A Math teacher... teaching?

You can't miss the opportunity of watching this YouTube video in which a Math teacher does something quite unique. 

If you want to catch your students’ attention for a couple of minutes (maybe you want to wake them up in a Monday morning) this is a highly effective way to do it.

I won’t tell you what it’s all about because you have to watch it and see it for yourself.

Enough. Just ‘push to play’. ;)

Timeline

There is a new feature Twitter included in its tools: a widget that allows you to keep track on a Twitter user. That user could be yourself, if you want to keep your website visitors informed about your latest news or maybe another user whose information you want to share among your blog's readers.

What you post on Twitter is called 'tweet' (that is the famous 140-character text). When you post several tweets, they are organised chronologically and that canvas of information is called 'timeline'.

The Twitter timeline of a particular user is exactly what you can have embedded in your website or blog.

Ir order for you to have an idea, I'm posting here Edmodo's twitter timeline (i.e. we will have access to Edmodo's latest news through Twitter). Sometimes it takes some seconds to display:

Tweets por @edmodo

We said in a previous entry that Twitter can be a great tool to keep your students updated with whatever you want them to know. In this way, you can use a blog or a website to deliver these Twitter messages and it won't be necessary for your learners opening an account and registering on Twitter.

Google Street View

Nowadays there is a web revolution in Argentina because the latest news say that Google had implemented its street tool: Google Street View.

I used to look for places in Google Earth, which shows you almost any place you want to see from a satellite perspective. Now this new tool allows you to ‘walk’ the streets of the major cities.

Last year, they started to send their cars, all equipped with cameras, in order to recollect images; and yesterday, September 25^th, we could see them all at last.

Isn’t it a great tool for your students to move around the city without leaving the classroom? Don’t you think it would be great for learning how to give and take directions? You can even ask them to look for particular things or people that are displayed on those street images.

Google is, again, helping us in so many ways!

I leave you all for now showing you a capture from Google Street View. Do you know the place?

See you!

Folding Story

Searching the web for a tool that would allow me to play ‘Exquisite Corpse’, I ended up finding a very interesting site that could be useful for a classroom in which ICT is present.

It is called “FoldingStory”. Remember when you were a little kid and played with your friends that game that consisted of the creation of a story in which each participant had to add a sentence or a word? Well, this is a very good game for exercising language with your students and they can do it online –once registered, of course. Bureaucracy is everywhere-.

After logging in, they have the following options: CREATE (that is to begin a story), ADD (to continue an existing story) or just READ (to take a look at other people’s stories).

There is a twist, though. We all know about the increasing popularity of Twitter. FoldingStory borrowed that particular feature of Twitter that makes it unique: you have a 140-character limit for each entry. That is: 140 characters if you begin writing a story, and 140 characters if you add lines to another story. People who collaborate with your work will also have that same limit. This characteristic makes the creation of the whole story very dynamic.

Here you have the link: https://foldingstory.com/ and I hope you and your students enjoy it!

Google: searching by voice

Another great Google tool (at least I thought it was…) is its searching by voice option. Google released this tool on June 14^th, 2011. I think it is a great idea and it promotes integration for those who can’t write in a keyboard. So I tried it… and I’ll show you the results in a minute.

First, I will tell you how it works. You have to go to Google search, its main page (www.google.com), and click on the little microphone that is on the right. Needless to say, you’ll need a microphone in your computer. After clicking there, you will be automatically redirected to the next page, where Google will ask you to speak, saying the words or phrases that you want to search. Then you just have to wait a second and the results will be displayed. Easy! (or… I thought it was!).

I tried some words. I tried to be very accurate as regards pronunciation. I even had a monitor present (teacher Constanza Gauna) to certificate that I was pronouncing the right phonemes. Well, here you have the results of this little investigation:

1) I said 'Hamlet'. The result:

2) I said 'chair'. The result:

 3) I said 'contagious'. The result:

4) I said 'crocodile'. The result:

5) I laughed in an exaggerated way (ha ha ha ha!). The result:

6) Tired of repeating words and a little bit disappointed, I said 'what the f***!'. The result:

7) I said 'cat' (you can't do it wrong!). The result:

In conclusion, I think that this tool is highly useful if you are searching for a pet or for a particular vulgar expression.

A bullet-proof drive

So far we dealt with what the experts call software. Today I feel compelled to talk about hardware. That is, the physical aspect of a computer. First of all, I will only refer to a flash drive, which is a data storage device, very useful for carrying information from one computer to another. Second of all, I used the word ‘compelled’ because I was most surprised by a couple of events during the last months and now I feel I must share the experience.

Most of you probably know or heard about Kingston flash drives. Kingston it is a very well-known trademark in computer-related memory products. I have a flash drive, a little one, and black, not so fancy. I use it in the way it supposed to be used, copying files here and there, take information from one place to another, or when we have to make a presentation at the institute, for example, it’s very useful having the option of using a netbook from the laboratory instead of bringing our personal computer.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that these series of flash drives, produced by Kingston, made a very positive impression on me after a couple of incidents:

1) It was chewed and chewed (courtesy of a little dog). When I could finally take it out of its mouth, I noticed it had some holes. The plastic was a little bit distorted. I tried it in my laptop, and it worked! 
2)  A couple of days ago, I went to my roof to bring my clothes, which were hanging there from the day before. When I took one of the pants, the flash drive fell on the floor. I admit I shouted a few nasty words while I was picking it up. I washed it! Half an hour in the washing machine, full of water, soap, detergent… Then a few minutes in the clothes dryer, spinning around at a high speed. And finally 24 hours in the open air, through dew and sun. And guess what… I tried it in my laptop, and it worked!

In conclusion, there are plenty of flash drives in the market, I’m sure, but if you ask for my opinion, I will certainly vote in favour of Kingston and its indestructibility.

Positive reward

Letizia, our ECO 2 teacher, came back from her trip to Liverpool and she was not empty-handed! She brought presents to all of us. Of course this entry's title is just a joke. I'm sure these presents are not JUST positive reward! (there's a fall-rise on "reward").
So thank you Leti!

P.S.: the mints are great! (and I'm sharing them, as you said, so don't worry!).