“Building Image and Presence”

The first external evaluation report has been presented by Angelica L. Bucur, Ec. MBA, the external evaluator for the Tools project.

Angelica L. Bucur says that the project is working “towards building image and presence”, which is one of the strong sides of the partnership, according to the evaluator.

“The project has demonstrated very good progress during the period January 1st – May 15^th 2012, based on consistent project management and quality assurance activities and tools. The first results and achievements have been in very good relationship with the original planning. There are already a few additional results, produced either by the partner members, by the teachers adding resources to Clilstore or by students participating to the project testing. The project was effective in implementing the activities of the first 4,5 months and in ensuring an excellent team building and a collaborative work-environment.

The contribution of partners to the development of outcomes was clear, and enhanced by continuous communication and exchanges”.

Read the full report via this link or from the homepage of theTools project www.languages.dk .

New Blogs on the Block

Reblogged from Island Voices - Guthan nan Eilean:

Local community voices are finding some interesting new platforms from which to make themselves heard. In addition to the recently launched Guthan/Voices page on Am Pàipear several new blogs have been started, (including audio-blogs!).

Gaelic tutor Archie Campbell started writing “Cò ach esan?” with Blogspot some months back, but has just recently started adding Ipadio phonecasts – which allows him to complement his texts with recorded speech.

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These links provide examples of the kind of new, fresh, and authentic community-based materials which (subject to the creators' agreement) Scottish TOOLS partner SMO aims to sample and re-present for language learners, using the Clilstore platform where appropriate.

Integration of Technology in the Classroom

Reblogged from Be Principaled:

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Technology in My Classroom?                                                                                    “ are organized like a factory of the late 19th C: top down, command control management, a system designed to stifle creativity and independent judgment.” David T Kearns Former CEO Xerox

Some teachers may be thinking: “Who has time to integrate technology in my classroom?” or “My students are doing fine, who needs technology?”  Continents have not moved, and 1 + 1 still equals 2.

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There is no longer any question if we should, or should not, integrate technology into our teaching and learning. The massive question is how should we use technology within our classrooms. Given this new reality, Surrey school district asked their high schools to apply for an iPad grant. The research is in, and the schools are leading the way. As the initial set of teachers uncover the benefits of iPads and other electronic devices, the staff at EMS, and other schools, will change the look and feel of our classrooms. It is the most exciting time to be in education.

Clilstore trials at Ulster

“It’s excellent, give us more!”, that was the overwhelming response from Year 1 and Year 2 students of Irish at the University of Ulster following a recent trial of Clilstore. The units created for the purpose of this trial: http://alturl.com/w6bao & http://alturl.com/s5jjh were based on sample materials from the new Third Level Syllabus for Irish (see http://www.teagascnagaeilge.ie) which is based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The trial was conducted within Ulster’s Multimedia Language Lab and each student had the benefit of using the materials on their own networked pc. The students were impressed by the ease of use of the software, the way it helped them to get to grips with new vocabulary using the dictionary interface and the twin-panel, single-screen format. When asked how they thought the software could be improved the students mostly felt that nothing needed to be changed, however, a few glitches relating to new tabs opening while switching between dictionaries and a non-responsive dictionary were brought to light.

This feedback has been most gratifying for the project team and has given us a useful insight into where we need to concentrate our efforts in the short term i.e. producing more units which reflect the learner level and content needs of our students. Needless to say, any constructive criticism received from the students will be acted upon, and issues such as the size of the font in the exercises have already been dealt with.

Click here to see the responses from our Yr 1 Irish students http://db.tt/NIe1V0SJ

Click here to see the responses from our Yr 2 Irish students http://db.tt/98Lxjyte

Click here to view an electronic version of our Clilstore Evaluation of Outputs form http://alturl.com/wq32w

Lithuanian Linkage

Reblogged from Island Voices - Guthan nan Eilean:

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Am Pàipear is the local community newspaper for the Uists, here in the Outer Hebrides. But that doesn’t mean that interest in it is restricted to just these islands! There are subscribers in various countries around the world – wherever families with Uist connections have chosen to settle.

And now, through the Island Voices/Guthan nan Eilean connection a growing body of language learners (of both Gaelic and English) are also taking an interest.

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Great to see the Lithuanian partners using Hebridean materials! :-)

A super link for all educators

http://wechoosethemoon.org/

This is a great and inspiring source that can be a useful tool which is suitable for many training programs, including language training.

Students of MPRC test clilstore

The teachers of MPRC, participants of the Tools Project started testing the new tool in the classroom. Some smarter students not only learned how to use the exercises themselves, but created a video to inspire and encourage their fellow students to use the clilstore.

Online statistics for the tools website

The tools/pools website now has links to ongoing statistics updated twice daily. Click here to read the statistics: http://www.languages.dk/webalizer/index.html

Tools registration page has moved

Because of lots of SPAM the registration page for TOOLS news has been moved to http://www.languages.dk/register.php It now includes a simple Captcha to avoid some of the Spam engines.

Sing! Sing! Sing! Seinn! Seinn! Seinn!

Reblogged from Island Voices - Guthan nan Eilean:

Nuair a chleachdas sinn cànan cha bhi sinn daonnan ga bhruidhinn no ga sgrìobhadh. Uaireannan bidh sinn ga sheinn! Ma tha sgeulachd, bàrdachd, no òran agaibh, no aig caraid, nach cuir sibh thugainn e gus an tèid againn uile air a leughadh no a chluinntinn air làrach Pàipear Uibhist? Seo eisimpleir eile dhuibh.

Let’s not forget that a language can be sung, as well as spoken or written.

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Music can contribute to language learning in many different ways - as both a receptive and productive exercise. And musical product can be combined with visual media in an engaging and creative way. The slide show here was put together with Windows Movie Maker. And it took just two minutes to go one step further and render it as a Clilstore page...