LANCELOT Learning YouTube Channel

This is a channel of LANCELOT trained teachers doing lessons in various virtual classrooms and various situations. The highlights so far are the lessons in China and Burkina Faso. Check back for more highlights!

Why live online?

I remember almost four years ago when I was last in the USA--my twin sister had just gotten married and when I was at the airport her new husband gave me a web camera. Although I enjoy internet technology and had had a personal blog for a while, I had said that I would NEVER use a web camera. Well, you know what they say--NEVER say NEVER... Anyway, we used the web camera for communicating over MSN and later Skype and I was even able to join my entire family for Christmas although I was sitting in Finland. Eventually, it dawned on me that this type of technology would work great for language training and the more I thought about it, the more I was hooked on the idea of live online language training. Later, when I saw a virtual classroom, I was hooked even more. Anyway, I've been thinking lately about why a student would choose to study live online and here are some of my brainstorms. Please add to this list in the comments if you can think of more. Thanks!

1. This type of learning is a new novel way and some people like to try new things.
2. If a person spends a lot of time on the internet, why not try it?
3. It is difficult to find a native speaker to teach you at the time that you are available i.e. late at night or early in the morning.
4. Not only are you learning a language, you are learning to use the computer in a different way: application & screensharing, uploading pictures, etc.
5. This is a great way to meet new people whether it is your teacher or other students in the classroom.
6. This type of learning makes the world seem much smaller as you can be in Japan and have conversation with a native speaker of English living in Finland.
7. This type of learning is perfect for people on the go. I have taught people in China sitting at a McDonalds...so someone who travels can still meet his/her class from the hotel.
8. Convenience: the student doesn't have to leave home.
9. The student doesn't need to rush to get to class--just turn on the computer.
10. This type of learning makes it easier to communicate with teachers and classmates outside of class.

So, these are my brainstorms (and my colleague Jan's)--how about you? What do you think?

Social Networking

I've been thinking a lot lately about Social Networking and/or Social Media. Is it really effective? Does it change the way we teach languages online? Is twitter effective for language training or is it better to network with other teachers? How many ning sites are too many? I found this video and thought it was a great way to explain social media and the change that has taken place in the last two years.

Live Online Language Portals

I've come across a lot of live online language portals! (This does not include the hundreds of private language teachers who have set up their own websites.) Several people have asked me which one I would suggest and frankly I'm not sure as it varies for each individual teacher. I have tried out a few of them and have had success and many of my colleagues have also and some have not... Anyone have experience with these portals? Which ones would you suggest?

Avilano
http://www.avilano.com/

Buddy School
http://www.buddyschool.com/

ChooseI
http://www.choosei.com/tutoring.aspx

Edufire
http://edufire.com/

English Everywhere
http://www.englisheverywhere.com/howitworksd.html

English Bee (formerly Culture Link Online)

Find A Tutor
http://www.findatutor.co.nz/

Find My Favorite Teacher
http://www.findmyfavouriteteacher.com/

Find Your Teachers
http://www.findyourteachers.com/

ForteMall
http://www.fortemall.com/

iTalki
http://www.italki.com/

Learnissimo

Lingueo
http://www.lingueo.com/default/index

Linkua
http://www.linkua.com/

Myngle
http://www.myngle.com/

Spoken Skills
http://www.spokenskills.com/

Teacher James
http://www.teacherjames.com/

TuteU
http://www.tuteu.com/index.action

Verbal Planet
http://www.verbalplanet.com/

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SLanguages 2009 Conference - 8&9 May 2009

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

SLanguages 2009 Conference - 8&9 May 2009

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tesol tefl)

The Words we say!

Words
The least important word: I
The most important word: WE
The two most important words: THANK YOU
The three most important words: ALL IS FORGIVEN.
The four most important words: WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?
The five most important words: YOU DID A GOOD JOB.
The six most important words: I WANT TO UNDERSTAND YOU BETTER.

From the Book Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell & Jim Dornan

Language Learning in Second Life

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Language Learning in Second Life

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: e-learning elearning)

Virtual Round Table Invitation

Since the end of the LANCELOT project, the newly developed LANCELOT course has been undertaken 5 times and to date has seen participants from Sweden, Finland, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, the USA, Mexico, Czech Republic, Lettland, Austria, Spain, Ukraine, Argentina, Romania, Egypt, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

This great global community of 'Lancelotters' is a very active community of language teaching professionals and we certainly enjoy each other's company on a unique 24x7 running Skype group chat.

May we invite you all to listen to what LANCELOT is all about?

We will meet for a virtual round table discussion and are looking forward to introducing the 'newbies' to an unusual business model and inform the Lancelotters of two new ways of earning money. We will discuss a career and will also interview some of the Lancelotters on how they find and keep students in cyberspace.

Our next Virtual Round Table Discussions will be:

Monday, 8 December 2008 at 5 PM GMT (German language)
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 at 6 PM GMT (English)
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 at 1:30 PM GMT & 6 PM GMT (English)

If you are interested, but can't make the above meetings--fill out a form and LANCELOT School will contact you.

You can enroll at the following url: http://www.lancelot.at/registration.html

Can I do it?

I've made a decision to post on this blog a bit more often. The question is: can I do it? I'm out and about on the net quite often and realize that I'm not sharing the nuggets of information about live online and/or language teaching/learning that I could. So, let us see in the days and months ahead whether I'll be successful...

Lancelot Course

The second year of the ICC certified LANCELOT course will start in January 2009 and we warmly invite you to consider getting certified. Four months, a total of 120 hours, of which we spend together 26h in groups sessions, 26 hours in peer-to-peer work, 72 hours creating teaching and learning material, slides, podcasts, surveys and reflective writing for the portfolio, then the 20min live online assessment, a lesson plan and in the end a certificate as a LANCELOT trainer.

The question is, what do I learn in 4 months? Why so long? How do I fit this into my busy daily schedule? How much do I need to learn each week? What prerequisites are there for the course? How much does it cost?

...and then....

Can I really work as a live online language trainer after wards? What does this certificate stand for? What can I do with it? Is there a demand on the market for live online language learning? Will I see a 'return on my investment'?

... we also ask these questions ...

What is so special about teaching live online? Can not everybody with a Skype account teach? Where is the future of live online language learning? Does this complement or replace 'classical' e-learning?

We would really like to answer these questions for you. We have regularly scheduled Virtual Round Tables. Would you be interested in attending? If so, register and we will contact you with further information.

REGISTRATION
To reserve a virtual seat for a Virtual Round Table and have these questions answered, please register on our registration page.