We love to share posts, photos, links, documents, and much more. But we also love to write about them, right? But we often forget to pour our hearts into them. Doing things with love is a different treat. But to add love to it, we need to share things worth loving. So let's understand how to write a detailed social media post, especially when we need to sharpen our language and increase confidence through writing.
1. Never write in a hurry
Writing with a hurried flow will reflect the subjective emotions of your post. Better be late than misunderstood.
2. Spare a separate time
Take out some special time for writing. It can be in a recess during work, quiet in the office, early in the morning, or a few hours before sleep.
3. Read before you write
Humans are linguistically conditioned. To share something fruitful, we must eat something fruitful. Take a vocabulary tour for better outputs.
4. Give cake and never expect a piece
Tag important people with whom you were during the activity or event. Also, credit their contributions by writing a few words about their efforts. This would definitely create a good rapport. But do not always expect their reactions in comments or in likes.
Language learning has become easy after the invention of mobile phones, email services, SMS services and internet service. When it comes to English language, technology has helped a lot in terms of language learning. The means of communication have now dramatically changed. Many educators, theorists and linguists have advocated the technology as a good tool for language learning. David Crystal is one of them. He has emphasized on English language learning through technology.
David Crystal
In this blog task, three videos of David Crystal are embedded and a brief writeup about the three videos are written. Lets know what he has said about language learning and teaching. Click here to be redirected on blog of Dr. Dilip Barad from which this task is taken as question.
Video 1. David Crystal - The Effect of New Technologies on English
The introduction of technology at first place is thought as a disaster and also thought as it can harm the human communication. Crystal gives the example of the invention of telephone, television and broadcasting media, commentaries on sports. . . And consistently he argues that all these mediums are much helpful in language learning, especially English language.
Internet, WWW came in 1990s and 1991. All this has increased our learning abilities and knowability. Facebook. Twitter, YouTube, Blogger and many such Web 2.0 tools have developed a new style of English language learning.
Crystal quotes here that : Notice that the technologies influence the language in quite specific ways. The most obvious example are Short Messaging Services (SMS), and tweeting.
Crystal generalizes the point by making an argument about Tweeter that is given 140 characters and we have to write something to the web, in public tweets. He says: Every internet domain you're dealing with influences the way in which you use language, sometimes in quite specific ways. But it isn't yet possible to predict the future.
Video 2. David Crystal - The Biggest Challenges for Teachers
This is the second part of Crystal's interview. In this video Crystal talks about the challenges for teachers. He says,
The biggest challenge is without a doubt to keep a pace with language change.
Language is changing so fast and it has two reasons, 1. The internet.
Teachers are less familiar with the current generation and the new words introduced on web almost daily, so its difficult to keep pace. 2. Globalization of English. Accents and dialects of English language is different from country to country. Indian English, American, British English and so on.
Listening to different English accents tunes the ears and makes us adaptive to that accent. According to Crystal, translation and language teaching are the two most difficult jobs in the world. He also gives good fact that three quarters of the world's population is bilingual.
Teachers' salary scale also should be increased. With the use of technology, this language and accent barrier can be removed.
Video 3. David Crystal on Texting (S1E2 of It's Only a Theory)
The third video is about a show titled "It's Only a Theory". It seems that the show is designed to interact with various theorists so that the difficult theories and complex ideas can be shared with people in simple and humorous ways. Panel of three questions some points of David Crystals and he answers satisfactorily.
Key Points from video : Texting can be helpful in English language learning. Crystal's theory is texting is good for the English language. Four myths about texting are debunked by Crystal that 1. Texting is done by kids only, 2. Kids fill their text messages entirely with abbreviations, 3. The abbreviation used in text messages are invented by kids, and abbreviation is a modern thing 4. Letters are being outdated, kids don't know how to spell. 5. Because they don't know how to spell, kids are putting those abbreviations in their essays at school.
Crystal says in the show that: Everybody would agree that literacy is important, learning to read and write. And everybody I think agrees that the best way of learning to read and write is to get practice in it. The more you read the more you write better. Along comes a phenomenon, a technology which gives you stunning opportunities to practice reading and writing.
On showing the example of abbreviated message on screen, Crystal admits that there are downsides of texting also. He agrees that texting can become an addiction and it has been recognized also.
When Andy, the host of the show raises the question that texting has made people less punctual in terms of following time schedule, Crystal also finds a gap here and he agrees that the question is worth noticing. But it doesn't affect the language learning part.
This post is about sharing the learning environment and gadgets used for remote learning at home. Especially this helps when one sets off to develop the technical ethics to use several ICT tools and gets well-versed in instructional designs of ICT tools.
I've mentioned the list below with prices.
ICT Tools and gadgets which are currently in use for learning in the online mode.
1. Redmi 9 Prime Android Phone – 10000₹
2. Desktop computer – 29,000₹ (in the year 2010)
3. Broadband Internet Connection - 5500₹/Year
4. Fingers Webcam 1900₹
With 1080p Full HD Video Quality. 4K not supported.
5. TKR 2.1 Sound System (can't recall the price)
6. Normal tube light with regular ballast 250₹ - 500₹ (full set with sockets)
The light-stick is gas-based, and fluorescent with electronic ballast.
- there are many new lights specifically used for video making and vlogging. It can be placed right in front of the face. It gives much brightness while recording. An Amazon product link is given here.
9. Aluminum expandable tripod for digital camera 600₹
10. Boat Bassheads over-ear headphones. 1450₹
There are three types of headphones/earphones
1. In-ear
2. on-ear and
3. over-ear headphones.
The sole purpose of preparing the above list is to let the learners know how many things I use to learn in a digital environment. It is not so that these things are hard and fast necessary or must-have to study online. But there are always chances to improve the learning experience, and by using more facilitating tools one can learn how to enhance the quality of learning and also the quality of teaching, if one wants to be future-ready for better educational environments.
Today, there are still many educational institutions that lack such infrastructural augmentation and they struggle a lot to remain a better institution. I would say that an enthusiastic teacher who knows all the ICT tools should be given ample space to perform in the given position and teachers should be allowed to practice it in the classroom. Then only it will be possible to get students involved.
Sharing the sitting position and setup with photographs.
Desktop, table, and chair
Gas-based stick light with electronic ballast
Aluminum Tripod
Headphones
Fingers Webcam
Using Tripod for Mobile Camera
A Click during Virtual ICT Workshop 2020
* Well let's have a quick description of how all the above things are used.
The desktop screen and window are facing one another because both are on opposite walls. So whenever I sit to attend classes, I use the chroma key to stop background lighting from the window and then I turn on the tube light for the face light. (though I still need better lighting for more brightness, as in current lighting, my eye sockets look horribly dark). I have clipped the chroma key to a plastic string.
It is important to keep the webcam on because it develops a habit of facing the camera. It also helps the teacher at the other end to be more expressive and lively. Otherwise, the teaching may become monotonous.
I try to keep my webcam on all the time. If the background light penetrates through the chroma key then I expand the window curtains. To stop extra noise I keep the door shut. I use headphones and microphones for speaking. The webcam also has a mic but it captures much detailed sharp background voices so it creates disturbance while speaking. 2.1 sound speakers are used for the teacher's voice output. A tripod is used for recording videos and for attending online lectures from the mobile phone in case of an electricity cut.
Indeed, one needs a room of one's own or to have some dedicated space to perform all such things. Especially while doing my M.A. in the English Department of MKBU. However, it's not much easy to learn and implement these things initially but, learning from trial and error helps in arranging the peripherals and gadgets.
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"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
Embedding video and audio files are necessary for better user-friendly experience, when you are using your own website or running your blog pages. It was only in 2008 when HTML5, an advanced version of HTML was introduced. After that many enthusiast developers made it easy to use. Though many machine languages such as Java, CSS, Python are coming with more simple interface. Publishing and uploading content on web is based on such machine languages.
I wanted to embed the audio file in blogger since long and finally I could make this happen. Here is the embedded song for demo. Play the audio file below. Download it if you like.
This way you can also embed your own voice as audio file. If you are interested in podcasting and recording your talks and lectures then this is the best method. It can be helpful in teaching also. Let's see the process step by step.
Steps 1: Copy the following code to your blogger page. Remember, paste this code only in the HTML editor, not in composing mode.
The highlighted text will be the ID of the audio file. This can be found in the link you've copied from Google Drive.
Step 2: Upload the audio file to the Google Drive. You will find the file uploaded like this. . .
Step 3: Right click on the file and click on share.
Step 4: You will see a sub window opened for sharing permissions. Click on Get Link Copy only this portion of the link. As mentioned in the image below. Only the highlighted part is important to copy.
Step 5: Go to Blogger HTML page again. And paste it like it is shown below.
Please be careful while pasting the link because every element of the code is important.
<audio controls src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=open&id=paste the highlighted part here"> </audio>
Step 6: Publish your blog. You will see the embedded audio just the way the song you've listened. You'll also be able to download the audio.
Thank You!
These resources helped me a lot while learning this process.
Many of you might be uploading content online by blogging, making videos for YouTube and making podcasts. In order to make your content attractive and user-friendly, you may need some additional help like putting graphics or background music. There are many software and apps available online. In this post, five websites are here to help you! Royalty free and copyright free sounds and tracks will make your video livelier.
Here are some curated links which provide royalty free music.
Technology gives us numbers of opportunities to explore new things and techniques. It does not only makes us independent but also make us confident about using its features more effectively. Let's learn something new in this blog.
Many of you may have a question that how to make our blog link clickable while commenting. It's necessary when you want to reach out to more audience for your blog. Here's how you can embed blog links in the comment section. Let's follow some easy steps.
1. Go for the comment box below the blog post.
2. Here is one HTML code to type. You can also copy this entire code to the comment box.
<a href="paste-your-link-here">Blog Title</a>
3. If you want to give your blog's introduction to the author, you can also type a brief note above the code. If you're submitting your blog to your teacher then you can add some lines as following.
Respected sir here's my assignment/answer/blog/ regarding this thinking activity/task.
----- or -----
Respected sir. this is my answer attached with the link.
4. Make sure that you paste your link between the quotation marks. Give your link a small title such as click here or your blog title or anything short and sweet. Remember that you've to type your blog title only In the space given for it.
5. To check whether you've made the process correctly, click on preview button. You will see your blog title is now embedded and highlighted in different colour.
Watching videos, reading blurbs and introduction of books and throwing a general look on various online nuggets are contemporary practice of quick, instant learning. By practicing this daily, one can learn numerous things in a single day. In this fast growing 21st century, one will require to cop up with the pace of learning. This will increase one's confidence and positively enhance one's approach towards learning. Internet has played the pivotal role in changing the modes of learning. One can access big amount of data from anywhere, anytime.
In this blog, a video is embedded from YouTube and through the screenshots and bullet points, it is tried to explain people about burning process of CDs and DVDs. Let's learn something fast...
CD means - Compact Disc DVD means - Digital Versatile Disc OS - Operating System RW - Re-Writable
[- - - Important - - -]
Some DVDs are Re-Writable. It means that they can be formatted and reused in future. Some DVDs are Readable or Recordable only, those cannot be formatted once the data is inserted. It is advisable to purchase Re-Writable discs for better utilization of data.Click here to know more about DVD Recordable.
* Video about how
to burn CDs and DVDs on Windows 10 OS.
The Video is embedded form the YouTube channel Windows Know How. Click Here to visit the channel.
There are two ways to use CDs and DVDs. One is to just transfer data to disc like a pen drive. The other one is to play the discs on audio/video player as multimedia viewing purpose. Both can be used as per the user requirements.
* After inserting the disc in drive, click on "burn files to disc". This will open a child window asking how the user wants to use the disc. It is advisable to select "Like a USB flash drive", for easy removal and addition of data at convenience.
* Select one or multiple items from the source you want to copy the files. Drag and drop them to the disc window.
* Eject the disc and try to reopen the files on other computers. If you've added videos or audio files then try to play them on a regular audio/video player.
* If anything which is not understood, then watch the full video again.
At the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University, each student is given the blank DVD for burning their presentation videos, at the end of every semester. This video will be of good help for them. Like it is mentioned on the top of the blog that self learning is now necessary in today's era. It gives the experience of owning what we have learnt. This blog is a key takeaway to own your learning.
