Susan Marandi's blog and welcome to it!

After reading whatever I could find on adding links to my posts (including the help page) and still doing it wrong, I was convinced I'd continue to fail until I learned html. (Not that I don't want to learn html; actually, I've been thinking about it for some time now, but I just don't have time for it yet.) Anyway, I'd stopped trying for some time, and what was worse, I didn't feel up to trying out newer ideas either until I'd tackled linking. Today, I finally braced myself to give it another shot, but I was so dead sure it wouldn't work that I just sent my previous post without checking to see if the link actually worked. And of course, you know the end of the story: It did work! And I lived happily ever after ... until my next experiment, that is! So, what are the morals of this story? 1 - I'm not as stupid as I thought I was (and I dare you to contradict me!). 2 - I'm probably stubborn enough to classify as a webhead and weblogger! ;-)...

I'm back, and experimenting again with blogging, bloglines (thanks to some help from Graham and Mark), and links (which will finally be my downfall ;-) !!). I've added my blogroll to the sidebar (can't figure out how to give it a title without messing around with html, though), and now I want to give links a try once more. >Sigh Anyway, back to experimenting in the dark: my website Oh, I know it's funny; and I'm so glad you're enjoying reading my blog, but don't you think it might be just as fun and maybe a tiny bit more constructive if you'd just stop laughing at me for a moment and help me out instead? ;-) No? I thought not. I'll make it there, though, never you fear. (I think I'm going to have a heart attack from joy if I do it, though, so it may be my last post ... Susan Marandi's blog: Rest in Peace.) Wish me luck! (I'll need it.)

For days now, I've been trying to catch up with my work for the two EVO 2005 sessions I've signed up for; namely "Becoming a Webhead" and "Blogs in ESL-EFL." And while I've been learning a lot (and yet never quite catching up!) and finding a lot to interest and amaze me, nothing I've learned so far amazes me as much as the people I've been meeting over the past 4 weeks! I've constantly felt overwowed (if you can come up with weird words like "wiki" and "blog," please don't grudge me my "overwowed" ;-) !!) by all the wonderful possibilities of technology and Computer-Assisted Language Learning, *but* put all those beside the amazing people I have met and they become pretty insignificant! Like usual, I'm too rushed to do justice to the effect you people have had on me, but I just couldn't disconnect today without sending a few words out into cyberspace and asking you all a question: Is it just tha...

wild_flowers Originally uploaded by susanmarandi . Hello, folks! Just trying to see if I can send photos to my blog. (Didn't think I meant it when I said not to bother reading this, did you? They do say curiosity kills cats and bloggers!) More later, Susan

LLT: Computers in Language Testing... : Hi, everyone! Since I'm very much interested in both Computer-Assisted Language Learning *and* in language assessment/testing, I was wondering if any of you are interested in computer-based tests? This article by Brown seems to be a good intro, in case you are. Here's the abstract: "This article begins by exploring recent developments in the use of computers in language testing in four areas: (a) item banking, (b) computer-assisted language testing, (c) computerized-adaptive language testing, and (d) research on the effectiveness of computers in language testing. The article then examines the educational measurement literature in an attempt to forecast the directions future research on computers in language testing might take and suggests addressing the following issues: (a) piloting practices in computer adaptive language tests (CALTs), (b) standardizing or varying CALT lengths, (c) sampling CALT items, (d) changing the difficulty o...