How do you want to organize and archive your daily writing? In the past I've very prescriptive (or is proscriptive?) in telling students what kind of bound and expandable notebook type contrivance to use. And always 3-5% of the class would subvert the paradigm, bringing about the chaos described in my first blog.
The first entry in your collective daily writing journal/portfolio/notebook/blog will address the question, "Why am I in this class"? That will be on the back of the syllabus "quiz."
I like the idea of students posting their own blogs - we could create our own social network. A previous class had some success - and I learned a lot from the experience. I doubt it'd work for everyone, though I have ample evidence that blogging and the sort of web 2.0 skills that come with it are necessary for sucess in the workforce three years from now. Employers are going to demand it. and there are so many
So who should make the decision, teacher or students? regardless it needs to be convenient for review. Think not only of the categorical imperative but of the greg imperative (ie what would the greg's life be like if everyone did what I do?).
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Accessing ANGEL
ANGEL is our online course management system. It is required for college excellence whether you're taking distance learning courses, hybrid (with reduced seat time) or traditional 'sit and get' courses.
ANGEL tutorials provide detailed video re: how to login and use the system. Check 'em out. To find the site and login go to https://dl.jccc.edu/. Many people prefer to just go, mess around and figure it out on their own. You can't hurt anything. Check it out.
ANGEL tutorials provide detailed video re: how to login and use the system. Check 'em out. To find the site and login go to https://dl.jccc.edu/. Many people prefer to just go, mess around and figure it out on their own. You can't hurt anything. Check it out.
Course Policies - filling in the gaps
In case you missed it in class discussion, there are some issues not addressed in the official course policies that might be of interest.
You are the best judge of whether you need to use the bathroom. I may have shared the experience of a former classmate who was denied access when he had explosive diarrhea. It doesn't have to be medically validated for you to leave the room. Most people tend to get real gassy when they need to move their.... Remember the categorical imperative. What would happen if everyone did, or did not do, a behavior? That said, if you can't go 75 minutes without a nicotine break, quit the habit.
And again, if you have a fever stay home until you go 24 hrs - drug free - without a fever. I don't require explanations for absences - after the fact - unless you think you might have the swine flu. In fact there are certain personal details I don't enjoy, including that mentioned above.
Use your classmates as resources. Every college teacher I know has a major issue with students who miss class and say something like, "I missed class. Did you say or do anything important?" Teachers tend to think everything they say is important and can be real touchy given their inflated sense of self worth, but fellow classmates can a better judge of what happened in class. Consulting classmates has the added benefit of not reinforcing for the teacher that you missed class. By Friday I'll have a course schedule/ daily lesson plan up on ANGEL. I'll also post a forum for what we did.
Information and communication is important - but not more than honesty. Again, don't kill off relatives or say you're sick if it is not accurate.
Need to discuss acceptable/ appropriate language
You are the best judge of whether you need to use the bathroom. I may have shared the experience of a former classmate who was denied access when he had explosive diarrhea. It doesn't have to be medically validated for you to leave the room. Most people tend to get real gassy when they need to move their.... Remember the categorical imperative. What would happen if everyone did, or did not do, a behavior? That said, if you can't go 75 minutes without a nicotine break, quit the habit.
And again, if you have a fever stay home until you go 24 hrs - drug free - without a fever. I don't require explanations for absences - after the fact - unless you think you might have the swine flu. In fact there are certain personal details I don't enjoy, including that mentioned above.
Use your classmates as resources. Every college teacher I know has a major issue with students who miss class and say something like, "I missed class. Did you say or do anything important?" Teachers tend to think everything they say is important and can be real touchy given their inflated sense of self worth, but fellow classmates can a better judge of what happened in class. Consulting classmates has the added benefit of not reinforcing for the teacher that you missed class. By Friday I'll have a course schedule/ daily lesson plan up on ANGEL. I'll also post a forum for what we did.
Information and communication is important - but not more than honesty. Again, don't kill off relatives or say you're sick if it is not accurate.
Need to discuss acceptable/ appropriate language
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Cool resources, free learning materials, fun stuff
Laughing Squid (a blog I like) points us to a Free Music Archive. You can download music legally and, according to laughing squid, use it pretty much however you want. If you find something good here let me know and I can use it as a soundtrack on video I produce for our class.
Other blogs I like are Open Culture, which will give heads up to great cultural content on the web, like the top educational and cultural videos. Have a dry professor? You can find the best of the ivy league holding forth on biology, physics, literature, you name it. AND you can download it to your personal media device.
The Philosophy Monkey bills itself as "your source for humor, edumacation and critical thinking" (all in our objectives) though they don't publish as often as I'd like.
I like BoingBoing.net, but I stopped following, less because of the infrequent posts on drug or sex related topics (be forewarned) and more because it's so prolific. There are sometimes 40 or 50 posts a day.
Do you use and aggregator (feed catcher, feed reader)? It collects the RSS feeds from blogs (or podcasts) you want to follow and makes web research much more convenient. I use bloglines (click to view my account). It's about the most popular and the organization is intuitive for me. It also makes following my favorite comics easier (with the exceptions of Doonesbury and Baby Blues - they force you to visit their site).
Other blogs I like are Open Culture, which will give heads up to great cultural content on the web, like the top educational and cultural videos. Have a dry professor? You can find the best of the ivy league holding forth on biology, physics, literature, you name it. AND you can download it to your personal media device.
The Philosophy Monkey bills itself as "your source for humor, edumacation and critical thinking" (all in our objectives) though they don't publish as often as I'd like.
I like BoingBoing.net, but I stopped following, less because of the infrequent posts on drug or sex related topics (be forewarned) and more because it's so prolific. There are sometimes 40 or 50 posts a day.
Do you use and aggregator (feed catcher, feed reader)? It collects the RSS feeds from blogs (or podcasts) you want to follow and makes web research much more convenient. I use bloglines (click to view my account). It's about the most popular and the organization is intuitive for me. It also makes following my favorite comics easier (with the exceptions of Doonesbury and Baby Blues - they force you to visit their site).
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Web comix, cliches and colloquialisms.
Grammar discussions demand humor.
Also on the issue of tired language , Oxford researchers have released a list of the top 10 most irritating words or phrases in English. Not all of them are cliches, but...
And what is the difference between a cliche and a colloquialism?
Taylor Mali, a teacher turned Slam Poet (he's been on Def Comedy Jam and Comedy Central), has great material on YouTube. His poetry (more stand up/ spoken word with a hip hop feel) rocks. See a collection of links . His rant on “what a teacher really makes” lifted my spirits, but his video on rhetoric and the loss of voice in contemporary culture is more relevant for students.
Victor Borge’s a phonetic punctuation system can lighten up a grammar discussion and teach mechanics. And for me it's practical; living in multilingual environments, I sometimes speak out punctuation to clarify meaning.
Also on the issue of tired language , Oxford researchers have released a list of the top 10 most irritating words or phrases in English. Not all of them are cliches, but...And what is the difference between a cliche and a colloquialism?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Acceptable language
From the age of 10 until I started teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) I swore like a drunken muleskinner (the coarseness of muleskinner invective can make a sailor blush). College classes in general and English classes in particular are tolerant of crude or graphic language, but some understanding and agreement early on is warranted.
I will cede to the will of the class with 2 codicils: blasphemy and hate speech/ labels - blasphemy because it is for many the ultimate show of contempt, and also because it tends to end dialogue. "But how," you might ask. "can you get away with the picture in this post?" I'll argue context. I might also admit to irony. I like irony. Sarcasm, however, bores me.
Hate speech can be tricky. Used to be being in or of a referenced group provided immunity - but Perez Hilton suffered physically and in public opinion since he called Will.I.Am a "f***** NOTE: in blogging there is a practice of disemvoweling text that often works. But sometimes, as in the n word, even that wouldn't be adequate.)
Does the law recognize "fighting words"?
My sentiment - avoid labels. To paraphrase Nietzsche, when you label someone, you negate them. Being negated bites. Labels of race, gender, and/or sexuality carry mondo baggage; however, we live in an imperfect world and this is a learning environment. Mistakes are inevitable, so be tolerant and open-minded. When someone slips up be calm in bringing it to their attention, but don't avoid helping someone learn something useful. For fun and a discussion point, go to this wiki page.
I will cede to the will of the class with 2 codicils: blasphemy and hate speech/ labels - blasphemy because it is for many the ultimate show of contempt, and also because it tends to end dialogue. "But how," you might ask. "can you get away with the picture in this post?" I'll argue context. I might also admit to irony. I like irony. Sarcasm, however, bores me.
Hate speech can be tricky. Used to be being in or of a referenced group provided immunity - but Perez Hilton suffered physically and in public opinion since he called Will.I.Am a "f***** NOTE: in blogging there is a practice of disemvoweling text that often works. But sometimes, as in the n word, even that wouldn't be adequate.)
Does the law recognize "fighting words"?
My sentiment - avoid labels. To paraphrase Nietzsche, when you label someone, you negate them. Being negated bites. Labels of race, gender, and/or sexuality carry mondo baggage; however, we live in an imperfect world and this is a learning environment. Mistakes are inevitable, so be tolerant and open-minded. When someone slips up be calm in bringing it to their attention, but don't avoid helping someone learn something useful. For fun and a discussion point, go to this wiki page.
PS. Can anyone tell me where I took this picture?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Copyright issues and The "P" word
Plagiarism issues come from: not broaching the subject early, confusion, and the changing nature of the legal question. Maybe also students are lured into a false sense of unaccountability by teachers who don't call them on it. Sometimes if you ignore problems, they go away (or become someone else's problem). Students believe a blase treatment of citations is standard practice (good question). Then you get an instructor who takes citations seriously. The prof. sees violations as an insult, "What! Do you take me for a fool?" he, or possibly she, ruminates. Accusations fly....
Some English teachers downplay or ignore the issue out of fear we are abusing our authority, but schools ARE holding students accountable for downloading media - with arguably draconian punishments. How is it different? How is it the same? Or is it as they say in Tinglish, "same same, but different. " More on that in a podcast to come.
My advice: chill. With common sense (if you aren't trying to game me) there won't be problems. Just be conscientious and cover your assets.
Start with these awesome animated videos produced by Rutgers U. They are fun, short and amazingly informative.
Some English teachers downplay or ignore the issue out of fear we are abusing our authority, but schools ARE holding students accountable for downloading media - with arguably draconian punishments. How is it different? How is it the same? Or is it as they say in Tinglish, "same same, but different. " More on that in a podcast to come.
My advice: chill. With common sense (if you aren't trying to game me) there won't be problems. Just be conscientious and cover your assets.
Start with these awesome animated videos produced by Rutgers U. They are fun, short and amazingly informative.
- Video - - what is plagiarism
- video - - plagiarism real life examples
- video - - anti plagiarism gameshow
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