spresent and The Principal Blog

Trying out the spresent presentation tool.

I learned about it from a posting by Cheryl Oakes on her Techlearning blog. spresent is a free presentation creation tool that is even supposed to give you the option of embedding a presentation into a wiki or blog. So I've been trying to create one and hopefully, you'll see it below.

By the way, Cheryl also led me to Melinda Miller's
The Principal Blog which shows that blogging is even for administrators!

If I did it right, you should see the first draft of a presentation about comparing Shenandoah,Iowa to Beijing, China by clicking here! (After the new page opens, click on the big "play" arrow in the center of your screen!) There is sound so put on your headset or make sure the volume is set correctly for your speakers.

I'm not sure if this is something that is easier to use than say PowerPoint software, but it is, at least, as easy to use as PowerPoint and it also demonstrates that some free browser-based software does have the potential to replace commercially purchased products. Being able to link to websites, flickr photos, and podcasts could also be useful and I don't know if PowerPoint has that capability or not.

Steve Gwynne's VESLCLASS podcast at podomatic

I'd like to recommend that readers of my Tech4ESL blog check out Steve Gwynne's VESL CLASS podcast at http://veslclass.podomatic.com/ as an example of creative ways to tie in podcasting and classroom practice in ESL instruction. Steve basically uses his blog as a way for students to access original audio materials that he's created, and then ties each podcast to some type of quiz or activity that can be completed or checked online. One really nice feature of Steve's podcast activities is that he has both colleagues and students record parts of the podcast. Besides providing variety in the listening selection, it must be very motivating for the students to hear their own voices as part of the assignments.

TRIPLE FIRSTS: Using Audacity to record reading passages, pbwiki to create a webpage to access them, and Gcast to podcast 'em!

Marian Thacher and David Rosen keep reminding people about wikis and how easy they are to use so I finally decided to try my hand at one. I'd also been thinking about how nice it would be for my students to be able to listen to me read passages from the stories that I use regularly in class for reading practice. I've developed some quizzes (using www.thestudyplace.org) for certain motivational stories that are featured in "Everyday Heroes" (Beth Johnson, Townsend Press) so I assign the same stories every semester. Once a week, I have "reading time" where I read paragraphs aloud so students can listen for pronunciation (They only listen, I read and then discuss vocabulary and content paragraph-by-paragraph). Unfortunately, students who are absent miss out and I never repeat myself due to time considerations. It's always bothered me that the students don't get to hear the paragraphs as many times as they need to really grasp the pronunciation. (From what I've been reading about the latest learning theories, repetitive listening is important.) Sooooo, to make a long story short, I finally put into action some thoughts that had been bouncing around in my head.

I downloaded AUDACITY and a separate associated program called LAME MP3 ENCODER (the Audacity website explains everything) so I could record passages. I had seen lots of demonstrations of how easy it is to use at the CUE 2007 conference, TESOL 2007 and CATESOL 2007, and indeed, it really is easy to use. (Make sure the microphone is working, click on record, click on stop recording, trim the ends using a simple editing button, click on "export as MP3", save the file to a location on your computer and voila! you've created an MP3!)

I signed up for a free wiki at pbwiki (stands for peanut butter wiki because they say creating a wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich) and created a wiki page for the class. I uploaded the MP3 files of the first paragraphs I recorded directly to the page in paragraph order. (Also easy: click on "attach file", find the file, upload it, etc.)

I signed up at Gcast for a free podcasting service. I uploaded the same MP3 files to my podcast page there so that they can be downloaded to student's devices or computers. (Same story here: click on "upload new audio", find the file, upload it, wait a few minutes and refresh the page and your podcast is ready.)

So it's a start! I have three paragraphs done and available at this moment and hope to get the entire first story completed this week! Please check everything out at the following URL's!

My new wiki page is at http://mrbakinsesl.pbwiki.com

Mr. Bakin's ESL podcast is at http://www.gcast.com/u/MrBakinsESL/main

I'm using both because podcasts are displayed in reverse order and I'm not sure if that can be changed, whereas I can display the listings for each paragraph in page and paragraph order on the wiki very easily.

It's now 4:45 p.m. and I've been at this since about 1:30, but that includes downloading all of the software, reading about how to use it, recording three separate paragraphs, uploading them to both websites, and writing and editing this blog post! The nice thing of course is that the reading passages will be available for students to listen to on their own time. I'm hoping that at least some of them will be sitting on the bus sometimes, the text open in front of them, reading along as they listen....

The world's smallest scissors!

Found a reference to an article about the "world's smallest scissors" on teentek which appears to be a blog about technology written by teens who use technology which in turn I found out about by reading Jeff Utecht's "twitter" blog thethinkingstick which in turn I found by reading Will Richardson's blog...

Lot's of reading, but since I've been working with comparatives and superlatives in the classroom this week, the "world's smallest scissors" article is a perfect "real-world" example of superlatives and comparatives for my students to take a look at. See the assignment that it became! You can find the link to the original article there as well.

Revived Classroom Blog

I've also revived my classroom blog. The classroom blog is at http://intermediatelow.blogspot.com/
The classroom blog serves as the homepage on the student computers. Whenever they open up a browser, they'll see the classroom blog first. I have used it in the past as another means of communication between myself and students and as a way to give new assignments. You can see examples of both uses in the two new postings. One posting is simply an announcement about the latest project that I have introduced, and the other is an assignment.

Storing Students' Flash Drives

You might be wondering how I manage the USB flash drives now that we've completely transitioned away from floppy disks. The school purchased about 40 32MB flash drives from an online provider at 3 for $10. I assign two or three students to a drive and they're stored in the hanging organizer that you see in the photos. Each drive is numbered and has its own slot. I can easily see if they're all present at the end of the class with a quick glance. The hanging organizer is easily available. You can usually find them online or in stores that work with sewing, crafts, or jewelry. Try searching for "hanging organizers"!

The new computers are set up (well almost)

Today was the first day that I was able to let students use the 6 new computers. They're not completely set up yet as not all of the software that I've gotten used to and is available on the other computers in the class has been loaded yet, but the basic programs are up and running and the Internet connections have been established. Tom Saeedi, our technical support person spent several hours making sure everything was working and will probably be spending many more hours to completely configure the computers the way I want. We're also trying out something new for the computers in my classroom. All of the new units are being protected with Deep Freeze; software that completely erases anything new that is saved to the computers at the end of every day. The idea is to maintain the integrity of the existing software and save downtime or technician or teacher time when students accidentally or purposefully alter basic software or coding. One new folder is created where students can save documents that is not erased, but it's isolated from the important areas of the computer so no damage or permanent alteration to the system can result. I have to train all the students in the new procedure for saving documents and I also have to get used to it myself! Eventually, the software will be loaded on all of the remaining computers as well.

I introduced one of my favorite projects today. One Word Poems! I learned about this project at the CUE conference in Pasadena earlier this year from presenter and consultant Tammy Worcester . I highly recommend her presentations for anyone interested in learning new projects that students can do using PowerPoint. She also presents and has written books about using other programs as well, but I've only attended the PowerPoint presentation to date. I learned several great ideas, but in fact, the One Word Poem project was worth the entire conference for me. It's been a big hit with my students.

Reviving Tech4ESL

Since finishing up my Masters in Educational Technology, I haven't really revisited the Tech4ESL blog that I created while in my course. I was inspired to revive it after reading Adult Basic Education instructor Delondra Williams' blog urbanreadingteacher and realizing that perhaps using Tech4ESL as a forum for sharing my ongoing experiences with integrating technology into an adult-level ESL Intermediate Low class would be of use to other instructors thinking about using technology. So here goes!

Two items of note today. First, my new computers arrived! The 6 older student computers (didn't even have USB ports) are on their way to salvage and have been replaced by lovely new Gateways with flat panel screens. It's easy to see that the stations that had been the last ones to fill up if at all (they'd become almost unusable) will now be priority destinations for my students! The truth is, they had become almost unusable, and a big headache as well since they had become so unreliable. I've also moved my students to using USB flash drives to save their work and since those computers didn't have USB ports I still had to create floppy disks everytime anyone did work at the older computers. Now, I can phase out the floppy disks completely and use them as a new example whenever I teach the word "obsolete."

Now comes a period of adjustment as I, with the help of our school technical support person Tom, go about configuring the new computers with all of the programs, settings and icons that my students are used to. These will be the first computers that I'll be using that have a "protection" software installed so I'm interested in seeing how that will work out. We're going to be using "Deepfreeze" to help maintain them. I'm hoping that I won't experience new difficulties and that it works as advertised.

The second item of note is a new online application called Bubblr that I came across. Bubblr is an application that works in conjunction with Flickr the photo sharing website that lets anyone browse through the photos at Flickr and add their own speech "bubbles!" You can turn any of the public photos at Flickr into a a little comic strip of one or more frames. I've been doing this project using Word and ClipArt for several years and it's always been popular. Now I can introduce an online version of the same project. You can see one of the first examples I created here:
http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=9100

a moment to blog

Hello to everyone, as I start to feel finally that I have a handle on the report of research and have a moment to post something to the blog. I found the tabulation of data in Excel to be a very valuable exercise and have really learned a lot by looking for ways that the different information can be analyzed. I started with some of the obvious simple formulas related to my data such as simply getting a percentage of the respondents who answered any particular category of the 4 possible responses to any question. Doing that successfully gave me more ideas. For example, during the discussion section, I wanted to say how many technology types were used by at least half of the respondents. Since my sample size wasn't that large (12 surveys returned) with only 13 different types of technology, I was tempted to just count manually by looking at the different charts. Having learned how to use the "countif" function in class I decided to attempt using it and having Excel do the counting. I highlighted the cells that were pertinent, started the function and used the criteria "countif" the numerical value in the cell was ">50%" and hit the "enter" key. A number appeared in the cell. I did a quick visual count and realized I was one short. The figures on the tables revealed that one of the technologies was used by 50% of the teachers. I quickly understood that I needed to revise my formula and tried at first to do an "or" statement; something like "= or >50%" but got "bubkis" (nothing for the non-Yiddush speakers). Putting my years of critical thinking and math classes to work, I tried the much simpler ">49%" and had my "Eureka" moment. I must say it was quite gratifying. I would like to encourage my classmates to experiment with using the formulas, if only for an academic exercise. (I guess at some point I'll have to find out how to write the equation using = and > together) We won't always have small sample sizes to work with.

Finally, even though I first thought that there wouldn't be all that much to write about in the discussion section from such a small survey and sample size, as I started to look at each chart and understand the implications of the data, I found quite a bit to comment on. I'm pleasantly surprised.

DON'T MISS THIS!! Free Online APA style bibliography creator

The online journal, Classroom News (eSchool News) arrived in my inbox today and in it was an article titled "Rapidcite.com" saves researchers time - and makes citations a cinch." In the body of the article it stated "Rapidcite.com has created a free-to-use web site that quickly produces "works cited" pages for its users in there simple steps. First, the user must choose from among three style formats - Modern Language Association, American Physiological Association, or Chicago citation style - as well as the type of medium (print, electronic, or audio/visual) and the source of the material (book, film, web site, newspaper, etc.) The user then enters the appropriate information into the blank fields, including title, author, page, published date, etc., for printed works. Finally, the user saves the information and is able to export it to Microsoft Word, where it is properly formatted and ready to print"

I said to myself "This is worth checking out.", and wouldn't you know it, it WORKS! It's easy, just like the article says, you fill in the boxes and click "Export" and you are sent a Word Document with all of your citations in alphabetical order ready to cut and paste into your paper. I suggest you try it ASAP!

consent form as used for survey

Informed Consent Form

Survey on ESL Instructor use of available technology at Pacoima Skills Center


The purpose of this study is to examine the amount of awareness that ESL instructors at Pacoima Skills Center have of the types of technology available to them for use in their classrooms at Pacoima Skills Center and to determine how instructors use that technology. This study is completely voluntarily and is not a requirement or duty of your employment.

The information generated from this study will be used primarily to fulfill the project requirements of a class in educational research that Barry Bakin is taking as part of a Masters of Education in Instructional Technology at American Intercontinental University (AIULA). Results may be shared with the administration and staff of Pacoima Skills Center at the completion of the class.

Your participation is voluntary and confidential. Your names will not be on your survey response forms. You are free to withdraw from the research study (not turn it in) at any time or to decline to answer any questions without penalty. The study involves no risk to your physical or mental health beyond those encountered in the normal course of everyday life.



I consent to take part in the survey on ESL Instructor use of available technology at Pacoima Skills Center with the understanding that my responses will remain anonymous and no personal information will be collected nor divulged. I am aware that this survey is a project for a class in educational research and I permit Barry Bakin to utilize the responses I will be giving as part of his class assignment. I am aware that results of this research may be shared with the administration and staff of Pacoima Skills Center at the conclusion of his class.


I agree and consent (mark an X in the box) BOX APPEARS HERE ON DOCUMENT


I disagree and do not consent (mark an X in the box) BOX APPEARS HERE ON DOCUMENT

Research Project Progress

I finalized the survey document this past class session and made one change to the consent form at Dr. Miller's suggestion: providing check boxes for "I consent and agree" and "I do not consent and I disagree" instead of a signature line. That allows me to just pass out and collect the survey keeping the consent form attached to it, alleviating the need for establishing a system for getting the survey back separately from the consent form while keeping the survey anonymous but knowing which surveys had consent forms.

I received the principal's ok to distribute the survey quickly. As it turns out, we had an ESL departmental meeting today so I was able to distribute and get surveys returned easily. There is another meeting for the evening teachers tonight and the surveys will be distributed by our ESL department chair at that time. Even though I stated that the teachers had until Friday to respond, it appears that I'll get all of the surveys back by tomorrow. The actual number of ESL teachers who I thought would be filling out the survey is smaller than I had assumed because while we have a lot of teachers on campus, many teach other types of classes and I'm not including ESL teachers who work off-campus. Also, some of the teachers who work Saturdays also work nights or mornings so the Saturday group is smaller than I planned.

On to analysis!

Finalized Research Survey

As a result of today's session, I narrowed the research topic considerably. At this point the survey will only determine if teachers at Pacoima Skills Center use the available technology, and if so, determine whether or not they use it solely for their own class preparation, whether students only use the technology or whether the teacher uses it for him or herself and also has the students use it in their learning. The complete survey follows.

Survey on ESL Instructor use of available technology at Pacoima Skills Center

Information about you:

How many hours a week do you teach at Pacoima Skills Center? ______________

Years teaching ESL at Pacoima Skills Center: ___________________

Years teaching ESL prior to your current employment at Pacoima Skills Center ________________

The following is a list of technologies currently available at Pacoima Skills Center. For each technology type, describe your use of that technology.
• “Instructor use only” means that you as the instructor use the technology for such activities as preparing for your class, doing background research, creating a homework exercise, presenting material to the students, or maintaining class records.
• “Students use only” means that your students use the technology for such activities as studying grammar, watching a video-based lesson, presenting a topic to the class, or doing research.
• “Both Instructor and Students Use” means that you as the instructor use the technology in the ways described above AND you have your students use the technology in their studies.
Please fill in the circle under the descriptor that best represents your usage. Please fill in only ONE circle per question.

(The four circles after each technology type represent the following categories: "Never", "Instructor use only", "Students use only", "Both Instructor and Students Use")
1. TV with built-in videocassette ○ ○ ○ ○

2. Audiocassette/CD player ○ ○ ○ ○

3. Overhead projector ○ ○ ○ ○

4. Computer (non-Internet)
productivity software
(Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) ○ ○ ○ ○

5. Computer (non-Internet)
ESL software
(ELLIS, Sequoyah, etc.) ○ ○ ○ ○

6. Computer (Internet use)
Not ESL specific
(Email, Search Engines, OTAN
Government Website, MapQuest,
Email discussion list, etc.) ○ ○ ○ ○

7. Computer (Internet use)
ESL specific (Online grammar site,
English For All website,
Email exchange, etc.) ○ ○ ○ ○

8. Cardreader machine ○ ○ ○ ○

9. Interactive Whiteboard ○ ○ ○ ○

10. LCD projector ○ ○ ○ ○

11. Inkjet or Laser printer ○ ○ ○ ○

12. Digital Camera ○ ○ ○ ○

Research Proposal for EDU 670

Technology capacity (defined as access to computers, whiteboards, LCD projectors, Overhead projectors, etc.) is quite high at Pacoima Skills Center, the adult school where I teach, yet the use of technology for instruction on a regular basis varies greatly from teacher to teacher. For example my classroom is equipped with 17 Internet-connected desktop computers that are always present, 10 dedicated (always in the room) laptop computers on a wireless network that are also Internet-connected, and another 25 laptop computers accessible on a cart that are sometimes not accessible (other classes use them) but usually available because they are stored in the room. Additionally, I have a dedicated LCD projector (instructor doesn't have to "checkout" a projector from the office), overhead projector, cassette recorder, and a TV with a built-in video cassette player hanging from the ceiling. I also know that the instructor who uses the room at night NEVER uses any of the available technology for instruction. (No evidence of student work on computers, no evidence of any assignments ever given for using computers or any of the other technology, etc.) There is evidence that the instructor uses the teacher's computer to prepare tests.

I would like to explore one of two areas that relate to the issue of instructor use of technology for instruction but have not made a final decision as to which one. The population focus for both would be the ESL instructors at Pacoima Skills Center The first question I thought about researching would be to examine whether teachers at Pacoima Skills Center are aware of all the technology available at the school and then survey how many have actually used each type of technology for instruction. I would then have them look at the types of technology that they are currently not using and have them rank those technologies in terms of their interest in obtaining skills in using that technology with their students. The goal of the research would be to find out where training in technology use should be focused in the next year.

The second research project idea is related to the same issue but skips ahead a bit. It assumes that the ESL teachers are fairly aware of the technology that is available , has the teachers rank the technologies that are available in terms of interest in acquiring new skills in incorporating those technologies into instruction, but then would try to ascertain how teachers would like to be trained in using those technologies. There are several approaches to training in technology that are quite common: self-learning (reading a book or article), technology workshops (teachers attend a 2 or 3 hour workshop on a particular technique), technology mentoring (a teacher with experience in using technology "mentors" a colleague on a one-on-one basis), some combination of any of the previous techniques. or a few others not mentioned. The goal of the research would be to find out where training in technology use should be focused and ascertaining the method of instruction that most teachers prefer.

I welcome your comments as to which of the two projects might be the better one to undertake as well as any comments about the two projects themselves.

on Stand and Deliver

The articles I mentioned in class that give background information on the actual events at Garfield High and background information on Hiram Johnson High in Sacramento are:

James, Stephen, “The power principal”, Sacramento News & Review online, June 21, 2001, http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-06--21/cover.asp

Jesness, Jerry, “Stand and Deliver Revisited,” ReasonOnline.com, July 2002, http://reason.com/0207/fe.jj.stand.shtml

La Prensa San Diego, “Famed Teacher Can’t Duplicate Success in Northern California, May 22, 1998, http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/may22/teacher.htm

weekly course content

Week 1
Pre-test of computer literacy (names of computer parts)
introduction to the keyboard and mouse
introduction to keyboarding
Start first project “About Me”
Review or introduction to Simple Present Tense

Week 2
Complete “About Me” project
Start second project “My Usual Schedule”
More practice with Simple Present Tense
Week 3
Complete “My Usual Schedule”
Introduction to Present Continuous Tense

Week 4
Start third project “Do/Doing”
Introduction to the Internet and the Web Browser


Week 5
Complete third project “Do/Doing”
Introduction to Blogging
Create Student Blog

Week 6
Weekly Blog post on an activity student usually does
Student views a classmate’s blog and posts a response
Mid-Semester Evaluation

Week 7
Weekly Blog post on an activity student a student is doing
Introduction to Comparatives and Superlatives
Introduction to Paint
Start fourth project “Comparatives and Superlatives”

Week 8
Weekly Blog post on comparing three consumer products the student uses
Introduction to Simple Past Tense
Complete project “Comparatives and Superlatives”

Week 9
Weekly Blog post on something the student “did over the weekend”
Students form teams and start “Research Project”
Students complete “Research Project” on Excel and start PowerPoint presentation

Week 10
Weekly Blog post on the “Research Project”
Students present PowerPoint presentation orally
Final evaluations

Writing assignments

Students will complete the following writing projects:

“About Me” – a brief autobiography of one or two paragraphs
“My Usual Schedule” – A paragraph explaining what the student usually does during the week
“Do/Doing” – students interview a campus employee to find out what that employee usually does at his or her job, then takes several photos of the employee performing different tasks, and then writes about what the employee usually does and what the employee was doing at the time the pictures were taken.
“Comparatives and Superlatives” – Students use Paint to draw three simple images that can be compared to each other. The drawings are transferred to Word and compared.
“Research Project” – Students conduct a simple research project in class, create a graph displaying the results in Excel, and create a slide presentation in PowerPoint. The final step in this writing project is to present the results to the class orally, accompanied by the PowerPoint slides.

The textbook for the course will be: Learning Computers, Speaking English: Cooperative Activities for Learning English and Basic Word Processing, Steve Quann, Diana Satin, University of Michigan Press, July 2000, ISBN: 0472086839

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailLookInside.do?id=9141

catalog course description for edu660

This course will introduce ESL students to the basic computer skills needed to use computers for creativity, communication, and organizing information. It will instruct students in how to type, compose basic word processing documents, work with digital images, create new graphic images, find and use existing graphic images, use presentation software, and use an Internet browser. It will increase a student’s confidence in working with computers for home use and in the workplace. ESL subjects are integrated into all of the lessons to promote improved language competency in reading, writing or listening.