August 2009
9 posts
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12Yr Dept of Education study finds Online...
“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing- it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction”
- Barbara Means, the study’s lead author The report reviews 99 studies, from between 1996 to 2008, containing quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses.
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Phonemic Charts in the Real and Virtual Worlds
With enough imagination most of the tools available to teachers can be applied to their favored teaching methodology. A resource like a phonemic chart can easily and cheaply produced and used in classrooms as a printed chart, on an IWB, on a website or in a virtual world. Here is a simple example we used a couple of years ago at Languagelab to illustrate the power of virtual worlds.
The 4 types...
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Why aren't the big ELT publishers more succesfull...
It’s no secret that the big ELT publishers have had very little success with online products or services.
They have the brand equity to draw a large audience to anything they produce. They have the resources to bring together the top brains of the ELT world. Yet most have produced no major online learning resources. There are a few good online dictionaries, but they are far from...
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Adults must be socially stimulated to learn →
An article from a Wall Street Journal Blog outlines the importance of social interaction for learning.
In brief, social media is suited to learning because:
Students interact with it of their own free will.
There is high interaction, instead of just reading, watching or listening.
Studies show that knowledge retention is only possible when accompanied with personal interaction or activity.
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Traits of Highly Creative People →
A brilliantly simple break down of the traits of creative people by Dean Rieck on copyblogger. The 11 traits identified are:
COURAGE to try new things and risk failure.
Use INTUITION as well as logic to make decisions and produce ideas.
Like to PLAY.
EXPRESSIVE and willing to share what they feel and think, to be themselves.
Can FIND ORDER in confusion and discover hidden meaning in...
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History of Learning in Virtual Worlds
Above is an extract of a presentation I have given several times this year. It covers the history of learning of virtual worlds. This is important because learning complex skills is something that has always taken place in Virtual Worlds, the process by which this is done is often not known by educators. Key Points:
3D Virtual Worlds have existed for a long time and have traditionally been...