electro-textual

i admit, when i was teaching adult literacy last year, sometimes project work was too much work, and we resorted to literacy worksheets. People responded well, because they felt it matched their needs for less complex, more focussed activities.

So i relied on a few websites to do the production for me. i’d take the current theme’s vocabulary list, and build up a collection of worksheets. Students can then choose which ones to do. Here are the main sites i would use:

1. Worksheet Genius – on this site you can customise your content .. then print off a worksheet, eg wordsearch, anagrams, acrostics, bingo sheets. Use their vocabulary lists or put in your own.
2. AtoZ teacher Stuff – this site has some generators including word shape / vocabulary match which i’d been looking for.
3. Free printables at SEN teacher – plenty of free and customisable worksheets you can design and download here .. good for low level literacy learners, especially people with more challenging needs; for example the vocabulary image search tool, which creates a page of illustrated vocabulary using google images.

i thought of this again the other day when Chris came in and asked if i knew a decent wordsearch generator.

“That’s a beautiful wordsearch,” says Chris, “the best one i’ve had for ages .. just my (students’) level.”

Yay for worksheet genius !!

What’s your favourite worksheet generator?
(Or would you never insult your students with such a “busy-work” tool?)

PS – I’ve been printing the resultant web pages direct to PdF; that way i can save the sheets for later (using pdfCreator as my printer) .. (and then Foxit pdf reader for printing because it’s faster than Adobe and runs from a portable drive).

photo credit: CharlesFred

The comical folk at current.com have done another twitter satire. It’s funny.

Disclaimer: i admit, i have been following some celebrities. Yes i am a twit. (aka miczl)

My big issue with Twitter is this:

Get A Room.

.. if you’re having a private conversation, get off the public airways. Use Skype or messenger. Have a proper conversation. Stop leaving notes in the middle of the road for everyone else to trip over.

But that is not how twitter works, so i will just get off my high horse right now. Some people love to be fully social in that environment. High “noise-to-signal ratio”. And in one sense they are right

.. you need to build relationships over time before you can have meaningful exchange. (eg:

1. “how was your weekend?”
2. “i need help with finding the best screencast app”).

Nonetheless, griping aside .. there are some very fine adult educators and e-learning practitioners who often say useful things. eg including these people:

• Greg Bird and Jenny Wood from Swinburne,
• Marlene Manto and Michael Coghlan in SA, Stuart Jones of Milang Old School House (MOSH),
• Michael Gwyther from YUM, Lynne Gibb of Coonara community House, Coach Carole
  
• Marg O’Connell in Canberra, Robyn Jay and Anne Bartlett Bragg in NSW ..
• Howard Errey and Rose G from the Framework
• .. plus thousands more!

Jane Hart in the UK recently compiled a list of educators on twitter. Blimey, she’s up to 1000 already!!

Whoops, another fail whale. Back to work now.

Part of the new PRACE flexible delivery project is about showing information technology teachers how to set up a screencast in their classroom. Because there are a few different products on offer, i thought it would be useful to trial some of them up front.

Last year, we looked at Jing, as Lisa from Moreland showed her MYOB students some new skills. (Part 1, part 2.)

This time around, the buzz is on Screencastle.

Recording is straightforward and fast. You set the size of your screen grab and go. It’s easy to move the grab area around your screen. You start when you want to start. (Is there a pause button? Can’t recall.)

Upload process: worked fine on my machine, but there’s no indication of how long you’ll have to wait. But it does happen, and then eventually .. after uploading, you’ll get links for embedding, watching and downloading. Yes you can download the original file in FLV format (and i recommend doing this, just in case the service changes or you want to host somewhere else).

There’s no way to get membership yet, so there’s no social aspect going on. If you want to attract viewers, comments etc, you’ll need to embed your file in another environment such as teachertube,, or a wiki / blog.

Ah. i recorded three casts and the first 2 went magically, but the third one ended up a zero file. Darn. Frustration.

(PS: oh look, the embedded files are empty on this page. Hm. Wordpress is stripping the embed codes. Boo. So i’ll download the files, and upload them to blip.tv instead.)

If you’re interested, the movies i’ve made focus on using google spreadsheets to create a “movable budget” .. that is, using formula to make a budget with variables you can adjust.

(i’ve tried to keep each video under 4 minutes.)

Chapter 1) introduction to entering your formulas

Chapter 2) adjusting the numbers

Chapter 3) recap

Links:

• screencastle.com
• Rick over at business hacks bnet has an intro to screencastle too.
• My videos on the screencastle site (chapter 1), (chapter 2), (chapter3)

Via Rose on the innovations blog, found this video (below) showcasing stories from the 2008 e-learning innovations projects. People talking about different tools, such as wikis, web conferencing, scenario based learning, blended learning, using a virtual classroom for companionship and classroom buddies.

All sorts of good stories, including these:

• Georgina Nou on how they recreated the Alice Springs Telegraph Centre in second life: now students can learn the skills in a safe place, which is good for indigenous people who need practice feeling more comfortable in unfamiliar environments – they can rehearse again and again.
• Dora and Josie from AMES talk about an ESL student who found her voice and flourished through keeping a journal online (wiki).
• People from Volunteer Marine Rescue say their project was a “massive catalyst for change in the organisation, in how they deliver training”.
• Kane Horwill talks about a student who wouldn’t say much in class, but changed to the sort of student who participated more and even volunteered to be a mentor facilitator for their peers the next year.

Snapshots and Stories: 2008 E-learning Innovations Projects from E-learning Innovations on Vimeo.

Which is your favourite story from the video?