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.

"Abstract Currently, language educators experience difficulties in facilitating oral practice effectively in the foreign language classroom. Regularly, they face introverted and passive learners who fail to embrace speaking opportunities (Poza, 2011), or simply do not find the time to promote speaking practice in the classroom (Meddings & Thornbury, 2009). In this light, many asynchronous computer mediated communication (ACMC) technologies have emerged to confront this situation. However, central research studies do not seem to acknowledge ACMC as viable in accommodating oral development but, rather, frequently attribute this merit to synchronous CMC (Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Kervin & Derewianka, 2011). By employing a mixed-methods approach, this small-scale case study examines, firstly, the extent to which ACMC speaking practices are suitable for language learners' speaking development. Secondly, and by extension, it investigates the salient characteristics of the ACMC tool myBrainshark, that makes it appropriate for fostering linguistic growth. The data is obtained from post-beginner Spanish language learners by means of an online questionnaire and an online structured stimulated recall. The findings show, on the one hand, that ACMC oral practices can be beneficial in developing speaking aspects in lower-proficiency language learners and, on the other hand, that myBrainshark has characteristics that can potentially promote linguistic development. Finally, this paper calls for experimental research on the improvement of oral competency in post-beginner and higher-proficiency learners."

Portfolios are a great way to document and display student growth.

Thanks Jesse! I'm always looking for different ways to do portfolio-based writing, so these seem super helpful. I use Evernote already and hadn't thought to use it for portfolios. Thanks again.

Thanks Jesse! I can certainly use this.

I think we are connected, but we could probably share this article with our "unconnected" colleagues!

FlipGrid tutorial that helped to walk me through setting up different topics for students to participate in.

I so needed this!

It seems somewhat self-explanatory, but by watching the tutorial I came up with a few ideas that would not have otherwise come up. Among them, I can use FG as a scaffolding activity to match student progress over the course of a quarter or semester. It offers a few features that could appropriately match this growth-- I can write a prompt with an image, video, video + link. Anyway, I can see now more clearly how to FG can be a great resource for my classroom.

Yes, agreed. It takes time for many students to feel comfortable with communication in the traditional setting, so we've found great tools to encourage their growth emphatetically and creatively.