PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/27/2010

• Bad Writing and Bad Thinking - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Higher Education

  Rachel Toor recap's George Orwell's essay on "Politics and the English Language, notiingl: "In bad writing, Orwell continues, 'The passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds ('by examination' of instead of 'by examining').'"
  
  She then surmises: "Most writers know they should avoid the use of the passive voice. Few do. Sometimes it's more expedient to say that the bomb was dropped, or that the war ended, rather doing the work of assigning blame or awarding credit. I know the arguments for the use of the passive voice in science and agree that at times it's appropriate. Often, however, I think it's a result of conventions that are wrong and outdated."

  tags: writing, education, English

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/26/2010

• Hate speech corrodes online games - Games - msnbc.com

  "One gamer told an opponent he presumed to be Jewish that he wished Hitler had succeeded in his mission. Many exchanges involve talk of rape or exult over the atomic bombing of Japan. There are frequent slurs on homosexuals, Asians, Hispanics and women.\n\nSuch comments can be heard on all online video gaming systems, including PlayStation Network, Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) and others." (para. 3-4).

  tags: games, hate, online, speech, online identities, education, technology, learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/23/2010

• FAQ - Save My Ning.com

  "Your 'Archived' Ning Network will not allow new posting or uploading, it will only be a copy of your Ning Network as of April 2010, so that it is available to all your members, preserved on the web, searchable, shareable, and fully readable" (What's the catch? ¶1),

  tags: archives, free, Ning, web capture

• Back up member profile information

  "You can export your members' profile information at any time from the Manage Members page This will generate a comma-separated (CSV) text file that you can open using a program like Excel. It'll contain information about your members, including their name on your Ning Network, a link to their profile page, their email address, the date they joined, their birthday, and their answers to all of the profile questions on your Ning Network."

  tags: backups, members, Ning, profiles, personal information, SNSs

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/20/2010

• WikiMindMap

  Cool tool for finding associated pages in Wikipedias in various languages

  tags: mindmapping, WikiMindMap, Wikipedia, mindmaps, wikis, languages, resources

• LiveBinders - Organize your resources in an online binder

  tags: collaboration, LiveBinders, organization, sharing, portfolio, education, productivity, tools, online, technology

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/16/2010

• CopyPasteCharacter.com

  Clicking copies character to clipboard for pasting elsewhere. Thanks to Wayne Udey and EdTech @ SIAST for pointing this out (CopyPasteCharacter - simple symbols, 2010.03.31).

  tags: tools, typography, characters, writing, wink_students

• Main Page - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  "This is the front page of the Simple English Wikipedia. Wikipedias are places where people work together to write encyclopedias in different languages. We use simple English words and grammar here. The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone! That includes children and adults who are learning English." (About Wikipedia, ¶1)

  tags: Wikipedia, reference, wikis, encyclopedia, simple, EAL, wink_students

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/15/2010

• YouTube - Audacity Tutorial for Podcasting

  "How to use Audacity for Windows..." (robwhiteus2007.10.08).

  tags: podcasting and digital storytelling, podcasts, Audacity, podcasting, YouTube

• YouTube - Hows and Whys of Podcasting

  Presentation reflecting on methods and rationales for producing ESL student audio and video podcasts

  tags: podcasting, youtube, podcasts, podcasting and digital storytelling

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/14/2010

• Top 13 Screen Recorders to Record Your Screen Activities

  "Here are few of the best screen recorders that will allow you to create videos and presentation from your activities and which are free to use" (¶1, 2010.04.13).

  tags: screencasting, recorders, software, presentations, technology, tools

• Free Stock Music for Educational Use

  "If you are an educator who would like to use royalty free music in your classroom, click on the Free Music Programs link to submit an application to download stock music free of charge" (Free Royalty Free Stock Music for Education, ¶2, 2010.04.13))

  tags: education, free, music, royalty free, podcasting and digital storytelling, podcasting

• Google Apps Topic Review - Improving the writing process with Google Docs.pdf - Google Docs

  "This paper explores Google Docs’ capabilities and shares insights from educators on the benefits they’ve seen in their classrooms" (¶1).

  tags: writing, Google Docs, Google Apps, education

• Ten gadgets to make Google Wave more productive - and fun!

  "You should bear in mind that these are all 'beta' gadgets. A lot of them work just fine but you might hit some bugs along the way. The 'direct import links' might also change at any time, so feel free to report any broken links!" (Sebastian Anthony, 2009.11.06, ¶4)

  tags: Google Wave, gadgets, mindmaps

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/13/2010

• Google Buzz Educates Teens About Privacy [VIDEO]

  Christina Warren says on Mashable: the Social Media Guide, "Although aimed at teens, the tips are good for anyone using Buzz to keep in mind" (¶3, 2010.04.06).

  tags: Google Buzz, privacy, safety, teens, tips, wink_students

• ACTA: The acronym hardly anyone knows yet should be scared to death of

  Multiple perspectives on secretive development of an "innocuous-sounding" (Building Frankenstein under NDA) trade agreement.

  tags: Internet freedom, ACTA, trade agreements, laws

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/09/2010

• National Education Technology Plan 2010 | U.S. Department of Education

  List of pages from sidebar on Home page (2010.07.08):
  
  Home
  Executive Summary
  Introduction
  Learning
  Assessment
  Teaching
  Infrastructure
  Productivity
  Recommendations
  Research and Development
  The Grand Challenges
   
  References
  How This Plan Was Developed
  Technical Working Group
  The Contributors
  Acknowledgments

  tags: DOE, U.S. Department of Education, education, educational technology, standards, technology, U.S., learning, video, national

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Quick Study of Blog Feed Stat's

When the ClustrMaps widget on the Writing Studio Blog started getting blotchy in locations other than Japan, I started wondering how all the blots came to be. Some, I knew, represented sources of comment spam that began showing up recently even though I've kept that blog out of Blogger listings (Settings: Basic: Add your blog to...: No!) since its inception. 


So today I took a look at FeedBurner Feed Stat[']s for both the blog headline feed and the blog post feed that I'd redirected through FeedBurner, respectively: 

• Headlines: February 25, 2007
• Posts: January 15, 2009

A difference discernible in spite of the disparate ages of the redirected feeds is in how the feeds get used. The Headlines go to FeedBurner Email subscriptions, and, although there also is a "Get Mailed: Posts" from FeedBurner gadget in the blog sidebar, too, the Posts, by and large, go into feed readers and aggregators – over the past seven to 30 days, mainly to Mozilla Compatible Agents (5-10), Google FeedCatcher (2-3), and PubSub (2 [unchanged]). 


Also over the past seven to thirty days, but for neither feed, have there been any hits (clicks on the feeds) from either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browsers. Most hits have been from Firefox browsers; next most, from other Mozilla driven browsers.


The remainder of this post lists other findings as well as sources of this information, to which you may not have access (except in parallel locales relevant to your own FeedBurner feeds). 

The Writing Studio Blog: Headlines

Current

33 subscribers

Last Seven Days: Wednesday, March 31 – Tuesday, April 06

28 subscribers (on average)

"This number provides a general understanding of the size of your subscriber base over a time period" (FeedBurner Help, What is a Subscriber? How does FeedBurner tally them? How does it look?).

Last 30 Days: Monday, March 08 – Tuesday, April 06

28 subscribers (on average)

• including 27 email subscriptions

All Time: Sunday, February 25, 2007 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• since adding Post Feed Redirect URL to blog Site Feed settings
• jumped from two to almost 30 in April 2008

18 subscribers (on average)

• 18 email subscriptions

__________
Source: The Writing Studio Blog: Headlines – Analyze (Google FeedBurner)

The Writing Studio Blog: Posts

Current

55 subscribers

• more than doubles average for Last Seven Days (below)
• almost triples average for Last 30 Days (below)

Last Seven Days: Wednesday, March 31 – Tuesday, April 06

24 subscribers (on average)

• including one email subscription

1 reach (on average)

"At any given time, you can expect that a certain percentage of this subscriber base is actively engaging with your content and this “Reach” measurement provides this additional insight." (FeedBurner Help, What is Reach?, What does it tell you?).

Last 30 Days: Monday, March 08 – Tuesday, April 06

19 subscribers (on average)

• including one email subscription

1 reach (on average) 

All Time: Friday, January 15, 2010 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• since adding Post Feed Redirect URL to blog Site Feed settings

16 subscribers (on average) 

• zero email subscriptions

0 reach (on average) 

__________
Source: The Writing Studio Blog: Posts – Analyze (Google FeedBurner)

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/08/2010

• AWL Sublists - exercises & sublists

  "For the exercises given in this website, the word families for each sublist have been further divided into six groups for ease of study, with three separate gap-fill exercises for each group" (¶2).

  tags: AWL, Academic Word List, derivations, exercises, gap-fill, vocabulary, wink_students

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/07/2010

• An Intellectual Property Primer for Online Instructors

  Main sections include: Copyright and Fair Use, The TEACH Act, Academic Traditions in Intellectual Property, Protecting your Intellectual Property, Using Other People's Property, and a Conclusion (sidebar)

  tags: copyright, fair use, intellectual property, online, education, technology, resources, teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 04/01/2010

• Social networking threat to language learning

  provides overview, includes link to Full research report

  tags: social networking, modern languages, formal learning, informal learning, ICT, technologies, integration, language teaching, Open University, threats, benefits, ideas

• Free Technology for Teachers: Use Drop.io's Upload Widget to Collect Student Work

  "Drop.io offers a simple upload widget that you can embed into your course blog or website" ( ¶2). Mr Byrne's 2010.02.25 post includes slideshow of "directions for installing the Drop.io upload widget on Blogger blogs and Edublogs blogs" (¶2).

  tags: dropbox, free, blog gadgets and widgets, technology

• Welcome to Fotobabble - Talking Photos

  Allows uploading photos plus voice recording, and generates embed-able widgets; free with username, password, and email registration 

  tags: audio, Fotobabble, photos, tools, blog gadgets and widgets, wink_students

• Op-Ed Contributor - Shake, Rattle, Seattle - NYTimes.com

  "Despite Chile’s exacting construction codes, which often exceed those of California and Japan, the performance of numerous high-rise buildings was worryingly poor" (¶2).

  tags: building codes, California, Cascadia, Chile, construction practices, earthquakes, faults, Japan, Los Angeles, Pacific Northwest, San Francisco, Seattle

• How To Write the Perfect Password

  10 tips for better password protection

  tags: passwords, technology, tips, web access, wink_students

• U.S. Considers 'Internet Access for All'

  In his "Blueprint for Change" economic recovery document, President Obama said that America "should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access."
  
  Data indicates, however, that the U.S. is far behind other nations when it comes to providing broadband access for its citizens. Figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show a sharp decline in U.S. broadband access rank among its 30 member nations. In 2001, the U.S. ranked 4th, but by the end of 2008 had fallen to 15th place.
  
  As for speed, Akamai, one of the largest global networks, released its "Q3 2009 State of the Internet" report that shows the U.S. 18th with an average connection speed of 3.9 Mbps. In first place was South Korea, which clocked in at 14.6 Mbps. (America Lagging, ¶¶1-3)
  
  

  tags: access, broadband, human rights

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.