The
original pools
website stored in
September 2008 -
producing open online
learning systems
language teaching
materials,
methods, and teacher
courses
Pools started as a Leonardo
II supported two years
(2005-2007) project
developing materials for
language teaching and
learning as well as teacher
training courses based
on pools of materials
for nine languages;
Basque, Danish, Dutch,
English, Gaelic
(Scottish), German,
Lithuanian, Romanian,
and Spanish. It is
a main objective to
cluster with other
language projects.
Let the pools website
serve as a portal to
your results. From the
website you also have
access to
copyleft
language teaching
materials and methods
manuals that you may
include in your own
projects.
Register
here
to receive news about
pools and
information when new
materials become
available.
The project target
group is teachers of
the LWUTL (Less Widely
Used and Taught
Languages) in technical
colleges. Due to the
limited range of ICT
materials for these
languages the teachers
often have to develop
materials themselves if
they want to exploit the
many advantages of
eLearning. The final
products will be:
1. Pools of online
copyleft materials to be
used during in-service
teacher training courses
and in teaching.
2. Flexible competence
based language teacher
course modules on ICT
methodologies and
development of ICT based
teaching resources. The
modules will be
developed for in-service,
distance, and blended
courses
3. A DVD with step by
step instructions and
examples on how to
create multimedia online
material.
4. A course book (downloadable
.pdf file) with
description of language
teaching eLearning
materials and
methodologies
5. A website, which will
serve as portal to
clustering projects and
other ICT and LA
projects. The site will
contain all of the
project materials,
videos, discussion area
and e-mail lists.
Back
to Top
Needs
documentation: In
2000 a survey among
teachers in the EU
countries "The European
Language Learning
Materials Survey” showed
that teachers of less
taught languages have
little pedagogical and
methodological training
and the course materials
for these languages were
rarely communicative in
nature. The survey
emphasized the need for
improvement in this area.
This was in 2002
followed up in a report
to the EU Commission
“The Training of
Teachers of a Foreign
Language: Developments
in Europe” (Revised
Report, August 2002)
which in its
recommendations p. 75
states that “All
teachers should be
trained in the use of
ICT approaches for
interactive use with
pupils in the classroom”
and p. 79 “More efforts
needs to be made to make
initial teacher training
modules and in-service
course content available
online and in other
distance learning
forms”. Back
to Top
It is the aim of
pools to address the
above documented needs
by creating pools of
online copyleft
resources (Copyleft is a
way to license a work so
that unrestricted
redistribution, copying
and modification is
permitted, provided that
all copies and derivates
retain the exact same
licensing) and to
develop, test and
disseminate flexible
competence based teacher
training course modules.
The course modules, also
“copyleft”, will deal
with ICT approaches and
development of ICT based
materials for teachers
of less taught languages
like Basque, Danish,
Dutch, Gaelic,
Lithuanian, and Romanian.
Back
to Top
The project will
build on results
from a previous project
(BP-BLTM)
as well as results from
other ICT and LA
projects, the
partnership will seek to
cluster with these
projects to ensure
exchange of expertise
and results and achieve
broader impacts through
joint dissemination
POOLS members
recommend you to join:
Eurocall
- European Association
for Computer-Assisted
Language Learning and
WebHeads -
Online Community of
Practice of Teachers and
Educators Practicing
Professional Development
through Web 2.0 and
Computer Mediated
Communication.
WE would also like to
recommend that you take
part in EUROCALL
2008, Kodolányi
University College,
Székesfehérvár, Hungary,
3-6 September, 2008
www.asszisztencia.hu/eurocall/
POOLS-T, which will
develop
tools for the CLIL
methodology
(Content and Language
Integrated Learning)
as well as a
guide on how to apply
the tools in a CLIL
context has been
approved for funding.
The project development
teams come from Denmark,
Greece, the Netherlands,
and Scotland. EfVET has
been chosen as
dissemination partner
with access to thousands
of vocational colleges
across Europe
The course material
for deaf students from
the carpenter and
cabinetmaker sectors (or
other interested in
technical English as a
third language) can now
be tested with
dictionaries in eleven
languages. To test the
system please click on
the photo below:
The new project
POOLS-T has passed
the first phase in
Brussels with flying
colours. The teams now
look forward to making
tools for the CLIL
(Content and Language
Integrated Learning)
methodology as well as a
guide on how to apply
the tools in a CLIL
context.
Read more about the
project in the March
2008 news
POOLS to be presented
in Istanbul on June 27th
at a workshop for the
European national
Leonardo Agencies
A new course material
for deaf students
learning English as a
third language is being
prepared,
have a pre-look here
The first version has
all words linked to an
English Danish
dictionary and signing
of all sentences.
An in-service course
based on POOLS course
materials (Hot Potatoes
primer and sequence)
will take place in
Odense Tekniske Skole on
Monday June 23rd. The
onsite course will be
followed by an online
course period with final
delivery of tasks by
August 11th.
Participation is free,
but there may be a minor
fee for sandwiches and
coffee. To register for
the course please e-mail
ka@ots.dk
Jubilation, we have just
received the final
evaluation of our
project from the UK
national agency, ECOTEC.
Please have a read:-)
The number of new
POOLS members
has now reached 40
covering a multitude of
countries - also outside
Europe:-) You too can
become an active member
by
registering here
The dissemination of
our online ESOL
materials is of
importance to the grass
root POOLS members,
Gordon Wells has
therefore placed several
teaching units on the
Scottish national
ESOL website
Odense Technical
College has submitted a
new Leonardo project
proposal with
partners from the new
POOLS membership area.
The partners come from
Denmark, Belgium,
Greece, the Netherlands,
and Scotland
The project proposes
to develop software
tools that can support
teachers and their
students working with
CLIL (content and
language integrated
learning) including the
LWUTL (less widely used
and taught languages).
The tools will convert
texts and web pages to
html pages where all
words are hyperlinked to
free online dictionaries
covering many
combinations of European
languages. The
application will have
support for audio, video
and graphics to enrich /
support the text
content.
CLIL and LWUTL teachers
depend on developing own
resources (EURYDICE 2005
report "Key Data on
Teaching Languages at
School in Europe"). The
proposed application
will automate part of
this process and will
also enable students to
convert authentic
technical materials into
language learning /
supporting units.
The need for a free tool
is based on EURYDICE
2006 "Content and
Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) at
School in Europe".
The need is also
documented in the ICC
report (2003) "The
Impact of New
Information Technologies
and Internet on the
Teaching of Foreign
Languages.." concludes:
"There will be a shift
from passive consumption
of ready-made programmes
to independent building
of content, tailor made
for specifics groups or
individuals"
The project results and
outputs will be used by
individual language
learners, subject
teachers using CLIL, and
language teachers
preparing online
teaching materials.
In the latest of "NDLR
Modern Languages’
Community of Practice"
podcast series Gordon
Wells talks about the
Scottish Island Voices
project. Gordon talks
about the project, his
role in the project, and
the benefits to those
involved in the project
and he encourages anyone
interested in following
a similar model to
develop such materials
to make contact with
him.
Go to the podcast
The Scottish Island
voices English series
with video, text, and
exercises has now been
extended with a unit
about the Re-Store
Furniture Recycling
Project in Bornish,
South Uist.
Go to watch, listen,
read, and learn
or chose one of the
other units from
Island voices.
Scottish Island
Voices. A
new set of exercises
containing four units is
being prepared. The
first unit is now ready
for you use:-)
Self-teach and self-test
materials for learners
of English. The
materials are designed
to help English learners
teach and test
themselves. They are
based on real
situations, and reflect
aspects of life and work
in the Hebrides.
The Danish Safety
Regulation Body "Sikkerhedsstyrelsen"
www.sikkerhedsstyrelsen.dk
has permitted pools to
make use of a safety
video targeting
electricians working
with live installations.
The video demonstrates
how to work with live
installation using PPE -
Personal Protective
Equipment. Cultural
notes: In Denmark all
electricians and
personnel working with
live installations etc.
must every year attend a
L-Aus course (Law on
Working with live
equipment and
installations).The video
can be downloaded from
the
Digital Area
The Final Report
(submitted for
evaluation) can now be
downloaded from the
Archive area
In "edUKation" (edUKation
– newsletter for the
Leonardo, Grundtvig and
Transversal programmes)
you can read about the
European Languages Award
that was awarded to
Gordon Wells (download
the full newsletter):
An improved version of
the Web Page Text
Blender is ready for
download. The new
version writes code that
ensures that also users
of e.g. “Mozilla Firefox”
can use audio and video
in the resulting web
pages. The new version
also has support for
English Finnish and
English-Turkish
dictionaries.
More information and
download
POOLS membership is
now open to language
teachers, teacher
students, and
researchers. You may now
become a member of the
POOLS team; like all
materials in the POOLS
website the membership
is free.
To enrol as a member
please click here.
The EU funded period
of the POOLS project
finished with a
clustering conference in
Alkmaar September 27th
and 28th 2007. It was a
pleasure to welcome
other projects and watch
and listen to their
results and ideas.
The presentation
papers and materials are
/ will be available from
the
POOLS archive area
Before the Alkmaar
conference the POOLS
teams went through the
originally planned
outputs / results as
part of the EFQM control
and concluded that all
deliveries as planned
are available from the
website:
The project
dissemination and
exploitation strategies
end visions were
presented at a TQ3
conference in Birmingham
hosted by ECOTEC. More
than 100 DVDs and
CD-ROMs were handed out
as well as newsletters
and brochures.
Download the
presentation here
or
from the POOLS
Archieve
The programme for the
Alkmaar Foreign Language
Conference
can now be downloaded.
More than 150
participants have
registered for the
clustering conference
including several
kindred projects
The project outcomes
were presented in
Coleraine, Northern
Ireland at the
Eurocall-2007
conference. Brochures,
Newsletters and 200 DVDs
and CDs were handed out
during and after the
Show and Tell
presentation by Kent
Andersen
Twenty Spanish videos
online for download. The
Spanish team has
re-edited the 20 videos
and these can now be
downloaded complete with
descriptions,
transcriptions, and
translations into
English from the
Digital Area
POOLS to be
disseminated in
Birmingham on September
25th 2007
The POOLS partnership
has been invited by
ECOTEC to present a
workshop on “How to
disseminate and exploit
Leonardo project
results”.
ECOTEC is organizing the
event with participation
from the EU national
agencies, approximately
100 participants are
expected.
The POOLS presentation
will seek to give an
insight into the
dissemination and
exploitation strategies
applied by the POOLS
project teams. We’ll
exemplify what has
worked well as well as
difficulties that we
have met.
POOLS is approaching
the end of the EU funded
period (September 31st
2007), but we intend to
continue our work beyond
the funded period, this
also includes support to
other projects. We have
just heard about a new
project called BeCult
planned to start in
September 2007. BeCult
is an online multimedia
learning tool for young
people in vocational
training in the hotel
and gastronomy sector.
Pilot courses are
taking place in all the
POOLS membership
countries; E.g. in
Lithuania where language
teachers from different
vocational schools
participated in the
workshop Task based
learning with CALL: Hot
Potatoes primer. For
most participants it was
a great challenge and a
wonderful chance to
learn a new skill.
Another workshop took
part on 20 June and
covered two modules -
Using video with
language learners and
How to set up and use (Web)Blogs.
Pools digital funds and
project blog served as
great illustrations of
CALL in practice and
brought some fun into
our course.
The Basque team and the
Danish team have just
finished a Hot Potatoes
pilot course in Donostia.
Experience the
results here
The POOLS project still
seeks to cooperate with
like language projects
with the purpose of
enhancing mutual results
and achieve a better
impact of these. We have
just started cooperating
with e-tridem.net, which
is a project based on EU
educational Policy that
every citizen should
develop competence in at
least two European
languages. A further
project aim is to foster
'intercultural learning
through new media' and
thus contribute to
enriched cross-cultural
exchanges.
Read more about the
e-tridem.net here
More
new
videos available
from the digital area.
The total number of
videos that can be
downloaded is now 325
videos
The conference fee of
190 € includes lunches,
evening meals and drinks
on both days and
entertainment on
Thursday evening 27th.
The AMRATH hotel in
Alkmaar has kindly
offered its luxurious
accommodation and
breakfast for only 55 €
per person per night
(when two share a room)
or 85 Euro for single
room.
Nearly 100 rooms can be
booked up until 1 June
for this special price
on a first come, first
serve basis. The Golden
Tulip in Alkmaar offers
the same arrangement
The courses and related
materials are free for
our registered users.
Each user is offered two
course modules in the
pilot phase. To become a
registered user please
go to: https://www.languages.dk/methods/registration.htm
To register for a course
please e-mail ka@ots.dk
with contact details.
Deadline for registering
for an online pilot
course is June 17th
The actual courses will
be run with an
introduction phase in
June and exercises /
hand-ins in July and
August. Final feedback
and recommendations will
take place in August.
The duration of the
course modules and time
and efforts to put in by
the participants are
flexible, but a rule of
the thumb is one to two
days per module.
During the Kaunas
workshop the teams
agreed on an evaluation
document to be used
after all course modules
please send us your
comments /
recommendations. The
evaluation form can be
downloaded in:
English, German, Romanian,
Danish,
Spanish,
Lithuanian,
Basque
Slices of
Contemporary Hebridean
Life and Work in 40
English and Gaelic
videos presented for
language learners.
Short online films with
transcripts and
translations, suitable
for pre-intermediate to
post-intermediate
learners, totalling 3
hours of listening
material divided evenly
between the two
languages Download the Scottish
Island Voices Catalogue
Or
watch the videos from
the digital area
A new set of example
units has been added
to the POOLS website.
The units are based on
original texts from
Siemens.com dealing with
PLC (Programmable Logic
Control). The units
contain Technical
English and are suitable
for e.g. electricians
and engineers.
It is the aim of the
materials development
course modules to enable
language teachers to
produce similar units
Each unit starts with
audio and texts where
all words are linked to
online dictionaries in
Basque, Danish, Dutch,
English, French, German,
Italian, Romanian,
Spanish, and Turkish.
Please test the units
and send your comments
to
ka@ots.dk
Nine new Lithuanian
videos have been added
to
the digital area.
The videos are CopyLeft
and ready to use
complete with summaries,
transriptions etc.
During the New Year
break
52 Dutch videos have
been added to
the digital area.
The videos, showing
everyday situations for
young people, are the
results of cooperation
between "ENTER", a Dutch
project and the Dutch
POOLS team. Each video
is accompanied with
transcription and also
tasks for using them in
a class
New edition of the
Materials Development
Course Modules, now with
18 modules. Download in
.doc format
or in
.pdf format
The 13th pools
Newsletter is
ready for download
Among the news you can
read that POOLS together
with other projects are
planning a language
teaching conference in
Alkmaar in September
2007. You are welcome to
present your project at
the conference and of
course also to be a
participant:-)
Evaluation of the pools
project and results
are open. Please spend
10 minutes on the online
valuation form and show
us your interest in the
project by helping us
know how you feel about
the results.
Go to the evaluation
The DIY DVD with a step
by step introduction to
how to use Hot Potatoes
and the Web Page Text
Blender is now ready in
the first edition. Next
editions are planned to
contain subtitles in the
nine project languages.
The videos can be downloaded in .wmv
versions from the
materials area
An American English
video and text demonstrating a
high tech lawnmower has
been added to
the digital area
Exercises based on the
above video and text can
now be tested at
https://www.languages.dk/online/lawnmower/index.htm
The text is linked work
by word to online
dictionaries in ten
languages the exercises
are developed through
Hot Potatoes - total
time used for preparing
texts and exercises was
less than 2½ hours
To assist our users
we have decided to start
providing the website
with RSS feeds. To make
use of the facility you
need an RSS reader /
aggregator, e.g. the
free feedreader v. 3.5
which can be downloaded
from:
https://www.feedreader.com/download
20 Danish videos
dealing with what is
going on in Digital
North Denmark has been
added to the digital
area. The videos are
made available with
permission from
Fyrtårnscentret ·
Vesterbro 102 · DK-9000
Aalborg The videos are
copyrighted, but may be
used for language
teaching.
Go to the digital
area
19 videos in English
dealing with what is
going on in Digital
North Denmark has been
added to the digital
area. The videos are
made available with
permission from
Fyrtårnscentret ·
Vesterbro 102 · DK-9000
Aalborg The videos are
copyrighted, but may be
used for language
teaching.
Go to the digital
area
First two Lithuanian
videos have been added
to the digital pools as
the results of the video
workshop in Kaunas.
Several videos and
texts have been added to
the digital area
A total of 75 different
videos to be used for
development of online
materials can be
downloaded with
transcriptions and
English translations.
The main part of the
videos are CopyLeft.
Several of the videos
can be downloaded in
different compression
rates (small or large
files).
Meeting minutes from
the 2nd workshop can be
downloaded here
Pools disseminated
with
brochures (100 handed
out) in Honolulu
during the CALICO
conference, with a blog
of the presentation and
reactions available
(with a link).
Results from the
Project workshop in
Pitesti are being
inserted on a daily
basis. Among the first
results available (more
to come in the coming
weeks) are:
Gaelic learning
unit
with video, text
with all words
linked to
Gaelic-English
dictionary and
exercises
The pools teams wearing
the new pools T-shirts.
You too can win a pools
T-shirt if you come to
Eurocall 2006 in
Granada:-)
English, German, and
Danish videos have been
added to the digital
area. The videos are
copyright Energinet.dk
but pools has been
granted permission to
make them available for
language learning.
March 21st: Kent
Andersen from the Danish
pools team was invited
to present the Danish
VET (vocational
educational and
training) system at a
conference in Pistoia,
Italy dealing with the
new Italian VET system
(arranged by Stefano
Tirato, EfVET).
The conference had 60
participants among these
were teachers, managers,
decision makers and
local authority
representatives. As
usual during
presentations Kent
Andersen took the
opportunity to present
pools to the audience
and hand out pools
newsletters and
brochures. This resulted
in much positive
feedback as well as new
contacts.
March 23th: Kent
Andersen presented the
pools project with
brochures and
newsletters at a
technical college in
Postoia, Tuscany. It was
agreed to exchange
further information and
exercises.
The Web Page Text
Blender can now be
downloaded from
the materials area
the program can convert
texts into HTML
documents where all
words are automatically
linked to online
dictionaries
N.B. the downloadable version is from
February 2006 and is
an Alpha version!
It seems stable, but
lots of facilities need
to be programmed /
improved in future (e.g.
insertion of media
files).
The second pools project
Newsletter (10th
BP-BLTM) can now be
downloaded
here
After the video
workshops in the
Netherlands and in
Romania new videos are
ready for downloads.
To
download right click the
video and select "save
as". The videos are
available in three
qualities:
A practical joke - two
birthday cakes a real
one and a polenta in
disguise
The video shows a family
preparing for and
celebrating the Danish "jul"
(yule or Christmas). The
celebration is typically
Danish with no or very
little religious
content. Watch the video
here:
Several units found
in the
materials area
have now been updated
with English audio
recordings. A
warm thanks to Rupert
Dale (the speaker)
An example is a text
demonstrating
some advantages
of Electrical
Intelligent
House
Installations (DOMOTICS).
The text has
automatic lookup
of all words in
nine languages -
more to come.
The hyperlinking
has been done
automatically
through a
program written
by Kent Andersen
(The
Web Page Text
Blender).
The text is
followed by
exercises
created with Hot
Potatoes.
Choose between
the languages
(dictionaries)
below:
A new area has been
set up for the digital
pools of videos, audio,
graphics, and texts that
may be used for
development of online
exercises etc. There are
now six Danish and two
English videos available
for download The files
are available in:
https://www.languages.dk/digital/index.html
In the coming months
we'll record videos in
English, German,
Spanish, Dutch,
Romanian, Basque,
Gaelic, and Lithuanian
(and continue adding
more Danish videos as
well)
To watch the videos
below please right-click the
link and select "Save
Target As"
English video: FITCH
- a case study on
marketing and product
branding
The software "Web
Page Text Blender" which
can convert any text
into an HTML document
where all words are
automatically linked to
an online dictionary is
now available in
versions linking from
English to online
dictionaries in Spanish,
French, Italian, German,
Danish, and English.
Watch a video
containing:
The partnership is
working on development
of a suitable
methodology for the
needed gaps analyses.
Two sample documents may
give an insight into the
work; from the Basque
team Marijo suggested
possible use of a
previous questionnaire (download
it here), the
idea was supported by
the Danish team and the
Scottish team made
several comments,
especially one from
Màrtainn illustrates the
fruitful discussion and
exchanges of ideas
between the partners (download
from here)
The project partners
have started the process
of describing a likely
methodology course, but
the work is very
preliminary,
read the first skeleton
for the course
POOLS was presented at
the annual conference
“Teaching and Learning
Foreign Languages at a
College: Peculiarities
and Problems”. The
conference was held on
18 November 2005 at
Kaunas College,
Lithuania:
Read more
We have started the
process of finding
cooperation and
clustering partners. One
of the first to joins us
is EUROVOLT.
Read about the project
here
To make use of pools as
a free dissemination
partner of your project
just e-mail ka@ots.dk with a
project description. But
please also consider
other ways we can
cluster our efforts like
joint conferences etc.
To assist the content
development a common
core of interview ideas
and scenarios was
discussed during the
Brussels workshop.
The first list can be
downloaded here.
Pools was presented at the EfVET
2005 conference in
Budapest through roundtable presentations
(By Sean Mehan and Frans
van Schaik),
see PowerPoint
presentation.
The brochures for the conference are now
available in
In the project archive
you find samples of work
in progress used during
the first workshop (click from
menu). Some documents
(like the minutes) are
being prepared, but by
the end of this week all
are planned to be
online.
The EU supported
period has started. The
counter for unique
visitors up to the start
was 56694. The counter
is used for monitoring
the website. You can
also click on the CQ
Counter at the bottom of
this page to read the
web statistics since
September 30th 2005.
This webpage - home
of the pools project and
portal to other language
projects is in the
process of being set up
- work is going on to
have everything up and
running by October 12th.
You can help with
comments and
suggestions, please
e-mail advice etc. to
the webmaster Kent
Andersen
ka@ots.dk
EuroCall, August 24th
to 27th: Brochures
telling about the pools
project were handed out
during the EuroCall 2005
conference in Cracow.Click here to download a
brochureBack
to Top
RSS feeds:
To receive project
updates and news via the
project's XML/RSS
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Last edit:
21-12-2010
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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On October 1st 2005 the
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Statistics since October
2005. Security settings
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registrations, but the
data is still of use
when fine tuning the
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