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UPDATE: Β GenkiEnglishOnline has now been replaced with this much easier to use system!
https://genkienglish.net/teaching/im-really-excited-about-this
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OK, this is big! Β I’ve just set up www.GenkiEnglishOnline.com, Β a new Genki English Homework site. Β It has all the games, and all the songs.
Whilst it’s still in the beginning stages and whilst I’m still sorting out the technical, payment and pedagogical sides of things I’m going to have it up on a free trial basis.
VIP Members can click here to get the URL to show their students.
But please don’t share it with anyone else or put it online on any blogs or websites. It’s just for your students to use as homework!
There is also a homework sheet, you’ll write in the date each time you set a lesson and both the teacher and parent will sign it.
(right click here for the editable .xls spreadsheet or the pdf version)
The idea is the students will listen to the current song each day, and play the game for the current theme until they can do it three times without making a mistake (that’s when parents can sign it) Β You then check they can use the English in class and you sign it.
Of course it’s not for everyone yet, but what do you think about this glimpse of the future?
Just in case you’re not a VIP member yet, have a look at this video to see what your students could be getting!
UPDATE: Β Yes you can change the “Your School” part to be your school name!
UPDATE 2: Β No, students can’t download the files.
UPDATE 3: Β Yes the student pack CDs (and USBs) are still available.
UPDATE 4: There’s an extra special surprise on the Halloween disc!
UPDATE 5: Β Yes it does (should!) work on the Nintendo Wii but not the iPad or iPhone.
UPDATE 6: How much will it cost? Β We’re discussing this below! Β Be sure to add your thoughts!
Any more questions? I’d love to hear what you think!
Wow!! It is a great way to get kids who have internet access to practice at home. The homework sheet signed by parents is nicely done and a super idea too.
It doesn’t seem to be fully functional, at least for me, but would there be a way to control which song is available to the kids at some point?
A surprise on the Halloween disk?? As usual, I have missed it… !!
Good morning.
Wow!
I must say this is almost too much of an offer, so I really don’t know what to say. As it’s Genki English and as it’s YOU Richard I know the only thing to say is THANK YOU!
But I guess if I wouldn’t know about GE or about you I would be very suspicious with such an offer.
I really hope it works out!
Any slight idea about how this is going to be paid????(yearly fee, students paying, teachers paying, monthly fee???)
Hi Margit
The most likely way is for teachers to pay a monthly subscription based on the number of students they have.
Hi Carol
It is all fully functional, everthing is there! You just need to wait for each page to fully download.
Teachers choosing which themes to show would involve passwords and logins, all of which are far too expensive to administer (we’d have to pay support people to answer questions when people forget). But using the sheet the parents know which themes to practice that week and if they do others as well, even better!
What about students who quit after a while?
They will still have the link. Is that okay with you?
If it’s just one or two that should be fine. But if say someone blogs the link or shares it people in other areas I’ll just issue you a new link and the old one will stop working after a while.
But once you start using the system you’ll end up with much more satisfied customers!
Plus if this takes off we can add in extras like picture books or maybe even phonics!
Cool. I think I’d have to have students who would use this system to pay me an extra fee for this, as otherwise those who have bought all the CDs would start booing.
Also there are a few who don’t let their kids online, so I think I’ll need the other option anyway. So I hope I’ll find a way to get both parties satisfied, but I think this should be fine.
Well the best thing is that I won’t have to listen to technical problems, like “CD 6 doesn’t work on my computer, and CD 8 on mine”. II would be too happy if this would be the solution.
I would have bought the download pack already — or maybe I should just buy the 1st – 3rd grade. Not entirely sure yet — but I want to pay in Korean won, how would I do that. I remeber one time without looking for it I found it, but when I need it I can’t.
Hi Charise!
The card company automatically converts it into won when you make a purchase:
http://genkienglish.net/downloadpack.htm
It’s very easy and we have lots of people buying it in Korea!
Your students are going to love it!
My daughter started at grammar school here in September. They use the Moore English coursework books. She loves the book because she can submit virtual homework!
So, I think this is a good way of introducing the younger kids to homework on line. And, it is something kids have been asking me about. Now I can give them an answer.
I’d like to try this out with a private group I teach once a week. Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing them until next Wednesday, but I’ll comment on what they say then.
Thanks for putting this up there for us.
There’s only one word for this: INCREDIBLE!
This is exactly what my students need.
Thank you SO much!
Once more, I reckon you are doing an amazing job and you look amazingly nice and enthusiastic!
Thanks everyone for the great response! In fact it’s proving a little too popular….
So pretty soon I think I’m going to have to take down the general page and give you your own schools’ pages. There’s no pressure to go for the paid for version when it’s ready (which might actually be a while!) but it will make it a lot easier for me to manage the system!
So email me if you’d like your own school’s page setting up, if you could include your school name and a link to your logo online I’ll include those as well!
@Margit: How much would you think of charging your students, to make sure it’s fair for the ones who’ve already bought CDs?
Okay, this is a hard question, as I want YOU to get as much as possible, while not going to hard on my students.
Let me calculate this way:
They got their CDs for 2000 Yen and have all 10. =20000.
They use these with me for about 5 years. (12 monthX5= 60month)
20000 devided by 6 would be 333 Yen per month.
They can’t use the pack same as CDs , and they won’t have the pack forever as the CDs, I don’t know if I would need to consider this.
Is this way of calculating completely out of time? What do you think?
HOw about a random 1000 yen a month. (VERY RANDOM I have no idea whether or not the parents of my students would go for that.) You give the students an option of buying all 10. Buying would be cheaper than the monthly online charge, but it is a way out for those who think they won’t need the CDs.
Then again Maybe Richard is thinking of doing away with CDs?
Waouh! That is really big! I just love the halloween surprise, I was going to do it anyway tomorrow so here it comes just in time! Thank you!
I missed it. What is the Halloween surprise!?
Wow!!!!! Mind blowing! Thanks Richard!
Nena
Genki English rocks elementary school classrooms no matter what any random public servant currently on whatever board of education might say!!
you’ll have to consider a staggered pricing scheme as Thai consumers will not be willing to pay as much as Japanese. I think my parents wouldn’t mind paying perhaps 200 baht a month (we’re only doing 4 units a month)
Just fixed an issue with the menu for CD4, the lessons should load fine now. (Thank you Dominique!)
@Matthew: That’s actually more than Margit put above for Japan! π
I work in Public Elementary School where children have no internet access neither at school or at home. Nevertheless it sounds great…Richard you are the best, your ideas are amazing. I hope to open my own Genki School, then this would be great to catch people eager to learn energetic English.
For public elementary schools we have a “site license” where they can buy a license to use the software on every computer in the school. The great thing is that it usually comes out of the (usually large compared with English) computer budget! Email me if you’d like more details!
Another Halloween surprise!! Check out the Halloween menu! I’m loving how I can just update it here and you’ll all have it ASAP!
Thanks to Gaz for the amazing graphics, and hopefully there will be more updates this afternoon!
WOWWWWWW!
And it just got THREE TIMES better!!!
Thank you for our “private address”. The kids are going to love it ! I wish I could go and film them at home dancing in front of their computer (I know they will). Thank you for the extra Halloween stuff, it’s great. I will come back to you after the holidays (10 days in France) and tell you their impressions.
Soo, I’ve asked all the teachers at the school on pricing for the site and the general consensus is around 10,000 Korean Won each month. They said students typically pay around that much for similar programs on the web…
That said, I can’t thank you enough Richard. Teaching was gettin’ a bit rough for a time there. Stuck in a rut, trying to make the kids smile and receiving blank stares of boredom and bewilderment at my feeble attempts to be fun in the classroom.
You are sharing English and happiness simultaneously with this site. I wish you the best in all you pursue!
Cheers,
Louis
It`s like what my son do now in shogako. I have to listen to him read and then sign his card so that he can take it back to school.this is great this way I can get more Japanese parents involved with there kids homework, and I`m so happy that the CD`S can now work on play stations…
Yeh, – LIKE!
Hi Richard,
I don’t know. Homework: Dance and sing the warm up song thrice! Sounds to me like more emphasis on the “Repeat! Study!” part, than on the fun part. Because in class all students obviously try to be best, fastest, etc. Whereas at home alone in front of the PC instead of with your friends and a genki teacher? I can’t see it work for 12 year olds for example. Already the sound of the word “homework” makes them turn off all their senses. Perhaps it would be different on a reward scheme: i.e. The one who can show us the song of the week dance on friday wins a free copy. Or something like that. Or turn it into a performance competition: See who can do a performance with how many people involved.
But listening to the song, just for the sake of it and a tic? I can’t see this as attractive. It also takes the “yeah – today is genki English finally” = highlight of the week feeling away and puts it on the “take it or leave it”, I can have that everyday anyway line. But many people seem to like it. Perhaps I am just too negative because I am sick.
I think I was wrong about the play stations. but it would be great if it could…
I’m up again. I teach my private students with GE and they and their parents like it. The link seems to be down even with my GE I.D. So, I’d like to have a link for the kids to practice at home.
However, my fears are too many. So, Richard,:
1. Do you have any idea or a system that could control the link Should the kids share the link or stop the classes?
2. I think it would be too much for the kids and parents to have access on all units. How can this be controlled?
Hi Cuma,
Yeah, I’ve taken the public link down, but just email me and I can set up an account for you. We are slowly coming to the end of the free beta period though.
1. Yeah this is something I too was concerned about, but the data so far looks good. The links are monitored so if lots of people start accessing or its posted on blogs etc. We just take it down and you can give the kids another one. Trusting people to do it this way is much easier than adding extra security which would need (expensive) local support. Kids who leave would still have access but data so far shows its not a big problem.
2. I do hear this a lot from teachers! Again what we’ve found is that giving kids access to everything is very, very beneficial to their learning, they really do zoom ahead. Now this is hard for the teachers as you have to constantly be planning and preparing much faster than usually. I have experimented with a password based system where the kids only get access to one theme at once, and I’m willing to try more tests with it, but so far it looks like it’s not as efficient as giving the kids everything!
Hi Alicia, it should be fine on Playstation 3s! And also web enabled wiis.
@Simone: Touch wood, so far it looks like this isn’t happening and the kids are loving it. Data from the other courses suggest that age 131 – 17 is the most popular for studying it in front of a computer. My guess is it takes away the peer pressure but is still more fun than traditional homework. You are indeed right though that we need to use a better name than “homework”!