At that URL there was left a placeholder that says
Sat 10 Oct 1400-1430 UTC Minnie Wang (Featured Session)
Internet Plays an Important Role in Self-education
16:00-16:30 pm in Cairo
This presentations had to be cancelled on the day scheduled because Minnie could not reach zoom.us from China due to something unusual about that Zoom URL (normally she can reach private Zoom rooms)
However, the presentation was rescheduled for Oct 18, noon UTC
And this is that presentation 🙂
Minnie’s ‘Featured Performance’ was actually a presentation based on her experience learning the musical instrument Guzheng online. She also talked about her background in teaching, and teaching herself English online, through the Internet in China. She expects to be retired from the company where she works in 5 years and is making a plan now to teach English and Chinese online. She lists Learning2gether and Webheads as two of her very significant influences and resources in pursuit of her goal.
Zoom Chat Logs
Besides Minnie and I, the meeting was attended only by Claire Siskin, who arrived just after Minnie had finished presenting, so we had a brief conversation before saying good night, or have a nice day in Claire’s case. We did not use the Zoom chat during the event.
But Hanaa Khamis scheduled a watch party for the event. Here is her invitation (this is an image and the play button doesn’t work – you can find the actual video embedded in the Promotions and Feedback section below):
Promotion and Feedback
This 29th Weekly Webheads in Action FUNinar and Learning2gether Episode 495
Managing online meetings and remote work can be challenging and sometimes (haha, always?) anxiety-inducing. In this session, Nancy White will invite us to explore a range of Liberating Structures (http://www.liberatingstructures.com) group process patterns to explore and overcome these challenges using writing, drawing and maybe even physical movement.
Please bring:
Some A4 paper (recycled is fine – just have one side clean!)
A pen or pencil
A willingness to be involved
Nancy White is the founder of Full Circle Associates, her consulting practice that includes an extensive network of professionals, working in facilitation, online communities and collaboration. She is co-author with John Smith and Etienne Wenger of Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities (CPSquare 2009). She is a frequent contributor and a past core group member of KM4Dev, a global networked community of international development practitioners who are interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing issues and approaches, who seek to share ideas and experiences in this domain. Nancy is a leading thinker, writer, and practitioner of online facilitation (group facilitation for distributed environments).
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there or follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
Fri-Sat 9-10 Oct Teachers Learning2gether Summit on the New Normal to Survive Lockdown
Learning2gether was asked to host an International 2-day PD Teachers Learning2gether Summit: on Oct 9-10, 06:30-21:00 UTC on Friday, and 08:00-21:30 UTC on Saturday. The theme is – The Internet for Education: The New Normal to Survive Lockdown
All 29 sessions were streamed and recorded on YouTube. However I recorded the Panel that Dr. Michael Kenteris, Claire Siskin, and I convened on Teaching Remotely: What’s New & Normal in Surviving Lockdown? using Camtasia to record my desktop, as we presented it. I wanted to have a backup, just in case, and I like the behind the scenes views that such desktop recordings reveal. All of the other recordings linked here were rendered from Zoom, including the Zoom video version of the panel shown here, at 1:22:20 in this video: https://youtu.be/ED1ACXU7_Iw.
1:17:40 – Presenters: Claire Siskin, Vance Stevens, and Dr. Michael Kenteris
The summit was organized at the initiative of Hanaa Khamis, former LTSIG Co-coordinator at NileTESOL. The event aimed at capturing international perspectives on how educators in various educational contexts have managed challenges of lockdown and quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as sharing insights on best practices in teaching and learning over the coming few months.
Participants were invited to register free for the Teachers Learning2gether Summit Zoom rooms. The sessions were held in 6 different Zoom rooms, 4 on the first day and two on the second. Each required separate registration.
After registering, participants received a confirmation email containing information about joining the event, and reminders with the links repeated. These alerts were followed by links to the recordings with their passwords, which also had buttons facilitating download of the associated Zoom mp4 and text chat files.
The video above contains Hanaa Khamis’s introduction of Vance Stevens from the point where she started the Zoom recording. She tried to start a Facebook stream as well, but Facebook and Zoom are not working smoothly together these days, so the Part 1 presentations stream was not started on YouTube until midway through Vance’s introductory remarks, but streamed from that point onwards on https://youtu.be/R0nswgrmmE4.
The accompanying screen shots are mostly, if not all, mine. More screen shots and reflections on the event can be found at the Facebook aggregation of the conference tag #learning2gethersummit, and by exploring the profiles from these dates of the posters on that tag https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/learning2gethersummit
2:05:24 – Presenters: Tom Robb, Dina El-Dakhs, and Işıl Boy Ergül
Sat 10 Oct 1400-1430 UTC Minnie Wang (Featured Session)
Internet Plays an Important Role in Self-education 16:00-16:30 pm in Cairo
This presentations had to be cancelled on the day scheduled because Minnie could not reach zoom.us from China due to something unusual about that Zoom URL (normally she can reach private Zoom rooms)
However, the presentation was rescheduled for Oct 18, noon UTC
1:23:15 – Presenters: Ron Howard, and at 38:11, Anastasia Khawaja
Sat 10 Oct 1900-1930 UTC Anastasia Khawaja
Cameras Off, Engagement Still On: Exploring Remote Classroom Engagement as a Partnership Between Educators and Students (Featured Talk) 21:00-21:30 pm in Cairo
Zoom Chat Logs
Chats took place in Zoom for 10 hours the first day and 11 the next. Chat also took place in YouTube but that would be tedious to fetch.
Here are the logs from my (Vance’s) introductory talk on the first day of the summit:
01:12:56 Dina El-Dakhs : Good morning, Hanaa. A great program! Looking forward to the talks. 01:13:07 Csilla Benn: Hi everyone from France! 01:14:04 Heike Philps: germany 01:14:26 Sibel Sezer: Hi Heike 01:15:11 Sibel Sezer: a Webhead 01:15:22 Sibel Sezer: Hi Vance 01:15:46 Vance Stevens : Hi all 01:17:48 Amira Mohsen : Hi all 01:18:06 Ahmed Ibrahem Wahba Ibrahem: Welcome 01:19:10 Sibel Sezer: can you put the link in the chat? 01:19:24 Sibel Sezer: ok 01:19:57 HK Conferencing: The slides for this talk are available at https://tinyurl.com/Vance2020summit 01:20:00 Sibel Sezer: https://tinyurl.com/Vance2020summit 01:20:53 HK Conferencing: Alex Egypt 01:20:59 HK Conferencing: J Cross 01:21:03 HK Conferencing: RIP 01:22:19 Heike Philps: Jay Cross RIP amazing pioneer in informal corporate learning 01:22:51 Heike Philps: met him many a times in Berlin for Online Educa 01:23:16 HK Conferencing: No 01:23:19 Sibel Sezer: No 01:23:26 Raafat Gabriel: NO 01:23:41 Sibel Sezer: RIP 01:25:41 HK Conferencing: Frivolous Unanticipated Nonsense 01:25:43 HK Conferencing: FUN 01:26:05 HK Conferencing: Livestreaming on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nswgrmmE4 01:26:55 Sibel Sezer: Almost everything was converted into virtual equivalents 01:30:10 HK Conferencing: TALIN, https://tinyurl.com/talin2020 01:30:53 HK Conferencing: Teachers … Learning in Isolation 01:31:13 HK Conferencing: Painful 01:31:16 HK Conferencing: hurtful 01:31:20 HK Conferencing: LOL 01:31:26 HK Conferencing: 24/7 01:32:36 Sibel Sezer: Great archive, https://tinyurl.com/covid19teaching 01:33:13 Sibel Sezer: I love Open Mic sessions 01:33:20 Sibel Sezer: oooh good old Yahoo 01:33:54 HK Conferencing: Share on yr networks plz 01:34:02 HK Conferencing: Funinars 01:34:05 HK Conferencing: LOL 01:36:07 Asma Maaoui: Greetings from Tunisia 01:36:27 Dina El-Dakhs : Thank you very much for your informative talk. 01:37:00 Hanine Ghosn: Thank you Mr Vance!
I recorded the Zoom chat from the Panel that I did with Mike Kenteris and Claire Siskin and pasted it on our document of record here https://tinyurl.com/summit2020panel
Zoom chat logs from all the other sessions are available at the link given wherever the existence of an HK Conferencing recording with downloadable mp4 and text text file is noted in the foregoing show notes.
Promotion and Feedback
This was the 28th Weekly Webheads in Action FUNinar and Learning2gether Episode 494
Hanaa’s feedback is much appreciated: referring to this blog post
Now that all is said and done, here is a video for your amusement of Vance and Hanaa sorting out certain logistics details, in particular how to manage Zoom bombers, and how to put the global time links into the conference program, as has been done for the sessions listed above .
From Hanaa Khamis to me
Dear Vance,
Thank you very much for supporting me all the way at Teachers Learning2gether Summit on 9-10 October 2020 (before, during, after). Please find attached a certificate of appreciation for making this an event to remember. I sincerely hope it is memorable to you as much as it is to me. Hoping for more fruitful collaboration in the near future.
Earlier Events
Sun 04 Oct noon UTC Weekly Webheads in Action FUNinar and Learning2gether Episode 493
Vance Stevens on sustaining online teacher professional development at the 5th EFLtalks and World Teachers’ Day hosted by Rob Howard
Thu 8 Oct 1900 EDT – Free Webinar with John Hattie on The Power of Student Feedback
A.J. Juliani announced this Free Webinar with John Hattie on The Power of Student Feedback, next Thursday, October 8th at 7pm EDT. Sign-up here.
Meet John Hattie, the international author of the Visible Learning Series and The Distance Learning Playbook for a one hour chat about the power of feedback and its impact on achievement.
Not all feedback is alike – according to John’s research. We’ll be chatting with John about building a feedback culture in classrooms – whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person – and how the variations of feedback we use impact student achievement.
Learn what students have consistently maintained they need to grow their learning and tips
Fri 9 Oct noon UTC TESOL Career Path Development PLN webinar on Colored English – Okon Effion, Qatar University
The TESOL Career Path Development Professional Learning Network held a webinar on Colored English: (Mis)Perceptions Presenter: Okon Effion, Qatar University
Abstract:
Racism is alive and rife in many facets of our life. Sadly, it is pervasive in ELT and inflicts both emotional and professional damage on many English teachers. It goes far beyond skin color and accent because racism is also a characteristic manifestation of insecurity suffered by the perpetrators. This discussion draws on a true account of a black African English teacher who has passed through this dark tunnel.
Speaker’s bio:
Okon teaches English in the Foundation Programme, Qatar University. Before Qatar, Okon taught in Nigeria, UK, and Japan. He is a member of the Board of Directors, TESOL International Association, and was the Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, Chair-elect of the EFL Interest Section, and a member of the Nominating Committee of TESOL International Association. He is the Founder and Past President of Africa TESOL and was the President of Qatar TESOL (2014/15).
Okon has presented as invited, featured, and plenary speaker at internationally recognized conferences in different parts of the world. His research interests are in foreign language anxiety, task-based learning, and professional associations. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and co-edited a volume on the Role of Language Teacher Associations in Professional Development (Springer, 2018).
Okon is passionate about the professional development of English language teachers and has in the past five years been actively involved in organizing international conferences in Qatar and Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southampton, UK. He also has an MSc in Applied Genetics, MA TESOL, and a PG Diploma in Management and Information Technology.
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there.
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is October 20, 2020 06:00 UTC
The EFLtalks video will be posted here when ready (Rob said 2 weeks)
On Sunday Oct 4 there was a Teachers’ Day 5th anniversary of Rob Howard’s EFLtalks. The 50 talks, each one 10 slides and 10 minutes long, start at 8 am UTC and go on till 8 pm UTC. In the five times he’s done this, Rob has accumulated more than 500 ten minute videos of teachers talking about various aspects of their craft. They are streamed and permanently stored on https://www.youtube.com/efltalks
Webheads in Action FUNinars take place at noon UTC on Sundays. I had arranged to give my EFLtalk at exactly that time and for exactly ten minutes. The talk was proposed as an Encapsulated history of teacher professional development from Web 2.0 through Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN and the New Normal. Sure to be an action packed ten minutes, viewers could catch it either in the EFLtalks YouTube stream, or at the WiA FUNinar screen-shared in Zoom and streamed in turn onto Facebook.
Anyone coming to the FUNinar event would have found Bobbi and I in our home studio. Bobbi was in one part of the studio in the Webheads Zoom room. She picked up my talk on the EFLtalks stream; to prevent sound from one computer creating feedback on another, I was in another part of the studio GIVING the talk, in the EFLtalks Zoom room (for presenters only). After a thankfully brief ten minutes I left that Zoom room and joined the Webhead participants (Bobbi and Heike Philp) in the Webheads one, where we could talk about, you know, the usual 🙂
Vance Stevens EFLtalk entitled “An encapsulated history of teacher Professional Development from Web 2.0 through Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN and the New Normal”
I stumbled into Web 2.0 when I was teaching EFL online at the turn of the century and was soon attracting teaching peers to our voice-enabled online classes. In 2002 I organized a workshop through EVO (Electronic Village Online) which I called Webheads in Action. This turned into a movement that sustains itself to this day, and in fact is undergoing a resurgence prompted by new demands on teachers responding to teaching challenges during pandemic. Ten years earlier I had started Learning2gether, a podcast series which has produced almost 500 episodes by now, including over two dozen resurgent Webheads in Action Open Mic FUNinars since March, which coincided with a surge of webinars responding to my call for teachers to Learn Together about TALIN, Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN. TALIN wound down after 38 webinars, but has morphed into TALIN2,, Teaching and Learning in the New Normal.
The warp of these many strands of ongoing teacher professional development these past two decades is woven into a weft of threads where Web 2.0 and open ended computer-mediated communication became focused on flipped and blended learning in the classroom, which in turn has helped teachers respond to the need to move into purely online environments, and eventually cope with hybrid ones, which is where we find ourselves on this World Teachers Day, 2020.
Rehearsal
I rehearsed the presentation two hours before I gave it and streamed that onto the Learning2gether Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether, so followers of that page got a preview of my talk. There was a glitch (web cam covering up a critical part of my slide show; something to be wary of at show time) but as it was just a rehearsal I restarted my presentation. If you want to skip all that, start viewing at 5 minutes into this video …
About the EFLtalks 5th Anniversary event
EFLtalks are short pecha kuchas in which presenters have ten minutes to get through ten slides each, one after another.
This event was held in Zoom (link sent to presenters only) but was simulcasted live on the EFLtalks YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/efltalks
Chat was logged in three places, the Facebook livestream, the Zoom chat, and in the YouTube livestream. We didn’t record our Zoom session except via Facebook and the YouTube chat would be too difficult to tease out — but here’s what we got in Facebook.
From the Webheads in Action Facebook livestream
Bobbi Stevens · 0:00 Nice to see you! Doris Molero · 0:51 [So Proud] graphic Doris Molero · 2:27 😁 Mike Kenteris · 3:03 Awesome! Well done, Vance! Doris Molero · 8:55 Webheads Rock!!! Heike Philp · 10:55 hi Bobbi, pls maximise your browser window with Vance’s presentation to full-screen – else it is too small to read Maru Del Campo · 13:30 So proud Vance! Doris Molero · 15:09 Besitos Bobbi Stevens and Heike Philp
Bobbi thought Heike meant for her to maximize the browser itself and she tried to act on these instructions. What Heike had meant was for her to maximize the video playing within the browser. This caused the change in presentation toward the end of the recording, but we have multiple versions, and the presentation was almost done anyway, so of little consequence.
Promotion and Feedback
The 27th Weekly Webheads in Action FUNinar was announced at these Facebook groups
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Thu 1 Oct noon UTC Suresh Canagarajah and others at online English as a Lingua Franca and multilingualism seminar
ME of the ENRICH Project in Rome, Italy, 1st October 2020, 2.00-6.30 pm Italian Time.
In order to participate it is necessary to first register using a Google form that you reach through the following link that you can either click on or paste it onto your browser: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSevlWDDxEaF4M…/viewform you can then connect to Zoom.
I attended but I did not encounter Dr. Canagarajah
Fri 2 Oct 1630 UCT online LIVE event of poetry, prose and other readings in foreign languages
Marijana Smolčec announces·
For the first time due to this COVID-19 pandemic situation our team of language teachers have decided not to give up on our usually local ONSITE event organized as a part of European Day of Languages. In order to keep the tradition we will be having an online LIVE event of Poetry, prose and other readings in foreign languages and we are inviting you all to join us on
If you are willing to read something in your mother tongue, let me know by Wednesday evening or come as audience and enjoy the fun, improvisation, poetry & prose in many EU and world languages!
📌Let the multicultural bondings begin! 🙂 🥳
So far we will have our students of Gimnazija i strukovna škola Bernardina Frankopana, students of Prva hrvatska riječka gimnazija, primary school students of Prva osnovna škola Ogulin read to us in Croatian, German, English, Italian Latin, Spanish…there are some guests from Brazil and Spain joining us as well – hope there will be more of you.
Please be our guest! 🙂 #virtualcakes available, #drinksonme
Mon-Sat 28 Sept to Oct 3 – The AZCALL 2020 Virtual Conference – registration free
Due to the current pandemic, our 2020 conference will be held fully online, from September 28 to October 3, 2020.
A GUIDE TO AZCALL 2020 – General Format AZCAL L 2020 is a fully online conference with both synchronous and asynchronous presentations and demonstrations for attendees.
Video Presentations All presentations will be available via our conference website playlist.
Attendees can watch presentations on their own schedule and they can write their comments and questions to the presenters on the same website. Register here for free
Synchronous sessions There will be live sessions from Dr. Elola and Dr. Taguchi on Oct 3rd.
Plenary talks: Registration for the plenary talks requires an extra step (sorry). Click on the links below to register for each live plenary.
Happy Hour: We will be hosting a Happy Hour with presenters, Dr. Idoia Elola, Dr. Naoko Taguchi, and Dr. Bryan Smith after the second plenary talk to allow a more vivid interaction and networking among presenters and attendees. Please make sure to check the Program for more detail on the virtual Zoom link for Happy Hour.
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there or follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
For this week’s Sunday, September 27 Weekly Webheads in Action Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar there was nothing special planned, but we exploited that as an opportunity to return to our original premise: whoever turns up grabs the mic and sets the direction of the conversation.
The conversation was chatty until Ayat Tawel took the mic and related how she had used Laine Marshall’s SOFLA framework (synchonous online flipped learning approach) in a series of classes she had recently conducted online. She explained how she had implemented and adapted the approach by patterning her work on Laine’s seminal material and my explanation of it when I had modeled it to the extent possible in an online seminar for Moroccan PhD students (the links can be found in the chat logs below).
Zoom Chat Logs
20:23:57 From Hanaa Khamis : hi
20:24:04 From Hanaa Khamis : Joined!
20:24:31 From c chee : hi
20:31:55 From Ayat AlTawel : If there’s a chance, I would like to share with you a few things I did with SOFLA
20:32:55 From Mike B : Hello all!
20:33:08 From Hanaa Khamis : Hiiii
20:35:40 From Hanaa Khamis : Love the expression!
20:36:17 From Hanaa Khamis : wow
20:36:25 From Hanaa Khamis : gr8 job Ayat
20:36:38 From Vance Stevens : blabberize?
20:37:28 From Hanaa Khamis : Lovely Ayat!
20:38:10 From Hanaa Khamis : Interesting
20:40:22 From Vance Stevens : http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume24/ej94/ej94int/
This is a link to Learning2gether Episode 478 – Thu July 16, 2020 – TALIN webinar #32 – Vance Stevens presents to Moroccan teachers on SOFLA and Online Language Learning and Teaching
20:48:27 From Hanaa Khamis : impressive work
20:49:11 From Hanaa Khamis : caught u at a bad moment Mike
20:49:30 From Mike B : Survived the sneeze haha
20:49:42 From Hanaa Khamis : 🙂
20:50:31 From Hanaa Khamis : Minnie .. was it u that had this performance when Heike n Nellie were there?
20:50:57 From Mike B : It’s almost a learning club rather than a school
20:53:08 From Hanaa Khamis : Gr8 Chee
20:53:35 From Hanaa Khamis : i guess i need to read more abt this topic
20:53:49 From Hanaa Khamis : i may be practicing w/o knowing it
20:55:18 From Hanaa Khamis : I am experimenting w those
20:55:39 From Hanaa Khamis : Can be tricky but they are really good
20:55:49 From Hanaa Khamis : To avoid lecturing mode
20:57:17 From Hanaa Khamis : Great idea Vance
20:57:26 From Hanaa Khamis : Challenging but worthwhile
20:57:41 From minnie : yea, indeed
21:01:13 From Hanaa Khamis : Lovely
21:01:18 From Hanaa Khamis : roleplaying
21:01:25 From Hanaa Khamis : This isnt me
21:01:35 From Hanaa Khamis : Bon appetite
21:04:42 From Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : We ll be in touch soon
21:05:01 From Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : got positive responses from all keynotes
21:05:34 From Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : and at least 3-4 panels
21:05:52 From Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : let alone all featured speakers
21:06:09 From Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : All i need is fix times
21:06:48 From Hanaa Khamis : Thanks Vance!
21:07:22 From Hanaa Khamis : wow
21:07:38 From Hanaa Khamis : oh no
21:07:50 From Hanaa Khamis : Alex my hometown
Wed 23 Sept 1230 UTC Education Superheroes interactive webinar on Flipped Learning
Education Superheroes is an initiative to connect education leaders and young professionals with a global community of teachers interested in student centred approaches to revolutionise education.
The community meets every week to share best practices discuss prominent issues in education across contexts, co-creating solutions through discussion and debate. We sign off our interactive webinars with actionable solutions that teachers can employ in their unique contexts. Participants are encouraged to try out these solutions and share their experiences during follow-up sessions.
As an educational leader, we hope you would be interested in collaborating. We feel that you and your teachers could contribute fresh ideas to enrich our webinars.
Join us this Wednesday at 8:30 PM SGT for an interactive webinar on Flipped Learning.
——————————
Shyam Nair English Professor
Score Campus
Singapore
Wed 23 Sept 2359 UTC 1st 2020 SLWIS Interactive Online Discussion Series session – Nigel Caplan and Tanita Saenkhum on tips on adapting writing assignments online
Aylin Atilgan Relyea writes on myTESOL Lounge: I’m happy to invite you to our first 2020 SLWIS Interactive Online Discussion Series session. We will host at least two more sessions. Please join us this THIS WEDNESDAY to discuss some pedagogical approaches and tips on adapting writing assignments online!
Date: Sept 23, 2020
Time: 5:00 pm PST, 8:00 pm EST – Midnight UTC and 8 am Sept 24 in Malaysia
Topic: Adapting Writing Assignments Online and How to Use Google Drive for Student Engagement and Collaboration
Kristen Lindahl, University of Texas at San Antonio
speaking on Identity and Awareness in Teacher Education
As language teachers develop and negotiate intersectional (and sometimes conflicting) identities, their awareness of language itself may also evolve. This presentation highlights empirical mixed methods studies that discuss critical/teacher language awareness via an identity lens.
Bedrettin Yazan, University of Texas at San Antonio
speaking on Critical Autoethnography as an Identity-focused Teacher Learning Activity
This presentation responds to Reeves’ (2018) call to incorporate “explicit, guided teacher identity work” in teacher education. It discusses the presenter’s practices using critical auto-ethnography as a language teacher-learning activity that provides teacher candidates with a discursive space to narrate and analyze their identities through experiences within political contexts.
Mon-Fri 21-26 Sept Webinars on Engaging Learners in Online Remote Teaching from the Gujarat Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English
The Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English, (SCOPE) Department of Education, Government of Gujarat is pleased to inform you that we are holding Webinars on “Engaging Learners in Online Remote Teaching “ as per the direction and orders of Director Higher Education. It is proposed to enhance teachers’ online remote teaching skills and knowledge through systematic orientation and methodologies. Designed especially for the faculty of English however the methodology can be used by any subject teacher. Details: Date: 21st to 26th September, 2020. The details are attached in the following broachers.
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there, and you can follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
Parents, teachers, students, librarians, administrators, and others are facing dramatic challenges right now. A significant aspect of which is that learning at home, whether by circumstance or choice, is now the reality for a large number of students and their families.
The Summit will be a “how-to” event populated with 30-minute presentations, interviews, and bonus materials, and centered around supporting learning, especially when it is home-based. The audience will be parents, teachers, students, librarians, administrators, and anyone interested in helping students to learn. We will advertise the summit to my email list of 150,000. There will also be Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube promotions.
The Summit will be free to watch “live,” with each talk or presentation available for five days, then placed, along with bonus materials, in a library that can be purchased with an inexpensive “all-access” pass. Presenters are able to use their presentation recording in any way they would like independent of the Summit, and will also receive an affiliate link for advertising the event if they would like to promote it and share in the all-access pass revenue.
We will also host “free replay” days where the full library of recordings will be available to watch without purchase, and we will have a generous scholarship program so that anyone who would benefit from this content but cannot afford it will be able to access it.
A potential list of topics is below my signature. Priority will be given to presentations that focus on “how-to” solutions to student learning needs, and with particular emphasis on the immediate demands on students, parents, teachers, and librarians in this difficult moment. A guiding question for potential presenters might be: “What do you know about learning that could dramatically help or change the lives of students, parents, teachers, or librarians at this moment?”
Presentations will not, for the most part, be live–we will record them in Zoom and then release them the following day. Presenters can submit to present more than once. Presenters who would consider recording a series of short (under 5 minute) tips and tricks for parents, students, and teachers can contact me directly. Presenters with accepted proposals will receive more detailed information.
I have run online conferences in the education and library worlds for ten years, and have hosted over 100 specific events. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that I believe this will be the most important event I’ve undertaken so far. In order for this event to be sustainable, both organizationally and for the speakers, there has to be a stable financial component. I am open to having organizational sponsorship (contact me directly), but the last few years have shown me the importance of producing an event that pays for itself and supports presenters. I sincerely hope the structure and approach of this event will be seen favorably.
If you do not want to participate by presenting, I encourage you to provide feedback on the event topics using the Google Form here.
SUMMIT PRESENTATION TOPIC IDEAS:
ADHD and Learning ∙ Alternative Education ∙ Balancing Home and School ∙ Brain-based Learning ∙ Classroom 2.0 ∙ College Admissions ∙ Defining Success ∙ Digital Citizenship ∙ Educational Technology ∙ Elementary Years ∙ ESL ∙ Family & Parenting ∙ Gap Years & Family Sabbaticals ∙ Global Collaborations ∙ Grades and the Game of School ∙ High School ∙ Higher Education ∙ Homeschooling ∙ Homework ∙ Hope and Healing ∙ Handling Homework ∙ Learning Coaching and Mentoring ∙ Libraries and Librarians ∙ Managing Stress ∙ Math Education ∙ Microschools ∙ Mindful Classrooms ∙ Pandemic Pods ∙ Play ∙ Positive Education ∙ Practical Student Tools (Email / Calendars / Organizers) ∙ Remote Teaching and Learning ∙ Self-Directed Learning ∙ Sleep and Rest ∙ Social and Emotional Learning ∙ Special Needs ∙ Student 2.0 ∙ Student Entrepreneurship ∙ Teacher 2.0 ∙ Teaching Online ∙ Temperament and Learning ∙ Test Taking ∙ Unschooling ∙ Virtual Schooling ∙ World Schooling
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
ACRL Virtual World Interest Group presents a tour in Kitely
at the Sendalonde Library in Kitely
After losing five years of work due to a virtual world grid that is now defunct, Alex and Prax are rebuilding the Sendalonde library on the Kitely grid. On a sim called Wellspring, you will find library collections based on Sci-fi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Folklore: https://bit.ly/3kZN4J5
VWMOOC20 Tue Sept 22 1900 UTC – Eugenia Calderon
Virtual worlds as a Tool for Spanish Teaching
Virtual worlds such as Second Life and DigiWorldz most certainly offer the immersive environment necessary for learning languages. In the presentation we’ll talk about the advantages of using SL and DW and how these virtual worlds can be used to transmit knowledge of Spanish through their various and fun tools for learning. Also, we´ll make a tour through the sim Spanish Language Learning at Escape in http://digiworldz.com/
We will do some real time creating (drawing at our computer stations, building symbolic objects in Second Life, creating haiku or songs)—and pay attention to HOW we create. Let’s talk about the process, do a little show-and-tell, and learn from the various ways we manifest our creations! Please have some writing tools and simple art supplies (several sheets of different size paper, colored markers, pen, pencil) available near your computer.
In this VWER session held in collaboration with VWMOOC20 we will discuss in text chat the different motivations of MOOC learners, using the Futurelearn archetypes of MOOC learner https://www.futurelearn.com/info/press/research-insights/learners-part-1
(and follow links for part 2 and 3 of their explanation): Advancers, Explorers, Preparers, Fixers, Flourishers, Hobbyists, Vitalisers.
People can identify what kind of MOOC learners they are, and what sort you have taught if you teach a MOOC. We will use an inworld tool for participants in Second Life, and have a poll for those participating via Zoom. We will also discuss the challenges of teaching people with a big mix of motivations and goals.
VWMOOC20 Fri Sept 25 1530 UTC – Valerie Hill
Valerie Hill / Valibrarian Gregg
Metaliteracy Symbolic Modeling- an interactive building process Come watch! Building 3D models of literacy using the Symbolic Modeling Process (Marly MIlena)
Virtual worlds such as Second Life and DigiWorldz most certainly offer the immersive environment necessary for learning languages. In the presentation we’ll talk about the advantages of using SL and DW and how these virtual worlds can be used to transmit knowledge of Spanish through their various and fun tools for learning. Also, we´ll make a tour through the sim Spanish Language Learning at Escape in http://digiworldz.com/ V
Escape Playground in DigiWorldz
Go to http://www.digiworldz.com/ and make a free account, create an avatar, download Firestorm for Open Simulator or Singularity, choose DigiWorldz from the grid menu, and you’re in. Click on the World map icon at the bottom of your viewer, put “Escape” into the search bar on the World and then click “Find” and then “Teleport” and you’ll be there!
You can also type “Escape” in the “region name” as you log on.
VWMOOC20 Sat Sept 26 1900 UTC – Valerie Hill and Rossana I. Barrios-Llorens
Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Gregg) & Rossana I. Barrios-Llorens (Pi Illios)
Dr. Doris Molero (Pionia Destiny) and Gabriela Estrada
Transmedia Storytelling and Language Learning: Pucara de Tilcara
Following the Virtually Anywhere series, we close our adventure with a read-aloud of the episode created by language students and visit Pucàra de Tilcara, a site in the North of Argentine. We will learn about its culture, lifestyle, food, and EL Carnaval. We’ll also have the chance to see some of the work of the most representative painters in the Province of Jujuy.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is September 29, 2020 04:00 UTC
On Sunday, September 20 at the usual Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar time of 1200 UTC, a group of adventurous miners about to restart EVO Minecraft MOOC for it’s 7th year of meaningful play as a session in Electronic Village Online 2021 met in Minecraft and in Zoom in order to participate in the annual Virtual Worlds MOOC, VWMOOC20.
The EVO Minecraft MOOC participants were, in alphabetical order Beth O’Connell (Beth Ghostraven), Don Carroll (Abu Fletcher), Jane Chien (Jane Chien), Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro), Kim Harrison (K4sons), Laura Briggs (Sura), and Vance and Bobbi Stevens (Teacher Vance and Bobbi Bear)
The event was hosted by Nellie Deutsch as part of her Virtual Worlds MOOC taking place with 1 or more events held almost daily on each day of the the entire month of September, 2020. Here is where we fit in that program:
The full schedule for the MOOC and recordings of events available at the playlist are both linked below:
Our event was called MOOCing about with EVO Minecraft MOOC 2021
EVO is Electronic Village Online http://evosessions.org. Come experience a playdate with the denizens of EVOMC21 as we poke about on our server and talk you through what we’ve been doing here for the past 6 years and what it means for educators and students, and their children, when they engage creatively in meaningful play in Minecraft, http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/
Vance had proposed a visit to a jungle river temple. I had no idea if it had been looted or not, but here is what we hoped to find when we got there https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Jungle_pyramid. This one turned out to have be partially recreated. It was certainly sterilized (Laura visited beforehand and reported that the trip wires had been dismantled). I snapped these screenshots on my own reconnoiter visit there.
Still it made an interesting destination. Getting there was half the fun, and the iterative processes of discovery, incessant collaborative problem solving, and conversation along the way are among the essential benefits of Minecraft in Education.
After we had explored the temple, we /warped to a woodland mansion which had spawned algorithmically in Minecraft, though it too had been explored and cleared of its characteristic mobs found only in untamed woodland mansions in Minecraft. If you stumble upon an undisturbed one, this is what you would find (see https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Woodland_Mansion).
Someone had placed a nether portal outside the mansion so we all entered into a dark underworld lit with lava flows and populated with feisty piglins.
We exited there via a second portal back to the “overworld” and found ourselves not far from the woodland mansion, which itself was on the outer perimeter our known map in Minecraft.
All were invited to join us in Zoom and on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server later that day at noon UTC, or simply join us in Zoom (without Minecraft) and that we would stream if from Zoom onto our FB page.
This was the recording of the rehearsal streamed onto Facebook:
this was a rehearsal and it took us over 12 minutes to work through Zoom + Minecraft issues
Plus we had to literally ‘wait out the clock’ while night turned into day on the server
We didn’t have beds and none of us had the admin powers needed to reset the game clock to morning
After that it’s rather entertaining.
I wasn’t able to embed the facebook link here (it left a message that either the video was not available or I had no permission to view it, neither of which were true) so I recorded it in Camtasia (minus the initial 12 minutes of wheel spinning) and uploaded this video to YouTube, https://youtu.be/_gkIIs1iCuI
Zoom Chat Logs
20:00:58 From Donald Carroll : That’s not how I do it on my MAC. 20:01:31 From Beth O’Connell : Hi Jane! 20:01:53 From Donald Carroll : When I click on screen share, there is a button that says “share computer screen” 20:02:25 From Nan Zingrone : Hi guys! 20:02:35 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : Hello 20:02:51 From Beth O’Connell : Hi Nitro! 20:03:00 From Beth O’Connell : Hi Nan! 20:03:12 From Nan Zingrone : hey! good morning! 20:03:32 From Donald Carroll : Go back to the beginning. 20:03:40 From Beth O’Connell : Nellie, maybe share your screen and show Vance what to do? 20:04:01 From Nan Zingrone : at the top 20:06:07 From Donald Carroll : Can you open up this discussion to everyone??? 20:06:44 From Beth O’Connell : I can share my screen 20:06:49 From Beth O’Connell : I can’t unmute myself 20:07:37 From Beth O’Connell : hello, can someone tell Nellie I’m trying to talk to her in chat? 20:08:04 From Nan Zingrone : Nellie can you unmute Beth for a second?\ 20:08:17 From Nan Zingrone : Beth would like to say something to Nellie 20:08:45 From Nan Zingrone : Nellie Beth can share her screen for you. Check the chat 20:09:17 From Nan Zingrone : yes 20:09:58 From Nan Zingrone : thanks Nellie 20:10:26 From Donald Carroll : PLEASE UNMUTE THE MIKES! 20:11:43 From Peter Omal : yes 20:11:53 From Beth O’Connell : yes but we’re all muted 20:11:56 From Jane Chien : we can hear you 20:12:01 From Laura Briggs : yes, I can hear Vance and Nellie 20:12:10 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : I hear you on Zoom 20:12:10 From minnie : I can hear you 20:12:52 From Nan Zingrone : wow is that fast! 20:13:02 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : no 20:14:10 From Jane Chien : Can you unmute Don’s mic, I think he’d like to speak 20:14:28 From Jane Chien : We can’t unmute ourselves 20:14:32 From Jane Chien : no permission 20:14:32 From Beth O’Connell : there’s no voice in Minecraft; we usually use Discord for sound, but we can use Zoom if you unmute us 20:15:03 From Jane Chien : we’re muted by the host in zoom 20:15:26 From minnie : yea 20:17:14 From Nan Zingrone : Vance is a co-host and can mute you all himself, Beth. 20:17:47 From Nan Zingrone : unmute I meant 20:17:55 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : It’s Ok. I can do help out. That’s fine. 20:23:41 From Jane Chien : yap 20:23:44 From Jane Chien : go on without me 20:27:38 From Jane Chien : my connection is not stable 20:28:35 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Can you give an example of “thinking” involved in the game? Is it a coding thing? 20:30:28 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Oh, so I guess “staying alive” is the “thinking” part. 20:32:04 From c chee : cannot hear anything I can see video 20:32:30 From Jane Chien : When we’re in-world, we’re constantly having to problem solve all the time. We need to build and create from scratch. Some players like to explore, and for that we need to be able to navigate in word using coordinates. 20:35:51 From Jane Chien : Some players love to create with a team of people. Dak was building a pyramid and he’s taught me how to build a ship. 20:37:28 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Thank you, Jane. 20:38:10 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : if you cannot hear, please reload the ZOOM meeting 20:40:38 From Nan Zingrone : How does this fit into a curriculum? That’s not clear. What are students actually learning? 20:40:47 From Nan Zingrone : that would be cool to know about.
20:41:55 From minnie : bchee@yahoo.com 20:42:52 From Beth O’Connell : students learn collaboration, too–more soft skills than actual curriculum objectives 20:43:09 From minnie : would anyone invite chee, thank you 20:44:06 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Yes, I agree with Nan. I would like more specific examples. If I had to sell “minecraft” to my school (young learners), what would I say? 20:44:55 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : It reminds me of video games where you can create and fight. 20:47:37 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Nice 20:48:10 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : How do you do it for ELL? 20:49:10 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : I guess the problem solving and learning is the experience itself. 20:50:13 From Nan Zingrone : so there are things that need to be completed by using higher order mathematics? 20:50:22 From Nan Zingrone : Myst seemed to be very good for teaching math? 20:50:48 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Yes, it seems to be “task-based”. Solving the “tasks”. 20:51:05 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : How to get from A to Z without getting killed. 20:52:03 From Jane Chien : Mattie says dig straight down 🙂 20:52:27 From Nan Zingrone : It may just be that they are exploring through the world without having a purpose to discuss. I remember a Minecraft course in an early MOOC in which the teacher was showing how her grade school students learning about growing food, and markets for food and all that kind of thing, so the presentation was more curriculum oriented, instead of just walking around showing us the interface. 20:52:50 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : This is probably great for people with cognitive issues, and maybe, early onset of Alzheimer 20:53:10 From Beth O’Connell : Nan, at VSTE Minecraft Mondays we often show curriculum based lesson ideas 20:53:29 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Thank you, Beth.
20:54:09 From Beth O’Connell : there are LOTS of lesson type ideas on the Internet for Minecraft, too, plus Minecraft: Education Edition is set up for that; e.g. Minecraft: Education Edition Lessons and Subject Kits: https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons
20:54:15 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Minecraft could be very therapeutic. 20:54:43 From Beth O’Connell : Nellie, yes, I’ve spent a lot of time in MC just roaming around and exploring 20:54:49 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : I have Minecraft Education. I’ve had an account for a long time, but never really got into it. 20:55:42 From Beth O’Connell : MinecraftEDU is the old version, Nellie, is that what you have?
20:55:47 From Nan Zingrone : That would be great presentation for next year, something that is more education oriented as opposed to relaxation and collaboration for the educators. 20:56:13 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : I think I upgraded it after Microsoft bought it. I have two accounts. 20:56:27 From Jane Chien : MinecraftEDU’s got a lot of well designed built in curriculum for math, science, digital literacy, language arts, etc. 20:56:29 From Nan Zingrone : Or a tour that has more information about how people would use it for various types of education 20:56:36 From Nan Zingrone : that would be great for next year 20:56:37 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Support is a lot better since MS bought it. 20:57:01 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Definitely, Nan 20:57:11 From Nan Zingrone : 🙂 20:58:25 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : I guess you could create a collaborative story with activities. 20:59:15 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : You can generate games. Can you do that in SL or VW? 20:59:23 From Nan Zingrone : that would be an interesting use, construction a narrative, building a story, that would help with language arts and language learning
An example appeared just days later, when Laura met with Jane’s EFL students on the server and learned how village economies work and how villagers take on their various roles in village life.
20:59:29 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : me 20:59:30 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : ;p 20:59:59 From c chee : I have created karaoke songs, there is diction, etc.if you want to see email me: bchee@yahoo.com 21:00:41 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Minnie, can you access Minecraft in China? 21:00:43 From Nan Zingrone : interesting Mr Chee! 21:01:40 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : @c chee can you create speech (audio) in Minecraft? 21:06:03 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch : Any questions??? 21:06:49 From Nan Zingrone : Beth, the session ends at 9am. Can we wrap this up? Nellie is asking whether or not we can close down the session? 21:07:01 From Dr. Nellie Deutsch to Vance Stevens (Privately) : Vance, we’ve gone overtime. Do you want to wrap up? 21:07:54 From minnie : no, I can’t access Minecraft here. 21:09:19 From Nan Zingrone : Yes you can in SEcond Life, we’ve had a number of presentations over the years. Some of Greg’s work, Speedrunner’s quest. 21:09:31 From Nan Zingrone : But people do build gamification within Second Life. 21:10:08 From c chee : youtube, search: han chee 21:10:26 From Nan Zingrone : I don’t see any reason to have death be part of the game, or monsters etc. 21:10:43 From Nan Zingrone : That’s personal, I think this is kind of clunky 21:10:54 From Peter Omal : SL is the best 21:10:55 From Nan Zingrone : I’d rather be in something more realistic.. 21:10:59 From Nan Zingrone : And it’s educational use 21:11:12 From c chee : I am making videos using cellphone 21:11:31 From Nan Zingrone : Mr Chee your work sounds fascinating! 21:11:36 From Nan Zingrone : thank you guys 21:11:38 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : Thanks 😉 21:11:48 From minnie : ok 21:11:55 From minnie : cool 21:11:59 From Jaroslaw Maciejewski (Nitro) : bye bye
Vance’s note: I was multitasking heavily during this session and was not following the text chat. My apologies after the fact, but I was not aware that we had a time limit. Other sessions I have attended in VWMOOC20 have gone on well beyond an hour, and I just assumed we had as long as people wanted to hear from us.
Tue 15 Sept 1000 ET TESOL B-MEIS panel discussion on Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens
Please join us for an online panel discussion featuring “Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens” on September 15, 10-11 am (eastern time). Please see more details in the attached flyer and here’s the registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYtf-yqqTspHdyM4Uw6veVTmP4pHg6GcFfI This webinar is organized by the B-MEIS (Bilingual-Multilingual Education Interest Section) at TESOL International Association. We hope to see you there!Best,Zhongfeng, Laila, Peter, and Jamie
The presentation slides are available via this link.
For more information about the edited volume “Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens: Global Perspectives” (Springer, 2020) visit: www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030470302
Tue 15 Sept 0800 PDT Refugee Concerns Interest Section Social Hour – Connecting with the Unconnected
Hsin-Yu Hsu-Contreras, known as Teresa, is excited to coordinate the next Refugee Concerns Interest Section Social Hour on Tuesday, September 15th at 8:00 AM PDT. She will facilitate a discussion based on the topic of this month Connecting with the Unconnected. She will cover some personal experience, alongside with supportive research and media references.
The conversation focuses on the role of community members, including educational personnel, volunteers, and community members in an educational institution or organization. All are invited to participate with relatable questions, suggestions, and experiences.
C. 15 or 16 Sept Graham Stanley on Food for thought in the remote teaching/learning era
Graham Stanley gave a talk in the 2nd New Directions in English Language Assessment Pre-Conference Webinar focusing on innovative teacher training projects (National English Adaptive Test (NEAT) & Ceibal en Ingles). Food for thought in the remote teaching/learning era.
Please join us for this sure-to-wow session in which three TESOL Career Path leaders describe how they and their programs have “retooled” for the new realities of our professional lives!
EduNation Island in Second Life has been invited by the innovation festival committee to be an active part of the program with a variety of social activities.
There will be
Free-style building sessions
Escape Room Game Challenges
Beach Volleyball
Water Sports
Fireside chats
A games night
A club night and a Virtual 3D Builder award ceremony
The NWG Innovation Festival 2020 took place from Monday 14 to Thursday 17 September 2020
You can download the Innovation Festival App here for useful updates on the go. We’ll keep you up to date and send you notifications as more details about the Innovation Festival are announced.
Alternatively you can keep up with what’s happening at the Innovation Festival on our website here
To register for the festival and receive email notifications click HERE
All times mentioned below are BST – British Standard time – London (ie. 12pm BST = 11am UTC)
Monday 14 Sept 20
Tuesday 15 Sept 20
Wednesday 16 Sept 20
Thursday 17 Sept 20
12pm BST4am SLT
Orientation
Orientation
Orientation
Orientation
1pm BST
1pm Free-style building
1pm Free-style building
1pm Water sports
1pm Free-style building
2pm BST
2pm Escape room challenge
3pm BST7am SLT
3pm Beach volleyball
4pm BST
4pm Water sports
4pm Free-style building
4pm Basketball
5pm BST
5pm Water sports
5pm Games Night Backgammon, chess, Jenga
5pm Water sports
6pm BST10am SLT
6pm Fireside chat
6:30pm Escape room challenge
6pm Fireside chat
Virtual 3D builders Innovation award ceremonyRed carpet event!
Heike’s Thu Sept 16 Escape the Room Challenge with Doris Molero
Here, we have entered the house and the first room; escape leads to a basement
Now it’s more a game of escape the algorithm; things have to be done in a very precise and complex order
Here is a Summary of Innovation Festival 2020 Social Events and Recreation programme
EduNation in Second Life has been proud to be part of the Innovation Festival 2020, 14-18 September 2020. Over a period of 4 days we provided a social events and recreation program which included Escape Room Games, free-style building classes, water sports, ball games, https://youtu.be/dzdlZFz2q-c
Well this is it. Innovation Festival 20. Done. Over. Well, for this year at least…I suspect we’ll be back for 2021.
So wipe away those tears, think happy thoughts about the amazing week you’ve just had and be proud of what you’ve achieved, because it has been truly incredible.
To help boost positivity then take a look below at some of the coolest bits from the last day of Innovation Festival 20. And after you’ve watched, read and recapped, please send us a tweet telling us what your favourite part of the week was (@NorthumbrianH2O). It’ll help cheer us up too!
We’ll be in touch really soon, keeping you updated on all of the cool ideas and inventions to come out of IF20, so until then festival fans, goodbye and keep innovating!
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Beth Ghostraven – ISTE VEN Focus Session: International Dot Day
Inspired by The Dot, a picture book by Peter H. Reynolds, Dot Day celebrates the creativity in all of us
VWMOOC20 Wed Sept 16 2000 UTC – Dieter Heyne
Edward Tarber (RL: Dieter Heyne)
Web Based Virtual World Education “Lessons Learned” from a university’s master course held in a web based virtual world environment. Held in VWMOOC Headquarters SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chilbo/167/53/97
VWMOOC20 Thu Sept 17 1800 UTC – Dr. Christian Jonathan Angel Rueda
Dr. Christian Jonathan Angel Rueda (ecoonis in SL)
The Three-Dimensional Immersive Digital Environments (3D-IDEs) (what is VR, AR, VW) and its relationship with digital pedagogy
VWMOOC20 Thu Sept 17 1900 UTC – Panel: Why do communities thrive or die?
Sheila Yoshikawa (Chair); Gann McGann (Mark Childs outside SL) and other panelists tba Why do communities thrive or die? A Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable event Panel discussion chaired by Sheila Yoshikawa: “Why do communities thrive or die?” Panellists will include Gann McGann (Mark Childs outside SL: The Open University, UK)
VWMOOC20 Fri Sept 18 1400 UTC – Lissena/ Wisdomseeker, Thuja Hynes, Francisco Koolhoven
Navigating a Virtual World As our programs and number of volunteers have grown, we have developed tools to make the 4 levels of Inspiration Island easier to visit, especially for newcomers to virtual worlds. These tools are key to creating an immersive environment where well-being research is translated into practice. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Inspiration%20Island/144/227/38
VWMOOC20 Sat Sept 19 2130 UTC – Valerie Hill / Valibrarian Gregg
Metaliteracy in the Metaverse Kitely Digital Citizenship Museum Introduction to: Metaliteracy in the Metaverse
Visit the DC Museum to discuss new literacy in virtual spaces.
Get a Kitely avatar, use the opensim version of Firestorm Viewer.
Start at Cookie II Welcome Center then walk through the portal to the Digital Citizenship Museum
Topics include personal digital citizenship and archival particularly in virtual environments
Sat 19 Sept 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there.
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is September 25, 2020 06:00 UTC
On Monday evening September 14 at the usual time of 8 pm EDT, which for many of us around the world was midnight UTC on Tuesday 15 Sept, VSTE miners convened for another informative and inspirational session of what they call, for whatever reason, Minecraft Mondays. I recorded the most exciting part of their efforts, a train ride touring their evening’s accomplishments.
The VSTE Minecraft Monday miners had noticed that parts of their server had fallen into disrepair. Not the back end; that was doing fine – they had just installed a dynamic map and were trying it out. But their villagers were poor and unhappy, plagued by pillaging mobs at night, and with no means of improving their lot. So they decided to do something about it.
They located three villages some distance apart and set about sprucing them up. They installed light beams pointing skyward so they would be able to find them and orient on them, and they set about constructing a railroad connecting the three villages utilizing the finest redstone rails available in creative mode in Minecraft (it would be tough doing all this in survival). They routed their railroad through some of the most scenic parts of the terrain between the villages, from lofty mountaintops to deep pits crying to be mined, and no doubt harboring lurking skeletons in their dark corners (but we were in creative mode, no need for the treasures of the pits nor to worry about skeletons or other mobs).
In the village we visited at the end of the train ride at the end of the video, the miners were busy putting doors on the villager’s hovels and furnishing them with comfortable beds, and the team of miners were setting out job site blocks and spawning villagers nearby to claim them. Job site blocks are specialized crafting tables for things like making arrows or maps (see https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Villager#Professions). When villagers wander near these blocks, they claim them, so it’s possible to populate a village with craftsmen who will trade what they make on their blocks with anyone who right clicks on them and is able to come up with the commodity that will help the craftsman carry on his work.
They were also building a wall around the last village and fixing it with safety doors to keep mobs out at night, and they would be able to revisit the villages and find happy, thriving villagers with food from well tended gardens, and shelter when the sun set in survival.
Promotion and Feedback
This event was announced in an email sent 3 hours prior to it’s start time, 5 a.m. for me in bed in Malaysia. But my wife noticed the mail on her Kindle, which she checks now and then at night, and she poked me awake, “Isn’t this Minecraft Monday?”
Well, actually it was Tuesday already, but I got up and turned on my computer and found the mail:
Tonight, Monday, Sept 14 8 PM EDT, we are going to save dying villages. We call it Connections for Cottage Communities! Think Habitat for Humanity.
They had located three neighboring villages in various states of disrepair and the team planned to work in creative mode to connect them with railroad, repair and build them up. It’s an ongoing project; they’ll be back to continue the build and watch them thrive.
They invited anyone to come help. They said you can name a village and adopt it as your own!
I joined in, became enamored with the railway, and decided to video a trip on it. We ended with a tour of one of the villages and learned how to spawn villagers and determine their calling by spawning them near a tool of their trade. The video, just over 15 minutes, is here, https://youtu.be/kJJ1CGjVCdA
Earlier Events
Sat 12 Sept – 24th Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar – Minnie Wang presents Guzheng from Second Life at VWMOOC20
Sun 13 Sept – Proposals are due for 20th annual Electronic Village Online sessions
The Electronic Village Online (EVO) is excited to invite proposals for its 20th anniversary round of sessions, We would love to have inspiring educators present an online session in EVO 2021.
Since 2001, the Electronic Village Online (EVO) has functioned as a virtual extension of the Electronic Village (EV), a project of TESOL’s CALL Interest Section, and provided free online professional development sessions for language teachers worldwide.
Please help us develop timely topics and recruit moderators by distributing our Call for Proposals to your list. The link is http://evosessions.pbworks.com/. Proposals may be on any topic relevant to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. Proposals are due by September 13, 2020. A development session will be held for all moderators and co-moderators from October 18 to November 15, 2020. During this time, moderating teams will create the online spaces for their session and finalize their syllabus with the assistance of the EVO Coordination Team. The actual five-week EVO sessions for this season will take place between January 9 and February 14, 2021.
Please help us recruit potential moderators by distributing this Call for Proposals to your e-list. Potential moderators will find instructions on how to create a page for their proposal at evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/140454060/….
Important dates:Due Date for proposals: September 13, 2020 Moderator Development Session: Oct. 18 – Nov. 15, 2020
️EVO 2021 20th Anniversary Sessions: January 9 – February 14, 2021
Please note that the proposals are for 5-week online courses called “sessions”. The sessions are both synchronous and asynchronous.
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Based on Zinnia’s book, “Action-packed Superheroes: Your Guide to Revealing and Utilizing Your Superpowers”, learn how to communicate your unique, authentic motivation, zeal, and mission to be productive, successful, and encouraging to other emerging superheroes. Landmark:https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Brauni/180/0/22
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is September 16, 2020 04:00 UTC
The regular Webheads in Action weekly open mic FUNinar was held on Saturday Sept 12 this week. At our weekly meeting on September 6 we had closed on the understanding that Minnie Wang would be be presenting in Second Life at noon UTC on the following Sunday, and we decided to attend as the time coincided with our normal Webheads open mic sessions, but her presentation turned out to be not on Sunday, but on Saturday. As it seemed a logical extension of our focus in the most recent Webheads in Action webinars, I decided to change our weekly meeting to Saturday.
This post archives last Saturday’s Virtual Worlds MOOC presentation organized in Second Life by long-time Webhead Doris Molero and broadcast in Zoom by another long-time Webhead Nellie Deutsche. In our most recent Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinars we have been joined by Minnie (Michelle) Wang, a student in English of Han Chee (another Webhead from the old days), both of whom have been hanging out with us in the Webheads revival open mic sessions recently.
Dr. Doris Molero has been a frequent visitor at our recent Webheads sandbox FUNinars. Whenever Doris has dropped by she has talked about her Virtually Anywhere project, which has as one of its episodes an adventure at the tombs over which the terracotta warriors stand guard (the adventure is to retrieve artifacts from the tomb near the river of mercury there). Doris has presented on various aspects of this project in several sessions at this month’s Virtual World’s MOOC.
When Doris met Minnie at one of our Webheads webinars a few weeks back, and learned she played guzheng (Chinese zither) she recruited her to help authenticate this episode, and she created an avatar for her in Second Life,
In this posting you can see the YouTube video that Nellie made Sept 12 of Minnie’s playing and Doris’s tour afterwards. Heike Philp, another longstanding Webhead who was there, also sent me a video file that I haven’t had time to process yet. But there are a number of screen shots of the event from promotions of the event and from Doris’s Facebook post afterwards.
Minnie’s presentation was entitled Transmedia Storytelling and Music
Here Minnie is playing the Guzheng in a video rendition of “A tale of Yunshui Chan Xin” https://youtu.be/t8AQmsShnnM
During the early Song Dynasty, in the mountain of Shijingshan, there was a young girl named Chanxin, who was born with wisdom and high savvy. Soon, there came a Taoist, his monastic name Yunshui Zhenren (Yunshui Immortal), who traveled from far away. He stayed at Chanxin’s place.
One year later, he had no intention of leaving. During the day, they discussed and learned the zither, and at night, they watched the stars. As time went by, people around there started gossiping. Feeling forced and helpless, Yunshui decided to leave.
As they were apart, Chanxin picked a piece of willow to Yunshui as a gift. Yun Shui played the music as a farewell. It was said that later on Chanxin became depressed and died young. As she was dying, she played the first note of the music on her zither. The music was called Yunshui Chan Xin.
This was the avatar Doris created for Minnie so that she could perform in Second Life. In the second hour of the presentation, Doris took participants on a tour of Virtually Anywhere: The Terracotta Army. You can see this in the video.
Feedback
From Doris Molero’s Facebook posting on the event she organized for the Virtual Worlds MOOC in Zoom and Second Life
Description: Presented by Michelle Wang (MinnieGuzheng) Virtually Anywhere: Terracotta Army- Transmedia Storytelling and Music https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86348591771…
Join us and get immersed in the stories behind the music. In China music tells stories of farewell between friends, or encouraging soldiers to win battles. Michelle will be performing a piece of music that represents 3 Chinese Stories. **** Sign up for the Moodle portion of the Virtual Worlds MOOC to qualify for discussions, weekly badges, and certificate at this link: https://moodle4teachers.org/course/view.php?id=114
And thanks to my discovery that I could get a 48 hour reprieve from having to endure Facebook’s new, uninmproved interface, I was able to share the event with the following groups.
Sun 06 Sept 2100 UTC – Jennifer Verschoor shares her experience integrating technology using Instagram
Before we can embrace any new technology, we need to declare our educational goals and demonstrate how a particular technology can help us to achieve them – Howard Gardner
Join me this coming Sunday to discuss the effective implementation of tech tools in the classroom. I´ve just started using Instragram to share my experience integrating technology. Please check my latest posts. We will discuss the pedagogical implementation of the tech tools shared.Hope to see you this Sunday in my first Instagram live.
Sat 8 Sept noon UTC British Council live on Facebook – Mixing online and in-class teaching
Plz tag yourself below in the comments box if you wish to read a life-changing/heart-warming/heartrending/ … #song or #poem. Next to yr name, plz add the name of the song or poem.
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
When I tried to attend this event I discovered its link was invalid. I double checked in the VWMOOC schedule and discovered that the event had been removed. So I went to discord and found Thunder Insippo online and I asked her about it. She said she had never herself been on this schedule (even asked me for its link) and had been unaware that an event had been set up there in her (avatar’s) name. In any event, she told me, the monthly Minecraft Monday would be next week, not this one.
Empowering educators to face COVID-19 related virtualization challenges
Empowering educators to face COVID-19 related virtualization challenges through simulative gamification and innovative virtual architecture.
1. Power of game based learning formulas in Simulative gamification.
2. Insights on creating educational content that is Future ready using Simulative gamification
3. Innovative Simulation possibilities that restore schools and universities buildings (in accessible due to Covid) as virtual replicas and parallel activity centers.
VWMOOC20 Wed Sept 9 1600 UTC Becky Adams and Valerie Hill
Becky Adams/Elli Pinion & Valerie Hill / Valibrarian Gregg
Networking in Virtual Worlds – The CVL Education Network
Come to Elli’s Office Hours at CVL and join our discussion. We will start with an introduction to the Google Doc that is our CVL Education Network. How can we work together to help everyone know what is going on in Virtual Worlds? There is so much happening in education and VWs, let’s work together to make sure our communities’ efforts are getting noticed.Meet at the Community Virtual Library(CVL):
VWMOOC20 Thu Sept 10 1900 UTC Dodge Threebeards, Widget Whiteberry
Dodge Threebeards and Widget Whiteberry
Plans for teaching in Second Life during the 20-21 academic year and what issues are people encountering: a discussion
This week’s discussion is led by Dodge Threebeards and Widget Whiteberry. The topic is : plans for teaching in SL during the 20-21 academic year and what issues are people encountering. Dodge will also say something about the 3rd edition of his Virtual Worlds Teaching Manual. https://www.sciencecircle.org/?ddownload=6715.
#4 on 14th Aug- Sense of Wonderland Tour: coming soon.
VWMOOC20 Fri Sept 11 1530 UTC Jena Ball/Jenia Morane
Jena Ball/Jenia Morane
The Hug Felt Round the World for September 11th
At 8:30 AM SLT, Friday, Sept 11 at the Nonprofit Commons Meeting, join us for a presentation from Jena Ball / Jenaia Morane about the upcoming “The Hug Felt Round the World”. This 24-hour event on Oct 10, includes virtual hugs, live music, art displays, and inspiring speakers who will talk about the importance of compassion, creativity, and collaboration.
Virtually Anywhere: Terracotta Army- Transmedia Storytelling and Music
Join us and get immersed in the stories behind the music. In China music tells stories of farewell between friends, or encouraging soldiers to win battles. Michelle will be performing a piece of music that represents 5 Chinese Stories.
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is September 17, 2020 05:00 UTC
On Sunday, September 6th at the usual time of noon UTC we had the
23rd Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar Karaoke Night
Heike Philp is planning to cat-herd our open mics tonight. She said she
“would like to try out singing together. If you know of great songs with Karaoke type videos, please bring then along.
It would be interesting to find out whether it is actually possible to sing together due to the inherent lag of this system.”
Heike through this might be possible if all listen to a joint music source.
“Maybe this works, maybe it doesnt. Let’s give this a try.”
Spoken like a true Webhead!
Here are some examples of music created by educators sung in unison over the Internet
Heike pointed out that these are actually mixed after-the-fact, like ths one, from a group called “Goat Rodeo” whose members are nevertheless obviously not playing together in the same space, https://youtu.be/-yiQbeB7Bk8
But if you look at the comment from Josh Rogosin, Sept 2, 2020, you can see that Heike was correct …
In case anyone’s curious how their producer put this together: “There’s too much latency to all record together, unfortunately. So we recorded in this order: mandolin/vocal > bass > Aoife (on The Trappings) > fiddle/vocal > cello. I would make a pretty-close-to-final comp of each part before recording the next person so they could play to the best version of each performance. And then I did final editing tweaks after I had all the parts recorded and then mixed it.”
Han Chee joined us as well. He said …
I use karaoke to teach the students pronunciation and diction. Sometimes I say the words and let them hear it then I will try to sing the song. I hope you can use these
(This one uses a copyrighted song but the YouTube bot was unable to detect it since it was so cleverly diguised by Chee’s singing 🙂
https://youtu.be/9Ox3RYBblrM (This one has been removed for a copyright violation where I am but maybe you can see it wherever you are)
Copyright violations can be annoying with YouTube. When I uploaded my video from last week’s Back to School night I was informed that the bot had detected a copyrighted melody in Minnie’s concert. The bot informed me that the tune was copyrighted in some parts of the world, and that I would not be able to monetize my video. The bot told me this was not going to cost me a strike, but that it could remove the melody from the video I had just uploaded (the entirety of Minnie’s concert!) or I could go ahead and post it but accept the restriction on monetization. I don’t monetize my videos anyway, so I was unconcerned, and went ahead and posted it.
Can Heike’s plan and Chee’s experience help Webheads to overcome the physical force of latency over the Internet?
Our communities were invited to join us in Zoom,
and learning2gether we’ll find out …
Yet another treat was when Doris Molero appeared and took us on a tour of her Virtually Anywhere Language Learning Project (see the last event in VWMOOC20, at the very bottom of this post).
Doris introduced us to Minnie Guzheng, Minnie’s new avatar in Second Life
We got there because Heike took us via screenshare in Second Life to her island and showed us where Doris’s castle was. Doris and Minnie are planning to present at VWMOOC next Saturday at noon UTC, as listed in the program: Virtually Anywhere: Terracotta Army- Transmedia Storytelling and Music
(Click on the title to access the ZOOM meeting; Password: 719629)
Chat Logs
There was not much of significance in either the Zoom chat or Facebook commentary this week. Only when I mentioned that we were approaching the 500th Learning2gether episode, Heike said in the conversation that we should do something special to mark the occasion, and this was posted as a Facebook comment:
An event was set at Learning2gether – https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether/,
but thanks to Facebook’s new, uninmproved interface, I was unable to share the event with the following groups. When I Googled for help, I landed on a Facebook help page that explained that the feature was not yet available.
In the old interface it had been a simple matter to create an event and then share it across a number of associated groups. In the new interface I had to copy the event description as a discussion post in each of the following groups:
Wed 2 Sept midnight UTC Sept 3 – Free workshop – How to Make Remote Learning Personal: 5 Quick Ways to Develop an Authentic Connection
How do I build a connection, and a relationship with students and staff, when we are in hybrid and remote learning environments?
Well, this Wednesday, 2 September 2020, 8:00 PM, Thomas C. Murray will be hosting a free online workshop answering that exact question heading into this school year.
8 am Sept 3 in Malaysia, a ‘doable’ time for me, so I tuned in on my iPad
Thomas Murray was talking about the importance of making connections with students apart from the Zoom room, in personal contacts to find out if anything happening in their lives was impacting attendance, or across the door stoop where possible.
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there.
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Second Life. The live presentations will include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats.
Virtually Anywhere is a trans-media experience for language learning. Students employed Trans-media Storytelling techniques to collaborate in the creation of a new fiction based on an existing audio series. The story line used for our project is part of the audio series by Cambridge Assessment English. These audio episodes were created primarily to help students improve their English listening skills.
The series tells a story about university students Geeta and Paul. They are struggling with their archeology coursework, when a mysterious professor offers to help, and takes them in a series of virtual traveling to different sites. In the original series our characters visit two sites: The Terracotta Army in China and the Citadel of Teotihuacan in Mexico.
Students created two new episodes following the original ones as models. Since students are in different countries, they thought of a situation happening in their countries. Students in Argentina chose Pucara de Tilcara in the province of Jujuy in Argentina and students in germany decided to work on The Imperial Palace of Goslar (Kaiserpfalz Goslar)
This project includes virtual worlds where students can visit the sites involved in the story line of Virtually anywhere. Also, students participate in a series of short presentations in the sites in both Second Life and the virtual platform Zoom.
Ann Von Rhein and Pionia Destiny then presented
Virtually Anywhere: The imperial Palace of Goslar – As Geeta, Paul and The professor visit different archeological sites, they get the chance to participate in a quest to find an important lost artifact. Help our friends find it and have a little virtual fun!
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is September 17, 2020 03:00 UTC
On Sunday, August 30, at the usual time of noon UTC, Webheads in Action held its 22nd Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar, this one on the topic of Back to School in the New Normal.
We planned to talk about going back to school in the midst of a pandemic and the elephant in your classroom.
On Sun 30 Aug noon UTC it’s Back-to-School for the 22nd Weekly Webheads Open Mic Sandbox FUNinar.
A lot of us are returning to Teaching and Learning in the New Normal, either virtually or face-to-face or in some combination of these.
Come tell us, how is that going for you?
If you have something to share with us or want to hear from colleagues about how they are coping in the new school year, please join us.
About a dozen turned up. Minnie arrived first and played for us on her gǔ zhēng
古筝 (弹拨乐器）so that as the others trickled in they were treated to musical candy. Marijana was next to tell us about her situation in Croatia, followed by others including Cheikh Oumar from Dakar Senegal, who had found our topic online and decided to join in. It was a lively discussion.
Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs
20:05:31 From Mike Kenteris : Hi everyone
20:05:55 From Vance Stevens : hi mike we’re opening with a musical overture tonight
20:06:44 From Vance Stevens : please mute while Minnie is playing otherwise you might grab the camera inadvertently
20:07:02 From Mike Kenteris : Great!
20:24:05 From cheikh oumar ba : hi can I say something
20:25:35 From Marijana Smolcec : Since March 16 we had remote learning and we mainly used MS Teams
20:25:52 From Nina Liakos : MS?
20:26:08 From Marijana Smolcec : SInce Vidoeconferencing in Teams was not suggested due to many Internet problems, many collegues used Zoom and I also used Google Meet.
20:26:19 From Marijana Smolcec : @Ninam Microsoft Teams 🙂
20:26:24 From Nina Liakos : Thx
20:28:02 From Marijana Smolcec : Something like that was mentioned in Croatia, 3+2 solution, where some kids would come certain day in schools
20:30:53 From Marijana Smolcec : Forbes on Mr Kim https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2013/08/11/south-korean-tutor-makes-4-million-a-year-can-you/#5808db9b697c
20:31:10 From Barbara Dieu : Hello, good morning/evening everyone!
20:31:47 From Marijana Smolcec : hi
20:31:59 From Nina Liakos : med cram?
20:32:14 From Marijana Smolcec : Is it this https://www.youtube.com/user/MEDCRAMvideos
20:32:15 From Nina Liakos : medcram
20:38:00 From Marijana Smolcec : wow!
20:38:43 From Barbara Dieu to Vance Stevens : Thank you for the certificate, Vance. It was submerged in the mail I got, so only saw it today. I have not been attending any weekend lives for my own sanity, as I stay connected the whole week for my classes, preparing, correcting and attending synchronous meetings – made an exception today 🙂
20:39:13 From Marijana Smolcec : I totally understand what Chee is explaining, using Technology also motivated my students to learn langugaes and to get more self-confident 🙂
20:40:27 From Vance Stevens to Barbara Dieu : nice to see you here 🙂
20:41:07 From Barbara Dieu to Vance Stevens : big hug to Bobbie – have been following your photos on Face 🙂
20:41:15 From Vance Stevens to Graham Stanley : hi graham are you engaged here and can I call on you?
20:44:26 From Graham Stanley to Vance Stevens : yes, of course. let me turn on my camera
20:45:11 From Marijana Smolcec : Great background Graham 🙂
20:47:44 From Barbara Dieu : Agree, Graham.
20:48:14 From Mike Kenteris : Sad… but realistic…
20:49:45 From Barbara Dieu : I read a good article this week which sums up well the situation of going back to school. It is for the US but I can relate to it in Brazil. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-26/how-to-reopen-schools-in-person-and-remotely?srnd=citylab&sref=aGTrSb9U
20:49:48 From cheikh oumar ba : thanks a lot graham
20:49:58 From Phil Brown : Hi everyone. I’ve been watching via FB live but just able to join you here, too.
20:51:04 From Phil Brown : Lots of great resources archived on TeachingEnglish – British Council & edutopia over the past few months to support teachers during the pandemic 🙂
20:53:01 From Graham Stanley : https://www.britishcouncil.com.sn/en/digital-library-senegal
20:53:21 From Graham Stanley : https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/support-teachers-teacher-educators
20:54:10 From Phil Brown : Nice one @Graham. Here’s the edutopia link:
20:54:10 From Phil Brown : https://www.edutopia.org/topic/online-learning
20:54:18 From Vance Stevens : thanks
20:55:37 From Graham Stanley : https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-remotely-limited-technology-getting-started
20:59:22 From Graham Stanley : This free course could help your teachers, Stephanie https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-young-learners-online
21:00:14 From Vance Stevens : Here are some blended learning and curriculum tips http://workshops2020.pbworks.com
21:00:04 From Barbara Dieu : I have resources in French if you are interested Stephanie21:00:17 From Barbara Dieu : I teach English at a French school
21:01:19 From Graham Stanley : Re. parents supporting remote learning, this may help: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=255969049038124
21:01:47 From Vance Stevens : Can I call on Bee and Phil? for any last words?
21:02:06 From Graham Stanley : and this https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/helping-parents-caregivers-support-remote-learning-home
21:02:27 From Vance Stevens : cheers Graham, always helpful with the links
21:02:39 From Heike Philp to Vance Stevens : Can I close with a song?
21:03:01 From Barbara Dieu : Must go now…some other time. Thanks for all and see you.
21:03:49 From Vance Stevens : nice to see you bee, thanks for joining us
21:05:24 From Phil Brown : For each of our contexts, there are significant questions to address relating to (1) Teachers, (2) Students, (3) Parents, (4) Technology (access as well as use, (5) Attitudes & beliefs, plus expectations, … and more, no doubt, but these seem to be recurring considerations and talking points for teachers I’ve heard from around the globe (Phil posted details in the Facebook chat, see below)
21:05:58 From Vance Stevens : I wanted to ask you to give us a last word phil, are you up for it?
21:06:23 From Nina Liakos : Fascinating discussion, thank you all! I have to hop off now. Wishing you a terrific school year, as well as health for you, your families, and your students.
21:06:54 From Vance Stevens to Heike Philp : heike we’re getting into dinner time, can we do the song next week? We can schedule it 🙂
21:12:36 From Vance Stevens to Heike Philp : next week we can start with a song
21:08:56 From Heike Philp to Vance Stevens : am running a workshop this week
21:08:56 From Phil Brown : Thanks but still percolating a bit, to be honest, and thinking how to add something meaningful and useful in a nutshell 😉
21:17:19 From Mike Kenteris : There’s a nice free MOOC starting soon on Virtual worlds for teaching. Have a look here https://www.facebook.com/groups/vwmooc/
21:18:05 From Vance Stevens : Lot’s of other free webinar opportunities are listed at http://learning2gether.pbworks.com
21:18:33 From Phil Brown : We had a FB Live, yesterday, too on the same topic: https://www.facebook.com/iTDi.Pro/videos/337367387688138/
21:18:51 From Phil Brown : Back to School: From Reactive to Proactive (iTDi Monthly Roundup)
In the past half year, teachers worldwide have stepped up to the challenge of Emergency Remote Teaching. However, we often found ourselves in a reactive mode and struggling with multiple issues.
Now, as many of us head back to school, how are we taking control over our situation with a more proactive approach?
21:19:22 From Phil Brown : Thanks!
21:19:23 From c chee : YouTube. Tai chi baytalk
Facebook
Maru Del Campo · 8:00 Nicely played Minnie, thanks for sharing your music
Marijana Smolčec · 0:00 Sorry guys I got disconnected abrubtly but we had a sudden power loss and I couldn’t get online for hours!
Philip Shigeo Brown · 1:10:18 Just returning to share 5 practical things for schools/teachers to do/consider … and would love to see other people add theirs, too!
A) Returning face-to-face with social distancing, etc in place
1. Managing ATTITUDES and EXPECTATIONS
– whilst there’s been inevitable and legitimate frustration, concerns, and stress, how we process and deal with it so as not to affect our kids/students is worthy of attention and support.
For example, whilst hearing a couple of teachers naturally lament about all the things they wouldn’t be able to do in class on top of all the new rules they would have to get kids to follow, rather than feeling sorry for the kids, etc some teachers spun the situation for their young learners to treat it as a new game. They invited kids to follow the new path to find their seat, for example, and to use bigger gestures and body language to communicate across the physical gaps. I think we’re being challenged to get more creative but we’ll always find teachers to inspire us along the way when we can’t think of something ourselves.
2. The need for PHYSICAL ACTIVITY and BRAIN BREAKS as so many kids here in Malaysia came back from school inevitably complaining after sitting down for most of 4 hours everyday since schools weren’t allowed to let students out of class. I’m hoping, however, that they can find ways to do this and if short-staffed, invite parents to volunteer on rotation to enable some classes to be taken outside under adequate supervision (e.g. for a nature walk or biology experiment).
3. Be PREPARED to return to online classes in the event of a local outbreak or second wave (as we’ve seen in a number of countries already).
B) Online classes
A few schools I’ve observed and/or consulted with took certain helpful steps to support their teachers with the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching, notably:
1. Having 2 teachers and/or a staff member host in each online class. Firstly, this mitigated against a teacher losing their internet connection (as the other teacher could step in if needed), and, secondly, enabled teachers to focus on their teaching, whilst someone else focused on the tech and admin.
2. Lesson rehearsals online with other teachers (i.e. peer-teaching practice). Although this added to teachers’ prep time, it evitably led to better quality classes with peer-support and feedback. From checking technology to improving instructions as well as seeing how well activities might run online compared to the classroom – teachers really benefitted from this. Many teachers needed to think how they could FLIP learning or use a BLENDED approach to ensure greater interaction and personalisation online – and this was completely new territory for most of them.
Philip Shigeo Brown · 31:03 @Chee – a lot of teachers and parents initially hoped that we’d be back in school after a couple of weeks, then a month. But after 6 months of closure, and May came around, the reality sunk in that it was going to be a few months. Combined with the fact that everyone had begun to get used to the range of SOPs governing our daily lives, it seemed to make it easy to get everyone onboard with putting things online more consistently. However, there were notable differences between what individuals could do, either due to technological know-how, access, work-family-life situation, etc.
However, it was apparent that with better coordination regionally as well as nationally, teachers’ workload could have been substantially reduced simply by not having everyone reinventing the wheel for their own classes. For example, if they’d set up teams across the region or country for each subject and year group, they could feasibly have created online Quizizzes, video lessons, and PDFs for the entire term. A team of leading teachers in each district could have worked on one unit each, for example, then just compiled the efforts from around the region/country.
Anyway, at least Quizizz were easy to copy and edit plus share, so these quickly became popular among teachers from the ground up, esp as they were very well received by the kids.
On returning to schools, as a parent, I wish they’d kept the Google Classrooms and/or at least continued to update parents (e.g. via Whatsapp) with what’s being covered at school since not all students have chosen or been able to return to school, even if the majority have. It’s also a pity that they haven’t continued to use Quizizz which (a) lead to students trying and retrying questions repeatedly and enjoyably, plus (b) reduce teachers’ marking load. Overall, the tech used during ERT basically seems to have been a stopgap with a missed opportunity to innovate teaching and learning, unfortunately, at least for now.
Philip Shigeo Brown · 27:37 Thanks for sharing, @Cheikh Oumar Ba. Like yourself, Malaysia is mostly characterised by more traditional teaching approaches (i.e. teacher-centred, chalk and talk) and large class numbers with no real use of tech.
When classes switched to online in April one month after lockdown, public schools just used Google Classroom to post assignments but mostly communicated via WhatsApp. Many students, as well as parents and teachers, didn’t necessarily have access to the internet (either due to coverage and/or lack of devices).
At first, kids didn’t have their schoolbooks so some teachers made worksheets or quizzes with Google Forms or Quizizz. Once parents were able to collect their books, most teachers just informed students/parents which pages to read in their textbook and what workbook pages to complete. Some lessons were shared via Youtube and national TV.
Philip Shigeo Brown · 22:30 Marijana Smolčec – must be a lot of stress/anxiety but hopefully as decisions are made and issues resolved, teachers and parents will have more certainty which will help with planning, etc.
Here in Malaysia, government schools started to go back from July after 4 months of lockdown. There are up to 40 students to class with 1m social distancing and optional masks. Later, they recommended wear masks after a small outbreak in one part of the country. New case numbers have, however, been under 30 news cases/day, thankfully for the past month. Kids have to stay at their desks for 4 hours, except to go to the toilet.
Private kindergartens and tuition centre had more stringent SOPs.
Philip Shigeo Brown · 18:09 Great suggestion, Heike Philp, to use a mobile phone as a mic to pass around.
Do you get feedback issues or can that be resolved by just muting/unmuting the main computer and mobile device?
Philip Shigeo Brown · 9:06 Good to use art and music in class, too, even if only for brain breaks!
Philip Shigeo Brown · 7:43 Nice idea, Heike, to do art during that, too! 🙂
Philip Shigeo Brown · 3:20 Beautiful playing, Minnie. So glad it was recorded 🙂 Thank you!
Marijana Smolčec · 7:25 clap, clap
Marijana Smolčec · 4:08 I am a bit late, love the music 🙂
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time. Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there.
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
Phil Longwell @teacherphili invites people via twitter to join him this Saturday for an in-depth look at Breakout Rooms (Groups).
This will be the second @iatefl_ltsig Monthly webinar, a workshop where you are invited to fully take an active part!
DM @teacherphili for the classroom link!
Many appear to be going according to the lengthy Twitter thread. Most of the messages are about how to DM Phil, since you can’t DM someone unless they follow you. So when someone tweets they have a problem, Phil DMs that he’s followed them. Problem solved, sort of.
Sat 29 Aug 1730 ET Catlin Tucker on Silver Lining for Learning
Silver Lining for Learning is a podcast by Scott McLeod which takes place every Saturday, presumably at around this time
Over the spring and summer there was one name I heard on the lips of P-12 educators more than any other. On August 29 at 5:30pm Eastern (USA), we are delighted to have Dr. Catlin Tucker as our guest on Silver Lining for Learning. Hope you can join us!
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is August 31, 2020 04:00 UTC
Vance recorded the event in full desktop view using Camtasia
In this webinar, Maha interviewed Vance Stevens and Heike Philp about “comparing and contrasting ideas on blended learning … ” She asked us to consider these 4 questions:
What do you think of blended learning? Is it the best choice?
How has this changed along your experiences?
What practical examples of teachers you trained reflect this?
Maha Hassan had invited Heike Philp and Vance Stevens to participate in “a new round of talks in August. We call it Bouncing Talks where we will invite two guests as a kind of panel where they would talk about similar topics comparing and contrasting their points of view.”
Maha’s invitation said:
We will be meeting @Heike Philp and @Vance Stevens for the Second Bouncing Talk about Blended Learning and the future of education.
Teaching ESL HUB was live. Ayat Tawel · 1:42 Hi lovely people.. can’t find the zoom link . So will follow on FB Rochelle Jauod Ubiña · 2:50 Good evening from Commonwealth, Quezon City, Philippines Nesreen Sayed · 7:13 Hi Houcine Fendou · 8:46 Good afternoon Ma Eleta M Asuncion · 11:19 Blessed day Ayat Tawel · 12:34 Maha Hassan can you post the zoom link here ? Ahmed Magdy El-Nagar · 14:06 Ahmed Gohar Rikki Evanz · 14:27 Blended learning is a hybrid of of asynchronous and synchronous learning. Ahmed Magdy El-Nagar · 15:34 Good luck, Miss Maha Hassan 🙂 Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 15:48 hello From Bangladesh Heike Philp · 16:53 May I ask you all, what is blended learning for you? and how does this work for your students? Heike Philp · 17:57 Thank you Rikki, a hybrid of asynchronous and synchronous learning Heike Philp · 19:35 hi Ayat, I will paste the link to Zoom in privat chat ok? Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 22:08 hello From Bangladesh Heike Philp · 23:59 hi Ahsan, great you joined Heike Philp · 24:05 and Ionela, lovely to see you Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 24:48 Heike Philp @thanks Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 28:11 excellent presentation Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 30:23 thanks From Bangladesh Open University. Bangladesh 🇧🇩 MT Hoque · 32:25 Hi teachers, l an so happy to have you. Thank you very much for so much beneficial live class. Heike Philp · 33:33 so what do you use? Teaching ESL HUB · 33:26 Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul thank you Ahsan for joining us Ahsan Ul Kabir Mukul · 35:12 I am so happy to with you Hari Singh Karki · 36:07 Glad to join you from Nepal Ionela C. Mateș · 19:23 Hello from Romania Heike Philp · 38:34 May I ask the question to all of you: what do you think of blended learning and what do you use? Heike Philp · 38:48 do you have an LMS in place and which one? Michael Birch · 43:48 It’s easy to assume that the passive ones are underachievers, but it’s not necessarily the case. Maybe they find the MOOC materials too limited or prescriptive. Heike Philp · 56:18 what apps or tools do you know about on doing assessment Hanaa M. Khamis · 59:10 ELSA Speak Heike Philp · 1:02:08 hi Hanaa – lovely to hear from you Heike Philp · 1:02:10 🙂 Julie Diamantakou · 1:03:45 It is definitely going to be less time consuming for students. Heike Philp · 1:05:16 Julie, fabulous point, special educational needs Heike Philp · 1:05:50 this is a big question Heike Philp · 1:06:24 oh, big point Heike Philp · 1:05:45 could technology help provide access for learners or prevent them from having access Hanaa M. Khamis · 1:07:26 Same issue v equity Rikki Evanz · 1:09:35 Thank you everyone. 🍀 Heike Philp · 1:10:12 http://www.menti.com 4438955 Heike Philp · 1:10:22 thank you so much Julie Diamantakou · 1:10:39 thank you very much!!!! Nesreen Sayed · 1:11:08 Thanks alot Julie Diamantakou · 1:11:03 appreciate it.!!! Nesreen Sayed · 1:11:49 Bye Heike Philp · 58:56 and last question: what do you think is the future of education Hanaa M. Khamis · 1:01:06 Less of traditional test types Teaching ESL HUB · 0:00 Sure Hanaa M. Khamis I totally agree 🙂 Rikki Evanz · 46:56 Ever since, we teachers have been stepping up to make our lesson or instruction engaging and effective. I reckon we need to leverage technologies to humanize teaching and learning. Teaching ESL HUB · 1:02:42 If you have any questions for Vance or Heike please write it here in the comments. Hanaa M. Khamis · 1:06:24 Q: Is MS Teams an efficient n user-friendly platform? Julie Diamantakou · 1:02:22 Online learning is not going to work with young learners.and especially for those with dyslexic and those with attention deficit. Teaching ESL HUB · 0:00 Julie Diamantakou The problem is that they need a guide or a parent to be with them. I have heard for a specialist that special needs students enjoy the private attention they get from online sessions. Do you agree with this? Syeda Fozia Naz · 1:05 HELLO
Promotion and Feedback
The event was promoted on Learning2gether in the usual way as follows
This says: Here is the link to our latest Bouncing Talk with Heike Philp and Vance Stevens last Saturday on our You Tube Channel https://youtu.be/S5QTHtsNUEM
Earlier Events
Tue 25 Aug 0001 UTC or Mon 24 Aug ET Minecraft Monday – All about banners
Tue 25 Aug 16:00 EDT TESOL RCIS Social Hour on Race and Racial (In)justice for English Learner Students Around the World
Ilene Winokur hosts the RCIS Social Hour on Tuesday, August 25th at 4:00 PM EDT. The Social Hour is an informal monthly event for sharing casual conversation and ideas about a topic of interest to TESOL members. This month’s topic is Race and Racial (In)justice for English Learner Students Around the World.
We’ll talk about the challenges teachers and students face and discuss different approaches to overcoming those challenges to create an equitable and inclusive space for our learners and ourselves. Your questions and suggestions are highly encouraged and valued since it’s a conversation among professional colleagues.
Wed 26 Aug noon UTC Create Connection & Build Community Through Play!
Judy Wong wants us to know “It’s Free!!!! Join Me!!! …Especially my tribe on the other side of the globe!!!!…Join me and the amazing Magoa Hanke…Wednesday!! August 26th at 8am NY time… Click here for your time: https://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/…&
Join our weekly hour-long play “workout” for people of all ages around the world! Take a play break with your family or on your own – suitable for children, teens, adults and elders! Create connection and community while having fun – alleviate stress and anxiety through play. Bring whatever you have to play with … emotions, language, humor, your challenges and your hopes for our world. Hosted by international performance activist and comic educator, Marian Rich, and an international team of co-facilitators. This week’s co-facilitator is Judy Wong. Sessions are conducted in English.
I had another event at that time but I attended this one when it began. It started out with music playing which was disorienting for newcomers since it prevented communication with others (I was let into the room 8 minutes after the top of the hour – it was possible I had been let in late after the meeting had already started through I was on time). The music had a purpose as a mood-setter, and we were then to put in our feelings into the text chat. By then I said I was feeling conflicted since I was already late for my other meeting, and excused myself that I needed to leave. I existed as another musical segment started playing.
Wed 26 Aug 1700 UTC- TESOL Intercultural Communication Interest Section Coffee Hour on Building classroom community
TESOL’s Intercultural Communication Interest Section will be hosting their next coffee hour on Wednesday, 8/26 at 1:00 p.m. EST on the topic of building inclusive classroom community in language and intercultural communication courses.
Coffee hours start with about 15 minutes of welcome and sharing content, 25 minutes in breakout rooms with others, and about 15 minutes for sharing out ideas as a whole group. Come share your thoughts and walk away with some new ideas!
Zoom invitation: Time: Aug 26, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Have you ever seen any bizarre/unique customs & traditions around the world as an ESOL practitioner in some international cultural encounters? Participate with a 3~5-min talk in which you express how this may have caused funny/awkward/uneasy moments of misunderstanding, but has become a teachable moment about tolerance and openness to others.
Speakers: Achama Isaac, Anastasia Jean, Fatmah Azam Ali, Hind Elkhatim Elyas, Maria Bossa, Salma Tarek Al-Feqqi
Fri 28 Aug noon UTC Mick King on TESOL Career Path PD Net
The requisite screenshot selfie:
Here’s the recording with chat logs and transcription of the spoken audio
The video says that with 60 days to go all the “performers” were signed up, but they were looking for “exhibitors, merchants, and volunteers”
and then there is this stipulation …
And that’s all I know …
___________________________________________________________ This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is August 31, 2020 06:00 UTC
ME of the ENRICH Project in Rome, Italy, 1st October 2020, 2.00-6.30 pm Italian Time.
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