Avatar Languages offers flexible, individualized and professional foreign language instruction through virtual worlds. Students can choose where, when and how long classes are, with lessons tailored to their interests. Teachers use robust technology familiar to students and are qualified and experienced. The director contacts are provided.
Avatar Languages offers flexible, individualized and professional foreign language instruction through virtual worlds. Students can choose where, when and how long classes are, with lessons tailored to their interests. Teachers use robust technology familiar to students and are qualified and experienced. The director contacts are provided.
This document discusses a language school's approach to ensuring quality teaching through a community of practice, virtual learning environment, and personal learning environments. It outlines plans to use Moodle as the virtual learning environment and Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs, Skype, and Diigo as the personal learning environment. Specialist consultants will help establish the community of practice and design training content focused on specific teaching skills and reflective practices to continually improve instruction.
The document discusses using virtual worlds to enhance language teaching. It suggests taking students on virtual field trips to 3D locations to supplement normal lessons. An example lesson plan is described that uses real-world materials from websites to introduce restaurants, followed by an immersive activity exploring virtual restaurants to practice vocabulary and descriptions. The document argues that virtual worlds provide engaging, immersive experiences for language learning while also being flexible and easy to incorporate into existing lesson plans.
Augmented Reality Language Learning – Virtual Worlds meet m-LearningHoward Vickers
This document discusses the potential for using augmented reality and location-based technologies in mobile-assisted language learning. It provides examples of two augmented reality tools - Wikitude, which displays geo-tagged Wikipedia information on locations viewed through a smartphone camera, and social networking apps like Google Latitude and BrightKite that allow users to share their locations. The document considers how task-based learning, social interaction, and immersive experiences enabled by these technologies could support language acquisition outside the classroom. Future developments in augmented reality are predicted to provide even more opportunities for creative and contextualized language learning.
How to learn the medical English you really need Howard Vickers
Learning the correct specialist terms is important for doctors and nurses, but there is much more to learning medical English. Students of medical English can prepare for real-life situations by using role-play to practice the language skills they need.
Learning with technology – teaching without (cotesol presentation)Howard Vickers
How can teachers support mobile learning without using technology during class? The presentation explores how students can bring real-life, linguistic experiences into class and how teachers can help the students learn from these experiences. Through exploring case studies, you will gain both practical suggestions for activities and guiding pedagogical principles.
Virtual quests dialogic language learning with 3d virtual worldsHoward Vickers
The incorporation of 3D virtual worlds into WebQuests offers a more exploratory approach to language learning, where the learner engages in social, immersive and creative activities as part of the quest’s research. This experiential learning leads the teacher to play a greater facilitator-role and to focus more on responding to students’ needs, and less on preemptively teaching. Dogme language teaching, with its focus on dialogic learning and emergent pedagogy, offers guidance in drawing on virtual world experiences for language classes.
The document discusses personal phrasebooks (PPBs), which are collections of phrases tailored to a learner's specific needs and situations. PPBs can help increase fluency and reduce cognitive load. One example is an "email phrasebook" created by a student, Michal, to collect useful phrases for writing emails at work. The teacher helps identify good phrases from emails and suggests additions. PPBs are part of a personalized learning environment (PLE) and involve setting goals, managing content and learning independently. Teachers can help learners identify suitable phrases and develop autonomy in maintaining their own PPBs.
Exploring out of-class learning - mobile devices - dogme language learningHoward Vickers
Language classes account for a relatively limited amount of the student’s learning – and much (perhaps most) of the learning is done informally, out-of-class. So, how can we as teachers change what we do in lesson to better support what the learners are doing out-of-lesson?
This document discusses a language school's approach to ensuring quality teaching through a community of practice, virtual learning environment, and personal learning environments. It outlines plans to use Moodle as the virtual learning environment and Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs, Skype, and Diigo as the personal learning environment. Specialist consultants will help establish the community of practice and design training content focused on specific teaching skills and reflective practices to continually improve instruction.
The document discusses using virtual worlds to enhance language teaching. It suggests taking students on virtual field trips to 3D locations to supplement normal lessons. An example lesson plan is described that uses real-world materials from websites to introduce restaurants, followed by an immersive activity exploring virtual restaurants to practice vocabulary and descriptions. The document argues that virtual worlds provide engaging, immersive experiences for language learning while also being flexible and easy to incorporate into existing lesson plans.
Augmented Reality Language Learning – Virtual Worlds meet m-LearningHoward Vickers
This document discusses the potential for using augmented reality and location-based technologies in mobile-assisted language learning. It provides examples of two augmented reality tools - Wikitude, which displays geo-tagged Wikipedia information on locations viewed through a smartphone camera, and social networking apps like Google Latitude and BrightKite that allow users to share their locations. The document considers how task-based learning, social interaction, and immersive experiences enabled by these technologies could support language acquisition outside the classroom. Future developments in augmented reality are predicted to provide even more opportunities for creative and contextualized language learning.
How to learn the medical English you really need Howard Vickers
Learning the correct specialist terms is important for doctors and nurses, but there is much more to learning medical English. Students of medical English can prepare for real-life situations by using role-play to practice the language skills they need.
Learning with technology – teaching without (cotesol presentation)Howard Vickers
How can teachers support mobile learning without using technology during class? The presentation explores how students can bring real-life, linguistic experiences into class and how teachers can help the students learn from these experiences. Through exploring case studies, you will gain both practical suggestions for activities and guiding pedagogical principles.
Virtual quests dialogic language learning with 3d virtual worldsHoward Vickers
The incorporation of 3D virtual worlds into WebQuests offers a more exploratory approach to language learning, where the learner engages in social, immersive and creative activities as part of the quest’s research. This experiential learning leads the teacher to play a greater facilitator-role and to focus more on responding to students’ needs, and less on preemptively teaching. Dogme language teaching, with its focus on dialogic learning and emergent pedagogy, offers guidance in drawing on virtual world experiences for language classes.
The document discusses personal phrasebooks (PPBs), which are collections of phrases tailored to a learner's specific needs and situations. PPBs can help increase fluency and reduce cognitive load. One example is an "email phrasebook" created by a student, Michal, to collect useful phrases for writing emails at work. The teacher helps identify good phrases from emails and suggests additions. PPBs are part of a personalized learning environment (PLE) and involve setting goals, managing content and learning independently. Teachers can help learners identify suitable phrases and develop autonomy in maintaining their own PPBs.
Exploring out of-class learning - mobile devices - dogme language learningHoward Vickers
Language classes account for a relatively limited amount of the student’s learning – and much (perhaps most) of the learning is done informally, out-of-class. So, how can we as teachers change what we do in lesson to better support what the learners are doing out-of-lesson?
The ability to virtually visit real places offers practical and yet immersive ways to carry out real-life tasks. Services such as Google Street View allow language learning activities to focus on more descriptive language, while remaining relevant to the learners’ everyday life.
www.avatarlanguages.com
Google Docs and Wikis for Language LearningHoward Vickers
Google Docs and similar wiki-based programs simplify collaborative writing projects and can also serve as a shared workspace for the entire class. They are accessed via the internet and so are available independently of location or device. Students quickly learn how to use the programs, because of their similarity to Microsoft Office.
www.avatarlanguages.com