I have not heard of any of the 9 programs chosen to review - so if they're free, I'll be checking these out "for improving reading and writing in the classroom." They were English Language Arts (ELA) teachers, but could have use for second/world language instruction as well.
ACTFL 2012 presentation
How can iPads enrich language acquisition? In this session, results from a 1:1 iPad pilot program in a foreign
language classroom will be analyzed Lesson plans, activities and assessments will be shared and strategies for applying best practices, even in classrooms without iPads, will be discussed.
Abstract
This study contributes to the body of research that aims to understand the relationship between online communication and foreign language (FL) learning, in particular when teachers seek to provide authentic opportunities for interaction for their learners. The study was motivated by efforts made in the New Zealand context to overcome the geographic limitations of interaction between FL learners and native speakers. We report on the findings of an exploratory study into an online reciprocal peer tutoring program established to enhance the FL learning of a group of beginner eleven-year old students of Spanish, with particular focus on the benefits of written corrective feedback. The project aimed to examine the processes by which students tutored each other in the online environment as they responded to each other's texts. The analysis of the students' messages focused on (1) the aspects of language corrected by the tutors, (2) the frequency with which tutors accurately identified and provided input on errors, (3) the types of feedback provided by the tutors, and (4) what the learners did with the corrections and feedback. The findings indicate that the students were willing to contribute to peer correction and used different strategies and correction techniques to foster attention to linguistic form, although they were not always capable of providing accurate feedback or metalinguistic explanations.
"Abstract
Despite its obvious importance, it appears that in many foreign language programs, oral practice is not given as much time and attention as it deserves. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that foreign language professionals recognize the need for more oral practice, but do not have at their disposal a convenient means to provide it. An online oral practice/assessment platform, Speak Everywhere, has been developed to fill this void. It allows instructors without special computer knowledge to quickly create video-based speaking exercises and quizzes for their students to work on outside the classroom. The instructor can access the oral productions that the students submit to the system, and grade them or give individual feedback on them either in text or audio or both. Using its flexible and easy-to-use authoring sub-system, it is possible to create exercises of various formats (e.g. Q&A, repeat after the model, structure drills, role-play, and oral reading)."
Snapshots from an iPad in the Elementary Classroom Program - Camilla Gagliolo, Jamestown Elementary School, Arlington Public Schools. Presented as a webinar for the Mobile Learning SIG at ISTE.
Description
This podcast developed by The Center for Teaching and Learning for the use of The Executive MHA Program is a series of workshops designed to prepare faculty for online courses.
From the website: "NOVASTARTALK website, [is] an online resource that supports workshops and webinars designed to help teachers use technology tools and 21st century language pedagogy in the official STARTALK languages. In the face-to-face program, teachers of less-commonly-taught languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu) create technology-enhanced activities [..]"
The Summer 2011 Multi-Language Teacher workshop will be an on-site training open to Startalk teachers from around the country with preference given to teachers in our 2011 Startalk programs.
The Summer 2011 Multi-Language Teacher workshop will be an on-site training open to Startalk teachers from around the country with preference given to teachers in our 2011 Startalk programs.
WeSpeke is an app that enables students in US language classes to be matched with a native speaker anywhere in the world. It is a curated program, with special privacy safeguards built in at the HS level.
iTalki has been my go to for finding language exchange partners but the fact that there are safeguards built in for the HS level makes this an attractive option to use at the secondary level, thanks for sharing this!
Little is known about the population of educators who teach online, especially with relationship to preparation from their teacher education programs. This article discusses the results of a national survey of K-12 online teachers from across the nation to ascertain how prepared they felt they were with regard to three key areas: technology, pedagogy, and content, including combinations of these domains, as described by the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Overall, K-12 online teachers indicated that they felt the most prepared in the areas of pedagogy, content, and pedagogical content. They felt least prepared in the areas of technology, including technological pedagogical knowledge, technological content knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge. Implications for the field of teacher education are discussed, including the need to more fully integrate technology within the coursework and field experiences of teacher candidates, and the need to create courses, or specific modules within existing courses, to address topics of importance to virtual teaching.
This paper profiles 40 organizations that are blending online learning with brick-and-mortar classrooms. These represent a range of operators, including state virtual schools, charter management organizations, individual charter schools, independent schools, districts, and private entities. The organizations profiled in this paper are not a "top 40" list. Thousands of other schools are currently participating in blended learning and may have superior programs.