tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-288962302024-03-05T18:38:38.749-03:00Click to LearnThis is a blog for learning and experimenting with different tools.joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-14397312395891838642017-03-26T10:08:00.000-03:002017-03-26T10:11:57.499-03:00The Power of Mobile Phones<div style="text-align: center;">
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Teaching and technology has always walked hand in hand, or better, one has always followed another. And education has been the runner up so far. I say this because if we were to review the history of technology and teaching we will see that education lags behind in adopting nascent technologies. A classical case of this delay in adopting a new technology is the story of how the French educational system resisted in allowing students to use the novelty for note taking and other writing tasks.
As I go back home from TESOL International Convention in Seattle, based on what I observed there and around my settings, I see that the potential of mobile devices is, in some cases, largely unexplored by educators. Differently from rolling ball pens, smart phones have not been invented with the intention of serving as a class tool. These phones are the children of landline technology and computers and were concocted for communication. What is happening is that they are being repurposed. In other words, we started using them to make calls, to take pictures, then to write, and now we are seeing them as educational gadgets.
The question and the mission of educators in general lies in exploring the very devices they carry and see how this can be used in class. As a teacher teacher, I believe that the first step is to learn about what I can do with my mobile device and the ones my students bring to class and pass it on to my colleagues. Maybe if they get this knowledge they can think of how to use this in class instead of coming up with policies to make students shut down their phones.
joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-70792165293704472142016-05-31T08:41:00.000-03:002016-05-31T08:41:06.747-03:00Google Docs as Writing Portfolios<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloGeHDjSfAh6LNaSydo7Na8MoYei-72QI2Xj7uvwaP6AhBP6dVV3JSQ5zxU0aPvdLEEdxs3INkZ71geImb9Lf9hfz4v6UCgCvnVuOT8bA2-TWF33yB08_Dta5ZTpKtTp1-lSnjg/s1600/Google_Art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloGeHDjSfAh6LNaSydo7Na8MoYei-72QI2Xj7uvwaP6AhBP6dVV3JSQ5zxU0aPvdLEEdxs3INkZ71geImb9Lf9hfz4v6UCgCvnVuOT8bA2-TWF33yB08_Dta5ZTpKtTp1-lSnjg/s320/Google_Art.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Google docs is part of the Google Apps for Education and it has been on the market for a while. Lately it has been through a lot of improvements. As an educator, I have used a lot of tools for writing. Blogs or blogging portals are very useful for this task. However, sometimes we do have some problems with these platforms because they require an e-mail. Young learners do have e-mails, but they never use it for nothing other than logging into social networks. The problem is that their passwords are attached to their home pcs or devices and they never remember it. Besides that, they also do not have the habit of checking e-mails.<br />
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A solution for solving this problem is getting rid of e-mails. Google docs is just the tool to allow you to do that. So, what I have been doing in some of my groups of young learners is to create docs for each individual student. I make these docs editable by anyone with the link. Next, I use bit.ly to shorten and customize the url. Once I am done with that process, I give them the url and teach then how to work in the document. The final result is a portfolio in which I can keep all their paragraphs for the whole semester. It is paperless, it is free of the hassle of losing first drafts, and gets the correction phase smoother. Finally, you add colors to the docs and kids love wrting on such neat digital stationary. Here is sample document from a project I am working on. Click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smj6gneIQ7Q3oAD15STfYxczqmjNz_3WUN9ZoK95dpY/edit?usp=sharing">here </a> to browse it.<br />
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<br />joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-22272012856017948282016-05-30T07:39:00.000-03:002016-05-30T07:39:36.666-03:00Using Selfie Videos in the Language Class<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://cdn.atl.clicrbs.com.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2015/09/selfie-age-pic.jpg" height="204" width="320" /></div>
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Being a teacher for some time, I have seen first hand the impact the adoption of technology has had in teachers' and in students' lives. Having that in mind, one cannot deny that it is important to adopt technology for teaching. In line with this premise, I would like to share something I learned in one of the many interesting presentations at the 2016 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo in Baltimore, USA. This practice-oriented presentation (by Loni Thorson, Kyla Masciarelli, and Christine Discoe) was entitled "Using Selfies to Promote Language Learning."<br />
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What the presenters pointed out was that technology is what students want. Linking the drive to communicate with the technology available to us, selfies are a trend in the world today. One point in favor of using selfies, the presenters argued, is that video chat is a growing trend. This is really true and the proof for that is that if we look around, we will see people making either video or picture selfies almost all the time. Besides that, video chat through Face Time, Skype or other channels are quite frequent among learners young and old. Educators have to admit that this is a sign that people in general are comfortable with this technology. This brings us to the first argument they presented in favor of using selfies as a means to learn a language: classroom comfort.<br />
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Classroom comfort informs us that in order to have effective and authentic tasks, students need to be comfortable with the assignment. We observe that students are very comfortable with their cell phones. Actually they are uncomfortable if they don't have them. Social comfort is also important. Students need to be comfortable with the technology (cell phone). Being digital natives, students are used to seeing themselves in videos. They want that image to be curated. We want students to want their image to look good., they want to sound good, their pronunciation to be good, they want their image to look good. We teachers want students to want their image to look good. So, they have a natural desire to self-correct in terms of how they sound and how they look. This is exactly what we teachers want.Video chat is a comfortable environment for them.<br />
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When people make a selfie video, they generally explain their surroundings and they give an update on what they are doing, they also explain if they are having a problem or if they are sick. All this updating creates a one to one interaction and, as a result, it increases comfort between students and viewers. A comfortable relationship with the teacher is created through this open communication channel. Besides that, it also creates comfort between students as they see themselves and their classmates in the videos. As time goes by, students that might not have been happy with how they looked or sounded, feel more comfortable seeing and listening to themselves. Some report never have listening to or seeing themselves before. As they report feeling more comfortable doing that.<br />
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Why are selfies important?<br />
Some reasons that make us convinced that using selfies in the language are useful relate to comfort and attention. There are two types of attention: inward attention and outward attention. They are mutually exclusive and you cannot have the two going on at the same time. Why is it important to understand this concept when making selfies videos? While making a selfie video, students do not only direct themselves outward, but they also have to direct themselves inward to see what is happening to themselves. They correct themselves during the video and sometimes after the video. This kind of attention works as meter against which they evaluate their performance, and as a result, they record multiple times just to make sure they get it right. They are aware of their own self-presentation and they make more selfies as assessment or a class task, they get more confident of their performance and become more confident and fluent speakers.joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-49534613790398624282015-04-03T08:00:00.000-03:002015-04-03T08:00:16.703-03:00A New Tool
<iframe width="760px" height="500px" src="https://sway.com/s/sfKUnjRL5_vWvcx6/embed" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border: none;" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-55517976997639397182013-11-08T05:14:00.003-02:002013-11-08T05:46:42.828-02:00The Utopias and Dystopias of Digital Culture - #edcmooc<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I have just started taking E-learning and
Digital Cultures in <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a>. In the first week we had to watch four short
movies and discuss them in term of being a utopian or dystopian view of
technology. After watching a the four movies, I have decided to post my take on
them answering the questions and commenting in terms of their utopian\dystopian
depiction of technology. Finally we had to come up with our own utopian or dystopian story told in a movie,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Here is my take:</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Bendito
Machine III and Heaven Sent Technology<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xiXOigfDb0U" width="560"></iframe></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">While watching the movie, I kept thinking
to myself about the messages it was trying to convey. One message, in my
opinion, was that technology brings progress and change. If this change and
progress is for the better, is another issue. As I watched these heaven sent novelties
take over this little tribesmen lives and make them neglect other aspects of
their existence, I could also see that it brought information and entertainment.
However, as I saw old technology being dumped because of the new one, I have to
agree that it suggests that this obsession with technology, so present in our
world, has a great impact on the environment because it generates a compulsion
for thoughtless consumption and, as a consequence, the habit of dumping the old
to welcome the new. The characters in this short movie do not seem to have a choice
concerning the technology they use. However, they could create something
instead of waiting for it to fall from the sky. To me, they seem a bit idle and
always wanting to be entertained by a technology that is alien to them. It does
not seem that technology provides them with what they need, they seem to simply
get used and addicted to it. The technologies portrayed in the film are
generally, as I have pointed out, alien to the characters, subject to constant
glitches, unpredictable, and unreliable. The view of technology is quite
dystopian and it enslaves the characters. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Inbox
and the Utopian Idea of Perfect Communication <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/75wNgCo-BQM" width="560"></iframe></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This short movie shows how people can
connect through web-based technology. At first, one could argue that it is a
utopian account of how humans interact with and use technogy because it shows
it is possible to meet people in many ways. I could even say it is neither,
because I have grown to believe that the way we meet people on the web is not
very much different than the way we meet people in real life. There are always
limitations and insecurities as go back and forth in our minds never sure what
impact we cause on others. When we first meet someone we never know if we will
meet again and communication breakdowns often occur independent of medium. It
is, in my opinion, a realistic account, if it is possible to say so, because to
me it seems utopian the idea of communication and romance without glitches and
communication breakdowns. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Thursday
and The Illusion of Gaining Control<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HQ1z0Zzqg5U" width="560"></iframe></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
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<span lang="EN-US">The film presents technology as something
that many times blinds humans preventing them to see the beauties of the natural
world that lie above their heads, beneath their feet, and in front of their
very eyes. Technology is portrayed as a second class substitute for brighter
and enhanced equivalents in nature. It suggests that the price we pay for
replacing the affordances of the natural world by manmade wonders is losing
contact with ourselves and with the cycles of nature. On the other hand, making
such substitution we gain control of our own bodies, our emotions, and our
routine. Tech gadgets are the ones who have agency in this film. However, I ask myself, is it possible to have control? Isn't it utopian to believe we can take the reins of our emotions?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US">New
Media x Bendito Machine <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b>
<b><span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="213" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/33193443" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Similarities</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In both short movies the machines have a
great ecological impact. Just like in the first one, the second contains a
reference to the skies thus implying a sort of helpless situation in which once
characters\humanity cannot control the skies they cannot control the
machines\technology.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Differences</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The first difference is that Bendito Machine
depicts a world that is still run by the characters, whereas New Media shows us
an apocalyptical scenario in which whoever and whatever existed is a process of
being destroyed, drained, or controlled. In addition to that, in Bendito Machine
technology is not necessarily evil, it is asked for in a sort of prayer to the
gods, while in New Media it looks more like an uninvited or invading alien
force. In the first movie, technology comes into one form only and seems to be
present only at one sphere of life and characters seem to have a choice, in the
second movie it is ubiquitous occupying every corner of the habitat, even our
bodies, and there is no choice. In the first movie technology is subject to
glitches and needs constant updates while in the second it is state of the art
and evolved to have a mind of its own. </span>Finally, the ecological impact seems to
be localized in one (limited to a landfill) and overspread in the second.<br />
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<b>The Matrix and the Singularity </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Zk1KWRknrIQ" width="420"></iframe></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
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<span lang="EN-US">As we become more dependent of technology and
technology itself moves towards integration with gadgets and with our own
bodies in so many ways, The Matrix is a perfect dystopian story for our times.
The movie tells the story of how technology took over our bodies and minds and controlled
the world. In such an apocalyptic world as the one depicted in the movie, I ask
myself, if it is really a dystopic story. I really believe that this
singularity is humanities future and the technology featured in The Matrix seem
to protect humans from noticing the grim reality surrounding them. Thinking
like that one can draw a parallel between the heroes and the family of birds in
Thursday: they seem lonely and doomed to disappear as they struggle to survive.
Survival of nature and of reality as we perceive is doomed in a world dominated
by technology. If The Matrix world will become a reality maybe we are just starting to sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-41259438851574037782013-05-12T20:11:00.002-03:002013-05-12T20:17:18.727-03:00A Rhetorical Appeal to Stop DesertificationOne of my tasks in my MOOC on Rhetorical Writing on <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera </a>this week was to watch ten minutes of the this video and post my analysis. It was a good exercise.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vpTHi7O66pI" width="560"></iframe>
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In his speech on desertification, the rhetorical appeal Savory uses most successfully is logos. His logical argument stands firm on a claim, a reason, and an unstated assumption.<br />
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He claims that the “most perfect storm\tsunami” is “bearing upon” humankind who is facing a grim reality in which the world is getting hotter due to climate change that is being caused, among other factors, by desertification. He makes his point by showing evidence via images of before and after coupled with anecdotes collected through his vast experience as a scientist and researcher in the field.According to his argument, the reason why we should something about this problem, is because we are directly affected by it once we are also victims of climate change. Finally, his unstated assumption is that we are on the verge of disaster and that our civilization will perish (just like the Mayans as many others) if we do not find a way of reversing desertification.<br />
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His appeal is also logically strong because it is well supported by statistics, causal statements, and relevant examples.His statistics’ citations include the percentage of Earth (about two thirds) that is turning to desert and the amount of rain fall in Yemen and the fate of that water. His causal statements depict how land that was once covered by vegetation becomes desert. He also shows how livestock plays an important role in preventing desertification from happening.<br />
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Finally, he shares evidence that shows that, contrary to what many believe, it is large herds moving, grazing, and trampling the soil that makes vegetation come back and thus prevent desertification. Therefore, we should consider having large herds of livestock roaming in the land if we are to stop this disaster. Last but not least, I should say that the strength of his argument lies in the fact that he does not only appeal to logic, but also to ethos (his vast knowledge on the field), to pathos (his tone of voice and the life changing effect of his experience with elephants in Africa), and to kairos (he speaks at the right time, in the right place, and for the right audience).joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-20159248133912477182013-05-07T05:23:00.000-03:002013-07-11T20:24:26.694-03:00Other Writers and I <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4866638272/" title="06-08-10 And With Heart Shaped Bruises And Late Night Kisses by Βethan, on Flickr"><img alt="06-08-10 And With Heart Shaped Bruises And Late Night Kisses" height="213" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4123/4866638272_dc3cfefd87_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4866638272/">Βethan</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
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<span lang="EN-US">As I sat at my desk this morning staring at
my computer screen, I was convinced one more time that I was not a born writer.
In so many ways life has taught me that we have to fight many battles. So, as I
crusade against the keyboard and a torrent of ideas for this essay, I was
assaulted by the daemons of my fears and insecurities and many times I had the
desire to take the road back to the couch and watch TV instead of writing.
However, just as a farmer knows he has to plow the land if he wants to harvest
something, I said to myself that if I had to engage the enemy in myself, I had
to attack the dragon, rescue the princess of my self-esteem and write. Isn’t
the creative process like this for everyone? Isn’t life a battle of some sort for
every human being? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Growing up in a developing country is not
easy and learning to write depicts it quite well. In this manner, after
clashing with many other possible titles, I kept the one I had chosen for my
second assignment: ”a struggling writer.” I grew up the rural area of
Midwestern Brazil in a poor peasant family. Therefore, as I scavenged the
archives looking for stories, I came across three narratives of struggle that
resonated with me and helped me paint a portrait of my adventures with writing
and education in general. The first was "White Trash Writer" by
Lucinda Eby, the second "I Am an Apprehensive Writer and Blogger" by
Nancy O'Kelly, and the third "My mother, My Abuser, My Inspiration"
by Alison Guynes. These three stories inspired me in different ways and I will
try to weave them into my saga as a writer in the lines below. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Lucinda Eby tells us in her wonderful
narrative that she was raised in a “book culture.” Finding out that her father,
who had another family and was an absent parent, used to come once in while
with a truckload of books, made me a bit envious because I wished I had been
given more books as a child. Had I had half of the books she had, would I have
become a bit better with words, a better writer? I wonder. Although my father
was always loving and present, this story of scarcity unites us in some way
because despite the absence of books, I grew up in a sort of “educational
culture” and that was “one of the pieces of luck I had.” Our family kept moving
from farm to farm and my parents would only accept to work in a place that had
a school nearby. Nearby, many times, meant a two-hour walk to a place in the
middle of nowhere with only one instructor to teach reading and writing to
about thirty kids ranging from first to fourth grade crammed into a single
room. Consequently, I grew up walking to school and learned to value every step
of the way. Looking back now, I guess my parents’ passion for learning was in
so many ways what saved me and my four siblings not only from poverty, but from
ignorance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Therefore, as I journeyed through
elementary and middle school I was mostly a reader who incorporated stories
into my dreams and nightmares. In high school, my penmanship made a debut in
writing book reports and compositions in which I started expressing some of my
own ideas and discovered I had a voice. I once managed to craft four different
versions of the same book to help some classmates that were too lazy to read or
just did not know how to do it. It was in a sense that hint of invention and
trickery that made me suspect that there might be some hidden happiness, a lost
treasure, in writing. A fascination with words was taking me over. That was
when I developed an interest for song lyrics and was mesmerized by the way musicians
played with words, the poetry within songs overwhelmed me. Inspired by the
beauty of song lyrics, I made some attempts at writing poetry that I compiled
in a little notebook of poems I used to read to my teenage peers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As I grew older and prepared to enter
college, the door of poetry shut as the curtains of academic writing opened in
front of my eyes. I came across the mandatory composition prep course that
culminated with the life and death challenge of a test. Such an exam was a
turning point in my life because my choice of topic for the college entrance
composition (dreams) made me a psychologist instead of a journalist. Maybe I
just wanted to escape writing somehow. Can we escape fate? I ask. It seems we
really cannot escape destiny. When I ran away from writing about social
injustice and escaped being a journalist, I fell into the trap of being a psychology
major who in the first semester just felt hypnotized by the writings of Sigmund
Freud (the first one I read, The Interpretation of Dreams) and realized that a
great deal of psychologist work is that of writer whose narrative that requires
fine writing skills. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Different from Lucinda Eby, who says her
English composition classes were not very helpful, I owe a lot to my academic
experience with writing once it poured content\ideas into my soul. As a
psychology undergraduate student, I read a lot of books about psychology and
psychoanalysis. These readings taught me the importance of considering an
audience and once again helped me develop my voice. As far as writing is
concerned, I don’t think I wrote anything worth remembering as an undergrad.
However, in my master’s degree I was coached in writing and learned, among other
things, that one needs commas for breathing and that writing drafts and
revising them as much as possible helps a lot in the composing process. Due to
this coaching, I was always able to complete my assignments and that made me
feel proud of what I had done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Not a born, but a runaway writer, I became
a blogger and an apprehensive essayist just like Nancy. Similar to her, I
sometimes feel paralyzed in front of a writing task because I also
"question every word, every sentence." Just like Nancy, when crafting
blog posts, I fight battles all the time to compose a bit more than snippets.
Nonetheless, a little different from Nancy, I do revise what I post despite
feeling also “nervous and afraid” whenever I face a writing task. The
psychologist in me reminds me that anxiety when facing a challenge is expected.
If writing is such a struggle, why do I insist on doing it? Why did I enroll in
this course? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Wrapping up my chronicle as a learner and a
writer and reflecting on why I keep fighting this battle, I guess I can relate
with Alison Guynes’ narrative. She tells us that she started reading as a cloak
to escape her bipolar, abusive mother’s fits of rage. I read and study as a
shield against a government that does not invest in education, a way of
escaping ignorance. However, Alison goes on to tell us that her camouflage was
lifted when her mother told her to write her a story because she sure had
something in her “useless little head”. Her first story was a success and she
wrote many more and that did not only change her mother’s mood, but made of her
a fan of her writing and a friend. So, thinking about why writing is so
important to me, I guess that with my blogs I try to share some of the things I
have my “useful little head” with my peers. Like a child that vows to conquer
his mother’s love, I try to conquer some fans and friends through writing.
Composing seems to emerge from the compulsion to tell stories, teach something
to my peers, and unfold the creative process within my soul. The act of
composing is a process of discovery in which I reveal and hide many aspects of
myself. It is a chance to contemplate my multiple identities, my many
possibilities. My camouflage is lifted and put back every line, every time I
copy, cut, and paste. Writing allows me to deal with my fears and reinvent
myself to keep fighting the daily battles within my soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-12496541649152959142013-04-29T19:29:00.000-03:002013-04-29T19:30:25.205-03:00What kind of writer am I?<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzi/228175875/" title="flickr typewriter typo?! by bitzi ☂ ion-bogdan dumitrescu, on Flickr"><img alt="flickr typewriter typo?!" height="240" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/80/228175875_f2584d61ab_n.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzi/228175875/">bitzi ☂ ion-bogdan dumitrescu</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is an assignment for a course I am taking at Coursera called Writing II: Rhetorical Composing. The first task was to introduce myself answering the question on what kind of writer I was. Here is what I wrote:</span></div>
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First I should say that I was delighted with this task. I always tend to write too much in these “getting to know” you posts. They are always part of online courses and generally very informal, for this reason people tend to write the least they can to avoid overwhelming participants with too much to read. This one, it seems it is required to write a bit more. So, I am not going to feel guilty for writing more than I should. So, here I go.</div>
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I guess my introduction partially answers the question about what kind of writer I am. I am a struggling writer who just loves doing it. This love for writing is a newfound love though. I call it new because I love the craft, but I still feel like a beginner since the very act of writing itself is a struggle for me. I also see it as a recent passion due to the fact that it has not always been this intense. In the following paragraphs I will tell you the story of how it all began.</div>
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As an undergraduate student in psychology in Brazil and a graduate student in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in Oklahoma City University City in The U.S.A., I just went through the motions in writing. Although, looking back, I think I already liked it, I saw it as just an assignment. The papers I wrote at the time were for grade and only a requirement to be filed and a form to be filled out. This formal education also gave me a chance to learn something about writing. I remember that when I was getting my master’s I always had a coach (a native speaker) to proofread my work and have always received good tips on how to write a better essay or research paper. One of my professors on some occasions complimented me on how I had progressed as a writer throughout the course. I was glad and flattered by his remarks, but I saw that as a task that had been done and writing as something I would be done with by the end of the course.</div>
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In 2006 I participated in a workshop and was introduced to a new world: web 2.0 and the world of blogging. This new world was what forced to start writing for a different purpose and for a new audience, and as a consequence, forced me to see that I was not done with writing just yet. Now I was not being graded anymore and I was not writing for my professors, but for everyone on web that happened to come across one of my blog posts. It is funny to see now how my idea of what an audience was has changed over the years. At the beginning of my blogging journey, my immediate audience was my students. I wrote posts for them and expected them to react to what I wrote.</div>
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After some time, maybe due to my lack of training in the art of writing and also for practical and pedagogical reasons, I started finding that (writing posts myself and asking students to comment) a real drag to my students. I then handled the duty of writing to them. It was a blossoming garden of composing: all my students started blogging. I was delighted to discover how creative they were. They illustrated their posts with their own drawings and I commented on them and also asked them to comment on their peers’ posts. At that time the audience was my students and the purpose was to get them to react to what their peers had written. Therefore, I did not realize I was a bad writer and did not feel the need to start doing it myself.</div>
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Fast forward about four years and due to my involvement in professional development and my presence in the blogosphere, I started feeling compelled to take writing a bit more seriously. I had now started writing reflection posts about the things I was doing and how much I was learning. I had a need to start sharing my experiences. That was when I saw that my audience was no longer just my students but educators who were a bit more demanding concerning the quality of what they read. That was when the struggling writer emerged.</div>
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When I started writing as an educator, I realized I had a lot to learn about it. From that moment on, I noticed it was hard work to come up with something that went beyond a simple paragraph. I really have some basic doubts on where to place a comma. English, not being my first language, was also another problem because it was always so difficult for me to find the right word. I gave up posting to my blogs many times. Other times it just took me weeks to finish a post and finally add it to my blog. I tried to set a posting schedule and deadlines for writing, but it proved ineffective as a means of making me a more prolific and competent writer. It seemed that writing was not for me.</div>
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When I was about to give up, I had an idea and thought to myself that a book about writing would be a good idea. I said to myself “There should be a book with a recipe on how to write a good essay, a good blog post.” It was with that in mind that I bought the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser. To my disappointment, I discovered that there is not a recipe for writing this or that kind of thing. My problems were far from being over. Nonetheless, this same author showed me that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I discovered through reading (and I already knew it from my own experience) that writing is difficult for everyone and that is something that, like so many other things, is learned by doing. It was about the time I was reading this book that I decided to enroll in this course and here I am. So, my name is José Antonio da Silva (my online friends call me JA), a Brazilian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher in Brasilia, and I am a struggling writer. It is really nice to meet you all and be able to battle the monster of writing together.</div>
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-59742541579867252792013-04-21T07:50:00.000-03:002013-04-21T09:37:29.371-03:00What we learn when we learn by doing<div style="text-align: center;">
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Everyone in the education field is familiar with Dewey's axiom "learn by doing." It is well known that experiential learning is not only preferable by students, but also more effective. I recently started taking a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Coursera that helped me understand better what learn by doing is. While I was going through the weekly readings, I could see that the following three basic questions were being addressed: what is learning by doing? what do we learn when we learn by doing? when learning is not motivated by learning to do something (practical/experiential), what is the motivation behind It? In this post I will try to share some of the answers I found to these questions through the readings and the connections I made to my experience as an EFL teacher using technology to advance my own learning and that of my students.<br />
First let's try to define what learn by doing is and give some examples. Learn by doing is experiential learning. Students learn by doing when they do things instead of being told about things. It is many times easier said than done. In the language classroom, students learn to speak the target language by speaking it, not by being lectured about it. The same goes for writing, reading, and listening. However, for students to speak, there should be a reason for them to do so. Therefore, teachers usually create scenarios or simulate situations to bring about a need to communicate. The more realistic the situation is, the more effective it seems in generating real communication. Having understood that, we should say that using Web 2.0 tools should follow the same "learn by doing" guidelines. Students learn about blogging by actually having a blog, posting, adding, and replying to comments.<br />
Once we know what learn by doing is, we need to understand what one learns when he learns by doing. When there is experiential learning, what is learned cannot be put into words. If you ask a teacher who integrates technology into his teaching to tell you how to create a blog, for example, he will probably be able to show you step by step the procedures for doing it. However, he might not be able to tell you about it without visualing a given blogging platform and actually testing its features. Therefore, when one learns by doing, he learns micro scripts and scripts that help him assimilate and index new experiences. When a student has to create a blog, he first has to create an account. This one is probably a micro script that he has already assimilated. He probably knows automatically that to create an account he will have to provide his e-mail address, a user name, and so on. So what he will learn by doing will be how to customize his blog, how to insert a video or an image using HTML code or just copying and pasting. Besides that, he will also learn how to create a post and with this he will be familiar with rules for typing and editing text. He will learn that paragraphs have to be indented, that capital letters are required in the beginning of new sentences (the later might sound weird, but this is true for my teenage students). So, the scrips I have listed are extensions that are incorporated to the micro scripts he already possesses. The digital native claim proves to be a myth when it comes to creating content. This holds true especially if we are talking about young learners. So that is what is learned when one learns by doing.<br />
However, it is not always that learning is guided by such an experiential tone. Sometimes learning is driven by reasons other than learning how to perform a specific task. In this case, learning is motivated by the willingness of knowing more. This is generally what guides professional development: a desire to learn about the philosophy behind a given practice, a new way of thinking about a given area of knowledge. It is learning for learning sake. I guess that in the field of language teaching this is the reason why EFL/ESL teachers, that supposedly already know enough about the English language, go conferences conferences as attendees or presenters and take other professional development initiatives such as reading/commenting/posting to blogs, connecting with peers through social networking channels, and taking online courses.<br />
Finally, I would like to say that learning by doing also applies to writing. And this is exactly what I am trying to do with this blog and my posts. I confess that writing is not easy for me and I make a big effort to make my ideas come accross the way I want. Nonetheless, I never give up. I have been reading books about writing, I have just decided to <a href="http://studentbloginternational.blogspot.com.br/" target="_self" title="My Weekly Blog">blog with my students</a> (I mean writing a short blog post after ech class reporting what went on). I did that because I read that if you ask your students to blog (which <a href="http://www.netvibes.com/joseaokc#256_-_Mondays_and_Wednesdays" target="_self" title="Students Blogging Portal">I frequently do</a>), you should blog to. Finally, I am just about to begin a course in writing and hope I will feel more confident as a writer when it ends.<br />
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-87848837255921989022013-01-15T09:50:00.000-02:002013-01-15T10:24:46.633-02:00Some Simple Activities that Wire Students' Brains<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krischall/2089466950/" title="thought synthesizer by krischall, on Flickr"><img alt="thought synthesizer" class="" height="320" id="blogsy-1358250493691.364" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2299/2089466950_352a8cc0d2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krischall/2089466950/">krischall</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); line-height: 21px;">Teaching is a craft that is learned by doing and constantly reflecting on your practice. Knowing theory and getting constant training do play an important role in the making of a good teacher. However, very often, we seem to forget the connection between theory and practice so immersed we are on doing. Of course this kind of "automatism" that seems to come with experience is in part the result of diligent investment in professional development, but we do not always know where we learned certain things. We use a given activity because it works for our students. However, we are not always cognizant about why it works so well. These were some the thoughts that crossed my mind when after being done with the overwhelming end-of-semester teaching duties, I resumed reading a book by David A. Souza called </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Brain-Education-Neuroscience-Implications/dp/1935249630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356599002&sr=1-1&keywords=Mind%2C+brain%2C+and+education" target="_self" title="Mind, Brain, and Education">Mind, Brain, and Education</a></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); line-height: 21px;">(specifically Chapter 3 - Impact of Neuroscience on Teaching and Learning - by Judy Willis). To me, at least, and I am sure to many of my colleagues, what the author had to say about the role "intake filters" play on learning and how research on neuroscience validates what we teachers have been doing, made of lot of sense. Therefore, I decided to write a post to summarize and share some connections I made in relation to the effectiveness of some activities I use in class and how they correlate with the latest neuroscience discoveries on how our brains work.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Questions for conversation/discussion </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); line-height: 21px;">One thing I always do when teaching upper intermediate and advanced levels is to use "questions for conversation/discussion." Sometimes I create the set of questions on my own or use </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black;"><a href="http://esldiscussions.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" target="_blank" title="ESL Discussions">ESL Discussions</a> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black;">questions</span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); line-height: 21px;"> by Sean Banville. For this activity, I usually give pairs of students a set of different questions and ask them to take turns asking and answering them as if they were engaged in conversation. I generally select questions that have to do with the topic of the lesson we are covering and use them as a lead in or a wrap up activity. For real information gap you might want to warn students not to allow their partners to see/read their questions. According to Judy Willis, one of the reasons why activities such as this one are successful is because they help learners make connections and relate new information with memories they already have. In addition to that, discussion questions allow students to predict what is ahead or review what they had seen.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run dictation</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also like to use run dictation. This is a very dynamic activity and one of my favorites to use with teens or pre-teens levels. Most textbooks generally feature a series of questions for a lead in, before-while-after reading or a listening activity. So, instead of having the whole class sitting quietly and mechanically asking and answering these questions, I type the questions, ask them to close their books and stick a couple of sets of questions to the classroom walls or outside the classroom. Working in pairs they should run to the board and come back dictating questions one by one to a partner who should write them down. Once they are done, they should get together and answer or discuss them. This is a multisensory activity that activates more than one area of the brain. While doing it, students have to move around, read, listen, and speak. Besides that, it is fun and helps them in dealing with the fear of not knowing in a safer way. Once the responsibility of answering the questions becomes a shared task, it becomes a collaborative endeavor and thus a more rewarding learning experience. This multisensory factor, the author tells us, ends up promoting more connections at the brain and for this reason being more successfully recalled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True or false</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is one activity I like to use and I always observe that learners cheer at feedback stage as if they were celebrating their luck in a game or the like. I confess, such reactions puzzled me sometimes. We many times take true or false exercises for granted and deem such tasks as only a guessing game. However, according to Judy Willis, the very predictive or guessing nature of true or false exercises can be stimulating for students’ brains. If the student is merely guessing ( in case of a predictive true or false exercise), the dopamine reward he or she gets with the risk associated with making a guess is a guarantee of making learning a pleasurable activity. In fact, it is related to the compelling aspects of achievable challenge present in computer games that our students are addicted to. So, as long as true or false activities are designed to guarantee a reasonable number of correct guesses, they can be a plus for students’ interest and a boost to their brains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Process writing</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In intermediate and advanced courses writing is a vital part of a good English course. This is not different in the school I teach. Therefore, students are supposed to write paragraphs and later four or five-paragraph essays. Using an approach in which they write a first draft, hand in for correction, get feedback in form of symbols and comments on content, and later write a second draft (process writing), seems to be the best way of getting learners involved. The role this plays on students' brain and thus learning is extremely important. The process of revising and giving constant do feedback, the author points out, is a form of ongoing assessment that is powerful in promoting long term memory and developing reasoning and analysis. Besides that, Willis says, we are recognizing learners effort and achievement and providing an opportunity for improvement, and at the same time reducing frustration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> No News</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you could see, there is nothing new. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that many of the things we teachers do find resonance with the latest scientific research. It also reaffirms the necessity of studying and reassures us (as pointed out by the author) that Vigotsky, Piaget, Kashen and others that have guided us in our practice have been pointing at the right direction. I guess, it is above all, a reminder of the validity of investing in professional development as a way of keeping up with or ahead of our own time when necessary. As educators, we should always make an effort to challenge and require our own brains if we are willing to provide food for thought to our students and our colleagues. </span></div>
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-24809204993094632652012-12-22T17:09:00.000-02:002012-12-22T17:38:21.920-02:00EAP - A Door of Opportunity for EFL Instructors and Language Learners<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/8272728083" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="300" id="blogsy-1356203088238.0378" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8272728083_e87c650f57_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A gift I received from my EAP group on their graduation.</td></tr>
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In January 2011 I took a course to prepare for teaching a new one. The course I took online through <a href="http://www.umbc.edu/" target="_self" title="UMB site">UMBC</a> was called TET (Teaching English to Teens) and the course I would start teaching was named<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> English Access Microscholarship Program or just Access or EAP as we call it now. This program according to the official description on the <a href="http://exchanges.state.gov/non-us/program/english-access-microscholarship-program" target="_self" title="">web</a> "provides a foundation of English language skills to talented 13-20 year-olds from economically disadvantaged sectors through after-school classes." In this post I will try to describe my experience with the English Access Program and how I applied some of the theory I learned in the preparatory course. (or already knew) to my classes.</span><br />
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The course on teaching English to teens lasted about a month or so and the new EAP group started in March 2011. The TET course was helpful because it reminded me that teenagers, despite social/economical background, are equal in the sense that they share certain characteristics of personality and have needs that are almost universal. Therefore, taking that issue into consideration and trying to address it, is vital for a successful class. Being aware of these variables, what I did was to apply principles for teaching language to this group catering to some of their specific needs.<br />
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One important thing I had to do was to change students' attitude towards the language. Knowing that they were probably coming from a school where English was taught mainly through translation, I could assume that many them believed that learning English was difficult or even impossible. Therefore I told and showed them (through teaching) that translating was not always the best strategy for learning a foreign language. Once they knew it and realized they could understand chunks of language without necessarily finding the equivalent word or expression in their mother tongue, they discovered a new way of learning, and consequently, started changing their attitude towards the target language. <br />
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Another important aspect to consider was keeping learners interested in coming to our Friday meetings. Although these students were quite motivated to take the course, I thought it would be advisable to give them something to look forward to when coming to class. To achieve this goal, I used music. Almost every class I played some latest hit song. I usually had some kind of task related to the song. In other occasions I just projected the lyrics on the screen and we sang along. They really had fun and later told me they had that song on their heads all week long. Sometimes songs were not that recent, but if I felt the song had a cultural/historical value, I played it and explained to them why it was important. For example, if there was a major event in which a certain musician (unknown to them because of their age, but famous worldwide) was going to give a performance, I would play his/her most famous hit. This proved to a good strategy because it anticipated something they would see on TV and made them feel more aware of the world around them. So music was a motivator and another way of changing their attitude towards the language.<br />
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Providing a range of learning options and resources is also another important issue when teaching a foreign language. In relation to this, I remember that before the course began, we (school coordinators and teachers involved in the program) were concerned about the digital divide. We were a bit cautious about using the web for blended learning because we assumed that these learners, given their social economical background, would not have the desired access to computers with internet connection. To our surprise, however, not only did they have access to the web but were also able to do tasks assigned for web based projects and the available web resources to advance their learning. In this regard, the initial assumption that they had no access to computers was wrong. Under these circumstances, we were able to work on several projects in which they went home, gathered information from their relatives and community, and later shared them in class and published their work on the web. Such projects did not make them more autonomous but also provided an opportunity for reflection and discovery.<br />
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It is true that teens have emotional and intellectual needs. However, they also have a very basic physical need: food. Their growing bodies demand a lot of energy and they love eating junk food and sweets. Cooking, however, is not one of my specialties. Nonetheless there is one thing I can make that almost all my students simply love: chocolate chip cookies. Therefore, I made cookies for my EAP class quite often. Once I made them during class Getting some involved in making the though, others in writing the recipe on the board, and others in taking pictures or filming the event. Some of them learned the recipe and baked cookies for their families. I could see that something as simple as this helped them see themselves as more valuable and autonomous learners once they could share something learned in class with their community. Cookies became a sort of transitional object that frequently popped in our conversation and mediated our informal interactions. This connection was so meaningful that we scheduled a reunion some time next year to get together and have some cookies and refreshments. <br />
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The enhancement activities were a kind of mandatory part of the course. What we tried to do was to whenever possible draw a parallel between their culture and the target language culture. This was a nice away of contextualizing learning and providing students with an opportunity to make discoveries or recycle their own culture. Once they did that it also made them proud of their background and increased their self-esteem. The latter being an area that deserves special attention first due to their age group and second due to their social economic situation.<br />
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All in all, I would definitely say that my experience with this program was a very rewarding one for me and for the students as well. As I watched each one of them walking towards the stage to get their certificate, I felt that they were a bit transformed and had taken their first steps into their journey of learning a foreign language and many other things that will be extremely important for their lives. As a teacher, I felt grateful for the contribution they had given to make my classes better, enabling me to teach teens just like them that will be entering my class next year.<br />
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-13404475021818381262012-12-12T23:06:00.001-02:002012-12-12T23:50:43.147-02:00Gagne and the Nine Events of Instruction in an English Lesson<div class="posterous_autopost">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7179171394/" title="Skitch note created in Brasilia at 19:37 by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="Skitch note created in Brasilia at 19:37" height="320" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/7179171394_65e3542462_n.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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After years and years of teaching and planning, it is common to think that we know everything. During this teaching journey we also discover that our craft is everywhere we look around. I recognize this might sound like I am a bit obssessed about teaching. But, think with me, don't sports stars and actors also seem a bit obssessed about what they do? So, why shouldn't we? Anyway, obsessed or not, we see a lesson and an opportunity for teaching in a film we watch, on a flyer handed out in traffic light, in a science podcast. Being that enthusiastic about what I do, I have always thought that this is a wonderful job. It extends throughout your life and the older you get the better you become. It might not be so, but thinking like this makes me more comfortable about getting older and having chosen such a career. This pervasiveness is true especially for those who teach language once our subject matter is everywhere. We have a drive to communicate and spoken, written, and even sign language is everywhere. This way, we language teachers, are never at a loss for teaching materials and and the instruction ideas that spring out from them. In this matter, I would like to share with you what I have learned in the course I took at UMBC about Gagné and the Nine Events of instruction. In this post, I will try to connect each of the nine events to the way most teachers teach language.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gain attention </strong>in the first event of instruction according to Gagné. It is true that if we want to engage our students in the learning process, the first thing we should do is to find a way of having, if not all, at least ninety percent of them, focused on what we have planned for a given class. So, this is the moment in which we announce that there will be discoveries. It is that " hey you " moment in which you stop any parallel conversations without asking your students to shut up. To gain attention, you share something that is in way connected to the lesson you are about to start.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Inform learner</strong> is the second event of instruction proposed. This is an opportunity to tell your class what your objectives are. I know many teachers are against doing it explicitly (especially if it is a grammar lesson), however we can always come up with implicit/inductive ways of doing it. Informing learners make them realize that we care about their intake of the content ahead and also helps building autonomy. Besides that, it is helpful in the wrap up process at the end of every lesson. Once informed about what lies ahead, learners can access what they have really achieved once the lesson comes to an end.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stimulate recall of prior learning</strong> is the third event in a language class. It is during this event that we show students that we want to learn a bit from them, that what they already know is extremely important for us and for that specific learning community. When we do this, we allow them to share their knowledge and give the first steps in the direction of building a tapestry in which their contributions start being woven into the fabric of collaboration that emerges in class. This event sets the foundations to build the rest of our teaching event. It tells students that they are active participants in the learning process and not mere passive, blank slates.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Present stimulus material</strong> is the fourth event on Gagné's list. This one refers to the moment we show learners the content that needs to be retained. For retention to occur, Gange points out, we need to organize the material in meaningful chunks. That is exactly what language teachers do: we divide the content in bite sized morsels so that our students can slowly swallow, digest, and later use it. I like this analogy with food because it helps language learners and teachers realize that it is not possible to speed up the process.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Provide learner guidance</strong> is the fith event of instruction. This step has to do with how the instructor communicates with the learner and is intertwined with the previous one. This communication, in case of language teaching is very specific. The teacher tailors the language and instruction to guide the learner and help him or her stay on track. This guidance comes not only in verbal discourse, but also through images and any other media that assists the learner in retaining and encoding information. Such precise and guided communication allows learners to understand content and process it in a way that they gradually feel capable of using it later.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Elicit performance</strong> is the sixth event. This one is in a way much anticipated by educators. After crafting a good attention getter, informing the learner, and grading the language used to present content, we do look forward to the moment of having our students perform a task that demonstrates we are doing a good job. Performace at this stage, is still a controlled practice and limited to the repetitions of examples we have given. It is a moment for repetition of a model provided by the instructor. Nevertheless, it is much awaited because it gives us feedback on how much progress is being made by students in retaining the target content.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Provide feedback</strong> is the seventh event. This is the one in which we prune or praise the controlled practice. Here lies an opportunity we have correct the course of the learning journey. This correction can be done in many ways. The istructor can give explicit and direct feedback or use strategies that allow students to notice what needs to be corrected and do it by themselves. Here teachers give opportunity for students to review and improve performance.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Assess performance</strong> is the eight event. It is at this moment that the teacher checks whether learners have fully understood the lesson. Different from the previous one which involved controlled practice, this one involves a larger degree of freedom because the goal is to assess, not to correct or give feedback. This event is the coronation of a lesson and might indicate the need for change of methodology in the future. An attentive instructor might discover during this event that one of the previous events need to be re-evaluated.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Enhance retention and transfer</strong> is the last event. Once assessment has been carried out, learners must feel they have learned the content and are ready to apply it to other situations. So, teachers should plan activities that expand students' knowledge and make them confident in using what they have learned. This is the moment in which students produce language that goes beyond what has been drilled or modeled by the instructor. It is a moment for exercising creativity and transferring what has been learned to a variety of situations. This event is an occasion for free production of language.</div>
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As you could see, the nine events proposed by Gagné are a good way of revisiting what we know about teaching. Besides that, they also offer some insights into steps we should consider taking when planning our lessons. For me, the breaking down of the standard lesson plan into more discrete units seems to be helpful for instructors trying to better understand the dynamics of teaching and learning. Finally, it is good exercise to read the steps and compare them to our prior knowledge, and also, a way of enhancing retention and transferring our skills.</div>
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-31994592536831052262012-08-16T03:41:00.001-03:002012-08-16T03:41:15.689-03:00TestNew post
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joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-56641117783941437292012-07-26T07:53:00.001-03:002012-07-26T09:08:25.288-03:00Classroom Interaction<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7647275418" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="375" id="blogsy-1343299957312.9468" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7647275418_8861c66a98_m.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
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Techniques and behaviors for increasing student participation and practice in class.</div>
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On July 25 Dr. Ron Schwartz came back to teach and entertain us a little bit. This time we also had the pleasure to have Madeleine Schwartz as a lecture. The topic of the day was classroom interaction and here is a summary to myself and my readers.</div>
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When we teach English, we do not just teach a language, we teach communication. If communication is the goal of our teaching, then classroom interactions are really a vital part of our classes. Therefore, this workshop made us reflect on our practices and gave some ideas on how to promote classroom interactions that help our students learn. This reflection, however, was coupled with experiential learning. Such feat was achieved because the techniques and behaviors discussed were role played during the entire workshop having participants act as teachers or students.</div>
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One of the tips shared by Dr. Schartz was a chart in which we could mark the kinds of interactions happening in class. As Dr. Schwartz proceeded with the lecture, participants marked on the hand out the equivalent interaction pattern (teacher asks question, student answers question, student volunteers, etc). This exercise reminded us of the importance of guaranteeing even participation and monitoring the quality of language produced by our students. Although the procedure demonstrated seemed to some of us a little challenging to be execute, it could be used by a peer teacher to observe our classroom and later feedback. A chart like this could also serve as check list to keep on the back of our minds, as a reference to remind us of promoting good exchange and real communication. </div>
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As we discussed interaction, the theoretical discussion came to the foreground. This gave us an opportunity to reexamine our, beliefs, methods, and approaches to language teaching in the light of our experince as teachers and the context of our institutions and countries. This was good exercise because it allowed us to share our perspective and reminded us that there is no such a thing as one size fits all method or approach. The ideal method or approach is the one that takes students needs into consideration and is flexible and not restrained by theoretical limitations.</div>
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Still related to classroom interaction, we discussed techniques and behaviors that conduct to effective leaning. At this point, Madeleine Schwartz gave us a sample class for teaching very young learners (eleme notary students). We played the role of students and she conducted a very instructive reading activity. The used of foldables together with reading strategies such as predicting, clarifying, asking questions, and summarizing gave us precious tips on ways to engage young learners in reading activities.</div>
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On a cultural note, we were reminded that culture affects one interaction style. Although this is little stereotypical, but is helpful to understand the way people interact. Americans are monochronic/linear and when answering to a question go straight to the point and do not give much extra information on the topic. Latins, on their turn, are polychronic and tend to zig zag as they answer a question or tell a story. So being aware of these differences between our culture and the target culture is helpful in making our spoken (and even written - essays) interactions more successful.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7636472784/" title="Welcome to my culture by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="Welcome to my culture" height="286" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7636472784_2706b6b051_m.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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On July 23rd, continuing the UMBC E-Teacher Scholarship Program, we formally started our workshops. I say formally because all of us in the program realized that in the last three days we have been part of a big informal workshop. In the lines below I will try to integrate my perceptions of this whole experience and how the situations we have been through and the interactions we had illustrate concepts related to Intercultural communication.<br />
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First, one of the things that Dr. Schwartz showed on his entertaining lecture was that when it comes to communication, we are not any different from our students, and as such we have a drive to communicate and make the uniqueness of our identities perceived. So, as we strolled down streets, went shopping, ate together at The Grits and in restaurants, we were having conversations and expressing our cultural identities through communication. Communication is not restricted to words only, it includes our gestures, the way we dress, and even our silences and pauses. Although we all might claim we teach English, what we really teach is communication. <br />
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Once we realize how important communication is, we have to start reflecting on the role that culture plays in communication to be aware of two very important aspects of culture: macro and micro culture. In our interactions with the scholars in the program, the coordinators, and program assistants, while we were striving to memorize names and countries the most salient aspect of their and our identities was the macro culture. Every time we introduced ourselves to the cafeteria staff we tried to snow our macro culture badge. Our macro culture IDs work as an ice breaker and makes communication flow. Macro culture is helpful for small talks and to help us to place people on a map (as we did when we were introducing ourselves and pinning the world map with colored post it notes). <br />
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While our macro culture is an important badge or hat to identify us and put a pin in the world map, our micro culture is the one that differentiates and defines us in a unique way. In these three days we have been here we were all lucky to have more meaningful interactions with som e of our peers and express a bit of our uniqueness. In these occasions we talked about our ethnic groups, our marital status, our preferences concerning food and dressing. These were moments that we treasured because they gave us a chance to stop being just a pin on the world map. Our micro culture is what helps us to form more meaningful relationships and break the mold of stereotypes that are many times attributed to our macro culture identities. <br />
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Although it seems fascinating to think, talk, and write about this dance of cultural identities, we should take into account that conflicts arise. When different cultures meet, at first everything seems to be a bed of roses. This is true especially if it is long awaited encounter, as is our case. This cultural honeymoon also lasts longer when you already know a lot about the target culture or are otherwise under the spell of the fascination of discovery. However, as time goes by and you start experiencing frustrations due to unmet expectations, difficulties to achieve very basic goals, and other difficulties. As a result of such frustrations a relationship with a person or country (a culture) goes stale - culture shock. Symptoms of culture shock can be subtle such as criticism of aspects of host culture such as food or way of dressing. Other times culture shock can cause depression and a total refusal of further interaction with the target culture. Hopefully all of us are just in this minor state of culture shock (the fun crab feast) and under the spell of discovery. So, let's hope it continues like that, but if we happen to be victims of such cultural experience we know there are friends we can count on.<br />
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Finally, we have also learned from Dr. Schwartz culture shocks are not a privilege of those traveling abroad. Culture shocks happen within the walls of our schools and classerooms and we have to be aware of them. However, awareness only is not enough. As educators, we should design activities that do not only allow students to express their macro and micro cultures, but that also makes them aware of differences and conflict and teach them strategies to deal with them. <br />
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<a href="http://blogsyapp.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Posted with Blogsy" height="20" src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" style="margin-right: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" width="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-23053112071589251552012-07-24T03:40:00.000-03:002012-07-26T12:54:46.775-03:00An Example of a Students' Fairy Tale<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" data-mce-style="text-indent: 27pt; margin: 0;" style="text-align: left;font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.7; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 27pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" style="font-family: Arial; color: inherit; line-height: 1.7; font-size: 10pt; "> <a title="natalia3.jpg" href="http://thomasja.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/natalia3.jpg" data-mce-href="http://thomasja.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/natalia3.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(0, 96, 255); line-height: 1.7; "><img src="http://thomasja.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/natalia3.jpg" id="blogsy-1343317911034.1802" class="" alt="natalia3.jpg" width="435" height="336"></a> </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">I was very sick and I didn't have anything to do, so I called my daughter and asked her if she and my granddaughter could go to my house. She said that she couldn’t, but my granddaughter could and she’d bring some candy to me.</font></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foldable for reading activity</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.7; margin-bottom: 1.7em; "><span data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" style="font-family: Arial; color: inherit; line-height: 1.7; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">The girl picked up her bicycle and went to my house. She went through the park, because it was faster. She couldn’t talk to strangers, but one wolf stopped her and asked where she was going, as she was very sweet, polite and didn’t lie, she said and showed him, how he would arrive at my house. He ran fast and arrived at my house, pretending to be my granddaughter.</font></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">However I’m very smart and I was suspicious, in fact I looked at my surveillance camera and saw who he was. So I called the police and they arrested him. </font><span data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" style="font-family: Arial; color: inherit; line-height: 1.7; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">My granddaughter arrived and I told her the story, she was sorry about her innocence. Then, we ate a lot and the wolf couldn’t carry out his evil plan</font></span><span data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" style="font-family: Arial; color: inherit; line-height: 1.7; font-size: 10pt; ">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" data-mce-style="text-indent: 27pt; margin: 0;" style="text-align: left;font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.7; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 27pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" style="font-family: Arial; color: inherit; line-height: 1.7; font-size: 10pt; ">(Written by Natália -Juvenile 74)</span></p></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-62554947865108017642012-07-23T07:34:00.001-03:002012-07-23T09:14:12.623-03:00UMBC Day 03 - Baltimore Art Festival, Baltimore Aquarium, and Mezze Restaurant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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July 22nd was another surprising day of activities for e-teacher scholars. We started the day with breakfast at The Grits. Next we got into the bus to go to the Baltimore Art Festival. As usual, the bus dropped us at our first destination - the Baltimore Art Festival - and we were told it would pick us up in about three hours. From then on we were on our own. I really like the configuration these group strolls take. We generally depart with a group of friends and change our strolling peers as we walk and get called by someone else or get distracted by our uniqueness of interests. This unintended group arrangement provides an opportunity for a bigger variety of interaction and is itself a very enriching personal and cultural experience.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The Art Festival</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7626747692/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="photo by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="240" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8011/7626747692_7069c9e850_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7626749370/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="photo by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="240" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7626749370_6ea7c78b0e_m.jpg" width="240" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7627387096/in/set-72157630704950452" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" id="blogsy-1343039611744.0332" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7627387096_6d5f2fabf4.jpg" width="200" /></a> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><u></u></span></span><u style="background-color: white; color: #0000ee;"></u></div>
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Apart from the human and interactional side of this excursion, the Art Festival in itself is fantastic. The festival is one the biggest of this kind in The U.S. Part of the downtown area streets are blocked for the event. As you walk up and down you can see lots of interesting works of art. Works of art range from paintings to handcraft and from glass miniatures to installation art. There was even an impressive collection of insect replicas. Besides that, there were food stands with a great assortment of choices in case visitors got hungry. I did and I got myself some smoothie and a gyros. Really a great choice for a Sunday morning.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The Aquarium</span></h2>
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After the art festival we got the bus and headed to the Baltimore Aquarium. Sitting at the harbor area, this is a four-story building displaying a fascinating collection of water creatures in their different habitats, some rain forest insects and frogs and tropical botanic garden. Again we constantly changed our walking, chatting, picturing peers. I personally found it a very enriching educational experience. As I walked with Valentina, she shared very interesting stories related to animals and the discoveries one can make while closely observing animals in general. We talked about how kids and adults as well can benefit of such experiences and develop a deep respect for all species of life surrounding them. I kept wishing I had my English Access students and my nephews with me. It was so interesting that we had to rush to mange to get a glimpse of everything before our bus arrived. The aquarium showed some of us a world that some of us had only seen on television and it allowed us to share our personal stories about the ones that were familiar to us. <br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Dinner</span></h2>
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After so much walk, we felt tired and hungry. So, the next stop was the Mezze Restaurant. For this early dinner we sat in parties of five, six, or seven. On my table we talked about so many things. Some of the topics were: food (of course), our students and schools, vacations, what we watch on television, our native languages and their peculiarities and similarities. Needless to say the food was delicious, and being such an unskilled cook, I could not name all the dishes that we were served. The conversation was fantastic, and to be honest, with such wonderful conversation and conversationalists, I could probably go hungry for another two hours. My roommate Chauki and Hisham, who were fasting, would probably agree with that. This reminds of a scene of one of my favorite movies AI (a project of Stanley Kubrick directed by Steven Spielberg). In this scene the mother is taking the now unwanted boy robot to disposal ground on the woods. The boy robot, unaware of his "adoptive mother's" intentions strikes a conversation. The mother is extremely sad and really does not want to abandon him because she has grown to love the robot boy. It goes more or less like this.<br />
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" What will we have for dinner today? " asks the boy robot.<br />
" You never eat." the mother says. He is robot and he can't eat. If he does, he is seriously damaged. <br />
" But I like to sit at the table." Replies the boy robot.<br />
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<a href="http://blogsyapp.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Posted with Blogsy" height="20" src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" style="margin-right: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" width="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-8277886105442032272012-07-22T10:11:00.000-03:002012-07-22T10:14:59.707-03:00UMBC Day 02 - Crab Feast Dinner<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7619333982/" title="DSC00415 by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="DSC00415" height="180" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8002/7619333982_9503dfa179_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
After breakfast at The Grits, we got the bus to go shopping. First stop was Best Buy (my favorite store ever). Guess why! We spent some there checking tablets, PCs and other gadgets. We had about four and a half hours to walk around. Some of my classmates agreed that shopping malls are very much the same all over the world. This similarity breeds congeniality and makes us feel at home. As a result, we become more relaxed and interaction becomes smoother, an ideal situation to get to know one another. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7619333390/" title="DSC00416 by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="DSC00416" height="180" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8425/7619333390_90d6b00389_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
The climax of the day was The Crab Feast Dinner at Dr. Joan Shin's place. We first took a ride through very nice neighborhoods with lush green gardens and beautiful houses. After we went through a beautiful little town (sorry, I forgot the name and google maps was not that helpful). Then we finally arrived at Dr. Joan Shin's home and we were kindly received by her, Teresa, Adriana, and the program assistants. Before getting to the much awaited crabs, we could try some delicious finger foods. Some of us almost forgot that there was something else to eat later.<br />
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Finally we were invited to the basement. Surprisingly we were told we did not need any plates. At the basement there were two large tables covered with brown paper. On the tables there were also wooden hammers (one for each one of the guests). Having realized what for and how they were going be used, I thought to myself "This is going to be messy."<br />
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At the head of each table stood two white cardboard boxes and inside them, we guessed, famous crabs. The boxes were open and just like paparazzi most scholars with cameras on hand took lots of photos. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7619326906/" title="DSC00430 by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="DSC00430" height="180" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/7619326906_d8738eed1c_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
Flashes gone on and off, Dr. Shin did the honors of guiding us through the process cracking the crabs open and extracting the meat. It so noisy and so fun. I have to confess I was not the most skillful person in opening the crab, but I really enjoyed the experience as everyone else did. Some scholars suddenly became experts in the task and were very soon bragging about establishing a new recording of being the who ate the biggest number of crabs. It was definitely a messy, and fun experience to all of us. It makes us think about how different cultures can be. The ritual of breaking the carbs looked at the same time primitive and extremely sophisticated. Definitely a life changing cultural lesson.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7619323712/" title="DSC00435 by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img alt="DSC00435" height="180" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7256/7619323712_8f5aa68c3e_m.jpg" width="240" /></a>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-47900633306905870112012-07-21T11:57:00.001-03:002012-07-23T11:41:10.420-03:00E-Teacher - The Grits<div class='posterous_autopost'><div style="color: #000; background-color: #fff; font-family: tahoma, new york, times, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43278904@N00/7615530140/" title="The Grits by Jose Antoniobsb, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8425/7615530140_7169972d4f_m.jpg" height="240" alt="The Grits" width="240" /></a><br /></div><p /><div style="font-family: tahoma, new york, times, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span>Meet The Grits. This will be our first hang out place every morning. This morning I got there at seven something. I had to go back an forth many times. First I had forgotten my umbrella, then my iPad, then my jacket. I guess I am getting old or just forgetful. All these things turned out to be really useful. </span></div><div style="font-family: tahoma, new york, times, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span>It was really nice to meet everyone rested and enjoy the first meal together.</span></div><p /></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://joseantoniook.posterous.com/e-teacher-the-grits">Sharing spot</a> </p> </div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-88853060083190775472012-07-21T08:46:00.001-03:002012-07-21T08:46:09.430-03:00E-Teacher Journal - A Draft<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>E- Teacher Scholarship Journal</p><p>I am just trying to use Blogsy on my iPad and posted an entire version of two previous posts by copying and pasting straight from pages.</p><p> </p><p>When I arrived in my room I found a beautiful wine notebook on my desk. I opened it and it suggested that I wrote a journal about my days here at UMBC. I asked myself "Where is my pen?" Then I thought, why using pen and paper if I have a bag full of gadgets (iPad, iPhone, netbook, camera). I had already taken two photos. So I just opened my iPad on pages and started writing. As I wrote, I jus copied and pasted the photos. </p><p>Let's see what happens. I already love the idea. </p><p> </p><p>UMBC - Day 01</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Media_httpfarm9static_jgebw" height="500" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/joseantoniook/EtDoBjEvFzzxrHJzpgBFbqkrCydbxwjjfoxenwiIgyfDmrrsfdrIotAmmtdI/media_httpfarm9static_jGEbw.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" width="500" /> </div> </p><p>Today is the 20th of July. After about ten hours of flight I finally arrived at the UMBC Campus. I really caught myself biting my nails all the way till I got here. I was a bit impatient with the taxi driver. Although I had a map and everything, I was still a bit afraid to get lost and not make it. First I went to the wrong entrance of the building. One of the staff showed me where I had to go. While walking to the next entrance, I realized that on the rush to find the right place I had left my taxi receipt behind. When I turning around to fetch the forgotten paper, I saw the lady that had given me directions walking behind me with the receipt on her hand. Then again, I entered the wrong building. Finally, with help of a second person, I made it to the right place. It was a relief when Rebecca welcomed me, gave me key and took me to my room. I was really happy to find this beautiful bag filled with treats. Now I am headed for lunch. Just cannot wait to meet the other scholars later tonight. </p><p> </p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Media_httpfarm9static_ujwij" height="500" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/joseantoniook/EqrlmzFCgncArxjpxjqEekvonscCzliqcBDuzkmsEHGdCsDHjqbigwlfwFob/media_httpfarm9static_uJwiJ.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" width="374" /> </div> <p>Lunch was fine. There was a big variety of things to choose from and this made me feel home. I usually eat in a restaurant that has a wide choice of vegetables. So, I stuck with vegetables, some pasta, and bread. For dessert, I just couldn't help eating some cookies. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Media_httpfarm8static_ghtqv" height="275" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/joseantoniook/nvwyEesplrlIraaumByiGgIGjBxlfxugxIskueqHmbgItFvszbJrlytICjkI/media_httpfarm8static_ghtqv.jpg" width="275" /> </div> <p> </p><p> </p><p>While BBQ time did not come, I took the usual after lunch nap. I slept for about an hour and then took a walk around the campus. I was dying to get some coffee. So I went to the bookstore building The Commons. However, as I checked the possible coffee place it seemed to be a bit after hours. So, I decided to check the bookstore. </p><p> </p><p>The BBQ</p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Media_httpfarm9static_benbw" height="500" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/joseantoniook/GDwbhxklykiJIfakAzzcyAwCBACwqljBDeGsgpCdavsoCoGbcqzviCemCpGd/media_httpfarm9static_benBw.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" width="500" /> </div> <p>Barbecue time was fun. We finally met Teresa Valais who has been chaperoning us in this voyage. Joan and Adriana also joined us. We had a great evening and while we savored the food we talked a bit about our experiences and the present state of education in our countries. Scholars arrived little by little, and as they arrived they joined the conversation. I know I should try to name everyone, but I am terrible with names. The food in the pictured is wrapped because we were always waiting for someone else o arrive. Chaouki, who is going to be my roommate, had not arrived till I wrote this post. I really tried to wait as much as I could, but tiredness got the best of me and I had to come to my room. However, before going to bed, I decided to write this post.</p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small;"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" height="20" alt="Posted with Blogsy" width="20" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://joseantoniook.posterous.com/e-teacher-journal-a-draft">Sharing spot</a> </p> </div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-20530592729488958252012-06-24T21:23:00.001-03:002012-07-12T13:39:16.809-03:00Where to Publish Students' Work?<div class="posterous_autopost">
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Since I started using the web in my classes I have become a big fan of publishing and I have always been proud of some of mine and my students' accomplishments in this arena. In the beginning I started blogging. At first, I wrote blog posts myself and asked students to post comments. I could see that this seemed to be a nice and interesting way of engaging students. It elicited a given structure or lexicon, and got their opinion on a given subject. However, it lacked initiative from the part of learners. I felt that I could not limit blogging to comments from the part of students only. Besides that, I found my posts a little predictable and missing the desirable originally. To be honest, I started getting tired of listening too much of my own of voice as the conversation initiator. </div>
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<img alt="Medium_4866638272" height="333" src="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-06-24/oHGzzDCFelsadbJJivkDmldbtvACyJuslDzmyamlwJwJgsskfemhxujAxiGy/medium_4866638272.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" width="500" /> </div>
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photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4866638272/">Βethan</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photo pin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a></div>
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Once I realized that reducing blogging to students comment was not enough, I moved on to the second stage of my publishing efforts. This stage involved getting my students to create blogging entries themselves. As a result, my class blogs blossomed with creativity. Students used their own drawings and images to illustrate posts. Besides that, I could see that they were more interested in reading and commenting on what their friends had written. Comments were not always written, but they always checked and browsed their peers<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif;">’</span> posts. Therefore, there was a change on the cyber landscape. At this point, I also could change my role and started being the one reacting, giving feedback on my their work. Not only that but I also got some of my online friends to give feedback on my students published content.</div>
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However, as time went by, I started realizing that blogging also had some limitations of its own. For example, in a large, prolific group, one easily loses track of content. If you have too many posts, it becomes difficult to keep up with the time line. Posts that are quite recent are not visible and only the most recent ones are displayed on the first page. As result, your audience (students themselves and others) might feel a bit overwhelmed with content. To top it all, as the web evolved, blogging started losing its appeal to younger learners. Their interest moved to platforms that allowed adding peers as friends and all sorts of connections besides mere comments on posts.</div>
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It was after realizing that students needed a more connected publishing platform that I went for social networking. So, that is where I am now. I am struggling to find one that suits mine and my students need. Although I really like Facebook, I think it has the drawback of being sometimes too overwhelming for getting an audience to more reflective publishing. Facebook is good to connect a group, but it is limited if you want to teach writing or engage your group in a given activity. I might be wrong, but I think a barrage of posts and updates does not help teaching. Meanwhile I am still looking for a more suitable and "free" social netwoking platform. While I wait, I am using grou.ps. <a href="http://ctjlearning.grou.ps/" title="CTJ Learning">Here</a> is what my students and I have been doing. </div>
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</div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-90028658513276453202012-06-16T14:21:00.001-03:002012-06-21T19:29:02.986-03:00Project Based Learning - Some Challenges<div class="posterous_autopost">
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In the last two years I started working with projects. It all started with online courses I took in the beginning of 2011 with <a href="http://www.umbc.edu/">UMBC</a> called Teaching Young Learners and more to the end of the same year I took Methods II on Project\Problem-Based Learning with <a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/">University of Oregon</a>. In these courses, I developed projects for the courses themselves and tried to synchronize assigned course tasks and the ones in my teaching practice. In this post I will address some of the challenges posed by project based learning while working on some projects with my students. <br />
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In my opinion one of the greatest challenges of working with projects is the tight schedules we have in our institutions. As a result, instructors are generally expected to teach a certain amount of content within a given time frame. In my case, most of the content is broken into units and lessons. Therefore, teachers know what lesson to cover in a given class or week. Besides that, a teacher has to keep an eye on the incoming test date which serves as a sort of time tracker that informs them that they have to squeeze content within certain deadlines. To cope with this limitation, the best approach is to work on mini projects, on something that will not take up more than two consecutive classes. A second solution would involve assigning tasks as homework. Doing so, the instructor saves valuable class time and adds authenticity to a project. </div>
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A second challenge has to do with the syllabus itself and the textbooks we have to use. Most of the textbooks adopted by schools are content-based. Being a teacher myself, I know that some teachers would certainly agree that task-based course books would make the perfect match for a project-based learning approach. However, we do not always have the luxury of inhabiting such perfect worlds. Besides that, I have grown to believe that a task-based syllabus has its own limitations. To win the battle between content versus task, an instructor has to carefully plan tasks that smoothly integrate the content taught into projects he or she plans to carry out. So, for every piece of content, we should try to think of a realistic task that could be inserted into a mini project. This approach makes the content more palatable and gets learners involved into more authentic activities.</div>
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A third challenge is the sharing of these so-called mini projects. Therefore, once you and your students have invested some precious time and effort into something such as a class project, it seems reasonable to come up with a way for displaying\sharing the work done. If schedule is a little tight, it certainly poses some limitations to the usual group by group presentation scheme. A possible solution is publishing the final result on the web. Such approach allows for the class members and its immediate community (parents and classmates) to check the outcomes beyond the classroom walls. Besides that, when you decide for this mode of sharing you force your student and yourself to acquire twenty first century learning skills (publishing and all the skills associated with this task). Finally, sharing project outcomes on the web also makes learners aware of the importance of building and online presence and is a valuable opportunity to teaching netiquette (some basic rules for good online behavior). </div>
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As a final remark, I would like to point out that this short post is in no way a complete inventory of all the challenges an educator might face when working on projects. I have</div>
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just tried to address some of the problems I had to deal with in my specific context - the one of an EFL instructor teaching at a binational language center in Brasilia - Brazil. Nevertheless, I do recommend setting aside some of your class time to work on projects. It is really rewarding and it does change the way you and your students engage with content and learn. </div>
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</div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-45780879313622946522012-06-08T20:43:00.001-03:002012-06-09T19:17:20.240-03:00A Cyber Valentine<div class="posterous_autopost">
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As valentines' day approaches in Brazil (we celebrate it on June 12th), I decided to say a few words about mine and my students' relationship with computers and technology in general. First I should say I have no pretense to sound as a scholar on the issue. This represents just my humble point of view. It is just an account of how I see the issue of using computers in the classroom. Valentines has to do with relationships and mine to computers seem to be, for me at least, quite an interesting story. Besides that, someone on TV today quoted a teacher admonishing <span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif;">“</span>Fall in love for a cause, find something you are passionate about. Love for a person can be temporary, love for a cause can last for a life time.<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif;">”</span> I would say that using the web for teaching and learning qualifies as my passion and that is why I decided to talk about it. </div>
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Let<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif;">’</span>s begin from the beginning. In my case, I can trace my story with computers and technology back to a crash course in word processing and related computer skills I took in 1999 before getting my masters in the US. Since then I have gone from downloading and printing everything to the cloud, from floppy discs, to CDs, to flash drives, to flash memory. I have also become mobile in many ways. I have gone from a desktop with so many wires and cables under my desk that looked more a butchered animal to only resorting to a tablet and a smart phoned for my computer needs. </div>
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Having said this, I would argue that my relationship to computers and technology has matured and grown into a full-fledged love affair, almost a marriage. I think that as a digital immigrant (borrowing from <a href="http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf">Prensky</a>) I have been able to adapt. Nonetheless I have to admit that I am in no way as fluent in the use of technology as I would like to be. I still struggle to cope with the frenzy of updates and novelties that pop up on my screens almost every minute. Many times, to my disappointment, I spend hours trying to achieve a very simple goal.</div>
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However, when I think about my students, I really think I see a split in the way they view computer technology. Computers seem to be for fun only. This view also seems to be shared by some teachers who resist to giving control of the mouse to students (and to themselves) and make a more creative use of the web and its suite of tools. I guess this has a bit to do with traditional views held by some schools that imply that computers are for playing or only socializing, not for serious, meaningful learning, for integrating skills. Some students report that teachers refuse to accept typed assignments under the excuse of preventing plagiarism. Plagiarism was not invented by computers or internet. So, banning typed essays is not going to solve the problem. </div>
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Being digital natives, students do feel comfortable with technology. However this does not guarantee that they have the necessary skills to engage in some activities a teacher might propose. This creates an opportunity for teachers to show to students and themselves that they are not so computer illiterate as they believe. Nonetheless, younger students are fast learners and would immediately start using whatever you teach with fluency in a matter of seconds. Sometimes they would hesitate in publishing content for fearing criticism, but once they overcome this initial shyness they blossom into an amazing creative frenzy. </div>
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To end on romantic note (since this is Valentines season), I think I may be helping my students to build their relationship with technology for learning. I do that, especially when I reassure them that much of prevailing paranoia about the web is not true. Doing this, I show them the path of sharing and collaborating. If I mange to do this, I think I encourage them to take some steps towards integrating their existing passion for technology a bit more into their lives. </div>
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</div>joseantoniohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366078881175233691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28896230.post-22450267286025193502012-06-01T21:11:00.001-03:002012-06-07T21:03:18.906-03:00Still About Wikis<div class="kwout" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">As I said in my previous post, I have been using wikis for quite a while. I have also promised to write a little about some of the disadvantages of using wikis.</span></div>
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What led me to use wikis so constantly, despite some of its glitches, was the successful experience we have had with this platform at Casa Thomas Jefferson, the school I work for. We have a wiki with 287 users and 7,605 files and counting. We use it as an intranet portal to post resources for classes (power point presentations, videos, lesson plans) and for communication. </div>
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Wikis, as I said at the beginning of this post, are not a panacea that solve every problem. Like any online tool, it has some problems. One problem I would point out is the fact that comments cannot be individualized for posts. Different form blogs, what wikis give the one posting is a page where many things can be posted, knot individualized, separate posts with the possibility of comments for each individual entry. This make it difficult for the reader to connect comments and posts. So, when commenting, it is necessary sometimes to indicate what you are referring to.</div>
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Another problem, especially if you choose to use Pbworks, is that editing is flash based. This can be a big drawback once it does not allow you to post or edit content on your iPad or iPhone. However the platform is constantly evolving, and with the announced demise of flash, I am sure IOS friendly platform will be soon available. I might be wrong, but from what I can gather from my experience with web 2.0, that is the way these things go.</div>
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Wikis are organized in folders if you want to create a page for every student. This makes visibility an issue. To view individual pages, you should first click on the folder and only then you will see a link to each individual page. I have solved this problem in one of my wikis by placing links to pages on the main page. However, this only works when you have just a few pages. In case you have too many pages, folders are the only solution. In this case, name folders appropriately is extremely helpful.</div>
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I guess I would better stop here with the downs of wikis. I really do not want to discourage fellow educators from using them. On a last note, if you want to give wikis a try, pay a visit to my <a href="http://wikis4empowering.pbworks.com/">wiki</a> where you will find an introduction to wikis and plenty of tutorials on how to post and create content. <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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