home

Hello IH COLTERS!

[|http://infogr.am]
media type="custom" key="23533794" align="center"

** [|www.thedistancedelta.com] ** The Distance Delta is a collaboration between International House London and the British Council and it offers a range of programmes which fully prepare candidates for all three Cambridge Delta Modules. Programmes are designed for practising teachers in the field of ELT who wish to upgrade their qualifications and develop their teaching skills. Specifically tailored for teachers who would like to continue working while they study, the Distance Delta provides a flexible and convenient alternative to intensive and part-time face-to-face courses. Apparently, the Distance Delta is another online course devised for a more complex Moodle platform, where you can easily gather information by clicking on the tabs on the top of the page. However, it seems that only Modules 1 and 3 are fully online. The Website Tour helps the candidate get acquainted with the platform even before enrolling for the course, which may be an advantage. You also easily spot values, dates and other useful information just with a few clicks.   Thais' evaluation (the distance delta)  Good web design may be a matter of taste. And taste varies, depending on the region and culture, as well as other factors, but this one is indeed very pleasant to the eye. I have read that a clear navigation system has to answer two questions instantly: ‘Where am I?’ and ‘Where can I go from here?’, and this information is seen at a glance. You understand its purpose in two seconds and you should be able to navigate through it instantly, even those who are average users. As opposed to the other websites, this one is merely informative. It explains the Delta online program, but not thoroughly, giving information on how the course works, dates and fees, tutoring staff, requirements and materials to be used. I found the information is well distributed.

It is acessible on mobile devices, such as the iPad and Android cell phones, which is a useful bonus. It also links you to other social media, such as FB and Twitter. I think it's great that you can sign up online and it seems to offer the security, peace of mind and reliability that more serious sites can. I also find it interesting that they give you a reading list of used material, but no links to download them, which might be due not wanting to have a huge amount of data clogging it up, or for copywright reasons.  **Nastia's evaluation:** I decided to answer the questions provided in the task as the ones coined earlier didn't seem to work for me. With regards to the website, it's a simple one. The VLE is a complex one as there are DBs, links to usefull articles and books.
 * How simple / complex are they?**

The website is very easy to navigate, it has got 7 pages/bookmarks (to be honest, not sure what is the correct way to call them): Home (with general information about the Distance Delta), Courses (detailed information on the types of courses), How it works (with start dates, course options and duration), Dates & fees (both start and end), Testimonial (with some FB from both participants and local tutors), Meet the team (privides information about all people involved), Contact us (includes contact form and address)
 * How easy / difficult were they to navigate?**

I particularly liked, that I could see the photoes and read some information about the team members. This really creates a personal touch before you start a course like that. Moreover, I could even take a tour around the learning platform. One more thing which was very benificial for me is that I could see the whole list of books which are to be used during the course and could even compare it with my booklist.
 * Which features did you particularly like?**

Before I could take a tour around the teaching platform, I had to leave some of my personal information such as address and telephone number which was obligatory. Even though there was a note that they would not use my information, I felt a bit uncomfortable about it.
 * Were there any features you disliked?**

A site for learning English online, with the help of the British Council, offers games, stories, [|IELTS exam] practice materials, listening activities and grammar exercises. You can [|search] for your favourites, or have a look at the [|site map] to find out where everything is. It is very useful to Language Teachers. The Resources for Learners - This is Great Britain - is absolutely fantastic. Indeed very useful for the teacher, as they come with comprehension activities. **__ Nicest Feature - This is Great Britain __** Fantastic videos with ready-made activities that are very useful for B1-B2 students. With some variation, they can be adapted to C1 students as well. The nicest thing about it is that the videos focus on cultural aspects that can be stretched on with the use of the section 'Word on the Street'. This tab brings additional videos with language input. Excellent tasks to teach general English. **__ Apps __** The site offers many applications: **__ www.teachingenglish.org.uk __** The lesson plans for all the activities mentioned above are in their site for teachers. And there are loads of other nice tools for teachers, such as a flashcard maker and an exercise generator. Teacher Development and Training are also offered, though most of the workshops are not actually available yet. The activities in the first tab are really worth checking.
 * [|www.learnenglish.org.uk] **
 *  Courses that you download for free to your I-Pad from iTunes U - lots of podcasts and activities. The course called UK Culture is the most interesting one.
 *  My Word Book and Grammar provide students with further work but they actually need improvement - and you have to spend money on the packs that are sold separately.
 *  Audio & Video is quite interesting... now I can get the videos from my desktop and my I-Pad.

[|www.netlanguages.com] This is an online English school. They offer courses one-to-one and corporate courses on a variety of areas, including Writing and Exam Preparation. The most interesting thing is that their courses can be tutored or untutored, which can be more cost-effective for some students. There is a free app for Androids and I-Pads as well. My impression is that this is a more complex system, as courses can be tailor made so as to suit the different companies / organisations / institutions / universities. Find below a description of their products: People studying with Net Languages access the courses via Net Languages's own Learner Management System (LMS). This system was custom-developed by Net Languages to provide students, tutors and training managers with an easy-to-use interface to the course materials, communication tools and reporting systems. Because Net Languages developed and owns the LMS, we are able to modify the system to suit each project's particular requirements. Each company/government/educational client is provided with a customised login page with their logo and any relevant information about the courses their employees or students will be studying. Training departments are provided with administrative access codes which, through a series of filters, allow them to select and track their students' progress through the course as they need. The tracking information is also easily exported into Excel documents. Tutor access allows both Net Languages tutors and external tutors to contact their students using the internal mail program, monitor student progress and record tutorial marks on the students' progress form. We can also provide a transparent login system, which means that users can log in to the system directly from companies' Web pages rather than from a different Web site. Ian’s Input

This is a clear, clean site with well laid out pages and easy navigation. The site is available in a large number of languages besides English and you are unlikely to get lost. It takes little time to find your way around and to book and pay for a course there is a large, ever-present button. One niggle is that the site name header cannot be clicked on to return to the home page. In general, however, the functionality is hard to fault.
 * Functionality **

I don’t personally like the aesthetics of this site. It has a blandly professional look, but the rather clinical yellow on white colour scheme is suggestive of a private hospital. The carousel at the top of each page rotates with oh-so-unoriginal pictures of smiling multi-ethnic students and teachers pointing at things with pens. This site plays it safe. There is nothing eye-catching and little to draw you in – there are no surprises here. The message seems to be: ‘Education is a serious business’.
 * Aesthetics **

Information on courses is fairly full and well organised and I particularly liked the gallery at the bottom giving examples of teaching materials for each course. There is information on teaching staff, testimonials, contact us page and an online level test. In addition, some free material and apps are available for download. So, more or less everything you would expect or need is here except, surprisingly, FAQs.
 * Site Content **

A wide range of courses at seven levels is offered for individuals, corporate clients and educational institutions. Additionally there are exam courses for FCE and IELTS methodology for teachers and English for doctors. Interestingly there are both tutored and untutored courses. All courses seem to be reasonably priced with a tutored course about 230 Euros for 60 to 75 hours. Access to online materials was for six months or a year, meaning the courses needn’t be high-pressure. Although the courses are well described on the site, there were a few things I found unclear. How accessible is your ‘personal tutor’ and how much time will he or she be dedicating to you? It isn’t clear how many student are in a class – indeed, there is no mention I could see of students working together, just a suggestion that they meet up on the online forum. Although there are synchronous meetings with tutors to pracitse speaking and pron skills, it wasn’t mentioned how much of this was offered. Blended courses were offered to corporate customers, but overall the impression given is of a rather isolated experienced with students getting on with their work and occassionally interacting with a tutor. It is hard to see how untutored courses differ from buying a set of CDs.
 * Courses Offered **

Overall, I think I would. They seem a serious outfit (with a connection to IH), the course content is good and the tutors mentioned are qualified and experienced. However, I would seek more information on exactly what to expect on a course before paying for one.
 * Would I recommend their courses? **

[|www.reallyenglish.com] They're another English school online, which provides more personalised courses which are usually business-related. But they are much more sophisticated. They describe themselves as a proactive training service company dedicated to course completion and learner satisfaction, with coaching services, training follow-up, a blog and a forum. There is a needs analysis at the beginning of the course and a final follow-up. Their clients are basically very large corporations.

= = = = = = =With a pinch of salt...= = = =Hello, everyone!=

There we go get started on the wiki work.
If you're like me, and enjoy striking use of words, please feel free and post in here all beautiful use of the English language. As Stephen Fry seemed to be quite popular, there go his feelings on Language... media type="youtube" key="J7E-aoXLZGY" width="560" height="315" align="center"

=And a bit of the Hatter...= ===

==I love words for their sheer power to uplift us.= Wise words!

** Our Deepest Fear **

** By Marianne Williamson **

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness

That most frightens us. We ask ourselves

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you //not// to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small

Does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine,

As children do.

We were born to make manifest

The glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us;

It's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we're liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.

// Thanks for the contribution! //

= Just a funny video for experimenting :) = media type="custom" key="23458362" Seems like it worked. Thank you for inviting me (Nastia)

=Welcome to Your New Wiki!=

Getting Started

 * Click on the edit button above to put your own content on this page.
 * To invite new members, click on **Settings** and **Invite People**.
 * To change your wiki's colors or theme, click on **Settings** and **Look and Feel**.
 * To set who can view and edit your wiki, click on **Settings** and **Permissions**.

Need Help?

 * Click on the help link above to learn more about how to use your wiki.