Digital Learning ...

Cool Links ... ;)

LEARN PRESENTATION SKILLS
http://presentationskillsvideos.blogspot.com

BLOG ABOUT PLAGIARISM
http://plagiarismvideos.blogspot.com

GOVERNMENT, TRAINING AND BUSINESS VIDEOS
http://www.public.tv/index.php

Google Tools in Education ...

Check out what Google has in store for educators ...

- www.google.com/educators/tools.html

- Google for Educators Group

Listening ...

I frequently ask my students to "create their own space" in English. That is: listening to English in the background when they do other things; reading online newspapers; google news; online radio; cable TV, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7 ...

Here's a great resource for some QUALITY listening for higher level students :)))

A MUST SEE for any teacher!!!

It's FREE .....

http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Splash.do

Google for Educators

http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Check it out!

just click

When I was learning Portuguese, which was basically by listening to whatever I could get my hands on, there were very few resources. If I had been learning English, the same would not have been true. Now with the internet, there is really no excuse.

Here are a few resources I came across to help those who are motivated to learn on their own.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/pron_chart/pron_chart.shtml

DYSLEXIA

I've been looking for resources for working with dyslexic students. One of the difficulties with a dyslexic student is that one cannot really use much written text as a support. So, a simple option is using a lot more listening...

http://www.eltpodcast.com/

A dyslexic student may have difficulty associating what he reads with the actual sounds the words make. Where other students might use songs together with a copy of the lyric, a dyslexic student may work better without the written part.

For dyslexics who might be able to read with the use of coloured filters, here is a nice option. This version is a DEMO ... VIRTUAL READING RULER. Or TRY IT OUT ... you obviously wouldn't want to buy this unless you are dyslexic, but it's great to give you ideas if you have to work with dyslexic students.

COPYRIGHTS

One of the problems that some teachers have with publishing web based work for their students (mainly at the University end of the educational system) ... is the issue of INTELLECTUAL OWNERSHIP. "Place MY content on the net for ANYONE to be able to access and use?! Not likely!"

The other point of authorship is being able to legally protect as YOUR material, whatever you are posting on the internet. Can you imagine some "Dan Brown" type senário of plagiarism accusations flying around about who copied what of whose work and when?!

Anyway, have a look at www.creativecommons.org - here you have the chance to legally license your work - and have a certain amount of control of what can be legally done with it.

APPI Journal - Autumn 2006

Techs in the city --- article published in the APPI Journal ... magazine for members of the Portuguese Association of English Teachers. www.appi.pt

iTeach, uTeach!

Last Christmas my wife bought me an MP3 player. It seems that after 12 years she’s finally realized that I like toys for Christmas! I happily filled my Creative Zen with pictures and music and off I went wired up and happily oblivious to all around me. And that was that.

A month ago I bought a new laptop and was given an iPod Nano along with it. Ah, well … now I have two MP3 players. I put some music and went on my way. However, I discovered something else that comes with the iPod … iTunes! I knew you could download music from iTunes, and I knew that you didn’t need an iPod to have it on your computer, but it never interested me. Until now!

A colleague of mine introduced me to PODCASTING. She downloads free MP3 files from the internet.
Needless to say, this all started me on a voyage I wasn’t expecting.

Let me say something at this point. I am not telling you to go out and buy an iPod! I would if they paid me to!

If you already have an iPod, fine. If you have a different MP3 player, fine. Basically, a computer is what you need to start out.

What is a PODCAST?
• POD from the word iPOD
• CAST from the word broadcast.

Podcasts are audio files which are normally placed on the internet for download. They can be placed on MP3 players, such as iPods, for portable use. You can listen to them on the train, in the car, in bed, as you jog, at the gym, on your computer, basically ANYWHERE. I’ll give you some examples of some things I and some of my colleagues are listening to (these are all available on iTunes).

• 60 minutes Podcasts
• Katie Couric’s Notebook (CBS)
• Food for Thought (Vergetarian Podcast) – not me!
• Jamie’s Podcast (Jamie Oliver) – yes, me!
• The Podcast Academy

Audiobooks
A step up from the podcast is the AUDIOBOOK. You can get the latest Harry Potter, or John Grisham – if you pay!

However, there are also FREE audiobooks in MP3 format you can download and listen to. I recently downloaded the Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain; and White Fang by Jack London. (check the end of the article for URLs)

This is all great. So, now instead of walking down the street listening to just music, I can now catch up on some reading, or listen to an interview with Condoleezza Rice on 60 minutes. My trips to school on the metro have taken on new life!

Podcasting in Teaching

Of course, so far this has all been a bit selfish – I’ve just been using it for myself. But over the past weeks I have started to see ways where I can implement podcasts into my lessons and give my students more opportunities to listen to authentic material, which is up to date and relevant to their needs and their interests.

My colleague, Abeth, also started using podcasts in her classes. She emails her students (and my students) a weekly listening task they can do on their computers at home. They email the answers back to her later during the week. She keeps a running score of the points gained and the student who wins gets a prize.

For the past few weeks the pair of us, Abeth and myself, have been discovering ways to benefit our students’ learning experience with this “technology”.

There is some very interesting material about how DUKE university and Harvard in the USA have been using podcasting. Things are happening in education!

Video

One of my latest discoveries is video podcasts. There are a number of interesting videos I’ve found that can be easily used in a classroom. One of the best is called EVOLUTION, a one minute commercial by DOVE – there is no speaking in the video, and it is only about 2 MB in size; which is easy to carry around with you on a pen drive.

Production

The next level to explore is the production stage. I have not yet entered this realm. It’s a bit scary, but it’s the next logical step. Creating my own podcasts; or getting my students to produce something! This may be something I can come back and talk about at another time – or present at the conference in April.

The Borderless Classroom

Digital literacy is a 21st century skill. Over the past 10 or 15 years we have needed to become more and more proficient in the use of computers, and especially the internet. I commented to a friend how our lives have been changed and how it is virtually impossible to work without the internet.

Students are generally much more at home with using computers than the majority of teachers. However, that doesn’t mean we need to be intimidated. You may know little, or nothing. Just download some podcasts and start learning!

Using podcasts is something anyone with a computer and connection to the internet can take advantage of. It is a resource students will access outside the classroom – as Jorge, one of my 13-year-old students said “anything which is an excuse to use the computer is great!”

I’ve forever been trying to get students to be more independent and listen to the right things in English … it seems that I have started to find some resources that (some of) my students are finding interesting. Again, this is something I will probably need to get back to sharing in the future as I gain more experience and probably make some mistakes ;)

Here’s are some ideas from Bred Niessen:

Integrating MP3 Players in the Classroom
Using recording devices in the classroom is nothing new. Teachers and students have been using tape recorders for years. But the traditional cassette tape content was not always the easiest media to edit, store and share. Well, the times have changed with the introduction of MP3 digital recording devices. Here are 23 ideas that I have come up when using these wonderful devices.

1. Use these devices to record and then evaluate students decoding and reading fluency skills.
2. Keep a digital reading portfolio for students- keep an audio history of their progress. Then at the end of the year these can then be transferred to CD so students have a copy.
3. Have students create an audio book library.
4. Let's take that last idea one step further; allow students to take home the audio recordings of a book or passage along with the book itself so they can practice guided reading.
5. What about having speech therapists record students for evaluations and keep an audio portfolio. They could also create recorded activities and strategies for students to take home and practice. This can also support strategies like self-correction and ongoing self-assessment.
6. Teachers can record audio instructions for students who may struggle with reading the instructions, but not with the actually activities or tasks themselves.
7. Do you ever have students who have been gone for extended periods of time because of illness or on a trip? What about recording students assignments with oral instructions and also to add that personal touch.
8. Students could use these portable recording devices and act as roving reporters for school podcasts or newspapers.
9. Students record the thoughts for writing activities so they can capture their ideas and not get bogged down with conventions and grammar. Then students get listen to their recoding and transcribe their thoughts and when finished, let them begin editing process.
10. Students lead interviews of local historical figures? Once these recording have been collected, they can then be achieved for future generations.
11. Recording of field trips to create a sound seeing tours of local museums or historical sites - these files could either be kept for classroom projects or given back to the museums or historical sites so future visitors can enjoy this special audio guided tour.
12. Let children interview relatives about family history or create an audio family tree.
13. Have students create "Reading Rainbow" style books reviews.
14. Instructors can wear a device like the iRiver and record lessons, instructions, and lectures so students have access this content later.
15. Recording assignments or activities for foreign language courses
16. Teachers with ESL students could record written text along with possible definition of words and vocabulary lessons
17. Use these device to quickly create audio books for students with learning disabilities
18. Audio directions to accompany assignments for students who are home-bound.
19. Create audio test-casts or audio study guides to help students review for test.
20. Students could use the recorder to create digital storytelling projects- students can then create final projects with multi-media software like Microsoft's Photo Story or PowerPoint
21. Let students record pod-pal messages
22. Use these devices to create classroom podcasts. These MP3 files can be uploaded as is, or brought into Audacity or Propaganda to be clean up.
23. Use these devices to make it easy to document School Board and academic meetings. Use the recordings to produce meeting minutes and provide the audio to the entire community.

Please feel free to either add your ideas by clicking on the comment link below or feel free to e-mail them to me at: niessen@cox.net

Listen to the podcast http://media.libsyn.com/media/thetechteacher/mp3recordingdevices.mp3

Just one other small note. As far as I am aware, iTunes is not compatible with MP3 players which are not APPLE (iPods, etc.) If you prefer not to use iTunes, there are a number of other programmes you can use instead. Below are a list of links with resources which I am sure you will find interesting and useful.

I hope I’ve managed to make some people a bit more curious. Feel free to email me. My email address is:

mason . neil (at) gmail . com

RESOURCES

Finding Podcasts
• http://www.podcast.net
• iTunes – if you don’t have the programme, you can download it from APPLE.com
• http://www.podcastalley.com
• http://www.podcastdirectory.com
• http://podcast.com

Podcasts about Podcasting (and Technology)
• The TechTeacher - http://thetechteacher.libsyn.com
• The Podcast Academy http://pa.gigavox.com/series/podcastacademy.html

Hosting Podcasts
• http://www.gcast.com

Free Audio Books
• http://www.free-books.org
• http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp
• http://www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com
• http://literalsystems.org/abooks/index.php
• http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video
• http://librivox.org
Other
http://www.apple.com/education/resources/podcastingvideos
http://www.edupodder.com
http://www.podzinger.com
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php


FOR THE (MUCH) MORE ADVANCED
http://reelreviewsradio.com/archives/2004/12/27/podcast-about-the-podcast

Glossary
iPod - an MP3 player belonging to APPLE … check out www.apple.com
Podcast – read the article and find out!!
MP3 – a sound file which can be played on mp3 players and computers.
Audio Books – speaks for itself, doesn’t it? The new thing is that they can now be in mp3 format for you to download!
iTunes - a computer programme from Apple which you can connect your iPod to and download music and podcasts.
Apple - a computer company … it’s also a fruit you can eat! ;)
Digital Literacy - ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.
uTeach - well, I made that up “I teach, you teach”; just thought it sounded good.

eNjoy!!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.

Digital Literacy

How often have you received emails which are untrue or hoaxes?? Forwards of forwards of forwards of forwards offering eternal health, wealth and happiness ...

It still amazes me the number of people who seem to believe (and therfore forward) much of the junk which they receive in their INBOXES.

Well ... digital literacy starts to come into play here.

Content Evaluation
When is a globe-spanning information network dangerous? When people make too many assumptions about what they find on it. For while the Internet offers myriad opportunities for learning, an unconsidered view of its contents can be misleading and deceptive. This is why critical thinking about content is the Internet competency upon which all others are founded. You cannot work comfortably within this medium until you have established methods for judging the reliability of Web pages, newsgroups postings, and mailing lists.

Any teacher who has used the Internet in a classroom setting can tell you how troubling it is to see children taking World Wide Web pages at face value, without the evaluative skills to place them in context. In that sense, the Internet can, in the wrong hands, become a tool of propaganda.

http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/resources/digital_literacy.asp

MBNet

This isn't stricktly Ed Tech, but it may be helpful for some people.

MBNet is not particularly well marketed. It's existed for a while now, but it was only recently that I actually bothered to find out how it works.

One of the problems with paying online is the fact that when our credit card information is out there, how can we be sure that they won't bill extra? Or that the numbers won't fall into some criminal's hands.

What MBNet does is emits a temporary "virtual" credit card number. You can set the amount to whatever the transaction is going to cost. If you buy something else, you can emit another temporary card.

The option is available directly through Net Banking ... so, if you bank online, look it up.

Great for buying your prezzies online, or books for your studies, etc.

Media Literacy

A couple of years ago I oresented a session at the APPI conference about media literacy. The title of the presentation was "COPY & PASTE" and I talked about how we teach media literacy and accademic honesty to our students.

What is Media Literacy?
Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content.

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/what_is_media_literacy.cfm

Why Teach Media
Literacy?Today's definition of literacy is more than reading and writing. In order to be functionally literate in our media-saturated world, children and young people—in fact, all of us have to be able to read the messages that daily inform us, entertain us and sell to us. As the Internet becomes a fact of life, the critical thinking skills that help young people navigate through traditional media are even more important.

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/why_teach_media_liter.cfm

Approaches to Media Education"Media literacy
should not be considered as an add-on to the already crowded curriculum. A truly interdisciplinary activity, media literacy should be conceived as a means of facilitating the integration of critical thinking skills, aesthetics, the study of value messages, and the study of the social and political implications of media texts. Media education should permeate many activities in geography and global education, science, and language arts which will be conditioned by the mass media experiences young people bring to the classroom."

Barry Duncan

http://www.medialit.org

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=pt-PT&q=media+literacy

Teach-nology

To consider.

Thankfully at our school we have a wireless router downstairs in the office and I can pick it up in the classroom. I have an advanced level English class and at times we can just nip onto the internet and look something up.

A couple of weeks ago we were reading an article from the text book - some guy bitching on about how he hates computers, etc. So, we just got onto the net and found the original (full) article online, and who the guy was. All of a sudden our text book was real and up-to-date!


Another link to share ... I haven't dug deeply here. If it's useful to anyone! Let me know.

teachers.teach-nology.com

Drowning in Email Junk?

I thought that junk mail was bad enough, but it's getting worse! Are you getting those large file attachments of funny films an powerpoint presentations that you friends find so amusing that they just HAVE to pass them on to you?? I had to start asking people to use an alternative address that I didn't use as a POP account ... (then I just delete it later without looking at it!)

Question - with all the email out there, as educators who want to keep in touch with our students using new technologies, what are our options? Very often our emails are lost amongst the junk in the students' inboxes.

Well ... a blog might be an answer for some ... create a blog where you can post to your students; they can comment to. Or, have them participate in a class blog that promotes interaction within the group.

As for the junk problem I mentioned ... I posted the link to a site with some simple advice.

Increasingly, users are suffering from Email Overload, when they receive so much mail that handling it becomes a major task. Here are a few pointers on how this task can be made easier.
http://cmc.dsv.su.se/select/coping-with-too-much-email

Class Blogs

http://windowscae.blogspot.com

WINDOWS CAE

This blog is my Certificate of Advanced English class. They all have access to it. Not all are participating yet ... I'm curious to see what will happen.

The idea was to give them something that would make them do something in English out of class, and communicate with each other. They sometimes complain that tasks are "boring" (like writing!) ... so, by trying to make it more dynamic I want to see whether they will find it LESS boring.

Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

I'll have to talk about digital/media competency and internet 2.0 , among other topics one of these days ...

Well ... digital natives vs. digital immigrants.

READ THE ARTICLE BY MARC PRENSKY (2001).

There are those who do not agree with Prensky's analogy of natives/immigrants. However, it is an interesting concept and one we need to understand as you may come across it at some point.

I heard the phrase DIGITAL NATIVES and thought it was a catchy idea. However, I started searching more and found that there are those who refute Prensky's idea. So, I discovered it is far from being a widely accepted concept. This does, however, not necessarily invalidate his ideas or the discussions they may promote.

(eu comecei a escrever este blog em inglês e penso em continuar fazê-lo ... mas posso responder a perguntas em português ou ler comentários feitos em português, portanto, estejam à vontade!)

Strange technophile habits and "Podcast for Teachers"

Question: Do you sit watching TV while you work on your laptop???

I was listening to a PodCast (Podcastforteachers) and Dr Kathy King was talking about how she was following the US elections on her sat TV and on her laptop at the same time...

I often sit in front of the TV while I work on my laptop ... I've been doing it for at least 6 years ... I didn't realize that it was a totally strange concept to 99.9999999% of people :S ah well ...

Okay ... now I'm going to give away one of my secrets ...

here: http://www.podcastforteachers.org/ - Mark Gura and Dr Kathy King ...

One thing does puzzle me, however ... the web design really sucks!!! ;P

on a personal note:

Rute! Parabéns! Beijinhos!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Wiki - wikibooks, wikiversity ...

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a collaborative collection of interlinked web pages, all of which can be visited and edited by anyone at any time. You could even edit this page by clicking the "edit" link, the third tab at the very top of this page, or edit only a section by clicking on "[edit]" to its right. If you don't have anything to add or correct on this page and you just want to see how it works, try making some test edits in the Sandbox. See wiki and the Editing FAQ for more on wikis and editing.

What is Wikibooks?
Wikibooks is a project to produce a new kind of instructional resource that is comprehensive and free. See Help:About for more information.

What are the aims of Wikibooks?
Wikibooks's goal is to create a free instructional resource—indeed, the largest instructional resource in history, both in terms of breadth and depth, to become a reliable resource. It's an ambitious goal which will probably take many years to achieve.

Find out more ...
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:What_is_Wikibooks