A quick update: finally on holidays (from school) but still very active. The article “Pedagogical affordances of syndication, aggregation, and mash-up of content on the Web”, I worked on with Vance Stevens in the past two weeks, has just been published in the June edition of TESL-EJ .
On Friday 6th, I will be giving the workshop: Blogging in the Language Classroom for the 32nd TEFL Alumni Conference in São Paulo. Grand opening this morning. Plenary with Claire B. Siskin, with whom I had a lovely chat and diner yesterday evening (photos will follow). I have prepared another photo montage using Flickr Toys for the handouts. Looks good but have just discovered the CC License does not allow derivative works. I have written to Aphrodite for permission and hope I can use it.
And then…well..I will be preparing for the Merlot keynote in New Orleans. Laura Franklin, Professor of French at the Alexandria Campus (Northern Virginia Community College) and Co-editor of Merlot Languages, attended online the conference I gave for Braz-Tesol last July and contacted me as she would like the same format for their event in New Orleans so the title/abstract is
Open Networked Learning–Architectures of Participation
The Web, social tools and the convergence of different digital media have brought about more opportunities for learners and educators throughout the world. Exposure and access to diverse local and international online communities of practice, along with the blend of formal and informal learning, challenge us to re-think our basic assumptions about knowledge acquisition, traditional classroom delivery and e-learning.
In this keynote, Barbara Dieu will show how we can harness the networking power of these tools and communities to engage in participatory communication and collective knowledge building.
During this presentation we will celebrate not only what is possible but what is already happening and invite participants to reflect on how architecture of participation can facilitate creativity, openness, interaction and sustainable partnerships.
I thought I could use Second Life (Corwin´s Boracay would be just perfect) to gather all the virtual participants. If we can manage interaction both ways, it would be fantastic! It is visually attractive and a lively way to do a presentation. I wrote to Alan Levine, who is in charge of SL at NMC. Alan was most helpful and I am very grateful for his sound advice. All will depend on the connection on the spot.
