Babbel - Free language learning for all US K-12 and college students

Babbel (www.babbel.com), the language learning app, have announced that they will be offering free language learning to all K-12 and college students through the end of the school term (mid-June 2020).

The move comes after the successful provision of free Babbel to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, and is designed to help students use their time at home productively while maintaining cognitive activity.


To mitigate against the impact of closures, Babbel is offering students enrolled in schools and colleges in the U.S. three months’ free access to its app and platform, in any and all of its 14 languages offered: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian, and English.


To receive free three-month access, students (or their parents or guardian) need only apply via this link using their valid school email addresses: https://welcome.babbel.com/en/student-discount/ They will receive a coupon code for 3 free months.

The Babbel app is available on iOS, Android, and desktop. 

Google announces updates to Translate App - great uses for Education

Google has just announced an update to their Translate app that will prove very useful in education. Google Translate apps have been updated (Android and iOS) to do instant translations.

You can already use the camera mode to take a picture of text and get it translated. Now, you can do it instantly. Aim your camera at the text and the translation will instantaneously show up over the image, even without a data connection. This works for English to and from: German, Italian, Portuguese, French, Russian and Spanish with plans to add more languages soon.

This is great for ELL students who are trying to learn English and need some help, as well as helping out on trips. Students, and parents, could use this to translate signs at the schools, as well as text on posters and such.

Real time conversation translation has been available on Android for over a year, but it has just been updated to work faster and sound more natural. It supports two-way translations. This can assist students, as well as ELL parents, and teachers communicate easier. 

Both Android and iOS will get the updates over the next few days, with iOS finally getting the features Android has had for a while. 

I can't help be think of science fiction and universal translators when I see things like this. So cool. 

Related:

Google Translate Adds 10 More Languages

Google for Education Resources

Android for Education Resources

The Science Fiction of my youth has become reality

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Duolingo language learning tool launches free Schools Version

Duolingo is a popular language learning app. I mentioned it as one of the first Android apps ported to Chromebooks. It's a fun and easy way to learn a language.

Now, they have released Duolingo for Schools, which brings a structured learning environment to the app. Teachers can setup their students in it and track their progress using the dashboard. It shows them reports on the lessons the students have completed to help teachers gauge progress and understanding.

Duolingo is adaptive and adjusts the lessons based on the student's understanding, providing a personalized learning environment.

Duolingo can be used in foreign language classes, ELL classes and as extra help for students. The regular version can also be referred to parents to use to help them.

Duolingo for Schools is free and is available for Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish and Swedish, with Chinese coming in the next few weeks.

Learn more from the video below:

The Endangered Languages Project: Supporting language preservation through technology and collaboration

Google has a new project it is a part of: The Endangered Languages Project: Supporting language preservation through technology and collaboration that is pretty cool. The Endangered Languages Project, is a website for people to find and share the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages. It is a way to try to preserve over 3000 languages that are on the verge of becoming extinct. Preserving these languages, and the cultures that go with them, is an important project.

The project is working to make recordings of people speaking the languages, as well as documenting as much as possible about the languages. Through the site, people can upload and access research, advice, information, resources, manuscripts, videos, audio and more.

This is a great resource for our world, and also for teachers and students to use to learn about these languages and cultures, as well as contribute to the project.

Here's more about it: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

Language Immersion for Chrome - helps you learn a foreign language

Language Immersion for Chrome is an extension for the Chrome web browser that helps you learn a foreign language through immersion. It will switch certain words and phrases on websites you visit from English into your chosen language. You can get a more contextual and realistic experience of the language you are trying to learn.

There are 64 differently languages supported, there are different skill levels (novice to fluent), you can click on a translated word to switch it back to English, and you can roll your mouse over the word to hear it pronounced.

As it is still an experimental extension, Google warns that some translations won't be 100% accurate. However, that could actually help people learn the language as they check the translations.

This would be a great resource for anyone trying to learn a new language, including students in foreign language classes and ELL students. Since the words are part of the context of something else, students will be able to figure some out and see how they are used in language and not just an isolated vocabulary word.

It's free from the Google Play store: http://goo.gl/i3fGX


Here's a video that shows how it works






Related:

Google Chrome Web Browser revisited

Essential Apps and Installs for Windows, Chrome, Android
Have Chrome read any website to you (or your students)
Google Chrome now available on Android - the perfect combo

BBC Languages - start learning a foreign language

BBC Languages is a great, free resource I just learned about from the Future Education Tech blog.

BBC Languages has audio and video courses to help you learn French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese. There are also some other languages available and you can learn essential phrases in 40 different languages.

The courses are for beginners and are 12 weeks long. There is also information on the alphabet and culture behind the languages.

This is a great resource for students and teachers alike.