Battle of the Browsers

There is a lot happening on the browser scene these days. The winner, according to some experts, is Google Chrome...(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/technology/personaltech/26basics.html). It offers high security (a plus for me) and an "input bar" that searches through your Web history. It also allows for add-ons. The latest Safari does away with the tab bar, though I personally like that. Firefox has become faster and alows more customization than others in the "Tab Mix Plus" which I have not tried, but I think it sounds interesting.
I will probably stick with Firefox for now, though I am partial to Internet Explorer too, since I like the tab bar a lot. I am a "challenged" multitasker even under the best of circumstances. The point is, check all of these options out and see what works for you. It's great to be a "sought-after" demographic!

Pod People and PS FYI "POS"

Since my AP Spanish students have been exposed to high-quality Spanish-language podcasts and videos from the BBC all year, I am looking forward to making a podcast part of next semester's assignments. We have been examining the roots of modern Spanish-speaking civilization in the Americas, and connections between the past and present. (Example: Modern manifestations of the Mayan culture in the Yucatan peninsula, Guatemala and beyond, exemplified in the work of Nobel-prize winner Rigoberta Menchu and others).

In the past, I emphasized the many research- and language-practice links already loaded on my webpage (since 2005!): http://south.mpls.k12.mn.us/31Jul20052.html) and had students present Power Point oral reports in class on a variety of culture topics. That was quite labor-intensive with the numbers of students enrolled in Spanish classes. It is no simple task to edit numerous student writing assignments in another language and provide meaningful guided feedback. It is a very different process from first-language writing development.

Now that I have learned how, I will have students do a podcast in Spanish on a topic related to the contemporary Spanish-speaking world, a world very much alive in Minnesota. Their podcasts will have a special new relevance. I am still refining the themes, but the assignments will involve an interview with someone from the community. Since the students we see nowadays need very prescriptive rubrics to complete assignments sucessfully, the MILI-suggested podcast rubrics will be useful.

PS FYI--Raise your hand if you know what "POS" stands for in texting slang: OK--"Parent Over Shoulder" (by now, that little screen would have gone blank if you had caught a student or your child texting something inappropriate). How quickly those little peas sprout wings!

BBC Mundo - Podcasting Versus "Pod" People

One of the most important resources that I have loaded on my school webpage is a link to BBC Mundo (BBC World Service in Spanish language): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/. Each Monday, to start the week and to practice listening and reading comprehension, we look at a few videos and/or short text articles. These items also provide excellent models for World Language podcasts because of the quality of the writing and presentation, and the vast, ever-updated range of topics. When I survey my classes, they inevitably mention BBC Mundo and the link to the Discovery Channel in Spanish on my webapge as two of their favorite resources.
Not only are they getting language enrichment and high-level reporting, but they are also learning that our own news media generally present a limited range of views.
With the decline of conventional newspapers and the explosion of "news" blogs biased to a particular point of view, it is crucial that we offer our students examples of high-level professional journalism from around the world.
For an interesting read on "self-segregation" in U. S. society based on points of view, including on the Internet, (what I would term "pod-peopling") see The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

Hazardous Half Lives on Facebook

OK -I swore I would not write one more thing about Facebook, but here goes...
There are some long-term consequences that no one can adequately predict about Facebook postings. I am reminded of nuclear half lives--not that I pretend any special knowledge of nuclear physics--I leave that to our Mr. "Discovering Science". According to my old Webster's (how's that for an ironic title?) a half-life is the period required "for the disintegration of half of the atoms in a sample of some specific radioactive substance."
Well, people are discovering that their past lives are still "radioactive" too, as the author of "Growing Up On Facebook" notes (New York Times, 15 March 2009): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/magazine/15wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Growing%20Up%20On%20Facebook&st=cse. Someone who hadn't seen her in decades posted a picture of her at age 16. Sure glad that I have always been averse to having my picture taken, especially by strangers! Some very interesting statistics are posted in the article: the age 25-50 category topped the charts at 3 + hours for the average time spent on Facebook during January, 2009. Nostalgia? Narcissism? Both?
How about authentic self-invention? There is something tragic about the apparent need in our society for the creation of an alternative "self" and transmission of same to the rest of the world via impersonal means.
More practically, a related phenomenon is that fact that all this may eventually cost people lots and lots of money far down the road. The potential impact of the "half-life phenomenon" of published private information on job-hunters is already well-established. College kids, whatever you do, don't let anyone snap that photo of you grinning and naked in the hot tub at that fraternity kegger! It may come back to haunt you more quickly than you think.
An insurance specialist I know adds that sites like Facebook, and the disclosures therein, take on lives of their own once published. They may be exploited by insurers seeking to limit their exposure to pre-existing conditions (such as detailed addiction narratives and accounts of personal trauma). In short, his advice is: "Take it to your shrink," or "Save the drama for your mama."
Once our words are out there in the universe, they are no longer our own.

BBC Podcasts - The Major Leagues

If you have not yet experienced them, take a few moments to explore BBC World Service podcasts. You will be connected to the entire planet. They are even offered in multiple languages:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/

They make excellent models for the students and us to emulate, plus it's just so much fun to hear all the different accents of the English-speaking world represented.

Tell Me a Story (Thing 10)

There are numerous applications for digital storytelling in the World Language (WL) classroom, though I have not yet put them into practice. Since I teach language mostly through the use of narratives of all sorts, I am already a "believer" in the power of stories, myths and legends.
Here, in no particular order, are some of the most salient applications of digital narratives in WL:
-personalization and extension of previously studied content;
-demonstration of understanding of previously studied content;
-exploration of rich cultural content through the study of myths from various cultures and the "construction" of one's own myths;
-narration of current events in a storytelling format that personalizes events for both the creator and his/her audience;
-enrichment of connections between the classroom and the real world through practical applications of digital narrative techniques.
In short, everyone loves a great story.
The most obvious obstacles to incorporating digital storytelling in my classes are:
-large class sizes, limiting the degree of personalization of guidance and feedback that I can offer;
-lack of cameras;
lack of lab time.
Teacher narratives are always so tragic!

Twitterjitters, hashtags and "floggers"

How would you picture the inventor of Twitter? In fact, like famous college dropout Bill Gates, the inventor of Twitter, Evan Williams, also dropped out of college (so much for going into massive debt for an Ivy-League education!) and grew up on a farm in...Nebraska: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/jobs/08bosses.html?_r=2. What he has created has already morphed beyond his wildest dreams. All it takes is one marketable idea...This illustrates how little we can predict about the evolution of our students' lives and careers.

Not being a "Twitterer" myself, I was amused to read a half-page article from the weekend Wall Street Journal (March 14 - 15, 2009) by columnist Julia Angwin re her demanding Twitterer "followers" (who knew?) and the "performance anxiety" that Twittering on a mass scale can engender: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638550095558381.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Don't people have better things to do? Where does this endless search for narcissistic instant gratification end?

Well, at least I am expanding my vocabulary: I did learn that "hashtags" are the "#" marks that people use to identify keywords in their tweets, "supposedly making their tweets more searchable." PS Media Specialists--How do you properly acknowledge a "tweet" in a bibliography?

Enter the Floggers. Argentina is now home to a "flogging" sensation named "Cumbio" who is a youth icon of the moment: 36 million visits to her fotolog site this past year. (Ironic that the original sense of the word "flogging" had to do with public humiliation). But I digress. Floggers take photos of themselves and post them on photo blogs, users comment on each others' photos, and organize the current equivalent of flash mobs (how quickly fads change!). Fotolog.com http://www.fotolog.com/ claims to have more than 5.5 million users in Argentina and almost as many in Chile. To see the full story: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/13/america/profile.php. Tweet tweet, snap snap!

That's Life!

Exciting (old) news--Google has acquired and digitalized the 10,000,000+ photos in Life magazine's photo archive http://images.google.com/hosted/life. What a treasure trove! I could spend hours and hours perusing and absorbing what is there. A(n) historian friend of mine in France (D-Day specialist) whom I alerted about this (he is working on a book about the famous Magnum photo agency), is no less than ecstatic about this resource.
I plan to mine it for all sorts of references like the Spanish Civil War, social change in Mexico and Central America, and more (like personal enthrallment). History Day teachers, knock yourselves out!
The site does elicit some valid criticisms, such as the fact that it appears to be organized haphazardly. As the author of an article in today's NY Times notes: "...Google has failed to recognize that it can't publish content under its imprint without already creating content of some kind: smart, reported captions; new and good-looking slide-show software; interstitial material that connects disparate photos; robust thematic and topical organization." Here's the link: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/01/technology/01wwlnmediumt.php
Well, I am sure that the rest will come with time. For the moment, it is a thrill for "visual people" like me just to wade into the ocean.