Thanks for Your Participation - Recording of Week 3 Live Informal Group-Meeting Is Here!

Hi! We'd like to thank you so much for your participation in our third live group-meeting that was carried out in the Webheads LearningTimes vOffice (Link), on Sunday. Debby, Jen, and I, Buthaina, would like to thank, especially Sylwia (Link), Mona, (Link) Mark (Link), Lorena (Link), and Hala (Link) for their great contribution to the live discussion through sharing ideas on ways to integrate RSS technology in their ESP classes. It was, indeed, such an informative and fun session.

For those of you who couldn't make it to our live meeting of Week 3, the recording of the live discussion can be found at Recordings wiki page.

After you finish viewing and listening to the recording, please share your ideas on ways you plan to use RSS technology for your ESP classes. You could do that either by adding your ideas to this wiki page, or through a post to your blog. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your collaboration and cooperation!

EVO 08 Web 2.0 for ESP Team
PS This draft entry was saved and will be published when connection is restored here at my end in the Gulf Region! Thank you for your patience. (Buth)

If You Are Using Moodle...Read this!

Results of the poll created earlier, by Debby in our YG, showed that some of you are interested in learning more about Moolde!

Harold Jarche has blogged some interesting informative comments about the book, Moodle Teaching Techniques, by William Rice, stating that: "This is a good guidebook for anyone developing online courses with Moodle. The introduction covers some basic instructional techniques and then the book gets right into the “how-to’s” of course building."

One thing I really liked was Harold's bottom line about the book and his comment on Rice's recommendations on how wikis, forums and blogs should be used. Thanks, Harold!


Hope this helps, folks

Recording of Week 2 Live Informal Group-Meetting & Thanks for Your Participation

Hi all,

This post is to thank, Anna, Toni, Janet, Moira, Jen, and our special guest, Michael Ivy for their participation in our second live group-meeting of week 2. The meeting went very well and the discussion was so fruitful with many new tips and ideas on blogs and blogging for ESP classes.

Michael Ivy shared a link to his ESL/EFL blog for EFL learners in Rome. He talked to us about some the techniques he uses through his blog to invite for more interaction from his students. He also talked about how easy and quickly it is now for anybody to add widgets to a blogger blog. He showed an example of how to install the widget of Tag-Board into your blog; indeed, doing that was a breeze! Finally, Michael invited us all to post comments to his ESL/EFL blog! Michael also talked about some different types of blogs, such as personal and just for hobbies and fun blogs, like the bicycle blog, Rural Rides in Central Lazio, which he's been maintaining!

Later, Jen did an interesting short presentation on blogger vs wordpress blogs! She highlighted important features available at both platforms, in addition to advantages an backwards of each. She then talked to us about tags and how they can be used to help in the assessment process in any online course that uses a blog as its main LMS. You could learn more about this technique and other relevant stories through Jen's latest post to this blog.

For those of you who couldn't make it to the second live informal group-meeting, please check out the link to the recording of the event provided on our Recordings wiki page.

Thanks, again for your participation, and we look forward to meeting you all live online next week!

All the best :)

Second Live Group-Meeting in Webheads vOffive at Learningtimes

Hi all,

This is a reminder to let you know that our second weekly live group-meeting
is going to be held in the Webheads vOffice at Learningtimes, later
today/tonight at 20:00-21:00 GMT. This time was voted for by the
majority of you, according to the results of the poll that was closed
on Jan 25 at 24:15 GMT, (20:00 - 21:00 GMT, 7 votes, 25.93%). Please
see complete poll results at the bottom of this post.

Please note, your participation is very important as we are going to
discuss our own experience with blogs and blogging for our current or
future ESP classes. Also, some guest bloggers may join our live
session to talk a bit about their blogging experience and answer some
of your questions.

The live online group-meetings are a good opportunity, especially for
those of you who are very busy and need to catch up with some
materials and weekly activities already covered and completed.

Please bring all your questions, ideas, thoughts and comments on Week
2 with you to the live session. Also, if you'd like to add other
relevant points or matters to the agenda of today's live discussion,
please sent them here to this list so that we can add them.

If it's your first time to join us at a live session, please check out the Tutorials wiki page to learn more about how to access the Webheads vOffice.

Looking forward to meeting you all live online, soon :)


PS Poll CHOICES AND RESULTS

- 13:00 - 14:00 GMT, 5 votes, 18.52%
- 14:00 - 15:00 GMT, 6 votes, 22.22%
- 15:00 - 16:00 GMT, 5 votes, 18.52%
- 19:00 - 20:00 GMT, 4 votes, 14.81%
- 20:00 - 21:00 GMT, 7 votes, 25.93%

I Am Not a Blogger!!

Yes, I am a blog reader and blog user, but I am not a blogger! I am only a teacher who likes and tries to use blogs for her classes. I may become a blogger one day, but at the moment I like to use bloggs for my classes.

A blog is a very practical tool that is easy to use by students and teachers, this is why I always integrate blogs in my classes, and encourage students, especially those enrolled in ESP, Science English or Engineering courses that required students to write search papers to present by the end of a semester. I ask my students to create their group-blogs so that they can help one another learn and improve their research and writing skills. In addition to that they learn how to learn collaboratively they also learn new skills on how to work on a project cooperatively and collaboratively.

I believe a blog is an essential tool for ESP classes since it really helps prepare lour students for their future jobs or careers. Most International Enterprises or businesses in any industry in general have integrated blogs to be used by employees. So, having our students use blogs for research or assignment or any other educational purposes would definitively support their learning process during their education years and later in their workplaces.

It's be great to hear your feedback or comment on this entry, folks!