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Project News
TESL Ontario Webinar: Learning Tech Innovation in the Adult Settlement Language Training Sector
When: Thursday, May 30, 2019 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm Since 2015, the [LearnIT2teach] project has also provided an additional level of training ... Learning Technology Innovation Leadership (LTIL). ... This webinar is an opportunity to review and discuss: lessons learned from LTIL participants innovation theory and its application to the adult settlement language training field ...
http://www.teslontario.org/webinar-series/upcoming-webinars#tech
Web News
Discussion Boards: Valuable? Overused? Discuss.
Discussion boards have been a staple of online courses for decades. But Carolyn Speer, manager of instructional design ... thinks many instructors default to using them incorrectly.. ... Though Speer questions the utility of discussion boards, she doesn’t think they should be discarded. ...
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/03/27/new-approaches-discussion-boards-aim-dynamic-online-learning?
A Virtual-Reality Program to Conquer the Fear of Public Speaking
When I became convinced that nothing on this earth could cure me of my fear of public speaking, I strapped on a virtual-reality headset and visited an imaginary realm. ... This strange new land, which had been constructed for the sole benefit of people like me ... Since the nineteen-nineties, clinical trials have shown that this field of technology can be just as efficacious as traditional exposure therapy ...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-virtual-reality-program-to-conquer-the-fear-of-public-speaking
AI achieves its best ever mark on a set of English exam questions
The results are in. An artificial intelligence has gone to the top of its class after passing an English exam. Though it can’t beat more able human students, it achieved the best mark yet for a machine. ...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2198333-ai-achieves-its-best-ever-mark-on-a-set-of-english-exam-questions/
Technologies Which Have Caused A Paradigm Shift In The eLearning Sector
With faster and more reliable networks, advancements in mobile hardware and AI as well as the incorporation of technologies like AR/VR have ensured that eLearning will be part of mainstream education in the not so distant future. …
https://elearningindustry.com/shift-in-the-elearning-sector-technologies-caused-paradigm
Online teaching: A threat to the classroom?
The online teaching market is booming in China. Estimated to have surpassed 40 billion U.S. dollars in value in 2018, it has been shaking up the entire education sector. But is this new approach going to replace traditional classroom teaching? ...
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414d774d544e33457a6333566d54/index.html
Screen Reading Worse for Comprehension, Leads to Overconfidence, New Meta-analysis Concludes
More evidence is in: Reading from screens harms comprehension. According to a new meta-analysis of nearly three dozen research studies ... reading from paper has a small, statistically significant benefit on reading performance. ... Readers using screens tend to think they're processing and understanding texts better then they actually are....
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2019/04/screen_reading_worse_for_comprehension_metaanalysis.html
Why old-school printed books may be better than e-books for teaching kids to read
Parents and toddlers chat more as they read printed stories together compared to when they share electronic books, a new study from the University of Michigan found. Researchers say those conversations can be instrumental in teaching children to read and express themselves. ... Electronic books are becoming increasingly popular ... but the researchers found the bells and whistles ... can sometimes distract ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/e-books-toddlers-1.5081856
Blogs
Why interactive e-learning is not always engaging e-learning
Within the domain of e-learning it is an established fact that if e-learning content is interactive, people learn more from it. And conversely, if content is not interactive, people will learn less from it. I disagree with that notion and I think that we really need to stop thinking about interactivity as a magic ingredient in e-learning. ...
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-interactive-e-learning-always-engaging-tomas-lund/
How to Create a Mobile-First Online Course: 10 Must-Follow Rules
E-courses made for desktops and mobile devices are two different products. Even if the desktop content adapts to the screen size, it still may not look good on your smartphone. You can’t solve this problem just by scaling pictures and fonts, because mobile-first content is designed right from the start based on different principles. Let’s look at the basic rules of mobile-first courses. ...
https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/how-to-create-a-mobile-first-online-course-10-must-follow-rules
Students Through the Decades: How Have They Changed?
... Classrooms have changed drastically not only in the past decade but even in the past five years. Smart boards, laptops, and digital devices now dominate the classroom landscape. The growing skills gap is also forcing more working professionals to explore education as demand for untraditional skills is growing. This has also changed the face of contemporary student demographics. … Let's take a closer look at how these influences have changed students through the decades. ...
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-ca/blog/students-through-the-decades-how-have-they-changed-education
Student Complaints as Teachable Moments
Even if we want to keep our classes positive, all teachers field complaints from students. We’ve all felt the sting of one. And we’ve probably all reacted dismissively at times to complaints. ... Listening for the teachable moment in these sometimes critical comments can turn some of them into opportunities for deepening students’ understanding. ...
https://www.edutopia.org/article/student-complaints-teachable-moments
Jobs
Online ESL Teacher
Work as an independent contractor. Each teaching contract period lasts for 6 months. …Deliver online ESL lessons to 30-40 Chinese students aged 6 to 18 years old. … Currently a resident of the US or Canada ...
https://en.class100.com/job.html
Online Teacher
Set your prices and teach on your own time ...
https://takelessons.com/teachers
Professional Development
LearnIT2teach Annotated Bibliography New Resource: Building Relationships and Increasing Engagement in the Virtual Classroom
One of the issues often raised in relation to online teaching and learning is the sense of disconnectedness and isolation experienced by students. This feeling of being alone, without a sense of community with other students or with the instructor can be de-motivating and undermine student engagement in learning. This article looks at some practical strategies to bridge the social gap and create community in an online classroom using digital technology and video conferencing ...
http://bib.learnit2teach.ca/blog/building-relationships-and-increasing-engagement-in-the-virtual-classroom/
Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) 2019 Conference
This international conference will be held in Montreal on May 23-25, with pre-conference workshops on May 21 and 22. This is the premiere organization and event for computer-assisted language learning.
https://calico.org/calico-conference/
TESOL 2019 Virtual Issue
In celebration of the TESOL 2019 International Convention & English Language Expo, the editors of TESOL Quarterly and TESOL Journal have curated a virtual issue which is freely available now through April 30, 2019. ...
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15457249/tesol2019virtualissue
TESL Ontario Contact Magazine Spring 2019 Issue
This spring 2019 issue of Contact is available. "Hacking The ESL Student Workbook" is an article that describes how a small team of teacher/developers used a variety of development tools to create online learning materials suitable for mobile devices.
http://contact.teslontario.org/issues/spring-2019/
Technology and Speaking
Are you a speaking teacher who wants to use technology in class? Are you enthusiastic but too busy to research and decide the best next step? Are you ready to make a plan to include technology in more activities and in different ways in your speaking classroom? Most teachers would answer with a resounding “Yes!” to all of these questions. ... I created the following list for teachers, a user-friendly menu of options that can help them choose their next steps. ...
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2019/03/28/technology-and-speaking/
e-Resource Corner
Open Learn
Free Learning from the Open University - Everything on the multi-award winning OpenLearn is free to everyone!
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/
WingClips - Movie clips that illustrate and inspire
WingClips is a searchable archive of Hollywood movie scenes tagged by conversational topics and situations. Clips are both free and available by subscription.
http://www.wingclips.com/categories/free-clips
Photographic Dictionary
A free online dictionary written in plain English and illustrated with videographs and photographs available by Creative Commons license.
http://www.photographicdictionary.com/
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