Social Media
Winner announcement on the "Competition: Social Media in Informal Language Learning and Use"
Claire Apostolidou (Xanthi, Greece), wins competition “Social Media in Informal Language Learning and Use” organised by the project "Language learning and social media: 6 key dialogues (LS6)”. Her interview provides a great example of everyday use of social media to informally learn languages.
Between January and June 2012, we launched a competition aimed at documenting how language learners in the Web 2.0 era use social media for language learning in daily life outside formal teaching contexts.
The jury has finally chosen a winner, Claire Apostolidou. Claire is 30 years old and she comes from Xanthi, Greece. Her interview provides a great example of everyday use of social media to informally learn languages. As a new mother, she gives us insight into the use of blogs and forums to search relevant information of her specific daily interests. Claire also stresses the value of autonomous learning and of intercultural aspects inherent in these media. To enjoy watching the winner's interview, click here.
The videos uploaded on the channel confirm the broad variety of social media uses, as well as the great advantages of independent language learning. To watch all 38 interviews (all in English or with English subtitles), please check this competition’s Vimeo channel.
"We give students the tools to learn by themselves"
Teach students how to use social media first, and language skills will follow. That's Pedro Peixoto's line of action, which his company, Idiomplus, implements in the classroom.
Pedro Peixoto runs a company that teaches social media skills as a gateway to language learning. He argues that by showing students how to use various different platforms, you give them tools to learn a language by themselves. He says social media works as a virtual setting that gives a taste of authenticity for those who aren’t physically immersed in their target language and culture.
Is this method effective? Is greater global access to online resources blurring the boundaries between formal and informal education? How can teachers implement this philosophy in the classroom?
Listen to what Peixoto has to say on our TV Channel.
Open discussion forum after LS6 webinar - How can social media empower future language learners?
For those of you who missed the webinar yesterday (28 June), you can access the recording and the forum via the links below.
Recording of the webinar available at: http://ow.ly/bUhGx
Open moderated forum: http://ow.ly/bUgz9
Join/continue the discussion and share your views!
Duration: 2 months (until 28th August 2012)
RESPIRE, le réseau social de l'innovation
Le réseau social des professionnels de l'éducation consacré à l'innovation, RESPIRE a été lancé en janvier 2012 par le ministère de l'Éducation nationale et réunit aujourd'hui plus de 1700 membres. Environ 90 groupes de travail se sont formés sur la plateforme autour de thématiques variées au niveau national, académique, à l'échelle d'un bassin ou même d'un établissement.
RESPIRE : qu'est-ce que c'est exactement ?
Comme de nombreux autres réseaux sociaux, RESPIRE (réseau d'échange de savoirs professionnels en innovation, en recherche et en expérimentation) permet à tout membre :
- d'initier ou de participer à des discussions (tchat et forum) ;
- de créer des groupes de travail et d'en définir les outils et les règles d'intégration ;
- d'accéder, de produire et de diffuser des informations, notamment sous forme de documents (vidéos, écrits etc.) ;
- d'inviter qui il souhaite à rejoindre le réseau.
- Cet outil donne la possibilité de fusionner en un lieu unique les pratiques de veille personnelle et veille partagée, d'engager un travail collaboratif et de créer des communautés de pratiques. Il introduit ou facilite le réseautage, la formation et la co-formation à distance.
Un réseau social de l'innovation... pour quoi faire ?
Le concept de RESPIRE et sa mise en oeuvre répondent à plusieurs objectifs :
- favoriser la collaboration et la mutualisation en réseaux de pairs et d'experts;
- faciliter les approches intercatégorielles, inter-académiques et la transversalité;
- rationaliser et simplifier les outils de partage;
- consolider les pratiques de pilotage de projets, de ressources humaines et ressources documentaires en réseaux.
Comment s'inscrire ?
L'inscription doit se faire via une adresse académique (@ac-nomdelacadémie.fr) ou nationale (@education.gouv.fr). Chaque membre s'inscrit lui-même : il renseigne son profil, constitue sa base de contacts etc.
N'attendez plus pour découvrir le réseau : inscrivez-vous sur RESPIRE!
Web2LLP
The European Commission supported project Web2LLP was launched on 1 January 2012, with the aim to boost dissemination strategies of LLP projects through providing personalised support and training on the integration of social media, as well as through identifying best-practices and sharing resources, resulting in more coherent, participatory and sustainable project activities in the European lifelong learning area.
Social media (or web 2.0 tools) are instruments allowing people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online, empowering a variety of human activity involving learning, interaction, collaboration, knowledge building and economic growth.
The dissemination of projects' outcomes with a view to optimise their value is a key element of LLP projects and although social media marketing is an emergent and flourishing area specialising in boosting promotion of activities and companies through viral networking tools, LLP project teams often do not take up social media in their web strategies. This may be due to a variety of factors including a lack of understanding of the different tools not enough time to customise their web strategy or they may not have access to appropriate guidance and support on how to put in pace an effective web strategy.
Web2LLP will address this need by:
- providing customised training, based on a bottom-up approach which is mindful to the needs of each project
- raising the visibility of innovative good practice in the use of social media practices and
- creating a common understanding as to how social media can be used as part of an effective dissemination strategies amongst LLP projects.
More information about the project and project partners is available on the Web2LLP home page.
Join the Web2LLP Diigo Group to share resources, post comments and collaborate.
Teaching with social media in classroom settings: Top ten practices from teachers around Europe
This brochure presents the 10 best practices from the “Teachers’ competition for social media use in formal language learning contexts”, run throughout 2011. Now that we have highlighted current good practices through the competition, this special publication is about to share these deserving and admirable practices with a broader audience. We hope that this publication will be of interest to teachers, educators, parents and pupils sharing good practices in the use of social media in classroom settings.
New issue of eLearning Papers on Social networking supporting learning is out!
Internet is a social network. It links people, groups of people, organizations, information and applications made by people. When teaching and learning aims to take advantage of the Internet, activities that foster an understanding of the role and impact of social networks become crucial. Both research and hands-on experiments are needed to explore the possibilities the new platforms and practices social networks provide for teaching and learning.
Social networking is definitely not a new phenomenon in the field of teaching and learning. It could be, however, claimed that at some point in history we forgot the importance of social network in the learning process.
In about 387 BC, Plato founded a new school devoted to researching and teaching philosophy and the sciences. In Plato’s Academy the main working practice was dialogue carried out among the participants. An ongoing reflection and evaluation of beliefs was seen to lead to a critical and deeper understanding of the issues. Plato’s Academy was, in effect, a social network capable of carrying out self-correcting inquiry.
For decades, various methods have been applied in educational research to analyse and study the social networks and social dynamics of educational institutions. The majority of these studies have been undertaken at a classroom or school level. Today, with new forms of digital social networks and increasing computing power, research on social networks in learning is more exciting than ever before. The possibilities to experiment with social network services — to carryout design-based research, gather quantitative and qualitative data and to do social network analyses or build computer models — are endless. Both in terms of practice and research, we are only now taking the first steps with using social networks in teaching and learning contexts.
The new issue features 6 articles, 2 of them are in depth insights on the topic and the other 4 are examples from the field of the implementation of social networking supporting education. We thank all authors for their high quality submissions.
In-depth
Yvonne Diggins, Ann Marcus-Quinn, cbruen, University of Limerick, Miriam Allen, Catherine Bruen, Trinity College
From the field