ZamZar.com

Convert files from your desktop or a URL, free. ZamZar sends the converted file to your email. Very convenient.

Mrs Brown's Galaxy

This Eric Idle ditty happens to also contain some amazing factoids.

http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf

This is just for fun!

--Elizabeth

TeacherTube

Live Action English Interactive at TeacherTube

TeacherTube is a very safe-looking site where you can upload instructional video for students and/or fellow teachers. This is a sample from the Live Action English Interactive CD.

You can limit your audience to a group you create. You can also use tags to help sort your videos to the correct audience. Teachers can report any video that appears to be inappropriate for the educational audeince. There are currently many fine, almost-professional quality instructional videos at the site on a wide variety of topics, e.g., raps for teaching geometry and fractions, a discussion of pbwiki, how to use templates to create a newsletter, etc. Most videos go way beyond desktop recordings. You can also upload supporting documents/files--nice.

An interesting feature of home-made video instruction by teachers: it's spot on. (And a big thanks to Jacqui Cyrus in Guam, who tipped me off on this one!)

ChangeDetection.com

I had been looking for some equivalent to RSS for Web pages that were not set up with an XML feed, and finally came across

ChangeDetection.com

After registering, you can enter any number of Web page addresses and
ChangeDectection will send you an email when changes are made to them.
(Like Feedblitz does for RSS-capable pages.) Nice little bot.

Excuse me...Getting Directions

Mike Marzio has a clip on Google Video that is super! The American version will be coming out soon (we hope!)


ESL/EFL - Giving Directions - "Lost in England" - Closed Captioned version

Creating a (e)Learning Environment

Recent podcast by Michael Coughlan contains a number of ideas for supporting teachers who want to use technology. My personal favorite: forget the closed circuit stuff and get it all out on the Web.

Making a feed connection

While browsing through Vance Steven's ESL-Home pages (an excellent list of links), I discovered that Bob Palmer (in Japan, I believe) had used Virtual=Real (this blog), as an example for his instructional video on creating an RSS feed connection with Bloglines and with other methods. Talk about "Old Dutch Cleanser" cans*!

Thanks, Vance and Bob.


*For those unfamiliar with that reference: in the old days, a cleanser can had a picture of a Dutch girl holding the same cleanser can in her hand, ad infinitum. (You had to be there...)

Weblog portfolios in an intensive English program

This is a nice article with great links to a number of resources on electronic portfolios.

http://www.siu.edu/~cesl/teachers/pd/wp.html

Written in preparation for TESOL 2007 in Seattle: eFairs Classics, Electronic Village, by Thomas Leverett, CESL, Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale IL USA.