My Personal Learning Environment

I have to say that it was strange to think about my own learning environment. I always thought that I learn from some university lessons and by watching dvds only but, the truth is this is only a small part of the world where I take all the information from.
Making up my mind I realized I have a pretty much expanded learning environment. Of course, I learn many things during university lessons but, in my opinion, I learn even more in my freetime. In fact, you can see that in my mindmap(please click on SPLE.mm to see it): There are a lot more "arms" in the freetime section as there are concerning the university environment due to the websites I often go to during my freetime such as Google, youtube ecc.
I've put two books under "learning/studying" which I really appreciate very much. One is about how to write commercial e-mails in English and the other one is about how to make commercial phone calls in English. In my opinion, it is very useful to be prepared in that field if you want to work with languages because sooner or later you will have to respond in English (to e-mails and phone calls). There are very good examples in those books and therefore, I hope I won't be freaking out when I will have to respond to a phone call at work one day...
I hope I managed well to upload and link my mindmap otherwise I'll try again and again or simply explain it to you in class.
See you all soon.
Caroline

Judging online sources

Hi my peers!



First of all, I apologize for posting my comment with delay but I really hadn't noticed we had to do this work within Friday. Usually, Sunday is my big English-blogging-homework-day and this time it should have been Friday already. I'm sorry about that!!!



The criteria I usually refer to are very close to the ones I found on the links. I remember when I wrote my thesis my professor told me to be careful when choosing material from the Internet.
So I followed the criteria given in the first link:

"Is there a reference list or bibliography of corroborative evidence?"
"Is there a date when the site was last updated - how long ago did this happen?"
"Does the site seem to be permanent or part of a permanent organisation?"

I always make sure the websites are still up to date and where they found the information. As far as my thesis is concerned, I chose information based on researches and proper bibliographies only. I went to Google to see who the author was - if it wasn't written on the website - and to check what else the author had published regarding translation theories ( That's what my thesis was about.). In that way I made sure to select authors that really were involved with the topic and that they were "name-brands" I couldn't know before.

I think it is very important to see WHO wrote the articles I might found interesting and who made up the website. I mean, just as we mentioned last week, everyone can write just about anything in the Internet and therefore, the most important thing is to check if the website is of a University or known organization and if it's still getting updated regularly.

Furthermore, I pay attention to the language style, that is if the text is in scientific language or colloquial language. I think you can tell a lot of a text's reliability by the way it is organized and written. A reliable source for a thesis would probably be written in a very formal style - maybe taken from a book for educational purpose rather than just to give information.

Ok, once more: I'm sorry for being so late. See you in class.

Caroline

Broadcast Your Knowledge

Hi everyone! Watching those videos really was great fun, wasn't it!? I have to say that I go to youtube regularly. I never shared videos. I usually just search for 'fun stuff' and music videos. I had never thought about using it for the purpose of improoving my English and, honestly, I prefer the other websites I mentioned last week and the week before for studying languages. I mean (like I always say) it's always useful to watch and listen to something in English but, in my opinion, youtube is more something for ones leisure time.
I personally would not use youtube for studying. However, you can get lots of information in there.

I like the wide range of things you can find and the division in categories. However, what makes me wonder most is how many people actually broadcast themselves!!! There are people making fun of themselves and everybody else and they put it online so that everyone can see it. They're sooo many. That's weird!! I just read that right now there are 52 milion videos on youtube. Wow!! That is something else in nowadays-society, the need to show yourself to the world.

See, what smart and clever people those three guys who invented youtube are. They knew that before anyone else or, at least, they knew what people were still missing in the web-world.

See you soon. Caroline

The WoRLd oF PoDCaSts

Of course, I knew about podcasts before doing this homework but I had no idea of its wide range of topics and sections!! I'm familiar with downloading music from the iTunes musicstore and now, I can proudly announce I just downloaded my first podcast audiobook. It's not the first time that I listen to audiobooks but it's the first time I had one for free ;-)

I took "Persuasion" by Jane Austen from http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html. There were many other books that I'm interested in , too. However, I chose Persuasion because I still have this book at home from our first year in English literature (remember,right?) and so if there's something I don't understand I just look it up. If you go to this website you'll definitely find other novels ecc that might be useful to you. It's completely different to listen to a story than just to read it. In my opinion, you really have to concentrate on the readers' voices. I'm going to try it next time I will be on an airplane because, usually, the airplane noise really bothers me when I try to read something.



The second podcast I found nice was one about history ( http://www.historyonair.com/ ).

Here you can listen to articles about any kind of history and you can listen to it right away without downloading it. I chose an article about Elizabeth I. Not only can you listen to what the reader is saying but, you can also see a list of articles or websites where all the information was taken from ( just in case you need further information). I think audio files like this one are great because I can improove my English ( listening ability and comprehension exercise) and I can learn many things about history at the same time.



The third podcast I chose is from the New York Times newspaper. You can find all the audio files at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html. Unfortunately, I couldn't subscribe to this website in Bloglines but I put it into delicious anyway. The reason why I didn't want to renounce was that the language is quite elevated and the topics are very different from one another. Moreover, I liked the Music Popcast. It's a review of the latest albums and music events. Well, you might think that there is nothing special about that but, in this case you can listen to the music too, which means that you can listen to the critics but you can immediately decide on yourself whether you like the album or not.

Last but not least I found a website where you can download university lessons from the University of Berkeley at http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_feeds.php. To tell you the truth, I couldn't manage to listen to the audio files which makes me really sad :-(
But maybe you can and I think it's very useful. You can decide on different courses such as Biology, Engeneering etc. In my opinion, it can be very effective regarding the comprehension excercise. I experienced myself how very difficult it is to sit in a university classroom listening to professors that speak very quickly in a language which is not your mother tongue. When I attended the first lessons here in Italy I hardly understood anything! It was so difficult to follow an academic discourse on history or law. So I think it can really help to listen to this sort of podcast. I will try again and again to download the files...wish me luck!!!

I guess that's all for this time. Enjoy listening to my podcasts!!
See you soon. Caroline

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING and DEL.ICIO.US

It's very Del.icio.us indeed!!!

I enjoyed searching for websites in delicious. This time I focussed on tags like English, language and phonetics. It's really incredible how many websites deal with language learning and correct pronunciation. I played around a lot with the tools they offer you in order to 'train your ear' and pronounce words and letters correctly.

When I started exploring in del.icio.us I wasn't aware of how useful social bookmarking really is. I realized that it was a good way to share different websites within our group. However, I totally forgot about how much better it is not to save every single url I am interested in on my computer!! This is what I like best about del.icio.us.

As far as the choices of my peers are concerned, I think we focussed on quite the same tags ( English, dictionary, writing, listening etc. ). Anyway, it was very interesting to see what they chose as their favorite websites. I, too, tried to post the Online Etymology Dictionary that Nina found but, unfortunately, my Internet Explorer didn't want me to post it and then I didn't remember the url. I'm so happy she put it among her favorites. It's so interesting to see where certain expressions come from and when they first appeared. Thanks Nina!!

Another website I really liked in particular was chosen by Eleonora about how to write business letters. I would like to work in a company, too, and sooner or later I will have to write formal letters, I guess. Therefore, it's useful to know where I can look for some good advice.

I think everybody did a great job and I found it very interesting to go through what my peers have chosen this time, even if the tags where quite the same as mine. It was interesting to see how those similar websites arrange the same topics and options such as listening and comprehension exercises in a different way.

See you soon! Caroline

...about feeds and feed aggregators

Hi everyone!


Okay, I have to confess that, this time, I was very worried about the e-tivity. I couldn't come to the lessons last week because I'm in Germany right now. When I read our task for the first time I just thought I wouldn't ever be able to cope with bloglines. I mean, even the word "feed aggregator" sounds scary to me, and it did even more so when I first read the post.

But now, I have to say that it wasn't so bad after all. The video guide was very easy to understand and so it was to create the feed aggregator. So again, I improved my computer skills (I guess) and I explored a new section of the blogsphere.

Anyway, it seems to be a very well organized way to check on the blogs you're interested in. I think it turns out to be very useful regarding our peers' blogs because, now, I just have to go to bloglines and I can see if you (my group members) already posted the e-tivity and then I can go to comment on the post. It saves a lot of time, actually, doesn't it!?

I don't have to check each blog to see if there's something new for me to read.
I mean, I'm enjoying myself more and more doing those online activities but I'm very thankful there's a way to save some time. You know, it already takes a lot of time for me to write the post as I never learned how to write using ten fingers ;-).
I absolutely have to learn that.....

See you soon.

Caroline

The first two weeks of blogging

My first two weeks of blogging have been very interesting to me. Initially, I was a little worried because blogging was completely new for me. But I think that I managed it quite good so far. Honestly, the Technorati website almost made me go crazy! There's such a huge amount of information that I hardly knew where to start. However, I think blogging is a funny way of comunicating with people you don't even know but who have the same interests and it's useful at the same time. That's what makes blogs so special. As far as the improvement in language skills is concerned, I think blogs can help a lot. I remember the scientific blog which one girl of my group suggested and, I must say that I immediately thought that it would improve my English if I read those kind of blogs more often. Of course, when we are commenting on our members' posts' we should pay attention to grammar mistakes or false friends and so on. None of us is a native speaker and therefore, we all still make mistakes. So we have to make sure not to adapt other people's mistakes...
I really enjoyed creating my own blog. There's nothing really special about my blog but, I'm kind of proud of it anyway. Maybe that's because two weeks ago I hardly knew anything about the blogsphere and now, I have one on my own.
I see you soon. Caroline

May I introduce myself.........

What you can see in this picture is 'Potsdamer Platz' in Berlin. I chose this picture because I am from Berlin and i really just love it! Whenever I go home to visit my family I go to this place because it represents the "new" Berlin. It's architecture is fantastic as you can see in the picture. Last time I went to Berlin I met a friend of mine at Potsdamer Platz...we wanted to go shopping. But then we found out there would be Matt Damon to present his new movie right there at Potsdamer Platz. There was a red carpet and lots of people. In fact, I was so lucky to see him..he was quite close to me actually! So you never know what an afternoon in this place can get you to...and that's why I love Berlin so much.


See you soon.... Caroline