March 2009
44 posts
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WatchWe will be at the IATEFL Conference in Cardiff this week and we’re keeping a video log.
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“It was shear curiosity that made me sign up at Language Lab. I didn’t have...”
– Heimlaga Svenska, 58, Finland
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“I think Langaugelab.com is the best environment to learn English. Here are some...”
– TR Parkin, 35 ish, Tokyo, Japan
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Learner Motivation and Gaming
Games are motivating. No matter how many times their character gets killed or loses, players keep trying over and over again until they have overcome that particular challenge. Here is a theory explaining why.
Attitudes of Learners
Extensive research has taken place into the attitudes of learners, their approach to learning and its effect on their ability to learn. Dr Carol Dweck, a leading...
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“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of...”
– Albert Einstein
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“Welcome everyone to Language Lab! I am Jane, from Vietnam. I am a student in...”
– Khanh Ngoc Nguyen (Jane), Vietnam - Languagelab Stuent
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Game Based learning 2009 Update
There was some very interesting people at Game Based Learning today and I got a chance to speak.
The question of the day for me has to be:
“Do computer games develop cognitive ability or do people with high cognitive ability gravitate to games?”
I’d say both.
Tomorrows speakers include:
Graham Brown-Martin - Learning without frontiers
Tom Watson - MP
Nolan Bushnell - Atari
...
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'Classrooms dead' says Atari Fouder Bushnell →
“I would like to point out that classrooms worked 40 years ago because school was the most interesting thing that was happening in town. The competition was watching the corn grow and the river flow. It’s not the world that we live in today So with that, lets go forward, do good work and change the world.” - Nolan Bushnell
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Another successful week at Ciudad Bonita
Spanish at Ciudad Bonita - Week 6 on PhotoPeach
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Teaching with Twitter Example
(To find out what Twitter is watch this)
How to explain a complex subject via twitter - Short, Often & More
Short pieces of information repeated often are easy to remember.
To explain a topic break it down into several key sentences.(Use service like tweet shrink to get more into a tweet. )
Use a link at the end to provide further explanation of the point. (Shrink it)
...
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Stuart Brown: Why play is vital -- no matter your... →
Another great talk on TED highlighting the effect of fun on the brain and human development.
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Instructor Assisted Learning Preview
One of Languagelab’s 6 presentations at the IATEFL Conference 2009 is about a methodology we call Instructor Assisted Learning.
Here are some photos of an IAL session today.
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not your typical English school
Instructor: Made some discoveries.
Shiv: seen any students?
Instructor: Last one died.
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Learning a Language is all about Community
A key feature of Languagelab is the social community. The core of our offering (the English City People), the platforms we use to teach and interact with students (Second Life, Twitter, Blogs, Social Networks), and even our business model is designed around the idea of community.
Community is important for two reasons. First, when part of a community students interact outside of time-tabled...
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Spanish at Ciudad Bonita - Week 5
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“humans only learn through one of two ways - trial & error or copying”
– prof Heinz Wolf at a lecture on learning (source)
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The Target Language is the Only Common Language
In an English class in France the students will be able to speak to each other in French. the same is true in any country. In a Languagelab class, the only common language the students have is English.
With students from 50+ countries there is no common language other than English. This forces students to use English all the time. The learner has to use English to communicate with their...
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More interesting reading...
For those just become aware of the benefits of the potential benefits computer games, here are some more links:
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II: Do They REALLY Think Differently? — Neuroscience Says Yes
Computer games are good
Video games ‘stimulate learning’
Computer games ‘motivate pupils’
Computer games for education
The Educational...
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My secret fan club?
Laila Lectar: so I am lucky to meet to helpful guys :)
Eid Avro: there is club in SL Laila
Eid Avro: just for Shiv's fans
Laila Lectar: no way
Laila Lectar: really
Eid Avro: contains more than 1533 members
Eid Avro: :D
Laila Lectar: wow
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Video games like World of Warcraft and Second Life... →
The results of some research done at Harvard University.
Key Points:
“Unlike lectures, games can be adapted to the pace of the user,”
“Games also simultaneously present information in multiple visual and auditory modes, which capitalises on different learning styles.”
These are all things we knew already but it’s always good to see others getting similar...
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The Difference
Between Languagelab and a traditional English school….
Languagelab
Traditional English School
Pay a monthly subscription.
Pay for each course.
Attend as many or as few classes as you like each week.
Attend a fixed number of classes per week.
Attend classes at any time.
Classes at fixed times.
Choose the teachers you like.
School allocates a teacher.
...
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“All too often education actually acts as a form of aversion therapy, that what...”
– Alan Moore
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Learning Styles & Virtual Worlds
Here is how virtual worlds can cater to auditory, visual and kinesthetic learning styles.
Auditory learners can:
Listen to the people talking. Be it the instructor or other students, learners can increase the volume of the person they wish to focus on and turn down everyone else.
Discuss the topic – with instructor or peers, use a private chat channel if you don’t want to disrupt the...
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It's all about customer service
Laila Lectar: I think what's making this pace much popular that u have a friendly design
Laila Lectar: and friendly staff
Laila Lectar: from the first time I came here
Laila Lectar: I liked the place
Laila Lectar: and it became like a habit to visit this place whenever I log in
Shiv Teacher: thats good to hear
Laila Lectar: :)
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On Feedback and Correction
When learning languages students make lots of mistakes. There are different schools of thought on correcting these mistakes. After my first Spanish class I was disappointed to discover that my teacher did not correct my mistakes and allowed me to say the wrong thing over and over again. How was I to improve if I did not know what I was doing wrong? The argument against correction is that if...
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Rocket Science - TV show, BBC 2 →
Mr Smith who became a science teacher because he believed teaching could be done much better attempts to get a high school class interested in science. By the end of the first episode he has achieved this using a combination of interesting practical experiments and an exciting projects for the students to get on with.
Rather than sitting the class in front of a text book he uses task based...
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority;...”
– Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
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It's Good to Make Mistakes
One of the reasons computer games are such great learning environments is that the cost of getting things wrong is low - usually zero. If your playing a first person shooter and your guy gets killed, he instantly re-spawns and you try again, and again, and again. This is the norm, you keep getting it wrong until you get it right. Sooner or later you develop enough skill and move on to a more...
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“Замечательный и, главное, великолепно функционирующий проект. Главное...”
– Mitch - Languagelab.com student from Russia
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“..let students learn on their own (and from each other) with their teachers’...”
– Mark Prensky
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Everything Bad is Good for You →
Recommended Book. An eye opening look at popular culture.
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“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow...”
– Niels Bohr
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“..In a lecture-based classroom bored students with laptops use them to Facebook...”
– Mark Prensky
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Why Language Classes Don't Work: How to Cut...
Timothy Ferris, former content developer at Berlitz, author of the ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ and self confessed language-addict, became fluent in German in just 10 weeks. He has achieved written and spoken fluency in 6 languages. In the bonus material that comes with this book he explains why language classes don’t work.
In brief:
Teachers are viewed as saviors when materials are...
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“..let students learn on their own (and from each other) with their teachers’...”
– Marc Prensky - Open Letter to the Obama Administration (in Educational Technology Mar-Apr 2009)
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Open Letter to the Obama Administration - Mark... →
Whenever I hear government misters talking about expenditure on electronic white boards or other technology as a way of improving education, a few question come to mind: How do these things improve education? What about them will make teaching more effective? How will they be used to help students learn more? From my experience the problems with the education system was not the lack of technology...
“It’s not Attention Deficit — I’m just not listening”
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Event: Game Based Learning Conference 2009 →
Speakers include:
Tom Watson, MP, UK Cabinet Minister for Transformational Government
Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, father of the video game industry
Ian Livingstone, Co-founder, Eidos, Chair, Computer Games Skills Council, Skillset
Alice Taylor, Commissioning Editor, Education, Channel 4
Dr Richard Graham, Clinical Director of Adolescent Directorate, Tavistock Centre
Marco...
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Week 4 - Spanish classes at Ciudad Bonita, SL on...
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Skittles Extreme Embrace of Social Media →
Skittles.com have changed their home page to the twitter search page for skittles. Their friends link goes to Facebook, Video goes to Youtube and Pictures goes to Flickr.
An interesting experiment. It keeps content on their site fresh and encourages people to contribute to their social network pages. It will certainly increase awareness of the brand in social media circles, let’s see if it...
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The Kids Are Alright: How the Gamer Generation Is... →
Highly recommended. Beck and Wade provide convention challenging insights the attitudes of gamers and the benefits of gaming.
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Designing websites for people who don't speak...
Our student’s have come from more than 50 countries, our potential market is anywhere with broad band. This catchment area includes far more languages than we can possibly translate our site into. For this reason our websites have to be designed for use of people that doesn’t speak the language.
To do this we use:
Standardization – If there is already a widely used convention, use...
Pupil power - The lesson where children get to... →
A great experiment. students pick the topics and then study them. Learning like this is far more effective.
“So rather than the teacher transmitting knowledge, the lesson sees some of the power shift to the children, who may be brainstorming, discussing with their peers or logging on to the internet to find out more”
February 2009
17 posts
