It is clicking! Our community is linked.

Everyone is ready to participate in the itec 830 community. Josh presented RSS. I learned several new things from Josh's presentation that I want to try out. Kurt presented social bookmarking tool called del.icio.us. He created a del.icio.us site for us. Now we all can start to contribute to this page when we find an interesting site or an article.

If you are in ITEC 830, please make a link to the site from your blog or wiki page. Thank you Kurt for being so prompt. Here is itec 830 and ID/password.

http://del.icio.us/itec_830
username: itec_830
password: spring08

For the first time they see photos of themselves

First time I visited Batwa people in Butare, Rwanda was in 2001. I took each family their portraits (10 families in all). When I returned a year later, I give them their pictures. This is their first time seeing themselves.

Looking at a picture we took of them on the previous visit

Blogged with Flock

Batwa family from Rwanda

I took this video when I visited Batwa family in Butare Rwanda in 2006. There are 10 families, and about 40 people live in a small small house out skirt of Butare where the Come and See Africa Mission Center is located. Butare is the second largest city in Rwanda and the home of National University of Rwanda where I provide faculty development workshops each summer. We became good friends with them since 2001. Whenever we visit them, we bring goats for them and they greet us with singing and dancing.

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I wish I would have entered and won one of these.

There are so many exciting things are happening in education with digital media. Here are samples of the projects that won MacArthur Competition this year. You can read more details about the competition and projects at the MacArthur Foundation site.

"The 2007-08 Digital Media and Learning Competition, administered by HASTAC and supported by the MacArthur Foundation. From a field of over 1,000 applications, seven projects won Innovation awards of $100,000 or $238,000; in the Knowledge-Networking category, ten projects received awards ranging from $30,000 to $72,000. "

Blogged with Flock

Revived

I was so sick with coughing that I thought my eyes were going to pop out. In between coughs, I constantly complained about how awful I felt. I griped, “This is the first time that I’ve ever been this sick”. Poor Chris had to endure his own coughing as well as listen to my complaints. At one point, Chris reminded me that there will be a lot of “first times” coming up in the future. “So get use to it!” I think he is right.

Then my mind turned to Lillian Fielding. Chris, Al, and I had visited her a week earlier. She was within a week of death, yet she received us with a gracious smile. When my mind’s eye focused on Lillian, complaining words were replaced with words of gratitude. I was thankful that I had nothing more serious than a cold. My grateful heart changed my feelings toward to myself. My feelings influenced my attitude, and my attitude influenced my actions.

Humans are emotional beings. Our emotions are like the spark plug that starts our engine. I want my emotions to be controlled by the Sprit of God, so that everything I do is pleasing to God. I am totally recovered now. My body is revived and so is my soul. Looking back, I realize that my revival started with a grateful heart. I believe that my change in attitude helped me to recover faster. What a great feeling to be revived.

Our church is now preparing for a revival. Are we ready to start our church engine and move toward our goals of Glorying God, Loving One Another, and Reaching the World? Prayer is our engine. At our Sunday school we talked about greeting one another with the words “Praise the Lord and Hallelujah”. These powerful words can be the spark that starts the engine. I believe that church revival begins in the hearts of each person at First Southern.

A few days ago, Chris and I walked around Lake Chabot. As we talked and prayed about revival, we sang “Hallelujah ~ Thine the Glory ~ Hallelujah, Amen ~Hallelujah ~Thine the Glory~ Revive us again ~”. I was refreshed physically, mentally, and spiritually. Our one hour walk seemed like a minute. I recommend that you sing this song whenever you clean the house or take a walk. You will regain your vitality as I did. As we praise God with our prayers and with our songs, let’s spur one another and bring revival to our church.

Posting a picture from Flickr

DSC03176.JPG
Originally uploaded by come and see africa

I showed the class how to post this picture from Flickr.

Digital Learners

Joshua pointed out a term "infotainment" in his blog that I have not heard yet. I like the description he provided, "Web surfing fuses learning and entertainment, creating infotainment." For so long we want to create a learning material that is "edutainment" and I don't think we have been successful.

I should have let students discuss about the article that they have read than I explain about it. After I read their blog entries, I kicked myself for not engaging them as I should have. Our class discussion would have been so richer but I made the discussion (?) very bland by taking an instructor role rather than a facilitator role. BAD, BAD. I didn't practice what I preach. Especially this week topic was on active learning and learner engagement.

Everyone seemed to know the differences between wiki and blog. Angela presented about Podcasting, and Sylvia showed her teaching site using various Web2.0 tools. I like to use Freemind mapping tool in this class as a collaboration tool.

Twitter Application

We talked about different Web 2.o applications last night in education in itec 830. Twitter came up in our conversation, when I heard about Twitter, I scratched my head how this could be used in classroom. Here is an article from the Chronicles of Higher Education. Prof. David Parry from University of Taxas uses it as a classroom communication tool.
A professor's tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom

More about Twitter us in Academica

David and Phillip from last semester came and shared their finall projects --using wiki and other Web 2.0 tools to improve teaching and learning--with the class. David teaches Digital sotrytelling class for seniors, 55 plus populations, and Phillip teaches art class in high school.

Earthquake in Rwanda

Two earthquakes struck hours apart in Rwanda and neighboring Congo, killing at least 39 people, and injuring 380. I first heard about earthquakes in Rwanda and Congo just before our worship service started on Sunday, Feb. 3rd. Many of my friends live in that part of the world. Thankfully, I heard from most of my friends from Rwanda, and they are Okay. But I have not yet heard from friends from Congo.

Web 2.0 workshop

I attended Web 2.0 workshop that was organized by Classroom 2.0 people. I saw great examples and also met many wonderful teachers who truly love teaching. Here is an agenda for the workshop. I will definitely use some of the tools I learned in my itec 830 class.