The evolution of now: Vocabulary practice :)

This activity will increase the use of new vocabulary by promoting interaction amongst the students, and introducing a topic they are quite familiar with: Social networks.

1) Tell your students that they are going to watch a video that shows where we are in terms of social evolution. Ask them to write down all the information they consider surprising. 

2) Divide your students in pairs or trios and give each group a copy of the text below: The power influence has to make things happen.

3) Still in groups, the students can make posters about the social evolution numbers. Display on the board the social network word bank (check below).

4) Depending on their level, they can create a social network hit that has a great potential to go viral:

Eg:

 protect the environment

 protect the animals

 children’s rights, etc…

OBS: Remember, you don’t need to use a real social network to do this activity, it all can be done using paper, cut outs, or even drawings, what really matters is their creativity, and the use of new words and structures.

The Power Influence Has to Make Things Happen

source: http://mysuperchargedlife.com/blog/be-an-influence-you-are-a-powerful-force

Think of your influence like water.  Water in motion is a very powerful force.  We’ve all seen the pictures of a flood carrying away cars and even homes.

This is similar to what can happen today if you launch an idea and it goes viral on the Internet.  It becomes like a flood.  It moves rapidly over all the obstacles in its way.  Nothing can stop it.

We often hold back launching our ideas because we think it won’t make a difference, but what if others embrace it?  It happens every day.  Common people become famous in an instant.  Movements are created.  People rally together behind a cause.  Influence makes big things happen.

Of course, not all ideas go viral, still influence is powerful.  It can work like erosion.  Slowly, but surely, over time erosion changes entire landscapes.

You have this power inside you.  We all do.  It is all about how we choose to use it.

Social network word bank:

Tweetup - noun: a meeting or other gathering organised by means of posts on the social networking service Twitter. [from tweet + up on the pattern of MEETUP].

Hashtag - noun: a # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets (postings on the Twitter site) that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets.

Tag cloud - noun: a visual depiction of the word content of a website, or of user-generated tags attached to online content, typically using colour and font size to represent the prominence or frequency of the words or tags depicted.

Slashdot effect - noun: the slowing down or crashing of a small website due to a huge increase in traffic when the website is linked to another, much more popular one.

Unfriend/defriend - verb: to remove from one's 'friends' list (e.g. on a social networking website).

Freemium - noun: a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, with the aim of enticing users to pay for additional, premium features or content.

Paywall - noun: a way of blocking access to a part of a website which is only available to paying subscribers.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/185729/social_network_terms_go_mainstream.html