Monday, April 27, 2009

Last post and question


Hello everyone,
Congratulations on all your blogging! You've done a great job with all your questions and answers as well as with increasing your digital literacy. There have been almost 400 total postings so far. Over the the length of the assignment many of you really put a lot of effort into writing creative questions and thoughtful answers. You should feel proud of your hard work. This will be our last blog question so make it a good one.


My final question is; What have you learned about yourself, your classmates or technology during this blogging project?


.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Question Seven

A useful way for teachers to utilize blogs is by providing out-of-class information for students. Students can check the blog for addtional information on what they learned in class, extra homework assignments or reminders. For example, I could suggest that you could check out Life in the USA, a website about American culture as a follow-up to unit 5 in our textbook. I could also remind you that next week is our last week so don't forget to write your last two questions and responses on your blog.

My question this week is: How would you describe Korean culture to someone you might meet on your trip to America?


.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Question six

One popular use of blogs is to discuss 'hot' topics. The topics can come from the news or from your social group. This can be used in classrooms as a way for everyone to express their opinion about something in a clear and fair way. For some students, it's difficult to say what they mean in public but they feel safe writing in a blog comment. For this blog post, I'll ask what you think about a news story.

The Korea Times reports Spending on Tutoring Tops $14 Billion in 2008. Is it harmful or beneficial for students to be getting this much tutoring?


.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Question Five

One of the great features of blogging is that it can be in many formats. Many blogs are written texts like ours but many others are in audio (podcast) or video (vlog) format. Some blogs use all three formats.

Podcasting is similar to free radio on the internet but it's free and it's produced by people like you and me. If you've seen the KNUE Podcast, you'll know that podcast or audio blog might have a player like this. Click the play button to hear a message from Nicole









Take a look at a couple of these podcast sites to see how podcasts can be used for entertainment or education.

DonGenova (A podcast about food)
Classic Poetry Aloud (A podcast of classic poetry)
The Technology Teacher (A podcast about teaching with technology)
Yoga (A podcast about yoga)
Seoul Podcast (A podcast about Seoul, Korea)
Food Wishes (Vlog of cooking)
ESLpod (An ESL Podcast)
Mrs Gamache's Kinderplayer Podcast (A podcast with kindergarten
students)
Jenny's school blog (A high school student's educational podcast)
LIS 460 School Podcast (A teacher produced podcast for her class)
WaySmarter (A podcast about culture and history for students)


My question this week is: How could you use blogs or podcasts for your students?


.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Question Four

There are some fun things that you can do with your blogs to make them interesting and fun. By adding widgets, you can spice up the content and appearance of your blog. There are several places that you can find widgets for your blog including;

Yahoo widgets
Google Gadgets
Widgetbox

You can put a widget in your post or in one of the side panels. Here is an example of a widget



My question this week is: How do you feel about your knowledge of technology? Do you think that more skills would help you be a better teacher or not?




.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Question Three


Blogs can be useful sources of information for teachers. They can can be read or listened to, in the case of podcast blogs and they can provide new information on education, classroom management, technology for teaching or subject content. Read How to Get How to Get Something out of Blogs from HuffEnglish.com if you would like more ideas about that. Here are a few blogs that might interest you while you study here at KNUE.

An EFL Notebook
English Studio Online
ESL Geek
Grammar Guy
ESL Podcast

My question this week is; Which is more difficult about blogging, writing the questions or writing the comments? Why?


.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Question Two

Hello everyone,

You're doing a great job on your blogs. I've really had a great time 'surfing' the different pages and seeing all your photos, posts and comments. Thank you for taking time to answer my blog question also.

One of the great aspects of blogging is that anyone can use them for almost any purpose. Current research says that there the blogosphereare has over 70 million bloggers and it's growing every day. Common uses of blogs include, journals, news, columns, editorials, collaborative writing projects, and publishing research.

Here are a few examples of blogs that you might enjoy.


Tips for New Bloggers
  (this is a blog to give advice for new bloggers)
Daily Dose of Imagery (This blog shows a different photo taken by the blogger every day)
CBC Radio3 (this Radio blog plays music and updates you on local Canadian news)
My Dinner Table (a cooking blog)
Post Secret (this is an blog where people mail in their secrets or thoughts in the form of a picture postcard)
Our Green Year (A personal blog from a family trying to be environmentally friendly)
The Life and Times of Jori (A personal blog by a mother raising two developmentally challenged sons)




My question this week is; Was it difficult for you to make your blog? Describe what made it difficult for you.


.

Monday, March 9, 2009

First post






Hello Classes 1, 7 and 8,

If you would like to watch some helpful videos on blogging, click here.


I will ask one question every week just like all your classmates. You may answer my question or your classmate's questions but try to answer at least three every week.

My question this week is;

Where are you from? I'm from the suburbs of Vancouver, Canada. My parents, sister, brother-in-law and nieces still live there and I try to visit them once a year.


.