tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129004092009-11-26T21:38:40.939-08:00barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-14634850806330820392009-11-26T21:33:00.001-08:002009-11-26T21:35:05.281-08:00

There are probably several ways to download YouTube and other videos and save them to a DVD or flash drive. Basically, you'll just download them to your computer using converter software and then copy them to your flash drive or burn them using the DVD burning software on your computer.A free web-based converter can be found at www.zamzar.com (there are also more versions of the same software

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-369536015907738572009-09-04T08:58:00.000-07:002009-09-04T09:16:16.470-07:00

It's great to find a website that provides a service of use and works well-and for free! Web Resizer is one of those! Do you want to make sure that people who view your website aren't waiting long periods for your photos to load? This is especially true for teachers who post images of students or student projects or who have websites where students upload a lot of photos. Webresizer reduces

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-78101352820156013882009-04-11T18:42:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:46:57.753-07:00

A second free application from the Rich Internet Applications suite of programs from the Center for Language Education And Research of Michigan State University is called Viewpoint. Viewpoint allows you to create simple videos (using your own webcam and microphone) completely from within your web browser. The completed video is saved in your CLEAR account and accessible via a URL or is

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-70011563269383603332009-03-29T19:53:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:44:26.962-07:00

The great new website that I learned about at TESOL 2009 in Denver that I've already started to use (I created a practice speaking exercise for my students to use starting Monday.) is the "Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning" website created and developed by the Center for Language Education And Research at Michigan State University. Dennie Hoopingarner presented the free tools that

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-70264730028217113322009-03-25T08:50:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:17:52.405-07:00

If you haven't checked out the Free Rice web site for awhile, go back and look at the many new features. You can now earn free rice by answering questions on other subjects as well, including grammar and basic math! Click on the "subjects" tab at the top of the page to see a list of other topics.

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-32080344289605737152009-03-12T11:51:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:18:30.395-07:00

This was in today's Daily News. Don't blame the driver! He was just an overeager student following the directions on the sign...

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-54840606102005583552009-03-11T08:02:00.001-07:002009-03-29T21:20:15.060-07:00

I just returned from the CUE (Computer Using Educators) conference this past weekend, and as usual, picked up several good ideas that I can start using right away in the classroom. My hands-on workshop didn't go as well as I would have liked because of the difference between the version of Microsoft Office that I use in the classroom (2003) and the version of Microsoft Office that was loaded on

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-18426887393940332012008-08-08T09:19:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:20:41.235-07:00

Just a reminder that DFILM is a great way to have students practice writing! Here's a particularly nice example:

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-73742168579078202002008-07-31T10:45:00.001-07:002009-03-29T21:21:05.392-07:00

It finally happened! A student with a Nokia phone with mp3 capability asked how he could save the mp3 files of me reading one of the stories to his phone so he could listen to them outside of the classroom! Here he is downloading the mp3 files from the class wiki to his phone!

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-38195481745406720752008-07-26T13:40:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:53:50.734-08:00

Wordle is a clever new website (free)that lets you create artistic "word clouds" of any selected text or website. I'm not sure exactly how I'll use it in the ESL classroom but it's a lot of fun and beautiful too! Basically, you paste text or a URL into the site and it creates the word clouds automatically based on the frequency of the words appearing in the selected text. Here's one I made

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-13087271121034913882008-06-27T10:40:00.000-07:002008-06-27T10:43:12.299-07:00

On occasion, I've been blocked from sending Powerpoint presentations via email because they've been too large (file size) for either my email system or the recipient's email system to accommodate. I've had to chop them up into smaller pieces. I've just experimented with a free website that allows anyone to easily upload a file as large as 100MB for a specified period of time and receive a URL

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-90842178812029688162008-06-08T12:12:00.000-07:002008-06-09T17:16:00.071-07:00

This past Friday, Paul Yung, a colleague in the Division of Adult and Career Education of LAUSD, co-presented with me in one of the monthly Technology Colloquium workshops that I organize and present. He presented techniques for using do-it-yourself multimedia for the first hour and I completed the session with simple ways to get your students to start using the Internet as part of the ESL

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-52659454724534683702008-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:002008-05-19T16:29:50.685-07:00

The Spring issue of DataBus, a periodical of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association had an article by Alan Phillips of the Imperial County Office of Education about the California K12 High Speed Network that indicated that this California project would try to "encourage educators to utilize the latest web technology and tools, while simultaneously addressing concerns

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-52488353212487612112008-04-24T12:08:00.001-07:002009-03-03T16:26:20.709-08:00

I read a tip by Darcie Priester (a Classroom 2.0 member) about this website which allows you to create a quiz and embed it in your own blog or website. It's called Mystudyio and here is my first attempt at creating a simple quiz relating to a reading selection my students are assigned. Beijing and Shenandoah

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-7946867647499536022008-04-21T09:37:00.001-07:002008-04-23T15:58:59.254-07:00

I always try to implement at least one idea that I've seen at a conference within the first week after my return to the classroom. Sometimes it's more! The idea that I'm trying out came to me after attending the session on using PowerPoint presented by Beth Bogage and Jim Brice of San Diego Community College. Their workshop focused on having students prepare PowerPoint presentations enhanced

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-80817067339645480902008-04-12T13:47:00.000-07:002008-04-16T15:29:46.872-07:00

I'm sitting here at the Pearson Longman booth with Naomi Sato and Carol Swanson teaching them how to make a blog post. I'm going to show them about wikis too! Visit my wiki for students at http://coasttocoast.pbwiki.com

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-8178396648910631022008-04-02T11:26:00.000-07:002008-04-02T11:35:50.215-07:00

Many of you know that I use Pageflakes for my class homepage on all of my classroom computers. Whenever any of my students open a browser on any of the classroom computers, the homepage is a Pageflakes "Pagecast" where they get daily assignments and links to the websites I want them to use regularly. Pageflakes co-founder Ole Brandenburg informs me that they're working on an adult content

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-55535910219309073852008-04-02T11:17:00.001-07:002008-04-02T11:24:26.681-07:00

I'm pleased to report that my Pre-Conference Institute was well attended and well-received and that I've already been introduced to a new website that might be of interest to ESL teachers who like using Internet resources with their students. This website allows one to link to a YouTube or Google video and create a multiple choice quiz based on that video. It has promise, but of course, the

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-55169866435143623772008-03-11T13:15:00.001-07:002008-03-11T13:31:12.043-07:00

Here's a great idea by way of Larry Ferlazzo's "Best Ways" series! Bombay TV is a site where your students(and you too!) can have great fun with English. Basically, you caption real movie clips from Indian movies with your own comic lines. It's great fun for native and non-native speakers alike! Click on the link to see a sample:http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-62794122207286621172008-01-31T13:54:00.001-08:002008-01-31T14:01:22.871-08:00

David Warlick spoke in his blog about a blog and teacher he finds inspirational, so I thought I'd take a look at the blog. Konrad Glogowski is a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and writes about his experiences and the development of his ideas about blogging with his students. I was especially struck by how his ideas about his own role

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-79835570501248275652008-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:002008-12-09T09:53:51.084-08:00

So I've been putting the daily assignment on the class web page for at least one semester now and the students have gotten into the habit of coming into the classroom and going straight to the computers to look at it. Usually they copy the assignment directly into their notebooks and start working on their own as others arrive. I also have numerous activities posted that can be done at any time

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-30878564217344668672008-01-16T07:58:00.000-08:002008-01-16T08:03:01.007-08:00

Reading teacher Delondra Williams reports about using Garage Band to create vocabulary CDs for her students on her so very readable and interesting blog Adventures of an Urban Reading Teacher. She reports that her adult students were "really pleased" to get them. PC users can use the free Audacity program to do the same thing.

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-75821986490465906032008-01-11T16:55:00.000-08:002008-01-11T17:01:08.468-08:00

Turns out that the Kansas Department of Education has launched an effort to recruit teachers online via Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Labs. According to their blog at http://kansasteachingjobs.blogspot.com/ The Kansas Recruitment and Retention Program will be hosting the first statewide virtual career fair for individuals interested in learning more about teaching in Kansas."

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-19048765793194257412007-11-08T19:08:00.000-08:002007-11-08T19:10:11.683-08:00

A few years ago, an article about a historical group in southern California attempting to recreate interest in a Thanksgiving event that preceded the one of the Pilgrims was published in the Los Angeles Times. I've used it ever since in my ESL classes and it's been very successful on several levels: a straight forward reading activity, a cultural lesson about Thanksgiving, and also a springboard

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-51966840675086137012007-11-06T17:40:00.002-08:002007-11-06T17:48:49.839-08:00

I've obviously seen a few videos on Teacher Tube but I finally was able to successfully create one using Camtasia Studio software and upload it myself. This is a short training tutorial about how to create a link from one wiki page to another wiki page using pbwiki.To view the same video directly on the Teacher Tube website click here!The uploading process to Teacher Tube was quite easy.

barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0