Andre's posterous

GRADUATION

It's a little weird to think of the end of our course as a "graduation".
When I look back at the past 10 weeks, I can't find just one word to describe the journey.
I believe our friend Rick Monteiro is the one who defines it in the best way.
FEARLESS!
You can all remember the first posts and comments.
We were all a little scared to face the monster. Nobody knew what to expect.
And yet we all survived.
Now we roam free through the dark alleys of the web.
Discovering new paths and toys to play with.
And we aren't scared to try anymore.
And that's the most important thing, at least for me.
Therefore, we can't call this a graduation.
Maybe we should call it initiation.
The journey doesn't end here. On the contrary, my friends.
This course was merely the doorway, the entrance, the first step.
The rest of the journey will be up to us!
Good luck to you all!
Don't become strangers.
See you around!

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

<br /><small>View Larger Map</small>

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC. The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

Flickr - Pedagogical Uses

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I have a "Prime 3" group in Asa Sul. We have just started a lesson on animals. What we could do is ask each student to post a picture of their pets. Everyone could comment on them.

Besides that, we could start a discussion on animal treatment.
Who knows? Maybe even compare the treatment pets receive at home with the treatment animals at the zoo receive.

Ultimately, the students would be able to practice the vocabulary of the lesson, as well as the intended grammar.

WEEK 6 REFLECTION – RSS IN 139 WORDS AND 2 IMAGES

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I have to apologize for being so absent these days. There are just too many things to do, and too little time. Compositions, tests, classes, band rehearsal…
 
However, it’s quite convenient that we are dealing with RSS this week. With such a busy schedule, people don’t have the time to check out all their favorite sites to see if there’s anything new or interesting.
 
RSS is a wonderful tool because it saves time. You DON’T HAVE TO spend time checking your favorite sites out. RSS allows you to receive all the relevant news in your reader. Anything you are interested in. Just click on the little orange button and it’s done. Open your reader and see all the news feeds.
 
Time won’t be a problem anymore. And in this crazy world, that is certainly a wonderful and valuable gift.

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Week 4/5 - WHAT A RIDE!!!

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Blogging! What a ride! This past week has been amazing! I never thought I would enjoy it so much!
Sure I was curious about blogging, but I never thought I had anything to say that was worth having a blog. LOL!
In my opinion, it was just kids' stuff. Teenagers who had nothing better to do.
 
How wrong could I be, eh?
Our WebTools course kind of opened my eyes to lots of possibilities.
Sharing possibilities!
Collaboration!
Interaction!
Connections!
Anyone with anything to say can have a blog! I can't wait to check out what my friends and colleagues have posted!

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However, one must be careful when posting!
As our mentor Carla Arena, the omnipresent one, has shown us all, we must select what to say based on our purposes.
There is no point in posting if you don't have a target, a goal, an objective, a plan.
As teachers, we must choose the path to follow carefully. Even if that means giving our students the green light to create as well!
The BIG question is: How do we use this wonderful tool in the classroom?
I am still mulling over this one. But I already know that whatever I post must have some kind of meaning.
Or else it won't work!

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Four weeks ago, I thought I was pretty savvy when it came to the web!
Now I feel like a kid discovering new toys to play with, as Rick Monteiro showed us on his blog!
What have we learned so far?
Social bookmarking, Social networking, Tagging, Blogging...
I can't wait to see what's next!
Bring it on, oh ubiquitous one! LOL!
Let's proceed!

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See you all online!
I guess this teacher is finally getting the hang of it!
 
This is my report for weeks 4/5.
Andy logging off for now.
Toodle pip!

Social Bookmarking - Yes or No?

Hello, everyone!

Week 3 of our Webtools course.

What a ride. It's truly amazing how much we still have to learn.
When you open one door, two hundred other doors appear.
If you open those, and I do intend to, where are they going to take you?
Mind-boggling stuff...

Social bookmarking and social networking work in the same way.
Social networks like Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace are already pretty well-known worldwide.
When you find and add a friend, you will appear in their friend-list, and their friends will be able to find you.
Also, you will be able to see your friends' friends. Your "network" of friends and contacts will get larger.

Social bookmarking is, in my opinion, a step forward from there.
With sites like Diigo, or Delicious, you can "save" your favorite sites. Or rather, "bookmark" them.
Consequently, you can use them anywhere, on any computer, whenever you want to.
Moreover, you can "tag" them, making it much easier to find them later on.

So...
You are a member of Diigo, for example.
You've already filled in all the information on your profile (name, preferences, interests, etc.).
Start searching for "people like you".
Guess what? There are millions like us. And what a surprise! They've bookmarked some really cool sites, too.
Oh, look! My friend is a friend of another friend of mine! And he has even more bookmarks.

The bottom-line is that the ramifications are endless. And with tagging, they aren't messy at all. They're even easy to find.
Friends, common interests, common bookmarks. A "chain" of information which just keeps growing and growing.

The most important question is: How can I use this in the classroom?
Well, I guess you can create a discussion group for your class (one for each is probably a better idea).
The students would then be able to join and see your bookmarks for the group.
Most importantly, they would be able to add their own bookmarks. Bookmarks which THEY find interesting. THEY chose. THEY create.
Learning would be more "independent" and self-guided. They would start to have a choice in their learning process. 
Learning would ultimately be more real-life-like, more contextualized, more meaningful.

I've already shared a few things this week but, even better than that, I have discovered new things.
Our webtools classmate Luiz Cláudio Silva shared a nice report on web 2.0 to give us some optimism about using it in the classroom.
And Rick Monteiro made me remember some sites like Answers.com, which I haven't used in ages, and are great references for our students.
Week 3, Diigo, Social Bookmarking...
So far, so good!
Which brings me back to the title of this post.
Social bookmarking - yes or no?
Definitely YES!

Andre001