At the ACTFL09 conference I gave a talk entitled “The Technology of Classroom 007: Mobile Computing and Language Instruction”. In it I described a classroom at Marist College, room 007, where I occasionally teach. The irony of its number lies in the fact that it is a basement room, underground with no windows. I therefore [...]
Recent Activity
In which I debrief after ACTFL 2009
In which we traverse uncharted territories: hic sunt mobiles?
For many of us, these past few weeks marked the beginning of a new academic year. As students returned to campus they brought with them their mobile phones, those ever-present, always-on devices that have become the bane of many an instructor. A few of our faculty, not unlike elsewhere, have suggested an outright ban on [...]
In which 10 Twitter applications might change your global mind and possibly your language classroom
In spite of all the talk about Twitter in connection with the Iranian elections and all things international as of late, I doubt that many of my university colleagues will be including Twitter on a syllabus this fall. I’ve talked before about the “Twitter Cycle” or the fact that, at first glance, Twitter appears trivial, and even, [...]
In which the next wave in language education might be Wave; 5 reasons for and 1 against
I just finished watching the 1 hour and 20 minute demo of Google’s new product, WAVE, to be released to the general public later this year. What might speak volumes about the product is that the video held my attention for that long. The Google team that developed this application set out to move organizational communication beyond [...]
In which I enjoy marking
flickr.com
These tough economic times have required sacrifice, even from Google. It’s sudden drop in revenue has forced the company to also drop several of its services, including Google Notebook, a web annotation tool. Apparently, I was one of only a few who have come to rely on the service for making sense of all [...]
These tough economic times have required sacrifice, even from Google. It’s sudden drop in revenue has forced the company to also drop several of its services, including Google Notebook, a web annotation tool. Apparently, I was one of only a few who have come to rely on the service for making sense of all [...]
In which I’m in new web blist
I recently discovered a tool called blist, which allows anyone to create and embed spreadsheets into any website. Normally I find spreadsheets profoundly uninteresting, but call it a top ten list and it’s a good read, right? In any event, blist really peaked my curiosity when I heard that the Obama-Biden transition team used blist for [...]
In which we all seize the stage and shout to each other “carpe pulpitum”
We’ve all heard the following phrase intended to help instructors remember to be more student-centered. “Be the guide on the side and not the sage on the stage”. “Carpe pulpitum,” I often declare to my students when they hesitate to participate. We’ve also heard of the promise of interactive technologies that allow for participatory [...]
In which the audiolingual method looks sexy again
In a previous post Barbara and I interviewed Liz Kolb, author of the recently published Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education. Liz got me thinking about all the ways we can use cell phones in the language classroom. It’s surprising that phones are not used more in our teaching already. First, mobile phones are [...]
In which old world copyright gives way to new world creative commons
CC License: Confusing Signals by Luis Argerich
In a previous post, Kevin spoke about copyright and Creative Commons from the perspective of a faculty member. Just ten years ago a significant amount of my time as a language lab director involved enforcing and documenting compliance with various media copyright requirements. In some languages, for example, we [...]
In a previous post, Kevin spoke about copyright and Creative Commons from the perspective of a faculty member. Just ten years ago a significant amount of my time as a language lab director involved enforcing and documenting compliance with various media copyright requirements. In some languages, for example, we [...]
In which social networks are explained along with other amazing feats
In a previous post Barbara described the power of social networks to create real change in the world. In this post I would like to discuss how, as instructors, many of us view social networks as silly, foreign and time consuming. It’s no wonder that we so quickly shy away from participating in online social [...]
In which the desktop was declared deceased
My brother called me last week from Seattle because his desktop computer was declared deceased by a Best Buy employee. Since he knows I dabble in technology he asked me what many do, “Should I buy a Mac or a PC?” Both Apple’s and Window’s marketing campaign have been effective at portraying a never-ending battle [...]
In which metaphor and metadata duel
In a recent post, I described the current mapping tools available to teachers via Google. A colleague was kind enough to leave a thought-provoking comment, introducing theories of postmodernism to the discussion. I have to say that, when using Google Earth, I often think of Jorge Luis Borges’ De rigor en la ciencia in which [...]
In which Power proves Pointless
The educational use of PowerPoint, a program first released in 1987 for creating better overhead transparencies, has not changed that much in twenty years. We can now add better fonts, sound effects and new backgrounds but, with the exception of templates for turning your classroom into a game show, I struggle to find truly innovative [...]
In which, in the end, the Word was social and with the community
Perhaps one of the most recognizable Biblical passages is John 1:1, which marks the beginning of creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In most modern Spanish bibles, however, one often sees the word “Verbo” or “Verb” used instead of “Word,” a closer match [...]
In which X marks the spot
While preparing for a presentation to be given this Saturday at ACTFL about online mapping tools (shameless plug), I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the subject with our readers. Google Maps was launched in 2005 and the ability to personalize maps has only been available since April of 2007. It is not surprising, [...]
In which the evolution of the monograph is the remix
In a previous post I wrote about the new metrics for evaluating scholarly production in a Web 2.0 world. Then, Barbara recently posted about the spontaneity of publication on the new web. Building upon these thoughts, I wish to discuss the shifting expectations for content from single author monographs to multiple author modules. When [...]
In which students create a brave new day
I walked into our lab the morning of November 5th and found Liz, one of our student staff members, excitedly showing Jorge, her co-worker, pictures posted to Facebook of a spontaneous celebratory rally she took part in just hours before. As I stopped to look, she opened her phone to show me a picture she [...]
In which social scholarship challenges authority
In this post, I’d like to expand upon the conversation we had with Bill Ferriter and discuss further how online social interactions between peers has shifted notions of traditional peer-review in higher education. If you have a tenure-track position or hope to have a tenure-track position at an institution of higher education, chances are you [...]
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