MYLO Teacher Feature

MYLO are encouraging teachers to provide feedback on how they are using MYLO in lessons. CILT are posting a MYLO Teacher Feature on their website which also features on the MYLO Facebook page. Click on the links for updated feedback features.


We are also getting more teachers signed on and creating groups at The Weald of Kent Grammar School. MYLO has a great inbuilt motivation system: avatars which are unlocked the more points the students get, competitiveness between individual students on activities, between classes/teachers, between individuals on a national level and lastly between schools nationally. This multi-layered motivation system drives the students interest to look into more language learning activities. We look forward to higher rankings!

MYLO's Winning Formula

Well it's a sunny day (what a difference the sun makes!) and time for another MYLO update. Having set up another 2 sets of classes on MYLO recently I have been reminded of it's key to success - competition. Members of one class announced that they had been on it in their own time unprompted, with one girl gaining 700 points within a week! The development of personal avatars is another hit as students gain options for personalising them once they have worked through various stages. Valerie McIntyre, another MYLO ambassador, is using it successfully in her MFL department and has written a comprehensive write up on the Merlin John Online website. See the MYLO site for more information.

MYLO 1st Lesson

The first MYLO lesson with my year 8's was very successful today. We were based in an ICT room which allowed us time to set up individual learner accounts for each student. As the school administrator I had previously registered the school online and then set up teacher accounts. Each teacher then sets up groups which the students join once they have each set up their own learner accounts. To do this last step you provide the students with a website link and the username/password of the site, and once they have set up a learner account they simply "Join a group" with the group name that you created it under and the access code that you were provided with at the time.

Once I'd got more experience of the "site map", as with all new websites to navigate, and tried a few activities under the guise of my own Screen Name, (Speedy Gonzales...watch out I'm on the leader board!), I became more familiar and realised how easy setting up learner accounts for the students would be.

TOP TIP FOR SETTING UP LEARNER ACCOUNTS:
1) Ask students to use their school email when creating accounts in case your school blocks access to their personal email accounts - they can always forward the details to their home account later; 2) Remind students to take care with the spelling of their email addresses (yes a few rogue emails have been sent out there - only 6/30 so not too bad), and 3) Remind students to create "acceptable" screen names...

All in all the set up took about half of the lesson (25-30 mins), but this process will only need to be done once. This time period includes troubleshooting which was more often than not correcting student's typing errors when entering the email addresses/user names etc... Note: If you are a current user of the trial site, warn the students that when first entering the site the username/password may need to be entered a few times i.e. there isn't a problem with the page. This will be rectified when the site goes fully live. We were then ready to start some activities. However, prior to letting the students "loose" (they really were chomping at the bit!), I asked them to fill in a vocabulary table that I had prepared of the phrases needed to complete the activities online (English provided, they find the French in the phrases list on screen). This was with the intent of the students retaining a written record of the phrases once having left the ICT room. I am planning also to use it for reinforcement activities once in a normal classroom (i.e. acting out the role plays).

As we are trialling the online software I decided to record our students' opinions of their experience so far - albeit limited. They had some interesting things to say, including comparisons with other online language learning sites. My publishing of the students' comments on this subject are not intended to be to the detriment of other language learning sites, yet to discover what MYLO can offer that is different through the students' eyes. As a teacher I am also aware that the excitement of a new technology can cloud a student's judgement to a certain extent. The range of language learning sites already on offer on the web are vast and of a high quality. It is the interactive features of the MYLO site (students competing against other students and the storing of personal scores) that are sticking out for me on first use in comparative terms. However, what I will be looking out for is the quality of LEARNING that takes place regardless of it's software features.

Note: the student interviewer (budding journalist in the making I think!) and the students' comments were completely unscripted.

MYLO 1st Lesson Student Feedback

Esther Hardman's Podcast

Until the next MYLO update!

Esther Hardman

MYLO

Have you heared about MYLO? See this link for School Teacher information. It is a government sponsored initiative to bring the "real world" back into the classroom making languages relevant and engaging for 11-16 year olds, and it's free! Having been to a meeting back in February at CILT (the National Centre for Languages) I was given a taster and the concept is an exciting one.

What will learners do? The website above states: "MYLO is organised into a series of challenges. Each challenge is designed to offer a fully-rounded and self-contained learning experience, promoting language learning through creativity, problem-solving, decision-making and enquiry." These challenges have the potential to be very engaging as the innovative use of "best breed technologies and interactive routes to learning" culminate in "a social approach to learning and creative output". This embraces the rise of the "digital world",(even the PM is delivering speeches entitled: "Building Britain's Digital Future"), and how education is moving with the times.

MYLO is marketed as "Engaging, Valuable, Creative, Real-Life, Flexible, Innovative, Complementary and Evolving". Reading futher into the justifications for these descriptive words provides a sense of a well planned and conscientiously put together educational tool. My fellow MYLO Ambassadors (links to follow...) and I were given the opportunity to meet the designers from Lightbox Education and to feedback both positive and constructive comments as to its design, potential for implementation and impact on learning. This brought alive the concept of MYLO's "evolving" nature as they welcome feedback from both learners and teachers as the project develops.

I, for one, am looking forward to putting MYLO through it's paces in the classroom in the near future and will feedback on how my classes gained from the "stimulating content" and "innovative online environment", along with any reflective feedback in terms of any improvements that could be made if there are any to be found. I am eager to put into practice the different stages of the MYLO learning journey: Meet the contact, Get the skills, Compete, Take the challenge and Review my work, and to see the process through from beginning to end and how the students react to it's imaginative link to the real world via new technologies.

On y va!

MYLO Ambassadors Meeting 08/02/10

I've picked up my violin again yesterday after years of not playing (happens with renewed enthusiasm once a year!) and having bashed my way through a page of sheet music it struck me again how languages are like music and the words and grammar that tie a language together are like the musical notes that create the sound of a musical piece (how high brow!). I took part in discussions during the MYLO Ambassadors meeting today at CILT re their Goverment funded online language learning project, and I was reminded again a) how I love learning languages and b) how I liken the skill of speaking and listening of a language to music (amongst other codes that exist - hence my blog title). To imitate a speaker you need to copy their sound, and their intonation like the rise and fall of a melody. The "code" of a language is not just the words but the rise and fall of the language aswell. The Swiss are often teased by the French not just for their slower pace of speaking, but also the rise and fall of the sound of their spoken French.

"What about SingStar?" I thought. Using SingStar technology to aid learning the intonation of target language expressions. As important as the pronunciation if you want to gain confidence and sound authentic I say. (I was so happy to get karaoke into the day's events somehow!).

More information on MYLO as the technology develops and classroom trials have been carried out...