Teaching with Digital Technology
Interactive English Dictionary and Games
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 15. Dec 2013
- Published on 28. Oct 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak
Looking for a Christmas present I came across the interactive English-German dictionary for school children, age 6 to 10, from Ravensburg. The dictionary is part of the Tiptoy collection I referred to in my article preschool learning.
Revolution In Education System
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 15. Dec 2013
- Published on 06. Oct 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak

Book Review: "Ana, die Schule und der liebe Gott", Author: Richard David Precht, Goldmann, 2013
Is this the way students see us? Is this the way we should see our education system? We need a revolution in the German education system; modern technology should be integrated once and for all. Germany must look into the future and prepare for it. The book is hard core that makes you think about life.
Precht’s plead for a modern school system with no school splitting into three categories after the fourth grade (according to school performance, and more important: according to parent’s occupation and background) serving the purpose of social selection of children in order to secure good future jobs for the rich, keep the working class where “they belong” and stop some immigrants from integrating, came out in time for the German elections.
Digital Games and Language Teaching
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 15. Dec 2013
- Published on 29. Aug 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak
Book Review “Digital Games in Language Learning and Teaching” Palgrave, Macmillan 2011 Author: Hayo Reinders
Why are digital games so interesting for teaching? Trying to answer the question I read the book and found several answers. Although the book was written two years ago, it is by no means out of date. First of all, it is a compilation of many contributions made by language teachers and linguists experimenting with all kinds of digital games during the past decades. As the author puts it: “The diversity of contributions in the book is united by the belief that the rationale for instructional intervention, including the use of games, should be pedagogically sound.”
Digital Comics in School
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 05. Jul 2013
- Published on 05. Jul 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak
Have you ever wanted to create your own comics at school? There are many possibilities to integrate comics, mangas, anime and own made cartoons into your syllabus. It is just a question of creativity and team work, not only between class and teacher, but among teachers too. I have divided the possibilities into groups depending on knowledge, time and resources teachers might have.
1. Fast and easy
To start with, you can use tools that provide everything you want. These links are for English teachers who want their students to write stories and have fun. In this case you just have to think of a story to write and start. The sites are for all ages. Although the cartoons are easy to make, I recommend teachers to practice first, create a little cartoon introducing the topic of your lesson, so your students can see what they will be able to create with the tools.
Global Learning
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 15. Dec 2013
- Published on 16. Jun 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak
What is global learning? Global Learning means to learn about world issues important for everybody; it is about learning to understand the way the world works. Children and grownups learn about other cultures by interacting with them directly without barriers, they learn how other peoples live; they share experiences and knowledge in order to make a better world. Interaction with other countries gives the groups an insight into the culture, economy, history, geography and climate of a foreign country; they learn for instance the correlation between actions taken in one country and their consequences in another. Political decisions in one country can lead to war in other countries, while overfishing in one country may cause famine in another and so on.(read also Mobile Project with Brazil)
Mobile Project with Brazil
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- Category: Mobile Learning
- Last Updated on 25. Jun 2013
- Published on 27. May 2013
- Written by Anabel Nowak
2013 is the German-Brazilian year; the school I work for wanted someone to do a project on Brazil. I started thinking about ideas for intercultural mobile projects so I wrote to an English teacher I know in Brasilia and asked if she was interested in working with me next term. She was so keen on the project that she even invited a friend to join us with his group. We started immediately. A project between Brazil and Germany would not be possible without computers or mobile phones. The first problem we encountered was that the school in Brasilia had no internet connection;