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European Union Request and Invitation for Associate Partners

Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers (APLaNet)

For Language Educators and Users of Internet Language Resources.

The APLaNet project will be showing and helping language educators how to join existing and create their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN) on existing social networks. The project will show you how to join and use the resources that are daily being created, shared, tested and talked about.

Using a PLN language educators will be able to find their way through the jungle of ICT resources on the net and find language teachers, just like themselves, that will help them use the resources.

We are looking for two types of Associate Partners (in the downloadable document we describe the associate partner roles in depth):

1. Teachers of languages – interested in piloting the project

2. Existing users of Social Networks in their language teaching

Please download the document to understand more about the project and how you can be involved:

Click here for more information and the sign up form.

January 30th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: EU Projects | 15 comments

A New Series: My PLN says…

social network

I am starting a new series called “My PLN says…” . The readers will find a selection of ideas and resources which are shared on Twitter, Facebook and other online networks and communities. I am planning to post my selections twice a month but sometimes it can be less or more frequent depending on my workload.

I decided to start this series to be able to….

Keep a better track of the shared resources

Everyday I retweet, forward or bookmark a lot of great resources. If I feel that I have another responsibility which is sharing these resources on my blog as well, I think I will keep a better track of all these great stuff.

Store my favourites on my blog

By publishing selections regularly on my blog, I will be able to create an online archive for my readers and myself.

Encourage teachers to build their PLNs

I hope that the teachers who haven’t met the incredible power of PLNs will be inspired by the selections I post and decide to build their PLNs.

Share worth spreading ideas and resources

As well as helping me build a strong personal learning network, writing a blog raised my awareness of the importance of sharing knowledge and ideas. For this reason, I try to take every chance to share worth spreading ideas and resources on my blog. I believe this series will be another great opportunity for that.

“My PLN says…” is very excited to meet its readers next week!

January 28th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: PLN, Professional development, Web 2.0 | 7 comments

10 Teaching Tools for the EFL Classroom

by Karen Schweitzer

The web is an excellent place for educators to find free teaching tools for the EFL classroom. There are sites that provide interactive exercises, online communities, virtual robots, podcasts, and other materials designed to enhance classroom instruction. Here are ten fee sites for teachers and students to explore throughout the school year.

ESL Fast – This site provides a virtual robot that is ready to practice more than 2,000 conversations with EFL students. Conversations are designed for beginners and cover a wide range of topics.

Radio Lingua Network – The Radio Lingua Network offers several useful tools for English language learners, including this free EFL course. The course provides practice with phrasal verbs and includes free audio materials.

FreeRice – FreeRice is an excellent tool for teaching English vocabulary and social responsibility. The non-profit site is operated by the United Nations World Food Program. The program donates rice to hungry people for every English vocabulary question that visitors answer correctly.

Lang-8 – Lang-8 is an online language exchange community with members from more than 180 different countries. Students who visit the site can write in English (or another language they are learning) and have their work critiqued and corrected by native speakers.

VerbaLearn – This online teaching tool makes it easy for anyone to create and study vocabulary lists. Students can also complete example sentences online to learn new words in context.

Grammar Girl – Grammar Girl provides easily digestible snippets of English grammar instruction online and through short podcasts. Grammar Girl also provides a daily tip that can be viewed online or delivered via email.

Shmoop – Shmoop is a great place to find free comprehensive literature study guides and other teaching resources for the classroom. The site’s content was created by teachers, Ph.D.s, and Ph.D. candidates from top universities.

Internet TESL Journal – Created specifically for EFL and ESL teachers, this site provides articles and information on teaching and teaching techniques as well as worksheets and activities for the classroom.

Nonstop English – Nonstop English is an online tool for EFL teaching and learning. Students can use the site to practice English grammar, vocabulary, and more through interactive tests, quizzes, and exercises.

Parapal Online – Parapal Online provides a range of interactive exercises for English students who want to improve their vocabulary, grammar, listening, and writing skills. Site visitors can also practice their English with other students in Parapal’s forums and chat rooms.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.

January 10th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Guest writer, Professional development | 2 comments
 
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