Embedding A Link

http://www.zotero.org

I was working with Dana today to discover how to embed a link into a paper. I am new to the idea of using websites and I am not familiar with the idea of embedding links. Dana showed me how to embed and take a snapshot of the link so that if anyone was viewing the address the picture caption would appear. It all seems so simple now but for a novice nothing is as simple as it appears.

I needed to know how to embed the link into my paper. Next I need to be able to change the address as it appears to be represented in word context of the paper. I am still trying to discover this method.

http://www.zotero.org

I have noticed one problem. When I use the firefox browser, the picture or captions appear for each address but when I use internet explorer without firefox the picture or captions do not appear. If anyone can explain why this is happening, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I noticed that when using firefox that the music does not start immediately like it does on explorer. You have to download the plugins when viewing the site. Thisprevents both songs to the slideshows from starting at the same time.

Well, the hounds are braying and it is time to see if the fox is up the tree or if he escaped again.

A forgotten place

Check out my Slide Show!

After viewing Dana’s slide show I decided to give the program a try of my own. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but I had to borrow some pictures from my nephew. I am going to download some pictures from my sisters files and then make another slide show. This was great for a first time.

ICT Learning for students in a high school (Great Digital Divide)

 

After going through this course and getting help from several students with skype, yugma and other topics, I was wondering how this would work with a school because of student illness. As it is, I have been working with about 15 students who are currently ill and they are not able to come to school. I have met with the teachers and explained what was wrong with the students but I am having a difficult time getting the work for the students. I put out the students timetable with a request for the homework so that parents can pick it up and leave an email adddress so that the material can be sent via email, but it does not seem to work.

I understand that teachers are very busy but the ill students need work also. How can this be improved upon? If each teacher had a wiki account with their syllabus or a blog then this would be much easier to accomplish. Students and parents would be able to access the information on a daily basis, like Mr. Boltons’ Math Blog. With a subscription to grade book, the marks for the students could be kept on line and the students and parents could access the grades from home when provided a subscription password by the teacher. This will allow pparents and students to view their progress in a course, find out if there are any missing assignments and or test. This allows constant contact between the teacher and parent. The grade book allows for email between the teacher, student and parent. This is an excellent tool for communicating between all parties.

The question arises: What about parents and students who do not have access to a computer or a basic telephone? (In this day and age! YES, many students do not have a basic telephone in their home). The student does not have the capability to go and check out these sites. Nor do you have contact with the parents. Then step back, lets go the old way, call the parent. Find out when the parent is available and then call them. Once you have contact with the parent then give them the information they need. (Again, big problem: A large group of students do not have a telephone or it is out of service.) A question was asked: How is it that the family has a cell phone contact and not a hard line? Easy, if you cannot afford to pay the bill for the hard line then you are disconnected. Now you have to get reconnected. Where is the money coming from? Do you buy groceries or pay for reconnection of your telephone? The cell phone, the family can purchase minutes and when they are used up, they can purchase more. No reconnection fee. Problem solved. This is a realism not a fantasy at school. Many of our students are faced with this problem in their daily lives. How do we overcome the Great Divide when the students do not have access to a basic communication tool: telephone, which we all take for granted is a given.

Check out the grade book site:

http://www.mygradebook.com/

Podcasting

Thanks to Jolene and Angele for their help getting my podcast setup. I was having difficulties with the podcast and through yugma and with their help I was able to produce a shart podcast. I am still having problems with Yugma. While Jolene was the presenter on Yugma, I was able to see what she was doing but the moment that we switched the errors started to show up again. I had to shut down my computer. It seems that I can view but not host. I guess I am making progress because before I did not even have that capability.

Here is my short podcast:

http://bleendedlearning.mypodcast.com/index.html

Text to Voice

As I downloaded the podcast program today to work with tomorrow, I stumbled across these tools, Voki and VozMe. The Voki has a better sound quality than the Vozme, but it is limited to the amount of text that can be converted to voice. Also, it allows you to create chartacters to speak the text for you. Here is a sample from Voki

http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=5361212ef0a2920fe392b5c094c7ebe9&mId=13165

hope you enjoy. It is very short and it would take several files to create a small 5 minute podcast but the sound quality is good.

As for Vozme, the sound is computer generated and you can tell that it is generated. Here is a short file I tried today. It sounds like the computer on the old Star Trek series but it does work. Also, you can take this file and transfer it to the voki file using the mp3file if you wish to add a character to it. The voice quality does not change, it stiil sounds like Star Trek.

http://vozme.com

Just cut and paste the text in and then it is converted into a mp3 file. Give it a try. Just use any text that you like.

How can these programs be useful in a classroom. I was thinking that if you could convert notes to audio then students could use both the notes and audio. Some people need to hear what is said or discussed to follow what is happening. This would allow students to download your notes into an audio file and follow along. Also, what about students who have English as a second language. This would enable students to hear what the words sound like and if they are writing a composition then they would also be able to have it read back to them. This may improve their understanding of the language.

Have to go, the hounds are on the run again. The howling is echoing over the hills.

Yugma

Had a little difficulty getting Yugma set up on my computer. Everything went fine and then pop-ups started appearing. There seems to be some type of conflict between Yugma and the microsoft products I have on my computer. I had 33 errors appearing and more continuously appearing before I was able to shut down my computer. I hope I didn’t pick up a virus while downloading Yugma. The Yugma icon is now on my computer and I will try again to see if the same problem arises.

Tried again but it does not seem to be working properly. I will have to play with it a little more to see if I can get it to work.

Blog Talk

I would like to comment to Glen ’s comment “Rule of thumb…..” In the MTS paper that was published in September and should have been available in all public schools across the province had an article about teacher blogs. In the article it explained what happened to several teachers because of what they included in their blogs. Both the School Divisions and MTS frown upon the use of blogs by teachers to use it as a soapbox to air their grievances.

Remember: Never say anything on a blog that you would not be able to say in a crowded room or have aired on a radio station.

Excellent advice Glen. Thanks.

Grocery Shopping

Should the course have a check list? I hope that it does not come to that. The idea of this course was that it would be a self directed learning experience with collaboration. Having to follow a check list to see if you accomplished you grocery list for this week is not my idea of what self-directed learning is. What kind of impact would this have on the instructor. This would take an alarming amount of time on the instructors part. The instructor would have to establish a routine in which the sites for each of the students was visited and then view each site to determine if the checklist was completed. This is definitely not collaboration!

If I am able to take some of the tools that I have been introduced to in this course and I can use those tools, then would this not show that I have accomplished what this course was designed to do. Using the tools in an everyday (or on a weekly) setting should indicate that I did get some learning from this course. The tools that I am currently using, I have found them to be useful and I have been using them in my daily work. Thanks.

The idea of having the students visit each others blogs and leave comments is interaction and collaboration between participants. Having the ability to see where each of us are in terms of learning, getting help for each other and not being dependent upon the instructor as the sole provider of information is definitely collaboration. This course has definitely provided that opportunity.

Collaboration and self-directed learning has surely been established and maintained throughout this course. It has been the cornerstone of this course. As a novice in the area of internet and ICT learning, I definitely feel that I have had a great deal of information given to me, tools introduced and constant instruction that enabled me to use these tools and get constant feedback from my instructor and peers. Without any of the above, I would not have been able to accomplish what I have so far. Keep the collaboration going, do not restrict the learning that has been established.

Review of Course up to now

The course is very interesting and offers many challenges to a novice like myself. The flow of information is very large and at times it seems that I can’t keep up with everything. All the sites that we visit and the challenge of trying new things out. I think I can keep up with everything and I am not complaining. I have visited the sites and tagged them for future visits and exploration. I am enjoying the adventure and challenges that comes with this course.

So far I have used the Skype both for class and for personal enjoyment. I can now converse with my sister in Halifax and hopefully I will be able to talk to my brother overseas. The Skype conference call had a few snags getting up and running but once it did everything seemed to flow at that point. One problem with having the conference call was that I did not take notes all the topics that were discussed. Also, during the flow of discussion, I got lost following the discussion. I did not know who was saying what. People need to introduce themself before they speak because without a video feed I was unaware of who was saying what.

The idea of using a blog for this course is a great idea. It gives erveryone a chance to offer their ideas between the group in a very collaborative setting. This is a great way to share. The Del.ici.ous site is a great way for all teachers to share information. I have given the delicious site to the science and math teachers to view and some of them have expressed an interest and they would like for me to show them how to use it. This will give me a chance to explore the site further and it is an excellent wat to reinforce the learning that I experience by adding this site.

I am having some problems with coming up with an idea for the final paper in this course. If anyone has an idea to share it would be appreciated.

Just for laughs:

The hTech Support: “Do you have any windows open right now?”

Customer: “Are you crazy woman, it’s twenty below outside …”

The hounds are calling again, so it’s back to the chase.