Meet Reobot, the world’s first Māori language chatbot
We caught up with Jonnie Cain, the Experience Designer behind the world’s first Māori language chatbot in New Zealand.
edtech
2019 Internet Trends Report: 5 Takeaways for Education Companies
Tuition fees continue to rise and more and more learning is taking place online. Read on to find out our top 5 takeaways for education companies from Mary Meeker’s 2019 internet trends report.
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!
5 EdTech startups that started shaping the way we learn in 2018
2018 has been a year full of innovative ideas brought to us by EdTech startups: virtual reality adventures, DIY drones and karaoke audiobooks have popped up on the scene, promising to transform the way we learn.
Using Typeform in ELT
Can disruptive technology bring an edge to your ELT academy marketing? Can you bring a service aimed at startups into your classroom and make things even more engaging for your students?
Let’s explore how language schools, publishers and teachers can improve their services, classes and get better feedback with Typeform.
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.
My InnovateEdTech by Jemma Hillyer
We hosted our inaugural InnovateEdTech conference in London on the 11th November. Jemma Hillyer, Digital Publishing Specialist, came along to the day and here she shares her thoughts on the event …
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!
EdTech (‘TICE’) in the French school system
This is the first in a series presenting practices of EdTech around the world. We’re kicking off with a post from Caroline Haurie about the situation in the school system in France, where EdTech is called TICE (technologies de l’information et de la communication à l’école). What’s happening inside French classrooms and what can we learn form another country’s practice?
What makes China’s EdTech market tick?
For the past three years or so, ELTjam has been working with CollegePre, a Beijing-based EdTech company whose digital content delivery platform is the muscle behind Cambridge ClassServer – a classroom technology solution developed with Cambridge English Language Assessment and Cambridge University Press. We managed to get some time with founder and CEO, Walter Wang, to get his unique perspective on EdTech in China.
Velawoods English
Velawoods English is an immersive, self-study English course that, according to its website, “offers the next best thing to living in an English speaking country”. We spoke to the Managing Director of Velawoods Learning, Hani Malouf, and Cambridge University Press’s Publisher for Consumer, Keith Sands, to hear more about the vision behind the product and their experience of putting it together.
ELTjam LXD Session: Ceri Jones on why we need a ‘CoachBot’
Ceri Jones spoke at the ELTjam LXD Session in Birmingham recently, with the backdrop of the IATEFL Conference. Ceri gave us her take on Learner Experience design and what it might mean for language learning content.
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.
Content is no longer king. Here are five things that are.
In 2015, content is no longer king. At best, it’s a minor royal. So in the era of content as a commodity, what’s taken its place on the throne? What do users value instead?
5 tools for teaching online
Independent tutor and digital learning pioneer Lana Friesen explains how she is using the best programs and apps to help her students meet their learning objectives.
With such a new industry, online teachers are developing tools and combining programs and apps to facilitate the learning experience of students. In doing so, teachers are pre-empting apps yet to be created to meet the demands of this growing industry. Including all components of communication can be tricky in classrooms, especially online ones. This medley of tools demonstrates how, with a degree of ingenuity, teachers can plan a full-spectrum curriculum for their students, regardless of the setting. We are, in a sense, the MacGyvers of online teaching. We are pioneers and must embrace this reality with open arms and open minds.
Grassroots language technology
In an update of a post from @muranava’s excellent EFLNotes blog, Mike Boyle, ELT author and editor, talks about why learning to code and taking on technology projects to help language learners is a career boost for EFL teachers and materials writers.
Designing learning spaces for a mobile era
The shift from the immobility of PCs to the mobility of tablets and smartphones allows digital space to interact with material space, both in and out of the classroom, in entirely new ways. At British Study Centres in Oxford, where Paul Driver works, this was an important consideration in their decision to integrate mobile technology into the everyday practice of language teaching. Here’s how they transformed their learning spaces.
Blended learning: Anything new or innovative here?
At ELTjam, we’re always interested in hearing from teachers working with technology at the coal face. In this post, UK-based teacher and CELTA trainer, Sam Shepherd, reflects on the case for and against blended learning.
App Design: Green Owls and Pots of Gold
ELTjam blog reader and app-developer-in-training, Damien Herlihy, tells us about how he approached his app as a learning experience rather than a business and his attempts at crowdsourcing input and feedback from teachers.
ELTjam at IATEFL 2015: How ELT might handle the ‘EdTech revolution’
At IATEFL 2014, ELTjam argued that the ELT community needed to engage more with the world of educational technology (EdTech) in order to continue to thrive. One year on, we looked at what that engagement might actually look like, examining how teachers, institutions, publishers and materials writers can best position themselves in the new ELT landscape.
