Archive for the 'CrisCosta' Category

I don’t know how this happens, but it’s more than just commenting. It’s a deeper connection which is not limited by geographical distance or the fact that we’ve never met f2f. The fact is that because of blogging and the conversations going on more intensely for the past months, Cris Costa and I have been sharing and blogging more than ever. I care for all who’s out there, my readers, but sometimes I feel I HAVE to blog because of Cris, and she always mentions something I’ve shared with her. Deeper conversations, stronger connections.
Well, in one of our conversations I mentioned we should have a selective “share button” in our minds for everything we felt like blogging, be it personal or professional. It’s not an ideal world, but Cris compelled me to share here after her wonderful post about teaching, teaching practices and memories. I guess this is also part of our comment challenge challenge! I’ve been making new connections, strengthening old ones as a group of highly excited, passionate bloggers are willing to take their time to keep hitting the share button every single second and it’s been a huge collective knowledge builder. I’ve been learning in every possible way from this journey.
Well, going back to Cris and teaching and me. Cris talked about her own experience, how she’s changed as an educator, how she understood that the human touch and connecting to students was what really mattered. I, too, learned that books don’t teach or enhance learning. We, educators, together with learners, do! I remember how I’d rely in tons of papers, activities, games to have the feeling that I was teaching, that I was being approved by my students. Then, I realized that what really made a difference was the human touch, the personalization, the intimacy a classroom with so many brilliant souls provides.
I realized that what really made a difference was harnessing individual talents, encouraging students to be and do their best, tapping into their interests, passions. I learned that we didn’t need tons of papers, resources, activities…We needed to connect, to be good listeners, guiders and followers.
My teaching changed and I changed along the way.
I’ll never forget, for example, a conversation class on teens we had.
I showed my teens this video. Then, we talked about it, they taught me some teen slangs in Portuguese and they produced cooperatively wonderful poems on our class wiki. These are the connections I look for and I miss now that I’m not currently teaching f2f, though I’m having a wonderful time with my online students and connecting in unexpected ways, but this is another story, blog post…

Their poems: Teenagers want to discover things, Passing through unbelievable experiences With their body and their spirit Meet every kind of people, culture.
And more than this. They want to enjoy their lifetime To know themselves, To know what they like And expect about them and the world.
by Andréa and Joanna
_____________________________________
Teenagers
Some teenagers are okay And others are wicked insane Even if some people say they are always the same They can´t understand that this is part of their games! Yo, man.. fo sho..
Some like soccer Others prefer the Net They can be rockers and bum a cigarette
Probably lives with passion Maybe in need of an exercise set Or don´t live without fashion They are different, I bet.
by Joseane, Felipe and Leonardo
____________________________________________ Teenagers want to be more informed Know about what the world can offer, New cultures and different people Teens want to enjoy their lives They want to have as much as possible Teens are always under pressure But they were made to be freeThey are always trying to find the real liberty Without getting out of reality They want to find new feelings New love and new experiences
Matheus and Breno
_______________________________ Living in a Dream
Every teenager has a dream It can be like Martin Luther King. They want to make the difference Also looking for love and peace.
If you do have a dream, Make it real. It can be just like having an ice cream or as hard as living in Rio.
Never give up. Keep on going. So start cheering up ‘Cause the world is rolling.
Patrícia, André and Gabriela
_____________________________
What do Teenagers want?
They want parties They want to go out They want to enjoy their life They want to know about everything They don´t have feelings In reality, they have nothing That´s what they say about who is never working…
Is that a real conclusion we can take about them?! I will tell you what A teenager is more than a friend…
Teenagers dream Teenagers sleep Teenagers cry Teenagers think Teenagers die Teenagers drink Teenagers dance Teenagers decide
They come to the conclusion By heart or outside They are just younger But they are people, anyway
People that are always learning And that can teach too.. You should dream as a teenager And think about what is true…
Roberto
_______________________________________
No. I’ll never forget those teens and many students who changed me, who taught me, who are my inspiration and my optimistic view of education.

I’ve seen this chain on Graham Atwell’s blog which is going on in the blogosphere, and decided to give my little contribution even not being invited by anyone. The idea is

to add to a collection of photos that represent our passion in teaching/learning. I have to tag it ‘Meme: Passion Quilt’ and post it on a blog, Flickr, FaceBook or some other social networking tool with a brief commentary of why it is a passion for me.

In my case, I chose this photo of my boys running and playing around because I truly believe that teaching/learning is about helping others to find their own ways and giving them freedom to make their options. Also, learning is about being engaged and, in having fun, doing something pleasant, the process is much smoother and meaningful. My passion is teaching and learning every day and seeing the ones around me taking off to new challenges.

Yes! We made it! Checked all the details. What you’ll hear is a quick, fun talk with Cris Costa and Illya. I used Audacity to record our conversation even having the automatic back up of Simplecast. With Audacity open, it’s much easier to edit when it’s over. I had to edit something I repeated twice in the beginning of the recording. Used more tools available this time in Audacity. Zoom really helps to get the right spot to cut. I used my USB mic and headphones and was working on a PC.
The problem I faced? At around 3 minutes, you’ll start to listen to an echo. I guess that’s because the girls were also testing all sorts of things with recording, mic, audacity settings. Any clues? That’s my guess. I’ll do it again to check for the echos. The one from the Audio Repeater is good enough! I don’t need any other.

My Checklist: Volume Control Properties
Mixer Device: SoundMax Digital Audio (my sound card)
Adjusted volume for Recording
Clicked on Wave out mix
In Skype
Tools – Options
Audio Settings
Microphone: AK5370
Speakers: SoundMax Digital Audio (my sound card)
Uncheck Let Skype Adjust my Audio Settings In Audacity
Audio Preferences
Recording Device: SoundMax Digital Audio (my sound card)
Channels: 1 (mono)
File Formats
MP3 Export Setup
Bit Rate: 64
Wave Out Mix in the Mic options (popup on the front page) (By the Way, I learned that this option was only possible for me if I dealt with the Volume properties first)
Simplecast
Click on Start (it doesn’t start streaming)
Config
General Options
Capture Sound from Device: SoundMax Digital Audio (my sound card)

Click on Encoders
Add New Encoder (+)
Config
Converter
Output Format Details
Codec: MP3
Bit Rate: 64kb/s
Sample Rate: 44,1 KHz
Channels: Stereo
Stream Archive
Click on Save stream to File
Server Details provided by Jeff
Start Encoder
Now Streaming
Checked the Webcastacademy
Name of the show on
Listened to the Stream
OK AudioCables Audio repeater
Wave in AK5370
Wave out Soundmax
Total Buffer 100 Start
Start Recording in Audacity
Skype Conference
Create Conference
Choose Contacts (Cris Costa and Illya)
Add Screenshot of Settings


Magic! We got it. We were planning to stream Cris Costa’s talk on her Master’s Dissertation, but I didn’t make it. The fact is that I could succesfully stream having these two wonderful partners as witnesses and having great fun with them. We realized that Webcasting is great because nobody will see our voices blushing! Thanks, girls, for taking your time to be there with me. Here’s the screenshot of the moment. We DO love the big waves in Audacity even if every time I have to amplify, but to a lower volume. What loud, excited Webcasters-to-Be we are!

Can’t wait for more!
Carla

A year ago I was invited by Jeff LeBow to be an intern at the Webcast Academy. It was a pleasure to have such an invitation. I felt I had to move on, learn new skills that could give me another perspective in this edtech world. I invited my friend Erika to be there with me. She had no option. She became an intern, too. We listened to Jeff’s screencasts, tried to record with Audacity, and failed! I was there every Sunday, at my in-laws house, inhaling that smoked barbecue smell, longing for some caipirinhas, but was there with Jeff’s gang of interns. I had lots of fun connecting to them, learning from them with their successes and failures.

At that time, I was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle of Webcasting together. I could connect some pieces, but others were just loose in my mind. Erika was pulling her blond hair out! We thought we’d never manage. It was not for us. However, we acquired many new skills then that we were not even aware of. We learned how to play around with audio/sound, we felt more confident about speaking out, speaking our minds, we used our knowledge (or lack of!) to take our students to a next level in the classroom through podcasts. I didn’t graduate at the Webcast Academy. I just received my USB Microphone when it was too late, for I didn’t feel like enduring. Or, at least, I thought so. I disconnected for a while. But, Worldbridges has always been in mind. Erika and I even started a Wiki page called BrazilBridges. The future in streaming was part of our plans!

After some period of other projects and webcasting disconnection, I started bumping into Jeff LeBow again in different venues. And I always reminded myself and him that I hadn’t discarded Webcasting. It was just a dormant project. Jeff was always there, a great listener, encouraging us to take the plunge. During the Webheads Convergence this year, I was listening to the streaming and participating in a skypecast. I connected to Cheryl Oakes (Women of Web 2.0), whom I had met in our fantastic EVO session – BaW – in 2006, and Doug Symington, who became a successful Webcaster. I started blabbing, talking about drinks, Key West, then into more serious stuff. I didn’t know we were LIVE! I thought the webcasting was over. Mistake! I was saying all those trivial things for who knows who? At the same night, I had an interesting talk about education and web 2.0 tools with Jeff and Doug. I couldn’t sleep! My mind kept processing what I heard and said. I reconnected! Yes, Webcasting!

I needed a project for the Webcasting venue, and partners, too! Webcasting is a team process, not an individual achievement. During the Webheads Convergence, I was in the WIA chatroom with some friends. The chat started, and all of a sudden it ended up with our idea to do something fun, informal, informative, organic together. The Teachers4TELL (Technology-Enhanced Language Learning) idea evolved. We planned things, created a Wiki, a Yahoogroups, but still we needed to learn how to Webcast!!! We had a tentative date for our first get-together. It didn’t happen. We were not prepared for Webcasting. Jeff was there, communicating with us, giving me a streaming crash course using Yugma, but still we were not ready, I was not ready.

Some time passed by…In between emails, chats, ideas, Cris Costa, Dennis Oliver and I decided to become interns at the Webcast Academy. Our ideas were not enough to Webcast. We needed technical skills. Cris, just like me, was also a frustrated streamer. Yesterday, was our day! We had previously gone through all of the Book of Webcasting Screencasts and decided to meet to see if we could get something out of our headphones! I tried first, before connecting to Cristina. Speechless when I heard my voice in the Webcast Academy Sandbox! I was streaming, my heart thumping! WoW moment. Then, Cris and I went step-by-step with all the windows, softwares, input, output, and she was also able to stream. How cool is that?! We were overexcited with our accomplishments of the day. The adventure and challenge have just begun. The Revolution has started!

We had some technical problems because of lack of knowledge or forgetfulness (too many details to handle!) in our collaborative venture, but we are sure we’ll solve them together and with the intrepid (in Cheryl’s words) Webcast Academy gang. Jeff, thanks for bearing with us and never giving up on these Portuguese-speaking girls! Webcasting is all about connecting and believing you can.