March 2006 Archives

after this long while, it's back to what i started doing 2 years ago, back to blogs for chinese language teaching and learning, here are some blogs by chinese (language) teachers :)

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?????unfolding_yesterday?
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?Run Deep?
?Innova Student Circle?
?Black & White?
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there are definitely more cl teachers' blogs out there, let me have the links if you can :) ?????????

chanced upon this resource website that binds many useful articles and resources on blogging in the classroom :)

Though campuses across the nation have begun transforming iPods into educational tools, few schools have embraced the technology as much as Georgia College & State University, where faculty are using the devices for everything from screening movies to podcasting answers to frequently asked questions.

Some lines from the article as well:

• "The more you free up your classroom for discussion, the more efficient you are," said Dorothy Leland, the school's president.
• "Now I can devote my whole three hours to Socratic dialogue."
• GCSU officials say the school makes sure its iPod lessons supplement classroom work--not replace it.
• "[You] think it will never get the same sense of community living together, but we definitely found that sense of belonging"

Check out the full article on eSN online.

The use of podcast has been further extended for use to discuss about software vulnerabilities (Internet Explorer (IE) and Sendmail). Check out this source if you are interested :)

At a ceremony to honor excellence in education blogging yesterday, winners of the first-ever eSchool News "Best of the Education Blog" Awards talked about the significance of blogging in education during a panel discussion. All agreed: The impact that blogging is having on teaching and learning is profound.

Some of the quotes which I find useful/interesting as I scan the report:

• "Kids are getting excited and engaged in literacy through blogging, commenting, and sharing ideas"
• There is an excitement that comes from writing for a real, authentic audience instead of a circular file seen only by the teacher
• Our students are tech-savvy, and we need to make sure we take advantage of this
• today's digital tools make blogging extremely easy, especially when compared with the effort it used to take to upload files online via the File Transfer Protocol or build a web page using Hypertext Markup Language
• Sharing ideas with the world today is "so easy," Fryer said. "Now, it doesn't take anything but a web browser to engage in these conversations.
• You shouldn't ban the use of an instructional tool such as blogs, simply because it might be dangerous if misused; instead, you should teach students about the proper--and safe--use of the tool and then enforce the rules.

The full article goes here.
[source: eSN online]

juz came to realise that swee kin has compiled this list of resources for audioblogging which allows quick reference at one glance, great work :)

this afternoon 16 fellow teachers visited etd to find out more about r&d. hereis a list of documents which may be useful. so if you are here, do grab them if you like :)

1. blogger.com HOWTO - creation of a blog on blogger.com is really a breeze, 3 steps, 5 minutes and your blog will be up. this is a step-by-step guide that will lead you through the setting up.

2. bloglines.com HOWTO - bloglines is an online RSS reader. the reader would be useful if you need to monitor updates in a class of 40, and you have 3 classes.

3. WinXP Chinese Input Method Editor (IME) 3.0 HOWTO - students will be able to setup CL input at home by following the steps described; pass it to CL teachers for distribution.

4. last but not least, join us at TecXplorers.net and network with us.

look forward to see you in the next TecXplorers gathering :)

If you are looking for some podcasts that are produced by students, here's an example.

For teachers, you'll be able to find resources like lesson plan, rubrics and a few tips too. Enjoy :)

This page hosted by Thailand Asian Institute of Technology highlights on the purpose of doing literature review in research, and how to go about doing a good one. It's surely come in useful for the task at hand :-)

URL: Writing up Research: Using the Literature

Chanced up this wonderful collection (not restricted to only scholars though). A big Thank you should go to you too, Becky :-)

URL: Survival 101: Software to Support Your Scholarly Life

NASA Quest has this 37 mins video on their page which might be suited for any Physics teacher touching on the topic of gravity. Th program demonstrates the actions of a variety of children's toys in microgravity for classroom comparison with the actions of similar toys on Earth. Enjoy, regardless if you are a physics teacher :-)

URL: Liftoff to Learning: Toys in Space 2

James Farmer's recent post is on this topic. Take a look at the comments that follow the short post, rich comments for some of us who are tempted to use group blogs too :)

Got this link off Elmine Wijnia's blog, with useful tips for anyone who's conducting (group) interviews. would surely come in handy in the near future :)