ELTjam at IATEFL 2019
We are delighted to announce that we have three sessions at IATEFL 2019. We’ll also be taking part in a panel discussion. Come and find out more in our latest blog post!
apps
The secret to successful app development
Thinking about releasing your own mobile app, but have no idea where to start? Here’s some advice from our tech partner Nils Millahn on how to work with app development agencies to build a mobile app that will take your business to the next level!
InnovateEdTech sessions: Harriet Ballantyne & Doug Belshaw
Here’s another look at some of the excellent talks from last year’s Innovate EdTech conference. First, we hear from Harriet Ballantyne, who talks about how to manage and develop online communities through learning apps, as well as the importance of gathering feedback from learners and acting on it. Then, Doug Belshaw gives us some great insight into developing digital literacies and shows how we can demonstrate achievement online with Open Badges.
Apple’s electric car and the death of language teaching as we know it
When I was four, going on five, a TV show called Knight Rider premiered in the UK. I loved it and remained a fan for most of my childhood (OK, I admit it; I’m still a fan). There was The Hoff, of course – all leather jackets, open shirt buttons and swagger – but the real star of the show was K.I.T.T – Knight Industries Two Thousand – the ‘advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware and nearly indestructible car’. Over thirty years later Apple and Google are in a head-to-head race to bring K.I.T.T’s spiritual successor – the driverless car – to market. And, as a little-known and hard-to-spot side effect, the ramifications for the teaching of languages, especially English, could be huge.
The ELTjam Lexicon of ELT in the Digital Age: ‘aha moment’ to ‘authoring tool’
Welcome to the second installment of The ELTjam Lexicon of ELT in the Digital Age. You can read more about the series here and see the full list of terms we plan to cover here. This week, we’re finishing off the ‘A’s.
AR we there yet?
We thought it might be worth taking a look to see if our predictions regarding Augmented Reality turned out to be accurate, or if we were jumping any number of guns …
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
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
Our Journey to the App Store
At ELTjam, we’re always interested to hear from people who are developing ELT products outside of the traditional publishing framework. For this post, we’re delighted to welcome Curt Ford to the blog to discuss his app American Voices. Over to Curt …
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?
The evolved uni classroom
Following on from his post ‘Me and my iPad‘, Phil Wade shares his experiences of working in a university classroom laden with tech.
The Future of ELT
It was interesting to be at IATEFL this year, the annual land grab for attention larger than ever, and a conference dominated by discussions, presentations and a plenary about the future of ELT, which – it is suggested – will be completely mediated by technologies (more of this fallacy later). With Sugata Mitra selling his … Read more
Native apps vs. Web apps: The great debate Pt. 3 of 3
In this the final part, I will give you my recommendation for how to make this vital decision. Then, if you dare, I’ll get a bit more technical and explain some of the details I skipped over in the first two posts.
Me and my iPad
In this honest, insightful and helpful guest post Phil Wade shares his experiences of taking an iPad into the classroom …
Startup Stories: The EdTech Journey of ClassWired Pt.1/2
The problem was that no technology connected what I did in class to the rest of my life.
Startup Stories: Shaunie Shammass from SpeakingPal
Dr Shaunie Shammass, VP Linguistic Innovation at SpeakingPal, talks to us about her work in bringing speech recognition tech up to speed with the needs of English language learners.
Game-Based Learning 2.1: How & When
In last week’s opening post in his series about game-based learning, David Dodgson looked at some of the myths that surround both GBL and gaming in general. This week, he discusses some of the benefits and pitfalls of introducing gaming to the language learning classroom and also examines when and how a teacher might take such an approach.
Are Digital Classrooms the New Paperless Offices?
The office of the 90s
My first job in marketing was back in the late 90s, when I was working for what was then the University of North London (now London Metropolitan). Whilst the 1990s really aren’t that long ago, the office environment back then was a world away from the kind of offices you’ll find in the UK in 2013. It was a time when people could get away with having a cheeky ciga
ELT dips its toe into the crowdfunding pool
Back in June, Laurie wrote a piece on crowdfunding in ELT, which lamented the fact that nothing much ELT-related was happening on crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter. Well, there’s one recently launched project that’s definitely worth a look. Atama-ii Books is the brainchild of, amongst others, Marcos Benevides, a Japan-based teacher, publisher and author. Marcos is well … Read more
Rosetta Stone Buys Up Lexia Learning
It’s appears truer then ever that a rolling stone gathers no moss as Rosetta Stone follows its recent acquisition of Livemocha by taking on the services and systems of Lexia Learning. The $22.5 million deal represents Rosetta Stone’s leading edge strategy of moving towards being an education solutions provider in U.S. schools as opposed to exclusively … Read more
