kelly's posterous

October 17, 2008

FLICKR

How can I use it?
Flickr is a great tool to let students use their creativity and show off their talent to express life through photos.
It can be used with all level of students. We can design an e-tivity and ask for telling how it would be illustrated.
I will give it a try. I liked the examples from the article. A class project would be a very good starting point.
I also liked Victor`s idea of asking his students to load photos of their vacation and leave some comments about each one.

My experience
After Braz-Tesol One Day Seminar this year, I decided to have a Flickr accont. I attended a presentation about web tools and I liked the site. I loaded some photos and I forgot about it for months. I was very curious about it.
Now I am back! I didn`t know the possibilities I have with Flickr. I loaded some photos today and started to edit it. After seeing the tutorials I felt more engaged to check the features I have here. Guys, there are creative things we can do here. I have two news posts in my Blogger. Go there and check it. :), I customized a photo using one option among many others from a link Carla gave us in the moddle. I sent it to the group, so you can check it. I enjoyed.

Plans for the future?

I still have a lot to learn. I have been lurking around and trying to edit my profile and coordinated my blogs to Flickr. It is a marathon. I go to one place to another.
It is a new web tool for me. Another great free tool.

Check this Video in Youtube about Flickr.

Comments [1]

October 11, 2008

Using RSS and Saving Time

RSS is the reader for all the sites I want to keep following. Carla said in one of the tutorials that RSS is having content delivered for me. I don't have to go back to all the sites I bookmarked in my computer and check what is new. Imagine a list of 10 sites about ESL. If I had to visit each site every week to see what the author has included, it would take a lot of time. I go to my RSS and I have more than updatings. I can customize the page the way I want. I can have different pages for different topics organized in an iGoogle page displayed with Google classic page.

I do think the tutorials are magic. It is like having a private class with Carla. I have done what she says and it works pretty well. There are so many tools in our pages that I had never tried or given any credit. I am curious to try, discover and explore all kind of benefits the net browser has. To start, I will download Mozilla.

Comments [1]

October 3, 2008

Blogging

I reckon much of what I know about blogs is from curiousity. I love learning new things. I had a previous experience with blogs has you can read a post I left in the beginning of the week. As I had created blogs for fun or work, I thought this week 3 was going to be " a piece of cake". I was wrong. There is much more to learn. The path is still going... some days UP, other days DOWN.

I learned that I can improve my blog with the new tools I have learned in our first two weeks. POSTEROUS is a new learning. I had never heard about writing post for a blog by my e-mail address. That`s amazing! Another learning, I can add Diigo widget to my blog. Bookmarking is still on. By the way, I love widgets, gadgets...

Talking with Carla through Skype, I told her I wanted to create a blog with my own ideas of web tools. I beared in mind how much I can exchange to my colleagues what we know about free web tools. I have tried some online e-tivities with my students and having fun by myself at home around 10 to 1 at night just to get the feeling of how I manage different sites.

After watching Cristina Costa`s video, I realized I am in the right path. She gave some tips to blog smartly:

work together;
enjoy yourself while doing it;
see the meaning of it;
try to make the best of it.

I felt happy. I am trying to socialize my Ups and Downs. Get the feeling of it! Cristina also said Blog is:

share ideas
an open conversation

I would complete with:

a lively talk from my living room to yours
my milestones... be them small or big

It is checking out all the cool stuff and still loving to comment it. I connect to you by a blog. Love that!

Let`s blog!

Comments [4]

October 1, 2008

Once I blogged, I couldn't stop...

Carla has a question in the Blog Forum which I couldn`t resist answering. I decided to post my reflection here...

The first time I saw a real blog was in a TTC course I attended in 2006. The teacher trainer used the blog as our reflection room for homeworks. Every Saturday class we were supposed to post a new e-tivity. That took my attention to use blogs as a homework. I decide to give it a try.

I had to adapt it to my reality. Then, I thought: a bimester e-tivity which I would grade students. I created a Wordpress account and started blogging once a month with intermediate and advanced classes. I had 90% of participation.

I decided to see how it would be with the basic students. I had to balance it in a way that the ones who couldn't have access to the internet could have the activity done in a traditional hand-out. It worked and has been one of my bimester tests since then. I still have to force it as a grading activity due to my students' ability to stay in the comfort zone. They are resistent to any homework at all. However, they have to study and dedicate.

The blog is a rich tool to expose students to the language. I customized the widgets with more options for authentic material. I also leave posts for students to send their guides from oral presentations just to register the topic so that everybody can have a written view of what was done in class. It is not for grade.

One thing I got very worried when I started blogging was my students' mistakes. I correct their comments by my dashboard options but there are some sentences I find authentic to keep there. I believe Interlanguage is part of the learning process. The identification of mistakes is important to show to students so that they can see how they have to correct it. The benefit is that all the class read what/how the others are producing. It is setting real examples of what has been good and what needs to be improved in their learning as well as in my teaching practice.

I want to see how I can use it more efficiently. I also love sharing ideas. If you want to check it, go to English at Cilc is great! . Please any suggestion or anything you want to point as negative send it right away. I am here for it.

I still have to learn how to use a blog for podcasting. That's one of my goals.

What do you think?

Cheers,

kelly

Comments [4]

September 28, 2008

Diigo demands digging

This week 2 has just ended. However, the learning will be forever and added by more curiousity: DIIGO. I have surfed on this site all week and I still have more to get familiar. In the beginning, my biggest difficulty was to find how to have friends with me. Then I saw that i happens naturally according to the group I belong to. Aftet accepting a group request... I was at home. What a fantastic tool for interacting, socializing, sharing, having fun, inviting friends and making others, being part groups....

I found Diigo so interesting. It is amzing how I can get in touch with people's world by seeinh which sites they like. It is the new world. WEB 2.0?! YEAH!!!! It is bookmarking as a social activity.

The advantages are having access to many different people and sharing sites which can enhance students' learning. I have seen awesome tools for my students' use. One of them is GO ANIMATE. I heard about it by Marina, who is one of the members of our course. This site will be my first invesment for second bimester. Even though I teach at public schools, I believe my students can have access to technology. Otherwise, I would be studying for that. I must invest in the future of my country. I think Diigo helped me to see how I can involve everybody in a social group and share a thought, a site, a plan, a tag....

Another advantage is the possibilites of the site. Each person has a page that displays what the owner wants but also what my friends have done so far. I don't need to go to their Diigo page to see the latest events. I have them with me. It is time saving and CURIOUSITY again arouses.

I have had great fun with Diigo.

.

Comments [2]

September 19, 2008

Digital Learners - reflections

Digital Leaners - Digital Immigrants

Reflections

The use of technology in the classroom is an utmost issue to teachers who have digital learners in the classroom. The students are native digital immigrants. Technology is a natural tool for them. It is vital that students use any sort of technology to "transform knowledge and skills into products, solutions, and new information" - a vision of k-12 students today.

Students are familiar with computer, Cds, DVDs, MP5, iPod, games, instant messages and machines they have at home.

New verbs have been incorporated to describe the new skills the digital learners are born with such as game, blog, google and text.

Spending time with e-tivities becomes a natural daily routine. In addiction, learning through the internet doesn't bother them. It's a bridge for having fun. It is like learning and playing with no harm. Besides, what is difficult for an adult to handle with, the digital natives manage easily. How to keep them engaged in the classroom?

According to the videos I saw "in any given day, 68% of children under two will use a screen media, for an average of just over two hours". Students have different kind of intelligences. They are connected to the web tools in a way that cellphone, webquests, videos, podcast can foster their abilities.

Teachers should be resistent to provide them the opportunity to remix, share, edit, blog, research, submit their own comments. Bear the classes to engage them. Use the WWW Whatever, Whenever, Wherever. The class will be anytime learning.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I have used web tools with my students sinc elast year. It is a challenge when having two computers at my school. The first tool I decided to use was the blog. I could enhace my students' learning. They were very engaged to participate and leave their comments. Everybody saw each other's performance and left more relections. I wandered how they were involved! I am quite certain that the use of WWW brinhs richness not only for my curriculum but also my life. How I have learned with my students! I am doing this online course to get more bright ideas and empower my professional skills.

Comments [6]