Archive for the 'Culture' Category

UMapper – U Map it!

Published on 2008-08-06 in Brazil, BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Cities, Collaboration, Culture, EFL, Learning, Webheadsinaction, architecture of participation, education, elearning, multiliteracies, web2.0 and webheadsinaction. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
Vacation, trips. Maps are part of our reference, our guide.
Just found out about UMapper and couldn’t resist testing it. I had fun playing with it, getting different perspectives from the city I love. It’s easy to use and has great potential for the classroom, as students can collaborate to create a roadmap for others to learn more about their countries, hometown, or neighborhood.
Here’s my first example, but I plan to explore more and add photos and more information about the city of my heart, Brasilia!
http://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/4121/

UMapper / Explore / Brasilia via kwout

Brasília on the Web2.0Wednesday

Published on 2008-06-25 in Brazil, BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Cities, Collaboration, Connections, Culture, People and Places, Podcast, Web2.0Wednesday, voicethread and web2.0. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Brasília, my hometown.
I was born in Brasília, I grew up there, I’m raising my kids there.
Brasilia so distant now
Brasilia of unique architecture, a planned city becoming mature in unexpected ways
Brasilia, gastronomic, cultural, bureaucratic, green, concrete in appearance
A city of immigrants built in the 1950s
Inaugurated in 1960.
Brasilia still to become Whatever we want it to be
Brasilia, my hometown which I long for
Brasilia, My beloved city that I’ll always call home.
_____________________________________
Although the album had already been prepared some time ago, I took this chance to mix it and remix it with the great incentive of sharing with my blogger buddies. Here’s my contribution to the fun Web2.0Wednesdays.
In 2006, my students produced a podcast about Brasília that you can listen to here. _____________________________________
I’m currently living in Key West, so here’s the Voicethread I created some time ago for my students about Key West.

Here are some of my Key West photos.
 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve Been Traveling the World

Published on 2008-05-30 in Cities, Connections, Culture, Food, Learning, Network, People and Places, Podcast, Webcastacademy, Webcasters-to-Be, Webcasting, Webheadsinaction, webheadsinaction and worldbridges. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Just by being online, I can be everywhere. However, for the past two days, I’ve been to very specific destinations. First stop was Hanoi with Jeff Lebow’s vietnamese students. I could feel their excitement. They had very little experience with computers, and Jeff has led them to discover a whole new sphere of teaching and learning through blogging, bookmarking, podcasting, oovooing… Jeff has, like always, been fearless. It’s such a huge endeavor to teach at a distance teachers with low-tech skills and low connectivity. However, excitement and motivation surpass the technical difficulties. I still remember the goose bumps I had in my first voice chat, and now those Vietnamese were there bravely oovooing, skyping and laughing. What a joyous group! We planned to talk about blogging, education, EFL. We did a little, but, in fact, the teachers wanted to share about their personal lives and wanted to know more about Brazil, my life, Brazilians. Human touch in action orchestrated by Jeff’s flawless streaming skills and empathy.
Next stop: Adelaide. Yesterday morning (for me!), Cris Costa, me and guests had a wonderful chatcast with Mike Coghlan about Australia, the Australian way of life, Adelaide, food, aboriginal people, kibbutz in Israel…Mike is simply a fantastic storyteller with sharp thinking with a critical view of the word. Lots of cultural information and awareness. But we went beyond as many of the topics gave a lot of food for thought and further reflections.
The first “People and Places” podcast is at http://peopleandplaces.bloxi.jp/a/australia/#comments
Meanwhille, we will keep exploring the world at a close distance and we’ve already started preparing for our next landing in JAPANESE lands.
Nothing can keep us from traveling the world these days with exciting cultural discoveries. The world is full of hidden treasures awaiting to surface.

Brazilian Uplifting Music

Published on 2008-05-17 in Brazil, BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Collaboration, Connections, Culture, music, twitter, worldbridges and writingmatrix. 11 Comments

carlaarena’s Music Profile – Users at Last.fm via kwout

It all started with a tweet from Robert Squires. He sent me a funny video in YouTube and he said he was into so Brazilian fine tunes and if I had any suggestions…Well, I kept procrastinating, for it’s totally insane to make a playlist of Brazilian music, as there are so many fantastic singers and songs that I couldn’t even count for in a lifetime.
Networking again in the webheads group and I was answering an email from Robert Squires about Ning. Then, I just had an off topic moment telling him I was still thinking about the music playlist. Ronaldo, my great friend and wonderful sax player, replied saying he was in for the list. Great, I thought. Who would be better than Ronaldo for amazing Brazilian tunes. I added a page to the wiki we collaborate, BrazilBridges, and immediately after was Ronaldo there. To prove that passion leaves behind all kinds of procrastination, for I know how busy Ronaldo is right now!
I had a huge to-do list this morning. Forgot everything! Once I connected to last.fm, I spent the morning exploring my new passions and old ones, singing along, remembering, feeling uplifted, thinking how blessed I am to have been born in a country where music is everywhere, is part of our lives. Rythm, fine tunes, talents, wonderful beats…They give us the tone, the essence of who we are. I forgot about the other things I had to do. Happiness on a Friday morning is what counts!
I’m a proud Brazilian who loves these connections, networking, and sharing the best of what we have.
For more, check our BrazilianBridges.
What would you add to my Brazilian beats list?

Vance Stevens Talks about Abu Dhabi

Published on 2008-04-24 in BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Culture, Learning, Podcast, Teaching, Webcastacademy, Webheadsinaction, audio, vancestevens, webheadsinaction, worldbridges and writingmatrix. 19 Comments
Here’s an interview with Vance Stevens about Abu Dhabi.
He talks about:
  • the city
  • the multicultural population
  • religion
  • entertainment
  • other Emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • the postal service

    • Thanks, Vance, for giving a broader perspective on Abu Dhabi!

    Take a tour with Vance:

    Vance's Neighborhood via kwout
    Take a look at these wonderful photos of Abu Dhabi at Flickr. 



     Teachers, please, feel free to use this interview with your students.


    I've created this online quiz to go along with the interview. Feel free to use it.
     
    icon for podpress  Abu Dhabi [8:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

    FoodBridges Show #1

    Published on 2007-09-22 in Brazil, BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Culture, ErikaCruvinel, Food, FoodBridges, Podcast, Webheadsinaction and worldbridges. 1 Comment
    food.jpgWe had a blast with the gastronomic talk and very special guests. The topic food generated a non-stop conversation full of yummy stuff for more than an hour. We talked about typical dishes in Brazil, the US, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine and Egypt. The dialogue was enriched by the presence of Lúcia Santos from Brazil talking about a very simple and easy to make appetizer, Nina Lyunkln talking about typical dishes in Russia and Ukraine, and Randa Effat about a wonderful sweet that she prepares in Egypt.
    The team also gave their recipes that will impress guests and are just so practical to make. There’s so much in there for you that we won’t take your time writing about it. Just enjoy the Podcast that goes from mouthwatering food to recipes.
    Also, you’ll find more soon on our wiki http://foodbridges.pbwiki.com
    Enjoy!
    Cheers!
    The Gastronomic Team,
    Carla Arena, Illya, Erika & Dennis Oliver

    Connections Through Food – Barbecue

    Published on 2007-08-23 in Brazil, BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Connections, Culture, FoodBridges, Webcastacademy, Webheadsinaction, worldbridges and writingmatrix. 14 Comments

    Nancy White inspired me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, show some photos I have of a Brazilian barbecue at my in-laws, and talk a bit about the dynamics of a Sunday barbecue in Brazil. Also, I listened to very interesting ideas about food and customer relationships at the Social Customer Manifesto and linked what I heard to a video of a Brazilian consultant, Waldez Luiz Ludwig, talking about the fact that the consumers nowadays don’t buy a service, but a feeling. Yes, a feeling! My guess is that this is one of the reasons for the success of the Brazilian Barbecue houses in the US.
    Oh, the trick of the Brazilian Barbecue: inviting people you enjoy being around with and having some tasty Caipirinhas!
    A Personal Note I guess this is certainly a start for FoodBridges at the Webcastacademy! Jeff LeBow, the screencast is a way to thank you and sing a happy birthday to you! Parabéns! After all, we connected many times on Sundays with a smell of barbecue in the house.

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    Reading Treasures – Getting Ready for the Show

    Published on 2007-08-16 in CarlaArena, Culture, EFL, Podcast, Teaching, Webcastacademy, Webcasters-to-Be, Webcasting, Webheadsinaction, edtech, edtechtalk, reading, web2.0 and worldbridges. 1 Comment


    Webcasting is about letting it flow, letting it take you to unexpected places, voices and encounters. However, the backstage is about planning, preparation. It seems paradoxical, but, in fact, it isn’t. To let the voices around you feel at ease, the group of webcasters must have an idea on where they want to head. The final end might be unpredictable, but they need to know what they are doing there to makes everyone comfortable and confident to speak their minds.
    So, lots of behind-of-the scenes emails have been exchanged between me, Illya, Dennis Oliver, Dennis Newson and Erika. We’ve been planning for our little show with care, trying to troubleshoot before the trouble, testing tools we want to present, sharing our own treasures, setting tasks and roles for everyone to have a smooth Big Wave Ride in SimpleCast and Audacity. Of course, we can not predict what will happen, who will be there, but we can, at least, plan to make the best out of this experience. Just like in any classroom lessonplan. It’s all there, what’s going to happen will really depend on the participants, mood, setting, content, but the educator is the conductor, the one facilitating the process of knowledge construction within the group. Not much different from Webcasting and the group of hosts here.
    Our Reading Treasures backstage:
  • We had an initial plan
  • Documented it
  • Exchanged tons of emails
  • tested audio settings
  • practiced streaming in different rates, Sandbox A and B, and kicking the stream
  • talked about possible problems and what to do
  • set roles for the group (Illya streaming in B and taking care of the recording, as well as interacting with us in the conference call; Carla streaming in A and starting the conference call. Will host with Dennis N; Dennis N. hosting with Carla in Skype; Dennis O. and Erika chat area)
  • sent invitation to the LearningwithComputers group
  • created an audio invitation to be released one day before the show (using one of our reading treasure and JingProject)
    What you’ll listen here is a talk between Illya and me about our planning for the Reading Treasures Show and what we were doing, practicing and checking.
    Webcasting is about making planned unpredictable live journeys!
    Carla Arena

    • Reading Treasures in the Language Classroom – Planning a Show

    Published on 2007-08-16 in CarlaArena, Culture, EFL, ErikaCruvinel, Learning, Teaching, Webcastacademy, Webcasters-to-Be, Webcasting, Webheadsinaction, edtech, edtechtalk, reading and worldbridges. 0 Comments
    This will be a piloting project with the LearningwithComputers group.
    The idea behind the show is to give voice to LwCers to discuss the topic of the month. In this case, the topic being discussed there is ”’reading”’. We’d try it out a first time and depending on our post-show analysis,we’ll consider making it a once-a-month encounter.
    The goal is to make even stronger bonds through the inclusion of voice in the group with synchronous interactive sharing of ideas. Also, for the educators who can’t be present, they’ll have a chance to listen to the podcast with practical ideas that could be used in their classrooms.
    I’ll invite other Webcastacademy members to join me to share the roles while streaming and sharing ideas on how to best carry it out. People to be contacted: Erika Cruvinel, Illya, Cris Costa, Dennis Oliver and Dennis Newson. Special guests: Gladys Baya and Claudia Bellusci.
    We could try to have two streamers, in Sandbox A and B. Somebody who would be in charge of the chat area, welcoming people and keeping the text discussion flowing. A host that would be in charge of moderating participation in the Skype Conference.
    Next steps:
  • contact interns. Done
  • Define the best time for the show. Done
  • Send an invitation to LwC asking the ones interested to let us know their skype ID. Done
  • Planning the show; resources; links; examples - Done

    Carla

    • InternCast International Show

    Published on 2007-08-10 in BrazilBridges, CarlaArena, Culture, Podcast, Webcastacademy, Webcasters-to-Be, Webcasting, Webheadsinaction and worldbridges. 0 Comments
    InternCast International Show recording here.

    Lots of Lessons learned today.
    First, Skype can badly misbehave and you have to keep it going. The solution? Maybe drop skype and keep talking to the listeners and asking for their input in the chat area.
    Second, if you are streaming and another person is responsible for the skype conference, you have to keep talking if the call is dropped! I didn’t realize that…Then, all of a sudden I remembered I had listeners and it was only me in the streaming! Talked to them and they gave me feedback. Thanks, Maria and Chrissy, our very special listeners! Durff was there, too, but, then, I realized there was the Webcastacademy chat going on, too! Crazy!
    Jason’s voice was in and out, choppy, from a certain point on. What could we do in this case? Drop the call and try someone else leading?
    All in all, it was a great experience! I learned that every day is a new day in Webcasting and one show is never like the other! Always an exciting ride!
    Thanks, guys, for such a lesson and fun with all of you, each one in a different front!
    Waiting for the next InternationalWebcastacademyBridges!
    Beijos.
    Carla

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