Authoring Tools

Before sharing with you my thoughts about the usefulness of authoring tools in language teaching I'd like to share what authoring tools are. It's taken from http://www.ehow.com/info_8379526_authoring-tools-englishlanguage-teaching.html

What Are Authoring Tools in English-Language Teaching?

By Laura Jean Holton, eHow Contributor

The Internet is a rich source for activities and material for English-language teaching. However, many teachers may not have the technical skills to make full use of these resources. Authoring tools, or authorware, for English-language learning can help teachers create interesting and professional interactive classes.

Definition

• Authoring tools are programs that assist a user in the writing of hypertext and multimedia applications. They consist of programs, templates and wizards that can help teachers to create computer-based learning classes and presentations. Authoring tools work by linking objects, such as text, pictures or audio, to create a final application. A user must establish the relationships between objects and their sequence in the application.

Teaching Templates

Teachers can use the Teaching Templates authoring tools to design exercises connected to specific purposes. This collection consists of nine different tools: Energy Saver (filling in missing letters), Flashcards, Gap Text (based on the Cloze test), In Other Words (using synonyms), Mastermind, Multiple Choice, Playtime, Question Time and What's Your Opinion. Using Teaching Templates is very simple since the user only needs to key in information, such as questions, answers and options. It also allows the author to edit features of webpages -- for example, by changing colors and adding images and sound.

From my point of view these authoring tools are really useful to us because they allows us to create common activities and tasks that will respond to our students specific needs. We do not only design exercises in a visual way but we also decide on the contents that the activities will deal with and the strategies we want the students develop. Authoring tools allow teacher to decide on the texts the students are going to read or hear, the vocabulary they are going to work with. Authoring tools will give students immediate feedback and if it's well designed, it will provide the correct answer and a brief explanation if we want. These activities can be solved on line or off line what is something very important to take into account in case the connection at the schools is not very good. Finally, authoring tools are not time consuming and you can create easily eye-catching activities just by following the steps.

I really liked these tools. I found them very helpful and they are ideal for a "bussy teacher" so I'm sure in a future I'l be working a looooot with them