Interactive language learning outside of the classroom is being offered to UK secondary schools and universities, through cloud based software from ConnectED.
The SANSSpace software from distributor ConnectED enables students to access audio and video language resources via a PC, iPad or smartphone, when they are away from the classroom.
Teachers can use SANSSpace to set homework by asking students to access an audio file, video clip, recording a translation or responding to audio or video questions. Collaborative groups can also be created, so students can work together on assignments.
Tasks and assignments can be kept in one place so teachers can mark and assess easily. Teachers can use content they have already purchased within SANSSpace or they can upload new content for free via the internet.
Mark Stimpfig, managing and sales director of ConnectED said: ''With SANSSpace, teachers and students are no longer confined to a set teaching time in a designated classroom. Learning can now take place anytime and anywhere in the virtual world.
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''This is what language teachers have been calling out for – the chance for students to practise their speaking and listening skills outside the designated teaching hours. This is the first truly virtual language laboratory to be launched in the UK.''
SANSSpace is currently being used in the Middle East and United States. Mustapha Masrour, teaching administrator and director of the Language Learning Centre and Foreign Language Education at Hofstra University, New York, currently uses the product for 11,000 language students.
''Its online digital recorder provides students with more time to speak, listen and self-evaluate than in a traditional classroom setting,'' he said.
