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Lang-8 is a SNS (Social Networking Service) site for language exchange and international communication. In this site, you can write in the language you are studying, and other users (whose native language is the language you are studying) can correct your diary. And you can also correct the diaries of those who are studying your native language. You are able to not only learn a language, but help teach others your own language as well.

Welcome to fsi-language-courses.org - the home for language courses developed by the Foreign Service Institute. These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain. This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. This site is not affiliated in any way with any government entity; it is an independent, non-profit effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages. Courses here are made available through the private efforts of individuals who are donating their time and resources to provide quality materials for language learning.

As many of you know, this past weekend was the gaokao (高考), China's brutally long standardized college entrance exam. The test differs from region to region and student to student (depending on whether they have focused on sciences or the humanities), but all students are tested in Chinese, Math, and a foreign language (usually English). All students also choose and answer one essay question from a bank that includes some that are the same nationwide (in addition to some questions that differ locally). Here are this year's national questions. How would you do?

Er mange lærere innlært hjelpeløse? Kan de avvise bruk av IKT i klasserommet fordi de ikke har fått opplæring i bruk? Nei hevdes det her, lærere må ta ansvar for og eierskap over egen læring.

The theoretical framework presented in this article explains expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.

There are links here to a range of downloadable writing frames. The frames are all in text format. They should each open in a fresh browser window. Simply select all the text and copy it to the clipboard. Then paste into a new document.

This is an opportunity to define the ideas (or "theses") that form the foundation of School 2.0. This is definitely a collaborative effort, and we want you to add to the idea list. Please add new ideas to the bottom of the list. Direct quotes should be attributed. If you need help using a wiki (or are unfamiliar with the Wikispaces conventions), please click here. If you are very interested in this dialog, you should consider subscribing to this page or to the whole wiki, which you can do from the "notify me" tab above. (Email notification is more efficient as it is easier to see changes in that format.)

Our best universities have, paradoxically, typically looked down their noses at education, as if it were intellectually inferior. The result is that the strongest students are often in colleges that have no interest in education, while the most inspiring professors aren't working with students who want to teach. This means that comparatively weaker students in less intellectually rigorous programs are the ones preparing to become teachers.

Facebook has decent privacy controls, but most users don't realize how to take full advantage of them. Ars guides you through Facebook's privacy settings so that you can be both social and respectable at the same time.

Cyborgs, stem cells, glowing mice, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about biology. Here are some of our favorite clips from the life sciences.

Great Timeline Builders Timelines are standard in the history teacher's playback. Timelines have uses in other content areas too, but I don't know history a teacher that doesn't use timelines at some point in their curriculum. The following are three good timeline building tools. Timelines built with any of these three services, X Timeline, Mnemograph, or Time Toast, can be shared and embedded into wikis and blogs.

Interessant kritikk av de rådende idéene om god studieteknikk, læringsstiler mv.

There are many teachers who want to start using technology in their classrooms, but just aren't sure where to start. That's why I got together ten prominent ed tech bloggers, teachers, and school administrators to create The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. In this book there introductions to more than six dozen web tools for K-12 teachers. Additionally, you will find sections devoted to using Skype with students, ESL/ELL, blogging in elementary schools, social media for educators, teaching online, and using technology in alternative education settings.

"Great teaching is not quantifiable. As dorky as this sounds, great teaching happens by magic. It isn't something that can be taught. I'm not even sure that good teaching can be taught." ... "Here are 10 qualities of a great teacher: (1) has a sense of humor; (2) is intuitive; (3) knows the subject matter; (4) listens well; (5) is articulate; (6) has an obsessive/compulsive side; (7) can be subversive; (8) is arrogant enough to be fearless; (9) has a performer's instincts; (10) is a real taskmaster."

College students who hit campus after 2000 have empathy levels that are 40% lower than those who came before them, according to a stunning new meta-analysis presented to at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science by University of Michigan researchers. It includes data from over 14,000 students.

Are Kalvø har snakket med vennene sine om hva de liker med det norske samfunnet. Mange fine utsagn, oppslaget i aftenposten ble fulgt opp av folk på twitter og facebook.

"We can use social networking in the classroom," affirms student Mosea, who taught a workshop for teachers on using and making social networks. Mosea advises teachers to experiment with using social networks to get to know their students better; to let students submit homework, share projects, and access calendars or a syllabus; and even to reach out to parents. "I think the best use of a social network is as an exoskeleton, or the part of the classroom that exists on the outside but supports the inside," Mosea notes. "The network should be a base of support for whatever the students are learning at school."

"We can use social networking in the classroom," affirms student Mosea, who taught a workshop for teachers on using and making social networks. Mosea advises teachers to experiment with using social networks to get to know their students better; to let students submit homework, share projects, and access calendars or a syllabus; and even to reach out to parents. "I think the best use of a social network is as an exoskeleton, or the part of the classroom that exists on the outside but supports the inside," Mosea notes. "The network should be a base of support for whatever the students are learning at school."

George Siemens on connectivism

study by the Mental Health Foundation, which blamed high levels of loneliness among young people on their use of virtual, rather than real, communication. Dubbed the "Eleanor Rigby generation", those aged 18-34 (84% of whom use the internet regularly) are the most likely to be lonely, according to the report. And 31% admitted that they spent too much time online rather than face to face.