I see now that I am connecting somewhat randomly in the course, therefore I feel isolated. I managed to disable the arrival of the Daily email summary which did not help either, I need to find out how to restore it.
Besides, I have not been able to post the RSS feed to my blog and this stormy week I have had long power cut offs.
I recovered the drafts of my posts but they do not seem to make sense anymore; I keep writing for myself. This will end up as a boring and long post for others to read. I guess this one will be posted with an earlier date. Today is September 12th.
It may have been for the best that I could not post here for a few days,to request a Gmail account had terrible consequences.
After reading Mike Bogle's post "Growing a Network" I realize that I have been doing reasonably well with the Webheads Community but that, besides BaeL, they are the only connection source I had until CCK08. I would like to connect with people who are taking the course for credit, I advanced a bit on that by asking in one of the live sessions. Lorraine Mockford picked up the flag and created a thread and I created a Survey that I hope help us to arrange live meetings when necessary.
This week I met new faces along with familiar ones. I received an emal from Elsa Martínez, she is also a Potosina uprooted from my beloved San Luis Potosí to Toluca. She has extensive experience on Distant Learning Education. I am delighted to have a Paisana as friend in Toluca!! We had a nice chat over the phone.
I also received a kind email from Steve Tuffill who came to read my blog before the last two entries were posted.
On the first and only email digest I received, I found a comment from my dear friend Nergiz Kern. She is a sweethearth! She's very generous, kind, caring and a certified Language teacher. I met her this year in the EVO Convention Courses and we hang every Friday in SL.
The other known faces I have seen in the course so far are: Vance, Bee, Nellie, Jose Antonio, Cris Costa (Adopted Mancunian), Teresa, Horacio, Cristina Costa, Carla, Hala, Natasa, Susan, Doris and Sasa.
Besides leaving a comment, I took screenshots of the interesting profiles I came across with and added to them part of the data they posted on their introductions and messages. I want to remember their objectives for the course and where are they from. The screenshots are here.
If you happen to be reading please stop. It's a long list of my new first connections.
The new faces I found and left a comment are so far:
Johan Potomus is interested in the tools we use, Tita Beaven is a lecturer in Spanish focused on Virtual Ethnography as research method, Jaime Caro is conducting a Web 2.0 program for teachers in Colombia, Juan José Calderón is member of the Sevilla University and editor of an e-learning blog, Fridemar Pache is interested on Extreme Open Business to integrate new income models, Maria Irene Albers is an English teacher graduated from the U. of Carabobo in Venezuela currentrly doing her PhD at the U. of Sevilla. María Gómez is an Undergraduate and High School teacher in Caracas using web 2.0 tools and wanders what exactly do teachers need to change. Silvia García from Caracas is an Online Courses Designer and Administrator interested on how do we use ICT's and their social effects. Collin Milligan from Glasgow Caledonian U. is researching learning technology. José Rodríguez teaches 3rd graders in L.A. and wisely calls CCK08 and Odyssey
Oriol Miralbell is a Lecturer at the Open U. of Catalonia, leading e-learning U. in Spain. Gabriel Bunser is a professional coach from Santiago, Chile interested on how Connectivism affects teaching and learning. Liz Renshaw from Australia interested on using technologies to work in diferent ways. Alejandro Valadez from Monterrey, Mexico works at Sanfora Training and Development and wants to share ideas and generate more knowledge. Bruce Nightingale is a Senior Lecturer at Nothingham Trent U.focused on training ICT teachers and researching multy modal learning. Gina Bennett coordinates distant education and educational technology in Canada.
Beatriz Jaramillo is an English teacher in Chile. Therese Weel from Vancouver, Canada expects to have her world view changed. Antonio González from Spain is an Andalusia's Government pedagogical advisor and Catherine Fitzpatrick who is active in SL, she/he claims to be skeptic but she/he is generating more connections than anyone.
Monday, September 08, 2008
CCK08 My long run connections.
People keep asking me why I am paying for a course given for free. The answers "I seek feedback to learn" and "credentials are important for me" do not seem to suffice. I have my mind racing all over the place, I wish I had a handy voice recorder! Besides meditation, what helps me to focus again is to write the bothering thought down. So, here I go.
The best way I find to explain my point of view is by telling stories, I use them with my patients. So I will tell the story of MMV®.
Our Centre, or company, is called MMV® Centro Multidisciplinario de Asesoría Integral. We founded it in 1993. Our first year was great. We had plenty of work and according to our accountant, we did exceptionally well considering that it was our first year on business.
When we where thinking about names, it was easy; we were a Multidisciplinary group of friends, we assessed students, people, projects and organizations and integrated our work fields. The initials issue was also easy. Vero's position was crucial. Her daughters, then just kids, were an important part of our engine; besides, she is the most visually attractive and friendly of us, her connections opened a lot of doors.
I worked with her giving Spanish/English classes and doing some of the English Spanish translations. She was Head of the Languages Area which included German. I worked with Margarita in the Educational programs and Psychology projects, she was the Head of the Education and Research Area and she took English lessons with Vero. Margarita and I worked together in the Organizational Projects with Toluca Industry, I was the head of the Organizational Area.
Looking at the way we interacted we thought that it was a good idea to place Vero initials at the middle, she was our strong connecting point. Lancelot was our shining Knight in Armour, an Arian car made in Monterrey Mexico: The Gross Borgward.
The funny part is that when we asked ourselves what would be the meaning of "MVM" initials or what would we say to people when they asked... the first thought that popped up was "Me Vale M..." There was a long lasting burst of laughter!
After a while we decided that the first "M" should stand for Margarita, who has a PhD. The second "M" should stand for me with a Master Degree. Vero has a Bachelor degree so "V" would be the last,obviously not the least, to avoid trouble and misunderstandings.
O.K. Back to read!
The best way I find to explain my point of view is by telling stories, I use them with my patients. So I will tell the story of MMV®.
Our Centre, or company, is called MMV® Centro Multidisciplinario de Asesoría Integral. We founded it in 1993. Our first year was great. We had plenty of work and according to our accountant, we did exceptionally well considering that it was our first year on business.
When we where thinking about names, it was easy; we were a Multidisciplinary group of friends, we assessed students, people, projects and organizations and integrated our work fields. The initials issue was also easy. Vero's position was crucial. Her daughters, then just kids, were an important part of our engine; besides, she is the most visually attractive and friendly of us, her connections opened a lot of doors.
I worked with her giving Spanish/English classes and doing some of the English Spanish translations. She was Head of the Languages Area which included German. I worked with Margarita in the Educational programs and Psychology projects, she was the Head of the Education and Research Area and she took English lessons with Vero. Margarita and I worked together in the Organizational Projects with Toluca Industry, I was the head of the Organizational Area.
Looking at the way we interacted we thought that it was a good idea to place Vero initials at the middle, she was our strong connecting point. Lancelot was our shining Knight in Armour, an Arian car made in Monterrey Mexico: The Gross Borgward.
The funny part is that when we asked ourselves what would be the meaning of "MVM" initials or what would we say to people when they asked... the first thought that popped up was "Me Vale M..." There was a long lasting burst of laughter!
After a while we decided that the first "M" should stand for Margarita, who has a PhD. The second "M" should stand for me with a Master Degree. Vero has a Bachelor degree so "V" would be the last,obviously not the least, to avoid trouble and misunderstandings.
O.K. Back to read!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
After last night's crash came Google Chrome Beta
This post is a record my first impressions with the new browser.
Well, yesterday I crashed my PC. I lost all my favorites! The explorer just left, thanks God, my del.icio.us account on the browser navegation bar.
Somehow a pop up window inviting me to test Google Chorome Beta came along and I was so shocked by what had happened that I decided to give it a try.
I knew that I would have to invest time to set any explorer back on track anyway.
Well, the instalation was fast and with no bumps, I was happy. I began to follow the tutorials to learn how to use it and to my delight I found out that they are very good. They even have video tutorials in Spanish that could be used as listening Spanish practice, it is a male voice, very clear and calmed but with Spanish accent. I could have enjoyed the videos more if they had a Mexican o South American accent. Perhaps I will use the videos for BaeL Spanish Group.
So my journey with Google Chrome was an enjoyable one until I started having difficulties. First of all, I changed the language to English just to find out that the next page I opened was again in Spanish. This was really annoying, it did not matter how many times I set the language to English... Spanish was back.
I usually do not mind the language, sometimes I do not even notice which of both languages is used by the program. I need to fix this.
In second place, as I should have foreseen but didn't, I came to my blog to find it also in Spanish!! This is really annoying because as I type the spell checker underlines every word with red. So, instead of enjoying the great spell checker that blogger has I find myself writting this post with no help to check the spelling. I hope you do not find many mistakes! I guess this has to do with my IP address but I am not sure.
On third place is the fact that I do not have the navegation menus I use. I do not have cut, paste, copy, print, etc at hand. I know a few shortcuts keys, like cut, paste and copy but no more! This is becoming a nightmare for me. I need to learn more shortcut keys!
I did not have in mind to write another post here but I am glad I logged in again before the CCK08 course starts. I see now that last night's crash will affect me more than I expected and will be more time consuming. Why? For example, now I would like to place a link to Google Chrome and I do not know yet how to go back to that page to get the link without closing this one. The pages are linked, I do not know yet how to detach them to have several windows opened as I am used to do with Explorer. If I do not find a solution soon I will revert to Explorer. Fortunatelly I wrote down the page address and I typed the link to the site. :-)
Let's see what other surprises I find today!
Well, I had a nice talk with Mbarek, he gave me useful links and helped me to install Dreamweaver. He also tried Chrome. At the end of the day I will unistall it, it is too much trouble, he already unistalled it. The good thing is that I learned how to install icons in my desktop to my most used sites though they may dissapear after I unistall.
Well, yesterday I crashed my PC. I lost all my favorites! The explorer just left, thanks God, my del.icio.us account on the browser navegation bar.
Somehow a pop up window inviting me to test Google Chorome Beta came along and I was so shocked by what had happened that I decided to give it a try.
I knew that I would have to invest time to set any explorer back on track anyway.
Well, the instalation was fast and with no bumps, I was happy. I began to follow the tutorials to learn how to use it and to my delight I found out that they are very good. They even have video tutorials in Spanish that could be used as listening Spanish practice, it is a male voice, very clear and calmed but with Spanish accent. I could have enjoyed the videos more if they had a Mexican o South American accent. Perhaps I will use the videos for BaeL Spanish Group.
So my journey with Google Chrome was an enjoyable one until I started having difficulties. First of all, I changed the language to English just to find out that the next page I opened was again in Spanish. This was really annoying, it did not matter how many times I set the language to English... Spanish was back.
I usually do not mind the language, sometimes I do not even notice which of both languages is used by the program. I need to fix this.
In second place, as I should have foreseen but didn't, I came to my blog to find it also in Spanish!! This is really annoying because as I type the spell checker underlines every word with red. So, instead of enjoying the great spell checker that blogger has I find myself writting this post with no help to check the spelling. I hope you do not find many mistakes! I guess this has to do with my IP address but I am not sure.
On third place is the fact that I do not have the navegation menus I use. I do not have cut, paste, copy, print, etc at hand. I know a few shortcuts keys, like cut, paste and copy but no more! This is becoming a nightmare for me. I need to learn more shortcut keys!
I did not have in mind to write another post here but I am glad I logged in again before the CCK08 course starts. I see now that last night's crash will affect me more than I expected and will be more time consuming. Why? For example, now I would like to place a link to Google Chrome and I do not know yet how to go back to that page to get the link without closing this one. The pages are linked, I do not know yet how to detach them to have several windows opened as I am used to do with Explorer. If I do not find a solution soon I will revert to Explorer. Fortunatelly I wrote down the page address and I typed the link to the site. :-)
Let's see what other surprises I find today!
Well, I had a nice talk with Mbarek, he gave me useful links and helped me to install Dreamweaver. He also tried Chrome. At the end of the day I will unistall it, it is too much trouble, he already unistalled it. The good thing is that I learned how to install icons in my desktop to my most used sites though they may dissapear after I unistall.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
CCK08. My plans for BaeL and CCK08
My plans are to open the site, I may connect with teachers and future friends from CCK08. ;-)
I will create more groups. A Spanish one is required but I have not found a nice widget to assess Spanish level as the one I placed at the English Club. Spanish WiZiQ Club, English WiZiQ Club, Voicethread Clubs in Spanish and English are already a target.
The idea is to help those who need assistance to learn Spanish, English, WiZiQ, SL, Voice, etc. while at the same time promote the teachers activities and sites. In that way everybody wins!
I know about teachers that currently have free Language groups in different levels and are using different venues.
For example: I will create an English WiZiQ Club to direct them towards Nellie who teaches pronunciation in English and a Spanish WiZiQ Club to send stds towards Nancy Sánches who teaches Spanish. I need to talk to those teachers. They are already putting the effort so I won´t add workload to them. Does this gives you the idea?
I am having difficulties finding tutorials to WiZiQ, SL, PbWiki, and VoiceThread in Spanish. I cannot do them all on my own, besides my mic recording volume is terribly low and neither Gonzalo or I have been able to find a solution. At CCK08 conference I will be in touch with Spanish speaker teachers so I may find that they have tutorials in Spanish and they may be willing to share.
You see? So far my online contacts have been Webheads English teachers so I need to find support from bilingual teachers that teach their subjects in Spanish. I am so selfish! I am planning to connect with a purpose!
I will create more groups. A Spanish one is required but I have not found a nice widget to assess Spanish level as the one I placed at the English Club. Spanish WiZiQ Club, English WiZiQ Club, Voicethread Clubs in Spanish and English are already a target.
The idea is to help those who need assistance to learn Spanish, English, WiZiQ, SL, Voice, etc. while at the same time promote the teachers activities and sites. In that way everybody wins!
I know about teachers that currently have free Language groups in different levels and are using different venues.
For example: I will create an English WiZiQ Club to direct them towards Nellie who teaches pronunciation in English and a Spanish WiZiQ Club to send stds towards Nancy Sánches who teaches Spanish. I need to talk to those teachers. They are already putting the effort so I won´t add workload to them. Does this gives you the idea?
I am having difficulties finding tutorials to WiZiQ, SL, PbWiki, and VoiceThread in Spanish. I cannot do them all on my own, besides my mic recording volume is terribly low and neither Gonzalo or I have been able to find a solution. At CCK08 conference I will be in touch with Spanish speaker teachers so I may find that they have tutorials in Spanish and they may be willing to share.
You see? So far my online contacts have been Webheads English teachers so I need to find support from bilingual teachers that teach their subjects in Spanish. I am so selfish! I am planning to connect with a purpose!
A new adventure CCK08
I joined Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course, it starts on September 8, 2008 and ends on November 30, 2008.
Gonzalo and I, after checking our finances, decided that it was better to pay for it. After all, I will invest time and effort while we will shorten the little time we have to hang together. So to do all that for free without a Certificate from the University of Manitoba, Canada... did not feel right.
I am very excited, I know I will learn a lot though it may be out of my league.
The course has not started and I already have installed CMaps and got PageFlakes which are new for me.
I would like to add a Twemes account to follow the Twitter Course Site in this page, I will attempt to add it.
This will be my second course using Moodle, the first one was my Diploma Course on Teaching English to First Graders. I want to learn how to use Moodle, not only as participant but as facilitator. Andy's Computer Literacy Programs are in Moodle so I would like BaeL project to use Moodle too. I know it is not a free platform, the way to get access to it will show itself.
The outline of the course as stated at the Wiki is:
Course Description: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. This course will help participants make sense of the transformative impact of technology in teaching and learning over the last decade. The voices calling for reform do so from many perspectives, with some suggesting 'new learners' require different learning models, others suggesting reform is needed due to globalization and increased competition, and still others suggesting technology is the salvation for the shortfalls evident in the system today. While each of these views tell us about the need for change, they overlook the primary reasons why change is required.
Programs: For credit in Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education and Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning (certificate will be available January, 2009.
Technologies Used: Through out this "course" participants will use a variety of technologies. For example, participants will use blogs, Second Life, Page Flakes, attend UStream sessions, attend Elluminate sessions, participate in discussions in Moodle forums, and so on. Additional technologies will be introduced as is required to attend to concerns or opportunities arising over the next 12 weeks.
Facilitators: George Siemens and Stephen Downes will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course.
We have a Moodle Forum, a Course Blog, the above mentioned Course Wiki and a Course Mailing List.
We will have Wednesday Sessions at Elluminate and Friday Sessions held in UStream.
Learners will be asked to complete the following activities during the course (students enrolled for credit through University of Manitoba will receive feedback from facilitators.
The Learners Assignments and Evaluation is as follows:
Weekly reflections on blogs
Participation in moodle forums and commenting on blogs by peer learners in the course
Three short reflective papers (500-750 words)
Concept map (using a tool like CMAP)
Final presentation - video, podcast, presentation addressing "What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I? How has this course influence your view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)? What types of questions are still outstanding?"
Gonzalo and I, after checking our finances, decided that it was better to pay for it. After all, I will invest time and effort while we will shorten the little time we have to hang together. So to do all that for free without a Certificate from the University of Manitoba, Canada... did not feel right.
I am very excited, I know I will learn a lot though it may be out of my league.
The course has not started and I already have installed CMaps and got PageFlakes which are new for me.
I would like to add a Twemes account to follow the Twitter Course Site in this page, I will attempt to add it.
This will be my second course using Moodle, the first one was my Diploma Course on Teaching English to First Graders. I want to learn how to use Moodle, not only as participant but as facilitator. Andy's Computer Literacy Programs are in Moodle so I would like BaeL project to use Moodle too. I know it is not a free platform, the way to get access to it will show itself.
The outline of the course as stated at the Wiki is:
Course Description: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. This course will help participants make sense of the transformative impact of technology in teaching and learning over the last decade. The voices calling for reform do so from many perspectives, with some suggesting 'new learners' require different learning models, others suggesting reform is needed due to globalization and increased competition, and still others suggesting technology is the salvation for the shortfalls evident in the system today. While each of these views tell us about the need for change, they overlook the primary reasons why change is required.
Programs: For credit in Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education and Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning (certificate will be available January, 2009.
Technologies Used: Through out this "course" participants will use a variety of technologies. For example, participants will use blogs, Second Life, Page Flakes, attend UStream sessions, attend Elluminate sessions, participate in discussions in Moodle forums, and so on. Additional technologies will be introduced as is required to attend to concerns or opportunities arising over the next 12 weeks.
Facilitators: George Siemens and Stephen Downes will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course.
We have a Moodle Forum, a Course Blog, the above mentioned Course Wiki and a Course Mailing List.
We will have Wednesday Sessions at Elluminate and Friday Sessions held in UStream.
Learners will be asked to complete the following activities during the course (students enrolled for credit through University of Manitoba will receive feedback from facilitators.
The Learners Assignments and Evaluation is as follows:
Weekly reflections on blogs
Participation in moodle forums and commenting on blogs by peer learners in the course
Three short reflective papers (500-750 words)
Concept map (using a tool like CMAP)
Final presentation - video, podcast, presentation addressing "What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I? How has this course influence your view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)? What types of questions are still outstanding?"
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