Laine’s Edublog

N. Liakos’ Webheads at TESOL blog for 2008

Dear all,there is an article in the April issue of Olemiss (University of Mississippi) Technews about some of the Web 2.0 tools I created with my ESL students. You can read it here:http://www.olemiss. edu/depts/ it/technews/ TechNews- April08.pdf or go to the Technews website: http://www.olemiss. edu/depts/ it/technews/ and check the April 2008 issue.

My students and I have explored Voicethread – and created a couple of presentations on different topics you might find interesting and fun to watch! For teachers: I have also uploaded a lesson plan you can find on my TeacherWeb page (“Lesson Plans” section).Check on the following links if you want to find out more about:
1. Beyonce and her career as a singer and actress: http://voicethread.com/#q.b106050 (or type in “Beyonce” in the Browse section of Voicethread);
2. My experience in NY by Gabi Lu http://voicethread.com/share/103345/
3. Advantages of Travelling http://voicethread.com/#u75245.b89426
4. Past Perfect -http://voicethread.com/#q.b90651 and http://voicethread.com/share/89461/
5. Modal Verbs: http://voicethread.com/#u64820.b89478.i455697
6. Niagara Falls: http://voicethread.com/#q.b105995
7. Rodeo Superstitions http://voicethread.com/share/106194/
8. The sttue of Liberty http://voicethread.com/#q.b105979
Don’t forget to create an account or sign in to be able to watch them.

I heard a lot of complaints while I was at the TESOL Convention. Here were some of them:

It was disorganized.

The maps and signs were inadequate or unclear.

Volunteers were not well-informed, and sent people on wild goose chases.

Scheduling:
In general, a shorter convention meant more schedule conflicts than usual, so people were double-booked and could not attend everything they needed to.

Popular speakers were scheduled in small rooms, so people had to wait a long time to get into sessions and then were sometimes turned away. The rooms on the fifth floor of the Sheraton were infamous. They were so overcrowded at one point that fire marshals or police were called in for crowd control, and there were humongous lines at the elevators. People were allowed up only when other people left. This was not a problem in the EV; events were well-attended but not over-crowded. Mini-workshops filled up but if you got there on the first day you could sign up for anything, and if you came to full sessions you could often get in if people who had signed up didn’t show, or you could attend as an observer.

Internet:
Inadequate and expensive internet access. In the hotels, free Wi-Fi was available only in the lobbies, and presenters were required to pay exorbitant fees for computers and internet access in their rooms (I was told over $800 per session!!!!), so many presenters opted to show only screen shots while others just resorted to presenting in the EV, which had constant internet access but very limited space.

Expense:
Well, New York is an expensive city. The convention hotels were expensive, the restaurants were expensive, the convention itself was expensive for those who paid out of pocket. Everything cost more than it would in most smaller cities.

Nina,
It was lovely to meet you in New York and chat a little. I will be steadily connecting in the future and will search for the group on Facebook. Perhaps we can meet in tapped in as well, although I need to refresh my memory on how to do this. I picked up a lot of useful information at the conference, but I feel I missed even more. Jeff LeBow’s Voicethread is interesting. I have to keep hunting. Your lovely invitation encourages me to keep at it.

Thank you.

TESOL Conference Tools to Explore!
Dear all, my experience at the TESOL conference in New york has been equally exciting and productive. I have learned how to use a couple of online tools worth exploring: I think any ESL/EFL instructor could use them to engage language learners in creative mini projects. I would like to share these with you:
1. Dvolver: http://www.dvolver.com/live/home.html allows teachers and learners to create and direct their own mini-movies. There are a few easy steps to follow – you can choose your characters, scenes and backgrounds, add text and music and your movie is ready! You can see the one I created for my American Culture students here : http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/2008/04/having-fun-with-cartoons.html