News and Information for LearnIT2teach participants

November 30, 2020 - Issue #103

Project News

Avenue Portfolio Update
Avenue's ePortfolio had its first update since August this month. There will be an ePortfolio demonstration/webinar on Wednesday, December 2 at 4 PM ET highlighting some of the features available. More information about the session is available on the webinar registration form.

LearnIT2teach Podcast Episode 32: Interview with Dr. Tony Bates, Part 3
This is the third and last podcast interview with Dr. Tony Bates, a leading light for Canadian educators on questions of online and distance learning. In this episode, we are talking about how educators can make creative use of media. Tony describes the key ‘affordances for the main media types and what each does best.
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/learnit2teach/episodes/2020-11-30T11_00_14-08_00

New Part 1 Learning Technology Leadership Group Begins Saturday, January 16th!
Sign up here for the next session of the Learning Technology Innovation Leadership (LTIL) course. This six-week course is online and mentored. More information about the LTIL training is available on this web page.

Missed a webinar?
All Avenue-related webinars delivered by the NLS team are archived on the LearnIT2teach YouTube channel. Direct links to these webinars can also be found in the Webinars block in the Avenue Teacher-Only Forum course.

Web News

Debunked: four myths about online learning
Chances are, even before 2020 turned it into a ubiquitous topic of conversation, you had some ideas about online learning. Maybe you thought ... it’s just, well, inferior to studying the same subject matter the traditional way. ... Athabasca University (AU) president Neil Fassina has heard all those objections ...  ... With more than 50 years in distance education ... AU is the Canadian expert in this space–so who better to bust some of its biggest myths? ...
https://www.macleans.ca/sponsored/debunking-the-myths-about-online-learning/

12 Ways Teachers Say Their Teaching Has Improved in 2020
I’ve seen a lot of metaphors for what pandemic teaching is like. Some say teaching in 2020 is like building a plane while you’re flying it. ... I do find myself reflecting on the past few months as we count down the days until this year is finally over. Something else has become clear to me: teaching in 2020 has taught us a lot about ourselves. ...
https://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-improved-2020/

The Resilient Educator: Recognizing the Signs of Teacher Burnout
Teaching in a COVID-19 world has certainly brought about new challenges for teachers everywhere. As schools close and learning from home becomes the “new normal,” teachers are faced with a myriad of obstacles including technological difficulties, lack of parental involvement, deteriorating student engagement, and more. To make matters worse, no one is immune to the isolation and economic uncertainties the pandemic has brought. For these reasons and others, teacher burnout continues to be a very relevant topic. ...
https://www.waldenu.edu/online-masters-programs/ms-in-education/resource/the-resilient-educator-recognizing-the-signs-of-teacher-burnout

Immigrant stories win one of Canada’s top literary awards
Souvankham Thammavongsa has won this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize for her collection of short stories called How to Pronounce Knife, published by McClelland & Stewart. The jury wrote: “ How to Pronounce Knife is a stunning collection of stories that portray the immigrant experience in achingly beautiful prose…These stories are vessels of hope, of hurt, of rejection, of loss and of finding one’s footing in a new and strange land.” ...
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/11/10/immigrant-stories-win-one-of-canadas-top-literary-awards/

Survey: Teachers and Students Are Struggling With Online Learning
Several months into the new school year, the question remains: Is remote learning going better this fall than it was in the spring? New data from the RAND Corporation show that many teachers are still struggling. ...
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2020/11/survey_teachers_and_students_are_struggling_with_online_learning.html

Blogs

 The Best Way To Structure A Zoom Lesson
In this article, I go over the best way to structure a Zoom Lesson: Pre-Lesson, During Lesson, and Post Lesson. ... After teaching many lessons on Zoom, I have come up with a three-tier method to teaching on Zoom. I use this same three-tier method for teaching reading and writing by the way. ...
https://elearningindustry.com/best-way-structure-zoom-lesson

Applying Task-Based Learning to Extended Reality
Once technology enters the classroom, it rarely leaves. These days, as online learning emerges as the next technology to find a home inside the classroom, we have an opportunity to look further into the future. This is a great time to consider the next digital horizon for education—specifically the emerging fields of augmented reality and virtual reality. ...
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/10/26/applying-task-based-learning-to-extended-reality/

The New Normal Takes Testing Online
While academic institutions around the world struggle to decide the way forward for the upcoming school year, how to test students safely and accurately is often at the forefront of their decision making. There is no way around it. We must embrace new methods so that testing as well as the entire academic process can continue. It is no longer a choice but an imperative. ...
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/09/28/the-new-normal-takes-testing-online/

4 quick and easy ways to make language learning fun
... In a world where a rapidly growing number of people use English as a second language and where translation technology is progressing, justifying the need for language learning to unmotivated learners is increasingly difficult. ... Research has shown motivation may be the second most important factor in successful language acquisition after aptitude. So, what can we do to motivate our learners ...
https://www.tes.com/news/language-learning-fun-love-enjoyable-ideas-tips-tricks

Strengths And Weaknesses of Asynchronous Learning
... This style of learning presents both strengths and weaknesses, both in consideration of the overall structure of learning and from the student’s perspective. We will address some of those here, and discuss how these can be utilized for the best educational experience possible....
https://elearningindustry.com/strengths-weaknesses-asynchronous-learning

Professional Development

LearnIT2teach Annotated Bibliography New Resource: Building the porous classroom: An expanded model for blended language learning
This article offers a thought-provoking discussion of the concept of the “porous classroom”. Such a classroom is open to local communities. Combining digital technologies and strong teacher presence, it offers an enriched model of blended language learning and teaching. The model has the potential to encourage learner autonomy and engagement with the world outside the language classroom.
http://bib.learnit2teach.ca/blog/planned-online-language-education-versus-crisis-prompted-online-language-teaching-lessons-for-the-future/

What Is Hybrid Learning?
... Is hybrid learning blended learning? If yes, why use both terms? If no, how are they different? And how many competing definitions of hybrid learning are there? It’s still so new that even there is very little consensus even among experts. After much research and deliberation, however, we have found a workable definition for hybrid learning and how it is distinct from blended learning. But first…...
https://www.viewsonic.com/library/education/what-is-hybrid-learning/

Jobs

Online English Teacher
ZebraEnglish is a professional one-on-one English education platform that aims to provide online English teachers with regular students and a stable teaching schedule...
https://www.zebraenglish.com/faq

Online English Tutor
Skooli connects students with only the best online tutors, which is why our tutors are paid more than other online tutoring platforms. Start tutoring with Skooli and earn more. ...
https://www.skooli.com/for_tutors#

e-Resource Corner

EnglishMediaLab
"Exercises for All English Learners- Online Grammar Exercises, Vocabulary Videos, Pronunciation Exercises, Interactive Quizzes for Beginners, Intermediate & Advanced Level English Learners."
http://www.englishmedialab.com/

PowerTyping
"An online free typing tutor teaching kids and adults how to type on a computer keyboard"
https://www.powertyping.com/

New Language Solutions Inc.

 

Send an email to admin@learnIT2teach.ca or call 1-855-522-2221 to inquire about the training.

Disclaimer
The links to external web pages and job postings are for information purposes only. Neither LearnIT2teach nor its funder endorses or is responsible for their content.

About LearnIT2teach
Through funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the LearnIT2teach Project provides LINC teachers with online tools and resources and extensive training to help them implement blended learning in their programs. Visit http://learnIT2teach.ca for more information.

LearnIT2teach News is researched and compiled by Jim Edgar