January 2004
January 27, 2004
Reflections of a Counsellor
Reflections of a Counsellor, one semester completed:
Technology is not a barrier to my work, it only challenges me to work in a different way. Different is not better or worse, it simply "is".
The rule of the faster gun always applies: someone else always has more tech knowledge and is able to help me.
The volume of communication becomes daunting when it is electronic: everything is recorded and saved.
As students come to know me, I am getting more requests for counselling that is not program related.
A knowledge of "angles" is crucial. Many students have complicating issues in their academic careers- being able to access programs or develop plans which best meet their diverse needs is necessary. A counsellor needs to have a clear view of the options available to meet the varied needs presented. E learning is usually one part of a comprehensive plan.
Students who are served appropriately then refer other, similar students.
Although efficacy of a program is always important, it is sometimes necessary to offer a program to a student who at his stage in their life believes they are ready to be engaged in learning, even if all indicators and common sense tell us that their chances of success are minimal. Maybe we're wrong! We need to let them try and try again.
As in a face to face school, the guidance counsellor, secretary and administrator need to communicate frequently on a variety of issues. I believe they need to meet face to face regularly. It seems to me that teachers also like to have those people available in a face to face setting.
Dave Knowles
Guidance Counsellor
SCCS
January 25, 2004
A great software.
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for publicly funded, non-profit, educational users who make their pages available on the web.
January 23, 2004
Census
Census at School is an international classroom project for students aged 8 to 18. They gather information about themselves by completing a brief online survey. The anonymous results are used for teaching various subjects and comparing students' lives in different countries.
January 20, 2004
Web Design Elements
This Flash interaction allows learners to click and drag basic Web design elements e.g. headers, body text, buttons to explore Web interface design options.
Written by Scott Barnard
Digital Media Center, University of Minnesota
Evaluating Internet Sites 101
I found this while surfing around...at the University of Albany. I thought it was very well thought out.
This web site was developed to help Internet users evaluate Internet web pages.
At the end of this virtual tutorial you will be able to :
Evaluate Internet resources using the following criteria :
Author
Audience
Scholarship
Bias
Currency
Links
Determine if the web site meets your needs and standards of quality
Apply what you have learned to evaluate all material, whether the format is electronic, print, nonprint, etc.
Written by Carol Anne Germain and Laura Horn
Evaluation and Testing
I posted another area from this website about flash earlier in the month. This whole website contains a massive amount of links. Check it out.
Web Design References: Evaluation and Testing
January 16, 2004
CBC archives for Teachers
Welcome to the For Teachers section of the CBC Radio and TV Archives Web site. On this section of the site you will find educational materials for Grades 6-8, Grades 9-10, and Grades 11-12. These materials were created to complement many of the topics posted on the Web site, and include five lessons per topic, divided by grade level. All educational materials are available free of charge.
Prelinger Archives
Prelinger Archives is a collection of over 45,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. Founded by Rick Prelinger in 1983, its goal has been to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. The collection currently contains over 10% of the total production of ephemeral films between 1927 and 1987, and it may be the most complete and varied collection in existence of films from these poorly preserved genres. In 2002, the Prelinger collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, who now holds all film materials.
Internet Archive: Prelinger Archives
Chilly Beach A very neat website
Chilly beach is an animated series about a bunch of Canadians doing stuff that Canadians do. I thought this website was kind cool, I really liked the games.
Dude, Check This Out
What a great way to share websites.
Students' thoughts about online education
The following posting has been entered into the Student Lounge at the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School. I will attach the student comments to this entry as the students post them. Hope you enjoy them.
I am the assistant principal at the cyber school and I am also an author of an online blog. This blog is for online teachers and developers. For those of you who do not know what a blog is...it is short form for weBLOG. Is a method of sharing information with others via the internet. The members of this blog live all over the world and what I would like to do is share the thoughts of some of our students with these blog members. So, basically what I am looking for is some students' thoughts about this whole online education concept that I can add to the weblog.
Are you strongly for online education? Why? or are you strongly against online education?
What do you think of the chapel?
What do you think of the student lounge?
Would you take another class?
Why did you choose online education?
What is missing in online education?
Any other comments?
Don't treat this like a questionaire, you don't have to answer all these questions or any of these questions. These questions are just to start you thinking. Just write your feelings about online education.
I will be using some of the thoughts for the online blog, so if you do not want your words seen by other online educators around the world do not respond to this posting.
D. Cannell
January 15, 2004
Hidden message in the money
This is a very cool image that was sent to me...it is kind of spooky.
20 dollar note image tells all
English - such an easy language.
If you ever feel stupid, then just read on. If you've learned to speak fluent English, you must be a genius! This little treatise on the lovely language we share is only for the brave. Peruse at your leisure, English
lovers.
Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of
odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which
you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?
January 12, 2004
Steve Downes Makes Predictions
I don't agree with all of these but some of them are right on the money.
January 5, 2004
Do you use flash...
If you use flash you need to bookmark this site it is very complete.
January 4, 2004
A Fun Page
I added this page as a announcement in each of the students' My WebCt page. It puts a little bit of a smile in the courses.
