Learning to Teach in Web 2.0

I instructed CTGE 59100, a general course in the use of technology for k-12 teachers, during July and August of 2008. 2 sections of graduate level students took the course with me. They are primarily New York City Department of Education Teaching Fellows who have completed a full year of service as ESL teachers. This cohort includes teachers across many grade levels, working in a variety of teacher deployment modes (i.e. “push in”, “pull out”, “regular classroom”, etc.)

A major area we covered in class was the use of free and user friendly Web 2.0 resources for instruction. This class blog (tech4tesol) functioned throughout the 6 weeks of the course as a frequently updated class space to post notices and share information, ideas, and feedback on many things; a supplementary text and source of content resources; a presentation vehicle, as much of the class meetings centered around the blog projected on a large screen during class meetings; and a general “glue” to hold the proceedings, discussions, and content items together and in order.

A requirement of the class was that each student create a blog and use it as the workspace in which to practice using these digital tools as instructional resources. It is the “medium” with which they produced and present their final project, as well. Of particular interest to me is the fact that the overwhelming majority reported at the beginning of the course that they had no previous experience as bloggers and none in the use of blogs for instruction. Below are links to their blogs:

1. http://techteachermom.blogspot.com/
2. omgeducation.blogspot.com
3. 5th2college.blogspot.com
4. http://www.mrskieslblog.blogspot.com/
5. http://stacyfalberg.blogspot.com/
6. http://blobertblogkey.blogspot.com/
7. http://eslforfun.blogspot.com/
8. http://therearenomistakesinmsgsclass.blogspot.com/
9. http://goldwatereslflow.blogspot.com
10. http://globalhistoryesl.blogspot.com
11. http://iloveroseanne.blogspot.com/
12. http://learning4every1.blogspot.com/
13. http://www.eslallstars.blogspot.com/
14. http://mskennelly.blogspot.com/
15. http://speakinglouderdoesntmeanclearer.blogspot.com/
16. http://makingteachingrelevant.blogspot.com/
17. http://mssmichelle.blogspot.com/
18. http://striveandthrive.blogspot.com/
19. http://ingles4ward.blogspot.com/
20. http://www.classconnect.blogspot.com/
21. http://theeducationofateacher.blogspot.com/
22. http://spiceesl.blogspot.com/
23. http://www.msschimmel.blogspot.com/
24. http://anti-bloggerblogger.blogspot.com/
25. http://teachingperfection.blogspot.com/
26. http://arsmolin22.blogspot.com/
27. http://dee77.blogspot.com/
28. http://www.adultedvocate.blogspot.com/
29. http://weblogforlearning.blogspot.com/
30. http://lindsayteach007.blogspot.com/
31. http://hwhang.blogspot.com/
32. http://eslbeyond.blogspot.com/
33. http://tenconfianza-esl.blogspot.com/
34. http://englishexplosion.blogspot.com/

Make Your Blog Safe for Students

Remove the "NavBar"

One of the things that causes educators concern in using Blogger (our class blogging tool) is the "Blog Roll" feature that appears in the Navigation Bar (NavBar) across the top of these blogs as a standard feature. The problem is that when a blog visitor uses this feature by clicking on "Next Blog" he is taken to an unknown blog elsewhere in the Blogger universe that very likely represents a distraction and in the worst case scenario, may be totally innappropriate for students to see. Fortunately, the NavBar is easily removed by performing a very simple "hack".

Basically, to do this you log in to your blog, go to the dashboard where you select the HTML view of the basic template, and paste the following little piece of code into the blog's overall page code in a specific place...

This procedure will look like the example below (the new piece of code you are adding is in red)....


Here's a video and blog post that explains this simple procedure in greater detail:http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/2005/01/remove-navbar.html

Q: OK, now that I've removed the NavBar with its "Sign In" button, how do I get in to my blog?
A: Log in to Google > Select Blogger > and Enter through the blog name listed in your Google account! (or if you have been using blogger for a long time like me you may need to sign in with your Blogger account)

Another security measure you might take would be to allow only invited "Readers" of your blog to gain access at all. Blogger allows you to set this up for up to 100 "Readers". The down side of this is that they all must be registered Gmail users and use their Gmail (Google) loging/password as the in to the blog. If you are very security minded, this may be the way to go. However, the point of this course has been that we can use Blogger (and similar) resources as a way to publish to the world and my recommendation would be for you to remove the NavBar, exercise caution about how your students are identified, structure your messages so that any messages from the reading public are strictly between the reader and you, the teacher, and sit back and enjoy the fact that you and your students are out there on the web.

How would you do the above? You'd go to your blog's "Settings" area and select the following:

Discussion Points for Class 8/4,8/5,8/6,&8/7

First an update on our previous session's discussion about John McCain's self professed luddite leanings... This one sent in by Hannah Whang ... Thanks, Hannah! From the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/weekinreview/03leibovich.html?ex=1218513600&en=09ccd3f89b7474ce&ei=5070&emc=eta1

I) Access (to computers) Short in Supply? For How Long?
Unfortunately, almost all of the members of this class, learning to integrate technology into their teaching practice, report a scarcity of access to technology. Undoubtedly, this has framed participation differently than it would have if access to the technology we are focused on, was abundant in our classrooms. But is there change ahead? Below are some provocative and realistic indicators:

Nicholas Negraponte @ the TED Conference http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child.html

CBS News 60 Minutes Piece on the One Laptop Per Child Project
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3564316n?source=search_video

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=One+Laptop+Per+Children&search_type=&aq=f

Update 1)
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/07/birmingham_school_board_accept_1.html

Update 2)
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/30/intel-laptops.html?ref=rss

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rlf5l9F3Pw

Update 3) 8/6
on New Mini Laptops and Transformed Access to Computers
A promotional piece from Intel -
http://newbay.ebookhost.net/k12/intel/2/ebook/1/index.php?e=27&user_id=23599&flash=9.115

II) 21st Century Literacy
If our students are going to be online as they learn, how does this change the way they are literate?

Article “Teching Zach to Think” http://novemberlearning.com/images/stories/Documents/Articles/Teaching%20Zack%20to%20Think.pdf

Advertisment video:
http://www.nettrekker.com/di/tour/di_mkt.html

Position Paper on Digital Age Literacy from NCTE
(National Council of Teachers of English)
http://www.ncte.org/print.asp?id=129117&node=65

Partnership for 21st Century Skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?Itemid=120&id=254&option=com_content&task=view

Video: Commentary on 21st Century Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22TU_QwtlbM
The above is a talk delivered by 'Stuart Kahl, president of Measured Progress and member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills'
(FYI - http://www.measuredprogress.org/aboutus/index.html)

III) Are there ‘Clickers’ in your teaching future?
http://www.einstruction.com/flash/k12.swf

* Bonus clip (Related? You be the judge!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W3GsbogqTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4A62QyAUHM&feature=related

IV) Resource (may apply to Final Project)
http://www.willard.k12.mo.us/co/tech/onlinepub.htm

Moving Forward – Ways to Stay in the Ed Tech Loop (and go further)

Here are some of the more interesting and richer sources for info, resources, ideas, and access to like minded colleagues I’d like to recommend…

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) http://www.iste.org/ One very cool section are ‘webcast’ videos of the sessions at the recent (June 08)
http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/program/video_on_demand.php
NECC Conference in San Antonio (National Educational Computing Conference).
One good example: http://v2.dev.kzoinnovations.com/flash/wcplayer.php?v=232&l=51&isLive=0&username=markgura@optonline.net ” Information Explosion” - There are 3,000 books published ever day … There are 175,000 new blogs appearing every day with 1.6 million posts to those blogs every day… and 19.2 Billion Web Pages up currently…

SCHOLASTIC (for what most consider a print resource provider, there’s a great deal of value for teachers who want to use technology)
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/index.jsp
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749910
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/connect.jsp
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749057

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.
http://www.iearn.org/
Collaboration Center – Online Directory of Projects: http://media.iearn.org/projects
Intro Video: http://www.iearn.org/projects/index.html


Newsletters
Technology & Learning http://www.techlearning.com/

ASCD Smart Brief – Free News Summaries in you eMail inbox every day.Sample Issue: http://alquemie.smartbrief.com/alquemie/servlet/encodeServlet?issueid=BD52EF01-1606-4EF8-83C7-FDEB22163129&lmid=sample

eSchool News – Free and delivered to your eMail inbox
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/

NCTE Inbox - Free and delivered to your eMail inbox
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/about_NCTE/overview/inbox/current.html

Social Networking for Teachers
Teachade http://www.teachade.com/home.do
Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com/
NextGen Teachers http://nextgen.ning.com/

Teachers Podcast “The New Generation of Ed Tech PD”Mark Gura and Dr. Kathy King – A new episode every 2 weeks
http://www.teacherspodcast.org/

Advice and Reflections on Your Final Project

Some advice and reflections on your final project (these are based on the conversation that ensued in class 7/30 and may be expanded to include the conversation to take place 7/31):

A) In a nutshell you are going to create a Project Based Instructional Unit. In planning and explaining it you should account for the following elements or dimensions:

1 - PRESENTATION of the unit – to the students – using the technology we’ve covered in our class
2 - TASK – the heart of this ‘project’ involves students in a task (is it standards-based, relevant to curriculum, appropriate for age, grade, and ability levels
- engaging and likely to sustain interest and activity. Will the task involve student use of technology? etc.)
3 - PROCESS – the way you have the students pursuing their task (is there opportunity for students to help define the task, opportunity for collaboration with peer learners, or to exchange feedback with classmates? Will the process involve any use of technology?
4 - STUDENT PRODUCT (or performance) – the result of the task you have presented to the students and the (learning) process you have structured for them – the product embodies much of the learning that results from the task and process and it is the focus of the assessment part of the unit (is the product required of students assigned in an appropriate form to accommodate learning opportunities and present completed learning? Is there a way for you or the student to publish the product? Is there technology involved in the creation of the product?)
5- ASSESSMENT – How will you assess the students’ learning as a result of all the above? Will you use a rubric? Other tool? Are there dimensions of the learning experience beyond the product that will be assessed? How will you assess these?
6 - IMPLEMENTATION PLAN (lesson plan/unit plan) – How will you present this unit to the students? How will you organize and manage their Time? Effort? Attention? How will you explain to them what they are to do and how they are to do it? Typical elements of a lesson plan include: Motivation, Class organization for project, Materials, resources, etc. Time flow, assessment, etc.

In Assignment #1 You were directed to create a blog (which now should state under the title that the blog is there as an assignment for Course CTGE 59100 - Fordham University and you should identify yourself in the blog 'profile' as a student in the course)

In Assignment #4 you were asked to build the blog out further by using a post to present media (links, video, podcasts, etc.) that function as content and prompt/focus for a student activity - and to explain to the students what to do in using the media and responding to it.

These 2 preparatory segments may stand alone or you may use them as the 'front end' of this Project Based Learning unit. This would be accomplished by adding additional elements to them until you are satisfied you've covered everything necessary to say or present to your students to direct them in doing the project.

B) You are to present all of the above in 2 blog posts –

Blog Post #I) Presentation to Students: Imagine you are going to use this blog post as a/the prime method of presenting and explaining the unit to your students. What would you tell them? What would you show them? Where would you take them (virtually)? How would you use technology to accomplish this?

Reflections based on CTGE 59100 student questions:
1) I stated earlier in the course that the unit is to be a lesson that runs at least 3 sessions – My idea is that this should be a serious undertaking – not a short throw-away activity. However, it was not my intention to have you do 3 times the work. No, you do not have to do a separate blog post for each day… No, you do not have to have a completely new and different lesson for every day of the unit. However, you should indicate somewhere how much would be done each day and which parts of the unit will be returned to and pick up where you left off. Clearly you can do this the traditional way in your unit plan AND you can also state what part of the project is to be done when in the presentation to the students, too.

2) I have noticed a number of students producing wonderful digital media or importing and presenting wonderful digital media in their blog post presentations to students… This is WONDERFUL… BUT, do not overlook the inclusion of text (or other) simple directions to the students. Telling the students what to do first, and then next, and how to do it is as important as dazzling them with digital resources to motivate them or with which you give them an outlet to express their learning and ideas.

Blog Post # II) Lesson/Unit Plan to your supervisor – in this blog post you explain your plan as if you were really going to do this on the job at school and you are providing your supervisor the lesson plan for it.

BE SURE TO BACK UP ALL YOUR MATERIAL!
Either work by doing as much as you can in WORD documents that you save and then paste the material in to your blog (No, the formatting doesn’t carry over), OR, after you have posted, you can go to the blog post, select “highlight all” and then “copy” into a fresh WORD document that you save on your computer.

Professor Gura will play the role of virtual fly on the virtual wall of both blog posts above.

PS – See the post of the DRAFT rubric by which you will be graded on this project – http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/draft-rubric-to-assess-our-final.html

PPS – Technology hint: You may have important material spread out over several blog posts. How can you consolidate them? Well the long way around would be to copy and paste them all into a new blog post and then delete the old ones (don’t even think about doing this without having backed up of your material!). OR you might simply pop the links to the various posts into a single final post (you can do this by copying the URL of the blog post as it appears in the browser and then paste it into the blog post you want it to appear in).

DRAFT Rubric to Assess Our Final Project

No projects will be graded until this DRAFT is finalized. Grading will take place after the project's due date. See DRAFT rubric below.

Draft Rubric Pp

view presentation

Rubric for Final Project - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Rubric for Final Project

No Face-to-Face Class 7/28 and 7/29 DO THIS ONLINE ACITVITY INSTEAD

The following activity should be done in lieu of a face-to-face class
(July 28th for section 21 or July 29th for section 22).

To do this activity follow the numbered directions and answer the lettered questions below. Send me your answers in an email – put “WebQuest Reflections” in the email “subject” field.

How to reply to MG? - You may want to copy this blog post, paste it into a fresh word document, answer the questions there, and attach it – or you may simply want to put your answers into the body of the email…

------------------------------------------------
WebQuests: High Value Learning Activities or Classroom-based Wild Goose Chases?
No review of contemporary Educational Technology would be complete without the inclusion of The WebQuest, a highly favored and respected practice.

1) Follow this link to get an overview of the history and description of WebQuests: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest
Be sure to read the section "How to develop a WebQuest"


2) Let’s find out what colleagues have to say about this practice. Watch the video linked below…Why Use Webquests?? (A YouTube video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZ949Zi0TY

3) Here’s more from Tom March, one of the fathers of WebQuests – review the material on this website: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/why_webquest.htm
Those of you without access to much technology in your classrooms CURRENTLY may want to take particular note of March's suggestions toward the bottom on doing WebQuests without much technology.


Sound like a good practice? Let’s find out about how WebQuests actually work…

5) What is the structure of a WebQuest? To find out the key elements of a WebQuest follow this link: http://www.thematzats.com/webquests/page3.html
Be certain to examine an example given for each element (in the site above). It’s may be most fruitful to follow the examples of a single title (i.e. Snakes) through each element. But then again, you may find it more interesting to mix and match… your choice. But be sure to look at an example for each element…

6) OK… let’s play the role of student and do a WebQuest. Here's 1 that's been designed for teachers to learn about WebQuests. Choose one and then answer the following:

* http://warrensburg.k12.mo.us/webquest/teacher_quest/index.htm


Question a: Did you find this WebQuest informative and useful?
Question b: Which elements did you find to be most effective?
Question c: What (if anything) about WebQuests did you hope to find out from this resource that you didn’t get adequate information about?

How would you go about bringing WebQuests into your teaching practice?
One approach would be for you to look through the very extensive libraries of existing WebQuests that other teachers have developed already and have posted online for colleagues like you to adopt and adapt and use as a model in creating their own.

Here are some links to WebQuest collections (A Google search will certainly turn up more!)
- eMints http://www.emints.org/webquest/3-5health.shtml
- University of Richmond http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/
- Kathy Schrock’s library http://kathyschrock.net/webquests/index.htm
- Best WebQuests http://bestwebquests.com/

Peruse the library and then choose one that you feel you could use ‘as is’ or better yet adapt for use in your own teaching practice.

Question d: Which one did you choose?

Question e: How would you adapt it? What would you create to support your special population students in using it?

Another approach would be for you to create your own WebQuest from scratch. There are online tools to support teachers in doing this

Here’s 1 – you’ll find others in the resources list below

Let's start with a YouTube Tutorial on this approach and the recommended resource:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnJ2moNmbdk

And the resource in the tutorial… http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

Question f: Watch the video, explore the resource, and give your opinion of both: (or select another WebQuest creation tool/resource and give your opinion of that.)

You now have a good overview of what WebQuests are and why so many of your teaching colleagues have gravitated toward them as one of the first technology-based teaching practices of high value. One more thing before we wrap this up… Here’s a recently recorded podcast interview with Bernie Dodge the man who is credited with having invented the WebQuest back in 1995. In this interview (roughly 15 – 20 minutes) Bernie reflects back on the popularity, place, and future of the WebQuest. He also reflects on what’s going on in Education currently and the function technology will continue to have in providing value.

Bernie Dodge Interview Podcast URL: http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/?p=103


Listen to the podcast and then share:
Question g: What did you hear Bernie Dodge say that you feel was enlightening, valuable, surprising to you?

Question h: And, having spent a few hours now studying WebQuests, what do you feel about this practice?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WebQuest Resources

What is a WebQuest?

http://www.teachersfirst.com/summer/webquest/quest-b.shtml

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.html

WebQuest resources:http://webquest.org/index.php

http://webquest.org/index-resources.php

http://bestwebquests.com/

Create a WebQuest:http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech011.shtml

WebQuests: An Online Introduction
http://www.thematzats.com/webquests/intro.html


Practitioner websites:
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/demonstration.html


Lesson Plans
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/demo_sub1.html

The End of School as We Know It?

That's the name of an article that just arrived in my in box... I hope you'll give it a 5 minute read and then a very long personal reflection. Nothing to turn in, but this could make for a good discussion in class. see link below

MG

PS... If you're not familiar with Teacher Magazine, I recommend it.

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/index.html

PPS... if your are so motivated, leave a comment on either the article's page or on this blog post (below) or both...

Student Project/Product Assessment Activity***

Our Final Project should include an assessment scheme for the students’ performance and product. After your peruse the list of resources below, go to the assignment in red below and complete it so that your ideas, discoveries, and reflections can be shared in class with your colleagues.

Rubrics & Rubric Generator Resources
The following tools and resources can facilitate the creation of rubrics for your classroom projects.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.htmlAn extensive library of rubric examples sorted by subject and project/product type – including technology/media – based products.

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics/elemresearchrubric.html
A good general example of how to construct a rubric (taken from the resource above)

http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm?
An end to end ‘one stop’ shop for rubrics, creation tool – gallery of examples sort various ways – online community of rubric using educators, etc.

http://www.rubrics4teachers.com/
An extensive library of rubrics created by teachers

http://www.rubrician.com/
Many rubrics (periodically has tech problems, though)

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
A very popular resource for teachers.

http://www.rubricator.com/
A rubric portal

http://www.intranet.cps.k12.il.us/assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/ideas_and_rubrics.html Also * http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/PALS/rubrics/

http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/cia/index.php?page=thinking_skills

Principles of Learning - A useful framework for looking at how learning happens and can be made to happen within the institutional structure of school.

http://www.thecenter.spps.org/pol.html
*Important Question: Which of the 9 principles applies to assessment based on performance or product? How? Which might you build in to an assessment scheme that involves the use of rubrics?

***Assignment: Design a rubric to use with a project you’ve adopted, adapted, or created. Which criteria would you incorporate in the rubric?

Yes, list all the parts/dimensions of the student product that should be rated, a series of ratings (A, B, C etc.), and define what a product would look like in order to merit each of these ratings… and then double back to the Principles of Learning to reflect on what other dimensions (social?) might be included in your rating scheme as well.

You may use a rubric building online tool or simply create one on your own using WORD or another resource that will produce a practical rubric form for classroom use.

Check out the following directions for a hint…From Chicago Public School System
http://www.intranet.cps.k12.il.us/assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Create_Rubric/create_rubric.html

Background Information- http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/developingtasks.html

- http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/portfolio.html

The Student Publishing Dimension of the Final Project

This post will offer an ongoing list of possibilites in how teachers can publish student products.

Some demo items:

Class 123 Writes website created with Google Page Creator
http://class123writes.googlepages.com/

About Google Page Creator: http://pages.google.com/-/about.html

Class 123 Writes blog
http://class123writes.blogspot.com/

Class 123 Writes Illustration Slide Show (with captions, etc.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/markgura/Class123Writes?authkey=5MnSEHfjQ9s

Some resources:
- Blogger
- Google Page Creator (Google Pages)
- Picasa (and other) Web Albums
- Slide Share "SlideShare is the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately. "
http://www.slideshare.net/
- scribd "Publish Yourself Online"
http://www.scribd.com/

Student and Instructor Reflections on Our Class Wiki

This post will carry reflections on our experience with the class wiki. Please add your comments below. Also, I am getting emails with suggestions and support from PB Wiki which seem to be quite useful. Should you decide to use PB Wiki and establish a wiki for your own class, this sort of thing will really make a difference. I am embedding the emails in a scribd viewer to keep this post somewhat tidy.

MG

PB Wiki eMail Support - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: PB Wiki eMail Support

PowerPoint VS. MS Photo Story 3

While PowerPoint is ubiquitous, found on every computer members of that class are likely to encounter at work, Microsoft's Photo Story is easier and friendlier for creating enhanced slide shows (captions and sound), a wonderful approach for language teachers. Unfortunately, Photo Story 3 still appears to have some compatibility issues with Windows VISTA (my own home PC's OS, darn)...and so in creating the sample I've uploaded here, I was not able to access the Microphone Wizard to adjust the volume :( Otherwise, this was a remarkably easy to create slide show, just the sort of thing teachers would want to do with their language learners.

MG

Instructor's Reflections on In-class Discussion on Student Products

Instructor’s reflections on class discussion about student products…

The student product type of choice at the moment seems to be either the digital video or the annotated, enhanced slide show… Interestingly, the 2 formats seem to be moving toward merging into one!

Additionally, this format which at first seemed like a media format developed for student project application, seems to be moving into the mainstream culture as well as the for school publishing space. 2 items that suggest this are

1) Jib Jab
http://sendables.jibjab.com/

http://sendables.jibjab.com/sendables/1191/time_for_some_campaignin#/owner/TuIkOEm29uHvev37

and 2) Scholastic’s BookFlix product
http://teacher.scholastic.com/PRODUCTS/BOOKFLIXFREETRIAL/programoverview.htm

All this leads us to taking another look at PowerPoint and its classroom/student project applications…

More on Power Point
As a focus, I’ll use a quick PowerPoint demo I made to explain the Comic Book effect in MS Word that we spoke of in class a few times…

1. Power Point as a Publishing Medium
Here it is using Slide Share
http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/powerpoint-to-video.html
and with Scribd
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4020214/ComicBookEffectUsingWORD

2. Power Point presented in a kiosk

3. Convert PowerPoint to upload to a Blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZmOVt_BIAE

4. PowerPoint for Stop Action Animation

http://pptheaven.mvps.org/animations.html

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial094.shtml

http://72.14.205.104/searchq=cache:GAhN169KcfAJ:www.shelbyed.k12.al.us/tech/aetc/Claymation/
CreatingStopAnimation_MM_PP.doc+stop+action+animation+powerpoint&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us

More on Stop Action Animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0Wh8fsfu8

http://smclibrary.shaz.googlepages.com/stopanimation

***Discussion #3

This will be our final online discussion for the course - it will be posted in our BlackBoard section soon and should be responded to there.
Posted on BlackBoard - 7/28/08
IF, FOR ANY REASON, YOU HAVE TROUBLE WITH BLACKBOARD, PUT YOUR POST HERE (USE COMMENTS FUNCTION, BELOW)

As using Blackboard is part of our course content, please respond to this discussion there. If for any reason you have trouble doing that you may place your post here to make certain you get credit for participation and then please email me a description of the difficulty you encountered at gura@fordham.edu


The authors of Meaningful Learning with Technology begin in Chapter 1 by establishing a framework in which standardized tests that assess decontextualized skills are seen as definers of instructional efforts to be avoided. On the other end of the spectrum, project-based learning is presented as a contextualizer through which meaningful learning may be fostered. There may be much territory that lies between the two extremes that is not explored or explained in this book.

Below are some types of technology-based resources that are either commonly used in our schools or which are becoming more and more commonplace. These are either touched on or not explored fully in the book.

How do we fit the following types of resources into our concept of worthwhile technology applications used for instruction with ESL students? Are they more aligned with the goals of the standardized testing culture, or with that of the project-based learning philosophy?

Review enough of the resources below so that you are sufficiently informed to enter into the discussion, then give your opinion to the above Questions.

I. Simple Games and Quizzes
Activities for ESL Students http://a4esl.org/
Free Online Games Develop ESL Students' Language Skills http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604915
Linguistic Funlandhttp://www.tesol.net/links/Activities%20and%20Exercises%20for%20ESL%20Students%20(Games%20and%20Puzzles).html

II. Virtual Reality Games
Second Life
https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2370947641
http://edugamesblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/slay-a-dragon-learn-a-language/
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00002072.shtml
*** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz0jezmKpDk&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=second+life+for+ESL+students&hl=en&sitesearch=

III. Student Response Systems

http://www.citl.ohiou.edu/index.cfm?pageID=29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V33scNzWlCc

***Reading Assignment #6

This final reading assignment will be posted in our BlackBoard section within a few days of this blog post. You should submit your response there. Due date - August 1, 2008.

Podcasting for Teachers - Read Chapter # 7 " Talking to the World - Podcast Format Possibilities".

Imagine you have been given the task of creating a podcast for your school, something that will build esprit de corps, tie the community of learners together, help with parent outreach, and in general, be a source of pride and a showcase for the good work done at your school.

What kind of podcast would you produce? How often would you 'post' an episode? While elements would you include? What would you do that isn't covered in the chapter? How do you see this powerful 'extra' impacting your school community? (250 words).

Wiki Activity***

Welcome to the CTGE 59100 Educational Wiki Film Festival
(13 minutes of great Wiki explaining video!)
and Class Wiki Activity

A good example of a wiki tool that has been adopted by educators is the PB Wiki (Peanut Butter Wiki)… Here are some general wiki videos that will explain them and some ‘how to’ and introductory videos created by the PB Wiki team:

Overview and PB Wiki Web Address: http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki#HowcanIuseawiki

Teaching with a Wiki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOKUeT0O-o

What Is a Wiki? (from and Ed Tech expert!)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3799772275852857272&q=eudcational%20wiki&hl=en

Wikis in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

Blogs Vs. Wikis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4


PB Wiki What is a Wiki? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmByB0sIPog

PB Wiki Helping Educatorshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2yofWSdU0

PB Wiki Getting Started
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A204JcGQiY0

Seen enough explanatory video? Good! Let's go to our class wiki.
You'll find it at: https://ctge59100.pbwiki.com/

This wiki is not for everyone so you'll need to put the following invite key "tech4tesol".
Once in the wiki follow the directions there. Also, check your email periodically as you will be getting emailed heads ups about wiki activity...

In Class Activity #4 - Garthering Data in Student Projects***

Gathering Information – A Dimension of Technology-Supported Learning Projects:

Identifying a topic and gathering information for it is an important dimension of project-based learning. Below are some ways students may be tasked and guided to accomplish this, including and going beyond the use of search engines.

In class activity – In a group identify a type of information gathering on which you’ll base a learning activity for students:

Develop a task that requires information – describe how you would present the activity to youngsters – what sort of process records and final product would they produce? Which resources would you suggest they use in order to participate? (the links below are examples and suggestions... feel free to locate and include your own).

Write this up briefly – List the members of your group - Have someone in the group email it to: gura@fordham.edu


Special Search Engines for Youngsters
http://www.squirrelnet.com/search/Google_SafeSearch.asp

http://www.ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156191

Weather:
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tsa/weather_kids.html

Weather Data:
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/uscurrenttemperatures_large.html

http://content.usatoday.com/weather/CityForecast.htm?txtSearchCriteria=07666

http://nimbo.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/citysearch.php?search=Albany%2C+ny


Web Cams:
Good Examples
Outermost Harbor – Massachusetts.
http://www.telecamsystems.com/outermost/

Big Ben London – Refreshes every 5 seconds…
http://www.camvista.com/england/london/bigben.php3

Venice Beach http://www.westland.net/beachcam/

National Zoo http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/WebCams/

Sources of Web Cams
http://www.virtualfreesites.com/cams.html

http://www.camcentral.com/

Moving Targets:
- Currency Converter - http://www.ucamusic.com/content/currency_converter/
- Cheat Sheet http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet
- How much would it cost? - http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html

Data projects for students
Stevens Institute – Live Data
http://www.ciese.org/nationalprojects.html

http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/column.php?date=June2008&departmentid=literacy&columnid=literacy!lessons

http://mathforum.org/workshops/sum96/data.collections/datalibrary/lesson.ideas.html

Interviewing
• http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/williams/webprimer/index.html
• http://www.phschool.com/eteach/social_studies/2003_04/essay.html
• http://studentwww.fullcoll.edu/vrest/English.htm
• http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:HqbR_V-mvaYJ:education.uncc.edu/MORE/Elessons/Regina%2520Brandon%2520activity.doc+interviewing+techniques+for+language+students&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
• http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LATelevisionInterviewFromPetsPOV48.htm

Doing Surveys
- Survey Monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/
- Zoomerang http://www.zoomerang.com/
- Other…

Other Approaches to Gathering Information
-
And for further discussion down the road The NYC DOE Performance Standards and Student Work Samples...
- http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/documents/standards/ELA/index.html
- http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/documents/standards/ELA/es/40seahorse.html

There are many Web 2.0 tools to be explored by teachers

Get a Voki now!




Voki, a talking avatar, is easy to create and can be made to speak a variety of ways...
Register (free, no strings or privacy issues...) and create one... http://www.voki.com/

Another is Picasa Web Albums - upload a set of JPG-based graphics (photos - screen captures - scans of student work - images mined from the web etc.). This tool allows for a gallery view, single image view, SLIDE SHOW, etc. It also allows for captions to be input with your keyboard. AND it provides the code for a viewer that you can embed in your blog. All of this is FREE, its a Google item! Go to: http://picasa.google.com/intl/en_US/web/learn_more_picasa.html

Here's a sample from one of my Picasa Web Albums:


Bit Strips (a free resource)

PowerPoint to Video

You can convert (reconstruct?) your PowerPoint in a simple video program like
Windows Movie Maker, save it in a video file format, and upload it to your blog.

PowerPoint allows you to 'save' your slides as JPG files, these can be imported into Windows Movie Maker. You can also import the audio files that were included in the Power Point presentation... the result is an equivalent video.

Comic Book Effect Using Word

view presentation

Alternatively, I uploaded the PowerPoint presentation to Slide Share, an online media sharing resource specializing in slide show sharing. Note: The audio does not seem to carry into the viewer.

Scribd, too, allows PP upload...

ComicBookEffectUsingWORD - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: ComicBookEffectUsingWORD

Also - there are a number of useful YouTube videos on turning PowerPoint into video, here's one that appears to be useful.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZmOVt_BIAE

Student Contributions, Suggestion, etc.

Our course is an ongoing conversation, in the course of which the following items were publicly offered to the group by members of the class...

• Ethan Goldwater suggests divshare.com as a convenient free resource on which you can 'host' your audio files. The code for a 'player' is provided (see MG's post on this blog about where to post your audio - scroll to bottom) http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/adding-audio.html
• Robert Gaulke suggested this article about copyright issues of school work http://edjurist.com/2008/03/31/turnitin-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed.aspx
• Michael Mena shares this link to Dr. Sheila Gershe's website "TEACHING WITH THE INTERNET " www.schoollink.org/twin
• Michael Mena shares this link to the Make Beliefs (Comic Book tool) site
  http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
• Michelle Mangan shares an Atlantic.com article titled "Is Google Making us Stupid?"
  http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
• Michael Mena shares this link to Radio Rookies (kids radio programs)
  http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies/

***ASSIGNMENT UPDATE (mid course reality check)***

Due dates on the reading assignments are as follows:

Assignment #1, #2, and #3 should have been turned in by 7/16

I will however extend this due date to 7/21 so that all may get caught up.
I will extend the due date for assignment #4 to 7/24, as well.

Here are the links to these 3 reading assignments (details in how to number the assignment parts are given).

#1 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/assignment-1.html
#2 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/assignment-2.html
#3 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/supporting-writing-with-classroom.html
#4 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/assignment-4.html

#5 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/assignment-5.html


When turning in your assignment by email please labeled the attached file as follows:

“Last Name, First Initial – Assignment # - Part # (if relevant)”

Example: Smith, A. #2 Part 1.b

Please send these as WORD or RTF documents. I may not be able to open documents that are Zipped or Compressed or in other formats.

Also note the 2 Discussion assignments:
Discussion #1 you should participate in by 7/21
http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/project-based-learning.html

Discussion #2 you should participate in by 7/21 but I will extend that to 7/24
http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/discussion-2-blooms-taxonomy.html

Your final project should be turned in by 8/4 for Mon./Wed. section 21 and by 8/5 for the Tues./Thurs. section 22 students.

Also: Note
Reading Assignment # 5 – due date 7/25
#5 - http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/assignment-5.html

Also – See final project post due the next to last class. We may review some of the projects at the last class. (original post @ http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/final-project.html)

Final Project: Basically, you will create a web-enabled student project that would take 3 or more sessions to implement. The project should take advantage of at least 3 Web resources, some of which we will discuss and review in class. Some examples are:• Blogger• YouTube (TeacherTube – SchoolTube – Blip TV, etc.)• Podcasts• Bit Strips• Picasa Web Gallery (or similar resource)• VOKI• Animoto• Survey Monkey• Scribd• Our Media• Google “Pages”• Google “Docs”The unit (thematic, project-based) should feature a:
· Standards-based problem, challenge or task
· A student product
· dissemination (publishing) scheme
· feedback methods
· collaborative aspect
· assessment scheme

You will present the unit as 2 blog posts:
A) A practice (mock) message to the students in which you place an example(s) of digital resource(s) (including media) as a prompt/focus and or as background content for the unit. This should include your directions to the student about how to approach and use the media item and then how to respond to it.

You may wish to create an example of the type of product you’d like the students to produce as part of your presentation in this blog post.

B) In a 2nd Blog post you will provide a lesson (unit plan) as well. This should include standard lesson plan items like the goal, motivation, implementation plan, and assessment component.
Let’s look at your blog as a work space that will allow you to present material to students in an exciting way, have them respond to you and or one another (through the comments function, etc.), a way to ‘publish’ and or exhibit their work (and receive feedback on it), among other functions.Your assignment is to create a multi session unit of instruction that you present using your blog. You may want to give students an example of what their finished work would be like.The unit you create should embrace dimensions of Project-based Learning. It should allow for a degree of student autonomy, to contribute to the definition of his/her own investigation/learning experience. It should culminate in the creation of a product (or performance) that forms the basis of assessment of student achievement. Such projects often include aspects of collaboration.In presenting the project use at least 3 types of Web-based technology, which may include:The blog toolHyperlinksDigital MediaDigital tools (survey instruments, etc.)Search enginesOtherA simple project might require students to take a broad subject you suggest (or one that the class brain storms together) and drill down to a more specific area of study (i.e. sports> baseball > history of the game). This might be facilitated by more brainstorming (listing all possibilities and then having students select from a class generated list) or by having students use a search engine to discover sub-topics under the starting topic, list and present you with a few of these, and then accountably select one.A second phase of this project would likely have students gathering information to use in their project (report). They might do online research, interview others, take a survey, etc.The final portion would involve the production of a product in which they present what they’ve learned. This might be a slide show, digital document, recording, etc.While such projects have been done without the use of technology traditionally, many educators believe that technology greatly facilitates and enhances them. As you plan your project, ponder how technology might do this and identify which resources and methods you’ll use. In your final piece you do not have to do everything with technology (personally), but you should describe in your lesson plan what you would do and use and how you would implement it. The presentation of the lesson should be done as a blog post and should embrace the technology examples as mentioned above.Your technology use will likely conform to the following:Presenting the project to studentsUsing technology with the students as they do the project and produce their productAssessing the projectGiving feedback to the student, fostering constructive criticism between students, structuring Accountable Talk as part of the students finishing the project.Publishing the students’ workSharing the students’ published work with peers and othersReporting to parents

***Assignment #5

Reading Assignment #5 - Due by 7/25/08

Part 1.a

Read Chapter 16 of Podcasting for Teachers"Beyond Course Casting" pay particular attention to the section on Podcasting and Assessment.

Part 1.b
Read Chapter 10 in Meaningful Learning with Technology "Assessing Meaningful Learning"

Write a 250 word response for each and draw connections between the 2 chapters if you can.

***Assignment #1

For Your Reference, here's what was required for assignment #1"


Part 1- READING:
Part 1.a & b Assigned text *Meaningful Learning with Technology Read chapters 1 and 2

Also read - Assigned text *Podcasting for Teachers Read the Preface and skim read through Part 1 “Revolution in our Pockets” (no required response for this)

Part 1.c Article(s) 'Read' a, b, & c below follow the link to an online copy of each article (these are actually blog posts)

1) Using Blogs Within The ESL Classroom
http://globaleducation.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=717180%3ATopic%3A24644

2) Blogging in the ESL classroom
http://www.simplyesl.com/articles/62/1/Blogging-in-the-ESL-classroom/Page1.html

3) Actually this one is viewing & listening AND reading as it is a YouTube video
Blogs in the ESL classroom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncW5tzMvP0

Responding (to Part 1-a.b.c above): For chapters 1 and 2 (of Meaningful Learning with Technology) write a half page response (approx. 200 -250 words) for each chapter. Write a single, combined response for the 3 articles (blog posts, video) approx. 200 -250 words. Please do not summarize. Rather, give a response that:
· reflects whether or not you agree with the position taken by the author,
· have concerns with any of the facts or supporting ideas presented,
· have insights about how this point relates in particular to your teaching assignment (job), and or philosophy of education
· Other (type of response that reveals how your understanding has shifted, been reinforced, or expanded).

email me your response at: gura@fordham.edu OR respond in the assignments section of our class BlackBoard section OR both...

Part 2 - Doing (Set up a blog): Set up a blog for your work in this class. Use Google’s free Blogger (blogspot) online blogging resource to create a blog for your work in this class.

https://www.blogger.com/start

Give your blog a name that reveals something about your teaching work or hopes for your teaching practice and/or educational philosophy. Be focused and appropriate, but feel free to have fun with this! Try to select a blog address that is easy to remember.

You may need to ‘register’ for Google or Gmail before you can create the blog. Once you create the blog you will have to make a variety of decisions about how it will look, navigate, and function. Your experiences, problems, issues, and questions about all of these aspects of blogging will become part of our class work. Therefore, be certain to make a note of these as you go through the exercise of setting up the blog and bring your issues in to class. The blog will be a work in progress, so do as much as you can and then our class discussion will empower you to move further along. As soon as you have a blog that is up and running on the web please email me a link to it.

Creating a Comic Book Effect

In Class Activity # 3 - Structured Experience (software)

In Class Activity #3 – Sampling Software-Driven Structured Learning Experiences

1) Tom Snyder Productions “Science Court” DEMO:
http://www.tomsnyder.com/products/product.asp?SKU=SCISCI&Subject=Science

The above is an example of how some very creative software engages students in collaborative work, actually modeling the act and processes of collaboration. Also, in this demo note how the publisher is making the implementation and student/computer deployment clear and how it is thought out beforehand.

2) Shedd Aquarium “Mytery of Apo Island”
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/interactive_module.cfm?id=9


A thought provoking structured experience involving a variety of thinking, learning, teaching, and fun… also a good software-driven opportunity for collaborative learning.

More: http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/search_results.cfm

As part of a team of 3 – 4 go through the experience yourself while focusing on how you would use this resource, implement it with your students, and create support for your students’ particular needs as learners.

In Class Activity # 2 - Review Student tech PRODUCTS

Let’s look at some examples of the products that are produced as part of technology supported student learning projects.

There are a variety of approaches that result in differing content formats, media formats, and that use differing tools.

Content approaches:
Digital Storytelling
Digital Reports
Published Writing (traditional hard copy approach, but given a professional look and feel by the use of technology).
Student adaptations of popular media formats (announcements, commercials, talk shows, interviews, etc.)

Media formats (common):
Slide Show
Video (or slide show converted to a video)
- Web page (interactive – non linear format)- Web page (uploaded print pages)
Multi Media Presentations (i.e. Kid Pix)
Podcast


Student Product Examples:
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us//KSD/DE/st_proj/NobelWomen%20(2).pdf

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=195

http://oswego.org/staff/cmckeeve/stmarie_files/frame.htm

http://www.digitales.us/story_details.php?story_id=34

http://hargraves.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/andrews-book-trailer/

http://hargraves.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/house-on-mango-street-book-trailers/

http://www.teachnet.ie/innovative_teacher/default.asp?NCID=365

http://www.streetside.org/stories/tech-tales/2006-07/edwardM.htm

http://teachers.santee.k12.ca.us/lauderbach/Important%20Dates.htm

http://www.tech4learning.com/claykit/samples_langarts.html

http://www.slideshare.net/icti/student-project-recycling

http://www.bridgeport.wednet.edu/High%20School/Student%20Sites/Irma%20L/my%20web%20page/michoacan%20mexico.htm

Of Special Note:Mabry Middle School reports on science and social issues (done as iMovies)
http://www.cobbk12.org/~mabry/movie_html/2007BestDocumentary/index.html
(note the credits at the end of the movies)

There are many 10s of thousands of tech supported student products, related lessons, and ideas online. Obviously, the above sampling is not comprehensive! A wide variety of approaches, uses of tools, and instructional goals is given.

Reflection: What do you feel here is of value? Is practical? Adds to the usual instructional experience? What would you change? Want to try? Think you can improve on?

What questions do you have about how to do these? What’s practical? Implementation? Etc.

How hard is it to do?… Web 2.0 is making it easier…here’s one I produced in under 5 minutes simply as an experiement. I had my usual web browser – some digital photos already saved – and MS WORD to work with (also screen capture technology) http://animoto.com/play/WsQBWtfCkLVza0d0KuBOQw
Tools of note:
Animoto – http://animoto.com/ (60 second demo)

Animoto Demo

http://animoto.com/play/WsQBWtfCkLVza0d0KuBOQw

Instructor's Reflections on Adopting, Adapting, and Improving on Read – Write – Think tool software.

Read Write Think offers a large library of instructional software tools. These have limitations though. One approach to using this resource more effectively is to view it as a source of ideas and models that can be extended in their functionality and usefulness by using them in concert with other software items. Here are some observations and reflections based on the class’ reviews of the R-W-T tools…



Find other software that will do the same things as R - W - T

Tom Snyder Productions (educational software producer)
Time Liner
http://www.tomsnyder.com/Products/product.asp?SKU=TIMV50

http://www.tomsnyder.com/Products/ProductExtras/TIMV50/overview/flash.html

http://www.tomsnyder.com/products/products.asp?Subject=LanguageArts

Flip Book
http://www.uniflip.com/?gclid=CPz_tbfWt5QCFQSwFQodwH2jUg

http://www.flipviewer.com/product/flipviewer.php#opz

Comic Book Softwarehttp://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/multimedia/comicbookcreator.htm






Overcome Read Write Think’s lack of “Save” function with screen capture functions (Windows and MAC OS)

See previous blog post "How to Do a Screen Capture"
http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-do-screen-capture.html

and…
Free trial software:
http://www.techsmith.com/download/snagittrial.asp

http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/whatsnew.asp

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

Examples using this approach:

http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/graphic-organizer-conflict-map.html

OR... simply re-create the Read Write Think tool by using MS WORD (or other) software...

Scroll to page 2 of the example given and embedded in the scribd 'viewer'

http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/graphic-organizer-conflict-map.html

Recording Audio

2 Easy Approaches:

A) Use an audio recording/editing program on your computer. You will need a microphone that plugs into the computer. When done you will save your recording as a file on your desktop, in your hard drive, and maybe tranfer to a disk.

Here's a wonderful series of videos created for teachers that will show you how to use the most popular, free audio software around - AUDACITY.

TECH EASE - Quick answers to real classroom technology questions.
http://etc.usf.edu/te_win/movies/audacity.html

B) Or you can use a portable, digital audio recorder, generally $59-ish and up. You can get these at places like Radio Shack, Big Box and Dept. Stores, Office MAX/STAPLES type stores, online from sites like NewEgg, Musician's Friend, etc.

Basically, you record with the small hand held device through its built in microphone (some allow external mics to be plugged in) and then connect the device to your computer with a USB cable (the one with the audiot editing software installed) and then edit (if you want) using the software (some of these devices come with software). When finished you upload your audio...

See previous post on Uploading Audio:
http://tech4tesol.blogspot.com/2008/07/adding-audio.html

Back Up a Blog?

I've found Blogger to be stable and dependable. Yet, nothing's perfect. As you put more information on your blog it would probably be a good idea to back it up.

How?

Here's a simple method that will prove invaluable in case lightning strikes the Google server farm...

Open up an individual blog post (not the whole shebang) so that you are backing up in sections...

Use the 'Select All' function to highlight everything you want to save.

And then use the "Copy" function to copy the info and hold it on your "Clip Board"

Next open a new word processing document > and paste the information you copied into it.

Click "Save As" give it a title and store it in a safe place where you will be able to find it (a folder titled Blog Back Up, perhaps?)...

Happy blogging!

***Discussion #2: Bloom's Taxonomy

Please enter into this discussion no later than: 7/21 /08

Bloom's Taxonomy is an item that has loomed large over the educational landscape for more than half a century. It has shaped much of what educators believe and is still highly relevant.

Please read through the following at your own pace and then respond to the discussion prompt at the bottom of this post.

1) An overview of Bloom's Taxomony with a little history thrown in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooms_taxonomy

2) A blurb for an Education Week article of importance (the full article requires a paid subscription, but the blurb is enough to get you thinking in a different direction). Interestingly, this piece contradicts the Wikipedia piece...do you see how?
http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Da%2Btaxonomy%2Bis%2Bnot%2Ba%2Bhierarchy%2Bed%2Bweek%26btnG%3DSearch&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edweek.org%2Few%2Farticles%2F2003%2F10%2F15%2F07worsnop.h23.html&levelId=2100&baddebt=false

3) A short general piece on how teachers can use Bloom's Taxonomy
http://www.teaching-tips-machine.com/blooms_taxonomy.htm

4) A piece similar to the one above, but with the ESL teachers's specific focus
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/blooms_taxonomy_language_learn_16902.php

Focus Question:
How do the items you've seen tested on standardized tests align to Bloom's Taxonomy? AND
How do you think a learning project would align? In other words, what get's assessed? What doesn't get assessed? Does the taxonomy help put these questions into focus? Is this important? Why?