Glearning

Just coined a new word. It was actually a typo as I was writing up stuff for my PhD - I meant to say that this list was my gleanings from the literature, but spelt it glearnings. And isn’t that a nice way to talk about what you have gleaned (collected as info, first pickings - not what is left over!) but have also learnt (absorbed, internalised)  along the way. So - glearning it is! Happy glearnings to you all as we keep gleaning and learning : )

Experimenting with Flickr

flax against skyOriginally uploaded by khaines.

I’m just playing round with what I can do in Flickr. I’d forgotten you can blog straight from Flickr. This is one of the photos I took for a similar exercise for last year’s EVO session. I wanted to update my profile and so went looking for a photo. First I uploaded a pic of myself, but then realised (when browsing) that few people use a photo of themselves. So flicked through (or was that flickred through) and chose this one to be my icon buddy. An interesting term - icon buddy.

I tried several different shots - beach, mountain, flower - before deciding on this particular photo. I like the colour and the flax flowers are very kiwi. Recently in an arty sort of shop, I noticed that someone had collected a whole lot of these stems and stuck them in a vase and was hanging items for sale off them. I would never have dreamt of doing that - but it looked very effective.

I am still intrigued by how people represent themselves through images online. My kids mocked the first photos that I uploaded of myself to MySpace for this purpose as being incredibly formal and old fashioned. In the end I got them to take heaps of photos and then choose the shot they thought was appropriate! NB. I CANNOT STAND the photos taken on your own digital camera where your grinning face is distorted because it is too close!!

podcasting finally

Well, more getting round to actually listening to podcasts the way they should be ie out there on the run.

Finally got together in one place at one time   -   a) the mp3 player b) batteries for it        c) iTunes d) the initiative to actually do something about it and e) my 14 year old patiently sitting next to me to encourage (NB. He doesn’t listen to podcasts himself but has a much more exploratory reaction to problems than I do!) So am now furiously browsing podcast lists and downloading all sorts of things, with the expectation that I will be getting my students to do this themselves in a couple of weeks. Is there a way of searching (eg on podcast alley) for podcasts that are recent? A lot of the links I followed the podcasts had evidently dried up several years earlier.

Am open to suggestions re good podcasts. To date I am convinced by podesl.com for my students.

And for me? I quite liked the BBC Front Row highlights and am trying out The Word Nerd. I guess that you need to listen quite a while before knowing whether this one does it for you. Do others have podcasts that they listen to on a regular basis? Surely we should be doing it for ourselves before telling our students to?

So now I just need to go out for a walk…

One of my favourite cartoons below… which doesn’t stop me from trying out making podcasts myself!

Week 2 thoughts

What are the benefits/constraints that these open environments may bring in your context? Without a doubt, the major benefit is that social media provide my students with a different voice. I always hark back to the first class with which I used blogs. A lovely Chinese girl, very shy and at intermediate level, told me (in writing in a questionnaire) that her blog ’is the first time I have used English to communicate’. It blew me away then, and still does! So the benefit is the communciation… Constraints? Well, the technologically literate students have a distinct advantage.

Are you promoting open participatory skills in ELT? How?  I commented on someone’s blog about the institutional imperative to use our LMS (Blackboard and which no doubt we pay megabucks for) who have just introduced built-in blogs, wikis and podcasts. There are limits to what they can do, but they would provide a safe environment for my students rather than an open one. So I guess the question is who do I want to participate with my learners, and what value do I place on the openness?

You see, this is very much a reflection - and lacks connection !

Join the dots…

‘Blogging is all about connecting the dots (referencing, linking and aggregating).’

I like this quote from the week 2 instructions. And it’s timely for me as I tend to use my blog for my own musings and forget that it is about connecting. Otherwise I might as well be writing in my diary. I’m always pleasantly surprised when someone comments to find that I do have an audience occasionally! So thanks for the reminder : )

Social media

 Social media - involves people communicating. [Am tempted to add 'with a purpose' but that might exclude Twitter! Need someone to explain to me why Twitter is so 'cool'! I just don't get it : ) Age on display, perhaps! ]

What have I used before?

Blogs - very successfully. Students seem to feel ‘empowered’ when they discover their own voices in this way.

Wikis - not used as much, but beginning to think hard about collaborative potential for students.

Podcasting - this year’s goal. To stop playing round myself and get students on to it.

All of the above I feel positive about, and hope that my students can get as excited as me!

Blast from the past - well, last year…

I just browsed back to my January entries in 2007. Wow - I did learn a lot back then, and much of it I think now that I ’just know’ it. So the learning curve aspect is quickly forgotten and frustration with getting my head round new skills disappears into the dim dark past.

Have joined the requisite communities/sites for this year and am intrigued to find that I joined a number of them last year as well and then never used them (always telling when your user name is not accepted!) Community Walk looks FUN. Whether it is my machine or my skills or the site itself has improved since last time, I’m not sure, but can definitely see potential for using this with my classes.

One of the reasons I like doing these workshops is the ’playing’ aspect. What I wrote about in January as ‘messing about online’. I look forward to playing more with some of these communities.  

Social Media EVO 08

Yahoo - we’re off again! Looking back over the last year I realise how much I learnt with the Open Web Publishing sessions EVO 07 and look forward to being part of this group again in 08. I do like the new title Social Media, and look forward to more of my personal learning curve…