Learning vocabulary using Rikaichan and Google News
One of my frustrations as a learner of Japanese has always been the amount of time lost to looking up unknown kanji. By the time I have found the right reading and the right word, I’ve forgotten what the surrounding context was, and I have to reread the sentence or paragraph. Online dictionaries certainly help […]
Goodbye, 2010. Welcome, 2011!
Working via the Internet defined 2010 for me. Although I wore many different hats as an independent contractor, all of them allowed me to do almost all of my work from my computer, here in Indiana or from various other places I traveled during the year. A couple of highlights: I began working as a […]
Language learning while knitting
I recently learned to knit and crochet, which you may have noticed if you follow me on Facebook or Ravelry (username: betsylavolette – let’s be friends!). It’s a great way to pass the time when you’re captive in a car, casually chatting with family, or watching a movie, but sometimes I get out those needles/hooks […]
CALICO 2010: Great conference, or the greatest conference?
The Computer Assisted Language Learning Consortium Conference 2010 was in Amherst, MA, June 10 – 12. I summed up my feelings about it in this tweet: Goodbye, #calico2010! It was awesome, in terms of presentations, people, planning, place… Presentations I learned so much from the sessions! This was the first conference I’ve attended where I […]
I love Japanese Pizza, but…
…Pizza Hut Japan, you’ve got to be kidding me: Please keep your “mini dogs” and their ketchup away from my mayonnaise and corn pizza!
SDoI: Chapter 3: Conducting a Goal Analysis
Goal Analysis Diagram by Elizabeth Lavolette is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. [This is the fourth in a series of posts about Dick and Carey’s The Systematic Design of Instruction. Want to read an overview and my thoughts on Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 before proceeding?] Chapter 3 starts out […]
Research ethics FAIL: UH Foundation
I applied for and was awarded a grant for $645 in April 2008, and I have yet to receive the funds. Beyond the money, however, I am upset about the complete ethical FAIL on the part of the foundation that awarded the grant. This grant is from the ‘Oihana Maika’i Fund, which is administered by […]
More tools for displaying data
I’ve been on a chart-making kick lately, somewhat like Lisa Simpson – it’s good geeky fun to make graphs using Web 2.0 tools! I found out about Rich Chart Live from Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day. The chart I made (using invented data) is above. Reload the page if you didn’t see the animation […]
CALICO 2009: Fun, informative, and productive
The past three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), I was attending the Computer Assisted Language Consortium (CALICO) conference in Tempe, Arizona. It’s the first time that I’ve attended CALICO, although I’ve been interested in it for a while. It’s also the largest conference that I’ve ever presented at or attended – there were about 350 […]
Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary
Happy new year! Something I want to do this year is post here more regularly, especially to share the interesting educational tools I find. So, here’s the first one, although I may be a bit late to the party on it: Visuwords™ is an online (English-only) dictionary that graphically displays the relationships between words. The […]