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International Invitation

Here comes a message from a friend of mine from Brazil:
She invites us to join her students' Voicethred and to add our voiced or written info about famous people in our country. That would be an international celebrities voicethred.

With warmest regards,
Nina Lyulkun

Hello friends
I am sending you the link to a voicethread my Brazilian students have just started.
They are 15-year-old lower-intermediate students and they are talking about famous people in our country and also about international celebrities who are popular in Brazil. We would love to know who the celebrities in your country are. You can type or record your comments in the link below.
http://voicethread.com/#q+celebrities.b490017.i2610306
Have a great week!
--
Erika Cruvinel

You're invited to comment to this project.

a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Seth Dickens

Dear All,
I would like to share the fruits of a great project me and my 4th year students have been working on. It’s a video called A Vision of Students in Italy a Today “Our Thoughts.” It's a video my students have made about the use of technology in class and whether they like it or not.

The video was entirely produced by my students (with the exception of the video editing. ) It is going to be posted to You Tube as a reply to Prof. Mike Wesch's video "A Vision Of Students Today." ( http://tinyurl.com/bdbfx6) Prof. Wesch’s video discusses the old-fashioned methods many teachers still use in class. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. As fellow Webheads you’re bound to like it.

Everything you see in this video was written, organised, filmed and publicised (at our school) by the students of our class. This includes the writing of questions, posting them to an online survey host and then turning all the data into the script for the second part of our video. The whole school was then invited to reply to our survey, which asked what our schoolmates attitudes are to the Italian education system. Seeing as we’re a social sciences school this is a useful skill for my students to have. Read more

And here comes the response to the origional video above by the Italian Students - their vision:

Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award

Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award

Sponsored by Dell

The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a public school teacher from grades 3 to12 who is successfully using technology (the internet/social media, mobile technology, gaming) in the classroom. (See submission fields below.)

The award is inspired by Ypulse founder Anastasia Goodstein's book, Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online, and the challenges she observed around integrating technology into public school classrooms. We will recognize a teacher who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring both students and other educators.

This is only an info about how teachers turn to be motivated to use computer technologies for eduational purposes. To read more click on the title.

Yours,

Nina A.

Invitation for the International project

Dear participants,

I've just learnt from the Brasilian friends and colleagues about wonderful International project between Brasil and Australia students. You are invited to take a look at it (http://finally5b.blogspot.com) and (http://questionsaboutaustralia.blogspot.com).

If you are interested in spreading the the word about Ukraine, you have only to answer, using one word or phrase + 2 or 3 images, the following question: "What makes Ukraine a unique country?".

Looking forward to hearing from you shortly. Send a message and pictures to my email account (nagora[at]yahoo.com) or to the e-list.

Nina A.Lyulkun (aka nagora)

Marek Frankowicz, “A passion for languages was in my family”

This article might interest everyone here: students and teachers also. Give a stop and read it...

Marek Frankowicz, “A passion for languages was in my family”.

We take so much effort to learn one or two foreign languages and it is hard to imagine the possibility of speaking 8 or 10. Very often we hear people say, “The only way to master a foreign language is immersion achieved by living in the country were this language is in use”. There are lots of reasons and excuses, “If I had more free time”, “A lot depends on proper schooling and I did not have it”, “My memory is not good enough” in fact we remember them too well as we invent them ourselves.

I was lucky to meet a person who knows 15 (or even more) foreign languages. Doctor hab. Marek Frankowicz speaks Polish (native), Russian, English, German, Spanish, Slovak, French (like native), Italian, Arabic, Romanian, Japanese, reads in Czech, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Macedonian. And to crown it all, he is a chemist, the head of the faculty of Chemistry in the Jagiellonian University. Studying languages comes as a hobby and an integral part of his life. Read more.

Cybermill: HISTORY OF SCOUTING

Cybermill

Cybermill: Argentina's talking walls

Cybermill: Argentina's talking walls

Cybermill: Hackers

Cybermill: Hackers

Maryna Podlyuk: Follow the rules of netiquette

Maryna Podlyuk

What is Netiquette? It's network etiquette -- that is, the etiquette of cyberspace. In other words, netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online.

The list of core rules below are offered as a set of general guidelines for cyberspace behavior.

Rule 1: Remember the human

Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings.

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life

- Be ethical

- Breaking the law is bad Netiquette

Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace

· Netiquette varies from domain to domain

· Lurk before you leap

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth

· You are not the center of cyberspace

· Keep the rules for discussion groups

Rule 5: Make yourself look good online

· Take advantage of your anonymity

· Know what you're talking about and make sense

· Don't post flame-bait

Rule 6: Share expert knowledge

Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy

Rule 9: Don't abuse your power

Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes

Creating Comic Strips Online

Let me share this interesting website with you all.



I hope you all - teachers and students will enjoy this interesting website for creating comics. http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/
This link was sent by the Creator, MakeBeliefsComix.com - Bill Zimmerman to the list of Webheads. He run a workshop about creating comic at the TESOL Convention in Denver this April.

Here is his message:

Dear TESOL colleague,
For those of you who could not attend my workshop on Creating Comic Strips Online to Encourage Writing, Reading and Storytelling at the TESOL Denver 2009 conference you can find a handout on my website that lists 21 ways to use MakeBeliefsComix.com in the classroom. Go to:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/How-to-Play/Educators/. Read more

Katharina Zakharhuk: Suggestopдdie in der Ukraine

Als Teilnehmerin der Internationalen LernLust-Kongresse der DGSL erlebte ich Suggestopдdie hautnah und intensiv und mцchte nun darьber berichten, welche Anerkennung die suggestopдdische Methode in der Ukraine findet und wie suggestopдdisches Lernen umgesetzt wird.

Der Bildungsplan des ukrainischen Ministeriums fьr Bildung und Wissenschaft fьr das 21. Jahrhundert entwickelt und beinhaltet Bildungsstandards und –programme fьr das Schulwesen und dessen Unterrichtsfдcher. Alle Spezialisten, die mit Bildung zu tun haben, verstehen heutzutage, dass ein effektives Bildungsprogramm und innovative Methoden wichtig sind, um den Anforderungen an effektives Lernen und Lehren zu genьgen.

Eine von den ukrainischen Wissenschaftlern genannte Methode, die diesen Kriterien entspricht, ist die Suggestopдdie als Bestandteil der Suggestopдdagogik.

Bereits in den 70er Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts begann man sich in der Ukraine fьr die suggestopдdische Theorie Lozanovs zu interessieren. In der Folge entwickelten sich daraus in der ehemaligen Sowjetunion und der Ukraine die sogenannten „intensiven“ Methoden. Im Fremdsprachenbereich gehören dazu: Read more

Katia Dumarets'ka: Body language

Katia Dumarets'ka

We must admit that the body language is an important part of communication which can constitute 50% or more of what we are communicating. If you wish to communicate well, then it makes sense to understand how you can (or cannot) use your body to say what you mean. Body language comes in clusters of signals and postures, depending on the internal emotions and mental states.

There are some types of body language, for example aggressive body language or attentive body language, bored body language, closed body language or opened etc. A significant cluster of body movements is used to signal aggression.

Aggressive body language - this is actually quite useful as it is seldom a good idea to get into a fight, even for powerful people. Fighting can hurt you, even though you are pretty certain you will win. In addition, with adults, fighting is often socially unacceptable and aggression through words and body language is all that may ever happen.

Read more.

Test your knowledge of Body Language here.

Maryna Ostapchuk: Netiquette

Maryna Ostapchuk

Netiquette, a portmanteau of "net etiquette", is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. The concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to community.

Netiquette originated prior to the emergence of the World Wide Web in 1989. Text-based email, Telnet, Usenet, Gopher, Wais, and FTP dominated internet traffic, which was primarily used by educational and research bodies. At that time, it was considered somewhat indecent to make commercial public postings and the limitations of insecure, text-only communications demanded the community have a common set of rules. The term "netiquette" has been in use since as early as 1988. Read more

Iryna Gerasymchuk: Jagiellonian University: Standards of Education

Iryna Gerasymchuk
PhD, KhNU

An integration into a European Higher Education Area, that is what Ukraine is striving for undergoing a process of fundamental change in the education system. But ask any Ukrainian University instructor what the Bologna Process means for them and you will hear about additional workload, ask a student and you will hear complaints on an increased number of tests. I tried to find out what it means for the lecturers and the students of the Jagiellonian University.

The Jagiellonian University was the second university to be founded in Central Europe (in 1364). Mikolaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Copernicus) studied liberal arts in Krakow. There are over a hundred degrees and specialties available in Polish, as well as a dozen in English. The number of students is 50 000. There are 15 Faculties and 7 Units, among them Jagiellonian Language Centre where I am currently at.

Implementation of the Bologna Process main provisions includes adoption of a two-stage and later three-stage cycle of study The one-stage master's degree at the Jagiellonian University has been transformed into a two-stage cycle of study. Read more

Natalia Kunda & Victor Barannik: Modern approaches in teaching foreign languages

Natalia Kunda & Victor Barannik

There are many interesting approaches in teaching foreign languages in teacher’s practice. I try to list them: ....

All of these approaches have many advantages, but they also have disadvantages. For example, if one of them is useful to one person, it doesn’t mean that it would be good to another one. So these methods are used only in individual teaching.

But new approaches include only advantages of these methods. Modern ways of teaching become almost perfect. But you can ask: “Why these approaches become so perfect only at our time?” The answer is IT. Internet, software, electronic and audio-books are reasons of this great achievement. It used to be unreal to capture all features of teaching foreign. But fortunately our society is improving. Almost all the young use the internet. They can chat, study or even amuse themselves with improving their foreign knowledge. So Internet becomes good teacher at our time. Read more

Nina Lyulkun: Virtual Busking

Hi participants! I am delighted to invite you to discuss one of the interesting topic I've just bumped into while checking my Twitter.
Feel free to express your ideas. It would be very nice to hear from you. Just look through the video below, then visit the URL and listen to the songs, and then decide what you think and how you can help. ;-)

Amazing, isn't it???

Roma Boyko: Culture of young people or melody of my soul

Roma Boyko

Do you know what hip-hop is? Nowadays if you ask most people to give a definition of "rap", they're likely to state that it's the reciting of rhymes to the best of music. Hip-hop music or rap music is an admired and famous style or genre of music in the USA. This well-known music genre is made up of two components, rapping and record scratching. Rapping is also known as MCing and DJing, which comprises of audio mixing. These two main components combined with graffiti and break dancing form the four core elements of hip-hop.

Hip-hop was initiated as a cultural movement by inner-city youth, mostly Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans in New York City, in the early seventies. The word "rap" was derived in the sixties, from a slang word that meant conversation. Read more