Meet Ananthi

Ananthi Samikannu
Carlton VIC, AUSTRALIA
http://www.rmit.edu.au
http://ananthis.blogspot.com

I originally come from Singapore but am now living in the most livable city in the world, Melbourne, Australia. I work for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) and am both an EAP and IT (Applications) teacher. I absolutely love my job and having some of the most talented and dedicated collegues and students makes it all worthwhile, everyday. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you and hope that by the start of our next semester, I can introduce new ideas and concepts to our own IT program. By the way, if you are wondering why i keep using Chillie (e-mail and Blogger), its because I have a beautiful 6 year old Cocker Spaniel called Chillie Padi (hottest chilli pepper) who I love to bits.

Meet Laine

Helaine Marshall
lainemarshal
Director, TESOL Programs
Westchester Graduate Campus
Long Island University

http://lainemarsh.blogspot.com

Current Position: Helaine directs the language teacher education programs at a small suburban New York graduate campus. There are programs in ESOL, Bilingual Education, and Foreign Language, mostly designed for K-12 instruction, that is Kindergarten (5 year-olds) through high school (18 year-olds).

Technology: One of her current grants calls for incorporation of technology in both teacher education and direct language instruction, so she seeks opportunities to increase her knowledge and skills related to instructional technology. She is working on her first website and just purchased a web cam.

Career: Over her 30 years in the ESL field, Helaine has worked with a variety of populations and in a range of contexts. Among them: Hmong students in Wisconsin; content-based instruction in physics and engineering in Boston; generation 1.5 students at a community college in NY; and adult literacy students. Her research has focused on: (1) pedagogic grammar -- the present perfect; fragments & run-ons; and (2) 2nd language learner profiles -- learning paradigm for students from oral culture; linguistic profile of academic writing for generation 1.5 students.

Personal: turtles; Fritos corn chips; yoga; the Supremes; French

Meet Linda

Linda Berton
Columbus, OH
http://lberton.blogspot.com

Meet Luis

Luis Latoja
Pataskala, OH
http://luislatoja.blogspot.com

I was born in Chile but have been living in the States since 1981. I have two Masters of Arts degrees and I have been a professor in Spanish at Columbus State Community College since 1988. I was in charge of the teledistance program (also called video-based teaching/learning) from 1991 up to this past Summer 2003. We have discontinued that track, although during Spring and Summer quarters this year I started developing a "hybrid" online 104 level (using Blackboard) to gain experience and practice since starting Winter quarter 2004 I will be offering an entirely online Spanish 104 level.

I am interested in exploring speaking techniques for those online students to try to match what is done in the traditional classroom setting so my online students will also have a chance of practicing their speaking skills if they cannot make it to campus. If am successful in 104, we may offer online Spanish courses for levels 101 through 103 also. The main idea is to try to match the requirements in proficiency our "classroom" students need to accomplish, that is, besides reading, writing, and listening, our online students should also have the chance to practice speaking. Online teaching/learning is growing rapidly at Columbus State Community College and I do not see why the Modern Languages Deparetment cannot offer courses of such nature also. Currently I am using Blackboard at school with my 101 and 102 levels just for posting syllabus, course material, and test content. But I would like to do more.

I also freelance as a translator/editor/proofer of English K-12 textbooks (Science, Math, Algebra, Social Strudies and some technical language) into Spanish.

Various Interests: Foreign Language Testing, Travelling (when I can), Gardening, some cooking, and reading.

Meet Peter

Peter Murphy
Carlton VIC, AUSTRALIA

http://pheym2003.blogspot.com

Meet Wayne

Wayne Sumida
Oyama-shi, Tochigi, JAPAN
http://englishnow.blogspot.com

Meet Buth

Buthaina Othman
buthaina_3
Click here to meet her.

Buth is assisting with the course. She is an EFL teacher at the Language Center of Kuwait University. Here is her informative introduction:

This message is to report to you breifly on my onging learning experience with webheads, since I joined the communities of practice, (CoP), Webheads in Action, (WiA),in Feb. 2002. I, frankly, consider myself one of the lucky teachers to have found an invaluable and great source of knowledge in WiA, especially that I am a novice teacher. I started my teaching career in 2001, when I was really thirsty for knowledge and tips on many areas in the profession. With the knowledge I gained from Webheads, I feel that I have completed a MS degree in CALL and E-learning and E-Teaching. With Webheads,I managed:

1. to develop and improve a home page, built for the use of my students, duirng my Master program at the Unversity at Albany, (SUNY), NY, in 1999. Please, have a look at my home page before and after I joined Webheads, at http://www.geocities.com/esl_efl_ku/before_after_wia.htm
2. to understand the concept behind the "theory" of using synchronous & asynchronous CMC tools, and how to implement it inside an EFL computer lab. Please, have a look at the following Text-Chat Projects, with Webheads in Action:
   a. Project(1): A Webhead in Action, chat with my students, at URL: http://alothman-b.tripod.com/sus_chat_090.htm
   b. Project(2): 3 Webheads in Action, chat with my students, at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/telecom_chat.htm
   c. Project(3): Inviting a Webhead to exchange emails with my students at a Yahoo group, at http://www.geocities.com/esl_efl_ku/ygroup_161.htm
3. to learn how to use voice with my students in various ways. Please, have a look at the following voice-activities, created for the use of my students:
   a. Voice-Activity (1), at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/culture-voicemsge.htm
   b. Voice-Activity(2), at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/car_chatactivity.htm
4. to learn more about collaboration and cooperation in online communities, and how to use these methods with my students online, inside a computer lab and a f2f classroom. Please, check out an example of WiA collaboration & cooperation, at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/compued-wia.htm
5. to learn more about the importance of using voice and webcams in e-learning and e-teaching. Please, check out how Webheads use voice-webcam-text chat tools at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/tesol_wia-03.htm
6. to experience webcasting,which is a wonderful way to communicate online, using voice and text chat, included in a CMC tool. Please, check out this Webcasting, session, at http://alothman-b.tripod.com/hawaii_wia.htm

As you can see, these are just some of the things I learned at Webheads in Action. I learned most of the above skills by actually doing them, following a mani principle of the constructive approach, which I strongly support, as many other Webheads.

Finally, if you want to experiment with any of the CMC tools, including voice and webcam,with your students or by yourself, I will be more than happy to assist you.

Best wishes, Buth

Meet Dafne

Dafne Gonzales
dygonza
Click here to meet Daf

Dafne is, like Buth, a member of the community of practice Webheads in Action, and she will be a strong addition to this group not only to answer some of your questions from the perspective of another just recently (self-)trained online afficianado, but also as a proponent of introspection into how your own experiences online can 'inform' your classroom (and blended learning) practices. Here's her message:

First, I would like to thank Vance for inviting me to join this group. I feel honored and hope that I can contribute and learn with the interaction in the group.

I have been reading the messages, and they have taken me back to January 2002 when I joined Webheads in Action as a newbie. I have been an EFL/ESP teacher for 30 years, but I had never gotten involved with e-learning, but I decided to do so for my doctoral dissertation, with no background in the area. You can learn about my feelings back in 2002, at this page I created after joining Webheads: http://dafnegon.tripod.com/myjourneywithwebheads/id2.html

I could write a whole book about my journey with Webheads, but I will just start by saying that after being with Webheads from January to March 2002, I was able to design and moderate my first online course for architecture students, and since then, I have not stopped teaching students online, designing units, training teachers, and I keep learning from and with fellow webheads. One of my first online lessons was prepared for an online event at Tapped In, it was about preparing paella (I am in Spain, but I am from Venezuela) you can see it here: http://www.geocities.com/dygonza/paella.html. As Buth has pointed out, we have been participating in different online events with other webheads, and sometimes these presentations have combined f2f with online presenters. As a consequence of my involvement with webheads and e-learning, I have been interested, and have explored the use of chat in education, you can read an article which was just published in the IATEFL Poland online Journal where I describe a taxonomy of educational chat I have created: http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_review15.htm

Someone asked for the reasons to join a community. I have some answers to this question on a page for f2f presentation about Webheads, in Cordoba, Spain, with webheads online from all over the world. I described what we do with different CMC tools, I hope you get an idea of the collaborative work we have been doing when you read this page: http://dafnegon.tripod.com/wia/doingwhat.htm

I could go on and on, but I think this is more than enough for a first message.

Looking forward to chatting with you,

Bfn, Dafne

Meet Venny

Venny Su
vennysu

http://venny.myweb.hinet.net

Venny has offered to assist members of this group (and anyone in the world, actually) with getting their voice and webams working.

Hi online friends, It's my pleasure to join you, and I hope that we can have a great time in the group. If you want to test any online platforms, tools or softwares, don't hesitate to invite me.

Meet Maria

Maria's Webheads Page

Hello everyone, This is Maria Elena Rendon, in Melbourne, Australia. I just got an invitation from Vance to join this group. I'm very honoured and happy to be able to help and to learn with you. I myself am a learner and am willing to share with you as little as I know, and I want to encourage you to dedicate time to discover by yourselves and with the help of others this fascinating "forest" of online synchronous communications... you won't get lost... just be ready to play around a bit and make sure you rest for a while under each "tree" you find interesting to explore. I love hugging trees! and people of course... hugs, Maria.