Merry christmas to you all!

What a wonderful day!

Many compliments to my boyfriend, who on Tuesday took his degree (specialistica) in Biotecnologie Industriali at Padua University.
He took the maximium "110 e lode" !
As you can see from the photo, he was very proud and happy! I am very proud too!

Map your mind

picture from Google images

Hi everybody!

Today I'm going to show you how my PLE (Personal Learning Environment) is structured, and so how my mind functions (or try to). To do that, I based my reflections on the definition, given by Martin, which doesn't limit to technologies, but offers a generic definition which includes anything can help us to learn: “a combination of the formal and informal tools and processes we use to gather information, reflect on it and do something with it, which is essentially what we mean when we talk about learning”.
After reflecting a while about my way of learning languages I chose to organize my PLE in these 4 points ( here you can see my PLE's map):

1- Gathering information: I can collect new information in a wide number of situations both formal (school courses with teachers, exercises and books) and informal (listening to songs, surfing the Net, traveling). During this course, we got to know some new tools, such as Bloglines, del.icio.us and podcasts, which can help our informal learning surfing the Net; this will be very useful in our "after-degree life", because we won't be attending lessons any more and the Net will be the primary way we'll have to practice our English and learn something new.
Furthermore, in my life is going to appear another important source of new information, which is both formal and informal: the Erasmus experience! From January to June I'm going to live "immersed"in English culture and language: in addition to the formal English courses I'm going to attend, I'll be "forced" to speak English in every moment in order to "survive":-)
I'm convinced that this experience will be very useful and my English will take a great advantage from it! I'm looking forward to leave!

2- Reflecting and exchanging information: Once I've gathered a new piece of information, I can share it with people around me ( e.g. my peers, my friends, people in general) and the best tool to do that is my blog. In it, I can write what I learned and people can comment on it, so, discussing and exchanging opinions, I increase my knowledges.

3- Using information: I think the information I gather are useless if I don't find how to use them in my daily life. Only in this way, they become deeply mine and play an active role to my cultural and personal growth.

4- How : I can learn something new about a language in many ways. For example, I can listen to a conversation, to a TV program or to a song; I can improve my skills writing either on my blog or some e-mails to a foreign University; surely, speaking with a native English (or Spanish or French or German) speaker is very useful to learn colloquial expressions and improve my fluency, which is always one of my weakest points. Finally I think that one of the best ways to learn is making mistakes and, obviously, try to correct them.

Bye!

The importance of being critical

picture from Google images

Hi Girls!
this week Sarah asked us to do something less practical but not less important at all: reflecting about the criteria we use when we have to select among the huge amount of information the web can offer.
Before looking at the websites she suggested, I tried to think to what I usually do to evaluate the reliability of a source. First of all, I judge the layout of the page; even if it can seem a superficial operation, I think the aspect can tell lots of things: from it you can see if it is an "official" site or just a personal page where one simply expresses their opinion; then, if the page is not well organized and confusing, reading and finding useful information become difficult and very time demanding so often is not worth to waste time.
After watching the layout, I try to evaluate the content, in particular the tone and the register: obviously, the more formal they are, the more reliable I consider the source.

But, when I read through the links Sarah put in the post, I realized that my "being critical" was not so complete. :-(
In effect there are many more aspects to be considered. I completely agree with the article of the Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) when it says "It's been called an art as well as work--much of which is detective work. You have to decide where to look, what clues to search for, and what to accept." As a matter of fact, you have to pay attention to a lot of details in order to judge the source in the most correct way: the first part of the website address, from which you can see if the source is to be trusted; checking if the author is mentioned clearly and with some addresses; look at the date of the last updating; try to understand which is the aim of the article (convince, inform, express a partial point of view).
In order to make this process of selection easier, many sites give the fundamental questions one has to ask him/herself. They are more or less the same, but I found particularly interesting and clear the indications of the Cornell University Library .

I think that all these pieces of advice will be very useful to my thesis work in order not to put unreliable or even false information. It could be a bit time demanding, but it is worth!

Sorry!!!

picture from Ipergrafando.it


Sorry Sorry Sorry my peers!
I've just realized that the task timeline for e-tivity 8 was last Friday. I don't know why, but I thought it was today!
Sorry!

We have a new "doctor"!!!

Congratulation to my friend Nicole, who today took her degree: 110 e lode!

Scouting...one world, one ideal!

I think that this video can represent the reasons why, after nearly 14 years, I still am a scout...

Me and You(Tube)

Picture taken from Google Images

Hi everybody!
I think I was one of the very few people who never entered in YouTube. I, obviously, had heard about it thanks to the media, but I had never searched a video on it before last Wednesday. I must confess that I still have some bias: I think that most of the videos people upload on it are useless or even stupid and offensive. Probably, this is due to the fact that the I heard speaking of YouTube only in relation to bullish acts or to dramatical events.
Nevertheless, I think that these examples are consequences of a wrong use of this tool, and that YouTube has lots of positive aspects: the fact that anyone can share their videos is great, and makes understand how the world is becoming more and more united; then anyone can also choose to "censure" the videos they consider too stupid, offensive or obscene. In effect the "YouTube people" would have a great power in selecting what is worth to be watched; the problem is that often they aren't conscious of this or they simply accept everything.

Although my relationship with this new tool is not completely positive, I think that it can become another help to my English: watching videos in English is undoubtedly useful to improve my comprehension and listening skills, but they are a window from which I can "peek in" English and American culture as well. This last aspect is for me the more interesting and even worthy to be "explored". I hope that, using YouTube more frequently, I can change my idea and pass my prejudices in order to find a new "technological friend"!

Podcast: the world in your hands!

This week I'm going to explore another zone of the Web: the world of podcasts! I already knew this tool and sometimes I download the podcasts of a RaiRadio2 broadcast when I'm not able to follow it in real time. But I never though that I could download something in order to improve my English... In effect it could be an interesting and funny way of keeping my English in training. From the very beginning of my experience (or, I could better say, life) as English learning student, teachers have been telling me to try to translate English songs, to watch films in the original language or to read a lot (obviously in English!). I have to confess that I've never done anything of this, because it was time-demanding and also a bit boring. But, this time, I think I'm going to try this new tool: podcasts can be very useful to me, because I can download them into my mp3 player and listen to them in any moment, even in train, during my daily journey to Padua, or walking around this city.
Searching through del.icio.us, I found some useful sites which provide podcasts.

• Better at English: here you I can find a wide range of podcasts to improve my skills in English. The site provides also online listenings and transcriptions, and all the material is divided into three levels (intermediate, upper intermedaite and advanced) and into different grammatical topics (phrasal verbs, business English, idioms and slangs, vocabulary, ect.).
• Libri Vox: a funny way to learn English could be listening to these free audio books (which means that they have no copyrights). You can choose among a huge number of title and genres and, if you just want to make yourself an idea, you can download only a chapter.
• EnglishPod | Learn Business English with Daily MP3 Podcasts:I think the title is clear enough. This website teaches you what business English is and how it has to be used in the different situations: relationships, presentation, inviting, being diplomatic and so on. In each "lesson" you are followed by Scott and Jessica, whose voices I found very friendly and relaxing. Very interesting!

Social bookmarking?....Del.icio.us!

Wow! My knowledge on new technologies is increasing day by day!
Like happened with feed aggregators, my brother was already aware of the existence of del.icio.us, but this time I knew a little more and I "taught" him about creating his own network including his friends' bookmarks. What a satisfaction!
I find this technology is simply bright! You can see what other people bookmarked, so you can chose which site to visite just taking a look to the the number of times that people choose it: on theory, the most a site is bookmarked the most it is interesting and reliable. Everything is based on reciprocal help.
Personally, I find tagging and describing the site a little time-demanding ( I'm lazy, I know!), but, once you've done, for the others is easier to find what they're looking for. Furthemore, I think that other people too spent some of their time to do the same for me, so I write my description more willingly.
Looking at what my peers bookmarked, I found many interesting sites I didn't noticed before: that on pronounciation bookmarked by Giovanna is very useful for who, like me, is never sure about how a word sounds. Marta found another website which will be very useful during my Erasmus period: it is about slang and gives you the tranlsation of many colloquial expressions. I think I'm going to use it very frequently, because I have to admit that my knowledge of colloquial English is not so deep. Another original and nice to become more confindent with English is reading the short stories Martina suggested: I think that reading one of them every day can help to learn new words and new expressions. In the end, if you still have doubts, you can go and take a look to the website on grammar which Elena bookmarked: here you can find explanations, exercises, tests to check your level, quizzes and reading. What can you ask more for your English? Now you just have to choose from where to start!

Bye!




picture by Spiff

Trick or Treat?....Yes! To our wallet!

I remember that, when I was a child, seeing in American films children celebrating Halloween disguised as ghosts, pumpkins and the most horrible creatures, I wondered if that "festivity" really existed. As a matter of fact, I heard speaking of Halloween only in TV and the 31th of October was a day like another to me, excepting for the fact that I could stay awake longer because the following day was holiday. Last week I asked my 8 years old cousin if she knew because the 1st of November was holiday and she answered:"Clear, to celebrate Halloween!". I was astonished hearing so. I simply think that Halloween has nothing to do with our culture and it's only a good occasion to make people spend their money. I read that for last Halloween peolpe in Italy spent 190 millions in disguising and 140 in parties... It is absurd!!!

Thanks to feed aggregator!

Few minutes ago I discovered that my brother is used to use... a feed aggregator! I have to admit that the first time I heard this words was last Wednesday during our lesson, but I appreciated this technology from the very fist instant. As a matter of fact, I thought:" This means that, to see if my peers have written something new in my blog, I'm not obliged to go in it and feel frustrated if there's nothing new :-( and ,overall, I no longer have to waste my precious time surfing the net ".

In a feed aggregator you can also create playlists for the different topics you're interested in, in order to organize the information recollected from the Net. For the moment I haven't subscribed to many feeds and I created only 3 playlists, but I 'm convinced that I'm going to use this instrument a lot, perhaps even to recollect news for my thesis... So, thanks Feed Aggregator!

Me and the Blogosphere:"May the Patience be with you!"

a map of the Blogosphere by Matthew Hurst

In these last weeks I entered in a completely new world: the Blogosphere. Before the beginning of this English year, I'd never looked for blogs and I had just an approximate idea of what they are. Now, after 2 weeks exploring this unknown zone of the Net, I'm beginning to have a bit more precise idea.
I discovered that there are many kinds of blogs which can be also very different from each other: some are just personal spaces where people express themselves and their opinions in general; others are dedicated to specific topics which the blog's "owner" is expert at, or simply keen on; some other are related to more famous people or organization ( for example those of Beppe Grillo and Greenpeace). In sum, the blogosphere is an extremely wide and variegated universe in which, true, there are many interesting and important information, but there are also many useless or just curious things, and searching on it can be very exhausting. In effect, to find what you're looking for, you need a lot of Patience!

Exploring the Blogosphere

Photo by AlpenaMi

I spend more than 3 hours searching on Technorati because I really didn't know what topic I could look for. Then, thinking looking around in my room I saw my Harry Potter books, so I decided to search something about him. I found this interesting blog : here people signal and comment news and articles about him, in particular about the next movie (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) whose filming is starting in these days at Lacock, in the UK. Then there are also many links to other blogs or websites related to this subject.
The site defines itself "Complete Harry Potter coverage from top official and fan sources. One of JK Rowling's favourite sites!", so if you are, like me, a fan of the little whizz, visit it and you'll discover lots of curiosities.

Then I searched the word sport and I found this blog of "The Guardian". In it one can find articles and information about any sport: football, rugby, F1, cricket, volley, etc. There are also many links to other blogs, to "the highlights of the day", to the more recent news and to more else...

Observations
In the blogs I visited, language was informal and often abbreviations and slam terms were used, and I have to admit that sometimes I didn't understand very well what they were saying :-(. Then I noticed that, usually, posts are longer and more formal than the comments people leave, which contain much more colloquial expression ( Oh my gosh., Cool!, Wicked!).

Welcome!

photo by Madame Trapo

Hi Everybody, I've chosen this photo because it reminds me the long and relaxing "tea parties" I often have with my friends. During these afternoons, we speak of everything ( and also of averybody :-P), we tell our problems with university, we confide our secrets and, above all, we laugh a lot! I really love these moments when I have a break from study, I feel myself and...I eat lots of delicious cookies!

http://www.le.ac.uk/external/
One of the sites I recently visit most frequently is that of the University of Leicester, because I'm going to spend there the second semester thanks to the Erasmus project. I have to confess that I'm a bit worried because this will be the first time I stay far from home for a so long period (5 months). But I am also very excited and I'm looking forward to leave. I hope I can really improve my English and meet many new friends from all over the world.

Another web site I visit quite often is this: http://www.tuttoscout.org/
As you can imagine, I am a scout leader, so in this site I can find many ideas for the activities I do with my "lupetti"(children between 8 and 11). Following "the Jungle Book"( by Rudyard Kipling) story we play with them and we live lots of adventures which are very useful in children's physical and psychological growth. I know that among you there is at least one who is Scout and I'm wondering if there is anybody else... Bye! Sara