Class on 11-19-08

I wanted to get the shell of my website online. Done.

I also wanted a little bit more detail on what Karina, Inna, and I would be doing for our final project. Done.

Everything else: up in the air. Details to come.

Webinars!

The VrOOM software that we used this week added a little bit to my frustration level. It was software that I didn't understand, and the results didn't work as I expected.
I had a very difficult time hearing what I was supposed to be doing, and I didn't know if that was due to my inexperience with the software or a problem with my computer. We eventually got it working and accomplished our task, but I couldn't help but notice the metaphorical bad taste it left in my mouth. I think the biggest problem I had with it was the sheer amount of options and tweaks you could use with the software. Sure, it's great having powerful software, but at what point do you stop sacrificing usability and consistency for features?

:: sigh :: I would be a terrible software designer.

Week Ten Class

I really like Dr Bibbe's presentation, but I think it would have been much more effective if he had given it when we were first introduced to using a wiki. For lack of a better word, it felt very random to have a presentation on something we focused on almost 2 months ago.
Timing aside, however, I enjoyed what he had to say about using a wiki in class. It was obvious that he had a very solid technological background, but he kept everything at a level that the students could easily understand.

Moving on to hot potatoes. I'm not a visually creative person, at least in a very literal sense. I can't take a goal and turn that goal into a visually creative outcome. I have a difficult enough time knowing where my shoes go inside my closet, so using a suite of software designed specifically for visual manifestation of concepts is still a little hard for me to swallow. This is, however, not a shortcoming of the software itself, but rather a personal shortcoming that I will need to work on.

Reaction to tele and video conferencing

Sometimes when I'm out in public with my friends, we will pass a group of people speaking other languages. I'm often asked if I can understand what they're saying and generally, the answer is "no". My friends are usually surprised at this, since my Bachelor's degree is in Spanish. At this point, I have to make a very clear point to them: I can speak and understand Spanish very well and very easily, IF I'm involved in an actual interaction. When somebody is standing right in front of me, expecting me to understand what they're saying to me, I do. When I'm passing a group of people, there's no expectation and there is no pressure on me to grasp what they're saying. You could say that there is nothing to keep me focused.

Along those same lines, I noticed that the same thing happens while I'm engaged in a video lecture. Even though there is technically a live person "in front" of me, it feels too much like I'm watching TV and my attention wanders. I liked it better with the video feed, even though I felt like a jerk walking in fifteen minutes late because I missed the bus.

The audio-only presentation was near impossible for me to retain. There was little for me to focus on, save for the audio itself, so I didn't get much out of it. Perhaps if I were more accustomed to that type of learning I wouldn't have such trouble with it, but for now, I prefer live, face-to-face instruction.

Happy Election Day

Success is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory

As he defeated — dying —
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

Copyright (readings for week ten)

The issue of copyright is HOTLY debated in the nerd/hacker/pirate community. In my experience, I've run across all types of copyright issues, both legal and ethical, and it's very hard to know where the line is.

My first computer, an IBM PS/2 given to me back in 1997 had DOS running on it. For those of you who don't know but care enough to wonder, DOS is what Windows is based on. The only difference is that DOS doesn't have any sort of Graphical User Interface, or GUI. Instead, the user has to type commands to make the computer do anything.

As you can imagine, this was unacceptable to an impatient pre-teen like me. I wanted it to work by itself, without the need to have me type commands. I wanted Windows. My neighbor happened to share my enthusiasm for computers with me, and he lent me his copy of Windows 3.1. It was spread across 13 floppy disks, but it was Windows and it was free. I installed it without a second thought, and thus began my pirated computing career.

When I first started downloading "free" music back in 2000, it never even occurred to me that what I was doing could be considered stealing. Even after my dad explained it to me, I still felt that what I was doing was not wrong. I felt that I had been provided with a solution to a flawed industry. When I was in high school, a movie would get released to the theater, play for maybe a month, and then it would disappear for a year or more until it was released on videotape or DVD.

"Why," I thought, "would an industry do something so stupid? Why make us wait over a year to see the movie in our own homes? Why punish us instead of embracing us when we find a way to do it without your help?"

This mindset carries over very well into the music realm as well. I think it's ridiculous that companies will sell us a song with Digital Rights Management (DRM) attached to it so that we can only listen to it on one computer, but not on a CD or portable music player. Additionally, if my computer breaks and I get a new one, the DRM restrictions prevent me from listening to the song that I OWN on my new computer! I think the copyright law in the US needs a lot of change.

Week Eight Readings

In the nerd world, there are two definitions for the word "free". When someone refers to free software, they generally follow it with one of the two definitions:

Free as in Freedom: This means that the software is free to distribute, change, modify, destroy, whatever. You have complete freedom over what you do with it, and who you give it to. Additionally, the author(s) encourage users to veiw the source code of the software and modify/enhance it and share the changes with the world. The legal license associated with software that is free (as in freedom) is called the GPL (General Public License) and states that the software can never be restricted.

Free as in Beer: No doubt started by rowdy college programming students, software that is free as in beer does not cost anything, but does not have the same liberties associated with it as free as in freedom software. The name comes from college parties where people generally drink other people's beer for free.

Many of you have used software that is free (as in freedom) and may be unaware of it. Firefox is by far the most common example. Many browsers share the source code of Firefox, and Firefox itself uses the same source code as Netscape. This goes to show that you don't need to charge money to make some famous software.

Being a Norwegian Lutheran, I will not spend money on ANYTHING unless I absolutely have to. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed this chapter. Even if I were more prone (or proner, if you want to use some bad English) to spending money, the chapter would still be relevant because all of the activites we've done in class so far have been free. Free as in beer. A few exceptions have been using NVU and Kompozer, which are both free (as in freedom) since they share the same source code. In class, I love using free software and doing free activities because it eliminates the income barrier that many students encounter.

I like Szendeffy's idea of E-Postcards, since getting personal letters (electronic or otherwise) is always a plus for students, but I REALLY enjoy blogging. Blogging is almost always free (as in beer) and it gives students a very powerful writing tool. I like it more than ink-and-paper journalling because of the cost, and the fact that you can share your thoughts with the world without having to make many different copies.

Once a nerd, always a nerd

As humans, most often we avoid things that do not mesh well with our personalities, and we will often sell ourselves short of what we can do, simply because we think that it's beyond our abilities. I am as guily as anybody regarding this idea. Often, I have declared myself completely incompetent in a certain area or unable to do a task simply because I believe I won't succeed. I rarely will even attempt it before the declaration of "I can't do this, I'm no good at it."

Such has been my case for web design over the past years. I am a very visual person, and I see myself as a very creative person, but I've always believed that I don't organize things well visually. My room is always messy, I'm very disorganized, and oftentimes the only thing holding me together is a thread of anxiety woven from my disorganization. Sure, I have made websites, but I often tell myself that I've cheated because I use designs and templates that somebody else made up, and I simply filled in the information.

Given this background, I'm sure you can all understand the apprehension I felt when Dr Smidt told us what we were going to have to produce by the end of the semester: a professional website. I'm confident in my ability to print the work I've done, and in my ability to put my work on the Internet, but to piece it all together using programs and techniques I'm unfamiliar with seemed, at least for a few minutes, too much to ask. But, just as the dreaded research seminar I will eventually have to take, this too shall pass. I will get this done and online, ON TIME, and above all, it will look good. No good nerd will ever turn down a challenge to learn more about computers, and a skill as valuable as making a website and posting it on the Internet is too good of a challenge to pass up. We'll see how this turns out.

Here's an English joke for

Here's an English joke for everybody: A preposition is not something to end a sentence with.

Podcasting 101

One thing that's difficult with communicating on the Internet is the impersonal nature of text-based communication. Also, since there is no vocal inflection or non-verbal/vocal cues, a message can be severely misunderstood. The following example conversation is a fairly typical example of what can happen.

Me: Hey, you should invest your money in the stock market.
My Friend: Yeah right, that sounds like a great idea.
Me: Really? Wonderful! I was really being a sarcastic jerk, but you thought I was being serious!
My Friend: I was being sarcastic too. And you are a jerk.

There are several ways to counteract that, and today you will get to read about two of them.

The first way is fairly straightforward. It involves formatting the text so in such a way to draw the emphasis on to certain words. Re-read the conversation:

Me: Hey, you should invest your money in the stock market.
My Friend: Yeah, right, that sounds like a great idea.
Me: Really? Wonderful! I was really being a sarcastic jerk, but YOU thought I was being serious!
My Friend: I was being sarcastic too. And you ARE a jerk.

The formatting changes help, but not a lot. Some meaning is still lost.

The second and more effective way to communicate would be to directly speak to your audience through a podcast. Some people find it a lot easier to speak than to type, and I see how some people would like that. Personally, I need a live audience to perform a monologue, otherwise I lose focus and I don't do the same quality of work.

Tonight's class showed me a little more of how people learn to use technology that they are unfamiliar with. People tend to be very distrustful of themselves when they encounter a problem on a computer. Also, the Matthew Effect comes very strongly into play with technology (for those of you to whom the Matthew Effect is unfamiliar, it comes from a verse in the Book of Matthew in the Bible which says "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer"). Those who view themselves as "technologically incompetent" tend to despair when they encounter a problem with a computer, or they tend to be too afraid of making a mistake that they don't explore what happens if they click "yes" or "no" on the computer screen.

I love that I now know how to make podcasts, at least with Gcast. I'm well versed with general computer use, and technical program use, etc... but very unfamiliar with audio and video creation/editing. Podcasting was something I used on a very general level, but not something that I understood. Now that's changed, and I hope to make many more podcasts in the future!

Podcasting and whatnot

I think what I like the most about this class is that I get the chance to learn how other people learn about what I love. Every week, I'm fascinated by watching how people learn about technology, and I learn so much about how people think about and view technology. Even in their struggles (or perhaps because of them) I learn how to make technology simpler to use. It's always easier to find the mistakes that others make and learn from them, which I looked for when we used Apple's website and Trackstar.

I like podcasts. In fact, I love them. Every week, I download Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" podcast and listen to it, at least in the event that I don't get the chance to hear it on the radio. But it was very interesting watching other students who aren't as familiar with podcasts, or even with what they are. Many thought they were individual songs, and others thought that you needed an Ipod brand MP3 player to use them. As class progressed, we learned that neither belief was correct. I think the concept of Podcasting has greatly benefitted the technology world, making audio programs much easier to find and use.

Maybe if the ENTIRE economy

Maybe if the ENTIRE economy fails, then I won't have to worry about my student loans. Yay!

Life is good (reaction to class on 9-17-08)

I never do anything the easy way. Often times, the "easy way" to solve a problem or accomplish a task doesn't even occur to me until long after the task has been accomplished, or the problem has been solved. My solutions always make sens in my head, however, they don't always work as planned.

When Dr Smidt asked me to give a presentation on Picasa, I accepted without hesitation. I actually LIKE getting up in front of groups, and Picasa is a program I'm so familiar with that I knew I wouldn't get nervous as easily.

In preparation for class, I reviewed in my head what I would talk about, which features I would show, and how best I could show my class how to use it. But something didn't feel right about it. It seemed too bland. Too.... easy.

While I was thinking about other things a few nights before class, I began to imagine what it would be like to be a student with ZERO English skills in an ESL/ESOL setting, trying to learn whatever the teacher was trying to teach. Then it hit me. I could find out first hand, and in the process, I could teach the class how to use Picasa.

Would it be hard? Yes.

Would the students be very confused and wonder what I was doing? You bet.

Would rabid alien monkeys with rocket packs laser guns from outer space descend upon the classroom and hold us hostage for a ten-billion-dollar ransom? Most likely not. But they might.

I decided to do it anyway.

Esther told me it would have been a little bit more effective for me to tell the class what I was doing and why. While I was presenting, I briefly explained that I was trying to mimic an ESL classroom setting, except in Spanish, not in English. In hindsight, it probably would have been easier on the class if I had explained beforehand what I was doing. But it was a LOT of fun, at least for me. I hope the other students enjoyed it too.

After my presentation, I had a chance to discuss with Yosuke his experiences with technology in a classroom setting. I've never taught in a classroom before, so it was fascinating to hear his experiences in a setting and culture unfamiliar to me. In Japan, he was expected to monitor students while a computer "taught" them TOEFL techniques. He felt more like a babysitter than a teacher, which frustrates me a little. I don't think that computers should replace teachers, I think they should help teachers.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Yes, this really is me. My friend took this of me when we had stopped for a break on the bike trip I took last summer. I think I look like a police officer in this picture.
This is really just a test of Picasa.

Thoughts on class on 9-10-2008

When I had graduated from high school and had just begun my undergrad, I was astonished by the freedom I was allowed. If I didn't want to go to class, I didn't go! I didn't have to have my parents call, and I didn't need to pretend that I was sick. I could simply keep sleeping if I wanted to. I soon learned that with that freedom came responsibility and accountability. If I missed class, I couldn't participate, and if I didn't participate, my grade went down. I learned quickly that missing class is not to be done leisurely.

When I started my major at MSU, I quickly discovered that I didn't even want to miss class. That sentiment has carried over in to my graduate program. I honestly enjoy class and I'm one of those nerds who LIKES going to class.

Regrettably, I had to miss class on the tenth. My girlfriend's mom needed emergency surgery performed on her back, and the only hospital her insurance covers is in Burnsville. However, in discussing what was covered, I almost feel as if I had been there.

The big thing that was covered was Skype. As the class soon discovered, not every computer treats a program the same way. Sometimes there are hardware issues that prevent you from speaking or hearing other people speak, sometimes there are network issues that prevent the voice from coming through clearly, and sometimes there are no reasons for something to malfunction, but it does anyway. I sympathize with those who had problems with Skype and the lesson, because there is no worse feeling than helplessness, and with computers, often the only emotion they cause is helplessness.

Better luck for tonight!

File naming, first hand.

Earlier this summer, I decided to e-mail all of my professors for a syllabus of the classes I would be starting in September. Esther e-mailed me back with syllabi and assignment lists for the classes, and so did my other professor. We'll call him Professor Roundglasses.
The problem with the attachments from my Professor Roundglasses lay in the naming of the documents themselves. The naming was precise, with the month and year listed, but the dates were not in an expected format, such as 080808 (the start date of The Olympics) but rather 08.08.o8. My computer, being the good little Windows machine that it is, didn't look at the formatting of the file, but the name of the file. Windows looks at what's called an extension of the file name, which follows the following format:
filename.extension . Most extensions have three letters, some have more and some have fewer, but they ALL have one thing in common: they start with a dot. Windows reads the file name and sees the dot, and then assumes that everything after the dot must be an extension. In this case, the extension should have been .doc, but Windows said "No, no, it must be .08.08.doc!" and promptly refused to open it. Thinking quickly, I removed the dots in the file names, and Windows finally decided to behave.

It's not easy being this smart AND handsome.... :-)

This has nothing to do

This has nothing to do with TESL, but how the heck did Brittany Spears win THREE video music awards???

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

What I liked the most about the readings were the tips at the end of Chapter 3.

The first tip was, conveniently, one that spoke to me the loudest.

Focus on Activities, NOT Software Titles

Being a long-time computer nerd, I have an in-born desire to use software that has more common alternatives. For example, I will often use a free program called OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. Though the function and result are the same, I get a certain feeling of satisfaction when I use an alternative program such as OpenOffice, if for no other reason than being different. Not necessarily better, just different.

When nerds do as I do by using alternative software, it seems that the reflexive reaction to other people using the standard programs is hostility and righteous anger. I won't lie and say that I've never reacted that way, but I am aware that it's an issue. If such a nerd pursued a career in TESL, these sorts of feelings would significantly impact their ability to teach effectively. It doesn't really matter what program I use to type a paper, so long as I follow the requirements and include the proper information. In the same way, the ends should justify the means, at least in regards to students using technology to learn another language.

DON'T LET TECHNOLOGY DRIVE YOUR CLASS!

One thing that I do in my spare time is volunteer for the Boy Scout Troop that I grew up in. Being a Scoutmaster gives me the opportunity to teach boys how to become mature young men, and one line I often find myself repeating is "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." The same thing can be applied to teaching with technology, and tip number 6 reflects upon that very idea. Don't use technology just because you can! Computers can't teach any better than a hammer can build a house. Used effectively, however, they can be an absolutely invaluable tool for teaching.

But that's not to say that you NEED a computer to teach. Computers have been present in classrooms for only the last few decades, and people have been learning for millennia. This semester, I hope to learn how to effectively distinguish situations where technology will help students learn from situations where technology will only hinder students.

A Broken Promise

Weather: Sunny and beautiful

Listening to: The Rat Pack: I'm Gonna Live Till I Die

As many of you get to know me throughout the next few years, you'll become very aware that I have the attention span of a 3-year-old. As much as I would like to have the capability to sit down and accomplish each task on my increasingly large to-do list in an efficient and focused way, alas, I cannot.

I logged in to my Blogger account this morning at 11:00 sharp, promising myself that I would blog until 11:30, then change into my running clothes and run, and then do other homework and get myself to work on time. But then, after several trips to the coffee machine and checking my e-mail, I logged in to my Bloglines account to see what my classmates were blogging about. Just for some inspiration.

It's now 11:23 and I've just started typing.

Class this week and last not only made me ever more aware of my dislike (and inability) of sitting still and focusing on a single task, it also made me ever more aware of an increasingly annoying part of my personality; I don't work well in groups.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like other people. I do. I'm very loud and I love interacting with people, but I work most efficiently by myself or when I have complete control of the project or task. But one thing was made apparent to me in this past week: I need to get over it.

Group work will never go away. Ever. And if I want to be successful ANYWHERE, doing ANYTHING, I will need to teach myself how to work better in a group.

 

With all of that said, however, I enjoy group discussion. My group had a very lively discussion about the various articles, and as we moved around and discussed our findings with other groups, we used the gained insight to refine our previous discussions. When Esther asked each group to report on their "Ah-ha!" moments, we all looked at each other, stumped. After some prodding from Esther, however, we all agreed that our "ah-ha!" came not from what was in the articles we discussed, but rather, how we read them. Some of the group members read the articles on the computer screen, and some had printed them and read them on paper. We also discussed the fact that the article assigned to our group was easier to read, not because of the wording, but because of the formatting. While 2 of the articles were written as if they were typed on a typewriter, the one we preferred was written in a magazine, and therefore was formatted as such. It had color, the text was broken into smaller chunks and was therefore easier to process, and the format easily led the reader's eye from start to finish. Using this as our moment, we confidently presented our findings to the rest of the class, who agreed with us!

Sometimes you feel like a nut....

I always find is somewhat strange (if only for the fact that it goes against my status quo) when I'm asked to write something coherent, well put-together, and appropriate, and then post it on the Internet. We'll see how well I do this.