May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Presentio looks like a pretty neat online collaboration tool, and I’m adding it to The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration.
I might be adding it to some other “The Best…” lists, too, but I don’t have much time to explore (or explain) it further right now.
Mashable has quite an extensive post that describes Presentio quite well. I’d encourage you to read it. TechCrunch has a similar post.
May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
The Sacramento Bee today ran a huge story on the role of native Hawaiians in the establishment of Sacramento; how many married Native Americans and have now begun a local tribal casino, and their interest in the present effort in Congress to provide rights that native Americans have to native Hawaiians.
It’s really amazing stuff.
What does this have to do with English Language Learners?
We have a number of Pacific Islanders at our school, and I think this information is going to garner a whole lot of interest from them. And, as I’ve written in earlier posts, I’m always pleasantly surprised at just how interested other ELL’s are in stories related to their peers from other cultures.
May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve just added a nice slideshow from the Wall Street Journal called Shuttle Atlantis Captures Hubble Space Telescope to The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:
May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The American Human Development Project has just unveiled something they call the Common Good Forecaster. They describe it like this:
“a dynamic new online tool that uses the latest official statistics available on American states and counties to forecast how things might change in a community if educational outcomes were to improve.”
It seems a bit confusing to me, not anywhere near as good as their other interactive tools, including their Well-O-Meter.
What do you think? Am I missing something?
May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Many art museum websites offer users the ability to choose favorites from their online exhibitions and create an online exhibition. The best also let you write captions and describe these individualized collections, and then allow you to post the link on a website or blog.
This kind of activity provides lots of language-development opportunities for all levels of English Language Learners. so I thought it would be a good topic for a “The Best…” list.
You can find links to all the sites on this list, and other “art collection” sites that didn’t quite make the grade, on my website under Student Art Collections.
Of course, students can also create collections of art work they’ve have created online. You can find those sites at The Best Art Websites For Learning English.
Here are my picks of The Best Ways For Students To Create Their own Online Art Collections (by the way, all links will take you directly to the “make your own collection” page of the museum). These are not listed in any order of preference, though I do like the last three sites I list a lot:
The Tyne and Wear Museum doesn’t offer that many options of artwork to choose from, but the big advantage is that you don’t have to register to use the activity, either. It highlights paintings from its Love exhibition.
The Seattle Art Museum has a unique kind of activity — students are given sort of a simple (and accessible) art appreciation class as they develop their own collection. The process is a little “clunky,” but it’s a good step-by-step process. You do have to register, but, as with all the other sites on this list that require registration, it can be done in seconds.
The Tate Museum lets you choose from a limited number of paintings, describe your collection, and then email the link. No registration is required.
The Art Institute of Chicago provides over 250 pieces of art to choose from for what they call a “scrapbook.” You have to register, and, like all of these sites that require registration, is slightly more complicated to use than the ones that don’t require you to sign-in. But it’s still quite accessible to English Language Learners.
The Whitney Museum of American Art provides about 60 pieces of art to choose from, and requires a quick registration. It also offers some unique features, including some guided ways to compare and contrast your picks, and to add sound to your personal collection.
My Collection from the Smithsonian American Art Museum is a favorite. You can choose from among 20,000 art objects, and you can display your collection as a slideshow. Understanding how to use the site isn’t quite as obvious here as it is in the other ones I’ve listed, but it should only take a minute or two to explain to students how it works.
Zoomorama is a virtual museum that has high definition views of many masterpieces. Instead of creating your own collection on their site, it allows you to get the embed code for each painting. You can then create your own collection on your blog or website.
Another favorite that is a bit different is called The Art of Storytelling from the Delaware Art Museum. At this site, you can actually use art from the museum’s collection to create your own storytelling experience. It’s pretty neat, and very accessible.
Creative Spaces is a project of the National Museums Online Learning Project in Great Britain. You can search through nine of the largest British museums can create “notebooks” of different items and describe them. You can also create groups.
Arts Connected Ed is a joint project of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center. After registering, you can easily create your very own “art collection” from the museum’s holdings, make it into a very attractive slideshow, and then post the url address of your creation.
The Google Art Project puts some of the most important art museums, and their collections, online with amazing features, including being able to create your own art collection. I’ve embedded a very short video from the site that shows what it can do — I can’t do justice to it just with words.
ArtFinder is a new web tool that lets you discover new art and build your own virtual collections. You can take a survey identifying pieces of art you like and it will help you discover more like them. You can read more about the site at Read Write Web.
If you found this list helpful, you might want to see the other two-hundred-plus ones, too.
You might also want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
May 14, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
I‘ve posted about my interest in using TED Talks in my International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class next year, and my interest in adapting some of those lessons for use in my Intermediate English class.
Using them with English Language Learners just got easier with the announcement they’re adding subtitles to the videos. You can read about it at Free Technology for Teachers. You can also read more at the National Public Radio All Tech Considered blog.
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Regular readers know I link to posts by Sue Waters a lot. She’s the nicest and most helpful person in the education blogosphere.
You can read an interview with her here.
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
9 Comments
I joined Twitter about five weeks ago (you can find me at LarryFerlazzo) and I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my experience so far.
It’s been a good one.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TWITTER:
I’ve liked the interaction and it’s given me a better sense of people – both for those who I know have been readers of this blog and those whose blogs I have been reading. It’s also been a very good place to find new resources that I’ve been able to post about here — ones that I doubt I would have found elsewhere — at least not right away.
I’ve asked for help one or two times, and was pleased to get advice and suggestions almost immediately.
Though I’ve been pretty careful about making sure that only about one-third of my “tweets” have been connected to my blog posts (mostly the “The Best…” lists), being part of Twitter has clearly helped increase readership of my blog and helped me connect to new people. The number of “hits” my blog receives and its number of subscribers had been going up steadily anyway, but they both have certainly “picked-up the pace” over the past five weeks.
I primarily post here on my blog about resources that I think are particularly useful for English Language Learners; certain other items that I think might be helpful to teachers facing similar challenges to the ones I face; and reports on policies related to what I think should be happening in our schools over the long-term.
In the course of identifying those specific resources, I find a lot of other good stuff that teachers could use. Twitter provides a vehicle through which I can easily share those types of resources.
I like that I can very quickly review “tweets” that have been sent to me, and I don’t feel like I have to read each and every one. Odds are that if I miss something really, really good, someone else has “retweeted” it, and I’ll catch it on the second or third time around.
Twitter has clearly become an important part of what many call a PLN — a Personal Learning Network.
DRAWBACKS TO TWITTER
Being an active member of Twitter does take time — both to send “tweets” and to sift through the “tweets” of others.
Even with all the positive feelings I’ve shared, it’s difficult for me to see Twitter becoming a major tool in education circles outside of those who have a special interest in educational technology. I know that no one I work with regularly uses it, and it’s difficult for me to imagine that — at least, in the foreseeable future — they would decide that it’s worth their time.
I think — technologically and professional development-wise — most of these teachers would get a “bigger bang for their buck” by reading lengthier pieces in blogs that would be more thoughtful and reflective, and that kind of activity is more within their experience of reading articles. I know that Sue Waters recommends that people give Twitter at least a month, and I believe that there is just too much info and too much sifting that needs to be done through “tweets” for most of these teachers to get the initial positive reinforcement necessary for them to stick with something radically new like Twitter.
In my community organizing career, we always kept in mind the importance of starting-off organizing activity by beginning within the experience of our constituency, and, since I’m interested in helping make transformative change in the way our schools operate, I think that organizing methodology makes sense — that’s why I write blogs, magazine articles and books; and why I am beginning to lead more workshops and participate in teacher groups where I’m not just “preaching to the converted” about my view of “progressive education.”
In addition, reflecting on my Twitter experience has also gotten me thinking about another organizing adage — the importance of “going to where the people are.” In terms of using technology to connect with more teachers, this thought has led me to start thinking more about the potential use of Facebook as another organizing tool. Though, as far as I can tell, no other teachers at my school use Twitter or even an RSS Reader for blogs, many — and not just the ones right out of college — have Facebook pages. I’d lay odds that this mirrors the situation at a lot of other schools, too.
I personally have next-to-no experience with Facebook, and hope to explore it, and its organizing potential, in the near future.
RESOURCES FOR THOSE CONSIDERING GIVING TWITTER A TRY:
For those of you who are considering joining Twitter, here are some resources you might find helpful:
Twitter Handbook For Teachers (thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip)
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I think the ability to annotate webpages — the equivalent of making notes on a written text — is absolutely critical for students to develop their reading skills. Using “post-it” notes on text to demonstrate the use of reading strategies is a key teaching and learning approach I use in the classroom. I am always searching for web tools that will allow students to do the same on Internet pages, which is why I created the The Best Applications For Annotating Websites.
There are some good tools on that list, but Blerp, I think, “trumps” all of them.
Once you register (which is extraordinarily easy and doesn’t require activation by email), you type in a webpage address, click on “post” and you can type on a virtual post-it note and place it anywhere on the text of the page and you are then given the page’s url with the notes. It’s extremely user-friendly.
But that’s not all.
It also allows you to see what other readers of the same page have written. All those virtual post-it notes are listed on the side of the page. All you have to do is click on a note and it magically appears at the location on the page where it was placed.
I believe a lot of the things many web tools allow you to do are neat, but don’t necessarily provide much “value-added” benefit to doing the same task using non-tech tools. Even the other tools on the “website annotating” best list only let you do the exact same thing you can do with hard copy.
With Blerp, however, after students have completed demonstrating their reading strategies, they can then see what everybody else has written, too.
Now, that’s what I’m talking about in terms of a way technology can enhance learning.
A big thanks to Mashable for the tip.
Obviously, I’m adding Blerp to the previously mentioned “The Best..” list.
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Sacramento Bee this morning highlighted our school in an article headlined Extra effort adds up at Burbank High — dropout rate down 10.4%.
Our principal, I think, says it best in the article:
“I don’t think there are any tricks that work,” said Burbank principal Ted Appel. “I think it’s really about having good classes and good teaching so kids feel like there is a good opportunity to be successful and graduate.”
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:
Images From The Hubble Telescope is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.
Hubble Repair Mission Underway is a video from The Washington Post.
The Associated Press has an interactive feature on the Hubble.
USA Today also has an interactive feature.
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Sketchcast, which was on The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007 list, and then was off-line fora very long time, is now back and operating. I don’t how long it’s been working again, but I just typed in its web address on a lark this evening and was shocked to see it come-up.
For those of you who don’t remember what it is, It’s like “drawing” a video (you can also type text) that can be replayed. In Sketchcast you can also easily provide audio narration to your sketch. Your completed work has a unique url, and visitors can leave comments.
It works for English Language Learners on a number of levels.
Does anybody know when it reopened for business?
May 13, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The deadline for submissions to the next edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival is in two weeks — May 31st — and it will be hosted by Alice Mercer, my Sacramento colleague. You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. Any posts related to the teaching or learning of English, including examples of student work, are welcome.
Nik Peachey hosted the latestt edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival, and it’s filled with great posts from around the world and insightful commentary by Nik.
You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.
May 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Many of you might be familar with Videos from TED, called TED Talks (18 minute presentations from creative figures that are presented at an annual conference).
Teaching With Ted is a wiki put together by Jackie Gerstein to help teachers use these talks in the classroom.
Blogger Tim Longhurst has just published the list of ten presentation rules that are given to each TED speaker, and they’re good to keep in mind for any type of public speaking.
I’m going to reprint the first five here, but, since he did the work to find them, I figure it’s only fair that you should have to visit his blog to find the last five (Tim is a gracious guy, and was kind enough to leave a comment on this post sharing the remaining five rules so people don’t have to go to his website to get them. You can find them in the comments here, but I’d still encourage you to go to his blog)
1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story.
5 Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.
May 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Even though I haven’t always agreed with David Brooks, the New York Times columnist and commentator on the PBS News Hour, I’ve always been impressed with his intellect and reasonableness.
However, it appears that he loses these attributes when he talks about education.
I’ve posted about a relatively incoherent colum he wrote last month (see Relationship-Building, Merit Pay, & Testing).
This week he wrote another bizarre one – this time on the Harlem Children’s Zone, the well known charter school run by Geoffrey Canada.
Instead of going into my issues with what he wrote, I’d encourage you to read two other posts that express similar concerns much more eloquently than I could do:
What ‘The Harlem Miracle’ Really Teaches by Diana Ravitch
David Brooks In Opposite Land by Claus von Zastrow.
There are also some very insightful comments that were left by readers right below his column on the Times’ webpage.
I think Brooks would be better off staying off the education “beat.”
May 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Last week, Richard Byrne at Free Technology For Teachers wrote an excellent post called “Five Week In Review News Summaries.” I’d encourage people to visit his post, though I suspect that many, if not most, readers of this blog already subscribe to his. In fact, according to how PostRank ranks the popularity of blogs (which, of course, is just one of many ways to do so), Richard’s blog is the number one education blog (this blog is ranked second).
It gave me the idea that a similar list of News In Review sites that would specifically be accessible to English Language Learners would make a good companion to The Best news/current events websites for English Language Learners and to The Best Visually Engaging News Sites.
Most of the sites on this list are similar to each other in format — they show slideshows of key images from the previous week and have short captions. I have noted, though, a couple of exceptions that provide audio or video.
Here are my picks for The Best “Week In Review” Sites For English Language Learners:
The Telegraph Week In Pictures
Voice of America Special English has weekly “webcast” videos.
The Guardian doesn’t have a weekly show, but it does have “24 Hours In Pictures.” The daily slideshows are fairly short, so a week’s worth of images is reasonable to review.
The Los Angeles Times has a photo “The Week In Pictures” feature.
Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
May 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Digital Research Tools is the newest addition to The Best Collections Of Web 2.0 Tools For Education. It’s a pretty incredible site.
Thanks to Nik Peachey for the tip.
May 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
(There was a problem with my previous post on this, but I didn’t catch it in time before it went out on RSS Readers. Sorry)
Curse of the Black Gold is an online movie/slideshow about how the exploitation of oil in Nigeria has affected the environment and community conflicts. Click on “Movie” in the menu in order to view it.
It should be accessible to high Intermediate English Language Learners.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Africa.
May 11, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Thousands of Hmong demonstrated today in Sacramento to support General Vang Pao and others who were requesting dismissal of charges that they conspired to overthrow the Laotian communist government. The judge delayed a ruling.
Many of our students missed school to attend the rally.
I don’t support what General and ten others allegedly did. At the same time, it does seem a little surreal that the U.S. government is prosecuting them now for trying to overthrow the communist government after paying them to organize an army to do just that for fourteen years, and then, after they (and our country) lost that war, our government let them continue to pretty openly organize in this country for another thirty years with the same goal.
This whole ongoing saga has provided many opportunities for English-language learning – civics lessons, English oral activities, newspaper articles developed into clozes (fill-in-the-gaps), vocabulary acquisition, etc. As I’ve previously posted, non-Hmong students are fascinated by this stuff, too.
May 11, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
I’m obviously not the only person around who creates “The Best…” lists.
The excellent Interesting Pile blog (which is one I’d recommend you subscribe to) led me to lists created by Forbes Magazine (not a publication I generally read).
Most of the lists Forbes creates are not useful to educators, but several are. The articles aren’t accessible to English Language Learners, but excerpts can be modified by teachers. However, some of the topics are intriguing, and they come with accessible slideshows. They could certainly be used to provoke class discussion and to provide writing prompts of students so students can share their opinions about the criteria used to determine the lists’ ranking.
They include:
The Ten Happiest Countries In The World
