G.A.L.E.S.L.

Long time, no blog... on Blogspot at least. Thanks to the Chinese Communist Party.

2011-03-22T09:36:00.008-06:00

I haven't posted on Blogspot for a long time for a variety of reasons but the main one is that... Blogspot is blocked in China.

Much of my work is now teaching online to students in China. During classes, I would post links to my pages on pbwiki and occasionally posts here. But it took a while before a student finally admitted "we can't see the links".

I did some research and found that both PBwiki and Blogspot are blocked in China: not just specific pages but the whole domains. They are blocked by "the Great Firewall of China", the system created by the current Communist government of mainland China to block ordinary Chinese internet users from seeing webpages with information and opinions the Communist party doesn't want them to see.

As sites like PBwiki and Blogspot allow anyone to post content, and because many have posted content the Communist party wants to block, the Great Firewall (GFW) blocks not just specific pages but everything from these sites.

So I looked into some alternative free website creation/hosting services and found Weebly. I checked that it wasn't blocked in China (it's not... so far). So I created a Weebly site, started migrating my PBwiki stuff over there and also blogging there (posts intended for students, not teachers). And I kind of forgot about Blogspot.

I might continue posting here about issues relevant to teachers and keep Weebly for my students.

So teachers, if you're dealing with China, remember to check that any resources you use are accessible there. Here's some info:

UPDATE (2011-03-29) GreatFirewall.biz. Found a great website focused on providing info about this issue. You can check if a site is available in China, read news on this issue, find tools to get around the GFW and more.
WebsitePulse - Website Test behind the Great Firewall of China - input a website address and see if it's available behind the Great Firewall of China (a.k.a. GFW, Golden Shield Project)
Wikipedia - List of websites blocked in the People's Republic of China
Some notable sites that are blocked in China: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Dropbox

Using a headset microphone: how to position it

2010-05-30T09:36:00.006-05:00

To have good quality sound when you speak (either in an online class or making a recording), it is important to have the microphone in a good position.

If it is too far away from your mouth, your voice will be too quiet and maybe a lot of other sounds (from your office or home) will be heard.

If it is too close to your mouth (& nose), your breathing will be heard. Even if you think your not making any sound, the microphone will hear a loud sound like a strong wind.

The best position, in my opinion, is to have the mic near the mouth but down a little. That way it hears your voice well but doesn't get hit by your breathing.

The pictures below give an idea of what I think is a good position for a headset boom mic:

Here's a link to another article on this issue: The Correct Position for A Headset Microphone

Xerte - time to give this open-source e-learning authoring tool another try?

2010-01-29T17:46:00.004-06:00

I've looked at several tools over the last few years for creating content for online learning: Hot Potatoes, Articulate Quizmaker, eXe Learning, Toolbook, MOS Solo, WBTExpress Moodle Edition etc.

Another one I looked at a while ago was Xerte - open-source authoring software (using Flash and XML) produced at the University of Nottingham. At the time it seemed rather unfinished and to have a strange (for me) workflow.

However today I received a newsletter from Kineo (an e-learning services company) that linked to a review of a more recent version of Xerte, as well as a new product called Xerte Online Toolkits.

The review mentions a few drawbacks but on the whole is positive, and I was impressed by some of the possibilities offered by Xerte Online Toolkits in this demo.

Features like synched audio & text, synched video & text and audio slideshows seem like they could be especially useful for language e-learning.

So I'm going to give Xerte another try, and also have a go with the Xerte Online Toolkits and see how it goes.

After all, free is a price that can't be beat, and freedom (as in open source/free-libre software) is just as precious.

How to stop Gmail blocking important e-mails as spam

2009-09-08T12:12:00.027-05:00

Problem: Gmail blocks/diverts/filters e-mail messages you really need to receive.
Solution: Create a "Never Send to Spam" filter in Gmail for the source of those e-mails.

Gmail is a free e-mail service from Google that has various benefits. But also, in my experience, one big drawback: it has stopped me from seeing e-mails I needed to see, because it thinks it might be spam or have a virus.

Several times now I have missed crucial messages because:

Gmail diverted the messages to the Spam folder, thinking them spam or viruses.
Gmail hides the Spam folder. See the picture below of the menu on the Gmail web page.

To even see if there's anything being designated as Spam, first you have to click on "7 more". (I have no idea why!)

Then you'll see a link for "Spam". Click on it and finally you can see if and what e-mails are being blocked as spam.

I received successfully many e-mails from my work with an online teaching company, but several important messages had been diverted as spam or viruses, and I didn't even realize these messages existed.

These messages were not spam or viruses but did have one or more of the following characteristics:

Sent to multiple recipients (i.e. a group of teachers)
Contained attachments with software (i.e. the program for giving the online classes)
Contained links to software (i.e. the program for giving the online classes)

Needless to say, missing important work messages is a very bad thing, and I considered giving up Gmail. But I eventually found a blog post about this issue and I think I've resolved it.

Stop Gmail diverting important messages: Create "Never Send to Spam" Filter

All the blocked messages came from email addresses of the online teaching company, hiknow.com. So here I show how to prevent messages from (xyz)@hiknow.com from being blocked. Do this process with any other domain (e.g. whatever.com) you need.

1. Click on "Settings" at the top of the Gmail page.

2. Click on "Filters".

3. Click on "Create New Filter".

4. In the "From" box, write the domain you want to be sure to receive messages from. (I put an asterisk in front of @, I think that will include any username based at the domain.) (If you want, you can click test search to see what will be affected). Then click "Next Step".

5. Check "Never Send to Spam". Check "Apply to (x) conversations below" to restore earlier blocked messages. Then click "Create Filter".

That's it. Before,I received some messages but also missed several important messages from xyz@hiknow.com were diverted as spam and I didn't see them. Now I should receive all messages from anyone at that domain.

TED: Jay Walker on the world's English mania

2009-06-01T19:52:00.005-05:00

TED is a series of conferences about interesting ideas. (Wikipedia: TED)

In the February 2009 conference, Jay Walker, an inventor and entrepreneur twice called by Time magazine one of the "50 most influential business leaders in the digital age," gave a short talk about what he feels is the world's mania for learning English (with some amazing scenes of English learners in China).

TED Talks: Jay Walker on the world's English mania

Another great TED talk about creativity, and what education does to harm it, by Sir Ken Robinson.

Sir Ken Robinson | Profile on TED.com via kwout

Practice with different avatars

2009-06-01T17:22:00.006-05:00

Avatars are usually an image to represent you online or in a computer program: in a forum, in an instant messenger etc. They help put a "face" to your online presence.

I've been trying some websites that let you create/design avatars. (You could of course just use a photo of yourself,

Here's one I created at meez.

Here's a speaking one from voki. And a page with lots of info on using these talking avatars in teaching: Voki - Avatars in Education.

eBook - Kaplan TOEFL Paper-and-Pencil

2008-11-19T11:44:00.005-06:00

OOPS: I made a mistake; it was not this Kaplan book I was thinking of. It was TOEFL Exam Success.

Been a bit inactive lately, so here's a quick post on an eBook: Kaplan TOEFL Paper-and-Pencil, 3rd Ed

A handy book for my classes as (so far) the only TOEFL option they've had at our university is the Paper-and-Pencil Institutional TOEFL (TOEFL-ITP).

I like how the book doesn't just have an answer key at the back but also explanations on what's correct and incorrect.

Kaplan TOEFL Paper-and-Pencil, 3rd Ed

Yet more Moodle annoyances

2008-11-06T09:01:00.003-06:00

again trying to make a page of instructions for lab activities; again problems.

Everything seemed to be going OK. Got the page 70% done, saved and working properly. Clicked Update to get it finished. I did the final 30%, clicked Save and... none of that new work saved! Still showing what I'd already done, with none of the new work.

I keep trying, and in the update window I can do things, but after saving, none of the additions are there. I refreshed the page, still nothing.

So the last 20 minutes have been completely wasted and the students won't have half the links they need for their lab activity where they need them.

God, how Moodle aggravates me!

Finding ESL Books, Documents & Presentations Online

2008-11-05T19:36:00.003-06:00

Some websites that have a lot of ESL books, documents and presentations:

You can read the books/docs online on those websites, download them to your own computer or even embed them in another web page.

You can access things other people have uploaded to those websites or upload things yourself. Some ESL teachers upload documents or presentations they've made, so their students or others can access them. It's quite easy to upload a file and then embed in a Moodle page.

Just copy & paste the "Embed" code.

Here's an example of a book available at Scribd:

Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

And here's an example of an embedded presentation thanks to Slideshare:

web 2.0 tools for ESL/EFL teaching (how to become web literate)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2.0 web)

More Moodle Annoyances: Copying & Pasting Links

2008-10-29T07:35:00.009-06:00

When it's time for Lab activity, I create a Moodle web page that tries to set out the things I want to students to do in one clear page, with instructions and links etc.

The links are often Moodle links: the class forums, specific Moodle-hosted SCORM exercises, and external web links that have been added to the main course page.

But copying and pasting these links into my page of instructions can be a lottery: often when I (and my students) click on the links, we get a "page not found" message.

For some reason, the links get modified. I've just checked very carefully the difference between the links. For example, a link to an external web site is like this on the main page:

http://lms.domain.edu/mod/resource/view.php?id=73186

But it is like this after copying & pasting onto my instruction page:

http://lms.domian.edu/mod/mod/resource/view.php?id=73186

See that additional mod/ in the second link? Why the hell does Moodle do this to me???? Copy & Paste is such basic computer function that's existed for decades and Moodle goes and screws it up. Now I have to go through all the links on my instruction page to correct them!

OH MY GOD! Now Moodle's even hindering me from correcting them! In WYSIWYG mode, selecting the link clears the URL completely, and now the editor has stopped letting me change from WYSIWYG mode to HTML mode! WHY?!?!?!?!

Oh, Moodle, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

UPDATE: Now the links seem to work OK! Clicking on the link forwards to a Moodle link page, and the external website opens in a pop-up window. Further examination of the links shows they now do NOT have the extra mod/ inserted in them.

But I didn't do anything. I don't understand why the links are now good. The only possibility I can imagine is that now I'm browsing in MS Internet Explorer 7, and before I was in Firefox (specifically Swiftweasel 3.03). I'll have to check the links again when I get back home to Swiftweasel. I know there can be a lot of little differences in how a web browser displays a page, but actually changing the links doesn't seem likely.

More Moodle Annoyances: Hidden Activity Reports

2008-10-23T16:04:00.003-05:00

I've been getting ready for the second evaluation of the semester.

One step I took was, at the end of the 2nd evaluation period, to hide the topics the students were supposed to have completed by then. (clicking the little eye icon)

But when I wanted to see what the students had done, in the Outline Report view of Activity Reports, those topics were hidden from me! The teacher! I double-checked my role and I was definitely in the role of Teacher (Editing).

I had to go back to the main page of the course, turn editing on, then click the eye icon for a topic, wait for the page to reload and repeat for each topic I (the teacher) had hidden from the students. Then finally I could see which exercises they had accessed in the Activity Reports>Outline Report view.

Naturally, I will have to go back and do the eyes again if I want those topics hidden from the students.

Simple video explanations of modern Internet technologies

2008-10-22T19:48:00.007-05:00

Via a blog dedicated to technology for education, LearnTech News, I found out about some videos that give good, simple explanations of some modern Internet technologies can help you in your daily work.

The videos show how things like RSS feeds, social bookmarking and wikis can help teachers (or anyone).

If you don't know (or aren't exactly sure) what those are, then just watch the videos :)
(They're lower down this page)

The videos are produced by a group called Common Craft, a group of educators producing simple video explanations of many things (not just technology). You can watch the videos on their site, but they are also available on TeacherTube (online videos for education) and dotSUB (a site that includes subtitles in various languages).

Because I work with Spanish speakers, I've embedded versions on dotSUB: there you can choose subtitles (Spanish: Castillian) from the menu at the bottom of the video.

After you watch the videos, why not try out these technologies yourself? After all, I found about these videos because I'm subscribed to an RSS feed. And I can always find these useful sites (like LearnTech News) again because I use social bookmarking.

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

I haven't experimented much with the "social" aspect of social bookmarking; the main reasons I use it are that I can save and access bookmarks on any computer anywhere, instead of these bookmarks being divided up across many computers.
Also I find that doing a search on delicious can sometimes be more productive than just doing a plain web search.
And if you find a useful site searching on delicious, you can click on the user who bookmarked it and see what other useful sites they have found.

RSS in Plain English

I found out about these videos because I subscribe to LearnTech News using Google Reader. Here's a Common Craft video specifically about that.

eBook - "Using Moodle"

2008-10-19T12:08:00.007-05:00

I found this eBook via some Moodle demo course (unfortunately I don't remember where). Anyways I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone: share it with you AND test out the sharing function of Dropbox (which I wrote about in Sharing Files Across Computers).

Download: Using Moodle (PDF, 6.2mb)

Using Moodle
Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System
(2nd Edition)
Jason Cole & Helen Foster
(O'Reilly Community Press, 2008)

I've only skimmed it quickly, but it looks very useful. Here's an Amazon link with reviews.

EDIT: The download link timed out the first time I tried it, but worked perfectly when I retried. So thumbs up for Dropbox's sharing.

Sharing Files Across Computers

2008-10-13T18:21:00.007-05:00

I have a laptop. I also sometimes work on the computers in the lab (around 40 PCs there?), sometimes in the library, sometimes in an internet café, sometimes on my girlfriend's computer.

So how can I make sure I have all the stuff I need whenever I need it, no matter which computer I'm on? Instead of one file here, another there and the third someplace else? There are several solutions and I'll talk about two here.

1. Have a flash drive and use "sync" software.
Flash drives have many names: USB drives, thumb memory, pen drives etc. Basically it's some computer storage you can carry around with. You can plug it into any modern computer and access the files on it. They are cheap and widely available.

At first, I would manually copy a complete folder (e.g. "Teaching") from my laptop onto the USB drive, then plug the USB drive into whichever computer I was using. Then when I got home I would try to remember which files I'd modified or created and then copy them back to my laptop.

But once I lost my keydrive. After that I started copying the entire folder onto every university computer I used, so that if anything ever happened to my new USB drive or to my laptop, I would have a copy as backup. Again, a manual process.

But it can be much easier. Just use some sync software.

I used Toucan (review, another review) from PortableApps.com. It's a fairly small, free Windows program that you can use on any Windows computer (even if you don't permission to install software) because you can install it on your flash drive, or just copy it onto any computer. Toucan is portable software.

Sync software can take care of all the tasks for you: checking which files have changed, which have been newly deleted or created, which need to be copied etc. It makes life a lot easier.

Advantages to flash drive/sync software combo:

Have your files with you everywhere, even without internet connection
Flash drives are getting bigger (in terms of the amount of data they can store) and cheaper all the time.

Disadvantages:

You might forget your flash drive
Flash drives can be lost/stolen
Sync software usually only works on a specific computer operating system, e.g. Toucan works on Windows computers but doesn't work on Mac or Linux.
Often before leaving the house, I'd have to remember to plug in my flash drive, run the sync software and unplug before running out. :)

2. Online Storage/ Sync / Backup
I recently changed the operating system on my computer, from Microsoft Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux 8.04. So I couldn't use Toucan anymore, and I wanted to find an option that would work on any computer, no matter what operating system. That's when I started really getting into online storage/sync/backup services.

There are many of these services around, and I've tried several but not all of them. The one I like most right now is Dropbox (wikipedia, review, artículo en español). You can just use it via the Dropbox webpage or (much better) install it on your computer: Windows, Mac and Linux :)

It creates a Dropbox folder on your computer. Just put the files you want there and you'll be able to access them from any internet-connected computer, via your Dropbox page or installing the Dropbox software on other computers you use.

Other similar services I'm looking into are SpiderOak and Wua.la.

Advantages to the online storage/sync/backup I've mentioned:

You don't have to remember to plug in, sync and unplug and take your flash drive with you.
No flash drive to forget, lose or get stolen
Work on all major personal computer operating systems: Windows, Mac and Linux

Disadvantages:

No internet=no files
Free options have size limit (1 or 2 gigabytes) (although interestingly wua.la has an option to increase this by trading space on your hard drive for extra storage online)
Pay services are a regular cost (you only pay once for a flash drive but every month/year for online storage/sync/backup)

What I'm doing now
Principally I'm using Dropbox; it's just so easy. I work on my computer and I know that without lifting a finger, I'll be able to access those files from any internet-connected computer anywhere. I also occasionally copy that folder to my USB drive. And I've also opened a SpiderOak account, to have extra capacity online (Dropbox 2gb free + SpiderOak 2gb free = 4gb free!)

Also found this: Top 10 ways to use Dropbox (Edit fixed link.... I hope)

Flash video in Moodle; Flash video with subtitles

2008-10-09T09:28:00.007-05:00

Here's a tutorial on how to embed a Flash video (like the kind on YouTube) in a page in Moodle, using the small free JW FLV Media Player.

Embedding Flash into Moodle (or whatever)

And here's another on using JWPlayer with subtitles that you can turn on & off, and are high quality.

High quality video with clear subtitles: JW Mediaplayer

Moodle seems to have JWPlayer already built in; when I linked to a Flash video ( ending in ".flv") in a Moodle web page, it was automatically embedded and played when I viewed the page. But it appears to use an older version of JW player (called "JeroenWijeringPlayer").

I haven't yet tried these techniques on Moodle but hopefully will soon. Please post any experiences/ideas you've had in the comments.

High Quality Video Tutorials about Moodle

2008-10-09T08:33:00.008-05:00

I previously posted a link to a video tutorial on YouTube about how to embed a video in a Moodle page.

While useful, the video quality on YouTube is rather low, making it difficult to see exactly what text/links etc are on the screen in the tutorial.

So I began looking for videos about Moodle of a higher quality than YouTube. Some video websites (that sometimes have higher quality videos than YouTube) are blip.tv, Veoh, Vimeo and Viddler. Although the number of videos is much smaller than Youtube, it's often much easier to see what's on the screen.

And then I found this: Treadwell.cce.cornell.edu > Moodle documentation. This is a great resource, with a variety of very high quality screencasts showing how to do fundamental things in Moodle, both for students and for teachers.

For example, I've already learnt some useful things about Reports (of student activity) from this video/screencast: Who's Doing What, When.

(NB: some of the videos there have a huge screen size, with an option to see them in a smaller size {640x480}. I recommend the smaller-screen-size videos for most users.)

There are probably many more examples of videos like these: not hosted on a general video site like YouTube or blip.tv but on the websites of individuals or educational institutions. If you know of any more, please post them in the comments.
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Antes escribí sobre un tutorial en forma video (YouTube) sobre encrustar un video en una página de Moodle.

Aunque es útil, la calidad de video en YouTube es baja, lo que hace difícil ver bien el texto/los enlaces en el video/screencast.

Entonces empezé a buscar a videos sobre Moodle de más alta calidad que YouTube. Algunos sitios (que de vez en cuando tienen videos de más alta calidad que YouTube) son blip.tv, Vimeo, Veoh y Viddler. Aunque el número de videos es mucho menos que YouTube, muchas veces es más fácil ver lo que hay en el video.

Y despues encontré esta página: Treadwell.cce.cornell.edu > Moodle documentation. Este es un recurso fantástico con una variedad de screencasts de alta calidad sobre hacer cosas importantes en Moodle, también para los estudiantes como los maestros.

Por ejemplo, ya aprendí algunas cosas útiles con respeto a los reportes (de la actividad de los estudiantes) de este video: Who's Doing What, When.

(Nota que muchas de estes video tienen un tamaño enorme de la imágen, con la opción de verlo en tamaño más chico {640x480}. Recomiendo los video más chicos por la mayoría de utilzadores.)

Probablemente hay muchos más ejemplos de videos como estos: no alojados en sitios generales de video como YouTube or blip.tv, pero en sitios de individuos o de instituciones educativas. Si conocen algunos, favor de ponerlos en los comentos.

Video tutorial showing how to embed a Youtube video in a Moodle page

2008-10-06T16:22:00.006-05:00

Here's a video tutorial showing how to embed a YouTube video in a Moodle page.
Un video que enseña como encrustar un video de YouTube en una página de Moodle.

There are a lot of videos on YouTube about Moodle, I recommend checking some out.

YouTube - Moodle

A new beginning

2008-10-06T15:44:00.004-05:00

I've been using the blog function in my university's Moodle system to write occasionally about things I've been doing for English as a Second Language (ESL) involving techonology, computers and learning management systems.

But I want to start writing on a public blog, to provide info to others not able to access that page, and not to be dependent on that one place. Also, it's a much easier URL to tell people :D - galesl.blogspot.com

If you do have access, here's the link for my Moodle-hosted blog.

I might transfer some of the posts there to this blog.