Engaging Digital Language Learners
#Edtech for teaching and learning
Educanon is a web 2.0 tool that allows the user to customise videos with questions and then assign these to classes for study. It is a very useful tool for a flipped or blended classroom approach to teaching. The interface is relatively simple with the user selecting a video from several video-hosting sites such as Vimeo, Youtube or TeacherTube and then adding content at set points. A question, or a comment, can be added at any point in the video. When the learner is viewing the content, - called a bulb - the video will pause and the question/content will appear on the right of the screen (see below). When students do the activity, they receive immediate feedback as to whether they are correct or not. Additional feedback can be programmed as desired to assist learners. From the teacher dashboard, all the bulbs (lessons) that you have created are visible and can be assigned to a class. A user can add up to eight classes on a free account, so I recommend treating a class as a language level and assigning bulbs as such. You can set a due date for tasks although students can still complete tasks after the due date. There is also an option to assign the students to create their own bulb by setting a learning objective. There is a premium version of Educanon which allows for open-ended questions and greater class allocation.
Mixed-Media Delivery Tools
Curriculet is a reading comprehension tool which allows users to add interactive annotations, questions and quizzes to texts. These interactive texts are termed as 'curriculets' and can be shared with students or allocated to classes. There are many famous texts already available on the website and pre-made curriculets too. However, many of these are designed for literature students and may be too complex for ESL learners. It is possible to upload your own text, or to use a text on a URL, such as a newspaper article, or a blog post. Once the text is uploaded, you can begin customising a curriculet by adding annotations to help learners with vocabulary or concepts. These could be definitions, images or video. Questions and quizzes can also be added at desired points throughout the reading. Curriculet is designed to run on mobile devices and as such the content is delivered in a ready-to-read format. Students can be placed into classes and performance on curriculets measured by the teacher.
Educanon
Curriculet
