TUTTA COLPA D'ARTHUR

Duolingo For Schools Is Now A Thing

www.inglesesenzasforzo.com
Big Idea: Duolingo Builds On Popularity of World-Beating App, Launches Platform for Schools In 2015, #edtech can go in either direction–mobile to platform, or platform to mobile. Or mobile can be the platform, because really, what is a platform anymore? Learning technology that initially finds a niche in the informal–learn.ist, for example–can seek to become an academic product. Or non-academic technology, like YouTube, can itself be reimagined via an API-like approach, which gives us Brainfeed. And then there are apps like Sandbox, which become Sandbox EDU. Interesting trend. So it’s not surprising that Duolingo, a blisteringly popular (and informal, non-academic, just because you want to) language learning app for Android and iOS, announced today the launch a platform for schools. It may seem like just another fun mobile app, but there are already more people learning languages on Duolingo in the United States than in the entire US public school system. Now, in response to thousands of letters from language teachers and education ministries from governments around the world, Duolingo is announcing the launch of a platform aimed at enhancing learning in formal educational settings: Duolingo for Schools. Developers explain that the “launch of Duolingo for Schools means educators will finally have a dashboard to track student progress on the popular Duolingo app in a consolidated manner.” “The platform can identify patterns in the way individuals learn and react accordingly to reinforce areas of difficulty. Duolingo’s technological companion for the classroom will help teachers understand each student’s learning needs at a level of detail previously impossible. For example, if a student hesitates before responding to certain questions, this indicates a lack of confidence and the need for more exercises of its kind. Additionally, incorrectly answered questions may all have an underlying commonality: some students may struggle with listening exercises, while others may have difficulties with verbs no matter the topic. “The goal is to provide a personalized learning experience that gives each student and instructor immediate feedback in the classroom. This can free up teachers’ time to concentrate on difficult concepts, answer questions, and assist students falling behind,” said Luis von Ahn, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and co­founder of Duolingo. Some language teachers like Said Kassem Hamideh are already restructuring their entire curriculum to synch with Duolingo’s data­driven program. “The gamification really works with the kids and opens up an opportunity for them to reinforce what is taught during instructional time. I am the only foreign language teacher at a school of 750 students. We have been using Duolingo this year, and I’m seeing really novel results,” said the Spanish High School teacher at Washington High School of IT in Milwaukee. “Students see Duolingo as a fun activity, so assigning it in class is viewed as a reward for hard work,” said Veronique Balou­Kovalenko, a middle school language teacher in Connecticut. TeachThought’s Take The trend here is more interesting than the tool. We use Duolingo with students ourselves (along with Lingua.ly, Vocabulario, and others), but the movement from an open niche (mobile, informal language learning) to one more closed (formal academic environments) is an interesting one. Developing a tool that’s successful in both domains isn’t simple. The burden is now on Duolingo to iterate what is now platform (as opposed to simply an app) to fit the needs of teachers and schools on both desktop and mobile devices. Duolingo For Schools Is Now A Thing by TeachThought Staff

http://www.inglesesenzasforzo.com/2015/01/duolingo-for-schools-is-now-a-thing.html