ESL/EFL Sister Classes

I know that a small number of us will be teaching for two or three months longer, but the majority are entering their break very soon. It’s been a great experience for my students and me, and I look forward to some new presentations being posted in the next few weeks and really look forward to the fall.

Most of the teachers who are presently involved want to continue, and I’ve been exploring if there are some additional ones who would like to join us at that time. The response has been very positive. Additional teachers in Japan, Greece, the Middle East, Argentina, and in the United States would like to participate in the fall when we start in earnest again.

I’m thinking we might want to start a conversation about what that next semester might look like in early August (I know Tibor has some great ideas!), though it certainly wouldn’t hurt if you’d like to start sharing your ideas now in the comments section.

Larry

Introduction

These are the results of a questionnaire I gave to my students at the beginning of April, to get feedback about their knowledge of computing, and their reactions to the international project.  It was given out to 50 students, in 3 classes.

Dot MacKenzie

Kuwait University

Kuwait

Results of Questionnaire

1  I can send and receive emails in English

Yes  36

No   13

N/R 2

I can send attachments by email

Y28

N21

3  I can make a movie with www.dvolver.com

Y26

N19

4  I have sent my movie to Ms. Dot

Y16

N34

5  I have registered with Blackboard

http://bb.kuniv.edu

Y23

N23

6  I have changed my password and email address in Blackboard

Y14

N36

7  I often check the 141 site in Blackboard to see if there is new information and files

Y22

N28

8  I have subscribed to http://handsacrosstheoceans.edublogs.org

Y16

N31

9  I have posted a comment in http://esleflstudents.edublogs.org/

Y11

N39

10  I enjoy the computer lab work

Y46

N3

11  I have learned a lot in the computer lab

Y38

N11

12  I would like to bring my laptop to the computer lab

Y22

N27

13  I have subscribed to http://esleflstudents.edublogs.org/

Y16

N33

14  I like working with overseas students

Y35

N15

15  I have used the Internet to learn grammar

Y19

N29

16  I have used the Internet to become a better reader

Y43

N5

17  I have a computer at home

Y45

N3

18  I would like to have a foreign email pal

(please send me an email if you want one. You can also get one at the end of semester, if you are too busy just now)

Y22

N27

19  I hate computers

Y1

N47

20  I hate the Internet

Y1

N45

Notes:

Here’s the excellent article the Sacrament Bee ran about our project today:

Burbank Students Use Blog To Learn English

Hello everybody,

we’ve finally finished our voicethread and we’ve uploaded it on the students showcase. It’s been more difficult than I would have predicted when we started but personally I’m quite pleased with the final result.

On a different note, I’d like to tell you that I’ll be away for 5 days and I don’t think I’ll access our blog. Please leave comments to the voicethread, we’d love to see your reactions.

Thanks a lot,

Mona

Dot, Kuwait

In the short time that we have been running the project, it has been interesting to notice differences in the students.

1 In Kuwait, most of the classes are segregated. I have two boys in one class that mainly consists of girls.

2 Some of my students are veiled, so that you will never see them in photos or videos.

3 It is also unlikely that any of them will produce a Voicethread using their own voices. If I have male classes again, perhaps they will produce videos.

4 The knowledge of computing is quite low for some of the students. They are not used to sending emails in Arabic, let alone English.

5 They love seeing their own names on the Internet, even if it is only when photos they give me are published.

6 It is very gratifying to see them mastering even a low level skill using a computer.

7 We cannot devote too much time to the project, unless we continue with work that is connected to their syllabus. Towards the end of semester, we will produce more paragraphs that the students in the other countries might find interesting.

8 At the moment, they are working on PowerPoint presentations, but I cannot upload them onto the Internet as they usually just cut and paste someone else’s work. I am trying to tell them about the horrors of plagiarism!

Dear All,
this is just to let you know that finally the Budapest project is off the ground too.
As we are having (a rather chilly) Spring break, there was no way for us to create a Voicethread, so instead we did a presentation, which we have posted on the Showcase site.It’s just part of what there is, we’re going to upload the presentations as they get ready. I have embedded the presentation in the blog at Showcase, but have also given a link to a full-size version, but you can’T comment in the presentation, it has to be done through comments in the blog.

Please feel free to comment, and encourage your students to do so, too. I know my stds are really eager to discuss living in different cities.

Looking forward to your comments and views.

Best regards,
Tibor

Tibor raised an important point in his recent email to us — it’s clear that moving to an online social (educational) network will serve us all better in the long-run. Obviously Ning is the ideal choice. Unfortunately, my District’s filters continue to block images from Ning, including the CAPTCHA that you have to copy in order to sign-up.

So, since I’m the “problem,” it appropriately is my responsibility to find an alternative.

Here are the alternatives I will be looking at:

Brica Box (it’s brand new this week and looks promising)

Big Tent

Spruz

Webjam

Snappville

Six Groups

Crowdvine (where I opened an experimental network for us a couple of months ago, and it looks pretty good)

All of them are free, and it only takes a minute or two to start a network. They all have most, if not all, of the same features as Ning. I think three of the main criteria I’m looking at are:

1) Are they unblocked by my District’s filters? Several are fine, though I still have to check on a couple.

2) Are they easy to use?

3) Can you easily embed slideshows and videos?

I’ll look at them more closely over the next month. If anyone else gets a chance to check them out please let us all know what you think.

Larry

Kuwait has a lot of beautiful scenes and places to visit. You can visit the museums, malls, beaches and cinemas. Moreover, you can enjoy seeing and visiting Kuwait Towers, which are the most famous water towers in Kuwait. Also, you can go shopping in modern and beautiful malls, and don’t forget to visit the old shops, in the famous souq (market) called “Souq Al- Mobarakia”, which contains everything related to traditional life here.

Everything in Kuwait can be enjoyable in a different way and at a different time. I advise you not to forget to take photos of every place you visit here, because Kuwait is changing year after year, so you must memorize every year’s sights.

Kuwait Towers

Liberation Tower

Mosque 

Kuwait at Night

Today Edublogs announced a big improvement that allows much easier embedding into blog posts, and increases the number of things that can be embedded. You can read about it here.

Basically, now all you have to do is click on the code bottom and paste the whole embed code in the post and you’re done. I’ll be trying it with a VoiceThread later on Monday.

Larry

We have uploaded some photos of Kuwait and movies directed by some of the students into the hands across the oceans‘ blog.  The photos were taken during the National Day and Independence Day celebrations in February.  Sara Ebrahim supplied the photos.  We have some photos of old Kuwait in the photo section.  The movies are in the movie making section, using Dvolver.