Paris - The Capital of France

Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Paris
Subdivisions	20 arrondissements
Government
• Mayor (2008–14)	Bertrand Delanoë (PS)
Area
• Urban (2010)	2,844.8 km2 (1,098.4 sq mi)
• Metro (2010)	17,174.4 km2(6,631.1 sq mi)
• Land1	105.4 km2 (40.7 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Rank	1st in France
• Urban (Jan. 2009)	10,413,386
• Metro (Jan. 2009)	12,161,542
• Population2	2,243,833
• Population2density	21,000/km2 (55,000/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC +1)

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It is situated on the Seine River, in the north of the country, at the heart of the Île-de-France region. Within its administrative limits (the 20 arrondissements), the city had 2,234,105 inhabitants in 2009 while its metropolitan area is one of the largest population centres in Europe with more than 12 million inhabitants.

An important settlement for more than two millennia, by the late 12th century Paris had become a walled cathedral city that was one of Europe's foremost centres of learning and the arts and the largest city in the Western world until the turn of the 18th century. Paris was the focal point for many important political events throughout its history, including the French Revolution. Today it is one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, science, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major cities. The city has one of the largest GDPs in the world, €607 billion (US$845 billion) as of 2011, and as a result of its high concentration of national and international political, cultural and scientific institutions is one of the world's leading tourist destinations. The Paris Region hosts the world headquarters of 30 of the Fortune Global 500 companies in several business districts, notably La Défense, the largest dedicated business district in Europe.

Centuries of cultural and political development have brought Paris a variety of museums, theatres, monuments and architectural styles. Many of its masterpieces such as the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe are iconic buildings, especially its internationally recognized symbol, theEiffel Tower. Long regarded as an international centre for the arts, works by history's most famous painters can be found in the Louvre, theMusée d'Orsay and its many other museums and galleries. Paris is a global hub of fashion and has been referred to as the "international capital of style", noted for its haute couture tailoring, its high-end boutiques, and the twice-yearly Paris Fashion Week. It is world renowned for its haute cuisine, attracting many of the world's leading chefs. Many of France's most prestigious universities and Grandes Écoles are in Paris or its suburbs, and France's major newspapers Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération are based in the city, and Le Parisien in Saint-Ouennear Paris.

Paris is home to the association football club Paris Saint-Germain FC and the rugby union club Stade Français. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located in Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris played host to the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics, the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The city is a major rail, highway, and air-transport hub, served by the two international airports Paris-Charles de Gaulle andParis-Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily. Paris is the hub of the national road network, and is surrounded by three orbital roads: the Périphérique, the A86 motorway, and the Francilienne motorway in the outer suburbs.

Map and video:

Eiffel Tower

Construction started	1887
Completed	1889
Opening	31 March 1889
Owner	City of Paris, France
Management	Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE)
Height
Antenna spire	324.00 m (1,063 ft)
Roof	300.65 m (986 ft)
Top floor	273.00 m (896 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	3
Lifts/elevators	9

The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed theWashington Monument to assume the title of the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Buildingin New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Not including broadcast antennae, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second. The third level observatory's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground, the highest accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift (elevator) to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. Although there are stairs to the third and highest level, these are usually closed to the public and it is generally only accessible by lift.

Applications Review

            The office suites application that I want to review is Google Documents because it is such an amazing and useful application. After download the setup file from drive.google.com, you can install a set of applications including Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides. To begin with, I will talk about tri-applications Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. They have almost the same functions as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point, except working online. This feature is both advantage and disadvantage of these applications. Firstly, every manipulation of the users will be saved online. In other words, they don't need to be worry that their documents will be lost. Furthermore, they don't need to have a flash drive to transfer their files, all of them will be saved on the Internet, so they can continue to work with it or print it out at any place as long as it can connect to the Internet. On the other hand, the requirement of connecting to the Internet doesn't allow the users to utilize these applications without the Internet. However, I think this is not a big problem because nowadays, we can connect to the Internet almost everywhere, from schools to office, even in coffee shop. When I say they have many functions as Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point, I mean they actually can replace these old applications. Changing fonts, themes, adding content, all of these features can be found on online applications. And the most important thing is they are free. The schools and instructors don't need to pay a dollar for everything. Secondly, the combination between these applications with Google Drive makes them become more handy than ever. The users can copy the files they want to share into the folder of Google Drive, then right click on those files, choose Google Drive/Share, all of them will be uploaded online immediately. Therefore, the users can log in their Google account and continue with their documents at anywhere. To conclude, a set of Google Document is helpful for every school because it has a lot of features like Microsoft Office, it is convenient, and finally, it is free.

            Move to the Image Editing Application, I choose PicMonkey. I'm not a professional photographer, but I love taking photos and work with them seven days of the week. From my point of view, PicMonkey outperforms all other application such as FotoFlexer, Phixr or Sumo Paint. This application allows the users to edit photo from their computers, drop box, Facebook or Flickr. First of all, PicMonkey has some basic functions such as crop, rotate or resize pictures. Secondly, this application provides the feature of adjusting the color and exposure of the photo automatically. The users can add a lot of effects on their photos, such as Orton, Cross Process or Dusk. Orton option will make the photos look clearer, Cross Process will make them become more colorful, and Dusk option will darken the pictures a little bit.  You also can turn them into Black & White or Sepia pictures. Moreover, with Touch Up feature, the users are free to edit the picture just like making-up for people in the photo, such as Lip Tint, Eye Brighten or Eyeliner. This feature is totally appropriate with editing portrait pictures. Next, you can add text into the photos, this feature is popular in every image editing applications, but using in this application is really easy and visual, you can choose the color or font for text line. Besides, uncountable number of icon can be added in the photos. You can also make your photos look better with frame. The below picture is the one I used PicMonkey to edit.

The website: The Cities in the World

Click HERE to visit my website: The Cities in the World.
Each city page has sub-pages about related topics. Enjoy!

Or follow the link below:
https://sites.google.com/site/citiesintheworld2/

Concept Mapping

This is the concept-map about home stuffs. I would let the students make their own map about this topic. If my students are elementary pupils, I would assign them into some groups, and then require each group to make a map about stuffs in different room. Finally, the leader of each group will gather together and make the whole big map.
This method will not only organize and analyze the information, think critically, but also improve their group-working skills. They will need to remember the stuffs and furniture which they are familiar with at home, contribute the idea and then learn about new stuffs that they haven't heard about before. Moreover, they need to vote for the leader of group, share the responsible and work, such as finding photos, sharing ideas, or presenting the result.

Screencasting

In my opinion, screencasting has great potential for education. It has many advantages such as supports well for distance education, visual lessons and flexible timing. With my video "How to use Skype", the learners will know how to utilize this application simply and effectively. Skype helps the users to attend class online, from far distance, or group discussion, and submit virtual materials in no time. Furthermore, the learners are able to watch the video at anytime of the day, depend on their working and studying schedule. Lastly, this method will let the students to study on their own pace and then achieve the best result.

Google Map Engine in Classroom

In the Geography classroom, I would use Google Map Engine to help my students to achieve the knowledge as much as possible. I believe the combination between Google Map Engine and Google Search will improve my lecture really well.
First of all, I would show my  students one or two short videos of instructing how to use Google Map Engine and then answer any question they have. Next, I would let them practice a little bit and give them feedback immediately. Immediate feedback will help students know how they are performing, their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, they can move forward or keep practicing with the computer.
Next class, I would require my students to assign into groups of 3 to 4 people. Each group will have to make a map about parks in a city that they can choose. With Google Search, the students can easily find the basic information about the parks such as addresses or amenities. Then, they need to locate the parks and add information and photos in the map. Finally, they can decorate the locations with different colors and icons to get extra points. I, the teacher, would move from group to group to assess the process and give some more instruction in need.

These are advantages of this lecture:
- Working in group will help students to develop their skills of combination and management.
- Technology-related assignment will create engagement in students, encourage them to find more detail, dig into the knowledge source more deeply. Thus, they will be more creative.- Being more active will help them to remember the knowledge easier and more successfully.

For example, the students would submit a map like the one below:

My PodCast

Click HERE to listen to my PodCast.
Or follow this below link:
http://kit90.podomatic.com

Embed Game

I'm trying to embed a game Angry Bird into my blog.

Angry Birds

The map of WMU

This is the map of our school, Western Michigan University!

Videos from Youtube

In this post, I would share with you some music videos that I really like :)
Enjoy, friends!

The first one is My Immortal from Evanescence, which a meaningful song.


The next one is the sweetest song ever, We Belong Together from Mariah Carey.


Last but not least, Applause from Lady Gaga, the female singer that have great potential voice but freak a little bit.

Photos from my hometown

Today I'm going to share with you some pictures that I took when I was in my hometown. Everyone said that is a peaceful city. But, I think, it "was".

EDT 5410 - Week 5 Reflection

            Base on the data getting from the question, we know in this situation, both teachers and students are provided laptop computer and wireless Internet access 24/7. Additionally, all of necessary materials are also installed on the laptops. The question is: why this innovation only reach a little successful and how to fix this.

            1. I think 3 possible factors (or reasons) why this innovation has a little effect on teaching and learning process are: administrator, teachers and students.

            - First of all, maybe the administrator need to train the teachers to use the equipments successfully. Many teachers are old and they are not familiar with the new technologies, so they don't know how to integrate that new technology into their classroom. Furthermore, the administrator need to know that the new technology is appropriate to the subjects or not, then make a suitable decision on this innovation progress. For example, Math and Science will be supported really well by mathematical websites or virtual laboratory, but Language Arts need to be taught in traditional methods because Arts is something we need to feel directly, the technology can only improve a little impact.

            - Second, some teachers already know how the technology works but they resist to change the traditional methods. They think that the traditional one is enough for students and, especially, they have taught with that old method for many years. Additionally, maybe the teachers are lack of resources for their lecture. For instance, there are thousands of websites that support Math, they provide the formulas and even the result of the questions. Therefore, the teachers don't know which one is suitable with their lecture and then give those resources to their students.

            - Finally, the reason maybe comes from the students. The students nowadays know the new technology very well, but they don't know how to utilize these kinds of technology into the learning process effectively. For example, the students that assigned to Social Studies subject think that they will only study about the social in real life, the communication. In fact, they also need to know more about the Social Network, such as Facebook or Tumblr that they use every day. The problem is that the teachers don't know much about these kinds of social network, so they are quite unconfident in this topic.

            2. Now I will give out 2 suggestions about administrator and teachers  that, hopefully, can help the school to improve the innovation:

            - The teachers who are not familiar with new technologies need to attend an instructive class to understand clearly how the new technologies work and how it can improve the teaching process. The responsibility of the administrator is setting up that kind of classroom, requiring the teachers to attend and make sure that they know how to utilize the supply into their teaching process. The administrator also need to research more about the subjects that really need the support from technology.

            - Not just following the instructive classes, the teachers need to take initiative in finding sources, trying new technologies and applying them into the lectures. They need to know that the traditional method of teaching is good, but it can get better with the support of technology. For instance, the Science teachers can find out many free virtual laboratories and require students to practice on the Internet. Moreover, they also need to create inspiration, connection and coordination among students. The point is now they are able to make a flipping classroom with technologies, where students can actually discuss, work in group and then do a research with peers. 

Link to my Flickr

Click HERE to visit my Flickr,
or follow the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/116132778@N06/

EDT 5410 - Week 4 Reflection

From my perspective, Social bookmarking has great potential in education, more specific, in teaching and learning process. It can support really well in sharing information, resources and processing. For example, when the history teacher A want to share the sources which are many websites relating to historical events to his students, he can share his bookmark list with the tag history event, revolution or history changing. Conversely, when the students want to find resources of information, he or she can visit the professor's social bookmarking page to look for them with explicit tags. However, the teacher also can improve the list by consulting the bookmark list of his colleagues, maybe there are a lot of useful sources for him to add to his list. Therefore his students will be provided better information. Another example is the information sharing among students. When student X created a list of many pages about Asian cultures, student Y made another list about African cultures. Then, the professor requires students to find the details about the cultures all over the world. Both of student X and Y don't need to spend a lot of time to find the sources. Instead, they can look at each other's list and tag to get necessary information. Additionally, they can also find the information from other professor's list. For instance, the student Y knows student Z in the class of professor B, so he find for the resource that professor B gave student Z to complete the assignment. That is just between students and teacher. The social bookmarking also can improve the relationship between teacher and parents. The parents can follow the teacher's bookmark page to find the source of schedule, syllabus or their children's learning process.

 

            Back to the Trends & Issues reading, I can see the 1970 Definitions totally fit with my thinking before I read this book. It said "It (instructional technology) is a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the whole process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research on human learning and communication, and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction". First of all, it discussed about the process of teaching, includes designing, carrying out and evaluating. That is the process of every teaching method. The instructor needs to brainstorm the ideas for lecture and find the useful information for it (designing). Later, he or she needs to make it done in the class and transmit the knowledge to students (carrying out). Finally, they will require students to take a test or assignment to make sure that they have obtained enough necessary details (evaluating). Secondly, I focus on the word "nonhuman resources". In other words, those sources are from technology. The learners will not receive information directly from lecturer but from media such as television or the Internet instead. Lastly, the purpose of it is creating "more effective instruction”. It means that the students will get more chance to attain knowledge more easily and conveniently. I have always thought that in future career, I would apply new technologies into teaching and improve the result of learning process. I believe the more familiar technology to the students, the better result they can reach. So that I think we should utilize the social network and other communicating technologies in education. The new point in this chapter that I figure out is the word "ethical" in the latest AECT definition. It raises some questions inside me and I hope I can get the answer later from this book.

EDT 5410 - Link to my Delicious list

Click HERE to visit my delicious list.
Or follow the link: https://delicious.com/linhle90

EDT5410 - Link to my wiki page

Click here to visit my wiki page.

You can also click the link below:

http://linh90.pbworks.com/w/page/73227752/FrontPage

EDT5410 - Week 2 Response

        Last week, I created my own blog at this address: linhle90.blogspot.com, and also start to use RSS Reader (Feedly) this week. I have to say that the blog is not as amazing as I expected, but Feedly is extremely impressive to me. I will talk about Blog first. To me, it is like a "Notes" feature of Facebook, but has a little bit more options. Blog can help us to make a long note just like using Microsoft Word and after finishing it, we can publish that note on the Internet immediately. The greatest feature of Blog to me is I can manage all of my notes in a single page, see how many people have read that post, or how they commented on my notes. We can insert some photos or videos into the Blog also. Conversely, RSS Reader changed my habit surfing the Internet. I have never known about Feedly and its features before. Now I don't have to visit every single website to check the news or update that I need anymore. I only have to check my Feedly to see if one of these topics that I'm interested in has updated new information or article. For example, I don't have to visit some website to check if new manga chapter was released every week anymore. From now on, the new chapter will automatically appears on my Feedly list as soon as it is released.

            From my point of view, there is no level of Dane's Cone is appropriate with Blog and RSS because this scale was made from 1969, and Blog, RSS, or the Internet generally did not exist at that time. If we don't mention about the Internet connection, I would put Blog into Verbal Symbols level of Dane's Cone. Without Internet connection, I consider Blog as a list of notes and articles. It would be full of words explaining some concepts or analyzing other topics. However, Dane said the boundaries between these levels are not really clear at anytime, sometimes these levels overlap each other and it is hard to define them. Due to the feature inserting photos and videos, Blog also should be put in the levels of Visual Symbols and Motion Pictures, sometimes Educational Television. Second, it would be really hard to decide which level of Dane's Cone that I should put RSS in. The main purpose of using RSS Reader is to summary the news that the user is interested in, so that I would set it in the level of Exhibits. Just like attending an exhibition which has their favorite topics, the users can see many items or objects that they care about and then choose some (or all) of them to read and see.

            Considering Siegel’s concept of “computer imagination”, I believe that Blog and RSS have great potential in education. To begin with, Blog allows the students to read and learn from far distance. They can read the lecture from the teacher or the responses from other learners at home. In traditional class, we have to go to school, buy a book and meet other people to share the papers. Furthermore, if we need to find the document that we wrote a long time ago, it would not be easy if it is a hard copy. However, Blog can list all of your papers with their title in chronicle order and the user can select the one that he or she needs. It also can help the professor to check how many students have read their articles also. Secondly, using RSS Reader can bring even more advantages than Blog. This application allows people to check the news or articles from the sources that they subscribed. It is like an online library which can update itself almost immediately. The learners can follow their teachers and classmates to see if they post something new. The main purposes of RSS are saving time finding new articles in a bunch of websites and receiving the information that is important and necessary. If we don't use RSS Reader, maybe we still have to come to the library and check every single book to see if they have some paragraphs that contain the information we need.

EDT 5410 - Week 1 Refection

          Like the professor said, the Reigeluth & Joseph essay is pretty more optimistic than the second one. In the Table 1 of Reigeluth essay, I can see the differences between Industrial Age and Information Age. For example, in Industrial Age, the boss was considered as "King"; in contrast, the customer is the one that have the power. It means that everything would be best for the customer's sake. To demonstrate this point, I will make it clear by connect with education situation. In Industrial Age, the teacher is the center, the students must learn everything that their lecturer requires. However, the students can orientate by themselves in Information Age; they can research more than they can receive  from the school, and the teacher will play a role of an adviser. This advantage will let the learners to be more independent and critical thinking. In fact, back to my home country, they still use the manner of Industrial Age in education, the teacher is the King of the class and the students will only know and learn the amount of information that the professor gives them. Then, they take a test at the end of the semester to put an end for the knowledge they have obtained through the semester. The learners almost have no chance to research by themselves because the teacher did not give any request. This is one of the reasons that make me nervous when I come here and now I'm getting used to it.

          Moreover, the essay said about shifting from the time-base to attainment-base system. It is true to say that we cannot focus only on the technology but the role of the teacher. They will be facilitator to help the learners acquire the knowledge, not "the agent of most of the learning". The main point here is how the teachers deal with it, how they take the advantages of technology and apply into their teaching; and, especially, how technology changes the relationship between teacher and student. I believe with the diversity of technology and device now, we can figure out more and more methods to support education.

          The Postman essay is quite skeptical, but I can understand because this essay was written more than 20 years ago. The author set out many questions of "what is the problem" and deny that new technology can resolve problems. However, he still accepts it anyway. For instance, he bought the new car without realizing that the electronic window can help him to save time and not be distracted from driving. In education, I think that new technology will give us more chances to receive information. The learners don't need to leave their home to attend a class. The question is how can we do that without technology (the Internet connection and communicating devices in specific)?

          Nevertheless, I totally agree with this essay about the functions of school. Teaching children how to behave in groups plays a great role in social life. For example, the author mentioned the book  All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It talks about "Share everything, play fair, don't hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your own mess, wash your hands before you eat, and, of course, flush". In fact, the education in Vietnam, my home country, fails at this important point. Almost all of the kids in Vietnam will not give back something they found, they have a notion that everything they found belongs to them. The result of this is the irresponsible attitude of people with others' or public properties; they do not care or be regret if they see a pickpocket or accidently ruin a sculpture in the park. I would give you an unbelievable example about this. Last month, a driver delivering a great amount of beer and liquor got an accident. As a result, his truck was overturned and the goods were fallen out on the street. A lot of people who behold that accident did not help the driver, they stole the beer and liquor instead. Finally, the driver has to offset to the owner of the properties about 15.000$, which is huge value in Vietnam. Conversely, if you drop your phone or wallet on the subway in Japan, you have 90% of chance to get it back from Lost & Found Service. That is because the Japanese was taught right from they were young that they need to be respectfully with others' property. From these examples, I believe that with the support of technology, the role of school and teacher will be more useful and cannot be denied.