úterý 31. března 2015

The Internet and The truth

To believe or not to believe, that is the question!

In each task, write your ideas and opinions into the comments to this blog entry.

1. Which of these articles you consider to be true? WHY?

In Czech:
Peroutka
Oteplování

Svědectví ruského trolla
Guardian
Weby
EU
Mediálni fikce
RussiaToday

In English: (Erasmus students: focus on these two problems, find EQUAL number of other articles supporting both views/opinions. Which of them is easier to find? Why?)

Putin and Crimea
Sputnik
Admittance
Denial

Vaccine
Babycenter
Autism
How do vaccines cause autism?

___________________________________

2. Who of the users discussing in this forum seem to be credible?
Why? (In Czech only)
Ukázka diskuse

___________________________________

3. Internet Knowledge and Rules
Netiquette
Propaganda Techniques

Which of the propaganda techniques usually influence you?
How can you defend yourself?
How can you help your friends, parents... against propaganda?
How are the propaganda techniques related to the profession of a teacher?

úterý 24. března 2015

Excel for students

1. Basic statistical analysis is something every university student and every shool teacher should master. Let's work with a typical situation first, to organise our data, and then we will see what they tell us.

TASK 1
Download the file Excel_start.doc from http://prekladani.capsa.cz/.
The tasks are described in the file.


2. Co to je směrodatná odchylka?
Přečtěte si krátký článek a vypočtěte směrodatnou odchylku vybrané skupiny dat (např. známky jednoho studenta, známky z jednoho testu).

3. To be able to analyse data, first we have to get them. 

HOMEWORK
Go to http://oursurvey.biz/, login.
Choose a topic you are interested in; your research field is learning and teaching languages.
Prepare 3-5 survey questions and put them online using survey.biz.
Publish the link in your website - and in the comment to this blog.
Go to each other's sites and answer the questions. Prepare statistical survey for the next lesson.

Example of a link:
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-8581
Example of exported results in capsa - ResearchResults.docx.
Example of survey in capsa - ResearchReport_2013_10_06.docx

Tips for making a valid questionnaire:
- think first; imagine what your respondents could answer
- be clear
- ask about one issue only in a single question

- avoid open-ended (txt) questions - prefer multiple choice
- be consistent - focus on a single topic or problem
- avoid spelling mistakes
- avoid ambiguous questions


Students' Questionnaires:
Sůva Michal
http://login.oursurvey.biz/questionnaire-10560

Ondřej Kurz
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10538

Bláhová Zuzana
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10552

Robert Sluka
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10557

Lucie Salačová
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10553

Veronika Gunárová
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10555

Richard Záhrobský
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10559

Pospíšilová
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10558

Karolína Birnerová
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10554 

Krausová Zuzana
http://login.oursurvey.biz/questionnaire-10550

Philip Rudorfer
http://login.oursurvey.biz/dotaznik-10534

Josefína Juhasová
http://login.oursurvey.biz/questionnaire-10556

pondělí 9. března 2015

Audio

Audio material is regularly used when teachng speaking and listening in foreign languages. Therefore the teachers and the students should be able to edit and modify audio as well as texts.
Probably the bet freeware available for editing sound is called AUDACITY.




Audacity Basics - you should be able to
- install Audacity and the lame library which enables export to mp3
- open a file in Audacity
- edit the file: cut and paste, fade in/out, change speed, delete, add silence
- create a new file
- combine two files (e.g. speech + background music)
- inserting silence (e.g. as a space for an answer)
- changing the speed or pitch (carefully!)


TASK 1
1. Listen to the story of a toddler falling into a gorilla cage at Youtube (also covered HERE).
Download two files from CapsaWTF_ Toddler Falls in Gorilla Cage.mp3 and Gorilla sounds.mp3. Combine them, in order to make a thrilling report on the event, max 70 seconds long.
If you feel like it, find more sounds (e.g. crowd cheering, Zoo animals sounds etc.).
Upload the story with an appropriate illustration to your web.

You can use Free YouTube to MP3 Converter to get audio from youtube easily.


TASK 2
2. What does the word "podcast" mean? Go to Podomatic, create an account and browse the site. How can we use it in teaching English?

Good examples - Teacher Luke at PodomaticSplendid Speaking for advances learners


HOMEWORK
1. Record comments to the 12 images in your gallery (1 minute max., save in wav file)
2. Edit the recording in Audacity, add background music, cut out noises etc.
3. Export the wav to mp3
4. Upload the mp3 to your website

REMEMBER - before editing, create a backup copy of the original!

Examples of galleries with audio comments created by your colleagues:

http://www.dzblecht.wz.cz/My%20home%20town.html
http://skipit.wz.cz/galerie.html
http://vvalova.wz.cz/gallery.html
http://romankalecky.wz.cz/gallery.html
http://www.springday.euweb.cz/fotogalerie.html
http://personalpage.unas.cz/Personalgallery.html

úterý 3. března 2015

Images and photography

It is easier and more satisfactory to use one's own images and photos instead of steling them from the web and risking troubles.

A teacher should be able to:
- draw a picture, scan, save and publish
- make a good photo which he/she can use in teaching, edit and save


The difference between good and bad photos is obvious to anyone! And it is not so difficult to follow several basic rules to make your photos better.


"Kreativní fotografie si neklade za cíl zobrazit realitu (takové to tam Mařenko bylo) ale zobrazit 
něco víc. Zobrazit emoce (pocity, nálady ...), které autor na místě cítil a chce vám předat.
Když se díváte na fotografie z vaší dovolené obvykle si vybavíte pocity, jaké to tam bylo (jé podívej - tady jsme byli ...). Díváte-li se ale na fotografie z cizí dovolené, vidíte jenom obyčejné pláže, hrady, zámky atp. Prostě emoce spojené s místem a zážitkem vám chybí a proto vám často tyto fotografie připadají obyčejné. Dobrá fotografie vám dokáže předat pocity a zážitky i z míst, kde jste nebyli. A o tom to je...
Když stojíte v lese, vidíte široko okolo sebe, vnímáte vítr, šumění lesa, vůni jehličí a do zad vás pálí slunce. Toto vše na fotografii však chybí. Je tam jen obrazový výsek a to ještě ve 2 rozměrech (3 rozměr prostoru / perspektivy chybí). A proto je to tak těžké. A proto je pokoušet se o to taky tak krásné!"




TASK 1
Look at the following photos. Do you like them? Why?

What shall we know?
1. How to compose a photography
Practical composition (in Czech) 

Do not forget:
concentrate on a single idea, object, feeling
get closer, fill almost the whole field with the target object/situation


TASK 2
Look around, go to the corridor if you want. Try to compose a photo which will show the atmosphere at school.

_________________________________________________________________

What shall we know?
2. How to save an image
raw - full data
jpg - compressed (lossy)
tiff - for print, usually lossless; can handle CMYK
bmp - full data (bitmap)
gif - small (and animated); saves only used colours; 8bit
png - lossless, successor of gif, 8-24-48 bit

For web, an image with the longer side of 1600px is big enough, Let's say the size limit is cca 50KB - to save space.
When reducing the size, always keep the original untouched! Save the small version as a new file, say, IMG2345_Small.jpg. 
JPEGS reduce the size exponetially, so if you reduce the original at 80%, the amount of data may be reduced form 12MB to 1,5 MB. 


More in Wiki (in Czech)
and Wiki (in English)

_________________________________________________________________

TASK 3
Choose an object within the class and make a picture which shows only the object - as if you needed an illustration of the word.

What shall we know?
3. How to make a photo of an isolated object
check the background
fill amost the whole image with the object
search for light
use simple aids, such as lamps, scarfs, sheets of paper
experiment 
Product Photography at digineff

_________________________________________________________________

... want to know more? (In Czech) 


HOMEWORK:
1. Choose the best photo expressing the school atmosphere you made, and insert it into your Homepage (index.html) and publish online.