Interview: Andy Dorsett, Academic Key Account Manager, Wolfram ResearchMathematica is billed as the world's ultimate application for computations, a development platform integrating computation into workflows, moving from initial ideas to deployed solutionsView interactive Demonstrations in life science and other domainsRun Wolfram Alpha on mobile devicesDownload the CDF (Computable Document Format) Player to view Mathematica interactive documents  Podsafe music selection from Music AlleyThe Christmas Season by Devo Spice, a comedy rapper from New Jersey who has become one of the most popular artists on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show.Duration: 23:47

You've probably heard me say this before, but I am increasingly of the view that the workplace training/learning/L&D (whatever they're called in your organisation) team should be moved out of HR and into Operations.Why?Well, HR is responsible for looking after people: their payroll, their working conditions, their treatment under employment law, etc. and has no direct accountability in terms of the organisation's business objectives.L&D's job is all about performance, and performance is an operational thing. Our job is to help the organisation meet its business objectives by helping people do their jobs.While L&D remains under the umbrella of HR, it remains okay to take people out of their workspace and put them into a learning space, and then to put them back into their working space again at the end of it.An operational view of learning means that learning needs to be situated in the workspace, because it's part of the job.Let's take the research and development bods at a sweet factory. I pick this example (a) because I'm a bit of a chocoholic and (b) because my mother worked at a sweet factory for over 30 years, so I have some vicarious insight. They don't know before they start working on it whether their new idea for a confection will work. They don't know whether the new flavour of toffee will enjoy favour with their customer base. So they experiment a bit. They find a recipe that works, and they send out a bunch of the new flavours to the children of all the staff members. They ask the kids to identify what each flavour is and to mark it out of 10. They also ask the kids to suggest some flavours that they would like to see added to the range. My reponse said that flavour A was 'mint 8/10'; flavour B was 'chocolate 9/10' and flavour C was 'soap? 0/10' (it turns out flavour C was actually grape). I suggested licorice as being a flavour they should look into.The R&D team gathered back all the results and decided to go with the mint. They also developed a licorice version (obviously other people had suggested it, too), and they eventually took those two flavours to market.In fact, the whole process was a learning process. They learned how to make the new toffees. They learned what the consumer reaction was to the different flavours. They learned what other flavours consumers would like to see. They learned how to make those.Once they knew how to make the new flavours, and the products had been given the okay, the R&D team passed on the information to the factory. The manufacturing staff then learned what changes needed to be made (and when) in order to produce the new flavours.Work is learning. We can seldom say we know how to do a thing before we need to do it for the first time. And when we come to do it for the first time, we mightexperiment, based on past experience/existing knowledgewatch someone who already knows how to do itlook it upget some advice from someone else who may have some ideasAll of this is learning, and it simply forms part of the workscape.Too many of our learning solutions require people to separate themselves from the very context in which the learning applies. Now I don't doubt that there are some tasks for which this will remain a necessity, but, applied as a blanket approach, this ensures that learning is an interruption of the workflow, instead of facilitating it.I know it's a gross generalisation, but the COOs I've met have always been driven, results focused individuals. This is where I believe L&D needs to position itself. Learning should be viewed as a strategic function, one that contributes directly to ensuring that the organisation meets its targets and achieves its vision. It's not something you do in order to ensure that union requirements are met.

Interview: Jon Corshen, CEO of GoingOnGoingOn has developed an innovative academic social networking platform, enabling students, faculty, and administrators to more effectively connect, collaborate, and learn. We discuss:Beginnings at University of PennsylvaniaUse as messaging tool and ePortfolio LMS IntegrationContrast with Facebook, Twitter, Ning and othersand morePodsafe music selection from MagnatuneVivaldi: Concerto No. 4 in G Minor "Winter" (Allegro movement) by the American Baroque Orchestra. The full CD "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" is available at magnatune.comDuration: 28:37

Interview: Courtney Peagler, Vice President of Strategic and Business Development, TaskStreamEducators and students use their Learning Achievement Tools (LAT) to plan learning activities, assess student performance, and demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes.Institutions use the customizable Accountability Management System (AMS) to support continuous improvement projects and manage accountability processes at a macro level.Other Podcasts on ePortfoliosRPP #99: GoingOn: Interview with CEO Jon CorshenRPP #97: ePortfolios: Interview with Trent BatsonPodsafe music selection from Music Alley"Too Long" by Yael Naim, the acclaimed singer/songwriter from Israel, from her album Yael Naim. She gained fame when her song "New Soul" played during Apple's Macbook Air ad campaignDuration: 27:23

It's perhaps appropriate that I should be formulating these thoughts at Christmas time. According to Christian beliefs, Jesus was a carpenter before he embarked on his three years of ministry. Why? Because his Dad was a carpenter. That was pretty much the way things were done all those many years ago. When you were old enough, you went to work with your Dad and you learnt his trade from him. I'm not quite sure what happened if you were the son of a carpenter, but you really wanted to be a farmer. Perhaps, if you had understanding parents, they went and had a word with a local farmer and arranged an apprenticeship for you.Of course, there were gender inequality issues, and certain choices were only available to one gender or the other, but girls learned from their mothers how to dye cloth, make clothing, prepare meals, etc.There were no exams.In the middle ages, it was much the same. Experienced stonemasons taught would-be stonemasons, skilled glassblowers taught apprentice glassblowers, and so on. People learned their craft from someone who already knew how it was done. No doubt there were those with great potential and those with less. No doubt there were those who quickly outstripped their teachers, and no doubt said teachers reacted with varying degrees of grace (or lack thereof). No doubt some teachers were kind, while others were cruel.Today's employee is (hopefully) more empowered than the apprentice of yesteryear, so perhaps the vagaries of the 'master's' temperament can be thus addressed. And there is so much that can be achieved with the implementation of a variation on this model. Learning from someone who is more experienced has got to be more effective, more timely than waiting weeks before going on a generic course. Progressing at your own pace with your own personal mentor, who gains kudos from your achievements. Asking the bloke at the next desk leads to an answer which can be implemented right away: quick win, uninterrupted workflow. What's not to like?With the speed of change and technological innovation, who's got the time to put together a slick learning resource before something changes again anyway?My thoughts along these lines put me in mind of a conversation I had recently with some L&D leaders about redundancies.Think about it like this. The economy is rough. You've got to lose half your team. You've got two senior members earning an fair amount, and several inexperienced folks who are still learning the ropes. After a fair amount of thought, you are able to identify the stronger performers from among the more junior team members, and you cut the rest. But you still have to lose one of your senior members. One of them churns out work like a machine. The other seems to a spend a fair amount of time chatting to the newer staff members and his work rate suffers as a consequence. So you decide to keep the one with the higher work rate.And it turns out to be the biggest mistake you've ever made.Why?Because when he was 'chatting' with the more junior staff members, what he was actually doing was helping them come to grips with the system, teaching them a few skills, mentoring them, coaching them, turning them into productive team members. Once he goes, the morale of the whole team plummets, and the workrate follows suit. Even your star performer's workrate suffers because she's not getting the handovers from the rest of the team.In marketing parlance, this is 'below the line' training. It just happens, because your newly unemployed staff member is naturally an enabler.What if you turned that into a KPI? What if you actually set the expectation on every team member to contribute to team morale and development? What if you had a system by means of which team members awarded one another kudos points (or gold stars or thumbs up or something) every time they helped one another out? What if it became enviable to be the person on the team with the highest number of kudos points? What if management realised that the enablers on the team might in fact be more valuable than than those with the highest measurable output?What if everyone shared what they learned with everyone else. What if the young techno-wizard on the team were encouraged to look at innovative ways to tackle things? What if he got to share his ideas at the weekly team meetings? What if he spent time teaching the wonderfully creative, but slightly techno-challenged member of the team?What if everyone was teaching and everyone was learning...all the time?What if the L&D team stopped being the bottle neck, and started being the team that helped people help each other - going from being the only goal-scorer on a low scoring team to being the person with the highest number of assists on a high scoring team?What if? What if?

Freelance teacher trainer, Olha Madylus, looks at some of the issues related to improving students’ writing skills ahead of her upcoming webinar on Solutions Writing Challenge #1: "My students keep making the same mistakes". Many teachers voice concerns about their students’ inability to improve their writing and learn from their mistakes. Why is it so difficult to improve? Is it the approach we take to writing? We don’t like to write in our own language so why would our students want to write in English? There are a number of ways to help students overcome their difficulties. Students jump very quickly from producing short texts, which are often written in order to practise a particular grammar item, to writing compositions which require a lot more than simply getting the ‘grammar right’ to be successful. They need to consider how to address the composition title, come up with arguments and ideas, use rich vocabulary, structure the text appropriately and even be imaginative. So, it’s a good idea for writing tasks to be ‘scaffolded’. This is a term we use a lot with early years’ language learning. ‘Scaffolding’ means that tasks include a lot of support so that learners aren’t overwhelmed and can be successful. Gradually the support is withdrawn as students’ ability and confidence increases. It’s like teaching a child to swim: once they are ready, you take away your hands from under their tummy and off they go alone. Within scaffolded tasks learners can still be allowed enough freedom for their imagination and creativity, which adds to motivating them to write. Writing is a process and teachers can help their students by focussing on different parts of that process individually. Tasks can focus on various sub-skills, as teachers help their students improve the communication, the language, even the register of their writing. Teachers can also drive their students toward success by taking a more positive approach to marking writing tasks. Getting back your homework covered in red ink and negative comments is very demoralising. Success is a key element in the classroom. If learners, particularly teens, whose egos are quick to bruise, feel they are failing at something, they tend to avoid it and rather than making more effort, make less or none at all. We should also reflect on where students do their writing. Much is done at home, but teachers can also encourage their students to collaborate when they write. Working in pairs or small groups encourages learning writing skills to take place and not just testing these skills. Register for Olha Madylus’s webinar ‘Solutions Writing Challenge #1: Solutions to mistakes’ on either Tuesday 24th or Thursday 26th February to explore this challenge further. Filed under: Professional Development, Teenagers Tagged: Solutions second edition, Solutions writing challenge, Teaching Teenagers, Teenagers, writing challenge

Interview: David Yaskin, CEO and Founder of Starfish Retention Solutions, Inc.Learn about the Starfish enterprise student success and retention platform. We discuss Starfish CONNECT and Starfish EARLY ALERT, how they interface with the LMS and SIS, and how you can measure your return on investment.Podsafe music selection from MagnatuneConcerto No.1 in D Major (Spring) - First Movement by the American Baroque Orchestra. The full CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" is available at magnatune.comDuration: 26:49

It's no secret that 2010 took a sudden left turn in July and became an annus horribilis for me. One thing after another went wrong. When it came to Christmas time, I decided to put it all behind me and focus on making the festive season as pleasant as possible under the rather trying circumstances, and address my life's crises from a fresh perspective in the new year. But the year had one last sting in its tail. My mother phoned me a few days after Christmas to tell me that my super-fit, ultra-marathon running uncle had had a massive heart attack while on the treadmill at the gym. While under sedation, he developed pneumonia. He only regained consciousness today. When I heard the news, I could only groan, "What next?"My uncle is one of two remaining influential male figures in my life who have been there from the very beginning. The other is also an uncle, but of the 'by marriage' sort. The two of them have known each other since they were teenagers and, during family Christmas holidays when I was growing up, they tended to forget that they were no longer in their teens, and got up to all manner of mischief. They loom large in my childhood mental photographs, and the thought of losing him makes me feel physically ill.Up until that phone call, I would have said that my most urgent desire for 2011 would be to secure a source of income. But suddenly it has become far more urgent that my uncle should recover. Completely. And run the Two Oceans again.Although we aren't much into New Year's resolutions as a family, we have adopted the practice of setting ourselves goals for the year ahead, which we share over our New Year's day lunch. At this point, we also reflect on the year that has passed, and I realised that some great things had happened during the year. With everything that had gone wrong, it had been all to easy to forget the things that had gone right. And all the many days that had been wonderfully ordinary and uneventful. All the days which had included little triumphs of the sort so often, so easily forgotten.So I decided to sign up for the 365 project (I hope that link works - the site is being a bit iffy. Let me know). Having a daily record of the year: the little moments, the big moments - will keep things in perspective should (God forbid) the wheels not reattach themselves, or fall off again.I don't have a wonderful camera, and I'm not a gifted photographer. But the project isn't just for those who can tick both those boxes.Perhaps you'd like to join me on this journey. Or perhaps you might like to start one of your own.

Interview: Dr. Mary Ann Gawelek, Provost, Seton Hill University on "An iPad2 for Everyone". This is a follow-up with Dr. Gawelek, who I interviewed back in September 2010 (RPP# 87) just as they were about to launch their trend setting iPad program. I asked:Why did you provide both iPads and Macbook Pros to students?Did you "flip" your classrooms?How is your faculty adjusting to this new paradigm?Did you save on printing costs?How about iBook Author or other e-textbook programs?What lessons did you learn?How do you gauge the success of the iPad program?Links to resources mentioned:Collect, organize, and share ideas on the iPadCorkulus Popplet Inkling - interactive textbooks for iPadBlackboard Mobile LearnTouchfire -  iPad Screentop KeyboardRod's Delicious iPad BookmarksPodsafe music selection from Music Alley"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" performed by Jane Aubourg, a solo electric violinist using digital effectsDuration: 28:45

Students often find it difficult to engage with reading and writing instruction and practice, particularly when large, intimidating texts are involved. This is the second in our series of insight blog posts, aimed at helping teachers to overcome this problem. Here are the Top 10 Tips for Writing, from teacher-trainer Olha Madylus. Writing is the most difficult of the four language skills. In order to write well, students need to not only have mastery of grammar, a large bank of vocabulary, know how to structure texts, and be able to plan and edit their own writing - they also need to have ideas, opinions and imagination. They are also expected to write things they would never normally write in their own language, let alone in English. Little wonder that so many students don’t like writing and find it hard to see any progress in this skill. Here are 10 tips to help you teach writing in the classroom. Start small Initially do short writing tasks in class. Writing even one good sentence is a great start. All too often, teachers ask students at low levels to produce long texts, which they have not been prepared for. Students will become confident with a step-by-step approach based on the success of mastering skills one by one. Whatever the focus of the lesson, encourage students to produce their own sentences which incorporate the target language. Provide good models and discuss what makes them good Students need to see what they are aiming for. Ensure that lessons focusing on reading texts include a discussion on what makes it an effective text - why is a particular description good? Maybe because it uses vivid adjectives and builds up a picture that can easily be visualised by the reader. Remember: just reading a lot of texts is not enough - students have to notice how they work in order to then reproduce those skills. Plan to develop different aspects of writing separately There are so many different skills which students need to develop in order to become proficient writers in English, they cannot be developed simultaneously. So, plan tasks in class which develop these skills separately. Course books often have lots of writing tasks to develop grammatical accuracy, but what about other writing sub-skills? You could create a gapped text of a story with no adjectives and ask students to add powerful adjectives to see how they add colour and tone to the text i.e. using different adjectives could make it funny, serious or even frightening. Note which writing sub-skills your students have problems with and create tasks to address these problems. Brainstorm and input ideas Before setting writing tasks, brainstorm in class. You can brainstorm ideas, vocabulary, appropriate grammar etc. Encourage students to record mind maps and to use this technique when they have to write independently or in an exam. Often, a problem students have when writing is that they don’t have the background, experience or knowledge to write on that particular topic, even in their Mother tongue. Exploit the texts in your course book by asking students to underline ideas they find interesting and then use them later in their own writing. They should not be hampered by lack of general knowledge in a class that is aimed to develop their language skills. Use videos from websites such as Youtube or texts from the internet, English language newspapers, or magazines to introduce the topic. Provide a reason to write All too often there is no real reason to write in class other than to have the teacher mark it! This is not very motivating for students. Could the class create their own chat room or blog for sharing ideas about lessons, jokes, interests or news? What about getting students to write dialogues based on a unit topic, before recording them with sound effects? Collaborative writing in class By always setting writing for homework, students are left isolated with little support to develop writing skills. This means that writing rarely improves and students lose motivation and confidence. Do writing in class and ensure that students work together, sharing both their ideas, vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Make it creative and fun Writing doesn’t always have to take the form of examination-style texts like ‘Advantages and disadvantages of living in a city’, or ‘A letter of application for a job’. Creative writing can encourage interesting and effective language use. For example, find interesting pictures of pairs or groups of people (e.g. famous paintings which can be found online) and ask students to imagine what they are thinking or saying to each other. Writing poems is a great way to allow students to focus on quality of writing rather than worrying about quantity. (Have a look at Creative Poetry Writing by Jane Spiro, Resource Books for Teachers, Oxford University Press). Include writing in every lesson Plan to have at least some writing in every lesson, so that it becomes more natural and easier for your students to write in English. You could create a graffiti wall in class and ask students at the end of each lesson to write on post-its / small pieces of paper the things they liked about it. They could even write requests for future lessons or a note of praise to a student they have noticed has worked particularly well that day. These can be put up on the wall and read by all the class, while you can mention any comments. Knowing that people will read your writing makes it more real and interesting. Sometimes focus on accuracy and at other times on fluency If students feel that when they write for you, you will focus on their mistakes, they may well lose sight of the message. Plan writing tasks so that some just focus on fluency, encouraging students to express their ideas and what vocabulary they know. Why not have students write regular texts, emails or letters, telling you about things going on in their lives? Don’t correct these, but send back short replies that address the message of the text. Mark positively There is nothing more disheartening than getting back your writing covered in red pen, with a bad mark at the bottom and the comment ‘Try harder!’ Avoid using a red pen to highlight all the mistakes. Why not highlight everything the student has done well, so they know to keep doing that in the future and make them feel good about the effort they have put into the text. You can also be selective in marking mistakes: choose the three most common / serious errors and focus on those. But always mention the good points in the writing. Remember how hard it is to write well even in your own language and that students need as much help as possible in developing this complex skill. Encourage and don’t over-correct to make writing a positive experience for students in class. For more ideas on writing in class, see Writing by Tricia Hedge, Resource Books for Teachers, OUP. Filed under: Teenagers Tagged: insight, Secondary, Teaching, Top 10 Tips, upper-secondary, Writing

When I was 10 years old, I started at a new school. It was in a different province from my previous school, and therefore subject to a different local authority.All the new standard fours (grade sixes) gathered together. The three teachers had decided on their own method of splitting us up among themselves. They placed us in order of average percentage from the previous year's exams and then counted us off: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3....All the 1s went with Mr W, all the 2s with Mr S, and all the 3s with Mr K. I didn't even know what an 'average' was. We didn't have those at my previous school. So I just opted to use my maths result (90%) and wound up in Mr W's class.In my previous school, we didn't have such things as 'class positions'. I had been in what would probably now be called the gifted and talented stream (in our school, it was called the 'achievement' class), and probably fared a solid middle of the range performance overall. But I'm guessing. Achievement stream teachers experienced a freedom to engage in personalised/differentiated teaching that today's teachers can probably only dream of. The only person who ever compared my performance to anyone else's in the class was my mother (long story).The new school was very much about competition.For the first term, we were seated in order of those 'average percentages' from the previous year. This put me about 3rd or 4th, I think. The child with the highest average sat front left from the teacher's perspective, with the second placed child next to her and so on, so that the front row contained the 6 highest performers from the previous year. The lowest achievers were placed in the back of the class, because they were deemed lazy.At the end of each term, we were tested on every subject (this was the norm in the South African education system in those days, so I tend to smile wryly when British parents complain that their children are over-tested with their four-times-in-twelve-years system). Each child's results were averaged out, and the great shuffle began. One term, I was placed 6th and so on the very edge of the first row, in imminent danger of moving back a row if I didn't look to myself. What pulled me down were my results in Afrikaans: a much higher level of fluency was required in the Eastern Cape than had been the case in Natal, and my proficiency wasn't up to the task (it soon was, though - my Afrikaans granny was mortified at my poor skills in the language, and addressed them forthwith).I can't tell you how stressed we were around exam time. Little poppets of 10 years old, getting into a right state about dropping down the order. And the teachers relished it. They felt it was good for us. The top three achievers in our class (whose names and faces I still remember as if it were yesterday) were in very close contention. Their stress levels were the highest. How Louise sobbed when she dropped into third place one term!Looking back now, I can't see how any of that benefited anyone, to be honest. And I wonder about the boys (because they were all boys) in the back row. The 'lazy' ones. Mark, Shaun, Tony... I wonder what they went on to do with their lives. I wonder if they continued to be 'lazy' and/or 'stupid'. I wonder if they opted out of the race at that point, or if it pushed their 'I'll show you' button.And, of course, the same thing was going on in Mr S's and Mr W's classes. So, when Louise was in third place in our class, she may well only have been in 4th or even 12th place over all. And as for how she might have fared across the whole city, district, province, country, world.....Who knows? Ours was such a tiny pond. But the competition was so fierce, it was all we focused on.Take, for example, the leader board on the game of Word Twist, as seen from my perspective:How smug might I feel to be so close to the top of the list? How hard did my oldest friend, Cathy (we've known each other since January 1974) work so that her name could sit above mine on that list? Does she sit at the top of her own leader board? Does Nathan (my daughter's boyfriend) sit at the top of his? Does he have other friends who have outperformed him? And how would we fare when compared against the global results? Will I ever manage to oust Nathan from top spot?Does it matter?No. Not really. It's a bit of harmless fun, and the competitive aspect serves as a prod.But I am an adult. I know that this is not Important. I know that, even if I trounce Nathan soundly, I will still feature nowhere on any global achievement list. I also know that, even if I did, it wouldn't change anything.But when I was 10 (and 11 and 12 and...), it mattered a lot. And nowhere near as much to me as it did to some of the kids who wanted to get into medical school or whose parents bribed them with rewards or threatened them punishment.I wish I could go back and find out what model that earlier school followed (if any) that resulted in a situation where none of us knew or cared where we featured in the class rankings. We only knew that we had done better or worse than the previous term, and that our results in maths were stronger or weaker than our results in art (or whatever). We knew who else in the class was gifted (or otherwise) in the subjects we excelled at, because of the points at which they got to spend time on self-directed projects.I know. Life is competitive. We compete for the interests of the object of our fancy, we compete for the job we apply for. But making a leader board out of learning?And don't tell me it doesn't happen any more. It does. Maybe not in your kids' school, or the school at which you teach, but it happens.

News from the PodosphereNew Podcasts App from Apple liberates audio and video podcasts from iTunes with a dedicated app for iOSIntegrating your Social MediaIFTTT (ifttt.com) - "If This Then That", a free service that allows your social media portfolio to inter-operate and save you time. For example, earn how to automatically Tweet each time you post to your blog.Other sites mentionedbit.lyblogger.comfacebook.comlinkedin.com    pipes.yahoo.comping.fmtwitter.comPodsafe Music Selection from Magnatune"Run" from the new age piano album "Lines Build Walls" by Ehren StarksDuration: 14:38

Prior to becoming an ELT Editor for Oxford University Press, Mexico, Lysette Taplin worked as an English language teacher and ELT author for a number of primary and secondary series. In this post she discusses the importance of learning a foreign language to foster linguistic and cultural diversity and the positive effects it has on the cognitive process. International Mother Language Day has been celebrated every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism in an increasingly globalized world is vital to achieve meaningful communication between nations and strengthen the unity and cohesion of societies. Today, there are around 7,000 languages in the world, and an increasing number of situations in which two or more languages co-exist and are indispensable in everyday communication. UNESCO’s decision to celebrate International Mother Language Day derives from the importance of linguistic diversity and the need to maintain and revive minority languages. Through learning languages, even just by mastering a second language, we develop a fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions (UNESCO, n.d.). And besides the obvious practical benefits learning a foreign language provides, it has been demonstrated to improve memory and brain power and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Bilingualism, even when acquired in adulthood, can have a positive effect on the brain. Students who speak more than one language tend to outperform peers in math and reading (French Immersion School of Washington, n.d.; Anne Merritt, 2013), and are more adept at focusing on relevant information by ignoring irrelevant and misleading stimuli. This can be due to the fact that by learning another language, we have to switch back and forth between two distinct systems of rules, challenging the brain to recognize and work out meaning. For this reason, bilingual students learn to become critical thinkers and perform better at problem-solving tasks. The brain has also been likened to a muscle since it is said to function better with exercise. Language learners need to memorize rules and vocabulary and thus strengthen their cognitive muscles, making them better at memorizing lists and sequences (Anne Merritt, 2013). Learning a second language can also develop mother tongue skills. Generally, not much attention is paid to the grammatical structures of our native tongue, but once we start to focus on the mechanics of a second language: grammar, conjugations and sentence structure, our awareness of our L1 improves. These transferable skills give bilingual students a greater insight into their mother tongue, thus making them more effective communicators as well as better writers. Bilingualism’s effects also extend into later life. Recent studies have shown that bilingual patients were more resistant to the onset of dementia. On average, individuals with a proficiency in two or more languages developed dementia 4.5 years later than monolingual ones (Suvarna Alladi et al., 2013; Anne Merritt, 2013). But aside from the positive effects on our cognitive process, learning a second language opens the door into a particular culture, broadening our understanding of a race and culture, and making us more appreciative of other perspectives. Once I started to learn a second language, I began to experience how learning about another culture, in my case Mexico, has enabled me to achieve a significantly more profound understanding and appreciation of my own. As a Brit living in Mexico, I feel a stronger connection to my heritage which I took for granted when living in England. Not only that, I now have access to an assortment of literature, movies and music in their original form, giving me the opportunity to view the world from different vantage points. Learning a second language has been a truly rewarding experience, and has enabled me to build deep and meaningful relationships with people in foreign communities as well as becoming more flexible and creative in my ways of thinking. It has also opened up a whole world of opportunities when it comes to travel and I have been lucky enough to have had the chance to visit local indigenous communities where Spanish is not their first language. Without a doubt, bilingualism and multilingualism provide the possibility to bridge both the linguistic and cultural gap between countries as well as being a great asset to the cognitive process. References UNESCO, International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2012, (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/languages-in-education/international-mother-language-day/ French Immersion School of Washington, (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.fisw.org/admission/BilingualBenefits.cfm; Anne Merritt, Why learn a foreign language? Benefits of bilingualism, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html Anne Merritt, Why learn a foreign language? Benefits of bilingualism, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html Suvarna Alladi, DM, Thomas H. Bak, MD, Vasanta Duggirala, PhD, Bapiraju Surampudi, PhD, Mekala Shailaja, MA, Anuj Kumar Shukla, MPhil, Jaydip Ray Chaudhuri, DM and Subhash Kaul, DM, Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2013/11/06/01.wnl.0000436620.33155.a4.abstract; Anne Merritt, Why learn a foreign language? Benefits of bilingualism, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.htmlFiled under: Adults / Young Adults, Teenagers, Young Learners Tagged: Alzheimer's, Bilingualism, brain power, Critical thinking, dementia, linguistic and cultural diversity, Memory, Mother language day, Multilingualism

Blackboard Corporate Keynote Wrap-UpBlackboard CEO, Michael Chasen, opened the corporate keynote and announced...Project XP: xpLor - XP stands for "cross-platform" and Lor stands for "learning object repository". Finally a way for faculty content experts to share and consume modular learning objects.Ray Henderson, CTO and President of Academic Platforms, discussed recent advances and the future roadmap for Learn ConnectTxt - new 2-Way SMS Platform Bb Learn Service Pack 8 - improved global navigation, assessment insight, item analysis, and more Bb Analytics for Learn - new dashboards for improved decision makingBb Collaborate v12 - improves Learn integration, including grade book, and mobile deliveryBb Social - social learning coming in the fall for FREE with Community moduleKatie Blot, President of Global Services Division, presented new professional services aimed at expanding program and course development, marketing, and student lifecycle support. Kayvon Beykpour, General Manager of Blackboard Mobile showcased new capabilities in Blackboard Mobile Learn and Mobile CentralMobile Central maps now include augmented realityMobile Learn now includes mobile assessmentsUsage and analytics are now availablePush notifications for studentsPodsafe Music Selection from MagnatuneConcerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) by the American Baroque Orchestra. The full CD "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" is available at magnatune.com

If you're a regular reader, and you have an ounce of insight into human character, you will have surmised that I am going through a rather discouraging period, right now. And being who I am, my lows can get pretty low...after all, my highs are somewhat stellar.Knowing this about myself, I have had to learn over the years to take myself in hand, to put myself in the path of waves of inspiration, instead of wallowing in the Slough of Despond, as I am often tempted to do.Sadly, one can learn some rather hard lessons about people when the going gets tough. Where one expects to find a 'Barnabus' (an encourager), one sometimes finds an accuser, or a lecturer... which is no help at all, you can take my word on this! Sometimes, even the Barnabuses have a grace period: when the solutions they have suggested, or the advice they have given, or the succour they have offered yields no change, they move on, unable to bring themselves to stick around for the long haul when things don't turn out as they expect.One of the places I can usually find something to lift me, is TED talks. Yesterday, I was reminded of this one by Benjamin Zander, and I have been immersing myself in Zanderness ever since. I have been tracking down everything of his that I can find. I find myself affirmed in the passion with which I approach my life. I am compelled to acknowledge that the heart on a sleeve must inevitably take more knocks than the guarded heart. But I remember that I do not do what I do because of what it will or won't mean to my own heart, but because, as Zander puts it in this and other clips:Our job is to awaken possibility in other people. Who are you being that your people's eyes aren't shining?We are about contribution. That's what our job is. It's not about impressing people.The voice that says "No," is actually not very interesting.In contribution, there is no 'better' and that is all.Zander says on his website:The best review I ever got was not from a music critic, but from my father. He was 94 years old at the time and completely blind. He attended a Master Class I gave in London and sat there in his wheelchair for about three hours. When it was over, I went to speak with him. He lifted up his finger in his characteristic way and said, "I see that you are actually a member of the healing profession." It seemed to me the highest accolade.I agree. These are the accolades that I long for. And - bless all your lovely hearts - I get a few that bear some resemblance. The tragic reality is that I can't take the good will and the encouragement that so bouys me to the bank. But, at a time when I find myself inclined, out of desperation, to make compromises in order to pay the mortgage, Zander reminds me that I am already doing my job. Like so many of the other worthwhile jobs I do (wife, mother, local community member), it doesn't come with a salary cheque. But, also like those other jobs, perhaps it can co-exist alongside one that does. Let's hope so, because I am simply not designed to lead a two-buttock existence!This is the man who gives all his students an A at the start of the year, on the condition that they write him a letter as if from the end of the year, that begins "I got an A because...." describing the person they could and would become if only their enxiety and the little voices that say "No" didn't get in the way. How's that for a radical and empowering approach?There is just so much I could say about Benjamin Zander, but you have access via your search engine to all the very same materials I have watched and read over the past 48 hours, and, because you're in a different space from me, perhaps you might find inspiration in bits I didn't even notice. But I encourage you to carve out a little moment of Zander-immersion for yourself today - especially if you're a discouraged member of the learning profession.Let me know how that goes...

Fancy livening up your classroom with some ready-made video activities? This is the second of a series of four blog posts in which Keith Harding and Rachel Appleby share ideas for using the stunning new International Express video material. Each unit of the course features a video directly related to the unit topic. Here, Rachel explores the clip from Pre-Intermediate Unit 10 - Selexyz bookstore, which focuses on using ‘will’ to talk about the future, Zero Conditional and 1st Conditional. Before you watch Discussion in pairs Before I play video in class, I find it useful to do plenty of lead-in activities to the topic. For example, you could start by giving students the following to discuss in pairs. Do you ever shop online? What do you buy? What are the benefits of shopping in real shops? Do you buy books or music online, or in shops? Do you think book and music shops will continue to exist in the future? Why? Why not? Describe your favourite bookshop. Explain why you like it. Check key vocabulary Tell the students they are going to watch a video about a special bookshop in an historic building. Before watching the video, check they understand, and can pronounce, the following words. You’ll find the answers at the end of this blog post. retailer, branch, archive, fiction, structure, design Number work Focus on the following numbers from the video. You could dictate them, or put them on the board. 10%; 8%; 15; 13; 500; 1794* First, check students know how to say them, and then ask them to guess what each number could refer to. You’ll find the answers at the end of this blog post. * NB: This is a date, so it is pronounced "17-94" While you watch More number work Ask students to choose three of the numbers from above, and to listen, as they watch, for what they refer to. Tell them also to listen to compare their discussions from the beginning with what they hear. More vocabulary work Do this exercise before watching the video again. Students work in groups of 3 or 4. Put the following words on the board, on cards (one set per group), or on a handout. Ask the students to try to remember what they referred to in the video. If they are not sure of the meaning of any words, they should check first in their group.   ancient architecture archive atmosphere branch browse ceiling consumer customer design experience fiction interior non-fiction relaxing retailer stained-glass window structure Give the students 5 minutes. You could give them dictionaries to check the meaning and pronunciation - in particular, word stress. Next, play the video again. While they are watching, the students should: a) put the words in the order in which they hear them b) check what each refers to At the end, ask them to compare their ideas in their groups, and discuss any they found difficult. Which words are usually associated with a bookshop or with a church? After you watch A special shop, building or place Ask students to think about a favourite or special shop, building, or place they would recommend to the others. Give them time to take notes and plan what they will say. Encourage them to use words from exercise 5 above. They should include: a) why they like it b) why it’s special c) where it is d) the best time to go When they are ready, ask them to stand up and mingle with the other students. They should take it in turns to tell each other about their special place for approximately one minute. They should speak to at least three different people. Ask them to sit down with a different partner, and compare what they heard. Which place would they most like to visit? Why? Are any of the places more interesting than their own? Why? Guess the word At the start of the next lesson, give each student one word, on a card, from exercise 5 above. They should stand up and mingle, and explain or define their word to someone else, to elicit the word. In turn, they should listen to their partner’s explanation, and try to guess their word. They should then swap words, and mingle to find another partner. I hope you enjoy trying out some of these activities in class! You can also find more on the video worksheet that comes with the International Express Teacher’s Resource Book DVD. All the worksheets are available for free here. In the next part of this series, Keith Harding explores the Mercedes-Benz Museum, from the Intermediate level. Look out for it next week. Answers Ex. 2 retailer (n) /ˈriːteɪlə(r) / - a person or business that sells goods to the public branch (n) / brɑːntʃ / - a local office or shop/store belonging to a large company or organization archive (n) / ˈɑːkaɪv / - a place where historical documents are stored fiction (n) / ˈfɪkʃn / - a type of literature that describes imaginary people and events, not real ones structure (n) / ˈstrʌktʃə(r) / - a thing that is made of several parts, especially a building design (n) / dɪˈzaɪn/- the general arrangement of the different parts of something that is made, e.g. of a building Ex. 3 10% - the percentage of online shopping out of all consumer spending 8% - the increase in one year of internet sales 15 - the number of Selexyz shops in Holland 13 - the century when the church was built 500 - the number of years it was a church 1794 - the date when Napoleon took the church Ex. 5 Numbers refer to the order each word appears in the video ancient 10 archive 6 architecture 17 atmosphere 8 branch 4 browse 14 ceiling 11 consumer 1 customer 2 design 13 experience 18 fiction 15 interior 12 non-fiction 16 relaxing 7 retailer 3 stained-glass window 9Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Multimedia & Digital Tagged: Adult Learners, Bringing Online Video into the Classroom, EdTech, EFL, ESL, International Express

Interview with Mark Max, Vice President of Blackboard Analytics (formerly iStrategy)Blackboard Analytics for Learn combines the data from Blackboard Learn with student and course attributes from the student information system to create reports and dashboards. We discuss how this product is used by students, faculty and leadership, for example:Students: How do I measure up to my peers?Faculty: How can I easily find students who are at-risk?Leadership: Who are the most innovative instructors?Podsafe Music Selection from the Music Alley"Stress" (song and flash animation) by highly caffeinated Jim Infantino of the band, Jim's Big Ego.Duration: 23:25

For those who are in a position to access BBC programmes, either in real time, or on iPlayer, I would like to recommend that you catch BBC4's The Brain: A Secret History. It is a documentary about the history of experimental psychology, and the first of three episodes ran last night at 9pm GMT.As I had expected, it was simultaneously enlightening and deeply disturbing. There was coverage, including direct video footage of several of the experiments we've read about or studied: Pavlov, Skinner, Milgram et al.The cruelty to animals and the breathtaking lack of concern for people's human rights beggars belief, as always; and the views expressed by some of the experimental researchers in their heyday fills me with impotent rage. At one point, my husband had to leave the room. I think I might have followed if this were my first exposure to the concepts. As it is, my exposure to the work of the likes of Pavlov and Skinner dates back to the Time Life Library series which my mother acquired when I was about 7 or 8, and the issue that addressed this subject was one I returned to so many times that it eventually fell to bits.I was an by the time I first heard of Stanley Milgram and his eponymous experiment. My very first reaction was to ask whether the naieve subjects were given counselling afterwards to help them cope with the revelation of what they were prepared to do to another human being. I mean: how do you make peace with such knowledge about yourself? Last night's episode included an interview with one of the few surviving subjects, and it was plain that the man is still traumatised, nearly 50 years later! There are times when one doesn't want to be vindicated. For me, this was one of them.Coverage of electroshock therapy included a case study of one young woman institutionalised for brain reconditioning by her mother because of arguments about a new boyfriend. This involved interviews with the (now much older) woman herself... well, suffice to say I was seething. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that the human mind is more resilient than expected.The show is presented by psychiatrist Michael Mosley, who at one point takes a hallucinogen as part of the programme. His passion for his subject is infectious, although I might be the wrong person to make that call, since I had a pre-existing fascination with the subject.Did anyone else catch it? What were your views?

Interview with Karl Okamoto and Emily Foote, co-founders of ApprenNet LLC.Online LawMeets® leverage the ApprenNet platform to bring a community of lawyers together in order to foster knowledge sharing without the high costs that traditional apprenticeships entail. Online LawMeets offer the ability to scale significant predictors of skills acquisition, including: observation, social capital and mentorship.They answer the questions:What is a traditional law ‘Meet’What is a MOOC?How do you use a MOOC to simulate an apprenticeship?How does LawMeets work?Can anyone use ApprenNet?Podsafe Music Selection from the Music AlleyAir on G String by J.S. Bach performed by UK’s Brunswick DuoDuration: 22:39

Do we collate data too much? Do we infer from observation too much? Do we believe we know what’s best for our young learners to read simply because we are the teachers? Answering the third question first - without going directly to the source - our students - then the answer is probably an unfortunate yes, making the other two answers a negative yes as well. The following is an interview to get a 6 year-old’s opinion on Extensive Reading. The insight on the value of pictures and the power of their appeal and reading encouragement to young learners is soon apparent and is something educators should not undervalue nor underestimate, especially when selecting the right readers for their classroom library. What’s your name? George How old are you? 6 Do you like to read? Yes, a lot. Do you know about Extensive Reading? (Thinks for a second) What does that mean? Do you play video games? Sometimes. I like Minions. Is that a race? Yes. If you finish the first lap then you can do the second lap. You mean you get extra time? Yes. Your time is extended? Hmm, extra yes. Oh! Extended means like extra? Yes. Do you think extra means choice? Hmm, yes. So Extensive Reading means… reading choice? Basically. Do you like Extensive Reading? Yes. What is the last book you read? George’s Marvelous Medicine. Why did you like it? It’s funny, and I really liked the pictures, especially when Grandma got taller and thinner - and uglier! Who gave you the book? Alex (his uncle). He said it was his favourite book when he was little, so I really wanted to read it. Did you read it by yourself? No, with my Dad. And the pictures really helped me understand the words I didn’t know. What other books do you like? Curious George. Do you like books that have characters with your name? (Laughs) Sometimes. When do you read books? With my Dad, at night. In bed before I go to sleep. George’s Marvelous Medicine took about a week. At night is my favourite time to read but I sometimes read after lunch. On the sofa. I don’t like reading in the morning so much. How about reading on a computer? I like reading stories both on computers and books. What book are you reading now? Fables from Africa. Do you like it? Yes, it’s about animals. I really like books about animals. And it has some good pictures. Do you talk to your friends about books? Not really. But I sometimes read to my sister. I point to the pictures when I read to her. How old is she? 18 months. But I only try when she’s in a good mood. How many books have you read in your life? I have no idea about that. You have 2 Curious George books that have 8 stories each, so 16 stories. How many times have you read those stories? So many. Why have you read the same stories so many times? Because the pictures are so funny. What other books do you read? I speak Japanese too, so sometimes I read Japanese books, but not the ones with Kanji. I don’t know Kanji. What do you like about Japanese books? The stories are good. And I really like the pictures. They help me understand more. Oh, and I really like word search puzzles. It doesn’t feel like reading but I feel smarter after I do them. Last question, do you have a favourite book? I have four! Curious George (all), George’s Marvelous Medicine, Baby Animals, and Where the Wild Things Are - that one has great pictures! Sorry, one more question. If a book doesn’t have pictures will you read it? Yes…maybe…, but I will always choose the one that has pictures. So George, I think you like Extensive Reading. Yup!Filed under: Graded Readers, Young Learners Tagged: Extensive reading, Oxford Big Read, oxford big read competition

Interview: Scott Nadzan, Director of Marketing & Sales for Ensemble Video. Ensemble Video is like an institutional YouTube with the flexibility and controls required in higher education. We answer the questions:What is video content management?How is it used?What formats are supported?Why isn’t Youtube good enough?Does it work with my LMS?Can you use it for iTunes U videos and GoToMeeting recordings?Podsafe Music Selection"A Passage of Life" by KitaroDuration: 25:46

Teacher and teacher trainer, Gareth Davies, explores how we can motivate students to improve their writing skills ahead of his upcoming webinar on Solutions Writing Challenge #2: "My students don’t want to write". Is writing the new speaking, do we communicate now more through text messages, Facebook chats and tweets than we do through face-to-face communication? If the answer to this question is yes, then writing should be at the top of the list of 21st Century skills that we are teaching our students. Yet students view writing as a bore, a chore, something to be set as homework so they have time to find an excuse for not doing it.  Even if your answer to my question is no, I still think writing has an important part to play in developing students’ language skills. Writing gives students time to put into practice what they have learnt and, if they are confident, to experiment with the language. It also gives English teachers a unique insight into the lives of their students. So how do we motivate our students to write?  I think as teachers we often throw our students into the deep end with writing tasks. When we ask them to speak they often only have to say one or maybe two sentences that are quickly forgotten but when writing they have to build whole texts that are there in black and white for all to see. So maybe we need to get our students happy in the shallow end and lead them to deeper waters when they are ready. In other words writing can be developed in stages, allowing students to experiment with language and building up their confidence to put longer pieces of text together. We can do short activities to help them tap into their creativity and help them structure sentences appropriately. We can do collaborative writing tasks to give students a chance to help each other. We can develop interactive writing tasks that allow students to see how writing is communication and has a relevance to their lives and we can study songs or prose to allow students to see how to use words and phrases imaginatively in the classroom. Finally we can make sure that the feedback that students get on their writing tasks focus as much on the content as on the accuracy of the language used. In my webinar, I will show examples of these kinds of tasks and show how the process of learning writing skills can be fun and help students to enjoy writing. Register for Gareth’s webinar ‘Solutions Writing Challenge #2: Writing - the new Speaking’ on either Thursday 19th or Friday 20th of March to explore this challenge further. Filed under: Professional Development, Teenagers Tagged: Professional Development, Solutions, Solutions writing challenge, Teacher Training, Teenagers

A post bubbling out from today's earlier offering.My mother was a bookworm. She was also a single, working parent from fairly early on. The education model in which I found myself during the earlier years of my school life involved a great deal of independent, investigative learning. Since it was a logistical nightmare to get me to the library to access reference books, my mother set about creating a reference section in our home library. This involved purchasing a set of encyclopaedia (World Book of Knowledge, if I remember correctly, since anything more upmarket was out of her reach), various text books and - joy of joys to my little heart - the Time Life Nature series.From the age of about 7 or 8, I pored over those editions. I forget which one it was that explored things like colour blindness, dwarfism/gigantism and psychology (I think it was Evolution), but that was my absolute favourite. It literally fell apart from use. And I wanted to know more. I regularly hauled it out and subjected my poor mother to my own theories about the content, as well as myriad questions.When I started studying learning theory as an adult, I found I already knew about Pavlov and Skinner. I had read and reread about them in my precious Time Life books. When I shared this with my lecturer, I was informed, with raised eyebrows, that I must have been a most precocious child.I don't remember that being the case at all. I just remember being fascinated.One of the experiments that featured in the book was Harry Harlow's work with baby Rhesus monkeys. These were taken away from their mothers and placed in enclosures where they had a choice between terry cloth or wire frame 'mother'. In one group, the wire mother was fitted with a milk bottle. In the other, it was the terry mother that was thus equipped. Without fail the monkeys preferred the covered option, even when it offered them no food. I remember reading the conclusion about the preference for a tactile experience and wondering whether the monkeys perhaps preferred the covered version because it offered them a hiding place of sorts, rather than because it was more cuddly.It's very frustrating to be 8 and have no-one to ask about such things. But I remember wanting to know. I remember that drive. That endless exploration of a series of books which constitutes a landmark in my learning experience, and experience which carries on to this day.How thrilled I was to find several photographs of the Time Life Nature series... with Evolution in every single one!

Interview: Sean Brown, Vice President of Education at Sonic Foundry. Sean has over 17 years of product management and education business development experience at IBM, Apple and Oracle before coming to Sonic Foundry in 2002. He is a past president and board member of the Hopkins Foundation for Innovation in Education.We discuss their Mediasite product including:lecture capture in the classroomtheir new product that supports personal recording at the desktopfaculty and student acceptancenew uses including flipping the classroomsupport for mobile devices including iPadPodsafe Music Selection from Music Alley"Winter Moon" by Rhonda Lorence - from the new age viola album "Winter Moon"Duration: 29:08