Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Online language learning tools available free

The rapid transition to virtual classrooms due to COVID-19 is presenting many unexpected difficulties for educators, students, and parents. For instance, we know that the interactive nature of foreign language instruction makes it particularly complicated subject to recreate from home.

To help, Lingvist is offering its platform of online language learning tools free of charge until July 31, 2020. That means educators of all types, including tutors, teachers, private language instructors, or parents homeschooling their children, can take advantage of the following resources for free until July 31:

  • Their vocabulary learning tool, powered by a spaced-repetition algorithm.
  • Lingvist Classroom – aggregated statistical tracking that allows educators to monitor the progress of all of their students in one place.
  • Course Wizard – a course creation tool that allows you to custom-build activities based on vocabulary in your syllabus or from an excerpt of text. The process takes only seconds and assigning it to your classroom is easy. Available only in certain language pairs.
  • Blended Learning Guide, with suggestions on how to make the most of Lingvist in your virtual classroom.

Educators are some of the most resourceful and creative professionals, so Lingvist hopes that this will enable them to continue on from any location during this unprecedented challenge.…Read More

Things might be looking up for online language learning

A recent report notes that a decline in U.S. foreign language learning could have negative impacts on the U.S. workforce, but new forecasts indicate the demand for online language learning tools could increase thanks to the prevalence of mobile devices.

Technavio analysts forecast the online language learning market in the U.S. to grow by almost 9 percent during the 2017-2021 forecast period, according to the firm’s latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the online language learning market in the U.S. for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, Technavio analysts consider the revenue generated from the sales of foreign language learning products and services provided by online language learning providers.…Read More

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These are the 5 most in-demand K-12 languages

Rosetta Stone releases a list of the most popular U.S., global language learning programs

Foreign language skills are increasingly important for students to have as they enter college or the workforce, and technology-based programs have made learning new languages easier for students.

“As shifting demographics, globalization and the adoption of cost-efficient technology-based products continue to increase, so does the need and demand for world languages,” said Judy Verses, president of technology-based learning solutions provider Rosetta Stone’s Global Enterprise & Education Division. “Equipping students with language enables them to differentiate themselves from other candidates in a competitive job market and, ultimately, positions them for professional success.”

Verses noted ELL (English Language Learning) students represent the fastest growing segment of the K-12 population and it is predicted that this segment will grow to 40 percent by 2030.…Read More

Inside the school that immerses students in Spanish — and technology

A Spanish immersion program makes full use of technology in the classroom

The thought of preparing our students for their 21st century futures conjures up a number of different ideas. There’s imparting the necessary technology skills students will need to thrive in their careers, as well as interpersonal skills such as collaboration and communication and making sure students can function in an increasingly globalized world. On that last point, my school, Shiloh Elementary School in Monroe, N.C., wondered if we were doing enough. Wouldn’t teaching fluency a foreign language be the ultimate means to prepare students for a diverse and multicultural world?

Since 2012, Shiloh has been very proud to have hosted what we call the SPLASH Spanish immersion program. Currently, we have one immersion class—taught full-time in Spanish, with the goal of “immersing” or teaching Spanish to speakers of other languages, like English—in each of our Kindergarten through third grade classrooms. Our school has embraced this wonderful program, and our dedicated teachers have come to us from various Spanish-speaking countries, including Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Chile, and Spain through VIF International Education, a company located nearby in Chapel Hill, N.C. that has provided us the means for our immersion program. These classes are effectively preparing our students to become successful, responsible, and confident bilingual students, and the use of technology in each of these immersion classrooms has truly enhanced the curriculum.

Each immersion classroom has some student computers and either a Dell short-throw projector or a Promethean Board. Our students are able to embrace and interact with the technology on a daily basis. Our immersion teachers state that these interactive tools empower them to have successful teaching environments where the bilingual capabilities of their students are fully realized. For example, SPLASH teachers use educational programs and lessons that allow their students to embrace new topics and exciting facts in a 21st Century manner. Teachers view their students as “digital citizens” who are being given the tools each day to interact in the modern world.…Read More

App of the Week: Globe Smart Education 1

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated with help from Graphite by Common Sense Media. Click here to read the full app review.
 globesmarteducation

 

What it’s like: Globe Smart Education 1 explores the lives of kids around the world through stories and games. Users pick one of eight kids from five countries: Haiti, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Burundi, and the United States. They then can choose to read that child’s story, select “tell me about yourself” to engage in a dialogue, learn phrases or count to 10 in the child’s native language, or read more facts about the child’s hometown. Teacher sections of the app offer a discussion guide for each country, lesson plan ideas, and classroom activities that draw directly from each unit and build on topics that arise in the stories.
Price: $19.99
Grades: 1-3
Pros: Stellar teacher guides offer lots of classroom connections that bridge disciplines.
Cons: Some kids talk very quickly in the story sections; high price tag may be prohibitive.
Bottom line: A smart, thoughtful way to learn about the lives of kids around the world.

Should coding be the “new foreign language” requirement?

Over the decades, students have been required to take a foreign language in high school for reasons that relate to expanding communication abilities, furthering global awareness, and enhancing perspective-taking, Edutopia reports. Recently, our home state of Texas passed legislation that enables computer science to fulfill the high school foreign language requirement. Coding (defined by BusinessDictionary.com as “the process of developing and implementing various sets of instructions to enable a computer to do a certain task”) is, after all, both a language and a foreign subject to many students — and much more…

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