Celebrating Social Media Day

Mashable Meetup: Brasília, Brazil | Jun 30 - Meetup.com via kwout

Today is social media day and 500 cities around the world are celebrating it. I have just checked the list and saw that Brasilia (the city I live in) is one of them. It is for sure a day to celebrate because it has to do with the development of tools that allowed users to move from passive consumers to producers of web content. As a language teacher and a citizen, I am happy to see the possibilities it creates for my classes when my students and I have moved beyond using the web to do treasure hunts. Now we can create our own treasures and share them with the world. The media becoming social is a bit like the fall of the Bastille of official, filtered, censored web. Before blogs, you tube, social networking, and so many other possibilities of publishing content, one could only have his or her voice heard online if  he or she possessed very advanced computer skills.  The so called social web has democratized the cyberspace allowing anyone to share their ideas in any way they choose with the advantage of getting feedback. Social media transformed the one way approach to publishing into a multi party conversation. The reasons why we should celebrate social media are many. I myself just wish some more people join us, social media fans, to make the cyber and the real world a better place.

José Antônio

http://joseantoniook.blogspot.com

http://advanced4b.ning.com

http://advanced5b.ning.com

Posted via email from Sharing spot

To tweet or not to tweet

Twitter / Home via kwout

Twitter has recently reached widespread fame and usage. It seems that everyone is twittering now. When I listen to the news on my car radio on my commute to work I hear the news anchor announcing the station's twitter url. Some banks advertise their twitter accounts as way of getting feedback from their clients. In class, I have observed that most of my students are connected to twitter. However, at the same time I see how people use twitter and I kind of understand why some object joining it and dismiss it as a useless tool, or just passing fad that will go away. They might be right, but while the hype lasts, some of us can get the best it has to offer: its capabilities for sharing, getting news, and keep connected to your friends and updated on your interests.
Twitter is for me like my daily news. The difference is that I get the news every time I turn my computer on. Besides that, I also get updates while I am working on it. Some people claim it is overwhelming and distracting, but so is everything in life. We are always filtering information whenever we read newspapers or magazines, surf TV,  radio channels or the web. Twitter is just the same. Besides being a source of daily/breaking news, it is also a way of sharing things I find on the web with the people that follow me. In this sense, it is a sharing button: a good way of spreading news other than sending an e-mail with a link to your friend without the need of a reply. Moreover, it is also a way of being ubiquitous (if this is possible) due to its integration features. Even in cyberspace, we cannot be everywhere, but twitter allows us to be in many places. I myself have connected my account to my posterous blog (which is connected to my blogger blog, tumblr, wordpress, and friendly feed), to simplybox and diigo (which allows people connected to my twitter see the things I bookmark), to facebook, and other services that I cannot recall right now or may feel a bit lazy to list them all (or might not want to make it boring for my readers). I see the later features as a good way to establish a reasonable online presence. To sum it up, in my opinion, twitter can be a great tool if it is used wisely.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

The toys I play with

Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Dec 2099, Rio 033 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! via kwout

I have just got my computer back from the repair shop. I have had this one for almost two years now and I still intend to keep it for some time. It amazing how paranoid computer technicians seem to be. The repair guy reconfigured my computer and blocked almost everything. So, while I was trying to get around all the barriers I now had, I kept thinking about how web 2.0 fanatics enjoy being around computers experimenting with tools. I had a great pleasure in reinstalling my firefox browser and all the add ons I use. My nephew, who is very smart when it comes to computers, always asks me why I have so much stuff on my toolbar. I really love quoting, twittering, bookmarking, and so on. So, I spent a big part of this evening trying to get all my add ons to work. Some of my colleagues get really upset when things do not work they way they wish with their computers, I do too, but I end up enjoying all the hassle that comes along with it. I guess computers are my toys and i really love playing with them. I think once we grow up we have to find new toys. Some people enjoy fishing, others enjoy watching soccer on TV or live. I love working with computers and sharing my discoveries.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Learning with others

http://kwout.com/quote/9xjgmv7g

I have joined Diigo a couple of years ago and it has helped me a lot. With Diigo I feel more connected to my interests because I follow lots of with whom I learn every single day. I always open my Diigo e-mail updates and bookmark items my e-friends have shared. Besides that, I am always sharing whatever I discover with my network of friends. I guess that at the beginning I had the usual difficulties everyone has, but I am persistent  . Just now I learned some new things when I was trying to teach Lucia how to use Diigo (I never highligh, so I had to learn how to do it to teach her) . I have learned that on the web one never knows everything and we can always learn when sharing and teaching others. I really love the idea of offloading (storing knowledge on my friends) instead of downloading knowledge.  So, I take it easy and do not try to learn everything. I just learn what I can and think I need. The rest, my friends learn for me and I learn something for them in return.

I confess, I have never used Diigo in the classroom. I think the studetns I usually have are too young for bookmarking. I guess that with a group of adults, this would be more meaningful. I would teach them how to work in Diigo and would then create a group for them to share there favorites. From my experiences adults just love to discover that can get rid of the endless list of favorites they have on their pc when they bookmard things the old way.

That is all, I guess.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Reflection of the week

I guess my students learn everywhere and they do it in many ways. They learn when I give them a conversation task to do, when they do a grammar based activity. They also learn while surfing the web, when they connect to peers and with their teachers.

The curriculum does not provide  much tech-richness. What we teachers need to do is to adapt our curriculum to include some tech-rich ingredients.

I have been using the internet with my students mainly to create virtual classes. I try to create spaces where they can apply what they aready know to improve their language skills. Although, I am mostly happy with my results, I still feel I need to do something extra to empower them, to connect them better, to enhance their learning with these tools.  I am still looking for ways of improving what I have been doing.

I guess what I am still trying to do is to turn my 21st classroom into a learning engine .  I would say that this is the philosopher's stone I have been looking for. I am sure I will find it some day.

I guess that despite the barrier of time, I am engaging my students. I keep trying and I like what I see.

 

Posted via email from Sharing spot

- Ethevaldo Siqueira - The Demassification of Information Society

via ethevaldo.com.br

This is a podcast in Portuguese. Something I like to listen when I am arriving at work (around 5 to 7 am) on weekdays. In this podcast Etevaldo Siqueira discusses the challenges involved in demassification of society in the information age predicted by Alvin Tofler. I think it is big challenge for us educators to transform our students into creators of critical content in the digital age we are living.
I totally agree with the parallel drawn by Tofler between the industrial revolution and the digital revolution in what concerns the massification of society.
Hope you enjoy listening and reading.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

BBC News - Mobile phones become smarter in 2010

BBC News - Mobile phones become smarter in 2010

Just checking out a feature in Google Chrome called blog this. It is a nice way of quoting things from the web and posting them to your blog.
This one about mobile phones becoming smarter is really nice. I do follow with great enthusiasm all the developments in mobile phones. Nonetheless the one I use is still very basic. Phone bills and smart phones are still too expensive for me.

A quick guide to interactive YouTube videos (RT @russeltarr)

Check out this website I found at classtools.net

I love using videos in class. One of my goals for this semester is start making some more videos myself. I am thinking of using puppets to deal with the issue of privacy and avoid exposing children.
I was really amazed when I found out about interactive you tube videos http://preview.tinyurl.com/mbpo3p. The article I am quoting from classtoos.net not only features some videos but also has a guide teaching you how to make them.
I hope you enjoy it.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

Twiducate socialnetworking for schools

I have really enjoyed using social networking websites with my students. I first started using 21 Classes  and had a nice experience with it. It had some limitations, though. One thing was the difficulty to embed other things into the pages. I liked to have all students in one front page from where they could access each other's blogs and explore the features they were so used to in their out of class social networks.
Next, I discovered ning. This one I have been using till today and I am planning to continue using this year. Ning is social networking at its best. Its features include forums, chat, blogs, photos, videos, integration with  twitter, and some more. It is worth exploring.
Just yesterday I found out about twiducate on twitter (actually I think I had seen it before, but just yesterday I decided to give it a try). It seems simpler than the other ones and a bit more complete than twitter for what I wanted. I will have a group of beginner students and I really did not want to use ning to avoid overwhelming them with so many features. I also did not want to use a blog because it would be very teacher centered. So twiducate seems like a tool that is not the complex and will allow all students to interact in one place.
I posted this screencast to give those who might want to use it an idea of how it works. I hope it is helpful.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Watching TV while surfing the web

 http://www.viewmy.tv/Index.aspx?srcid=3790

I really love multitasking. I guess once you discover the wonders of the Internet, you just cannot help. Something I also like doing is watching TV. I know that web TV is becoming a reality in the US, but some of the services are not available to other countries. I was really happy when I found out about viewmy.tv where you can watch TV programs from many countries around the world (such as this one where a storyteller entertains children with her story),

Posted via email from Sharing spot

2010-Horizon-Report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

<html><

via nmc.org

The Horizon Report is an important report released each year on emerging technologies. It discusses trends and issues related to teaching and learning. It is really worth reading.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

Another Christmas Video

http://bbljoy.com/n0z95

One of my contacts in Grouply shared this video card maker with the group. I decided to test it  and found it really interesting. You can record and customize a message for different occasions. A problem I see is that it generates a link only and not an embedding code. I decided to post it to my posterous blog (which is connected other blogs) and see how it works. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Merry Christmas to you all and may 2010 be a happy and successful year.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Season Greetings with Tokbox

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

Gone are the days we sent real Christmas cards. I used to send many. I guess I just got too busy or too addicted to the web. Besides that, we also have to save the Amazon, don't we?   I am in favor of lesser and lesser paper and more interaction. So, this is my message for the holidays. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

How to do almost anything with Posterous (Using Posterous for Quoting)

         

Subscribe:

Blog

• About
• World View
• Advertise
• Conference
• Forum
• Contact

How to do almost anything with Posterous

28 comments  

By Martin Bryant on August 13, 2009

Online sharing and blogging service Posterous has been getting a lot of attention recently. The development team is adding features regularly and it’s fast becoming the best way to share content with all your different social services while also keeping it all in one place too. The best bit is you can do it all via email.

With so many ways to use Posterous it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Here we’ll take you through everything you need to know about it and suggest a range of ways you can use it to make your online life easier.

The basics

via thenextweb.com

I have been using posterous for a while and I am really amazed by how simple and useful it is. I have just discovered this blog post written by Martin Bryant talking about how many ways you can use this blog host and decided to quote it using the posterous bookmarking feature. I hope it is useful.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

McKinsey: What Matters: Using technology to improve workforce collaboration

Knowledge workers fuel innovation and growth, yet the nature of knowledge work remains poorly understood—as do the ways to improve its effectiveness. The heart of what knowledge workers do on the job is collaborate, which in the broadest terms means they interact to solve problems, serve customers, engage with partners, and nurture new ideas. Technology and workflow processes support knowledge worker success and are increasingly sources of comparative differentiation. Those able to use new technologies to reshape how they work are finding significant productivity gains. This article shares our research on how technology can improve the quality and output of knowledge workers.

via whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com

An interesting article on the changes caused by the widespread use of technology. Using a posterous bookmark.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

Stupeflix for videos

Watch the Teacher Stuff channel on Stupeflix.tv.

I am always amazed by the power of communities of practice. An e-friend of ours (Gilmar) posted a querry on our virtual community ( Learning With Computers ) asking for hints on video maker site. Some members (Ana Maria and Bob Palmer)  suggested Stupeflix. I tested it and loved it. I created a channel called teacher stuff and seached the tag teaching on flickr and twitter and this was what I got. Nice, isn't it?

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Posting Everywhere

One thing I like about posterous is its integration with other websites such as twitter, facebook, you tube, and other blog hosts (it is called autopost). This feature allows bloggers to post to lots of places. Being a tech freak I am, it makes me happy to see that I get to be a ubiquitous entity, a dream of most bloggers.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

EVO 2010 Sessions

Electronic Village Online / Call_for_Participation2010 via kwout

 EVO 2010 sessions begin next January. It is a great opportunity for learning about teaching with teachers from all over the world. The sessions are held online and are free of charge. It is a great chance for those who have never experienced e-learning first hand to see how fast one can learn using the web. Besides that, it is also a chance for sharing what you know about language learning and teaching. For a list of sessions to choose from check here

Posted via email from Sharing spot

A new videoblogging tool

Vacations are a great thing, aren't they. Well, after working really hard correcting tests and and filling out forms, it is good to find some free time to explore the web. Check out this new video blogging tool I have come across. It is called Wink Ball. It looks promising. What do you think?

I know I could look and sound better. Everything for the sake of testing and playing.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Something interesting

BBC - Digital Revolution (Working Title) - Digital Revolution via kwout

The BBC is working o na documentary provisorily called "The Digital Revolution." I took a pick at some of the material and it looks really promising. There are interviews with ordinary people talking about what the web represents for them. The page also features interviews with iconic figure of the web 2.0 world. It is really worth checking and bookmarking to follow updates.

Posted via email from Sharing spot