After two days of dealing with all the things that can go wrong when working with a computer, I finally managed to finish my Digital Story.
I was so excited playing with all the features of the new Windows 7 that it took me almost forever to get my pictures right.It didn't come out as well as I expected it to ( The music didn't work) but I learned a lot.

Book Discussion in Voicethread

Coauthored writing

Is language developed as a symbol system to express knowledge acquired through interaction with the physical world? Is thought essentially internalized speech that emerges in social interaction? or is it both? The struggle between Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories that is going on in my head was sparkled by my some what frustrating experience when participating in a collaborative writing exercise.It took me a while to find a connection with the prompt, so I waited for someone else to start.Once I felt I couldn't wait anymore ,I decided to take one element from the lead, and go with it. At times, I thought to go with the flow of the writing was the responsible thing to do, but then after a long day's work, the need for a laugh was more powerful than the sense of duty. I wasn't satisfied with the result, and felt guilty.Since the activity had the option of editing someone else's work, I waited to see what would happen.Finally someone was brave enough to give it a twist and the result was great. The experience made me aware of how our students feel when they are asked to write about something that they have no idea what it is or have no connection to.The value of using the collaborative writing technique is what the authors can learn from each other.It gives the learner a better look into the writing process.
Listen to this interview from NPR about an author's experience with Coauthored writing .It is really interesting.

Using Voicethread

In my search for the most didactic voicethread tutorial, I found some that were interesting but dull, others fun but too simple.(Others had been already taken)
These had the most profesional and enjoyable presentations of all.Although I feel that effective learning takes place when there is more face-to-face interaction, the use of voicethread can allow those that cannot be physically present, to participate and be heard. This makes a good tool for distance education.

My first Prezi !

Pause and Ponder on Prezi

After struggling for several hours I finally managed to finish my first presentation using Prezi. This is a more dynamic way of combining words and images than power point, the tool I use on a daily basis.I might have missed some editing, but I feel good knowing that I am one more step ahead on the path towards Digital Literacy Land.

Ahchoo!!

Trial and error

Words .. Words.. Words..

One of the key elements in teaching ESOL is getting our students to increase their vocabulary .
They are expected to make connections among words thinking about their meaning and incorporating them into their active vocabulary . By getting our students to dig into the meaning of words, we are helping them better understand what they read and improve their ability to express themselves through the written and spoken word.
As a result of all the blog reading I have been doing lately, I have found these two great web sites. The first one ,recommended by Pat Hensley is called Vocab Ahead which provides very nice short videos and flash cards for more than 1000 words. It not only illustrates them , but gives nice examples of situations in which these words can be used. After sharing it with the students and letting them use it , I’m going to ask them to make their own little videos of words.
The other web I have been playing with and have found very interesting is Tagul. It is more than just a word cloud. Each word is a tag that is linked to an URL and when clicked on , it gives you the meaning of the word.How cool is that !!

Speaking of Literacy..