Workshops in Online Tutoring, Mahdia, Tunisia

Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal!

2004-07-31T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone!

I tried posting the message below on July 29, but it didn't work. In the meantime, Vance helped me out. I hope it works this time and that you will still see it before the end of your workshop. Here it is:

I am Teresa Almeida d'Eca, a Webhead in Action.I've been following your work through Vance's portal page and two blogs. And I see that you're enjoying it. No wonder! I did too when I joined the 8-week online workshop he gave in 2002! In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we stayed together and created this fantastic online community of practice (CoP).

Take a look at some of our work at
http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/webheads/wia-index.htm

I maintain this Index page. If you click "Courses, classes..." and look for 'Workshops', you will see that I have already included the pages for your workshops. BTW, I liked going through the 49 photos. You're all working a lot!

I hope you will join the Webheads in Action. I'm sure you will feel 'welcome' and will enjoy the type of collaborative construction of knowledge we are always involved in. There are so many fascinating and exciting activities to do! :-)

Best,

Teresa

here's the ofoto link opened in a new browser window

2004-07-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

CLick here to open the photo below in a new browser window

let's see if we can link to a url from ofoto

2004-07-29T04:03:00.000-07:00

This illustrates why we need to link to images at stable urls such as those you create when you upload your photos to Tripod. The image link here is directly to a picture at Ofoto. To get the link we opened the photo at Ofoto and right clicked on it, copying its url from 'properties'. The first time we viewed the blog the link worked and the picture displayed. Now all I see is a broken link. This is why you need to upload your photos to your own web space and link to their more stable urls.

All about Blogs and Wikis

2004-07-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Lamia, for your posting. The following link is for Mukhtar

http://necc.edweblogs.org/2004/archives/000130.php

Assalamualaykum

2004-07-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

Happy to learn new dimensions.

new photo

2004-07-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Group 2 Week 2 sessions

2004-07-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning talking about rationale for the course and examining my teacher resources. While I was talking some students were busy creating blogs:

Mokhtar Ounis -
http://mokhtarounis.blogspot.com
http://mokhtarounis.buzznet.com

Tunisian teacher presentations

2004-07-26T03:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday July 26 we are being treated to a series of presentations by Tunisian teachers reporting on their projects. I decided to 'blog' my notes (record my notes in my WebLog).

Abdulmalek presents Spread Your Pens
http://www.edunet.tn.tnelt/projects/perso_site ...

Writing stories and writing poems
Story completion _ Read the beginning of a story, select a thread, write its completion

Some 50 or 60 students uploaded stories linkable from a page, with illustrations provided by the students

A second project had students email poetry in text with request for associated image, posted at young poet's corner, certificates awarded at the end

Dalel showed Mourad's ELT corner
http://www.edunet.tn/tnelt/projects/mourad/exerc.htm

A beginner website with Hot Potatoes crosswords, quizzes, etc
Also has set of old tests, pictures of clipart by themes, like animals
favorite links

and Primary School English Clubs
http://www.edunet.tn/chabakati/EspEns/...

http://www.edunet.tn.tnelt/projects/perso_site/tataouine/michleoui/index.htm
Flash and course builder developed site
writing, grammar, flash zone, Welcome to english Lessons, update notices done with flash announcement

http://www.edunet.tn/depinteg/projectstic/secondaire/projects/anglais/pro_index ...

ONline magazines
Besma's at http://www.edunet.tn/tnelt/mags/besma/index1.htm
Dalel's ?? http://www.edunet.tn/tnelt/mags/first_net ...

at http://www.edunet.tn/tnelt/ Resources / ICT experiences
Olfa Bougacha, Talking about Music
listening activities, listen to song and do exercises (gap filling with Lean on Me) Hot Pot integrated with HTML and media play
Discussion of this activity
teacher chose popular song so difficult lyrics didn't matter
teacher moved around the room making sure that all students on task
integration of skills, assisted by computing teacher (two teachers, one with computer skills, one concerned with content)

AbdulMalek showed
http://www.edunet.tn/tnelt/ict_exper/bac/test1.htm

Lamia is a novice with ITC having had only one training course in Malaysia
She presented pictures depicting stage of life, problems with drugs, loneliness, etc (aimed at teenagers)
Students choose titles for the pictures (vocabulary like stress, depression, self esteem, personality traits) Say sentences about yourself (students express themselves straightforwardly, to the point)
uses http://www.mgprojekte.mgjever.de/1circle/7.html

thank you

2004-07-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

I have really enjoyed working ith this group of difficult and demanding and challenging Tunisian students. I think we reached a point where we were seeing eye to eye and intellect to intellect.

Last minute items:

To do screen captures you press Im écran or print screen; then
start / programs /accessories / paint
and paste to paint
you then must manipulate the image to make it smaller

make note of project Guttenberg
http://www.gutenberg.net/

Please send me addresses of your buzznet blogs

http://hraddaoui.buzznet.com

http://souhir.buzznet.com

Online Survey Tools

2004-07-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

A survey was created at Yahoo Groups for this course. Members of Yahoo Groups can create surveys. Ours is here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahdia_2004/surveys?id=1320918

One disadvantage of YGroup surveys is you only can ask one question and you can only poll your group members. If you want to create more comprehensive surveys you can try:

Survey Monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com
Survey Share: http://www.surveyshare.com

Concordance based gap fills

2004-07-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

Blogs are very good for getting your thoughts up for a class to see quickly. It's better than using chalkboard because later you can copy your notes elsewhere on your computer.

Today SATURDAY I'd like to look at Concordancing as tutorial feedback. I have a page on Text Analysis (cached at Google)

The concordance program:
http://www.edict.com.hk/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm

Here,
- set Search String equal to / starts with / ends with / or contains
- Select corpus
- Sort on the words either to the left or to the right

LESSON FOR TODAY
Is to create a gap fill excercise where sets of blanks must be filled in by the students. I have an article describing this technique here:

http://lightning.prohosting.com/~vstevens/papers/1991_johns_king/vocabex91.htm

(1) First we need a short list of problem vocabulary; for example
in time
on time
fill in
fill out

(2) Run concordances on the words in question

FIRST - select an appropriate corpus

When working with concordances as with any computer-based activity you plan to use with students, it is important to preview the activity first. I have done this and determined that the corpus from The Times newspaper TimesFeb95 has good examples of the items I am looking for.

SECOND - sort left or right as needed

If comparing IN TIME with ON TIME sort left.
If comparing FILL IN with FILL OUT sort right.

THIRD - decide whether to set Search String equal to / starts with / ends with / or contains

For IN TIME and ON TIME set Search String equal to
For FILL IN and FILL OUT set Search String to starts with
This way you include FILLS, FILLING etc.

(3) Select 3 or 4 descriptive contexts for each gap

(4) Create your exercise

welcome to my blog

2004-07-23T02:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your message. This is one way for us to interact online. However this way is very limited. Postings tend to appear here without much organization and will often go unread. A better way to interact I think is through the YahooGroups sites; for example http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahdia_2004

my first invitation to the blog

2004-07-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the invitation.Glad to receive it. Hope will be a good member.

Honda

I've opened a Buzznet Blog

2004-07-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

Buzznet let's you upload photos to your posts. I started a buzznet blog at
http://mahdi2004.buzznet.com.

I can post to Buzznet by addressing an email to mahdi2004.tunisia@buzznet.com. The subject of the email becomes the title of the post and the body becomes the blog entry. Make sure you attach a photograph (jpg), because Buzznet is all about your photos.

Wednesday - photos online

2004-07-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

I am using http:www.ofoto.com to take photos from my computer and put them on the Internet. I can 'share' my photo albums. To do this ...

- I share my albums with my OWN email address
- I REMOVE the check box requiring my friends to sign in
- I send the URL I receive to others or post the URL in my blogs and web pages

The URL for our photos is:
http://tinyurl.com/4zob7

Wednesday - decorating our blogs

2004-07-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Some good background on blogging:
Barbara Dieu has written a great little webooklet on Blogging and Presence Online (Feb 2004). It's a must-read for teachers both novice and those wanting to know more about the potential of blogs and how they can enhance language learning:
http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/blog04/

How to start a blog at Blogger:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/blogger_tutorial.htm

How to insert links and pictures in the template:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/pi/computing2/blogwork/blog_template.htm

All you need to know about HTML
Vance's HTML Tutorial on Inserting Images into web pages
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/pi/very_basics/example06.htm

Vance's HTML Tutorial on creating hyperlinks:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/pi/very_basics/example08.htm

Software for meeting on online
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/software.htm

No Java? Get it here:
http://java.sun.com/getjava/index.html

Tuesday - Yahoo Groups

2004-07-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

We started a Yahoo Group today. Everyone in the English Network sessions should enroll in the group and add a bookmark to the Our Blogs folder under Links.

To enroll, if you are a Yahoo member, simply visit the website, click Join this Group, and enter your Yahoo name and ID. Let Yahoo use your default profile and email address, and decide whether to receive emails each time someone posts to the group, receive a bundle of emails each day (a digest), or get no mail delivered but still be able to read messages whenever you like on the website.

Here is the YahooGroup site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahdia_2004
Its Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/5g7pb

You can also subscribe by email:
mahdia_2004-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Once you've suscribed send a message to introduce yourself and check the web site for earlier messages. Here's the address to post:
mahdia_2004@yahoogroups.com

Finally, once you can access the website as a member, add a link to your blog by adding a bookmark to the Our Blogs folder under Links. Here are the steps:

- Log onto the website
- Click on Links in the column at left
- Browse to the 'Our Blogs' folder
- Enter your blog address. It should look like:
http://yoururlhere.blogspot.com
- use Edit to correct any errors

Above all, have FUN

Vance

Tuesday - Resources for Online Tutors

2004-07-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have created an extensive set of tutor resource materials at my ESL_Home website. I discovered yesterday that almost half my resources project, the part stored at Geocities, is blocked in Tunisia (as it is also in China). However I also discovered a workaround.

I found that many of my pages are cached at Google. So if you type in Vance Stevens and enough other words on one of my pages for a Google search to hit on it, then you can pull up the page from the cached version at Google.

For example, if you are interested in my ESL_Home portal, just type that into a Google search along with the words Vance Stevens. Here is the result (I've made it a tiny URL:

http://tinyurl.com/496yc

Here are more:

- my set of links to teacher-made portal sites, where teachers have made links to resources to help them teach English:
http://tinyurl.com/47n4q

- my set of links to teacher-made grammar help sites:
http://tinyurl.com/6rdjv

- Vance's Virtual Resource Center
click here

feedback from Martha Clark Cummings

2004-07-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts:

1) Last year, the teachers really emphasized their need to have clear pedagogical uses for the technology they were learning about. They saw my job not as a provider of technology but as a provider of pedagogical applications. I can't stress that enough. But it looks like you have already thought of that.

2) Many of the teachers were in situations where there was only one computer in the school where they were working. They really would have liked to have lessons they could do with that one computer. There are some, as I'm sure you know, in Warschauer's book. You could just keep that in the back of your mind. I know the organizers say that they are being trained to be teacher trainers, but the question is, in how many years?

3) Often, links to servers in the States didn't work. You might need to have a backup plan for when the links don't work. Also, get there early to make sure that the computers really are connected to the Internet. Will they have microphones and webcams for you to use? Sorry. I'm sure you've taught in plenty of situations where nothing worked and know exactly how to deal with that problem too.

4) Correction: Ingrid Bowman was also a trainer last year and although we used nicenet as a platform we did a lot more than work with nicenet! Did they not give you the class keys? The key for my class for the second week was 277909T86, if you'd like to have a look at it although I will understand perfectly if you don't have time! Here are the links from Ingrid's class, just to give you a sense of what she covered. (Have you been in touch with her? She was in Tunisia for a year.)

Writing and the Internet

Purdue's Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Univ of Oregon
Class projects
TOPICS Online Magazine
This online students magazine has a TEACHERS CORNER where you can read about other projects teachers have tried in class.
broken link

Email for English teaching
Keypal information http://www.wfi.fr/volterre/keypals.html
Epals Exchange http://www.epals.com/
Yahoo free mail http://www.yahoo.com/
Dave's ESL Cafe http://www.eslcafe.com/

Information about smoking
Science and Tobacco http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/smoke-pr.html
Americans for non-smokers rights http://www.no-smoke.org/
United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Group http://www.smokersclub.com/newsltr.htmv

Ingrid's web site
Learn English http://www.hexabyte.tn/learnenglish/
Links for the Mahdia Summer Institute are on this site that I created for Tunisia.

Lesson Planning
Ask Eric, now Educator's Reference Desk http://www.eduref.org/
Listening & Pronunciation Resources
BBC Listening Resources http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/

Randall's Listening Lab
http://www.esl-lab.com/

Practice your English
Fawzi's Englishwebsite
http://www.evt.edunet.tn/depinteg/projetstic/secondaire/projets/anglais/intasks/index.htm

Publisher Sites
Longman http://www.longman.com/

Theory of C.A.L.L.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction
Great article by Mark Warschauer explaining how C.A.L.L. got started and how it has expanded into today's classrooms.
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/call.html

Monday

2004-07-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

Be an Active and Participative Instructor
By Jennifer Hofmann
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/dec2003/hofmann.htm

Usable technology
it is important that network administrators understand

what you and your students are trying to accomplish and

make it easy for you to do that

Opportunities to collaborate and interact
interaction is very important I think

Participant Blogs

2004-07-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Vance's Portal for these sessions: http://tinyurl.com/6ue95

Fawzi: http://dridi.blogspot.com

Henda:http://hendabenslama.blogspot.com

Henda and Tahar: http://umaima.blogspot.com

Habib: http://mhraddaoui.blogspot.com

Nadia and Besma: http://besmamaraoui.blogspot.com

Radhia: http://elbezradhia.blogspot.com

Adel and Mongi: http://mondel.blogspot.com

Moncef: http://holidaynews.blogspot.com

Nasser: http://fadhlawi1.blogspot.com