Friday, April 23, 2010

Edufire.com

I just found this website, Edufire, and started thinking of using it.
http://edufire.com/
In this website, anybody can register as a tutor (or a student) and have classes (tutoring sessions with online conference software) of their favorite subjects. You set an hour rate for your tutoring session and do classes with one student or a group of people. Subjects, rate, time, and style of teaching are all up to you!
I suggest you go to the website and see what kind of class is offered now and how flexible it can be.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Web conference software?

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I posted something here last time...

I have a sort of random question.
What is a good free web conference software? and I feel like this is mentioned in one of today's tech talk. I some times use Skype but I need something else because Skype is only used for one-one web conversation, not for multiple people talk. I need this function because I have this group of Japanese conversation practice ,that I facilitate weekly in the semester and want to continue doing it even in summer when many people are out of town. I am thinking of maybe having one hour session per week where people can participate online using a software like skype except with no limitation of the number of people. What's the best way?

I guess I'll start looking right now...

Monday, March 15, 2010

Class wiki activated

I started using classwiki for JPNS class.
I did not make it requirement but optional to contribute to that page so that people can work on it when they like to improve their grade. I did this because for one I did not plan this in the beginning of the semester and because we already have so many other assignment such as tests, quiz, homework, final presentation project, and all.
It seems like people are not really active working on the class wiki page right now. But I hope this will change as the semester goes. I guess I need to keep reminding and encouraging them to work on the wiki every now and then.

By the way, I like the way we have midterm feedback for EDHI9040 and I just learned how easy and useful the survey monkey is. I would like to use it to get feedback from my JPNS class for a certain assignment that people are supposed to submit this week.

to be continued...

clicker

lecture capture

Monday, February 22, 2010

Class wiki

I am so impressed by the presented examples and ideas of wiki use in teaching and learning.

I am thinking of using wiki (maybe google site) for my JPNS class. Off the top of my head, I think I could make a page of vocabulary list and ask students to add any new words (along with example sentences) they come across when they learn Japanese outside of the class. This way, students and I can create our own original list of words we can all learn collaboratively. Students may be rewarded for adding many words to the list. I could even make it like a class competition: who gets the most words? This idea, as you may see, definitely comes from the example of biology class wiki presented in our class. =) I really liked it!

Monday, February 15, 2010

VD for JPNS class

Virtual Demonstration:
I took an example of VD from mathematics. I am wondering what VD would be like in my JPNS class.

Here are some examples that I used in class, which are YouTube videos.

How to talk rude

I used this one to show how people say "no" in a non-textbookish way.

Discussion v.s. Q&A

Discussion pages:
After our class about use of eLC, I started thinking of how I can have a discussion page for my JPNS class as well as what kind of discussion would be going for such a basic language class. I then figured students do not really "discuss" things about Japanese language online because, in my opinion, language learning at this level would be more individual and personal. Students language development depends on their individual practice on their own time and effort. And social and interactive aspects of language learning should be discussed in class, at this level.
So I decided that, instead of using the discussion page feature of eLC, I would simply make a "Q&A" post in the class blog, once in a while. Whenever students have a questions in our ongoing materials they can post their questions by making a comment under the post. I often go see the blog myself and try to the answer. I like this way since the Q&A can still be in public.

Monday, February 8, 2010

eLearning Commons
For the elementary Japanese language class, I use eLC only to upload files of huge size. I often have PDF files of manga pages to explain Japanese grammar in class and later I upload the files in eLC so students can download if they like. I just couldn't find a better way to do this. This works well so far.

I was also thinking of using eLC to keep my grade book for quiz, tests, participation, and other assignments. But I have too many quizzes and tests and I take attendance almost everyday. So I figured it is too overwhelming to have every grade record (like the grade of every quiz and test) in a single "grade" page in eLC. I decided to stick to my old way of keeping grade, which is excel spreadsheet file. Near the end of the semester, I will use the eLC grade book feature to show students' current grade. I do this because last semester many students asked me by email about their grade and I had to tell each one every time. It was just so time consuming!