June 2009 Archives
part of my work these days deals with thinking how we can allow students to improve their writing with the help of technologies. and a latest digest from the smashingmag presents "50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills". the article covers the following area:
- Grammar, Punctuation & Co.
- Common mistakes and problems
- General Writing Skills
- Practical Guides To Better Writing Skills
- Copywriting Blogs
- (Online) Tools
- Further Resources
get full details here.
windows 7 is micro$oft's next release of operating system set to replace vista. according to bbc news, windows 7 is set to be released on Oct 22, 2009, and in UK, it'll cost £79.99 for an upgrade version.
if you would like try it for free, grab the release candidate by end July 09. it's recommended NOT to install on a system that you're using currently using for work/play/study. i've tried installing it on a kohjinsha sh, and it's running OK, except the cpu is not fast enough so you'll need some patience for things to load. but it's installable, runable and usable, quite surprised (:
and btw, the worldwide upgrade option programme is due to begin only on 26 June, which means those pple who bought their computers some two weeks ago at pc show missed their free upgrade chance? hmm ... ...
yes. this is a bit late coz 2009 is already half gone, but part of my work now requires me to conceptualise the design of a website. and google easily turn up this useful reference:
related:if you're an EL/CL/ML/TL/any other language teacher and seeking ideas to "web2.0" your language classrooms, check out this resource put together by Alan Levine. the idea's not too difficult:
change the tool as often as you like and you can plan unlimited ways (use a different story prompt, coupled with different media, and when more and more tools' made available) of getting students to tell/write stories the whole year round (:
if you need an example of how it can be done, take a look at Alan's 50+ Ways to Tell the Dominoe Story.
enjoy (:
courtesy of cheezburger.com
just chanced upon this 4-mths old article by Owen Thomas, it appears that Second Life is ending it's 'original life' in the business world:
We were primarily interested in Second Life as a business/commerce/finance phenomenon, covering it like we would any small but fast-growing economy in the real world. The bureau is now closed. Essentially the story we were there to cover has moved on. -- Adam Pasick, as cited by Thomas
in short, SL didnt make MONEY as originally planned. so it's getting a second life by "pitching itself as an online schoolhouse."
good news for those of us in teaching isn't it? (:
this is one thing that's related to my work since my return to work on 20090401.
TPCK (read "TPACK"), stands for "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge", just to quote "(it is a) complex, multifaceted and situated form of knowledge” (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, 1017)".
(source: tpck.org)
very briefly, when we reflect upon the time when we use ICT in our classroom, teachers are applying techonological knowledge of the watever tools u might choose to see how best the affordances can be used to as part of your carrying out of lesson (the pedagogical knowledge) on your intended lesson and its outcomes/objectvies (the content knowledge). and these three types of knowledge are not standalone but overlaps with each other. so for e.g. your pedagogical knowledge will not be wat it used to be as it has now evolved to include ICT; likewise the use of an ICT may not be wat it is originally designed to ("repurposing"). Yes, TPCK is not a new idea, and if you're interested to get a better understanding of this, here's some resources:
1. a MUST WATCH webinar by Mishra & Koehler (i found this very useful link from tucksoon's blog, thank you :)
2. notes taken by Wesley Fryer during the keynote presentation at CITE2007 by Mishra & Koehler
3. TPCK.org maintained by Mishra & Koehler
4. related reading list on TPCK.org
