E-learning Options and Tools

I am trying to see how to implement podcasting as a feature in blogger accounts. I don't think the feature exists. I would need to find out if it does and how to work it out. For beginners, podcasting means broadcasting of podcasts or audio/video files over the internet. Podcasting has been there for quite a while and it still has a pretty good future. However, merely transforming blog posts into podcasts is not a very intelligent idea at all. On the other hand, if e-learning modules on blog posts are supplemented by podcasts, it could enhance the reach of e-learning modules in a major way. If this cannot be done at blogger, I would keep my blogs here but post a remote link to the audio files that I record on my PC and host those audio files elsewhere. I love blogger services a lot. Blogger has a blog which gives updates about new features. I'll look it up and see what's up there.

Module 1.2: Building Vocabulary

We are now going to look at Vir Sanghvi's article on Ratan Tata and pick out words that might seem difficult. The link is here: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=44874d07-afdb-41bd-84a5-5ac7451dc7fe

So, here we go--

1. Admired: Past tense of 'admire'. 'Admire' means to like someone. Admire is a verb. It can be used as a synonym of 'like' but sometimes admiration can be more than mere liking.

Usage
(i) I admire you; (ii) Barack Obama is admired the world over

2. Unveiling: To remove the veil or to uncover something, or to unravel something, to bring something to light. Veil is to hide beneath or behind a veil. Veil is also known as purdah. 'Un' is a prefix. A prefix is something that is added in front of a word.

3. Satrap: Small king, small chieftain. I don't this word is Indian English. It was, however, used heavily to describe the rule of various kingdoms in Indian history.

4. Springing up out of nowhere: 'Spring up' is a phrasal verb. A phrasal verb may be made by joining a preposition and a verb in a compound word. Here, 'springing up' means mushrooming, taking birth. Using phrasal verbs makes your language look versatile, enjoyable and rich. It is a good tool to impress people in a short period of time.

5. Crises: This is the plural of 'crisis'. I have seen that many people flounder here.

6. Diminish: Diminish means to reduce. Diminish is a verb.

Usage:
(i) In economics, the theory of diminishing returns is quite popular.

7. Derided: Criticized, condemned.

8. Scuttled: To spoil something, to stop something from happening.

9. Feted: To fete means to compliment.

10. Lick politicians' boots: The actual phrase is 'lick boots' or 'to lick boots'. Here, the boots are not physically licked. To lick boots means sycophancy of the last degree.

Module 1.1: Sanghvi's Article Continued

In the article, Sanghvi continues further. In the next paragraph, he says, "It was a time of change. New groups were springing up out of nowhere". He continues further in the fourth paragraph of the article:

At Tata headquarters, however, the crises mounted: record losses at Tata Motors, the much-derided plan to launch the Indica, criminal charges over Tata Tea’s alleged links with Assam militants, allegations of foolishness in the sale of Tata Oil Mills’ assets, a plan to launch a domestic airline with Singapore Airlines that was comprehensively scuttled and more. And many of us wondered if we were watching India’s greatest industrial group diminish before our very eyes.

The way he builds up the tempo, to use a term from chess, in the beginning of the article, in the first four paragraphs, makes it very clear that he is trying to show that when Ratan Tata came on to the scene, the Tata group seemed to be in doldrums and that Ratan Tata was the person who not only rescued it, but also transformed it into a giant. I do not disagree with Sanghvi but I'm trying to dissect his writing strategies. If you use similar writing strategies, you can also achieve similar effects.

This is one strategy of building up the tempo slowly as you go ahead in your article. It is an interesting writing strategy because it keeps the reader hooked on to the article till the end. So, I have had situations in my classes, where my students have disagreed with the contents of a couple of Vir Sanghvi articles but they have never faulted him for his writing style. I am sure this is something that beginners can inculcate.

In my next post, which would be a kind of follow-up and final post on this article, I would refer to various tough to understand and less commonly used words in the article and focus on their usage.

Module 1: Vir Sanghvi's Article on Ratan Tata

For those of you who haven't heard the names of Vir Sanghvi and Ratan Tata, they might seem like foreign names to you. Vir Sanghvi has been India's most prominent journalist and Ratan Tata has been a great capitalist. You will find below extracts from an article (a profile) that Vir Sanghvi wrote on Ratan Tata. This was published in a leading national English newspaper called Hindustan Times and this article was published on January 12, 2008, in both the print edition as well the web edition of the newspaper. This text is fully under the public domain.

The online link to the article is here: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=44874d07-afdb-41bd-84a5-5ac7451dc7fe

This is an excellent article in terms of its language and the use of rhetorical devices. Look at the title and the first two paragraphs. See the way the article starts:

Ratan Tata: Then And Now

Nobody disputes that, during his lifetime, JRD Tata was the most respected — and probably the most admired — businessman in India. On Thursday, as I watched the TV coverage of Ratan Tata unveiling the Tata Nano in New Delhi, I was struck by a sudden thought: Ratan has finally inherited JRD’s title. He is clearly the most respected and admired businessman in India today.


And then, I thought back to that phase, 10 years ago, when the Tatas struggled to reinvent themselves in the post-JRD era. I thought of how Ratan was perceived then: awkward, untalented, unworthy of the job, out of his depth and full of vindictive anger against many of the satraps of the JRD regime.

The title itself reveals the positive and the eulogistic nature of the article. This article was written in the context of the unveiling of the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, in New Delhi. In the third sentence of the first paragraph, Sanghvi states that Ratan Tata is India's most admired businessman. In the second paragraph, he charts Tata's growth. Sanghvi also uses an informal style of language. Please note that he calls Ratan Tata as 'Ratan' and not as Tata, which is the formal mode of address in English. To bring out the great achievement of Tata, Sanghvi juxtaposes the adjectives 'awkward', 'untalented' and 'unworthy' with the phrase 'the most admired businessman'. This is a strategy that successful writers would use to emphasize the impact of something.

I would continue discussing this article in my next post. Hope you enjoyed reading the article and hope you liked this e-learning module.

Series on E-learning

Keeping in mind my commitment to e-learning as also the fact that I would like to spread education and knowledge in myriad ways, I have thought of a new series of posts that I am going to run on my blog. I hope all of you shall like it. These posts are going to be instructional in nature and I plan to take full or partial articles from various sources, keeping in mind the copyrights, and analyze them for their language, the rhetorical devises used, usage of different styles of English and the way in which these articles are able to demonstrate language with a flourish.

Various Modes of Education: Some Thoughts

There are various modes of education which are prevalent in a system, such as formal education, distance education, e-learning and homeschooling. Homeschooling could also include distance education and e-learning. The university where I work has yet another system, which is akin to the non-collegiate setting in many universities. They have some called a private student, which is a facility extended to girl students. So, these girls are not requited to take admission through the entrance test or face interviews during the time of admission, however, they are allowed to pay the examination fees when the forms are accepted for examinations and they are allowed to take the final examinations. Private students are allowed in all courses except professional courses, such as Bachelors in Education [B.Ed.], Masters in Business Administration [M.B.A.] etc. They get the same mark sheets and the certificates which are issued to other regular students. The only difference is that their certificate has 'private student' written somewhere, which doesn't make any difference in their seeking further education from the regular stream in any part of the country or in their seeking employment. This system is akin to homeschooling at the college/university level but it isn't known by that nomenclature.

E-learning made its mark in recent times after the advent of the information superhighway and the technological revolution. Access to internet and email made it easier for people staying in remote locations to seek higher education or get trained by studying specific modules. It is a cost-effective option as well for people who cannot get visas or cannot afford to study in certain 'first world' universities in the West.

I would like to discuss more about these issues later as well. I think these are very important issues and one should ruminate on them.

Pros and Cons of Homeschooling

I was participating in an online network, where a professional colleague posted a question about the pros and the cons of homeschooling. There were a number of answers, some of which decried the concept, while some praised it.

My reply was somewhat different-->

I have never been home schooled myself. I went to a school and I went to regular college and university. I did not even take distance courses. However, I would like to give a couple of examples.

The first time, I ever knew of anyone who was home schooled was when I wen to the home of a major Gujarati poet. [Gujarati is one of the many Indian languages.] This person had two sons and he had not sent them to a formal school and both his sons were quite intelligent and were very well-versed in music and the fine arts. When I spoke about this person to another senior person, he kind-of brushed it off saying it was crazy. This was eleven years ago and in India, where we tend to be conservative, this was quite revolutionary and I believe, successful.

The second example isn't exactly a home schooling one but we had a student who studied in a school, which was known to have a number of issues, including horrible teaching standards and rowdy students. The University where I teach has a unique system, it has a nursery school and then it has a school that teaches students till the secondary level and then they get into the college. So, in the last thirteen years of my teaching there, I have never seen any student who passed out from the school on the campus and was academically brilliant. This girl was academically brilliant. I even asked her and she told me that it was because her mother spent a lot of time on her.

So, even if people say the formal system has benefits, it is clear that children need support at home more than anything else. I don't exactly support the socialization theory because the kid can always learn that from parents and the neighborhood.

English for Academic Purposes: Full Time Position in Japan

[Note: I wasn't contacted directly by the employer. I have placed the job ad here for the benefit of the larger audience and this was posted at a mailing list of which I am a member. I am not responsible for any fraud, however, I have reason to believe that the job post is genuine because it comes from a very reputed organization's mailing list.]

The deadline for applications is January 5, 2009

English for Academic Purposes: Full-time Position

The English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Program at AIU is searching for qualified instructors who are prepared to teach courses in the following areas of our Intensive English for Academic Purposes Program (all skills), Composition I (introduction to post-EAP academic writing), Composition II (research writing), and a post-EAP cross-disciplinary academic reading course. We are looking for applicants who can teach a wide range of courses in the EAP Program, but especially value experience in the teaching of reading and writing from beginning level to advanced composition.

Please submit the following: a letter which outlines your philosophy of education as it applies to language teaching (not longer than 500 words), a résumé, copy of all graduate transcripts, copies of two publications (if available), and telephone and e-mail contact information for references. Application documents should be addressed to:

Committee of EAP Faculty Selection
c/o Division of Academic Affairs
Akita International University
193-2 Okutsubakidai, Yuwa-Tsubakigawa, AKITA, 010-1211 JAPAN
TEL: +81-(0)18-886-5938
E-mail: positionaiu0809@aiu.ac.jp

Please also note the following:

1. The deadline for complete applications is January 5th, 2009.
2. After screening, selected applicants will be invited to interview (including teaching demonstration) at AIU during the second half of January. Traveling expenses will be paid.
3. We are considering applicants for all academic ranks, from lecturer to professor, depending on qualifications.
4. The salary will be commensurate with experience and academic background.
5. The appointment will start on April 1, 2009 with a renewable 3-year contract.
6. Generous benefits are also included as part of the remuneration, including partial housing allowance, health insurance, and a research fund allowance.

NOTES: International Candidates Will Be Considered. Employer will assist with relocation costs

Requirements Minimum requirements include a Master's Degree in Second Language Acquisition, TESL/TEFL, or a closely related field, and university-level language teaching experience. Preference will be given to those with experience at the post-secondary level with Japanese students in Japan, who have a Ph.D. or ABD. We would also value those with experience in language testing.

Employer Information

About Akita International University

Akita International University (AIU) is a Public University Corporation in Japan whose courses are conducted entirely in English.

Job Opportunities at the National University of Singapore

I have long admired the website of the National University of Singapore among university websites the world over. I have often admired their website for it's look and feel as well as it's ease of access for students. I just saw that the Department of English Language and Literature has advertised for teaching positions. You can find it under the link Job Opportunities on the Department home page at http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ell/.

Watch Your Language

I discovered a very interesting resource at the Cornell University website. This is called Cyber Tower and is accessible from http://sandstone5.cit.cornell.edu/lobby/. It features videos by academics on a number of subjects. The latest lecture, which is a series of videos, was added this month and is called "Watch Your Language: Improving Communication with Non-Native Speakers" and deals with how 'native' speakers of English should relate to 'non-native' speakers of the language. This lecture has been presented by Stephanie Hanson who works at the International Teaching Assistant Development Program at the Cornell University.

I was unable to play the videos even though I have a broadband connection and I even tried to stream the audio through Quicktime as it is offered on the site. So, that was a bit of a dampener but I was able to go to the various sections of the lecture, which has been split into sections such as Speaking Strategies, Vocabulary, Listening Tips, English Difficulties and Culture.

The references are good and following them up, I was able to glean a couple of interesting tips. The first was an article published in The Newsweek and the second was an article published in The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ article was quite interesting because it spoke about a company which trains people in English communications for corporates and they received a strange request where one of their clients wanted to train employees in sarcasm.