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An excellent outline of teaching models for courses offered in an online environment. "The online learning environment allows educators and students to exchange ideas and information, work together on projects, around the clock, from anywhere in the world, using multiple communication modes. Given the advantages and resources of this rich learning environment, how can multiple instructional strategies best be utilized for online learning? Just as in the traditional classroom, instructional strategies are most effective when employed specifically to meet particular learning goals and objectives. Effective course design can begin with asking and answering the key question: what are the major learning goals and objectives for this course? "

"The video is intended to raise awareness of the impact of plastic shopping bags on the environment. Perhaps after watching this video in your classroom you could challenge students to think of alternatives to plastic bags or ask them to develop ideas for reusing and recycling plastic bags. You could also have students further study the impact of plastic bags on the environment. To demonstrate the information they find, have them create real documentaries about the impact of plastic bags on the environment. WeVideo is a good tool for creating documentary videos. "

This is a classroom-classroom collaborative clearinghouse. Schools or classes must join GLOBE first. There are 110 participating countries and 139 US Partners, 40,000 GLOBE-trained teachers. Students work with real scientists to help take measurements of the earth's environments. - EHS

GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based science and education program. GLOBE's vision promotes and supports students, teachers and scientists to collaborate on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system working in close partnership with NASA and NSF Earth System Science Projects (ESSPs) in study and research about the dynamics of Earth's environment.

"This wikibook article discusses Second Life, a virtual environment. The first part of this article, Introduction, gives a brief introduction to virtual environments and to the features of Second Life. The second part of this article, Characteristics of Second Life, discusses the theoretical features of virtual environments. The third part, Uses of Second Life & Projects in Second Life, focuses on uses of Second Life for social activism, education, and language teaching and learning. The final part of this article, Criticisms, Problems, and Limitations, includes a discussion of the most serious social problems occurring in Second Life and the constraints that individuals face when using Second Life." This is a very straightforward analysis of Second Life and even considers ethical issues in virtual worlds.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a foundation for professional development for technology integration and a common vocabulary for talking about effective uses of technology in teaching and learning.... The newly revised TIM was launched in February 2011, and features 100 classroom video example lesson plans, revised and expanded descriptions of student activity, teacher activity, and instructional settings for each TIM cell, focus pages for each characteristic and level, new professional development resources, and indices for grade levels and digital tools. The site includes 25 videos lesson examples in each of four core subject areas - math, science, language arts, and social studies. These lessons were videotaped in classrooms across Florida. "The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells. " This is an amazing resource for teacher training. TIM is easily accessbile and recommends you look at grade levels beyond your own for ideas.

What is the new role for instructions in online learning environments? How will students communicate and interact? How will students be motivated? We are still wrestling with these questions.

This URL has lots of great pictures

"The Education and the Environment (EEI) Curriculum teaches to mastery select K-12 California academic content standards in Science and History-Social Science, using the environment as a context for learning. " Includes Common Core standards in general science as well.

"Cybergogy focuses on helping adults and young people to learn by facilitating and technologically enabling learner-centered autonomous and collaborative learning in a virtual environment. At the core of cybergogy is awareness that strategies used for face-to-face learning may not be the same used in the virtual environment. "

"Abstract: The course management system (CMS) reinforces the status quo and hinders substantial teaching and learning innovation in higher education. It does so by imposing artificial time limits on learner access to course content and other learners, privileging the role of the instructor at the expense of the learner, and limiting the power of the network effect in the learning process. The open learning network (OLN)-a hybrid of the CMS and the personal learning environment (PLE)-is proposed as an alternative learning technology environment with the potential to leverage the affordances of the Web to dramatically improve learning. Author Name(s): Jon Mott David Wiley"

A paper describing massively multiplayer online games for situated learning, which give students a chance to operate in a simulated environment and share with other online players through chat. (Second Life has now become the standard for MMOGs.)

This visual index might give ideas for content- and project-based projects around the climate, geography, maps, environment, conservation, etc.

The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an open source software that can be used for creating concept maps for the language classroom.

R. Byrne offers an overview of OTUS, a mobile learning environment to distribute assignments, quizzes, polls, readings, etc., to iPads. It can now also be used with browers on laptops and Chromebooks. The Otus YouTube channel has detailed directions for how to use the various elements of the service.

MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching - is an online community where you can find peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials, share advice and expertise about education with expert colleagues, and be recognized for your contributions to quality education. These videos provide instruction on the MERLOT environment, highlight some of our award-winning materials, and offer keynote addresses from our annual international conference.

Article on PBL: The assumption of non-constructivist approaches to learning has been that as long as learners are provided with knowledge, they will be able to use it. Education based on that assumption is thus primarily concerned with transferring substance to the learner, and little importance is placed on the role of the learning activity. From a constructivist view, on the other hand, learning is the process of constructing knowledge - not merely obtaining it - in social environments (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). The theory of situated learning consistent with this view asserts that what we come to know and understand is fundamentally a product of the learning situation and the nature of the learning activity. Learning tasks should thus, as far as possible, be embedded in the target context and require the kind of thinking that would be done in real life (Brown et al., 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991).

R. Stannard reviews the CMS Edmodo platform, which let's you set up a virtual learning environment for students quickly and easily, and it's free. Edmodo is a wonderful for creating a class community, as well as setting assignments, creating quizzes, polls, and rubrics.

"CK-12.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to education. Their website offers a large collection of resources for students and teachers like Brain Genie which I previously shared. The bulk of their resources are math and science centered where students can learn about chemistry, physics, algebra, and geometry just to name four. They also offer resources for other content areas as well including history, English, and SAT prep. Their website is free to join and offers a wealth of learning resources and activities. Their site offers articles, quizzes, interactive lessons, videos and students can keep track of their learning as they complete lessons and activities and members can upload their own resources to the site as well. " This looks like a good attempt to crowd-source materials for K-12 in the U.S. Could have uses for ESL/EFL, particularly with content- and project-based learning.

"The invention of the LMS (Learning Management System) was a mistake. And here I'm not going to make the same frustrated argument made numerous times before now that LMSs are limiting structures, that their interface and functionalities control how teachers teach online (although those things are true). The LMS was a mistake because it was premature. In a world that was just waking up to the Internet and the possibility of widely-networked culture, the LMS played to the lowest common denominator, creating a "classroom" that allowed learning -- or something like learning -- to happen behind tabs, in threaded discussions, and through automated quizzes. The LMS was not a creative decision, it was not pushing the capabilities of the Internet, it was settling for the least innovative classroom practice and repositioning that digitally. As a result classes taught within its structure generally land with a dull thud. No matter how creative and inspired the teacher or pedagogue behind the wheel, the LMS is no match for the wideness of the Internet. It was born a relic -- at its launch utterly irrelevant to its environment and its user." Very thought-provoking article on how digital pedagogy really differs from just "teaching online."

The TeachingChannel has some beautiful, professionally edited videos on how to teach different things (not specific to ESL/EFL) - the techniques are what is important. Each video has discussions by the teacher, classroom shots showing the students at work, and excellent Lesson Objective and Questions to Consider in the sidebar. Very valuable for teaching training in techniques, classroom management, and ways to approach subject matter in a student-centered approach. These would all be very adaptable to ESL/EFL environments.