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visual and auditory learners.

active learning even when the instructor is not present.

Abstract: Collaborative social interaction when using Web 2.0 in terms of VoiceThread is investigated in a case study of a Swedish university course in social psychology.

The results show that use of Web 2.0: a) supports students' reflections concerning their own and others' thoughts and emotions, b) supports individual students and integrates them into a work group, and c) develops students' identification and awareness in relation to self, a task and others.

Reflection is a core component of many outdoor education programs with many educators relying on journal writing as a means of facilitating reflection.

Interactive tutorials made with VoiceThread ask students to practice what they learn outside of class, so the instructor can observe their practice, respond with feedback, or modify classroom teaching to address students' needs.

asks should give the learners the opportunity to create contents,  which motivates them. • Synchronous communication tasks give students the opportunity to develop an audience for authentic communication. • Tasks should be focused on thinking skills. • It provides collaborative learning experience. • Tasks should give students proof of getting their ideas across • Creates a learning environment that goes beyond the classroom. • Vocabulary improvement

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Research indicates that instructor presence in an online course directly impacts students’ learning outcomes. Hosting synchronous online office hours is one way you can build presence in your course because it gives your students a chance to ask questions and get clarification on course material. Luckily, holding office hours is easy in an online course. You just need to be logged in to your learning management system (LMS) and available to students during specified hours.

By Natascha Chtena November 22, 2015 5 Comments   .blog-spacer { display: none; } @media (max-width: 420px) { .blog-spacer { display: block; height:1px; clear:both; } }   googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("dfp-ad-story_level_pages"); }); Natascha Chtena is a PhD student in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @nataschachtena.       One of the challenges I face teaching a daily language class is finding novel and creative ways to maintain student interest throughout my lessons. One of my favorite teaching “tricks” is using music to motivate learning, improve concentration, create a sense of community and help my students absorb material.   Music is a wonderful tool to integrate into your teaching repertoire, especially if you are a foreign language teacher. It has a

The key is to not be too ambitious (unless of course you are teaching a language AND culture class) and to set realistic goals: one song one major point! I usually keep it to seven minutes max, which includes a song, a very short “lecture” and some time for student questions at the end.

any level of learner. As learners add their own posts, what skill they develop depends on what task given is to them. Learners can develop writing skills (e.g. write a short description of a person you admire) or speaking skills (record yourself telling an anecdote). They can also brainstorm vocabulary related to a topic to activate existing knowledge before a reading or listening text. As learners all type their ideas at the same time, it’s an inclusive and efficient way of collecting ideas.

Padlet allows for synchronous or asynchronous collaboration. Learners can share ideas, materials, audio and video.  They can then comment on these.

Online distance learning is impersonal and has the potential to violate personal privacy. Even a matter as seemingly straightforward as turning on web cameras can raise difficult questions: Are cameras needed to humanize the lesson? Do they force an uninvited intimacy, revealing the realities of students’ and faculty members’ living situations?

In the HyFlex course design, students can choose to attend face-to-face, synchronous class sessions or complete course learning activities online without physically attending class.

Hyflex can provide student engagement at the time they see/hear the material.

Students can choose to attend face-to-face meetings and earn weekly participation points or complete equivalent work online and earn participation points.

The true strength of this application was the bi-directional learning that happened from student to student.

Studies

have concluded that collaborative and cooperative learning methods improve students' time on tasks and motivation to learn. Language teachers are finding that group activities and conversational pairing have distinct advantages over individualised tasks. Students enjoy interacting with each other, particularly in speaking activities, and opportunities to do so are relished. The prospect of school exchanges, making new social links abroad, and exploring new cultures is another powerful motivator. The pairing of language students with counterparts abroad is the next logical step. Working effectively online with native speakers is a challenging and alluring proposition.

Assessment is more difficult