Get Vocal!

Voicethread assignment instructions:
1. With a partner open www.Voicethread.com ; register as a user.
2. Read partner's IT summary.
3. Write a 75-100 word opinion commentary about your partner’s summary; exchange commentaries with your partner and correct / edit them.
4. Record your commentary of your partner’s summary to the Voicethread site.
5. Upload / post your Voicethread commentary to your 174 blog site.

Heating Up

By now you have commented on each other's posts demonstrating your proficiency in blogging skills: posts, comments, links, etc. Now we will be moving further into the topic: the consequences of global warming and your and others' opinions as well as technical challenges.

You will view the film, An Inconvenient Truth, and make two posts. The first post is a summary of the movie similar to the reading summaries which should include introductory and concluding paragraphs. However, it should not include any statements of opinion!

Your analysis and opinion should be covered in the second post where you address what you think of the film's effectiveness at addressing the topic of global warming/local solutions. You should cite facts, references and solutions from the film as examples to support your points as well as two other sources (Check the assignment description under blog entries and requirements). Again include an introduction and conclusion to your post.

Check the task requirements (entries link) for word length for both posts. An opinion interview using Voice Thread technology will be completed next week. Check out www. Voicethread.com and keep on blogging!

Blog On

I enjoyed reading through your posts as you begin grappling with the issues around global warming. Some of you have gotten very creative with your blogs: well-written posts and professional lay out.

We are about to begin a new series of tasks, so we are taking this time to ensure everyone is caught up. You will receive written feedback from me this week regarding your blog. On your blogs, include graphics: photos, art and videos that are pertinent to your posts.

Read and comment on the other students' global warming posts. This will give you opportunity to glean ides from others about blog layout. Happy blogging!

Blogging as a Part of My Teaching and Learning

Sharing my native language, English, and my culture, American, has made it possible
for me to encounter peoples of many different languages and cultures throughout the world. I have taught adults in academic and workplace settings in the U.S., Japan and Costa Rica. This has made it possible for me to travel around North America, Asia and the Pacific. Thus, I have also gotten to share in others’ languages and cultures as well as teach my own.

Currently, I have the opportunity to teach Emiratis in applied programs at the Abu Dhabi Men’s College. This teaching experience is proving both challenging and rewarding as I increase my understanding of Arabic peoples and culture. I look forward to another term of working with students I’ve gotten to know, sharing at a deeper level and building on the skills we have developed.

This blog is a tangible representation of both the rewards and challenges of teaching at this level. The blog itself manifests my own skill building as I enhance my technological skills and incorporate them in my teaching methods to further serve the needs of my students. I am creating this blog to serve first, as a model for my students’ blog spots, second, as a channel of communication between us and finally for my own professional development as an educator.

Technological advancement mirrors language development in this instance. For together, I and my students, are experimenting, growing in sophistication, to enhance our ability to communicate: the heart of all language and cultural learning.