The Future of E-Learning – By Lingoda experts

Throughout recent years technology and the internet have played a major influence in our everyday lives. Social media networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, have allowed minimal communication to be delivered in the most figurative way (e.g. “like” or a “heart). People are now used to having access to nearly everything in the palm of their hands, anywhere at any time. This creates an enormous pressure for other industries, such as of education, to catch up with today’s society demand.

E-learning is the perfect example of how offline education is losing the terrain. People want quicker and faster results, especially when it comes to developing new skills. For many, e-learning has liberated the educational processes. Studying has become more affordable, fun and accessible to everyone. Honored university institutions, such as YALE and LSE, are more accessible, rather than paying for the whole degree people are now allowed to choose the course they want to study and the time they want to spend on it.

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3 Types of E-Learning Tools

There are three main types of e-learning tools, which are as the following:

  1. Apps

Learning with the help of apps turns the educational process into a game. Video and interactive activities boost hand-eye coordination and enhance IQ and brain power. Often the games offer trophies points, badges and leader points that drive learners to reach certain levels like key lessons or topics.

  1. Websites

The data collected via Content Management Systems (CMSs) or either Learning Management Systems (LMSs) help learners to interact with different learning programs. Such systems are the centralized sources of learning with tracking and reporting features that allow tracking the scores.

  1. Wearables

The less widespread but most futuristic tool to learn. The learners interact with the subject in a dynamic way, the 3D and real-time simulation helps immerse the subject in an incredible experience.

Education

All the upcoming changes in e-learning would be based on the listed tools. With all current trends and the development of these technologies, we can assume that there eventually will be a world where everyone will have access to education and learning would feel more like a game. What definitely would not change in the next few decades is the approach of learning. If we stay realistic, learning will still involve the emotional aspect in the process: absorbing information, dealing with it, experiencing it and then reproducing it. Thus, the teachers, professors, and principals should not worry about their jobs, eLearning is not going to replace them, at least yet. However, the role of the teacher could expect some changes. Instead of being the transmitter of knowledge, the teacher may become a facilitator and motivator. He still would create the content, organize the flow and make sure that students are staying on-track but probably will be less involved in the learning process. All these processes would make eLearning only more exciting, easy and accessible.

Although e-learning is constantly striving to feed our needs, not everyone knows how to manage technology accordingly. As a result, most people who have neither access nor the necessary skills to use e-learning tools are set to be in a disadvantaged position. These results should focus on tools that are easily manageable or on tools that are unique to the e-learning experience. That is why it is important to make sure that e-learning does not become a classist system, but a method of integration that is beneficial to everyone.

This article was written by Lingoda experts

 

What is your opinion on this topic? Share it with us!

IELTS Academic – Writing Task 1

The international English language testing system (IELTS) is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration.

The Academic Module consists of 3 parts:

  • Academic Reading: 3 different texts (40 questions) – 1 hour;
  • Academic Writing: 2 separate writing tasks – 1 hour;
  • Listening: 4 separate sections (40 questions) – 30 minutes + 10 minutes to transfer your answers;
  • Speaking: 3 parts – 11-14 minutes.

ACADEMIC IELTS – WRITING TASK 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on task 1, writing at least 150 words. Writing task 2 is longer and more demanding. This is why you should spend about 40 minutes on task 2, which is worth twice as much as task 1. You are required to write a discursive essay of at least 250 words.

In task 1, you are required to describe and summarise visual information. The information may be presented in:

ACADEMIC IELTS - DESCRIBING GRAPHS TABLES DIAGRAMS CHARTS - WRITING TASK 1 femfy free english materials fo

You will be assessed on the following criteria:

  • Task achievement;
  • Coherence and cohesion;
  • Lexical resource;
  • Grammatical range and accuracy.

Teaching ANIMALS to kindergarten & preschool children

In my experience, the best way to teach animals and their sounds to kindergarten and preschool children is through songs, flashcards, playing, and drawing.

My favourite website is Super Simple Learning because they have a wide variety of free resources (videos, flashcards, colouring pages, worksheets, and crafts). In particular, the kids like very much and Old McDonald had a farm and I have a pet:

Old McDonald Had a Farm femfy free english kids kindergarten Preschool homeschool (1).png

I’ve found these flashcards here: http://supersimplelearning.com/resource-center/browse/song/m-o/old-mcdonald/

One song the kids can’t stop singing is 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed (Little Fox version):

Super Simple Learning has it too with a lot of free resources, I printed and coloured this play set:

kids-kindergarten-homeschooling-preschoolers-5-little-monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed-kids-art-femfy-free-english-materials-for-you

Two weeks ago they coloured these:

color-the-animal-kids

Source: ISL Collective

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treetop-family-animals-kids-drawing-art

Treetop Family – Episode 12 – Colouring pages

And last week I printed these out:

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… And they coloured them :-).

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Then, they learn a lot playing BINGO and with little flashcards. 

 

 

Recommended Vocabulary Apps

 

Professor ESL

screen-shot-2017-01-13-at-1-07-38-pmVocabulary Apps:

Duolingo – This is a great app for learning vocabulary and for practicing sentences. You can “level up” in the target language and compete against your classmates for the most points. The class link is here: https://www.duolingo.com/o/yzazhk

Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 1.08.32 PM.pngMemrise – There are many English courses available for students. Memrise has students associate words or images with vocabulary to help students remember vocabulary. http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/english/?q=intermediate

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25 Alternatives to Reading Aloud Around the Class

Philip Haines is originally from London, England but lives in Mexico City, where he has been working as a teacher and teacher trainer since moving there in 1995. He is an author/co-author on several ELT series published in Mexico, in the primary, secondary and adult segments. Philip works as the Senior Academic Consultant for Oxford University Press Mexico.

In most ELT classrooms there are at least a few students who do not particularly like reading. There are many possible reasons for this, but one factor is that students often do not find the act of reading in the classroom very engaging, despite potentially interesting content. Teachers often capture students’ interest with pre-reading and post-reading activities, but when it comes to the actual process of reading some students are simply not engaged.Keep reading

OUPELTGlobal

shutterstock_116955382Philip Haines is originally from London, England but lives in Mexico City, where he has been working as a teacher and teacher trainer since moving there in 1995. He is an author/co-author on several ELT series published in Mexico, in the primary, secondary and adult segments. Philip works as the Senior Academic Consultant for Oxford University Press Mexico.

In most ELT classrooms there are at least a few students who do not particularly like reading. There are many possible reasons for this, but one factor is that students often do not find the act of reading in the classroom very engaging, despite potentially interesting content. Teachers often capture students’ interest with pre-reading and post-reading activities, but when it comes to the actual process of reading some students are simply not engaged.

A common while-reading activity is to have one student read aloud while the rest of the students follow along…

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IELTS Speaking – PART 1

I created this board game for a student who’s getting ready for the IELTS test. I found all the questions here: http://www.ielts-exam.net/. I hope you’ll find it useful ;-).

IELTS Preparation Speaking Part 1 Free English Materials For You femfy.png

Printable PDF version: ielts-preparation-speaking-part-1-free-english-materials-for-you-femfy

Teaching with TV series – MAKE IT OR BREAK IT

I’m currently teaching English to a 15-year-old girl and she is fond of gymnastics. This is why I’m teaching her English with Make it or Break it, an American television drama series set in the world of competitive gymnastics. Usually I make a vocabulary list for her, than we watch 15 minutes of one episode without subtitles. While we’re watching I ask her questions in order to check if she’s understanding everything. Then I give her 10-15 sentences with some gaps she’s to fill in and two sentences to translate from Italian into English. After learning English with this method for one year she got a B2 certification, so I must say I’m proud of her and I verified this is actually an effective method. Of course, I’m not just teaching her English with this TV series. Sometimes, we read newspaper articles or we watch a TED-Ed video, etc. but in my opinion, teaching with TV series is the most effective way to get teenagers focusing on learning English without getting stressed. She is not getting bored and she’s learning kind of easily. 

Season 2, episode 8:

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TO BE ON THE FENCE => unable to decide about something.

Another example sentence: I was on the fence till you showed up, but thanks for helping me decide.

Season 2, episode 9:

to-get-a-hold-of-somebody-meaning-vocabulary-femfy-free-english-materials-for-you

To get hold of somebody: to contact or find somebody.

Another example sentence: I got hold of the father, and he said the boy wasn’t there, and he doesn’t know about this yet.

Survival Kit for English Learners PART #2

This is the 2nd part of theSurvival Kitfor English Language Learners. Many students want to practice English, but it’s difficult for them to find someone willing to talk with them in English. There are several websites online where you can look for English speakers willing to talk with you and learn your language while helping you improving your English skills. Furthermore, there are WhatsApp groups. I will try to narrow them down to 5.

1. PALTALK

paltalk language exchange online speak English

You have to download it, but you don’t have to pay anything.

Once opened, it looks like this:

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As you can see, you can either create a new room or join one. For instance, by clicking “What’s hot” I’ve found a chat room called “English practice room for people around the world”, probably a useful one ;-). Paltalk is very easy to use.

What else … It’s possible to video chat, but it’s not mandatory. If you’re shy or you’re not up to a video chat, just turn off the webcam.

Link: http://www.paltalk.com/

2. ITALKI: Learn a Language Online

Italki Learn a Language Online.png

 Watch this video and see how it works:

On Italki you can find Native English Speakers willing to learn your language (the Language Exchange feature is free).

Language Exchange free Italki.png

On Italki, you can also read interesting articles, discuss with other people interesting topics, and with Notebook you can improve your writing skills:

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Link: https://www.italki.com/

3. MY LANGUAGE EXCHANGE

My Language Exchange.png

For example, I’ve looked for native English speakers who want to learn Italian. As you can see, there are more than 60000 people willing to speak English with me while learning Italian:

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Link: https://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

4. MY ENGLISH TEACHER

On this website, you can find people to practice English with (on Skype or on WhatsApp), useful tips and resources.

My English Teacher WhatsApp group and Skype

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Link for WhatsApp: http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/question/does-anybody-want-to-practice-english-on-whatsapp/

Link for Skype: http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/question/practice-english-on-skype-for-free/

5. BUSUU

This is probably one of the most famous Language Exchange Websites, not all the features are for free, but you can get corrections from native speakers, writing exercises, and flashcards for free.

Busuu.png

Link: https://www.busuu.com/

 

Survival Kit for English Learners PART #1 Videos

Many students have recently asked me how to improve their English. That’s why I decided to create this “Survival kit”. 

In order to improve your listening skills, you should watch English movies and TV series. Unfortunately, for students that is often just frustrating (it causes feelings of anger and annoyance). For this reason, I suggest them to watch videos on VOA because they are made for English learners, so they are shorter and with subtitles.

For instance, this is one of VOA’s videos:


On YouTube, VOA features several playlists:

EIM: English in a Minute

Let’s Learn English

Everyday Grammar TV

News Words

American Stories

Health Report

Economics Report

Agriculture Report

I follow on Facebook and on YouTube AJ+. This is a global news community for the connected generation. They upload videos on different topics, some are very short but probably a bit more difficult to understand than VOA’s videos for learners because there aren’t subtitles on all of them. On Free English Materials For You, I shared some of AJ+ videos with vocabulary lists to make it possible for learners to understand them.

This is one of AJ+ videos:

Sometimes AJ+ collaborates with TED . The great thing about TED Talks is that often you can add subtitles in your native language. Then, it is often possible to download the transcripts.

This is one of TED Talks videos:
https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/lang/en/lisa_kristine_glimpses_of_modern_day_slavery.html

On TEDEd you can watch some short animated video with subtitles. You can then test your listening comprehension answering to some questions.

For example: 

If you want to learn grammar through videos, British Council‘s (Learn English Teens) website is one of the best.
They have a Grammar Videos section with downloadable transcripts and exercises:

British Council Grammar Teens.png

If you want to learn English grammar, idioms, vocabulary, slang expressions, etc. on YouTube from experienced native-speaker teachers, check EngVid . This is one of their videos:

New project: English for gamers

Hi guys! I have a new project and I hope you will like it. A few months ago I started working with Richard. He is a gamer and he already has a youtube channel (Richard Retro). Until now he has been “posting in Italian”, but he wants to “grow”. I don’t have a youtube channel yet, so I decided to collaborate with him. We both believe in learning by having fun and we do get along well. At the beginning, it was a bit weird for me since it was the first time. We haven’t posted anything yet, we will probably publish the intro on Monday.

From the show’s name (English for Gamers), you can understand a bit what we will be doing and talking about ;-). Richard will teach me how to play retro games (like Super Mario Bros, Street Fighters, etc.) and I will try to help him improving his English. I must tell you that he’s not so bad at speaking English (which is not so common for Italian people), but I didn’t know it before starting to film the episodes ahahhah. Speaking about me … I must recognise that I am really bad at playing these games. When I was a kid I was always playing with my brother and I was good at it, but I forgot everything :-(. Because of it, I think the show will be fun to watch :-). We will probably be posting the videos on Tuesday, then I will create some fill in the gaps exercises and vocabulary lists based on each episode.

I ask you guys to tell us what you think about the show (pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee) and if you have any suggestions for what game to play, share them with us. In this way, we will be able to improve. It’s something new for us, so you will see that we are a bit nervous in the intro and in the first episode (we kind of didn’t know each other before starting filming), I move a lot! ahhahaha By the way, the second one is better ;-). We are both from Italy but we come from different cities. Of course, you will hear our accents. Since we are playing games, we can’t cut the videos, so when we make mistakes there’s no way to hide them (lol). I am a teacher, that’s why this is particularly bad for me ahhahaha. You know … We film everything, then he does the editing part, after that I have to create something out of it to help people improving their English. And imagine … of course, while doing that I will realize that I pronounced something in a strange way or I made a strange facial expression. It didn’t happen often, but it did happen for sure grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. What can I say … Forgive me for my mistakes … I promise I will point them out ;-). I can tell you that I am sure you’ll laugh a lot, at least, it won’t be boring.

You can follow both of us on Instagram:
richard_retro
free_english_mfy

I must thank Sara (Richard’s girlfriend) for helping us with the project :-). She’s the one taking photos and filming everything, she’s amazing.

I’ll keep you updated 😉

Have a nice weekend!

Anna