– a Singaporean teacher's storeroom 🖖
google doc was updated 2 days ago with the next generation commeting feature that allows users to collaborate seamlessly on documents 🙂
if you have tried Google Wave, you may find this 似曾相识 (:
do note that the new feature only works with NEW(ly created) docs 😉
*THUMBS UP*
chanced upon this book published some 1 year ago, it contains a collection of more than 100 educational tools for Second Life. the book is released under creativecommons (CC), so you can download it, share it, and even improve on it (:
it’s been EXACTLY 3 years since i last chanced upon voicethread (VT), and now there arises a chance that i can possibly work more closely with the tool and conduct a research around it.
but before proceeding further, it’s important to me to (re)explore VT on it’s features and functionalities so as to inform the guide that we need to provide students, especially the potential pitfalls.
1. unicode / simplified chinese character support
back then, unicode is not supported within the commenting feature. now it’s working, comments can be keyed in in Chinese
2. import doc type
this is an extension of the unicode support problem. in terms of document file types, DOC, DOCX, PDF are ok. but when chinese characters are typed within, the level of compatibility is different. microsoft word doc gives on average 1 MISSING chinese character for every 6 characters; word docX gives on average 1 for every 2. VT is not to be blamed here, it is micro$oft’s propietary doc format specification causing the problem. when PDF import is used, it gives perfect rendition. so now we all know who’s truly supporting a more open standard. my experimentation goes here.
3a. no. of VTs for free accts
in a zero budget project, we’ll be asking students to create their own VT accts. however, each FREE acct can only produce three (3) VTs. this could pose a serious limitation if students are expected to produce numerous assignments over time.
3b. no. of VTs for
if more than 3 VTs’ to be created, the K-12 Class subscription will allow up to 100 students to be enrolled, enabling them to create up to 50 VTs each. the subscription stands at USD60/year.
that’s all for now, will add more discoveries as i go along (:
saw this piece of news in a tweet, del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site will be closed down. most likely not profit/revenue generating for yahoo? 😛
edudemic.com has provided 5 alternatives in their posting for exploration while saying bye-bye to my acct. i wonder how many of our teachers have been using this service *hmm*
[acknowledgment of graphics source: http://edudemic.com/2010/12/delciious-bye-bye/]
it’s been a while since i last visited eMedia, and am glad i did, cos i chanced upon this:
the video has four parts. viewing it, you can learn about food （民以食为天！）, culture, values and beliefs of the Thai 泰, Burmese 缅, Japanese 日, and Filipino 菲. Chinese subtitles’ included for this video as this is a resource for use by P5 CL teachers (: