The Journey » vancestevens

Webheads 10 Years!

carlaarena — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:59:36 +0000

The Webheads are celebrating 10.
A decade, not a year
Mature we connect online and in person
Every day is celebrated
Every important day is remembered
We follow one, and tons
We care and share
A decade, more mature, more robust
Flowing where the Web and its nodes take us
Let us celebrate 10 Webheady Years!

More of the party at http://webheads10years.wikispaces.com

WorldCall08 is Weabheady!

carlaarena — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:47:14 +0000

Originally uploaded by vance_stevens
At this moment I’m admiring photos posted by Vance and aggregated in technorati for the WorldCall08 Conference in Japan.
Vance among the bright WebheadWomen is a sample of our spirit and the cultural diversity and connections only possible by such an inspiring Community For Practice and People.
Have fun, guys!
If you wonder who’s in the photo, here it goes:
Jen Verschoor (Argentina), Nina (Ukraine), Susan Marandi (Iran), Nelba (Argentina), Bobby (UAE), Vance (UAE), Evelyn (Venezuela), Nenny (Indonesia), Erika (Brazil) and Hala (Sudan).
The team has been keeping us updated at http://webheadatwc3.posterous.com/

Being Tagged is a Reminder

carlaarena — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:50:10 +0000

My dear friend Mary Hillis tagged me as this meme circulates the globe and everybody’s network. It is a reminder of the learning circles you’re part of, as well as a reminder of what you planned to be, what you’re doing and who you are today. Interesting!
10 years ago…
I still didn’t have kids and had moved to a city in the South of Brazil, Porto Alegre. I was happily teaching at a binational center there and enjoying the gaucho’s way of life, which was totally different from what I was used to in Brasilia, my hometown. I was totally immersed in learning how to integrated tech tools in my classroom.
5 Things I have to do today…
Play with my kids, work on a webcast project featuring Mike Coghlan, access my class blog for some feedback for students, do the laundry (yuck!), and keep reading a wonderful book “Waiting for Snow in Havana”.
Snacks I enjoy…
I’m not much of a snack person, but I’m a total coffee addict! Well, on my list is certainly chocolate, cherry tomatoes, Kellogg’s Snack bites (I love their crunchiness!), rice crisps, fruits.
Things I would do if I were a billionaire…
Invest on kids’ education worldwide. Help my sisters. Make more parties with my friends. Travel more. Sponsor innovative educators. Buy a ticket right now for my mom and sisters to come see me.
3 of my bad habits…
Being stubborn, speaking loud and just thinking of losing some weight, but never really doing it!
5 Places I have lived…
Cuiabá (Mato Grosso, Brazil), Brasilia (Brazil), Ellensburgh (Washington State, USA), Mestre (Venice, Italy), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
5 jobs I’ve had…
Kids’ tutor, private teacher, shoe seller, secretary at a Federal Prosecutor’s office, and administrative assistant at the International Affairs office at SEBRAE
6 People I want to know more about…
Ronaldo, Jen Verschoor, Durff, Vance Stevens, Sue Waters , and Pedro Henrique, all interesting people that I’d love to know more about.

So, What are YOU Blogging for?

carlaarena — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:53:17 +0000

I couldn’t resist this one!
I’ve been an admirer and reader of Chris Sessums for a while. But this post has really touched in what I’ve been trying to share for some time now with educators all over when we have the Electronic Village blogging4educators sessions.
It’s all about a purpose.
So, how’s my blogging related to my business?
As an educator, my blog reflects who I am, my interests, my passions, my drives, so then it’s an open space for sharing and learning. By blogging and reflecting, I can improve who I am, try to think outside the box, get other’s input, establish new connections. It makes me move forward and it directly influences my teaching and my approaches to learning and teaching. Since I started blogging, I have certainly become an educator who truly believes in the power of collective learning and building of knowledge.
Blogging is transformative and makes me change every day, and I hope it reflects on the new learning opportunities I’m providing my learners with.
Thanks, Chris, for starting this!
I’d love to hear from my friends Cris Costa, Mary Hillis, Gladys Baya, Vance Stevens , Ronaldo Jr., Bee Dieu .
So, guys, how does your blogging relate to your business?
As Chris suggested, pass this question on to people around you…An interesting, basic question that should guide us in our blogging world.
Here’s a video Chris shared with some fresh perspective of some educators about why they’re blogging and how:
[youtube width="425" height="355" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIiizu4y...[/youtube]

Comments are Everywhere – From Writingmatrix to Comment Challenge

carlaarena — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:42:17 +0000

I’ve been shyly following the Comment Challenge 08, but certainly learning a lot from others as my main blogging point has been the connections. When I mean connections, it entails so many different nodes…First, you’re connecting to yourself, to your principles, beliefs, than you connect to others through blogging. And others might get connected to you, as well.

Certainly, we long for feedback, and I love to interact with my readers. However, I don’t write to get traffic, I was never worried about statistics. Blogging has just been a way I found to report, reflect, to keep memories, resources stored, to keep in touch with my own ideas, to not let some inspiration fade away in my mind. It’s a chance to share with others, and that’s where the connectivity part of it chimes in.

As I started to blog more frequently, I started getting more replies, but let us not forget that comments in the comment box are not the only feedback you have. You have pingbacks, trackbacks. Sometimes people mention that they read your blog, loved your post, but they never wrote a comment. I see so many educators frustrated when they start to blog because they say they don’t get a reply. Again and again I’ve mentioned the idea of blogging as a habit, and now I’m forcing myself to this other essential blogging habit of commenting. I read many blogs, comment in very few. So, the challenge has forced me to reconsider that to make my connections to the world and to people who really matter to me and had impacted on me I should be more visible, my ideas should reach unknown paths. My blogging connections have been changing since I have consistently applied the writingmatrix concept of using tags and technorati search, and now I want to refine them with this challenge.

I was glad to learn from Jeff Utech that

I got my first comment on my 10th post. I didn’t get two comments on the same post until around the 100 post mark. So it takes time, write because you want to, write for you, don’t worry about the comments. What I have found lately is how much I end up searching my own site looking for something that I wrote, a website I know I mentioned, or just to reflect on what I was thinking. I write as a way to store my thoughts, as a way to reflect on my practice and share with the larger community. If you decide to leave a comment great….if not I have my thoughts down to share with others if they ask.
Find your niche, find your purpose, and then just blog!

So, let us keep blogging and commenting, for comments are everywhere and as we mentioned so often in our blogging4educators session, each one of us needs to find his own tone, style and voice online.

First, blogging is about us, then us connecting to others.

Vance Stevens Talks about Abu Dhabi

carlaarena — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:59:07 +0000

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.