Archive for the 'Webheadsinaction' Category

Page 2 of 5

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.

So, What are YOU Blogging for?

Published on 2008-05-09 in BeeDieu, CarlaArena, ChristopherSessums, Connections, CrisCosta, MaryHillis, Webheadsinaction, begin2blog, blogging, comment08, edublogpractice, edublogtalk, education, gladysbaya and vancestevens. 5 Comments
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:

Comments are Everywhere – From Writingmatrix to Comment Challenge

Published on 2008-05-08 in CarlaArena, Collaboration, Learning, Webheadsinaction, comment08, education, vancestevens, web2.0, webheadsinaction and writingmatrix. 7 Comments

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.

Project-Based Learning – This is What I believe In

Published on 2008-05-07 in CarlaArena, Learning, Teaching, Webheadsinaction, comment08, education, multiliteracies, video, web2.0, webheadsinaction and writingmatrix. 2 Comments

This video about student’s projects is what I believe in. It can tell much more about the power of learning than any educator’s discourse…
I believe in
  • the power of students’ creations
  • learning by doing
  • creating connections among students
  • monitoring their work rather than pouring information
  • the value of each one’s discoveries
  • the sense of being able to produce something of value to one and to others
  • personalizing information
  • letting learners find hidden worlds and exploring their own worlds
  • helping learners develop their multiliteracies skills that will enable you to solve life-long issues in their personal and professional lives
I’ll never forget in one of my conversation classes. There was this dude who would come to class holding his PSP. He walked and acted as if he couldn’t care less. Though it was a conversation class, he’d only participate when I gently forced him to.
One day things changed. I was doing this project with the class in which they had to plan and present and advertisement to the group raising awareness to a certain social issue. It could be a Turn TV off day, whatever. Well, we didn’t finish the project in one class, and I told them that they could think over during the week and if they wanted to present something in any kind of media, I’d bring my laptop the following class. Surprise. The cool, couldn’t-care-less dude left his classmates in awe with his topic and presentation.
Lesson: learners are paying attention to you. Just let them do something that taps into their interest, that drives them that they will surface and surprise you!

Connections Brazil x Trento

Published on 2008-04-30 in CALL, CTJ, CarlaArena, Connections, EFL, Learning, Network, Teaching, Webheadsinaction, edublogpractice, edublogtalk, education, elearning, multiliteracies, webheadsinaction and writingmatrix. 0 Comments


I had this lovely feedback from Seth, whom I’ve been following for a while. He always has great ideas for the classroom and shares his technical expertise with the Webhead group.

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.

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

    EarthCast 08 Update – A Wonderful Journey to Antarctica

    Published on 2008-04-23 in CarlaArena, Webcastacademy, Webcasters-to-Be, Webcasting, Webheadsinaction, earthcast08, earthday08, edtechtalk, education, environment, worldbridges and writingmatrix. 5 Comments
    earthcastApril 22nd, 2008. Earth Day, though Earth Day should be every day! Well, we need some reminders, an awakening for the importance of doing something about our surroundings.
    As I listened to the EarthCast08 promoted by Worldbridges, I realized that it was a great and meaningful way to practice your listening skills, so I recorded and divided the listening into parts.
    Here are students of Rye Jr. Middle School saying what they do to help our planet. http://elearningctj.bloxi.jp/a/earth-day-2008/
    Robin Ellwood gave a very interesting and passionate account of her Antarctica explorations. Middle school students asked her questions and she talked about her fascinating experience on the waters of Antarctica.
    To know more about Robin Ellwood’s trips to Antarctica with Peter Doran’s research team from the University of Illinois, access http://ryejrhigh.org/ellwood/
    Part 1 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2018
    * Robin Ellwood’s introduction * Being part of Peter Doran’s research team from University of Illinois * Research on the lake environment in Antarctica * Ice-covered lakes * New task this year besides the regular ones * Launch of automatic submersible * Automatic collected samples.

    Part 2 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2017
    * Difference between lake ice x ocean ice * Robin talks about the dramatic differences

    Part 3 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2015
    * Robin Ellwood talks about the weather in Antarctica * Dramatic weather changes * Changes due to climatic change or seasonal variability? * Field season because of “the mote”

    Part 4 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2014
    * Temperature x oxygen need in diving * swimming x stationary collecting of samples * rate of oxygen consumption of a diver
    Part 5 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2011
    * How many times in Antarctica * First season – non-diving
    Part 6 highlights: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2010
    * Question about favorite thing in Antarctica * Scuba diving with a waddle seal * pleasure diving in “the wall”, glacial wall * sea life in the wall * what it’s like under the water * diving in the lake x diving in the ocean * different patterns of algae * sea life in the ocean
    Part 7 highlight: Listen to it at http://www.webcastacademy.net/node/2009
    * Robin Ellwood encouraging others to join programs like the one she’s part of.

    Happy Earth Day from idyllic Key West, but certainly with some conservation issues!
    Check. Learn. Act.

    Post-TESOL Convention Reflection – The Ginga Movement

    Published on 2008-04-10 in BrazilBridges, CALL, CTJ, CarlaArena, Connections, EFL, Teaching, Webheadsinaction, education, tesol08, webheadsinaction and wiany. 10 Comments
    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?
    Webheads
  • Receiving 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!





    • Notes from TESOL – Suresh Canagarajah

    Published on 2008-04-03 in BlogEd08, Brazil, Webheadsinaction, blogging, blogging4educators, education, tesol08, webheadsinaction and wiany. 2 Comments
    Suresh Canagarajah’s Keynote

    Mutual engagement joint enterprise shared repertoire
    You can’t impose outside pedagogies in communities.
    How do you create an identity in a Community of Practice?
    If you want to be part of the community you need to negotiate your space in the community (Communities of Practice – Etienne Wenger)
    This negotiation enriches not only you, but the whole community.
    In this search of identity, you can also find your other identities. Brokering- the use of multimembership to transfer some elements of one practice to the other.
    Moving from a centralized organization to a constellation of pracices based on plurality and diversity.
    Changes in TESOL? Going global but also thinking local?! Plural collective voices, diversity of practices
    A global organization can bring these local communities together.
    We are being challenged to see how English is being used in our communication due to the nature of groups interactions.
    The third space. Local communities being brought together.
    Effective brokering: Contextualize deconstrut translate representImagine Reflect

    Not new, but an idea for Edublogpractice

    Published on 2008-02-15 in CarlaArena, Collaboration, Connections, Learning, Teaching, Webheadsinaction, audio, blogging, blogging4educators, edtechtalk, edublogpractice, edublogtalk, education, multiliteracies and voicethread. 0 Comments
    I’m always eager to share and learn with the groups I’m part of.
    So, here’s the challenge: how about adding our voices (audio or text) to this voicethread on edublogpractices that can engage students in blogging. It can be just ideas that haven’t be tested in your classroom yet, or practices that you found worked in your blogging classes.
    I started with a very simple one. Listen to it and add yours!