WoW!

OOF! For some unknown reason I found this session to be exhausting and overwhelming. This is not to say that I did not manage to do everything I needed to do, but I always felt that I was playing catch up or just putting out fires. It's possible that this is a result of just having to assimilate too much information in too short a time. If I have to characterize this session this is how I would do it. Too much, too quickly. I suppose that some time this summer my brain will catch up with its task... I was asked to moderate an ED-Tech panel discussion and presentation at RASCALS and have agreed to do so. Don't know how it will turn out, but if you don't try you won't know..

Reading Week

True to its name, this week I have been doing a lot of reading. Midterm grammar exams, compositions, compositions, reading exams, and speaking and listening exams. Mark then enter. It seems the week may not be long enough... Boy, will I feel lighter when this is done. I am looking forward to looking back.

If at first you succeed...

The presentation at Rascals went well by all accounts despite a small glitch with Poll Everywhere. There was more material than there was time and the people seemed satisfied with the content. Naturally there are things I would do differently if I were to do it again. All in all a good experience!

Ready to take the plunge again...

After an long relaxing summer I am starting to feel like I may be ready to go again. With this comes a feeling of apprehension and excitement as it always does when I am about to begin something after a break. I worry about the unknowns and I relish them too. We shall see what this season brings...

Fear of Falling

Tomorrow I will be making a presentation to RASCALS on the topic of Ed-Tech for the first time. While I suspect that all will turn out ok, right now I am imagining all the things that can or may go wrong. I suppose that I am experiencing what my students feel when I ask them to present their work in front of the class in a foreign language... It's the fear of falling -- on my face and being embarrassed. Oh well, one can only hope for the best and know that if you don't try - you can't succeed.

First, there was the idea

I have been thinking about how and why someone would do something new and I have come to the realization that nothing is possible until you have and accept an idea. You have to imagine it and think that you can/might be able to/ do it. Seeing someone around you do something helps you to imagine you can do it too. Being the first in a group to do something because you believe (stubbornly) that you can/should/must/ do something is more difficult. There is an incredible feeling of warmth and good feelings that come with achieving something like that. There are generally no bad feelings to not succeeding right away. Try something. You'll feel better. See: How to Find and Do work you love. Scott Dinsmore TEDx Goldengate

Finding Clarity

I just wanted to say that there is nothing that forces you to learn more that the need to explain something to someone else. The first thing you need to do is to identify the audience so that you can tailor your message to them specifically. This exercise forces me to put myself into my audience's shoes and see what I am doing through their eyes. As I review the information that I could present I am overwhelmed with the sheer amount of it and how quickly it seems to be shifting. So, now I need to look at each program, each app, each site and each blog with an eye to evaluating their pertinence, ease of use and importance to teachers and students. I hope that I can live up to expectations and deliver the definitive must-know presentation that I imagine in my head....

Bread Crumbs

When Hansel and Gretel went into the forest, they left a trail of breadcrumbs so that they could find their way back. That is what I intend to do, but not in order to find my way back. Rather, it is for other teachers and people interested in doing what I am doing to use as a way to follow my lead and to get where I am... until such time as they no longer needed my guidance. --In fact, this set of bread crumbs comes with the ability for them to question and comment on my journey into the deep dark forest of tech. While I don't pretend to know all the answers ( certainly not! ) I may, however, be in a position to point them in the right direction(s). I have recently signed up to give a (potential) presentation at this year's (2013) RASCALS in June to be entitled E-literacy in Education: How to Get There from Here that is meant to be a beginner's "How To" guide and introduction to technology for teachers who don't know where to start (but secretly want to) from the point of view of a self-taught digital immigrant (me) who needs to teach to up-and-coming digital natives (my students) in the way in which they have become accustomed to learning. In this presentation, I intend to leave the participants with addresses, links, examples and a blog that will allow them to begin the journey (well-armed)... when they are ready. As well, I intend to show them what I have done and how I have done it. I want to explain to them why they need to connect with tech and how to do it step by step. I will touch on programs and concepts like Facebook, Twitter, PLN's, MOOC's, crowd-sourcing,and others, in a general way and MOST IMPORTANTLY, leave participants with a list of links of useful applications and games they they can use. I will show them what I do with them in my classroom and ALSO where they can go for most answers -- in the event that they did not understand all the first time (because they are suffering from information overload and jargonitis. ---In other words, I would like the presentation at RASCALS to be the beginning of their journey and not the end of their involvement with ed-tech. There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

Back again-with a vengence

I have been away for a long time, but not idle. At school they have changed from Moodle 1.9 ( which caused me some frustrations) to Moodle 2.2.3 I have had to re-learn some of the things that I thought I knew... All in all, though, it has been a good experience. Since my last post I have done many things. 1. I have put together an Google sites page that features grammar with explanations and links to screencasts and videos and then I have reworked it to make it more visual and easier to use. This site plugs into Moodle and allows me to feature content that I will not have to redo every time I change classes. 2. I have made my Moodle front page and homework pages much more visual and standard so that the students won't get too confused from week to week. 3. I have discovered how to make a short answer self-correcting quiz in Moodle that I am very proud of. It took me a day and a half of talking to teachers, watching YouTube How To videos and the reading Moodle docs on moodle.org to figure it out. I am anxious to include some visuals of what I have done as a record and for you to see the reslults of my work. I will do so in the next post. I am also looking at some new programs that will allow me to screencast with no time limit and that will also allow me to use my web cam in this endeavour... More later.

New Sight.

I have decided to include a web site in my Moodle where I will stock all the PowerPoints, Help sheets, and web links that I come across. Subsequently I will reorganize and label the links and other to be more helpful to the students. I like the layout options that I get with GOOGLE SITES. Here is a link to my site. https://sites.google.com/site/intunebasicenglishgrammarhelp/

Booo!

I made a quiz on Engrade and discovered that I could not get an embed code and put it into Moodle. Disappointed. The search continues.

Quizzical

I have wanted to put some self-correcting quizzes on my site but until now I have not found a satisfactory program or app that will easlily allow me to do that. I recently came across a site called ENGRADE which bills itself as a competitor to Moodle that contains a quiz-making program that I can easily master and then it offers me an embed code that | can use to put it into my Moodle page. I will go ahead and do that and blog about it later. Prior to that I tried a Powerpoint add-on program called i-Spring Quizmaker which looked great but there were two problems. 1- the free trial program left a big watermark on the quiz and 2- the program costs 288$ on special! Untouchable for me right now. Engrade bears more investigation as it has other interesting features and it is free! The site called EDMODO is another site that promises to offer Moodle-like features. More on this later. Soldiering on!

Show Me!

So, I think pictures speak louder than words. Here is what one of my Moodle pages looks like and what I can do with it. Comments welcome!

More...

I am starting to feel more comfortable with Moodle. I have been able to simulate coloured backgrounds and give my pages a better look due to PowerPoint 2010. It allows me to take text boxes, add a background colour and then put pictures on top. If I use the "group" feature it turns into a single entity. Then I can save as picture and upload it to Moodle. I can create many interesting visual effects using this feature. It gives the page a more polished look. I also found some nice pre-made PowerPoint templates on some e-learning sites that allow me to give my page a modern look. Audioboo allows me to record short messages and embed them in the page. I found a program called Photobabble which will allow me to make pictures "talk", but have not used it yet... More later....

Breadcrumbs...

I am building some MOODLE 1.9 classes for my English 100 and 101 courses for the first time. I want a more visual experience and 1.9 doesn't really lend itself to it easily. I found that by going to www.screenr.com and looking at the top of the page, I could access an e-blog that specializes in building e-leaning sites. This site generously allows me to download cool PowerPoint templates and has many interesting articles explaining the principles and the how-to of course building. It also allows me to follow a trail of education blogs that are listed in some of these articles. It's like following the breadcrumbs that Hansel and Gretel have left to return home!

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to all you searchers and finders. I endeavor to continue on my way to Grammar's House. I have come across many interesting posts and apps that I need to "digest" before I bring them to you. I have created part of a Moodle course that disappeared at the new year when my admin erased it (I think). Onwards and upwards!

Eureka!

Hi all, I am beside myself as I have come across a FANTASTIC teaching tool with HUGE possibilities for teachers. There is No software necessary and the learning curve is gentle and pleasant.  I am talking about SCREENR, a video ( and other) capture tool that allows teachers to show and comment on videos, websites, documents and other yet to be discovered things. Find it at www.screenr.com
See sample below:

Collège Édouard-Montpetit - Collège cégep Édouard-Montpetit, Longueuil, École nationale d'aérotechnique

Collège Édouard-Montpetit - Collège cégep Édouard-Montpetit, Longueuil, École nationale d'aérotechnique:

'via Blog this'

Been Away

Hello all,
Given the events in my recent life I have taken a "holiday" from the blog.  That said and done, I have not stopped trying to master technology in the hope of improving my teaching.  Recently, I have been exploring Moodle, Wordpress and many disparate iPad 2 apps in an effort to find "the" apps that will allow me to acheive what I would like to do online.  Let me also metion that I have been inspired by Khan Academy and samples of Moodle accounts set up and explained by Nicholas Walker at Rascals last year.  More to come when I begin to sort it out.  The learning curve is huge!

Gerhard Gad Hofmann 1927-2011

On April 8, 2011 my father passed away. We buried him on April 10, on a partly cloudy day in Richmond Hill.
Rest in peace. I will miss you greatly.
Giel