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Blogs (cont.) BaW Weblog |
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I created my first blog! It's so much fun! http://ecsibi.blogspot.com/ Now I see that I will have a lot of questions to Bee on Monday night. (Like how to change the layout, how to add a link for comments... Very basic ones, really.) Hope I can make it after a tiring training... :-) Babi |
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Babi says: "So, we met (in Yahoo Messegner, sus) and
my mike didn't work for
some reason! I couldn't believe it. I could hear her but she couldn't hear me. So we tried a kind of new listening-writing approach. Hey, maybe we found out a new learning style and we'll be famous! :-)))" Dear Babi´- I think many of us have tried this more than once and the technique is pretty special. Very different from a normal face 2 face situation. One can speak, another can type. Technology constraints force us being creative in our communication style. Babi again: "The experience was interesting indeed in many ways.
I was listening to Agata (she was kind and spoke very slowly) talking
about her town Przemisl, while looking at pictures on the town's
website. I answered in writing and gave feedback with smileys (I love
using them), and when I didn't understand I just sent a question mark. |
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Hi Bee-- I have a few questions regarding blogs--I'd like to know how easy it is to change or delete parts of the blog once messages have been officially posted. I'm concerned mainly with changing what I might write, but I was also thinking that if some inappropriate comment should appear, could I as creator of the blog, delete it? I would like to create a blog to allow my current students who are studying in the aeronautical sector to be able to network with former students working in industry (or sad to say, still jobhunting since the market has dived since 9-11) Do you have any suggestions? I wonder if anyone has tried a sort of blogging collaborative jigsaw activity. This is what I mean: in a class of 16 students I might divide the class into 4 groups of 4 where each group has a part of an assignment, then the groups would recombine so that each new group has one member from the former groups to report to the others. It seems to me that this scenario could translate into a blogging activity, but I haven't thought it all the way through. Any ideas? Jane Petring |
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Hello all, I noticed a question on availability of blogs that allow their users or creators to edit comments or entries.I suggest blogs, by Tripod.com. My students and I used during the past two semesters and found them easy, simple with a facility that allows both the blog's owner and a visitor to edit their entries and comments.You only need to create an account with the provider, by signing up at the following URL: http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ Buth |
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Hi Buth, Thanks for sharing your blogs with us. I was looking at the features of the tripod blogs, and it seems that the best features (community and images) come only with the paid service :-( Am I right? Cheers, Daf |
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Dear Babi! It was fun talking to you (literally :-)) about my hometown. I visited your blog this morning and had a similar feeling as you when you'd wanted to talk to me but couldn't! I wanted to comment on your post!! Badly!! The first sentence you learned in Polish still makes me ROTFL!! Anyway, I wrote my comments at Agata's Two Cents - you're all welcome to visit it and add comments! BFN, Agata |
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Dzien dobry Babi i Agatko, Congratulations on your blog Babi and I am looking forward to writing in the comment line under your posts :-) I have disappeared for some time as I am swamped, attending seminars, preparing my classes and the chat tonight. I have not given up the Polish classes, though and hope we will be able to reconduct our chats as soon as things get a bit lighter on this side Bee |
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Dear Webheads and BaWs, Thanks for tips:-) I told my students to practice writing their blogs on my blog site and once they're ready to create their own, then they may do so anytime (as Daf suggests). One already did, while the others have posted their comments on my blog. Many, however, still posted their journals at our Yahoogroups. http://aidenyeh/bravelog.com I have another question :-} The comments posted on my blog are all hidden. Can I show the comments? Or should they really be hidden? Aiden |
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Hi all, I have started a blog on blogger.com. It is in the experimental stages and is really nothing flash! Anyway, the address is ... http://katedodge2002.blogspot.com Cheers, Kate |
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Dear Kate, Congrats on your new blog! I think it would be a terrific way to write about your safari! And we could see pictures, too. I'm looking forward to more your ideas - the Baw4Kids blog is an interesting one! Cheers, Agata |
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Kate, congratulations on your new blog :-) I
especially like the name you selected ;-) Btw, you do not need to wait until your next safari, you can post pictures from your last one. I would love to see them. Cheers, Daf |
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Hi Kate! Great blog! Congratulations. You must now make a step further and venture yourself into an html safari to add the little comment area so that we can talk to you directly on the page! I would also love to see pictures of the real safari as well. Keep up the good work and drop me a line if you need help. Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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Hey Bee! Thanks for your comments! I would love to know how to let people talk to me directly! How do you do that? Cheers, Kate |
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Hi Kate, It is really easy to add comments to the Blogger blog. Bee has actually written about it in that fabulous ebook of hers http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/blog04/ on page 13 ;-) I added comments to my blog in no time at all! I can help you, just let me know! I'm usually online in the evening. My Yahoo ID: agata_zieba |
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Thanks Agata! I am checking out the link you sent and will see if I can figure it out. If not, I will definitely ask for more help! Cheers, Kate |
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Hi Dafne, I would love to link pictures to my Safari Blog and Blog all my trips around the world. I did read the email that said you need to upload your pictures to the internet and then create a web-address for the pictures... unfortunately I know how to upload my pictures to the internet. I would love your advice. I have so many pictures of places all over the world that I would love to share. In fact, I am afraid I would do nothing else but< blog away my life, if I do learn how. Thanks for the help! Kate |
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Hi Kate, Tell me if you managed to get the code from Haloscan and place it on your template. If you have any problems, just contact me on YahooM or send me a line. Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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Dear Kate, and all, Getting your images on the Web (for free) Using Geocities: Go to http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ Enter your Yahoo ID and password On the next page, click on "File Manager" ( left upper corner). On the next page, click on "Open File Manager" (written inside a rectangle) On the next page (the file manager), click on "upload files" (right upper corner, below a menu that says "HTML editor"). On the next page, you will see "Easy Upload" and this message: "Transfer files from your computer to your main directory with this simple tool. First click on Browse... to select files [on your hard disk, CD or floppy], then click Upload Files. Note: File names cannot contain spaces. The total upload can be up to 5MB." Your images should be in .jpg or .gif format. Once you get the message that your files have been successfully uploaded, go back to the files manager (click on that option), and then you will have all your uploaded files there. To get the url to your image, click on "view" next to the image (on the right), and you will see your image and will have the url on your browser. Copy it, and then you can use it to upload your pictures to your blogs. The process is similar in Tripod and Bravenet. Once you know how to do it in one, it is easier to transfer your knowledge to new situations ;-) Hope it is clear, Daf (eager to see the safari pics) |
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Kathryn wrote: >I would love your advice. I have so many pictures of places all over the >world that I would love to share. In fact, I am afraid I would do nothing >else but blog away my life, if I do learn how. This made me smile Kathryn. Some (really old!) people may remember a son by Gene Pitney, "I Wanna Love My Love Away" I can hear it now, I wanna blog my life away I wanna blog my life away I wanna blog blog blog Blog my life away with you Original lyric at http://www.lyricsdepot.com/gene-pitney/i-wanna-love-my-life-away.html - Michael C. |
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Kathryn's and Michael's post remind me of a chat I had
with Mike Ivy on YM. Besides discovering we were having exactly the same thing for dinner (he in Rome and I in Sao Paulo) and discussing the quality and taste of mozzarela here and there, we exchanged links and he directed me to an article in the The Guardian " Blog Awards 2004" . I share the link with you. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0%2c14024%2c1108883%2c00.html Interesting choice of blogs of all kinds....not school oriented....but some, definitely educational...lol If you have some time to spare, surf around and see how different people are blogging their life away. Kathryn, I am sure you will find some inspiration there! Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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Hi Michael, Your email made me laugh too! For every unit, we kindergarten teachers teach here at IST, we change the lyrics of an old a song to go with our unit. For example, for our 'I am what I am' unit we manipulated the words to 'One Fine Day'. It is great fun for us, the parents love hear their kids sing songs they know, and it is great for assembly performances. I will have to find the music to go to the lyrics of the Gene Pickney song and teach it to my kids once we have started Blogging. I put 'Blogging' on the schedule the other day and we didn't get the time to do it. My kiddies kept asking me, 'Miss Kate, what is that B word on the schedule?" I said, "Blogging." I told them they would have to wait and see what it was. The excitement is so high, and I have heard since, 'Miss Kate, when are we going to do Blogging, you know that thing that starts with a B. It was on the schedule, REMEMBER?" My kids are 5 and 6... they never forget anything. Kate |
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Dear All, Blogs: I would like to encourage my students to explore Blogs. I was looking at an Iranian blog this morning in view of the elections they are having. But you sometimes have to wade through an awful lot of text. However I will pass some useful Blog URLs to my students. Michael Ivy |
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Dear Kate, Let us know more as soon as your kids have started as early bloggers, it was an amazing little example on how easy it is to raise their curiosity at that age! Sus |
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Dear Kate, ...let me congratulate you on your adventure in blogging! Regarding BaW4kids, I especially like the idea "Blog a daily reflection with my kids that the parents could check nightly and discuss with their kids". I'm also waiting for that safari blog. In the meantime, let me point you to Professor Fred Reardon's page on Wildlife in Kenya http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~reardonf/kenya.html that I used for an activity called 'Visiting Kenya', created during Michael Krauss's course in Oct. 2001. It's no longer in the original site, but I found it thanks to The Internet Archive! Hurrah for a great tool! http://web.archive.org/web/20021221183755/http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pa\ ges/samtravellite.html Way to go with your blog, Kate! Keep it up! Best, Teresa |
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I have not been able to keep up with all the blogging
stuff this week because of some other things that I needed to attend to,
but I do want to remind folks that blogs can be set up to be highly
collaborative. You could just have easily assigned these exercises to
teams of students who could then communicate their ideas via the blog
and come up with a final presentation in some other format. elderbob |
| ^ WebPage Creation (cont.) | |
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It is funny, but today I have shown ho to create a very
single web page to a friend of mine and it took me ages to learn it on
my own. Now I see it everything very very easy, the difficult thing is
to find a good design suitable for teaching and learning. Te new challenge, at least for me, is trying to design pages technologically better. The problem is TIME to learn that. The more time I devote to learn things related with technology the less time I have to improve myself as a teacher of English and researcher on my field... It seems an easy thing, but it makes me think a lot about this... Maria |
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To Babi: Thanks for your help with my web page. I'll try using Word and saving it to the web page. I'll let you know how I don. Sorry to take so long getting back. I've been away Valentining! Gary |
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I would also recommend you Homesite, by Macromedia too: http://www.macromedia.com/software/homesite/
where you work directly with the code. Most experts on website designer
say this is the best and cleanest way to work. Kind regards, María |
| Hello everybody,Daf and Bob, I, too, have very little knowledge and experience with html,blogs and, web page design. Would it be possible to have a mini-crash course within the 6 week course just to get acquainted with the terminology for a real beginner like me? Web sites would be of great help as well. And of course count me in for collaborative learning and working with you guys. Thanks. Carlos. |
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I have to give my opinion on this... perhaps I'll sound
too fundamentalist, but I'd never advise Word to build web pages... Word is a text editor (well, we know it can save files as html, but they are a confusion and have lots of garbage... and you'll be in trouble if you want to edit them later)... consider this: you don't use dish detergent to wash your clothes, do you? so, why use a text editor to create webpages? there are a lot of html editors, most of them are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get, at least most of the times) :) which means that when you start you don't have to master html to build your webpages... but if you intend to go on producing materials and webpages it's advisable that you start to look at the code...and the code word generates is too complex (and useless)... If you like Microsof so much, use Front Page... it's quite similar in the menus...(I never used it myself for building my webpages) if you don't, use Dreamweaver, it's not biased...I've been usign it for some years now and I'm quite happy with it. Fernanda |
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Hi Carlos, The idea you suggest about a mini-course I think it could be done in some way... We have already added material to work on that and we could suggest sites with tutorial and other kind of stuff on websites designing. This is basically the way we learn at WIA (Web Heads in Action). We try to learn things to need to learn on our own knowing that we also have the support of other webheads who knows more than ourselves. With the passing of time you will realize who is the webhead who has more knowledge on a certain topic and you know he or she will be there whenever you need some help, either asynchronically (mail or writing directly by email) or synchronically (with Instant Messenger-IM) . Apart from that, yes we have dealt with special topics during certain periods of time, on demand.... like the way you are doing know... but they are not courses, but discussions on a certain these we would like to study more in deep. Other times, you will see that somebody finds a new tool and try to meet sometime (usually we do it on Sundays meetings) to test it. Maria |
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Dear All, For those interested in starting their Web pages from scratch, I have posted a list of 6 online tutorials, very easy to follow, and for different tastes. Look for them in our "Links" section, Week 4 folder, inside the sub-folder "HTML guides and tutorials". This is the one I used when I wanted to start with HTML: http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html Go for it! Give it a try and post your questions and doubts here. We are eager to see your first creations. Daf |
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Hi Maria I used Homesite for some years before I started with Dreamweaver... Homesite is a good editor if you want to learn the code in the long run, because it is not WYSIWYG. It has a lot of icons to help you .. I mean , you don't have to actually write the code, it is inserted when you click on the icons. I agree with you that using both the Design View and the Code View at the same time in Dreamweaver is the best option....it's also a good way to learn the code... Fernanda |
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Dear Carlos, What Maria explained is the way we work. So, to get you started, I am going to suggest that you start creating a page with Geocities Wizzard at http://geocities.yahoo.com/v/w/ There you will find different templates for a page, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) page. Once you have done that (you can show it to us), you can go ahead and try Page Builder without any knowledge of HTML it allows you to play with the layout of your page, create different pages and link them together. You can also select templates or create your own design (you can shout for help if you get stucked). You will find Page Builder here: http://geocities.yahoo.com/v/pb.html (there is tutorial you can print and follow). Once you have done this, let us know :-) Best Wishes, Daf |
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Dear Friends I have a page now. It's just a beginning: http://www.oocities.org/luisa_rosa2003/countryside.html I'm not sure if you can see my face, but that's the best I could get. Thank you to all Luísa |
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Congrats, Luisa! I know how good it feels when we see
our first web
page online :-) Yes, you picture can be seen. Anyway, you can take
the page to Page Builder and edit it there :-) You know what? You are using the same background I have on my index page ;-) I created a folder in the Links section for participants to share their first Web pages, so you can go ahead and post yours there :-) Way to go!! Daf |
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Hello, Although I made it quite a long time ago, I put here the address of my first webpage ever. It has sounds, animations an so on. http://www.tkukoulu.fi/info/expired/ecsibi/Hwelcome.htm THIS is my first ever English page :-) |
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Kochana Babi, Witania z Brazylii! I just loved going through your lovely multi-coloured page and getting to know more about you, your "weird" hobbies and the town you live in. It is so much fun to hear your voice as well. Way to go! Sciskam serdecznie, Bee |
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Hello Luisa, good job on your page. interesting and i like the colors. hope i get there soon. Susan |
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Hello everyone, well, i finally made a webpage, but i bet you won't find one that has< less information on it than mine!! at least, it is a try!! the links on it are very useful for those who teach academic writing, grammar, reading & vocab. check it out at: http://www.oocities.org/sesnawy/mypage.html cheers, Susan |
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Dear Susan, I am so glad you have taken your first step! Great! I will take a look at your writing links, thanks for sharing. You can post your page to the folder for new web pages in the Links section or our YG. Congrats! Daf |
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Great job Susan! It is my goal just to sit down to have the time to do as much as you have. No web page is too small. Congratulations! Cheers, Kate |
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Hi Babi, I loved how you used your neices artwork as the background for your webpage on your geocities site. How did you do that? Cheers, Kate |
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Dear Luisa I love your text. Now it's may turn to say
"it's you reflected in that text!". Your sense of humor is great! And thanks for the honor of being the first link in your Favorite Links. Teresa |
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Hello Kate, First of all I scanned my niece's painting, then I had to resize it, because it became a huuuuge file when scanning. Then, I used FrontPage (I know, I know, DW is better, but I didn't hear about DW nor the great Webheads at that time yet :-) to create a webpage. There I put the file in as a background. When you make your own page offline, you can upload it by using File Manager in Geocities. You have to name your file index.htm so that will be the starting page. Also, remember to upload all the pictures (including the background picture). I hope it helped a little. Babi |
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Short but attractive Susan. Nice layout,
good colours. Now, like the sunflowers, watch it grow! - Michael C. |
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nice work, Babi!!!!!!!! I am putting together my first
ever pages in Bravenet. For the moment I am just registering and I
haven't seen great results, but I will send in the URL as soon as I am
finished!! Compliments to you and also to the beautiful book by Barbara,
it is exquisite!! Susan (Burg) |
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Susan I'm not sure whose page is shorter, yours or mine. But I have to tell you that even in that short page I found something interesting.I've added some sites mentioned there to my favorites. So, it was worth doing it, wasn't it, Susan? Cheers Luisa |
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Susan, Congrats on your first Web page! The amount of info in it is not relevant. What is relevant is that you launched it! Remember what I've saying (taught me by Ferdi Serim): 'Start small'? I believe that's the correct way to start most anything. Way to go! And you'll find that from now on there's no stopping you! Cheers, Teresa (in rainy Lisbon) |
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Teresa, thanks for your encouragement. yes, starting is the most important thing. actually, i need to go back to it for when i went into geocities again, it kept telling me there are errors in my webpage. that's what i have to figure out now, and then figure out how to solve whatever probs there are. from overcast Cairo(but without rain yet and with a few instances ofsunshine), cheers, Susan |
| ^ Dreamweaver Group | |
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Please count me in for the Dreamweaver
"workshop" :-) I am so eager to learn! But not this month,
please ;-) I would also be happy to get some advice on learning basic html. Any good sites? Thanks, Babi |
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I'd love to join you Dreamweaver exploration. I've been
working with it for three years now, I more or less learned it
autodidactically but there is still a lot more I need to find out. Let
me know when and what you are planning, I'd love to contribute if my
schedule allows me. Best, Eva |
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Great Eva! you can be our instructor. I am sure that
you know more
than at least me. My knowledge of DW is very basic, I designed two
pages there, and ended up using HTML(which is different in DW,btw)
because it was easier for me to do so, than trying to find out where
the different features were in the application (I have DreamweaverMX).
In sum, a whole mess :-( Maybe Maria who has also been using it can give us a hand. See you :-) Daf |
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As for HTML and Dreamweaver, I have posted some links in
the BaW link area for week 3 and 4...there's a Tutorial on Dreamweaver and one on Basic HTML. http://www.iboost.com/build/software/dw/tutorial/786.htm and http://webdeveloper.com/html/beginners_html.html Hope to see you tonight at TI. Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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Though I am not an expert on, I would very pleased to
answer and help you with everything I can. You could work in Dreamweaver
with three view: - What you see is what you get, - HTML - Fifty-fifty (very good option) Maria |
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Dafne, Teresa, Eva, Maria and anyone else interested
in putting a
Dreamweaver group together:
I you will all let me know what day and time would be most appropriate, I would be more than happy to host the meetings on my Moodle. The advantage to moodle, would be that I can name you all as co-instructors and we can all post files, screen shots, etec.(anything that would be worth storing for others to see) on the courseware. We can even use the chat there as a meeting place. I can set up a place where you just log in and it is yours to fill up. Then when you all think we have it somewhat together, we can post it back to the general webhead site as an instructional file. Let me know. elderbob |
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Hi all, please count me in re: the dreamweaver group Susan E. |
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Wow Bob! that would be great :-) I love the idea. Starting next week will be fine for me. I have no problem with time or day, but may be in the late afternoon it would be better. Happy Daf |
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Hello Bob, your idea of hosting a webpage builder group in Moodle sounds really good! Not only will we learn together how to deal with the usage of Dreamweaver and /or HTML, we can also play around with the new Moodle collabration software - with moderator privileges! Please count me in, too. Sus |
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Hi Bob and Sus: I too am interested in Dreamweaver but adverse to too much HTML. Anyway, would love to explore and see how it is done. Gary Carkin |
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Hi, Bob! What a fabulous idea! It's very generous of you! I bow to my Texan friend and will be very pleased to meet you on your Moodle. Teresa |
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I'd be grateful if you'd count me in for Dreamweaver
subgroup and let me lurk in
the background ;-) I'm not sure if I will be able to contribute (my summer term starts on 19th February) but I'm eager to learn! Agata |
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Though I'm not an expert, I'll be happy to share
anything I know about Dreamweaver... can anyone please provide days with more than 24 hours ? Fernanda |
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Welcome Webheads Welcome collaborators. My name is Elderbob. I have offered to host a collaborative effort to build course ware for Webheads In Action regarding "Using Macromedia Dream Weaver to Build Personal Websites". Membership is strictly voluntary, and participants at all skill levels are welcome. I am offering this space to accomplish two personal objectives: 1) I want to build a greater awareness of the collaborative power of using Moodle to build courseware, and 2) I want to give something back to Webheads In Action for providing me the wonderful experience I have had with them in the last several weeks. I am certain that there will be additional course objectives but I am leaving that to the collaborators to develop. The Moodle course will be located at http://elderbob.com/Classes/. Once on that page click on "Webhead/Dream weaver Group" and you will be re-directed to a sign-in page. You will need to apply for a "New Account" which will require a "username" and "password" of your choice (Don't lose it, you will need it each time to log on.). After Logging on, you will be taken to the Class ware page. Once you are there, you will find the message you are currently reading under "News" at the top of the right hand column. Bob |
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Hi everyone! Though I've been much of a lurker lately, as I haven't had time to participate actively in the BAW group, I'd also like to collaborate at the Dreamweaver workshop. I've been using it for about four years as I started creating web pages straight with it as part of a project, so I don't use other WYSIWYG editors such as frontpage, 'cause I got used to Dreamweaver. Though I'm not an expert either, and as Eva said I've also learnt from a trial and error experience, I hope I might be of help to any of you. Best regards Sara |
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I would also be very interested in joining the Dreamweaver
group. I took a rushed 15-hour 2-day course (all in French) at my school
but didn't really have enough time to let it sink in. I would also
prefer if it could be done after BaW is over since I'm trying to juggle
so many things at once now (I'm teaching an intensive course that will
finish in two weeks--after that I'll have "only" my full time
load) Jane |
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I am actually doing a short evening course on dream weaver
at the moment and am in the process of building my first web page and experimenting with things. You can see my progress in action on www.cursos.webmaster.com and then scroll down and click on flawtie. My page is being hosted at the school for a month during which time I will be uploading and downloading things, after that I am on my own. To day I will learn how to add sounds. Fiona |
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I'd love to join the Dreamweaver sessions! I've used
the program
before, just experimenting on my own, but there is much more to be learnt. Thanks for posting chat logs, as some people from Down Under are unable to join some sessions in real time. Anna |
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I have some experience with Dreamweaver and Flash <MX
versions>. But I'm not an expert.I'd also like to join another group
called Dreamweaver Group.<after Polish sub-group and Mini Webheads
group>If there is one session on Dreamweaver, please put my name and
photo in the list first ;-). regards, Kyi Shwin |
| Hi Bob, what a wonderful idea. I would love to be part of a group like that too. I have and still am working a lot with Frontpage. I use it allt he time in teaching. But I have been told Dreamweaver is much better and easier to work with. Jacira | |
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Hello everyone, thanks to Michael Cog., Dafne, Kathrine Dodge, Luisa, and Dot for your comments and encouragement, and thanks on the links. as you said, hopefully it will grow, but patience. Luisa, yes it was worth it, but took time, for despite the simple steps, things went wrong. i tried to add a photo and kept getting error messages, so after redoing it several times, i decided to forget about it and that i have to finish doing this web page even if it turns out to be the shortest thing! then, some other time i will try to add to it. Dafne, will add it to the YG links. Dot, i am glad you liked the links--i assume you meant me by Susan. i teach academic english; if i can ever be of help, just email me. Babi your pages are really nice and interesting . Susan |
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Hi Susan, I just had time to explore the links on your site. All are extremely useful - both for my own academic writing as well as for my students. Your list is just beginning, but I'll be going back often to see what else you've posted. The sunflower image has stayed with me all week. Everytime I thought about the webheads postings, I could see it in the top right-hand quadrant in my mind's eye. What an elegant, metaphorical choice for an educational site! Congratulations! May I ask a mundane question? How many hours did it take you to make the site? I have a feeling it looks deceptively simple. Leah in Nagoya, Japan |
| ^ Servers | |
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I am kind of enjoying moodle environment! What is necessary to setup one? I mean hardware and expertise. Thanks, Sir Van |
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About servers, I think that Apache http://httpd.apache.org/
is a free server, not sure, though. Daf |
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Hi Daf, Yes, It is free. María |
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I set Moodle up on a hosted server. I pay $8.95 a
month for the service,
which includes one free MySQL database (which Moodle requires.)
Apache is free server software, but then you have to have a machine to
put
it on and a static IP address to connect to the internet, things which
are
not free. Most of the hosts and ISPs use Apache, though. |
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Thanks, Bruce-- Many teachers dealing with technology dream< about a multi-use friendly platform and they also want it for free. Coursewares like WebCT, Blackboard use to be very expensive and do not allow users to change their settings beyond basic features like colors or shapes, unfortunately. In my case we have a server available in my Faculty in which we have Apache and an EncoreMOO running . As long as MOO technology is not very popular I always tried to find a more friendly courseware but the ones I tried never were able to reach a reasonable quality performance.That's why I am interested in setting up Moodle . I intend to run a few tests with a little help from my students next week. Sometimes it can be interesting to take a look at what goes on behind the visible interface, that's why I admire interfaces which gives you the opportunity to enter their inner dephts. Regards, Sir Van |
| ^ Lurking or not | |
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Hi everyone, It's been great reading about experiences you're all having with technical successes and struggles. I've been in an on-line learning situation for the past three years, and I know that it's sometimes hard to post in public, especially with strangers. Yet, I encourage all to get involved with it! We encourage our learners to participate, yet it's sometimes hard to switch to the learner's role ourselves. I think joining in a bit more will only deepen the on-line learning experience for you. There is a collaborative process to the discussion of our learning, too. It's not only about the collaboration on sharing tech info. I would love to her any of your impressions of what it's like to use any of the new tools! (Or, if you haven't gotten that far, it's interesting to read that, too. Then I'll know I'm not alone!) I printed out Antonia's impressions of the first voice-text event (Michael C's) as a beautiful entry page in a webheads scrapbook I'm making. I think Elderbob's explanations of everything are really clear, too! (I would love to hear some of Elderbob's learning perceptions, too!) Anyway, this is just to say, join in! Don't talk yourself out of it! Didn't Dafne say there was a 'blog spot on which we could record our impressions of the workshop? Perhaps that would be a good venue for those who need more reflective time, or who feel that the very public list doesn't feel right. Leah |
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So I am a lurker no more, and I hope to figure out the
order of things eventually. Best regards, Karen García Yes, I am on the map too... what fun! |
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Hi Karen, I am glad you are not an only-reader participant anymore! Yes, it takes time to get used to all this information coming from different sources but do not worry it is a matter of practice, but to tell you the truth, there is always the feeling that you are behind ;-) I found your picture in our Yahoo Group photos section and it has been on the participants page since that moment, so now your intro has your pic too. Daf |
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It's great that you're a lurker no longer. The first step
is the hardest, isn't it? Then you'll notice the 'good' virus start
spreading through your system! And it'll never leave you! It's the WOW
factor!!! :-) Tere |
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Dear Leah, yes, yes and yes! First, you say : "We encourage our learners to participate, yet it's sometimes hard to switch to the learner's role ourselves." It definitely is so obvious, and to me, this is a major reason why all teachers, parents and community & political leaders should be kicked and teased into this computer supported collaborative and interactive way of learning together! Second, you say: "I think joining in a bit more will only deepen the on-line learning experience for you. " Again, I agree strongly. Of course we all know that everyone is short of time, and that even reading messages plus running from one homepage to anther to find your way round in teh maze we have created for you, can be enough for some. BUt of course those who really join and post even the tiniest message will feel more connected and concerned! Even a wee cry for help can open the shutters to this small world of Webheads in Action that we're trying to drag you into, not by force or by assignments but driven by your inner need to learn more! Last but least, Leah, you phrase this so well, explaining how "There is a collaborative process to the discussion of our learning, too. It's not only< about the collaboration on sharing tech info." Right! Our reason for focusing on HOW to use online communication technologies is not because any of us are high techies - but we're communicating and playful beings who like to get access to all possible means of communication - thats one reason WHY ; however, for our everyday needs of text chat and email, even very simple tools will do! Still, while we're so busy learning together in a realistic and active hands on workshop, we're developing strong social bonds! yours, Sus |
| ^ Bee's Presentation on Blogs e-Book Chatlog | |
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Dear All, This was a special session where our dear Bee surprised us, well, amazed us by presenting an e-book with the content of her presentation. The audience was so thrilled with the e-book, that it was impossible for Bee to take them "out of" the book. We were absorbed by the fabulous organization of the material and layout of the e-book. Well, it is better if you take a look, both the e-book and the chatlog can be found here: http://www.oocities.org/bawebhead/chatlogs.html This is the direct link to the e-book: http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/blog04/ and to the chatlog: http://www.oocities.org/bawebhead/logbee.html Congratulations Bee for such a wonderful presentation. You worked hard to prepare your material and it is a priceless resource for teachers. Thanks, thanks and more thanks. Warm hugs, Daf |
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Hi Bee, Your e-booklet prepared for the blog session in TI looks so great and was also greatly appreciated by our workshop participants, as daf has already mentioned; it is a rich and useful resource of information, ideas, tips and tools for blogging; no wonder so many wanted to share it with their class or colleagues. I'm also going to test a 15 days free trial version of www.KeeBoo.com that you used for the booklet, I've seen this used before and admire the simple and stringent way it can structure a presentation, it looks just like a real booklet on the screen, complete with a hyperlinked index, and more inviting to explore on your own than a PowerPoint presentation. yours, Sus |
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Hi Bee and all Just dropping a line to thank Bee once more for her excellent work. Although we behaved like proper students and were so thrilled by the ebook that did not seem to pay much attention to the content itself (huge work!), we will look at it more closely once we have overcome the pleasure we felt at the terrific presentation of it. It was an excellent talk, and just felt like saying so... Warm regards Sara |
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Dear Bee, I've just had time to look at your e-book presentation and *wow* is all I can say! Surprised, Daf? Not me, really. This*is* the kind of work that Bee has grown us accustomed to, I'm pleased to say. However, I am amazed at the amount of info that you, Bee, rounded up. The content, layout and its logical sequence are excellent. I need peace and quiet to digest it. And that won't come before the weekend, Bee. A very sincere and friendly 'thank you' from me, Bee Teresa |
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Hi Bee, sorry, i missed the session but this online ebook is impressive. great job, Susan |
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Thank you all for the kind words and compliments on
the presentation. I am very
happy you enjoyed it as much as I did preparing it and listening to your
reactions. I hope it will serve its purpose. If there are any more
questions,
I will be pleased to answer them and save them in the booklet. I have posted my comments on last night's presentation at http://beewebhead.blogspot.com and some questions ...It's your turn to answer them now.... :-) Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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Hi Bee, Thank you so much for the presentation. My comments echo everyone elses as to not being able to keep my now out of the book. The download time took so long on my computer, I just turned my computer off and came back to Tapped In. I was afraid to miss something in the lecture. Then, another long ten minutes download, saying it was then loading HTML, than the actual book appeared. I tried your blog this morning, but couldn't see how to post there- could only read. In answer to one question: Yes, I think visuals are essential. Text only is okay, but graphics and layout lead the eye, attention and mind. This is especially important if an activity is going to involve steps or tasks. If it's only about reading a paragraph, a paragraph is best. I love the tactile feeling of your e-book. On my laptop, it was as small as a paperback, and the image of a 'real' book was very inviting. It had the feeling of a personal journal, not a textbook. Where can I post comments on various blogs for this group, instead of using the list-serve? I've been scrolling through messages and can't find a particular blog for becomingwebheads. (Dafne mentioned one, but I can't find it now). My two cents for this morning :) Leah |
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Hi Leah, Good to hear from you and that you managed to download the e-book. I agree with you it is quite a heavy file ...but it's worth waiting :-) You can post on http://beewebhead.blogspot.com by clicking the red comment line below each post . Would you repost the answer to my question there? As for the BaW weblog, you can find it at: http://yomar.bravejournal.com/ Have a wonderful day (I am going to bed here....it's getting late and I have full day tomorrow) Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
| ^ Moodle | |
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Dafne, I had no more than posted the message until I started getting request for approval to join. I already had five people as soon as I posted the email inviting people to the course. I hope that it become interesting and fruitful for all participants. You are right, there is nothing there yet. My vision of a collaborative project is that everyone participates in making this thing what it is. The only real supervision or teaching or guidance or coaching or whatever you want to call what I plan to do, is that I will be available as host to help with the things that need work. I will tell you now, that if folks have technical questions I will refer them to google or to Moodle.org or to Macromedia.net or whatever resources that we can find that will give us our answers. In other words, I am certainly no expert but I am a good learner. I did set it up so that those who join who have some experience can act as guides for the rest of us, but I wanted this to be a true group collaborative experience. I have also challenged anyone who wants to take it on, to participate in the sense of observing and understanding and hopefully documenting what it takes to use Moodle software as a collaborative device. With that in mind, I recommend that people first make themselves familiar with the www.moodle.org site. It will explain a lot of potentialities for this class. You will find information there about where and how to store files and documents, how to set up chat rooms, how to use the student forum, and although it allows for tests, I am not sure I am looking forward to tackling that. However, if you are an instructor that sees value in this format, you may want to develop some sort of exam for all the participants to make yourself familiar with how it is done and how to read the results. I leave that up to the collaborators. I have also challenged any of you who are interested to investigate the multi-lingual aspects of Moodle. In conversation with Dr. Dougiamas, a few weeks ago, he indicated that he had not thought about that being of interest to instructors such as yourselves. Since that time, he has set up a forum at the moodle.org site for language learning at http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=31 . This is not particularly my area of expertise but I signed up for the journal just because I wanted to investigate the possibilities. I suspect there are several of you that would be interested in this forum/journal. Anyway, I have had several request to start after the BAW classes, but I think I am going to go a head with my original plan to start on Feb. 25. The first two sessions will simply be planning and investigating our resources anyway, and we are going to start off slowly so if someone can't make the first meeting or two, then it won't be too much of a problem. As far as I know, everything that happens will be posted for the duration of the course, so except for the interactions, there will be archived material for everyone to read. As far as bringing in material, start whenever you want, you might let me know what you have to add, and I will make sure it gets in the first time or two. You can also start adding to your profile or set up an individual journal or even post a forum question. Again, this is open to however the group wants to use it. elderbob |
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I've happily been approved for your coursesite, edited my
profile and replied in the first discussion thread - intros. Moodle is
so good to let us use a smart text editor to make personal postings, and
I've not had any need so far to read help files for this first beginner
step. Agree strongly with you on the format of a collaborative course; I might wonder if this is not more like a workshop... Well, as you insist to launch this already next week, right after your own MOodle presentation in LT, I'll have to jump on the wagon. Are chat logs saved inside Moodle; I'm asking because in another workshop that uses the WebX environment, the chatlog saving is not automated and causes a great deal of messy trouble to generate. We're so many that want this to happen and will hopefully be able to pay back with our active presence in this - I'm really looking forward to this new and unexpected step ahead in our never ending development storyline, I've always known that running with Webheads is fast and exciting! yours Sus N. |
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After posting the chatlog I went back to our dream-moodle
environment and completed my profile and then wrote an intro playing with all the little tools there, while answering the questions asked - form and content :-) - Like Sus I did look at the help documents. However, I had a problem because an image that I tried to upload, showed while I was in the editing mode, but once I saved the doc., the imagine is not there anymore. Maybe Moodle does not accept images from Geocities server? I was not able to delete the image either- I should have looked at the help documents ;-) - I was looking for the place to start a blog but could not find it. Daf |
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Dafne, you posted in what I think of as a forum. I
have since added "Dream
Chat" on the front page as well as a "Master Journal"
which is similar to "
a blog". If you are interested I think I can set up multiple
journals for
different tasks or teams. However, I do not know how secure that will
be. Again, I am no expert and the answers to many of your questions are going to be found the trial and error section. There is a wealth of materials and information at Moodle.org and I am sure after we pursue this for a while, that resources is going to be a very well read document. elderbob |
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Elderbob and Dream Weaver sub-group people -- I've entered the chat for a test and noticed that the typed text takes a few seconds to show up on the screen. Is that lag normal? Does it happen to anybody else? Regards, Van |
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Sir Van, The honest truth is "I don't know". I have not heard anyone else mention the lag. I will try to get around to looking at it today. Since it is a part of a much larger system, and perhaps because it is freeware, there may be a bug. You might want to scroll through the FAQ and Help pages at Moodle.org and see if you can find anything about it. If you don't, you might want to post something there to see if other Moodle users are having similar problems. Moodle.org is like a huge tech department of experienced users. They are often folks that have been with Moodle since it's inception and are very in tune with its mysteries. If nothing else, I am sure they would want to know what your experiences are as they are the folks that fine tune moodle into the next version. All you need to post there, is to open an account just like you did in my moodle. In fact, Moodle.org is just another moodle. I hope this helps. elderbob |
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Dear Bob, I also have the lag in the chat room, will the the Moodle site FAQ. Daf |
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Configuring Moodle takes some persistence; I
quit and then came back to it after setting up other MySQL: packages
like Tiki, Mambo, and PHPNuke sucessfully. Once I got the hang of it, it
was fairly easy to edit the configuration file using Notepad. I've found
that the Forums for open source usually contain the answers to problems;
you just have to search for them. Persistence also is importance. I have not checked, but I assume that Moodle uses the MySQL database for its chat. That would mean that entries would be made in the database and then displayed in the chat window. I'd guess you would probably want your own server if you are serious about chat; even then, it will probably not rival real-time chat like AIM or YM. Bruce Moon |
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Thanks for the information Bruce. Having
looked through the forums tonight,
I think I agree with your answer. Unfortunately this is not my area of
expertise. I did find one entry by Dr. Dougiamas about making the
earlier
version of chat deliberately slow and that in later versions the speed
of
chat would be addressed. Since a new version is just around the corner,
and
the upgrade is going to take some considerable effort, I am just going
to
wait. If the speed doesn't increase with the upgrade, I may tap you on
the
shoulder to ask you more specifically what you did. Thanks again for your thoughtful input. elderbob |
| Working within Moodle is also a great idea. We have just
installed Moodle at school and we are just starting to explore
it....very
carefully. I have told my colleagues about your presentation in Learning
Times next week and they would like to join too. That is if they can get
out
of bed early enough..... Jacira |
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Feel free to join us. I am now working on getting
Martin Dougiamas,
originator of Moodle, to visit LearningTimes for a live presentation. I
will
keep all posted. elderbob |
| ^ Color and Design (cont.) | |
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Hi Sus, thank you for your welcoming me
and giving me feedback on the slide
presentation available at http://predu.tripod.com I learned to attach the slide show created in power point by mere sweat and tears (since I didn't have technical support).... and it is still a little bit rough. I need to find out how to make the presentation to stop before the last window which, if clicked, closes the web browser all together. Any one can help with this? Your suggestions about timing and colors are useful. In Puerto Rico everything is political and about colors -and red is the color at the moment so the usual dark backgrounds are challenged here. I remember when I went to the Department of Education in the late nineties with my lap top and the slide presentation and when I finally got the person in charge of technology to be interested in viewing the presentation (offline) the whole thing froze up... didn't move at all! Fortunately I was able to think on my feet and summarize the main ideas. After that I uploaded the presentation to the web and have used that capacity for various proposals. If anyone can help me with incorporating slides into tutorials, I could advance a couple of projects I have pending. Karen |
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Dear Karen, I find it so interesting learn about the political importance of using a strong hot red colour in context of your actual situation in Puerto Rico; I think you might just enlarge types because I have myopia and use heavy glasses, but as Dafne explained, there may even be people whose color vision is prohibting them from seeing certain combinations of colours. In case some of you encounter this problem with students or yourself, I know there is a preference setting in your browser that forces an override of font or color to your own preferred style and size, and you could decide not to see a background, that can be helpful in case someone is using a hopelessly dark or messy background image for a webpage. Thank you for bringing this up, by letting us have a look at your slides; this is an amazing way to make new learning relevant - just in time :-) yours, Sus |
| ^ Arnold's Pres. WebPage and recording | |
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This Saturday, February 21, Arnold Mühren from Holland,
will be presenting about the use of synchronous and asynchronous web
tools for teaching. Read the information at: http://www.oocities.org/bawebhead/chatsessions.html#AM This event will be at the Alado room at 16:00 GMT. Since the Alado room has a capacity for 25 people, I suggest that you write your name in the database to reserve your place, and get to the presentation 10 or 15 minutes before it starts. This is the Alado url: http://www.alado.net/login (not for Mac) Daf |
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Hi everybody, Just a quick hello from Alkmaar. Next Saturday I hope to meet you for a session in the Alado room that has so kindly been made available by Andy Pincon. On the BaW guest biogs page there is some information - for those in need of boredom - about what I have been doing professionally until now. This is a copy of the session's opening page on the Alado/BaW portal page (after log-in): *** Saturday, 21st of February, 2004 16.00 - 17.00 GMT The art of e-teaching: roles, skills, dilemmas, tools A BaW session moderated by Arnold Mühren Alkmaar, the Netherlands <http://www.planet.nl/%7Emhren000/baw_pres_am>Link to the presentation web site (available from Thursday, 19th Feb - 11.00 GMT |
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Hello Arnold, we're looking forward to your presentation on Saturday 16 GMT. Your title is promising as I definitely see many challenges - and dilemmas - in online teaching (or e-teaching) and learning. I like that you consider e-teaching as an art in itself, I strongly agree with that concept. Inspired by your questions, I think that the role taking is one I would like to investigate more in depth. Who's learning from who, and why so? How can we facilitate natural peer learning processes that may happen when the course structure and progression has a collaborative approach? And , what is so different from asynchronous and synchronous communication in terms of language fluency and short term memory training? yours, Sus |
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Dear Arnold, Welcome to our BaW session and thanks for accepting our invitation to present for us. Your title intrigues me. "The art of e-teaching". Artists are special people with special skills that not everybody possesses. Does it mean that e-learning is not for everybody? What are those skills teachers and learner should have? Are they teachable? If so, How can we get teachers to master these skills? What should be the role of a moderator/tutor? Is there a difference between those two terms? Personally, I would like to hear what you and other participants have to say about this issue, which is so relevant for those of us who want to start or are already using CMC in our teaching. I could write many more questions, but I will let others pitch in. Looking forward to your presentation, Daf |
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Hi Daf and Arnold! Totally agree with the art of e-learning! I have been training and assesing teachers on these topics and not everybody is able to manage to teach online. First of all you must be creative and trying to be a good f2f teacher (not a very easy thing), then you must be good at moderating too and of course, taking into account that the better you want to be the more hours you will have to spend. Of course it is an art. You have to be able to teach through an untangible media... and that is difficult. On the other hand student cannot see or touch each other and you have to employ your effort in trying to get a similar situation to traditional classes. Of course it is an art. You have to impress the student enough for him/her not to leave the course. And... it is an art and also experience... like traditional teaching... there is no other way to improve... I don't know why, but the more I go deep in this "art" the more I like it... María |
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I would just go with Dafne's questions about discussing
the 'art' of e-teaching. What is it, actually? I've been in an on-line learning situation (grad school) for three years, and have been in both positions. I was able to observe my professors and watch their teaching styles evolve. I had a chance to observe the profs during a residential session, too, and form some impressions about their in-person teaching style, versus the on-line one. We had a component of a thirty minute student discussion each week, following the prof's one-hour tutorial, and each student took a turn moderating a discussion, on a rotating basis. It was not easy switching roles! I have not yet done my own on=line courses. I'm interested in hearing how skills in a traditional classroom compare to on-line learning. For ex, presentation, classroom management, learner correction, probing and questioning, building a rapport, just to name a few. Looking forward to your presentation and whatever direction it takes. Thank you. |
 |
What's in-store for students and the
implications of using technology in a traditional classroom? What about
the kind of work and preparations that teachers must face when doing
blended learning projects? Arnold? Aiden |
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Sus, Michael, Daf, Maria, (Leah), Aiden, and all, Thanks for sending your questions and comments. I'm sure they can be discussed during our gathering next Saturday. In terms of main topics let me summarize: Sus - facilitation of peer learning processes, role taking in a collaborative cmc environment, interplay between 'language fluency' and a/syncronous communication Michael - scheduling the sessions to suit everybody around the globe is obviously a problem; maybe sessions should be repeated in the future with a 12 hour interval; thanks for mentioning this Daf - how to achieve artistry in teaching/learning, difference between moderating and tutoring, (in earlier post) working with Moodle Maria - sound f2f teaching skills as a basis to move on to online work (Leah) - differences between teaching on line and teaching f2f |
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Hi, Arnold! Please excuse my delay in 'welcoming' you to our BaW session and 'thanking' you in advance for your being available to share your expertise with us in the session tomorrow afternoon. I won't answer any of your great questions, because this is especially for our participants, so it's they who should have their say, and they have already. As to the art of e-teaching. . . well, I think teaching is an art with different facets. I can speak for myself, because I'm always acting out different roles, though I prefer comic-humorous roles! But there's also the art of communicating, understanding, attracting students to learning and keeping them interested in what they're doing, etc. These are my two cents! See you tomorrow at Alado! Teresa |
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Dear All, Thanks to all who attended Arnold's presentation at Alado. It was a very thought provoking session where partipants responded with questions and comments revealing their interest for the topics being discussed. I would like to publicly thank Arnold for being with us today, sharing his expertise in the area, and making us reflect about our e-teaching practices. Those who could not attend do not miss the recording! This is a temporary link to his presentation which will be changed soon (we will let you know). http://dafnegon.tripod.com/baw/arnold.htm (You need to wait about 5 minutes into the presentation for the first web page to appear - there were some technical problems at the beginning, but the firt page is shown again during the pres.) We will also post the url to the Web Page. Thanks again, Arnold and partipants :-) Bfn, Daf |
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The changed link is www.planet.nl/~mhren000/baw_pres_am/ Thanks to all again for the kind and stimulating words re Saturday's presentation. I am sure I missed quite a lot of the action in the text chat window. Do you know these bar dropping machines used for testing people's reflexes? Well, doing the prez felt a little like that: how nice it would be to be an octopus. Cheers, Arnold |
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I can't help but laugh at Arnold's comments. So, you wish
to be an octopus during online conferences, huh? Yeah, it is difficult,
but if you look at the whole situation right after the conference, when
you had the time to sit back and relax, you'll feel that sense of
gratification, because you knew that you did your best. Well, at least
Arnold, you didn't have to run. In which case, I'd also like to be an
octopus during online sessions. Aiden (read about Aiden's chaosnavigation) |
| ^ Comparing Tools | |
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Hi Michael, I was just reading the transcript and wanted to comment on your question about the difference between blogs and web- based bulletin boards (and you mentioned NiceNet). I have never used Nice Net, but have been studying at an on-line university for the past three years. My immediate impression, having been exposed to blogs for the first time this past few weeks, is the following: -blogs can focus our attention immediately to a topic, category, recent entry -a comment can be added to that, and an ongoing threaded discussion built additively -the interaction seems more one of move-respond-follow up -participants don't have to be as well-trained in discussion, because it's more organized for them bulletin boarda are also asynchronous, but -they are more random -a message may be responded to, by attaching or picking up the subject or heading -the reading must collocate messages on their own, finding their way through random posts which may or may not respond directly to the previous one -they seem more similar to a synchronous chat with multiple users, yet they are not in real 'on-line' time, since anyone can compose and post at their own pace -as an ex, isn't our becomingwebheads posting a kind of bulletin board? -a message can't be recalled once it's sent Any comments by anyone? Are there other differences? Leah |
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Dear Leah, and All, Yahoo Groups does not have a discussion board, only a distribution list, where you post and the messages are sent to all the members of the group. The messages are kept in numerical order, and you can search by number or any other word, and you might be able to get the messages related to a topic if the subject in each message has similar wording. On a discussion board people reply to the different threads posted and the messages will be kept together and visually available for all readers. You can also start a new thread or sub-thread. You can take a look at this discussion board that I created to discuss CMC tools with students and colleagues: http://dafnegon.tripod.com/discussionboard.html Regarding Nicenet (http://www.nicenet.org ), it is a free platform where you can set courses like in Yahoo Groups. Easy to register, you can upload files, collect links, send group and individual e-mails, and have a forum for threaded discussions. I have just taken a screen shot of one of the pages of a course we started in 2002 when we were exploring different Web platforms: http://www.oocities.org/bawebhead/pics/nicenetshot.gif If you are interested, you can join the group, explore the site and read the documents we uploaded there. Go to http://www.nicenet.org/ , click on Students - join a class (left upper corner) and then on that page enter the class key E47687WZ6, and follow the instructions to join, the name of the class is "Webheads for free". Enjoy the exploration! Daf |
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Karen's post with comments by Dafne ***
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Hi Everyone..... I must report about my experiences with TappedIn
since I am all set; I have an office with a picture and the possibility of posting messages, discussions and papers. I read the transcripts from previous tours (thanks Leah for the lead!) and I've become curious about BjB's enchanted forest room.... o0 (I'll certainly need help with the interior design of my office...) Sus meet me this morning there and she asked me to post the transcript of our conversation. I'll see if I can do that at my office.... At this point I am interested in catching up with any discussion that might have taken place about comparing Tappedin with Yahoo Messenger and/or any other tool/ platform. And while the personal assistance that I've gotten at TappenIn has no comparison, there must be a complementary function for each platform. Any comments about the pros and cons for each? ***While at Tapped In, as you say, we find the best assistance at the
reception (not found at YM), usually the fastest help is given by our
chatter colleagues with more experience on the use of the platform. The
sames goes for YM, and that's why we encourage the interaction with
colleagues in order to explore the different features of each
application and consider its best use within particular contexts. Also, (btw) if anybody is keeping a list of the shorthand used in this dialect (lol) would you please post it somewhere where I can see it... I am afraid of getting into trouble with my own (wrong) interpretation of the code. ***If you go to our BaW Glossary page, scroll to the bottom of
the page, and you will find a couple of links to chat acronyms and
jargon: >***Thanks for your comments about our course design. It was a
collaborative project as many of webheads are used to design, based on
social constructivism. You can see Aiden's projects where many webheads
have participated, to name a webhead here with us. I have also designed
a couple of collaborative projects, one of them having 2 f2f teachers in
Caracas with 60 students and 2 external observers, one in Argentina and
our dear Sus in Denmark. You attended an online presentation where I
explained another collaborative online project with the UNED in Spain.
Will close for now. Must get ready for tomorrow's session. |
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Dear Karen, it was good to meet you in Tapped In and see how much you already learned there, after a good helpful session with BJ. Now I am looking forward to visit your office again some time and see how you have arranged your environments. I think your initiative to meet other Webheads in chat mode, is how we hope you will soon feel is a natural way to get in touch; my own telephone bill has decreased quite importantly since I started chatting instead (I've got a montly expense for DSL and does not pay per minute such as we do with our phone calls, even local ones). It is all about knowing how to make friends online, to get an online presence and identity - and how to find out who's to find where, and when :-) yours, Mrs. Nyrop (just call me Sus :-) |
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Dear Leah-- I'm a loyal Mac-fan, and also love TI. It is a fun environment. I have OS 9.0.4 on my laptop and have never had a problem with Yahoo Messenger on it! I've used my Webcam with it too, so we need to explore that. Elizabeth |
| ^ Resources | |
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Dear Jane (want2no) I'm Luisa, Im Portuguese and I teach English in the Air Force Academy. I've read that you are also connected with aeronautics, so I think it would be a good idea if we could exchange some opinions and maybe do something together. Why not? I also would like to tell you that I found the ESL BLUES really interesting and I marked it as one of my favorites. Say something, ok? Love Luísa |
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Hi everyone Diana (from http://www.dyanainfo.info) sent me a link to an interesting and curious site, which could be used to promote writing among students. Just thought you might like to have a look at it. It's at http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php I hope you enjoy it Warm regards Sara |
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This has big potential for my junior high
classes, should I ever gain = access to the computer room with them. It looks like something easy to use in a one-shot lesson, which they could the= n send to their home computers. Leah |
| Does anyone have links for speed reading exercises on the
web for intermediate to advanced English students? Also can you recommend links for business English? I have just moved to the Faculty of Business Admin in Kuwait University, having spent a long time in the Faculty of Science. I built up a large collection of links for science related topics, but now need to spread my wings (so to speak!) Thanks Dot |
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Dear Luisa, I teach in a college near Montreal that has two campuses--one has the aeronautical students and the other has students in a wide variety of other fields. I usually request to teach the aviation students since I find them so interesting. Currently I'm teaching a very specialized course in aeronautical report writing that involves lots of terminology (pitch and yaw, cotter pins and turnbuckles, spars and longerons--it's another language in and of itself!) I would really like to set up a blog that would allow current students to interact with former students who are working in industry. Of course, it's quite depressing right now because there are so few jobs in the aeronautical sector (Before 9/11 our students had their pick of job offers). It could be very interesting to set something up with you--what did you have in mind? Jane |
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Dot, I hope you find these useful: BBC site. I love this page, they have videos, exercises, tips, etc. :http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/index.shtml tiny url (http://tinyurl.com/3er3d) Business English Exercises: http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html Link to links http://www.eslcafe.com/search/Business_English/ http://business.englishclub.com/ http://www.onestopenglish.com/ http://www.nonstopenglish.com/allexercises/BusinessEnglish.asp (business English exercises) Aiden |
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Dear Dot, I have just made a quick yahoo search "business english resources" and here is this page with many resources: http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-&ei=UTF-8&p=business+english+resources Btw, have you introduced yourself to the group? Cheers, Daf |
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In reply to Dot's query about speed reading, I would
strongly urge her getting Hot Potatoes and making her
own exercises with the materials she already has
accummulated. HotPot has a built in timer for reading
passage--sounds like a good match--and it's free to
educators, as long as it's not used commercially and
is freely shared. http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ An online tutorial is available at the site, and there is also a YG users group for help. Cheers-- --Elizabeth |
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Sharing with you a webquest I built some time ago
(some of the tools used: Bernie Dodge's webquest template, Inspiration, Hot Potatoes, Trackstar, Rubric Maker) http://the_english_dept.tripod.com/foodquest/ And an exercise page (some tools used: Hot Potatoes, Filamentality, Quizmaker) http://the_english_dept.tripod.com/exos.html Bee |
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Hi, I've just added a link to my website www.englishquizzes.prv.pl
to our Links-> Participants' web pages section. (quizzes) It is not "new" - I've been working on it for 3 years. It contains my first webpages, though. You can have a look at them at: http://www.wsl.edu.pl/~azetka/wedding.htm http://www.wsl.edu.pl/~azetka/index01.html here you can some pictures from my wedding :-) Cheers, Agata |
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Dear Agata, I had no problems with opening your pages. Folklore traditions has great appeal to many of us, especially the romantic part of humanity, so using this as an excuse for grammar training exercises might help the more trivial practicing become relevant :-) Sus |
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Agata, I simply loved your website on weddings. It was
a great idea to use weddings as an Internet-based activity, and also I
loved your using your own wedding photos (most of the time students feel
curious about us a real people, so the possibility of watching your
wedding pictures may encourage them to use the activity) Really loved it! Best wishes Sara |
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Dear Sara, Susan,Ismail and Susanne! Thank you for all your kind words about my wedding page. I made it quite a long time ago (about 2 years) and I tried the activities with some of my students. They found them OK. The only problems we had were technical - some pages were opening slower than others. But we were in a f2f situation in the computter lab and I was able to assist and help my students whenever they needed me. Sara, I used my own wedding pictures because they were the only ones I could publish without worrying about copyright! But you are right - my students were really much more interested in my photoes than in some other pictures they saw on the visited websites ;-) Ismail, I added these little flying hearts because I was fascinated by the possibilities of javascripts which allow you add many "moving" or "interactive" features to your static html pages. Today I know that web designers discourage people from addaing too much flashing, moving, changing size and colour "add-ons" to their pages. But I was very proud of myself when I created my very first web page without any html editor (just some instructions and the Notepad) and it contained links, background, pictures and movint text, and these lovely hearts! Thanks again, folks! |
| ^ Young Webheads | |
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Today I started the summer semestre at my school and
talked to my
students about BaW. They got very interested and some of them decided
they would like to try and start an international project with their
peers all over the world. My students are 19-22 years old. Some of them are "false beginners", some "pre-intermediate" level of English. If there is anyone interested in cooperation please contact me and we will work on the details. Hope this will be the beginning of a new, challenging enterprise! Cheers, Agata |
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Agata, It is fabulous. What are they studying? Our students at the university in Caracas are that age more or less. I might get some of the teachers interested in the project. You are a great webhead :-) Daf |
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Hi, Agata-- Well, I've just started my year too, maybe we can set up some online collaborative activities together. I work with two groups of young adults and my subject is Business English. Their English level varies from false beginners to Intermeadiate. We meet F2F on Fridays at 6:30 PM - GMT and on Saturdays at 11:30 AM - GMT. The other group: Fridays at 8:30 PM - GMT Saturdays at 9:30 AM - GMT Depending on your students times we can choose sync or non-sync tools and activities. Van |
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Hello again Dafne and Van! It is great that you are interested! My students study Physical Education - they will be PE teachers in the future. I teach them General English or I'd rather call it Survival English ( I've got only 30 hours of English a semester ). All my students will use their own computers at their homes - we don't have a computer lab at our college :-( I might be able to take them to the computer lab in another school but it hasn't been confirmed yet. So I think asynchronous tools / tasks would be better for my students (at least at the beginning ;-) Some of them have access to the Internet at the weekend when they go home. Looking forward to your ideas, Agata |
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Dear Agata, I will start contacting the professors in my department. However, they are now in the last part of the trimester, so I think they would not like to start a project at this time. The new trimester starts in March-April, not sure since I am not there; so, they might want to wait until the new trimester starts. You can go ahead with Van and then we can incorporate these students when they start their new course. Good luck, and keep me posted. If I can be of help, let me know. I have had online classes with students in Caracas, and it has been wonderful. Hugs, Daf |
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Dear Agata, Van, Dafne, I may be interested in collaborating with you too, if it works out! Our students are also in the 18-22 age range (a few are a little older). In one of my courses which is sort of like a business English course (not exactly, but close enough) students will be giving oral presentations over a three week period in mid/late March. Since my students are already burning out from too many courses and I have 28 students in this class, I've decided to just require the students who are presenting to come to class the day of the presentations (we have class once a week for three hours). The two weeks when they don't have to come to class I plan to set them up with some kind of blogging assignment on the blog that has yet to be invented. This group is fairly advanced in their written English (French is the mother tongue for most of them). I may be teaching an adult education group starting the first week in March. Since I haven't met them yet, I don't know much about them but they are supposed to be quite a diversified group both in terms of English ability and in terms of ethnic background. They are supposed to be working on electronic networking skills so I figure setting up a blog or something along those lines should be appropriate. My other students are taking an ESP course in aeronautical report writing. It's pretty specialized so it might be difficult to tailor extensive projects with them, although by and large, they have many interests beyond airplanes. Jane |
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Jane-- (and Agata) Our group has many aspects in commom as you can see. I believe that we can do a great job with Agata's students. The blog idea is great and I would suggest a very simple but efficient tool called Nicenet (http://www.nicenet.org). As a group managenent strategy we could split them up in sub- groups and let them choose subjects related to the multicultural aspect of the collaboration. Some sync meetings could be set among themselves inside the sub- goups (I'm thinking about a 5/5- people-group) if not possible to have a meeting with the whole group. For those sync moments I suggest FatecMOO (http://www.fatecid.com.br:7000) for written interaction and Alado for voice contacts. Well, I think I've spoken too much ;) I will be waiting for more ideas. Best regards, Sir Van |
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Dear Agata, Jane and Van, My comments inserted below: > > Our group has many aspects in commom as you > can see. I believe that we can do a great job with > Agata's students. ***That is the great thing about our Webheads community, collaboration and being able to put into practice what we preach :-) This is how we construct and distribute our knowledge through the creation of sub-groups which report back to the whole community *** > > The blog idea is great and I would suggest a very simple > but efficient tool called Nicenet (http://www.nicenet.org). ***In message Nº 1218, I mentioned Nicenet, I am copying what I said: "Regarding Nicenet (http://www.nicenet.org ), it is a free platform where you can set courses like in Yahoo Groups. Easy to register, you can upload files, collect links, send group and individual e-mails, and have a forum for threaded discussions. I have just taken a screen shot of one of the pages of a course we started in 2002 when we were exploring different Web platforms: http://www.oocities.org/bawebhead/pics/nicenetshot.gif If you are interested, you can join the group, explore the site and read the documents we uploaded there. Go to http://www.nicenet.org , click on Students - join a class (left upper corner) and then on that page enter the class key E47687WZ6, and follow the instructions to join, the name of the class is "Webheads for free".*** > > As a group managenent strategy we could split them > up in sub-groups and let them choose subjects related > to the multicultural aspect of the collaboration. ***This is great, especially if you set jig-saw (information-gap) tasks. I have done that with my students and the results have been amazing*** > > Some sync meetings could be set among themselves > inside the sub-goups (I'm thinking about a 5/5- people-group) > if not possible to have a meeting with the whole group. ***Using YM I have been able to hold a conference with all the students in a class (20), plus 4 other simultaneous conferences where students were working in groups. I visited the groups from time to time, as I usually do in a f2f environment *** > > For those sync moments I suggest FatecMOO > (http://www.fatecid.com.br:7000) for written interaction > and Alado for voice contacts. ***Remember that Alado is a paid service. Our Webheads Alado room allows for 10 people, and there is a time table (schedule) to reserve spots (Michael Coghlan is in charge of this)*** I am really excited about all the sub-groups which are emerging from this 6-week session. As I have said before, you are a terrific group of people. Keep up the great work, folks :-) Daf |
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Thanks, Daf, Van, for your suggestions. Nicenet looks really nice ;-) I will log in as a student and explore it for a while (this weekend, hopefully). I'm not sure if my students will be ready to use voice synchronous tools at the beginning. Perhaps we could plan a voice conference ( presentation, interview, etc) later during the course. Daf, can you show us some examples of your jig-saw tasks, please? Cheers, Agata |
| ^ Aiden's Collaborative Projects | |
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Hellooooo Webheads! For this sem, I have two Advanced listening and speaking class (Groups A and B). I've taught Group A last sem and we did plenty of in-class blended learning projects. I hope to do the same for this sem, but more will be given on chats (topic-based discussions) with the webheads of course. Michael and Arnold with Daf, will be joining my students on two different occassions. More on this on separate email (let me stay focused on why I'm writing you this email- or else I'll forget!) This- is why I'm writing: For Group B, this class was taught by another professor last sem, but for whatever reasons, the department has asked me to teach this class. So, I'm now doing a last minute prep. I don't want their projects to be exactly the same as that of Group A's so I'm trying to recycle old but good projects as well as coming up with new ones (e.g. webquests). On March 03, I intend to do a lesson on telling true stories (see my lesson plan http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_lesson15.htm) It is in this light that I am inviting new webheads to join me and my students for an online conference about sharing and telling true stories. Stories can be funny, sad, scary, etc. I think, as teachers, you know which type of stories can be told to students and which ones are to be avoided- let's not do anything offensive- although such stories can be part of 'real' life and 'real' communication but we can still be authentic without being too bold or morally offensive (did I give it to you straight or did I go around the bush?). Group B meets every Friday from 1:30 pm-4:30 pm. Chats will start by 2:00 pm and will run for an hour or so (6 am GMT-7:30 AM GMT), the last hour (8am GMT) will be focused on students telling their own stories, which can be done online, too, but doesn¡¦t have to be. I would like to invite 2 webheads to tell their own true stories. Other webheads are invited to join and listen and comment. Student will ask you questions about your shared stories and discussions will go from there. When you tell your story, it would be advisable to stick to the traditional way of telling stories, you have an intro, the highlights, the end, and moral lesson of the story. Telling true stories is slated on March 03, 6:30 am - 8:30 am GMT, 1:30 pm-4:30 pm Taiwan time. Students: 4th year Uni.EFL students Level: (advanced) This is your chance to hone your online chat skills- The venue will be announced later. For my tech prep, I¡¦ll use my laptop using LAN connections, data projector, speakers and mic. So what do you think? Be there, or be square. Aiden |
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Dear Webheads, I'm sending you my invitations 2 and 3 to join my class online. Topics 4/23 Unit 7: Women Caught in the Middle of Two Generations. Do all the member of your family live together? Do Taiwanese (American) children live with their parents when they get married and have children? What happens to old people as they begin to require care? Do they live in nursing homes or children or friends take care of them? We will look at the American culture and how different it is from the Taiwanese way of life. Possible Online chat discussion with Webheads. Unit 10: What constitutes a family? We will look at the traditional (husbands go to work, wives stay at home and take care of children) American family and will compare it with a typical Taiwanese family. We will discuss about Gay or same-sex couples and their rights (if any) to form a family. Is it recognized by law and by the society? We will learn more from Webheads about this issue on an online discussion that will help gain a deeper understanding of how people and the world are changing. In retrospect, we will look at your own culture, the Taiwanese, and how it is changing. Details will posted later (e.g. syllabus, lesson plan, etc) Any takers? Aiden |
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Dear Aiden, Thanks a lot for your kind invitations to join and collaborate with your e-projects. It is always a pleasure to be involved in your excellent planned activities. There is a great controversy going on here in Spain regarding the adoption of kids by gay/lesbian couples, and just two days ago a judge agreed to concede the adoption of two kids to a lesbian couple, with the immediate reactions (pro-against) of different groups. So, I would like to pitch in for unit 10. I invite new webheads to join Aiden in one of her online sessions, it will be a great learning experience on how to go from playing with and learning about tools, to the real action taken by the hand of a pro. Hugs, Daf |
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Dear Aiden If you still need volunteers, I'd love to meet one of your classes for a discussion about 4/23 Unit 7: Women Caught in the Middle of Two Generations. I've had an old granny who died at the age of 97 at a good and lived herl ast five years in her own room in a neat nursing home; she definitely refused the idea of having to live with family. So there's a story to share in contrast to the traditional culture with more generations under the same roof. yours, Sus |
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Hi Aiden, I've been thinking about your project and find that Unit 10's consideration of what a family is and a discussion about "Gay or same-sex couples and their rights (if any) to form a family. Is it recognized by law and by the society? " ... would be quite interesting from the perspective of a recent State Supreme Court's decision here in Massachusetts to allow gays to marry. There is a lot of debate here and I wonder what light that discussion would shed from the perspective of Taiwan's culture. I am enclosing an article from the New York Times and would offer to be of help if the topic is of further consideration. Best regards, Karen García |
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Planning |
Hello Karen and Sus, I'm glad that you can make it to one of my students' online conferences. Thanks for the article too Karen. I'll use it as a reading and discussion material and will put it up on a webpage. I also would like to use your comments (and Daf's too) as a starting point for discussion. I'll create pages for this and will let you know the url once they're done. Thanks again. ------------ Renata and webheads, I've added your yahoo id to my friends' list. Can you please let me know which session you would like to join? Daf and Karen will join my students on May 07 (5/7) Unit 10: What constitutes a family? We will look at the traditional American (and other cultures-Spanish)family and will compare it with a typical Taiwanese family. We will discuss about Gay or same-sex couples and their rights (if any) to form a family. Is it recognized by law and by the society?) Susanne will join us on April 23 (4/23) Unit 7: Women Caught in the Middle of Two Generations. Do all the member of your family live together? What happens to old people as they begin to require care? Do they live in nursing homes or children or friends take care of them? We will look at other cultures and how different they are from the Taiwanese way of life. Anybody else who would like to join Sus? I need someone who could join us on March 05 (3/05 |
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Dear Aiden, I confirm hereby that I can particpate in your discussion about generation issues on April 23 (what time of the day is this?) Who will join us? In case you need a storyteller and has got nobody else to jump in for March 5, I have no major appointments for that day and would not mind to share a good real life story or two - but I still encourage others to take this opportunity to meet a class from Taiwan - and to collaborate with Aiden whose innovative teaching and creative ideas have been a great inspiration for those of us who are Webheads veterans :-) yours, Sus |
|
A chaos navigation story |
Speaking of running and chaos
navigation, I had the chance to update my webpages for last semester's
activities, and in doing so, I got to listen to Michael's and Vance's
recorded sessions (http://dcyeh.com/sy0304/date/)
. Daf's session was recorded but it got lost somewhere (cyber ghosts), but I have Daf's great materials which she used to tell her memorable story. In this session, I was using two connecting computer labs. I had separated my students so as not to cause any sound feedback. So, students who joined Daf's and Michael's sessions were in Lab A while the other group was in Lab B. I knew that my students were having difficulty with sounds when I heard almsot everyone say, "Can you hear me". We were in Alado, BTW, but Fernanda who was also there could hear perfectly what Michael was saying, so the problem was at our end in Taiwan. I was running back and forth, checking things out, it was physically traumatizing and my worst fear was that my students will get demotivated with using technology in their learning and lose interest in my course. Now, that was scary. So, a quick solution was to concentrate on in-class projects. Multimedia was still used, internet used for webquests, but not for chats (see http://dcyeh.com/sy0304) I was about to give up on online chats in the classroom when I found out that my laptop's LAN connection works using the school's wireless internet access. This was during the last few weeks of the 1st semester, too bad. However, this LAN thing has certanly perked my motivation up. If I can't use the computers at the lab for chats then I'll use my computer instead. The sessions that most of you will be joining will be done using one computer, a data projector, speakers and a mic. and yes, a webcam. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be according to my plans. Well that's my story, one of the many stories of my life as a teacher. aiden |
| ^ Sara's Blog Project | |
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Hi everyone! Just a short post to invite you to participate in my new experiment. From the very beginning when I started at efl/esl blogs yahoo group and the same happened when we covered blogs at webheads, I was quite interested in possible activities using blogs for students. That's why I've started a new section at my site, as an experiment on blog-based activities. I'd deeply appreciate that you had a look and even that you participated as if you were students (as my own have a week off 'cause of Carnival) My intention is to create about 12 blog-based activities, but as I have not had time yet, I've published the section with a couple of them, just for a trial. Any comments (through email or at http://elrebumbio4teachers.braveblog.com ) and your participation as if you were students will be greatly welcome, dear webheads. The activities may be found at http://elrebumbio.org/blogs/blogroundtheclock.htm Thanks in advance Sara |
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Dear Sara, Very creative use of blogs, indeed. I am eager to read more :-) As I commented on your blog, I especially like the second one :-) Cheers, Daf |
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Regarding the exercises...I think they are really cool. I
am not a language instructor but I like to look at how you folks go
about your business. I especially like the second sound oriented lesson.
You could just have easily linked to a picture or a logo. There are also
tons of single line movie quotations (usually in WAV files), that might
lead to interesting results. I am not altogether sure about what copyright issues may be present, but there are lots of sites that provide both sounds and pics that are free to use. A couple of points relevant to your exercise were made by Arnold Muhren today at his informative chat about e-learning and e-teaching. One has to do with getting to know the tools. Experimenting with blogs is a fantastic way for the instructor to find new ways to provide material to the class. At the same time, the student is also experimenting with the blog to find new ways to not only study materials but to communicate materials to others. I think this is a highly desirable place to be. I also think it applies to so many tools that most of us are just starting to explore. One of the neat things about constructivist learning is that it learner centered. It allows the instructor to learn as much as the student. I think that BAW is an awesome experience for so many of us because it allows us that "ah-ha" moment when we master a new skill or use a new technology. Sometimes we tend to get stale on the same old classroom experiences. For many of us, this learning experience brings back the THRILL of learning. From my position it is really awesome to see so many skilled instructors still get that "ah-ha" feeling from something they have discovered in their experience at BAW. Another point to be made, and I spoke to this this morning, is that before class design can occur, many of us have to gain new skills and new mastery of new tools. Sara, it is awesome to see that you have accomplished so much in such a short period of time. You have gone from novice in blogging to designer of lessons via a blog in a relatively short period of time. In my case, I have much of the knowledge about the tools but little knowledge about designing the lesson. Any of us could have read a net example about blogging and gone out and used a blog. But the power of many minds focused on the same lesson, multiplies the experience to awesome new heights. The sharing of techniques, knowledge, ideas, etc. is part of what makes this whole BAW experience so awesome. Sara, could have designed this course and presented it to her students and that would have been the end of it. But instead, Sara has shared her experience with us, and now we are going to multiply that experience by the number of people who go to her site an look and comment on her efforts. What a great world this is. Sara has influenced so many, already by her willingness to share, and she in turn will be further influenced by so many of you commenting back to her what you have seen in her class lessons on a blog. Learning to use the tools.... Having mastered the tools, learning to design the lesson... Sharing...the more minds, the merrier... This is what it is all about. Collaborative education in it's finest moment. elderbob |
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Thanks for your comments on the activities (though just a
couple of them yet but still working on it!) I also agree that the great part of this workshop is not only connected with learning about tools but with sharing with colleagues and learning form their perspectives. I have really learnt a lot form all BAW members, though I am sometimes too busy to participate actively, and become a sort of lurker. Anyway thanks for your comments and suggections, and i hope we all keep on learning a lot!! Warm regards Sara |
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Hi Sara, great idea! As usual once I visit your site I spend hours on it. Blogs has a lot of pedagogical applications, I'm always surprised by your genius. Isabel |
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Thanks Isabel! A compliment coming from someone with
such a great
experience and knowledge as you really makes me blush! Glad to hear you liked it. It's still unfinished (day seems to be so short!!) but I'm working on it. I'm looking forward to your presentation on Wednesday. Though I'm going to Tenerife for some days, I'll try to get to an Internet cafe to be able to meet you and the BAW members at Tapped in. Don't miss this presentation, BAW members! Isabel's work is a must for EFL/ESL teachers!! Warm regards Sara |
| ^ Safe Chat Environments | |
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I have been playing around with Yahoo Chat using the
headphones
and mike. I am going to encourage my adult students to do the same. It
might
give them a good chance of practising spoken English in authentic
circumstances. For instance, this evening I have had a very pleasant conversation with a Turkish police officer from Ankara who was in the Crime/Law Enforcement and Firefighters channel. Another channel I have had good conversations in has been Cultures and Communities/ Native Americans. They are usually affable and speak clear English. It can however be very difficult to find a channel that isn't a totally trivial waste of time. I will advise students to set aside at least 45 to 60 mins and be very patient. Has anyone else any recommendations? Just a thought - we could create our own channel on Yahoo. Michael Ivy |
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dear Michael Ivy the quick story is that we as Webheads often arrange special chat sessions for students where they can meet with us teachers and/or other peer students. You just witnessed how Aiden is booking guests for her classes and some others are trying hard to match calendars and time zone challenges. And today I just had a great little chat session with another webhead in China, Yaodong and his class in YM with voice (a report will come soon). Learn about our colleague Yaodong here: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/yaodong.htm This kind of exchange happens often in different constellations, and is basically a most important part of reason for our Webheads activities; we're not pushing you around in all these social communication environments for the love of technology, but for our need of a broad fan of alternative strategies to bridge between different cultures, accents and interestfields. Sus |
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Dear Michael, Sus' message is very complete with her overview of Webheads. I would just like to emphasize that we do not encourage the use of public chat rooms with students. On the contrary, we are always looking for safe places where we can take our students and colleagues, and as Sus rightly said, we have found Tapped In to be a great space for our meetings. We do encourage the use of YM, or other instant messengers, with colleagues and their students. The arguments against the use of chat spaces in educational institutions are mainly due to the bad reputation of public chat rooms and what you call trivialities. We, in Webheads, are preaching about the advantages of chat in language learning, teaching, and teachers' professional development, but not through public chat rooms. We teach what we preach. You are welcome to join our live events :-) Cheers, Daf |
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I think it would be great to set up a channel for
Webheads on YM, as per Michael Ivy's suggestion. OK, so explain what's a channel? -- Can you set one up for us to try? Isn't it possible to do text chat, webcam, and audio in YM now? And what equipment do we need -- is it Mac-able? Cheers-- --Elizabeth |
