A place to remember how to set up tools I find useful for my teaching.

Groupboard

Tool to add a whiteboard, chat , message board and games to your site. Here are the steps:

1) Go to Groupboard and find the heading that says "Hosted Groupboard Free Version"

2) Then place cursor where it says "click here to set up a free board"

3) Register, set title and page name.

4) Leave password blank if you want any visitor to have access to your board

5) An HTML code will be generated and you can cut and paste it to your site.

Visit mine, write your name in the name box, start experimenting and then save your drawing or message so I can see it later ;-)

Posted by: BertaLeiva at 06:27 | link | comments (2)

Posting audio

  

Three hosts are recommended to publish audio on blogs: audacity, sprindoo and podomatic. I´ll try to describe the process for each.

Sprindoo is pretty friendly. Go to Sprindoo´s page, register and then follow the easy instructions. Here is a video message I recorded using my brandnew computer camera.

Audacity is a bit more complicated. One has to download the program on a computer and also LAME, a program to transform audacity into MP3. Be sure to store both programs and all generated files in the same folder. Once the recording is done, save it as project and then export it as MP3 before embedding it to your blog. Use the following html code to embed MP3 recordings:  <p align="center" /><p align="center"><embed src="here goes the URL, which must end in mp3" width="145" height="100" type="audio/mpeg" autostart="false" /></p>  Let´s see if I can make it.

 Finally, there is Podomatic, a site where one can record and even place photos to illustrate the ideas presented. There is no need to download anything and a photoblog can be easily created. After one records, there is box on the bottom right corner where the html code for your podcast appears in a box that reads "Cut and paste onto your web page". Here is one I made some time ago (I copied it using the html feature in this very post).

Here is a podcast with Odeo:

 

Podcasting for the "College EFL Curriculum" at the Kitakyushu International Conference Centre, Kokura, Japan, JALT 2006.

Posted by: BertaLeiva at 01:28 | link | comments (2)

Through the never ...

This is a Metallica song I always use in our level 3 course to wrap up on the theories about the origin of the universe and start the origin of life. Most students truly enjoy its analysis and connection to ideas discussed in class. Many are surprised that the "poem" is a real song with a strident sound.

All that is, was and will be; universe much too big to see;

Time and space never ending; disturbing thoughts, questions pending;

limitations of human understanding.

Too quick to criticize; obligation to survive; we hunger to be alive.

All that is, ever, ever was, will be ever, twisting, turning, through the never.  

In the dark, see past our eyes; pursuit of truth no matter where it lies

Gazing up to the breeze of the heavens; on a quest, meaning, reason came to be,

How it begun; all alone in the family of the sun; curiosity teasing everyone

On our home, third stone from the sun.  

All that is, ever; ever was, will be ever, twisting, turning, through the never  

On through the never; we must go; on through the never; out to the edge of forever. We must go, on through the never ... then never comes.

 

Click on this documet to hear the song   

Posted by: BertaLeiva at 04:43 | link | comments (1)

About del.icio.us

A place to keep all favorites in one place to be viewed from any computer. Excellent. I had opened an account but had never really used it. I have to get used to it as I keep favorites in  ALL computers where I usually work (three at home, one at work ... pathetic use of information).

Here is my del.icio.us page. I don´t have much yet but hope to keep it growing. It is quite easy to post a favorite: copy the URL, describe the site a bit and most important of all, select an appropriate category for the "tag".

Have a look at the del.icio.us from Becoming a Webhead 2006. This is from Carla Arena, a Brazilian EFL teacher at  BaW06, using another host and this is Maria Claudia´s page on blogging and more

A nice feature is to see tags in clouds, possibility of adding it to blogs and have a network. According to del.icio.us "Your network connects you to other del.icio.us users - friends, family, even new people you run across while exploring del.icio.us.  You can manage your network and keep track of their latest favorites by clicking the "your network" link at the top of the page, or by visiting del.icio.us/network. If you do not want others to see to whom you are connected, you can make your network private by following the "network settings" link on your network page. When you save new bookmarks, you can share them with people in your network simply by clicking on a username. That user (or users) will then receive the sent bookmark and be able to view it by clicking on "links for you" at the top of the page".

Posted by: BertaLeiva at 04:50 | link | comments (1)