Our remote working tips
We share some of our tips in the hope that it helps people who are new to remote working or organisations looking to support a transition of their teams.
Jo Sayers
5 things we’ve learned from running the LXD Meetup
Over the last six months we have partnered with Enrol Yourself to run three LXD Meetups in different places in London. In organising these events, we’ve realised how much more there is to know about LXD and how helpful it is to share experiences and ideas with others in the group. This post looks at five of the key things we’ve learned already and invites you to join us for the next one.
Machine Learning Summer School – Day 5
Today was the final day of the ALTA Machine Learning Summer School in Crete and it was spent with a practical session looking at the Write & Improve API, and then a reflection on what we learned from the week and some practical steps we can take when back in the real world next week!
Machine Learning Summer School – Day 4
Today was the fourth day of ALTA’s Machine Learning for ELT Summer School in Crete and we focused on psychometric testing for the first part of the day and then vocabulary acquisition later in the afternoon. As with other days, this summary is the information as I understood it. I welcome all corrections, clarifications and comments.
Machine Learning Summer School – Day 3
This week ELTjam are at the ALTA Machine Learning Summer School in Crete and you can read regular updates of what’s happening here on the blog. Today, Day 3, we had an insight into the human element to the Write & Improve product, both in terms of the annotation done to the the text by human annotators, and the insights that teachers can get into their learners’ progress. This post is a summary of the day and a list of questions it would be great if we could collectively answer!
Machine Learning Summer School – Day 2
All this week ELTjam are at the Machine Learning for ELT Conference in Crete. This post looks at the Day 2 action, including more detail on automated error correction techniques, error correction related to content words, the importance of Learner Experience Design (LXD) with all this theory, and finally a look at the Write & Improve product from ALTA.
Machine Learning Summer School – Day 1
This week is the ALTA’s Machine Learning for Digital ELT Summer School here in Crete, and ELTjam will be blogging (hopefully each day) from the event. This is a summary of the input from Day 1, where we discussed natural language processing, automated essay assessment and error detection and correction. A big day!
Things we learned from #iELT17
On the weekend of the 5th/6th May, ELTjam and Oxford TEFL organised the InnovateELT Conference in Barcelona. The theme of the weekend was Power to the Learner and we heard from people across the industry about ways in which we can think more about what learners want and need as they progress on their language-learning journey. By way of a summary, here the ELTjam team share some of their most memorable takeaways from the event and we link to other posts that talk about the conference.
ELTjam Review: Duolingo’s Bots
Following Tim’s recent post on bots and their potential application in ELT, and after our own foray into the world of bots with our Ame product, we decided it was time to do another ELTjam review, this time of the recently launched Duolingo Language Bots.
The Blockchain and possible impacts on ELT
If you believe the hype, the blockchain is set to revolutionise pretty much every aspect of our lives. But what is it? And what might the impact be on the world of education, and specifically ELT?
Applying startup thinking to teacher development
Cambridge English and ELTjam have been working together to create a digital framework for teachers – an initiative to help language teachers develop their digital skills specifically to enhance teaching and learning. This post looks at how we have developed the framework and the results that have come about from starting small, getting out of the office and constantly iterating.
It’s not about Content or UX, it’s about Product
Publishers often seem to struggle to look beyond content as the primary driver of their products, while for tech companies it’s often not much more than an afterthought. End result? Products that fall flat, create poor experiences and don’t live up to their full potential. How can we move towards a more unified product-driven approach?
Shaking up the ELT conference format
ELT conferences are great. They’re an opportunity to learn, to network, to make new friends. They’re also a chance to enjoy a few nights out where it’s acceptable that ELT is the only thing on the conversational menu! But having attended a couple of conferences already this year, with IATEFL on the way, and with my memories of past years still fresh, I increasingly feel that the ELT conference scene could benefit from a bit of a shakeup. On May 8–9th this year, ELTjam and Oxford TEFL Barcelona are hoping to do just that with our Innovate ELT Conference.
Here are a few of the things about ELT conferences that we felt were due an update and how we’ve decided to address those things for our event in Barcelona.
El Blog Para Aprender Inglés – The blog that became a school
Blogging is a great way to access a personal Learning Network, reach out to the ELT community across the world, keep up-to-date with developments in the field or just vent about things on your mind and there are fantastic ELT examples all over the internet. But can it lead to anything more than simply having a wider platform for your ideas?
Social Enterprise in ELT – The E3 Project
The primary aim of the E3 Project is to engage those with the lowest levels of spoken English, particularly women over the age of 30, who are isolated within diaspora communities but committed to living in the UK. This is based around three main areas; digital inclusion, positive integration and active citizenship.
Product Review – Macmillan IELTS Skills App
IELTS Skills is the award winning app from Macmillan, helping learners with skills and techniques necessary for achieving high scores in all four papers of the academic IELTS exam. The app goes into detail about what to expect in the exam, helps improve necessary skills and gives tips and guidance to help learners on the day they … Read more
Review: Writing For a Purpose
Writing for a Purpose is a collaboration between the British Council and Coventry University aimed at improve the writing skills of English Language learners heading to an English-medium university, specifically those in the UK. The project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, focuses particularly on the different types of academic writing that students … Read more
Product Review: Lexicum
Lexicum is an app designed to help “the 1.5 billion learners around the world with mastering foreign language vocabulary”. It sets itself apart from repeating a word (“boring and ineffective”), personal vocabulary books (restrictive in terms of the order in which the words can be reviewed) and other flashcard apps (they don’t help you learn … Read more
Developing our own MVP – Flovoco
On my first day at ELTjam, I was pitched at. Tim, Laurie and Nick (the ELTjam founders) sat me down and tried to sell me their product ideas. This week, we take the first step towards testing whether one of these ideas can become a viable ELT product. Today sees the launch of the flovo.co landing page, our own MVP, a little litmus test. But how did we get to this point and why have we made a webpage before the app is ready?
Review: Lingua.ly
Lingua.ly offers learners an opportunity to look up and save words they come across when reading online articles in another language and then recommends relevant texts for the learners to read in order to extend their vocabulary and improve their reading skills. Users can click on any word in an article they are reading online and, after … Read more
