Aftermath

I hope everyone is resting and enjoying this beautiful weather.   I have not had a chance to rest at all.  I have lots of tasks to complete before June 30th.  Fortunately, I am off to Belgium to present at a conference.  I just wish I had more students interested in the application of these new tools for exploring and learning via mobile technologies.

I am uploading the pictures I took of all of you during Finals week.   I hope you have learned something, though I know that some of you feel you have accomplished nothing.  That's too bad.  One learns even from one's mistakes and from those around us.  Even less than perfect role models can teach us something.  After all, one has to learn how to deal with difficult people in the work place.  Always keep an open mind and a sense of humor. 

Presentations

We are meeting for the last time today at 5:30 p.m. I am really looking forward to the students' presentations. Most are data driven, while others discuss theoretical issues about approaches to mobile learning and teaching. We have covered a variety of topics that are directly related to mobile communication. For example, we have discussed the extant literature on SMS texting, Skyping, and blogging. Some students examined the rates of satisfaction among our students with respect to hybrid and online teaching. Though many academics disapprove of online learning, some of my best students have been those enrolled in a graduate class taught primarily online. Online learning is not for everyone, especially for students who are not self-directed or for young freshmen or sophomores who prefer to interact face to face with an instructor. Hybrid courses bridge this gap from my perspective, but we will have to see how students feel about this. We need to carry out a longitudinal study comparing F2F with online learning or F2F with hybrid teaching/learning. Unless we have empirical evidence that some of these approaches work satisfactorily in specific contexts, we cannot really make generalizations about the value of these new means of course delivery. I look forward to continue to Skype and blog with former students. I will post pictures of the presentations tomorrow.

A Stressful Week

I have been multitasking like crazy this week.  I wonder what is happening to my poor brain as I read essays,  stop to do something else, go out for a fast walk, eat breakfast, read my email, pay bills, and go back to grading projects.  I can see how one is tempted to slow down as one ages, but I must fight that feeling.  I sincerely believe that slowing down can be detrimental to one's cognitive abilities.  In order to ward off old age, I feel it is very important to be surrounded by young, inquisitive minds.  They have a fresh outlook on the world that can help their seniors recapture lost insights and see what's hidden in plain sight.

I have just finished reading the section on technology in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  I will share this with my class on Monday.  Some of these professors are amazing!  Where do they get the energy to do 10 things at the same time?

Here is a wonderful video clip that helps us understand how social cues in the brain help us read others.  This is indeed our most precious possession: http://bcove.me/2bsy4blh

I am going to continue blogging about iPads throughout the summer because I plan to start another project in the fall.

I have just found a product that might help me learn how to play the piano. I might as well do that in my spare time because it is important to learn new things (creating new neural connections?). I have been reading that in order to keep one's brain healthy, one has to learn new things, especially challenging tasks. Playing the piano will be quite challenging for me as I have no aptitude for music. This is the product:

Stephanie's presentation was very successful. She introduced her color-coded model for teaching the five paragraph essay that is motivated by recent findings in cognitive linguistics and psychology. There were several questions immediately following the presentation, which indicates that the audience was interested in her topic. In addition, Stephanie showed everyone how to use the QR reader-scanner, which they could install on their iPads or iPhones. Great job!

Here is the first of three photographs I took with my iPad on April 16th. This was a wonderful session and I truly appreciate everyone's helpful suggestions for Stephanie. I know Stephanie is going to do a great job at the Research Forum this Sunday. I hope to see some of you there. Enjoy your weekend.

Folks, this is the App Stephanie mentioned last night during our BB Collaborate session. I believe you have to purchase it, but it appears to be very useful. Please remember to post to your blogs and describe what you have done so far with your iPads. Was it helpful to have an iPad for reading articles, communicating with others, or trying out new Apps? Give specific examples and let everyone know your own suggestions for using iPads in seminars or for specific courses. What works? What does not work? Your input is very important. QR app By Block5 Open iTunes to buy and download apps.

Reading and Sharing

The semester is almost over and I hope everyone in this class is keeping track of their iPad usage. I have used my iPad for reading articles, taking down notes at faculty meetings, reading and analyzing new course proposals submitted to the CHSS Graduate Curriculum Committee, and reviewing PP slides.

Everyone should have a minimum of 19 blog entries as of Monday, April 16th. If you want credit for your blog posts you will need to have a minimum of 20 informative entries.

Today we have an invited speaker in LNGN 245. She is a regional specialist for the U.S. Census. We will discuss the changing face of America and issues of equity and equality.

New Apps for Your iPads

I have spent the past two days getting all my receipts and documents together in order to start the tedious process of filing one's return. I was shocked to see how much money I have spent on software, office supplies, books, and journals. I have also given a significant amount of money to various charitable organizations. No wonder I never have any money left!

Here is a free App Jae recommends for displaying PP slides via our iPads: SlideShark

Another one I would like to try is iAnnotate:

My Own SMS Network

I am not in touch with many of those who formed my SMS network last year or two years ago. My niece, with whom I exchanged text messages, is now an extremely busy medical student. My next door neighbor moved to another county and I rarely hear from him. My SMS network is shrinking. I will have to update the size of my SMS network.

Family Pictures

My son sent me some new pictures of my two beautiful grandchildren. It's amazing how fast Max is growing. He looks so happy! When I visit them in July, I will show them how to experience literacy with an iPad. It's going to be lots of fun.

New Amazing Apps

I have just purchased an iPad 3 and hope that we can all share PP slides, videos, charts, documents by using one of two Apps that an Apple technical support specialist recommended. The following applications will allow us to share and show a presentation on all of the iPads in the classroom.

Assemblee
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/assemblee/id434812547?mt=8

Idea Flight
http://www.ideaflight.com/

Stephanie is going to try to share an exercise based on her color-coded model on Monday. I am really looking forward to the shared experience.

Great Photo

Here are some of the beautiful people in my class. Greta has a cell phone, iPad, and laptop. How cool is that! We are all so wired! Are we becoming more efficient learners?

What a week!

I have been walking around like a zombie all week. I had too many papers to shuffle around last week and could hardly find time to read. I did manage to find two very interesting Apps to lower my stress level. One of them is Temple Run, a fun game. Now I understand why teenagers enjoy playing this game. It is really exciting, but I get frustrated when I fail to get my avatar to turn right or left and he ends up falling to his death. It is lots of fun.

The other App is Gardens of Time. This game allows players to find misplaced treasures in a Time Manor. Some of you will enjoy playing this game, but do it with your iPads. I find it very difficult to find treasures when playing this game on my iPhone because I can hardly make out some of the items. That's what happens as one grows old.

It's time for me to go for my daily walk.

Spring Break Is Over

The only thing I got out of our short Spring Break was seven hours of sleep. I was trying to finish lots of unfinished tasks and catch up with some non-school related readings. I finished some, but I have several deadlines this week (e.g., reports due, proposal writing, etc.).

I talked to my beautiful grandchildren via Skype and here are the most recent pictures of Peter and Maximo. Maximo looks just like his dad. I am so proud of my son. He has turned out to be a wonderful, loving father. I wish his paternal grandmother were alive to see her beautiful great grandchildren.

Visit Language Log

Here is the link to a superb blog. Thank you Greta for bringing this to our attention. I have enjoyed reading through this blog. The postings are carefully worded and those posting provide specific references and comments that display their specialized knowledge of the topic under discussion as it relates to the study of language. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/

If you are minoring in Cognitive Science, you may want to pose a question or read through previous postings in order to find the information you are looking for. In my case, I am particularly interested in Corpus Linguistics.

Fashions in the 1960s

Yes, I am a Boomer, but I often forget my age. I would prefer to think of myself as someone who is still young. I am always open to new ideas and celebrate being alive.

Liz is studying fashion blogs. I wonder what she thinks of what my friends and I looked like when we were 14-15 years old. Here I am with my best friend, who now lives in Argentina.

Critical Discourse Analysis

You can find Critical Discourse Studies and Discourse & Society at Sprague. However, if you are looking for the most recent articles in Critical Discourse Studies, here is a link to the publisher's Web site: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcds20/current

The article, "Norwegian petroleum extraction in Arctic waters to save the environment: introducing ‘discourse co-optation’ as a new analytical term," sounds fascinating. I will try to get a copy during spring break in order to examine their methodology. I was in Norway last June and truly enjoyed my stay there. It is such a marvelously civilized country. It exemplifies the last of the social democracies, where the government provides its citizens with free quality health care and education, unlike the unequal access to decent health care and education in our own "civilized" and "modern" United States. It is a fact that its vast petroleum resources allow Norway to maintain this life style. However, they are under attack by right-wing fascists (the lunatic responsible for the slaughter of 87 children last year) and those bent on doing away with the last social democracy.

Chomsky vs Labov

Stephanie scanned a very interesting article from Penn's Gazette. Several of us went to this conference and heard both Chomsky's and Labov's presentations. They were debating the study of language from two different perspectives. In case you are not aware, Chomsky is not popular in Europe.

Please go to Blackboard (Documents) in order to access and download this article.

I Caught a Nasty Cold (gripe)

I have not posted anything these past three days because I was sick. It was so hard getting out of bed and driving on a rainy day (Wednesday), but we had a faculty meeting and I had to present a proposal.

Something really funny happened to me today. My significant other bought dinner tonight and while we were eating he complimented the way I looked. I was wearing a teal dress that kept me really warm. He said to me: "I love that purple dress. That's a nice color on you." I thought he was joking when he said that my dress was purple, but then I remembered that he is color blind and has a hard time distinguishing certain colors.

G. told me that when he was in Kindergarten his teachers would often get upset with him because he painted the grass brown and the sky purple. One of his teachers suspected that something was wrong with his eyesight so he asked him to describe the color of the walls in the classroom. He told her they were green and the entire class began to laugh because the walls were yellow. Then she showed him a dark-blue crayon and asked him to identify the color. He told her it was purple. That is when she decided that he could not distinguish certain shades of color. Many years later, when he was an undergraduate at McGill University, he volunteered for an experiment in the psychology lab. He was asked to identify hidden numbers or letters in some charts, but he could not. It was then that he found out he was really color blind.

Looking for New Apps

I have not had a chance to download new apps for my iPad. I need to find a better spreadsheet than the free one I downloaded.

We will discuss Going to the Mall and Code Switching in class today. I really enjoyed reading Androtsoupolous's article on code switching in the new media.

Watching El Boto

I love whales and dolphins. PBS had a wonderful three-hour program on the giants of the world's oceans. Some of them are 200 years old! I cannot believe that they were savagely hunted in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. They are still hunted by individuals from various nations: Japan, New Zealand, and some other countries. They find ways of justifying murdering these beautiful sentient creatures. At 10:00 p.m., they had a short segment on El Boto, that beautiful pink dolphin of the Brazilian Amazon River. They are completely different from other dolphins. Unlike the ocean dolphins, the pink Boto is extremely flexible. It turns its head sideways. This is really fascinating.

My Maximo

I had suggested various names to my son and his wife: Trajanus, Vespasian, and Julian. These were Roman emperors. They chose Maximo but everyone calls him Max. He is really cute! Maximo is six months old.

Looking for Useful Apps

I found one that seems very promising: Educrations Interactive Whiteboard. According to those who rate the newest Apps, "Educrations Interactive Whiteboard is a highly rated app (4.5-star). The app is free. Educreations Interactive Whiteboard is currently ranked #6 in free Education apps for iPad. It is also the 191st most popular free iPad app (all categories combined)." I believe this is what Stephanie was talking about.

Free
Version: 1.1
Released: Dec 12, 2011
Rating:

It says that one can create video tutorials, animated lessons, photo narratives, etc.
I will download it to my iPad and see what happens. We could use it in class next Monday. Let's hope there are no more glitches.

Here I am in my new office (Schmitt 240E). I love the view from my window.

Using my iPad

This is an electronic journal I have started in order to find creative and efficient ways of using my CHSS-issued iPad.

I have added a group picture of my beautiful grandchild: Maximo, second from right, sitting upright like a miniature Roman emperor. :)