Sunday 17 June 2007 - Rage against the machines...

Top of the day to you all!

So, what type of student are/were you? Prensky observes and classifies three kinds of students as follows:

1. The students who are truly self-motivated. These are the ones all teachers dream about having (and the ones we know how to teach best). They do all the work we assign to them, and more. Their motto is: “I can’t wait to get to class.” Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of these.

2. The students who go through the motions. These are the ones who, although in their hearts they feel that what is being taught has little or no relevance to their lives, are farsighted enough to realize that their future may depend on the grades and credentials they get. So they study the right facts the night before the test to achieve a passing grade and become at least somewhat successful students. Their motto: “We have learned to ‘play school.’ ”

3. The students who “tune us out.” These students are convinced that school is totally devoid of interest and totally irrelevant to their life. In fact, they find school much less interesting than the myriad devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks. These kids are used to having anyone who asks for their attention—their musicians, their movie makers, their TV stars, their game designers—work really hard to earn it. When what is being offered isn’t engaging, these students truly resent their time being wasted. In more and more of our schools, this group is quickly becoming the majority. The motto of this group? “Engage me or enrage me.”

Even though these descriptions only really apply to today's generation of digital natives, I can still see shades of myself in number _! For those who know me, I'm sure you know which one already!

So, engage or enrage me eh? Reminds me of that power anthem by Rage Against The Machines who famously sang:

The present curriculum

I put my fist in 'em

Eurocentric every last one of 'em

See right through the red, white and blue disguise

With lecture I puncture the structure of lies

Installed in our minds and attempting to hold us back

We've got to take it back

Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears

One-sided stories for years and years and years

I'm inferior? Who's inferior?

Yeah, we need to check the interior

Of the system that cares about only one culture

Okay, okay, not all the lyrics exactly match this context but you get the drift, ya? But we, as educators in the 21st century, have to fight back and sing from the same song/page:

We gotta take the power back

Come on, come on!

We gotta take the power back

So you know which side of the camp my feet are firmly placed in. Today's students are a totally different beast to the ones that we were - "the kids back then didn’t expect to be engaged by everything they did. There were no video games, no CDs, no MP3s—none of today’s special effects. Those kids’ lives were a lot less rich—and not just in money: less rich in media, less rich in communication, much less rich in creative opportunities for students outside of school. Many if not most of them never even knew what real engagement feels like."

Today's children are surrounded by and permanently engaged to technology and without it, feels like losing a loved one. Makes me kinda glad I don't teach them! How are we meant to compete with this? Can we rise up to the challenge and engage them with 'old school' curriculum? Prensky seems to think so because it's not about fancy, expensive graphics (eye-candy) but rather about ideas (gameplay) and I couldn't agree more. Why do I still mostly prefer games from days of yore than now? And the answer's not because I'm an old fogey and yes, retro games like Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy is still a class apart!

The BBC, for example, has been given £350 million by the British government to create a “digital curriculum.” They have concluded that almost all of it should be game-based, because if it doesn’t engage the students, that will be £350 million down the tube, and they may not get a second chance. But they are struggling in this unfamiliar world.

I wonder how they're doing with this. The Prensky article was published in 2005 so maybe we could be seeing the fruits of this curriculum soon?

Tuning out...

Michael

References

1. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

2. Prensky, M. (2005) Engage me or Enrage me

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Activity 4.5

Hi all

Although there are no case studies of effective ICT integration available to me in my current place of work, “stories of activities and projects that worked well in other teachers' classrooms are indeed helpful to us, but in a manner perhaps different than the one with which you may be familiar.” Can you really just ‘plug and play’? (Harris, J 1998)

However, I can read about it from the following useful websites:

1. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources.shtml - they have various ICT articles, eg. podcasting, blogs, webquests, using the internet, etc.

2. Knowledge on the Net - http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/radio/kotn/kotn.shtml

When I worked at the British Council, I was trained up to be an “expert ICT user” or “power user” (they’re big on terms) and was responsible for cascading training and support to colleagues. The BC were so heavily into ICT they even had an ICT Exploitation team with Exploitation managers based strategically around the world - yes, they have one in Hong Kong! They also have something called an “ICT skills audit” which assesses teachers’ ability to use technology for teaching purposes as well as an intranet with plenty of practical integration ideas and tons of IWB support. For my two cents worth, I think the BC are the leading pioneers of ICT in TEFL with their bold moves such as introducing interactive whiteboards into all their classrooms in their teaching centres worldwide, initiating the digitization of coursebooks for IWBs (http://www.longman.com/nced/), etc.

I’m afraid I don’t have any “warts and all” story to share with you lovely folks out there because I haven’t had that many chances of integrating ICT into my teaching in the last few years apart from the obligatory ones where IT is at fault, eg. slow server due to a class of 20 computers simultaneously opening the same software program, internet links not working because of some filtering software, unknown crashing, etc. Not terribly interesting I know but it certainly IS interesting to read about all your experiences – I can avoid all the pitfalls mentioned now!

Michael

PS. I can certainly count myself as part of generation Y, Petrea!

References

Harris, J 1998, Wetware: why use activity structures?

Saturday 16 June 2007 - Native or immigrant?

Hola amigos!

My last post brought up the issue of being digitally fluent but now my thoughts drift to whether I'm a digital native, digital immigrant (Prensky) or something else?

According to the article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", a digital native is a native speaker of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet whereas a digital immigrant is someone who was not born into the digital world but has, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology.

The importance of the distinction is this: As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The "digital immigrant accent" can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older folk were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain.

There are hundreds of examples of the digital immigrant accent. They include printing out your email (or having your secretary print it out for you – an even "thicker" accent); needing to print out a document written on the computer in order to edit it (rather than just editing on the screen); and bringing people physically into your office to see an interesting web site (rather than just sending them the URL). I’m sure you can think of one or two examples of your own without much effort. My own favorite example is the "Did you get my email?" phone call. Those of us who are Digital Immigrants can, and should, laugh at ourselves and our "accent."

Very interesting perspective but fairly extreme for my liking as I tend to fall in between the two descriptions. I may not have been born into a digital world but I also don't have any of the above mentioned immigrant accents either - perhaps I'm "digiterate" (think 'sniglets' from Wetware: why use activity structures?) or have a very slight accent. I think I prefer to coin myself a new term, the Digital Surfer or Survivalist, ie. someone who may not necessarily be fascinated by or adopted the new technology but who has kept up-to-date with it by literally riding a 'wave of information' cause he/she knows they need to in order to survive in today's world! (And they ride round on a silver surfboard heralding the arrival of Galactus just before your planet gets consumed!...)

I love this quote by Douglas Adams which was brought to my attention by someone's post on the discussion forum:

Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Thankfully, I've just past the 35 landmark so maybe that's why I don't feel like a digital immigrant!

Michael

References

1. Harris, J 1998, Wetware: why use activity structures?

2. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

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Activity 4.1

Hey all

It really is an eye-opener to read everyone's different backgrounds and how ICT has changed education around the world. Some of the stuff happening elsewhere is amazing and makes me positively jealous!

I've been teaching for almost a decade now and I'm certainly feeling it, my age that is! Thinking about all the changes in the last 10 years is not that easy for me as I have a hazy memory at best, but I'll try my best to pinpoint some of the major changes that have occurred in my educational context (TEFL).

When I began teaching, it was just a blackboard (whiteboard if you were lucky), tape recorder and VCR. Nowadays, it’s all pretty much a whiteboard (interactive whiteboard if you’re lucky), all previously mentioned as well as a CD player, DVD player (sometimes combined with a VCR) and computer with LCD projector.

Although we have a wealth of equipment, I don’t really think educators in the TEFL field have fully exploited the potential of ICT. “Teachers need to restructure their presentations and delivery, not simply add technology to their current approach. If they restructure their teaching in a way that incorporates technology as a central tool for enhancing pedagogy, real changes can occur.” Instead “technologies are used simply to reinforce outmoded approaches to learning” and "approaches to teaching and learning remain largely unchanged." CDs replace cassettes, DVD players replace VCRs, etc. but the pedagogy remains the same.

Of course, we have the occasional ICT-themed lessons but all that means is taking students into a classroom laboratory and going through skill, drill and practice programs or a web-based lesson. That's not to say there's no innovative & creative stuff happening in the world of TEFL. I've seen some real creative young learners' writing projects involving PowerPoint and specialised software but it's just rare!

In my experience, most “staff is willing to integrate technology into the program only when they see how it can help them” to improve students’ English “and improve student performance, but they are quite reluctant to use technology for technology’s sake.” Unfortunately, “change doesn’t happen in a school simply because you install new equipment” and “teachers have seen bandwagons come and go” and “are appropriately skeptical about untested, expensive changes that seem peripheral rather than central to their purpose. They want to know how this venture will improve student performance.” Professional development and planning resources is crucial but “the focus has been squarely on the equipment.”

Michael

References

1. Constable, P 2003, ‘For the long term’

2. Mckenzie, J 2000, ‘Making good change happen’

3. Resnick, M 2002, ‘Rethinking learning in the digital age’

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Activity 4.2 - 4.3

Hi all

To be honest, the internet hasn’t changed teaching and learning in my classroom as much as I would have hoped. It’s definitely more a tool for me than for my students.

Referring to the mind-reading article, “Wetware: why use activity structures?”, it lists pretty much what I do with the internet in the opening paragraph:

- information searching

- online publishing

- using electronic mail

- using discussion forums

- realtime chatting

- audio/video conferencing

Reading other people’s posts - it is true that the internet has helped with and speeded up lesson planning with the world’s information at your fingertips but it can also slow it down and it invariably has with me. For example, the number of times I’ve tried to search for a decent activity to practice the ‘Past Perfect’ and just find countless, boring grammar exercises when I could have just consulted a photocopiable resource book which has exactly what I want…

In the good old days, I used to collect in homework assignments. Now with the advent of the internet and email, students email it to me and it can be corrected using “track changes” in Word or printed out and marked the old fashioned way.

Sometimes, when I take a class into the Multimedia Centre to do a web-based activity, I feel a bit guilty about this because most of them have already spent their whole day sitting in front of a computer at work and here they are again (déjà vu)!

Once upon a time (about 5 years ago), I was involved in a short-lived “Online English” programme. Basically, it was exactly the same as a regular course except everything (grammar, reading, listening, writing, vocabulary, etc.) was done online, except for the speaking part when students would come in at pre-arranged times for their speaking practice. I guess at that time, video-conferencing wasn’t quite ready then. The aim of these courses was to allow students flexibility in terms of when they wanted to study as HK adult students are notoriously known for not being able to attend classes because they are far too busy with work and overtime. (In a 2002 survey, it was found that the average working week in HK was 55 hours and 75% of people work late into the evenings – I can certainly vouch for that!) A regular course meant attending classes regularly at a fixed time for about 30 hours over a period of 2-3 months. An online course meant doing the same thing but doing it when it suited students. Of course, there were deadlines, etc. but these were relatively flexible. As a coordinator for some of these courses, I was responsible for initiating discussions in the course material, marking assignments, teaching the face-to-face sessions, etc. I actually thought it was a great idea but these courses were eventually dropped due to poor enrolment. I guess that students were far too busy to enrol for these flexible courses!

Having been exposed to blogs and wikis on this course, I would like to begin to use these tools in my teaching for collaborative writing projects, dialogue journals, discussions, brainstorming, listening (audioblogs), etc.

At the university, we also have a Moodle platform and in the past I have tried to look into the possibility of using this but unfortunately it is restricted to full-time students only. The students I mainly teach are part-time students so this is a major stumbling block.

I would also be interested in learning more about ‘activity structures’ – it sounds ideal!

Michael

References

1. Harris, J 1998, Wetware: why use activity structures?

2. Richardson, W 2004 Blogging and RSS — The "What's it?" and "How to" of powerful new web tools for educators

3. Work Life Balance in Hong Kong - http://www.communitybusiness.org.hk/documents/WLB%20full%20report.pdf

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Activity 4.4

Hi all

Looks like I'm not alone in this boat of 'no documentation' that refer to the integration or support of ICT even though we have a fantastic IT department which is responsible for the following:

- provision of telephone, television, video and data networking services throughout the university

- provision of basic information technology training and user consultation services

- provision of teaching support and multimedia services

- provision of hardware and software installation and maintenance services for PC's and related equipment

- provision of computer operation services for all the main and distributed machine rooms across the campuses

I’ve mentioned before the small (fish) department I work in and now I’ll tell you why I keep saying that. We only have 3 full-time academic staff (including me) and 2 admin staff and I’m pretty much responsible for anything IT/ICT related!

Other (bigger) departments probably have policies or guidelines regarding ICT integration but I have no way of accessing that information.

Michael

Thursday 14 June 2007 - Are you digitally fluent?

Bonjour mes amis!

Another busy week, another day and another dollar! Eh? Anyway, why is it that the level of work one has can never be constant? If it could, it would certainly make life a helluva lot easier including studying this Masters! Then again, it would also make life predictable and boring?

So, to continue this digital reflective artefact - thanks Petrea for allowing this to represent that although it won't be easy to summarise all my thoughts for the whole semester in a space on my blog as this whole blog is the space where all my thoughts are collected including all the mini-assignments that have been done throughout! Okay, I tend to go on a bit, but if one looked carefully enough, most of my thoughts (apart from the really personal ones) are here for all and sundry to digest!

Just had my eyes prodded open to the wider possibilities of computers in education after reading "Rethinking learning in the digital age" by Mitchel Resnick. Wow! I've usually used them as technologies "to reinforce outmoded approaches to learning" but the analogy made with finger paint really rammed home the point that there's far more to it than meets the initial eye.

"Indeed, the computer is the most extraordinary construction material ever invented, enabling people to create anything from music videos to scientific simulations to robotic creatures. Computers can be seen as a universal construction material, greatly expanding what people can create and what they can learn in the process." (Resnick 1998).

"Unfortunately, most people don’t use computers that way today. When people are introduced to computers today, they are typically taught how to look up information on the Web, how to use a word processor, how to send e-mail. But they don’t become fluent with the technology." I couldn't help but exclaim, "Right on!" when I read this. So, are you digitally fluent? Because if "being digitally fluent involves not only knowing how to use technological tools, but also knowing how to construct things of significance with those tools" then I'm a complete beginner!

But as I read, I kept on thinking how I could shrink the "fluency gap" as I was also one of the "small handful" who are not able to use the technologies fluently. Of course, I could become more digitally fluent myself but how could I use "the revolutionary potential of the new technology for transforming learning and education" in my educational context? After all, I just teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) to adult students and they come to us already pretty much IT savvy so what more could I possibly add? If I was working in the primary or secondary sector, yes, I can make a difference but adults and adult education? Unless I teach IT...

There is constant talk/literature that "teachers need to restructure their presentations and delivery, not simply add technology to their current approach" but I think that this applies minimally to teaching English. Of course, I can see the benefits of using blogs, wikis, etc. but is there anything else? The students I teach are here for short courses (usually 24 hours per course and each lesson could be 2 or 3 hours) and have specific needs, eg. to improve their business writing, their spoken English, etc. so I really don't have that much time to integrate "technology as a central tool for enhancing pedagogy" into the curriculum so that "real changes can occur". So, in essence, that's why I'm here!

Michael

References

1. Constable, P 2003, ‘For the long term’
2. Resnick, M 2002, ‘Rethinking learning in the digital age’

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Activity 3.7

Hi all

Seems AVG is quite popular here - could that be because it's free? Saying that, I use that on my home computer as well! I used to use Trend Micro's PC-cillin until the licence ran out and an IT friend asked me why I bothered buying it. So he recommend AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1)! I'm from the old school of thought that certain essential software must be purchased - after all, you DO get what you pay for but if you can save the occasional dollar here and there, then why not?!

McAfee Anti-Virus was recently adopted by the university as the virus protection of choice - it used to be F-Secure Anti-Virus but there were numerous feedback from users which found that it could not guard against some viruses in time for those newly propagating viruses. By subscribing to McAfee, staff home machines are also covered so that means I have 2 anti-virus programs installed on my home computer. As my learned IT friend said, "you won't get one anti-virus that will protect you from all known viruses, so you might as well have a couple!"

He also recommended the following free programs to keep PCs secure:

1. SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

2. Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en

3. Ad-Aware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

All the anti-virus programs I use are updated as soon as there are updates available.

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Activity 3.6

Hi all

It's very interesting to read about all the wonderful ICT integration and technology plans implementation happening in different schools around the world.

Unfortunately, the article ‘Making good change happen’ refers only to schools but I work in a further education environment, which in a lot of ways I can generally assume to be easier than working in a school, in terms of being networked, deployment of resources and professional development.

The students (adults) who come here are generally IT savvy but I don't think the same can be said of some of the teachers/lecturers! As stated in previous posts, it's amazing how IT illiterate some of the higher echelons are!

I can only speak about my particular department (TEFL), which is a very small fish in a huge ocean (meaning we don’t have much say in anything), but ICT integration is certainly viewed as “an optional ingredient to the meat and potatoes of instruction”. We don’t have a formal technology plan per se but the uni as a whole probably does, although I know nothing about it. We only have a few full-time staff members but over 20 part-time teachers and it’s very difficult to involve these teachers in any kind of ICT initiative, never mind their “enthusiastic endorsement” – after all, they are just part-time and work at various places to make ends meet so why should they invest their precious little time in this? The article states that 30-60 hours per year must be provided for teachers to “meet, to learn and to invent classroom units” but I can’t ever see that happening here. The uni has plenty of IT training and seminars ranging from Photoshop and Dreamweaver to Linux, Access and Visual Basic, but this is restricted to full-time staff and students.

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Activity 3.5

Hi all

It’s been very interesting to read the range of classroom arrangements that currently exist and what people actually wish for.

I think I can safely assume that in general, universities will be better equipped than schools. I’m lucky enough to have mostly what I would like in a ‘perfect’ classroom as most of the university networked classrooms are equipped with the following:

- PA system
- Wireless microphone
- Visual presenter
- OHP
- VCR
- DVD player
- LCD monitor
- LCD projector
- PC
- Audio recorder

In addition to the above, notebooks can be borrowed for classroom presentations, business trips, exhibitions, etc. If the classroom doesn’t have what you want, there’s an ‘equipment loan service’ whereby you can check out a full-range of AV items such as a visualizer, cassette player, slide projector, etc.

Although I have more than enough at my disposal and since we’re in dreamland here, my setup would be to have all of the above as well as the following:

- Hexagonal tables with 2 in-built computers for 4-6 students
- Promethean interactive whiteboard (http://www.prometheanworld.com/)

Although some people like to have computers along the wall, I have never been a great fan. Developing communicative activities for the classroom becomes problematic if the students are seated facing the wall away from the rest of the class. I prefer to have students placed in small groups around hexagonal tables evenly spread around the room so that they find it easier to negotiate and collaborate on tasks. The teacher can manoeuvre quite easily between the tables in order to respond to the learners’ needs. The students also have plenty of room to write and also have a clear view of their computer screen, the teacher and the board. The monitors can be placed under the table at an angle and this helps to improve screen visibility and keep the monitors from obstructing students’ line of vision as well as reducing reflected glare from the lights.

I included an interactive whiteboard because as I mentioned elsewhere, I have had experience using these interactive whiteboards (IWBs) when I worked at the British Council (BC) Hong Kong (from 1998) where it was one of the first BC teaching centres (TC) to use this relatively new technology. Since then, as far as I am aware, all BC TC worldwide have started using or are planning to use these Promethean IWBs in ALL their classrooms and that’s a lot of TC as they operate in over 100 countries!

Wednesday 6 June 2007 - Busy bee...

Well, well, well... who's been a busy bee then? No prizes for guessing who?!

It's been a few weeks since I've updated this blog and since this is also supposed to be a 'digital reflective artefact' to represent the major themes or key concepts that I have reflected on during this term, I guess I'd better update it with those thoughts.

The first assignment 1 has come and gone and I'm very happy to have survived that one! Now onto assignment 2 which is due in less than 2 weeks! I'm ashamed to say that I didn't participate in the online debate which has been going on for the last few weeks and seems to be finished now. Not only did I miss contributing to the opening statement but I also missed the closing statement as well. Reasons will be discussed in assignment 2 - oh well, c'est la vie...

Sometimes I wonder why I keep this blog going since I don't seem to have any visitors (that I'm aware of anyway) but I am reminded of the reason why in the article “Educational Blogging” by Stephen Downes which has a quote from educational blogging guru, Will Richardson, describing blogging as “great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking, writing skills and information literacy among other things”. But hopefully, I won’t have “committed the ultimate blogging sin of losing interest in myself”. I can certainly see the educational value of blogs which is basically "writing down what you think when you read others” and "about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read-reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting.” (Downes, S 2004)

So what have I read recently? The article by Komoski PK & Plotnick, E (2000) pinpointed what most educators (I know) think of English Language software, which is essentially "drill and practice electronic worksheets". Sad but true! Perhaps a reason why these types of software are popular is they are "the easiest to install and maintain" and "require little from regular teachers" (McKenzie, J 1998). It was interesting to note that "software selection should be taken as seriously as the selection of text books" but I just wonder how many people/schools/universities actually follow all the steps listed, especially the final one which is getting feedback from users after the software has been purchased.

Another article of note was the one by McKenzie, J (1998) which really highlighted many of the problems that we, as educators, encounter when trying to incorporate ICT/IT into our teaching/curriculum. The reference to "keeping up with the Joneses" struck a chord with me as I remember when we were given a start-up grant by a local company to equip our Multimedia Centre. Had I read this article before receiving the grant, we would have been in a better position to evaluate all the major factors such as "quality vs quantity, hardware vs human infrastructure, short term vs long term", etc. Now we are in a position where our computers will be outmoded in a couple of years time...

Anyway, better trundle off but before I do, I'll just paste below my last few activities. Enjoy!

Michael

References

1. Komoski PK & Plotnick, E 2000, Seven Steps to Responsible Software Selection
2. McKenzie, J 1998, ‘Networking schools: managing quandaries, dilemmas and conundrums’

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Activity 2.5 - Educational Software

Hi all

I wish I could follow Randy’s example and post some unique and less known software that I use for English Language teaching but I can’t and I don’t know of much. If anyone knows of any, I’d be happy to hear about it!

Word processing - Student and teacher - Probably the most used software by teachers for preparing handouts/worksheets for students, writing reports, etc. Students use it for homework, letters, reports, etc.

English Language - Student - Used in the Multimedia Centre by students to practice their English outside classroom hours. Some examples of skills and software used are: Grammar – Tensebuster, Reward, etc. Writing - Business Letter Writer, Letters, faxes and e-mails, etc. Pronunciation – Connected Speech, Pronunciation Power, etc.

Presentation - Student and teacher - Teachers and students use it as a tool in giving presentations. Students use it to tell/build a story by inserting images (as well as text of course!) and I like the sound of Microsoft Photo Story (mentioned above)…

Web authoring - Teacher - Teachers use software such as “Hot Potatoes” to create online exercises (gap-fills, crosswords, cloze tests, etc.) Create online courses but the potential for this should be explored further.

Spreadsheet - Teacher - Used mainly as an admin tool for class registers, recording grades, etc.

Michael

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Activity 2.7 - Spreadsheets

Hi all

Personally, I don’t use spreadsheets much these days (since majoring in Mathematics at uni) when teaching English and see it as mainly a Maths tool. Administratively, it’s essential with numerous examples mentioned in previous posts!

I found this really useful website about Excel usage:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_excel.htm

Michael

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Activity 2.8 - Databases

Hi all

As with Excel, I see it more as an administrative tool and don’t use databases much in teaching. Frankly speaking, I don’t know even know how to create a database but will attempt to do so to see if there are any uses I could find!

I have tried on a couple of occasions to ‘check out’ MS Access but like a few people said on this forum, I find it totally inaccessible (pardon the pun!) Then again, I don’t think I would have any real uses for databases, except for my own personal use? I could put a list of all my CDs and DVDs in a database ‘cause it’s grown to the point when I go shopping that I forget whether I have that particular CD or DVD! Then again, I could use a spreadsheet for this…

Naturally, databases are used extensively in the business world and I agree with Petrea when she says that you don’t need to understand the inner workings of a car in order to drive it. As long as the interface is user-friendly enough and people can use one, is it that important to know how to create one? Nowadays, I can create webpages and even my own blog - http://medtech-ml.blogspot.com/ (umpteenth shameless plug!) without any prior programming knowledge.

Here’s a website which will help me to master Access but I usually use the “Help” function or ask a friend/colleague to teach/show me – I find the latter method the most effective…

http://www.functionx.com/access/

Michael

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Activity 3.2 - Software on my computer

Hi all

All the software installed on my Dell laptop is fully licenced and paid for, but not by me! Fortunately for me, the laptop is from work and came fully installed with the university's range of software (Microsoft, Adobe, Novell, etc.)

I've installed a couple of shareware/freeware programs such as "Spybot - Search & Destroy" and "SpywareBlaster" as I contracted a really nasty zlob trojan a while back. It took me ages to get rid of it but thanks to the wonder of the internet and various forums, I found the solution and was able to manually remove it. If you're willing to look hard enough, you can pretty much get anything from the internet for free but some people do come from the school of thought, "you pay for what you get".

It hasn't always been the case that I have been able to get free software. In the past, I used to buy Microsoft Office (educational discount of course) as well as the upgrades and anti-virus software for my desktop. I figured that these were essential pieces of software and it was worth getting the original one simply for the customer service/support and piece of mind. All other software was illegally copied/pirated, as most places in Asia is pirate heaven (welcome Captain Jack Sparrow), but it got to the point where I had installed so much it slowed the computer down to a snail’s pace. I realised after a while there's only so much software you really need so wiped the slate clean and re-installed Windows.

Michael

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Activity 3.3 - Comparing two computers

Hi all

In general, clones can be up to 50% cheaper than a comparative 'name brand' computer in Hong Kong.

There are quite a few computer shopping malls selling clones in HK (situated in areas such as Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, Wan Chai, etc.) and going into these centres can be daunting as they have loads of leaflets/flyers with any combination of computer specifications. You really need to know what you want in terms of brand, performance and components as any permutation and combination seems possible in these places!

I compared a HP Pavilion a5000 PC series with a similar clone. Prices for the HP started from HK$7,999 (AU$1,250) and a similar clone from HK$4,000 (AU$625) depending on the different component brands chosen.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/hk/en/ho/WF25a/1090261-1111625-1116609-1116609-1116609-13039350.html

Name brands with identical configurations are more expensive due to issues such as warranty, quality of product, design, fully tested system configuration, customization of software, support, etc.

Michael