Ben McMurry

As a tech enthusiast, I'm often asked to give assistance to friends and family when they have technology questions or problems. Recently (1.5 years ago), I switched entirely to macs. I really do love them. They look nice and they work excellently. They last long and have good resale value. One thing that I have to do though, is stay familiar with the world of Windows. I'm also a big fan of Linux. Virtualization becomes essential for me. VmWare recently released a new version of their windows on mac virtualization software. I'm not new to Virtual Machines. I started using them a lot back when VMWare made the free VMWare Player available and Microsoft did the same for Virtual PC. I had previously been using Fusion 2.1. I decided to update to version 3.0 because I could do it for $19.99. I don't regret it either. Fusion 3.0 comes with lots of new features. The first thing that I notices was a great increase in speed. I found that my new XP vm was quite snappier. Keep i

Late last night, when I was going through my feeds in Google Reader, I came across the news of the Google OS. It seems like a great idea. One thing that really attracts me to it is that it could substantially increase the utility of affordable desktops for educational purposes. Right now netbooks are burdened with windows xp or properly equipped with a lesser known and more intimidating flavor of linux. I think linux is perfect for these machines, but new users aren't keen on switching. Now that Google is working on an OS built on the linux kernel and heavily integrated with the web, we might see a broader group jumping on the linux train. Google is one of the few corporate forces with the power and momentum to get linux into more machines. Linux runs great on low profile systems and is highly extensible. So, as far as education goes, I can definitely see Google OS making the cheap netbook and other cheap desktops a good selection for educators to use in labs and classrooms. Instea

I use the Internet all the time. I had been noticing that my computer seemed slow. I have a mac and i had noticed that my wife's PCs were much faster on the web. After some searching, I found that I am not the only person with this problem. One suggestion was to change the DNS servers. So, I changed them to openDNS servers. That seemed to help a bit, but the other day my wife was using my machine and mentioned how much slower it was. The investigation continued. I found that for some reason, some people think that macs don't like Linksys routers. I was looking for a solution and found an open source firmware update called DD-WTR. I used it to update my firmware, and I have found some added snappiness to my web travels. If you are technically talented and have a linksys router, this might be something worth trying.

I recently did a Poster Session at an Apple Education Conference: AcademiX. It was a lot of fun. I thought that I would share what what I did. For more information you can look at the Poster Session PDF . Overview For starters, this is something that I did with my intermediate ESL students.  In order to help them with them learn the past tense, I gave them an assignment. The student videos were comprised of two parts. First, the students drew their story as if it were a comic. Second, the students narrated the story. Preparation 1. The students were divided into groups of four or five. 2. Each group was assigned one of the four topics: •    Frightening Experience - Fire •    Frightening Experience - Car accident •    Frightening Experience - Getting Lost •    Most Embarrassing Moment 3. Each group brainstormed to find a good story to tell for their assigned topic. 4. The students then began to take turns drawing pictures to go with their stories. 5. While not drawing, the other student

I realized that I probably don't want my blog in the root of my website. So, I'm moving it to http://blog.benmcmurry.com. Please update your feed readers as such. I am going to try to make a symbolic link to the feed, but that might not work. Thanks!

This is the last in my TESOL series reporting on the 2009 conference. One thing that I did differently this year is that I spent more time networking and more time in the Electronic Village. As far as networking, I met some big names in CALL, like Phil Hubbard. That was good. I spent a lot of time talking with publishers. Part of this was me hoping to get a job offer somehow. I actually think that I wouldn't mind working for a publishing company. In the Electronic Village, I spent time talking to other tech gurus. It was fun. One of the highlights for me was the Hardware Fair. I finally got to get my hands on an OLPC. Great Idea, but I wasn't two impressed. It looks like a good idea for children in countries with poor economies. Really, wouldn't we be doing them a favor by providing something that has a more prolific OS. Even Ubuntu might be better. With the dropping prices in computers and the growing popularity of the netbook, the OLPC and Classmate may soon be a thing of

I'm looking for a new theme. I love Hemmingway, but I don't think that it is very usuable for some possible viewers.

I didn't go to that many sessions this year, but I would like to talk about a few. VoiceThread - I went to a great presentation on VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a web app that allows for group conversations around images, documents and videos. It seems like it might be a great tool for use with language learning. Audacity - This is a recording tool I have used before. I really didn't like it. I thought I would go to the presentation and see if my mind would change. It did. Audacity seems to be a program with hidden tools! I may use it again . . . or stick with garage band. Past, Present and Future of CALL - This was an interesting 'presentation.' It was done by a panel of past chairs of the CALL-IS. They each talked about CALL. Some talked about the past and others about the present. Many of them said that it is hard to envision the future. Most dreamed of practical technologies are here. I, however, thing that I can. What will we see is the unification of technology

I really enjoyed TESOL this year. I won't talk about the things I didn't particulary like about the conference organization. I think that there were some problems that could have been devastating to my experience. I complained a lot about then, but I made sure I would have an awesome time at TESOL. How did I do it? Well, that's a good question. I took a different approach to TESOL this year. Previous Approach: I wanted to get the biggest bang for my Institution's Buck. I made sure that I went to all the sessions I possibly could. For example, even if I couldn't find something I like during the 10am sessions, I would pick the one that seemed the least painful to go to and go to it. This made for a long day filled with unproductive sessions. New Approach: This year, I only went to sessions I really wanted to go to. I probably went to half as many sessions, but I found it to be much more beneficial. I didn't go to as many sessions, but I felt like I learned just

I got back from TESOL today! It was a great conference. I have lots to post about; I'll be back on Monday with lots of great stuff!

I recently recieved and email from a former student. He is taking a class that is helping students explore various careers. One of the assignments is to interview someone in a profession you might be interested in. He asked me a few questions, and I thought it might make for an interesting post. 1. What do you do? I teach English as a Second Language, develop ESL Curriculum, and train student teachers. 2. How did you get interested in this type of work? Get started in this job? I have always been interested in language. I have always known that I wanted a job that would require langauge skills. When I came home from my mission, I took a Spanish class. The teacher was also and ESL teacher and told good stories. That got me interested. Later, I met my wife who was an ESL teacher. I observed her class, and I was hooked! 3. How long have you been doing this kind of work? 5+ years 4. What are 3-5 of the most common activities you do on a typical day? teach, grade, write curriculum, email, t

I've been taking a class for fun this semester. We've talked about Flash & ActionScript, and now we are talking about JavaScript & html. I was interested in developing a good and easy tool for my students to record video where I could give them feedback. When I was talking about the idea, Peter Rich , a professor in the IP&T department here at BYU , suggested I look into Viddler . I did, and I love it. For the last three weeks I have been using Viddler in my Listening & Speaking classes. We went to our wonderful computer lab and I helped them all set up accounts. We made a group for the class and did some practice recordings. I have had them do three assignments so far. Our current curriculum for Listening & Speaking has task-based objectives. The assignments so far have been to record an invitation to a party, talk about your future plans and goals, and talk about a past experience. After the students have recorded their video, they give themselves feedba

First of all, welcome to my professional blog. I thought about having a welcome post, but then I thought that I should get right down to business. I'm a tech guru. I assume that some of my future readers might be as well. I also like to be creative and make things. As I started working on my blog, digital teaching portfolio, and website, I really wanted to do some cool stuff. Cool stuff takes time. One of the things that I think all teachers and basically anyone who has a life should do is carefully way options. I could spend hours developing my own blog, porfolio and website. It would be fun. I would enjoy myself. Unfortunately, it would also keep me from actually doing what I wanted to do: blog. One day I might do it too, but why re-invent the will. So, I'm using wordpress like crazy. Wordpress for the blog, wordpress as a CMS , and wordpress as an information and direction hub. For me it came down to what the purpose actually was. Will I do some web development for fun? Sur