I will be putting class assignments on another blog named http://kljpccctech.blogspot.com/ My students will be able to pick up assignment sheets that I will create on an on-line office facility, either googledocs or zoho. That way they will become comfortable with using on-line facilities as well as learning the basic office skills.

I am now teaching adults at Passaic County Community College, but I find the specifics hold true. People want to be able to do something useful that will help them. I teach computer career classes, and I teach the students the important information from the textbooks, as well as information about specific tools they can use. Everyone wants to try the tools hands on. They want to learn by doing. Even students that are reluctant or nervous at first grow noticeably more self confident as the accomplish things themselves using new skills.

Podcasting as an authentic activity

According to research, authentic cooperative student-led activities, lead to increased learning when put in the proper curicular framework. In other words, children working in a group to do a real-life activity (publish a newspaper, say) learn much about the subjects they are researching. The students are more interested, and hearing their ideas discussed makes them have a clearer understanding of what they are discussing. If I can do a radio show broadcast, that would give students an understanding of what news is, how news gets created, and how to work in a team to create a broadcast. As I do this I will post results, but no analysis of students, only analysis of techniques.

I need to put a powerpoint up on the web with sound for a class I am going to teach. I will try to use ZOHO show. Wish me luck.

FLICKR sideshow

I have created a FLICKR sideshow which can be viewed at:
http://show.zoho.com/public/catnap25/FLICKRCC.ppt
Hope it works.

Using Camtasia

I am experimenting with creating online tutorials, so I am trying to use Camtasia for screen capture and video. So far the results are not what I would want students to see, but I have only been working for an hour or so. I did record a powerpoint presentation with abysmal audio. When I manage to get it right, I can upload it and link it to my tapped in group on podcasting. Right now I have started a group, but there is nothing useful in it yet. I have a year of podcasting research ahead of me so it should get better as time goies on. Well, back to work.

Powerpoint presentation