Monthly Archives: September 2009
My connectivism journey
Last week I enrolled in the following course Connectivism & Connective Knowledge.
The course can be very overwhelming as there are so many different tools you have to be acquainted with. First you have to understand that this course is whatever you want it to be. My first glance at the syllabus make me remember the EVO session we gave with Vance Stevens last summer on Multiliteracies.
Participants can use: Diigo, Delicious, Twitter, blogs, wikis, Ning,RSS, moodle and different aggregators plus all the different weekly readings. I love technology therefore none of these tools are unfamiliar but I truly understand the feeling of a teacher that just starts to integrate technology…it can be really disappointing and discouraging. But I have good news for all of you. If I was able to implement technology and learn about all these tools you can also do it!!! This is why connections are so important and sharing is the main ingredient for your Personal Learning Environment. Once you start connecting you don´t feel alone anymore. How do you start these connections? Just by contributing to each others work and in this course we will using our blogs as our main platform.
I was wondering that there are many teachers who don´t have the possibility to follow this course because they don´t know English. Therefore I started a wiki to share with other native Spanish speakers. Thank you Eduardo for your great contribution!!
We welcome you to join us 
Please take a look at the following video to understand what is a Networked “Connected teacher”.
Do you feel identified with this video? Would you like to become this kind of teacher?
Creating blogs
Last month I was hired by a school to start creating a new online communication channel between the parents and the school.
Together with the kindergarten Head and one of the owners we started brainstorming how could Parents communication be improved by using technology.
We reached the conclusion that having individual blogs for kindergarten would generate a space where parents and their children can learn and have fun at the same time.
This new communication channel will start this week in our St.Matthew´s College blog and a Youcube with all the videos.
Personally I have many questions.
-Do parents need clear instructions on how to use a blog?
-Will they be able to navigate by themselves?
-Will this type of learning interfere with the traditional classroom?
Last week I was teaching English to my digital native daughter. It took me 1 hour to teach her the animals. She had obviously seen it in class but she had to reinforce some concepts. It was a nightmare…I was tired after a long working day…
The following day homeword was a real pleasure because I thought of motivating her to learn animals in a different way. I uploaded content in her blog and she kept asking for more activities at 1o:30 pm.
What is happening in the traditional classroom? We are not engaging students with new tools and many times this is due to lack of resources and knowledge.
Is it good to show her a different way of learning and how will this impact in her traditional classroom approach?
Sometimes as a mother I think that I should follow the school pedagogical approach….other times I know there is something much better for my children.
Social Networking Conference 2009
Dear friends,
We are delighted to inform you that from November 5-8, 2009, we will be running the Social Networking 2009 Conference. This open-knowledge event will be completely online and free and it is aimed at elluminating ELT practitioners to grow in the use of social networks as learning development tools.
This event is being jointly organized by AVEALMEC and ARCALL, two Latin-American associations, one based in Venezuela and the other in Argentina, interested in promoting the use of ICT in the language classroom.
For this event, we invited conference speakers from different parts of the world:
George Siemens -Canada
Etienne Wenger -US
Vance Stevens -UAE
Nik Peachey -UK
Charalambos Vrasidas and Maria Solomou -Cyprus
Nicky Hockly -Spain
Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima –Brazil
Rita Zeinstejer and Paula Ledesma -Argentina
Nellie Müller Deustch –Israel
Carla Arena –Brazil
Graham Stanley –Spain
Jennifer Verschoor, Evelyn Izquierdo and Erika Cruvinel –Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil
During four days, our guest speakers will be sharing their experiences and expertise with participants and will help us grasp a better picture of how social networks can be used in the language teaching and learning field. We will be discussing about the concepts and theories around social networks, communities of practice and the Web 2.0, as well as about the use, advantages and drawbacks of social networking tools.
Join us and participate in this amazing learning experience!
Spread the word! Let´s get socially connected!
E-greetings from,
The Social Networking 2009 Team
