Group items tagged

Abstract: Over just the past decade, online learning at the K-12 level has grown from a novelty to a movement. Often using the authority and mechanism of state charters, and in league with home schoolers and other allies, private companies and some state entities are now providing full-time online schooling to a rapidly increasing number of students in the U.S. Yet little or no research is available on the outcomes of such full-time virtual schooling. The rapid growth of virtual schooling raises several immediate, critical questions for legislators regarding matters such as cost, funding, and quality. This policy brief offers recommendations in these and other areas, and the accompanying legal brief offers legislative language to implement the recommendations.

Commissioned by the Language Flagship in Hawaii about technology use

Brief overview of good ed tech blogs.

Thank you for this list. I just started following a couple of these through Feedly, glad to see that they are in the "top ten" :)

"This video is a brief introduction to synchronous online learning. The following items are discussed: advantages, disadvantages, facilitation strategies, and tools that enhance student learning."

A brief overview of using PowerPoint for telling stories, including sites for free images, and ways to add audio.

From the book: "Since the first version of this book came out in 2005, the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has grown and changed. This update is the result of some of those changes. Our intent is to place pedagogical goals before technologies, as the literature advises but is not always followed in classrooms. In revising this book, as in the original, we assume that good teachers teach well because they bear in mind certain principles about how they can best help learners to learn language. Placing these principles at the center of attention makes it much easier for teachers to concentrate on the question of what constitutes effective computer-enhanced pedagogy and why. This book takes as its organizing principles both the system of conditions that are known to support effective language learning and the goals that a variety of standards in the field have set out for us and our students. Examples throughout the book underscore the need to consider theory in every aspect of the teaching and learning process. Some of the points in this book we have made in other places; other we discovered during the revision process. All told, this text provides a brief picture of what CALL classrooms can be like today. Of course, that could change tomorrow."

A collection of articles with eLearning best practices

After bookmarking many of these sites, I started to wonder if I would actually go back and read any of them beyond the brief overviews I've already done. If I am spending time bookmarking, I would hope I would use them later. Does anyone else find this?

This article gives a brief overview about why Google+ is useful to educators, and has some links to related articles at the bottom with more information on how educators can and should be using G+ in their classrooms.

This Web site by the Irish polyglot who gave a TED talk about speaking from day one is billed as foreign language and travel hacks. Any brief perusal of social media sites like Pinterest or Tumblr will show that hacks are a popular topic -- life hacks, cleaning hacks, Disney hacks, etc.

Very interesting. thanks for sharing. :)

This article provides brief ideas about how to use twitter for classroom activities.

Karen, I use a shortener when I have a very long URL - even to include in an email, or to advertise something I want people to go to (a survey I did) and some shorteners will let you pick your own ending so it can be something recognizable rather than random letters. I think Twitter does this automatically for you now.

As we put more and more videos online, we need to be aware of accessibility guidelines - and subtitles or closed captions are one of them.

I like that these are just a couple of minutes long - they are great input for a brief authentic listening practice

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