Books I Read Around the World
Posted: May 11th, 2008, by LangwitchesSometimes, when you arrange information in a different order or through a different media, patterns become apparent that were not visible before to you. Those a some of the benefits I so enjoy of Web 2.0 tools.
I have always made it a point to read books in Spanish and German. That is one of the ways that I try to keep my languages alive, since I am not able to speak them on a daily basis. When I travel to Argentina or Germany, half of my suitcases are filled with books on the return flight.
I am adding to a Google Map that show books I have read and their corresponding geographic setting. I wonder (maybe I suspect already) what pattern will emerge? I wonder if a pattern would lead me to explore other authors and other settings around the world?
Check out Book Around the World Blog for some inspiration.
The world has many countries. Let’s “book around the world” and find at least one excellent book for each country in the world. The book should help us learn something ABOUT that country and not just be one written by somebody who lives there.
links for 2008-05-11
Posted: May 11th, 2008, by LangwitchesDay 9: Should We Be Commenting on Blogs?
Posted: May 10th, 2008, by LangwitchesWell, it looks like I have Day 9 and Day 10 of the Comment Challenge mixed up. As life happens, I have not had as much time to devote to the challenge as the days are flying by. I am trying to work backwards, having done Day 10 earlier and now moving on to the Day 9 challenge, when I realized, that without knowing, I already reflected on some of the issues of yesterday’s challenge
Day 9: Should We Be Commenting on Blogs?
Now that we’ve spent several days trying to build up conversations through blog comments, I’m going to challenge you a little with a question–should we be using the commenting capacity to generate conversations between bloggers, or should we be interacting through our blog posts?
Check out this article and the many references to bloggers who think that comments should be disabled on blogs. Read through those posts and consider whether or not you think it’s better to build community through comments or through conversations occurring across blogs–or maybe a combination of both. What, to your mind, is the purpose of comments on blogs and are we better served by encouraging people to respond to ideas on our blogs or over on their own blogs? Then write a post on your reflections. Be sure to tag it with "comment08."
I read with great interest Rethinking the blog comment policy on Eloquation . Sameer Vasta , the author of the post disabled the ability for the readers to leave comments. Here are some of his reasons behind that decision.
- My blog was a personal publishing platform
- Nobody was leaving comments
- People had other places to respond
His reasons reflect some of my own points why I blog that I made on my previous post . Blogging for me is about:
- jotting down my ideas, my learning journey, and my discoveries
- serving as documentation of my lists of site links that I am encountering, hardware and software that I am using or contemplating in using
- helping me clarify in my head a strategy, a path, a mistake, a success or a pattern that I might not have seen or reflected upon without having it written down
- helping me becoming a better writerS
- allowing me to vent… it allows me to write things off my soul
I believe that receiving comments should not be the only reason why someone is blogging. On the other hand blogging is supposed to be a conversation. How do you expand your learning, if you are not receiving feedback or are able to question what you are reading or being questioned about what your are writing?
Sameer Vasta says he can be part of a conversation by allowing
the conversation to grow around my writing. [...] I’ve always been a big fan of the concept of trackbacks. Creating a cross-linked compendium of related ideas (rather than collapsing ideas in one comment thread) across the web feels like a much richer way to create conversation to me. In the past little while, I’ve experimented with adding Technorati links or Twitter replies to my posts as well, to show how conversation happens outside the blog.
I must say that I like his angle of looking at the conversation part of blogging and the level of importance that comments are playing in this conversation. I am reading from his post that he feels that he is still a part of the conversation, even though he might or does not receive any comments. No matter if this is due to people choosing not to leave comments on his writings or because he disabled commenting on his blog. He is still part of a conversation, expanding his learning, through following trackbacks to his post and using other tools such as technorati and twitter to connect his points of view and writing to others.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not foreseeing disabling the commenting function on Langwitches. I do enjoy receiving comment. The conversation Sameer strikes up supports the question Who Do you Write For?
The success of your learning and the connections you make with other angles or points of view that DOES NOT depend on the amount of comments you receive on your blog posts.
Has the conversation, that started on Rethinking the blog comment policy on Eloquation stopped because I chose to reflect on my own blog, instead of leaving a comment on his (The comments were disabled)? Will I have learned less from reflecting on this issue if no one leaves a comment? Will I feel left out of the conversation if no one leaves a comment? Very interesting questions and thoughts…
Day 10: Do a Comment Audit on Your Own Blog
Posted: May 10th, 2008, by LangwitchesDay 10: Do a Comment Audit on Your Own Blog
So far in the challenge, we’ve been focusing on making comments. But most of us are also bloggers and we need to consider what we’re doing to invite conversations on our own blogs. Are we doing all that we can to build a sense of community that invites people to leave us comments?
For today’s task, review this post on 6 Reasons People Aren’t Commenting on Your Blog . Then audit your blog to see if you’re falling into any of these traps. If you’re feeling particularly brave, ask a fellow blogger or even your readers to give you feedback on how well you’re doing at making people feel welcome to leave comments on your blog. Then reflect on what you’ve learned and try to address any of the issues you identify. Be sure to tag your post with "comment08."
While reading Michele Martin’s reason’s why people might not be commenting on someone’s blog, one sentence stood out for me:
Many of the commenters in Chris’s thread are complaining that they don’t get comments on their blogs, something bloggers eternally discuss
I agree with her, that the "not" getting comments is something that most new (and seasoned )bloggers seem to measure their "success" or "failure". I wonder how many bloggers gave and are giving up writing, because they believed that no ones is reading and no one is responding and joining their attempts for conversation. Isn’t that in part why the 31-Day Comment Challenge was started?
My intentions in joining the challenge were to help and mentor new bloggers… to become more aware of my own comment habits… to expand my grasp of what blogging means…… to do something that I have not felt too comfortable of doing… to go through a process and see at the end of the challenge if it taught me something that I had not anticipated or known before
While I am learning and experiencing that blogging is about that two-(many)sided conversation, I am still not willing to give up the notion that the main reason why I am blogging still IS (at least for me) about jotting down my ideas, my learning journey, and my discoveries. My blog posts serves as documentation of my lists of site links that I am encountering, hardware and software that I am using or contemplating in using. Writing my posts help me clarify in my head a strategy, a path, a mistake, a success or a pattern that I might not have seen or reflected upon without having it written down. Writing my blog posts help me becoming a better writer. Something have enjoyed doing since I was young. Writing my blog allows me to vent… it allows me to write things off my soul . That is important to me.
Maybe all this sounds too much me, me , me…but Hey, it is MY blog and I like it that way 
So, while we are in the middle of this 31-Day Comment Challenge and it all seems to be about writing comments, getting comments, becoming better at comments, reflecting on comments, etc, let’s not forget that comments should not be the ONLY reason anyone blogs.
In today’s challenge Michele Martin asks to reflect on the following reasons why visitors on your blog might not be leaving comments. She also suggests to ask your readers to give a critique on how well you are doing in these areas. If anyone would be inclined
- Do I sound like a press release?
- Do I sound like an infomercial?
- Do I sound like a know-it-all?
- Is it logistically easy to leave a comment on Langwitches?
- Have I created the right atmosphere.
- Do I not seem that into blogging?
- Do you have any other suggestion for me?
links for 2008-05-10
Posted: May 10th, 2008, by Langwitches-
What are pests? Think of them as animals out of place. Out in nature, they’re just doing their jobs. But when they move into our homes and yards, then we call them pests. So come explore the world of pests. Then you can use your knowledge to outwit the pe
Digital StoryTelling Part III- PhotoStory
Posted: May 9th, 2008, by LangwitchesIf you own a PC, you can download Microsoft’s PhotoStory for free .
To get started creating a story:
- Download and install the program on your computer.
- Once installed open the program by clicking “Start”, then “Programs”
- Find the icon for “PhotoStory 3 for Windows”
- Begin a new story by selecting the radio button and pushing the
button - PhotoStory is divided into five steps in order to create your digital story. Y ou can move forward or backwards between each step anytime by clicking on the "Back" or "Next" button
Start importing your pictures
Browse your computer for the images. Click on a picture to select it. In order to select more than one picture, hold down the CTRL button while adding additional images to selection. If you want to select all images in a folder, select one image, then push CRTL and the letter “A”. That will select all images in the folder.
Once you have imported all the images that you need for your digital story , you should save your project file. You then have the choice of removing any black borders that are present due to the layout and dimensions of your pictures.
Then it is time to arrange the pictures in order you want them to appear in your story. Simply click on an image in the timeline and drag it to the position you want it. Repeat this step until all your pictures are in the correct order.
After saving each image (by clicking on the "Save" button) that you edited , you are ready to move on to “Add a title to your pictures” by clicking "Next". Here you will have a chance to add the same effects as in the previous step and to add any text to any picture.
In order to create a blank or a colored slide for a title at the beginning, chapter slides in the middle or credits at the end, you can upload a plain colored image or appropriate background to be used with text.
Once all the text slides that you want to incorporate into your movie are in place, click "Next" to move on to narrating and recording your story.
Make sure that you have a microphone attached and have the image selected that you will connect the recording to. Push the round button with the red circle to start recording and the smaller button with the square to stop. Push the "Preview" button to hear your recording. If you do not like the recording just delete it.
Once you are happy with all your narration, you can add "Custom Motion" to each image. The first motion will have the effect as if a video camera is recording your image by zooming in or out, or by panning across the image. The second motion that can be added to your story are transitions between each one of your pictures. When trying to achieve the zooming in or zooming out motions, make sure you have checked off the box "Specify start and end position of customized motion".
Then drag the corners of the starting position to an area you want the motion to start out in. If you want to zoom out, make the starting position rectangle smaller than the ending position. For a zooming in effect do the opposite.
For panning across the image, make the areas to start and end the same size; just position them at opposite ends of the image. To pan from left to right (top to bottom) , position the starting area on the left (top)and the ending (bottom) position on the right. Have fun… experiment a little.
If your zooming or panning motion is too fast for your taste and does not allow for enough time to appreciate the image, you can set the timing of the length of the slide manually.
Save each picture, after you have added motion. To continue adding transitions between each picture, click on the "Transition" tab.
Click on each transition to see a preview of it on the middle window. Save any changes to each image by pushing the "Save" button.
Music can support a story greatly. It can set the tone and mood and even take the place of narrated words. You will only be able to import music files from your computer that are in the .WMA, .MP3 or .WAV format. You can also create your own music within PhotoStory. Just experiment with the settings and preview the melody before adding it to your story.
The last step of creating a digital story with Microsoft PhotoStory is to save the project file as a movie file. There is a big distinction between a PhotoStory file and the movie file (.wmv)
You can tell the difference already by looking at their icons:
This is the project file (.wp3 extention)
- Still able to go back and edit pictures, music, transitions, text, narration, and motion
- Larger file size
This is the movie file (.wmv extension)
- Cannot be edited anymore with Photostory
- Smaller file size
- Ready to upload to a video sharing site, such as YouTube, TeacherTube or Flickr
- Ready to share on any computer that has Windows Media Player
Once you are ready to save your project as a movie file, you can choose the settings that will influence where you can view and how large the file size will be.
If you want to present the completed movie on a full screen on a computer, you might want to choose Profile 3 or 4 for computers, so that the movie will not look fuzzy. If your intentions are to upload the video to the Internet, you might want to stick to Profile 1 or 2 for computers. The resolution is going to be good enough for a smaller window. Choosing profile 1 & 2 will help reduce file size greatly, which your viewers, who will have to download the file, will greatly appreciate.
links for 2008-05-09
Posted: May 9th, 2008, by Langwitches-
WordPress MU, or WordPressµ, is the multi-user version of the WordPress blogging application, that allows you to run hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress, and is most famously used for WordPress.com.
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ABCya! is a leader in free & exciting computer activities for elementary students to learn on the web. All educational computer games and activities were created by certified teachers! Activities are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to prov
Day 8: Comment on a Blog outside of your Niche
Posted: May 8th, 2008, by LangwitchesDay 8: Comment on a blog outside of your niche
With limited time in a day and many things to do, we can get into the habit of commenting only on blogs that are related to our niche or specific interests. But this can create a sort of echo chamber effect where we don’t read and engage with information that may challenge our beliefs or our ideas. We then fall into the trap of homophily where we are engaging primarily with people who think and believe what we do.
In today’s challenge, you’re going to find and comment on a blog that is outside of your normal interest areas. If you’re not sure where to start, go to the Technorati Topic Directory and click around some of the topic areas you wouldn’t normally read. Follow the links to some blogs and find a post to comment on. You might want to check out several blogs and conversations to get an idea of how comment sections in other niches differ from the niches you usually operate in. For example, how do the commenters and blogger interact? How do commenters interact with other commenters? What’s the "tone" of those interactions and how do they differ (if at all) from the commenting you usually see.
The blogosphere is vast and there are different cultures of participation that develop in different niches. See what you can learn from these different bloggers and how they engage with their communities. If you blog about what you learn, tag it with the "comment08" tag.
I took the advice and started out by going toTechnorati Topic Directory and clicked on Literature . I ended up on the Happiness Project and was reading the post Six tips for getting yourself to do something you don’t want to do, where I left a comment.
Here are some of the strategies that Gretchen Rubin, the author, of the blog suggests.
1. Put yourself in jail
2. Ask for help .
3. Remember: most decisions don’t require extensive research .
4. Take a baby step .
5. Do it first thing in the morning .
6. Protect yourself from interruption .
Day 7: Comment Challenge-Reflect on What You’ve Learned so Far
Posted: May 7th, 2008, by LangwitchesIt has been a week? Today is Day 7 and we are to summarize what we have learned about commenting.
We’re on Day 7 of the comment challenge and it’s time to take a little break to see what you’ve learned. So far you’ve audited your own commenting behavior, commented on a new blog, installed a blog tracking service, asked a question in a comment, commented on a post you didn’t agree with and responded to another commenter on a blog post.
For today’s task, I want you to come up with three lessons you’ve learned from your experiences so far. Consider what you’ve learned about yourself as a commenter, what you’ve learned about the act of commenting, and how you think your recent commenting activities have impacted you as commenter and a blogger. These don’t have to be major sweeping lessons. They can be as simple as “I’ve learned that I don’t comment as often as I’d like.” The point is to reflect on what you’ve been doing in the past week and to consider how you want to use this information to improve your conversational abilities in the blogosphere. If you blog your lessons, be sure to tag them with the “comment08″ tag.
I decided to follow Dogtrax’s example from Kevin’s Meandering mind and create a short video clip with my reflections. First time for me uploading a video to Flickr . The embed code works beautifully on this WordPress blog.
Links to blogs fromt the video clip:
Flickr/langwitches
Linkedin/langwitches
Twitter/langwitches
YouTube/langwitches
Del.icio.us/langwitches
Blog/Langwitches