Group items tagged

2016 - Twitter basics

A class response system. A way to keep people engaged in meetings or Zoom sessions. Freemium model - pay for more capabilities, but basic level is free.

I found Basic is free for one month.

Developed with the support of the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Union, Arabic Online teaches basic Arabic.

Issues to consider if expanding your business abroad. Importance of language and culture in business and entrepreneurship.

Wetoku is a web service or Web 2.0 tool out of Korea that provides a simple platform for interviewing someone via the Internet. Collaborating globally is a must for our students and as result interviewing can be a challenge. Wetoku makes doing an interview as easy as filling out some basic information, creating an interview session and then sending the creative interview session's URL to the interviewee. Once the recording is done, the interviewer can embed the copy of the URL into a blog or website. You will need a web-cam for this tool.

Basic steps to get for eLearning

Three basic tips - what other tips do you have for teaching online?

Basic primer for those of us just starting to explore curation tools and looking to find the right fit.

I agree that what we need now more than ever is collaborative, community building exercises. Last semester when we went online, at least we knew our students and they knew us. In the fall, if we go online, there will be students that we haven't met and built a rapport with in person. It will be more important than ever to foster an interactive environment and focus on meaning and communication.

More on digital storytelling from Novastartalk- possibilites for interpretive mode

I'm glad you found NOVASTARTALK - they have some good basic tools and a great organization for how to use them - and they have tutorials!

Super interesting thread on ways in which other Spanish teachers have incorporated iPads into their classrooms! Maybe some ideas for people?

Just what I was looking for...I have many students whose lives revolve around their smartphones and iPads.

Tudini's new book takes a Conversation Analysis approach, which is new to online Second Language Acquisition. It provides observable, previously undocumented insights into how native speakers and learners pursue the learning of foreign language and culture during online text chat.

Collection and other multimedia materials

"The Foreign Language Teaching Forum is an integrated service for FL teachers, dedicated to encouraging communication, sharing, and collaboration at all levels. Our broad discussion topic is foreign language teaching methods for any level of instruction in all languages."

I got into Blending Learning in order to understand Synchronous tools.

Discussion on how technology is being used and why we're still struggling to give more control of learning to students. A good read!

"A 2014 paper by researchers at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, provides a tangible example: Teachers and students in the small-scale study were found to be making extensive use of the online word-processing tool Google Docs. The application's power to support collaborative writing and in-depth feedback, however, was not being realized. Teachers were not encouraging group-writing assignments and their feedback focused overwhelmingly on issues such as spelling and grammar, rather than content and organization." This really gets to the heart of the idea of combining education and technology: the technology has to serve the goal and it doesn't sound like the teachers' goals were the same as the stated goals of the assignment. So obviously Google Docs is a fantastic tool, but it has to be utilized appropriately for it to be effective.

I must say I have sat through many workshops in my tenure at my university that included the modification of some practices and even included, to my frustration, the basic structure of a lesson from stating outcomes to assessment. The problem with our particular situation is that usually it is directed to a "one-size-fits-all" use of a given technology that may not apply to many disciplines. I have found them somewhat useful for upper-level courses at times, but the language classes often pose the need for a kind of collaboration and interpersonal technology that isn't presented. Hence my desire to take this course. Another difficulty is the overwhelming number of technological applications presented--I can't tell you how many--and the students really become overwhelmed, since they often have to learn new technologies in almost many courses. Some work and some don't, and since they are the guinea pigs and there are no guarantees that everything will work as planned, and given the astounding changes in tech, the newness never seems to end, neither for the student nor the teacher. So focusing on just 1 or 2 to begin with seems like the only way to deal with it. Finally, I think that, at least in our university, the huge courses found often in the sciences reflect the slowness to adopt meaningful change. Many in these disciplines have simply used the tech to deliver more lectures on topics students must memorize, perhaps adding clickers for comprehension checks. There seems to be a great disconnect between what happens in the classroom and the amazing advances in tech they have made for their hands-on work--labs, collaborative work, etc.