Digital Films

A project for English 3241 (Using Technology in the English Classroom)

This video was picked up and used as an ESL resource for Manythings.org

A video project for English 2160 (American Literature Survey)

Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia

It has been said that Wikipedia is actually more accurate than the Encyclopedia.  How can this be?  Isn’t Wikipedia just an error and bias filled ersatz for the real, true, objective Encyclopedias?  According to the science journal Nature, Wikipedia is just as accurate as the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Forty-two pairs of entries from each source were reviewed by relevant experts for factual errors, critical omissions and misleading statements. The results were very close: 4 major errors for each source, and 162 minor problems in Wikipedia vs. Britannica’s 123.

One advantage that Wikipedia has over Britannica is that it can be edited by numerous reviewers ranging from novices to experts, the idea being that corporately, they can input the correct information and fix each other’s mistakes. Each article in Britannica on the other hand, is written by very few experts.

Another advantage that Wikipedia has is the number of entries. Wikipedia covers far more information and many more topics than its paper bound cousin. It can also include new information almost instantly, whereas it takes years for today’s headlines to come out in an encyclopedia.

For more information on whether or not to trust wikipedia, check out this excerpt of an article from Brittanica itself: On Trusting Wikipedia

Gecko vs. Cavemen

A group of students and I recently had the opportunity to examine some aspects of Geico’s advertising campaigns and give a presentation about them to the class.  Along with our presentation, our group created a website to showcase all of our work.  Check it out:

Visual/Media Literacy Project:  Gecko vs. Cavemen

17 syllables of excellent teaching resource: should it be used in schools?

Just today I found this interesting web resource that could be quite useful for teachers as well as students.  It’s called Haiku.  Haiku is an interactive website builder that can be used to communicate between teachers and students.  It can be used to supplement classroom activities, or even to teach the class completely online.  It includes a messaging system so students can communicate with each other as well as the teacher much like email, has a dropbox system that allows students to turn in work from home, and a number of widgets for teachers to add and move around at will.  The site allows adding text, audio, video, images, web links, and files so there are plenty of options on how to present material.  In addition to all of this, it’s free for students, and very inexpensive for schools.

But in order to put such a site to use in a classroom, it must be approved by administrators.  Some may see it as unnecessary, and may argue that it wouldn’t be used.  But when you consider that several schools already put it to use, and similar systems are heavily relied upon in colleges (such as the Blackboard Learning System here at KSU), it’s hard to deny that such a site would have great potential.

Another argument may be that there is the possibility of abuse by both teachers and students, allowing private conversations between students and between students and teachers that may be considered cheating or unprofessional, respectively.  This risk not much exaggerated beyond what is already possible with email.

One argument which I would consider really legitimate is the fact that not all students have consistent access to the internet.  This could prove to be a problem if teachers require that assignments be submitted via haiku.  A good way around this would be for teachers to use the site to supplement class material, and allow students the option of submitting assignments online or in person.

Art Voicethread

I just created a new voice presentation at voicethread.com on the nature of art using pictures I took while traveling with Acquire the Fire’s ministry team.  It isn’t very long, so please check it out and leave some comments on it here.

Online Resources

Today I’m quickly looking at a few sites presented to me in my Eng 3241 class.  They offer some unique features such as building interactive time lines, posters, and “museum exhibits” .  Specifically, I will be exploring a few uses for these sites in an English classroom.

Glogster (and Glogster for educators)

Excellent resource for students to create interactive or non-interactive posters.  Using a format like this takes out a lot of the time students would spend making a poster look clean.  Some students have a hard time drawing, and stress out much more over making the poster look clean than they do in compiling relevant or useful information.  It also allows for a great deal of creativity and personalization.

Museum Box

This site allows students to build an “exhibit” of sorts to present just about any project you could think of.  Explorable rotating cubes can contain images, ppt’s, documents, text, videos, etc.

TimeRime

TimeRime is a great way to put together a movable time line that is easy to navigate, easy to put together, and can contain pictures that correspond with events.  It makes lining up text with dates properly, editing information, and creating a clean look much easier.  This could be used for a plethora of subjects and projects, from a time line of a student’s science project to a history of the Renaissance authors.

All of these resources have the potential to help students make some stellar work.  But as with any project, the outcome depends largely on the effort put into it.  If I were to give students the option to use resources such as these, I would probably hold the work to a higher standard since the physical labor involved is greatly decreased.  These sites have the potential to be great resources for teachers and students, and I plan to hold on to them for a long time.

Video Clip Assignment (Eng 3241)

I’ve just posted a new page detailing a project done in my EDUC 3241 class using this video:

Check it out here

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog.  This first post is just to get the site rolling, I’m not entirely sure what direction it will end up taking.