eLanguages newsletter 12 May 2008
Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of the eLanguages newsletter. This issue contains all the recent developments and additions to the site that have occurred over a very busy Spring time.
Read on to find out about new activity in Indonesia and Kazakhstan. Partnerships between UK and China, South America and Germany also feature this month, as well as collaborative work that is happening in India.
We are currently giving eLanguages a spring clean. All test projects are going to be deleted, and all inactive projects created before January 2007 will be archived. e-mails will be sent out to all project users concerned before this is done. If any of your projects fall under this category, and you want them to be kept, please notify the eLanguages team.
The winter programme of eLanguages workshops in England has now come to a close. These were a great success, and introduced eLanguages to over 150 UK teachers. If you missed any of these workshops, but would like to be involved in any future events, please contact the eLanguages team info@elanguages.org
A number of new collaborative projects have grown from these UK workshops. Emma Norris (UK) and Marika Meyer-Neuport (Germany) met on eLanguages and are starting a teddy bear exchange. Then there is Natalie Hadleigh in London who is working with teachers in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland on a project called Our Day At School. These are great examples of projects which don't take a lot of time to set up, but can be really rewarding for the students.
There are also in-depth projects such as the Lincolnshire-Belize schools' collaboration. Teachers and students have been exchanging messages and project ideas via the eLanguages messageboard. Take a look here.
For an example of how to upload your project work, visit Sean Moran's extensive Mersey-Yangtze project which is a model of organisation. The project owner's input is the key to the success of a project, and this is an excellent example of how to build a project around your students' work.
Further afield, eLanguages has been introduced to teachers in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. You can see what happened at the workshops here.Why not consider working with a partner from either of these countries? They could be a great addition to a project you already have going, or could help you to start up something new. Either way, they would certainly offer an interesting perspective, and all are keen to meet new teachers. The group from Indonesia even set up an online poll to vote on their favourite subject, and set up 6 projects in one day. Here is an example called Healthy Environment, Healthy Life. Sharing local culture and lifestyle, as well as investigating local environmental issues are popular subjects in both countries.
eLanguages works closely with the Global Gateway and International School Award teams in the British Council. Just registering on eLanguages could make you eligible for the ISA Foundation or Intermediate level certificate. Click here to apply for your ISA certificate www.globalgateway.org/isa
You can also register on Global Gateway for free. It provides advice and guidance and can also help you to find partner schools for a variety of collaborative activities. For more details visit the Global Gateway website.
You can expect to see improvements on the site very soon. For a start we have moved to a new server, so the website is faster. You will also notice that the most recent projects are updated on the homepage so now you can keep up to date with brand new projects, including:
Your experience and insights are invaluable to help us improve the site and our services, so if you have any changes you’d like to see please respond to this invitation by letting us know what you are looking for. Contact the eLanguages team info@elanguages.org
Another important upgrade will be the inclusion of a reminder notice when you are uploading files to the site. This will remind you to ensure that you avoid giving out the surnames, private email addresses or contact details of your students.
UK users will also be reminded to check and follow your school's Acceptable Use Policy when including photos of children in your class.
UK users will also be reminded to check and follow your school's Acceptable Use Policy when including photos of children in your class.
The security of users on eLanguages is a very important issue for us and we appreciate your assistance in ensuring the safety and privacy of all students and teachers involved in eLanguages projects.
Before you upload a picture, make sure it is the right size. First impressions count, and a nice image can make your hello page or project stand out. If a picture is too big, it will cover the whole screen, or will take a long time to download. The best thing to do is to edit or resize your picture in Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, or a similar programme before you upload it.
Don’t forget that you can also add a gallery, if you have a number of pictures to upload.
Don’t forget that you can also add a gallery, if you have a number of pictures to upload.
