Who Am I? Impaticized PowerPoint Presentation

I created this PowerPoint to use in my Multicultural Counseling Class. One of the assignments is to create a PowerPoint organized around the A, B, and C dimensions of identity (explained in the PowerPoint). So I complete the assignment and post it for my students on WebCt to use as a template for their work. I've uploaded it here for your viewing. Simply select the link to connect to my narrated PowerPoint. Enjoy.

Click here to View PowerPoint Presentation

Click here to view video

Click on the link to view a video of my travels in South America

Podcasting

Well I finished my module on podcasting. I created three podcasts that talked about my trip to South America and if you are interested the link is located on my blog on the lower right corner. I enjoyed creating the podcasts. It was relatively easy to do on Odeo. If you listen to the podcasts it's easy to discern that they were "unscripted". I generally knew what I wanted to say but it is very conversational with some pauses and mistakes and corrections. I'm not sure that fits everyone's listening preference but it is my speaking style and preference. I've narrated online PowerPoints before and when I first began I scripted them. I and the students found them hard to listen to. After that I just used an outline to speak from and that worked out much better. It sounded much more natural. The podcasts I created were brief (all less than 10 minutes) but it's amazing how long that is and how much information you can convey in that short time. I've listened to several of my classmate's podcasts and am interested in the variety in our styles. I find it harder to listen to carefully scripted podcasts (as I'm sure some find it hard to listen to my unscripted one). I think that people's personalities come across in their podcasts. At least the audio on the podcast seemed to reflect the glimpses of personality one gets from written interaction. Of course I'm a counselor and pay attention to those kinds of things. It was a fun experience, easy to do, and I will be alert to the opportunities to use podcasts in my online teaching.

Tuesday musings

When I was setting up this blog for my distance learning class, I pondered for a long time about the name. I wanted it to reflect that it was in association with my class but wanted something that reflected me as well. I finally decided upon Becky's distance learning lounge. As I now view my blogging habits, it seems a fitting title, although that was not my intent at the time. A lounge is a causal place that one visits from time to time. Not particularly structured but comfortable. That tends to be how I blog. I'm not as ambitious as many of my classmates in posting faithfully about my learning experiences.I guess that's just who I am. I think it's an important consideration when using blogs in education. There will be a range of "styles" among our students as well. We need to tend to those differences in styles by providing an opportunity for students to use the tool in the ways that will benefit them most and in the ways in which they will learn the most.

Learning New things

Working furiously trying to get everything done before leaving on Friday for my trip. Thought I'd jump in and get Module 3 done in the course and move on to other things. But things are never quite as easy as they seem. I finally wrote to Jay because I couldn't get Odeo to record. He responded quickly (thank you) and suggested that I try a different browser. I was using IE and switched to Mozilla Firefox. Voila. It worked great. So here is my short audio file on why I think people don't use audio more in distance education.
Why not audio?
And now for the GabCast recording Gabcast! distance education channel #1

I spent a good part of the day today working on my class assignments. What fun! I really enjoyed learning about RSS feeds and setting up my BlogBridge. I'm excited about the possibilities and how I might use this in my classes. In the mean time I went a little crazy choosing what I wanted to download onto my aggregator. I can now get all of my Atlanta Braves news , my recipes, travel information, and main stream and alternative press in one place. How cool is that!

It's a cool Sunday morning in Georgia. Hoping for rain today to knock all of the yellow pine pollen out of the air. My son and his fiance are coming by today for dinner. That's gotten to be a Sunday ritual since they moved to Georgia from Virginia last year. It's one that I enjoy. I have to do a little (well actually alot) of house cleaning today. Saturday is usually our day for that but we were busy all day yesterday with school and friends. So that leaves it for today. I'll call my oldest son sometime today. He still lives in Cincinnati with his wife and my granddaughter. I selfishly wish they were all nearby but I'll be grateful for the fact that David wanted to move to be closer to Mom. I try to drive up (8 hours) and see the baby at least every other month. She changes so quickly. Her first birthday party is this month but I'll miss it because of my trip to Argentina. That's really ok though. She's not old enough to know and I won't have to share her with all of her other grandparents :-). I'll see her when I get back. Here is a recent photo of her. Guess I'd better get cleaning and cooking.