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It's so "great" to be in a course which one doesn't have much background and information! http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/portal2006.htm

But,however,, it feels much cozy to "see" old faces and friends from past TESOL courses here ! Welcome all old TESOL pals! It is an exciting experience to be with Vance as a tutor who presumably accustomed to making rough seas turn into smooth ones!

I am an EFL instructor who teaches at the tertiary level, a tutor at the Open University of Sudan,an interested teacher in integrating technology into classroom,a webhead,a mother for three lovely kids, a wife to a jealous-of-PC husband, as I always write in my course introduction for giving an excuse to my instructor whenever being late in submitting tasks and assignments!!!

I had a major PC crash lately in which I lost "everything" stored from 2002!I went through a nearly mental breakdown and at the end ,as it was my fault not to have a back up, here I am,starting from scratch !!Thus,I have no photo available to upload !! For the course,I second Gordon's words about "let the learning begin" and I am sure it will be a great and rich course!I can't wait to interact with you.

14/9/06

I had a diploma in "Adult Education and Illiteracy "in 1992,where I learned that illiteracy means either not knowing to read or write ,or being ignorant ,unknowledgeable in a specific subject or area. Reading here,http://www.thenetwork.sa.edu.au/identity_web/multiliteracies.html

this what I figured, silly and naïve..maybe!!

1.The term 'multiliteracies' was coined to describe what constitutes literacy in today's world…not only language, but " multiple kinds of literacies which are embedded in multimodal texts"

2.Cope and Kalanstzis (2000), describe multiliteracies as "a word which was chosen by the New London Group who recognised that literacy pedagogy was changing rapidly in our global world". Thus, the fearful fast changes of technology has the great impact here. I will sum up two quotations by Warscharure, in "Electronic Literacies" , on the first page which ,I guess ,I need to know for now. The first one is that; "concepts of literacy changes". The second is"..technology change intersects with other social ,economic, cultural and political factors to help determine how literacy is practiced."

13/9/2006

Here I am, joining two courses at the same time with TESOL, not knowing how will I manage with all the things running down here!God helps us all.Now to the point;my new wiki ever created for TESOL PP107 , a course with Vance at:

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/portal2006.htm ,terrified with the plethora of information I went through on our course home page, moving, or crawling from one page to another not knowing where to start. Natural ? I guess, yes,but what adds to my anxiety is to work from an Internet Café, using a strange PC or a hizly bizzly keyboard you keep asking to change! I thought to start this wiki ,for my first time ever to use it, as belated lesson to have a backup of everything you want to keep. So, don't think I am weird when you find me saving every "Hi" and "Bye" in the course! That will be my new trend. Bye for now because I want to save what I have written now!!!

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Is this how we seperate between post??? Don't know!!Anyway,just in case,due to my "savisizim" phobia of losing something,and to not knowing how to use a wiki,I created a new page and posted "this post' here.

14/9/2006

Here I am,again, ,in this course ,terrified with the plethora of information I went through on our course home page, moving, or crawling from one page to another not knowing where to start. Natural ? I guess, yes,but what adds to my anxiety is to work from an Internet Café, using a strange PC or a hizly bizzly keyboard you keep asking to change! I thought to start this wiki ,for my first time ever to use it, as belated lesson to have a backup of everything you want to keep. So, don't think I am weird when you find me saving every "Hi" and "Bye" in the course! That will be my new trend. Bye for now because I want to save what I have written now!!!

Politically, in Sudan, we have Postcolonial Illiteracy ;that is; swinging between Arabisation and Westernization!!

20/9/2006

1.Open our wiki ,with pages of participants: http://pp107-2006.pbwiki.com/

2.Open the portal: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/portal2006.htm

3.Check syllabus: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/syllabus2006.htm

4.Open Moodle: http://www.opensource.idv.tw/moodle/course/view.php?id=23

5.Write on my wiki: http://multiliteracies.pbwiki.com/An%20Uneasy%20Start

6.How to put my picture on the wiki: http://pp107-2006.pbwiki.com/VanceStevens

__Tasks accomplished:__

1.Introducing myself.

2.Adding my photo to the map.

3.Read an article about Multilliteracies and post your comments: here: http://edoz.com.au/educationaustralia/archive/features/mult1.html

4a.A wiki? Yes: http://multiliteracies.pbwiki.com/An%20Uneasy%20Start.

4b.A blog? Yes: http://tesolpp107.blogspot.com/

5.A buzznet blog? Yes: http://hala.buzznet.com/user/main/Glad to have lost treasures here!(Illiteracy)

6.Bloglines:((Litercy.Don't ask how, just show the how and why Vance, please: http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

7.Del.ici.ous account?Yes: http://del.icio.us/halafawzi

8.TappedIn Office: http://tinyurl.com/zew7x (3MB Storage! Illiteracy)

Here is a screen shot:(Couldn't post it!Illiteracy need!)

9.My old messy blog about webheads:

http://webheadsheaven.blogspot.com/

As part of practicing,and because the "paste" button didn't work,I uploaded my sketches as "file" on the file area.I hope it will work.

02 October,2006

Comments

Instead of logging on to MY blog, /I will log on to my bloglines (like the forums in D2L), then read all new posts on those I subscribed to. Some websites do not have RSS so they will not compete in the future. So, I have to get an RSS feed to my blog. Aha! Now I figured out how Downes read and reflect upon these articles and posts…..finally! I still believe I need a tutorial with screenshots. This is how I think the simplest way to understand RSS.

When I pressed the RSS button on the wiki, ..it gave me detailed HTML posts even the deleted ones. Failed to wubscrbe1

On reading Maryanne Burgos’s at http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/event_cycle6.htm . Now I know where I belong into the different notions of multiliteracy; it is the Functional Literacy and Critical literacy! Am I wrong/ Maybe slow too!!

“Selber’s Power Moves Associated with Technological Regularization (pp. 102-103)(xclusion: Deflection,Differential Incorporation ,Compartmentalization ,Segregation ,Centralization,tandardization Polarization –Marginalization ,elegation Disavowal ). tried to apply this to our situation in Khartoum, not the whole Sudan, and I was amazed how many could be ticked:! Not as a conclusion for today’s work, The data(or information as Beth wondered), on this link is interesting indeed. Now I consider myself joined one of the courses which are designed on Critical Thinking Notions. Thanks Vance and good night.9.30 a.m.Ramadan Kareem!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Web 2.0 Tools

(For a better reading go to my blog http://tesolpp107.blogspot.com/from from where this is copied because all the links are highlighte there)

After reading several comments and points of view from other webheads, I think I will change to FEEDBlitz ( not started yet). I read about it on an email from Dr. Elizabeth Hanson-Smith in learningwithcomputers yahoo group. I liked the idea of opening my email and finding everything in there,l ike what I have experienced with Learning Times, Downes( I just love this guy!) ,IT weekly and other journals

Web 2.0 tools ?Those I am comfortable with?

The first one is delicious.I like to have my links, tagged, sorted out and organized. It has no problem in using. Lately, I discovered the “do not share” button. I thought it has no privacy.The second tool is flickr, where I upload my photos. Bubblshare is the best where you can upload, create a slideshow with your voice and share it with others.On buzznet this option is also there with a place for comments and adding friends’ blogs to your. Springdoo ,where you can send voice, video emails(much faster?)

Web2.0 tools not comfortable with?

Podmatic (maybe I should try to record something today!!).Vance showed me Multiply, but today, I stumbled over 4shared, same feature of Mutilply ,uploading photos ,music and videos, all in one place. I love it !

Tools I would like to explore?Juice

Adapting ALL the scary, rapidly new invented or created web 2.0 tools will lead one to a near mental break down. Thus, in points: select the appropriate tool to fulfill the objective, try it untill you are comfortable with it, use it, re-use it, re-use-it, re-use it, then, look for a similar one on the market.The selection will be easier as you would be able to by now, what re your students’ needs and goals and how to use the tool to accomplish them.

Questions: How can I set my PBWiki to accept comments?How/where can I post comments on bloglines.I tried to do so with Beth’s, no success.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Byond the Individual Teacher

Whether is it learned or taught, the concept of mulitlitacies (functional ,critical rhetorical), has an impact on the overall pedagogical design and philosophy of education. When this is digested(the impact of the concept),then the decision of whether to choose between changing the content, the delivery mode, focus on teachers’ PD for leading others into the path change, depends on the extent of the “how/whether/if/what”, that the decision makers and educators have comprehended and digested about the whole process .Certainly ,the efforts done should exceed the individuals to go beyond that to reach the whole community. It will not only add to TPD but it will improve “ the depth of such impacts on educational outcomes.” Projects like what is done in Uganda can add to this point:

http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=160

And another one on cultural diversity and gender: http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=i90504-e--1

The impact on wider non-connected communities:

http://www.iicd.org/articles/iicdnews.2006-10-02.9354276233

Friday,5/9/2006

Socity illiteracy

Thanks Vance for opening the inforamtion about the DOPA bill! What risks? Great ones. Advantages? I see none. Benefits? Only when you want to WARN your kids about existing phenomena to be careful about,to let them know baout "what could be found out there".

You asked I answer qutiong your first paragraph of your article:”

“…applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environment , and particularly the impact of this on teacher professional development. This impact includes developing effective strategies for understanding and utilizing current technology-enhanced collaborative learning environments, which ideally will foster and nourish the formation of distributed learning networks and lead to the development of communities of practice whose members learn from one another through exercising principles of constructivism applied to informal learning. The impact of this extends beyond teacher training, getting into issues of how power is shifting to individuals in peer-to-peer distributed networks from traditional information distribution patterns inherent in top-down information networking.”

I think the Internet ,as it is used for its utmost to achieve goals and revolutions ,it should be used to its greatest potential to fight , pedophiles or any other types of child abuse. .I am with the concern of the excessive use of new media by kids.We can’t force,convince them of more “eaidng and more sports are better for you my kid”,as we, ourselves, do not do it.A universal strategy,with united efforts from parents, leaders from people involved in all fields of societies ;religion, law, government, NGO’s, educators, bring about positive changes. This should be maximized with non-lenient punishments.

Hala