Dr. Sharla Jones' Presentation Materials

Thank you everyone for sticking around on Tuesday despite the all the confusion, and waiting for Dr. Jones. I apologize once again for not being able to be there.

I heard from several of you that the presentation was very informative. Dr. Jones was kind enough to provide copies of her materials from her presentation. These are now available on our WEB-CT course site, in a folder titled "Dr. Sharla Jones Presentation"

Reminders and Clarifications

First off, thank you everyone for getting small gifts for your ePenPals in China. And a big thank you to Marysol for bringing the postcards! I'll try to add a few postings to this blog from my trip to China, including some photos of your ePenPals.

Here are some reminders and clarifications:

1. Class Wiki: There are still 3 students who have not yet posted their "embarassing language learning moment story." There is also a new section where we can post and share links to cool sites. Please add to it. Also, feel free to go in and edit your classmates' postings if you see any errors or ways to make their stories better.

2. Kidspiration Story Map: There has been some confusion about this assignment. The purpose of this assignment is to make a story map for your group's podcast. If you have a grade that says "redo" then it looked to like your Kidspiration project posted to your web was not a storymap for your podcast. Please also note, this assignment is not due until April 17. This will give you time to meet with your group and plan out your podcast.

3. Reading Reflections - It looks like many students were late in posting responses to classmates for Reading Reflection #6. I did not go back and look for those, so if you only have 1 point for Reading Reflection #6, e-mail me and let me know who you responded to.

4. Quickshares: Some of you have done quickshares, but have not yet posted them on your blog. You need to do so to get full credit. Also, your quickshare should be a posting labeled "Quickshare," rather than as a link on the sidebar.

That's it. Have fun playing with Audacity. And have a great Spring Break!!!

Audacity Download

We'll be working with Audacity this week in class. It is a free program for recording and editing digital audio, and one of the main programs people use to create podcasts.

I recommend you download and install this program on your own computer or laptop. You can download it from:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ (download the Stable 1.2.6 version on the left)

After you download and install Audacity, you will need to download and install program called LAME MP3 Encoder. This program works with Audacity, and allows you to export your recordings into .mp3 format (the format required for podcasting). Instructions and links to the free dowloads are here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3

Note, once you install the LAME MP3 Encoder, you'll need to hook it up to Audacity. Just follow the instructions, it's fairly easy and only needs to be done once.

If you have a Mac, see if you have Garage Band installed. If so, great! This is the most widely used program on the Mac to record podcasts and is fairly easy to learn to use (so I'm told).

Phone Numbers

I noticed a couple of instances where some students have posted their phone numbers on other students blogs in the comment sections.

I'm glad to see folks networking, but please please please be very careful. You are not only giving your phone number to your classmate, but to the entire world!

E-mail is a much safer way to exchange this information. You can e-mail each other through Web-CT.

Interactive Word Worksheets

I just looked at your interactive Word worksheets. I am very impressed! They cover a wide range of topics--minimal pairs, tongue twisters, the solar system, and a famous soccer player, just to name a few. They are also multilingual. In addition to worksheets in English, there was a worksheet in Spanish providing infomation on the culture of Mexico, and another in Spanish where students had to listen to three choices to determine which question matched a written answer. We also had one in Chinese on the story of the Three Little Pigs! A couple of you even inlcuded video clips.

If you haven't done your worksheet yet, or if it is incomplete, please finish it and let me know when it is ready.

You can find the grade for your worksheets under My Grades on Web-CT. As we have time in class, I may ask some of you to share your worksheets with the class.

As reminder, please do not e-mail large files to me. They clog up and shut down my e-mail account! Please use the folder in the computer lab to save large files, and let me know when to look for them and what they are named.

COEHD Scholarships!!

There are two scholarships specifically for graduate students in bilingual education or ESL concentrations -- the Albar Pena Memorial Scholarship, and the Kessler Family Memorial Scholarship -- plus other scholarships you may be eligible for. Deadline is March 9, and the application process is fairly simple.

See http://coehd.utsa.edu/Students/Scholarships/PSAvialCOEHD.htm for more details.

Textbook

Our missing textbook has still not arrived to the bookstore. Since it has been on order since November, and no one could tell me when it would be in, I went ahead and cancelled the order.

Required readings are now available on our Web-CT course site.

Posting Comments

Some members of the class had trouble posting their response to the reading reflection question below. You may have been told you need to register first.

I changed the settings so you do not have to register in order to post comments. I thought it already was on this setting, so I apologize to those who had trouble.

If you had trouble, try again. It should work now. Let me know if it doesn't.

WEB-CT Updates

Hi Everyone,

Great first class meeting. Sorry if things were a bit rushed. The pace will slower from now on.

I have made several updates on WEB-CT. The readings for next week are now available under "Readings." I have posted our Presentation Schedule, so be sure to check it and make sure I've got you down for the right presentations on the right dates.

Be sure to post your answer to my reading prompt below (after you do the readings of course). As a reminder of what I said in class, for Prompt #1 you only need to respond to me. We'll do Prompt #2 in class next week after you create your own blogs, but be sure to read the readings before you come to class.

I am very excited about our course, and I'm glad you are all in it! See you next week.