News Archives - Page 11 of 11

micro-interview: Lindsay Clandfield

January 30, 2020June 18, 2013 by Nick Robinson

140 character bio I’m a teacher, trainer and writer of material for learners and teachers of English. I am a regular speaker at conferences. 1. What do you do? I teach, I train teachers and I write material for learners and teachers of English. 2. Why do you do it? I get a real buzz … Read more

Instructure raises $30m to accelerate adoption of Canvas LMS

January 30, 2020June 16, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

LMS provider Instructure has raised $30m in venture capital funding to further develop the commercial potential of its Canvas LMS. Canvas was not long ago seen as a cuddly upstart competitor to the behemoth that is Blackboard, in a David vs Goliath type scenario. This new round of funding takes total investment in the company … Read more

Playforce: The Language of Learning Through Games

January 30, 2020June 11, 2013 by Tim Gifford

So it’s one thing to avail oneself of the endless blogs and sites that tout the ‘Top 10 Games For the Classroom’ or ‘Top iPad Apps for Learners’, but it’s entirely another to create a forum and approach for users to comment on the learning experiences they have encountered through the various games they play. This is … Read more

Hugh’s Reviews: Snappy Words

January 30, 2020June 6, 2013 by Hugh Dellar

As the dash towards digital becomes ever more frenzied, so Scoop It and other ‘curating’ (how I loathe that term!) mechanisms become ever more clogged with uncritical propaganda bombarding decent teachers with endless things that we’re all supposed to be keeping up with if we are to survive as teachers in the 21st century . . . and, perhaps predictably, many of them are utter dross and not worth wasting teachers’ time on, let alone students’ precious spare moments! Or do I mean extra moments? Or redundant ones? Or excess? All will be soon be revealed!

Hugh’s Reviews: Lingro

January 30, 2020June 2, 2013 by Hugh Dellar

Hello there –

Welcome to Hugh’s Reviews. This is the first in a series of posts that aim to explore and consider a range of different tech tools and sites aimed at ELT practitioners and at EFL students. As the number of such things seems to increase exponentially week on week, it becomes ever harder to simply keep abreast of what’s out there, let alone to find sufficient time to digest them and critically appraise them. I shall be exploring things I’ve seen touted and praised – and seeing if they merit the hype.

To begin, I’m going to talk about a site I first encountered courtesy of Russell Stannard called Lingro. It modestly proclaims itself as “the coolest dictionary known to hombre“! And Russell himself was almost as enthusiastic, calling “this fabulous tool” “the best website” he found in 2011.

micro-interview: Hugh Dellar

January 30, 2020May 30, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

Teacher / teacher trainer: University of Westminster. Writer: National Geographic Learning. 60s music nut. Arsenal fan. Father of two!

1. What do you do?

Teach, train, write coursebooks, give teacher development sessions, blog and so on. Also getting involved with apps and YouTube lessons.

2. Why do you do it?

It beats having a real job, doesn’t it! I do it all for the only reason anyone should ever do anything – because I love it!

Macmillan signs up with Knewton for adaptive learning in ELT

January 30, 2020May 24, 2013 by Nick Robinson

Adaptive learning powerhouse Knewton has announced that it has signed up with its second major publisher – Macmillan Education. Knewton, founded in 2008 by a former Kaplan executive, is already working with Pearson, and a number of US-focussed educational publishers. Macmillan will now be looking to integrate Knewton’s adaptive learning technology into online ELT courses, with the first products promised in 2015.

Money A Turn Off (It Turns Out)

January 30, 2020May 21, 2013 by Tim Gifford

A whopping 62% of gamers pull the plug on their game experience when faced with in-game monetisation methods, a survey by betting site BuddyBet revealed. Further to this, 25% avoid online and mobile games altogether precisely because of these unwanted interruptions.

Jarrod Epps, CEO and Founder, BuddyBet, commented:

“[P]opular monetisation models risk alienating gamers due to the negative impact they have on the gaming experience, likely shortening lifetime user engagement and in-turn reducing the lifetime value of a player.”

(Out)Source Code: Kaplan’s EdTech Accelerator To Success

January 30, 2020May 14, 2013 by Tim Gifford

On a previous eltjam post we talked about Pearson’s ingenius scheme designed to attract the best and brightest the edtech-osphere had to offer. Pearson – the educational publisher of Biblical proportions – is inviting submissions/product concepts/pitches from whomever has the wherewithal to realise that creating effective and lucrative digital propositions is no longer the exclusive territory of publishing’s Old Boy set. The company will fund the successful candidates’ travel to and from Planet Pearson and in doing so bestow upon them their expertise, contacts and blessings.

Open season on language schools? Open English secures huge funding

January 30, 2020May 5, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

Online language school Open English has been getting big publicity over the last week following the news that the business has just raised $65m in funding to expand its operation further in its home base of Latin America and also, for the first time, beyond the Americas. This latest round of funding brings total investment to $120m. That’s one of the highest figures in the history of EdTech – and it’s an ELT product aiming to compete head-on with bricks and mortar English language schools and ELT publishers.

Education now 4th highest earning category in iOS App Store

February 4, 2020April 17, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

The App Annie market index, released today, has tons of interesting stats on the iOS and Google Play app markets: the two platforms are now neck and neck when it comes to downloads, but iOS still dominates in revenue; China is now the second biggest app market; the biggest category by far is still Games; … Read more

Houghton Mifflin buys Tribal Nova

January 30, 2020April 12, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

Tribal Nova, based in Montreal, create apps and online learning – probably best known for their iLearnWith apps for primary age children. Houghton Mifflin are fully integrating Tribal Nova into their own business as a short-cut to developing digital-first product development expertise, as well as adding a successful product range to their portfolio.

Online language learning start-up Busuu reaches 30m users

January 30, 2020April 5, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

In the week that Livemocha was swallowed up, Busuu has announced that it has now reached 30m users, with a growth rate of 40,000 a day. It’s not clear how of those are active users, though. Their main growth is coming from countries like Brazil, Turkey and Russia – the same group of countries that most ELT publishers see as the source of their own growth.

Rosetta Stone going online-only

January 30, 2020April 5, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

Well, that was quick. Following hot on the heels of the news about their acquisition of Livemocha, Rosetta Stone has just announced that it’s closing all of its remaining kiosks in the US, shedding jobs, and moving to focus purely on online courses and digital downloads. The future is purely digital for them now, as … Read more

Tablets to outsell laptops in 2013

February 3, 2020April 4, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

A report from IDC shows that sales of ‘smart connected devices’ (PCs, smartphones and tablets) broke through the 1bn barrier in 2012, with Apple and Samsung each taking about 20% of the market. Tablets represented 128m of those devices. This is expected to rise to 190m in 2013, while PC sales are flatlining. The big … Read more

Rosetta Stone buys Livemocha

January 30, 2020April 3, 2013 by Laurie Harrison

Rosetta Stone has bought Livemocha for $8.5m dollars.

Livemocha has been making waves in the last couple of years with its language learning platform for crowd-sourced and publisher content. Initially providing free online courses to individual students, it’s recently been moving into b2b and the provision of ‘professional’ content sourced through licencing deals with publishers. As such, it represented an intriguing new player in the language learning market, and a rising competitor to established players.

We’ll see what Rosetta Stone does with its new toy.