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Webheads chat logs are posted on the Internet to assist language learners with comprehension of our conversations and to strengthen our sense of community through shared familiarity with one another. All are welcome to join us, but your participation in our activities implies that you approve of our posting on the Internet interactions in which you take part. Please address any comments or concerns to Vance Stevens.
(C)opyright 2006 Vance Stevens


Webheads Chat Logs from 2006

Webheads have been getting to know each other through regular weekly online chats since 1998! Join us any Sunday from noon GMT till ?? at http://www.tappedin.org

Access our logged chats from 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008
How can you join us? | What FREE software should you download to participate?
Why would you log your chats? | How? | Who else keeps similar archives?

Bookmarks here: Jeff Lebow in Festoon 060409 | APPI 2006 Conference | Mugla, Turkey 060607 | Chaupart at SEDIFRALE | Vance in French (Paraguay) | Bee in Brazilia 060709 | Chris Jones in Abu Dhabi | Moira's Knowplace event | Christmas Eve | Fire's demo of Second Life 061228

Each Sunday, There is Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and goes from there. See http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/software.htm to fathom possibilities.

bdieu2001: Tuesday Jan 10th from 19:00 to 19:30 GMT
bdieu2001: Daf, Tere, Jane, Rita are going to be present synchronously and Michael + Aiden will do a podcast for the occasion
vance_stevens: where?
bdieu2001: let me give you the address of the blog
bdieu2001: http://summerschool.wordpress.com/about or http://summerschool.wordpress.com/about ??
bdieu2001: it's going to be in Sorocaba, Brazil
bdieu2001: a 10 day event
bdieu2001: I am the guest speaker on technology - will talk about blogging...and branching out on networking and communities of practice

Blogstreams - Bee Dieu - February 5th, Ewan McIntosh, from the University of Stirling (Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching). He is working extensively with Learning and Teaching Scotland in Glasgow and giving conferences across Europe. Ewan, who is also a teacher of French and German, is a passionate edublogger , very much interested in international and cross-curricular cooperation, non-topic-based Intensive French pedagogy, educational weblogging and Podcasting. Join in on Sunday 5th at 21:00 GMT http://www.tappedin.org

Sunday February 12, 2006: Live online chat class with students and teachers, meets every Sunday, for informal discussion lasting one to two hours. Venues vary, but a consistent meeting point is: http://www.tappedin.org. Transcript courtesy of Teresa Almeda d'Eca: http://64.71.48.37/teresadeca/webheads/baw06/tichatlog-w4.htm

Wed Feb 15 - Elizabeth Hanson Smith and Buthaina al-Othman gave a presentation recorded at: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1124928

Buth talked on (in her words) "how could we improve online teaching and learning environments and make the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 in the terms of ICTs and teaching activities. She referred to Elizabeth's pdf and html files and Buthaina's ppt file in Files > Week 5 Presentation Materials folder at: < http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TipsTricks/files/ >. Elizabeth started by talking us on the currently available new social software, which are called Web 2.0 Tools as well. She presented excellent examples of podcasting and videoblogging software and ways they are utilized by ESL/EFL teachers all over the world. Please visit her Resources page, used as the basis of the Web Tour during yesterday's session at: http://webpages.csus.edu/~hansonsm/Oral_Writing_Skills.html My part, which followed Elizabeth's, was focused on two types of online teaching and learning environments that were implemented at Study.com virtual school and Kuwait University. The focus was of course on the EAP 5-week online writing course for Study.com students: < http://alothman-b.tripod.com/online_writingcourse_efi.htm >. This course was presented as a good example of, if I may call it Web 1.0, and how we can improve it to make the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 in order to improve/create more effective online teaching and learning environments. Well, if I am to teach an online course now I'd definitely integrate a lot of the evolved social software, including podcasting and videoblogging, flickr groups, buzznet photoblogs, Uniblogs by WrodPress, Video email, Tagging and RSS. And of course I'd have to make a simple portal to link to all of these tools, which would probably be by Protopage. To get the idea of what I have in mind at this moment you're welcome to visit the following portal page created recently for the current EVO WebPresence 2, the Moodle session, where I am a co-moderator with Bob Branan (elderBob) and Vance Stevens: < http://alothman-b.tripod.com/evo_webpresence2006.htm >.

Friday Feb 17, 2006 - As part of her Week 5 for EVOs Tips & Tricks and Oral Skills & Technology, Buthaina al-Othman organized a Skype chat at WorldBridges where Jeff Lebow was guest-Presenter. Buths's reflection on few more things related to the types of blended teaching and learning include:

Sunday February 19, 2006: Live online chat class with students and teachers, meets every Saturday and Sunday, for informal discussion lasting one to two hours. Venues vary, but a consistent meeting point is: http://www.tappedin.org. Transcript courtesy of Teresa Almeda d'Eca: http://64.71.48.37/teresadeca/webheads/baw06/tichatlog-w5.htm

Wednesday February 22, 2006 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm - Tips and Tricks - wrap-up notes for a Workshop are at http://www.transbay.net/~dwinet/wrapupnotes.htm. The recording is here: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1134841

Tips and Tricks Happy Hour Thursday February 23, 2006 2:00 am - 3:00 am GMT This event repeats every week. Event Location: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=273662 Notes: Discuss this week's topic and anything else that's on your mind!

Jittjamming Summary of Learning Friday February 24, 2006 4:30 am - 5:30 am GMT. Event Location: Learning Times, Webheads office http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=273662: Tim, Jeff, and Jenn will summarize what we have done and learned for these six weeks and participants can do the same!

Sunday February 26, 2006, noon GMT Becoming a Webhead Graduation Ceremony. See Teresa Almeida d'Eca's Graduation page. http://64.71.48.37/teresadeca/webheads/baw06/graduation.htm and http://worldbridges.com/ (recording of the 2.5-hour session at WB)

Closing Ceremonies of the EVO 2006 sessions Sunday February 26, 2006, 18:00 GMT The live event is being hosted by Jeff Lebow of WorldBridges http://www.worldbridges.com/ as a web cast with audio and text chat. Moderators, participants, and EVO coordinators will be discussing their experience in this year's EVO sessions. The audio portion of the web cast will be recorded and posted on the Worldbridges Web site following the event.

Instructions for participating in the web cast: To join the conversation you can either skype 'worldbridges' or call the teleconference - 1-402-756-9000, access code #537267. You can also 'listen only' to the webcast, you can click one of the listen links at http://worldbridges.com/ If you use Skype to join the conversation, please turn your webcast off first and audio quality will be much better if you are using a headset, not speakers. Download Skype at http://www.skype.com/ .

SATURDAY MARCH 4TH, at 21:00 GMT/UTC - The ELT Podcasting group ("the Podheads") hold the first post-evo meeting at Learning Times. The event is an exciting synchronous 'webinar' (with both voice and text chat facilities) at Learning Times and everyone is invited to enjoy LEARNCASTING, "PODOGOGY" & ELT with Allan Carrington, Instructional Designer with the University of Adelaide, and Randy Meredith, Director of Content & eLearning at Spring Arbor University, MI. Both Allan and Randy have developed a strong interest in educational podcasting and will have a lot to say about pedagogy and application to the classroom. The session will be recorded so that those who cannot be there live can attend virtually later. Hope to see many of you at http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1139156 Warm regards from Barcelona, Spain, Graham Stanley ELT Podcasting co-moderator

Graham writes: Thanks to everyone who attended the webinar at Learning Times yesterday The recording of the session is now available at the Webheads room at Learning Times: 'Learncasting, Podagogy & Language Teaching' : http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1151315 I'm sure it will be of interest to anyone interested in podcasting or other uses of audio in education. We are hoping to hold this type of event once a month, and would love to hear from anyone who would like to take part in the next one, which we hope will be a 'Show and Tell' session.

THURSDAY , March 16, 05:30 GMT - Vance Stevens webcast a presentation at the METSMaC 2006 “Making Connections” at 9:30 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, from the Beach Rotana & Towers Hotel Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates on Effective strategies for applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environments, at Learning Times http://tinyurl.com/y3eh. We were joined online by Dennis in Germany, Leanne in B.C. Canada, Perry in Hawaii, and Rae in Ras Al Khaima, UAE. Presentation URL http://tinyurl.com/m4ow6

Abstract: Multiliteracy is an important aspect of almost any curriculum nowadays. Teachers and students with good multiliteracy skills have a workable grasp of the many ways that technology intertwines with academic life, and are in position to actively gain control over those aspects directly impacting the learning environment and their professional development. Multiliterate individuals are aware of the pitfalls inherent in technology while striving for empowerment through effective strategies for first discerning and then taking advantage of fast-changing technologies by adapting those most appropriate to their situations. These strategies begin with managing, processing, and interpreting a constant influx of information, filtering what is useful, and then enhancing the learning environment with the most appropriate applications. This presentation discusses effective approaches and strategies for responding to technology issues in the academic environment. It overviews tools and skills that help cope with information overload and discusses means of communication and interaction in Internet 2.0 environments, including using social networking, RSS, video, web cam, image, and voice technologies to gain familiarity with these tools and their applications in teaching through communities of practice which in turn model collaborative, constructivist learning settings. It is hoped that teachers will leave this presentation with a greater awareness of the potentials of Internet 2.0 in the enhancement of optimal learning environments, and with some idea of a strategy that they might pursue to learn more about the topic, thus enhancing their own awareness of multiliteracy skills and how they might include these in curricula they develop for students

March 16-17, there were events broadcast live from the TESOL Convention in Tampa coordinated from the Electronic Village organized by CALL-IS: http://www.uoregon.edu/~call/ev2006/schedule.html, indicated in orange highlight here: http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/TESOL/2006/IF_Classics/schedule.htm; see also http://tinyurl.com/m7ks3 and Instructions for Participating in the Web Casts: http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/TESOL/2006/IF_Classics/webcast_instructions.htm

Session description: ACADEMIC SESSION The Academic Session, "Mobile Technology - Teaching English on the Fly", will have four groups of presenters, Greg Kessler, Buthaina Al Othman, Patricia Thompson and Chris Houser and Karen Price. The time of the Academic Session is Thursday, March 16, from 8:30 - 11:15, in the Marriott Grand Salon A The presentations will be as follows Greg Kessler will be presenting on using iPods instead of audio labs. Buthaina Al Othman will be presenting on the use of Skype, WorldBridges and cell phones, and long distance webcasts. Patricia Thompson and Chris Houser are presenting research on the use of mobile phones to support language learning and teaching in Japan. And, we'll just have to see how Karen Price will dazzle us this year!

Additionally:

Web casts of the 4 Internet Fair Classics and 2 interviews are now available at http://worldbridges.com/webheads/. Since this pilot project worked so well, TESOL and the CALL Interest Section will continue to try to reach English teachers all over the world in this way. The schedule is (was?) at http://tinyurl.com/zcd4y

The World's Your Classroom, an online presentation by Teresa Almeida d'Eça and Paddy Greenleaf 18 March 2006. Tere's commentary: :"The audience really liked it and we felt very pleased. These are the three URLs related to our presentation:

Paddy and I were asked to write an article about it for the Fall issue of the International House World Organization Journal."


group wiki http://learningwithcomputers.pbwiki.com/

On Wednesday, 22 March 2006, Moira Hunter met Nina Liakos in Paris. See the pictures: http://webheads-f2f.pbwiki.com/Moira%20Meets%20Nina%20in%20Paris

Webheadcast#2 - Webcast Academy Open House Submitted by admin on Sun, 2006-04-09 09:50 http://webheadsinaction.org/webheadcast2

On April 20 Vance presented on Effective Strategies toward Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning at The Language Centre 6th Annual ELT Conference, Language Learning in the Cyber Age: Innovations and Challenges 19 – 20 April 2006 Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman http://www.squ.edu.om/lan/index.html. Vance used Learning Times / Elluminate at http://tinyurl.com/y3eh to webcast it, and placed the handout with links to the PowerPoint slide show, URL playlist of the presentation, and webcast recording from here: http://tinyurl.com/m4ow6

Another Webhead, Eric Baber, gave a presentation at this same conference. Vance's report: "It was nice to meet Eric today in Muscat. That happened just before his plenary. Eric in his talk mentioned Webheads a number of times, and he mentioned that we had just met 'someone in the audience' face to face for the first time after some years of online interaction. At one point Eric pulled up Anne Fox's blog on Elgg, and when he was talking about podcasts, he used Aiden Yeh's podomatic blog as a definitive example. He also mentioned a tool I didn't know about: Ajax, which lets one or more users to easily create or manipulate a web page. It's used in Google home page creator and in microsoft's live.com, and if you want more information and think you can handle it, there's more at Eric's http://www.extremetechnoelt.com.'

The APPI 2006 Conference (26-28 April) and Guimaraes elicited an outpouring of photostories

May 14, 2006 was the date of our first Webheads in Action Skypecast. It was good hearing everyone there. Chris Johnson was browsing Skypecasts and happened in on a fluke, and he promised to upload his recent Ph.D thesis where he was analyzing Webheads as a case for exemplary development of an online Community of Practice. Small world out there in cyberspace. At least two recordings were made and can be downloaded to your podcatcher:

The 4th EFL Bridges World Conversation Club will be taking place this Sunday 28th May 06.00-08.00 GMT Students and teachers of English are invited to join in the conversation. In particular, please invite your students! This week's topic is 'Festivals, holidays and travel' The Skypecast details were posted, and you can find more details at http://www.eflbridges.net, including some podcasts of the previous World Conversation Clubs

Sunday, June 4, 2006 Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and Skypecasts from http://www.skypecast.com. See http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/software.htm to fathom possibilities.

June 7, 2006 - Hi fromVance: Rif asked me yesterday if I would join him and Muzeyyen online in Mugla, Turkey. I'm listening in right now via a Skype hookup to Rif talking in Turkish to his group. I'm set to address the group in English (of course) at noon GMT today, Wed June 7. While we were testing the skype connection a few minutes ago we decided why not just set it up as a Skypecast, send this note out, and see if any Webheads out there were bored or had spare time on their hands, or are feeling particularly altruistic, and wanted to pop in on us and join the conversation. To join any Skypecast, visit http://www.skypecast.com and find what's On Now or Starting Soon. I've set it up to start at 11:30 GMT today (6 min from now) It will allow entries for two hours which is to say till 13:30 GMT So if any of you would like to drop by and connect with Mugla Turkey and the UAE and say a few words about your experience with Webheads and its impact on your ed tech development or teaching practices or whatever, please drop in and join the conversation. Best, Vance

On or around June 13, Teresa's writes: "Anne Fox is in Lisbon for a meeting of an EU Project she is corrdinating and we're meeting f2f in a couple of hours and then joining her group for dinner. I'm really looking forward to meeting Anne." Tere's photos with Anne Fox are here http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/39245.80abd644cb3/1049669/thumbnails

Thu, June 15, 2006 - Hala writes: "I have met Randa on Thursday at Gezira Club,the first and biggest club in Cairo.It was really FANTASTIC !I will tell you all about it when I go back home in our first photostory !we took photos,but we might meet again on Tuesday. What an exciting experience !WE talked about the baw 2006 friends,Carla,Isabel,Maria Claudia and how active "these girls are" Envy ! Maybe!!Randa also told me about her work with Mark Warschaure and the benifit she got when worked with him in a project.We Now I can tell how it feels to have a f2f meeting with a webhead !I hope it won't be the last one !! "

Tapping into social networking for e-learning online event Anyone interested in the latest technological developments in the world of education and training is invited to participate in Tapping into social networking for e-learning, which is a FREE online event to be held 15 - 16 June. Registration: http://networksevents.flexiblelearning.net.au The event will feature a number of synchronous live sessions and asynchronous discussion topics aimed at: providing people who are new to e-learning with opportunities to use emerging technologies in practical ways in their teaching and training with their students/clients providing a range of presentations and discussions on some of the latest trends and developments in e-learning, including the use of social networking tools for 'connected' and collaborative learning. The event site will be accessible from 8 June. Awaiting Michael Coghlan's report.

June 18, 2006 - Another Skypecast from noon GMT. While the silent faithful gathered in Tapped In the more vocal among us gravitated to http://www.Skypecast.com where Albert from Western Sahara dropped in and told us about his incredible life as a blind teacher in a refugee camp of 17,000 with 3 'schools' essentially cane structures with tatami mat floors donated from Japan. Although his parents were killed in the violence there Albert was careful to be apolitical. He explained his computer system to us. His computer had no monitor, just a virtual mouse which read out windows on the screen as he moved it around, so he had to memorize where each item was. He could also scan in newspapers and books from the library (the library had 52 books) and his computer would read them in text to voice, as we could hear in the Skypecast.

Also, Jeff Lebow popped by to talk about the article he has been working on for the upcoming TESL- EJ. That article is taking shape at http://www.webheadsinaction.org/worldbridges . Jeff has the idea for an online article exactly, many references to web linked materials annotating points made.

Michael Coghlan invited everyone to join an online presentation on Creating Online Presence held in his LearningTimes Elluminate room (http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=235631) on Monday, June 26, 2006 from 01:00 - 02.15 GMT. He addressed topics like Blogs, Social Software, Connectivism and Networked Learning. He asked Bee, Daf, and Aiden (and a few other non-Webhead people) to help out. Details of the presentation on Creating Online Presence with Daf, Jonathan et al are at http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/pd/TELLS.htm. Recording at http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1311720

EFL Bridges World Conversation Club for language learners, Wednesday 28th June : World Conversation Club #8 (15.00-17.00 GMT) https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/home Topic: Learning languages with technology If this is successful, we will repeat this day/time during the whole of July Later, there will also be another webcast specifically for teachers: * Wednesday 28th June: Language Teacher Talk #2 (18.00-20.00 GMT) https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/home. Hope to speak to some of you then Best Regards, Graham Graham Stanley http://www.eflbridges.net

June 30, 2006 - Doris Molero wrote: Hello, my dear webheads! A big hug for all of you. This is for asking your help on telling my fellow teachers in Maracaibo, Venezuela about you. We are trying to integrate the use of technologies in our EFL classes and we want to learn how we can do that by registering to this community and meeting fellow teachers in the world. We meet every Friday 19:30 to 21:00 GMT, so if you're around on yahoo or skype come and say hello! we'd really appreciate your wise advice and encouraging words. Teachers from our university will be joining this community and asking lots of questions and sure there will be great things coming out of these exchanges. Thanks for everything and hope we can share great ideas for our students. Looking forward to seeing you! Keep on shining! Doris3m Universidad Dr. Rafael Belloso Chacin www.urbe.edu Maracaibo, Venezuela www.doris3meflcenter.bravehost.com

bookmark: 060706 July 6, from 20:00 to 21:30 GMT - Jean Michel Chaupart hosts an event from France in conjunction with a congres in Paraguay. Vance invited to speak, in French. The following announcement will be formatted shortly.

Comme annoncé, la conférence internationale pour professeurs de francais latinoaméricains – XIVe.SEDIFRALE – que j'ai inscrite et à laquelle je vous ai invité, aura lieu le JEUDI 6 JUILLET, entre 20 heures et 21heures 30 GMT, sur la plate-forme de conférence : http://www.portafolio.org/conference.htm qui supporte la voix + image webcam + présentation de pages web (présentation que je controlerai personnellement). Barbara Dieu sera l'option B au cas où j'aurai des problèmes de connexion.

LES DIAPOSITIVES et MODALITES DE VOTRE PARTICIPATION - Nous disposons de 90 minutes et nous sommes nombreux à intervenir. Il conviendra donc de ne pas trop prendre de temps pour apporter vos témoignages et vos expériences d'utilisation des technologies pour l'apprentissage des langues. Certains d'entre nous ne sont pas francophones : ce sont eux qui interviendront en premier et qui pourront se retirer une fois qu'ils auront apporté leur témoignage.

  1. Titre de la conférence
  2. "Tour de table virtuel" Introduction par Jean Michel Chaupart, …
  3. Brève intervention de Barbara Dieu, en tant que co-modératrice de la conférence
    Puis bref salut de chacun des intervenants invités
  4. Agenda des Activités
  5. Définition de Communauté d'apprentissage
  6. Citation de Martine Jaudeau, de THOT
  7. Raison d'être des communautés virtuelles avec citation de Moira Hunter
  8. Définition et référence à 2 Communautés d'Apprentissage [FLE – WEBHEADS]
    Page web de Yahoo Groups de la communauté FLE et de la communauté WEBHEADS
  9. Photographie des Webheads
    Présentation de la Communauté d'Apprentissage WEBHEADS
  10. Intervention Vance Stevens, depuis le Texas, USA
    Le premier intervenant non – très – francophone est Vance Stevens qui interviendra en francais sur la création des webheads et les points forts de cette communauté. Il peut parler entre 5-8 minutes puis participer au premier espace de QUESTIONS-REPONSES.
  11. 1er.espace de questions-réponses
  12. Liste des ateliers Webheads/Tesol de janvier-février 2006
    Ateliers de formation continue pour professeurs de langues - BAW : Becoming a Webheads
    Témoignages de modérateurs et de participants [Interventions des Webheads invités pour témoigner sur les ateliers qu'ils ont dirigés ou auxquels ils ont participé, selon l'ordre suivant :
  13. Diapositives 13 et 14 : Teresa Almeida d'Eca, Lisbonne, Portugal, sur BAW (en anglais) « élémentaire" et intervention courte 3-4minutes. Teresa pourra se retirer quand elle le jugera convenable.
  14. Page web BAW 2006
  15. Page web YG Blog 2006 et Creatingwebquests
  16. Diapositive 15 et 16 : Dafne Gonzalez, Caracas, Vénézuéla, sur BAW et ses activités à l'Université Simón Bolivar (en espagnol) en espagnol, intervention courte 3-4 minutes
  17. Barbara Dieu, Sao Paulo, Brésil, sur l'atelier Blogs et autres activités sur ce même sujet, en francais, intervention courte 3-4 minutes
  18. Témoignage: Peut-être bref salut de Jane Petring, depuis le Mexique, ou court témoignage écrit , 3-4 minutes
  19. Moira Hunter, Paris, France, avec un/des témoignages sur sa participation à des ateliers Webheads, en francais, 3-4 minutes
  20. Christine Lombaerts, Anvers, Belgique, avec un/des témoignages sur sa participation à des ateliers Webheads , en francais, 3-4 minutes
    Amie portugaise de Christine, en francais, 3-4 minutes
  21. Q&R [Deuxième espace de Questions-Réponses] Vers des communautés d'apprentissage de professeurs de FLE d'Amérique latine [Jean Michel Chaupart avec la participation de tous les intervenants présents, avec réponses courtes. Entre 4 et 8-10 minutes maximum.
  22. Internet = communication
  23. Internet = accès à l'information
  24. Comment pourrions-nous nous former à l'utilisation des TICE ?
  25. Communautés d'apprentissage : en francais ? en espagnol ?
  26. FLETICE
  27. En construction…….
  28. Questions-réponses finales

Autres diapositives :

bookmark: 060706vance Here is the text of my presentation:

Bonjour. Je suis desole que je ne peux pas parler mieux le francais, mais vous comprenez que je suis Americain, et ca sufficera pour explication. Mais, en tout cas, je m'appelle Vance Stevens. Je travaille à l'Institut du Pétrole à Abhu Dabi, aux Emirats Arabes Unis, ou j'enseigne ordinateurs et logicielles aux etudiants Arabs la bas. Je suis actuellement en vacances dans ma famille au Texas et j'espere que tout va bien avec le connexion.

Mais dupuis trente ans en avant, en tant que professeur d'anglais langue étrangère, j'ai commencé peu a peu à utiliser les technologies de l'information et de la communication sur Internet. En 1997, j'ai commencé avec un communauté en ligne pour apprendre l'anglais - connue sous le nom de Writing for Webheads, mais quand cette groupe melangait avec des enseigneurs des langues, j'ai fondé en l'annee 2001-2 la Communauté d'Apprentissage qui s'appelle Webheads in Action.

Cette Communauté regroupe aujourd'hui plus que cinq cent membres de différents pays des tous les continents du monde sauf Antarctica. Un de ces membres est Jean Michel Chaupart. Bien qu'on ne se soit jamais rencontré, Jean Michel sait qu'il peut compter sur nous dans la mesure ou il peut exposer sa réputation professionnelle pour l'aider à faire des présentations de ce type. Et cela n'est pas seulement typique des webheads, mais de la plupart des communautés plus étendues d'intervenants en ligne, dont VOUS vous-memes faites partie puisque vous êtes ici aujourd'hui, ensemble avec nous.

Nous connaissons Jean Michel et il nous connaît, grâce à ses activités avec les TICE (technologies de l'information et de la communication en éducation, ou CMC en Anglais). Les nouvelles technologies, comme le nom l'indique, sont récentes - et beaucoup d'entre nous ne les connaissions pas, il y a cinq ans. Depuis lors, nous avons développé nos compétences à tel point que nous sommes non seulement décontractés pour les utiliser entre nous informellement, mais aussi dans des situations plus formelles, tel que cet congres celui-ci. Nous avons d'abord utilisé ces outils dans notre développement professionnel, tout en enseignant les uns aux autres comment communiquer en ligne. A partir de ce niveau de connaissances, quand nous nous sentons à l'aise avec ces outiles, nous les utilisons avec nos élèves. Et ceux qui sont passés par cette expérience ont voulu partager avec les collègues leur succès et ont aussi entraîné d'autres professeurs.

Cela dure maintenant depuis 5 ans entre les webheads in action. Peut-être, l'une des originalités des Webheads et ce qui en a fait son succès est la convocation hebdomadaire d'activités synchrones qui ont lieu chaque dimanche à partir de midi GMT a Tapped In, http://www.tappedin.org.. Alors, pendant ces 5 ans, nous nous sommes rencontrés informellement maintenant durant 300 dimanches consécutifs, allant chaque fois plus loin dans nos efforts collaboratifs à fin de pouvoir innover avec nos élèves.

Pour échanger des idées et pratiquer avec certaines des technologies qui font leur apparition sur le marché, nous utilisons non seulement le chat (tchat) de texte mais aussi des activités orales, et l'option image avec une webcam, et l'utilisation de plate-formes de conférence comme Alado ou LearningTimes ou bien des autres paraille a l'un qui nous utilisons maintenant (http://www.portafolio.org/conference.htm). Nous cherchons à utiliser les technologies gratuites et celles open-source et celles qui on peut utilizer sans être spécialiste en informatique, par example le programme de communication téléphonique Skype, et des Skypcasts, qui nous permettent d'assurer des échanges synchrones très positifs pour notre Communauté.

En général les professeurs de langues ont un peu peur d'utiliser directement les TICE avec leurs élèves ; l'espace Webheads leur permet de prendre confiance, de pratiquer avec des collègues, de construire ensemble des projets interactifs. Et de demander de l'aide à des collègues pour se sentir plus à l'aise et proposer des activités d'apprentissage complémentaires à celles de la salle de classe traditionnelle.

Il y a une raison pour cela. Notre technique pour l'apprentissage des langues est basée sur une approche constructiviste. Je pense que vous connaissez la théorie de Vygotsky et Bruner, etc. Donc, vous pouvez remarquer que nous employons cette théorie, montant un " échafaudage " ou scaffolding en Anglais, qui nous supporte les uns et les autres. Nous étendons notre zone de développement proximal et apprenons les uns avec les autres à l'intérieur du groupe. En apprenant à travers les réseaux sociaux, nous constatons que nous apprenons non seulement les techniques spécifiques pour produire en ligne, mais nous comprenons également plus profondément comment appliquer la méthodologie avec nos étudiants. Quand nous enseignons les uns aux autres par des méthodes constructivistes, nous apprenons à faciliter l'apprentissage de la même façon. Même si nous rencontrons nos étudiants tous les jours, face en face, nous leurs enseignons comment interagir avec des collègues vivant dans des régions éloignées du monde. Pour se communiquer avec d'autres étudiants de langue étrangère et des locuteurs natifs ils doivent utiliser la langue spontanément et voila comprennent le vrai sens de la langue.

Pour conclure, j'aimerais dire que les webheads sont, depuis neuf ans maintenant, une communauté de pratique très réussie. Vraiment, des modèles semblables ont été appliqués dans d'autres communautés d'apprentissage. Il serait logique pour ceux qui enseignent le français ou l'espagnol mais qui parlent également l'anglais de se joindre à une communauté comme les webheads pour apprendre les techniques d'interaction que nous appliquons et commencer alors une communauté semblable ailleurs, où les intervenants parlent une autre langue. Il serait beau de voir la philosophie de webheads se propager de cette façon à travers les différentes langues et les cultures.

Et c'est justement cela que Jean Michel Chaupart essaye de faire avec cet petit congrés aujoudhui. En nous invitant à cette conférence, il espère vous montrer les incursions que les webheads ont déjà faites dans l'univers de langue française et espagnole. Si vous voulez nous joindre sur cette route, vous êtes les bienvenus.

The Consultants-E www.theconsultants-e.com "are delighted to announce the winner of the fully funded scholarship on our E-moderation course for teachers, which runs entirely online from 1-31 July. It was a difficult decision to choose the winner, as we received many excellent applications from all over the world (from 26 countries in all!) - all from deserving and motivated candidates ... The winner of the scholarship is Hala Fawzi from Sudan, who teaches EAP for students of Medicine in Khartoum. Hala is also involved as a tutor at the Open University in Sudan, teaching Literature, reading and writing, and she is working on her PhD proposal on blended learning. We are very much looking forward to working with Hala during the coming month, and hope she will find the course useful to her own professional development and that of the profession in Sudan. Once again thank you to all of you who applied, and we hope to repeat this opportunity in the future. Best wishes to list members, Nicky Nicky Hockly - Director of Pedagogy The Consultants-E www.theconsultants-e.com

bookmark: 060709 On July 9th (Sunday - last day of the World Cup) at 13:45 GMT Barbara Dieu <http://dekita.org and http://beewebhead.net> gave what was by all accounts a sterling 90 minute workshop entitled "Networking on the Net" at the Braz-Tesol National Convention in Brasília. Bee has just launched the Braz-Tesol EduTech SIG and was elected the coordinator for this first year. She writes: "I am planning to introduce the new SIG goals, the importance of networking and professional development online (will talk about the Evo sessions) , the concept of communities of practice (les fabuleux webheads) and will introduce then the main social tools with examples of how we have been connecting online and the work developed using these different tools." She made arrangements to have the session webcast via http://www.worldbridges.net. Here is what she wrote just prior to the presentation:

Recordings of the presentation can be found here:

Here is some of the feedback:

Not everyone made it :-((

Tapped In Festival 2006: Sustaining Professional Development Online July 19, 2006 from 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Pacific Time The focus of the seventh annual Tapped In Festival is to help Tapped In members and Festival participants become more aware of the many resources and features in Tapped In that can support the professional development of educators throughout their teaching careers. Festival events will be presented every hour on the hour from 8am PDT until 8pm PDT. See the schedule for this 12 hour event. Events are still being added, so check back for updates. Certificates of Participation will be offered for guests and for members who register for three hours of events. Participants can sign in at the conclusion of a minimum of three separate Festival events (may include one pre-festival Tips and Tricks and the NECC Conference) to qualify for a Certificate of Participation. Continuing Education Credits for the certificates are determined by individual educational institutions. Here is the official announcement:

Tapped In Festival 2006: Sustaining Professional Development Online July 19, 2006 from 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Pacific Time The focus of the seventh annual Tapped In Festival is to help Tapped In members and Festival participants become more aware of the many resources and features in Tapped In that can support the professional development of educators throughout their teaching careers. Festival events will be presented every hour on the hour from 8am PDT until 8pm PDT. See the schedule for this 12 hour event. Events are still being added, so check back for updates. Certificates of Participation will be offered for guests and for members who register for three hours of events. Participants can sign in at the conclusion of a minimum of three separate Festival events (may include one pre-festival Tips and Tricks and the NECC Conference) to qualify for a Certificate of Participation. Continuing Education Credits for the certificates are determined by individual educational institutions. Respectfully submitted BJ Berquist, Festival Chair bjb@tappedin.org

Professional Development for Educators: This Week at Tapped In (July 16-22, 2006) View the Tapped In calendar of ASO events at: http://tappedin.org/tappedin/do/CalendarAction By clicking on the calendar event, you can read the complete description of that event. Some webheads featured:

In email July 20, 2006 - Hello dear webheads, just a quick note to share with you my joy as I have spent two most wonderful days in the company of Rita and her husband Hector here in my own city of Copenhagen. When we met at the central station, we already know each other so well after more that four years of online collaboration, and like true webheads sisters, we certainly did not run out of conversation topics. When we had to say goodbye, it was quite sentimental. More later, yours, Sus in Denmark PS what added to this very intense event is that Hector - the last viking in Rosario - has a grandfather who came to Argentina many years ago!

Blogstreams Salon: Learning in a Networked World moderated by Barbara Dieu met at Tappedin on Sunday 6th August at 21:00 GMT with special guest Leigh Blackall, who works in Educational Development at Otago Polytechnic, in Dunedin, New Zealand. http://leighblackall.wikispaces.com/ Leigh's core interest lays in education and networked learning and he has given presentations and workshops to many institutional organizations in Australia and New Zealand. He is presently organizing a traveling open conference on the Future of Learning in a Networked World which will take place next September in NZ.

Regarding the open conference on the Future of Learning in a Networked World, according to http://learningnetworkedworld.blogspot.com, "Otago Polytechnic has initiated a traveling open space conference called The Future of Learning in a Networked World. International speakers will come to Dunedin on September 18 and travel to participating institutions in Dunedin, Christchurch, Northland, Auckland and Wellington to discuss this topic with local audiences." International speakers include Webheads Barbara Dieu and Michael Coghlan. The event has a Wikipedia listing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_space_conference

August 2006 - Chris Jones moved to Abu Dhabi to take up a new post at Zayed University. She dropped by to visit other Abu Dhabi residents, Vance and family. In the photo are (left to right) are Chris, Glenn, Dusty, Bobbi, and Vance

Sept 21, 2006 - Rita Zeinstejer gave a presentation at the FAAPI Congress in Rosario, Argentina, a big annual event gathering 1,500 EFL teachers throughout the country. Her topic was "The Podcasting Revolution: the way to broaden out students' audience for listening and speaking". She writes: "I had prepared a ppt with many links to show different kinds of audiofiles in the net, so as to give the audience an idea of what podcasts are...Out of about 100 people present -I was allotted an auditorium and had full house-only 4 raised their hands when I asked who was familiar with the term "podcasting", so I showed types of podcasts: authentic, Teacher, Student and Educator Podcasts, before explaining benefits of classroom podcasting and possible uses in educational settings. I then went into Pedagogical Podcasting or "Podagogy", and through the different steps towards the production of podcasts with our students. People in the audience stared in amazement at some of the many audio and video files on the screen, and took down notes, which showed I sounded "convincing", and some of them were really interested in plunging into the experience, as I learnt from those who came up tp me after the show. Personally, I felt I should have devoted more time to the Podagogy behind the show, which I needed to go through rather fast as I was running out of time -I had been allotted 75 minutes, not enough for indulging in the so many audio files I offered the audience to watch and enjoy. This time I crowned my presentation with a podcast specially recorded for the event by Graham Stanley, who spoke to a smiling audience, wishing them good luck in their hopefully new teaching endeavour. Thank you, Graham, you've been the icing on the cake! Anyway, everything went fine, technologically speaking, after having had to put up with a long struggle to see Internet working . I'll be putting up an mp3 file in the Podcasting Yahoo Group Files with my recording, for those who want to give it a listen, and feedback will be most welcome. This will probably be done in a couple of days. Thank you all, once again, for sharing, for being together, for all the knowledge I have gained through the experience collected and gathered from all of you. I told the audience about the wonders of being a Webhead! ;-)"

Barbara Dieu and Michael Coghlan went to New Zealand where they participaed in Open Conferences around the country with those listed below and others, who gathered in Dunedin on September 18 and are travelling through Christchurch, Northland, Waiheke Island, Auckland and Wellington for 10 days; see http://flnw.wikispaces.com/ to discuss the future of learning in a networked world http://learningnetworkedworld.blogspot.com/ . They went blogging, podcasting and videocasting along the way .

Michael's postings:

http://www.audioblogger.com/media/50281/409657.mp3
Bee in Dunedin: http://flickr.com/photos/89165847@N00/246943567/

Bee engaged her kids in http://lycee.wordpress.com From there you have links to the Google calendar and the community walk map she has opened for the occasion. She will be also commenting on the academic part on her own blog at http://beewebhead.net. Here is the announcement.

Thursday, Sept. 21 - Sus Nyrop and Chris Johnson held a CPSquare Dissertation Fest, featuring a discussion (asynchronous and synchronous communication) called "Identifying Criteria for Distributed Online CoPs", which features Webheads in Action as the group that was studied. Etienne Wenger was present and very active in the discussion.

If any Webheads have students who would like to chat about languages, language learning, multiculturalism, etc. (in English, French, German, or Turkish) with Turkish students, their Comenius Get-In Network peers, and other students from around the world, please have them register beforehand and then sign in to the chat on Tuesday, Sept. 26 from 11 to 13:30 GMT. I know that Fernanda is working on having some Portuguese students join in. We're keeping the technology requirements simple so that schools with limited budgets and equipment or schools with firewalls can let their students take part. http://www.get-in.info/ Students may also wish to use the free whiteboard/groupboard I've made available at snipurl.com/closely. Sadly, our firewall won't let the board display at school. If anyone knows the "magic words" to get rigid system administrators to relax, please let me know. ;-) Philip Franklin Istanbul, Turkey

Sept 29 - Oct 1: Elderbob Brannan conducted a session on Podcasting at the Open Weekends @ Knowplace Moodle at http://knowplace.ca Podcasting is drawing immense attentions from every corner of the internet. Come join elderbob in an exploration of multimedia streaming?er?podcasting. Bring a microphone. Offered in co-operation with BC CAMPUS < http://bccampus.ca>

Monday, Oct 2, 5PM GMT. Webheads attempted to organize to trial TalkAndWrite. According to Eric Baber, "TalkAndWrite only works between two people, so you won't be able to use it in a group .... Though you will be able to pair up and try it out in pairs! Dennis and I tried it out yesterday and it worked quite well. It's not as smooth as the NetMeeting whiteboard and doesn't have quite the same range of features, but it's pretty good - certainly more responsive than the Unyte plugin for Skype which allows for application sharing." The event itself turned out to be a trial of DiscoverE with Moira, Hala, and Vance.

Interested participants and their Skype IDs were:

GLD X - Global Learn Day 10 - Sunday October 8 - http://www.bfranklin.edu/gldten/ plus two blog sites where you will find blog pages for almost every person involved http://www.ben300.com/GLDTEN and http://www.ben300.com/TENPLAN. Some highlights regarding Webheads, and artifacts of the event:

More info - John wrote "We will open the event with what I consider the two icons in the worlds "we" operate in -- education and technology. One icon is Vint Cerf, Internet Evangelist for Google http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint and Sir John Daniel http://www.col.org/colweb/site/pid/2833, who was awarded his knighthood for "changing the landscape of higher education in the U.K. Vint was our keynoter in III and Sir John in IV."

A Worldbridges Webcastathon Oct. 13~15 - An updated schedule of events is at http://worldbridges.net/ and http://www.webcastacademy.net/Webcastathon2006C - Very much look forward to catching up dear Webheads. Happy Weekend, Jeff

Sunday, Oct 15, 2006 Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and decides what to do from there. See http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/software.htm to fathom more possibilities. In case we're Skypecasting, visit http://www.skypecast.com and find us in what's On Now or Starting Soon. This Sunday Graham Stanley will be conducting a tour of the Webheads hut on Second Life.

On October 17, Yaodong wrote: Venny and I had a good tour of SL yesterday.I invited Chee to join us but he didn't seem to be able to find the Webheads Edunation Hall.He stayed among the woods most of the time,admring the trees and bushes. My students,too,have download SL.Hope to meet you and your students there sometime. Yaodong

Dudeney Ge announced "an amazing live event Wednesday October 18 at noon with seven academics on a 90-minute panel. "Are We Playing Games? Finding Legitimacy in the Academy" 12:00 - 1:30 PM Pacific, 10/18/06 in NMC's Woolsey Hall - discussion via NMC streaming server. Jeremy / simteach.com" Gavin ttook some snaps: and put them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72373269@N00/sets/72157594334743909/

23rd to 27th October 2006. Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), Mérida, Venezuela. Facultad de Ingeniería. Edificio B La Hechicera Primer Piso. Gavin Dudeney, UK specialist in ICT in ELT, led a seminar hosted by joint Organisers: Escuela de Idiomas Modernos, ULA, Mérida, Venezuela British Council Venezuela http://meridaictelt.wetpaint.com/ and met Dafne Gonzales there.

October 27-29 - Moira Hunter gave a by all accounts brilliant session at Knowplace.ca this weekend. "Weblearning with the Human Touch" (http://knowplace.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=187) . She arranged DimDim and DiscoverE sessions, both of which, as ElderBob said, "are low cost or free, and low threshold and low bandwidth applications, just perfect for smaller school situations or places where there is not a lot of money to spread around. Dim Dim is browser based and Open Sourece (ie. there is a free version with all the bells and whistles you might need) and though proprietary, DiscoverE is also aimed at low threshold - broadcast well on a telephone modem 28.8 hook up. Both are very similar in look to the more costly Elluminate, and have most of the same elements and even more. They are both definitely worth a look and see." Dimdim was at http://www1.dimdim.com/dimdim/GetJoinConferenceForm.action?flag=0.4569969137504249mjkgbcw&hasActiveX=null (password moira).

Through her institution, Anne Fox is offering a one hour session in the basics of mentoring Friday November 17 at 12 noon GMT in Flashmeeting. The session is facilitated by Connie Friman, a certified coach and president elect of the Nordic chapter of the International Coaching Federation. Webcams are possible but not essential.

On November 18 Michael Coghlan wrote: Hi everyone. The PacCALL conference in Nanjing is over and at http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=205510 you can see a pic of me and Tom Robb (Conference Co-convenor) at a restaurant on the final night of the conference. It was a really enjoyable conference and it was great to meet Tom in person after all these years. So another Webheads meeting is on record. I'll post details of my presentation when the audio is uploaded sometime over the next few days.

Sunday, Nov 19, 2006 Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and decides what to do from there. On this Sunday we had one of our infamous Second Life sessions. Ventrilo did not work well for everyone but Jeff Lebow streamed a Skypecast from http://www.webheadsinaction.org and Dafne Gonzales gave a presentation on the Worldbridges network after folks in Second Life drifted away. The whole thing went on for hours and segued into the event below. Comments:

Jeff Lebow is teaching a course with a distance learning component 'Call Course Call for Help', with textbook Call Dimensions by Mike Levy [2006], with portal at http://learningcall.net/ Hoping "that it grows to serve as a collaboratively produced source of multimedia supplemental materials for all those interested in learning about and/or teaching CALL. The core of the site is a drupal book that works much like a wysiwyg wiki with very customizable access control and printer friendly options. In addition to a foundation of basic text components for CALL history, tools, theory, research, etc., I'd love to produce an ongoing series of interviews and discussions about the various areas of CALL. Everything on the site would be released with a Creative Commons license so all would be able to reprint the materials as long as they are credited properly and not sold commercially. Those are my ideas so far, but I very much look forward to hearing from anyone else interested in the project. I thought we could start with a 'Planning Session Webcast', Sunday, November 19, 10amEST/3pmGMT. Start time may be adjusted a bit depending on what's going on in SL Webhead Land. Listen links and text chat at http://edtechtalk.com/ If there's interest amongst those that will be unavailable at that time, we can schedule a part#2 later in the day."

EFL Bridges (http://www.eflbridges.net) announced its 'World Conversation Club' on Sunday, Nov 26 2006 morning (6.00am-8.00am GMT - the announcement says 8:00 am - 10:00 am but no time zone is given, so double-check). The Skypecast location is https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=4704 Check to see if it meets Wednesday (15.00-17.00 GMT). You can find details on how to join the Skypecasts on the site, with links usually a couple of days before they start. They are being werbcast too now, so people who want to listen and don't wish to take part in the Skypecast can do so using the stream at World Bridges (http://www.worldbridges.net) and also at EFL Bridges.

Sunday, Nov 26 2006 Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and decides what to do from there. This time we went into Second Life again: Candy wrote: I do want to share the photos I took today. I tried to get some photos of us dancing but couldn't get us all twirling at the same time. Only Vance seems to look the best with his arms up in the air. It's too bad I couldn't capture the movements with a video recorder. :-) I posted the photos on my web site. The newest page from today's activity is at this URL: http://henry.sandi.net/staff/cpauchni/Webhd2.html Last week's activities are at this link: http://henry.sandi.net/staff/cpauchni/Webhd2LF.html Thanks, everyone, for making the SL learning experience so enjoyable. Candy Pauchnick (Pafiki Paravane in SL)

Graham Stanley will be in Second Life in the Webheads hut on Thursday Nov 30th at 21.GMT. He writes, "I'll be waiting for you to come on line and will offer you a teleport, and then we can explore. I can also give you a repeat of the presentation I gave if you like. I'm also happy to say that the project to build an island on the Teen Grid, as a self access centre for English language learners has been given the green light. Myself, and a colleague from the British Council, Barcelona (Kyle Mawer, who will be one of the co-moderators of the Digital Games & Language Learning EVO in 2007) will be starting to set up shop there just as soon as the space materialises. I'll let you know more soon. Best regards, Graham" Others hoping to join in include Dennis Newson, Yaodong Chen, and Candace Pauchnick.

Sophie writes that in Cyprus "Saturday (2nd December) we have a conference on "Online Teacher Communities". There will be guest speakers from abroad and workgroups will also present on their pilot projects. When I realised that a number of workgroups hadn't had positive results, I was concerned as I believe that we should give the teachers a number of positive examples. My survey had positive results, but I have asked for some time in the conference programme for a chance to bring some of you there (virtually) so that conference delegates will have a chance to hear, directly from you, your experiences of belonging to an online teacher community. I think that your positive experiences can overcome the potential stress or fear which may exist. I would be so very grateful if some of you could attend. This will be on Saturday 2nd December at about 12:15 (GMT+2). We have only been given 15 minutes so even if only a few of you could come, it would make a big difference

Dec 8 - Dec 10: The First Annual Knowplace (S)Knowfest (Offered in knowplace http://knowplace.ca) Facilitator: Elderbob Brannan The (s)Knowfest is a holiday extravaganza of e-collboration. A potpouri of seasonal sensations, the fest will involve special Holiday messages to all participants and/or co-hosts, a self-generated, collaborative holiday cookbook, a place to post special notes about cultural differences in the way we all celebrate this season, and tips for teachers on how to approach this time of wonder in the year. This is our Knowplace way of saying goodbye to a very interesting year, and getting ready to start a new one.

Michael writes on Christmas Eve: Webheads are always doing things or getting recognised in ways that deserve congratulations. But Elizabeth HS deserves special congratulations for being the first non-Australian/NZ Webhead to visit Australia since the Webhead community was formed. Elizabeth arrived in Australia about a week ago and has been in Adelaide for the last few days. It has been a real pleasure to spend time with her (and her partner Jack) again - we first met a few years ago in California - http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/webmeet.htm. Yesterday we went driving out to the Barossa Valley, (http://www.barossa.com/site/page.cfm) the famous Australian wine producing region, and Elizabeth tried to find the right balance between sampling enough wine and still being able to drive the car back again. And she managed it - no mean feat considering she also had to remember to keep on the left hand side of the road. Some pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/89165847@N00/sets/72157594435458858/

More Webhead Christmas and New Years elfomorphoses and etc can be seen at http://happywebhead2006-7.pbwiki.com/.

On Dec. 28 Fire Centaur in Korea introduced us to his classroom in Second Life. He posted his invitation on the secondlifelanguages@yahoogroups.com list:

I am Paul Preibisch in RL. I am an ESL teacher in South Korea - but am originally from Vancouver Canada. For the past two months I have been researching how to teacher English in SL. I have created a blog at http://eslteacherlink.co.kr/wordpress/ There, I report my findings and experience in SL.

Two weeks ago, I purchased an Island in SL and named it English Village. My aims are:

  1. To help promote Second Life (and virtual worlds) as a tool for teaching English.
  2. Provide a positive environment for teachers and students where the barriers of geography, race, and prejudices are reduced (to zero hopefully)
  3. Develop and pioneer (along with collaborating educators) a new way of delivering education - in a virtual 3d world!
  4. Develop some sort of way to make money to support my research, and hopefully retire to a RL island of my own someday!!!!

Anyhow, this endeavor has taken a lot of my time in RL - learning how to build/script/ develop teaching materials, connecting with others/ networking etc. but - I AM LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!!!

-- Good news is - the fruits of my labors will be displayed this Thursday - December 28th at 8pm GMT+9 time - I am teaching a class to - a few students. If you would like to come and get a sneak peak of the island before the lesson - you can teleport at 7pm, and I will show you around.

Please be warned though - English Village is not complete yet- and everything is still VERY EXPERIMENTAL! So don't expect an amazing place- its just the start! Anyhow, I would love to see you there. If you do come at 8pm, though, you'll have to act as a student - cuz that is lesson time. 7pm will be the tour time.

Cheers See you soon! Fire.

Due to the earthquake in Taiwan Dec 26 (with Aiden and her family shaking 21 floors up in a condo in Kaoshung) which damaged optical cables laid beneath the sea, email was disrupted from the area for days afterwards. Yaodong reached me on IM and got me to announce the event on the Webheads list but there was confusion over the time. On the day, Yaodong messaged me again and said it was happening, he was in touch with Venny who was there, but Second Life had chosen that moment to be non-responsive and he couldn't get in. I couldn't either because I was at my office where SL is blocked. But Venny was there, and Venny is a pretty astute guy, and there are other astute folks in Webheads, such as Jeff Lebow, who recently let me piggyback on his SL session using Webhuddle, https://www.webhuddle.com/. So I reached Venny on YM and asked him to start a session. Webhuddle is so cool. It's fast, it's free, and it's a thin client only 125 kb from your RAM, that runs on Webhuddle servers while in session, and it allows screen sharing. Venny was able to start a 'meeting' in minutes and send me the URL, plus his email and password, which enabled me to join the 'meeting' and follow Venny's desktop while Fire conducted his class in Second Life. At one point, Venny mentioned in SL that I was monitoring the proceedings from his desktop because I was unable to physically (virtually??) be 'in world'. Fire then addressed me, "Hi Vance, why can't you get here?" I could not respond in SL, so I told Venny in IM to tell Fire that I was unable to connect to SL from my office. We could actually all have been in Ventrillo or Skype at the time and have been talking together. In any event, I think the episode illustrates the power of Web 2.0 to pull people together in ways unimaginable; that is, we can't imagine what we can do with the tools until we start using them to the point where intuition takes over. Incidentally, I was in my office at the time working on an article on Second Life which I posted here: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/metsmac/metsmac_secondlife.htm and in which I used another screen shot from this session, like the one below:

Fire sent us a complete report of his session and since we're not chopping down trees to publish here ...

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who attended the First Event at English Village at the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/English%20Village/70/6/45/?x=500&y=500&img=http%3A//www.eslteacherlink.co.kr/secondlife/englishvillage.jpg&title=English%20Village&msg=Welcome%20to%20English%20Village

Thanks so much for attending. That is really too bad you couldn't make it Vance. I wish I could have been of more help - but I was busy running around the island coordinating the event!!! Good job in getting the Webhuddle working - very unintuitive. Over the next few months Ill try and get a skypecast feed shoutcasting into SL - that might be one way in connecting the outside world to the grid.

Meeting notes (transcripts) can be found at: http://eslteacherlink.co.kr/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&board=21.0

Summary of session (excerpted from Fire's report, full version here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/14435)

After the dice fun, I launched into the lesson about "Getting what you want in SL - using Would, Can, and Do"

The best result of this - is that people came. A community is starting to form. What I stressed in my introduction was- "Your successes, are my successes, and vice versa." ANd I truly believe that! ... SL is a fascinating environment . Its going to take a while before we all become efficient in using this new tool - but day by day - we can do it! That's why I built English Village - so that we can learn together, and deliver education in the VR world.

Currently, I am working on building more classrooms on the island, and stocking each one with the tools I have discovered that have educational merit. Kip Yellow Jacket, of Esl in Second life, will start teaching on the island next week. He is renting a permanent office from me.

If you are interested in obtaining your own classroom on the island, equipped with the tools you need to get started, please read my "Getting a classroom FAQ" http://eslteacherlink.co.kr/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=71&topic=5.0

I hope that you will use the forums I have set up - I am really keen on using SL for education - so I will be constantly updating my blog: at http://www.eslteacherlink.co.kr and also the forums.

Worldbridges New Year 2007 Webcastathon For many of the remaining hours of 2006, we will be webcasting live - speaking with as many people as possible about the a variety of topics and reflecting on the year that was and the year ahead. We've scheduled a Webheads session at 1300GMT Sunday Dec. 31, but would be glad to schedule more sessions by popular demand and everyone is welcome to join in at any time. We'll be posting a more detailed schedule of topics and guests later today. We are also creating a Global Audio Time Capsule again this year. All are welcome to add their reflections (text and/or audio) at: http://worldbridges.net/node/add/content_user_reflection You can record an mp3 and post a link to it or use the Worldbridges My Chingo (on the right column menu). Thanks for being such a wonderful part of my 2006 and looking forward to lots of Webheads webcasting fun in 2007.

Sunday, Dec 31, 2006 Webheads in Action/Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru lang. learning 12:00-14:00 GMT ; meets at http://www.tappedin.org/ and decides what to do from there. See http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/software.htm to fathom more possibilities. In case we're Skypecasting, visit http://www.skypecast.com and find us in what's On Now or Starting Soon.

Our most recent chat is the one above ^

Webheads 2006-7 Seasons Greetings are here: http://happywebhead2006-7.pbwiki.com/

Our next online chat is never any later than this coming Sunday, noon GMT (for about 2 hours on Sunday, 1 hour or so on Saturday). What time is that where you are? Check: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html What will happen when we meet? Who knows? (Just about anything!) But click here to get an idea. Meet us at Tapped In, http://www.tappedin.org

There is a schedule of other ongoing online events here: http://www.vancestevens.com/online_events.htm

You are welcome to join us at any of the locations given at the top of this page!

If you have photos of any f2f meetings with Webheads, please post them to our WebHeads f2f site at http://webheads-f2f.pbwiki.com/



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Last updated: February 14, 2007

Copyright 2007 by Vance Stevens
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January 11, 2007