Sunday, April 27, 2008

Welcome May-July 2008 Class!

Welcome, everybody!

This new trimester, we will be working with The Speaking Group. But what is that? you may be asking yourself. Well, let's try to explain what it is about. To start with:
  1. It is mostly about learning and practicing your English.
  2. It is about learning English by talking about different topics. You will be reading, listening to, writing and talking about different topics in English.
  3. It is about learning English using technology. That means we will be using computers and internet to find real updated information concerning your different interests. We are going to experiment and play with new ways to learn autonomously. Learning for life. Learning to learn. Learning by doing. We will watching and listening to videos as well as making videos. We'll have the chance to use different tools to express our ideas and interact with people.
  4. It is about learning and practicing your English in groups, in community. Be ready to meet students and teachers from the university and the world. Of course, there will be tasks you must complete on your own.
That was a general description of the course. Now, how the classes take place:
  • Classes are going to be held at the lab. I f you can't come to classes, you can connect at home or wherever you have access to a computer and Internet.
  • You need to get a google account, since we will using different tools provided by Google. make sure to register to Gmail, Google Reader, Google Talk, Google Doc, and Blogger
  • Blogs are going to be your personal journals. There you will register everything we do in class. All your homework and tasks should be there.
  • Every class will be a taken as a workshop or TALLER. Try not to miss your classes and if you do, keep your blog updated.
  • Homework will be assigned for each one of the units covered in class. The dateline to hand in your homework will be the day of your test. It means you will have the chance to work on your blog till the exam day.
  • Corrections to writing will be done through Google documents.
Assesment




Things you need to do to take this class:
  • Get a Gmail account and register to Google services: reader, Google talk, reader and blogger.
  • Get a blog at Blogger. For instructions on how to that get the power point presentation from our box or follow the tutorial prepared by Vance Stevens.


    Benchmarks:
    At the end of this class. I should have:

    • Read my class guidelines
    • Met my new classmates
    • Worked with the introductory task
    • Registered at Google and have a Gmail account.
    • Registered to Google readers.
    • Registered to Google doc.
    • Downloaded Google Talk and activated my IM.
    • Downloaded Answers.com alt+ click software to my computer.
    • Opened my Blogger account and posted my first entry.
    • Registered at the International Collaboration Ning social network
    • Taken two surveys
    This is a mind map of the class program

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Last Task Before We Say Good Bye Jan-Apr 2008 Speaking Gruop

Please, visit your partners blogs and leave a comment on their blogs... you can say something like what you like about them or something like.... how well they did or how lucky you were by being together .. please, keep shining and blogging.. I promise I will keep reading what you have to say... Love you all... you were a really cool group. I know that each one of you is very talented and that you are going to be great professionals in your fields.

Cinthia Osorio www.cinthiaosorio23.blogspot.com
Johana Reyes www.jane3001.blogspot.com
Joselin estaba www.joselin21.blogspot.com
Dionerio Gonzalez www.dionerio1104.blogspot.com
Enrique Govea www.kikegovea.blogspot.com
Eugenia Perez www.eugenia-eugeniaperez.blogspot.com
Patricia Perche www.pachiexplainsall.blogspot.com
Ricardo Molina www.superricky87.blogspot.com
Eduardo Montaña www.edenmoad.blogspot.com
Antonieta Viloria www.antonietaviloria.blogspot.com
Daniela Soto www.danielita087.blogspot.com
Jose Arraiol www.arraioljose.blogspot.com
Gabriela Corona www.shadowgmc.blogspot.com/
Daniel Soto www.dansso.blogspot.com/
Luis Perez www.ceterisguitarperez.blogspot.com/
Daniel Sanchez www.dansanchezg.blogspot.com/

Well, here there are the links... so go ahead and say hello and goodbye to your partners in EFL adventures.

Photo by sliceoflife

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Where to Find Creative Common Images

Creative Commons Trademark What's Creative Commons?

According to Wikipedia

The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain rights (or none) of the work.

creativecommons.org

Briefly...

Attribution icon Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit.

Noncommercial icon Noncommercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works icon No Derivative Works means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike iconShare Alike means:
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

This is the one I use. All my work is under these license:

Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Use keywords or tags to find an image that is related to your posts in your blogs and don't forget to write the source where you found the information or images or video or music you are using in your blogs.

Search for Creative Commons images using these sites:

* flickrlilli.org.uk
* flickr.com/creative commons/by-nc-nd-2.0
* stock.xchng-sxc.hu
* morgueFile.com
* Wikimedia Commons
* flickrcc.bluemountains.net

Search for Creative Commons audio and music using these sites:
* Jamendo - An archive of music albums under Creative Commons licenses

Source: Flicker, Answers, Creative Commons

Monday, April 7, 2008

Unit 8. Podcasting

Podcasting: According to answers.com … Podcasting is “Recording a non-music audio broadcast (news, sports, discussion, etc.) in the MP3 format for playback in a digital music player.”

Our final project will be to record a mp3 radio program to upload to our blogs. This is how to do it:



Watch this powerpoint point explaining some things about podcasting


Not clear yet? Here yo have another short video explaining what podcasting is about...


Now, visit Bardwell Road Center Podcast and listen to some of its programs. They are good model you can follow to record your own podcast.

1. You will need:
mp3 recorder. You can use your phone, mp3 player or a program called audacity.

2. After the shows are ready, upload your mp3 files to Imeeem. Register there and get the code to post it in your blog.

3. Make a power point presentation of the making of the podcast. Record your voice describing what happened during the podcast recording and upload it to your blog. You can upload your powerpoint to authorstream. Get the code and paste it back in your blog.

Here you can see some podcasts from past terms as examples of what you can do. Here you have Josue's podcast, too.

This is Eric's making of the podcast Power Point.


PODCASTING TIPS URLs!
A tip about these tips: Copy this note or any part of it you wish to investigate, then paste it into your chat. Now look at your chat history. The links are hot, hot, hot! You can now click on a link and open it in a browser window for your learning enjoyment. ..

A podcast about podcasting! http://www.podcastingunderground.com/
Tips for Listeners from Apple! http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststips.html
Podcasting 101 http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7184.asp
Ten Tips for Improving Your Podcasts http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/08/10/improvingpodcasts.html

Scottmerrick Oh's del.icio.us from his NECC 2007 Windows Podcasting Tools, Tips, and Strategies for Success session NECC2007 http://del.icio.us/scottmerrick