Notes on Productivity and Job Application

Productivity:
Alright. So this evening I got a lot done. A lot more than I've gotten done in quite a while. I am starting to think that my brain is actually running at a lower excitement level than it should be, unconnected to other issues. A moderate dose of caffeine has made immeasurable difference. I'm working on laundry, organized my disaster zone of a desk (a huge enterprise), found a whole bunch more books on Gutenberg, neatened my room, and organized my bookshelf. I also scanned some photos and a reference letter. I may need to rescan the photos. I've  If all it takes is a bit of mild self-medication to get that kind of work done, I'm all for it.

Here's one of the photos I scanned; proof I might be finishing my last undergrad degree soon.

Job Application:
So, my job application package for SMOE has started to come together. I still have a lot to do, but at least I'm getting started. I've ordered four sets of official transcripts, and should be able to pick them up Monday. This is the first time that I have decided to pick them up rather than have them mailed to me; this was a mistake, but not one that makes that much of a difference. I assumed they would e-mail me when they are ready to be picked up. I'm going Monday to check on them whether I've heard anything or not. I have one of the two reference letters that I need, and I've e-mailed my CERTESL Practicum Supervisor for a second. I've also started to look into renewing my passport. My current one is going to expire in June 2011, not quite long enough to get me through another contract.

Like I said, a lot more to be done yet. I am starting to get excited though. It's going to be great to get back.

Video Contest Win

This will just be a short update to a story I posted a little while back. I am glad to be able to tell you that I won that video contest with my "Why it Rocks to Live Overseas" video. It seems that careful script-writing and photo/video selection has compensated for my crappy voice-over.  I am glad that the contest judges felt I did a decent job of it.

I also want to thank Jay for the video-editing skills that I learned in ECMM 402. I wouldn't have been confident enough to enter the contest if I hadn't gotten the knowledge and practice in that class.

Here's the video, for the curious.

Kindle DX Review

All right, my Kindle arrived on Tuesday, and I've had a few days to play with it. I have decided that it is massively cool. I was pretty convinced of this before I put up the rather outrageous fee to own it, and it hasn't disappointed. I've put together a little list of pros and cons as I see them. There are a lot more pros than cons.

Pros:

- It can read PDFs as they are. I love the fact that I can just throw any PDF file on and it gets the formatting right. It's great for the large number of Uni-related PDFs that I have to read, along with other professional reading, free e-books that are available online, and the learning Korean resources that I have. PDFs don't act exactly like amazon or mobi formatted books, which puts some limits on what you can do with them. You can't move the cursor around among the words, which is integral to a lot of the neat things that the Kindle can do.

- Notes and Clippings. I can easily mark up books or clip out quotes to use in papers or for other things. They're easy to access from my mac when the Kindle is connected. This is one of the things that you can't do with a PDF. Notes are tied to where the cursor is placed, and you can't highlight portions of text to clip without being able to move the cursor around.

- Built in dictionary. Move the cursor to a word in the book and you're provided with a definition at the bottom of the screen. It's neat to be able to check definitions of words without leaving the text you're reading. Again not available for PDFs.

- E-ink and size. The best part of this device is the great screen size and the easy-on-the-eyes e-ink. I have always found extended reading on a computer screen to be hard on my eyes, but the ink of the kindle feels just like reading any regular book. It's also nice that you can modify things like text and margin size. Another thing is that the pages change really quickly, in contrast to what I've heard. It's nothing like the speed that a computer monitor can produce, but I don't find it to be any problem at at.

- Easy access to content. As I mentioned, any PDF, lots of free e-books out there, and even things like Zinepal which will produce mobi formatted versions of web-content for you. Of course it's also nice to have access to the books, magazines, and newspapers that Amazon offers, from here, and from over 100 other countries.


Cons:


- Price. Yah, it's a big chunk of change. I feel it's worth it, especially with my travel plans. If book readers are to spread in popularity the price is going to have to come down though.

- Organization. I would like to be able to set up some more complicated ways to organize the material I have on the device. The built in sorting options are nice, but with the variety of material I have on there, it would be great to be able to set up folders or something.

Video Editing Complete! (More or Less)

I have just finished spending parts of an afternoon and evening putting together a short video to enter in to an online contest. I'm hoping to come away with a prize, but I don't know if the video is of that quality. It's basically an explanation of why it's good to go teach overseas. I used a lot of photos and a few little video clips, with myself doing the voice-over. I really enjoy putting videos together, so it's no loss if I don't come away with a win.

I tried to upload the video to YouTube, but the up-speed out here at the farm is not up for the job. I'll do so when I get back to the city tomorrow. I'll put a link or embed the video here as well, once it's up.

This video creation exercise was another very strong reminder of the reasons that I need to get back overseas. I am waiting on replies to some e-mails before I can really do much towards putting my application package together.

Well, have a good break all. See you on the other side.

Addendum:
I've returned to the relatively fast connection of the city (btw, another reason to get back overseas: truly fast internet) and uploaded my video. Here it is for anyone who's interested. I don't really like the quality of my voice-acting, but I like the video overall.



I will keep you all informed about its performance in the contest. Would be nice to score a win. The 2nd place Amazon credit would be nice to put a few books onto my new toy.

470 Paper Proposal

I am looking at writing about learning using technology in Asia for my 470 paper, specifically learning English as a foreign language using internet and other technology tools. There has been some talk about using remote teaching instead of having EFL teachers travel over and live in the country that requires English language teaching. I'm hoping to evaluate this as an option, see what kinds of downsides this option might have, and possibly look at things like cultural and political influences involved in this kind of move. I don't know what kind of conclusions I might reach, or exactly what direction the paper will take, but it is very interesting to me since it relates exactly to my career path at the moment.

Wikipedia Changes

The additions that I made to a Wikipedia page related to my favorite subway station. It's called Songnae Station, and it was generally my departure point for a lot of my adventures. To the right is the page before I made any changes. I added the following sentences: "It is an above-ground station located in the city of Bucheon. It provides access to many restaurants and other services, including the Toona Shopping Center." I also added the coordinate data that allows people to easily locate the station using other software.

The following two images are the top and bottom of the page after alterations.

 

 

I also learned that there's a difference between Latitude and Longitude in decimal form and with degrees and minutes and stuff. I found a converter that helped me get it into a form that Wikipedia liked.

The location worked great once I got the numbers into decimal form. Here is the pointer that I added on a satellite map (the red A).

 Apparently Google Earth will index Wikipedia periodically, and should find the location that I added to the Wikipedia page. It will then add a link to the location of Songnae Station in Google Earth and Google Maps so that when people look at the station, there will be a link to the Wikipedia page.

Finally, here is a link to the new page. Hopefully the additions that I've made will stick around for a bit. They've been up for a few hours now, so hopefully they won't get axed. 

Wikipedia Page that Dan Edited!

How Hungry Am I?

Ever wondered whether I would resort to eating human flesh? Wonder if our friendship would be enough to stop me if I was running low on food rations? Well finally here's your answer:

57%

Yes, so essentially odds are better than winning a coin toss that I would. 

Bloom + Blogs Group Task

Knowledge: List 3 ways in which blogs can be used in education

- Blogs would be a useful to way to get students to perform journal activities in your class. Blogging would reduce the amount of paper assignments required for handing in as well as make it simple for students to complete the task online.

- Blogs could be kept by the teacher related to what was done in class on each day. Students could then check the blog to find out what they had missed in class, making it less difficult for them to catch up with course material.

- Finally, blogs could be a useful communication tool with parents. Keeping an up-to-date blog would provide transparency in your classroom and allow parents to find out what has been going on in the class so that they can stay in tuned with their childrens' education.


Comprehension: List 3 reasons why teachers should integrate blogs into their classrooms

1. Improving student familiarity with the ever increasing popularity of communication methods such as blogs. Improving student computer literacy.

2. Using blogs as a venue for assignment delivery, reducing the amount of paper to be handed in and making it easier for teachers to check student work.

3. Blogging is more fun than doing things the traditional way, and it may improve student engagement with the class.


Application: Describe three ways in which you can use blogs for your own teaching or professional development.

- Blogs can be used to post information, photos, videos, links, etc. for students to access. It is easy to update often to reproduce or expand on class material, create assignments, communicate with students and parents, have students comment or catch students up if they miss a class.

- Blogs can also enable great sharing and discussion with other teachers to enhance your teaching and help others do the same.

- Blogs can help you to explore and spread knowledge about various subject matter as well, allowing teachers to develop their knowledge and resources to apply to their teaching.


Analysis: Is the use of blogs in education better than the use of static websites?

- Both blogs and websites have advantages. Blogs are better suited to constant updating and are easier to tailor to specific situations and classes. Static websites tend to be easier to organize, and work really well for resources that you want up in just one form. You might want resources and activities that you think you would use repeatedly or share with other teachers on a static web-page, but leave specific or frequently updated info. on a blog.

Synthesis: How might blogging change your role as an educator?

Blogging would change you role as a teacher by having the students have more responsibility and choice is what they do in class. The students would be able to comment on each other’s blogs and offer advice or guidance. Blogs could be used for group projects or used as a way for students to present their work to their classmates instead of doing an oral presentation.

Blogging changes the teacher’s role from being in control all the time to being more of a facilitator.

Evaluation: List at least potential disadvantages of using blogs in education?

Some potential disadvantages of using blogs would be you cannot control the comments that students make in class. Some students may write/post inappropriate comments, or it could be used as a bullying device.

Another disadvantage is that students do not interact face to face anymore, they interact solely through blogging. Some people may argue that blogging will limit children’s social interactions, and lead to a lack of social skills.

A third disadvantage of using blogs in education is that you need to have access to computers on a regular basis. Many times in school you can only book computer rooms once a week and you need to book weeks in advance. You can tell the students to blog at home, but you still have to worry about the students who do not have internet access at home. Either way, you cannot expect students to blog on their own time, you need to give them some time in class once in awhile.

Completed by Mike C., Dan S., and Loran V.

Sunfire Photos

Here are the photos of the Sunfire I mentioned. Click on any to see a large version.

Saskatoon Transit Go-Card System

I just wanted to make a couple of quick points about the new Card system that Saskatoon Transit started using on their buses. First off, I'll say that overall I'm glad they're going in this direction. Three years ago when I was in Korea this was already the norm, and pulled off a lot more successfully. Part of the advantage held by Korea is that when I was there, they already had very widespread use of the cards. Hopefully the system here will eventually catch up as they become more popular here.

So how did the system there 3 years ago work so much better than what I've been seeing in Saskatoon over the past 5 days?

Seoul Metro Transit Cards:
-Easily filled at many locations using quick machines. Insert card, insert cash (including bills) and go.
-Read quickly by machine on bus or in rail station. Errors are few and far between.
- No free transfer onto another bus, but you can transfer to and from rail using the same card, and you will be charged for a single trip. This may sound like a rip off, but keep in mind that the fee is lower than it is here, plus the system works by how far you go, not a single trip around the city. This is a lot more fair considering that you could be going only two stops, or going across 2 or more cities.



Saskatoon Transit Cards:
-Not as easy to reload.
-Read slowly by machine on the bus, and often messes up.
-Transfers by card go through fine, but if you choose to pay by cash, you are given a print out with a bar code, that the machines on the buses seem near-incapable of reading. This has caused great delays loading buses.

The ill-conceived transfer-printouts are what bother me the most I think. As I mentioned, these problems will probably decrease as people adopt the cards. I don't know that they will ever be able to refuse cash though, and if this is how they continue to deal with transfers the system is in for a bumpy ride. It's also possible that they are just working through some bugs in the first week of implementation. The use of card readers for this type of thing can be very successful, though, and I hope the city is able to pull it off.

Procrastination Thy Name is Blogging

Yah, so posting photos here is a lot more fun and motivating than doing the productive things that I actually need to be doing. As I mentioned in the post previous, I plan to head back to Korea soon. In anticipation, here are some photos from last round. You'll understand why I am excited to get back. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Namdaemun Gate, pre-fire.

Countryside Inn

Hagwon where I taught; ECC, fourth floor

Park near Bucheon City Hall (and near my apartment)

Stores right near home


From Yongsan Station


National Museum


Namdaemun Market


Scene from palace


Waiting for a train


Suwon Fortress with city


Sitting on wall of Suwon fortress


Beach on Jeju-do


Climbing Mani-san

Yah. Lots of reasons to get back.

Job Searching

I am going to be finishing my B.Ed. in the next few months. Everyone is excited to find jobs, attending career fairs, and signing up for interviews. I will be taking a different route, returning to Korea to teach EFL there. I have been in contact with the recruiting company that I used last time (Footprints Recruiting), and they've sent me some starting information.

Things are a lot different than the last time I went. I was there from Aug. 2006 to Aug. 2007. Rules have been tightened up a bit since then, partially because of the Christopher Neil events. It's also a bit different because I will be teaching in a different context. I taught at a hagwon last round, but am aiming at an SMOE position this time around.

I am mainly thinking about obtaining reference letters. I was hoping to use the letter I received from ECC, the company I taught with last time. Unfortunately, the letter is now about 2.5 years old, just over the 2 year limit set by the visa requirements. It shouldn't be hard to get a few letters, but I am disapointed that the letter that is most relevant to teaching in Korea is not useful in this case.