It’s been while… You might be wondering whether this blog is dead or if the recession has made its mark on our language centers.

Rest assured, we’re just working too hard. Well, it’s Friday and I’m finding a minute to finally write a post.

I like web 2.0 tools because they’re interactive, communicative, creative, and… because I don’t have to install or update anything. But more and more web apps allow me to do things I couldn’t possibly do so easily with desktop applications.

For example, how do you share web links with your students (or they with you or each other)? How do you communicate information about these sites? What about if you want to add your own media? How can you record your voice and mark things while looking at internet content? Complicated stuff for many.

In comes Flowgram. It’s one of my favorite apps at the moment. It solves many of the issues described above. But go and see for yourself:

There’s so much you can do with this in language instruction and learning. Give homework assignments that way. Explain web sites to your students and faculty (for professional development). Enhance your blog. Have students create project or homework assignments. Have them read a poem, create a digital narrative…

Well, my faculty instantly found a thousand uses, and I’m using it for projects for my advanced (German) media course this semester. I’ll post the results in a few weeks - only if they’re good…

One last thing: I had a professional photographer take pictures of our new language center. Here’s my favorite shot:

(many thanks to George Brett for the lead via Twitter on this great collage generating tool)

It has been far too quiet here, I know, and I am a wee bit ashamed to admit there are waaaay too many blogposts in the “draft” mode that I simply have not had time to tweak and publish. Alas I have been bitten by the slooooow blogging bug, and with that the slow-to-press-the-publish-button bug as well. The problem with slow blogging is that as you are writing and crafting and diddling with the text you can often trick yourself into thinking that people might actually read yer stuff, which then freaks you out even more. Or that glazed, panicky stare you get when you know you gotta write something but you don’t know what…(I have seen this happen with my own students numerous times.. a feeling that Gabriel García Márquez used to call “the fear of the blank page.” )

I don’t feel entirely guilty though. I have been doing some low-stakes blogging here and I have also provided moral support for my husband who just started blogging on his own here . My husband reports: “Wow, blogging is hard work.” Truer words…

[Transition paragraph missing...oh well]

I started the academic year a man short and a month behind, but a new hire is on the way, the semester is almost half way over, I feel as if I can now, finally, breathe again.

And blog.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend time in the hills of Vermont with three of my most favorite (slow and not so slow) bloggers — the Fear 2.0 BlogHers:BG, Laura and Leslie (we missed you Martha!) — and I left that meeting feeling re-centered and ready to take a whack at writing again. So this is a start..

Next semester I am teaching a Spanish conversation class that use blogs (as I have and it has for the past three years)… but this year I am taking the plunge and adding Second Life and World of Warcraft as options as well.

Why SL and WoW? Well, for one, I need to learn more about both things and unless I have to teach it, I won’t learn it, and so I throw down the gauntlet (with myself?) and off we go. (Did I mention that I like to work under a deadline, even if it is self imposed??)

I have also been watching the work of some of my colleagues in SL and WoW….the good news: the tools are still around… and are still being supported…. so maybe now is the time to dig in. The bad news: I am still not sure who is doing what out there in the world. If you have ideas…leave a comment.

I am thinking that these tools, like Skype, might provide a way to meet native speakers in new and different ways… both via text and via voice…for the students who find this type of immersion comfortable and familiar. (Note: I am not one of those folks… It took me three days just to find clothes in SL for my avatar didn’t look like something out of a porno magazine). No this won’t work for everyone… but as a firm believer in the 2nd principle of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), I feel it is my duty as a teacher to try and find the appropriate means of expression for each of my students, vs telling them to do it the way I learned or was taught.

So, as I install yet another patch to my European version of WoW for my work laptop (oh goody, only 5 hours to go, yawn), I thought I would also share a collage (See above) of some pictures took while doing “research” in SL. These are photos from a recent virtual get together that the Fear 2.0 BlogHers had in Second Life to celebrate GeekyMom’s retirement from Higher Ed.

(More photos of our SL fun available here thanks to Martha)

Okay…back to the drafts I go with dreams of more weeding, editing…. and posting!

Ryan found his link on YouTube and every time I see it, I giggle.

For those of you like me who have octogenarian parents who are slowly moving into the digital age, this video will ring oh so true (my siblings and I just introduced our dad to gmail, with sketchy results). And trying to keep my mom off a ladder? Oh man…it’s not easy.

Alas, I know that there are many centers and many classrooms for whom this conversion is going to be problematic. Old handed me down equipment that has been cobbled together to help learning happen is a reality in many schools. I can only hope that our readers in language technology land who face these challenges in February 2009 (with or without safety scissors) with the same chutzpah that this dear woman displays.

Enjoy.

well we have just been a talkative bunch here on LLU the last couple of months, haven’t we? we have lots to talk about; it’s just a matter of finding the time to do it. case in point: i have several links i’d like to shares, including a couple of web-based multimedia repositories, one gadget site’s tongue-in-cheek technological solution that will cure what ails education, and some giggles. instead of doing a full write-up on each (which may NEVER get done), i present to you LLU’s first friday link roundup:

• one million freely licensed photos of the british isles: the idea is to get one photo from each square kilometer.
• livestation: bringing streaming television (including some foreign language and international programming) to all platforms.
• education’s many problems solved with multitouch desks: even gadget lovers recognize technology is not a cure-all.
• superstruct: imagine the world in 2019 … then collaborate with others in real life and online to save it from superthreats! according to clay shirky, if we redirected all the energy and mental hours spent playing WoW around the world, we could recreate wikipedia every five days. yes you read that right … every FIVE days. superstruct is built around the idea that we can do just that … it’s a game but it’s not just for gamers … it’s for intelligent people who like to think and be productive, and maybe even help solve threats to society in the process.
• a bra’s tale: detour on a daughter’s trip abroad: i recommend listening to the podcast at the top of the story before reading the article, which contains a much less funny transcription. also: i burst into laughter on the train while listening to this. be forewarned.
• song for sarah: thanks to barbara ganley for tweeting about this wonderful student video on youtube. the full title? “vlad and friend boris presents ‘Song for Sarah’ for mrs. Palin.” LOLZ.
• realtime information is now! just for giggles, a glimpse at how the public transport system here in SF uses technology. san francisco: the city that knows how (to suck at technology?).
• outbound: speaking of SF public transport, one of the reasons i’ve been so quiet here is because i’ve been working on a new idea and a new blog, chronicling my daily commute in photo form. a certain caped crusader recently joined me as well. come check it out; we’d love to have you!

have a wonderful weekend, everybody!

According to a report on ESPN.com this morning, the LPGA will require players to be “effective in English starting in 2009.”

I don’t follow golf, so I’m not sure what exactly the LPGA is thinking on this one (are English speakers losing too often to their international counterparts?) but it seems ridiculous. Other sports leagues which draw large numbers of international players (hello, MLB) seem to do just fine. Does anybody know more about the politics behind this, or about other sports leagues that have instituted similar rules?

[UPDATE] This AP article has more information. Apparently current Tour players have two years to pass an oral evaluation, or they will be suspended; new players must pass the evaluation immediately. Also, in case you were wondering: Tiger has no comment. Ah, the smell of xenophobia in the morning!