Everton Walker
I am lecturer at a multidisciplinary college where I specialize in the delivery of Literacy Studies instructions. I do use cloud-based applications for personal storage and for class purposes. For personal storage I use Google Docs and Gmail while Dropbox and WordPress are being used to store assignments and other class-related materials. I feel more […]
Continue reading Waterless Clouds Posted in: Week 08: Files in the Cloud There could be a feature where we can access individual posts easier instead of sifting through all the posts for that particular week. Also, there are many interesting plugins available for wordpress that are not being used. I guess because we are adults, we should be able to cope with what is being presented. Then […]
Continue reading Conclusion Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Everton,
Wow, 99 ways to improve blogging? This site is great. Thank you for the tips:) This will help improve my blogging for sure. I use WordPress for my teaching, but there are many features in Dashboard that I haven’t used or don’t know how to use. It’ll definitely give me some ideas of the ways to improve my class blogs. Thanks!
Deb
Deb,
No worries man. I have recently applied some of those tips and they really make blogging much easier. Every now and again I test new features and plugins but time is really not on my side to explore deeper.
Everton
Hi Everton, thanks for sharing! I found interesting installing a “Top Commentators Plugin” (#23). Certainly this would promote students’ participation and motivation.
Cheers,
Angela.
Hi Everton,
I found that link on “99 ways to improve your blog” to be very useful, thank you. Check out this link http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html
Hi Everton,
I agree that finding a better way to track/navigate posts would improve the experience. One way I would suggest is to create a new page for each week of activities on which posts could be collated for each topic according to that week/topic, even though I suspect that categorising posts is to achieve such tracking an organisation. It is really the user interface that I am most interested in. Depending on one’s needs one has to choose the features that suits them most and as such choose by characteristics of the tool being used. In addition to Conroy’s link I found this one useful in assisting with such choices http://edublogs.org/why-edublogs/#comparisons.
Kerry-Ann
Hi All, I am a big fan of blogging as it has become a part of my classroom since early 2011. First, I started out using webs but found out that it wasn’t meeting my mandate and I never had enough space to set up content, graphics and videos. Soon after I started using […]
Continue reading Hi All, I am a big fan of bloggin… Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Hi Everton,
Thank you very much for such a thorough analysis! I am glad that you shared your experiences with working with webs and other blog types.
You have said that you find you like using WordPress for blogging. Any changes that you can think of to make WordPress even more marketable? Also, anything you think WordPress could do better for your classroom applications?
Juliana.
Juliana,
Well I would like to see it take on features similar to that of a LMS and include email service, built-in quizzes etc ; simply put, more tools for the teacher and students to work with.
Everton
Hi Everton,
I’ve also incorporated blogging into my classroom as I teach Math at Tech Immersion Program.
As you said, I like WordPress too. I think you mentioned it in another post of mine.
I agree with you that WordPress can be more marketable if it has features like quizzes and a submission box for assignments. Although I use WordPress for my lessons, my students still have to go to Moodle to submit their work and do quizzes/tests. If they are all built in WordPress, teachers don’t have to get training for both WordPress and Moodle, and students don’t move back and forth.
Deb
Hi Deb,
How was the students’ feedback when you incoporated blogging into your math class? I realized whenever I used blogging with my students they do not communicate as much as when they are in my face to face class.
Hi Deb,
How does blogging work in a Math class? It is great that you can get kids to use both applications – what does that look like?
Hi Everton,
Thanks for the post, and gotta agree that WordPress works for educational blogging. Also wanted to check with your first line: “it has become a part of my classroom since early 2012.” Do you mean 2002, or are these experiences “- if, like a crab, you could go backwards” (Hamlet, II, ii, 204) – really posts from the future? Happy to hear more about them , either way 😉
Kyle
Kyle,
Thank you. I mean 2011. It does facilitate educational blogging to a great extent. I am really enjoying its use and constantly seeking new plugins to improve its appearance and delivery capabilities.
Everton
Hi Everton,
Educational blogging is a very useful tool to engage students in online discussion. I worked wordpress and found that it is one blogging tool I have come across. Your blogging site should help to transform your students both computer skills and langauge. Well done in setting that site.
How do you find the shy students when they are engaged in online discussion?
Conroy,
I realize that the shy students find the blogging space as their comfort zone. Even though they will not say much in f2f sessions, they tend to write a lot on the blog and critique what others have to say. Some were even trying to hide their identity until I told them not to do so.
Everton
I am not a big game fan so my experience is very limited. I have tried a few before including jeopardy and hangaroo. The experience with hangaroo was rather rewarding as I used to play that game before but not in digital format. As a teacher of literacy, I was able to use this game […]
Continue reading Hangaroo Posted in: Week 05: Game-Based Learning
Hey Everton,
I have used Jeopardy in my classroom and the students love it! When I was student teaching, I would create a jeopardy page then alter it depending on what lesson was going to be used. I would use the SMART board to display the game and the students loved being chosen to answer the question, interacting with the board!
How effective was this game in your class? Did you use it for a specific subject area? I actually used it for comprehension classes and did it with competing teams. My students were serious competitors and therefore they made the process intense and interactive. I even designed a teacher-made jeopardy too.
Everton
Dear Everton,
I think having a kangaroo hurl insults at me would be kinda fun 🙂 Would be even better if it could hurl Shakespearean insults. Now there’s something kinda geeky for you. Interesting response from a person who professes to be a non-gamer. As well, I have used Jeopardy before in my classes. I love it and for some reason, the students seem to think that it isn’t “work” although the amount of review we get done in a couple of games is the equivalent of a whole unit of terms or concepts.
Hi Everton,
It sure sounds like you had fun playing Hangaroo I guess the hangman’s noose and the Kangaroo are the two major controls you have in the game, probably why it called Hangaroo 🙂 Evidently, these did the job well enough in getting not just the students but you to learn new words. I do not know this game but it sure sounds like scrabble of sorts to me.
Everton,
I have used Jeopardy in my class and it was fun for the students. It kept them alive, interested and motivated. Sometimes a little fun is just what students need to be re-inspired, and games can be an excellent way to learn, practice, and review a lesson’s content in interesting and creative ways.
Keisha
It’s really fun and a vocabulary and general knowledge builder. A great way to avoid conventional vocabulary strategies.
Everton,
I can recall our teachers using hangaroo with as children in primary and high school but I have never used it as a teacher. It is an exciting game; one sparkle interest in students. I have used jeopardy with my students which they like very much.
http://www.einstruction.com With a tag-line of Simple Solutions, Real Results, eInstruction was founded in 1980 by Dr. Darrell Ward. Prior to founding eInstruction, Dr. Ward started the Computer Science program at the University of Mississippi, had faculty teaching and research positions at Texas A&M, The University of Texas System, and the University of North […]
Continue reading http://www.einstruction.com … Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp I need some help here. I need some explanation or direction to where I can find the instructions for this week’s post. I know it’s the entrep bootcamp but not sure exactly what to do. Thanks, Everton
Continue reading This week’s discussion Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Hi Everton,
You need to:
Select a learning technology venture and find out who its leader is, making sure they are also a founder of the company. You can select a company by searching here: http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/2010/exposition/exhibitor_search.php
Then you’ll need to provide the following information:
1. Information about Founder or Co-founders, title & photograph, and brief bio
2. Venture name
3. Any personal reflections this analysis has inspired regarding your own entrepreneurial potential
Hope to have helped.
Good luck,
Angela.
Angela,
I couldn’t thank you more. 🙂
One Love,
Everton
You are welcome Everton 🙂 Glad that I could help.
Cheers,
Angela.
Webook Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxY7BBJqKkY&feature=related It is always interesting to see the loads of information that can be presented in less than a minute. Seeing the story being told orally was amazing, but reading between the lines was even better. I have always been interested in publishing and new innovations that will drive it and create […]
Continue reading Webook Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/wat… Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
Hi Everton,
It is great to see your enthusiasm for this pitch, and how you were able to identify what works about it: the comparison to other successful ventures in related fields of Web services. As the pitch is designed to attract writers, and having a panel of readers evaluate your work may seem a bit daunting, but offers more feedback than the cold, heartless rejection letters most writers are used to receiving.
An educational venture analyst would need to look into how this literary YouTube could be brought into classrooms, and how does it change the realities of publishing books. Some could even ask the tough question of what distinguishes WEbook from other on-line vanity press ventures. I’d be interested to follow up on the potential changes this service has on the eBook market.
Kyle
50/50 profit share… and if there are no profits? Whoever is charging expenses against revenues gets paid. The profit-sharers get nothing.
Also voting on books… this is a “community vote”…. but a community vote of a bunch of wannabe writers doesn’t represent the market for book buyers. It may create an incestuous market of writers and buyers, potentially… in some ways, that’s how certain markets in the “real book world” work.
Not sure how this has anything to do with Linux or eBay. Linux is about a community building products on the source code of each other and forking when opinions differ. eBay is about selling to the highest bidder. Writing and selling is about audience, genre, and marketing… seems quite different to me. The true challenge for wannabe writers is learning to write to genre and market.
Good point about the community of voters David…incestuous may be the right term…I wonder if it is only wannabe writers that do the voting…it would be in their best interest to cast a wider net on the internet to see if the book would sell to a broader audience.
David,
The presenter was only making reference to linux in relation to how it liberates software. She was just try to show that just like those entities, webook would like to revolutionize the publishing sector in a similar manner.
Everton
Hi all,
I found this pitch to be a little more splash than content. The presenter was clear with good hooks (I got the sense that she used the big successful names as hooks, not as comparisons of the actual products) and described the idea well. I was left feeling like she was presenting an idea that is already out there in one form or another. Blogs offer the opportunity (when multi-auther functions are enabled) to collaborate and work together on a text, and also allow for quick publishing to the world. I didn’t see what made this product different except that perhaps by joining this group and publishing here, the author is committing to partaking in that community of practice and abide by its constructive rules? I might be stretching that a little.
Thanks for sharing,
Kristopher
Sorry, I re-read and realized that my comments focused more on the product than the pitch: it’s not that I believe that product is the same, but that was the feeling I was left with after the pitch. It seemed that she was more describing a pain point that the tools already existed to solve.
Hi Everton,
Webook elevator pitch is a good one. It certainly could caught my attention when I viewed it,especially the 50/50 profit shares and the procedure involve in the publishing of books. It could be a solution for students and writers in developing countries who are having difficulties purchasing and publishing books respectively.
Having looked at this particular report, the top ten issues weren’t surprising; but were surely significant. Even though all ten issues are important, I paid some special attention to issues number 3 and four which cater to “teaching and learning with technology and security. I am in total agreement with the report that the former […]
Continue reading Educause: 2011 Top Ten IT Issues Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Hi Everton,
I agree with your concern about security and how the former has the potential to become very significant. As everything on earth (or what is related to human existence) has positive and negative effects, I would tend to think that what we need to do is to contribute on the development of a digital citizenship, where people (in our cases, our students) learn how to discriminate between ethical and unethical actions through the use of technologies. Risks will be there always, security issues will be there. But I think that the issue is: how can we inspire our students to take care of themselves just as they care of themselves when they are on the bus or walking on the street? There is the potential significance of formers (the power of moderation and feedback).
Angela
Like Angela, I agree with your concern about security and the more we are opening our classrooms to wider access to the internet with the use of personal devices. We are faced with potential security issues as we move forward and try to provide the service they need for learning.
Everton,
Security risk cannot be overstated as the cyber world is populated with a spectrum of malicious actors such as hackers and crackers.
Keisha
Hello Colleagues, I am Everton Walker from Jamaica. This is my 9th MET course and I am also currently doing ETEC 540. I am a lecturer in Literacy Studies at Moneague College which is a multidisciplinary institution. I have been working as an instructor for the past 11 years where I had experience at all […]
Continue reading One Love from Jamaica Posted in: Uncategorized
Hi Everton! It seems that we will be at the same courses during this term as I also took ETEC 540. I wish to graduate on May 2012, so I hope we can meet there. Looking forward to learn with you during this term!
Angela
Angella,
Great to see you again too. Yes, this is the final lap of my race and I am excited. We will have a great time working together.
HI Everton! Nice to ‘see’ you again! I think we’ve had a few classes together. Is this your last semester in the MET program?
Hi Wongte,
Great to see you too. I think we did too. This is my final semester. We will have great learning experiences here.
Hi Everton,
Nice to “see” you again. I look forward to working with you this term again!
Juliana.
Juliana,
Nice to see you again too. I am looking forward to some great learning experience.
Nice to see you again Everton. Congrats, we are almost at the end of this intruiging journey. I hope we shall have a productive term.
Keisha
Keisha,
Thanks and the very same to you. I am happy that you are more optimistic now. We are almost there and a blanket finish is expected 🙂
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bcourey 12:48 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Everton, sounds like a very good reason to head into the clouds! Or was it in using these cloud applications that you had the problems?
Everton Walker 6:34 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
bcourey,
No. I had those problems when I was banking on hard drives and t-drives etc.
Everton
andrea 6:47 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Everton, good point about the risk of viruses and crashes. Do you think that the reliability of cloud systems is better than local storage?
Andrea
Everton Walker 9:17 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Andrea,
I do believe it is more reliable than local storage. The only thing that is missing is the closeness and ownership of my files. In the clouds, they are at the mercy of the hosts which have the know-how and expertise to secure them.
Everton