Hi
all,
Week 1
1-THE
CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Hi
all,
Another newbie question. Is
there some particular center to the WIA universe? I know of TAPPED IN
(but haven't visited yet) and have visited a few of the copious web sites (almost
too much text for a newcomer to deal with).
--Don
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Hi
Don,
Webheads' center of the universe is
cyberspace ;-) We usually communicate as a group through this list. Otherwise,
we meet at Tapped In every Sunday at noon GMT, and starting a couple of weeks
ago, there is a new meeting taking place at TI on Saturdays at 16:00 GMT.
Regarding our web pages, I understand that it may be overwhelming when you visit
it for the first time since it contains all the content we built together in our
2002 session. You may make some sense out of it if you follow the syllabus from:
http://www.oocities.org/vance_stevens//papers/evonline2002/syllabus.htm
When we start our session this year,
another page will be created with participants' contributions, starting from the
portal page that is posted at the end of this group's home page, which also
contains links to the different topics that will be covered weekly. We also
meet at Yahoo Messenger or at MSN
messenger where we keep a list of our Webheads buddies, and from there we like
to explore different web tools. We report these experiences to this list, and
they are finally posted to our pages by Vance.
If you feel like having a chat
sometime, my Yahoo ID is dygonza.
Hope to have shed some light!
Cheers,
Daf
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Dafne
(and others),
Thanks for shining the light in the
darkness. Hopefully when I have a bit more time (yeah RIGHT! Like after I finish
editing two pre-publication papers and my already late dissertation chapters!)
I'll explore the world of WIA in more detail starting with the online syllabus
and working my way onto the chats. If I've got this right, Sunday noon GMT is
Sunday 21:00 Japan time so that seems doable.
By
the way my Yahoo ID is AbuFletcher. The comes from the Arabic tradition for
forming nicknames where you use the name of your eldest son/child. Abu means
"father" in Arabic so this would mean "Father of Fletcher".
A woman would use "Umm" for "mother". I started using this
while living in
Oman. Actually Fletcher is my youngest
son (12) but I I've already had turns as AbuAlia (now 16) and AbuRyan (now 14).
Nowadays this moniker is likely to turn a suspicious head or two but I continue
to be proud of it.
--Don
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Hi
Don,
Well, you asked about the centre of
the Webheads universe - what a finequestion . That leads me to think of our
organization as a very decentral, flat
structure. There are stories to be told, threads of interaction to be
spun,
and knowledge to be built upon. To really understand the power of
online
networking such as the Webheads in Action example, I think it is necessary
to take part, read postings, check websites, share your ideas and
opinions , ask questions - getting
involved, Just as you and other newcomers are
doing.
Speaking of myself, as a masters
candidate student of education (in Denmark Europe)
I do have a a special research interest in informal but
professional
learning community building online, I am not even a language
teacher,
but my reseach interest in tapped In made me join the Webheads -
and
soon I discovered how much I was able to learn in terms of a better
English
language. Little by little I became so involved that I felt
encouraged
to share some of my experiences with ccommunity-building online
environments.
And by now, I've realized how much I also enjoy learning
about
second and foreign lanaguge education theories. This is a great way of
getting
some hands-on practice. For me, the internet has become part of a
life-long
self inítiated learning strategy.
I address this posting to you, Don,
because your Course syllabus (an overview
course for future language teachers) came in very handy for me
yesterday
when I met an old friend at my university library, who just
started
on a course in Danish as a second language - she has been teaching
refugee
children for the last three years so she needed some education. We
were
both pleased to read your notes for the first three lessons about
different learning and teaching styles,
second language learning theories and
methodologies. This led her to describe some of the porblems she meet
everyday
in her classroom - a rare mix of Chinese, Turkish and Somalis
teenagers,
none of them speaking any language in common. And for the
untrained
ear, Danish can be hard to pronounce. Your notes were easy and
inspiring
for opening a good discussion. I am sure i will return and go
through
session notes.
Thanks for sharing this fine example
of an education syllabus website, Don - I
do feel sure that others here can use your experiences, so keep posting.
Yours,
Susanne Nyrop
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I
think you're right when you describe
the webhead universe as "flat" without a true center -- kinda like Los
Angeles ; ) I suppose the best strategy is to just wander around a bit.
Don
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Hi,
Don!
Apart from the great info that Dafne
has given, the WIA (Webheads in Action) Index page
that I started (and try to keep up-to-date as often as possible)
may
also help you. It's at
http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/webheads/wia-index.htm
HTH, Teresa
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