| Who? |
When? |
What? |
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26 Jan 2002 |
Some of us are beginning to find each other online. I
met Shun in Tokyo at Yahoo today and found out that he puts together his own
computers from component parts. I met Dafne in Spain in Yahoo Messenger and
introduced her to Yaodong in Liuzhou China and we explored the concept of
MOOing through Tapped In, where we learned a bit about robots characteristic of
MOOs (which make good virtual pets). Tomorrow the Writing for Webheads class
meets at Tapped In, http://www.tappedin.org, and you are welcome
to join us if you wish, noon GMT (Sunday). If you have any interesting
encounters when meeting other Webheads in Action, report them to the list. Find
out where to meet other Webheads in Action here: http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/evonline2002/schedule.htm
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~vstevens/papers/evonline2002/schedule.htm |
 |
28 Jan 2002 |
I just wanted to share some ideas from last days
session in yahoo messenger as was planned in the sessions schedule: First, I
found some available online friends that I invited to join the session. They
were: - Aiden - Maria - Lena - Yanos - Dafne and myself. Before I start, I want
to draw your attention to one thing which is that I consider each new
experience a FUN and I like to look at the good sides of it. That is to say
that in spite of the fact that the session was short in general but very
effective and fruitful to me. I want to thank all those who could make and look
for others to join us. I really was tense in starting this session. I joined
many differnt chat saession befores but not as a coordinator of a session
anyhow. So, this experience was great for me. I saved the session as a text
where I could read it again. This is something I never did before. I learned
that a ccordinator of a session like that may try to prepare an agenda in
adavance. You may think of somethink similar in your sessions. I also knew some
nice people in there and finally, I had self confidence in which it may help me
in future sessions or projects. Sincerly, Ismail
Fayed |
 |
29 Jan 2002 |
Hi All, Today I decided to try new roads. I went to
Vance's Homestead site and
left a message in his guest book because there was nobody around. Later, I
tried the Wimba voice
discussion board and I heard all the messages filed there including DanB's
and Gary`s ideas for the Language Exchange. But when I tried to record my
message, it appeared on the screen but I could not listen to me when I tried to
play it. After a couple of trials I gave up. If you happen to go there, please
let me know if you can listen to it. After that frustration, I visited
the Group
Board and spent some time drawing silly animals and stick figures. I would
love some instructions on how to use this board. Whenever I tried erasing one
part of the drawing the whole thing kept disappearing. But it was fun. Susanne
how did you create your beautiful portrait? Finally, I installed
Real Player and spent the whole afternoon
listening to rock music from American radio stations while scanning pictures of
Modernist buildings from Valencia (Spain). This is a report on my cybertour.
Dafne |
 |
31 Jan 2002 |
yesterday I have a voice chat with a friend of mine
from Japan through Yahoo! messenger. We sent several picture files and text
files to each other. When we received the files, we were very excited by the
fact that it had worked.
I want to tell you, that I participated in
Tapped in Eurolanguage Forum. My participation was more silent, than active,
but it was very interesting to see some webpages, the more experienced teachers
shared with each other. The theme of the Forum or the Session was Foodquest.
Barbara Dueu from Brazil did it and showed it to everybody. You know, I was
very impressed. I think webquests are very functional. There was introduction
part, where students should make their choice who they are: chefs, waiters or
some other employees of the restaurant Copacabana. The was a Task part(or a
weabhead), then Discussion part( I supposed that it should be some Forum also),
and Credits part. I like the idea that every person in the team does his own
job. He can show his ability to fulfil the task and makes his input in the
project. I also feel, that different references and Ensyclopedias are very
useful, but activities where students can work together or exchange the
opinions and information and teach each other are more important. This is only
my opinion, of course.
I noticed that the conversation was spontanious,
but the leader PhilB directed conversation, when it was going too much
spontanious. It seems to me that e-moderator's function (one of the functions)
is to help the others to be on track. From this point of veiw, some agenda
would be helpful, at least some general ideas. Best regards
Lena. |
 |
31 Jan 2002 |
I have just left Tapped In. It was great! I met up
with ShunI and we chatted in the cafe. Then we joined KeikoS and PhilB. We went
to a classroom for some quiet and privacy..(it said that the scent of 30 sweaty
students permeated the air, but I didn't think it was too bad!) We chatted
about our various interests. Phil showed us an interesting website that he's
involved with. We toured around that. Then wrapped up our visit with drinks! It
was a very pleasant, informative and interesting time! I think that this is the
first of many visits to the friends and colleagues at Tapped In! My initial
impression is good.... I hope to meet more of you there! I noticed that the
others had icons by their names, so my next task will be to attach one to my
own name... so by the time I meet you all there, I hope I will have succeeded
in this task! |
 |
1 Feb 2002 |
Regarding last Sunday's TI session, besides being a
complete newbie to TI, I think my basic problem was not being a member. I am
now. I went back there last Tuesday for the Eurolanguage session. It was great
and PhilB and DeeB gave us access to fabulous materials they and their students
are creating. I sometimes got lost, or thought I was lost -- effects of totally
new technological environments to me. But it's great to explore them with other
newbie colleagues while having veterans patiently guiding us along the
way.
Hi, Vance and all other cyberfriends! Last night I decided to have
my first go at Yahoo Messenger and chatted with Dafne Chavez for about an hour.
It seemed quite simple, but I know I still have several potentials of this tool
to explore. Anyway, we talked about ourselves, where we live (we came to the
conclusion we're almost nextdoor neighbors! Lisbon, Portugal and Valencia,
Spain), what we do/are doing, why we are in this group, how all these synch
comm tools are so new to us, but how much we've already learned, etc.
Everything came naturally, which was great and very pleasant. If I compare
Sunday and Tuesday's TappedIn sessions to last night's session, it seems to me
that when there are only a few people involved (btw, Janos made a quick
appearance), it is easy to keep the conversation going without a preset topic.
However, with a larger group, I guess a topic helps 'keep things on track', not
get too muddled up. |
|
31 Jan 2002 |
I was prepared to chat at MSN and Yahoo. Technology
had its word: my built-in mic decided to be disconnected, so we limited
ourselves to tex chat. Instead of having a conference with a group, I had four
different one-on-one chats because people showed up at different moments. I was
visited first by Nelba from Argentina, she has just incorporated to group, so I
tried to fill her in as much as I could (I had met her in November in an online
course that we both attended). Then, Pete, from Greece, dropped by and I
learned, among other things, that he lived in Spain for a time.Later, Maria
Irene, from Venezuela, showed up and we shared our experiences in the course (I
have known M.I for many years). Last, but not least, I noticed that Chris, from
Barcelona, Spain, had added me to her Yahoo list, so I went to meet him. We
said hello and good night to each other because it was almost midnight in
Spain, with the promise for future chats. My reflections:
-Agendas are not
so important in our chats. As we talk about each other and what brought us
here, the topics come spontaneously.
-It is importat to keep the record of
the conversations because going back to those notes we can check on links
shared, on the topics that interest people more, etc.
-I met Ismail a week
ago, in a chat and we have been chatting spontaneously. I n these chats we have
reflected about these sessions: members interaction, the role of the group
coordinator, what we have learned about establishing online communities, and so
forth.
-Through Vance (in a chat) I met Yaodong, a Chinese teacher who
invited me to visit his virtual office in a MOO environment like Tapped In,
where I had the opportunity to talk to a bot (first time in my life) that kept
complaining because Don and I were LOL at him.
-All of these are learning
experiences (for a newbie like me) that I would have missed if I had not
participated in the chats offered (including chaos navigation and
multitasking).
That's all for now, I am having another chat today from
20:00 to 22:00 (GMT) at Yahoo (dygonza) or MSN(dygonza@hotmail.com) you are all
invited. see U all, Dafne |
| 1 Feb 2002 |
Hi there everybody, Last night I had the opportunity
to hold a Yahoo conference with Teresa, from Portugal, and Janos, from Hungary.
We didn´t follow any preestablished agenda but we talked about our jobs
and about our experiences in CALL. By the way, we all agreed that being in this
group has been a very rewarding and enriching experience. Both, Teresa and
Janos have great personal webpages: Janos':
http://www.geocities.com/bjohnnyus
Teresa's: http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca
|
 |
5 Feb 2002 |
Vance, Maybe we can put this information and
invitation under the virtual fieldtrip partition of thie ever growing webheads
homepage hyper system? This Sunday after the ordinary TI session, we had a
discussion about freeware for course development because Nigel asked for
substitutes to BB (BlackBoard). Even If I know we already have lots and lots of
tracks to explore in this 8 week class, I wanted to present you some day to the
VirtualU Open Course software, recently having set the code free as open source
for developers. Anyone can arrange a free session and get some facilitating and
announcement support, and I dare say it works faster and smoother than BB, also
because they recently developed an offline reader for users with slow or
expensive connections! Honestly I like the Virtual U much better than BB, even
if it still have some things that could be working better. You need to install
no extra software, it is browser based. Apart from some research or study
related SIG (Special Interest groups) and the free and open seminars held in
GEN, I am not aware of the availability for schools and universities You can
learn more about how the Global Educators' Network (GEN) using VirtualU and
sometimes also tapped In to support free online seminars, and for those who
like to know more please meet the facilitator of GEN, Sylvia Currie from Simon
Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada (and myself) in our Open HOuse
session in Tapped In this very Thursday February 7, at 6 pm GMT Feel free to
ask me for more information, go to the registration site
http://vu.cs.sfu.ca/vu/tlnce/PublicReg
(please be very patient, the long list of past and recent seminars decriptions
is getting long and slow to load) and in case you like this, and get a free
membership and password mailed to you! |
|
6 Feb 2002 |
While I was waiting for webheads to show up for our
chat session, Yaodong, from China, reminded me (via chat) of Heinle
Videoconference which had just started. I logged in and both, the image and the
sound were excellent. The topic was "Multilevel Language Courses". Six
professors were sharing their experience in Spanish and French courses. They
talked about evaluation, entrance level standardized tests and class
activities. They also used prerecorded videos and Power Point presentations to
illustrate their talk. It was great! This is my first videoconference from my
computer. But the best was that Yaodong and I were chatting about the topics
discussed. We even sent questions and they were read and answered by the
panelists. I would have loved to record the conference but I did not know how.
Is it possible? Let me know. btw, Nigel, they all agreed that chats allow for
the negotiation of meaning, therefore they consider it a good tool for language
learning. They agreed with Shun in the sense that those students who seem very
shy in class are more responsive when chatting. At the end, they thanked
Yaodong and I for our participation :-)) I think we were the only people from
outside the US to send questions. Usually, they keep the videoconferences on
line. |
 |
May 30, 2002 |
Aiden records her cybertours in imaginative web
pages. Check this one out: "Here's to the Bat! click here to view
http://www.geocities.com/aidenyeh/vance_the_bat.html" |
 |
2 June 2002 |
Hi all, yesterday evening I was a virtual guest in
Keiko's house in New Mexico! Carrying around her wireless DSL connected
"airport" receiving laptop and webcam, she was able to show me everything in
detail, kitchen and garage included. Fortunately, the quality of webcams is not
so sharp that I was able to have a peek at all the dust the virtual video
hostess was assuring me would be there, but the very best thing was to speak to
her dog, an elderly looking black labrador retriever, having his own bedroom in
the big house! Keiko's husband was waving hello to me, too. We used iVisit, and
thanks to Keiko's fine step by step instruction, I managed to find my way. My
voice went thorugh well, although I am a webcamless person, for the time being,
because the computer dealer refunded the price as I complained about the lousy
quality. But in a while, I promise I will get another, of a better quality and
more stable construction. I am going to meet those who would to join the
traditional Webheads Sunday class in Tapped In in a few minutes, but also
having a coffee break with hubby who is a World Championship soccer fan (or
football, as we call it), watching tv from Korea and Japan all the time for the
next month or so. Did you know that Denmark did win the first match yesterday
against Uruguay, 2-1, Thomasson scoring both goals? |
 |
June 4, 2002 |
After meeting participants at a workshop Michael was
giving, Vance wrote: a pleasure to have met your group
Michael replied:
The feeling was mutual I assure you. One woman was spellbound. She had tears in
her eyes at the immediacy of the experience! It's amazing when you demo this
stuff to people who've never communicated by voice on the Net. They simply
cannot believe it! Thanks as ever Vance. |
 |
July 17, 2002 |
Webheads in Action participants present an online
cooking school as part of the Tapped In Summer Carnival 2002 at
http://www.tappedin.org/info/sc2002.html
and http://www.tappedin.org/info/sc/sc02.html.
The following Webheads prepared websites geared to showing how they prepare
their favorite dishes:
Apropos to empanadas, Janos offered a site on "the unearthy
Hungarian pancake" at
http://home.golden.net/~joyjani/entries.htm#HORTOBAGY,
and Dafne found a site on the Venezuelan arepa having "a recipe close to the
original": http://www.rice.edu/projects/topics/edition7/arepas.htm
For more info on paella, JohnLi pointed us to
http://www.lapaella.net/. Also, Susanne
wants us to try out these recipes for ablongous pie and crumbobblious cutlets
http://edwardlear.tripod.com/ns/cookery.html
Wait,
there's more: Susanne has uploaded "Cooking in English with the Webheads: An
international collection of recipes" to the Webheads in Action site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/files/Cooking%20in%20English%20with%20the%20Webheads
|
|
31 Jul 2002 |
Teresa mailed me some days ago to tell me about what a good
Sunday chat I had missed. So I felt happy when Vance announced that the
relevant log was up on our homepage. By the way, I appreciate the quick way
they sessions have been resumed, with a list of active participants.
Once more, I feel the pleasure of reading a chatlog from a
session where I was myself behindered to participate, like this last Sunday.
Again, I appreciate the remarkable mix of informal and fun social interplay and
the more "serious" professional references to our ongoing work with peer
support and knowledge building - the more I study this phenomenon, the better I
understand how it has deep roots in our previous timetaking making online
friendship and collegiality. This logged transcript is a great tool for
thinking; as I read, I make some innner remarks, some of these I would
certainly have shared with you, in case I had been there with you?
The topic that I was especially interested in, was of course,
Dafne's report from her online classes in EFL on Valencian architecture,
created as a natural follow on our WIA seminar, and the discussions concerning
the new community tool, CommunityZero (or CZ), that I've also played a little
with now - and the questions about GEN. It was so interesting to see the
surprise welcoming of the long absent Nigel (member of the late team BB) , who
was a little intrigued because he had no idea what was the previous action - a
projection of the GEN intro URL. There was a natural return to our previous
explorations of Blackboard (BB) and other courseware and community tools, and
then, someone asked if we still had the Special Interest group we created in
Global Educators' Network, the Webheads SIG. Yes, we do, although it has been
quite inactive for some time, mostly due to my own lack of ability to juggle
with many balls, I am afraid. It is open for registered GEN members. And , the
free offline Course Reader in question is a newly released Open Source tool
that can be used in connection with VirtualU, as well as Blackboard or WebCT
courseware, for use at home with no connection to internet, and places where
the login time is expensive. Some of the GEN people have been deeply involved
in the Course reader programming and design, and the community has been
beta-testing and discussing it in GEN seminars.
GEN is created in the asynchronous conferencing part of the
classic learning environment, or courseware called VirtualU, (VU) Sylvia Currie
is one brilliant GEN expert, developer and facilitator - and she is very
interested in new ideas for online seminar topics. She and I are hosting a
monthly session in Tapped IN - we decided to do this, mostly because the synch
chat tool in VU is not really functional. Someone referred to me as the GEN
"expert" which is far too flattering , as I myself still has many questions
concerning the uses and implementations of VU. But as a devoted GEN community
member, I did introduce our Webheads In Action community to the GEN community,
because I wanted to point your attention to the interesting free seminars about
online learning, teaching and facilitating as seen from many aspects, and
initated by educators and researchers in the field.
You might find some clues in the recent paper I published (with
Nini Ebeltoft), there was a description of both Tapped In and GEN, seen from
the aspect of "Cooperative Cultures in Sociotechnical Communities"
http://home19.inet.tele.dk/susnyrop/helpful.html
|
|
Aug 21 and 22, 2002 |
Webheads assisted Michael Coghlin with his conference
session on Cross Cultural Communication Online at an online conference running
out of Australia from August 19th - 30th.
Michael's site created for the
event - http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/ccc/pres.htm
Rita's
reaction was typical of the feedback received: "I also feel I need to thank
Michael publicly for having given us the chance to live this memorable event,
sharing and enjoying so many "situations" that generously added to our
knowledge and professional development as well as to our experience;
unpredictable, life-like "situations" which allowed us to make new valuable
human contacts that otherwise would have not been possible. I'm more than
thankful, Michael, and congratulations on your effort and on your
success." |
|
Sept. 1, 2002 |
During the Virtual Australian Networking
2002 all online conference, I was very active and engaged, as I discovered
a wealth of inspiring activities emerging among the active part of the about
2700 participants (many were readers only, and some decided to 'delurk* and
write about their experienses, ask questions or join the incredible
storytelling collaboratives - in the asynchronous discussion threads, often
connected to a workshop, a virtual fieldtrip or a chat session.
Our
Cross Cultural
Communications seminar where Michael Coghlan had expected a chaotic amount
of cats to herd for the chat, but finally turned out to be a Webheads dominated
event with some very interested guests. One reason might be that other
interesting chat sessions were scheduled at the same time, but in several of
the 14 chat sessions I was part of, I saw a low rate of participation, and I
often encountered an overall skepticism towards the true value of chats
As the chat facility in the WebCrossing environment is not too
stable, it happens often that you lose sight of your chat window and I lost my
connection - then it is good to read the recorded chatlog, I think we got into
some important aspects of the cross cultural aspects of our communication. The
async CCC discussion with some of the other conference participants involved
difficult but important questions of tolerance.
What really gave me, personally, a kick forwards, was the
Weblog workshop. A weblog, also called a B-log, or just blog, is a very easy
and instant way to document your own material on the web, for yourself, for a
closed group of readers, or in public. Many personal weblogs are mostly
commented links to special topics or news. In my blog, I was able to save the
messages I posted in the discussion groups, and add links back the the relevant
discusssion, very comfortable as the overall navigation interface in the NW2002
was not too easy - new discussions were emerging, some were for one or a few
days only, and the first week I had not much idea of who was interested in
what, or why.
Now, until the 30th september, the conference area is open to
participants, only, but after that time, it will be public and a great example
on the layered complexity of an all online conference with so many different
actors and interest groups,all the eay from local community hubs and one person
field trips, over outback schools and vocational traning centers, to software
and content developers, the Australian minitry of educatation, and, maybe the
most dymanic ones: the educators educating the educators!
So I'll click on my editor button to the Xanga Blogtool, copy
and paste this mail, and ask you to go there if you wish to know more about the
NW2002 http://www.xanga.com/susnyrop |
 |
Sept, 2002 |
My first time for both voice chat and using a webcam happened
one time last spring when I saw that Dafne was on YM. I was really surprised
that I could see her on her webcam when I didn't have one. Even more than that
we could have a conversation from opposite sides of the world, and it was FREE!
Yes, a phone conversation is usually clearer, but how much do we pay per minute
to call from the US to Spain? You also can't see the other person even in a
rather jerky image. I guess it goes back to a similar adage to "Beauty is in
the eye of the beholder." I was quite thrilled to be able to talk to someone so
far away. After that, I was able to virtually visit one
of Vance's sessions at TESOL last spring where he was broadcasting the
voice and webcam of the person speaking. Meanwhile I was sitting in my office
and getting ready to go to class. Since I was unable to attend TESOL last year,
that was another thrill.
Dafne writes, Feb 2003: " This is a surprise for a dear
webhead! Check it out! http://www.geocities.com/dygonza/webheads/chrisonwebcam.html"
|
|
Nov 27, 2002 |
This morning I had the pleasure to meet Aiden's
conversation Class from the university of Kaoshuing, Taiwan, They were
finishing a talk chat session with Michael from Australia about his lyrics,
then spent some time with me in Yahoo Messenge text chat - where I was happy to
see Aiden's new Bluetooth vebcam in action from the classroom. I believe some
of them were also able to see my webcam. Thanks to Aiden and her class for
welcoming me, even if our connection was not too stable. |
 |
12 Dec 2002 |
Hi Teresa, Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your
paper
on the benefits of using chat for language learning. I thought it was very
well written and really conveyed your enthusiasm for this medium. Although I am
very new to this area, your comments really expressed my own excitement about
the language learning possibilities of chat. Aside from participating in the
Tapped In weekly discussions I have also been reguarly attending the EFI
chatterbox chat site as a volunteer teacher. Chatterbox uses simultaneous text
and very good sound quality voice chat and also allows the attending teacher to
easily send students Web pages to share. Last night I had a particularly
rewarding session with a group of ESL learners, many of who are almost nightly
attenders and who have therefore developed a lovely sense of shared
community.The session revolved around different country maps which volunteers
used to give mini-presentations using voice chat on places and things of
interest in their countries. They also answered other participant's questions.
Everyone was very encouraging of each other's efforts and the interaction
between participants felt very authentic. Although it can be limiting that only
one person can speak at a time, the text chat really makes up for this by
allowing those who are not currently talking to give a running commentary on
what is being discussed. Those who lacked microphones were all actively
encouraged by others to get them so 'we can hear your voice". I really felt a
sense of mutual respect and an openness to learn from each other. I found it
very easy to take a back seat role and let the students do most of the
'talking'. My role was just to keep things moving, make the occasional
correction or clarification, to make sure that everyone was sent the web page
under discussion and knew what was being discussed. This is more difficult a
task than might first appear as new people are constantly dropping in and out
of the chatroom. One feature of chatterbox I find really useful for a beginner
like myself is how easy it is to send web pages to participants, all you have
to do is right click on their name and press send to. The right hand browser
window displaying the web page currently under discussion is always open in any
case so its not such a shock to newcomers when they are sent a page as it is
when you project a page through 'Tapped In'. I guess Yahoo has the same feature
although I haven't used it much yet. Another feature of chatterbox I really
enjoy is being able to have the simultaneous voice and text chat. This makes it
really easy to welcome and 'brief' newcomers without disrupting the flow of the
voice chat discussion. It also allows less confident learners to take a back
seat and just contribute through the text chat or to have quiet 'asides' with
others in the chatroom. Its also great from the teaching point of view because
it allows you to make smooth corrections and modelling alternative ways of
expressing ideas. I think what made last night really special for me last night
was how different students each took the 'expert's' role when sharing their
knowledge of their homelands. Although none of this stuff is probably new to
all you 'old hands' I'm still feeling that sense of wonderment about it all
taking place in real time even though we are all spread across all corners of
the globe. At one point, a young Polish lady was talking about her 'place' and
her dog started barking loudly in the background. This created a lot of amused
commentary from participants because it was such a homely sound and seemed like
it was coming from just around the corner! It really underlined for me the
feeling of participating in a 'borderless' community. Yes Teresa, I'm already
'hooked on' chat despite the fact that prior to a few weeks ago I had never
ever been into a chat room in my life . I'm really looking forward to next
years conference! |
|
12 Dec 2002 |
Hi, Sonja!
Thank you for such nice and enthusiastic comments. I'm glad
there are newcomers to this community who feel the same way many of us felt ten
months ago and still feel today - excited about all these state-of-the-art
forms of communication!
Your description is very interesting and lively. Do you mind if
I add it to a comments section to my paper? I think it would be an interesting
idea that just occurred to me.
I haven't tried Chatterbox yet, but from what you said I'm
really looking forward to try give it a go!
You seem to have a great group of interested and committed
students who "have developed a lovely sense of shared community". You are all
achieving something extremely important.
Your session last night is a very interesting idea/suggestion
to bear in mind. Are your students from very diverse places and communities?
And you really played the role of 'the guide on the side'.
Yes, hearing the voice is a fabulous experience. It says a lot
about a person, especially when we get to know someone a little better. It
reveals moods and if eople are feeling better/worse when they've been sick, for
example.
"Although none of this stuff is probably new to all you 'old
hands' I'm still feeling that sense of wonderment about it all taking place in
real time even though we are all spread across all corners of the globe."
Sonja, I still feel the same 'sense of wonderment', believe me! And I think
most of it comes from the fact that we are so far/spread out, but in fact so
close! No, that sense hasn't gone away with time, thank God!
Glad you've also become 'hooked' on chat through this fabulous
community. It doesn't take long, does it?
Hope Vance uploads your description of Chatterbox. It's great!
|
 |
13 Jan 2003 |
Our netmeeting was adventurous yes but really
interesting. Somehow my first efforts to contact Teresa failed and she later
had to go. Chris joined and downloaded everything but then hurried off to his
meeting. Emma and I tried to Netmeet but I think she had no audio installed so
we had problems there. Finally me and Yaodong had a great Netmeeting. I was
sending video to Yaodong and we both communicated via audio and text. The audio
wasn't great at times but was OK. (My best audio until now is from Paltalk).
Yaodong and I also tried the whiteboard but what was really great was the
desktop sharing. It was fascinating. Yaodong even showed me a powerpoint
presentation. Loved it! I definitely will be trying it again. Sophie |
|
30 Jan 2003 |
This is just a posting on the practical benefits of a
distributed community of practice. Maria has been having a problem with her
chat software. The other day we encountered on line and I helped her
troubleshoot the problem. She was not able to get her Yahoo voice or video to
work, so we tried it out. I could see her web cam fine, which is typical
firewall behavior. Firewalls don't usually stop you from broadcasting; they
just stop other people's packets from getting IN through the firewall. She was
on a DSL connection at home and seemingly had unfettered access to the
Internet. We suspected her antivirus software so she disabled it. Once the a/v
'firewall' was out of the picture, everything worked fine. I didn't have a web
cam handy but we tested with voice and were able to converse fine using Yahoo
Messenger. Coincidentally, Jane from Beijing (now in Nanning) happened along
and we had a three way conversation. |
 |
Feb 8, 2003 |
Daf reports: This is my web report on the new Wimba
chat Tool: Voice Direct
http://www.geocities.com/dygonza/webheads/directvoice.html
Buthaina Othman comments: "Hi michael, Thank you for the Wimba voice tool.I
went to wimba and managed to enter the room.It looks neat and easy to use.I
clicked the speak button and left some written messages there. I don't know if
the voice worked as the room was empty.I will try it again during tomorrow's
meeting." Here's the tool:
http://helium.wimba.com/beta1/jsp/manager/voicedirect/index.jsp?room=1040 |
 |
Feb 9, 2003 |
I've been doing some catching up today. After I learned about
Wimba,
I directly logged on, and BINGO, I found myself in Room 1040 right away with
Yoadong and Venny. While Venny was busy with his student on MSN, Yoadong taught
me how to use Wimba. We had voice chat and text chat in turns. The voice was
loud and clear. I have intented to copy our text chats but it didn't work.
Anyway, it was a very nice experience. And I would love to go there again.
I also started my journal at Xange. Actually, I would like to
try other weblogs before I publish my "journal" on "what I have learned from
EVonline courses."
To all of you, thanks for inspiring me so much and I feel so
intellectually powerful now. I hope soon my students can benefit from all these
learning experiences.
Hi Alice,
Wow! you made it! I have also used your comments
to document our Wimba exploration. Scroll down to the bottom of the page ;-)
http://www.geocities.com/dygonza/webheads/directvoice.htmlhttp://www.geocities.com/dygonza/webheads/directvoice.htmlhttp://www.geocities.com/dygonza/webheads/directvoice.html
hugs, Daf |
 |
Feb 12, 2003 |
To celebrate Buth's use of video, Elizabeth made a
little slide show of the video pictures on Buth's Webpage. Elizabeth reports:
"Sorry the quality is poor, as the shots were quite tiny, and I had to scale
them up. BTW, this is from Gifbuilder, a handy free utility for Mac." You can
access the file at the URL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/files/2003/week3-feb3-9/Buth_video_gif.html
or:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/files/2003/week3-feb3-9/buth.gif
|
 |
March, 2003 |
Sus held an intersting "Educational Chat" with my
students enrolled in the Remedial General English course # 090, last week.The
chat took place at the students' Groupboard on my home page, during the first
session in this semester.I think Sus is too brave to have tackled some critical
cultural topics with the girls! kindly go to
http://alothman-b.tripod.com/sus_chat_090.htm,
to view the chatlog and some drawings by sus and the students, which were done
while they were chatting: To view another page with photos of the female
students and some more of Sus's drawings , please go to:
http://alothman-b.tripod.com/chatlog_sus.htm.
Moreover, the first C-Lab session for my male Science students,was held last
Sunday. I brought my Webcam with me and took some photo shots of my students
and published two of them on the course main page. Please have a look:
http://alothman-b.tripod.com/content-efs161.html
|
|
14 Apr 2003 |
Just wanted to make a more public thank-you to two
very helpful Webheads who pitched in for me this past weekend: I was asked by
the Electronic Village people at California TESOL to do "something" for them--a
mini-presentation. When I got to Pasadena for the convention, nothing much had
been organized, so I suggested an impromptu chat. I then got online, wrote to
Dafne and a couple of other Webheads, and tried to persuade them to get on
board. Daf managed to find Sus on short notice, and so the three of us (Spain,
Denmark, California) chatted with four participants in the EV, first in Yahoo
Messenger, then in TI, than in Daf's office in TI2. I wish you could have seen
the surprised and delighted faces on the CA group as they worked in pairs--they
didn't type much, but they had a very eye-opening time. Only one had used chat
before, but that was only as a replacement for quick telephone calls to
colleagues in the same building! Veronica will, I hope, join the Webheads, as
she was really excited about the pedagogical possibilities that Daf and Sus
talked about. So thanks again, you guys--it is most appreciated, and definitely
in the WIA tradition of volunteering and helping each other out. What a great
Community! --Elizabeth |
|
April 13-16, 2003 |
I ended up in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia,
prompting Webheads to send a profusion of emails and greeting cards (the one at
right being the prize-winner!). Naturally I had my laptop with me and had it
hooked up to the Internet via the phone line in my room, where I almost
immediately received an instant message from a colleague from a university near
where I work in Abu Dhabi. During our chat I discovered that he had learned of
my hospitalization not through the local grapevine but through Webheads, of
which he is a member, which suggests that news travels faster through a
distributed community of practice than it does by word of mouth. Thanks
to all who sent greetings! - Vance |
 |
|
24 Apr 2003 |
Fernanda and I just tried the new Wimba url
http://cobalt.wimba.com/voicedirect/jsp/manager/voicedirect/index.jsp?room=1040
and everything worked fine. The login is friendlier. Take a look at and see
http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/webheads/sessions/24apr03-wbvd.htm |
|
30 Apr 2003 |
Today, we started our videochats with the students
from Universidad Simon Bolivar, in Caracas, Venezuela.
All materials were ready, and we were all eager, and to tell
you the truth, scared to death.
We met our students as soon as they got to their e-lab. After
all the presentations and getting used to the chat environment. Students left
us alone to watch the video and complete the HP exercises. Then, when they
finished with the task, they came back to chat with us. That's when we had some
organizational and technological problems to divide the students in groups and
get to different conference windows with the students. But finally we had our
two group chats. Students had to leave in a hurry because they had an exam, and
the e-lab is very far from their architectural premises.
The second group of students(2 hours later)were a little bit
regarding the use of chats, and it was a little bit more difficult to get them
into task. Finally, I left to another room with Sus and a group of students and
they participated and left happy with the activity, promising to meet me in
cyberspace if they need help. These are some of the comments they wrote in the
worksheet:
- "yeah, i already knew the answers, cuz i saw the video
before, because of the other questions, nice exercise"
- "i liked a lot this class and of course i enjoy it a lot"
- "Yeah!!!! Finally, i understood a video!!!!
For homework, they have to write some comments on the
discussion board, and some of them have already posted their comments there.
You can check them out here:
http://dafnegon.tripod.com/discussionboard.html
To read the whole unit:
http://dafnegon.tripod.com/videochat/videochat-unit.htm.
And do not forget to see the photo gallery!!
I really enjoy these activities, where the teacher does not
have the whole control of the situation. This afternoon, I remembered the time
when some other webheads and I gathered at tapped in for our first Sunday chat.
I will keep you posted about this unit.
Thanks Mike, Sus and Elizabeth!!!!!
Daf |
 |
30 Apr 2003 |
Michael adds: I was also nervous at the beginning
of the chat with students, and I had good reason to be: the organizational
problems were overwhelming for me, but we will chalk that up as good
experience, since there will be another session with these architecture
students (from the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas) in the near future
using a different video lesson.
For more details, and to see pictures of the students involved,
check out http://www.real-english.com/Activities/index.htm,
which contains most of Daf's links to all the files which have made this
activity a very complete one.
It was fantastic to get feedback directly from the horse's
mouth, as it were, since this was indeed the first direct feedback from actual
student users of REO that I have so far seen. |
|
15 Aug 2003 |
This message is dedicated to Michael to thank him for
the great voice chat sessions, he held, recently, at LT using Wimba chat room.I
have participated in two sessions and have learned more about using voice in
the language classroom.I will post more comments on Michael's sessions, later,
which were part of his participation in an online conference by Learning Scope,
in Australia.Thanks again Michael, appreciate your efforts and well done job
... <later --> I would like to inform you that I was invited by a
Learning Times member, Geoffrey, to see his conference room or vClass.The
meeting was great, and have created a web-page, summarizing my feedback or
comments on Geoff's room.To have a look, please go to the URL:
http://alothman-b.tripod.com/compued-geoff.htm.
Moreover, Geoff invited me to explore more features included in his
vClass/Conference room.We agreed to meet again today so that I can learn more
about his room and would definitely update the page and post it to the list for
you all to view. Regards, Buth |
|
September 6, 2004 |
Let me share a good exemplary story about how Wendy
wanted me to meet with another teacher colleague some weeks ago, so we opened a
conference in YM, and as Doris logged in, she had an invitation, as well. Doris
brought in one of her teacher colleagues from her recent workshop, also from
Maracaiobo - and Paula was bubbling with enthusiam because she had already had
experienced succes in using online components in her university classroom, just
after having followed the one week's workshop with Doris and some other
webheads. I can assure you this was a great motivation for everyone. After
having spent some time with Wendy and her friends, reviewing their suggested
blended learning EFL course design and showing how other webheads are using
blogs, YM and homepages, I did learn another lesson about sacffolding novices,
and for each episode like this one, I feel better prepared for teaching online
one way or another. Wendy, I know you find good inspiration by following our
mail conversation, looking at homepages and projects. Do not hesitate to ask
for an opinion, some good advice, or just sharing your own learning whenever
you feel like it. As you can see, Webheads are unfolding a broad fan of
different opportunities to jump in and be present, either as presenters of just
as supportive participants. And, I know for sure that for each of us that are
active and openly contributing, there are many more that are just reading along
and taking away what they can get. Which is fair enough. But the more we're
together, the happier! For example, this Sunday I think all in all 20 or more
people came in and joined us in
our
weekly Tapped In chat. This begin already at 12 noon GMT which is terribly
early for you West coast people, but most Sundays people come and go for
several hours; today I still saw some activity around 15 GMT when I closed my
connection down. And a richness of planned projects were discussed. Hopefully
the earlier tradition of sharing the chatlog will be taken up again: I could
post it in our Files folder. You can locate it on the left side menu when you
get to the homepage of evonline2002_webheads Yahoogroup. No more for now, the
rest was said in a quick YM chat with you just now :-) yours, Sus |
|
July 9, 2005 |
Rita Zeinstejer presented at the 11th National Congress of
Teachers and Students of English in Rosario on Saturday July 9, 2005, where "I
gave my pres on "The Blogging Impact on Language Learning". There were 800
people in all, and I had full house in my room (350 seats), of people totally
ignored the subject --when I asked who was familiar with it, only two raised
their hands, unbelievable! Needless to say, from the start to the end Webheads
were all with me, not only in my oral quotes and anecdotes shared, but also in
my thoughts. And in my gratefulness...;-)) First of all, as I didn't want to
speak about "the unknown", and as most unfortunately, I didn't have an internet
connection !!-- I showed several blogs of yours to give them a general idea of
what they are, which I had all downloaded on to a CD. I explained features as I
went through the show, pointing out different aims, formats and add-ons, which
gave colour and a sense of reality: bloggers were there. I managed to show only
some, unluckily, as I was pressed by time (I had only got an hour for the whole
pres), so I displayed Tere's, Bee's, one of Daf's stds', Sus´s Mystery
Guest blog and then Michael Coghlan's blog. My intention was showing different
approaches and genres, so I had also chosen some others from the web, to give a
wide sampling range. l also had in mind, when preparing the show, the
possibility of downloading Michael's charming voice (;-)) together with his
blog to allow the audience to get that "extra energy" voice conveys..., but
didn't manage to, not even with the help of my technician, who came home to
give me a hand. So I sent a message to Michael, who, no wonder! sent me a
brief, concise, moving greeting to the audience...., who melted at his so
personal voice...Imagine, 340 women together ! ( almost no male teachers of
English here, another Argentinian phenomenon). Then I showed a short ppt, very
briefly speaking about different types of blogs, and focused on educational
blogs, their characteristics and features, suggesting several practical ways in
which blogs can contribute to our daily teaching, developing and honing skills.
Needless to say --and THANKS, Sus! for your reminder this morn at TI--, this
has compensated the sore experience I had with my colleagues at school last
month...;-)) Many in the audience came up to me after the pres and thanked me
for having opened up their eyes to a new world... Btw, I was asked to do some
research on the possible uses of Corpora for LL, any ideas?? I have some urls,
which I need to investigate, but will take my time. Meanwhile, if you have
anything to recommend, I'll be more than grateful. A very warm hug to all of
you who have so unselfishly shared and shown me the way. Rita |
