54,985 research outputs found
Designing and Building immersive education spaces using Project Wonderland: from pedagogy through to practice
This paper presents work on the JISC funded SIMiLLE project to build a culturally sensitive virtual world to support language learning. This builds on the MiRTLE project (funded by Sun Microsystems), which created a mixed-reality space for teaching and learning. The aim of the SIMiLLE project is to investigate the technical feasibility and pedagogical value of using virtual environments to provide a realistic socio-cultural setting and content for language learning interaction. The paper starts by providing some background information on the Wonderland platform and the MiRTLE project, and then outlines the requirements for SIMiLLE, and how these requirements will be supported through the use of a virtual world based on Project Wonderland. We then present our plans for the evaluation of the system, with a particular focus on the importance of incorporating pedagogy into the design of these systems, and how we can support good practice with the ever-growing use of 3D virtual environments in formalised education
The use of ICT tools in the Teaching-Learning process of English and French in the fifthyear students of the B.A in Modern Languages: specialty in French and English at the Foreign Language Department, School of Arts and Sciences, University of El Salvador in the year 2019.
¨The use of ICT tools in the Teaching-Learning process of English and French in the fifth-year students of the B.A in Modern Languages: specialty in French and English at the Foreign Language Department, School of Arts and Sciences, University of El Salvador in the year 2019.¨
Technology facilitates daily events for individuals; educational field is not the exception. The aim of this research is to detect the most common ICT tools used in the teaching-learning process of English and French in the fifth-year students of Modern Languages B.A, its benefits and to discover how teachers and students implement them. To gather data, a questionnaire was distributed to students on the fifth-year of Modern Languages bachelor in the 2019 year. In addition, a structured interview was addressed to the English and French teachers of the Foreign Language Department. The data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and mixed methods were applied in this research. The results reveal the most common tools used and how teachers have reinvented themselves and play new virtual strategies that emphasized on catching learners' attention keeps students focused on the information transmitted. To nurture the TeachingLearning process of English and French in the fifth-year students of Modern Languages the FLD of the University of El Salvador can use this research in everyday courses.
Key words: ICT ; Teaching-Learning process ; Education ; eLearning ; Advanced technology ; innovative ; Interactive material ; Traditional teaching methods ; Effectiveness ; Social networks ; Apps ; Platforms ; Macro skills ; Budgets ; Internet connection ; Physical environment ; New reality ; Training ; Equipment
Multimedia technologies and online task-based foreign language teaching-learning
Teaching and learning a foreign language at a distance implies many challenges, namely regarding oral skills. At Universidade Aberta (the Portuguese Open University), and taking into account its virtual pedagogical model (Pereira, 2007) and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Alves, 2001), we suggest curricular paths which include online communicative practices, both oral and written, within the present pedagogical offer, following a student- centred, task-oriented approach. Thus, in this text, we share some examples of training activities in German, French and English, focusing on oral practice, and based on digital resources. These digital resources comprise multimedia materials, either produced by the teachers or the students, as well as other materials available on the web 2.0. Our teaching and research practice within the field of foreign languages and in e-learning, in particular, leads us to conclude that the multimedia resources used are suitable for the online teaching and learning of foreign languages (see third question of questionnaire), especially for professionally engaged adults, as is the case with Universidade Aberta’s students, providing them with real-life situations that foster the teaching-learning of languages in the virtual environment. We include responses to a questionnaire survey filled out by a group of students.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Revisiting materials for teaching languages for specific purposes
Teaching materials in languages for specific purposes have evolved in the last few years dramatically. The Internet currently plays a significant role in such development and has permitted both a wider range of resources and its free availability almost anywhere in the World. This paper presents a selection of different types of recent materials for English for Specific Purposes. The paper begins by defining ESP. Then it approaches how materials should shape the student’s own learning, how materials should be selected according to the different skills and then emphasizes the importance of the Internet as a source of materials. The paper concludes with a set of ideas for the future development of ESP materials. The final goal of this paper is to provide the readers with valuable tools that can enhance their teaching through accessible mean
The Virtual University and Avatar Technology: E-learning Through Future Technology
E-learning gains increasingly importance in academic education. Beyond present distance learning technologies a new opportunity emerges by the use of advanced avatar technology. Virtual robots acting in an environment of a virtual campus offer opportunities of advanced learning experiences. Human Machine Interaction (HMI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bridge time zones and ease professional constraints of mature students. Undergraduate students may use such technology to build up topics of their studies beyond taught lectures.
Objectives of the paper are to research the options, extent and limitations of avatar technology for academic studies in under- and postgraduate courses and to discuss students' potential acceptance or rejection of interaction with AI.
The research method is a case study based on Sir Tony Dyson's avatar technology iBot2000. Sir Tony is a worldwide acknowledged robot specialist, creator of Star Wars' R2D2, who developed in recent years the iBot2000 technology, intelligent avatars adaptable to different environments with the availability to speak up to eight different languages and capable to provide logic answers to questions asked. This technology underwent many prototypes with the latest specific goal to offer blended E-learning entering the field of the virtual 3-D university extending Web2.0 to Web3.0 (Dyson. 2009). Sir Tony included his vast experiences gained in his personal (teaching) work with children for which he received his knighthood. The data was mainly collected through interviews with Sir Tony Dyson, which helps discover the inventor’s view on why such technology is of advantage for academic studies.
Based on interviews with Sir Tony, this research critically analyses the options, richness and restrictions, which avatar (iBot2000) technology may add to academic studies. The conclusion will discuss the opportunities, which avatar technology may be able to bring to learning and teaching activities, and the foreseeable limitations – the amount of resources required and the complexity to build a fully integrated virtual 3-D campus.
Key Words: virtual learning, avatar technology, iBot2000, virtual universit
Revisión tecnológica del aprendizaje de idiomas asistido por ordenador: una perspectiva cronológica
El presente artículo aborda la evolución y el
avance de las tecnologías del aprendizaje de
lenguas asistido por ordenador (CALL por sus
siglas en inglés, que corresponden a Computer-
Assisted Language Learning) desde una perspectiva
histórica. Esta revisión de la literatura sobre
tecnologías del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido
por ordenador comienza con la definición del
concepto de CALL y otros términos relacionados,
entre los que podemos destacar CAI, CAL,
CALI, CALICO, CALT, CAT, CBT, CMC o
CMI, para posteriormente analizar las primeras
iniciativas de implementación del aprendizaje
de lenguas asistido por ordenador en las décadas
de 1950 y 1960, avanzando posteriormente a
las décadas de las computadoras centrales y las
microcomputadoras. En última instancia, se
revisan las tecnologías emergentes en el siglo XXI,
especialmente tras la irrupción de Internet, donde
se presentan el impacto del e-learning, b-learning,
las tecnologías de la Web 2.0, las redes sociales
e incluso el aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por
robots.The main focus of this paper is on the advancement
of technologies in Computer-Assisted Language
Learning (CALL) from a historical perspective.
The review starts by defining CALL and its related
terminology, highlighting the first CALL attempts
in 1950s and 1960s, and then moving to other
decades of mainframes and microcomputers.
At the final step, emerging technologies in 21st
century will be reviewed
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Mobile Learning Revolution: Implications for Language Pedagogy
Mobile technologies including cell phones and tablets are a pervasive feature of everyday life with potential impact on teaching and learning. “Mobile pedagogy” may seem like a contradiction in terms, since mobile learning often takes place physically beyond the teacher's reach, outside the walls of the classroom. While pedagogy implies careful planning, mobility exposes learners to the unexpected. A thoughtful pedagogical response to this reality involves new conceptualizations of what is to be learned and new activity designs. This approach recognizes that learners may act in more self-determined ways beyond the classroom walls, where online interactions and mobile encounters influence their target language communication needs and interests. The chapter sets out a range of opportunities for out-of-class mobile language learning that give learners an active role and promote communication. It then considers the implications of these developments for language content and curricula and the evolving roles and competences of teachers
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Mobile-assisted language learning [Revised and updated version]
Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is the use of smartphones and other mobile technologies in language learning, especially in situations where portability and situated learning offer specific advantages. A key attraction of mobile learning is the ubiquity of mobile phones. Typical applications can support learners in reading, listening, speaking and writing in the target language, either individually or in collaboration with one another. Increasingly, MALL applications relate language learning to a person’s physical context when mobile, primarily to provide access to location-specific language material or to enable learners to capture aspects of language use in situ and share it with others. Mobile learning can be formal or informal, and mobile devices may form a bridge connecting in-class and out-of-class learning. When learning takes place outside the classroom, it is often beyond the reach and control of the teacher. This can be perceived as a threat, but it is also an opportunity to revitalize and rethink current approaches to teaching and learning. Mobile learning appeals to a wide range of people for a variety of reasons. It may exclude some learners but it is often a mechanism for inclusion. It is likely that the next generation of mobile learning will be more ubiquitous, which means that there will be smart systems everywhere for digital learning. Mobile learning is proving its potential to address authentic learner needs at the point at which they arise, and to deliver more flexible models of language learning
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Learning about Chinese-speaking cultures at a distance
This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by curriculum choices and pedagogical frameworks to the study of Languages of the Wider World in the UK. These languages reflect complex linguistic and cultural realities that do not fit into the traditional constraints of language education, which raises questions about the extent to which we can address the global and local dimensions of the target languages and cultures. I examine in particular the case of Chinese – a language family with multiple varieties and spoken by many communities in Asia and other parts of the globe – in the context of distance education. Issues surrounding language learning at a distance are discussed, as well as the role that teachers and technology play in supporting the development of language learners’ cultural awareness. While teachers can, in a face-to-face situation, exploit, expand and discuss cultural information, this possibility is very limited in distance learning. We will see how, at present, technology has taken on a major role in both formal and informal education, facilitating contact between learners and between learners and teachers (however distant they might be). For example, the Open University’s beginners’ Chinese course discussed here makes use of online forums to enable cultural interaction; initial examinations of these forums reveal the students to be diverse and mobile, and they also give us a sense of their cultural stances, and of the shapes of the beliefs, values and attitudes supported by their individual cultural backgrounds
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Is there language teaching after global English?
This study documents a case of language education decline, and the role that distance-teaching expertise, allied with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experience, can play in alleviating the problem. In the United Kingdom a number of factors have led to a crisis in the teaching and learning of European Languages Other Than English (ELOTE). One of the main determiners is the dominance of English as a lingua franca for Continental Western European countries, and another the political reluctance of the part of British governments to engage fully with the European Union. In the country where English is the mother tongue, the position of ELOTE is particularly critical. After quantifying the decline in demand for these languages, I will look at different ways in which language-teaching professionals have attempted to fight back, and I will focus on the benefits that may be derived from a strategy that combines ICT capacity with distance-learning methodologies, using the UK Open University (UKOU) as an example. The lessons drawn by that institution in different discipline areas over two decades will be applied to languages
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