Vale's Blog

Blog Poll

2006-11-22T10:46:00.000-02:00

Did you know that you can easily get a blog poll feature and add it to your blog?
Thanks to Cristina Costa and one of her interesting learner blogs I have set up a blog poll using a free service www.pollhost.com

Well would you like to vote?

Where on earth are we?

2006-11-17T16:47:00.000-02:00

Vale's avatar!

Well over the past few months this is a question that has crossed my find frequently!

Here are some reasons why:

SECOND LIFE

The Consultants-E are proud to launch the first private island simulator in Second Life dedicated to online training seminars and conferences, and the use of Second Life in Education. EduNation is a 65,000m2 island in the Second Life virtual world with seminar, powerpoint, audio and videocast facilities. Use of the seminar facilities is free. It also features small land and accommodation rentals for other educators to rent and use on a weekly basis.

Click here to find out more at EduNation
and to see some of the Webhead avatars check out Webeheads in Action site!

GOOGLE EARTH

Another wonderful discovery and learning journey.
All thanks to Quentin D'Souza and knowplace. I attended a brillantly weekend on
"Google Earth as a Classroom Tool" will be hosted by

"Quentin D'Souza*. Quentin's class is at http://knowschools.ca/m oodle/course/view.php?id=28

You can find out more about Quentin from his Teaching Hacks site!

This is where I live in GE

VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
Well, I'm emoderating on my fourth online TCE ICT in the classroom course (using Moodle). There's a great range of particpants from all over the world!

Here's a screenshot of our welcome map (names invisible for privacy) Nice global feel and really wide range of working enviroments.

and I'm definitely going to be workingout time zones for the synch session - where on earth...well maybe GE timezone overlay can help!

TESOL ITALY conference

Yes, this was also a moment when I saw many faces looking bewildered ... many colleagues from dark classrooms brighten at the colours and interactive power of web 2.0, many teachers asking where on earth is this leading....

Well as we contemplated these philosophical questions and I presented some of the differences between setting up Nicenet or Blogger spaces to create a cooperative learning enviroment in classrooms we admired the view of the bay of Naples. The conference was called "Inviting Views" and this, as Julian Edge (plenary speaker) said is indeed "inviting views"
It is also very near where I live on earth and almost the same view I have from my 5th floor classroom but what I found most interesting was the fact that my talk was the only speech that drew the parallel to blogs. Isn't that what it's all about....inviting views? An the comment feature of blogs allows for peer-to-peer interaction, and public comment as well as showing tutor interest!

Where on earth are we? This is where I am...

2006-10-23T15:43:00.000-02:00

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Truth on the ground

2006-08-30T06:42:00.000-02:00

Reynolds says, his blog Radom Acts of Reality http://randomreality.blogware.com/, and possibly other public sector blogs, can and do get to the "truth of what's happening" on the ground. They cut through the "nonsense" of TV dramas and "official" accounts of the NHS that politicians or NHS press officers present. "With more NHS staff blogging, more people will know what it is really like ... and more people will get angry about the things that people should get angry about."
Well where's the Italian version of this?

Blood, Sweat and Tea is (probably) the first book by a major European publisher to release a book under a Creative Commons license. It has been released under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. which means that you can…http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/20/2249367.html
To download the book in your preferred format
http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/books/bst/cc.php

Applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environments

2006-08-27T15:15:00.000-02:00

Click to Play

Vance Steven's presentation with some great ideas and links re: Applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environments: Impact on teacher professional development

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by vstevens with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Of every stripe

2006-07-05T08:24:00.000-02:00

Well, it takes all sorts ...
Out of the blue Sophie and Guiseppe have come up with their idea!
Looking good? Bravo Giuseppe ;-)
Che pazienza....

Vale

Light at the end of the tunnel

2006-07-02T14:25:00.000-02:00

A dim flicker somewhere there....

Beam me up

2006-06-28T18:07:00.000-02:00

Note: Photos show progress in reverse order - this is a blog afterall!

Well during these past weeks I just haven’t been able to see the wood for the trees!
So involved with coordinating this move that only can I begin to comprehend this life-changing event…

Oh the wonders of life – the historical wonders of the past are revealed as I peel scraps of newspapers dated 1900!!!

History isn't what happened. History is just what historians tell us. There was a pattern, a plan, a movement, expansion, the march of democracy; it is a tapestry, a flow of events, a complex narrative, connected, explicable. One good story leads to another." -- A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, 242. Julian Barnes

Oh the wonders of life that flash past me as I lie writhing on the floor after a 2m near fatal fall that crashes my whole life back into perspective (only today do I feel the after shock has oozed out sufficiently for me to even write about it).

Oh the wonders of Italy as I battle with deficient workmen who have to take the afternoon to see the World Cup match and this is just the second round, will the country grind to a halt if there is a semi-final match?

Oh the wonders of friends like Gianpaolo !!! No words would be sufficient to express my gratitude, the support and care unique and to think he’s flat out on his back too – “che coincidenza” : --)) Sei Grande Gianpaolo!

This is stage one:

What was that bit about the survival of the woodworm convincingly asserting the existence of an alternative, repressed version of events?

Tomorrow we'll see if they have survived and the new version of events will unfold...

Image Maker

2006-05-12T15:38:00.000-02:00

Martin down the road (originally from Poland with a Moldavian assistant in his salon) gave Sophie a hair cut yesterday – a radical new image is made! Cute yeh?

Serious Matters!

2006-05-04T17:31:00.000-02:00

How I love this country and its slow food....

Great day down south (yes, even further south) running a teacher training seminar on Technology Matters! (notes avaliable www.24hours.it/sapri040506.doc or power point www.24hours.it/sapri040506.ppt) and the fast moving day about ever-changing ICT world day is lightened by the human touch of a wonderful woman who I admire incredibly. Somehow between jumping off a train and jumping back on one a few hours later I have managed to find out how lots of great teachers are still struggling to find a piece of chalk let alone a internet connection, how these energetic women make up for the lack of resources, how they access the net at home to liven their lessons and how in between school and kids they roll out the hand- made pasta "come niente fosse" with smiles and all.

What visit to Sapri would be complete without a stretch on the seafront promenade and refreshments at Enzo's Chocolathera....

Thanks Franca :-) Alla prossima!!

The square that never sleeps

2006-04-30T16:33:00.000-02:00

One interesting feature of this historical part of town is the square I live in. Called Piazza Sedile del Campo, featuring one of the oldest fountains in this fountain town it is known by locals as the Largo Campo and has many lives depending on the time of day. You would have to visit to believe me but it is really a square that never sleeps (and I guess the inhabitants just get used to it). It's impossible to start the description with a sortt wake-up hour so I chose this very moment to explain the 24hour syndrome. You are probaly beginning to understand that I am a litlte obsessed with 24hours :-) So, no need to step out on the balcony to know what's going on tonight as the folkloric music has been melodiously flowing through the open windows for a few hours. There is a local even in town "La Fiera del Crocifisso" (The Crucifix, which until this year I thought was held before Easter but maybe the general elections prevented that!) So there is a festive feel and all the small alleys and squares are lined with wooden stall selling fresh bakeries, slices of salami or handicrafts. The local dancers with their musica popolare have been livening things for the passers-by.
In an hour when the family "passegiata" trickles away the youth will come out to play. The first set are aged 12 to 18 and they hang around til their parents have finshed their pizzas in one of the pavement pizzerias. The next shift are older and stree wise or "furbo" as they say round here. Around midnight some seedy bars and snazzy underground techno discos buried under thousands of years of Roman stone open there doors and all of a sudden the street vibration changes beat. The buzz of voices and chatter resembles a bee hive hit by boomerang. By 4 am you'd think the noise would have died down, indeed it does but to be replaced with a new type of frenzy. The early hours of the morning (4am to 6am) are the worst, or is it just becuase one is trying to snatch onto silence and cling onto sleep? When the bar and restaurant shutters come down and the kitchen skivvies hop on their vespas the rush of air can be felt three flights up. Next of course, are refuse collectors intent in the personal war against the snug pillow huggers. This job uses dark age tools, the sort of brooms the witch in Hansel and Gretel would have used. Beer bootles and glass containers have been banned in most Italian cities (drinks by law must be poured into plastic beakers after midnight unless drink is consumed indoors) but not here so the road sweepers I reckon have their own version of "Ten green bottles" a sort of hokey-squash match that rings new notes! Last week the square was turned into a film set. What amazed me most it that it only took a couple of hours to make it look over 300 years old for a film set in Naples in the 17th century "Assunta Spina"

Oh well, I'll tell you about the baker's opening and the scrumptious wafts of fresh bread tomorrow...Its way past my passeggiata time!

Ogne scarrafone è bell' a mamma soja

2006-04-27T09:55:00.000-02:00

Ogne scarrafone è bell' a mamma soja is a Neapolitan saying which means in Italian "Ogni scarafaggio sembra bello alla propria madre", that is to say even "an ugly beetle is beautiful to its mother". I guess, we could loosely translate that to "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but I'm not too sure it covers the maternal aspect.

Well, as a mother, a whole part if not all is related to my children and so here are my adorable beetles (not sure how happy they will be with that definition :-) but beautiful indeed they are! The photo above taken a few summers ago shows the ticket office for the Amalfi Coast (Postiano and Capri) ferry....

Meet the learner of the present. Francis, aged 15 playing on PC rather than doing any homework!

Interests: Travian

Hobbies: discovering new beer and Celtic swords

Future: scary

And this is Sophie, a keen national gymnast,
who still turns away from keyboard to smile.
At the young age of 11 has been blogging for longer than I care to admit and has created her own network of bloggers who would rather die than be blogfaders...
Recently, she spent whole evenings recreating a new feel and relaunched the blog with a whole new look incorporatign images, video and music
http://spaces.msn.com/superz11/ ( it was nice to see the network of support and the extraordinary lengths these kids go to to by-pass default settings and add something original, even trying their hand at HTML !

2006-04-26T19:20:00.000-02:00

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.
- Andrew Carnegie

Abodes

2006-04-26T18:51:00.000-02:00

Well, it seems really weird that in the past week I have set up a blog and made the mad decision to get a fixed abode (yes, I'm over 40 and living in expensive rented accommodation in a small town which has New York square metre property rates- the photo on the right was taken a metre away from where I am now and 50 metres away from the hovel I hope to buy soon :-)) And in this very same week I have read an amazing story about a woman with no fixed abode and a brilliant blog. I have scanned her blog about loneliness and homelessness, about invisibility, about her desire to write and and have found that "push button publishing as Blogger is called makes some people famous. Have you heard of the Wandering Scribe? Have you read her blog?Have you seen the newspaper covreage, in case you have not read this one, aptly titled Park and Write have a look!

There is no common thread really betwen me and her - our stories are completely different but I was touched by her strength and the journalists words "It's a tale of our time - about being cut off from everything around you but still connected to people thousands of miles away. " Yes, I can relate to that and that is one of the powers of the web....

In search of roots

2006-04-26T18:12:00.000-02:00

Well, my earliest memories stretch back to another continent, to another era and it has remained a family tradition that the quiet three-year-old, that I was back then, started to speak during the month-long voyage back to Europe. From a linguists point of view I am still trying to analyse this. Had the mandarin nannies come with us, what language would those words have been in? My mother and sister are the only ones who spent the 14 years (during the 1950s and 1960s) in Hong Kong trying to integrate with local people rather than dominate them and they mastered a lot of the sounds if not the pictograms.

Next stop was Rome, but before the sweet smell of a new kind of mandarin, that of madarin peels, could settle it was Paris and then onto a Brussels posting for my dad with in tow.
I spent the next 13 years of my life growing up under the grey "manneken pis" sky… wondering whether the national symbol had anything to do with being constantly wet!

30 years have passed and I have spent the last 20 here on the Med drying out and looking at the sparkling blue above and beyond (the seafront is a stone's throw away from most buildings in this southern Italian town) And now I have to come to terms with the other extreme of efficiency, far from the grey clouded central European capital, the frenzied inefficiency of the marvellous Italian way of life!

Why do you think blogs and blogging is empowering for learners?


Free polls from Pollhost.com