Finally there has been a major overhaul of this site. Some of this was on the back end, while other changes are quite visible.

Behind the scenes:
- WP multisites enabled and installed
- better security
- back-up workflow established and general maintenance

Visible Changes:

-  complete visual overhaul
- favicon added
- Apple touch icon added

Soon to Come:
- overhaul and new format of boot camp
- a number of new reviews
- evaluation of last year’s projects

The next phase is a Spanish course, and I predict a larger number of digital stories. The idea about this project is that it becomes an ever-changing mosaic of immigrant voices in Memphis. The groundwork is finished, now we have a workflow and all necessary documents and lesson plans. Looking forward to the upcoming stories and a public event for the project.

Link to the German Projects

For now, here’s the design of the new site. Feedback is welcome!

http://digitalstorytelling.languagetechnologybootcamp.org/

There are numerous reasons, uses and advantages of providing such a backchannel, from brainstorming activities to encouraging participation in larger classes, from acknowledging individual learner differences to providing a support platform during classes.

Student responses are often raw, as can be seen in this screenshot from a second semester German course, in which students suggested possible topics for their final projects.

The activity fostered a participatory culture in that it required everybody’s input, which could in turn be read by everyone in the class. We quickly generated a list that could be saved for further work. In a way it is like all students writing their ideas on the blackboard, but it was much more dynamic and faster this way, and discussions could continue after class. While the tools, such as todaysmeet, are simple to set up and have almost no learning curve, teachers do have some options, such as deciding wether comments are anonymous or if students are required to use their real names.

Overall, it’s agreat way to get feedback from students, particularly the ones who rarely speak in class. It prevents a top-down approach as everyone’s “voice” can be heard and read, and the ability to craft and edit your response can be valuable especially to beginning L2 learners. In a way this is like a clicker, only that the feedback is richer and not in a multiple choice format.

If you want to learn more about backchanneling, Educause has a great information available for free here.

First of all, the software is not free. My college purchased a license so I have access to all features. It works well with some languages – I’ve used it in German and it worked just as well as in English. Even the interface can be changed by an individual, but I have not found a “force language” feature like the one in moodle.

Creating your own rubric and quick comments is easy, especially if you already have them in a digital format. Copy/paste and save. Took me about 15 minutes to import my existing rubric and our language section’s standardized correction key. Here you see a picture (sorry, it’s just a fake document for technology testing purposes):

On the right side you see the quick marks. All you have to do is drag them where you want them to be on the page. You can also add more detailed comments to existing marks or simply create new comments by clicking on the text. There’s also a highlight feature and and inline text commenting feature.

The rubric, once it sets up, allows you to click on the criteria and scales, and the grade is calculated immediately.

There’s a lot to be liked beside these features: peer-editing through computerized or selected pairing, guided peer reviewing questions, print and download features, a general commenting feature, and you’re able to assign draft and editing assignments.

It makes grading a lot easier, and since it’s all browser-based, you can start the process in the office and later finish the last papers at home, continuing where you left off when you left work.

Is it perfect? No, there’s a slight learning curve for some, and there’s no way to deliver audio comments, which would be a great feature for language courses.

Nonetheless, being able to get the job done and give meaningful, prompt, and traceable feedback makes this one of my current favorite tools in writing intensive courses. And it’ll cut down on paper and misplaced piles of folders…

http://www.rhodes.edu/news/20096.asp

Here’s also a new video:

When a new semester begins, I usually struggle with two things: learning students’ names and keeping attendance. Students drop and add classes, and it’s hard to take attendance without knowing who is who. Students being late and myself getting back into teaching mode make matters worse.

Well, there’s an app for that. This January the semester beginning has been different due to a most useful tool called, quite appropriately, Attendance.

Getting set up was fairly easy: I downloaded a CSV template to my computer, pasted my students’ info into the file, put it into a designated dropbox folder, and imported the data in my iPhone (it’ll also work in iPhone touches and iPads).

I added pictures, and now I fire up the app every time I enter the classroom. I hit “present” for those students who are already there and then those as they are coming in. Actively putting a face to the name made name memorization much faster this semester, I know pretty much all names already (something that could otherwise take weeks – generally until the first exam).

The app generates reports, and thus quickly helped me find those “ghost students” who started dropping the course during the first few weeks without letting me know. I can also send quick e-mails to those missing, something I might try if attendance becomes a problem.

The “random” function is a great bonus. It picks students who are present at random, and also pairs up students in groups of 2, 3, 4, etc.

The app was $4.99, and so far the most useful teaching productivity tool. Now if it would only integrate seamlessly with moodle…

Link to the app

soundcloud test by rclanguage

You can also easily create a voice dropbox. But users have to upload a file, inline recording is not possible (which would be fantastic for language courses, of course). Nonetheless, users who wish to upload do not need to have an account, so try it out right now if you wish. Send me your messages!

Send me your sounds

I plan on embedding audio files this way on my moodle course sites. There are, of course, other tools with similar features out there, but this one is particularly easy to use, versatile, and it’ll be with you thanks to its app integrations. The software allows users to connect with one another and share sounds. Perhaps a free alternative to commercial voiceboard applications such as Wimba? More testing is needed at this time.

I’ll let you know when new features come around.

If this is news to you, you might want to check it out. It synchronizes files beautifully among computers and gadgets, wether it’s a PC, a Mac, an iPhone, an Android device, or an iPad. As a teacher, the main attraction is that I have most of my files at my fingertips because I can access all of them via the browser interface in any classroom. It also back up my files.

I know that this is not really a new program, but I still encounter colleagues who haven’t heard of it. So I encourage you to sign up for the 2GB free account – it’s sufficient for most folks. And if you refer the service, you’ll get more free space. Like so:

http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQyMTA5Nzk?src=7