Always learning and making a fresh start

I have always been a curious learner; that is one of the reasons why I became a teacher and one day I came across an online course which posed a question among many others that called my attention: broadly speaking, how to get students deal with information from Internet for project work with ICT without copypasting it all.
That is how I learnt about managing information, web based activities as Internet treasure hunts and webquests, as well as bookmarking, blogs, wikis, digital story telling and much more and I ended up creating my first blog, Join the Language Journey, my first wiki, English Projects Online, and this blog. One of my final works for the course was creating a webquest and I chose the topic of graffiti for it. How did it turn out? Well, that's for another post. But meanwhile, I can tell you that I overcame certain obstacles and learnt many valuable lessons; that's how I'm making a fresh start now.

Using Web 2.0 tools in the ELT classroom

Here I am, sharing part of my learning journey, this time to show just a sample of a slideshow with Animoto, one from many digital tools offered by the Web 2.0 and that is a great way of making short presentations, especially practical to introduce a project made by students.
This short video was made by a great teacher from Rosario, Carla Raguseo, my teacher in a course I've just finished, WELL (Web-enhanced Language Learning). As you can see, you can upload images (you can see my picture!), text and music. Why don't you give it a try?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Multiliteracy in ELT

One of my best friends, Verónica, who is also my yoga teacher, has this motto: ‘The only permanent thing is change’. When we think of the changes brought about by the development of technology, from individual to global scale, especially at the beginning of the 21^st century, it does not become surprising to find out how the traditional concept of literacy which meant the ability to read and write has developed into a broader and richer concept of multiliteracy. But what does being multiliterate mean? What is the implication of this concept in education and more specifically in ELT? Let’s have a look together!

http://www.slideshare.net/mcecicarat/multiliteracy-in-elt  

Multiliteracy in elt

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My learning metaphor

Have you seen the image of the wave at the top of my first post? Do you know why I have chosen it to illustrate my blog? Simply because it represents my metaphor for learning. Most of us have at some time or another studied about metaphors at school in Language or Literature classes. But if we stop to think for a moment, we can discover that many of us use metaphors to express how we feel about something. For me, learning is like riding inside a magnificent blue wave, what professional surfers call tube riding. What does this metaphor express for me? That learning means movement, like the sea that is in constant movement, because movement means changing and evolving, and learning always leaves a change in us, in the way we perceive the world and also ourselves. And it is a joyful ride, a pleasant journey, a lifelong process, and something that refreshes or renews me. That's how I feel about it. But there's more in this metaphor. It is like riding into a beautiful blue tunnel of water with the sun shining through all along the way, so it is a tunnel that is not closed but open to receiving light from outside; in fact, you can see the sun at the end of the tunnel if you observe a surfer riding inside a wave. Also, the surfer has to be attentive to keep balance and adapt to the way the water moves, so as to enjoy the ride for as long as he can. So being open and flexible are positive attitudes that will surely help us as we learn.
Now, what does learning mean in the 21st century? Well, if you want to know what I think, I invite you to read my next post. Meanwhile, enjoy your learning ride!
And enjoy this wonderful video of tube riding. I hope you like it.

Five reasons why I'd like to try EFL blogging

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.  ~Chinese Proverb

Before I mention my five reasons, why blog in the first place? Well, let's see...



All right, now it's time to tell you why I'd like to try EFL blogging:

1) To enrich my classes providing students  not only with language practice, homework or reinforcement of what was learnt but also with extension activities, project work, links to interesting material, so as to motivate them to go on learning English, learning through English, and having fun, too!
2) To promote higher order thinking skills, so as to help them to construct and create new knowledge; also, to help them think critically.
3) To give students the chance to find their unique voice; I think this will in turn help them raise their self-esteem and feel proud of their achievements.  
4) To enhance communication and rapport with and among students. In my opinion, a student who feels understood and listened to, will be in a better mood for learning and cooperating with his peers.
5) To help them become more autonomous in learning, and in connection with this, to help them discover their learning styles and develop and integrate them, so that they can learn better.

I guess I've mentioned more than five in this list, but I'm sure there are many more, don't you think?