Qual foi seu primeiro contacto com a língua escrita?

Do you remember your first encounter with letters?  Think back.  To me it happened when I was seven years old, first grade with no pre-school experience! What about you?

Sejam Bem-Vindos

Faça seus comentários a respeito desta idéia.  Faça perguntas também, se for o caso.  O que é um Dialogue Journal? O que é um Dialogue Journal sobre o ensino e aprendizagem do ingles em Angola? O que isso significa para voce? 

For Potential New Blog Readers

This blog was created to fulfill one of the 23 tasks I had to accomplish as part of a social media course I took called “23 Things.” 

Well, I am done with the course, which I really enjoyed, so now I can invite you to be part of this blog.  I would like to go back to the idea of creating an Angola Dialogue Journal for teachers and students of English, a place where they can share their thoughts about teaching and learning in general.  Your comments will be the entries of this journal.  You can write in your own language if you wish.  Let the writing begin!

Thing 17: Books 2.0

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

This article is more about the how the Net is changing the way we think by changing the way we read.  I thought this could only happen with new generation and was surprised to know that it can still happen with people like me (in my 40’s!) due to the plasticity of our brains.  According to this article our brains get so used to the immediate finding of information - by scanning titles and subtitles, moving our eyes vertically on the pages of the Net, finding the specific information at the touch of a bottom - that we lose the concentration we need when faced with a dense reading of a book.

The reading researcher, Maryanne Wolf, argues that deep reading is indistinguishable from deep thinking.  If the Net is making us lose our ability of deep thinking, we should all be concerned. 

Book Program Resources

I checked LitLovers out and really enjoyed it.  I happen to be participating in a book club for the first time and found the site really helpful.

eBooks

I’ve recently got a Kindle as a gift and I love it!  Being away from the US without APO services makes ordering books a long wait and a Kindle is definitely a solution.  What I absolute love about Kindles is that you can click on a word to search for its meaning in a dictionary – this is a fantastic tool for a second language learner. 

I did not know about Project Gutenberg so I was delighted to search through their shelves and learn about all the free possibilities! The challenge is to find time to read them all!

Audio Books

LibriVox – I browsed and was impressed with the site.  This might be wonderful for children with learning disabilities, reading difficulties.

Visual Bookshelf

I know have Visual Bookshelf on my Facebook and I love it!  I was surprised to see some of my friends there and learned about their reading preferences, exchange insights about a given book – real cool and useful.

Thing 23: Virtual Worlds

Maybe public diplomacy could use a virtual world to instruct people about PAS main programs.  We could have a whole virtual English program for students and teachers, given that the quality of English instruction in Angola is not ideal – we could even use insights from our English Fellows and Specialists to create lesson plans and interactive activities.  But I have to say, the whole virtual world idea is still a bit above my head.  I cannot really think about a virtual experience being richer than the real life experience.  Perhaps the virtual world could prep audiences to certain real life environment, such as teaching English, or using the library in places where these skills are not common practice, like here in Africa.  But then, how can you even introduce a virtual world when technology is not common place either?

Thing 22: The Mobile Web

 I could not open any .gov site.  I tried to open our site, America.gov but nothing worked.  I experienced with Amazon and google and it was all right.  I noticed you cannot use enter to initiate a search but click the bottom search.  Google.com came up in German and I could not change to English.  Smart phones in Angola are not common.  I used a smart phone to search for a book title when shopping for the holidays in the US – we were in the car and it was so helpful to find the book on amazon (I did not know the correct title) and found it in the nearest bookstore to complete a last minute task!  I loved it.  My husband recently bought an Ipod and he uses Skype from it to talk to our family in the US.  He also checks the news, google, email – but he can only use it in the house, where we have wireless  internet service.  He can download some news articles and read them later, if he chooses to. 

I can see Web-enabled phones being used in classrooms, allowing kids with learning disabilities, for example, and the general population, to have access to information right away.  For PAS I can see that the location awareness feature might be a valuable tool to map outreach response when done simultaneously – the press coverage for presidential election, for example, which will soon happen in Angola.  

Thing 21: Short Message Service (SMS)

I could use SMS to reach out for the Angolan English teachers to let them know about workshops, resources, eventual scholarship programs, etc, but I use email instead.  You don’t have to pay for text received here but the few phone networks here are not reliable.  Yesterday we could not contact anyone by cell phone for about two hours -the mission employees rely on radios in situations like that.  Cell phones are common in Angola more so than landlines, though.  I use SMS a lot with a small number of contacts because I am afraid the use with a large number would impair my phone, which I greatly use to work (it’s an Embassy phone).   

Thing 20: Search Engine Optimization

1.       Google Trends – I used keyword phrases such as Teaching English as a Second Language, English as a Second language, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, ESL, ESL Programs, EFL.  ESL was the most searched term. 

2.       When I limited the search to Angola, the information was not enough to produce a graphic under ESL but got some results under the term English.

3.       I update our Portuguese page Noticias de Washington daily posting translations from IIPC.  This page has an equivalent page in our English site called News From Washington, but the English version is a RSS feed.  I tried News from Washington on Google AdWords and, of course, the results were overwhelming.  So then I decided to search Assistance to Angola, a page that I do not update often but it is certainly of interest to Angolans.  The US Embassy Angola website came up a lot under that search.  And, as mentioned in Thing 19, the pages most searched in our site are the ones related to Visa.

4.       Google Insights for Search comes up in Portuguese in my computer so it was interested to try all the keyword phrases I tried in activity 1, but this time in Portuguese.  ESL is not a topic searched by Angolans but the single word “English” is.  It was interesting to see that the searches go up in the month of March during the three consecutive years, which is when the classes at universities start, and also we had English conferences organized by the Angola English Teachers Association during those months.

Thing 19: Web Site Usage Statistics

The country was Angola which I could not find in the list of countries.  I found it under Africa (region). The top 5 sites are the following:

1.       Angola Press News Agency

2.       Wikipedia – Angola

3.       Sonangol (oil company)

4.       Wikipedia – Luanda

5.       United States – Washington DC (Angola Embassy site in Washington DC).

There’s NO social networking platform listed among 58sites list.  Yahoo! Groups – Angola is the 30^th listed on the list.  I know more and more young people are using Facebook but not enough to make to the list.  Recently some protests were scheduled to happen in Luanda, lead mainly by Facebook users overseas.  After so many years in civil war and so many years with the same political party in power, local Angolans do not dare to expose themselves.  But some people say it is just a matter of time. 

Optional 3:  I am the Website content manager for the US Embassy in Luanda and run Web Trends from time to time.  What I’ve learned is that all the daily work I do to update news articles on our Portuguese site, plus the eventual posting that comes from Washington are in vain! The most seen pages on both of our sites (Portuguese and English) are the VISA pages.   We have IRC and English Program pages but the number of viewers is insignificant. 

Thing 18: Search Engines

I use the same phrase for different search options, and that was "ESL for Portuguese speakers." I liked the Scholars search for professional papers. I also enjoyed hakia.com a lot, the results were better and the display is clean.

Thing 8: Diplopedia

I have two entries on Diplopedia on the following page

http://diplopedia.state.gov/index.php?title=ABCs_for_IRCs#Best_Practices 

One is under IRC Mission Statements and the other under Best Practices.

I also updated our information (ambassador and DCM's names) on the page Luanda below

http://diplopedia.state.gov/index.php?title=Luanda 

Thing 14: Online videos

I've just finished watching An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube.  It's been a painfully process.  Angola internet services are not so good and it took forever to download the whole video.  I watched in segments, in several days, as I could not afford spending the time, waiting for the video to download.  I could not stop thinking (and talking) about the video in between the segments, and I am so glad I've lasted till the end. This video is thought provoking.  Michael Wesch strikes me as not only a great passionate professor, but a fun presenter. I loved the way he started the presentation with the story about the guy from New Jersey, tracking back the history of the webcam phenomenon.  I also watched his video Web 2.0... The Machine is US/ing US, which, to me, was a brilliant summary of all these tools (Things!) that we use in social media - it made a lot of sense to me as it touched on all of the tools we've been exploring in this course.  His conclusion that "media mediate human relationships," brought some higher order thinking to the use of all these Things.  Thing 14’s use of Michael Wesch’s anthropological work was a brilliant addition to 23 Things.  What a joy!

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

Thing 17: Books 2.0

A question: RSS Feed from Visual Bookshelf

On the homepage I was able to get an RSS feed of my Visual Bookshelf by following the instructions

"Have a blog or want to syndicate your reviews and activity outside of LivingSocial? Click the link below to get an RSS feed.

My feed"

My question is: how can I incorporate the RSS feed to my blog?

Thing 16: Online Book Catalogs

My books on Library Thing.

Thing 15: Podscasts

Handwashing and Sustainable Development

Podcasts can become an addiction!  I've been listening to podcasts for a while now.  I remember my very first podcast was President's Obama Inauguration Speech (I steel have it and it gives me the goose bumps whenever I hear it - you can feel the presence of millions of people there with him).  It's a wonderful tool for language learner since listening is such an important skill to achieve.  And it is a wonderful learning tool. Period. You can learn anything you want with podcasts and the best thing: wherever you go.  I've listening to podcasts while cooking, walking, relaxing, driving...

Thing 13: CON.NX Webchats

Last year I participated in a webinar organized by the Office of English Language Programs, and I believe the event was organized by CON.NX. The webinar was about English materials and the FORUM magazine.  Previous to the event I sent invitations to university and high school English teachers.  It was a rewarding experience as we had Angolan teachers learning about their area of expertise (English) but also had them exposed to technology in a friendly environment, here at the Embassy.  I passed the keyboard around so the teachers could submit their questions.  Surprisingly everything worked just fine (we usually have connections problems in Angola). At the end of the event I distributed Forum magazines to the teachers.  It was a worth wised  outreach and we did not have to spend money with lecturers!

I receive the CON.NX upcoming events updating regularly.  Actually tomorrow we will host a CON.NX webchat about Fulbright Alumni Innovative Funds.  

Thing 12: Google map

Click here to find your way to my neighborhood in Luanda.

Google maps is a wonderful tool to help people finding their way to places.  Unfortunatelly not all streets in Luanda are mapped, and that is due to the fact Angolans are not so used to refer to street names.  I was able to find an Educational site where PAS does outreach, which would be helpful. I can think of a few ways to use Latitute, such as getting in contact with people running an only event in different parts of the city, but the internet services here are basic and the band small. Maybe in a few years...

Thing 11: Flicker account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29230697@N06/

Thing 10: Introduction to SharePoint

I was able to upload a document from my files and also create a new document for the 23 Things SharePoint site.  I understand we can set up a SharePoint site for intranet users.  Could we set up a SharePoint site for a target outreach audience, let's say, teachers of English?  It seems SharePoint is more sophisticated than Google docs as you mentioned, Karen.  However, to share documents with Fulbright folks, for example, Google docs is still my only option - is that correct? 

Thing 9: Document Sharing in the Cloud

·         How might you use Google Docs as an alternative to the standard document creation tools in Microsoft Office? As a group project; whenever I would like to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations in group. 

·         What drawbacks did you notice in Google Docs, if any? So far I haven't noticed any but I am curious about tracking the changes made.  I understand I will receive the document edited by my contributers but, will I see what they've changed?  Does it show as the Review track tool in Word documents?  Will I be able to accept the changes or they will change automatically?

·         Describe your experience of collaborating on a single document with multiple users. I haven't done this part yeat as I just shared the document.  Once I experience the collaboration phase I will be able to come back to my doubts mentioned on the previous question. 

Thing 7: Finding RSS Feeds

I selected the following RSS resources: News from the U.S. Department of Education, Fitness and Nutrition, Education, Sunday Book Review and Best Sellers from the NYT.  I searched the feeds mainly from U.S. Government and New York Times RSS feeds.  I tried to limit my search to topics related to Education but ended up finding topics I personally liked. 

From the America.gov I selected the section Education and Youth to receive feeds from in my RSS reader.

I also created a Google Alert on the topic of English as a Foreign Language and one for Angola.

RSS can be really helpful to my job and life as you can have a different sources providing you information about a topic of your choice.  In this way, you can compare information much faster.  I can see myself using RSS jobs’ feeds, when time comes, for example – I actually found a job feed from the U.S. Government. 

Thing 6: RSS

In addition to the bundle Web 2.0, I added three other bundles: Africa, English and e-books.  Then I searched for feeds about Africa and ESL using the Search option.  I added a few feeds I am interested in to my Africa and English bundles. I also deleted some feeds I did not want from the two bundles. 

I like RSS because it allows me to have the latest news regarding the topics I’ve chosen. 

I can use RSS by sharing my feeds with others – would like to insert an RSS to my blog but have to figure out how to do it.  I already use an RSS in our Angola Embassy Website; it’s inserted on the homepage under the title of Regional News.  This is an RSS with regional news from Africa inserted in our English website.  To reproduce something equivalent in our Portuguese website I have to insert articles translated one by one.