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Duolingo pays impressive attention to feedback, and teachers are clamoring for more information about where students are hesitating or having to repeat lessons. Teachers receive weekly skill and lesson summary reports, which can be easily shared with parents.Īs the dashboard changes to yield more individual data about problem areas, teachers will see it more as a blended learning option, rather than as a fun extra. Skill levels plus XPs give rough guidelines of student progress. For each student, it shows, at a glance, completed skill levels, as well as XPs-experience points for successfully completing certain activities-and the number of days the student was active. The teacher dashboard allows for easy filtering by languages, groups, or time periods. Duolingo is very responsive to feedback-there’s a good chance that suggestions will be included as they adjust lessons.Īlthough Duolingo itself is built on a huge quantity of data from 20+ million active users, there is not much detailed student data available to teachers. There are even userscripts: fan-made add-ons that expand functionality. Improvements stem from discussion boards, the wiki, and Reddit communities.
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Almost correct!,” as it shows them the corrected response.Ĭoming changes include a more detailed teacher dashboard, as well as options to add new words or phrases or rearrange the order of lessons. Students also receive minor corrections with spelling: “You have a typo in your answer. When a user gets an item wrong, tabs show up under the big red X to allow reporting of problems or to see others’ discussions of the item. One thing to note is that students can be sloppy and still successful: the site doesn’t care if you capitalize or add periods, etc. Nice touches include the ability to slow down what you hear (click the turtle) and popup tips (“almost correct, pay attention to the accents”). Students can also find friends on Facebook and add followers to compete with. There are several options for advanced learners to test out or unlock skills they have surpassed. Adept users will find it just as addictive and will benefit from being able to go further. Spaced repetition provides excellent vocabulary and usage support, especially for struggling students. For basic learners, the approach is very nicely done, with popups and extras to enhance understanding and game-based elements to increase motivation. Current offerings are English, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, and French, and the incubator shows other languages in the works.ĭuolingo uses a mixture of activities students listen, speak, read, and type in a simple interface as they work through words and phrases.
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The site hopes to become a top tool for language teachers and students. Duolingo has just released Duolingo for Schools for grades 6 and up, based on its very appealing free site for foreign language learners.
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