What’s the point of education if Google can tell us anything? Can’t remember the name of the two elements that scientist Marie Curie discovered? Or who won the 1945 UK general election? Or how many light years away the sun is from the earth? Ask Google. Constant access to an abundance of online information at the click of a mouse or tap of a smartphone has radically reshaped how we socialise, inform ourselves of the world around us and organise our lives. Some educational theorists have argued that you can replace teachers, classrooms, textbooks and lectures by simply leaving students to their own devices to search and collect information about a particular topic online. Such debate about the place and purpose of online searching in learning and assessments is not new. Digital content curators In my recent research looking at the ways students write their assignments, I found that increasingly they may not always compose written work which is truly “authentic”, and that this may not be as important as we think. How to assess these new skills
The Best ESL/EFL Blogs “The Best…” list is going to be an expanding one. These are the ESL/EFL blogs that I subscribe to now, but I’m sure there are many more out there that I just don’t know about… I hope you’ll contribute their url addresses in the comments section! The criteria I used included that they are updated regularly (more-or-less), their focus is ESL/EFL, and that they provide information that I’ve found useful in my teaching. Here are my picks for The Best ESL/EFL Blogs (not in any order): David Deubelbeiss ELL Classroom Learning the Language Adult Education and Technology Life Is A Feast Learning Technology Blog Nik’s Daily English Activities Nik’s Quick Shout Technology News Burcu Akyol’s EFL Blog Jamie Keddie Kalinago English Six Things TEFLtastic Carl Dowse Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals Seth Dickens Carla Arena Think And Dream In English Teacher Boot Camp Ozge Karaoglu’s Blog The English Blog English Raven Marmara Elt/EFL Resources everythingESL Marisa Constantinides – TEFL Matters Ken Wilson’s Blog Related
7 Ways Teachers Are Connecting and Collaborating Online By Carina Wong In a recent survey by the Center for Education Policy, nearly all teachers agreed that collaboration is generally a good use of their time. To get that valuable time and space to collaborate with fellow educators—in their city, state, country or across the world—some teachers are taking to online networks and DIY-ing their own face-to-face meet-ups. Through grassroots “unconferences” like Edcamps, online forums like #edchat and informal Facebook groups, teachers are taking professional learning into their own hands. Seeing the rise of these organic, teacher-created modes of professional development, the K-12 Education team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wondered: What if it became standard practice for all new teachers to enter the profession with a professional learning network beyond their school to support their instructional and emotional needs? Teacher-leaders are raising their profiles. They’re problem-solving collaboratively in real-time. For more, see:
PLE Conference 2015 Call for Papers | PLE Conference Portal PLE 2015 – the 6th International Conference on Personal Learning Environments – will take place in Galway, Ireland, from July 15th to 17th. The PLE Conference intends to create an engaging, conversational, and innovative meeting space for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, experiences, and research around PLE related themes. The conference invites contributions in the format of “extended abstracts” or “alternative session proposals”. However, authors of both types of contributions will be asked to communicate their research and ideas within session formats that look to avoid the traditional 15 min presentation. Conference topics Topics include (but are not limited to)… PLE theoretical and reflective frameworksPLE as a key competencePLE in formal learning contextsPLE and Challenging learning contexts:PLE and AnalyticsSocial Learning as the core of PLEFuture Challenges in the PLE context Invited types of contribution Guidelines for the submission of Extended Abstracts Journals
6 Excellent YouTube Channels Created by Inspired Teachers Outstanding Math, Science, Art, History, and Social Studies Content for Flipped, Blended, or Traditional Classrooms! A HUGE “THANKS!” to Hip Hughes, who responded to a tweet I wrote the other day seeking great YouTube channels created by teachers. He singlehandedly provided what I needed for the post I wanted to write! Check out these outstanding channels of content created by a half dozen different inspired educators. Hip Hughes CHANNEL: ABOUT: “The most important events in History explained by HipHughes, YouTube EDU Guru & TV Talking Head (History Channel/American Hero Network). Keith Hughes has taught US History and AP Government for the past 15 years as well as edu classes in New Literacy and Technology for the Graduate School of Education at the University of Buffalo. HipHughes History is a series of upbeat, personable and educational lectures designed for students and lifelong learners. Sample Video: Beat Master Matt ABOUT: “Mr. Prof Rob Bob
The Best Speech-Language Pathologist Blogs from ‘A to Z’ Editor’s Note: In her daily work at PediaStaff, Heidi is Editor in Chief of the popular PediaStaff Blog for pediatric and school based therapist, and also created the PediaStaff’s Pinterest Site for therapists and parents of special needs children. The company’s continuing work to educate, share resources with, and support the special needs community has been featured on Parents.com, and Love That Max, (an award-winning special needs blog). In addition, PediaStaff has been recently profiled by the well-regarded social media blog, The Realtime Report, for their innovative work on the Pinterest social media site. Author’s Note: I would like to thank the following speech-language bloggers for contributing to this article: Activity Tailor, All 4 My Child, Future SLPs, Play on Words, Speech Lady Liz, and Speech Room News. The number of Speech-Language Pathologists blogging and engaging in social media grew steadily in 2011. The results? ASHASphere – You are reading it now. Cindy L. Erik X.
Eight SLP Blogs To Follow (And Why!) | Therapy Source Whether you’re a new or experienced speech-language pathologist (SLP), there’s always something new to learn. Books, seminars and on-the-job trainings are essential, but few things compare to recommendations from others who share your passion for helping the students and patients with whom you work. A rising number of SLPs blog, and some are quite good at it! It would be time-consuming for you to follow all SLP blogs, so we’ve assembled a short list of our favorites. Most of the blogs featured are written by SLPs or current speech therapy students. They feature recent activity and remain current. Sublime Speech ( With a beautiful design and easy-to-browse articles, Sublime Speech rings honest, insightful and informative. ALL4MYCHILD ( Get three great minds for the price of one at ALL4MYCHILD. Early Intervention Speech Therapy Author Stephanie Bruno Dowling, M.S.
19 Twitter Videos to Help Teachers and Students Connect via twitter.com Looking to engage global learners? Want to improve your personal and professional development? The solution to both issues comes in one word: Twitter. Thanks to the power of Youtube playlists, the 19 Twitter videos embedded at the bottom of this post help teachers engage students, while building powerful Personal Learning Networks. Twitter in the classroom inspires even the most reluctant learners to interact, and Twitter hashtags can create amazing ongoing conversations both in and out of the classroom. Like any social network, Twitter can be daunting for beginners, especially students. For a quick look at all 19 videos, click the playlist tab in the upper left corner of the Youtube video below. Share the Twitter videos with friends, colleagues and students and help build a community of digital learners. What you learn about Twitter: Teachers and students are global learners. Are you using Twitter to connect to teachers and learners around the world? Related November 7, 2014
Getting Technology Right in Schools – A Word with José Picardo An interview with José Picardo, Assistant Principal, exploring technology implementation at Surbiton High School ALT: What was the strategic technological framework adopted by your institution? JP: In too many schools the strategy is “we need to use more ICT” — often responding to a critical inspection. It always seems logical to pass the technology baton to ICT “experts”. ALT: What relationship needs to be adopted by developers with schools? JP: Even a marginal improvement in teachers’ understanding of the application of technology in an educational context can result in more informed choices. “Truly illuminating uses of technology are those where the technology is there, but invisible.” ALT: How might you apply a cost benefit analysis of using technology in your school? This approach is flawed because you are not comparing like for like. ALT: Are we over-thinking the role of technology in education? ALT: How can assessment bodies help schools to innovate? JP: The million dollar question.