eBooks and Audiobooks
Project Gutenberg has proved useful in allowing downloads of many of the classics, eg Jane Austen, which can be used with voice recognition software to be read aloud for dyslexic senior Secondary/tertiary students.I'm still trying to find an easy way to scan more 'modern'/'popular' simple texts, and senior course textbooks, to allow access to Reader/voice recognition software for senior students with reading difficulties.Audio books are great for tired eyes and developing/using listening skills and there are some good popular novels for teens. Quite popular with Life Skills classes.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Online video
I've subscribed to an iGoogle feed, linked to my homepage, which has YouTube video of Makybe Diva's 3rd Melbourne Cup win; just for the archives! I also found a salutory lesson for students on Teacher Tube which will be useful to show Year X1 students so that they can see for themselves the unwitting repercussions of posting anything private online; Personal photos become public property, downloadable by anyone. Video downloads eat an enormous amount of memory; I've had to pay for extra downloads on my Broadband account. This is an issue, too, with teenage students; many working casual jobs use all their income on iPods, MP3s, mobile phones and are much more savvy about IT than their teachers. This course has certainly informed me of much I was ignorant of!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Podcasts
There is so much out there!!
I've subscribed to a news commentary feed by Dan Carlin who I've never listened to before. I mainly get my news commentary by free-to-air radio and TV, but if I ever have a free moment to explore the world of podcasts it seems fairly straightforward to access a huge inventory of reference topics. Good to know many of the public broadcasts are saved and accessible as podcasts.
It will certainly save our librarian time to access these rather than having to set up to record them for various teachers/faculties.
Odeo.com has an enormous repertoire of equestrian events which would interest me, but the cost of downloading (time/money) puts them out of my normal time/money budget.
I've subscribed to a news commentary feed by Dan Carlin who I've never listened to before. I mainly get my news commentary by free-to-air radio and TV, but if I ever have a free moment to explore the world of podcasts it seems fairly straightforward to access a huge inventory of reference topics. Good to know many of the public broadcasts are saved and accessible as podcasts.
It will certainly save our librarian time to access these rather than having to set up to record them for various teachers/faculties.
Odeo.com has an enormous repertoire of equestrian events which would interest me, but the cost of downloading (time/money) puts them out of my normal time/money budget.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Rollyo
I started a searchroll for researching information on Smart Boards.
I found it was a much slower search engine than Google, for my purposes, where I just want to scan for available information on products and usage and lesson plans for the classroom.
If I were in a position where I wanted to accumulate references for ongoing research, and wanted to develop a network of contacts researching the same topic, then it would be very useful to have a personalised online bibliography to link to, as well as current reviews of the material from like-minded researchers.
I found it was a much slower search engine than Google, for my purposes, where I just want to scan for available information on products and usage and lesson plans for the classroom.
If I were in a position where I wanted to accumulate references for ongoing research, and wanted to develop a network of contacts researching the same topic, then it would be very useful to have a personalised online bibliography to link to, as well as current reviews of the material from like-minded researchers.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
wiki
Using a wiki as a classroom tool allows collaboration at many levels of ability.
Some of those shown on school websites show excellent depth of both researched knowledge and IT skills to set up the pages with multimedia feeds.
Some geography classes at my school use classroom wikis to investigate Google Earth features.
I will try to set up a classroom wiki to allow collaborative writing with a group of Life Skills students.
Some of the maths pages which encourage reflections on problem-solving have engaged students to communicate a variety of methods.
The use of powerpoint presentations to teach topics and then invite responses looks useful; lots of tools involved on a huge variety of site.
We need to use wikis in staff development to develop staff skills cooperatively and inform staff of possibilities.
Some of those shown on school websites show excellent depth of both researched knowledge and IT skills to set up the pages with multimedia feeds.
Some geography classes at my school use classroom wikis to investigate Google Earth features.
I will try to set up a classroom wiki to allow collaborative writing with a group of Life Skills students.
Some of the maths pages which encourage reflections on problem-solving have engaged students to communicate a variety of methods.
The use of powerpoint presentations to teach topics and then invite responses looks useful; lots of tools involved on a huge variety of site.
We need to use wikis in staff development to develop staff skills cooperatively and inform staff of possibilities.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Delicious
Use of multiple tags is useful for referencing and collating information on a topic from a variety of viewpoints.
Delicious offers more feedback on usefulness of sites rather than just the site material as referenced by a search engine such as Google.
Delicious offers more feedback on usefulness of sites rather than just the site material as referenced by a search engine such as Google.
Monday, October 19, 2009
RSS feed
The use of an RSS aggregator to read updates on regularly visited sites without having to visit such sites individually is potentially very time-saving. I couldn't find any work colleagues using Google Reader to add to my subscriber list, but I did find it useful to get quick updates on professional development topics such as Asperger's syndrome, ADD, etc.
Will have to search further for individual contacts in my areas of professional expertise.
It could be useful to set up a variety of blogs with my Literacy-support-needs class to teach them skills with blogs and RSS feeds and thus motivate them to post and develop their reading/writing/technology skills.
Will have to search further for individual contacts in my areas of professional expertise.
It could be useful to set up a variety of blogs with my Literacy-support-needs class to teach them skills with blogs and RSS feeds and thus motivate them to post and develop their reading/writing/technology skills.
I was invited to join Facebook to keep in touch with a young friend who relocated to the US. Since then I've linked to family members in the US and around Australia. The language used very much evidences the generation of the user. The youngsters (under 30s) use SMS speak and tend to embellish (I hope!!) their social & sexual drinking/drugging activities. The older generation are more comfortable with grammatic English, even when using the social links to search for social relationships. I feel like a pedant when I try to bridge ths generation gap to make contact with some young relatives. I haven't used Facebook for collegiate links, but was introduced to Twitter to follow professional development discussions re. literacy theories end English teaching.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
MySpace thoughts
MySpace is an incredibly addictive social space with amazing potential to expand people's use of technology resources.
My main contact with Myspace is as a source of sleep-deprivation for mid-to-late-teen girls who are often unable to function capably in the school classroom. We've had issues with cyber-bullying via MySpace, also, and have to be pro-active in teaching face-to-face communication skills and responsibility for actions in utilising MySpace as a social contact tool.
Some barely verbal boys with poor social skills also seem to get hooked on MySpace without developing "real-world relationship" skills. (Links to virtual worlds such as Second Life don't seem to teach these students about connecting to the real world.) We do see some mental Health issues.
My main focus in the school environment is on developing literacy/numeracy and social skills and I mainly have to advise students to limit their time on MySpace and organise a weekly plan to allow for school work and activities away from the computer.
The use of MySpace to connect students to their libraries and community services is brilliant.
Drupal looks to be an amazing service provider; will take some time to investigate it.
My main contact with Myspace is as a source of sleep-deprivation for mid-to-late-teen girls who are often unable to function capably in the school classroom. We've had issues with cyber-bullying via MySpace, also, and have to be pro-active in teaching face-to-face communication skills and responsibility for actions in utilising MySpace as a social contact tool.
Some barely verbal boys with poor social skills also seem to get hooked on MySpace without developing "real-world relationship" skills. (Links to virtual worlds such as Second Life don't seem to teach these students about connecting to the real world.) We do see some mental Health issues.
My main focus in the school environment is on developing literacy/numeracy and social skills and I mainly have to advise students to limit their time on MySpace and organise a weekly plan to allow for school work and activities away from the computer.
The use of MySpace to connect students to their libraries and community services is brilliant.
Drupal looks to be an amazing service provider; will take some time to investigate it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
LibraryThing
Lots of uses for this one; most useful for me in researching young teen fiction for students with reading difficulties needing reading material of age appropriate content. Some reviews are useful. Will have to investigate Tags to find most direct access to 'educational' reviews.
I've linked to the LT blog; couldn't find a gadget or widget to add easily.
I've linked to the LT blog; couldn't find a gadget or widget to add easily.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Time management
Off to hospital for an op. tomorrow. Am a bit behind with my Web 2 investigations but look forward to indulging in lots of research while I recuperate over the next few weeks.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Horse talk (2)
I used Comic Creator from ImageGenerator.org to add speech bubbles to my own photo.
Looks small on the screen so I enlarged it a little. Still too small to read the dialogue on the blog screen, but the photos clicks large and looks quite good.
Quite an easy tool to use.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
iGoogle
Looks like Google values the health of their employees; really works at keeping valued employees. It would really appeal to young people just finishing university.
They need to be made aware of caring for their physical health if they spend all their work time in front of a keyboard and screen.
Personally, I couldn't tolerate that work place/style for long.
I added a Word of the Day gadget to my igoogle home page; could be a good stimulus for an English class each day.
The amount of ready reference material linked to the igoogle home page is amazing, but I found the downloads got increasingly slow the more I used it!! Could just be that I was using the Internet in primetime and service to my residential area could be better.
They need to be made aware of caring for their physical health if they spend all their work time in front of a keyboard and screen.
Personally, I couldn't tolerate that work place/style for long.
I added a Word of the Day gadget to my igoogle home page; could be a good stimulus for an English class each day.
The amount of ready reference material linked to the igoogle home page is amazing, but I found the downloads got increasingly slow the more I used it!! Could just be that I was using the Internet in primetime and service to my residential area could be better.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Google Books
Another useful resource for finding reading material for reluctant readers. The school librarian uses this resource to check reviews of possible purchases.
Google Maps
Amazing to see one's own property so accessable from a satellite perspective.
Local directions were very easy to follow, but local-knowledge detours /"fast routes" can't all be archived.
Directions from country addresses into city suburbs would be easy to follow for travellers, or overseas visitors, but the routes within the city limits followed highways and freeways, not giving cross-country local-knowledge options again. Fair enough!! It would be hard to prioritise a route to choose without some local knowledge...and highways /freeways were developed to take volumes of traffic out of the suburbs.
Cameras everywhere!! so visual cues to turn-offs should save a driver from getting lost.
Local directions were very easy to follow, but local-knowledge detours /"fast routes" can't all be archived.
Directions from country addresses into city suburbs would be easy to follow for travellers, or overseas visitors, but the routes within the city limits followed highways and freeways, not giving cross-country local-knowledge options again. Fair enough!! It would be hard to prioritise a route to choose without some local knowledge...and highways /freeways were developed to take volumes of traffic out of the suburbs.
Cameras everywhere!! so visual cues to turn-offs should save a driver from getting lost.
I was hoping to create a Cloze exercise for a class tomorrow but couldn't find a template for such. It's probably out there somewhere but I haven't got time to search further at the moment.
I did find a Resume format which I revised as a Proforma for data collection for incoming students with Special Needs. Could be quite useful, but I still prefer to interview incoming parents and students with a paper format, rather than typing info on-line. When one is meeting a student for the first time at age 16 or 17, and this student has been through numerous assessments over the course of their life to date, I find the need to 'engage' in a non-threatening environment outweighs the efficiency of record-keeping from behind a computer in an interview situaion. I can still enter data, post-interview!
I think I can still produce Cloze documents as quickly as necessary, using Word, but would like to investigate Google tools further.
I did find a Resume format which I revised as a Proforma for data collection for incoming students with Special Needs. Could be quite useful, but I still prefer to interview incoming parents and students with a paper format, rather than typing info on-line. When one is meeting a student for the first time at age 16 or 17, and this student has been through numerous assessments over the course of their life to date, I find the need to 'engage' in a non-threatening environment outweighs the efficiency of record-keeping from behind a computer in an interview situaion. I can still enter data, post-interview!
I think I can still produce Cloze documents as quickly as necessary, using Word, but would like to investigate Google tools further.
Building synapses
Thoughts:"Blogging and the wisdom of crowds"
We've come a long way since my high school days in the 60s when we dreaded 1984 and the intrusions of Big Brother.
Just goes to prove the value of education; the more educated the populace is, the more likely it is that the combined (hyperlinked) knlowledge will overwhelm the subterfuge of the negatives/hackers/pessimists!
We've come a long way since my high school days in the 60s when we dreaded 1984 and the intrusions of Big Brother.
Just goes to prove the value of education; the more educated the populace is, the more likely it is that the combined (hyperlinked) knlowledge will overwhelm the subterfuge of the negatives/hackers/pessimists!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Web 2 Investigation Log
I'll use this blog to interact with Web 2 course management.
I've used the opportunity to learn about blogging to set up a useful information site regarding my equine hobby.
I can't see an immediate use with my students at present; not enough access to computers or literate students. I would need to give lots of direction to my students with Special Needs as they're not independent learners.
I can see lots of usefulness in encouraging them to utilise the web at home, but I will need to learn lots more, yet, about monitoring their productions!
I've used the opportunity to learn about blogging to set up a useful information site regarding my equine hobby.
I can't see an immediate use with my students at present; not enough access to computers or literate students. I would need to give lots of direction to my students with Special Needs as they're not independent learners.
I can see lots of usefulness in encouraging them to utilise the web at home, but I will need to learn lots more, yet, about monitoring their productions!
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