ABS Conference for Coordinators

Last Saturday August 18th August, Gladys and I presented at the 6th ABS International Congress for English Coordinators and Directors of Studies in Buenos Aires. Gladys devoted to wikis and their use in an educational context and I did the same about blogs. We were assigned a rather big room this time (much bigger than the one we had in February's Congress for Teachers of English), but people kept coming in even after the beginning of the presentation. We were happy to see that more teachers are becoming aware of the importance of integrating technology in schools.
Due to the profile of our expected audience, I devoted a section of my presentation to dealing with different ways in which school principals can make use of blogs. First, they might assume a leading role in encouraging blogging among the teachers and students in their institution to build a school learning network and second, they might engage in blogging themselves to:

1. Present and share with parents (and receive feedback if they enable the comments feature):

• School behaviour rules
• School goals
• Students’ projects

2. Announce and give the possibility to react to:

• Celebrations
• Shows
• Meetings
• Sport events
• Open classes
• Field trips

3. Introduce staff (and give them the chance to introduce themselves and their projects and methods to the community)

4. Comment on issues related to children and education (sexual education, mobile phones and shools, addictions, cheating, education policy)

5. Link class blogs and give feedback on them

6. Write their memoirs to pass on their experience to the new generations.

School administrators might choose to enable the comments feature in order to interact with students, parents, staff within school community and among other communities (other administrators facing the same challenges), conduct informal polls, etc. to get in touch with the feelings and opinions of the people involved in their school as staff, parents or students, or disable the comments feature if they think this is too risky, and use their blogs as newsletters.

I don't know if there are any school principals blogging in Argentina. My opinion is that people here are not ready yet to discuss things openly and may be afraid of others' reactions. It will take time and lots of schoolteachers blogging to bring this healthy activity to the top of the pyramid.

Gladys has uploaded the slides for our presentation to her wbsite. They are also available from her Slideshare space.

On a more personal note, we had the opportunity to meet a LwCer from La Plata, Nelba Quintana, at the conference. She's a very enthusiastic supporter of technology integration and is currently running English Virtual Community, an e-group for teachers of English.

Below, a slideshow of few of the photos of the event made with PictureTrail (a discovery of Carla Arena for our EVO 2008 session wiki)

Cool Slideshows!

Holidays and Slideshows

Brazil is one of Argentinians' favourite holiday destinations. I'm not the exception: warm weather, sun, friendly people, varied fruits, lively music and dance, amazing landscapes... who could ask for more! Barra da Tijuca, a beautiful residential area in southern Rio de Janeiro was my destination this summer. I expected to check all the items on my "wishlist". Well, most of them were actually there, except for... the sun! Every break of day brought new -unfulfilled- expectations. A grey sky covered us almost every day and a light shower fell down from time to time. Fortunately the temperature remained warm and allowed us to take long walks around Barra's streets, waterfront and shopping malls. We also took advantage of Rio's fast and frequent bus service to go to the famous Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. But above all I enjoyed the view from our flat's balcony, a combination of mountains, ocean, village and gardens. There we had our meals and our talks.

We took a guided tour of Angra dos Reis. The bus went along the "Green Route", a road through paradise: on one side, the flowers and forests on the green hills; on the other, the small bays, the green calm sea, the green islands and the colourful villages on the sloping hillsides. A boat takes you from one island to the other, you jump into the warm clear waters and swim to the sandy coast or watch the bright-coloured fish. Lunch onboard crowns the "Gilligan's Island" experience.

Visit www.slide.com and use its drag-and-drop photo uploader to put your photos online. You can choose from several transition effects, skins and sizes to personalize your slideshows.

One True Media photo albums and slideshows

I've created a photo album with One True Media. One True Media allows you to upload photos and video and select a background music from a varied collection of music files. You can also upload your favourite mp3's to use them as background for your videos and slideshows. Transitions between photos are created automatically but are also editable.
Easy to use and customize, Our True Media is already one of my favourites!
This is the link to the photo album where I put together a few pictures from my holidays in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina:


Mercosur

And this is the online slideshow:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com