the internet could be used to help people learn languages — I ran into some technical difficulties with Skype. The irony was not lost on me.

You can listen this segment of the radio interview here:

(I believe I said a number of things, but…)

Nevertheless, it was inspiring to hear how much this town appreciated John’s help in teaching English through Skype. John also let me know that the station has been receiving hundreds of texts and phone calls since the radio show aired. The station may make a talk with John a weekly program.

Here are pictures of the radio show in Pekalongan.

If you know of other stories about how you have used italki to help people (or have been helped), please let us know at feedback at italki dot com. If you’re interested in helping John with teaching English classes through Skype in other countries, you can contact him through italki (John Warnken) or post on his group discussion. We’re excited to see how projects like this develop.

Kevin and the italki team

Whiteboard – twiddla.com

• Twiddla has a great whiteboard that lets you write and share ideas with multiple participants.  It is free, and incredibly easy to use.  You can start typing or drawing on it immediately, and all you need to do to share is to send someone a URL.  The whiteboard also comes with a text and audio chat, and you can also import pictures and documents .
• You can try marking up this page right here:
  

Documents – scribd.com

• We’ve been long-time fans of Scribd.  With Scribd, you can upload and share word documents, powerpoints, PDF, and other types of files with students and other italki users.  We’ve integrated Scribd into the italki Resources section, so when you upload files to italki, all your students need to view it is just a link.  This avoids clogging up everyone’s mailboxes, and is a great way to spread the word about your services.
• Note:  scribd.com has been blocked in mainland China.

Powerpoint / Slideshows – slideshare.com

• Slideshows or powerpoints can be great tools for teaching or sharing information.  Slideshare has a nice way interface for flipping through different pictures and for full screen views.  If you like to teach with powerpoints, uploading to slideshare might be a nice option to have.

Communication Tools – Skype.com

• We continue to think Skype is one of the best tools for teachers.  Skype continues to have some of the best
• Microphone and webcam.  There are numerous options for this, and we haven’t actually made — if your connection can support it, we recommend doing video chats as well.

italki resources (documents, wiki, and more.)

• italki resources are still in a very early stage, but we also want to recommend taking a look in there.  For example, there are many handouts and study guides in italki documents (this links is for learning Chinese, but you can switch the language).  Wealso  encourage to contribute to the community by uploading files or helping to improve the wiki.

These are just a few of our favorite tools that we are recommending teachers use.  If you have other suggestions for useful teaching tools that have helped you teach or learn, please leave a  comment here to let us know.  There are so many excellent free web-based tools that are being developed for teachers and students, that it is hard to keep up!

The italki Team