Powered By Blogger

Friday, August 29, 2014

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Karaoke English... Why?

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Karaoke English... Why?: What is Edupunk? Edupunk is a group of counter culture teachers and students that offer experimental classes centered around Fluent S...

Karaoke English... Why?



What is Edupunk?


Edupunk is a group of counter culture teachers and students that offer experimental classes centered around Fluent Spoken English on WizIQ. More topics will be added over a period of time. Right now, there are about 6 such classes every week (or 25 classes a month) and all focus on improving Spoken English of learners. Of these 6 classes, 2 of them are beginner level, 2 of them intermediate level and 2 of them advanced level. Each of these classes use non-traditional teaching methods like songs, plays, jokes, role plays etc.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Living with Stargardt's Disease

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Living with Stargardt's Disease: Stargardt disease is the most common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. The progressive vision loss associated with Sta...

Living with Stargardt's Disease




Stargardt disease is the most common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. The progressive vision loss associated with Stargardt disease is caused by the death of photoreceptor cells in the central portion of the retina called the macula.
The retina is the delicate light-sensing tissue lining the back inside wall of the eye. Photoreceptor cells in the retina provide vision by conveying information from the visual field to the brain. The macula is responsible for sharp central vision — for tasks like reading, watching television, and looking at faces.
Decreased central vision is a hallmark of Stargardt disease. Side vision is usually preserved. Stargardt disease typically develops during childhood and adolescence. Also involved in Stargardt disease is a region beneath the macula called the retinal pigment epithelium.
While there are currently no treatments for Stargardt disease, the Foundation is supporting several promising avenues of research, including gene, stem cell and drug therapies.
For the latest research advances for Stargardt disease treatments, refer to the Foundation publication Stargardt Disease: Research Advances.

UV blocking sunglasses are generally recommended for outdoors. For people who already have significant vision loss, low vision aides are available.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Bartosz Bazan

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Online Evolution and Predictions

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Online Evolution and Predictions: It is known that HarvardX and other institutions continue to create new massive open online courses (MOOCs; see the current list at ha...

Online Evolution and Predictions

It is known that HarvardX and other institutions continue to create new massive open online courses (MOOCs; see the current list at harvardx.harvard.edu/modules-courses).But with hundreds of offerings available on edX, Coursera, and emerging platforms (such as the Business School’s HBX; see harvardmag.com/hbx-14), emphasis is now shifting to research on applications and assessments.


One promising avenue is the “blended” or “flipped” course, in which content such as recorded lectures is made available to students, like a multimedia textbook, before they meet with teachers in the classroom. Gordon McKay professor of computer science Harry R. Lewis described how he reengineered a course this way, with low-tech recordings costing a tiny fraction of the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in a full-scale HarvardX offering, in “Reinventing the Classroom” (September-October 2012, page 54).


Such courses appeal for two very different reasons. They may deepen learning, if class time formerly spent on lecturing is used instead to grapple with difficult concepts or work through problem sets with fellow students. They can also be an avenue toward efficiency and economy as more students, in effect, share a lecturer.

Online Evolution

Monday, August 11, 2014

Edupunk and student centred learning.

George Machlan 
http://www.wiziq.com/myeslfriends
We do not need "them", we only need each other.

This group of pilgrims called "The Edupunk" are seeking a new paradigm for online learning. We hold to several core principals:
1. All can teach, all should teach
2. Mistakes and willing to risk mistakes are much prefered over the false goal of perfection.
3. Fun activities and gaming are not only more engaging, they are the key to a sustainable model for learning... anything.
4. Live interaction and group activities create the basis for deep and experiential learning.
5. Accountability and competition is the basis of our community. We build and only associate with leaders who can recognize that they and every member have knowledge to share.
http://quickshout.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/edupunk-and-student-centred-learning.html

Edupunk is a term that was first coined by Jim Groom, an instructional technologist working at the University of Mary Washington and it is a reaction against the attempts of corporate interests and commercialism to reframe learning into commercially defined products and applications.

Edupunk encourages more of a student centred and ‘do it yourself’ approach to the use of technology in education - student centred because it focuses on using the tools and applications students will need and use in their everyday lives, and these are very unlikely to be interactive whiteboards and learning management systems,  and ‘do it yourself’ because it relies on the teacher to assess the needs of the students and work with them to develop materials and activities that will broaden their understanding and use of these tools and help them to apply them to learning.

Of course this puts a considerable burden onto teachers and demands that they broaden their knowledge of technology and develop the ability to utilise an ever widening range of tools to help students achieve their learning goals.

In the training work that I do with teachers around the world I try to focus on a very broad range of tools and web based applications, so much so that I’m often asked, ‘Well isn’t there one tool or one place we can go that can do all this?’ but I’m sad to say that I don’t think there is a ‘one tool’ solution and I’m not really sure that there should be.EDU (Education)
+ PUNK ( a non-traditional attitude)
= EDUPUNK
Edupunk English is the current course offering by George (the author of this blog) at WizIQ http://www.wiziq.com/myeslfriends
an online learning portal.  The main goals of this course are:
1.    English Fluency
2.    Affordable
3.    Interesting & fun
4.    Friendly
English fluency, particularly in spoken English, has become one of the biggest needs world-wide.  At Edupunk English, we will focus primarily on activities that will challenge and grow your ability to speak comfortably.  There are no secrets in our methods.  The more you talk, the better you will become both at speaking clearly and without effort (fluency). George is not a traditional “teacher," rather he is an accomplished coach and encourager.  A constant focus on technique and practice will produce results that no amount  of traditional classes will give.
Affordable…  Value in online lessons is viewed in many ways.  We at Edupunk English know that most students need to be very cost conscious in today’s tough world economy. To find out more about the costs, please visit the “Join Us” tab at the top of this page.  Note that if you pause the mouse over that tab you will also see some sub-pages for those who need financial help.
Interesting ( = fun), why?  Because any learning system, to be sustainable, must be enjoyable.  Very few of us can develop the sustained effort and disciplined study to achieve success in an abstract subject area like English for the sake of English alone.  Unless you happen to be an English teacher, English is not one of your “fun” activities.  Only by finding a vehicle for your learning of English can we hope to make learning of English truly painless and “easy”.  That is why, even in our more traditional areas like grammar,   we find ways to make it interesting and even fun with games.
Friendly,  yes friendly!  Your American coach George is not interested in being a respected, all-wise professor for you to worship and lookup to.  He is a fun-loving person who happens to be a native speaker.  The best relationship for learning is to become partners and co-discoverers of the world by exploring English together.  This play is not without goals; rather it will be a joint discovery of many areas that we both find interesting.  If we can do this together, as equals, we both are empowered in our future endeavours.  If we keep up the traditional model of all-knowing teacher and submissive student, only one of us are empowered (the teacher), and the student will always have to depend on others to meet their goals in life.  So, let’s be friends and accountable to each other in our mutual path for English fluency.

Follow us on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/myESLfriends ) for course updates and blog posts about this English course.  NOTE: if you click “like” on the page, you will see the updates on your wall and be notified of free classes if you do not join the paid course.



Tuesday, August 5, 2014

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Fall Blog Festival

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Fall Blog Festival: Join and present. The Fall Blog Festival (FBF) is 1-day blog festival event showcasing bloggers, their work, and valuable tips for blo...

Fall Blog Festival



Join and present.

The Fall Blog Festival (FBF) is 1-day blog festival event showcasing bloggers, their work, and valuable tips for blogging for reflective practice, work with students, business and other reasons. This event takes place online on WizIQ, on September 21, 2014. Highlights include: Why blog, background to blogging, influencial bloggers, getting started, and best practices and challenges involved in blogging.

Join the Fall Blog Festival: http://www.wiziq.com/course/53478-fal..

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners: EdTech You S...

HALINA'S LEARNING, TEACHING AND MUCH MORE....: Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners: EdTech You S...: Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners: EdTech You Should Know EdTech You S hould Know  is a new show  in the  Instructional Tech Talk  netw...

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners: EdTech You Should Know

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners: EdTech You Should Know
EdTech You Should Know is a new show in the Instructional Tech Talk network of podcasts created and facilitated by innovative educator Jeff HerbThe show features one educational technology tool per episode that is worth knowing about. The episodes are less than 10 minutes and they are designed to offer educators a taste of the great EdTech that's out there. 

Monday, August 4, 2014

My online MMVC14 presentation





Moreover, this progress in technology not only puts an emotional impact on the users who directly have access to information, but also generates countless access to education around the world.
Teaching resources are now reachable virtually to everyone very often for no fee.
Does existing know-how use the human touch or education has just become a technical structure?