Good evening, it's Monday night after a very busy weekend.
I must admit that I had never heard of many of this week's sites, as I tend to prefer real books & magazines - which I know is soooo last century..... and I know bookstores are closing all over the place.... But there are still some good ones around which even sell pre-loved books and... coffee..... it's the best way to spend some spare time! You might be pleased to know that I have ordered a few books on-line...and I do read an on-line newspaper most days. I agree with the convenience factor of the electronic versions you mentioned though.
Anyhow, I was perturbed to find that the books listed on one of the sites you mentioned that I visited were selling at much cheaper prices than what one can purchase them for in a bookstore....! Most seemed to be half the price! This is something to investigate further.
Anyhow, I am thrilled to have learned a new word - COPYLEFT - on the librivox site. It seems that there are loads of books available for free. I had trouble getting the one that I wanted. The site called "The Best Place to Get Free Books" had a pre-filled reggo form using my FB profile!!!! - so I was a bit annoyed at that, so I didn't download anything. Are they partnered?
I tried to download a short book from scribd but I didnt have much success. The book was called http://www.scribd.com/doc/73595960/Ten-Things-I-m-Grateful-For (that's the link).
Then I tried to make an ebook using flipsnack - but it wanted pdfs, which I didnt have ready.
So, I went to StoryJumper. I signed in and made a woeful children's book. I sent it to you via email, as I couldnt work out how to put it on my blog. It didnt offer that as an option.
Don't laugh too hard when you see it please.... Am very tired.........I think I could use this site in my classes, as sometimes in my Middle School language classes, I ask the students to write stories and children's books.
lastly, I had a look at Movella. It seemed to me to be similar to FB. There were lots of people's views and I am not sure that teachers can control the content viewed by their students here.
Anyhow, thanks for everything you have shared with us over the term. It has been a very interesting course and a challenging journey. I would like more time now to go back and use what I have learned in my classes and get the students to use appropriate sites for various tasks / units of work.
All the very best and good luck for sharing the techy stuff with more teachers!
Ciao to all, Livia
Monday, 25 June 2012
Monday, 18 June 2012
Week 9 homework - Catch and Condense
Hello there,
We are at the business end of the course and the school term! I found this week's task tricky. I signed in to strawberryj.am but i havent heard from them.
I had a look at paper.li - i read some of the papers (some has interesting articles / photos / videos) and was intrigued / pleased to find some papers in Spanish. It was very current, as there was even an article about the Greek election. I couldnt find any Italian newspapers however - but there did seem to be a number of papers to read.
i think that i will return to paper.li as i like the idea of having a class write their own newspaper. I think the students would find this class activity engaging and i wonder if it would work??
i watched the summify video and then tried to link it with my google account. But i was told that it has been acquired by twitter and they couldnt accept my registration! I didnt try to link it with twitter this evening- i may need some coaching and am getting tired....
Next I signed up for topic marks and am hoping to benefit from this. they did send me an immediate email confirmation. i worked out that i can now upload different things. From your notes, i understand that TM will produce a summaries of these docs and files. i didnt get a chance to try this.. will have to get back to it.....
I was intrigued by wibbitz and thought that i could use it in my lesson prep. However, it didnt seem to like any of the URLs i pasted in. i did try several - but they couldnt accept any of them. I was determined to create a clip and so i persevered for quite a while. It seemed to cope initially with an article about the eruption of Mt Etna but then the circle kept going round and round and not much else happened. I then found some short articles, but on each occasion, it wouldnt work. I wonder if it prefers feeds rather than URLs?? Once again, i think i need some coaching here..
In answer to the question, i usually do source info for myself - but i suppose i have to have a general idea of what i am looking for or the direction i am heading in. The notion of being kept informed is useful. i do at times get distracted by the Facebook newsfeed - it can be difficult to stay on task when one has all the interesting bits and pieces to keep up to date with. There simply needs to be more hours in the day!!
Anyhow, better get into bed.... See you next week, Livia
We are at the business end of the course and the school term! I found this week's task tricky. I signed in to strawberryj.am but i havent heard from them.
I had a look at paper.li - i read some of the papers (some has interesting articles / photos / videos) and was intrigued / pleased to find some papers in Spanish. It was very current, as there was even an article about the Greek election. I couldnt find any Italian newspapers however - but there did seem to be a number of papers to read.
i think that i will return to paper.li as i like the idea of having a class write their own newspaper. I think the students would find this class activity engaging and i wonder if it would work??
i watched the summify video and then tried to link it with my google account. But i was told that it has been acquired by twitter and they couldnt accept my registration! I didnt try to link it with twitter this evening- i may need some coaching and am getting tired....
Next I signed up for topic marks and am hoping to benefit from this. they did send me an immediate email confirmation. i worked out that i can now upload different things. From your notes, i understand that TM will produce a summaries of these docs and files. i didnt get a chance to try this.. will have to get back to it.....
I was intrigued by wibbitz and thought that i could use it in my lesson prep. However, it didnt seem to like any of the URLs i pasted in. i did try several - but they couldnt accept any of them. I was determined to create a clip and so i persevered for quite a while. It seemed to cope initially with an article about the eruption of Mt Etna but then the circle kept going round and round and not much else happened. I then found some short articles, but on each occasion, it wouldnt work. I wonder if it prefers feeds rather than URLs?? Once again, i think i need some coaching here..
In answer to the question, i usually do source info for myself - but i suppose i have to have a general idea of what i am looking for or the direction i am heading in. The notion of being kept informed is useful. i do at times get distracted by the Facebook newsfeed - it can be difficult to stay on task when one has all the interesting bits and pieces to keep up to date with. There simply needs to be more hours in the day!!
Anyhow, better get into bed.... See you next week, Livia
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
investigating new search engines
Good evening,i had no idea that these search engines even existed! i really tend to use GOOGLE and at times YAHOO. i find that GOOGLE.IT is invaluable for searching for material in Italian. The students also use the translator a great deal, except that they sometimes forget that it's really only useful for single word translations, rather than entire sentences - as the google translated ones don't make sense in Italian.
i was intrigued by WOLFRAM ALPHA. i asked it some factual questions. i found out that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is 55 metres in height, but the really useful thing is that it provided me with related information and queries. i think this would be useful for students and teachers planning units of work.
I couldnt get the hang of KNGINE. i might need to go back to view the video?
TWURDY was really good. i typed in - Teaching Critical Thinking - and it offered me some texts, which interestingly included their readablity levels. The texts were shaded - lighter for easier levels and darker for harder levels. i think this would be useful for students.
i found that BLEKKO looks a bit like GOOGLE and it too can search images and videos. However, i typed in Italy's role in the world wars and didnt get much good info. then i entered Mussolini's role in World War 1 and 2. Similarly, there werent many good articles - but there was some info.
I tried to sign in to QWIKI but couldnt! dont know why. It kept telling me it didnt like my email and/ or password! Your description makes it sound interesting, so i will have to try again at some stage!
I was intrigued by DEWEY DIGGER. Just for fun I clicked on the 700s, which i know has the Arts. I then clicked on Languages and it offered me a number of search engines, including some of the new ones i just learned about. I then randomly selected BING, which was good. Then of course i went to YOUTUBE and i watched a cute video "1 love you x 100" - 100 ways of saying I love you, which I think my students would like to see. I think this option will be useful to more than just techer librarians, as it doesnt take long at all to get to lots of information about a particular topic!
i would love to get into PODCASTS, as they sound useful for language learners who could listen to speeches, lectures etc. i had trouble accessing podscope.com Must try another day..
In terms of other search engines, i just found out that there are oodles of them! http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ I had a look at SHOPZILLA, as one can never have enough shoes and bags! i also looked at some of the jobs ones like MONSTER.COM This one seemed very user friendly.
Thanks for showing me all these! I am sure I will share them with others.
Anyhow, better go. Livia
i was intrigued by WOLFRAM ALPHA. i asked it some factual questions. i found out that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is 55 metres in height, but the really useful thing is that it provided me with related information and queries. i think this would be useful for students and teachers planning units of work.
I couldnt get the hang of KNGINE. i might need to go back to view the video?
TWURDY was really good. i typed in - Teaching Critical Thinking - and it offered me some texts, which interestingly included their readablity levels. The texts were shaded - lighter for easier levels and darker for harder levels. i think this would be useful for students.
i found that BLEKKO looks a bit like GOOGLE and it too can search images and videos. However, i typed in Italy's role in the world wars and didnt get much good info. then i entered Mussolini's role in World War 1 and 2. Similarly, there werent many good articles - but there was some info.
I tried to sign in to QWIKI but couldnt! dont know why. It kept telling me it didnt like my email and/ or password! Your description makes it sound interesting, so i will have to try again at some stage!
I was intrigued by DEWEY DIGGER. Just for fun I clicked on the 700s, which i know has the Arts. I then clicked on Languages and it offered me a number of search engines, including some of the new ones i just learned about. I then randomly selected BING, which was good. Then of course i went to YOUTUBE and i watched a cute video "1 love you x 100" - 100 ways of saying I love you, which I think my students would like to see. I think this option will be useful to more than just techer librarians, as it doesnt take long at all to get to lots of information about a particular topic!
i would love to get into PODCASTS, as they sound useful for language learners who could listen to speeches, lectures etc. i had trouble accessing podscope.com Must try another day..
In terms of other search engines, i just found out that there are oodles of them! http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ I had a look at SHOPZILLA, as one can never have enough shoes and bags! i also looked at some of the jobs ones like MONSTER.COM This one seemed very user friendly.
Thanks for showing me all these! I am sure I will share them with others.
Anyhow, better go. Livia
Monday, 11 June 2012
I've tried to embed a youtube video!
Here it is. I hope it's good, as we are seeing it tonight! See ya soon, Livia
Sunday, 10 June 2012
The world of images - Week 7 homework
Well, tis Sunday night this time! We went out last night and so the time has come to do my homework! i liked the idea of linking a youtube video into the blog. this is one i watched this morning actually, as yesterday, we splurged on a black truffle from France, for the very first time ever. After viewing this video
http://youtu.be/GtKeVxsT5fI i made a very nice dish (lingune ai tartufi neri) which everyone loved!
We will only serve it on vvv special occasions, as the delicacy costs $1 per gram, yes gram!
Then i had a look at some of the suggested photo sites. I am not surprised that there are so many of them. The one that i found the most astounding was Tag Galaxy! After typing in Rome, Italy, the Colosseum and Architecture, some beautiful images were found for me. i did try to upload one my blog, but wasnt allowed to. Another draw back with this one might be that one might get distracted from the task at hand, as there are so many images proposed!
Next i looked at Pixir and i loved the photo editing tool. This is what i did with a photo i took of our lovely cat, Sheldon! i "bloated" him a bit!! and blacked out most of the LHS! There were so many more functions - some of which stumped me a little. It actually took me a while to find UNDO! I also had a go with the retro function on another photo, which i found very easy to use. This is what i did to a photo my hubby took of Snowy Sweden last year. i think my photos will look a lot better from now on.
I would like to have a look at more photo sites suggested, like Flickr, in more detail one day. I think I will be able to use Zoom.it in my teaching when i want to highlight specific points etc.
In the past i have just usually gone to google images. I did use another quality free site a few years ago, but now i cant remember its name. This evening, i searched for a free photo site i liked. i found freedigitalphotos.net
What i liked about this site is that it has 118 photos of Italy, that i will be able to use in my teaching.
i dont think i will bother with morgue file - what a weird name!
Anyhow, i think it's time to knock off. I hope you all have a good week, Livia
http://youtu.be/GtKeVxsT5fI i made a very nice dish (lingune ai tartufi neri) which everyone loved!
We will only serve it on vvv special occasions, as the delicacy costs $1 per gram, yes gram!
Then i had a look at some of the suggested photo sites. I am not surprised that there are so many of them. The one that i found the most astounding was Tag Galaxy! After typing in Rome, Italy, the Colosseum and Architecture, some beautiful images were found for me. i did try to upload one my blog, but wasnt allowed to. Another draw back with this one might be that one might get distracted from the task at hand, as there are so many images proposed!
I would like to have a look at more photo sites suggested, like Flickr, in more detail one day. I think I will be able to use Zoom.it in my teaching when i want to highlight specific points etc.
In the past i have just usually gone to google images. I did use another quality free site a few years ago, but now i cant remember its name. This evening, i searched for a free photo site i liked. i found freedigitalphotos.net
What i liked about this site is that it has 118 photos of Italy, that i will be able to use in my teaching.
i dont think i will bother with morgue file - what a weird name!
Anyhow, i think it's time to knock off. I hope you all have a good week, Livia
Saturday, 2 June 2012
The role of the audio visual - videos rule!
Buona sera. It's Saturday night again (what a week!) and our homework is to explore some videos and their application to the classroom. The ones i am most familiar with using is YOUTUBE, so, no wonder that's where i started. i found a very funny one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3iAqxNpQ-A
(The Monty Python Italian Lesson) which is very funny and must be quite old, as all the guys look quite spritely. Its is very funny, as the students seem to know more than the teacher and be able to say it better too! I also think humor is very effective in the classroom and i think showing something like this would encourage the students to come up with some of their own funny situations in small groups, which they could perform in class.
One gets very good at skipping the ads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Kx-BDA3mc (English / Italian Lesson 4 - differences / contrari) was quite good. However, the video they invite you to see at the end of it on Body Parts http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=j-Kx-BDA3mc&feature=iv&v=P1MB-DzajMo&annotation_id=annotation_822775 has several grammatical errors and some pronunciation problems! So, i think it is crucial for teachers to preview the videos before showing them to the students. There is plenty of material on youtube and i know students like to use this too. My students can't access youtube themselves at school but they can watch videos selected by the teacher on the large screen.
Then i went to TED, which i have seen before. i liked the option of starting up a conversation or joining in on a conversation, like "As a parent (or a grandparent), how do you bring your child / children up to think and live "Green"?
I looked at some of the talks, but have seen some of them before, so i decided to see if i could find one in Italian on a global issue. this is what i clicked on http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/it/mike_biddle.html
Mike Biddle: La plastica si può riciclare --> where Mike Biddle talks about recycling. I liked the fact that the talk had been subtitled in Italian. The translations seemed spot on to me. So, it could be a very useful option fof the Italian classroom.
I couldn't find a talk delivered in Italian. Even Dr Alberto Cairo's talk was in English and subtitled in Italian http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/it/alberto_cairo_there_are_no_scraps_of_men.html
Nevertheless, there are lots of good things on TED.
Some of the gear on TED-ED seemed to me to be more suitable for switched on senior secondary & tertiary students in general. http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/the-future-of-globalization The Future of Globalization by (Jeffry Smart) wouldnt interest any of my students, although it probably should. The method of presentation was dry - so i would prefer to select something more engaging if i had to entertain / teach high school students.
Kids spend ages watching and sharing short internet videos, especially funny ones, if my 2 are anything to go by. I suppose we all remember more of what we see, than what we are taught in the traditional way.
In closing, i happened upon a kit kat smoothie demo i thought you might enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdhAFnnmYlc&feature=b-cat-howto
Am logging off now. Buona notte, Livia
(The Monty Python Italian Lesson) which is very funny and must be quite old, as all the guys look quite spritely. Its is very funny, as the students seem to know more than the teacher and be able to say it better too! I also think humor is very effective in the classroom and i think showing something like this would encourage the students to come up with some of their own funny situations in small groups, which they could perform in class.
One gets very good at skipping the ads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Kx-BDA3mc (English / Italian Lesson 4 - differences / contrari) was quite good. However, the video they invite you to see at the end of it on Body Parts http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=j-Kx-BDA3mc&feature=iv&v=P1MB-DzajMo&annotation_id=annotation_822775 has several grammatical errors and some pronunciation problems! So, i think it is crucial for teachers to preview the videos before showing them to the students. There is plenty of material on youtube and i know students like to use this too. My students can't access youtube themselves at school but they can watch videos selected by the teacher on the large screen.
Then i went to TED, which i have seen before. i liked the option of starting up a conversation or joining in on a conversation, like "As a parent (or a grandparent), how do you bring your child / children up to think and live "Green"?
I looked at some of the talks, but have seen some of them before, so i decided to see if i could find one in Italian on a global issue. this is what i clicked on http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/it/mike_biddle.html
Mike Biddle: La plastica si può riciclare --> where Mike Biddle talks about recycling. I liked the fact that the talk had been subtitled in Italian. The translations seemed spot on to me. So, it could be a very useful option fof the Italian classroom.
I couldn't find a talk delivered in Italian. Even Dr Alberto Cairo's talk was in English and subtitled in Italian http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/it/alberto_cairo_there_are_no_scraps_of_men.html
Nevertheless, there are lots of good things on TED.
Some of the gear on TED-ED seemed to me to be more suitable for switched on senior secondary & tertiary students in general. http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/the-future-of-globalization The Future of Globalization by (Jeffry Smart) wouldnt interest any of my students, although it probably should. The method of presentation was dry - so i would prefer to select something more engaging if i had to entertain / teach high school students.
Kids spend ages watching and sharing short internet videos, especially funny ones, if my 2 are anything to go by. I suppose we all remember more of what we see, than what we are taught in the traditional way.
In closing, i happened upon a kit kat smoothie demo i thought you might enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdhAFnnmYlc&feature=b-cat-howto
Am logging off now. Buona notte, Livia
Saturday, 26 May 2012
My past presentations must have been so very boring!
It's Saturday night again. Have been sick this week and hence we are not out tonight. I have decided that simply changing the font colour on my ppts is no longer sufficient to snazz them up! Some of the ones i have viewed this evening are v snazzy. i wonder if they would take v long to do?
Anyhow, i joined up with Slide Rocket. When i was trying to make my new and improved ppt, i kept losing the connection and being kicked off the site - so i kept having to log back in. Then sometimes i couldnt figure out how to edit and save - but i got there in the end, without having any support from my techno savvy Gen Ys.....
Anyhow, i would like more time and help to do lots of interesting presentations. i dont like the background i chose much this evening, but i do like the way the youtube video sits in it.
http://portal.sliderocket.com/BXEXB/Livia-s-first-Presentation-with-slide-rocket
i found it hard to navigate my way around SR - and so i think i need more practice. i would like to learn how to put audio in the ppts too, as that would be sensational for me being a language teacher. Anyhow, i think i need to go to bed. Buona notte, Livia
Anyhow, i joined up with Slide Rocket. When i was trying to make my new and improved ppt, i kept losing the connection and being kicked off the site - so i kept having to log back in. Then sometimes i couldnt figure out how to edit and save - but i got there in the end, without having any support from my techno savvy Gen Ys.....
Anyhow, i would like more time and help to do lots of interesting presentations. i dont like the background i chose much this evening, but i do like the way the youtube video sits in it.
http://portal.sliderocket.com/BXEXB/Livia-s-first-Presentation-with-slide-rocket
i found it hard to navigate my way around SR - and so i think i need more practice. i would like to learn how to put audio in the ppts too, as that would be sensational for me being a language teacher. Anyhow, i think i need to go to bed. Buona notte, Livia
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