Wednesday, May 29, 2013
The End is Near!
Okay, here goes a quick analysis of five of the tools from this week. First off, we have Custom Dice Printing. This, in a word, is awesome. You feed in the data for the six sides (whatever you want: photos, text, numbers) and it creates a doc with everything facing the correct way, so that you can just cut it out, fold it up, and tape it together. This is a super tool for fun group work. For example, after reading a literature piece, give out a die to each group, each person rolls, and there are different questions/activities on each side. The questions can be different on each die, allowing for differentiation. Or, just print them with numbers and have a chart at the front of the class with questions/activities corresponding to the numbers. Or, have photos on the dice, using them as a springboard for a writing/speaking task. Or...you get the idea. Easy, free, and no login needed!
Next comes Test-Giving Software. This is good, but only if you have a fully connected class. Meaning, everyone needs to have a smartphone/wireless connection. So, this may not be useful for everyone. Also, it is similar to what we did with the quizzes with the Google Doc. The interface here, however, looks a to be a little more practical for classroom use. This could be used for spontaneous quizzes, too, as it is very easy for the teacher to create a quiz quickly.
Thirdly, we have Museum Box. This is very nice. Pick a topic, and the student creates a space with digital content on the subject. For example, a project could be a biography of someone, the student can upload pictures, videos, text, links or whatever. It is attractively organized, and fairly intuitive (at least on the viewing side; I did not try to create anything). Down side: there is a per school registration fee, I think about $100 per year. Maybe there are ways to share the cost, and there is some way to get a price reduction, but I did not go through all the nitty-gritty.
Here Kid "TV Reporters" we have something cute. It is basically a site that has videos of kids going around and guiding virtual school trips, like: "Meet a Meteorolgist!" or "A Kid's History of the Yo-Yo". There are a lot of videos to choose from. It is not made for EFL, but since there are kids talking, the language is not overly difficult. They also have instructions on how to go about making a video.
This idea LitTrips blew my mind. The basic idea is that it gives you, through GoogleMaps, a visual journey through a book. Problem is, after filling out forms and the such to try to view one of the "LitTrips", it was in some sort of weird file format that my computer didn't recognize. I did not have the time to try to solve the tech issues. If anyone out there figures it out, please comment, as the concept is very intriguing.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Week 12 - Mobile and QR
First off, the video about the school system that has gone mobile (or, if you prefer, the commercial for a company that manufactures computer components, and thus has a vested interest in getting their products used by more and more people): This seemed to be so extreme to me. Are students really incapable of learning anything without the assistance of some mobile device? I have link ed (in previous posts) to several articles that raise an alarm over the type of significant cognitive changes brought about by constant digital whiplash. True, one could argue that it is just a "different" type of cognition, and not an inferior type. But are we certain of that to the degree that we are willing to turn the classroom into an extension of the 24/7 app and net centered thinking that already occupies much of our students' non-school time? I would hope that those proceeding would do so with caution, and the fact that this project was funded by Cisco should also make us pause.
QR Codes: A thought that I keep having time and time again throughout this course is: is this a way to do something new, or just a new way to do something old? If it is a new way of doing something old, is it better than the old way? Tali, in her last post, noted that Tackk is just a new version of making a poster, and wondered what is wrong with the old fashioned tools of paper, markers and glue. I feel the same regarding some of the usages of the QR codes. They are essentially a way of sharing a hyperlink, so the question is under what circumstances is it better than the old way? In an advertisement, I get it. People may not put in the effort to type in a URL that they see, but if it just a one step action of scanning a QR, they may bite. So, thinking about Avraham's activity: The old alternative would be to create a googledoc with the four links, and email the students the link to the googledoc, and give them the handouts separately. So I see that this "all-in-one" solution of giving out the worksheets with the embedded QR codes is preferable. I also liked the book report poster, as it helps keep the poster very clean, without a lot of text, and allows the reader to focus in on what their point of interest is. Some of the other uses do not excite me. Create a QR code that is a link to the homework assignment? Why not just have a central classroom site where you post a normal link?
Bottom line: It looks like a tool that will be useful in some cases, but more bells and whistles in others.
QR Codes: A thought that I keep having time and time again throughout this course is: is this a way to do something new, or just a new way to do something old? If it is a new way of doing something old, is it better than the old way? Tali, in her last post, noted that Tackk is just a new version of making a poster, and wondered what is wrong with the old fashioned tools of paper, markers and glue. I feel the same regarding some of the usages of the QR codes. They are essentially a way of sharing a hyperlink, so the question is under what circumstances is it better than the old way? In an advertisement, I get it. People may not put in the effort to type in a URL that they see, but if it just a one step action of scanning a QR, they may bite. So, thinking about Avraham's activity: The old alternative would be to create a googledoc with the four links, and email the students the link to the googledoc, and give them the handouts separately. So I see that this "all-in-one" solution of giving out the worksheets with the embedded QR codes is preferable. I also liked the book report poster, as it helps keep the poster very clean, without a lot of text, and allows the reader to focus in on what their point of interest is. Some of the other uses do not excite me. Create a QR code that is a link to the homework assignment? Why not just have a central classroom site where you post a normal link?
Bottom line: It looks like a tool that will be useful in some cases, but more bells and whistles in others.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
More Food For Thought
Interesting read on how technology affects learning.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/multitasking_while_studying_divided_attention_and_technological_gadgets.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/multitasking_while_studying_divided_attention_and_technological_gadgets.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Another side of Google
I know that this week is the rah-rah Google week, but everyone has to remember that if you are using Google Docs, you are dependent on Google. What could be wrong with that? Well, according to their terms of usage, they can shut down any service (like Google drive/docs) at any time. So, always have a "backup" backup plan. And, you could find yourself frozen out of your account, like this fellow.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/04/life_without_google_when_my_account_was_suspended_i_felt_like_i_d_been_dumped.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/04/life_without_google_when_my_account_was_suspended_i_felt_like_i_d_been_dumped.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Week 10 Post
One of the resources discussed this week is the Simple Wikipedia.
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
This is as it sounds to be: a simplified form of Wikipedia. Not to get into the issue of whether or not one should rely on an open, mass-edited online encyclopedia (I personally have found it to be very accurate) the fact is that this is the go to source for many when seeking out info. Now, for our students, there is Hebrew Wikipedia. But if we want them to use English, this can go a long way.
For comparisons sake, let us look at the first sections in the entries for Martin Luther King Jr. on both Wikipedias:
Regular: Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism.[1]A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide
Simple: Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)[1] was a famous American leader of civil rights. He fought for civil rights. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was the son of Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. His father was also a civil rights leader. He was married to Coretta Scott King.He became a Baptist minister. He worked hard to make people understand that black people should always be treated equally to white people. He gave speeches and led rallies to encourage African Americans to protest without the need for violence. One peaceful strategy was for African Americans to have sit-ins. This is where they would sit in a restaurant seat that was supposed to be only for white people. They would politely ask for some food and refuse to leave until someone gave them food. Another strategy that King used was leading boycotts. This is where people would refuse to buy goods or services from people who did not treat white people and black people the same.
As you can see, in the simple version there are fewer abbreviations and long words. The grammar and syntax are much simpler (less passive voice, easier adjectives). However, it also seems to be targeted more towards children, with no mention of extramarital liasons or enemies he made in the movement. So, the point is, it may be a good way to access info in English, but we have to have a heightened awareness as to the reliability of the information.
It may also be (it seems this way from a little browsing, but no promises) that the simple Wikipedia is more appropriate for children in general and the religious public in particular from a content aspect.
Another thing I tried out is the noodletools search page http://tinyurl.com/1hyc (see, I snuck in another tool)! It is really beyond my ability to describe fully what there is over there, you must check it out yourselves. I will share one thing, though. For anyone who has had to write academic/seminar papers, one of the most frustraing things is searching for scholoarly articles on googe, finding something that seems to be just what you need, and then finding it behind a pay firewall (for "only" $29.999 for one-time access!), requiring you to desparately email everyone you know (Do you have a login for ...?). On this site, you can do a search that is limited to articles in open access journals. I did a search on a topic that I already wrote about (gender-neutral pronouns) and found a very nice article from somebody at Yale, available for saving as a PDF or printing. When I did the same search on Google Scholar, I found some great articles, and could access them for just $39.95 each.
I also tried out Tackk (tackk.com). I am not the most graphics inclined guy, but I was able to make an invitation poster for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah in about 3 minutes (see it here:http://tackk.com/jbstgp). There are other graphic options there that I didn't even check out yet, but it seems to be really user friendly.
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
This is as it sounds to be: a simplified form of Wikipedia. Not to get into the issue of whether or not one should rely on an open, mass-edited online encyclopedia (I personally have found it to be very accurate) the fact is that this is the go to source for many when seeking out info. Now, for our students, there is Hebrew Wikipedia. But if we want them to use English, this can go a long way.
For comparisons sake, let us look at the first sections in the entries for Martin Luther King Jr. on both Wikipedias:
Regular: Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism.[1]A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide
Simple: Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)[1] was a famous American leader of civil rights. He fought for civil rights. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was the son of Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. His father was also a civil rights leader. He was married to Coretta Scott King.He became a Baptist minister. He worked hard to make people understand that black people should always be treated equally to white people. He gave speeches and led rallies to encourage African Americans to protest without the need for violence. One peaceful strategy was for African Americans to have sit-ins. This is where they would sit in a restaurant seat that was supposed to be only for white people. They would politely ask for some food and refuse to leave until someone gave them food. Another strategy that King used was leading boycotts. This is where people would refuse to buy goods or services from people who did not treat white people and black people the same.
As you can see, in the simple version there are fewer abbreviations and long words. The grammar and syntax are much simpler (less passive voice, easier adjectives). However, it also seems to be targeted more towards children, with no mention of extramarital liasons or enemies he made in the movement. So, the point is, it may be a good way to access info in English, but we have to have a heightened awareness as to the reliability of the information.
It may also be (it seems this way from a little browsing, but no promises) that the simple Wikipedia is more appropriate for children in general and the religious public in particular from a content aspect.
Another thing I tried out is the noodletools search page http://tinyurl.com/1hyc (see, I snuck in another tool)! It is really beyond my ability to describe fully what there is over there, you must check it out yourselves. I will share one thing, though. For anyone who has had to write academic/seminar papers, one of the most frustraing things is searching for scholoarly articles on googe, finding something that seems to be just what you need, and then finding it behind a pay firewall (for "only" $29.999 for one-time access!), requiring you to desparately email everyone you know (Do you have a login for ...?). On this site, you can do a search that is limited to articles in open access journals. I did a search on a topic that I already wrote about (gender-neutral pronouns) and found a very nice article from somebody at Yale, available for saving as a PDF or printing. When I did the same search on Google Scholar, I found some great articles, and could access them for just $39.95 each.
I also tried out Tackk (tackk.com). I am not the most graphics inclined guy, but I was able to make an invitation poster for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah in about 3 minutes (see it here:http://tackk.com/jbstgp). There are other graphic options there that I didn't even check out yet, but it seems to be really user friendly.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Week 7
I loved the link to the activity of filling in the song lyrics (http://www.listen-and-write.com/youtube/show3/4448) from this week's material. A great advantage of this is the element of competition. Being that it does not go the the next phrase of the song until the current one is filled in, it creates a race to see who can finish first. This requirement for the combination of accuracy and speed is so important to real communication.When speaking to someone (or hearing a speech) there usually is not an option to hear the words several times, so being able to quickly understand the spoken word is essential.
I want to take a diversion and let you know about a very helpful EFL site http://www.bu.edu/av/celop2/
(full disclosure: my uncle, David Maisel, is the one who developed the site).
Tech wise, it is very bare bones, but there are a wealth of invaluable resources there. For example, there are over 1000 recorded audio dialogues of every possible vocabulary or grammar topic (under "audio of speech") and incredibly detailed vocabulary lists (for example: "KnowThinkBelieveAssume,etc.doc 68 verbs for believing that something is true, each with a different degree or source of certainty" and "communicative functions.doc 135 purposes of communicating: agreeing, announcing, apologizing, asking, attracting attention,blaming, blessing, boasting, etc."). Obviously, not everything there is helpful for all teachers. Some of the lists in particular are way beyond what the students would be able to handle, but we, as teachers, can certainly enjoy them!
The Innovative Educator has a cute cartoon http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/education-reformers.html. The essential point is: how much do those setting educational policy know about the real life challenges that teachers face? Do they spend time as teachers or are they working from theories without being grounded in reality? I am sure that those of you who are already teaching all have horror stories about unreasonable demands by the establishment (Have they met these kids I need to teach?!). But, on the other hand (for life is not black and white, just countless shades of gray) perhaps those too involved in the nitty gritty are stuck among the trees and can't see the forest. (For those who took the Differentiated Instruction course in September, this will sound familiar). No answers here, just awareness of the questions.
I want to take a diversion and let you know about a very helpful EFL site http://www.bu.edu/av/celop2/
(full disclosure: my uncle, David Maisel, is the one who developed the site).
Tech wise, it is very bare bones, but there are a wealth of invaluable resources there. For example, there are over 1000 recorded audio dialogues of every possible vocabulary or grammar topic (under "audio of speech") and incredibly detailed vocabulary lists (for example: "KnowThinkBelieveAssume,etc.doc 68 verbs for believing that something is true, each with a different degree or source of certainty" and "communicative functions.doc 135 purposes of communicating: agreeing, announcing, apologizing, asking, attracting attention,blaming, blessing, boasting, etc."). Obviously, not everything there is helpful for all teachers. Some of the lists in particular are way beyond what the students would be able to handle, but we, as teachers, can certainly enjoy them!
The Innovative Educator has a cute cartoon http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/education-reformers.html. The essential point is: how much do those setting educational policy know about the real life challenges that teachers face? Do they spend time as teachers or are they working from theories without being grounded in reality? I am sure that those of you who are already teaching all have horror stories about unreasonable demands by the establishment (Have they met these kids I need to teach?!). But, on the other hand (for life is not black and white, just countless shades of gray) perhaps those too involved in the nitty gritty are stuck among the trees and can't see the forest. (For those who took the Differentiated Instruction course in September, this will sound familiar). No answers here, just awareness of the questions.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Week Six post
Last summer, my family went to the Hula Valley nature reserve. After going through the exhibits, everyone went into a room where there was a quiz on the information in the exhibits. Each seat had a device to enter the answers to multiple choice questions, and the winners were announced at the end (alas, no prizes). Lisa Nielsen has a post http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/6-free-ways-to-capture-student.html#more on variations of this theme for the classroom. She is not talking about expensive systems that come with their own hardware, rather ways of making use of existing tech (including smartphones and even "dumbphones" to accomplish similar things. There are a few good ideas there. One idea is to use texting for quick quizzes in the classroom. Say, they read a text, the teacher reads out multiple choice (or short answer) questions, and the students text them in to the teacher. This saves time over handing out and collecting quiz sheets, and can give the teacher instant feedback on what is or is not being learned. One could also use a GoogleDoc, but this does not require advance planning.
"Technology won't replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who don't". So says somebody at a conference attended by Steve Wheeler (http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/technology-wont-replace-teachers-but.html). The truth of this statement obviously depends on a few subfactors, such as subject being taught and orientation of the school, but the essential point is that in an increasingly technological world, a tech literate teacher has a clear advantage, all other things being equal, over a technophobe. The key phrase, however, is "all other things being equal". So, with all that we are gaining from the course, let us remember that the tech skills are just tools towards a higher goal, and not the goal in and of itself.
The third thing I want to write about is a quick review of the spelling games from this week's unit. The Funbrain was a cute idea, having you check of the wrong spelling out of four words, and then giving the correct spelling for that word. The problem was that being that it was a wrong spelling, you don't really know what the correct spelling is! For example, one of the "wrong" words I had was "pairt". So, what do you do to correct it? Part? Paint? Pair? Anyway, I wrote "paint" and got it wrong (they wanted "pair"). The point is, check out the game before using it. Just because it is on the internet does not mean it is perfect.
The next site was kidspell. Here, there are a bunch of game choices, based on level. The good thing here is that it allows you to build your own spelling list to make the games. Some of the games played smoother than others, and difficulty levels can be adjusted.
The one I liked the best was the eduplace site. There was a great game, matching halves of words on a square chart (about 15 words). It seems that the site is tied to a specific textbook series, so it may be less helpful.
By the way, with all spelling sites, make sure you check if it is U.S. spelling or British; there are many differences!
"Technology won't replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who don't". So says somebody at a conference attended by Steve Wheeler (http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/technology-wont-replace-teachers-but.html). The truth of this statement obviously depends on a few subfactors, such as subject being taught and orientation of the school, but the essential point is that in an increasingly technological world, a tech literate teacher has a clear advantage, all other things being equal, over a technophobe. The key phrase, however, is "all other things being equal". So, with all that we are gaining from the course, let us remember that the tech skills are just tools towards a higher goal, and not the goal in and of itself.
The third thing I want to write about is a quick review of the spelling games from this week's unit. The Funbrain was a cute idea, having you check of the wrong spelling out of four words, and then giving the correct spelling for that word. The problem was that being that it was a wrong spelling, you don't really know what the correct spelling is! For example, one of the "wrong" words I had was "pairt". So, what do you do to correct it? Part? Paint? Pair? Anyway, I wrote "paint" and got it wrong (they wanted "pair"). The point is, check out the game before using it. Just because it is on the internet does not mean it is perfect.
The next site was kidspell. Here, there are a bunch of game choices, based on level. The good thing here is that it allows you to build your own spelling list to make the games. Some of the games played smoother than others, and difficulty levels can be adjusted.
The one I liked the best was the eduplace site. There was a great game, matching halves of words on a square chart (about 15 words). It seems that the site is tied to a specific textbook series, so it may be less helpful.
By the way, with all spelling sites, make sure you check if it is U.S. spelling or British; there are many differences!
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