Learning & Technology News

The study uncovered a range of factors concerning the teaching of English to young learners globally from the perspective of teachers involved in implementing these programmes. In particular, it shows that many of these factors are commonly experienced by teachers across different countries and contexts. The paper concludes with five key recommendations for future action to support teaching English to young learners.

The flipped classroom provides avenues for teachers to become facilitators of learning and move away from the sage on a stage approach to teaching. The foundational concepts of instructors guiding students or facilitating their progress are based on the idea that the instructor is no longer at the center of the interaction and application of knowledge. The instructor remains available to students as a facilitator of resources, a resource who should frequently check students for understanding for their learning.

Over the last few years I've done a lot of work developing writing and redeveloping online courses and course materials. In the initial rush to get learning online many organisations got themselves a Moodle platform and then attached a whole load of PDFs and .docs, added some forums and the odd video clip and called it an online course. It's no surprise then that drop out rates for online learning courses have been so high.

This past week in my undergraduate interpersonal communications course, I adapted the Bridge-It communications exercise to incorporate my students’ (most ages 17-20) mobile devices. It combined some of my favorite instructional strategies:

This digital grade book would be connected to a Learning Management System (LMS) that instantly imported, as set up, the grades for various assignments into the grade book for instant view by the student or parent. This LMS would be extremely customizable by the teacher, allowing them to scale and weigh assignments as needed.

As life grows more complex, so too does education. The role of the teacher, once essentially an autonomous, well defined position, is now vast and continually changing. It is now impossible for a teacher to be engaging in best practice unless they are part of a supportive, informed and well developed network.

A few years ago, students like Amanda faced punishment for pulling out cellphones or other mobile technology in class. Today, more teachers see the devices not as distractions but as tools to help students learn. And experts say the future of education may revolve around these hand-held instruments.

The word combinations option produces a great list of collocations for the word, and what's better, if you click on the collocates, you get the kind of list that a concordancer will produce, with the expressions highlighted in context.

It’s true, no matter what we do, our kids will leave us behind — it’s the natural way. But we must provide them with the knowledge they need to improve the world. Our generation is the one developing all the new tools that offer limitless access to knowledge. So, why wouldn’t we offer these advantages — the ones kids can’t keep their fingers off of, even during class — and help kids acquire the skills they need to survive in a connected world?

I define a global project as any sort of collaborative project that involves two or more classes from different schools/countries. There is usually a defined purpose and structure to the project. The learning is usually documented and shared on an online space such as a blog. Some global projects have a culminating event.

Listening to songs is a great way to learn a language. It's easy to listen to a song many times, especially if it's one that you enjoy and this can really help with your listening and pronunciation. This activity is based around the Lyrics Training website. The site helps you to listen to and understand songs.

Whether you design classroom training, eLearning, m-learning, or work with another medium entirely, storytelling is a learning tool that possesses the power to motivate, persuade, educate, and even entertain.