Homeschool Spanish Lessons - Online Learning

We’ve finally sorted out the problems with the singing animals and the animated storybooks  - I should have those changes uploaded today!

As a web developer I’m always looking for better ways to do things. More often than not, I have to use a combination of applications to achieve something – like using Crazytalk for animated videos; then Swish Video to convert them to .swf. And now I’m facing the same problem with Powerpoint, which won’t natively output a .swf file. You have to install any one of a number of plugins in order to achieve that. Most didn’t work at all with 64 bit Vista and Office 2007, and a couple work ok with Office Beta 2010, but don’t seem to be exporting the imported swfs properly. ¡Caramba!

For our new interface for the upcoming new Spanish e-learning system for my sites (including this one), I realized from the get go that a fantastic design was essential. Easier navigation, lessons that are laid out on a weekly basis, and easy access to all features the system has to offer are all key.  Since I’m no real designer, I knew I had to find somebody a lot more talented to help build this vision of form and function! Well for function you have programmers. I probably think a little more like a programmer. I’m fascinated by what stuff can DO. I don’t like to hear the phrase “can’t be done” when it comes to programming, because in fact almost anything within the laws of nature CAN be done, it just takes time!

I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked in the last couple of weeks with a new project that has shown me a whole new side to Flash and RIA programming. In a word: FLEX!

I’m not sure how it is that I was unaware at how much better a tool Flex is for interface and program development than flash. I’ve always used flash, and didn’t think to go looking for anything else. But as I’ve been planning for the restructuring of my lesson plans by weeks in order to make them more effective. People don’t seem to know what to do with the programs they way they are structured now – they see “Learn Spanish Verbs Fast”, “Musical Spanish” “FSI Interactive”, etc., and don’t even know where to begin. Well now they will now exactly where to begin, as I’m restructuring into 3 levels:

1. Clase de Niños – 10 Units
2. Beginning Spanish – Level 1 – 18 Weeks
3. Intermediate Spanish – Level 2 – 18 Weeks

I’ve written before about  Getafreelancer.com, my favorite site for finding web talent. But let me vent a little about my least favorite site: Guru.com. They are probably the #1 freelancing site, and a lot of US professionals are listed there. But they make it way too easy for an unscrupulous provider such as this woman I tried to hire to out right steal from you.

In this case the woman asked for a $500 “retainer” for a job helping with research and curriculum development for my Homeschool Spanish program. She proceeded to do just the bare minimum (we are talking 1 Google search) of research, and then she wrote a couple of pages of a so called marketing document which contained many untrue statements about my program. When all was said and done, I was left with no real work, and $500 less dollars in the bank. Shame on you, Michele Paiva!

I’ve used various stats programs since I put my first site online in 1999 – and Woopra blows me away. It’s obvious this thing was built from the ground up with CMS sites in mind, in stark contrast to the old style systems, even Google Analytics included.

I’ve hired people from various freelancer websites over the years – Guru, Getacoder, Elance, etc.  But the one I keep coming back to over and over again is Getafreelancer.com.

These guys out of Sweden I believe have built what has to be the largest network of talent in developing countries, with a lot of 1st worlders offering their services as well. You put up a project for bidding and within a day you’ll usually have at least 15 or 20 bids, many of them from people with extensive feedback/ratings.

After nearly 10 years of building and managing websites for myself and others, I can honestly say that it has never been easier. There is no reason for people to put up mediocre websites anymore – creating a lovely design does not require hiring a freelancer in India or forking over an arm and a leg for one in CA. For anybody just starting out who wants to begin blogging or develop a quick site for their business, here are 3 tools that are the best in their class.

  1- Artisteer Visual Web Designer

What an ingenious product. Never before have I seen a tool that allows you to design a website or template for Joomla, Wordpress, or Drupal in a visual manner. By visual, I mean that you select each part of the site – header, menu, articles, background, etc – and are offered a host of cool design options, with the result displayed instantly. They’ve built in all kinds of helpful color schemes, style suggestions, and images to help you decide.  While a veteran designer will still need Dreamweaver for additional customization, Artisteer is just plain awesome, and can be had for just $49 – although I’d recommend buying the $99 version.

I went ahead and created both a forum and a wiki for this site, in the hopes that I can create a community of homeschoolers who are teaching their kids Spanish. It seems that forums contain some of the best advice online – user to user rather than “Experts”… and as for the wiki this is my first one, so who knows how that will go. I’ll probably do the first few articles but I really hope the thing can take on a life of its own. Since wikis are meant to be collaborative, it will take a few generous spirited users to get the thing fleshed out. I used MediaWiki because I figure if it’s good enough for Wikepedia, it’s good enough for me!

I’ve been teaching online for nearly 10 years, but creating a true e-learning environment has been quite a challenge. I’ve gone from using Joomla as the core user system and setting up a members section with the learning programs in sections, to using another script called Easy Members Pro, combined with Moodle for the tracking and quizzing – but I’m not sure this is the easiest set up either. The Spanish learning programs are mostly Flash based, so they can pretty much go anywhere. But I need a system that allows parents to track progress, quizzes to be graded, etc.  And while Moodle certainly has robust features, it’s not the most user friendly environment if you ask me. I’d almost rather switch the whole system back to Joomla – if only I could get a good quiz and tracking system as well as member signups within Joomla!