Agata (Everything began with an Intro...)
I'm Agata Zieba-Warcholak from Przemysl, Poland (Yahoo ID agata_zieba). I am a chemist and an ESL teacher. I teach mainly adults at beginner and pre-intermediate level. I got fascinated by CALL when I was doing my postgraduate studies in ICT in ELT. I'm looking forward to learning and sharing.
Barbara
Witam cie serdecznie z Brazylii.
I do not know whether this is the correct spelling. Although Polish is my mother tongue, I have never had any formal education in it as I went to a school in Portuguese. I speak it and understand it, can sort of decipher what is written (my parents keep writing to me in Polish) but cannot write it yet . I bought a CD for self-instruction but find it hard to learn a language on my own.
Who knows you can try teaching me Polish online after the workshop, Agata? :-) We can also chat on Yahoo in Polish, how about that? Today I had a conversation with Teresa in Portuguese and with Jean Michel in French. All this because of the webheads! I am finding all this very exciting.
Dowidzenia :-)
Warm regards from Brazil,
Jenny
ps umiem dobrze mowic po polsku albo brak okazji ale tez mamy: klopotow z pisania !!
Agatha
I am really willing to share and help you with your Polish - just tell me what I can do for you!
Pozdrawiam,
Bee
Ale tylko jezeli to nie bendzie cie za trudno, jezeli mozecz, bo teraz
wiem ze maz dzieci.
Do jutra
Babi
Hello Agata And Bee and all the
others,
Now, this is what really fascinates me
about computers and the WWW. I have just started learning Polish and have
difficulties learning it on my own.
And here I am, reading messages about
learning Polish. Do you think I could join that post-workshop online Polish
course? ;-)
I am also amazed by all the online
possibilities and love playing with them, but what really interests me is what
makes it so motivating for teachers?
Why is it that some teachers totally
reject it and even refuse to get familiar with all these wonderful
tools? And what the use of teachnology so attractive for others (even the so
called "elderly teachers" who do not seem to be "old" at all to me)?
I taught at ICT courses for teachers
and found that at these courses there are always people who do not have any
knowledge about technology, but by the time they finish the course they become
so enthusastic that they even set up international projects for themselves
and so on. What is the source of their motivation? What is the big secret?
Have you ever thought about it?
Babi
Teresa
Dear Agata and all wanna-be
Polish learners,
I'm as enthusiastic as Dafne and those
of you wanting to learn Polish about setting up a sub-group. That's the way
to go both in RL (real life) in the VW (virtual world). However, I have
found it much easier and much more productive to work online than f2f.
You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm
not. We can use Yahoo Messenger, or any other chat platform, start a
one-on-one chat or open a conference (a group chat) and just zip through the
'agenda', if you have one. Setting a time limit works well.
On the other hand, we can be logged in
and just chat on and off (whenever necessary) with our work partner, send
and receive files that we are working on for relevant and timely feedback,
and get on with things. (A chat environment is the simplest tool for this.
We can use other environments with mcuh potential, if necessary.)
We can even take our coffee breaks and
socialize, have some fun using emoticons for added liveliness and emotion! I
often find myself LOLing (laughing out loud) as if I were f2f. Believe me,
it works! Ask Dafne. We do this all the time.
That's how we outlined a plan and will
create the content and the Web pages for an upcoming online course we will
team teach in May. And that's how we've planned a few other things.
Being organized, having an initial plan
to follow (after we've brainstormed ideas, right, Bee?) and setting time
limits, when necessary, helps get more work done in less time. I insist:
this is true of RL, f2f, of course, but this two-year online experience with
the Webheads in Action has shown me that I've been much more productive
online when it comes to meetings.
So, if you're going to set up a 'learn
Polish' subgroup - and I'd love to join, but have too many things going on
till the end of May, so I cannot commit myself to another task :-( -, maybe
some of these pointers can help.
Enjoy your subgoup and our main group
as well! :-)
Agatha
Just a page I found with some audio files in Polish:
Kyi Shwin
Hi Sus,
Thanks again for DG 60*. I have found that members are going very first.I seem to be getting slower. And I would like to welcome Polish sub group if there will be one. I'm interested to do comparative study with Burmese.
For the moment, people from Myanmar are staying away from chicken for fear of bird flu. But this will be just temporary.
David
During the next several weeks be VERY cautious about opening or launching any e-mails that refer to the World Trade Center or 9/11 in any way, regardless of who sent it. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOUR
FRIENDS AND FAMILY. FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW, "WTC" STANDS FOR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. REALLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL OPEN IT RIGHT AWAY, THINKING ITS A STORY RELATING TO 9/11!
BIGGGG TROUBLE !!!! DO NOT OPEN "WTC Survivor" It is a virus that will erase your whole "C" drive.. It will come to you in the form ofan E-Mail from a familiar person. I repeat, a friend sent it to me, but called and warned me before I opened it. He was not so lucky and
now he can't even start his computer!
Forward this to everyone in your address book. I would rather receive this 25 times than not at all. So, if you receive an email called "WTC Survivor", do not open it. Delete it right away! This virus removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll files) from your computer.
Sara
If you want to have a look I'm sending you a link to a site where it's all explained. As far as I'm concerned, having been cheated by hoaxes a couple of time, whenever I receive an alert about a virus or whatever, I always type the name of it and the word hoax in Google. You'd be surprised to find out how often you get an affirmative result.
http://www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=269&page=3
Robert
(elderbob)
My first concern is that it is not signed and the address is not in my data-base. That is not to say that the person who sent the mail is not in this group. I am just being cautious. The best advice ever for a computer user, is to never open an email from someone you don't know or trust. In this case, I don't think I know this person, and I am not sure that I trust them.
I am also concerned because the person who sent this email did not sign it. I make a point to not only sign all of my emails but to put a short electronic "signature" at the end. Part of that is for "brand" recognition (remember, I work in the private sector) and part of it is because if
someone is sending a message out under my name without my permission, they are not likely to send my personal "signature". It's not a great protection, but it does fairly well assure the reader that I am who I say I am.
The address suffix ".edu" indicates that this mail comes from some sort of educational setting. That in itself might be a warning. It is not at all unusual for viruses to start from educational institutions. Just think about the local university near you and how many students have email account there. Although the servers of those accounts are usually top heavy with virus protection devices, the virus programmers intent is to get that virus past those protections and into the general internet world. The university setting also, shields the perpetrator to some degree (although any account is traceable). Just because it has a ".edu" on the end, does not render it safe.
I think that it is always wise to be aware of good preventive virus protection. However, it is not unusual in these days and times for us to get dubious information from who knows where.
Usually when I get a notice that a virus is afoot, I make sure that all of my virus protection programs are up to date and running, then I go to the web-site of my virus protection (I use Norton, but others do an equally adequate job) and see if they have that virus listed or if there are any additional precautions or warnings.
For this particular virus, I found that Symantec lists it as a "Hoax" that has been circulating since 2001. Once a hoax is out of the box, it is not unusual for it to circulate periodically over some period of time. In fact, we really don't know how long such hoaxes are going to last.
I have included a URL for the specific page for the WTC Hoax:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/wtc.survivor.hoax.ht
ml <BLOCKED::http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/wtc.surviv or.hoax.html>
Again, I think it is very important to be ever vigilant, but on the other hand, if we freeze up every time someone cries "wolf" then our time on the net will be much less enjoyable.
... I hope in the future that you will sign your emails and any time that you pass a message about a virus, tell us where that information comes from. If you are not of this group and you have malicious intent, then sorry, you aren't welcome here.
elderbob
PS. I hope my response has not been out of line. There ought to be a page somewhere for Webheads that more thoroughly explains internet security. I also crosses my mind that some nations may have different systems of protection although I really don't know.
Robert
Mr. Brown, I owe you my humble apology. I hope you will consider forgiving me for being overly cautious about your post. I have now made sure that I have your address and name listed in my database.
I think my message still stands. That is, we should all be vigilant about email and virus. If you don't know where the message came from, then don't open it. I don't know why I did not have David's address in my list of participants, but I have now corrected it.
David
It is a hoax. It came from one of the professors, Natalie Maldonado, st my university (CSULB), so I trusted it. She received responses from others, forwarded to me, noting that it is a hoax.
I was a bit surprised that you didn't have me in your database. Thanks for adding me.
Sus
Managing your Friends list in YM:
once the Messenger software is installed on your PC and you're inside, find the Tools menu, scroll down to the Manage Friends' list - or a much simpler shortcut: ctrl +A
My yahoo ID is susannenyrop and I would like to ask you to add me to your Friends list in case you wish to participate in the online session with Michael Coghlan on Wednesday, Feb.
4, at 22:00 - 23:00 GMT, as I'm the moderator responsible for this chat session.
>Audrey asks: PS. Is there an easy or quick way to add everyone's Yahoo! ID to my messenger list, or will it have to be done one by one?
Audrey, I would like to know this as well - how do you manage large numbers of Yahoo Ids quickly; I don't think that it could be done otherwise but typing one by one, but did any of you perhaps create an updated list of these to share in the YG Files section?
I've received a few invitations to "Join Yahoo Messenger" - this is only for invitations to newcomers who have not yet installed the programnme.
Elizabeth
I'd appreciate seeing the full link, as one can't copy and save tinyurls as a favorite.
...A tip: If you have your mailer set to make hard returns at the end of every line, you will have much larger files than necessary.
Susan Borg
I am having some problems; when I send in my introduction to the three TESOL courses I'm taking, they don't get posted unless I send
them through YG directly! Could it be the new user name we set up recently? ... on opening the computer we see KIDS or DAD. I want to
participate but hope to use the mailing list and not alway YG.
Robert
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ab/impexp/
.... The reason I didn't print the instruction in a word file for you is because they are different for every different email program that you might
be using. So Yahoo has instructions for each individual program. You will have to find the one that fits your OS>
Sus
First, after you installed the Yahoo Messegner programme (last version is 5.6 I think) , then you need to run the Sound Wizard (from the help menu) , as Antoina & co. did, in five steps. These are simple to do, and my computer had no problem. Then I tried to change settings for the firewall, as suggested tin the Yahoo help files - ports 5000 and 5100 are opened and communication settings are no proxy´.
This helped me, at least to see a missing microphone icon. But still, I canneither hear nor speak. I've been using voice in several other applications
on my newer PC /Windows XP, but earlier, I was using a Macintosh for which the yahoo Messenger HAS no voice function, so I've been used to be the mute participant. Yes, my microphone is working and open, and yes, my headset is
chosen as the sound output source. Any idea, anyone?
Online support is sometimes, for myself speaking, the best way, after all, to help each other cope with diffiicult matters when it comes to online commucanition; yesterday we hd planned a voice session and I was left out, but I had so much helpful suggestions from others in that meeting, unsing the text chat in Yahoo. I'm working from home and have no techie around; not even my own son (who built my PC) has any real idea about all these communication tools that we're dealing with, and besides he's so busy working as a night guard and the father of tree little kids that I will leave him doing what he has to do. Some good advice: don't panic just because you're confronted with failures and error descriptions, such as thisone. Remember to speak up, make a clear and detailed report and post it ,
maybe someone has got the key to your specific problem.
Teresa
I started chatting with Eva around four o'clock, as planned, but when she activated voice, I couldn't hear her, though she could hear me. Then Agata popped up in another window when I was telling Eva about the Audio Setup Wizard (main window Help menu). It's important that you run through it to see if everything is set up properly.
I said we could call a conference through the Friend menu, and all of a sudden there I was joining Eva's conference. Quick learner she is! When Agata joined us there were still sound problems on their side, so I told Agata about the Audio Wizard test. In the meantime, Eva decided to reboot and, when Agata or me called her back to the conference, her audio was working.
After Agata had checked the Wizard and said everything seemed in order, I believe she was logged off. Then it was my turn to get an Error message and also decided to reboot. As far as I remember, we didn't get together with Agata again. She just got in touch with me, when she logged back, to say through text that she had to leave.
Eva and I decided to try our luck and continue talking. Everything ran smoothly from then on and we were able to have a long chat. We brainstormed a few pieces of advice to include in our guidelines prior to the Wed. chat and then went on to talk about a couple of features of Yahoo Messenger, some of the activities Webheads have carried out with students using text and voice, additional activities that can be done, problems/glitches that can happen, etc.
Eva came to the conclusion I arrived at ever since we started using voice: it is a very powerful mode and says so much about the person(s) we're interacting with. It's funtastic!
Thank you, Eva, for an interesting and lively chat. For two online colleagues who had never talked to each other in real time, we sure had a lot to say! :-)
Teresa
Bee answered it very clearly and seems to have "killed two birds with one stone" for you: the technical "bird" and the categorizing "bird"! See, there's always a Webhead in cyberspace to lend a helping hand.
Leah, remember that we are here to learn with and help one another, so let's not feel shy about asking questions, whatever we may consider them. We all go through this phase when we start working with a new tool. I had my doubts about Yahoo Groups some time ago and, believe me, I still have a couple.
BTW, in the Week 2 activities we give advice related to 'categorizing' Bookmarks or Favorites:
Open a Becoming a Webhead (BaW) folder with any number of subfolders to keep relevant and useful links for quick reference. Well-organized bookmarks are extremely helpful and save a lot of time!
María
and talking about organizing folders, take into account that you can always save you "messages as
text" (by clicking on a botton-right corner link if you have a Yahoo account) and take them directly to
your hard disk or whatever.
Daf
Hi Susan welcome to our BaW session, nice to have you here, please make yourself at home :-)
Regarding your problem, if you are getting this message in your e-mail box you should be able to reply to it from there. Are you sure you are
using the correct mail addres of the different yahoo groups? Ours is :
becomingwebhead@yahoogroups.com
Are you using the e-mail address you registered with to the YG?
Teresa
Anyway, I'd just like to say 'hello' and also let you know that I wasn't able to download the Webhead file from you cyber office earlier today. I
always got that hateful message "This program has performed an illegal operation"!!! I'll try again tomorrow. I'm also dying to read it. The problem will be finding the time. Whay are teachers such busy people?
Maria Teresa, do people in Italy (as many in Portugal still do!) also think that teachers only work part time? It gets on my nerves!!!
Hope you enjoy the BaW session!
Teresa
As for teachers working part-time in Italy there are a few people who share thus idea but they're fewer and fewer. At the moment public opinion is very concerned about a school reform the government is trying to launch. They're retrenching in any possible way and both parents teachers and students are really worried. On a short time their destroying what it toke ages to build.
Daf
Here is the abstract:
"This paper features a case study of a well-established online community of practice, Webheads in Action (WIA), formed by EFL teachers and Communication (CMC). The main object of WIA is to explore and use electronic tools highlighting the value of online CoPs for teachers’ professional development, through the analysis of WIA’s birth and development, the interactions its members are engaged in, as well as the community’s artifacts.
Maria Teresa, why don't you consider putting it up on a web page and sharing it with all the participants? In that way there will be no downloading problems.
Sus
To have him as our Webheads special guest is really a scoop! That very special Cyber-cat, dr. Curt Bonk is really a charismatic and inspiring leader of online learning; I've met him live, on location, face to face, with the Global Educators' Network at the Telelearning conference in Toronto 2000 and was amazed by his dynamic, speed talking but well considered and impressive presentation of his visionary but realistic ideas - let me cut a quote a passage from his page:
" teachers are beginning to realize what types of pedagogical activities (e.g., debates, mentoring, role playing, brainstorming, problem-based learning, etc.) foster learner interaction, collaboration, and excitement for learning when using various educational technologies. Unfortunately, these new technological and pedagogical opportunities are appearing at the same time that funding sources are being depleted or erased entirely. As this perfect e-storm surrounds us, we must think carefully about the speed and direction in which we sail our ships, especially when entering uncharted territories. "
http://www.ptsc.k12.in.us/ice/Keynotes/Bonk.htm
