Flickr and Mashups

This seemed like something my 11 year old daughter would spend hours working on. I doubt that I will ever use this tool in my work. Going to yahoo or google images works fine for me. I often do that in my work. If a professor needs a map or an image of a famous landmark in a foreign country, I'll search for images for them. I have always been able to find what I need using the simple search in Yahoo or Google images.

RSS Feeds and Google Reader

I used to have a very slow dial up internet connection at home. Using Google reader with RSS feeds would have been perfect because it would eliminate all the time spent going to all these websites. I think having the easily recognized orange logo really helps to find out if a source can be connected via RSS stream. I have personally found BBC and NPR to be very easy. I have subscribed to my friend's blog, one called "Language Lab Unleashed"which features podcasts and written articles, news services especially those dealing with the Philippines, technology, and the environment. I am always excited about anything that saves time--especially time spent online, which I normally consider to be unproductive time. I hope to find more feeds related to language pedagogy and technology so that I can stay on top of my field.

Facebook

It is such a coincidence that the assignment to do Facebook came this week since last weekend my brother-in-law came and I wanted to see pictures of his kids (my neice and nephew). It was the first time I had ever looked at Facebook and I realized from looking at their friends that almost all of my neices and nephews are on there, so I had resolved to join sometime soon. Then, I actually had to for this assignment. It is probably a useful tool, but one I doubt I will use very often. I can hardly make time for the people in my life as it is. Also, I feel like I'm way too old to be bothering with things like MySpace and Facebook even though I know many people my age and older use it. I felt silly like I was trying to be a teenager. My Peace Corps group has a My Space group and also a group of friends from college who used to meet at Shenanigan's every Thursday night has a MySpace site that I have visited. As far as how it could be applied to my work, I can see some use for it. Students could visit sites on MySpace of people who live in the countries of their target language.

Tagging with Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us has been a wonderful discovery for me. I hate clutter and it eliminates clutter in my bookmarks and saves me time finding the websites that I want. Going to the bookmarks list is still faster, but not if you have hundreds of things bookmarked. I have only tagged about 5 or 6 sites so far but plan to add more and more each time I visit them. I have a friend who is always one step ahead of me when it comes to technology and I was so pleased that I introduced her to Del.icio.us. She had never heard of it. I wish it had a different name because it sounds slightly pornographic to me. But anyway, it is extremely useful for me because I have one computer at home and one here at work. Before, I had different websites bookmarked to different computers. With this tagging program I can access my favorite websites even if I am traveling abroad.

Searching for Podcasts

I usually use iTunes to search for Podcasts. I have been subscribing to podcasts for some time now. I subscribe to shows that I often listen to on the radio on NPR, but often end up missing. I also subscribe to shows that I don't have access to, such as Real Time with Bill Maher, which comes on HBO, a station I don't get at home. I also subscribe to a few podcasts that help me with my job such as Language Lab Unleashed. I listen to these podcasts on iTunes on my computer and using an iPod. I found getting the NPR podcasts from the NPR page was quite confusing. I kept looking for a button that said "Subscribe", but couldn't. I found subscribing to the RSS feed to my Google Reader much easier. I am taking a Spanish class right now, so I subscribed to a Spanish learning podcast called InstaSpanish. I really enjoy saving these podcasts to listen to when I'm doing something tedious like gardening, or burning CD's at work, or doing housework.

Igorot Video from YouTube

Here is a video that I found on YouTube that is of a parade in Bontoc, the provincial capital of the Mountain Province on Luzon in the Philippines. It shows people in the traditional costume of the area, playing traditional music and doing the traditional dances. If you're not used to it, it probably just sounds like people banging on pots and pans, but it makes me feel very homesick for the Philippines. It's also reassuring to know that I can see the place any time I want.

I've been using YouTube for a long time now, and whenever I'm feeling nostalgic for a certain place or time, I can usually find something evocative. I also use YouTube for finding information, such as gardening advice and technical advice that I use for my job--things concerning language technology. I often use YouTube to see things that I missed on the news. If everyone is talking about some scandalous political ad that just came out, I can always see it on YouTube, since I rarely watch TV.

lang-ay street dance

This is a parade in the town of Bontoc, the provincial capital of the Mountain Province where my family and I lived

Learning Spanish

Here is a Spanish file.

Wikis

I'm just experimenting here

I really like wikis for certain things such as planning a project or a class, but I really don't trust using them for getting information because anyone can go in and change them around. I really would be dubious about looking up anything to do with a politician, for example, because the politician's opponents could just go in and put in false or incorrect information. Even in a work situation, a jealous coworker could amend the contribution of a colleague that he/she wants to undermine. Wikis are wonderful in an idealized trusting world--a true intellectual community.

Posting Photos

This is a picture of one of my favorite places on earth. It is a little village in the Philippines on the island of Luzon. I have been there several times with my family.

Technology in the Language Lab

Technology has seriously changed the role of the language lab. It used to be a place where people would go and listen to cassette tapes of canned dialogues when I was in college. It was the only source for this audio material. Nowadays, the cost of a CD is negligable and most language textbooks come with the language CD included. Other textbook companies don't even have it on CD's anymore. Instead the audio content is available on their web site. It used to be the only place where students could have access to voice recording equipment, but almost any camera or phone or iPod has that now too. So, everything is becoming more and more decentralized in terms of technology and content. The language lab is now a place where students come to gain exposure to the sounds of their target language and get assistance in how to use the technology to do so. We also provide assistance to the faculty who either haven't learned the technology or don't have the time to put it into practice. We help students put together video montages for their comp presentations. Find TV content that is relevant to what the professor is teaching in his/her class, and many other services.

jan15

Todayy is MlK day

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New Semester

It's a new semester. I am really looking forward to expanding the use of the language lab