Hot Potatoes is a freeware from Half-Baked Software Inc that allows the user to create interactive activities for the World Wide Web. For this CALL course, me and my classmates have been learning to use it to create interesting English language related activities. Here, I will reflect upon the using of Hot Potatoes.
The first thing I noticed when using Hot Potatoes was how easy and userfriendly it is to create activities. We have been taught to create interesting exercises using Hot Potatoes, and some of it includes gap-fill exercises, matching or ordering and jumbled sentence.
It is very easy to use and it can save a lot of time for teachers to prepare them. Plus, the activities and exercises can be done via World Wide Web, so as long as there is internet connection, the activities can be done. The exercises might be more interesting to do because pictures can easily be included in the activities. Pictures can help students on details such as describing things, people or places. The usage of pictures in the Hot Potatoes can easily teach students how to use 'adjectives'.
How teachers show what a 'didgeridoo' looks like; by using pictures
However, I encountered a problem when trying to insert pictures from the hard drive. When I have chosen a picture from my hard drive to be included in the activities, a warning box pops up and it says "These source and target paths are on different drives, so no relative paths can be created." This bothers me because when I saved the project and tried to view it via World Wide Web, the pictures weren't included in the exercise.
"These source and target paths are on different drives, so no relative paths can be created."
I managed to overcome this problem by inserting pictures from it's Web URL. That way, the software can access the picture easily through the address given and the pictures were finally included in my exercises. I'm sure there is a way to insert the pictures from the hard drive because the option do so is there, so there must be a way to do it, and it must have been my fault for not putting the pictures in the related drive. However, I prefer to choose pictures from the Web because I have so many options and varieties of pictures to choose from.
Clearly,
Hot Potatoes should be used by all English teachers to prepare activities for computer intergrated classrooms or lessons.
It is very easy to use and it can save a lot of time for teachers to prepare them. Plus, the activities and exercises can be done via World Wide Web, so as long as there is internet connection, the activities can be done. The exercises might be more interesting to do because pictures can easily be included in the activities. Pictures can help students on details such as describing things, people or places. The usage of pictures in the Hot Potatoes can easily teach students how to use 'adjectives'.
How teachers show what a 'didgeridoo' looks like; by using picturesHowever, I encountered a problem when trying to insert pictures from the hard drive. When I have chosen a picture from my hard drive to be included in the activities, a warning box pops up and it says "These source and target paths are on different drives, so no relative paths can be created." This bothers me because when I saved the project and tried to view it via World Wide Web, the pictures weren't included in the exercise.
"These source and target paths are on different drives, so no relative paths can be created."I managed to overcome this problem by inserting pictures from it's Web URL. That way, the software can access the picture easily through the address given and the pictures were finally included in my exercises. I'm sure there is a way to insert the pictures from the hard drive because the option do so is there, so there must be a way to do it, and it must have been my fault for not putting the pictures in the related drive. However, I prefer to choose pictures from the Web because I have so many options and varieties of pictures to choose from.
Clearly,
Hot Potatoes should be used by all English teachers to prepare activities for computer intergrated classrooms or lessons.
i don't know what's the the 'white teeth thing' called in the last paragraph, and i can't remove it, help!
ReplyDeleteHot potatoes exercises can be burnt onto a CD and students can complete the exercises using any web browser without having Internet connection. I think you need to put the picture file in the same folder as the the Hot Potatoes file.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that white thingy is, scary..