Please provide feedback on my critical reading course

Dear Teachers,

This summer, I’ll be teaching a group of pre-med students how to speed read and improve their comprehension. The students consist of native English speakers who are part of a summer enhancement program called DREAM. We’ll spend 4 hours a week on the subject, so I have time to integrate technology. I created a wiki with the online content since we don’t have a textbook. We’ll be using the computerized program MyReadingLab.com for covering topics such as reading rate and critical thinking. Here’s a link to the wiki: http://usadream.pbworks.com/w/page/39147717/FrontPage

I’m requiring two projects, one group and one individual. The group project will post to the wiki. The students’ individual project is to create electronic flashcard decks on Dictionary.com. Here’s a sample deck I created: http://flashcards.dictionary.com/deckprofile/view/96394/medical-vocabulary-project-flashcards. Additionally, I made a demonstration video on Camtasia Relay:http://camtasia.usouthal.edu/Camtasia/J00052636/Vocabulary_Project_on_Dictionary.com_-_Flash_(Original_Size)_-_20110527_05.57.20PM.html

I’d love to hear your feedback. I’ve set my personal deadline as June 1st. Send me a tweet or email with your comments, or leave a message below.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Sandra Rogers

The Online Educator

Dear Readers,

My new e-newspaper is out today! I finally figured how to capture all the articles from my twitter list on Paper.li. Let me know if you’d like to be included, and I’ll include you in The Online Educator twitter list. I kept trying to create a particular hashtag to focus on online learning such as #online learning, #ESL, #EFL, #TESOL, or #EVO but wasn’t successful in obtaining a full-fledged newspaper until now. Basically, I left the topic for the newspaper blank in the Paper.li creation process. Since most of the educators I follow generally post professional tweets about integrating technology, I decided to trust their content.

Anyhow, here’s the link to The Online Educator: http://paper.li/teacherrogers/1301595898#.  The Online Educator eNewsletter will post daily content! It’s a great way for me to keep up with my peers’ articles, as oftentimes I don’t read all their tweets. You can view a previous how-to video about Paper.li by Benoit Curdy on my blog.

I was so impressed with the Paper.li outcome that I created another one for my nonprofit, BrokeButNotForLong, Inc.  It’s  called the Employment Social Network! It came out today, but I had a few unrelated articles. Therefore, I culled the list and “unfollowed” anyone who doesn’t specifically match our mission.

The use of these e-newspapers are endless. I noticed that beside aggregating your twitter feed, Paper.li now also will aggregate your facebook feed! “Feed” in this context refers to your followers or friends comments, articles, photos, and links.  Paper.li could be the next best thing for social networking for communities in need. Imagine what you could do with it for your school or project!

Best Wishes,

Sandra Rogers