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The New Digital Divide

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double exposure image of financial graph and digital human 3dillustration on business technologyKeith Oelrich argues that teacher preparation and curriculum design are the keys to closing the digital technological opportunity gap

A Gap Emerges

In the mid-’90s, as personal computer and internet access was becoming more available to many in the U.S., a correlation could be observed between access to technology and socioeconomic status. Scholars, policy makers, and advocacy groups referred to this as the “ digital divide,” and many school districts began investing in both broadband internet and classroom technology to combat this issue.

Today, more than 99% of U.S. public schools are connected to the internet, in large part thanks to the Federal Communications Commission’s congressionally mandated E-Rate program, which went into effect in 1998. School districts continue to spend billions each year on hardware, broadband, maintenance, and other instructional-technology software and tools. During the 2015–16 year alone, 46% of districts increased their spending on hardware, which included tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.

More than Access

Though broadband use and school hardware availability are at an all-time high, a new digital divide has appeared. Today’s students carry cell phones in their pockets that are more powerful than the NASA command center that landed men on the moon in 1969, but many still do not have the basic technology skills they need for success in school and in life.

This skills gap is apparent in the recent analysis of scores earned by students on online versus paper-and-pencil versions of assessments developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). For example, students who took the 2014–15 PARCC exam on a computer tended to score lower than those who took the same test using paper and pencil. In 2016, a district in Arizona did a study among its students that showed those with strong digital literacy skills scored higher than those with marginal or low digital literacy skills on their state’s online assessment. This suggests that lower online test scores can be linked to insufficient digital literacy skills.

If students do not develop a strong foundation of digital literacy starting in elementary school, the digital divide will only widen as they continue in school. If students enter high school or college without the proper digital literacy skills, they will not be able to meet the expectations of their classes, including the use of word processing and spreadsheet programs, or effectively conduct research to identify credible online sources.

The impact of this technology skills gap is also significant for individuals entering the workforce. By 2020, it is estimated that nearly 80% of jobs will require some level of technology proficiency. Productivity lost due to low technology skills is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $1.3 trillion each year. Additionally, time wasted as a result of inadequate digital skills is estimated to consume 21% of a worker’s time, costing businesses roughly $10,000 per employee per year.

Obstacles to Preparing Students

Two barriers to providing students with quality digital-literacy instruction are inadequate teacher training and the lack of a standardized curriculum at most schools. Core-area teachers take many college classes on their chosen subjects and are typically provided with a district-approved curriculum. On the other hand, many teachers across the U.S. are expected to teach students technology skills but do not receive specific training on how to teach these skills and are not provided with any sort of curriculum to follow.

When this happens, teachers are essentially required to create their own curriculums by sifting through thousands of online resources. Vetting the quality and grade appropriateness of these items and creating lessons from scratch can be difficult and time-consuming. As a result, students may encounter uneven quality of instruction from classroom to classroom and school to school.

Digital Literacy Instruction for All

In an effort to tackle this technology skills gap, many states have adopted national standards, or created their own state standards, that require specific technology skills to be demonstrated within core subject areas. For this to be effective, districts need to provide teachers with training that includes best practices for using technology in the classroom, models to follow, and clear guidelines, together with a curriculum for use across the district and ongoing support. When teachers feel included in the discussion about the role of technology in their schools and are provided with the right support, they will feel empowered to introduce new concepts to their students.

It is clear that this new digital divide will not be bridged simply by providing students with more access to technology. By addressing the issues of teacher preparation and a standardized curriculum, districts can make great strides toward ensuring that all students—no matter which classes they are in or what schools they attend—will be given an equal opportunity to develop the digital literacy skills they need to succeed in the classroom, in online assessments, and later in life.

References

www.internetworldstats.com/links10.htm
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-schools-where-kids-cant-go-online/387589/
thejournal.com/Articles/2016/01/19/Report-Education-Tech-Spending-on-the-Rise.aspx?Page=1
www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/03/parcc-scores-lower-on-computer.html
info.learning.com/hubfs/Articles/AZMerit_Flagstaff_OnePageStudy_Jan17.pdf
businessdegrees.uab.edu/resources/infographics/the-it-skills-gap/

International Data Corporation (IDC). “Bridging the Information Worker Productivity Gap: New Challenges and Opportunities for IT.”

Keith Oelrich, CEO of Learning.com, has been a pioneer in the K–12 online-education market for the past 17 years. During that time, he has served as CEO of several companies which have collectively provided K–12 online-education programs to thousands of districts, tens of thousands of schools, and millions of students and their families. Keith was previously the founder and CEO of Insight Schools.
Insight Schools operates one of the nation’s leading networks of full-time, diploma-granting online public high schools and is now a subsidiary of K12, Inc. Prior to founding Insight Schools, Keith was the president and CEO of KC Distance Learning (KCDL), where he operated the largest private online high school in the U.S. Before joining KCDL, Keith was the president and CEO of Apex Learning, a leading virtual high school company founded by Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen.
Founded in 1999, Learning.com serves 6.7 million students each year in more than 20 countries. Their digital literacy curriculum for grades K–8 provides grade-appropriate lessons with embedded instruction to engage students as they develop critical digital-literacy skills such as keyboarding, online safety, and coding.

Diversity Through the Big Screen

Chita Espino-Bravo explains how to use film to introduce diversity into advanced conversation classes

person making film in desert with diversity in title

Teaching an advanced Spanish conversation course at the university level can be challenging for many reasons, but for me, the biggest challenge was trying to find a textbook with clearly organized topics for conversation. I found plenty of wonderful textbooks that were appropriate for low-advanced or high-intermediate Spanish conversation, but nothing just right for advanced students, so I decided to create my own material for this course, using Hispanic films that cover controversial topics to engage students in conversations and to make them think about diversity.

Any advanced-level conversation course dealing with diversity in any language can be created using different films covering the specific topics the educator would like to use in class.

The goals for this advanced Spanish conversation course were:

  • Learn and use new idiomatic expressions in Spanish;
  • Acquire more confidence to communicate in Spanish;
  • Learn and use new vocabulary in Spanish about the business world, medical Spanish, and translation/interpretation;
  • Acquire precision when using specific vocabulary;
  • Acquire, use, and practice specialized vocabulary related to the studied topics;
  • Dominate complex grammatical structures in Spanish;
  • Debate about different controversial and current topics of the Hispanic world and learn about diversity;
  • Augment listening comprehension and improve Spanish pronunciation;
  • Research current affairs in Spanish.

The course is divided into five parts: film, quiz, test, debate, and presentation. Obviously, the first stage is to watch the film, after which students take a short quiz on the main characters and the plot. The conversation class is divided into groups of three to work on debates with a specific topic assigned by the teacher. The groups then present the ideas and some questions for the class to debate. After the debates, students work on longer group presentations that deal with a topic each group chooses that relates to the film. All the debate and presentation topics have to be approved by the teacher to make sure topics are appealing enough for the class, deal with the different topics the film presented, and are linked to the core topic of diversity.

To add a practical aspect to this course and make it more interesting for the students, I include some vocabulary from the professional world, so all the selected films have sub-topics related to the medical, business, and translation/interpretation worlds. Each group has to find three or four words used in the films that describe these professional worlds and use them in their debates. In this way, each student is able to discuss issues and vocabulary related to the specific professions in Spanish.

Students have to research different topics for the debates and presentations and bring current data and statistics on the topics they choose. It is important that they learn how to research for current information, and I often ask them for information sources to make sure the pages have current information about the topics for our class. I also ask them to cite their bibliography or internet websites at the end of each debate or presentation. Group debates need to last ten minutes per student, and long presentations are 15 minutes per student. Students are asked not to read directly from their PowerPoint presentations. They have to present their ideas without reading, engaging the audience and making it as interesting as possible for all of us. In this way, students learn how to communicate information using their own words and not looking at a piece of paper but at the audience—the students in the classroom. Talking about controversial topics and diversity is a way of keeping the audience interested in the presentations. All topics relate to the Hispanic films shown in class, including prostitution in the Hispanic world and how different societies deal with this problem; transsexuality, homosexuality, and society’s acceptance of marginalized and diverse people; drugs and drug addiction and how Hispanic societies deal with this problem; whether legal and undocumented immigrants in the U.S. should learn English and why; and how societies deal with legal and illegal immigration.

Most of the topics are studied from different viewpoints—from the viewpoint of the U.S., which is the cultural context students know best, and from the viewpoints of different Hispanic countries.

Viewpoints vary from country to country, and one of the things students learn is to respect different opinions and the diversity that comes with them. For example, a drug addict may be a criminal in the U.S. but be considered to have a medical condition in another country. Laws are different in each country, and students are able to learn about those differences through their presentations.

The films I used for this course had marginalized and diverse characters who had tough lives, so I could expose my students to real-life problems and diverse people. This led to their debates and presentations dealing with those marginalized people and their problems. Students brought up controversial topics in their presentations—topics they would normally not use in any class presentation unless they were studying sociology or social work, nor would they think about these problems and possible solutions in their normal cultural contexts. Students also learned about diversity and different ways of living and thinking from their presentations.

The films I used for this advanced Spanish conversation class were: María llena eres de gracia (Maria Full of Grace) (2004), directed by Joshua Marston; Todo sobre mi madre (All about My Mother) (1999), directed by Pedro Almodóvar; ESL: English as a Second Language (2005), directed by Youssef Delara; César Chávez (2014), directed by Diego Luna; and La misma luna (Under the Same Moon) (2007), directed by Patricia Riggen. What all these movies have in common is the presentation of the life and problems of common, diverse, and marginalized people. Students may not be able to relate to the characters in All about My Mother, by Pedro Almodóvar, since I consider Almodóvar to use the most marginalized characters and issues of modern societies in his movies, like homosexuality, transsexuality, prostitution, and drug addiction. Students are still able to experience a story that deals with human beings and their problems, and the movie makes them connect to the humanity and problems of those marginalized characters. Students end up feeling empathy for, and even liking, the marginalized characters by the end of the movie. This helps them to embrace diversity and empathize with somebody who is so different from themselves.

“The films I used for this course had marginalized and diverse characters who had tough lives, so I could expose my students to real life problems and diverse people.”

I often find it hard to enable students to talk about controversial topics without judging. We are all aware of our own judgments and prejudices about specific issues or different people, but one of the things we all learn is not to judge but to respect different people, their lifestyles, and their problems. Sometimes, talking about controversial issues and our own prejudices makes us open our eyes to a situation that we would never have allowed to enter our own world. I find it extremely important to talk about controversial issues and topics that are not part of our comfort zones. Only when we leave our comfort zones are we able to experience something new and therefore able to look from another point of view.

Learning to respect somebody we do not agree with in the classroom, or somebody who would never be part of our lives, like some of the marginalized characters in the films, makes us more human and less prejudiced. It makes us more respectful of diversity and what diversity really means. This advanced Spanish conversation class has also taught me about many new issues. Using controversial topics in the classroom with respect and with objectivity allows us to look at them with less judgment and look for possible solutions. It is often hard to talk about these subjects, but in my experience, the more we talk about them in the university classroom, or in high school, the easier it becomes to be less judgmental. Students learn how to normalize marginalized characters and their problems, so they can search for possible solutions. When I ask them “What would you do if you were in his/her shoes?”, they understand that they have a privileged context and try to understand the situation of a character who is less fortunate than they are. Empathizing with the less fortunate, or with people who are very different from them, enables them to embrace diversity and be more understanding of it.

Students enjoyed the first time I taught this course on campus and expressed in the course evaluation that they felt they had learned a great deal about the discussed controversial topics, some specific vocabulary from the professions, and what diversity means. They reported that they had learned how to talk more comfortably about controversial topics in Spanish at the advanced level, and I must admit that I learned a great deal too from their unique and well-researched debates and presentations.

Chita Espino-Bravo, PhD, is associate professor of Spanish at Fort Hays State University, Kansas, U.S.

Mass. House Pushes For Diversity in ELL Teaching

two young ELL boys in libraryLast week, the Massachusetts House passed a bill that would eliminate “one size fits all” teaching for English Language Learners ( ELL ). The bill, H. 3736 or “An Act relative to language opportunity for our kids”, was originally filed by Democrat House member, Jeffrey Sánchez, and was reported by the committee on House Ways and Means.

The bill aims to diversify how ELLs are taught in Massachusetts schools. School districts will make plans to evaluate the effectiveness of their ELL programs in areas of English language proficiency and readiness for students to join mainstream classrooms. The bill will also ensure that records are kept for instances in which a parent or guardian requests a waiver to remove a student from or refuse a student’s participation in an ELL program. It also expands a waiver process that was previously in place, that in which parents can remove their children from sheltered English immersion programs. The performance of the ELL children will be monitored to draw conclusions on teaching effectiveness.

The bill will also ensure that documented training will be provided by the district to staff who work with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.

“There is a huge range of such students that range from young children of highly educated foreign graduate students to older students who are coming in increasingly large numbers from countries where they have little formal education and at the high school level are not literate in their own language. The same program does not work for all of these students,” Education Committee chair, Alice Peisch said on the House floor Wednesday afternoon. “Our rapidly changing demographics and the persistent achievement gaps are clear indicators that the approach has not been effective.”

The bill will also establish English learner parent advisory councils in any school district operating a language acquisition program for ELLs serving more than ELL’s, or where ELL’s are over 5% of the district’s student population. The councils will be composed of volunteer parents or guardians of ELLs and will advise the district on matters pertaining to ELLs. They will also meet with school officials to help design programs for ELLs.

Other matters to diversify how ELLs are taught were passed within the bill, which ban be viewed here. 

Dutch Shares Stage With Frisian in European Parliament

Flag of Friesland of Netherlands
Flag of Friesland of Netherlands

European Parliament is dedicating a session to Europe’s minority languages, and Frisian is getting its big debut on the Parliament floor, according to Dutch News.

The Frisian languages are a closely related group of Germanic languages, and has about 500,000 speakers who live in the Netherlands and Germany. There are three types of Frisian (West Frisian, Saterland Frisian, and North Frisian). Saterland and North Frisian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages in Germany, while West Frisian is one of the two official languages of the Netherlands, the other being Dutch.

Jan Huitema, a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Netherlands, is set to speak for one minute in his province’s native tongue in hopes of promoting the cultural and historical significance of the language.

Huitema, a member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, told the Dutch broadcasting foundation Nederlandse Omroep Stichting that he looked forward to Frisian having ‘its day in the sun’ despite the fact that few audience members will be able to understand what he is saying.

According to Dutch News, the meeting has been organized by a group of around 60 MEPs who represent minority languages such as Scottish Gaelic, Catalan, and Low Saxon.

Acoma Pueblo Launches Project to Save Language

The Welcome sign of Acoma Pueblo, Sky City in New Mexico
The Welcome sign of Acoma Pueblo, Sky City in New Mexico

Nearly two dozen of the approximately 100 last remaining speakers of the Acoma Keres language have answered the call for a new project designed to restore the language for generations to come.

Last month, they came together to record their voices for the Acoma Dictionary Workshop at the Acoma Learning Center in Sky City, New Mexico. Participants received a daily stipend of $100, plus lunch and transportation.

It was the first phase of a multi-year Acoma Language Recovery Plan, organized by the Pueblo of Acoma Department of Education, in partnership with The Language Conservancy, leaders in the fight to revitalize Native American languages.

“Acoma retains a rich and vibrant culture dating back more than 1200 years,” said Stanley Holder, executive director of the Department of Education. “But the tribal membership realized we were rapidly losing the language. We had to take a more systematic approach to language preservation and revitalization, which The Language Conservancy provides.”

Beyond the dictionary, the Language Recovery Plan aims to develop curriculum, instruction, electronic media, and certification of educators to teach the language in area schools at all grades.

The Pueblo of Acoma Department of Education was established in 2007 by the Acoma Tribal Council to develop quality educational services for the people of Acoma Pueblo.

The Language Conservancy is a nonprofit organization leading the revitalization of Native American languages by developing leading-edge programs and materials (from dictionaries to mobile apps) in partnership with tribes, and by advocating for endangered languages.

Boom Predicted for Cloud-based Language Learning

According to a new report by Transparency Market Solutions the value of the cloud-based language learning market will grow from $146.3m in 2016 to $427.5m by 2025, with much of the demand for virtual learning coming from North America, which accounted for 50% of revenue in 2016.

Languages considered in the scope of study were English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Russian.

The report says that the corporate market currently accounts for 50% of demand but the “education segment” of learner is expected to grow at a faster pace to 2025

“The leading position of North America in the market is primarily attributable to the vast spending on English language learning courses by foreign students enrolled in higher education institutions in the region,” it notes.

English will lead future demand, “as the language increasingly becomes the preferred language of communication in the fields of academics and businesses across the globe”, adds the report.

And the Asia-Pacific will see most new growth in business by region, it predicts: “Governments in [India, China, and Japan] and other countries in the region have mandated language learning initiatives in school systems, which is also expected to drive the market.”

 

Kids & Teens, Help Others this Summer & Get $500

Disney is Supporting Hundreds of Youth-Led Service Projects with $500 Grants
Youth Service America (YSA) and The Walt Disney Company are encouraging kids and families to make a positive impact in their communities through the Disney Summer of Service campaign. Youth can use fun summer activities—like reading, sports, arts, and being outdoors—in a movement to make the world healthier, greener, and stronger.  Kids who volunteer—with their friends or family, or on their own—can apply for a $500 Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant to create a project or expand an existing project throughout the rest of the year.

Youth, ages 5–18, in the U.S. can visit YSA.org/BeInspired to tell their volunteer story, get inspiration and planning resources, and apply for a Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant. 250 youth-led service projects will be selected to receive a $500 grant that will be awarded to each sponsoring organization in support of that project. Applications will be accepted through September 30, 2017 and select grantees may have a chance to be recognized by the Disney|ABC Television Group or their local ABC affiliate.

Additionally, Disney is providing 26 organizations with grants to create or expand volunteer opportunities for youth during the summer months.

“Children and youth possess unique perspectives, creativity, energy, and idealism,” said Steven A. Culbertson, President and CEO of YSA.  “The Disney Summer of Service campaign harnesses these strengths and invests in young people as they change the world, one project at a time.”

Examples of 2016 grant-awarded projects include:

  • Splish Splash, led by a 13-year-old in Clayton, Missouri, engages experienced youth swimmers to teach swimming to and form friendships with kids with autism.
  • Hack Night, created by a 17-year-old in New York, is an initiative to introduce middle and high school students in underprivileged communities to the computer science industry through panels, workshops, and demos of software development projects.
  • Peace, Love, and Chess, organized by a 12-year-old in Sturgis, South Dakota, aims to build a supportive learning community based on love of chess, composed of students who might not normally know each other or socialize together.
  • Make Good Decisions Soccer Game, an effort of a 16-year-old and his teammates from Carmel, Indiana, uses soccer to raise awareness about the dangers of underage drinking.

 

Read to Ace the SAT, New Test Taking Tips

Jeff McQuillan shares evidence to show that reading, not cramming, is the key to improving college entrance exams, including the SAT. 

A recent article in the New York Times (Hernandez, 2017) recommended that students from low-income backgrounds prepare for the SAT (Scholastic Achievement Test) “like a rich kid” by spending hundreds of hours studying test prep books, visiting tutors, and taking online cram courses.

This is very poor advice, whether one is rich or not.

Most studies find that test preparation for the SAT produces very small effects on average—a few dozen points, at best. Claims that one can boost one’s score by hundreds of points have never been confirmed in experimental studies.

Becker (1990), for example, analyzed several dozen studies and found that the average point gain in carefully controlled studies was somewhere between nine and 20 points. These are tiny gains that are of no practical importance in college admission decisions. Other reviews have come to similar conclusions (see a brief summary in Liu (2014)). In addition to being useless, SAT test prep can also be very expensive. The prices for two well-known test prep courses as of April 2017 were $1,599 (Kaplan) and $1,099 (Princeton Review). Private tutoring would easily cost much more.

A much better strategy for students, one that costs $0.00, is the following:

Go to the public or school library.

Check out books on topics you are interested in and enjoy.

Read those books for as many hours a day as you can.

Unlike test prep courses, extensive self-selected (pleasure) reading is associated with higher literacy levels and higher test scores (Acheson, Wells, and MacDonald, 2008). Both correlational and experimental studies have found that reading improves not only vocabulary and reading

comprehension but also writing, spelling, grammar, and knowledge of the world (Krashen, 2004)—all things that will have a significant impact on SAT scores.

What is more, the newly revised SAT is even more reading-dependent than the previous versions, making a strategy of voluminous reading a better option than ever.

Instead of spending four hours a day, five days a week in a ten-week summer test prep program, high school students would be better advised to dedicate that time to reading.* Such a plan would allow students to read about 2.5 million words, which is probably enough to raise even a good high school reader’s vocabulary by 1,000 words or more (Nation, 2014; McQuillan, 2016).

For struggling adolescent readers, including those from low-income families without the benefits typically provided to “rich kids,” the impact would likely be even more dramatic.

Our advice to students should be simple: read more, prep less.

*If you really want to spend $1,000 on test prep for your children, I suggest buying them a hundred $10 paperbacks. After they finish reading them, donate the books to a public or school library in a low-income neighborhood. Now you have helped your children and hundreds of other kids as well.

Note: It is not surprising that states that have the best school and public library systems also tend to have the better SAT scores, controlling for other types of school spending (McQuillan, 1996).

References

Acheson, D., Wells, J., and MacDonald, M. (2008). “New and Updated Tests of Print Exposure and Reading Abilities in College Students.” Behavioral Research Methods 40(1): 278–289.

Becker, B.J. (1990). “Coaching for the Scholastic Aptitude Test: Further Synthesis and Appraisal.” Review of Educational Research 60(3), 373–417.

Hernandez, D. (2017, April 10). “How I Learned to Take the SAT Like a Rich Kid.” New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.

Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading (2nd ed). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Liu, O. L. (2014). “Investigating the Relationship between Test Preparation and TOEFL iBT®Performance.” ETS Research Report Series, 2014(2), 1–13.

McQuillan, J. (1996). “SAT Verbal Scores and the Library: Predicting High School Reading Achievement in the United States.” Indiana Media Journal 18(3): 66–70.

McQuillan (2016). “What Can Readers Read after Graded Readers?” Reading in a Foreign Language 28(1): 63–78.

Nation, I. S. P. (2014). “How Much Input Do You Need to Learn the Most Frequent 9,000 Words?” Reading in a Foreign Language 26(2): 1–16.

Dr. Jeff McQuillan is a senior researcher at the Center for Educational Development and the producer of ESLPod.com. He is a recognized expert and leading researcher in English language learning and teaching. He received his PhD in applied linguistics and education from the University of Southern California and was a university professor for many years. His work has appeared in media worldwide, including CNN, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Deutschlandfunk Radio, El Pais, China Post, Macworld, Diario Financiero, and Universia.

Chile

Valle de la Muerte with Volcan Licancabur in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, at sunset.

Covering 4,300 km (2,700 miles) of the western coast of South America, Chile is situated between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. From the Atacama Desert to Cape Horn, Chile has a diverse range of climates and geographies making it the perfect place for the adventurous traveler. With rolling farmland, lush vineyards, world-class ski resorts, sandy white beaches, and a fertile river valley, there is much to explore.

The country was colonized by Spain in the 16th century, so many of Chile’s people are mestizos, or descendants from the marriages between Spanish settlers and indigenous groups, such as the Aymara and the Mapuche. Chile also received many immigrants from other European countries. Spanish has remained the official language while some native languages are still spoken. Although it is only just celebrating 20 years of democracy, it has a thriving economy.

The philosophy of Escuela de Idiomas Violeta Parra – Tandem Santiago is to teach languages by bringing people together instead of using technology. The school implements this philosophy by providing opportunities for Spanish students to meet Chileans in order for the students to practice their Spanish by speaking directly to people who speak the language. In addition to the language courses, the school also offers special eco-tourism weekend trips and daytrips.

As a member of the Tandem International Network, which ensures quality standards, the school uses the Tandem Language Method, where students have a set amount of time for language exchange in groups and on an individual basis.

For further info visit www.tandemsantiago.cl

Chile offers the experience of learning Spanish while enjoying fresh powder skiing one day, wine tasting another, and a golden beach the next.  Santiago de Chile, located in the central valley of the country, is a cultural, commercial, industrial, and political epicenter. Credited as both cultural and modern, Santiago boasts both tourist attractions and adventure sports. COINED Spanish school is located in a beautiful 1925 building recognized as a national monument. The Spanish school has 12 spacious classrooms, a video room, internet, a cafeteria and terrace with a wonderful view of the city center. Students can combine their program with salsa lessons, cultural activities, ski lessons in winter and a number of extra activities organized by the school every week.

For further info, visit www.coined-chile.org

The Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaíso The Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUCV) offers more than one hundred undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs to over 14,000 students. The university offers a variety of programs including a full semester/year program with Spanish as a second language courses (focused on conversation, grammar, composition and phonetics), sports and extracurricular activities. Open Spanish programs of four to five weeks are offered three times a year and include 90 classroom hours in three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Typical courses include Spanish, lectures on Chilean/Latin American culture, electives such as literature and history, city tours and handcraft workshops. The school also offers a contemporary Latin American studies certificate for international students interested in studying the diverse aspects of the contemporary (19th and 20th century) Latin American reality from a multidisciplinary perspective. The curriculum includes courses in literature, history, sociology, geography, economics, journalism and communication. The program lasts one semester and is taught in Spanish.

Students of ECELA who study in Santiago — or any of the five ECELA schools spread throughout Argentina, Chile, and Peru — discover the local culture and accent in classes led by credentialed, native Spanish-speaking instructors. A world of opportunities exists outside of the small classroom environment, and ECELA-led excursions take students everywhere: from the mountains to the shores, to the dance floors, the vineyards, and the futbol stadiums to immerse students in the language and the vibrant cultures of Latin America. Students are also encouraged to study at the different ECELA school locations to gain a more complete South American perspective.

ViaSpanish School, located in the Bellavista district of Santiago, has a Spanish-only policy on school grounds. All classes are held in Spanish and only Spanish is spoken during the entire class. This policy encourages all students, even beginners, to start practicing their skills actively from day one.

Students have a choice of group or individual courses. Class sizes are kept to a maximum of six students. For those students who want to make the most out of their time in Santiago, the school offers combined courses, consisting of group classes in the morning and individual classes in the afternoon. In addition, free weekly extracurricular activities are offered to all students.

In Santiago’s Las Condes area, with its architecturally fascinating skyscrapers, is Woodward Chile, which is conveniently located near most of the foreign embassies. The school allows students the flexibility of choosing their own class schedule, which is great for diplomats and businessmen with erratic schedules. Classes are limited to six students.

Enele 2017: International Encounter for Continuing Professional Development for Spanish Teachers

From July 10-14, Enele 2017, the third edition of the International Encounter for Continuing Professional Development of Spanish Teachers, will take place at the Modern Language Center of the University of Cadiz, Spain. Organized by Language and Cultural Encounters (LCE), Enele gives teachers of Spanish (and of other languages) the opportunity to reflect on the teaching and learning of foreign languages, to share teaching experiences and to learn about new tendencies, tools and materials.
Enele is a project created and coordinated by professor Jane Arnold of the University of Seville and academic director of Language and Cultural Encounters. It is designed to provide language teachers with the opportunity to meet and reflect on diverse professional issues with other teachers from around the world, as well as to further develop their skills working with important current proposals for language teaching. In Dr. Arnold’s words, Enele offers “a perfect occasion to unite the useful and the enjoyable”. On the one hand, it presents a program that has been prepared “with great care to contribute to professional development of teachers”. On the other hand, “there is nothing better than sharing experiences with teachers from around the world in such a pleasant setting as that offered by the city of Cadiz with its beautiful coastline”.
This is the third Encounter organized by LCE. Last year 50 teachers came to Cadiz from 15 countries, including Austria, UK, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, U.S., Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Algeria, Morocco, and Russia. At the two previous events, according to Arnold, there were “real learning communities created, with participants sharing their ideas and greatly enriching the experience of the group”, a group which was formed not only by teachers of Spanish but also of other languages.
Enele 2017 has as its slogan CREAR, JUGAR, EMOCIONAR: Explorando nuevos caminos en la enseñanza de ELE (CREATE, PLAY, EXCITE. Exploring new paths in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language). The speakers, who will give a plenary, three training modules and three workshops, are well-known experts, with extensive experience in teacher training. They want to share new options for educational practice involving active learning and more participation by the students in the construction of their knowledge of the language and the culture which they are studying. They will provide ways to stimulate learners’ curiosity and to create an atmosphere in the classroom where learners want to learn, where they are engaged. Engagement will be stressed in the presentations; it is an important element in teaching since as Fredericks, Blumenfeld and Paris (2004:60) explain, it “draws on the idea of participation; it includes involvement in academic and social or extracurricular activities and is considered crucial for achieving positive academic outcomes ”.

Critical reflection about teaching, exchange of experiences, innovative methodology and many resources and tools for the classroom
Enele 2017 provides an opportunity to learn about new ideas which can enrich our daily work in the classroom and to enjoy “moments for sharing”, where speakers and participants create a learning community and exchange ideas.
The main objectives of this international encounter are to reflect about current teaching resources for our classrooms, including gamification, which can stimulate our students’ curiosity and interest; to learn about the contributions of the neurosciences to teaching; to examine creative ways to present aspects of the language, such as grammar, for more effective learning; to see how to best take advantage of our materials; to deal with the group dynamics in order to bring about more active participation of the students in communicative activities; to develop the ability to create motivating activities which successfully involve students in learning the language ; and to generate a community of learning in the encounter where participants share experiences and good practices.
In Enele 2017 a dynamic methodology based on reflection, participation, and collaboration among the participants will be used, always keeping in mind the realities of the language classroom.
Working together, speakers and participants critically analyze teaching practice and explore
strategies which support continued professional development, defining objectives and steps needed to reach them. In the theoretical/practical classes of the encounter the assimilation of the contents of the modules and workshops will be facilitated in an entertaining and productive manner.
Academic Program
Enele 2017 places emphasis on the importance of attention to affective factors in language learning since as Arnold (2011:11) summarizes, in any language teaching eontext “attention to affect will make our teaching more effective”. The modules and workshops will offer suggestions for stimulating students’ creativity, for creating useful classroom materials and for exploring ways to interest and motivate our students.
The encounter includes a plenary presented by the professor and neuroscientist Dr. Francisco Mora Teruel: ¿Qué nos dice la Neuroeducación sobre el papel del cerebro y la emoción en la enseñanza de ELE? (What does Neuroeducation tell us about the role of the brain and emotion in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language?). Dr. Mora will explore ways to improve what happens in the classroom through the study of the brain, its processes and by taking into account the central role of emotions in the process of learning.
Enele 2017 also has three modules which deal in depth with diverse issues, from effective teaching materials to communicative processes in the classroom, creative writing and many more things. The speakers are Neus Sans: ¿De dónde venimos, dónde estamos y adónde vamos? Criterios para el diseño y la selección de materiales didácticos para la clase de ELE (Where do we come from, where are we and where are we going? Criteria for designing and choosing teaching materials for the Spanish class), Miguel Ángel García Argüez: Hacia una pedagogía de la creatividad. Los “juegos de escritura” en la enseñanza de ELE (Towards a creative pedagogy.”Writing games” in Spanish teaching); and Concha Julián de Vega: Conectando mentes, comunicando en ELE (Connecting minds, communicating in Spanish).

There will also be three very practical workshops. Juan Manuel Real Espinosa: Cuando despertó, la Gramática todavía estaba ahí. Memorias de un dinosaurio vivo (When it woke up, grammar was still there. Memories of a living dinosaur). Antonio Orta: Mejora en los tiempos de habla a través de la curiosidad (Increasing speaking time through curiosity). Clara Cordero: La vuelta al mundo en 8 tesoros, una experiencia gamificada (Around the world in eight treasures: a gamification experience).
Cultural program
Enele 2017 is not only an encounter for continuing professional development of language teachers, it also includes “moments for sharing” where participants and speakers have the opportunity to share teaching experiences at the same time as they get to know Cadiz, a city in the south of Spain with many beautiful places by the sea and with a vibrant culture. It’s one of the oldest cities in Western Europe, with an influential history of more than 3000 years which is reflected in a multitude of lovely sites.
Cadiz is a city in a continual process of creation with its inhabitants always involved in preparing songs and costumes for its famous Carnival celebration where the Spanish language is a tool for social and political criticism through music and humor. Its history, its university, its people, its great weather, and its marvelous beaches make it the perfect setting for Enele 2017. Also, Cadiz is near to other wonderful cities worth visiting, such as, Jerez, Puerto de Santa María, Seville, Cordoba, or Málaga.
At Enele 2017 the culture and the magic of an ancient city will be explored in a unique way via guided visits to its special corners, opportunities to taste the local gastronomy, and a demonstration of its famous Carnival festival. In addition to the cultural program, LCE can help participants with other sociocultural, and recreational matters which interest them.

Enele 2017 is organized by Language and Cultural Encounters and coordinated by Jane Arnold. It takes place in the Modern Language Center of the University of Cadiz and is also supported by the following institutions: Fundación Universidad-Empresa de Cádiz, the Cadiz city council, the Ministry of Education of the Spanish Embassy in the UK and Ireland, Difusión publishing house, CLIC-International House Cádiz, FEDELE (Association of Spanish language schools), ACEIA (Association of language teaching centers in Andalusia), ELE Lovaina, Educación 3.0, Cadiz centro Student Residence.
References
Arnold, J. (2011). “Attention to affect in language learning”. Anglistik. International Journal of
English Studies 22 (1):11-22.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., and Paris, A. H. (2004). “School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence”. Review of Educational Research 74 (1): 59-109.

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