Friday, 2 September 2011

Monday, 27 June 2011

Finito!

Well, I finished! Or have I only just begun?
It has been great to be able to work at our own pace. For a few weeks, I thought I'd never get time to complete the course, but I'm there now.
The course has opened my eyes to different possibilities for my day to day teaching and certainly the need to keep up with emerging technologies. I don't want to just keep up, but make sure I'm using the tools that are relevant to the students I'm teaching; hopefully engaging them in their learning and creating curious learners.

Sunday, 26 June 2011

#22 Audiobooks and #23 Downloadable Media

Audiobooks, e-books, eReaders...we have come a long way with technology. Say goodbye to Borders and whatever other book stores are trying to survive. Digital books have arrived!
Well, not entirely.
Audiobooks will become more and more common across society and over the next five years we will see a massive influx of digital content from novels to recipe books, all in digital format.
Student textbooks and novels are the main items i'd like to see in digital format for use on an ipad or other device.
The ESL or curriculum support teams at school will benefit greatly from audiobooks and i can see them being widely accepted over paper versions. Anything that students can listen to on their ipod's or phones will be more attractive than reading a novel.
As for where to get audiobooks, I especially love the fact that Project Gutenburg is absolutely free.
Copyright is a major hurdle to overcome, but with digital rights management software, I'm sure audiobooks will offer some copyright protection system.

#21 YouTube and TeacherTube


It's a sad day when you show this clip to a class and a student asks 'what's the problem' with this maths.
Abbot and Costello Maths Problem

It's sadder when the same student can't find the left-handed screwdriver or the can of striped paint...but that's another funny story altogether.



YouTube is blocked for student use at school, but it is open for teacher use. I find clips are quite handy for prompting discussion on various topics, but sometimes it's hard to find the most appropriate clip.
TeacherTube refines the search even further and also searches files, docs and photos if you want education based content.