My political blog has been selected as a finalist for a $2000 scholarship awarded by College Scholarships.org. But I need your help! Please visit this site and VOTE FOR ANTHONY PALMER! Please help a fellow USC and TIFLE student out! Tell your friends!
THANK YOU!
Friday, February 29, 2008
On Blogging
Blogs have become among my favorite ways to spend my time online. The number of blogs has exploded in recent years as more and more people become connected to the internet and advances in society and technology give people new subjects about which they can write on their blogs for everyone to see.
However, one major problem with blogs is that it's hard to determine which blogs are worth reading and which ones are better left alone. I suppose a lot of this depends on what you are looking for as a reader. Are you looking for factual content? Meaningful and insightful perspectives on current events in the news? Personal stories about someone's life? Firebrand commentary?
Because blogs are not really regulated (aside from comment moderation and posting access at times), it can be hard to filter out the good sites from the bad. So that's where technology comes in yet again. Sites like Technorati and Digg allow users to see how popular certain sites are, and allow the best or most provocative sites to "go viral" and become an internet phenomenon.
Technorati scours the internet to find out how many different sites link to one individual blog, thus leading to a calculation of "authority." Sites with higher authority are then seen as a bit more popular, and therefore more credible, than sites with lower authority. My political blog has an authority of 40. That's quite validating because when I first started blogging, nobody knew who I was, nor did anybody know if what I wrote was worth reading. But my number of RSS subscribers, unique site hits, and appearances on other people's blogrolls have steadily climbed, so that means I'm doing something right!
I have more to say about that political blog, but I'll save that for a separate post.
However, one major problem with blogs is that it's hard to determine which blogs are worth reading and which ones are better left alone. I suppose a lot of this depends on what you are looking for as a reader. Are you looking for factual content? Meaningful and insightful perspectives on current events in the news? Personal stories about someone's life? Firebrand commentary?
Because blogs are not really regulated (aside from comment moderation and posting access at times), it can be hard to filter out the good sites from the bad. So that's where technology comes in yet again. Sites like Technorati and Digg allow users to see how popular certain sites are, and allow the best or most provocative sites to "go viral" and become an internet phenomenon.
Technorati scours the internet to find out how many different sites link to one individual blog, thus leading to a calculation of "authority." Sites with higher authority are then seen as a bit more popular, and therefore more credible, than sites with lower authority. My political blog has an authority of 40. That's quite validating because when I first started blogging, nobody knew who I was, nor did anybody know if what I wrote was worth reading. But my number of RSS subscribers, unique site hits, and appearances on other people's blogrolls have steadily climbed, so that means I'm doing something right!
I have more to say about that political blog, but I'll save that for a separate post.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Blogging for dollars!
My political blog has been selected as one of the three finalists for a $2000 scholarship! Apparently voting will begin on Monday (the 25th). To any TIFLE students who happen to be reading this, please go to this site and vote for me! THANK YOU!!!
Sure would be nice if I could quit my daytime job and blog for a living...
Sure would be nice if I could quit my daytime job and blog for a living...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Mini-Project 1
You can access my first mini-project here. It is already available at Google Docs, but I will add a link to my blogroll.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
On Gaming
During the long Presidents' Day weekend, I had a thought when I was playing some video games. Wouldn't learning be more fun if it didn't seem like learning? I guess I should preface this by saying I was playing Dragon Quest, a role-playing game, in Japanese. I don't live in Japan anymore and I don't use Japanese as much as I used to either. So these games enable me to read Japanese and even provide real consequences in the event that I misinterpret something, such as a clue from a townsperson, a clue found in a treasure chest, or even a dialogue in a cut scene.
Playing video games in Japanese has been far more educational for me than sitting in front of a textbook. Not only am I learning, I'm learning with context and meaning. This makes me a bit more interested in assessing how games enhance learning. We'll study this in LING 797 a bit later. My class presentation will be about gaming, actually. It really wasn't my first choice, but now that I think about it, I think I'll enjoy the topic.
One of the readings mentioned how younger learners liked to explore and try a new product out without reading the instruction manual first. I think I fall into this category, as is evidenced by the way I approach the Dragon Quest games. How could I make learning more like Dragon Quest without having to program an entirely new game?
I guess when I think about it more conceptually, learning is more fun for me when it's active. I don't like sitting in classes and taking notes. I like learning by doing. I'm a kinesthetic learner, and games are a kinesthetic activity. That's what makes CALL such an intriguing field of study. While the technology is still being refined, I think its potential is quite great. It could have implications for classroom management, students with ADHD, maintaining student interest, and even giving students a greater sense of ownership regarding their own learning.
Playing video games in Japanese has been far more educational for me than sitting in front of a textbook. Not only am I learning, I'm learning with context and meaning. This makes me a bit more interested in assessing how games enhance learning. We'll study this in LING 797 a bit later. My class presentation will be about gaming, actually. It really wasn't my first choice, but now that I think about it, I think I'll enjoy the topic.
One of the readings mentioned how younger learners liked to explore and try a new product out without reading the instruction manual first. I think I fall into this category, as is evidenced by the way I approach the Dragon Quest games. How could I make learning more like Dragon Quest without having to program an entirely new game?
I guess when I think about it more conceptually, learning is more fun for me when it's active. I don't like sitting in classes and taking notes. I like learning by doing. I'm a kinesthetic learner, and games are a kinesthetic activity. That's what makes CALL such an intriguing field of study. While the technology is still being refined, I think its potential is quite great. It could have implications for classroom management, students with ADHD, maintaining student interest, and even giving students a greater sense of ownership regarding their own learning.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thoughts on technology
One of my classes this semester uses Blackboard to serve as a hub for class documents, such as notes, announcements, syllabi, readings, etc. When I was a master's student at USC from 2001-03, I used to think of Blackboard as being more trouble than it was worth. However, now I like the idea of having a central location to keep all my course documents together.
Fast forward to 2008. The professor of the course that uses Blackboard doesn't update the site so much and not all of the documents are available for download. What's the point of using Blackboard if you're not going to upload the notes there in a timely manner? This reminds me of the "bells and whistles" phase of technology in the classroom. Yeah, it's cool to say that your course utilizes Blackboard. But if you don't take advantage of the conveniences it offers, then it's probably not worth using at all. If you're going to try and integrate technology into the classroom, it's important to do so effectively.
In terms of research, I learned this week that there is a glut of research focusing on the over-18 crowd, but a dearth of research examining children. Adults are more accessible and have fewer barriers regarding getting them to participate, obviously. However, this made me think of my own job. I teach adults ranging from about 25 to 40. When it comes time to develop a project for LING 797, I should consider whether I want to focus on adults, which are probably easier to measure, or children, which would be more empirically useful.
Anyway, here's a random YouTube video. Congressman Clyburn is hip!
Fast forward to 2008. The professor of the course that uses Blackboard doesn't update the site so much and not all of the documents are available for download. What's the point of using Blackboard if you're not going to upload the notes there in a timely manner? This reminds me of the "bells and whistles" phase of technology in the classroom. Yeah, it's cool to say that your course utilizes Blackboard. But if you don't take advantage of the conveniences it offers, then it's probably not worth using at all. If you're going to try and integrate technology into the classroom, it's important to do so effectively.
In terms of research, I learned this week that there is a glut of research focusing on the over-18 crowd, but a dearth of research examining children. Adults are more accessible and have fewer barriers regarding getting them to participate, obviously. However, this made me think of my own job. I teach adults ranging from about 25 to 40. When it comes time to develop a project for LING 797, I should consider whether I want to focus on adults, which are probably easier to measure, or children, which would be more empirically useful.
Anyway, here's a random YouTube video. Congressman Clyburn is hip!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Video #2. I miss Japan!
This is another video of Osaka. This time it's a video of Namba, which is downtown.
Japan rocks!
Test video post
If you don't see a video of Osaka, Japan, in the video above, that means there's a mistake.
Forget Columbia. Osaka is my hometown.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Thoughts on advances in technology
In class this week, I mentioned that sometimes classes are better left not integrating technology into them because it's either forced, awkward, or not necessary. When Dr. Lomicka asked me which classes I've had in which this was the case, it reminded me of a course I took as an undergraduate at Duke University more than 10 years ago. It was a Spanish course and the teacher, presumably a TA, tried to use powerpoint and overhead projectors perhaps in an attempt to make it easier for the students to read the notes. (Her handwriting was not particularly neat.)
But more often than what should have been the case, there were often tech problems in which the computer running Powerpoint would lock up, the bulb in the overhead projector would need to be replaced, or the actual equipment had been removed and had to be located. All of these problems would result in lost class time.
Because this course was in Spanish literature, it seemed unnecessary to me for there to be such an emphasis on using technology. If the students read their reading passages and books, they didn't need to see the teacher's notes on the board. And the time spent locating missing overhead projectors and rebooting a computer using Windows 95 was time that could have been spent discussing the class material.
Dr. Lomicka reminded me that the mid- to late-90s was the "bells and whistles" phase of CALL. Back then, there seemed to be a greater emphasis on learning how to use the new technology rather than showing how that new technology could actually help people learn. In retrospect, perhaps I should give this Spanish teacher a bit more credit for at least trying to jazz things up a bit. And maybe because technology is a bit more advanced and more reliable now, technology probably would be more likely to enhance (rather than detract from) that class.
Then again, a part of me still thinks that sometimes there's just no substitute for having the students go at it with each other unencumbered by setting up computers and and plugging in wires. But I graduated from college in 1999, so maybe I'm just an old fogey who likes the old way of using technology:
Regarding Powerpoint (PP) specifically, I think it can be quite useful in that students can print out the main notes and not have to spend so much time quickly trying to scribble down what the professor says. However, I really don't like it when professors read their PP slides word for word with minimal elaboration. To me, that makes it seem like the professor is unprepared, doesn't know the subject matter so much, or is lazy. I could easily just print out some PP slides and stay home if the lectures are going to consist mainly of reading PP slides verbatim.
On the other hand, PP can be a useful organizational tool. Most people can type faster than they can write, so this can be a big time saver. And if you use the bullet points in PP as a springboard into other discussions or points of elaboration, I think it's great. The key here is to let the technology assist the teacher, not become a substitute for the teacher.
But more often than what should have been the case, there were often tech problems in which the computer running Powerpoint would lock up, the bulb in the overhead projector would need to be replaced, or the actual equipment had been removed and had to be located. All of these problems would result in lost class time.
Because this course was in Spanish literature, it seemed unnecessary to me for there to be such an emphasis on using technology. If the students read their reading passages and books, they didn't need to see the teacher's notes on the board. And the time spent locating missing overhead projectors and rebooting a computer using Windows 95 was time that could have been spent discussing the class material.
Dr. Lomicka reminded me that the mid- to late-90s was the "bells and whistles" phase of CALL. Back then, there seemed to be a greater emphasis on learning how to use the new technology rather than showing how that new technology could actually help people learn. In retrospect, perhaps I should give this Spanish teacher a bit more credit for at least trying to jazz things up a bit. And maybe because technology is a bit more advanced and more reliable now, technology probably would be more likely to enhance (rather than detract from) that class.
Then again, a part of me still thinks that sometimes there's just no substitute for having the students go at it with each other unencumbered by setting up computers and and plugging in wires. But I graduated from college in 1999, so maybe I'm just an old fogey who likes the old way of using technology:
Regarding Powerpoint (PP) specifically, I think it can be quite useful in that students can print out the main notes and not have to spend so much time quickly trying to scribble down what the professor says. However, I really don't like it when professors read their PP slides word for word with minimal elaboration. To me, that makes it seem like the professor is unprepared, doesn't know the subject matter so much, or is lazy. I could easily just print out some PP slides and stay home if the lectures are going to consist mainly of reading PP slides verbatim.
On the other hand, PP can be a useful organizational tool. Most people can type faster than they can write, so this can be a big time saver. And if you use the bullet points in PP as a springboard into other discussions or points of elaboration, I think it's great. The key here is to let the technology assist the teacher, not become a substitute for the teacher.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Powerpoint Presentation
This is my Powerpoint presentation. It's a simple presentation about nonnative speakers of English who join the Army. I work at Fort Jackson as an ESL teacher, so this has quite a bit of personal relevance to me.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Thoughts on my internet usage
(This picture was taken as an undergraduate in 1995 when the internet was just taking off. Life was a lot simpler then.)I consider myself to be a heavy internet user. Unless I'm traveling, not a day goes by when I don't get online. And in the event that my internet service is disrupted, I become quite anxious and agitated because of how integral the internet is to my daily life.
I wake up at 6:00 each morning and use the internet while I watch Morning Joe on MSNBC from about 6:30 to 7:00, when I go to work. During this time, I check to see if anyone left any comments on The 7-10 and check out that blog's statistics regarding subscribers and hits. When I get to the office at 7:30, I use the internet again to read the headlines at CNN.com and check out some message boards I'm a member of, such as Dave's ESL Cafe.
Because I'm a teacher, I'm not allowed to use the internet during class. So I wait until the breaks to check my e-mail and other political news headlines. I'll also go to Google to search for links to include in my political blog posts.
Lunch is at noon, but because I don't brownbag my lunch, I quickly drive home, make a sandwich, and then check out some other sites that are blocked at my office. These sites include those that have embedded video and social message boards relating to Japan and video games. I'll also respond to comments others left at my political blog.
At 12:45 I quickly race back to work and teach again until 3:30, when I get back online yet again to read more news. I'm home by 4:30 and that's when I have 7 or 8 windows open at once while I watch the political news on TV and update my political blog, interrupting this only for dinner, an errand, or to walk my dog.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The people I tend to interact with online are usually the faithful readers of my blog, friends I've met in real life, and my own family members, although there seems to be an inverse relationship with people close to me and how often we interact online. I don't use chat programs like AOL or MSN Messenger very often these days, though I used to use them almost daily several years ago. I estimate that I spend at least 4 hours online each day, but it's skewed more in favor of accessing information, rather than engaging in two-way communication.
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