The Year of Dog in "Google"

Just now, I found that the image of Google today also reflect the theme of "Chinese New Year." It's the year of dog. (I'm very sensitive to the little dog in this image.) What a wonderful creation! "Dog" is prounced as "gou" in Chinese, which is similar to the pronunciation of "Google." See, how cute the little dog is!The dog has a red card in his mouth with a Chinese word “福”（blessing or good fortune), which is a traditional symbol of Chinese New Year. Also, there are two splashes of firecrackers,which reminds me of the sound of firecrackers I heard today when I phoned my family!

I'd like to give my best wishes received from one friend to y'all:



"May your troubles be less, your blessings more, and nothing but happiness come through your door!"

Reflections on the presentation

Doing this week’s presentation is an eye-opener. It’s the first time for me to do the Internet research on the Internet. Most importantly, the topic is based on our own interests related to our own work experience or job goals. I really learn a lot of new knowledge and also update much that I took for grant that I knew before. I really feel that I am very ignorant about Internet use though I do “use” it every day. The following is my reflection on this presentation:

1. Online bookmarks
I have been using local bookmarks but it’s the first time that I know online bookmarks. It’s really convenient! I didn’t take my laptop back to China this winter. I was bothered that I didn’t remember many good Websites saved in my own laptop. Now, it’s never a problem.

2. Evaluating URLS
“Evaluating URLs” is not only a must for my future students but a critical skill I need in my research. Even I knew the format for identifying locations on the Web, I never expected that so much information could be gotten. We are always told or tell our students about the false information online. Still, I am stunned by the misinformation mentioned in Better Read That Again: Web Hoaxes and Misinformation. On one hand, we need to teach students to critically view online resource. On the other hand, students should learn to protect themselves while using the Internet. For instance, they should not release their personal information on the Internet.

3. A question about "domain"
In analyzing a URL(http://www.beth.k12.pa.us/schools/wwwclass/kgrammes/kgwebquest/kgwebquest.htm), I have a question (Maybe it’s really a very simple question. But I just don’t know the answer.) This is a page of Administrative Offices, Bethlehem Area School District, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Why its domain is not “edu.”? Does “pa.us” mean that it is affiliated with the state of Pennsylvania?

4. Searching Engines
I’m really amazed by so many useful searching engines! I always use Google just because I am told it’s a very powerful search engine. Actually, I know there are some others but seem to never think to have a try. If I want to search some in Chinese, I usually use “Baidu” (www.baidu.com), a widely used search engine in China. If it is not because of this course, I don’t think I would have such a chance to know and try these search tools. It’s a shame that I never think of exploring some and trying some new by myself. What’s more, “advanced search” is very useful. But I never noticed the advanced option on the right in small letters in “Google”!

5. Teaching Zack to Think (http://novemberlearning.com/default.aspx?tabid=159&type=art&site=19&parentid=18)
This is an informative article. The language is simple but powerful. The story is short but thought-provoking. I really love it. I make quotes of several sentences:
1)“Just as Zack can read people by their clothing, he can learn about a Web site by looking at its URL. But even though clothing tells us a lot, the company a person keeps tells us more. Learning how a Web page interacts within the network of all other Web sites is valuable information.”
This sagacious simile briefly but pointedly underscores the importance of reading “URL.”
2) "In the end Zack's high school arranged for an interview of a Jewish woman who lived in Europe during World War II. It is always a good idea to look beyond the Internet for sources of authentic information."
The Internet is a tool, which provides us tremendous information to facilitate our study and work and makes “impossible things” of old times become reality. But, the Internet is not real life. Don’t have ourselves hitched in the Web.

6. A point: Teaching Students to Think in the folder of Evaluating Internet-based information in Dr. Dawson’s online bookmarks seems to be a broken link.

I realize how ignorant I am as an Internet user. Meanwhile, I come to know how lucky to take this course. The more I know, the more I know I don’t know. That’s true. It’s really fascinating to do the presentation!

It's Chinese New Year

It’s Spring Festival, Chinese New Year today. Though I can't go back to China with my family, I'm still eager to share their happiness.

I called my parents, my husband and other relatives today to express my best wishes. Indeed, I tried MSN to see my parents and Liuliu. The Internet speed was not fast enough and the image was “dead” from time to time. It's impossible to watch the TV programs of China here. So, I was thinking of watching the New Year celebration online.I couldn't, either, because of slow net speed.Actually, making phone calls back to China was not an easy job,‘cause it’s really peak time today and the line is always busy.

Technology is good to make us hear and see each other. But it seems that we are never satisfied with present technology. We just hope it can be perfect, like I hope it’s no problem for me to view the image on MSN and make phone calls easily even at peak hours.

Anyway, being unsatisfactory may be not bad, which at least makes people want to achieve more.

Bloglines & Annotated Bibliography

I added all classmates' blogs in my blogroll and put them in a folder last Saturday. It's really amazing to get new posts so easily! ("My feeds" shows there are 11 new posts). I note that under the blogroll, the bloglines of Dr. Dawson and Educational Technology shows special logo "e." Obviously, the two ones are different from our logos. I wonder why and how it would be like that...

As for culminating assignment, it's really a good chance for us to make some research based on our own interests and needs. I'm considering of viewing some articles in Internet use in langauge teaching. But is there any minimum for the articles we need to include in annotated bibliography?

I wonder whey I can't link my title in Bloglines with this blog page. I guess my new post should appear there in Bloglines. But it seems that the two pages are seperate. The following is what I posted last night in Bloglines...I've asked this question in "the lounge."
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These days, I am busy with catching up with four courses' assignments I missed in the first week. What an exhausting week!:-(

The experience of blog, however, is very rewarding in this week. After I finish the "feeds," I come to realize how useful the blog is in our communication. We can read the updated postings and exchange our ideas every day without any hard efforts to search. Just find what you want and enjoy! Surely, I feel excited to think of introducing using blog in ESL students' writing. Absolutely, more experience on blog will help me explore the technological way in language teaching.

I am still thinking of blog at Beijing time 2:10pm on Jan.21, 2006.

Ha,ha... My husband who's having lunch now at the other end of the earth catches me on MSN. He orders me to get off line...
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There should be a problem with my "aggregator page." :-(

I'm homesick

This is Liuliu, my nephew. He's four months old. Now, my parents are with my brother's to take care of the boy. How I miss my family! It's a family reunion season,'cause Chinese new year is coming! How I wish I could be with my family!

My first experience of blog --- 博客

Hi! I’m Zhuo Li!


I just returned from China several days ago for winter vacation. Though I am not bothered by very obvious jet lag, I am overwhelmed by a totally different English-speaking world at the very beginning, because I didn’t speak English at all in the past whole month.

Yeah, I’m from China. This is my second semester at UF to study for my Ph.D. in ESOL. My major in my undergraduate study is English. After graduation in 2000, I worked in a company to deal with import and export bills. Thinking of some colleagues have difficulties in English, with another colleague majoring in English in our department, I voluntarily organized a group to help some with their English. Little by little, those colleagues being taught made obvious progress encouraged me a lot and also precipitated my desire to engage in teaching. Then, I went to Georgia Southern University (GSU) to study for my Master’s in English Education. Before graduating from GSU in 2004, I had gotten an offer from UF. In summer, I went back to China and got married with my husband. But then, I got problem in my visa application. So, I stayed in China to teach English in a junior college for one year. Fortunately, our department had my admission deferred one year. Finally, I got my visa last summer and began to my new life in Gainesville. I really appreciate UF offers me such a good opportunity to pursue my study.

I’m interested in Internet, ‘cause it’s a magic world. I can know what happen every day in China in browsing news; I can see my husband, parents and friends far away and hear their voices using MSN; I can learn a lot in my filed in web reading. While in GSU, I worked as a journal copy editor and was responsible to update the journal’s web. At that time, I used Dreamweaver and FrongPage to update the journal’s web. I also tried to make my own webpage, but it is a very simple one and I seldom spend time on it.

I choose this course because I believe Internet and other technologies are very useful in language teaching. Internet provides language learners very rich information. As a foreign language learner, I benefit a lot from that. As a future teacher, I want to explore more on how to use Internet, this very useful teaching resource in my future ESL class.

I’m very fascinated by our first assignment to create our own blogs. If it were not an assignment, I don’t know when I would get one for myself. “Blog” is also a hot point in China last year. It is transliterated as “博客”in Chinese. The first character means “broad or vast” and the second means “guests” in Chinese. To some degree, the translation well corresponds to its own meaning. A blog is public to other guests to view and comment.

In reading Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators, I came to realize that the use of blog in education may be an interesting topic for my further research, especially for writing in language learning.