gabriela's posterous

RSS and Me


A month ago RSS meant nothing to me and three weeks ago I found out those initials stood for  "Really Simple Syndication" and that "it was a Web Feed format used to publish frequently updated works – such as Blog entries and news headlines" . But it still wasn't clear for me how we could benefit from RSS.With this week's tutorials and readings  I learned that they benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from certain websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. It  is a fantastic time-saver, since we don't have to check each one of our  favorite sites regularly to get informed about the recent postings.  


We can never forget our first Blog!

          When asked to write my reflections on our 3rd week , I thought - "It's a piece of cake !"  Comparing to the overwhelming two past weeks , this one was wonderful.  Of course , the simple idea of having a Blog scared me and I felt lost at first . But then, seeing that there was no mystery about it made me more confident and the words came out so easily. Writing my personal view on different subjects took me back to the childhood and teenage years, when I used to keep a diary and happily registered every important event or idea I had over the day.  I felt so free (no censorship in that little world of mine) and self-satisfied ! I'd carefully choose the lucky friends to share my most treasured possession with...
          At that point it crossed my mind that the most important difference between my dear old diaries and the postings on my newly born Blog was  the audience!  My Blog would be an opened book to anyone interested in reading it! What a responsibility!  But the interesting thing is - once you get started and your ideas flow easily , you forget all about the audience. Isn't it great?!
          Still reflecting about the wonders of Blogging, I realized it's a powerful tool because everyone can have access to information which isn't "filtered" by the political and financial interests at stake. Fresh and blatant news! That's exciting!
          I'm sure Blogging can bring lots of gains to our students and their learning. They could use their Blogs like their Learning Journals (and then see people commenting on their sharing) or they could post their Writings and have interactions with many others about the topics discussed. These are only two examples of how to use Blogging with our students. I'm sure there are many more.
           All I can say is that Blogging was an enriching experience and that I felt very at ease when doing it. I was definitely hooked by it!

            Gabi

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I Belong , therefore I Am !

          The idea of  Annotating, Tagging ,Highlighting Online made feel excited because I've already been doing it so often over the years. There isn't a book I like which isn't scribbled all over, full of colorful highlights or many dogs' ears. But then, by going deeper into Diigo, I found out there was more to it than just annotating an checking on those annotations from any computer available (not only the one at home).

          The possibility to share our findings with others is awesome .It's also wonderful to easily find information you were looking for and even go further and end up learning much more than you had expected. I was thrilled when , after reading the "Food For Thought" about Social Bookmarking Carlinha had posted (and feeling that I still needed more) , I browsed Diigo and simply by typing "Social Boomarking" , found 4 different links to interesting articles about it. Eureka! It really worked! Here's the one I liked the most, shared with us by Maria Pires : 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking .

          But  I haven't mentioned yet another interesting aspect of this new Web Tool which I appreciated  - isn't it fantastic to feel that you belong? To feel that you're part of a group of people who share your thoughts and support your ideas? We can easily type tags/words and find hundreds of people who chose that same piece of information we did.

          As for ways of using it in the classroom, I guess a simple usage for it would be for having students collect material/data for projects and sharing among themselves. Undoubtedly they would expand their knowledge and learn much more than expected just by browsing the various links bookmarked. I still have to give  much thought to it. It's certain that Diigo has more to offer to ESL/EFL than I could possibly imagine right now...

I choose ENGAGE !

           Over this past week I learned so many new things, such as the new concepts in technology and what Web 2.0 is. I understood that it differs from the old Web 1.0 basically by no longer being Static and changing into a very Dynamic Internet.Common users started to play a major role by constantly adding content and new APIs (applications) to the Web. So, the Internet  turned into a very social web and the end users became integral part of its data. In 1993 I took a course at Eurocentres  , in London ,  called CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). We  learned how to design matching, blank filling, multiple choice exercises to be used in the computer. It was  a very static and poor way of using computers... So different from what we've been seeing lately. Thanks God!

         There were over twenty expressions/words related to the Internet that were totally unknown to me - RIA , SOA , API , RSS , Ajax (not a cleaning product?!),Feeds, Mash  ups – they meant nothing to me a week ago! Apart from all these new Internet related terms and dozens of software, programs, platforms, online resources I had never heard of, I also found out that I've been using an infinitesimal amount of the huge potential the Internet has to offer us , educators, to help us enhance our students learning. I had only asked my students to use Google searching for some projects and You Tube as a group discussion boost. Neither of these provided real interaction, communication for them. They didn't have the opportunity to create anything.

         I hope from now on to be able to engage my students in more authentic learning experiences with the help of the various resources I've been introduced to on the past few days. I guess the one thing that could possibly hinder the incorporation of technology to my classes soon is probably the lack of time to dedicate myself to the preparation and monitoring of online activities. But I'm really looking forward to breaking this barrier and being able to reach and engage my students, who are definitely "digital learners".

Gabi