A while back I was approached by Packt Publishing  to review Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development: A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle 1.9, by William H. Rice IV. I was approached to review this book due to my semi-regular blogging about Moodle as well as my extensive experience using it as a teacher of English as a Second Language.

Moodle 1.9 E-learning Course Development is a book that achieves its goal of being a complete guide to successful learning with Moodle. This book will definitely be useful for newbies as well as experienced users such as myself. Rice takes the reader through a tour of Moodle in the first chapter that serves as an excellent summary of its capabilities as well as a roadmap for the rest of the book.  A friend who is a newbie to Moodle visited my house and read the first third of the book and expressed how helpful it was just reading it. He was very impressed and bought the book.

I would highly recommend any teacher or site administrator new to Moodle to read this book.To get the maximum benefit out of this book it would be best for the reader to have access to a Moodle installation, preferably as an administrator. However, if you only have teacher access this book will still be highly useful. For those curious about what Moodle has to offer but without access to a Moodle site this book will provide you with the insight you are looking for to decide if Moodle will meet your needs.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Nov 5, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Teaching | Moodle | Book_Gigilo | Book Reviews | |

Awhile ago I was contacted by Packt Publishing about reviewing a copy of Moodle 1.9 E-Learning Course Development. Of course I said yes - note to other publishers I like freebies and will review for you - it took awhile to get the book as an older version was mistakenly sent.

I finally recieved my copy of the current edition the other day and I’m sitting in Starbucks right now reading it. I’m planning on getting the review written sometime within the next 10 days or so. Hope someone finds it useful.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 11, 2008 at 09:30 AM
Book_Gigilo | Moodle | |

This post will be about books that I am reading lately as well as books that my students are reading. First I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. A few books that I have borrowed and enjoyed include:

The Omnivores Dilemma is a book that will forever change the way you look at food. I don’t mean that it will make you a vegetarian, because that didn’t happen to me - I just had some bacon for breakfast and have steaks queued up for dinner. However, you will learn how much of what you eat is made from corn. This book is a fascinating read - I highly recommend it.

DNA: The Secret of Life is written by James D. Watson, winner of the Nobel prize and the discoverer of DNA. It’s written for the layman and talks about the history of DNA up to the present and what this means for the future of mankind. Another absolutely fascinating book on science.

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking is about how the unconscious mind can make the best decisions immediately upon sizing up a situation and why getting too much information can often derail that same decision. It’s all about thin slicing. A must read and one that I will buy in order to read again in the future. I’ve also purchased The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by the same author and this book is queued up.

The list of books is going to be quite long so this will be continued in the extended entry.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday May 3, 2008 at 03:20 PM
Book_Gigilo | |

Gord has posted a review of Education Fever: Society, Politics, and The Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea by Michael J. Seth. The title alone makes me want to read it, but after reading Gord’s review this book is now on my must read list.

Gord’s review is well written as one would expect from the quality of his past writings. Read the excerpt below or go read the whole thing, it really is compelling.

This book should, in my opinion, be required reading for anyone who’s coming to work as a teacher of any kind in Korea. Why? I believe this for a number of reasons…

...As an individual teacher, the themes of the book were quite familiar to me, for I have faced all of them in my own classroom at one time or another: class size issues, the fast-and-loose approach to standards of admission and academic advancement that results in the graduation of effective incompetents, the (to a Westerner) rather extreme zeal with which Koreans regard education, the universally-agreed-upon insanity of the University Entrance Exam and its paradoxical continuation into the present day, the stunning impotence and occasional outright ineptitude of the Ministry of Education, and the puzzling insistence that university studies (and especially English-language studies) are the hope of the nation. All of these are things I have bumped into myself time and time again.

What the book does is snap these issues into perspective, showing how and why they got the way they did, as well as establishing that, no, you — the white foreign teacher who is encountering these things for the first time ever — are not the only person who perceives there is a problem, and that your simple solution probably would work, in Canada, but for some reason — cultural, societal, linguistic, pedagogical, or logistical — is seen by Koreans as inapplicable. Reading this book, you don’t just realize what the wisest of us have intuited or picked up in conversations — that Koreans see many of these problems too — but you also see that you’re far from the first Westerner to suggest the very same solution to these problems. Most of them walked away in frustration, muttering darkly, and though their predictions about Korea’s economic future turned out to be flat-out-wrong (they thought the society would be stuck in poverty forever) many would agree that socially and developmentally, Korea’s developing much more slowly than it could be, and the bottom line is its educational system.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Mar 12, 2008 at 06:49 PM
Teaching | Book_Gigilo | Book Reviews | |

It’s been over two years since I graduated from my M.A. program and I’ve done very little reading other than blogs. I’ve picked up a number of books over that time fully intending to read them but never got around to it. That has all changed recently as I finished The Vocabulary of World English (this entry) and Autonomy in Language Learning which I had bought and read sections of for my M.A. but have now finally read the whole thing strait throught (this entry). Tonite I will be starting English Language Learning and Technology by Carol A. Chapelle.

The book by Chapelle is for background research on an action research project that I will be doing in conjunction with a colleague and friend. This colleague specializes in research and is published in several academic journals. He is going to help me with research design and understanding how to analyze the data. That being my weak area and one of the most difficult things I did not learn while doing my M.A. We’ve been meeting over the past few weeks discussing the study design and will be preparing the materials and background research over the winter vacation and then conduct the research in spring semester.

It feels good to be learning again and getting something productive done. I’m also looking forward to getting published assuming the research and article writing go as planned.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Nov 24, 2007 at 03:03 PM
general_linguistic_study | Research_Methods | Teaching | Book_Gigilo | |

Today is a holiday and I went downtown to do some shopping for my wifes birthday. Because I am a book gigolo, I stopped in at all three of the major book retailers. Doing this is usually does major damage to my credit card but not today. At Kyobo bookstore (광화문점) There is a good selection of linguistics and teaching oriented material on sale for 3,000 to 5,000 won each. There were a couple of books that I already own and paid 30,000+ won for. Needless to say I picked up 5 books for me and one for a friend whom I called to inform about the sale.

• Sound Patterns of Spoken English - (amazon)
• The Vocabulary of World English - (amazon)
• A History of the English Language - (amazon)
• Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language - (amazon)
• The Pronunciation of English - (amazon)
• Essential Introductory Linguistics (for my friend) - (amazon)

There were other titles available that I didn’t pick up including some learner dictionaries and other linguistic oriented books. if you can get to Kyobo books in the next few days it will definitely be worth your time.

On a related note Alex Case is looking for reviewers for teaching materials and linguistics books. I already submitted myself to review materials and have recieved a response back. It looks like I’ll be reviewing a photocopiable resource book for advanced learners. If you are interested in reviewing material why not contact Alex?

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Book_Gigilo | |

Readers may recall that a few months ago I wrote a review of a book I recieved as a door prize: Listening. In that review I said that I would be picking up other books in the series. Well I finally got around to picking up one. Today I purchased Grammar (really expensive online - I did not pay nearly that much) written by David Nunan. I also picked up a thicker heavier and no doubt more intellectually challenging book by David Crystal, English as a Global Language.

Book reviews forthcoming when I have time.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jun 19, 2007 at 03:43 PM
Book_Gigilo | |

As I have previously mentioned I signed up the The Library Thing a while back and have been recording my books, which a random 100 can be viewed on my library page.

Today’s Language Log post brings to my attention that it is possible to create and join groups within library thing. I have joined the group I survived the great vowel shift as linked by Arnold Zwicky. I’m not exactly sure what benefits a group have but I created another group, ELT Instructors.

If you are an ELT instructor and have books why not join library thing and then join this group. I think it would be a good way to discover books that may be useful to you that you have not yet discovered. Additionally it would be a great way to centralize book reviews of teaching materials and professional development resources. If you join, please leave a comment here or in the forum associated with the group.

Now listening to The Eels

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Apr 4, 2007 at 08:42 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | useful_web_sites | Book_Gigilo | |

I was browsing Gord Sellar’s site the other day, when I noticed he had this block of book covers on his side bar. Intrigued I clicked through and found Library Thing. Library Thing allows you to catalogue every book you own or have read. You can then display them on your blog or export the data to excel or csv files.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Feb 12, 2007 at 09:02 PM
Book_Gigilo | web_site | |

Practical English Language Teaching: Listening by Marc Helgesen and Steven Brown (ISBN-13: 978-0-07-111842-2) is a book that I recieved as a door prize at a CALLSig event. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been intending to writing a review of this book for some time.

I found this book to be very engaging and easy to read. It is clearly written for the average teacher and not academics in an ivory tower. Reading the book I can hear Helgesen speaking as I’ve seen him present twice and the book reminds me of his entertaining, engaging, and informative style. I haven’t seen nor read anything by Brown before but in my opinion he gets points for being associated with Helgesen.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Feb 3, 2007 at 09:05 AM
Teaching | Book_Gigilo | |

From tomorrow 9:00 am until late Saturday afternoon I will be indisposed without access to a cell phone or internet. During that time about the only thing I will be allowed to do is read or watch movies.

I have packed a diverse set of books. For brain candy I have Dan Brown - Digital Fortress (I’ve already read Angels & Demons as well as The DaVinci Code and enjoyed them). I also discovered another Jack Ryan novel by Tom Clancy - Red Rabbit which if it is as good as the rest of the series will be a good read. Next is the non-fiction books

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Aug 10, 2005 at 06:55 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

I went to the bookstore today and bought more books. Lately I have been reading far too much fantasy and not enough linguistics/teaching oriented books. But what can I say - I’m on vacation and can do what I want. I’m currently in the middle of my third trilogy by Robin Hobb and am enjoying the books immensely. Unfortunately I am reading the second trilogy last, but it doesn’t appear to have affected the plot line of the third trilogy - though I can see that some events that were alluded to in the third trilogy about the second trilogy would have had more meaning if I had followed the correct order. Well that will teach me to pay more attention to jackets of books. Umm back to what I bought today.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Feb 3, 2005 at 10:05 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

As you may recall I went to Cambridge Day this past weekend. The primary purpose of going was of course professional development and edification, However I had another reason to go. 20% discounts off of books

I bought Learner Autonomy which is a great resource book for providing activities centered around teaching styles and strategies. So far I tried one activity which has gone over very well. I also fully intended to buy Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition but it wasn’t there.

When I asked if it would be possible to get the book with the 20% discount from Cambridge day the girl I talked to gave me her email and asked that I get in touch with her. I did, found out the price, wired her the money and recieved the book the next day.  I am a happy camper. Thank-you Cambridge. This book is important to my dissertation and research proposal. Every single article or book that I read refers to it and the Rebecca Oxford book. It’s good to have the really important works available. Time to get reading.

update
Got into work today and I had a package waiting from Oxford University Press with a teachers guide to identity and English Knowhow 2. Now I just need to find classes to use these textbooks with. I like the content and layout and am hoping to be able to use them over the upcoming winter vacation.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Oct 20, 2004 at 09:21 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

This is a followup to yesterdays entry about Conversational Maxims & Cooperative Principles (CP). Today I read the third article by Green and found that it helped the Grice article gel in my mind. The writing style was a lot easier to read and the article is essentially a review of Grices theory so reading about the same topic twice obviously helped.

It is interesting to note that Green states that these maxim’s “tend to strike the naive reader variously as common sense” (pg 88)¹ which is pretty much what I said in yesterdays posting.  I guess I am one of the naive, but not anymore! An additional point that Green makes in a footnot is exactly the same that I was complaining about in the previous entry as well.

Insofar as perspicuous and prolixity are unnecessarily obscure expressions (compared to clear and verbosity or too many words), the statement of the maxim and its third submaxim violate the first submaxim; submaxim (3) violates itself as well with the obscure and repetitious paraphrase; and submaxim (4) is not ordered well with the others… (pg 89)¹

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jul 21, 2004 at 10:10 PM
general_linguistic_study | Pragmatics | Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

Roadmap to Korean by Richard Harris takes a look at learning Korean from a historical, cultural, and pop linguistic point of view. There are twenty-two chapters, five sections and an extensive appendices that combined make this a book that the Korean language student will find invaluable. The value doesn’t come from teaching you Korean as that is not what Harris is trying to do, but rather from providing a new perspective and insight into learning Korean and finding avenues to overcome obstacles and difficulties. ESL teachers, linguistics students, and those with a passing interest in Korea will find the book interesting for it’s insight into the Korean mind, language difficulties and the cultural explanaitions presented as well as brief history of Korea as it pertains to language.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jul 15, 2004 at 09:20 PM
About_Language | Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

I just wrote the second book review. I have also added a RSS2.0 and Atom feeds to the book review site.

Don’t forget, if you want you too can write a book review. Register to be a member and I can then give you the correct permissions. Hope you find this review helpful.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday May 26, 2004 at 08:15 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | web_site | |

I wrote the first book review today on the book review side blog. I hope that this review will be useful or interesting to someone. This is the first book review I have ever written so if the style is a little off, please forgive me and give me some feedback.

If you have a book you would like to review, just let me know and I can set you up as an author for the book review or you can email the review to me and I will post it for you.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday May 24, 2004 at 11:37 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

I’ve started a new bookreview side-blog. The first entry is not a review but rather what my goals are with the review site. I am truly a book gigolo and am always looking for something new and interesting to read so please help me out by posting your reviews and reccomendations.

If you do not wish to register as a member but still want to write a review send me an email and I will post it for you. Once I finish off these current essays I will start reviewing books I have enjoyed or am reading now. On this page you will be able to see links to the latest book reviews on the left sidebar.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday May 23, 2004 at 01:53 PM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |

This book is an excellent listening activity book. The tape/CD is all authentic recordings with activities designed around the recording that are motivating, fun, and challenging.
My office-mate has this book and I borrowed it today and was thoroughly impressed with it.  I used half of one activity and had to modify it a bit down to my students level but it went over very well and was a good break from the horrible textbook that we are required to use in class.

Two more books in the extended entry

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday May 13, 2004 at 09:16 AM
Teaching | Book_Gigilo | |

Dana writes about being addicted to books. I, too, continually buy books or borrow books from friends I’m just a book gigilo. If a week goes by without buying a book I usually get the shakes.

Anyhow Dana - Cue guitar riff, this song is for you

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday May 7, 2004 at 11:13 AM
Random_Ramblings | Book_Gigilo | |