MHC Languages

he UCLA Language Materials Project (LMP) is an on-line bibliographic database of teaching and learning materials for over 150 Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs).

Copy and paste text to get a vocabulary glossary for your reading. Does bilingual lookup for Japanese-English, -German, -Dutch, and -Slovenian, and -Spanish. Can also analyze text for vocabulary and kanji level (for JLPT) and structure.

Shows tweets/Twitter users graphically on a map.

News and features from the Japan Times (English-language newspaper)

"This article aims to provide novice IME users with an introduction to some of the intermediate and advanced features literally waiting at their fingertips, providing a basis for improved typing efficiency, problem solving and expanded usage."

"WeSpeke (www.wespeke.com) is a free, unique and innovative language website and cultural exchange for teachers and students. WeSpeke is designed as a free-time resource to help improve the efficiency of foreign language acquisition and practice amongst language learners and focuses on supporting the language education curriculum across the conversation continuum including; Messaging (asynchronous communications) Chat (synchronous and asynchronous communications) Audio (real time conversations) Video + Audio (full peer-to-peer language immersion and cultural exchange)"

"This platform is aimed at supporting university educators and mobility coordinators to organise and run online intercultural exchanges for their students. In these exchanges, students from universities in different countries collaborate together using online communication tools to carry out collaborative projects and to learn about each other's language and culture. By taking part in such projects, students can develop foreign language skills, intercultural awareness, electronic literacies as well as learning more about their particular subject area. If you are a teacher working at a university in Europe or elsewhere, this platform will help you to find partner teachers and classes in other countries, to read about tasks, successful projects and evaluation tools and to exchange questions and experiences with an experienced community of practitioners."

"Simulate real relief efforts in Food Force: A major crisis has developed in the Indian Ocean and the United Nations is sending you on a mission to help feed the millions of people who are going without food! Designed by the United Nations, the premise of the game is to try and stop world hunger by strategic planning (though luck seems to be a bigger contributer to success than skill at times...)" Game is designed for native speakers (not language learners) but could be incorporated at upper levels into unit on food/hunger. Free downloadable software for Windows.

"Mahara is a fully featured web application to build your electronic portfolio. You can create journals, upload files, embed social media resources from the web and collaborate with other users in groups." Artefacts can be added and then custom views containing different sets of artefacts shared with different audiences. Other features include: File Repository, Blogs, Social Networking, Resumé Builder, Profile Information, Administration Tools, Interface with Moodle, Scalability, Security, Interoperability

"The VideoBoard module can be used to upload video to a shared video board within a Moodle course. Students and instructors can view and assess uploaded video and add comments. The VideoBoard App is a app that can be used to record video on an iPhone or iPad which is then sent directly to a Moodle course. The video is shared within a Moodle course via the VideoBoard module. The VideoBoard app is available at the Apple App Store. Requirements: Moodle 1.9 or Moodle 2.X and Flash Media Server/player OR Java runtime engine"

"Visual storytelling for everyone: A platform for writers, readers, and artists of all ages. Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. We curate artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspire writers of any age to turn those images into fresh stories." Has tools for teachers to set up student accounts, manage privacy and give feedback.

"audio.js is a drop-in javascript library that allows HTML5's tag to be used anywhere. It uses native where available and an invisible flash player to emulate for other browsers. It provides a consistent html player UI to all browsers which can be styled used standard css. "

Korean language newspaper database, available through our library.

As digital methodologies, tools, and skills become central to work in the humanities, questions regarding fundamentals, project outcomes, assessment, and design have grown in importance. So the Short Guide sets out to provide a set of checklists and guidelines in concise and shareable form.

In 2010 and 2012, we tested and evaluated four major LMS for accessibility/usability: Blackboard, Desired2Learn, Moodel, and SAKAI. The results have been publicized in CSUN (2010) and Midwest Educause (2012) conferences. Since then, we have observed that LMS vendors have continued to strengthen the accessibility and usability of their systems, while also working to incorporate some of the features suggested in our evaluations. In light of this ongoing interest and activity, we have revised and enhanced our evaluation criteria based on common features, streamlined our evaluation process, and rescored our LMS systems. At CSUN 2013, we presented a high-level overview of the results of our new evaluation, along with side-by-side comparisons that support our recommendations for improving learning management systems for users with disabilities.

"With ThingLink's easy-to-use editor, teachers can create immersive and engaging experiences by adding tags to any image in a few minutes: Create authentic, valuable, and rich interactive stories around historical events using media (video, sound, photos, written words, etc.) found online. Annotate graphs and timelines. Record an instructional message to students inside an image. Embed interactive images into student blogs. Enable students to curate content inside an image to demonstrate understanding of a topic."

Blog post with idea of using Google Drawings for handwriting practice: "Google's Drawing program is the perfect platform to practice orthography- the skill of writing characters and symbols to create words- in language classrooms with non-Roman alphabets, such as Arabic or Chinese."

Interactive multimedia website that introduces learners to the Russian alphabet.

Collection of materials and links for Russian teachers.