Communicative 2.0 -- Foreign Language Education Learning with Video Games and Live Web Media from Authentic Youth Culture | Lingual Gamers

This is an exceptional look at the present/future of language learning with a focus on popular media.

There is so much here, I've had to tackle it in chunks. The author really makes a great case for a number of issues. He's definately one to follow.

This is the same author who presented on using Sims2 for language learning, which I think is a very strong piece.

Check it out

PLE's from Alt-C Conference in Edinburgh

One of the great benefits of blogs is that people can report back to the public on events that wouldn't likely be published elsewhere.

Thanks to Terry Anderson for this post on the PLE (Personal Learning Environment) at the Alt-C Conference.

As I am just getting into PLE's and thirst for more and more information on what apps are out there and how they are being implemented, I love posts like this. It will take be a while to look through it all, but I appreciate the figures (as well as the links to others.

Realistic face sketch

This blog points to an interesting Flash application. It is a face sketcher that really requires no drawing skill.

This is a fun tool, but it could be more than that. It could encourage students to create their portraits or for characters in student created literature.

Check it out. I spent way too much time on this one, but it was really fun :)

My wife wasn't very impressed with my sketch, but I got a kick out of it.

Unfortunately, it was really difficult to get the image this far. The designers did not intend for you to be able to save these images, so they might not be happy if I'm doing so (I apologize to them if they'd rather I not do this). I had to hit "Ctrl PrtSc", open my image editor, open a new image (should default to size of your screen), paste (Edit >> Paste), then crop out everything you don't want, then save.

Have fun

Changing My Name

Superone's Musings on Life was a cute name when I began this experimental blog a couple years ago. I never really intended for this to be an ongoing project, little did I know :)

I began to hesitate when giving out the URL to this blog because the name was slightly (understatement?) self-aggrandizing. What's the use of a blog when you're afraid to let people see it. Therefore, it was time for a name change.

I didn't go very far from the original. The new name is "Musings on Language and Technology". This better represents what I do here and there is less of a god complex in the name :)

I don't think that anything else has changed. The feed is the same and obviously so is the URL.

Education/Technology - Tim Lauer

Thanks to Web-logged News for this link.

This post is an interesting description of how one school is planning to use Drupal as a it's...well...everything.

I tried out Drupal a couple years ago and found it very similar to PHPnuke. At the time, I remember preferring PHPnuke. However, I don't a posting like this makes me reconsider that.

First, Drupal is a content management system (CMS). This should not be confused with a course management system (CMS) or learning management system (LMS), though they have many commonalities.

These commonalities include the partitioning of and delivery of information to users based on permissions, taxonomies, and so forth. A system like Drupal also has "the community" developing "modules" that can be plugged in. These modules can then turn the content management system into a course management system and even an LMS with a little concerted effort.

Maybe this is what Drupal has evolved to and maybe this is a reason to check it out again.

Don Norman's jnd.org / Why doing user observations first is wrong

Thanks to elearning post for bringing this article to me attention.

I'm a fan of Don Norman, in general. I think that he's really got some good ideas about design work and he's been expousing those ideas for quite a while now (there's something to be said of longevity in our field).

I also think that this article has some solid assertions. Usability testing should catch design flaws (he saids "bugs", but I think you have to look beyond that somewhat). Usability testing shouldn't be considered part of the design process. It's quality assurance (QA).

However, if I understand his stance correctly, I don't agree that design is best left to design teams with subject matter experts. A good needs analysis coupled with a representative sample of users (hopefully this is what he means by "subject matter experts") doesn't quite fulfill the design task. Design and design in use are two very different things.

What we learn from analyses and subject matter experts is a reflection of the work as it is. Or a reflection of the work as carried out with current tools. A new tool (design) can change the very work that we tried so hard to "discover".

Therefore, if he is saying that design teams can bring a design to implementation without seeing how it works in context...he's dead wrong.

That's why I indicate that it's not just bugs that usability testing finds, it's also design flaws.

Qumana blog editor and blogging tools

The Qumana blog editor was recommended by someone in my subscriptions (sorry, poor form not to remember).

This was about the same time that I heard about Microsoft's Live Writer. I have been looking for a good application to make my blogging easier. Although nothing is easier than the Blogger button on the Google toolbar, I wanted something that would add images and maybe even audio, video, and Flash to posts without me having to do a lot of uploading, moving, and shaking. Blogger is terrible about uploading and linking files.

Therefore I decided to try out both Live Writer and Qumana. To begin with, Qumana made the process much easier to set up accounts (though both are pretty easy). It looked at all of my blogs in Blogger (under the same account) and simply asked me to check the ones that I wanted Qumana to work with. Live Writer required that I set up a separate account for each.

I hate to admit it, but after that...Live Writer wins hands down. The interface was easier for me to work with. I like how Live Writer downloads the blog template (style) so that it is really WYSIWYG. Editing on Live Writer is just like editing the actual blog page. This is even a huge improvement over the Blogger interface.

This is really just my first impression of the two applications, but first impressions are everything. I uninstalled Qumana. I just don't have time test both long term. Who knows. Live Writer could severely disappoint me soon and maybe I'll give Qumana another look then.

Also, I have to add that I only tested out Blogger sites. Other blogging apps may benefit more from one or the other.