Multilingual MOOCs, Animating Textbooks, Innovative Ideas, Social Media Concerns, Internet Safety

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Animate Your Course Book with Engaging Activities
Submitted by Shelly Terrell on 19 Feb. 2014, British Council
Thirteen out of the 20 ideas for activities for English language learners in this article are dependent on technology. Most of the remaining ideas also have a technology component. Some definitely look worth checking out.

Multilingual MOOCs Expand Reach of U.S. Idea: U.S. Phenomenon Becomes International
By Nick Clunn, Tech Page One, 24 Feb. 2014
Coursera and the Carlos Slim Foundation have joined forces “to deliver more courses in Spanish to Mexico and” throughout Latin American. edX is planning “to use its platform to host a MOOC portal for the Arabic-speaking world” through a partnership with a group in Jordan. This group will offer courses in several languages besides Arabic.

Top 10 Tools for Creating Teaching Materials
From Talk2me English
This English Language Teaching blog for students and teachers was awarded the “Blog Award for Innovative Teaching Ideas” by Teaching English British Council in February 2014. The blog offers a wide variety of tools and tips for the English language learner and teacher. 

Teachers Have Mixed Feelings on Using Social Media in Classrooms by Caitlin Hendee in Denver Business Journal, 11 Feb. 2014
This article reports findings on how few teachers in US classrooms use social media and reports reasons why they don’t use it more than they do. Many teachers think it can enhance students’ learning but worry about inappropriate use. One researcher reported that she thinks part of the problem is that teachers are not quite sure how to separate their personal and professional use of social media.

Monthly Lesson Plan – Online Safety  
Submitted by Sally Trowbridge on 7 Feb. 2014 from British Council
A timely lesson plan for teenagers to help them develop an awareness of Internet safety issues as they learn English.

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