The ability to speak the foreign language in question can safely be described as the principal objective of learning foreign languages. However, it can often prove difficult to assess your pupils' ability to speak the foreign language in the classroom, as time and numbers often conspire against us.
8 Interesting Examples of Blended Learning
Google Doc that explores different ideas of blended learning across the world. Great idea generator/resource for considering blended learning.
Students today are using more tech in more places than even Popular Science imagined back in the atomic age. 98% of students own a gadget and 70% of them use a gadget in class-some for note-taking and study, some for poke wars on Facebook during lecture. And while the time spent online in a day might set off some warning bells, the good news is that a breakdown of that time shows much of it is spent learning.
Eportfolios are a popular practice the world over. However, although eportfolios have been in existence for over two decades, the effort to share resources about how to develop, implement, and assess an eportfolio program has been a more recent phenomenon. What follows is a partial list of such materials. If you would like to add an item to the list, please send an email to wendebmg [at] gmail [dot] com. Two references are required for new resources.
I've long said that professors who want to explore teaching with technology should begin with a social media tool rather than a Learning Management System. Web 2.0 tools are simple to use, invite student collaboration, and are usually less administratively clunky and complex than an LMS.One of the easiest and most powerful tools is the regular old wiki. Wikis are simply web pages that can be edited by their users. Instead of only carrying content from the administrator, they harness the power of crowdsourcing to create a powerful communal resource.
The popularity of online education is growing at a steady clip. Whether it's due to the weak economy, quality of online tools, or the price difference… online schools can't (and shouldn't) be ignored. Heck, Bill Gates thinks online education tools like Khan Academy are the wave of the future.
“Mobile learning is here to stay. There doesn’t appear to be an end in sight as smartphones and tablet devices become more and more pervasive. Through continual evaluation and analysis, mobile learning strategies will become an effective component of any learning strategy.”
The act of highlighting a noteworthy passage in an ebook is being socialized by Findings, an online destination where readers can collect, share, discuss and discover such highlights from ebooks and web texts.
“The key is, whatever model you choose, think about the technology choice before designing the course,” said Bates. “Too often instructors get halfway through the course and then start making decisions about the technology when that should have been thought about at the beginning so that it can be properly integrated.”
Tried to search for an ePortfolio platform for some time now..... sadly, can't fond one that's catered to University students. Anyone know of a good one? e.g. Open platform (web accessible? able to store Google docs) and not proprietary.
Kevin - have you looked at Myportfolio? It uses an Open source software engine (Mahara) and the web-based option gives you a free account with 100 student accounts to try it out, but the annual subscription rates are very reasonable, as well you can install your own instance of Mahara on a Linux server and run it in-house if you wish.