Thanks to Clay Burell for pointing to this video. The video isn’t great, but the concept is. In just about any class there are competing ideas, positions, beliefs, and so forth. This is a great approach to dealing with those AND this is a great example for teachers asking their students to do this or anything like it (I’ve seen this approach in some Language Arts and History classes).
My Ustream Moment
Ustream.tv has interested me for quite a while. However, I’ve never been at the right place at the right time to really appreciate it. Today I caught a Tweet that Obama was speaking live in Virginia on Ustream. It was great.
I’m not committed to a candidate yet (in any party), yet there was certainly something special about hearing him speak live and in the moment. This just doesn’t seem to come through as well for me in a recorded version. This is entirely mental on my side, but it just seemed to make a difference. I can now better understand the buzz about him. This is really where video blogging will take off. I don’t want you to polish it. Just send it to me in real-time with an option to go back and watch pre-recorded stuff. With the ability to stream from phones and cameras coming built-in to many new laptops, this will be a great movement. It will take citizen journalism to new heights. No longer are we only competing with print publications, but we are competing with broadcast news. After watching Obama, I flipped around a little bit then decided to stream something of my own. Streaming Daehakro (University Street) in Seoul from the 2nd floor window of a Starbucks. Not too exciting, but it does what I want it to do. It shows that a scene like this in Korea isn’t too much different from scenes in other major cities. Too often we exoticize (is that a word?) other cultures. We focus on differences and exotic elements in other cultures that have very little to do with the day to day lives of people in those cultures. Korea is often portrayed with Hanbok (traditional dress for men and women) and kimchi, even by Koreans in America (or other country). Showing similarities doesn’t cut it on international day at school 🙂 There is a lot to be said for the mundane. Show videos of street scenes like this. Show videos of subway riders. Show videos while walking through the Seoul downtown. Korea has come a long way from villagers in huts as portrayed by M.A.S.H., yet many people don’t have a sense of this. Though they might have daily interactions with Koreans, they often think that they escaped in impoverished existence by immigrating to [country name here] to start a new life. For anyone who lives here, that is silly, but it is a common belief that I have heard many times before. Cheers to Ustream.tv and other services that allow us to broadcast the mundane. DanVideo debating website
Learning technology teacher development blog for ELT: Video debating website
Thanks to Nik for pointing me to Think Big. It is an interesting idea. Essentially, There are a number of questions posed and experts contribute their answers. These can then be commented on by users. This will be useful for a class that I’m teaching now called “Current Issues”. This type of debate scenario is already how discussions are structured. The ideas provided both by the experts and commenters provide great starting points (guide points) for discussion. DanWhere is Dora the Explorer for Chinese?
Maybe I shouldn’t even make this comparison. Dora the Explorer is certainly Spanish-lite and not necessarily a good teaching tool. The rush to teach Chinese is hardly subsiding across the world and in the United States. However, while it seems that many parents, educators, and even the government are on board, instructional materials are lacking.
Where are the quality instructional materials for learning Chinese, especially for children? Do they cost too much to produce? Possibly. But, come on, if we can’t do it cheaply in China with Chinese, where can we do it. I would love to see a company get its foot in the door in this area. I see nothing but growth in this area in the coming decades. If done right, you could just modify the script for any language that you want to teach to. Sending it to France? Change it from English to French. It would just take a couple studio hours to record the French speaker.
A friend of mine recently sent me this video that is a fun introduction to some words in Chinese (Mandarin), though it could just as easily be for Mandarin speakers learning English. I think that it’s a great production. If used in conjunction with other materials and possibly a teacher (online or face-to-face), it could be extremely motivating and effective.
Imagine a program like this that grew with students. They could start with the basics and advance as their students advanced. They could go beyond vocabulary learning and branch into learning culture, critical literacy, and so forth. A program like this would cost to start, but the long tail on something like this would provide revenue for many, many years. Not to mention, the first ones into the schools will stay in the schools.
Now that I’m talking about it, I wonder if I could carry it out. Unfortunately, I lack both the production abilities for this sort of animation and the Chinese speakers. Oh, well. I hope that this gives one of you the impetus to check it out.
Happy Thanksgiving! – Turkey singing “I will survive” parody
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Motivational Monday: This Turkey will Survive!
Thanks to Vickie for this video. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends in the States. DanPlay Web 2.0 Truth AND Dare
Vicki Davis passes on some great resources and often adds unique insights to them. This is one of those postings. I’ll embed the video below, but I encourage you to check out the link above to see her questions. They are a great conversation starter.
Dan
Commoncraft “…in plain English” videos
Commoncraft has a series of “…in plain English” videos that are great. I’ll embed some of them here.
This one is about social networking. This is a fundamental concept that you should understand. This one is about RSS, which is the most popular standard for XML syndication. This one is on social bookmarking, which will be central to my presentation. This one is on using Wikis. This one is on using Google Docs. DanWeb 2.0 Workshop
This looks like a really great workshop on a large number of topics regarding the use of Web 2.0 technologies specifically in education. It is organized into a series of short videos that can walk you not only through the technologies, but also the rationale behind using them.
The videos are free for now, but I’d get in there fast to take a look before they disappear.
Dan