Feedback on Presentation at Mesa College
Please leave any comments, during or after the presentation.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Resources at the LARC Language Labs for the Arabic Programs
The LARC Language labs at SDSU are at the intersection of a federally funded program to promote foreign language learning, and the foreign language programs at SDSU. This intersection in the heart of cosmopolitan San Diego results in valuable resource for students of the 17 plus foreign languages taught at SDSU. There are two fully equipped labs maintained by a full-time technician, with rich media archives. In addition to the 60 student stations, equipped with cameras, quality headsets and a high-speed Internet connection, there are servers, a recording studio and a video-editing facility. In our newly equipped Mac lab there are 30 dual boot iMacs. These are used by over 400 ASL students to record videos. The stations are also equipped to automatically record Skype calls, which we use to record conversations between our students and students at universities abroad, as well as for oral assessment where a conversation between students is demanded. We have professional software that students use to record themselves individually. They then upload their files to our .ftp server for the instructors to access. We also have additional assessment software to measure oral proficiency. Finally, SDSU is subscribed to Horizon/Wimba so that students can record onto their Blackboard sites with one click.
Specifically for the Arabic program, the LARC language labs have 22 copies of the language learning software Tell Me More for all levels. This software teaches the four language skills but has an especially effective speech recognition component for teaching pronunciation and oral skills. Over the past half decade, LARC has developed a national Internet-based test to measure advanced level of proficiency in Arabic according to ACTFL OPI guidelines. Material for a wide range of Arabic courses is being developed using print, audio and video media. Some examples of the work can be seen at the publically accessible Digital Media Archive (http://larcdma.sdsu.edu). LARC has also launched a Moodle site, maintained on our servers, which has numerous sections for Arabic (http://larc.sdsu.edu/moodleLARC). The use of this open-source course management system allows courses to be taught to target audiences that include students who are not registered for credit-bearing courses at SDSU, for example participants from other universities, domestically and abroad. The language pages at the LARC labs, with restricted access, also have a constantly updated Arabic homepage. In the labs, students can type in Arabic on all student stations; there are also six stations with Arabic keyboards.
As part of the ongoing upgrade of LARC lab facilities, our Iraqi course takes place in a high-tech classroom with a state-of-the-art smartboard, desktop computers on each of the oval group tables, and 16 laptops for individual class members. Meanwhile, we have now purchased and installed RAID servers with two terabytes of hard-disk space to maintain the large number of WWW services provided.
The Language Acquisition Resource Center has been located at SDSU since the late 80’s. Originally one of three national language resource centers, it is now one of 15 and specializes in assessment, helping distinguished speakers of languages and developing materials and lessons for critical, less commonly taught languages. The national Title VI center and the College of Arts and Letters work together to support the language programs at SDSU, as seen, for example, in the assignment of nine graduate assistants to language faculty, coordinated by the national center but funded by the College. National workshops are held throughout the academic year and in the summer. The outreach program impacts K-16 foreign language teachers and programs throughout the state of California. It has started up after school programs in a number of less commonly taught languages, including Arabic. The board of advisers for LARC brings together leading administrators, policy makers and educators in the field of foreign language teaching from across the nation. Finally, foreign language instructors at all levels are assisted in utilizing the LARC resources to enhance their instruction with technology. Our powerful online survey tool, for example, was used recently by the CATESOL conference with over 2,000 participants.
The LARC labs are visited by over 7,000 open-study students during a term. This is in addition to over 100 orientations and classroom visits for language practice and assessment, as well as the scheduling of regularly held classes. The labs are also easily converted to studios for screening of films and student presentations. The LARC labs are truly laboratories, where innovation is the key to advancing language learning through technology.
The LARC Language labs at SDSU are at the intersection of a federally funded program to promote foreign language learning, and the foreign language programs at SDSU. This intersection in the heart of cosmopolitan San Diego results in valuable resource for students of the 17 plus foreign languages taught at SDSU. There are two fully equipped labs maintained by a full-time technician, with rich media archives. In addition to the 60 student stations, equipped with cameras, quality headsets and a high-speed Internet connection, there are servers, a recording studio and a video-editing facility. In our newly equipped Mac lab there are 30 dual boot iMacs. These are used by over 400 ASL students to record videos. The stations are also equipped to automatically record Skype calls, which we use to record conversations between our students and students at universities abroad, as well as for oral assessment where a conversation between students is demanded. We have professional software that students use to record themselves individually. They then upload their files to our .ftp server for the instructors to access. We also have additional assessment software to measure oral proficiency. Finally, SDSU is subscribed to Horizon/Wimba so that students can record onto their Blackboard sites with one click.
Specifically for the Arabic program, the LARC language labs have 22 copies of the language learning software Tell Me More for all levels. This software teaches the four language skills but has an especially effective speech recognition component for teaching pronunciation and oral skills. Over the past half decade, LARC has developed a national Internet-based test to measure advanced level of proficiency in Arabic according to ACTFL OPI guidelines. Material for a wide range of Arabic courses is being developed using print, audio and video media. Some examples of the work can be seen at the publically accessible Digital Media Archive (http://larcdma.sdsu.edu). LARC has also launched a Moodle site, maintained on our servers, which has numerous sections for Arabic (http://larc.sdsu.edu/moodleLARC). The use of this open-source course management system allows courses to be taught to target audiences that include students who are not registered for credit-bearing courses at SDSU, for example participants from other universities, domestically and abroad. The language pages at the LARC labs, with restricted access, also have a constantly updated Arabic homepage. In the labs, students can type in Arabic on all student stations; there are also six stations with Arabic keyboards.
As part of the ongoing upgrade of LARC lab facilities, our Iraqi course takes place in a high-tech classroom with a state-of-the-art smartboard, desktop computers on each of the oval group tables, and 16 laptops for individual class members. Meanwhile, we have now purchased and installed RAID servers with two terabytes of hard-disk space to maintain the large number of WWW services provided.
The Language Acquisition Resource Center has been located at SDSU since the late 80’s. Originally one of three national language resource centers, it is now one of 15 and specializes in assessment, helping distinguished speakers of languages and developing materials and lessons for critical, less commonly taught languages. The national Title VI center and the College of Arts and Letters work together to support the language programs at SDSU, as seen, for example, in the assignment of nine graduate assistants to language faculty, coordinated by the national center but funded by the College. National workshops are held throughout the academic year and in the summer. The outreach program impacts K-16 foreign language teachers and programs throughout the state of California. It has started up after school programs in a number of less commonly taught languages, including Arabic. The board of advisers for LARC brings together leading administrators, policy makers and educators in the field of foreign language teaching from across the nation. Finally, foreign language instructors at all levels are assisted in utilizing the LARC resources to enhance their instruction with technology. Our powerful online survey tool, for example, was used recently by the CATESOL conference with over 2,000 participants.
The LARC labs are visited by over 7,000 open-study students during a term. This is in addition to over 100 orientations and classroom visits for language practice and assessment, as well as the scheduling of regularly held classes. The labs are also easily converted to studios for screening of films and student presentations. The LARC labs are truly laboratories, where innovation is the key to advancing language learning through technology.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Word about Presentations
“You don’t need pictures to do science, but you need them to explain it.” John Schinker, EdTechWeekly podcast, 47
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
LARC Labs and Assessment
Dear Colleagues,
As midterms approach, I would like to remind you of the range of possibilities in the LARC language labs for assessment. We would be happy to meet with you individually and discuss your class needs.
1) We have high-quality recording software and hardware on all 60 computers now. Many instructors have a class folder on our server that their students can save their recordings to. Some put a prompt on Blackboard that students listen to and then record their response to. Our recording software complements listening activities nicely (e.g. on-line), in that students can record their responses and make them available to you for review, feedback, or simply documentation of their progress.
2) Instructors bring their classes in for written exams, which are then saved electronically and placed in their folders.
3) Every station in our new Mac lab (BAM 410) has Skype and software to automatically record the conversation. Skype enables the students to call someone at any other computer hooked up to the Internet. Two students at different computers could have a conversation in the lab and then save their recording. They can also have a conference call with as many as nine other speakers. Students could call a TA or a native speaker. The recording software will also record a video call in Skype. Every one of our new Macs has a built-in webcam.
4) Some instructors are using Horizon/Wimba voice tools, now integrated into the SDSU Blackboard. If you put up a voice board, all student audio responses are saved and archived. The labs are optimally configured for students to complete their audio assignments.
5) We also have Internet-based oral assessment software, which is extremely easy to use. You can use video clips, audio, pictures or text as a prompt and create as many questions as you like. Students can come in and complete the test and the results are saved for you on your account. Students have access to the corrected test, so they can listen to their recordings with your feedback. A review of this software was just published in Calico:https://www.calico.org/p-343-LARCStar%20(92007).html
6) Students can make high quality video clips of themselves using the built-in camera on the iMacs. Our American Sign Language students use this for all of their assignments. Students can also edit their own video and save the project as a DVD, Quicktime movie and in a variety of other formats. This is ideal for completing class projects. Results can also be displayed over the projector in the labs during a class visit.
7) We check out media that we have here or that we hold for instructors. We also constantly update the language pages: http://larclab.sdsu.edu. (For media holdings, click on 'lab inventory'.)
To use these capabilities, you could either bring the whole class into the lab, or give the students an assignment they can complete on their own. (Some instructors bring their classes in for an orientation, after which students are comfortable using the technology.) Please contact me for lab reservations. Otherwise, the labs (BAM 419/ 410) are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday thru Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. There are instruction sheets and lab assistants to help the students.
We provide individual tutorials for instructors, support for research and help in developing classroom material.
8) We have digitized Voci tests for oral proficiency assessment in French, German and Russian. The test is a Quicktime movie of progressively more difficult prompts. Students record their answers digitally in the lab. The Chinese and Spanish Voci are used regularly for proficiency testing while Japanese is used for ongoing program evaluation.
Trevor
As midterms approach, I would like to remind you of the range of possibilities in the LARC language labs for assessment. We would be happy to meet with you individually and discuss your class needs.
1) We have high-quality recording software and hardware on all 60 computers now. Many instructors have a class folder on our server that their students can save their recordings to. Some put a prompt on Blackboard that students listen to and then record their response to. Our recording software complements listening activities nicely (e.g. on-line), in that students can record their responses and make them available to you for review, feedback, or simply documentation of their progress.
2) Instructors bring their classes in for written exams, which are then saved electronically and placed in their folders.
3) Every station in our new Mac lab (BAM 410) has Skype and software to automatically record the conversation. Skype enables the students to call someone at any other computer hooked up to the Internet. Two students at different computers could have a conversation in the lab and then save their recording. They can also have a conference call with as many as nine other speakers. Students could call a TA or a native speaker. The recording software will also record a video call in Skype. Every one of our new Macs has a built-in webcam.
4) Some instructors are using Horizon/Wimba voice tools, now integrated into the SDSU Blackboard. If you put up a voice board, all student audio responses are saved and archived. The labs are optimally configured for students to complete their audio assignments.
5) We also have Internet-based oral assessment software, which is extremely easy to use. You can use video clips, audio, pictures or text as a prompt and create as many questions as you like. Students can come in and complete the test and the results are saved for you on your account. Students have access to the corrected test, so they can listen to their recordings with your feedback. A review of this software was just published in Calico:
6) Students can make high quality video clips of themselves using the built-in camera on the iMacs. Our American Sign Language students use this for all of their assignments. Students can also edit their own video and save the project as a DVD, Quicktime movie and in a variety of other formats. This is ideal for completing class projects. Results can also be displayed over the projector in the labs during a class visit.
7) We check out media that we have here or that we hold for instructors. We also constantly update the language pages: http://larclab.sdsu.edu. (For media holdings, click on 'lab inventory'.)
To use these capabilities, you could either bring the whole class into the lab, or give the students an assignment they can complete on their own. (Some instructors bring their classes in for an orientation, after which students are comfortable using the technology.) Please contact me for lab reservations. Otherwise, the labs (BAM 419/ 410) are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday thru Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. There are instruction sheets and lab assistants to help the students.
We provide individual tutorials for instructors, support for research and help in developing classroom material.
8) We have digitized Voci tests for oral proficiency assessment in French, German and Russian. The test is a Quicktime movie of progressively more difficult prompts. Students record their answers digitally in the lab. The Chinese and Spanish Voci are used regularly for proficiency testing while Japanese is used for ongoing program evaluation.
Trevor
Reflections on a Blended Course: Fall 2006
First Class:
Students could not log on to WebCT; I had to wait until the end of class to read carefully through the instructions again and see that they had to register with WebCT and then I had to add them through the Global Community link.
I made sure I had every body's e-mail before class and assured them that I would solve the problem the next day.
Meanwhile over at the Tech Mall the projector did not work. So we went over there to find the projector not working and the students not able to get on WebCT. Only those students could get on who were originally added about two weeks ago by the system administrator.
Fortunately in the original classroom the projector was working so I went back there, took the students through the site and gave them the assignments for the next week. Meanwhile I posted the assignments and our discussion on on-line learning and the languages they speak on WebCT.
The big difference to what I have done before in using Blackboard and WebCT is that I cannot rely on meeting the students again at the next class period and solving the problems. The community has to be set up in virtual space.
Also I am starting to realize how the syllabus has to be changed to accommodate the hybrid class. At the moment I have a calendar with a M/W session, although there is only a Monday session.
The only other technology glitch was that the chat program would not work from the classroom when i wanted to demonstrate that. But a student assured me that it did work in the Learning Resource Center. The audio file did download, fortunately, but I could not just save it. I have to look into this under the instructions for loading audio and video files.
Wednesday: The day normally that I would teach the class. It is interesting to see how many people have gotten on-line, about 11, with up to 29 hits. A couple of students have gotten on-line by e-mailing me and then following the procedure. Let's see the exact numbers: 11 students with 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 2x17, 18, 23, 25, and 29 hits. One student with 23 hits (Melin Ozkay) is a student I e-mailed to explain how to get on-line after the class on Monday. Chaochi who was very diligently trying to get on at the computer lab without success has now been on-line there 29 times!
Friday: When I took Eniko's 550 Language Teaching Methodology class through our oral proficiency software, LARCStar, a former colleague from Miramar came up to me and told me about his experience as a student in the Linguistics Dept. He praised two teachers and criticized two, above all for their use of Blackboard. He said they reminded him of the old teachers who would write with chalk in one hand and erasing with the other. He said that use of technology meant a step backwards. Above all, he was concerned about how the material was organized, that instructors not just throw up the material without organizing it.
Meanwhile Marcia told me that in her daughter's on-line high school the material is highly organized, with guidelines as to which task to complete when and the use of narrated Powerpoint presentations.
Tuesday (10/24): It ended up that no one dropped the course who attended class; in addition a few people added the course so that enrollment is up to 23. The class went really well on Monday. Instead of being a stumbling block or a focus, technology was simply a facilitator of what we were doing in class. In fact. the hybrid course is itself a good migration from the way I have recently taught the course to a full-fledged on-line course. The last time I taught the course, I used WebCT and had the students do the on-line quizzes. Some submitted their writing assignments via WebCT and some did not. Now, WebCT is more a natural extension of the course. And it reality it makes more sense to set them up for the activities on WebCT than it does to spend this time in class with them, where the time cannot be used nearly as efficiently. So the session we have together once a week becomes a forum to focus on aspects of the different activities and troubleshoot any problems that have arisen. Already it seems less of teacher dominated class, and more modular, even though in my instruction I had them read out sentences and give me answers. But three people went over to the computer lab to create WebCT ID's and two others went over to registration to add the course. And rather than feeling compelled to do every exercises, I could pinpoint ones that clarified task types; finally there was a good deal of flexibility built in, by, for example, asking them to contribute vocabulary items and to discuss the submitted writing assignments.
Sunday: I would say it is going well with WebCT now. I just read the student writing, corrected them, uploaded it, commented on it and graded it, all with ease. I also noticed that the results from the first quiz rather than the best quiz were being used for the students' grade, so I just changed this setting in WebCT and had the system regrade the quizzes. Then I sent a note to all the students.
I got some great ideas from SWALLT about how to use Powerpoint , Camtasia and how to organize the on-line site. The new version of WebCT looks very attractive.
Saturday (11/11) The blended part of the course is going very smoothly now. Students readily write to me in the mail program there. The easiest part remains correcting the writing assignments. I wanted to give a midterm this coming Monday, but we did not quite finish the unit. Also, I was concerned about taking the entire class time for the midterm. So I have decided to make the midterm a take-home test. At first I was going to photocopy it, but last night decided to just post in as an assignment. There are two texts that the students need from the quiz book, so I will just scan these and put these on-line as well. I guess, if I really wanted to make it an assessment, I could make the test a true on-line test and place a time-limit on it. But I have kept it as a Word document that they can send it to me.
I have to add something about now being able to take a video clip from a DVD and upload it. I finally was able to take a 15 second clip from Garfield that involves an ambiguity of the phrasal verb 'come on'. I was able to download the audio via Total Recorder a few months ago. Now, by using five programs, I was able to save the clip as an MPEG-1 file. The five programs were: DVDFab Decrypter (strip coding); DVD Shrink (compress); NTICD + DVD Maker 7 (burn DVD); FlaskMpeg (cut out a scene [avi]); tmpgenc [2.524] (further compress and save as MPEG 1 -4).
Sunday (11/12) I have to add something related to technology that is not directly related to the course. I have a 180-page pdf file for the ACTFL conference I am attending this week and wanted to put it on my ipod so that I can easily refer to it. I found a blog that tells the steps to follow and provides a link to a site that will automatically convert the .txt file to smaller files for Notes on the ipod. It took a few minutes and now I have the whole program easily accessible. The two addresses, which I have also put on delcious/kiralyfi are:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/ipod-notes-reader-display-websites-pdf.html
http://www.ambience.sk/ipod-ebook-creator/ipod-book-notes-text-conversion.php
Sunday, Nov. 19: Sitting in the airport after the ACTFL conference. Something I learned this trip is how indispensable a laptop is now when traveling! In the hotel and here at the airport i have a wireless connection. At the hotel I was able to respond to messages from students in my course, correct their papers and send them back, and reset the time limit for a few students who said that they had not been able to complete the quizzes; here at the airport I was able to upload the ACTFL presentation to my WWW site, which I had promised a few people and, continue this kind of blog. And finally I will publish this again and send the address to Karen at the University of Texas. At the conference itself it is a lot more comfortable presenting with you own computer. And highest praised to Lenovo for the way this laptop held up! This collaborative writing tool from Google has gotten a lot more sophisticated it seems -- there are greater formatting possibilities and an excellent spell check. Finally it is easy to publish as a public document at the ed. I guess the address for this now is http://docs.google.com instead of Writely, though the writely address will still get you there.
Thanksgiving: The class on Monday was a struggle. A number of students had to finish the midterm either at the beginning or leaving at the halfway point. I also only had four hours of sleep after my plane was diverted to LA due to the fog in San Diego. Some students are still having difficulty knowing where to upload the assignments. A guided lesson plan is definitely a feature I will add next time. (By the way, the college is going to give me a stipend for developing the online material.) Still, now on Thanksgiving I see that I have about 15 of the midterms. I am actually happy that I decided to make it a take home. If we had had it in class I would have lost time that I absolutely needed to cover the material in the course book. What I have discovered is that it takes a minimum of going over the pre-vocabulary, vocabulary and reading comprehension questions to cover a unit. This way we will be able to get through at least Unit 12 and maybe 13 out of the 14. The final is based on 13 units. Also, the students have been exposed to the type of test they will have on the final, which will be a sit down, without it being as threatening. A last observation about the course at this point is that the writing assignments are going extremely well. The students are really opening up. I feel because it is not a writing course, I don't have to focus on grammar. I make the corrections on their papers, which brings out the flow of their thought even more. As a result, I believe, their writing is progressing very nicely, with far better development than I am used to at this level.
End of term. It was easy, very easy to manage the grading this time using WebCT. It is a feature that I would miss switching to another CMS. I heard a podcast this week at Language Learning Unleashed about Moodle in which the founder of Moodle participated. Features that sounded attractive were a jointly constructed glossary and the the fact that all activities could be organized in one topic area: writing assignments, quizzes, discuss forums, chats. The newest version of Moodle allows roles to be assigned throughout or in individual modules, decentralizing the CMS and making it truer to the principles of social constructionism. Coming in July is a link to other Moodle sites so that by clicking on a button one could interact with other language teachers, for example.
I definitely would set aside times for chats and include audio in the future. Also podcasting would be a feature to add. The joint glossary is another necessary feature that I have actually been looking for the last few years, even since I started teaching the reading course
Students could not log on to WebCT; I had to wait until the end of class to read carefully through the instructions again and see that they had to register with WebCT and then I had to add them through the Global Community link.
I made sure I had every body's e-mail before class and assured them that I would solve the problem the next day.
Meanwhile over at the Tech Mall the projector did not work. So we went over there to find the projector not working and the students not able to get on WebCT. Only those students could get on who were originally added about two weeks ago by the system administrator.
Fortunately in the original classroom the projector was working so I went back there, took the students through the site and gave them the assignments for the next week. Meanwhile I posted the assignments and our discussion on on-line learning and the languages they speak on WebCT.
The big difference to what I have done before in using Blackboard and WebCT is that I cannot rely on meeting the students again at the next class period and solving the problems. The community has to be set up in virtual space.
Also I am starting to realize how the syllabus has to be changed to accommodate the hybrid class. At the moment I have a calendar with a M/W session, although there is only a Monday session.
The only other technology glitch was that the chat program would not work from the classroom when i wanted to demonstrate that. But a student assured me that it did work in the Learning Resource Center. The audio file did download, fortunately, but I could not just save it. I have to look into this under the instructions for loading audio and video files.
Wednesday: The day normally that I would teach the class. It is interesting to see how many people have gotten on-line, about 11, with up to 29 hits. A couple of students have gotten on-line by e-mailing me and then following the procedure. Let's see the exact numbers: 11 students with 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 2x17, 18, 23, 25, and 29 hits. One student with 23 hits (Melin Ozkay) is a student I e-mailed to explain how to get on-line after the class on Monday. Chaochi who was very diligently trying to get on at the computer lab without success has now been on-line there 29 times!
Friday: When I took Eniko's 550 Language Teaching Methodology class through our oral proficiency software, LARCStar, a former colleague from Miramar came up to me and told me about his experience as a student in the Linguistics Dept. He praised two teachers and criticized two, above all for their use of Blackboard. He said they reminded him of the old teachers who would write with chalk in one hand and erasing with the other. He said that use of technology meant a step backwards. Above all, he was concerned about how the material was organized, that instructors not just throw up the material without organizing it.
Meanwhile Marcia told me that in her daughter's on-line high school the material is highly organized, with guidelines as to which task to complete when and the use of narrated Powerpoint presentations.
Tuesday (10/24): It ended up that no one dropped the course who attended class; in addition a few people added the course so that enrollment is up to 23. The class went really well on Monday. Instead of being a stumbling block or a focus, technology was simply a facilitator of what we were doing in class. In fact. the hybrid course is itself a good migration from the way I have recently taught the course to a full-fledged on-line course. The last time I taught the course, I used WebCT and had the students do the on-line quizzes. Some submitted their writing assignments via WebCT and some did not. Now, WebCT is more a natural extension of the course. And it reality it makes more sense to set them up for the activities on WebCT than it does to spend this time in class with them, where the time cannot be used nearly as efficiently. So the session we have together once a week becomes a forum to focus on aspects of the different activities and troubleshoot any problems that have arisen. Already it seems less of teacher dominated class, and more modular, even though in my instruction I had them read out sentences and give me answers. But three people went over to the computer lab to create WebCT ID's and two others went over to registration to add the course. And rather than feeling compelled to do every exercises, I could pinpoint ones that clarified task types; finally there was a good deal of flexibility built in, by, for example, asking them to contribute vocabulary items and to discuss the submitted writing assignments.
Sunday: I would say it is going well with WebCT now. I just read the student writing, corrected them, uploaded it, commented on it and graded it, all with ease. I also noticed that the results from the first quiz rather than the best quiz were being used for the students' grade, so I just changed this setting in WebCT and had the system regrade the quizzes. Then I sent a note to all the students.
I got some great ideas from SWALLT about how to use Powerpoint , Camtasia and how to organize the on-line site. The new version of WebCT looks very attractive.
Saturday (11/11) The blended part of the course is going very smoothly now. Students readily write to me in the mail program there. The easiest part remains correcting the writing assignments. I wanted to give a midterm this coming Monday, but we did not quite finish the unit. Also, I was concerned about taking the entire class time for the midterm. So I have decided to make the midterm a take-home test. At first I was going to photocopy it, but last night decided to just post in as an assignment. There are two texts that the students need from the quiz book, so I will just scan these and put these on-line as well. I guess, if I really wanted to make it an assessment, I could make the test a true on-line test and place a time-limit on it. But I have kept it as a Word document that they can send it to me.
I have to add something about now being able to take a video clip from a DVD and upload it. I finally was able to take a 15 second clip from Garfield that involves an ambiguity of the phrasal verb 'come on'. I was able to download the audio via Total Recorder a few months ago. Now, by using five programs, I was able to save the clip as an MPEG-1 file. The five programs were: DVDFab Decrypter (strip coding); DVD Shrink (compress); NTICD + DVD Maker 7 (burn DVD); FlaskMpeg (cut out a scene [avi]); tmpgenc [2.524] (further compress and save as MPEG 1 -4).
Sunday (11/12) I have to add something related to technology that is not directly related to the course. I have a 180-page pdf file for the ACTFL conference I am attending this week and wanted to put it on my ipod so that I can easily refer to it. I found a blog that tells the steps to follow and provides a link to a site that will automatically convert the .txt file to smaller files for Notes on the ipod. It took a few minutes and now I have the whole program easily accessible. The two addresses, which I have also put on delcious/kiralyfi are:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/ipod-notes-reader-display-websites-pdf.html
http://www.ambience.sk/ipod-ebook-creator/ipod-book-notes-text-conversion.php
Sunday, Nov. 19: Sitting in the airport after the ACTFL conference. Something I learned this trip is how indispensable a laptop is now when traveling! In the hotel and here at the airport i have a wireless connection. At the hotel I was able to respond to messages from students in my course, correct their papers and send them back, and reset the time limit for a few students who said that they had not been able to complete the quizzes; here at the airport I was able to upload the ACTFL presentation to my WWW site, which I had promised a few people and, continue this kind of blog. And finally I will publish this again and send the address to Karen at the University of Texas. At the conference itself it is a lot more comfortable presenting with you own computer. And highest praised to Lenovo for the way this laptop held up! This collaborative writing tool from Google has gotten a lot more sophisticated it seems -- there are greater formatting possibilities and an excellent spell check. Finally it is easy to publish as a public document at the ed. I guess the address for this now is http://docs.google.com instead of Writely, though the writely address will still get you there.
Thanksgiving: The class on Monday was a struggle. A number of students had to finish the midterm either at the beginning or leaving at the halfway point. I also only had four hours of sleep after my plane was diverted to LA due to the fog in San Diego. Some students are still having difficulty knowing where to upload the assignments. A guided lesson plan is definitely a feature I will add next time. (By the way, the college is going to give me a stipend for developing the online material.) Still, now on Thanksgiving I see that I have about 15 of the midterms. I am actually happy that I decided to make it a take home. If we had had it in class I would have lost time that I absolutely needed to cover the material in the course book. What I have discovered is that it takes a minimum of going over the pre-vocabulary, vocabulary and reading comprehension questions to cover a unit. This way we will be able to get through at least Unit 12 and maybe 13 out of the 14. The final is based on 13 units. Also, the students have been exposed to the type of test they will have on the final, which will be a sit down, without it being as threatening. A last observation about the course at this point is that the writing assignments are going extremely well. The students are really opening up. I feel because it is not a writing course, I don't have to focus on grammar. I make the corrections on their papers, which brings out the flow of their thought even more. As a result, I believe, their writing is progressing very nicely, with far better development than I am used to at this level.
End of term. It was easy, very easy to manage the grading this time using WebCT. It is a feature that I would miss switching to another CMS. I heard a podcast this week at Language Learning Unleashed about Moodle in which the founder of Moodle participated. Features that sounded attractive were a jointly constructed glossary and the the fact that all activities could be organized in one topic area: writing assignments, quizzes, discuss forums, chats. The newest version of Moodle allows roles to be assigned throughout or in individual modules, decentralizing the CMS and making it truer to the principles of social constructionism. Coming in July is a link to other Moodle sites so that by clicking on a button one could interact with other language teachers, for example.
I definitely would set aside times for chats and include audio in the future. Also podcasting would be a feature to add. The joint glossary is another necessary feature that I have actually been looking for the last few years, even since I started teaching the reading course
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