rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book. It relates the lives of high school age kids who are living a much different experience than I did at that time in my life. I was a public school/private school kid but not residential private school as these are. Very enlightening. They confront many of the same issues that I remember even though they are 30 years removed from my experience. Strangely enough, despite the difference in time and place, I found myself thinking, much too often, "there but for the grace of God...".
I also found myself thankful for growing up WITHOUT being wealthy...I got into enough without unlimited funds!
I wrote several days ago about using the Word Notebook layout in order to access the recording feature. I had then envisioned it as a way to provide students with text that was both written and oral, assuming that they have the technology to access it. Today I was doing my morning tech reading and I had another idea: How about using this feature for students to record their “writing”? Someone could then transcribe it for them.
As I began trying this, I discovered that I was speaking much too quickly to listen to myself and type as it played. Then I thought about how composing works. Maybe a student who is composing would be speaking more slowly and thoughtfully than I was when I was testing this feature. So I tested it that way. I think it would work.
Students could possibly transcribe their own recordings. That, to me, seems like a good idea because they could hear the ways that they were using language, as well as rethink their ideas as they type.
I have embedded an example here of what I’m thinking:
No, I didn’t add this. I realized that I don’t know how. I will work on that and add it in my next post!
I just read Paul Hamilton’s post about embedit.in and tried it here. Wow! It’s easy and will be great for creating documents for students to see things step-by-step.
I’m completely caught up in learning about all about new technology that is available to help ESL/ELL students and teachers. I’m going to my Delicious page to find a list of all the cool stuff I’ve been spending time exploring: Google Translate, Vocaroo, and Educational Origami.
I’m using two criteria for evaluating technology for teachers: 1) is it easy to use?, and 2) does it provide support for students? The first is obvious; teachers are too busy to use things that are time-consuming to install or use. The second SEEMS obvious but sometimes a closer look at a piece of technology makes me question the value I initially thought I saw. I’m also trying to be very broad-minded about “value” because I know we all find really different applications for the same thing. I suppose I say that as a disclaimer so that if I love it and you hate it, I’m covered!
I’m also discovering that I’m using a system as I investigate new tech. One part of that is to run trials using friends and family as to attempt to use “it”. For example, I created a Facebook page to serve as a place for our UT alumni to find me. I want to stay in their radar to continue to provide support for them in their classrooms. Simply keeping email addresses was too cumbersome. Facebook is there… I began my “friends” with my tech-savvy journalist daughter and some tech-savvy colleagues and a few of our alumni who are in the area. I’m rapidly expanding my contacts using this, and I’m seeing an increase in the posting of professional ideas and links. I think this will take time but I’m excited about the spread so far.
I’m also trying to clean up my Delicious page so that articles and sites are labeled more consistently. Learning to label has been more challenging than I realized; it forces me to rethink exactly how I was thinking about the materials as I save them to share.
This blog is providing me with a journal-type venue to share what I’m finding and to keep up with where I’ve been.
