I just got this video via Twitter (a microblogging site) from a dear friend, Ana Maria Menezes, a mineirinha, who has a bag full of tricks to share.
The story is simple, but then, I just realized that it is a wonderful springboard to explore language. Imagine a group activity, or even a collaborative project with sister classes in which they have the same claymation and learners are responsible for creating the stories to go with the animation. They could even record the stories.
How motivating would that be? Is it the kind of experiential learning we could add more frequently to our lesson plans? Do you have any other ideas to go with this video? Or do you have any other video that could be used for the same idea?
Originally posted at http://webtools4educators.blogspot.com/2008/10/telling-story.html
Archive for the 'EFL' Category
Inês brought up an interesting issue on my last post, the fact that my ideas for icebreakers might not apply for a kids’ classroom because of online accounts restraints. True that I had adult students in mind, but she got me thinking. Inês is a Portuguese educator and was mainly concerned about signing up for accounts for kids under 13.
Some solutions that might apply: instead of having kids create signing up in sites, the teacher could have one class account and invite students to be editors (generally kids have their parents’ or personal emails that could be used for the invitation), whenever this is possible. Also, in the case of Flickr, for example, the photo activity could still work if the teacher had an account, for the students could send their photos to the Flickr email connected to that specific account. Besides, I would adapt it and ask students to do the following:
One thing that is interesting for the little ones is the fact that once they have their online production, it could be a bridge between home and school. In my school, whenever I have a project, I send an email to parents to tell them about their kids’ projects.
Just make sure you have parents’ authorization and that they understand your approach to online use.
Transparency leads to understanding and appreciation of our collective work.
Some solutions that might apply: instead of having kids create signing up in sites, the teacher could have one class account and invite students to be editors (generally kids have their parents’ or personal emails that could be used for the invitation), whenever this is possible. Also, in the case of Flickr, for example, the photo activity could still work if the teacher had an account, for the students could send their photos to the Flickr email connected to that specific account. Besides, I would adapt it and ask students to do the following:
- Draw their avatar and upload them to Flickr by taking a photo of each avatar, or just scanning the drawings.
- Take a photo of something in their class that called their attention on the first day of class.
- Students could create a comic strip with Go Animate (I checked the terms of use and didn’t find age restriction), or a film with fictional characters at Dvolver
- They could create an online scrapbook page with scrapblog or glogster. Yes, I know. You need to register, but maybe you could work on teams and the teacher could set up 3 or 4 accounts in advance for the class. I have some email options to create different accounts for my groups. The teacher could have different topics for the students and they could change one of them to create a scrapbook page.
- Students could send e-cards to their parents and friends. Only rule I have: I should check the card before they hit the submit button to make sure the language used is appropriate. Or you could ask them to send an e-card to you telling you about what they wish the schools were like. I’m sure you’d get many insights from the little ones.
- You could have groups make up stories and create images for an online book at Mixbook.
- With Picwing, photo tool that I mentioned before, the teacher only needs to create an album for the class, and the students could send drawings and photos to the email provided by picwing for each album you create. Here’s one example of mine I created for my hometown, Brasilia. Anybody can send a picture of Brasilia to my album using the email address brasilia@picwing.com . So, you could have something like classxxx@picwing.com as well.
- Students could record their introductions in Audacity and the teacher could upload students’ introductions to a podcast site like Podomatic or Odeo.
One thing that is interesting for the little ones is the fact that once they have their online production, it could be a bridge between home and school. In my school, whenever I have a project, I send an email to parents to tell them about their kids’ projects.
Just make sure you have parents’ authorization and that they understand your approach to online use.
Transparency leads to understanding and appreciation of our collective work.
When you are open to explore what out there, ideas, resources seem to converge. Coincidence, convergence, whatever…The fact is that for the past days I’ve been giving a lot of thought on how to best engage, hook students up front from the beginning of their e-learning journey. I’m devising an online course for Brazilian educators and the point is that if they don’t get excited with the possibilities ahead of them, how could they inspire their own learners? So, I’ve been reading, thinking and exploring a lot and just yesterday I read two interesting blog posts on how to use starters, grabbers, icebreakers in the beginning of a course. It doesn’t mean it needs to be online. How could we use attention grabbers to hook our learners, to have them motivated to take the risk, to collaborate, to inspire them to go beyond?
As always, Michelle Martin’s Web2.0Wednesday idea has a perfect timing to what I’ve been mulling over. So, here are a few digital ideas for the classroom we could use to have a grand beginning: Kevin Shadix suggests hooking learners with simple stories. To do that, for example, you could use Slideshare just like he did.
Rupa talks about the use of comics as an attention grabber. You could use ToonDoo, for example, to produce and customize your own comics, or even have your learners produce a comic strip to introduce themselves. Cool! Need to test that.
If they are a Face2Face group, I’d ask to take a photo of their partners and using a mobile, they could send it to a Flickr account (Flickr gives you an email to send photos to) with the title having the name of the person, and some thing curious the photographer found about their peers.
This could also be done using Picwing . Beforehand, just set up an email at picwing that students can send photos to, like classxxx at picwing.com. Then, students can send their photos to this email with their names and a curious fact in the Subject line. Another possibility is to ask them to email a photo of their favorite room, place, city, etc. This would be really fun!
One more idea with photos: students could choose one of the geeks drawn by Extra Life and blog it saying why they chose that specific geek. The photos are copyrighted, but we could get in touch with the artist to see if he could let us use it for educational purposes. I’d love to see this into practice.
Wow, ideas are popping up!
Another one that I tried with a group of moderators in the beginning of the year and it worked well was recording our introductions in Voicethread. We, then, could invite learners to add their intros and ask questions to the instructor.
Here’s what we did:
Well, some ideas that might help me and others! There are tons to add. What’s your idea? We could certainly make a pool of nice web2.0 icebreakers!
Just got this nice idea from Nik Peachy. He suggested the site Yearbookyourself to make up a version of you in old times. Totally fun! Here’s one of the results:
As always, Michelle Martin’s Web2.0Wednesday idea has a perfect timing to what I’ve been mulling over. So, here are a few digital ideas for the classroom we could use to have a grand beginning: Kevin Shadix suggests hooking learners with simple stories. To do that, for example, you could use Slideshare just like he did.
Rupa talks about the use of comics as an attention grabber. You could use ToonDoo, for example, to produce and customize your own comics, or even have your learners produce a comic strip to introduce themselves. Cool! Need to test that.
If they are a Face2Face group, I’d ask to take a photo of their partners and using a mobile, they could send it to a Flickr account (Flickr gives you an email to send photos to) with the title having the name of the person, and some thing curious the photographer found about their peers.
This could also be done using Picwing . Beforehand, just set up an email at picwing that students can send photos to, like classxxx at picwing.com. Then, students can send their photos to this email with their names and a curious fact in the Subject line. Another possibility is to ask them to email a photo of their favorite room, place, city, etc. This would be really fun!
One more idea with photos: students could choose one of the geeks drawn by Extra Life and blog it saying why they chose that specific geek. The photos are copyrighted, but we could get in touch with the artist to see if he could let us use it for educational purposes. I’d love to see this into practice.
Wow, ideas are popping up!
Another one that I tried with a group of moderators in the beginning of the year and it worked well was recording our introductions in Voicethread. We, then, could invite learners to add their intros and ask questions to the instructor.
Here’s what we did:
Well, some ideas that might help me and others! There are tons to add. What’s your idea? We could certainly make a pool of nice web2.0 icebreakers!
Just got this nice idea from Nik Peachy. He suggested the site Yearbookyourself to make up a version of you in old times. Totally fun! Here’s one of the results:
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!
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!
This is the digital world. It allows me to be at home with my kids and still being in two other different spaces in different corners of the world with different groups I’m part of. And I’m just talking about UStream, didn’t even mention Twitter, blogging… Learning in a speed faster than light. It’s a quantic perspective of learning through the use of social media. Do I need to say something else?
BRAZ-TESOL Live, Ustream.TV: Live from the BRAZ-TESOL conference in Fortaleza, Brazil. Education via kwout
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Here’s Cheryl Oakes’s notes of the Edubloggercon East get-together.
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.
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:
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.
In my online listening class I gave the option for students to choose the listening practice of their preference in our delicious bookmarks. Seth’s audio about Trento was one of the options.
One of my students commented on it and asked some extra questions about Trento. Well, I decided to contact Seth to see if he could reply to her. I got his immediate feedback and here’s the wonderful information about Trento he recorded to Luciene.
Here’s Seth’s post and audio reply to Luciene.
Who said that e-learning isn’t personal, meaningful, contextualized, communicative, networked?
Thanks, Seth, for being such a generous Webhead! I’m sure not only Luciene will be thrilled for such a feedback, but also the whole group will profit from it.
I’m back to the hot waters of the Florida Keys after some cold, but from the humanistic perspective, warm days in New York. First, just freely wandering with the family, which was just a wonderful time together, then totally hooked to every interesting soul you can think of. Attending the TESOL Conference again and being into orbit around the two groups I’m really passionate about is simply a treat. The Webheads and my friends from the place I work in Brasilia, Casa Thomas Jefferson, kept my days in uplifting mode. I just didn’t want to sleep and miss the chance to hang out with them.
Ginga They are all inspired educators who know the exact meaning of GINGA, a word that I tried to explain to some during the convention, right, Jeff and Vance? In fact, these fantastic people are all full of GINGA – swing – in the way the face life, deal with daily tasks, their inspired teaching methods, their approach towards the future, which is one of a dreamer, their belief in the transforming power of education, as well as the way they have fun after a full tiring day of sessions, colloquiums, talks, presentations. Their ginga is what makes them open to possibilities, to challenges, to change. Having ginga – this swing that makes Brazilian soccer players so unique in the way they dribble or that allures the world when we dance samba – is what distinguishes these groups from others. I’m proud of being in full swing in learning every single day with these admirable friends who push me to my best self as a person, educator, professional. And Viva the Ginga movement in which we have more flexibility to deal with life, facing our challenges head up, laughing, having fun, being passionate about what we do! Webheads and CTJ friends rock, samba, swing, rule!
Thanks for an amazing connected time together!
Highlights of the human touch?
WebheadsReceiving red roses from my dear friend Dennis who so carefully planned everything.
Meeting THE VOICE, Jeff Lebow and his wife Sunny
Realizing that Graham Stanley is on the quiet side. Graham, you really surprised me!
Talking to elegant Aiden and her sister during the Thai dinner
Learning more about pubs in New York with Vance, Rita, Nina, Teresa and João, Dafne, Jeff, Sunny, Patricia, Graham and Isabel, among others
Everybody keeping cool and laughing even when the waiter at Becco was being rude and screaming in our ears
Meeting Claire, Clarinha, and realizing how funny she is! Talented, I knew she was!
Meeting sweet Mary Hillis and learning that she’s an organization freak and is F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C to keep track of huge bills at the end of the night
Connecting to Mike Coghlan, a very special soul, with wonderful photos
Watching Rita’s latin ways. So familiar to me!
Having fun with João and Teresa
Meeting Robert Squires with his melodic Scottish accent. He who was so afraid to submerge into the webheadosphere as he couldn’t understand the dynamics of these crazy people who were so professional and so personal at the same time. Welcome, Robert!
Meeting Jen Madrell (edtechtalk), whom I was only able to meet and invite others because of Twitter!
Just being in the Electronic Village, chit chatting, and learning from the simultaneous rotating sessions
Appreciating Moira’s cool colorful glasses
Meeting Ronaldo and talking about all kinds of professional matters and trivial things
Learning that Serpil and Secil are, in fact, sisters and they work together
Listening to Thomas Leverett talking about blogs and meeting his talented musician sister who knew all about “choro”, a very melodic genre of Brazilian music
Watching David Winet with his laptop, hat and headsets!
Meeting Buth and talking to Laine at Becco
Learning that Bee’s husband is an artist (just like her!) and getting as a gift his wonderful artwork
CTJ Friends
Checking Vânia’s, Márcia’s and Margaux’s daugthers’ wish list! Huge ones, but always ending that they knew their moms couldn’t buy everything, that a little something would be fine.
Meeting cheerful Patricia and happy Maria da Luz
Meeting Isabela at the CALL-IS colloquium and having her realize how much she already knows about edtech
Having brunch with my family, Margaux and Paulo at Le Pain Quotidien and a stroll at Central Park. A perfect film script!
Going out with Bené, Margaux, Paulo, Robson, Ronaldo, Isabela, Aline, and my sister Justine. Lots of laugh and funny stories
Going to Moma with my sister, appreciate art and laugh of what we really couldn’t consider art!
SoHo with Margaux, Paulo and my sister. Unforgettable
SoHo during the day with Margaux and Paulo window shopping admiring those funky stores. Indelible moments
Sunset at Brooklyn Bridge walking with friends and sister. Priceless!
Ginga They are all inspired educators who know the exact meaning of GINGA, a word that I tried to explain to some during the convention, right, Jeff and Vance? In fact, these fantastic people are all full of GINGA – swing – in the way the face life, deal with daily tasks, their inspired teaching methods, their approach towards the future, which is one of a dreamer, their belief in the transforming power of education, as well as the way they have fun after a full tiring day of sessions, colloquiums, talks, presentations. Their ginga is what makes them open to possibilities, to challenges, to change. Having ginga – this swing that makes Brazilian soccer players so unique in the way they dribble or that allures the world when we dance samba – is what distinguishes these groups from others. I’m proud of being in full swing in learning every single day with these admirable friends who push me to my best self as a person, educator, professional. And Viva the Ginga movement in which we have more flexibility to deal with life, facing our challenges head up, laughing, having fun, being passionate about what we do! Webheads and CTJ friends rock, samba, swing, rule!
Thanks for an amazing connected time together!
Highlights of the human touch?
Webheads
CTJ Friends
e-Journey 2.0.
That’s how I’d call the first online listening course held at the school I work for. I had this dream some time ago, but was never able to fulfill it until earlier this year when the administrators at my school contacted me as they felt how urgent it was at that point to offer elearning opportunities for our students and for prospective learners. They realized they were missing an important part of English learners public because they didn’t have the online component. Of course, they’ve known that for a while. However, only then was the group mature and ready to give it a try.
As I was taking some courses at University of Florida, I told them I had already devised an online course for a final course project. It was an online listening course with objectives, weeks, and weekly tasks. They liked the idea and asked me what I needed to teach that course. First, I mentioned the need to have an edtech plan for the school. Planning is certainly an essential part of the game. Then, I told them that I needed technical support to install MOODLE and during the course. I got what I asked for. It seemed perfect and the course was already on paper. So, surely it would be easy to transfer the content to the online platform. Was I dreaming…
Reality is certainly different from implementing. I knew I would have some work, but not as much.
Well, things are never quite what we expect in the online sphere…Just when I started uploading the content, I realized that I needed tutorials for students, FAQ pages, as well as meaningful connectors among the tasks to add the human element to the class. I had to set up a blog, an online social bookmarking space, the forums, the online tasks. All the nodes were supposed to make sense to students in a cozy atmosphere in which cooperation and interaction would be key elements for the class success. Even the tasks, when I started adding them to the platform, I realized slideshows, photos, options of listening activities for students with different levels of proficiency, self-assessment tools were necessary for a successful online venue. I also had to make sure I knew the students from the beginning. So, surveys could certainly give me a clearer picture of my group and their level of proficiency and expectations. I spent dozens of hours preparing the course and joining the pieces of the e-puzzle.
Anyway, as the course moved along, I was pleased to see students evolution, to accompany their interest and motivation to learn. Some of them really excelled and used every single suggestion of e-tool I gave them. An e-learning course must have a direction, objectives, tasks, but there are parts that are “undesignable”. You can only add certain elements as the group progresses. It’s about listening to their queries, doubts, anxieties and providing them with the means to finding the answers. You have to tailor the course for your public according to their interests and needs. Caring is fundamental. Sharing primordial.What you hear in this podcast is just part of what was a grand finale of this first learning stage for all. Yesterday, after six weeks of intense interaction, learning and sharing, students finally gathered in Real Life with Erika Cruvinel without whom I couldn’t have accomplished such a big job and Paula Pacheco representing the academic Coordination. Both of them were essential in this journey. Paula gave us the administrative support with Isabela Villas Boas encouragement, and Erika was always there with me for whatever I needed, be it some information about students or during our live sessions. She’s my dear partner and friend. Dennis Oliver, another fantastic partner, was online with me. We interacted with students via WiziQ. It was simply a blast. Everybody kept chatting, interacting with us online, and holding their Certificate of Attendance with deserved pride after such hard work. We were all connected and I told them that, in fact, we were connected forever in Ning, our network!
This was that kind of experience that takes us to another dimension of professional development, learning and understanding. What I’ve been apprehending through the online Communities of Practice for some time now was in full use during our course. Although my students, in general, were low-tech highly-anxious students, they started blogging, using online bookmarking, understanding the concept of podcasts and the power of e-learning to achieve their learning objectives. Some still haven’t finished the course, but, I guess, that’s the beauty of online learning, each one of us has an option and can choose our path as we wish and need. Persistence is also a key factor in the success of e-learning, on the side of the teacher as well as for the student. I tried to show them that we learn by connecting, sharing, collaborating with others. I reached them in different ways, but if just some of them see the power of the Web 2.0, my mission will have been accomplished and there will be more people joining me in this Journey 2.0!
I’m thankful for having had the chance to fully use the Web 2.0 potential and show the way to my learners together with the invaluable help of my partners, Erika and Dennis. That’s what really matters.
I learned in 2007 that no matter which e-tools you’re using, your human touch to the online environment is still what matters the most to create a meeting place that is inviting, that makes students comfortable to try out, a place in which they know they will have supportive feedback, that they will be heard. No matter what your approach is to teaching and learning online, the moderator’s facilitation can cause an impact on the learners if there’s a sense of confidence and understanding of difficulties to overcome. If dialog is established and the process is fed by feedback, then people are connected in a magic 2.0 fashion!
Now, back to Ning, my treasure of 2007, to keep sharing and learning with this fantastic group of cheerful learners!
Visit ListeningPlus
This post is in response to Learning Circuits Blog question: What did you learn about learning in 2007?
I’ve been part of some networks at Ning for some time. I check it once in a while. There are just fantastic networks there in which learning happens in a blog post, a photo, a reference in a forum, a connection to someone in your area, an exchange of comments. However, I’ve never really considered the power it holds. Ning is a platform that aggregates many of the tools every educator dreamed of in the past to keep communication flowing among participants of a group. And I’m not mentioning only in terms of classroom. I mean educators as learners need to have their sharing space for professional development. So, Ning is empowering. An educator can be part of a variety of networks according to his professional and personal interests and might create a network to connect to his students, as well.In my case, I had been part of other communities, but then it dawned on me that I could create a network to keep the students of an online course I was teaching connected. It was their wish. So, as a surprise of end of term, Ning became the beginning of another stage of our interaction. Plus, I realized that it was an open learning space in which I could invite friends and even former students to be there as they shared their interest in language learning. Another great aspect was that Ning was visually appealing and had features of a social networking that my younger students just love, infinite possibilities to add photos, videos, music, whatever they feel like sharing.Well, not to mention the fact that I requested an ad-free space. I got a first prompt reply saying that my students were adults. I told them that I had also invited teens for the space, and another quick reply: the ads had been removed! How cool is it to have a learning space with collaborative features which are just an educator’s dream plus the attention and support that every human being wish for in any service?
Thanks Ning Team! Part of my education and my learner’s success will certainly be due to your never-ending support to the educational community. View my page on ListeningPlus and join us!