Random Quote
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
Online learning
I spent over 15 years attempting to teach English conversation in Japanese schools and colleges. Getting students to talk to each other was often hard work, but it was better than having no conversation at all! However, now I’m back in the UK I have seen how much better the communicative method works when you have a variety of different nationalities. Wouldn’t it be nice to recreate this in classrooms in Japan, Korea etc. Well, now we have the technology! What you need is a good broadband connection, webcameras and headsets. And a link with a school or college in a neighbouring non-English-speaking country who have similar goals in mind.
I know of a couple of schools and colleges in Japan who would be interested in taking part in such an experiment with a school or college in Korea.
Maybe some of you are already doing this. Maybe some of you are interested in trying this out. I’d be grateful for any information, advice or leads anyone has.
Please contact me via this site or directly by email at
Thanks.
japanbond inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Aug 21, 2008 at 06:38 AM
Teaching | Languages_&_Cultures_in_Contact | Guest Author | (3)
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Mad About English
Hat tip to Dekita.org
Mad About English, a film by Singaporean filmmaker Lian Pek, humorously documents China ‘s passionate love affair with the English language and their obsessive quest to learn it (some through very unorthodox methods).
This TechCrunch article shows another opportunity to_grow_ your_ career by pointing to a very grammatically (and politically) incorrect website, EngrishFunny, to which users send in photos of poorly translated or odd variations of written English in products, signs or instructions.
Deivis Pothin, a student of linguistics in London, shares his impressions and worries about the underlying message.
What is Web 2.0
English 360 has the answer.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Aug 16, 2008 at 07:31 AM
Random_Ramblings | (0)
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Ultimate Online Slideshow Guide
I recently had a need to add a couple of powerpoint presentations to another web site I’m working on. I wanted to be able to embed the powerpoint and retain transistions and animations as well as embedded audio or video. A quick search didn’t reveal any definitive answers so I’m going to compare the options I did find. One of the keys with using powerpoint online is to remember that not everyone has powerpoint (but the viewer is free 2003 version & 2007 version and openoffice will also open powerpoint files with some loss in functionality)
I’m going to to look at a number of features across all options including: compatibility with pptx files, ease of use, privacy controls, embed, email, social network links, commenting, registration, downloading of original file, and licensing. To make the comparison equal across all options I’m using the same powerpoint file for all services and embedding it here. This is a powerpoint that I used in spring 2008 and it has several animations, transitions, video, and audio embedded. You can see the original by downloading it - I’ve included the ppt and pptx in the zip file (27.5mb). The options I’m looking at are:
- slideshare | jump link
- authorstream | jump link
- zoho show | jump link
- google docs | jump link
- 280 slides | jump link
- scribd | jump link
- Slideboom | jump link
- iSpring | jump link (free) | jump link (pro)
- slideboom & ispring integrated
- conclusion
Not all slideshow players are showing up in bloglines (and possibly other RSS readers) - visit my site to see everything.
Learn about each of these options in the extended entry.
Read the rest of this post
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Aug 10, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Random_Ramblings | useful_web_sites | (5)
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Art Supplies
I recieved the email below from a reader, but am unable to answer it since I haven’t worked in a hagwon for 8 years. If you know the answer, please leave a comment.
Can you email a list of the typical art supplies available in the Hagwon classrooms? For example, scissors, paste/glue, construction paper, crayons, markers, rubber bands, string or yarn, etc.
My guess is that most of this stuff is available, and if it isn’t it is cheap to buy at the local stationary store (I know because I buy it for my children).
