Random Quote
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
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
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Edu-blogging
Teachnology A new blog that I recently discovered had a link to an interesting article, Content Delivery in the Blogosphere, on the use of blogs for education.
I have used phpBB message boards in the past with my students for journal assignments as well as other writing homework and an alternative method of contact with myself.
Blogs are useful teaching and learning tools because they provide a space for students to reflect and publish their thoughts and understandings. And because blogs can be commented on, they provide opportunities for feedback and potential scaffolding of new ideas. Blogs also feature hyperlinks, which help students begin to understand the relational and contextual basis of knowledge, knowledge construction and meaning making.
I found all of the above to be true with the exception of the hyperlinking. Probably in the context of a blog hyperlinks would become far more prevalent than in a message board.
One of the advantages that this article talks about is
Unlike a discussion forum that is shared by many, a blog gives students full control and ownership over their online content. It becomes a virtual space to try out new concepts that do not have to fit within a hierarchical or topic-based discussion forum… Blogs allow students to take ownership of their learning and publish authentic artifacts containing their thoughts and understandings. Blogs also provide a way for students to individualize their content
All of this touches on a number of language learning aspects that I touch on in my classes. I try to enable students to become more autonomous language learners and to take language learning out of the classroom. Being in an EFL situation makes this quite difficult as the students rarely see the opportunities that they have nor do they generally have the motivation to pursue them if they do see them.
One further advantage of blogging that the author talks about is authentic communication. I feel that if students were to find that their blogs were being read by others outside of their class or even outside of Korea then they would most likely take more care in what they write as well as write more often and at greater length.
Once I start my new job on March 2nd I will talk with my director and see about the possibilities of implementing blogs in our classrooms.
Rethabile Masilo wrote 31 words on Monday Feb 16, 2004 at 11:18 PM
phpBB: I’d be interested in knowing your experience with those. Easy, hard, useful, used by all participants, etc? It’s one of the things I have on my list to “check out”.