Media and Learning 2013

Mind the App! is an exciting and innovative resource book which introduces teachers and their students to some
of the most useful and interesting web applications for language teaching and learning. Thomas Strasser, the author, talks about it in this webinar.

Audiolingua is a collaborative bank of authentic audio resources, recorded by native speakers, for a freely pedagogical or personal use, according to the rights of use which are detailed in the legal notice. Its aim is to train oral comprehension for anyone who would like to improve this language skill and to provide language teachers with authentic resources.
The mp3 files are classified according to the reference levels defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. You can listen to the audio files online, download them one after another or also register to the podcast.
Audiolingua contains recordings in 10 languages.

Namathis organizes more than 10,800 educational videos from the Internet, 2,000 in english, 8,000 in spanish and 800 in portuguese (and increasing). It aims to offer video lessons about different subjects to help High School and university students in their studies.
Namathis seek and organize Youtube.com videos in matters so that the student can reach different video explanations upon the same topic. Students can also comment and ask the community about it.
Students have just one place to access the videos of the subjects they are studying; they can watch more than one explanation, so they can understand thoroughly what they are learning. They can share comments and questions with teachers and students over a specific theme.
Students can access academic contents in a flexible way. They catch up when they miss a class and, above all, they can revise the material as many times as they think it is necessary to prepare an exam
Teachers can add videos about a subject they consider useful not needing to sign up for it. Also they can answer questions of the students, taking into account that thousands of students could be helped this way.
Educational video authors in Namathis are viewed more times because they are enlisted by subject-matter and topic. Besides, every video includes a link to the author's channel in Youtube, boosting up its visibility.

The resources listed in this article, appeared at the beginning of 2013 on the website of OpenCulture, are found in a variety of formats: video lessons, apps, books, websites, etc.
They cover a wide range of topics, from language learning to narrative, from Mathematics and Sciences to Art and Visual Culture, from Geography and History to Music and Philosophy.
Every resource appears in the list categorised by topic and/or format and with a few-words description giving an idea of its characteristics and peculiarities.

This very simple website presents a list of places on the web where to find learning material on any subject for free. The list, divided into categories, links some of the best resources for learning on the web, including many renowned universities and portals containing guides, tutorials and books in many different formats.
The author also writes the news on the list in a blog and Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Knowmia is a video lessons database. It contains more than 8000 lessons on a wide range of subjects from all sort of sources and with teachers' help to make each lessons properly tagged and easily searchable. Teachers using the tools offered by Knowmia can create lessons for their own class but also contribute these lessons to the greater community. Some teachers use lessons from Knowmia in the classroom while others assign them to students as homework.
MyKnowmia is one of the tools of this database and it is described as the place where students and teachers can see and access their classes and assignment. For students, that's where they go to view and do assignments. For teachers, that's where they go to create, assign and monitor assignments. Most of the home assignment tools will be launched soon and are not available just yet. Home assignments can be personalised and it is possible to monitor students’ progresses.

Jonatan Academy is a project for creating educational videos in Dutch for elementary schools.
The videos present on the website have been made by 11-year-old kids for younger students to learn the basics of Mathematics and Dutch language. The normal making process for these videos includes a script, the elaboration of visual material in Powerpoint and the publication on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/jonatanschool).
These videos are thought as integration or repetition to what students learn from the teacher, to help them memorise better the concepts explained.
The website also contains instructions and tools that can be useful for medium and high school students and for teachers as a guide to an interesting and useful activity.

Jonathan Academy is een project om nederlandstalige educationele video's te maken voor het basisonderwijs.
De video's op de website werden door 11-jarige kinderen gemaakt om jongere leerlingen de basis van wiskunde
en het Nederlands te leren. Bij de normale procedure voor het maken van deze filmpjes hoort een scenario, de uitwerking van beeldmateriaal in Powerpoint en een publicatie op Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/jonatanschool).
Deze video's worden beschouwd als herhaling of bijkomende leerstof van wat de leerlingen zelf van de leerkracht leren, om hen zo te helpen beter de uitgelegde begrippen te onthouden. De website bevat ook instructies en hulpmiddelen die handig kunnen zijn voor studenten uit het middelbaar en voor leerkrachten als gids voor een interessante en bruikbare les.

WatchKnowLearn lists free educational videos and provide descriptions and other information about them, as well as the possibility to comment and rate them. The collection presently contains over 35,000 videos divided in over 4,000 categories covering all major educational topics from elementary to secondary schools. The videos are available without any registration or fee to teachers in the classroom, and to students and parents at home.
A search tool is also provided to help find the desired material browsing by subject and age level. Video titles, descriptions, age-level information, and ratings are all edited for usefulness. Virtual classrooms are also being created.
The site invites broad participation of teachers, instructors and educators in order to organize all high-quality educational videos currently available on the Internet in a new kind of wiki guided by teachers.

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WatchKnowLearn enumera videos educativos gratuitos y proporciona descripciones y otra información sobre ellos, así como la posibilidad de comentar y votarlos. La colección contiene actualmente más de 35.000 vídeos, divididos en más de 4.000 categorías que abarcan todos los temas principales de la educación primaria a la secundaria. Los videos están disponibles sin ningún tipo de inscripción o cuota a los maestros en el aula, y para los estudiantes y sus padres.
Se proporciona también una herramienta de búsqueda para ayudarle a encontrar el material deseado navegar por materia y nivel de edad. Vídeo títulos, descripciones, información de nivel de edad, y las votaciones están todos editados en base a su utilidad. Aulas virtuales también están siendo creadas.
El sitio invita a una amplia participación de los docentes, instructores y educadores con el fin de organizar todos los vídeos educativos de alta calidad disponibles en el Internet en un nuevo tipo de wiki guiado por los profesores.

Dictionary.com provides several products for reliable, free access to millions of English definitions, synonyms, spelling, audio pronunciations, example sentences, translations, example sentences, word games and study games. They are available online or through mobile applications.
Here follows a short description of the main products:
Dictionary.com: provides reliable access to millions of English definitions and meanings, spelling, audio pronunciations, example sentences, and word origins.
Thesaurus.com: is a comprehensive and efficient language tool used by professionals, students, etc., to find the synonyms and antonyms.
Quotes: offers over 60,000 famous quotations, aphorisms, proverbs, and quips. The quotes can be organized by topic, author, and popularity,
Reference.com: provides free online encyclopedia and library information.
Translator: it provides translations in more than 50 languages (in the style of Google Translate) . The number of characters is limited for each translation.
Spanish: a recently-launched product for learning Spanish at many levels. Pronunciation is still done by an automated reader with English setting up.
Word of the Day: it sends a daily email with a word to learn and its definition, selected to enrich the lexicon of the users.
The Hot Word Blog: it examines the terms tossed about around the world and draws meaning from news-making events.
Games: designed to entertain and educate. There is a variety of them on the platform.

Voxy is a language-learning program based on real-life daily activities. Based on leading language learning principles and the latest technology, the integrated Web and mobile platform accelerates learning and creates a highly effective, immersive experience. Location-based language lessons and camera flashcards help learners with useful vocabulary and expressions in context.
The program provides authentic material for homework assignments, including built-in reading comprehension and vocabulary building tools. Lessons are designed in bite-sized increments for maximum compliance with assignments.
The program creates many opportunities for students to collaborate and learn together for it encourages group work and collaboration. Interactive games make language learning fun and keep students coming back for more. It also allows teachers to monitor students’ engagement, success and performance with easy-to-use reporting.
Voxy’s integrated web/mobile/SMS platform uses relevant up-to-date real-world content of a student’s choosing to shape lessons that are accessible anywhere, anytime. This approach is based on the pedagogic theories of motivation and learning. The used method increases frequency of study and accelerates learning by teaching in-context. The system on which the program is based is interactive and adaptive, meaning that each learner can personalize his/her curriculum.
Voxy is currently focused on teaching English to native Spanish and Portuguese-speakers. An expansion for speakers of other languages is planned.