Group items tagged

Abstract: This case study is based on an investigation into the use that a group of language learners made of Livemocha.com, a Social Networking Site through which language exchange is enabled via social media applications. The learners created profiles in the website and proceeded to interact with speakers of their target languages, reporting back on their experiences over a 10-week period. As communication between language partners can take place through several different channels, and can be asynchronous or synchronous, written or spoken, it was considered that the preferences of learners with different personality types (as indicated by responses to a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire) might be accommodated. Several studies have suggested that the anxiety that some language learners feel when communicating in L2, especially when speaking, is reduced in online environments. Under the premise that a reduction in anxiety may lead to an increased "willingness to communicate" (MacIntyre et al., 1998), the principal objective of this project was to examine the type and frequency of online interactions that the participants engaged in with other speakers of their target languages in the Livemocha language learning community.

Sign-up for the 30-day, but a year - free! Here's info I got in an email notification: We are glad to announce a free WizIQ individual membership for K-12 and College teachers. To be eligible for this offer, teachers need email addresses associated with their educational institutes (e.g., aprofessor@college.edu or ateacher@adistrict.k12.ma.us.) If you are a teacher from K12 or a College, apply and claim your free membership by following the steps below: Steps to get free WizIQ membership: 1.Sign up for a 30-day trial by clicking on the 'Apply now' button below 2. Verify your email address from your email inbox 3. You'll receive a confirmation email from us once your free membership is approved Apply now  WizIQ's free teacher accounts give educators at accredited institutions access to a range of teaching tools. To many educators, the virtual classroom for which WizIQ is best known only means live classes, which they might not need considering they see their students in person every day. But with the WizIQ Virtual Classroom teachers can also: Offer online courses for their school Run virtual office hours and homework help Run summer school online to address transportation and facilities issues Give AP students a jumpstart with virtual summer class sessions Let athletes or homebound students work with their classes, live, even if they can't be there Easily set up classes - without IT help Bring subject matter experts into their classrooms virtually Support group and project-based learning Engage hard-to-reach parents with: Virtual parents' nights Virtual conferences Adult education and community outreach Virtual math and literacy nights Broadcast live school committee meetings on the web Record lectures or flip their classrooms Conduct virtual field trips Run professional development when and where staff are available Share teaching resources among schools Teachers can take full advantage of every WizIQ feature, including screen-sharing, polling, video-confe

This is "The Story of Exploroo" found on the actual Exploroo website. 

I really like this site. I also like the fact you can use it to get unbiased opinions about potential vacation spots. We love to travel and I can see myself using this in the future.

This video clearly explains how to evaluate and give feedback about online collaborative group work.

Add comments to video, share publicly or with a group

The Babson Survey Research Group has done yearly reports of online learning.

A very friendly, and very reasonably priced conference on language learning and technology. Check out other IALLT regional group conferences close to where you are, too!

An alphabetical list of suggestions for the novices in the group (myself included).

This is terrific, Marlene. I intend to look into this Blog for my Action Research project for the IBSC (International Boys' Schools Coalition) I am part of. I am supposed to work all year long on my action and report on my findings next summer at the annual gathering in London (We are a team of 16 language teachers from all over). Your summer institute has been a wake up call for me in so many senses!! Also, thanks for inviting me to join this group!

Many teachers have also suggested that you have a "personal" Facebook page, and a "teacher" Facebook page, and ne'er the twain shall meet...

Free online screen recorder for instant screen capture video sharing. You can group into channels for a class or topic. You can upload to their site, YouTube, or download a movie you can put anywhere. Nice and really easy to use. You can record a video of yourself that you can put into a corner of the screencast.

Telling and listening to stories is an ancient tradition that can benefit foreign language learners of all ages, languages, and levels of proficiency. Stories contain linguistic, paralinguistic, discourse, and cultural features that provide the comprehensible input and output that students need to develop their conversational skills. Instructors and students can select and tell stories that they enjoy and that interest their listeners. Some interactive story telling activities are presented, categorized as: Change the Story, Group Picture Story, Jigsaw Story, My Story, Oral Reading, Picture Stories, Psycho Story, Rumor, Shuffled Comics, Story Hour, Strip Story, and Tell Us a Story. Contains 33 references. (Author/LB)

Using Twitter for a 10 minute verb activity.

This is so cool! I know it would keep my students more engaged and focused on what could potentially be boring grammatical exercises. I do not currently use an on-line notebook and want to use Google docs more often. Lots to think about!

What's a "tweet-up"? what's a "twitterwall"? Ideas for using Twitter at group meetings.

An example of Voice Thread used for a group discussion.