tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-357327572024-03-13T04:59:59.799+01:00Blogging English 2Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166901718057821822006-12-23T20:21:00.000+01:002006-12-23T20:21:58.066+01:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/330608121_f099a25bd6_m.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/330608121_f099a25bd6_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.christmas-tree.com/stories/nightbeforechristmas.html"><br /></a> <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.christmas-tree.com/stories/nightbeforechristmas.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT"</span></span></a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><br /><br />Wishing all bloggers a Merry Christmas and a wonderful, peaceful 2007!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sarah<br /><br /></span></span> <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dist0rtedwave/330608121/">Photo from Flickr</a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span></div> </div>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166537679506447132006-12-19T15:14:00.000+01:002006-12-19T15:25:17.126+01:00Person of the YearHello everyone,<br /><br />Every year TIME magazine (USA) chooses a "person of the year", i.e. somebody that represents the year that's ending. It's usually a politician (Bush) or a peace maker (Mandela) or someone else famous for this reason or that. Well, this year there's a suprise. The person of the year is YOU.<br /><br />"You" not in the generic, impersonal form, but all of you bloggers from bloggingenglish. "You" refers to all of those people who spend time and energy online creating content, be it YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, blogs or wikis on what is called Web 2.0. It's YOU. All of you have contributed to making the Web a richer place to find information. Be proud.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html?aid=434&from=o&to=http%3A//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1569514%2C00.html">Go to the article</a> and read it, and you'll see that you are really a part of this revolution!<br /><br />Check out the other articles on Web 2.0 <a href="http://www.time.com/time/">at the same site</a>.<br /><br />Sarah<br /><br />p.s. Feel free to send comments :-)Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166525904709103242006-12-19T11:57:00.000+01:002006-12-19T11:58:24.726+01:00e-tivity 10<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Final papers</span></b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Here we are, ten weeks later, lots of logins, passwords and registrations later and you’ve all made it, every single one of you! I have been extremely impressed by the dedication with which you have approached each e-tivity, by your patience when there were technological challenges, and the insight of your blog posts. Now it’s time to “digest” everything. What I mean by “digest” is stop and think about what you’ve learned. Your final paper (that’s what this e-tivity is about) is a time for reflection. Reflecting on the experience of the last ten weeks, reflecting on social software, reflecting on the Web, reflecting on what you’ve learned an how you’ve changed. You’ve got several weeks to complete this one so take your time :-)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Sarah <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(153, 51, 153);" lang="EN-GB">Purpose</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"> To reflect on what you’ve learned in this course and express your thoughts in the form of a final paper. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);" lang="EN-GB">Task</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"> You could write a final paper on the experience of using the social software, on social software itself, on one of the particular genres we have considered, etc. The choice is yours. Please take some time to consider what you would like to write about. You may be objective (like writing about what you’ve already started researching for your wiki contributions) or subjective (like what you’ve learned and how you think it might be useful for other students of English) or both. These are just some ideas; I’m sure you’ll come up with more creative interesting ones!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">The paper should be about 3 pages (see Course Syllabus).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">In the next few days, please send a comment to this message saying what you intend to write about. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">After Christmas I will be sending a message with the rubrics I will be using to assess your papers and some indications on structure. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);" lang="EN-GB">Respond</span></b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);" lang="EN-GB">: </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">There is no “respond” as this is an individual assignment.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;">Timeline</span>: January 17, </b><span style="">though this is flexible. If you’ve got lots of exams to study for just let me know and I can extend the deadline. Please send your papers to me via email as a .doc.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166522827905480012006-12-19T11:03:00.000+01:002006-12-19T11:45:57.366+01:00e-tivity 9: summary<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Compliments to everyone! Not only did you manage to work on your wikis, but you did a very good job at looking at each other's contributions and giving useful feedback (Annalisa, Francesca and Lucrezia even managed to make changes based on your feedback). I think you all did a very good job at pointing out the good aspects and those that still needed to be worked on. It was also good to see that those of you who wrote feedback after others had already written READ what the others had written first. This means you're becoming REAL bloggers!<br /><br />Below there are direct links to your pages and a summary of the feedback given by your peers (it was often the same).<br /><br /></span><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Blog#Teachers.E2.80.99_and_students.27_approach_to_educational_blogs.">Barbara and Giorgia (Educational Blogging)</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">- you could still stress the distinction between the two parts<br />- you could use more bold to highlight key words<br />- should personal opinions be separated from fact? should we use I and we? </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">(to be discussed in class)<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><!--[endif]--></span><br /><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Language_learning#References">Svjetlana (Language Learning)</a><br /> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">- you could use more bold to highlight key words<o:p></o:p><br />- is the introduction to the second paragraph useful?<o:p></o:p><br />- you could put the retrieval date of the link to our course<o:p></o:p></span></p> <br /><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/E-tivity">Marco, Maria Chiara, Alice (E-tivity)</a><br /> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">- is the example a pure repetition of the theoretical part?<o:p></o:p><br />- what about the sections Links, References, See?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Podcasting">Francesca, Lucrezia, Annalisa (Podcasting) </a> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">(feedack before corrections made on Friday)<o:p></o:p><br />- you should integrate new contents with existing contents<o:p></o:p><br />- greater division into paragraphs<o:p></o:p><br />- you could use more bold to highlight key words<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Then Annalisa gave a nice summary of your common mistakes, which could be interpreted as the following advice:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">- avoid repetition of contents<o:p></o:p><br />- standardize how references and links are made<o:p></o:p><br />- use many short paragraphs rather than a few long ones<o:p></o:p><br />- internal links<o:p></o:p><br />- don’t use too many quotations<o:p></o:p><br />- use bold to highlight key words<o:p><br /></o:p><br />All this said, I must say I agree with all of you that you have done an excellent job. It wasn’t easy, but as Maria Chiara says hopefully it’s definitely been a learning experience! I hope you can say the same for the course as a whole. I know that I have certainly learned a lot from all of you.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">It’s been a pleasure teaching you, working with you and learning from you.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Job well done.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Sarah</span> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166437693063371242006-12-18T11:19:00.000+01:002006-12-18T11:28:13.073+01:00Francesca's feedback on e-tivity9<span style="color:#ffff33;">HI COLLEGUES!!</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff9900;">Exploring my classmates’ contributions on <strong>Edutech</strong> I noticed that their corrections are all really good!<br /><br /></span><span style="color:#ff9900;">As regards the article about <strong>e-tivity</strong> delivered by <span style="color:#ff0000;">Alice, Maria Chiara</span> and <span style="color:#ff0000;">Marco</span>, they corrected the lay-out and made a clearer distinction between the descriptive part and the example with the result that now their article looks better organized and more effective. I also agree with Svietlana’s comment about the fact that they should try to put a link-paragraph (before references) which includes direct links. They did a very good work!!<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#ff9900;">As far as the article ( <strong>Blog</strong>) of <span style="color:#cc33cc;">Giorgia </span>and <span style="color:#cc33cc;">Barbara</span> is concerned I think that after their corrections, their article is better organized. According to what we noticed in class with Sarah their article was too long and for this reasons it was necessary to divide it into shorter paragraphs. Now it looks more effective and immediately captures readers’ interest. Moreover, the quotation was quite long and ‘heavy’, now it looks absolutely better, it is shorter and separated from the rest of the text. Very good corrections!<br /><br />Finally I would like to comment on <span style="color:#009900;">Svjetlana</span>’s article about <strong>Language Learning</strong>, she did an excellent work, despite her task was even more difficult because she worked alone. Her article is very well structured and interesting. I appreciated a lot the divisions between the various sections and above all the distinctions of links into categories. Her article immediately captures readers’ interests. Excellent work!<br /><br />In conclusion I think that with our corrections we all contribute to improve our articles. Moreover, I noticed that our ‘mistakes’ were more related to the form and lay-out than the content. We all wrote interesting articles; we need to improve a little the form and become more familiar with wiki’s writing features. In my opinion this was a quite difficult but very stimulating task!<br /><br /><span style="color:#33ffff;">Thanks for your suggestions,<br />See you tomorrow<br />Bye Bye</span></span><br /><span style="color:#ff9900;"><span style="color:#33ffff;"><br /></span></span><span style="color:#3333ff;">Francesca</span>francescahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14100276916792728718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166266339574366082006-12-16T11:31:00.000+01:002006-12-16T12:35:56.043+01:00Annalisa's feedback on E-tivity 9Hello everybody!<br /><br />Last week we contributed to Edutechwiki.<br />Although our work was quite good, we all made some mistakes,especially concening the general structure of a wiki.<br />Here there are my impressions about my classmates'wikis!<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Marco, Mariachiara and Alice (E-tivity)<span style="color:#333333;">:</span></span><br /><span style="color:#333333;">I think that in their contribution there were some repetitions of concepts. </span><br /><span style="color:#333333;">Moreover, they had to make a clearer division between the theoretical part of the analysis and the numerous examples.</span><br /><span style="color:#333333;"></span><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Giorgia and Barbara (Blog)<span style="color:#000000;"> :</span></span><br />I saw their corrections and I think that the layout of the article is definitely better now.<br />At the beginning I found their work too long and "homogeneous" and therefore, it was not so easy to capture the reader's interest.<br />Now it is more concise and clearer thanks to the use of paragraphs.<br />Perhaps, as we said in class, their contribution should be written using a more impersonal style(avoid the use of direct "we").<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Svjetlana (Language Learning):</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">I think that her work was more difficult because she edited her contribution without any help.</span><br />In my opinion, in her text there is a clear division between the diversified sections of the analysis.<br />In particular I noticed and appreciated the original division of links into different categories.<br /><br />Generally speaking , our common mistakes concerned:<br />-unuseful repetitions of concepts<br />-references and links (we have to written them in a standard way)<br />-division into paragraphs<br />-internal links<br />-excessive use of quotations<br />-different importance of some concepts; it implies we have to write some <strong>significant words in bold</strong>.<br /><br />That's all for the moment.<br />See you next Tuesday.<br />AnnalisaAnnalisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14671732413218488525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166202465596247222006-12-15T17:42:00.000+01:002006-12-15T18:07:45.606+01:00Lucrezia's feedback on e-ctivity n.9Hi bunch of wiki creators,<br />Annalisa, Francesca and me worked this morning on our page so maybe you didn't notice our corrections. We tried to integrate other people's sections with our ideas in order to avoid repetitions and to make our page simpler. Please have a look and let me know what you think about it now. I also surfed in all your pages and I have to admit that all of you did an excellent job! Well done ladies and gentleman!<br /><br />As far as Maria Chiara, Alice and Marco's page is concerned, I really appreciate the idea and the <span style="color:#ffff00;">structure of their tex</span>t. Putting the example and its explanation makes the text less boring and I really like this practical part instead of always reading about theorists! Then one has also the possibility to see what its by click on the link, so anyone can better understand what e-ctivity is.I don't tell you to add the links, because this morning we tried many times so it is better to ask Sarah before. By the way you made your page better! Well done E-ctivity group!<br /><br /><br /><br />Giorgia and Barbara did a good job too. Reading the blog page I found that the corrections you made are the one you needed, now everything is <span style="color:#ff0000;">clearer and simpler</span>, and I was suprised you managed to do it in such a short time, maybe they only need to add some bold words to grap the reader's attention.<br /><br />Reading Language learning I was suprised again because Svjetlana did everything <span style="color:#33ffff;">all by herself</span> and again her corrections are well done and you don't need to change a lot on your pages<br /><br />Summing up I 'm satisfied of our improvements and I hope Mr. Schneider will enjoy our changes.. It was quite a difficult task but in the end we all managed!So now we need only to enjoy the weekend!!lucreziabishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715395308553446646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166186070720672132006-12-15T12:50:00.000+01:002006-12-15T13:36:53.450+01:00Alice's feedback on e-tivity 9<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:180%;color:#33cc00;"><strong><em>Hi everybody!!!</em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I agree with what Barbara said in her post: I'm proud of us! Contriubuting to <span style="color:#3333ff;"><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Main_Page">Edutech wiki</a></span> has been a hard work to do but very satisfactory at the end. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Sarah wants us to say something about our colleagues' work so here I am. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Assuming that all the jobs are really well done (especially if we consider that this was our first contribution to a wiki) and I am not able to criticize other people's works, in my own small way I can only give some pieces of advice.</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">1) <span style="color:#33ccff;">Francesca</span>, <span style="color:#33ccff;">Lucrezia</span> and <span style="color:#33ccff;">Annalisa </span>worked on <span style="color:#33ccff;"><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Podcasting">podcasts</a></span>. First of all, I agree to what Svjetlana says in her post, that is that there is a kind of separation from their article and the rest of the page. Secondly, there are some repetions: some parts of the article could be integrated to some sections that already existed without the necessity of creating another one. Other advise is to put some words in bold and create some paragraphs. It makes the reading more easier.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">2) <span style="color:#ff6600;">Giorgia</span> and <span style="color:#ff6600;">Barbara's</span> contribution is about <span style="color:#ff6600;"><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Blog">blogs</a></span>, the corrections they made are very good and now the article is easier to read than before. I can only give two pieces of advice to them: one is to put in bold more key words in order to catch the reader's attention in a better way and the other to use a more impersonal style even though we know that you can also write in first person. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">3) <span style="color:#33cc00;">Svjetlana</span> contributed to <span style="color:#33cc00;"><a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Language_learning">language learning</a></span>. The article is well structured so I can only say the same thing I've already said about Giorgia and Barbara's work: to put the key words of her text in bold type, for the same reason, that is to catch the reader's attention. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That's all...and the only thing I can add is <span style="color:#cc33cc;">VERY GOOD JOB</span>!! ^__^</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Cheers </span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Alice</span></p>Alicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09723494104124924732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166177108663986942006-12-15T11:01:00.000+01:002006-12-15T11:05:08.670+01:00Dear Sarah, Could you pealse tell me how to make an internal link on edutechwiki? Because I managed to do only few of them . The others displayed in red, what should I do? Let me know. Thaks<br />Lucrezialucreziabishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715395308553446646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166175057100222202006-12-15T09:45:00.000+01:002006-12-19T13:53:20.040+01:00Marco's opinion about E-tivity nine<span style="color:#000000;">Hello everybody!</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Last week we tried to contribute on <span style="color:#ff99ff;">Edutech wiki</span>: it was not an easy task! At the end in my opinion we did quite a good work!</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Since I am only one of your university colleagues, I don't feel like criticize other people's work in any way! So, everything I am trying to do is only giving some advices:</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="color:#ff99ff;">Francesca, Lucrezia and Annalisa</span> contributed to the page about <span style="color:#ff0000;">podcast</span>: </span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">in my opinion they did a very good work! The only think I want to comment is that I don't understand if some part of the article are useful or not: I mean that there are some sections that are very similar to others and don't add some new information. As we said in class, the best solution would be to elide some parts and try to integrate them with others speaking about the same things.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="color:#ff99ff;">Svjetlana</span> contributed to the page about <span style="color:#ff0000;">language learning</span>:</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">The text in the page is very well written. Besides, svjetlana did a very good work also if she had not the help of any colleague! She also put a lot of good links.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">On the other hand, I think that some parts are unuseful, like the first introductive paragraph of the second section. In second place, I would add to the article only a detail: I would have put the retrieval date next to the link with our course, because the we do not know if and when our blog will be erased or modified.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="color:#ff99ff;">Giorgia and Barbara</span> contributed to the page about <span style="color:#ff0000;">blogs</span>:</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">the page is very well written and organised. I also like the way in which the quotation is underlined in the middle of the page thanks to a separated space like a window.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">I only think that this page would better have been written using an impersonal style, because there are some personal pronouns that are not used in other pages of Edutech wiki. Probably, the better solution could have been to add a different part dealing with personal opinions.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Finally, in my opinion we all did an excellent job!</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">This is all!</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Marco </span>marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13416073619576960566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166108831630682992006-12-14T15:58:00.000+01:002006-12-14T16:09:22.843+01:00Svjetlana's feedback on E-tivity 9<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;">Hi collegues!<br />I cleaned up my wiki: "<a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Language_learning"><strong>Language learning</strong></a>". The main changes I’ve done are all about the structure, that is to say the lay-out of the article (internal links, words in bold, paragraphing). I’ve also added some new references that I forgot the first time.<br /><br />Now I am going to give some impressions on my collegues’ wikis.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;">1) <span style="color:#6600cc;"><strong>Marco, MariaChiara and Alice</strong></span>:<br />I find changes on the lay-out very effective. The article seams more organized in this new way. But, as we have already pointed out in class, the second part of they article is a repetition of the first and theoretical one. So they should try to improve the second part and find a new solution to avoid this repetition. Perhaps it could be useful to add examples of other theorists, schools or universities.<br />Another advice is to add a new paragraph, entitled LINK, before REFERENCES, were to put direct links, instead of having a list with the repetition of “See...” (I noticed that in many pages they do in this way).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;">2) <strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">Giorgia and Barbara</span></strong>:<br />I think that their corrections are excellent. With this new layout the article capture the attention of the reader, definitely more than before. And I think that it is a plus the fact that the article now is briefer.<br />The only advice that I can give to them is to stress the distinction between the two parts of the article: they can put the two subtitiles in bold or as second heading (Teachers’ approach and Students’ approach). In my opinion it is not so evident if one looks without paing too much attention. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;">3) <strong><span style="color:#6600cc;">Francesca, Lucrezia and Annalisa</span></strong>:<br />Their article is interesting but it seems separated from the rest of the page, as regards the structure and some contents. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;">First of all, they put the article after “Links and References” and after their article they put their own links and references. In my opinion this is some kind of division from the rest of the article. They should integrate they links and references to those that were already there and put the article before Links and References.<br />As we pointed out in class last week, there are also some repetitions, that is to say that some of their sentences says same things as those said in other paragraphs of the article. Therefore they should integrate their ideas with that of articles that already exsists. Even though it is not so easy!!!<br />Other advise is to put some words in bold and create some paragraphs. It makes the reading more easier.<br /><br />This is all. These are not critics, but advices. I hope you don’t mind...<br />I think that our works are very good. There are things to improve, but we all wrote interesting articles. ;-)<br />Buy, buy.<br />Svjetlana. </span></div>Svehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18420459130566812022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166098493675892262006-12-14T12:36:00.000+01:002006-12-14T14:56:02.316+01:00Feedback on E-tivity 9<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;">Hi Everybody!<br />Last week we chose a subject, we developped it and we edited in <a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Main_Page">Edutech Wiki</a>. After analysing our contributions all together in class, we have to <strong>find our mistakes and correct them.<br /></strong><br />I have just corrected my work (there's a link in the comment in e-tivity 9) and now I have explored <strong>my peers' contributions</strong>. I noticed that some of them have already modified their pages.<br /><br />In general, all our mistakes deal with the form rather than with the content. For example, <strong>Alice, Marco and Mariachiara</strong> contributed in <span style="color:#009900;">"E-tivity"</span> and they did, in my opinion, a good and interesting job; however, as we discussed in class, they had to make a clear division between the descriptive part and the example. I have just visited their page and I saw that their work is modified and I think that it is very very good!<br /><br />Some of our mistakes, however, are also about the content. <strong>Annalisa, Francesca and Lucrezia </strong>contributed in <span style="color:#009900;">"Podcasting"</span><span style="color:#cc0000;">;</span> in my opinion they wrote interesting things but some of what they said was a repetition of a previous paragraph, already existing. This is the real problem of editing in Edutech Wiki: you have to write something new and interesting, a subject which has never been developped. The task for them consists in trying to link their analysis to the previous one, eliminating what has already been described.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;"><br />Reading <strong>Svjetlana</strong>'s work I realised that she did a very good job in <span style="color:#009900;">"language learning"</span><span style="color:#cc0000;">;</span> I think she could improve it in the form, for example writing in bold the most important ideas of each paragraph, in order to catch the attention of the reader.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;"><br />Summing up, I think that we all did interesting contributions. Our biggest problem concern <em><span style="color:#ff6600;">references, quotations and paragraphing</span></em>. I hope that this week will be useful for our corrections!!</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;">Have a nice week!</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;">Bye </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;">Giorgia</span></div>Giorgiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12160279035939629575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1166018554559752322006-12-13T15:02:00.000+01:002006-12-13T15:02:44.830+01:00e-tivity 9<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Cleaning up the wiki<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">You all did an excellent job during your first week of wiki-ing but I think it’s clear to us that we all still have a lot to learn and that there are improvements to be made. We will, therefore, dedicate another week to cleaning up and fixing up your wiki contributions. Fortunately you all seem to enjoy it and see how it can be useful, even if it’s not necessarily easy! I’m sure your wiki contributions will be very professional and academic in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">Just think, guys, you’ve almost made it to the end of the course and you’ve done everything so far. You can do it, just two more e-tivities :-)<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Sarah<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Purpose</span>:</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> To improve your wiki contributions based on the message from the wiki administrator (Daniel Schneider) and what we discussed in class in order to make excellent wiki contributions. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Task</span>:</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">1 – Let’s do some more reading. Go to <a href="http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/"><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Purdue</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>’s online writing lab (OWL)</a> and click around. In particular, since some of your difficulties are not copying and quoting sources, I would like you to <b style="">read</b> the following pages:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/">Quoting, paraphrasing and summarising</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/">How to paraphrase</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="FR"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/">Paragraphs</a><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="FR"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/01/">Conciseness</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/">Avoiding plagiarism</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/01/">Evaluating sources</a><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/01/"></a> (hint: it might be helpful to save sites that are good resources in your del.icio.us page, of course with the bloggingenglish tag!)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/">Citing Electronic sources</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/558/01/">Searching the World Wide Web</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">2 – Go back and take a look at what you’ve written on the wiki. <b style="">Ask</b> yourselves the following questions (for example):<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Is my contribution a series of quotations or is it my own paraphrase and summary with the addition of my own ideas and thoughts?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Have I quoted sources and cited them correctly?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Have I compiled a correct bibliography?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Have I made internal links to other pages in the wiki (e.g. if you use the word “wiki” have you made it a link like this: [[wiki]])?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Have I been clear and concise?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">- Have I used paragraphs, divisions and bold to make selective reading easier?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">3 – <b style="">Edit</b> your contribution making any necessary changes.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><b style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Respond</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">: </span>Please make your corrections by Friday. Write a comment to this post with a link to your contribution. Go and analyse your colleagues’ contributions. Write a post back to the course blog providing feedback (both positive and constructive criticism) on the other pages. On Monday write a post to your personal blog in which you reflect on if and what you have learned in the past week.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Timeline</span>: Friday, December 16 (<span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">task</span>), Monday, December 18 (<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">respond</span>)<o:p></o:p></span></b>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1165329433976271352006-12-05T15:36:00.000+01:002006-12-05T15:37:13.990+01:00e-tivity 8<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >Let’s wiki!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >Now that you’ve explored the “wikisphere” and analyzed wikis, you seem to have a better idea of what wikis are. But that’s not enough! To really know what it’s all about you’ve got to wiki. You’ve seen many different types of social software on this course so far and analyzed them so now it’s time for you to share your knowledge on how these tools can be used for English language learning. Rather than have you create your own wiki as I’d originally planned, thanks to Francesca in BloggingEnglish1, we’re going to contribute to an existing wiki. Francesca found one on educational technologies, which is what this course is all about in the end. So, though it may not be easy at first (as many things in this course have not been), I’m sure you’ll manage and, hopefully, enjoy the experience in the end!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >Have fun wiki-ing!<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >Sarah<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><o:p></o:p></span><b style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Purpose</span>:</span></b><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" > To contribute to a public wiki on educational technologies to better understand what wiki-ing is about and to write about what you’ve learned so far in this course. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <b style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Task</span>:</span></b><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" > <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >1 – <b style="">Go</b> to <a href="http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Main_Page">edutech wiki</a>. <b style="">Take a look around</b>. <b style="">Read</b> the various introductions, notes to editors, etc. Click on the All Pages button on the left and take a look at some of the pages on the wiki to better understand their style and structure.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >2 – <b style="">Choose </b>a page you’d like to contribute to. Start taking notes on what you could contribute to the wiki.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >3 – <b style="">Write a comment to this post</b> letting us all know which page you intend to edit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >4 – <b style="">Search </b>the Net for sources to back up what you would like to say (and don’t only use Wikipedia as a resource!). If you search, for example, in Google looking only for the domain .edu and the filetype .pdf, you will most likely find academic papers on your topic.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >5 – <b style="">Write your contribution </b>in a Word file and the paste it into the wiki. Be clear and concise and remember to cite your sources. All you have to do is register (upper right-hand corner) and then click on the “edit” button on the page you’d like to edit, then copy your text into the wiki and click on the “save” button. And voilà you’ve contributed to a wiki.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><o:p></o:p>N.B. You’re more than welcome to contribute to a page together, i.e. to collaborate before posting your contribution. Just make sure each one of you adds something of their own. You can communicate online via one of your personal blogs. One person makes a post and the other(s) comments. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><o:p></o:p></span><b style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" >Respond</span></b><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">: </span>Given the fact that Friday is a holiday, and many, like me, will be away, you will not have to “Respond” this week. However, some time before the next lesson, please make a post to your blog in which you reflect on the wiki experience. We will “Respond” in class!<o:p><br /><br /></o:p></span><b style=""><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Timeline</span>: Monday, December 11</span></b><span style=";font-family:";font-size:11;" lang="EN-GB" ><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1165328243276333462006-12-05T15:16:00.000+01:002006-12-05T15:17:23.286+01:00e-tivity 7: feedback<h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Well, from your blogs it’s clear that most of you have a clear, or clearer than before, idea of what wikis are. You all mentioned the basic principles that lie behind writing on a wiki, i.e. collaborative editing, respect for others, achieving a common goal, etc. You also noticed the basic structure of most wikis with the various sections and hyperlinks. You all found that the language is formal yet simple due to the fact that the intended audience is global, but recognize the fact that not all wikis are like Wikipedia and that the language may depend on the context and author, especially in the case of private wikis.<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">I really appreciated those of you who found and cited wikis other than wikipedia – good job searching! That was very helpful for me too. Those of you who found other wikis noticed that the language and rules used are not always the same as those used in Wikipedia. <o:p></o:p></span></h3> <h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">I’ve corrected your posts and as with the previous e-tivity you can download them by clicking <a href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/f/e_tivity_7_feedback2.pdf">here</a>. Please write back to me with any questions or doubts, though your writing really<span style=""> </span>has improved. <o:p></o:p></span></h3> <h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">I’ll be curious to see how your ideas of what a wiki is change as we actually start using a wiki in e-tivity 8!<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Keep up the good work.<o:p></o:p></span></h3> <h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-weight: normal;" lang="EN-GB">Sarah<o:p></o:p></span></h3>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164663128082011892006-11-27T22:31:00.000+01:002006-11-27T22:32:08.100+01:00e-tivity 6: feedback<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I don’t know about you all, but I really enjoyed hearing your voices online. It was a nice change to listen to your ideas and impressions rather than read them. You seem to have all discovered that the “podcastsphere”, as Alice alls it, is just as vast as the blogosphere and that it takes time and a critical eye to sort through all the podcasts online to find some worth listening to. It’s interesting that many of you chose the same podcasts – must mean they’re goog. Furthermore, you, but I as well, found new resources by reading about the different podcasts everyone found. (Just so you know, the CLA spent months building up a repository of good resources for language learning while all they needed to do was to get you guys to do it for them!)<br />Some of you mentioned that people seem to speak slowly on podcasts and that some were relatively easy, but if we collect all of your selections in del.icio.us I’m sure there’s something useful for everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">Annalisa found a site where there are videos from <a href="www.youtube.com">www.youtube.com</a>. This site is similar to Flickr in that it is a repository where people place their video clips and tag them, but rather than images it is all about video. Just as is the case in Flickr, you can copy videos from YouTube into your personal blogs. It’s not an assignment, but I suggest you do a little searching for tags in YouTube and see if you find anything that interests you. There’s a lot out there and you could even add something to your blogs! By the way, anyone know why it’s called YouTube?<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Finally, Barbara says she hates recording her voice, as do I. I know it’s difficult and I know what it feels like to listen to one’s own recorded voice but having audio on a blog really does add a human element.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">If you’ve got time when you’re not doing e-tivity 7, since we couldn’t meet this week, I’d love to hear your impressions on recording your voices and listening to your colleagues’ voices online. What do you think about adding audio files to blogs? Please send comments if you get the time.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Job well done, everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Sarah<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>P.S. Svjetlana, if you are having technical problems with uploading an odeo file, let me know and I’ll see if I can help!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164633318712132762006-11-27T14:15:00.000+01:002006-11-27T22:33:05.896+01:00e-tivity 7<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The genre of wikis<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Now that we’ve analyzed blogs and websites, we’re going to take a look at another new online phenomenon: wiki. A wiki is basically a virtual space (website) for collaborative writing, i.e. a place where we can “build” texts together. One of us makes an entry in the wiki, then the next person comes along and adds to, removes or in any other way edits what the first person has written, and so on. Our aim is going to be to start developing a wiki on genres and social softwares for language learning. Students from both Blogging English courses will be contributing to the wiki as will your colleagues in the next semester, the one after that, etc. A wiki is a never-ending project! But before we start “wiki-ing”, we need to understand what a wiki is and consider what characterizes it as a genre.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Purpose</span>:</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> To start exploring the world of wikis, understand what they are, how they work and what characterizes them as a genre. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Task</span>:</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">1 – <b style="">Do some background reading</b>. Go to the most famous wiki, wikipedia, and read what it has to say about wikis. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki">Click here</a>. Then read their page on wikiquette. Editing someone else’s work can be a very productive exercise in collaboration and building knowledge, but it can also be a delicate procedure. The word “wikiquette” comes from wiki + the English word “etiquette”, i.e. how to behave appropriately. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquette">Click here</a>. <o:p></o:p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquette"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"></span></a></span><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>2 – <b style="">Listen</b> to an online video course entitled “Why wiki” presented by the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Wisconsin</st1:placename></st1:place>. <a href="http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/courses/wiki/">Click here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>3 – <b style="">Explore</b> wikipedia, and any other wiki you may find on the Net (by now your search skills should be pretty good!) and take notes on purpose, audience, language, characteristics, etc. just as you have done for blogs and websites.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>4 - Write<b style=""> a few paragraphs</b> in which you discuss the genre of wikis based on your analysis. <b style="">N.B.</b> Please pay close attention to the organization of the information in your post. Clearly divide the information into separate paragraphs, each with a clear topic sentence that is subsequently developed within the paragraph. The beginning of the text should indicate the overall idea of the text and the end should offer some sort of conclusion. Be concise.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>5 - <b style="">Post</b> your analysis to your personal blogs.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Respond</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">: </span>Go to your peers’ personal blogs (you can do this via the blogroll on our course blog or your bloglines if you’ve made a playlist) and read their analyses. Comment on their analyses where and when you have something to add or critique. Remember that you don’t only have to give positive feedback – constructive criticism is quite important as well! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Timeline</span>: <span style=""></span>Friday, December 1 (<span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">task</span>), Monday, December 4 (<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">respond</span>)</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164315888787370662006-11-23T22:02:00.000+01:002006-11-23T22:04:48.790+01:00No class next TuesdayFor those of you who were not present this past Tuesday, I will not be able to come to lesson next Tuesday as I will be away for work. Obviously, I will post your next e-tivity before leaving.<br /><br />Don't hesitate to write with questions as I will most likely have access to e-mail while I'm away.<br /><br />All this assuming I get better in the next few days - I've been sick :-(<br /><br />See you all online!<br /><br />SarahSarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164051504734314612006-11-20T20:38:00.000+01:002006-11-27T17:24:04.970+01:00e-tivity 5: summary<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p><span lang="EN-GB">Some of you did very thorough analyses of your two websites while others did more superficial ones but all in all you more or less came to similar conclusions. Reading all of your blog posts on the genre of websites I was able to find some common characteristics which should help us develop a definition of the genre of websites. For example, some characteristics on home pages are:<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- <span lang="EN-GB">overall syntactic compression and minimalism<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- <span lang="EN-GB">links in the form of simple noun phrases, post-modified noun phrases, imperative verb forms and gerunds<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- (<span lang="EN-GB">large numbers of) hyperlinks (characterized as above) in lists<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- <span lang="EN-GB">simple sentences using above all the present simple (giving a sort of timelessness)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- <span lang="EN-GB">images to support the links and overall navigation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt">- <span lang="EN-GB">color coding<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Then, most of you found that once you clicked on the links, the language found in the other pages of the websites was more descriptive and complex. Many of you noted that the intended audience changes the register of the language used. For example, the more ‘institutional’ websites like the BBC with an expected global audience tended more towards formal language while other sites aimed more towards a specifically younger audience used more informal language.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Does this sound more or less like a summary of your analyses? If I missed anything, please provide feedback in the form of a comment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>It was also interesting that many of you chose the same websites. I presume this means you have similar needs and are interested in similar aspects of your English language learning at this point.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Regarding language, this time I’ve done the opposite of what I’ve done in the past, i.e. rather than highlight mistakes and have you make corrections, I’ve made corrections and would like you to analyze them. Please download and print <a href="http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/f/e-tivity_5_completed_2.pdf">this pdf file</a> and consider the corrections made not only on your post but on the other ones as well since we always have something to learn not only from our own mistakes but from others’ mistakes too. Try and understand what the mistakes were and why I corrected them in a given way. If there is anything you are uncertain of or do not understand, please write a comment-question back to this post. You are then, of course, welcome to go correct your posts accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>I hope you found this e-tivity useful and found that it helped you better understand the two websites you chose. I personally feel that this e-tivity is a good example that we really do have things to learn from each other!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Sarah<o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164051461020023012006-11-20T20:37:00.000+01:002006-11-21T13:38:42.416+01:00How to Odeo<span style="font-family:georgia;">If you don't already have an account, go to</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://odeo.com">odeo</a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> and sign</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/1600/odeo_record.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/400/odeo_record.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> up for an account (top right hand corner of the window). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Once you have an account, go to </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://studio.odeo.com">odeo studio</a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> to record.</span><o:p style="font-family: georgia;"></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">Once you’ve clicked there, you should see a window like this:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">and click on “Record New Audio”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">This takes you to the recording studio. It will ask you a question and you respond "consenti".<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">Record your audio and save it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >When you're happy with your recording, push on the save button. At that point you'll go to a page where you can give a title to your audio, etc. What interests us is what's at the bottom of the page. You should see something </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/1600/odeo_http.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/400/odeo_http.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >like:<br /></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><br />Copy the contents in the “Put this Audio on your Web site”, go to Blogger, create a post and<span style=""> </span>rather than writing the post click on the html button and paste the html code you copied from odeo. </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">Publish the post, like always! You should see something like this (click on the play button, it works! You can hear my beautiful tongue twister!):<br /><embed src="http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf" quality="high" name="audio_player_standard_gray" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="audio_id=750567&audio_duration=7.065&valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=http://media.odeo.com/files/w/j/y/draft_47894_out.mp3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" align="center" height="52" width="300"><br /><a style="font-size: 9px; padding-left: 110px; color: rgb(255, 51, 153); letter-spacing: -1px; text-decoration: none;" href="http://odeo.com/audio/750567/view">powered by <strong>ODEO</strong></a><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="trebuchet ms" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Confused? Sound like to much? Don’t worry, you can do it. If you have troubles, just write a comment to this post.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164051391799300652006-11-20T20:36:00.000+01:002006-11-21T14:04:04.646+01:00e-tivity 6<h2><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal;font-size:12;" ><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Podcasts</span><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p><span lang="EN-GB">A podcast is a multimedia file (audio or video) distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. Podcasts can be downloaded onto personal computers and mobile devices like mp3 players so that users can listen to or watch the podcast whenever and wherever they want to. Some podcasts are also offered in streaming, i.e. you can listen to or watch it directly online. The term was coined by combining the word "broadcasting" (from radio and television) and "iPod"</span><span lang="EN-GB"> (the most popular mp3 player). The number of podcasts available online has grown exponentially in recent years. The BBC, radio RAI, NPR, etc. all offer podcasts of their most popular programs. But podcasting has grown beyond that. Many amateurs have also taken up podcasting producing their home-based radio programs and putting them online. Universities like Stanford and Duke in the </span><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB"> now offer many lectures online in the form of podcasts. To sum up, there is now a quantity of freely downloadable high-quality materials available in English that learners could only dream of in the past. Imagine, you don’t have broadband at home, so you download the podcast at the Uni or an Internet point, upload it onto your mp3 player and listen to it whenever and wherever you want. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,51,204)">Purpose</span>:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> To explore the world of podcasts to find several that you can use to practice your listening skills in English and to enter the world of podcasts by creating your own. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,204,0)">Task</span>:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">1 - <b>Search</b> for podcasts that might be useful for English listening practice. Do a search for the words “podcast” and another word like “English”, “education”, etc. in <a href="http://www.google.it">Google</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us">del.icio.us</a> and <a href="http://odeo.com">odeo</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">2 – <b>Find </b>at least 3 that are good (unfortunately as is the case in the blogosphere, you’ve got to be critical!) and <b>save </b>them in del.icio.us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">3 – <b>Take notes </b>on what the podcasts you chose offer and how they could be helpful. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">4 – <b>Make a post</b> to your personal blogs in which you list the urls of the podcasts you’ve chosen explaining why you’ve chosen them and <b>upload an audio message</b> created in odeo to the post (see post in course blog on using odeo) giving your impressions of the world of podcasts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,102,0)">Respond</span>: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB">Read the other students’ messages and go visit at least one of the podcasts they have suggested. Then write a comment to their blogs giving your impressions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">Timeline</span>: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB">Friday, November 24 (<span style="COLOR: rgb(51,204,0)">task</span>), Monday, November 27 (<span style="COLOR: rgb(255,102,0)">respond</span>).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB">Here’s an example of a vocabulary learning podcast I found in odeo. You can either put the <a href="http://odeo.com/audio/2347807/view">link</a> or embed the player into your blog. You can also subscribe to the blog and podcast via RSS feeds.<br /><br /><embed name="odeo_player_gray" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" align="center" src="http://odeo.com/flash/audio_player_gray.swf" width="322" height="54" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" flashvars="type=audio&id=2347807"><br /><a style="PADDING-LEFT: 110px; FONT-SIZE: 9px; COLOR: rgb(255,51,153); LETTER-SPACING: -1px; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://odeo.com/audio/2347807/view">powered by <strong>ODEO</strong></a><br /></span></p><p></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1164051348464014962006-11-20T20:35:00.000+01:002006-11-21T13:17:25.046+01:00RSS feedsImagine that there are several Web sites and Weblogs you want to follow. The traditional approach is to bookmark each site (e.g. using del.icio.us) or link them to your blog, and then visit them daily. They may or may not offer new items each day. Wouldn't it be much better to use just one technology that would visit all of these Web sites, collect any new information posted there each day, and then aggregate that information for you in one easy to read spot. That is the gist of what a news aggregator does. "While the technology that makes this all work is on the complex side, the actual implementation and use of RSS and aggregators is actually very easy” (Bell).<br /><br />Have you ever noticed that on many of the websites you vist there’s a little orange box or a few little orange boxes under the title ‘Syndication’ like these:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/1600/feeds.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2098/2263/320/feeds.0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />If you have, have you ever wondered what they mean? Let’s start with RSS. This acronym stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. What is ‘Syndication’ then? News agencies produce a flow of news organized based on a common structure: a title, the body of news, the date and hour and, sometimes, the author and subject. The publications that subscribe to a given agency can publish the news they receive from the agency in any format they chose. RSS, and the other formats you see in the image (XML RSD and XML ATOM) are the Web incarnation of the same concept. In other words, websites where information is updated on a regular basis, e.g. newspapers and blogs, offer users the possibility to subscribe to the site. RSS and XML are languages used to transfer the information on a site in a standard format, free of images and other multi-media content and formatting. Each time the site is updated with new information, subscribers receive the update.<br /><br />How then does one subscribe to an RSS feed? To do this you need an aggregator. Some aggregators can be installed on your computer (e.g. Sage by Mozilla) while others are websites you can access via any web browser (e.g. Bloglines) – most are free. You download or register for an aggregator and then you can subscribe to various RSS feeds. When new information is added to the sites you’ve subscribed to, depending on the options you’ve chosen or that are offered by the website with the feed, you will receive a summary or complete text version of the new information.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Optional assignment:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Build up resources on your aggregator.</span> Use the bloglines account you created in class: first, subscribe to all of the personal blogs in your course; second, subscribe to any other intersting sites you find during your online searches; third, create playlists. Since we looked at how to do all this in class, I won't describe it here. But, if you've got questions or doubts, don't hesitate to write a comment to this post with it!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Bell, Steven. Using An "Aggregator" To Capture RSS Feeds: A Technology For Keeping Up-To-Date. Retrieved November 17, 2006 from <a href="http://staff.philau.edu/BellS/rss.htm">http://staff.philau.edu/BellS/rss.htm</a></span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1163501917874232952006-11-14T11:55:00.000+01:002006-11-14T14:09:15.946+01:00e-tivity 5<b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></b><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The genre of websites<o:p></o:p></span></b> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The word ‘genre’ is used to indicate different kinds of literary and artistic works. What we’re interested in, obviously, is how the word is used in language learning. To start looking at genre, it might be helpful to see how it is different from the word ‘register’. Whereas register regards formal properties of grammar and lexis, genre is more closely related to the concept of communicative purpose. According to Swales (1990), genre can be used to describe established communicative conventions that are shared among “discourse communities”. In other words, for example, in the world of business, members of this community have certain ways of writing memos, emails and reports and new members to the community have to learn these conventions if they want to effectively be part of this discourse community. It is important to note that since genre deals with conventions and communities it can change depending on culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Some typical genres are: business letters, scientific papers, narrative, descriptive, expository and argumentative essays, diaries, emails, recipes, personal statements, etc. Internet has led to the development of new genres, e.g. websites, blogs, e-mail, etc. We have already tried to find some of the identifying characteristics of blogs (their purpose and the typical language used) and in the next few weeks we are going to do so for some other genres. This week’s genre is going to be the website.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="" lang="EN-GB">Sarah<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Purpose</span>:</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> It’s difficult to talk about the genre of websites for two reasons: 1 -<span style=""> </span>they’re a relatively new genre and in continuous evolution; 2 – there are many different types of websites. Together we are going to attempt to consider what might characterize the genre of websites.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Task</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">:</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">1 – <b style="">Read</b> the background reading handed out in class. If you weren’t in class, send me an e-mail (<a href="mailto:sarah.guth@unipd.it">sarah.guth@unipd.it</a>) and I can send you the readings. Maria Chiara has also found a good resource for us on her del.icio.us searches: <a href="http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html">A Genre Analysis of the Weblog</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">2 - Take a look at the websites we’ve all put into del.icio.us. <b style="">Choose</b> the two that you think you might use most often and that would be most helpful for your language learning.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">3 – <b style="">Identify the purposes</b> (Who is the intended audience and what do the creators of the website hope this audience will get out of the website? Is it aimed at a specific discourse community?)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">4 – <b style="">Identify the language features</b> of the different types (i.e. How does it reach it’s purpose? e.g. through language that is formal, informal, descriptive, narrative, present tense, only noun phrases, complete sentences, paragraphs, lots of hyperlinks, action verbs, state verbs, etc.). You can provide examples.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">5 – <b style="">Write a few paragraphs</b> in which you discuss the genre of websites based on your analysis of the two you’ve chosen. Please pay close attention to the organization of the information in your post. Clearly divide the information into separate paragraphs, each with a clear topic sentence that is subsequently developed within the paragraph. The beginning of the text should indicate the overall idea of the text and the end should offer some sort of conclusion. Post your analysis to your personal blogs.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Respond</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">: </span>Go to your peers’ personal blogs (you can do this via the blogroll on our course blog) and read their analyses. Comment on their analyses where and when you have something to add or critique. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Timeline</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">: </span>Friday, November 17 (<span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">task</span>), Monday, November 20 (<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">respond</span>)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Swales, J.M. (1990). <i style="">Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings</i>. <st1:city st="on">Cambridge</st1:city>: <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Cambridge</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1163501724833628702006-11-14T11:53:00.000+01:002006-11-14T11:55:24.846+01:00e-tivity 4: feedback<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">Well, it’s taken me awhile, but I’ve gone through all your bookmarks and commentaries. Just think, I found several sites that would be useful for my teaching. I’ve always said we have a lot to learn from our students!<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">You all seem to have enjoyed exploring the world of social bookmarking (in the end at least), understand how it works, and see how it might benefit you in your lifelong process of learning English. Many of you have identified some of the drawbacks, e.g. the need to be critical, but being aware of the drawbacks helps you use the system better.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">This week I’ve sent individual feedback to each of your personal blogs - go read your comments there.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB">I’ve copied a few comments from your blog posts which I think summarize the experience:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span><strong><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 204, 153);" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">there is a some sort of selection. (Sve)</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);">one may find also links that are worth reading about the argument they are looking for: this is also the reason why one usually finds interesting links of good quality. (Marco)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" lang="EN-GB">The real problem was to understand if they were valid or not! (Giorgia)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: black;" lang="EN-GB">I think that this activity is particularly helpful for us because it "obliges" us to </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);" lang="EN-GB">reflect upon what we read online</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: black;" lang="EN-GB">, in order to "perceive" its usefulness (or uselessness): each of us is, in a certain sense, responsible for the success of the whole process, as every single contributor classifies a set of web sources deemed to be of common interest. Therefore, what is initially </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 153, 255);" lang="EN-GB">a personal choice</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 204, 204);" lang="EN-GB">,</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: black;" lang="EN-GB"> it becomes inevitably part of </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" lang="EN-GB">a wider project</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: black;" lang="EN-GB">. (Maria Chiara)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Since del.icio.us is a sort of community it is more probable that what you find there is more interesting and relevant to what you are loooking for because other people examined that website before you. (</span><st1:city style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);" st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alice</st1:place></st1:City><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);" lang="EN-GB">this is a type of collaboration among people whose primary concern is to </span><strong><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; color: rgb(255, 255, 51);" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">share useful information by using a simple method. (Francesca)</span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">moreover social bookmarking is a way to find people with your same interests, to discover new interesting sites, to publish your own bookmarks...(Annalisa)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">I think that this activity is extremely helpful and useful: an effective resource, especially because you can create a real repository of websites which can help you in your English learning. It can also be a quick and easy alternative to search engines like Google … (Annalisa)</span><br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <o:p></o:p>Job well done, all of you!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p>Sarah<o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15331531679145646654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35732757.post-1163157062079110732006-11-10T12:05:00.000+01:002006-11-10T12:11:02.090+01:00Question for SarahDear Sarah,<br /><br />Me and Annalisa have got a problem. We are not able to add our social bookmarks to your network. We are registered as fans....(moreover we can only display Maria Chiara, Svjetlana, Lucrezia, and Alice bookmarks). We hope that you understand our problem.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Francesca and Annalisafrancescahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14100276916792728718noreply@blogger.com1