Pole in America

Last week of CLiC

2009-05-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I feel a bit under the weather today - my ear infection is killing me. Hopefully, I will be ok next week, working in CLiC again. If you need any help during the next week, do not hesitate to come over.

CLIC new email

2009-04-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

If you struggle with technology, email us and schedule your appointment!

New CLiC email is clic4u@gmail.com

We are waiting 4u in the library, just ask at the front desk.

C-CC-CCCC

2009-03-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Maybe Copyright Man should collaborate with the Creative Commons Man during the 4Cs? LOL, loved the smart flash about letting the others use your work under certain conditions.

Check out the comic!

Teaser (video sentence) and Comments on readings

2009-03-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

I must say that I got confused with the readings for this week. CCCC in San Francisco can do that to you. Plus, I am still trying to recover after a heavy Greek jetlag.

I read Pandey's chapter on saving, sharing, citing and publishing and it was pretty self explanatory. I definitely appreciate the Sample Citation List on page 76. Even though MLA guide talks about it in depth, it is great to have all the electronic sources on one page. I think I will make a paper copy of it tomorrow and hang it next to my computer screen. I mean, the upcoming project will require exact and proper citations.

Lessig's book, on the other hand, struck me as an outdated one. In technology, yesterday is already old. Free culture author's data goes back to 2004! That is not good!

I glanced at each chapter and read the Afterword, in particular the section on Music Liberation. In the past, I was very interested in the aspect of free software, free downloading versus ethic, and public domain. While doing my preMBA I wrote a paper with some other colleagues arguing that free music downloading was not illegal and therefore should not be prohibited. I used Sony Betamax courtcase (won by Sony) which claimed that using VCR was not illegal because it was merely shifting the time of shows emitted on TV.

Lessig predicted that in ten years file sharing would be less addictive. Well, he was wrong. Five years later people still enjoy free files online. They will keep downloading selfishly and openly in the next five years, too. Maybe then the real problem is in the right approach to the online marketing? If artists are really loosing money on free CDs drifting on the net, why nobody came up with a smart way of generating money from... downloading for free? I can look at the 3 sec. ad while downloading a song and I will be more that hapy to get it for free and to donate a penny from clicking on ad. Wouldn't you?

It was very scary to read about the broadband speed in 2004. It was 1.5 MB/s. Five years later we are obviously faster - 50-60 MB/s! Yay! Downloading was never easier! If you think it will ever change - well, think again.

Now a sentence or two about my teaser. I came up with a short talking about 3 NOUNS and one VERB. I used my recent visit to Greece as an inspiration and yes, the green picture is mine. I think that there has been a shift in my way of thinking about making the movies. I want to say less and show more. I want to manipulate. I want you to think about my intentions while watching the film.

My previous projects were always pretty straight forward - I got the matching music with matching words, everything was nicely spelled out, nicely connected with various transitions etc. I think that from now on I will try to practice the following:
- I will use the music to highlight the mood of my work, only sometimes with the lyrics,
- I will suggest the words only (in my project the green picture is suppose to make you think about the three nouns in my mind - forth noun is spelled out for you but again, it becomes a VERB, a loud call for action),
- I will value humor in my work,
- I will cut and weld short pieces of films together,
- I will collect less footage (why did I get 1200 GB of a memory again?),
- I will give clear credits to other people's work,
- I will look at others work to gain more inspiration,
- I will aim for diversity,
- I will make my subjects feel at ease (boy, those spontaneous movies are the best),
- I will not use transitions because they give the film a sense of amateourism,
- I will not exceed the time of 5-7 min,
- I will learn Final Cut ASAP, starting tomorrow,
- I will make storyboards, group images and videos and music in groups,
- I will wisely choose my medium (sometimes you can obtain more with a great idea than with a long and boring movie; i.e. in my teaser I kept thinking about the dramaturgy and I obtained it by three simple sounds - heartbeating to make the pictures alarming, greek music to make the connection/mood/humour and the gong sound to introduce an important concept - a new word, a Noun spelled out, but still shifting into a VERB - the only one in the sentence, calling for action.

Uff, that was a lot of writing. If you are still here with me I just want you to know that my project I HATE WRITING is still on and I will probably be working on it this Saturday. I am a bit scared, but also excited. FUN!

Please, let me know what you think about this video sentence. Dr. Carter, is it the right direction? I checked out page 34 and I know that my final project requires a lot of planning. Editing is a piece of cake - the real art is in the idea. I need to grip my audience and get them to watch my film. I am still circling around music choices. I am pretty sure though that I will do the video project. My editing elements would be supershort and comfortably interconnected. I think that I am not going to use transitions between the shorties, I will only implement some between main sections of IHW project.

Ok Sylwester, shut up now - let the peolpe watch your sentence. If you are watching it now, make sure and leave me your comment. I will use it to improve my work and you will be a co-author, in a way ;)

Wait! Before you play it, make sure and have your speakers on, then click on the HQ red button on the YouTube window. You need the high quality to receive my message!

San Francisco - Day 1

2009-03-12T01:21:00.000-07:00

Providing the fact that Dallas was pouring in the morning today, San Francisco turned out to be sunny and engaging. I honestly can't wait to see the 4C's tomorrow.

Happy Spring Break, everyone! Get some rest and post some pictures of places you are going to go.

Help needed with IHW project

2009-03-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, I am working simultaneously on two projects. One of them is about Hating Writing. I came up with 10 questions already (when, why, how, and so on) but I wouldn't mind an additional help with that. If you have any ideas, post them for me!

I am not listing my question here in order to avoid the writer's block.

Please, remember - there is no such thing as a stupid idea!

Thank you so much for any help!

Virus

2009-03-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

We are experiencing some difficulties with our computers at the moment. If you want to be safe, do not plug anything into school computers. The virus we are talking about is called 'conficker' and can mess up your system pretty bad.

Search for it on your machine!

2009-03-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

If you have never done Adobe PhotoShop before, you should try to work on still images in Picasa. This program is not only user friendly, but also will help you organize your images. Download it for free HERE.

I also attached visual tutorial. Hope you will find it useful!

Silver Art Gallery

2009-02-25T23:35:00.000-08:00

Movie Maker is a great program to work with because you can do almost everything with your video, stills and music. However, Apple fans know that you can employ iMovie to do EVERYTHING. Well, maybe it is not going to do your laundry, but it will definitely take you on a multimedia joyride.

In this post you can see some parts of my last week's extravaganza. I connected couple of video shots, music and stills in order to deliver my short from the Silver Art Gallery opening. Do not hesitate to post your comments directly on YouTube. Tell me what you think!

See you all tomorrow... Wait! Today!

First Podcast with the Audacity

2009-02-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

I had fun making this Podcast. Audacity is OK but I think that for the future sound projects I will go somewhere where is REALLY quiet. The noise reduction function did work, however, it made all of us sound like aliens, so I got rid of it.

I found it useful to generate silence. What a wonderful feature! We don't even realize that silence is as important while creating a podcast as a sound.

You can listen to my wave HERE. I called it Harnia of Literacies from some super obvious reasons. Let me know what you think!

Under the bridge

2009-02-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

This is one of my recent shots that I took under the Zang Bridge in Dallas. I was wandering around, trying to take some pictures of the holes in the pillars and I somehow made this one. Tell me what you think, if you'll find a moment.

Now a tip for those who are looking for portable hard drives. I found this tiny beauty on Amazon - it is a WD Passport Drive, 500 GB of a memory capacity and... it is black! Yay! (In case you don't know it yet, black is my favorite color for the electronic devices.) Plus, if you travel a lot, you can just keep it in your pocket!

If you look for other suggested devices on the same page, you can notice WD 1TB (read - will fit a camel and desert altogether). It is bigger, but hey, something for something!

I hope you guys are going to have a great class tomorrow!

4U2C!!!

2009-02-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

While snooping around the net I found this simple GAME. You may find it interesting as I did due to its 'round' interface. I have been playing for the past 15 minutes and I must quit or else something bad is going to happen to my paper due tomorrow!

For all those who are interested in playing - click HERE and 'defeat baddies, rescue your buddies and collect the lemons for the lemonade stand! And do not worry about the time - it finishes completely after 2 minutes and then... you can play again!

And for those who are not afraid - have you heard of Johnny Hollow? You can solve the dark riddles, usually words and have x-amount of fun! Just click HERE!

Oh, and finally, I want THIS PHONE! This is what I call New Media! Sigh...
http://www.vodafone.com/flash/future/application/index.html

Picture Attention is the property of Silver-Art Label, 2009

Music drifting online

2009-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for music online and you don't necessary want to subscribe, you can always do the following:
1. Open google browser
2. Type the title of the song you are looking for
3. Add '4shared' phrase after the title of the desired song

Your song in various formats should come up in seconds.

Good luck!

Sweet gizmo - Sony IC voice Recorder

2009-02-05T11:35:00.001-08:00

I got it couple of days ago and it is really great. The price ranges between 60-$100, but Lord, it is so worth it. You can store music in different folder, the devise is simple to operate and the format is user friendly. Therefore, if you are looking for a personal voice recorder - go for Sony IC voice recorder!

You can find the list of prices here

Have a great day everyone!

Drawing with the numbers and letters

2009-01-29T21:35:00.001-08:00

Oh, man! As an uber-nerd I so want to learn how to do it! Just take a look!
If you can find something similar, post it here!

Have a great weekend everyone.

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If you like to laugh

2009-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

There is one comic I really enjoyed recently. Do not ask me why. Oh, well, I will tell you - I am Polish :) *

Geography class

No harm was intended during this posting. All the similarities with the actual Americans are fictitious and coincidental.

One year later...

2009-01-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

It is really different to be a grad student. Basically, you have no time, a lot of work and then, at 3 a.m. when you think that you are finally done, there is more work waiting for you. I do apologize for not doing a lot on this website now - there is a Conference (FRS) on the 6th of February and it is keeping me busy. It will get better though.

There is going to be a New Writing Center in the Library and I am really excited about it. CLIC, or Converging Literacies Center should start really soon! For now, you can see the pre-project of the postcard. Let me know what you think!

Computers in Education: The next 10 years according to David Moursund

2007-11-30T08:06:00.000-08:00

We are now experienced enough to state that Educational Technology is very important. During ETEC 424 we gathered enough technological info to cope with any kind of job. We can now do our blog, and webquest; we can even design our own website with teaching portfolio. Amazing, isn't it? I believe that the lesson I have learned from the Education Technology classes is that now I am even more aware of the fact how little I know about it. There is the whole spectrum of knowledge over there to pursue, but we are getting closer when we try to learn something new.

The article by David Moursund said that the future was going to be even more integrated with the computer use than we thought. All the software programs tested now will become standard programs within the next ten years. Learning will be more problem solving based, and more students will take online courses. Therefore, as Moursund claims, it is important for all the teachers to "become competent in appropriate use of computers in facilitating and and acomplishinng goals, and in carrying out their professional work".

I found it interesting that the author highlighted the importance of learning to learn. It is so importat to know what are the effective ways of learnig. And if we can integrate the computers with that, even better! The next decade will bring more Web learning and it will become standard, too.

Let's only have hope that in this modern world, even ten years away from us, there would still be some place for teachers.

The Future of Online Teaching article

2007-11-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

The article "The Future of Online Teaching" was actually very interesting and I think that Kyong-Jee Kim and Curtis J. Bonk did a great job talking about the differences between face to face, and online teaching, the positive and negative sides of both methods, and the expectations of each of the methods in the future.
The article is very broad and it tells about changing environment of teaching. Methods used in the past are now shifting toward online teaching. There is more devices with wireless Internet connection, more programs used at school, more demand for online classes. Therefore, teachers need to be aware of the demand of present students.
The objective of the study was to research the future of online teaching and learning in comparison with regular in-class method. The study was based on a survey of individuals who "believed to have relevant experience with and insights into the factors affecting the present and future state of online education". Online survey was the tool used within the research. The result of the research shown that the commonly held beliefs about online education are justified, some are refuted and still, the research provides a range of predictions about the future of technology-enabled education.

The main thing I learnt from this article was the fact that very soon I will be a part of this new technological attitude. I am not sure what is my position toward online classes. I think I believe in face-to-face teaching more than the online Problem Based Learning. A class needs a teacher who knows how to use the technology to make everyone's life easier, not the other way round.
I believe that as teachers we ought to use blogs, the Internet, online grade books, and all the goods technology offers to us. In some cases, online studying would be justified, too. But I wouldn't make it the only form of teaching. I am afraid that in a future world a machine is going to substitute the teacher, and that will leave me unemployed and most of all, miserable.

The research shown that the tendency of online based learning is increasing. I am not surprised, but again, I hope that there is going to be some place for us, teachers, in this modern world of the future.

Working on WebQuest

2007-11-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

One of our tasks during the ETEC course involved the webquest. I got to work with Lauren and we both decided to prepare an instruction for art students. The subject of our webquest was "The use of freeware in art class- Picasa Picture Editor". I think we picked that topic because the use of technology in a class is very important, and so teachers need to implement it every day.

Picasa is a free program and you can use it to work on your pictures. We tried to create a simple webquest to explain how Basic Fixes work within the editor. We prepared tutorial showing step-by-step how to work on Picasa. We also attached links to different help topics.
I really enjoyed working with Lauren because she was doing as much work as I did, and we both liked searching for images and sharing the ideas about our webquest . It was absorbing and creative process, and I wouldn't mind repeating it one more time.
My favorite part of our webquest was working on SeaMonkey. I am trying to get as much practice with this program as possible. At the beginning it was difficult to have everything done properly. For instance, some of the images wouldn't open in our webquest on some other computer. Still, I spent all the necessary time to discover the source of the problem. And that was a lot of fun and learning at the same time.

SAE - Emergency Lesson Plan

2007-11-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

Introduction
Teacher should be always prepared to have his lesson.
However,sometimes we would run out of time and so we
will need to have a backup plan. I am going to teach
economy or agriculture.
I selected the Supervised Agricultural Experience Topic
because there is a detailed presentation online which I
can show to my students.
It can be useful in the future because Ag students need
to know a lot about SAE and they would appreciate a bit
of freedom online, too.

*Supervised Agricultural Experience Lesson*

Materials
You will need a classroom with the Internet connection,
and a multimedia projector.

Objectives
Students will learn about SAE, its different types,
and rules for participating in Supervised Agricultural
Experience programs at different leveles

Procedure
1.Divide your class into 5 groups
2.Open the website http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/sae/
toolbox/shows.html
3.Ask students to enter the first presentation -
Introduction to SAE
4.Each team should prepare a brief summary of 8 slides, so
that the presentation would be complete.
5.At the end of the class make sure to praise good work and
as homework ask your students to revisit the same site
again.

Sylwester

Teaching tools - Gradebooks

2007-11-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

Chapter 14 shows us different examples of Gradebooks. This tool is very useful in a life of every teacher because:

- you can record and average grades easily, even for a large amount of students,
- you can record any absences and modify them if needed ,
- you can flag students with any problems
- you can access your gradebook fast,
- you can see the dates of modifications,
- you can print out lists of students and statistics easier and faster at any time

I explored the Gradebook Plus as my potential teaching evaluation program. It looks secure and easy and you can downlowad for yourself. The full pdf is placed on http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~technology/Tutorials/Files/Grade
book_Plus.pdf
and tells you in details how to use this program. If you would like to try it you can download demo version from http://www.tucows.com/preview/205522
I am really grateful for these technology inventories. They will help me a lot in the future.

Sylwester

Do you want your video to play in Power Point?

2007-11-05T05:36:00.000-08:00

How to download the video from Google or YouTube?

Open Mozilla browser
Download free plug for Mozilla called Fast Video Download Free

http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl38573/Fast_Video_Download.htm

Small icon in the right lower corner should appear on your Mozilla browser
Go to YouTube, find the video you want to download, open it and wait till it finishes and then press the small icon of FVDF. It would ask you where to save your file.
*.FLV is the new file you have downloaded. It will play with Classic Media Player, but still it is useless for our Power Point. You need to convert it to *.WMV
Download free program called Free FLV to AVI Converter

http://www.dvdvideoconverter.com/convert/flv-to-wmv-mpg-3gp.html

7. Paste *.WMV into your Powerpoint. Paste it from the folder where presentation is. It
should work just fine now!

Interesting presentations

2007-10-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the presentations today. They were professional and interesting. The one about sport was very smart and gave the lesson - obesity can be eliminated with fun! The Dance Dance Revolution use at schools is innovative but I believe it would work just fine!

The theater/music presentation was great, too. You can tell that the makers put a lot of effort in it. The only obstacle - the computer in our class - was acting against everyone today cutting the sound out or preventing the speakers from showing their videos. The Internet was slow and would upload the web page in the most unexpected moment.

Overall, I think that it is a great way to learn when we listen to the other people's presentations.

Thank you and I can't wait to see the rest of work!

Sylwester

O tempora o mores!

2007-10-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

There are different ways of presenting. People exercise presentations differently. I try to do it professionally because of the Public Speaking and Business Communication course finished last year.

Professionals from pre-MBA shown us in a four month course how to present. And since that time I obey couple of important rules, among them:
- keep 6x6 layout of your slide, do not make it too busy with the text
- do not use *.gif's, they only distract your audience
- do not sit when you are presenting
- speak loudly and clearly
- respect your audience

Barely any of these were respected by today's speakers. Barely anyone shown professionalism and I haven't seen any video or sound working.

You may think - this Pole is mean. I will leave it to your judgment. And for these who want to listen and learn something I will give some advice:

- Keep all your files together in one folder and only then paste items into PPT
- Make them clik activated, automatic ones work just sometimes
- Keep your presentation short and interesting
- Try to insert video with *.wav, *.avi extension, also keep it in the same folder
- Be careful with your zip file - if it is too small, your music or movie will not work
- Use *.wav instead of *.mp3, that will keep your zip file smaller and it would be easier to post

If you have troubles with getting video or with further work with it, let me know. I will help.
I spent hours looking it up.

All the best to everyone!

Sylwester Zabielski, the Pole (meaning Polish, from Poland)

Multimedia Project

2007-10-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

After hours of waiting for the upload I finally made it. The project is online now, posted on the last day. It was demanding but together with Nicole Wegrzyn we made it. I want her to be my partner next time, too. She is good at suggesting me what she likes. And I am good at technology issues. It all worked out just fine and I am happy with the overall work. We wrote about Research and ERIC database. I find it interesting because as a future teacher I will use it a lot. I spent a lot of time streaming the movies and looking for images. I almost died while posting it online, due to the length of the process. I guess my file was too big but at the end it worked out.

2007-10-24T09:26:00.001-07:00

Hope you all are not as busy with the PPT as we are!

Pole in America

2007-10-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

American kids take many things for granted. They think they have difficulties, they believe the whole world is against them. Little do they know about how difficult it can be.

The truth is that is fun to be an American... in America.

Imagine taking a cab in Puebla, Mexico. You have half an hour to get to the airport, and your knowledge of Spanish is marginal. You are becoming more and more frustrated trying to use your English with a Mexican who 'no comprende'. Nada. Frustrating, isn't it?

I am a Pole in America. Maybe catching a cab is not a problem in my case; however, some cultural differences still shock me. Every day.

Language itself is blessing, and for most of the time it is with me. But when I am getting nervous or frustrated, it mutates. And then I feel like I am losing floor under my feet.

Welcome to my official BLOG. I will tell you about my struggles with different realities. I would describe the differences in European perception, and I will tell you about my journeys to different parts of the world. Stay in touch and tell me what you think. There is no such thing as a wrong opinion.

Your comment is more than welcomed. Go ahead. Hit me with your best shot!