I don’t  need too many reasons to smile, because I am grateful for just being alive and healthy. I guess wisdom comes with maturity. However, yesterday I had four additional reasons to smile online. Online conferences are a great way to celebrate earth day everyday and give me additional reasons to smile.

April 22, 2012 was a very special day for me for four reasons. One, it was Earth Day. Two, I was on a live online panel discussion with my colleagues from EVO 2012 (see list below) and the Webheads in Action at the Virtual Round Table Web Conference for 2012. The conference was led by Heike Philp. Three, Heike screenshared a live classs given by Halima Ozimova on WizIQ.  The class was called Olympic London Visitors Enjoying Treasures of the National Gallery. You will find the recording of the class on at the Virtual Round Table web conference.

Reason One: Earth Day Panel

Moderated by Vance Stevens

Panelists

• Teresa D’Eca
• Scott Lockman
• Robert Squires
• Mary Hillis
• Vance Stevens
• Heike Philp
• Nellie Deutsch
• Carla Arena
• Peggy George

Reason Two: Electronic Village Online (EVO)

EVO stands for Electronic Village Online and is the pre-conference of the TESOL convention. It takes place in January/ February each year. It consists of a series of 5-week workshops and has been conducted 11 times already. Some 2000 language educators take part in EVO sesssions and this year some 14 EVO sessions took place. Language teachers can learn for free about Becoming a Webhead, Drama, Digital Storytelling, Digital Tools, PLNs and PLEs, Gamification, Multiliteracies, Video production in SL, Mentoring, Moodle for Teachers, Podcasting, Social Networking and Social Media. EVO is part of TESOL’s Computer Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS). I presented at the EVO 2012 TESOL CALL-IS in Philadelphia on Moodle for Teachers (M4T), WizIQ, and on the International Writing Exchange (IWE). I was also in for a surprise. I was elected for the steering committee for two years for TESOL CALL-IS. I’m looking forward to presenting at the TESOL International Convention in Dallas in March, 2013. You are also invited to learn how to review proposals and present in Dallas. Presenting face-to-face offers you a chance to meet people you have been connecting with online. I met many web heads in action and EVO 2012 participants at the CALL-IS section in Philadelphia.

EARTH DAY is an annual event which is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. It was founded by Denis Hayes in 1970 and is an event to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s natural environment. Since the VRT is an eco-friendly web conference, we are delighted that Vance Stevens offered to perhaps include the webcast into the global activities of the Earth Day Community.

Watch the video recording of the live online event:

Reason Three: Halima Ozimova on WizIQ at the Virtual Round Table (VRT)

Halima Ozimova gave a demo lesson on VRT. Heike Philip screenshared WizIQ on Olympic London participants enjoying treasures of the National Gallery

UzTEA members share their ideas and findings of interactive debate per SKYPE on one of short stories of Doris Lessing, the Nobel Prize Winner in Literature of the year 2007.
They are emeritus lectures at their universities now, being as a consultant and a virtual member of the English chair, they create/conduct/promote virtual classes at Indian educational platform @WizIQ. They plan to repeat their class on Doris Lessing, which was misconduct due a bad connection on the time of previous delivering. http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/828500-olympic-london-visitors-enjoying-treasures-of-the-national-g

Reason Four: Make Money Teaching Online, Now

The fourth thrill of the day was a new experience that I would like to share. After giving free private and public classes on WizIQ for 5 years, I decided to give my first paid online public class.  The class was called Make Money Teaching Online Now. I decided to charge $10 for the class to make the point that if teachers want to make money teaching online, they need to pay for a class. I believe that if a teacher is willing to pay, he or she would also be willing to charge students for teaching online classes. The participants of the class will now receive a 4-week workshop on how to start their online teaching business for free or in this case $10 since that’s what they paid for the live online class. Others who wish to join the workshop will be charged $40.

Here are some of the comments I got in the  feedback:
“Thank you very much Nellie! YOU are a true professional by sharing to help others, your integrity, your knowledge, your experience, your manner, and your ability to inspire others!” and “Very encouraging & focused. I’m curious future classes” (see the class on WizIQ for further information).

Teaching online will put a smile on your face, too. Giving an online virtual class is very rewarding. I have been presenting in an online virtual class for over a decade. The energy is very powerful in the live online class because we are able to connect with people from around the globe. Both presenter and attendees benefit from sharing an online learning environment.

Give the live online class a try and share your experiences with me. I will be writing a paper and presenting on what it means to teach and present in an online virtual class at the EDMedia in Denver in June 2012.

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Being the oldest child in a house filled with 5 kids is complicated. While it has its advantages, it also has some major disadvantages. I had to wait until I was 15 in order to stay up until nine at night. My 9-year-old brother has a bedtime of ten. I wasn’t allowed on Facebook until I was 16.  My brothers got to join when they were 14. I didn’t have a cell phone until I was 16 either. And to top that off, it was a Tracfone. The same younger brother I mentioned earlier? He has a Droid Incredible. Now at 19 years old, I finally have an iPhone 4. But I’m not complaining, the majority of college students have the same phone.

My discovery of SIRI

Actually, most college kids probably have an iPhone 4S by this time. Back before I got my new phone, I had almost convinced myself to wait until Apple released their new phone. When the 4S model was released, I was glad I didn’t. That is, until I saw Siri. According to Apple’s website, this software “lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more…Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back.” Everything about the software seems incredibly convenient.

Unfortunately, it still wouldn’t be helpful when I’m trying to secretly text in class…

My university is trying to keep up with technology. Most classrooms have smart boards, projectors, and anything else that you might find in a modern day college setting. We even use these hand-held devices called ResponseCards to participate in class discussion and quizzes. Since most people now have a smart phone, I’m left to wonder, why don’t more schools just create a universal app that can be used for everything that a ResponseCard does and more? Why doesn’t Siri have this capability? A classroom enveloped with the use of voice recognition technology sounds perfect.

Just Imagine…

You’re taking a course and at the moment, your professor is lecturing on a certain subject. During his lecture, he asks a question and pauses for you to answer it. At this point, everyone takes out his or her phones. On the screen will be the question that the professor just asked and then all you have to do is speak into your phone to answer the question. This allows everyone to participate, even the shy students. Because of this, it would let the professor to see who is truly grasping the material and who still needs work.  Sure, we can do this with our interactive response systems and some professors are even using things like Twitter or polls in virtual classrooms like WizIQ, but when we can just use the phones we all carry and just naturally speak answers to the questions that our phones recognize from a lecture, we’ll lose what feels so contrived about questions embedded in PowerPoints.

WHAT???  The software is trained gradually like a child!!

As voice recognition technology (VRT) advances, it will obviously become more widespread. It has far outgrown just the “discrete” speech style it used to be. “The older technology…operates by requiring that the user speak one – word – at – a – time.”

VRT continues to become more intelligent as you “train” it. Much like a young child, “the software ‘learns’ when you correct its mistakes.” Now going back to our university example, imagine if there were an app that all universities used specifically just for the sake of education: its technology would end up being one of the smartest around. Voice recognition can be used anywhere, not just in a higher education setting. In fact, there is new software called “Watch Me! Read.” The software listens to a kid using voice recognition, all the while giving help with pronunciation and comprehension.

It probably won’t be Siri that ends up being the voice recognition software of choice for education. All smart phones do have the ability to recognize voices, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if competing apps started to be released. Whether young or old, whether in a formal classroom or learning online, voice recognition on phones and just voice recognition in general will be a key part of the future of learning. Siri has set the bar so high for ease of use and natural language processing, especially on devices where lots of typing doesn’t make sense, that it’s only a matter of time.

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