Shared Talk language community wins the “My favourite e-learning resource” contest

The “My favourite e-learning resource” contest received 443 participants in total. The jury had a difficult decision to make because many of the resources were of high quality. A number of different aspects were taken into account during the evaluation: contents and information, technical solutions, usability and interactivity.

The winning resource is a language training community called Shared Talk (http://www.sharedtalk.com), which was sent in by Bernard Vanderydt. He describes the resource in the following way:

This is my preferred way of brushing up my language knowledge. The concept is quite simple; it's a community of people who are willing to help each other learn a language. Members come from many countries worldwide.

According to the contest jury, Shared Talk is a resource with very extensive contents, and it is based on communication and community building. These aspects have been achieved successfully. The user interface is delightful in that it motivates users to participate and stay on the site even just to surf.

A considerable part of the resources were aimed at language learning. Apart from language learning resources, information technology and Internet courses were also well presented. Also, among the posted resources, a general interest in websites that emphasise global and European awareness, respect and awareness of diversity and citizenship could be observed.

The suggested resources showed that users tend to prefer sites that allow them to interact, for example through forums and/or chats, sharing practices and questions among themselves. For example, the Wikis and learning environments allow users to create communities. Moreover, resources that involved games or animation were favoured among the participants, also when concerning resources for adults.

Many teachers sent in their favourite pages that they use for teaching, which shows that these kinds of resources are used frequently in classrooms.

The majority of the participants showed a real interest in the contest and were very enthusiastic about it.

The best resources

Besides the winning resource, the contest received a considerable amount of valuable and useful resources. The best resources can be found here:

Notenmax – virtual music school (Germany)
http://www.notenmax.de
Simple and fun resource that combines good technical elements, and the result is original and fun.

Geogebra (Austria)

http://www.geogebra.at
An excellent tool to learn mathematics, arithmetic formulas and graphical representation. Available in various languages, this is a technical and specific resource.

ENO - Environment Online (Finland)
http://eno.joensuu.fi
A global virtual school for sustainable development and internationality, this currently has participants from 75 countries. Learners collect up-to-date information from their local environment to post on the website and share it globally. Material is public and free for everybody.

NBPortal.pl (Poland)

http://www.nbportal.pl
The resource offers several tools to learn economics. It is fun and useful, containing a lot of information (marketing, stock market, financing, etc.) in the form of innovative presentations, games, courses, puzzles, crosswords, etc.

THOT (France)

http://thot.cursus.edu
A versatile online training portal that is well presented. It also displays news and other information.

PEGASUS Campus (France)

http://www.campus-pegasus.org
An online course to enter the university. Specific and interesting.

Efizyka.pl (Poland)

http://efizyka.pl
An interactive physics course for teachers, students and anyone interested in physics. It is both practical and theoretical, amusing but at the same time professional, making use of scientific terminology.

E-VHF GMDSS (Slovenia)
http://www.egmdss.com
Content suitable for all sailors to obtain the SRC licence and to practice before going to sea. The unique on-line VHF GMDSS simulator is available free on the Internet.