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Project News
LearnIT2teach COVID19-Response
The LearnIT2teach team has been busy the past few weeks supporting LINC teachers and service providers through these challenging times. We will be extending the daily coverage of Live help during the pandemic until 6PM EST. We will continue to develop new training materials for using EduLINC in a 100% online context. Two of these new resources include:
Tracking Attendancee
EduLINC has an Attendance plug-in that records the time learners spend inside a Moodle course. See this help file if you would like to install it in a course.
BigBlueButton Virtual Classroom
BigBlueButton gives teachers and students a virtual classroom to meet inside an EduLINC course. We have recently updated BigBlueButton to the newest version and increased the server capacity to accommodate more usage of it. Help files for this tool are available under Guide 2 on the Stage 3 resource page on the portal.
EduLINC Support
A new EduLINC Teacher’s Only Forum has been added to EduLINC for teachers to exchange ideas and resources. It includes a selection of web resources for teachers and learners. These same learner resources have also been added to the Edulinc home page for access to learners who want more skill-building materials. These links include practice materials for digital literacy, Canadian citizenship, language learning, and more.
Web News
Everybody Ready for the Big Migration to Online College? Actually, No
Nobody planned for an abrupt mass migration of traditional college courses to the internet. But because of coronavirus, that’s where we are. Hundreds of thousands of students have been told to clear out their belongings and head home, many through the end of the semester. In nearly every case, colleges have said that instruction will continue online. Making it work will require much more than giving every professor a Zoom account and letting instruction take its course. ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/upshot/coronavirus-online-college-classes-unprepared.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Education
COVID-19: Student mental health should come before academics during crisis
Vulnerable students facing challenges from mental health to poverty will be supported by their schools in multiple ways during the COVID-19 crisis, say officials with both public and separate boards. But parents say supporting kids’ mental health also means laying off of homework and assignments — which are already coming in — for a few days as students adjust to rapid change and family stress. “This is a global crisis, a pandemic, it is not kids getting extra vacation. ...
https://calgarysun.com/news/local-news/covid-19-student-mental-health-should-come-before-academics-during-crisis/wcm/e6d23f09-17ea-4ac7-a1f7-34aae4fc1901
We can't flip a switch': E-learning unlikely solution for all Canadian students if COVID-19 closes schools
.... Repackaging a course that was designed for in-person teaching to the online environment will take extraordinary time, resources and energy. "When you design courses for online, it actually takes deliberate thought and attention as to doing it in a good way. "So if we're asking people just to suddenly teach their in-person courses online, it will be very difficult for those instructors to offer equal quality."...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/coronavirus-school-closures-canada-1.5495075
Broadband's spread is transforming classroom education
Digital learning not only plays a crucial role in preparing today’s students for the jobs of tomorrow, it also has an important role in providing more equitable access to education, especially in smaller and remote school districts. ...
https://edscoop.com/broadband-digital-learning-k12-classroom/
Coronavirus school cancellations lead to education tech surge
Online learning tools like Zoom (ZM), Instructure’s (INST) Canvas, Cisco System’s (CSCO) Webex and a host of other ed tech companies are coming to the aid of schools across the U.S. as they suspend or shift classes online due to the coronavirus outbreak....
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-school-cancellations-lead-to-education-tech-surge-194757054.html
Life in lockdown: Tips from a Canadian in Wuhan, China
As Canadians get set for a second full week of being asked to stay indoors to slow the spread of COVID-19, one London, Ont., man is sharing his experience from inside the virus hot zone in China, where he's been in isolation for almost two months. Mark Henshaw lives in Wuhan, China, where he is teaching English as a second language. He lives with his girlfriend, who is Chinese. ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-canadian-in-wuhan-china-1.5506690
Blogs
Teaching English Online for the First Time
Whether you regarded learning technology a blessing or anathema makes little or no difference now. Your students are at home and your mission is to help them keep learning at a turning point of the academic year. The following tips come from my experience using electronic platforms to train trainers and for webinars for EFL teachers who can be a demanding audience. I'd say as demanding as your class. Here are some tips that you may find helpful: ...
https://differentefl.blogspot.com/2020/03/teaching-online-for-first-time-7-tips.html?fbclid=IwAR1eK4ffIa0fYzgZPPNJU3sbJGlkpBA4joPJEFmt1uanQmyUsXwSAx55ObY
Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online
Over the course of the last week, we have embarked on the E-learning journey. Much like many of you, it has been a week of twists, turns, questions, and uncertainness. However, our school community has come together and supplied valuable learning opportunities for our students. ... Top 10 ways we are handling EL E-learning:
https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2020/03/ten_strategies_for_teaching_english_language_learners_online.html
Using Zoom? Here are the privacy issues you need to be aware of
Zoom has seen a flood of new users as the COVID-19 outbreak forces more and more employees to transition to working from home. Zoom’s big selling point is its near-frictionless video calls. However, new users should be aware of the company’s privacy practices. By looking through its privacy policy and some of its support documents, you quickly discover that Zoom allows your boss to track your attention during calls, shares the copious amounts of data it collects with third parties, and has already had a major security vulnerability.. ...
https://protonmail.com/blog/zoom-privacy-issues/
Flood of Online Learning Resources Overwhelms Teachers
Teachers are overwhelmed by the flood of online educational resources on social media since schools across the country began a rapid and unexpected transition to remote learning in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Professional organizations, school districts, and individual teachers have started running lists of materials and programs. Many curriculum companies have made portions of their offerings free for the next few months, while nonprofit organizations like the Smithsonian Institution have posted free resources specifically for educators.. ...
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/03/25/flood-of-online-learning-resources-overwhelms-teachers.html
14 Tips For Helping Students With Limited Internet Have Distance Learning
Schools across the nation are closing in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and in the scramble to provide at-home learning, a major problem has risen to the forefront: millions of American students don’t have reliable access to the internet. ...
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55608/14-tips-for-helping-students-with-limited-internet-have-distance-learning
11 Useful Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers
Formative assessment tools are a great way to measure a student’s performance before, during, and throughout the instruction process. It can serve as practice for our students, much like a meaningful homework assignment does. ... If you want to get your students engaged in the lessons and turn the fun mode on in class or even at home, these web tools are for you!
https://englishteaching101.com/edtech-formative-assessment-tools/
Professional Development
LearnIT2teach Annotated Bibliography New Resource: Language Teachers and Their Trajectories Across Technology-Enhanced Language Teaching: Needs and Beliefs of ESL/EFL Teachers
This article presents the results of an International Research Network survey exploring the current perceptions of ESL/EFL instructors in relation their training needs to enable a more robust integration of technology in their instruction.
http://bib.learnit2teach.ca/blog/language-teachers-and-their-trajectories-across-technology-enhanced-language-teaching-needs-and-beliefs-of-eslefl-teachers/
How to Be a Better Online Teacher - Advice Guide
Whether you’ve taught online a lot or a little, chances are you didn’t enjoy it as much as teaching in person. Maybe you didn’t experience that fizz after a particularly invigorating face-to-face class. ... Yet it can be just as rewarding as teaching in a bricks-and-mortar classroom, if in different ways. Good teaching is good teaching. Which brings me to the purpose of this guide. What you will find here is advice on how to make your online pedagogy as effective and satisfying as the in-person version, including:...
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-online-teaching
Pandemic Prepping in the Language Class
... A major emphasis is being placed on the conversion of face-to-face classes to online delivery of instruction, should the situation require temporary campus closures. This panel discussion addresses critical questions to consider as you create and communicate your contingency plans for language classes and learning centers, as well as discusses a range of solutions that may be adapted to your unique learning environment.. ...
https://fltmag.com/pandemic-prepping-in-the-language-class/?fbclid=IwAR1ba_hWpCqbBPY42VbfBk-VxUZ1NXUWzrKuWZBRR5_CRa6wA_fnBoQjMLY
e-Resource Corner
Amazing Educational Resources
This massive list of educational resources has links for all subjects. It includes a link to a community of educators who use this list on Facebook.
http://www.amazingeducationalresources.com/
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