Monday, June 24 – Day Four of Computer Workshop

 

We’ve made a good start – let’s continue bravely following handouts, screwing up, and fighting our way through momentary problems. This week I’ll have a chance to sit down with everyone and help out more.

 

Today we fly!

 

l. If you’ve decided you don’t want to make a website:

1. Keep surfing for good websites, exercsies and sites that cover your textbook and the topics you teach

2. Make Webquests (See the Website section of our Immersion website)

3. Make simple handouts with questions and recommended websites

a. Example on Oktoberfest: http://teachers.springfieldschools.org/slough/oktoberfest_internet_activity.htm

b. Handout on the origins and meaning of German Easter Customs http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/osterqu.htm

4. Make online exercises that can just as easily be printed, even if not done online. Spiffy appearance!

            a. See Exercises / Units on our Immersion site - give all created exercises VERY CLEAR names 1foods, chap2_food

b. Interactive Exercise Makers (see Exercises/Units) - write down all the addresses of the exercises your create

c. Make numerous Spellmaster.com exercises, give them VERY CLEAR names and save to floppy

d. Try out Hot Potatoes to create online / printable exercises – match, word order mix, crosswords, cloze, fill-ins, etc.

 

ll. Consolidating last week’s humble beginnings

  1. Get your Tripod account set up, if it didn’t work last Friday
  2. Every one building a website – make sure you’ve done the following CRUCIAL steps

a. Save As Webpage - index.htm (change the bottom option from Word Document to Webpage)

b. Save it to your folder, NOT to My Documents (C:)

c. To get to your folder- Browse, then work your way through STUDENTS – IMMERSION – YOUR FOLDER

  1. Follow the steps on Friday’s handout (page 3) in order to:

a. Log In to www.tripod.com and choose the Build tab, then File Manager

a. Upload your index.htm to your website and make it accessible to the world

b. View it following the handout and find your website address – Add a Favorite and write it down

c. TIP: http://username.tripod.com/index.htm = http://username.tripod.com/ because index.htm is the default file

 

lll. How to Find websites and exercises to make links to on our websites (index.htm)

1. The end game - whether linking to a site or an exercise

a. Edit using Word – add links, descriptions of the sites, directions, etc.

b. Upload to your website using www.tripod.com

2. Reminders and Tips

a.       Try to offer a variety of experiences (images, exercises, audio, interesting texts, unique items)

b.      The web shouldn’t be boring – don’t link to sites that are just a lot of reading material

2. Conduct Searches using http://www.altavista.com and http://www.google.com

a. Read the two resources on the Search section of the Immersion Website, if necessary

b. Tip1: use plus signs to obtain good search results: +Spanish +exercises, +Spanish +Textname, +Topic

c. Tip2: search for exact phrases using quotation marks “My Textbook’s Name”, “Dime”,  “Paso a Paso” (sp?)

3. Surf to find good sites

a. Ask your colleagues for their recommendations of good websites

b. Start with the websites on the Surf section of our immersion website

c. Add Favorites as you go along

d. We can share our recommended sites by using the Add-A-Link feature on the Surf section of the Immersion Site

4. Find exercises and collections

a. See Exercises/Units on our Immersion Website

b. It’s highly likely that some fool like me has already made all the exercises for your textbook

c. Make your own Interactive Exercise Maker exercises – follow handouts from my original packet

-          Make an exercise, Add a Favorite, add a link to it on your index.htm, upload index.htm

5.It never hurts to add a link to a game as a reward for good work – Search for games

a. Students will kill themselves with good work to play a game for 5 minutes at the end of the period

b. See my site http://www.serve.com/shea/spiele.htm for examples

c. Try websites like McDonald’s or any business/product/food for your language – they always have games

- For German, BMW, Porsche, the Oktoberfest, various newspapers, etc. all have game collections

d. There are also many World Cup and Olympics Shockwave games – conduct searches to find them

- Search for +Shockwave +Coupe de Monde or +World-o Cup-o (or whatever the Spanish is)

e. They’ll forget the work and remember the fun and want to come back – plus you’ll be “cool” for what it’s worth

-          IMPORTANT: this is also one of the very few ways you can attract a student to visit your site at home

-          They’re on the web, but they’re just chatting and playing games, so let’s trick them into practicing

-          I tell them – play a few games, do an exercise, play some more, do a few exercises, etc. and they do!

-          They often don’t view the online exercises as work – they love the challenge of achieving speed w/accuracy

6. Add all new additions to index.htm

a. Edit using Word – add links, descriptions of the sites, directions, etc.

b. Upload to your website using www.tripod.com

 

lV. Adding Images and Clip Art to your index.htm – a special problem

1. Initial Comments

a. My most well-meaning tip is to tell you: don’t bother!

b. If you must add an image, you’re creating several more steps in your uploading plus it’s a waste of time

c. Images and Image collections – see the Images section on our website. Consider copyright!

2. Ok, you’re still here and you want to know. Here’s the problem:

When you Insert – Picture in index.htm using Word, it automatically converts the file names and places them in a separate folder mirroring the filename: index_files. If you make a second webpage called food.htm and add an image, then Word will create a folder called food_files and will place the images in that folder and rename them image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc. regardless of their original names.

3. Using www.tripod.com - upload index.htm as usual

a. Extra step - click on New Directory and give it the name index_files (or food_files if you created food.htm)

b. Upload – Browse to the newly created index_files folder in your Immersion Folder. Upload everything in it

c.       It should work – don’t try this after enjoying a few good German beers or you might have problems. Trust me.

d.       Everytime you upload to the index_files folder, you have to click on it first to gain entry to it, then upload images

 

 

If you know of a better way to do this, please feel free to tell me – I’m all ears. Anytime you use basic programs and free webspace, you must reckon with certain problems and idiosyncracies. If you’d like to pay money for your website, then you’ll have fewer problems and more support. View the resources at the Website section of our Immersion Website or I’d be happy to show you how to do this for a substantial fee, if you’d prefer. Know what I mean?

 

 

Young Bob admiring one of the few remaining mosaics at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 1992.