Author: Aaron
Which virtual classroom is best for language teachers?
Students around the world have been familiar with acquiring a language online using solutions such as Duolingo®, Babbel® or Memrise® since a long time ago. However, when Covid-19 outbreak started and affected us all, giving language classes online did not appear to be as easy a transition as one might think as most generalist virtual classroom solutions miss many critical features required by language teachers. Fortunately, new virtual classroom solutions that are dedicated for language teaching make online language teaching easier than ever!
Zoom®, Google Meet® and Google Classroom® are among the most widely known virtual classroom solutions or online teaching platforms currently. Nonetheless, we have seen many language teachers to struggle with these solutions as they are not optimized for teaching languages. In this blog post, we will discuss how these generalist virtual classroom tools differ from a specialized online language teaching platform like Sanako Connect? Read on and find out which virtual classroom platform we think is the best for teaching languages.
Language teaching in the new normal – Examples from institutions in the UK
Date and time
Wed, September 22, 2021
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM AEST
Location
Online event
Language educators worldwide have faced unprecedented change over the last two years as the Covid-19 health emergency has transformed previously trusted teaching approaches. In response, institutions are increasingly seeking to capitalize on the flexibility offered by blended teaching models.
Such approaches typically seek to deliver a high-quality teaching and learning experience by combining face-to-face teaching time with online learning components. But how can global language teaching institutions effectively reorient their content, curriculum, and staff to this new way of teaching? And what do they need to consider when buying the technology that makes it actually work?
This webinar aims to help you answer those questions! Specifically designed to support educators and institutions to respond to the challenges of delivering efficient and effective blended teaching and learning, this webinar is packed with best practices and expert insight.
Attendees will hear from two expert speakers. David Binns, Sanako’s UK Director, will share three detailed case studies from leading K12 and higher education institutions in the UK. Each one will demonstrate how they responded to the challenge of delivering blended language teaching. You will also hear from Aleksis Juhakoski, Sanako’s language teaching technology expert. He will give out updates about the recent and upcoming development of Sanako Connect – a blended teaching platform that combines the best parts of virtual classroom solutions and language labs.
Click here for more information and to register
Sanako’s language teaching technology now available in Australia
Cider House ICT is proud to announce that we are now The Australian reseller for Sanako.
Sanako is a Finnish educational technology company that has specialised in language education tools since the early 1960’s..
Close relations with customers, partners, and their pedagogical approach have made them the global leader in teacher-led language teaching software market. Sanako provide a full range of language teaching and learning solutions from traditional classroom installations to remote teaching solutions and AI-assisted virtual language teaching platforms.
Optimise your teaching time and increase your students’ options for speaking and using the target language with Sanako’s language teaching technology.
Sanako online multi-device support solutions include:
Connect – Virtual classroom software for language teaching
Teachers use Sanako Connect to teach languages remotely and in classroom. Virtual classroom solution designed for language teaching and learning. Build your own content within the Connect platform.
Reactored – Multi-language learning materials and courses
Over 4.500 pre-built high-quality A1 and B1 digital activities for learning English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Swedish. Content module for Sanako Study and Connect products.
Pronounce – Easy solution for improving students’ speaking and pronunciation – used by over 2.5 million users worldwide.
If you would like to learn more about how we could help your school/university to make your language teaching more accessible for learners, please contact us now to arrange your free demo!
AR STEM Learning Tool Provides Immersive Learning for Young Students
The equation is simple. Combine a Purdue University-related startup with PASCO’s global reputation for delivering innovative teaching solutions and you have learning tools that teachers can use to help young students explore complex STEM concepts.
With an agreement announced last month, Explore Interactive has partnered with PASCO to distribute its award-winning MindLabs product. MindLabs: Energy & Circuits uses augmented reality technology and gamification to enable elementary-age students to explore energy and circuits in a fun, immersive way.
The classroom set’s guided engineering challenges provide step-by-step lessons that allow educators to teach energy and circuits concepts with engaging content that supports collaborative projects, that can even include the remote learner.
To truly appreciate this powerful learning tool check out the product page and the video Inspired STEM Learning. And, keep an eye out for future integrations with hands-on STEM solutions from this new partnership.
Advanced PASCO Capstone Webinar
Recording of a live PASCO webinar from March 17, 2021.
A recording is available here: https://youtu.be/8HOekjfRchs
You can download the session’s resource files from http://bit.ly/advcs21. These include a PDF with links to Capstone resources and ideas to Take It Further, along with the activity files used and created during the webinar.
Lab technicians bring the excitements of science to life
School science laboratories are places of wonder and excitement for students of all ages and stages. To see the dawning of comprehension as a practical application of science curriculum falls into place is exciting to see. School laboratories are places where constant change and the evolution of technology and new understandings of the natural world transform student learning.
Laboratory technicians are critical to a vibrant and engaging delivery of curriculum. Technicians have specific knowledge and skills that enhance a teacher’s capacity to enliven what some students can find “a bit dry”. If talking about forces during a physics lesson has them losing focus then taking them out on to the oval to see a metal rubbish bin ripped apart in an explosion (subject to strict risk assessment of course) with just some water and a couple of beads of dry ice gets their attention back, asking questions. Looking through a microscope at the incredible alien looking life forms found in stagnant water, gives them a chance to engage in biological concepts that are happening in many of the cells in their own bodies. The laboratory technician researches the experiments, does risk assessments, trials the experiments and often demonstrates or helps students access the activity.
Read the full at: ieusa.org.au
Technical University Darmstadt – Comparison Report
A recent report published by the Technical University Darmstadt in Germany, compared in detail 4 companies’ (Leybold, Phywe, PASCO and Vernier) computer-aided data acquisition systems for physics classes….and PASCO came in #1!!!!
While this very detailed and excellent report was published in the German language, we have pulled the most important table of summary of the results and translated it (See attached pdf).
Here is the link to the university page where they posted their findings:
https://www.physik.tu-darmstadt.de/study/vorlesungsassistenz_1/forschung_5/wissenschaftliche_hausarbeiten__abschlussarbeiten_1/inhalt_mit_marginalienspalte_15.de.jsp
