EVO Minecraft MOOC 2021 kickoff event in Zoom and in Minecraft – How the EVOMC21 ecosystem works

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Download this audio:
https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/2021-01-11evomc21kickoff_audio_only.m4a?

Learning2gether Episode 505

Navigation

Skip down to the Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs
See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

On Monday, January 11, Teacher Vance, Jane Chien, and Bobbi Bear organized and hosted this 7th annual EVO Minecraft MOOC kickoff event in Zoom and Minecraft.

We met in Zoom and many of our colleagues and participants who were whitelisted on the #evomc21 server joined us from there as well. Jane, Vance, and our server administrator sysop Aaron Schwartz shared their screens from Minecraft and explained how this EVO session is being organized in Discord, Facebook, and optionally in Groups.io. Inexplicably, but serendipitously, some of our colleagues managed to tune in from Discord, and voice-broadcast through Zoom. Others participated in the text chat associated with the Facebook stream from Zoom. J

We started where most visitors will begin, at the spawn point, where, although we are in survival, mobs (monsters) have been suppressed for their safety (safety of both the mobs and our participants). And we ended at, of all places, with the ultimate experience in Minecraft, a rare visit to the Enderdragon engineered by our Minecraft server guru Zzidkha, aka Aaron Schwartz.

This event was intended to be an informative visit, the main purpose being to make a recording of how participants could join us in-world, and how we would welcome them there and tend to their needs as they immerse themselves into the challenging world of our Minecraft server, and it ended with an out-of-this world visit under the hood, covering the gamut of ways people might interact with us in EVO Minecraft MOOC this 2021 EVO season.

EVO is Electronic Village Online, http://evosessions.org.
For more information about EVO Minecraft MOOC see http://minecraftmooc.org

This and all #evomc21 events are being posted at http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142133859/2021_Live_Events
and their YouTube videos, when available, are being archived there as well.

The picture shows our resident turtle at the EVO MInecraft MOOC spawn point


Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs

Zoom

22:18:57 From Marijana : hi everyone,
22:19:08 From Jane Chien : hello
22:20:22 From Claire Siskin : Hi Sedat!!
22:20:28 From Sedat Akayoğlu : hi Claire
22:20:41 From Marijana : I am on my tablet, because
22:20:45 From Sedat Akayoğlu : hi Vance
22:21:06 From Marijana : my laptop is having some problems. Filip is trying to fix it for me. 🙂
22:21:10 From BARBARA STEVENS : Hi everyone
22:21:20 From Sedat Akayoğlu : hi all
22:21:25 From BARBARA STEVENS : Oh good luck with your laptop
22:21:54 From Marijana : @Vance, you always have fun!
22:22:07 From Marijana : Thanks Barbara! 😗
22:22:09 From BARBARA STEVENS : We try 😉
22:22:42 From Serdar Sen : Hi Sedat hocam
22:22:55 From Sedat Akayoğlu : hi Serdar…
22:24:31 From Marijana : hashtags will help us all more to find the important information
22:29:04 From Caterina Skiniotou : What is each playground about?

To answer this question, we make available a number of channels in Discord (which we call playgrounds) so we can have multiple separate conversations. For example when Olivetree was conducting an orientation recently, we saw that Serdar was more advanced than the other players, so Bobbi Bear and I went into another channel and talked to him there as we went elsewhere on the server

22:30:20 From Marijana : I am on tablet so, it’s a bit hard to follow
22:30:38 From Marijana : Playground is for you to speak while playing in Minecraft
22:31:02 From Marijana : I suppose you can join certain playground with certain players
22:31:12 From Marijana : Aaron has microphonia
22:32:10 From Caterina Skiniotou : @Marijana, thanks!
22:36:55 From Marijana : No problem Catarina. Let’s say newbies use Playground 1 with few of us mods, and more expert Minecraft players can talk in Playground 2. but you always need to connect to voice to be able to use mic and speak in channel. while you should disconnect others
22:38:16 From Marijana : Playing Minecraft and using Discord is a process, but you will be able to see how our students and kids do this at the same time. I have witnessed that with both of my sons 😁
22:39:23 From Marijana : @Aaron, is this an octopus?
22:43:03 From Jamie Harrison : Does the night end for everyone if one person sleeps or just for that one person?
22:43:06 From Caterina Skiniotou : So, when is nighttime exactly?
22:46:08 From Jane Chien : https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ILqfvWUAMvwYIfIir10w0Qj-J2jmUXChr-OB_YarrYA/edit?usp=sharing
22:46:25 From Caterina Skiniotou : Is the list of plug-ins recorded somewhere so we can explore?
22:50:32 From Vance Stevens : nighttime is every 20 minutes
22:51:22 From Claire Siskin : every 20 minutes?????
22:51:36 From Jane Chien : Super cool!!!
22:51:41 From Vance Stevens : day night cycles, you have to get your business done in 10 min and then get to a bed or get to a shelter. If you sleep it gets light immediately. If not you have to wait another 10 min
22:52:35 From Vance Stevens : https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Daylight_cycle#:~:text=Sunset%20is%20the%20period%20between,lasts%205%E2%81%846%20minutes.&text=During%20sunset%2C%20the%20Sun%20descends,rises%20on%20the%20eastern%20horizon.
22:53:11 From Marijana : Night is more scary in survival mode , but you can cheat, hahaha, my sons love survival mode as well
22:54:00 From Vance Stevens : checking that, I think the day and night together are 20 min
22:54:53 From ROSEMERE BARD : Survival mode creates some interesting interactions between players
22:55:22 From Tilly Harrison : I thought it was shorter than 20!
22:56:13 From Caterina Skiniotou : I am still in the dark as to the objective(s) of the game: is it to build and/or destroy? Do we as a group of players set the game objectives?

To answer this question, the objectives are very much open ended. It’s up to the teacher to find ways to channel the inherent interest kids have in Minecraft toward educational objectives. There have been books written about this subject; a good one is Teachercraft, listed on this page in our wiki, giving articles, presentations, and blog posts about EVO Minecraft MOOC: 
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142599177/Pedagogy_of_Minecraft
But the best way to learn is through a community and that is what we are here for. Join us and learn through doing and by example; through modeling best practices in Minecraft for one another.

22:56:41 From Caterina Skiniotou : We focus a lot on technical stuff but I am so far unable to connect the dots.
22:56:45 From Marijana : You will get to test both modes
22:57:12 From Tilly Harrison : Hi Caterina – I was the same as you when I started. But when I tried Survival it started to make sense – that is where the game gets fun because you really have to work hard to not get killed.
22:57:14 From Marijana : My suggestion is to read the week 1 orientation and just get yourself familiar with Minecraft
22:57:40 From Jane Chien : XD yes work on not to get killed
22:57:43 From Vance Stevens : hear hear
22:57:43 From Marijana : Creative is to huild, Survival is to stay alive and kill zombies.. 😉
22:58:03 From Marijana : sorry, guys, I am on tablet so I make spelling mistakes
22:58:06 From Dani Hersey : I’ve gotta run and teach a class. Thank you for this introduction!
22:58:14 From Marijana : bye Dani!
22:58:16 From Claire Siskin : If you kill all the zombies, are you safe?

To answer this question, on our server you are pretty much safe in the daytime as long as you are out of doors and it’s not raining. Clouds and dark places in caves is where mobs (zombies, etc. ) hang out during the day. You are also safe if you’ve protected yourself inside a shelter. We have shelters spaced throughout our server. You can see examples of what Bobbi Bear and I do to protect ourselves in our videos, here
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials
You can see how we move around freely during the daytime and take care to get indoors at night. Join us on the server and we’ll show you.
But I didn’t answer the question. Mobs spawn algorithmically in Minecraft. Sometimes you can kill one and there are no more, but sometimes they seem to swarm you if you are in a dark cave without light or out at night. As you might have gathered, light intensity is a factor in their propagation. Best to carry torches and a good sword.

22:58:16 From Jane Chien : Thanks Dani!
22:58:19 From Jane Chien : Bye!
22:58:28 From Tilly Harrison : When you realise how hard it is to stay alive, you REALLY appreciate advice from experienced players – but it’s better for it not to be too easy.
22:58:55 From ROSEMERE BARD : Minecraft is pretty much like a sandbox. You can do a lot of different things there. As Marijana says, once you start experimenting and also participating in the ‘play and learn’ sessions, you will understand more and more how the game Works and what the possibilities there.
22:59:04 From Caterina Skiniotou : The story line sounds pretty limited so far.
22:59:41 From Tilly Harrison : It’s like ‘Little House in the Big Woods’ – just surviving!
22:59:48 From Jane Chien : Bobbi says: Claire, you asked about Zombies. If you kill one others you are safe from that one but others might appear.
23:00:01 From Claire Siskin : Thanks, Bobbi!
23:00:07 From Don Carroll : I don’t think there is any “story line” in MC.
23:00:38 From Claire Siskin : The “story line” seems to be like life!
23:01:19 From Claire Siskin : I mean, we live life but we are not always aware of what the story line is,
23:01:33 From Don Carroll : You can really do whatever you want.
23:01:44 From Don Carroll : If you want to build things you can do that.
23:01:56 From Don Carroll : If you don’t want to build, that’s fine tool
23:02:16 From Don Carroll : I really just run around, find stuff, and take photos.
23:02:30 From ROSEMERE BARD : You create your own stories
23:02:41 From Jane Chien : Yes, we like your photos! And your adventures!
23:02:50 From Marijana : I personally loved riding the rollercoasters one of our experts builds. so much fun.
23:04:19 From Marijana : I am very bad at bulidng, both Filip and Domagoj always laugh at me, I used to build and destroy at the same time, by just a wrong mouse click 🙄
23:05:21 From Marijana : oh no Jane! 😄
23:05:22 From Claire Siskin : What is AFK?
23:05:33 From Nazlı Ceren Işıklıgil : away from keyboard
23:05:38 From Claire Siskin : Thanks!
23:05:47 From Marijana : there will be many abbrv. in Minecraft
23:05:49 From Anne Hendler (complete noob) : What other abbreviations do we need to know?
23:06:27 From Marijana : Those are similar for all social media, for example BRB
23:06:32 From Marijana : be right back
23:06:34 From Sedat Akayoğlu : I think we will learn in time as you suggested
23:06:40 From Caterina Skiniotou : Thanks, everyone. I will be exploring things on single-player mode and come up with more questions to post on groups.io.
23:06:48 From Caterina Skiniotou : Buy for now!
23:06:49 From Don Carroll : The abbreviations used in MC text messages are pretty much the same as regular text messaging.
23:07:04 From Jamie Harrison : Thank you for this intro. I’m glad to be part of this EVO group. I’ll do my best to be part of things and learn a lot! I have to go now – but I’ll be back! 🙂
23:07:20 From Don Carroll : If you join via Discord you won’t really need to use the text messaging within MC.
23:07:27 From Marijana : Sure Caterina, 😉
23:07:46 From Marijana : Yes, as you speak, so no need to use chat in Minecraft
23:09:41 From ROSEMERE BARD : Emanuel took me and my husband to the End yesterday and took him almost an hour to get crystals and kill the dragon. Guess where hubby and I were at that time? hiding in a shelter ahahah I can survive there, but I won’t dare to fight the dragon yet. ahahah
23:09:47 From Don Carroll : I’ve got to go. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to participate this year.
23:10:03 From ROSEMERE BARD : you can survive if you are wearing a good armour
23:10:06 From Don Carroll : This year happens to be really busy.
23:10:08 From Anne Hendler (complete noob) : I guess I’ll have to go in and figure out what my questions are.
23:10:09 From Claire Siskin : Must go too. Thanks for a most informative session!
23:10:17 From Marijana : Great Rose, bye Don, take care, sure no worries
23:10:35 From Marijana : I also need to go, I have meeting in 30 mins in Adobe. 🙂
23:10:45 From Marijana : bye guys, see you soon
23:10:50 From Vance Stevens : thanks for coming
23:10:53 From Sedat Akayoğlu : thank you so much for this intro… I will join MC today..
23:11:08 From Sedat Akayoğlu : I will have more questions when I start using it
23:11:15 From BARBARA STEVENS : Bye Thanks for joining us everyone.
23:11:22 From Nazlı Ceren Işıklıgil : Other than live events like this, are we going to have specific times to play together? I normally play with Olivetree since I know her from last year and learning from her but that would be great to play with others as well

To answer this question, we moderators set up times to be online where we tend to find others active. For example, Bobbi and I usually go for our evenings around 14:00 UTC (GMT). This is early morning for people in South America and two hours before midnight in Asia where Jane and I are. But we are up from about 1 or 2 am UTC, in case anyone wanted to make an arrangement to meet. During lockdown we stay home usually, so if you want to meet suggest a time. Or go to our server map at http://mc.evomc.net:8123/. If we are you can join us. You can page us in world right on the chat bar at the bottom of the map.

23:11:37 From Jane Chien : Thanks for joining everyone!
23:12:08 From Jane Chien : I’m doing research on language learning in Minecraft, if anyone is interested 😉
23:12:42 From Nazlı Ceren Işıklıgil : Yeah that would be great!
23:12:42 From Jane Chien : Also, we’re building Minecraft language learning lessons 🙂
23:12:47 From Marijana : Great Jane. Have you checked our old article, written in 2014, bye Vance, Filip and me
23:12:53 From Nazlı Ceren Işıklıgil : If we know who are up for playing at what time generally

We are from all parts of the world, so we are up at different times. If you are in Turkey you are near those of us from Egypt, Croatia, Romania, and Asia (in Asia we are 24 hours away from USA)

23:13:03 From Jane Chien : Yes, I cited your article when I wrote mine 🙂
23:13:39 From Marijana : great
23:13:53 From Marijana : ok, need to go now. see you later, bye all
23:14:12 From Vance Stevens : Smolcec, Smolcec , and Stevens (2014) is listed here: http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142599177/Pedagogy_of_Minecraft
23:14:56 From Anne Hendler (complete noob) : Thank you for all the information! It’s after midnight here, so I have to turn in. See everyone in game.
23:15:12 From Aaron Schwartz : thanks everyone for coming
23:15:13 From Nazlı Ceren Işıklıgil : Thank you!!! See you in Minecraft 🙂
23:15:13 From Serdar Sen : thanks for the instruction, see you later in the game 🍃stay safe ✨
23:15:26 From BARBARA STEVENS : Bye all
23:15:36 From Sedat Akayoğlu : bye all
23:15:42 From Sedat Akayoğlu : thank you all
23:15:46 From Sedat Akayoğlu : for this great intro
23:16:00 From BARBARA STEVENS : see you all in the game!

2021-01-11evomc_gallery

Facebook live stream

Krisztina Tisza · 53:49 Just joined on Zoom! It’s awesome! Thank you!
Walton Burns · 44:04 Does warp creative mean you go into creative mode?
Virgínia Oliveira · 38:13 I`m watching on facebook but the audio is very low!
(Teacher Vance – Huge Hint, the passcode is in the email confirmation)
Aaron Schwartz · 28:26 i’m also being asked for a passcode
Virgínia Oliveira · 25:44 what`s the password?
Jane Chien · 0:00 I don’t have the password?
Jane Chien · 15:41 https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZctf-6trzMsG9P-x…
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Mon 11 Jan 1400 UTC etc
Jane Chien · 11:19 Let me get you info
Don Carroll · 10:49 The server is popping on and off.
Don Carroll · 10:25 How do I join the Zoom?
Jane Chien · 0:00 Hi! You’re early! I’ll be back soon! Give me five minutes!
Don Carroll · 5:11 Hi Vance and Bobbi.
Mike Kenteris · 0:52 In the backdrop … not available to attend at this time!


Promotion and Feedback

Announcements were made
an Facebook groups

And at Groups.io

Live stream
And the event was live-streamed on https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc
but the recording ended up at my facebook page under videos: https://www.facebook.com/vance.stevens.3/videos/ and to that add the code 10158846255149719
to complete the URL (if I write that out in full here, it converts into what you see below)

We started the stream about 15 min before we started the Zoom recording,

I’ve faced this problem in the past, when I stream to a private group, I can’t post the video in such a way that anyone can see it. I’ll have to make a Camtasia recording, maybe of just the first 15 minutes until we started the Zoom recording (they should be the same). And in FUTURE stream to a public group, such as Learning2gether. Later for this.


Earlier Events

Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff and EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party

https://learning2gether.net/2021/01/10/electronic-village-online-opening-kickoff-and-evo-minecraft-mooc-pre-session-server-party/

___________________________________________________________
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 January 14, 2021 10:00 UTC

Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff and EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party

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Learning2gether Episode 504

Navigation

The Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff
The EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

January 10, 2021 was a big day in the compatible but overlapping worlds of EVO, Electronic Village Online, and EVO Minecraft MOOC. The former held its annual kickoff event on this date, starting at the internationally sweet spot time of 1400 UTC, tentatively expected to last an hour, and the latter was holding a server party event at the same time (through no fault of my own; CoP cats are known to be difficult to herd) but set to go on for two hours. I attended and presented in the EVO annual kickoff until 1500 UTC (it went on for another half hour after that) and popped over to the Minecraft server to catch the last half of the party there.

Here’s the story of these two amazing events.


Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff for 2021

EVO2021 officially began with an opening ceremony in Zoom on Sunday Jan 10 1400 UTC

Slides 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rbwr2Bal1t4zSGeEE_4wuFHtQUdkWDVbqnBXnzMM-K0/edit?usp=sharing

More information: http://evosessions.org 

All interested #EVO2021 moderators and participants were welcome

Announcements were made in these

Facebook groups 

And at Groups.io 

At the EVO Minecraft MOOC spaces above, we also noted that:

For #EVOMC21 participants there is a BBQ at Dak’s place on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server coinciding with the start of this event at 1400 UTC but extending for an hour after the EVO session ends (or we slip out early, see you there 🙂.)

Meanwhile, back at the EVO 2021 kickoff

2021-01-10evoKickoff_martha
A job well moderated by EVO Lead Coordinator for 2021, Martha Ramirez

EVO announced its sessions Jan. 11 – Feb. 14, 2021, with Registration: Jan. 3 – 10, 2021

Celebrate EVO’s 20th Anniversary with us!

It is a pleasure to announce the Call for Participation for the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2021. As a project of TESOL’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS), EVO has been offering free, open online professional development sessions and workshops to teachers of English around the globe for 20 years.

For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.

Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. It is not necessary to be a TESOL or IATEFL member nor to attend the TESOL Convention in order to participate. All you need is access to the Internet. The sessions carry no academic credit, and participants may choose the level of involvement that works for them.

This year, we are pleased to offer a record 19 five-week sessions, with the EVO21 Kick-off event on January 10, 2021 at 2 PM UTC (9:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada). Register in advance for this meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItfu6gqzMoG9xWVH-w1JTo9FsvscdihdOz. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting

Please inform your colleagues about this unparalleled professional development opportunity! For descriptions and abstracts of all sessions, visit the Call for Participation at evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/…. 

Here are links to all of the sessions

  1. CEFR VS Assessment: How can new revisions help?
  2. Classroom-based research for Professional Development
  3. Digital Imagery and Designs
  4. Effective Presentation Skills
  5. EVO Minecraft MOOC 2021
  6. Flipped_Learning_in_language_teaching 
  7. Grammar for TESOL 
  8. Immersive Storytelling in Virtual Worlds
  9. Intercultural Competence 2021 
  10. M4TEVO21
  11. Scientific Literacy and CLIL
  12. Self-Care for Educators with Mindfulness 
  13. Shaping New Ways of Teaching English for Tourism in Uzbekistan
  14. Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach
  15. TECHNO CLIL 2021
  16. TEFL2YL EVO21
  17. Tools for Student Collaboration
  18. Technology for Spoken English
  19. Wellness: A Happy and Healthy You

Please share this invitation with your colleagues and e-lists. Thank you for helping us spread the word!

For additional information about EVO, visit http://evosessions.org

 


EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party

Here is the recording of the Sun 10 Jan EVOMC21 pre-session Kickoff & BBQ. Having left another online Zoom meeting and come directly to this one, Teacher Vance started it quickly and did not take time to make a test recording first. Everything usually works fine, but maybe because I had taken my USB mic to another computer for the Zoom session, Camtasia switched my mic off for this recording once I put it back in. I was devastated to discover that at first, but then it dawned on me that no one needs to hear me natter on all the time, so here is the result

YouTube URL https://youtu.be/c6O9emiidWQ 

In this video we meet at the spawn point developed by Sura so meticulously over the past week or so. I exit the gate to look for MrMikeGR whom I find standing near the chest full of shears, provided so that newcomers won’t simply slaughter the sheep in order to get wool to make beds. However the sign says “Please use shears to get wool. Do no kill the sheep”, but it looks like a sign posted in a park somewhere. The newcomer doesn’t know that it’s posted on a chest, let alone how to to right-click to open it, and then how does he use what he finds inside on sheep? Being in Discord would help us to explain. However MrMikeGR is a brave newcomer here in this survival world for the very first time, though the area around the spawn point has been rendered ‘peaceful’ – no monster mobs. I am even unable to place a boat in the water here except in the designated safe swimming area directly off the pier.

We travel across the water to Dak’s and climb some vines to reach the terrace where the BBQ is in progress. We meet Dak’s cured zombie, Captain Francis, who guards a freezer full of fish and dairy supplies. He is standing near a chest where we can get fishing poles and take them down to the water to catch our own fish. Back on the terrace Dak has prepared special mesquite charcoal for us to cook our catch, which is delivered unfathomably into a separate delivery system. Go figgah!? Meanwhile Olivetree Grove is busy digging her own firepit that emits puffs of smoke that would pollute any real world, but here the smoke has zero effect on the environment. 

Mattie comes along and brightens up the night with an incessant display of fireworks, though when his mom Jane is handed an ‘Old Betsy’ fireworks launcher she turns out to be equally hedonistic amongst this group of staid and serious educators. Just kidding (about the educators)! We all pose for photos on the landing, we can probably find them posted in Discord, although the video renditions are not that bad either. They just won’t hold still.

Eventually MrMikeGR finds his way to where we are and we pass him snacks and I pass him my finest stone sword. It is not an easy process explaining to someone who is not in Discord the seemingly simple series of keypresses required to eat something, so that takes some time.

Finally it approaches midnight in the uber-overworld where Teacher Vance, Bobbi Bear, Jane Chien, and Mattie Tsai go about their real lives (Mattie is still up? we thought he has gone to bed already). Teacher Vance and Bobbi /home home off to their castle elsewhere and though you can’t hear it on the video, we are all saying goodbye to one another in Discord.

Feedback

Mr Mike’s take
https://mreltmike.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/evomc2021-day-1-the-beginning/

My reply
Hi Mr Mike, it was great to see you in world with us. Thanks for the family portrait. I’ve produced a lot more videos starting from the spawn point where the shear sign is (that’s a chest, btw, you can right click on it to open it and help yourself to shears inside. Then with a shear in your hand, you right click on a sheep, and it ‘drops’ wool. You walk over the wool to pick it up.

The updated videos are here, http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials. The first one here, https://youtu.be/iLxoWmbbJpw is a better one for showing you how to survive in the wilderness. The rest of the videos guide you down paths that others have made, where there are shelters along the way.

My advice is to go on the server and meet people there. Contact us through discord to see when we’ll be online, or write us at https://groups.io/g/minecraftmooc/. I follow all messages posted there. Also, you can visit our dynamic map at http://mc.evomc.net:8123/ and see who is online now and use the dialog box at the bottom to chat with people on the server whether you are in game or not.

There’s much to learn, but many on hand to help you, especially if you want to learn by doing. When you get into discord and can speak to us this will speed up the process because then we can explain to you quickly, directly, and hands free what you should be doing. Look forward to seeing you in #evomc21

Announcements

in the Google Calendar in the screenshot above,
and on the EVOMC21 live events page
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142133859/2021_Live_Events#Sun10Jan14001600UTCEVOMC21presessionKickoffampBBQ

In Facebook groups
EVO MInecraft MOOC – https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc 

At Groups.io
EVO Minecraft MOOC – https://groups.io/g/minecraftmooc/message/198 

 


Earlier Events

Sat 19 Dec 1500-2000 UTC – Free CETE/TESOL (Virtual) Annual  Online International Conference, with Deborah Healey plenary

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/19/learning2gether-at-the-cete-tesol-virtual-annual-online-international-conference-deborah-healey-plenary/

Mon 21 Dec – TEIS Webinar Recording: Lessons from Africa: Teacher Development through Language Teacher Associations

Webinar URL: youtu.be/NXos-eysyXs

Aymen Elsheikh, (President of Africa ELTA (formerly known as Africa TESOL) & Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University at Qatar) and Chadia Mansour (Athabasca University), discussed unique circumstances, opportunities and challenges language teacher associations in the region face in language teacher development. Amongst the many points raised included the uniqueness of Africa ELTA’s focus on diversity, its community-based orientation, and its emphasis on cultivating leaders as well as the fronting of expertise from within its membership. Amongst Africa ELTA’s challenges included garnering resources to support its members and navigating turf lines amongst sponsors. The discussion began with Elsheikh & Effiong’s 2018 research on the subject. With the participation of audience members, the discussion concluded with a recognition of the monumental efforts it took to establish the association, with minimal funding sources, and based heavily on the work and unwavering belief of volunteers and advocates.

Sat 26 Dec and Jan 2 & 9 noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZMsdOygpz8tHNc_WLlu_kPfIuQ_zb0fF75W/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGvrzgvEt2Rtx-ERpwEBYjCZ_zxmClago1eoyjJDzVsaTPwH_dzDah9QN72

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763

Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Sat 26 Dec and Jan 2 & 9 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

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. Follow VSTE 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/ 

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58 
  3. 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 January 14, 2021 06:00 UTC

Learning2gether at the CETE/TESOL (Virtual) Annual Online International Conference – Deborah Healey keynote

Uncategorized 1 Comment

Learning2gether Episode 503

Navigation

See promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

I have occasionally in the past made Learning2gether episodes out of events I did not myself organize. My involvement in this one was almost accidental. I received a message from a colleague that the Center for English Teaching Excellence affiliate of TESOL, CETE / Georgia was looking for speakers for their upcoming virtual conference and suggested I put myself forward. On making enquiries I discovered two important things: (1) the conference was to be held from 7 pm to midnight Tbilisi time, odd timing for Georgians, but most probably to accommodate their plenary speaker Zooming in from west coast USA; and (2) the plenary speaker was Dr. Deborah Healey, a long time colleague in CALL-IS in TESOL, and past-president of, and current roving / virtual ambassador to, TESOL.org. When a TESOL affiliate needs a speaker, Deborah is often called on and often accepts (and always makes a great presentation).

healey_ceteGeorgia

The conference started at 11 pm my time in Penang, Malaysia. I had scheduled a meeting of moderators of my EVO 2021 group, EVO Minecraft MOOC, for 10 pm my time, and as long as I’d be online anyway, I decided to stay up for Deborah’s presentation.

I don’t see where there is a video recording yet, but if one becomes available I can embed it here. Meanwhile, we’ll have to make do with my screenshots and the materials Deborah posted at http://tinyurl.com/healeycete

Deborah’s Tiny URL points to a Google Drive folder where there are three files. One is to a getting-to-know-you Google form. One is to a breakout activity she may have been planning for her presentation (or perhaps meant it as a model for one). And the third file is to her slide presentation, direct link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w-B1yYBBc7aJo6bHkpREasphu9GtPCNa/view?usp=sharing

The presentation was timely, entitled
Building community in difficult times: Pandemic and online teaching

She set the presentation in the context of the sudden shift in demands on teaching, followed by suggestions for effective teaching and community building online, couching the discussion in the framework TESOL’s 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners. She closed with a discussion of resources that teachers could access worldwide for free, and from TESOL often for free or at nominal cost. She made clear when one of her suggestions might cost something; e.g. in the neighborhood of $35, what a year’s global membership subscription to TESOL would cost people overseas in Georgia, for example.

My other meeting had run a little overtime, and I arrived at about the point when she started talking about the 6 principles:healey06ps

You can see in the slides where for Principle 1 she talked about ice breakers in Zoom; using surveys and playing games such as scavenger hunts to get to know participants and their opinions.

2020-12-19

On Principle 2 she gave her insights into conditions for interactivity in virtual classrooms. One of these was to have students switch cameras on, which I interpreted as a signal to turn mine on immediately. No one likes to talk to a wall of static icons. Also her breakout activities would have fit in here, all explained in the slides.

Also on the same Principle 2, on Slide 11 (page 11 in the pdf version) Deborah introduced the Flipped Learning approach, https://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FLIP_handout_FNL_Web.pdf. She mentioned its tenets and then suggested her listeners go to the Electronic Village Online page which has on it a Call for Participation in the sessions taking place this January and February, 2021, http://evosessions.pbworks.com/

She suggested that teachers find in the list on that page the link to the session on Flipped Learning in Language Teaching, whose direct link for those interested is http://evo2021proposals.pbworks.com/w/page/141324927/Flipped%20Learning%20in%20Language%20Teaching.

She did not mention that there is also a session given by one of the chief proponents of Flipped Learning, Laine Marshall, on her trademark SOFLA, or Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach, http://evo2021proposals.pbworks.com/w/page/141322005/Synchronous%20Online%20Flipped%20Learning%20Approach.

So participants in EVO this year could take one or both of those. EVO sessions are free and available to all.

The part of her presentation that I warmed up to most was about Principle 3, designing high quality language lessons, because she gave practical examples of tools that might be used to implement the three online presences in Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (2000); per Slide 12:

healey_principle3

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87-105.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6; also available http://cde.athabascau.ca/coi_site/documents/Garrison_Anderson_Archer_Critical_Inquiry_model.pdf

As can be seen at the CoI portal page (https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/) there are three presences represented in the Venn diagram reproduced in Deborah’s slide. For Social Presence, Deborah suggests the following tools, plus Webquests, which she added just before she changed slides, and before I could refresh my screenshot.

healey01

For Cognitive and Teaching Presences, she suggested these tools as an appropriate fit to the revised Bloom’s taxonomy for constructing meaning in a digital age (shown on her slide 14):

But the part of the presentation where she made this a Learning2gether episode was when she reached her discussion of Principle 6, Engage and collaborate within a community of practice:

healey06

On slide 20 she made mention of Learning2gether as a salient example of teachers helping one another in times of need; most recently in reference to ERT (emergency remote teaching) and whatever the new normal is in this era of pandemic

healey_slide20

This was followed by a full list of resources, many of which are not hyperlinked in the PDF version of the slide show, but there are usually umbrella links at the bottom of the slides, and failing that, there’s always Google. One such set of resources was the https://my.tesol.org/ COVID-19 Resources Group.

covid19tesol
https://my.tesol.org/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=80115161-470c-46be-bd23-849d1e8302a4

This group has informed a substantial portion of materials I have been sharing since last March 2020 in my Crowdsourced Google Doc on COVID-19 Teaching. This document was created at the outset of the ERT phase as a part of the TALIN webinar series whose 38 webinars took place from from March to August 2020. TALIN at the time stood for Teaching and Learning in IsosatioN, but it has since morphed into TALIN2, which, whenever possible, I represent with a superscripted 2 so that it reads “TALIN squared” – standing for Teaching and Learning in the New Normal.

talin2020fb
From the TALIN Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/talin2020

So, this was a very stimulating presentation, overlapping nicely with principles and mindset of the ongoing Learning2gether project.

If more links for this presentation become available in the near future I’ll add them here.


Promotion and Feedback

This event was promoted at the CETE / TESOL Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1406931896220617

And in email from the organizers, which had this welcome announcement:
Thank you for registering for the 12th (Virtual) Annual Online International Conference “Pandemic and Online Teaching” which will be held on the 19th of December from 19:00 to 24:00 Georgian time

Plus the email had a Zoom link, and an attached schedule (to my knowledge, not online)

From Nino Chachanidze’s follow-up post to the
CETE/ TESOL Conference 2020 Dec 19

ninoFBdec20


Earlier Events

Tue 8 Dec 0100 UTC Learning2gether Episode 502 – VSTE Minecraft Monday regular monthly webinar for December 2020: Fun with skins and resource packs

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/08/vste-minecraft-monday-regular-monthly-webinar-for-december-2020-fun-with-skins-and-resource-packs/

Tue 8 Dec 1500 and 1800 UTC – CALL-IS and American English Live Tech Tips webinars

ELT educators around the globe have faced new and often unexpected challenges during the recent shift to online and hybrid learning. To address some commonly reported virtual instruction concerns, the U.S. Department of State’s American English Live webinar team and TESOL International Association’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS) are jointly presenting two special Tech Tips webinars on December 8, 2020.

Please join us on the @AmericanEnglishforEducators Facebook page (facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators) for one or both of these free 45-minute sessions; times below are listed in US Eastern Time (Washington, D.C.), and you can confirm your local broadcast time here: bit.ly/ChecktheTime.

Registration is not required. Recordings of both professional development webinars will be available on the CALL-IS YouTube channel at tinyurl.com/call-is-youtube

——————————
posted by Heather Benucci
TESOL Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS) Chair, 2020-2021

10am EST – “Flipped Instruction in the Virtual English Language Classroom” 

Martha Ramirez will explain the concept of flipped learning and examine how to apply it during courses that include live virtual sessions. We will also discover how flipping has become an effective practice for differentiating learning during online instruction.

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators/videos/2453641318274868

Martha shows us (in a compelling and insightful way) how learning can be messy

Recordings:

“Flipped Instruction in the Virtual English Language Classroom” with Martha Ramirez

1pm EST – “New Frontiers in Classroom Management: Effective Practices for Live Online Instruction“

Justin Shewell will share a selection of practical strategies and accessible tools that can help teachers manage their e-classrooms during live online sessions.

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators/videos/2802058820037517

Recordings:

“New Frontiers in Classroom Management: Effective Practices for Live Online Instruction” with Justin Shewell

Wed 9 Dec 1300 EST B-MEIS Webinar: Hip-Hop and Translanguaging: Negotiated Community Participation

Here is the link to the webinar recording: https://youtu.be/WjMj3LAd7E8

Description

 This panel brings together a group of critical scholars who look at the intersection of hip-hop and translanguaging scholarship. Drawing upon their own experience as a hip-hop artist and/or scholar-activist and work with people from language-minoritized groups in different regions of the world – Hong Kong, U.S., South Korea, and Serbia, panelists (Chang, Im, and Schreiber) will discuss how individuals adopt and adapt hop-hop and translanguaging practices to participate in local and global communities with the purposes of amplifying their voices, expressing their multicultural and multilingual identities, and resisting the dominant ideologies and discourses. Panelists will also offer implications on how hip-hop and translanguaging can be used as pedagogy in classrooms to promote bi/multilingualism and advance a social justice agenda. Our discussant, Angel Lin, will synthesize ideas and guide overall discussion to help develop further theoretical understanding, practical applications, and future pathways toward engaging in hip-hop and translanguaging as a form of negotiated community participation.

Presenters

Benji Chang is Assistant Professor of Equity Education in the School of Education, and International & Global Studies, at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Education University of Hong Kong. Dr. Chang’s work focuses on teacher education, community engagement, and language, literacy and culture, with publications in venues like Linguistics & Education and Curriculum Inquiry. He currently serves on the Teachers College Record board and is Co-Editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. Prior to UNCG, he was a hip-hop artist, inner-city classroom teacher, and Fellow of NCTE and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Jae-hyun Im is a PhD candidate in the department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University Bloomington. He is interested in translingualism, teacher identity, hip-hop-based education, and discursive psychology. His recent publications can be found in Applied Linguistics Review and Journal of Multicultural Discourses.

Brooke R. Schreiber is an Assistant Professor of English Department at Baruch College, CUNY, where she teaches courses in writing and linguistics. Her research focuses on second language writing, pedagogy, and teacher training, as well as global Englishes and translingualism. Her work has appeared in TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, the Journal of Second Language Writing, Composition Studies, and Language Learning and Technology. She is the co-editor of a forthcoming collection with Multilingual Matters on linguistic justice and multilingual writers.

Angel M. Y. Lin received her doctoral degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto in 1996. Her research and teaching have focused on critical discourse analysis, critical literacies, bilingual and multilingual education. She has published six research books and over 100 research articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards of leading international research journals. She was a full professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong before moving in 2018 to Simon Fraser University to take up the position of Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education.

Where?
Register for the Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrc-2qpz0pG9H6QXIwpAfx9A6s3CogvtQK

Fri 11 Dec 1500 UTC – AQUEDUTO

https://bit.ly/32kRmmH/

Fri 11 December 11 1500 EST – Christine B., Liz England, Sara Stevick, and Ashley Jennings

Sharon Tjaden-Glass: I’m happy to share the recording of our most recent #networking session between TESOL/education professionals and instructional designers. Thanks so much to our speakers, Jennifer Davis, Laine Istvan, MSID, Jennette Skaggs, and Elisabeth Huber for sharing their stories of moving from the field of teaching to #instructionaldesign.

Our next networking session will be held on Friday, December 11th from 3-4 p.m. EST, and our speakers include Christine B., Liz England, Sara Stevick, and Ashley Jennings, MA. To register for our next session, please visit this link: https://lnkd.in/dZi2hD6

Recording of most recent networking session: http://bit.ly/ArtsCreativity
(The bit.ly link opens onto the Zoom recording)

Sat 12 Dec noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763
Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

  • Dec 19, 2020 07:00 AM
  • Dec 26, 2020 07:00 AM
  • Jan 2, 2021 07:00 AM
  • Jan 9, 2021 07:00 AM

Sat 12 Dec 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Time where you are Dec 12, 9-11 am EDT, 1400-1600 UTC
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sat+Dec+12%2C+9-11+EDT+-+VSTE+Second+Life+Saturdays&iso=20201212T09&p1=212&ah=2

 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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Thu 17 Dec Diversity in L2 Writing: Creating Inclusive Pedagogical and Administrative Approaches

What: Diversity in L2 Writing: Creating Inclusive Pedagogical and Administrative Approaches

L2 writers in English-speaking colleges and universities come from across the globe and bring myriad academic and life experiences with them. Panelists discuss research and practical applications for creating equitable spaces for English learners with disabilities, refugee students, and international students in writing classes and institutions. Teachers and researchers of L2 writing as well as administrators of writing programs will learn important information about how to make their programs more equitable for all learners.

Presenters

  • Betsy Gilliland is past chair of the Second Language Writing Interest Section and an associate professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i Manoa.
  • Caroline Torres is an associate professor in the second language teaching program at Kapi’olani Community College in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
  • Shawna Shapiro is Associate Professor of Writing and Linguistics and Director of the Writing & Rhetoric Program at Middlebury College in Vermont.
  • Megan Siczek is an assistant professor and director of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
  • Aylin Relyea the current chair of the Second Language Writing Interest section and faculty at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College in California.

When: Dec 17, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (ET)
Register here: my.tesol.org/events/…

___________________________________________________________
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 December 22, 2020 07:00 UTC

VSTE Minecraft Monday regular monthly webinar for December 2020: Fun with skins and resource packs

Uncategorized 1 Comment

Learning2gether Episode 502

Navigation

See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

In the USA where my VSTE friends were convening in Discord and talking each other through their preparations for the day’s event, it was Monday evening, December 7. But for me on the other side of the world it was almost 9 in the morning of Tuesday December 8. Still, in deference to my friends, I go along with how they like to call their monthly event: “VSTE Minecraft Monday”.

This Minecraft Monday was streamed in Discord by K4sons and recorded in Camtasia by the mysterious alter ego Streamer Vance, who made it available for replay at https://youtu.be/y3RExV7vcMw

My VSTE friends, two of whom were also moderators in EVO Minecraft MOOC (and some other VSTE folk who are occasional EVOMC participants), were in Discord getting set up for their regular monthly event. I had offered to record it. There are various ways of doing this, but the easiest way for me is to use Camtasia since I bought a copy years ago and Techsmith still honors my license after all these years and not only that, lets me download and install the software onto multiple devices at any given time using the same purchase key. Camtasia is the quickest way to get a screencast up and running unless you plan to stream out to the Internet as well, in which case OBS (Open Broadcast Software) is usually my choice; it’s free but trickier to configure, therefore takes more time to pick and choose what you want to record and test beforehand. Camtasia costs a couple hundred dollars, but I’d already bit that bullet, and it is pretty good at recording whatever part of the screen you want to include and whatever sound is coming out of the computer, and getting your mic sound if you tick it in, and and your web cam if you choose to include that. I just have to test it once, and it’s usually good to go.

I had arrived in Discord early to find out if K4sons (a.k.a. EVOMC21 co-moderator Kim Harrison) was going to stream the session in Discord (‘stream’ here means stream someone’s screen in Discord, but visible only to others with permission to view that group’s doings in Discord; and the stream can’t be recorded in Discord). I had offered to record that if that was what they were going to do, in which case I would need to bring along Streamer Vance, one of my alter egos, to assist. Teacher Vance, my Minecraft character, can be in Minecraft and record that in Camtasia on one computer, but Teacher Vance would become quite disconcerted if he were having to track both his view of Minecraft and a stream from someone else’s perspective taking place on one patch of laptop computer screen real estate (and Camtasia itself records a region of the screen which would consume a large part of that real estate). So I invented an imaginary sidekick Streamer Vance whose job it is to go onto another of my computers, insinuate himself into Discord there, and record the stream. However, in order for me to record a stream in Discord, Streamer Vance would need to become a member of the VSTE Discord group

This meant that K2sons had to add the new member to the group while trying to get set up for the event, but she’s pretty good at that, so well before start time Streamer Vance was happily in place and testing the setup, and giving us the thumbs up that all was good to go.

We waited for Show Time! K4sons had sent an email just four hours before the two Vance’s had got out of bed in the morning which said:

Take a break from your shopping and decorating to reconnect with your VSTE Minecraft friends. Tonight we will play with changing skins and resource (texture) packs. Let’s dress up Minecraft for the holidays!

And what a great session, as I noted on Facebook …

2020-12-08vste

Among the items presented were:

Toward the end of the session (we were playing in survival mode) we were attacked by phantoms, flying mobs in Minecraft that appear at night, seemingly out of nowhere. Here’s what they look like when they are dangerously bearing down on you. It’s rare (for me) to get a screenshot of them:

2020-12-08_09.50.56

Here are the same phantoms once Jaz had kindly gone to sleep, and switched the lights back on for all of us:

2020-12-08_09.51.13

Burn in peace, duckies!

Meanwhile, those of us on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server noticed that we were prompted in November to accept a resource pack that turned our world into fall colors. After Thanksgiving, another resource pack was offered that has thrown us into Christmas, with wreaths on the doors and snow on the ground (fortunately the paths we’ve painstakingly made are still visible 🙂

Here’s the view from the top of my house these days:

It seems that the Resource Packs that our EVOMC21 server admin Zzidkha has prompted us to install are running on the back end, but if you want to install your own resource packs, in your Minecraft Settings window you click on the button that says “Resource Packs”  and this is what I see in mine:

1.16.4resourcePacks

It looks like we can revert to the default look or load in the classic view, both built in (I tried it though; didn’t work, still got the resource pack imposed on us from the server). If you want other options you have to install them on your computer. But after this session, we can now see now how to install service packs more to our taste and just run them at will when we launch Minecraft.


Promotion and Feedback

Here are K4sons’s instructions on how to join Minecraft Mondays each month

Minecraft Mondays occur on the first Monday of any month at 8 PM Eastern time on the VSTE Place server
minecraft.vste.org:11002. (GMT -5)

Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world

You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95.

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. Make sure you have installed and are running version 1.16.4.
  3. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP: minecraft.vste.org:11002.
  4. Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter.
    Email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.

Discord

Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device.

  1. Download and install it for free.
  2. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple.
  3. Our channel is https://discord.gg/cp9tsWz

It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.

Promotion on Facebook

This post was made to the EVO Minecraft MOOC group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc/


Earlier Events

Sun 6 Dec 0800 UTC Minhaaj Rehman interviews Vance Stevens to discuss their life and career trajectories so far this century

https://learning2gether.net/2020/12/06/minhaaj-rehman-ceo-of-psyda-co-interviews-vance-stevens-to-discuss-their-life-and-career-trajectories-so-far-this-century/

Sat-Sun 5-6 Dec two-day OpenSimulator Community Conference

From 5-6 December 2020 starting at about 3pm GMT (Sat) the OpenSimulator Community Conference takes place on the AVACON grid. Come join us for 2 days of learning all about OpenSim.

To HyperGrid jump to the OSCC conference grid:

  • Click the Map button at the bottom of your screen
  • In the Search text field on the right side of the map, paste this link: http://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/   (note the trailing slash)
  • Click the Teleport button at the bottom of the screen to teleport to a Landing Zone on the conference grid where there will be maps & info signs.

New to the conference and interested in creating an avatar?
If you registered and requested a new local account be created for the OSCC Conference Grid, you should have received an email with the login details. View this step by step video and visit the Login Info page for instructions on how to download an OpenSimulator viewer and more information about how to connect to the grid. If you have a Local Account from a previous OSCC event and have forgotten your password, use the Forgot Your Password link to reset it.

Sun 6 Dec 1630 UTC Heike Philp presents on EVO storytelling in virtual worlds at the OpenSim Community Conference

On Sunday 6 Dec 2020 Heike Philp will present a short 20min session about her EVO session coming up (9 Jan – 14 Feb 2021 EVO Storytelling in Virtual Worlds), showcase EduNation in OS purposely built for EVO, but perhaps there to last, and she will mention her latest EU funded project proposal EXCALIBUR.

When:
6 Dec 2020 at 4:30pm GMT (UK time) or 8:30am SL time; World times
Heike Philp: ‘Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and Anvil, is rightwise king born….’

EXPO Zone 4
Also Heike created an expo area/ booth on Expo zone 4 where you will find more information about EduNation in OS, the upcoming EVO session and EXCALIBUR. Here is the link to the expo:
hop://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/OSCC%20Expo%20Zone%204/112/179/26

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Rgds Heike

Here is my screenshot of the crowd at the last session in the conference

Here I am testing my ability to embed a video I can’t get the plugin to accept at this page
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials#EVOMC21Tutorial12SafarifromTrenchshelter1toMountainbase2toMineshelter3

___________________________________________________________
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 December 10, 2020 09:00 UTC

Minhaaj Rehman, CEO of Psyda, interviews Vance Stevens to discuss their life and career trajectories and convergences this century

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Learning2gether Episode 501

Navigation

See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

Minhaaj’s video recording is here, https://youtu.be/gKbLRnjfRaU

Some early participants in Webheads in Action might remember Minhaaj Rehman, who has since become CEO of Psyda https://psyda.co/, which is a company into different kinds of academic research; e.g. AI and data analytics.

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Among many other initiatives, Psyda mounts a podcast series,
https://psyda.co/podcast#6ceff2ac-33d6-4dac-8358-eec731068780 

with topics such as this one, an interview with Dr. Premkumar Elangovan, developer of a writing software package called Ref n Write, https://youtu.be/RsVMDr2MNEg

Many of the topics of these podcasts appear somewhat even more esoteric than the one above.

One of Minhaaj’s lesser esoteric of these podcasts occurred on December 6, 2021, when Minhaaj interviewed Vance Stevens on a wide ranging variety of topics, stemming from Vance’s background in computer-assisted language learning going back to the late 1970s, and into when Webheads in Action was founded 20 years later. At around that time Minhaaj, one of the early Webheads, met up with Vance and Bobbi frequently online and later over several meals in Abu Dhabi.

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Bobbi, Vance, and Minhaaj in Abu Dhabi, circa 2006

In our interview we caught up with what we’ve been up to since then, and how our respective interests and career trajectories intersect.

Where?

Minhaaj invited us to meet him in StreamYard on Sunday, Dec 6, at 0800 UTC,
Streamyard is very similar to Zoom. You can find detailed instructions here:
https://streamyard.com/resources/docs/guest-instructions

Minhaaj produced this attractive poster for the interview

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Minhaaj wrote this about the event on Facebook:

Tools like Grammarly, Ref n Write and Scholarcy are all outcome of Natural Language Processing and helps in writing academic papers that are of high quality. On December 6th, i’ll be talking to an expert in computer assisted language teaching Vance Stevens. Vance has trained pilots in UAE and has spent 40 years working around the world teaching English using cutting edge technologies such as SecondLife. We will be discussing issues like academic writing and modern day tools for intelligent research like MAXQDA and NVivo. You can read more about his work at https://vancestevens.com/papers/CurriculumVitaeVance.pdf 

Note from Vance: a better link is to stop further back at the URL above, where all my publications are listed and many are linked in full text, here: https://vancestevens.com/papers/

On teaching writing to (low-level) EFL students

In preparations for this interview, Minhaaj mentioned Ref n Write, a microsoft word addin for better academic writing. I mentioned that in my last years teaching EFL in UAE I was focusing my most novel work on writing.

I told Minhaaj that I had described and demonstrated a technique for giving feedback on student writing to teachers at SQU in Oman, online, and posted this archive of it.
https://learning2gether.net/2019/03/07/vance-stevens-presents-on-supporting-student-writing-with-the-help-of-voice-to-text/

I note there that I gave an improved version of the presentation online in preparation for a face-to-face presentation I would be giving at GLoCALL in Danang a few days later. These links are:

These links reference articles I have published on and around the topic

I said I could address the topic above if  Minhaaj wanted to bring it up in the interview. He replied that “that’s a very good topic and method to teach students. You can elaborate that in detail.”

But the topic never came up. I include it here because it seems to be something Minhaaj wanted me to mention, and anyone can follow the links for more information.


Promotion and Feedback

Vance’s announcements beforehand

This event was announced at these Facebook groups

And shared with …

The event was also posted at this Groups.io –  https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32753

Minhaaj promoted the event on Facebook and on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/events/computerassistedlearningandnlp-6740878708908797952/

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This is the video as it appears on Facebook, for as long as it stays there 🙂

Long-time Webhead-in-Action Maru Del Campo sent us this much-appreciated feedback

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Earlier Events

Sun 29 Nov 1400 UTC Webheads in Action 30th revived Open Mic FUNinar and 500th Learning2gether Webcast Party

An archived work in progress can be found at https://learning2gether.net/2020/11/29/webheads-in-action-30th-revived-open-mic-funinar-and-500th-learning2gether-webcast-party/

Tue 1 Dec 1500 UTC CALL-IS and State Dept Office of English Language Programs webinars – Tech Tips for Teaching Today

Heather Benucci, CALL-IS Chair, 2020-2021, informs us of a collaborative “Tech Tips for Teaching Today” OER webinar partnership between TESOL’s CALL-IS and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of English Language Programs designed to meet the needs of teachers around the world facing an unexpected shift into online learning environments due to the current global pandemic.

Tentatively planned for Tuesday, November 17th at 10am Eastern Time and Tuesday, December 1st at 10am Eastern Time

Sat 5 Dec noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZMsdOygpz8tHNc_WLlu_kPfIuQ_zb0fF75W/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGvrzgvEt2Rtx-ERpwEBYjCZ_zxmClago1eoyjJDzVsaTPwH_dzDah9QN72

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763

Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Every week on Sat, until Jan 9, 2021

Sat 5 Dec 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Time where you are Dec 5, 9-11 am EDT, 1400-1600 UTC

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sat+Dec+5%2C+9-11+EDT+-+VSTE+Second+Life+Saturdays&iso=20201205T09&p1=212&ah=2

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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Sat 5 Dec 1430 UTC KSALT Teacher Talks

___________________________________________________________
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 December 9, 2020 08:00 UTC

Webheads in Action 30th revived open mic FUNinar and 500th Learning2gether Webcast Party

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You are welcome to download this audio:
https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/2020-11-29-21.45.29wia30th_l2g500th_audio_only.m4a?

Learning2gether Episode 500!
30th Webheads Revival Weekly Sandbox Open Mic-inar

Navigation

Skip down to the Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs
See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

The mp4 video file generated by Zoom uploaded to YouTube

All were welcome to join us in the one-and-only, never-to-be repeated, 500th episode of Learning2gether, which coincided with the 30th Webheads in Action Open Mic FUNinar to take place since we started regrouping during lockdown last March.

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Since it was a spontaneous FUN (frivolous unanticipated nonsense) and open mic event, there was no plan per se, except that we could get together and talk about our intersections in this movement, which began ten years ago (meaning Learning2gether; Webheads began 20 years ago!). You can find an index of all 500 Learning2gether events over the past decade here: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex

We could also talk about where we see Learning2gether and Webheads in Action heading in the future., connect it with your own projects and directions in life and career aspirations.

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And of course, not to lose sight of the essential, we can party. Party hats and masks are encouraged, though as with everything in Webheads, not required, and not ruled by any one person’s agenda.

The Learning2gether 500th episode party was attended mainly by Webheads revelers. Attendees appeared in Zoom and in Facebook, and are listed here in alphabetical order:

Aiden Yeh in Taiwan
Claire Bradin Siskin in Pittsburg
Cris Fry in Barcelona
Doris Molero in Argentina
Elizabeth Hanson-Smith in Maine
Evelyn Izquierdo in Venezuela
Graham Stanley · in Mexico at the moment
Grazzia María Mendoza in Facebook
Hanaa Khamis from Alexandria, Egypt
Heike Philp in Germany
Helena Galani in Greece
Jane Chien in Taiwan
Jeff Lebow, in Korea
Jorge Kormpas, a.k.a. Georgios Kormpas from Greece
Kirsty Wood joined us in Zoom and Facebook
Laine Marshall in Long Island
Michael Coghlan, on guitar and in spirit
Mike Byrne, once lived in Alexandria
Minnie Wang in China
Mbarek Akaddar in Morocco
Nahed Farouk, Hanaa’s friend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Nina Liakos, checking in from Indivisible Montgomery, Maryland
Rita Abdelnour from Lebanon
Rita Zeinstejer in Argentina
Vance and Bobbi Stevens in Malaysia

Links shared by Vance during the webinar

Michael Birch had earlier suggested: “It might be quite fun to look back at extracts from episode 1, 100, 200 etc. Tools still used. Opinions/predictions that have changed.” This was requested as well by other participants in the day’s webinar.

I wasn’t able to monitor the chat and also the participants’ list (with its waiting room) at the same time, so I wasn’t able to post the links I was showing in the Zoom chat as I shared them. But here they are (timings given are from the 1:21:39 YouTube version of the Zoom recording):

Getting back to Jeff Lebow’s question where he had asked me about the first ever Learning2gether episode, at about 17:15 in the recording, I scroll all the way to the end, to where these entries appear (we had called our first Learning2gether sessions “speedgeeking”):

One week before our first Learning2gether event we had one on June 7, 2009 which we called Speedlifing: http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/06/speedlifing.html

  • There’s a picture in the above blog post from the June 7 event (that’s me on the horse)

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  • You can see below me the becaped Zorro character who emerged from the Mayan ruins and mingled with us in the speedlife event.  When he motioned with his arms it caused cyclone winds where everything was blowing about chaotically.  I have always suspected that this was the only known detractor of EVO, who used to turn up in his normal avatar at some of our Second Life events at this time, though to be honest I have no proof of that, but I mentioned where I had reported on his antics in my blog post about him 20:23 in the Zoom YouTube recording:
    https://evomlit.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/the-only-known-detractor-of-evo/

Learning2gether Episode 1 – Speedgeek June 14, 2009

At 21:10 I pulled up the post from the first Learning2gether event, Teresa Almeida d’Eca’s presentation on Tag Galaxy (hence the ‘speedgeek’ concept

The presentation was 15 minutes long (hence the ‘speedgeek’ concept); see http://wiaoc09.pbworks.com/w/page/5316667/SpeedGeeking

I hadn’t noticed it when I visited it at our live session, but at the top of the post there was an audio player which preserved our very first Learning2gether event on June 14, 2009. The audio still works:

Audio recording of Teresa Almeida d’Eca’s official Learning2gether Episode #1

There is also an Elluminate link here (a link to the playback file of an Elluminate, later called Blackboard Collaborate, recorded session; the audio was extracted from that recording). I clicked on it and found that the file downloaded to my computer, good news because it meant the file was still online. The trick would be to open it. To do that you have to install the Bb Collaborate app or launcher on your computer and then associate the file with that app. I was using a newly acquired computer so I didn’t have that software downloaded, and even if you have the software, you might have to do this manually.

I had mistakenly thought that Rita Zeinstejer had done the first SpeedGeek, but she was indeed one of our early presenters. At 23:26 I searched on her name in the recordings archive and pulled up a webinar on WritingMatrix our team had given at the 2007 K-12 Online Conference. That was listed among the precursors to Learning2gether at the bottom of the archive page.

The video presentation on Wrtingmatrix included in the asynchronous K-12 Online conference in 2007

I scrolled up to find in addition this entry, Episode 18, on  Sunday, December 5:

Before I could examine these files, at 23:45 in the recording, Jeff asked me what had prompted me to start Learning2gether. I explained that L2g derived from our Webheads in Action Online Convergences, the world-reknowned WIAOC events of 2005, 2007, and 2009. To reach our archive of those events, I went to my index of all things Webhead, the Webheads in Action portal page at http://webheads.info

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I went on to explain that I had started Learning2gether in order to have to avoid having to mount a 4th 72-straight-hour WiAOC event in 2011. I estimated that we could produce more presentations working at the moderate pace of one per week than we could by doing them all at one go in 72 hours every other year. More importantly, I had detected no interest in our CoP from anyone else wanting to take charge of the event instead of me; hence I moved to the Learning2gether weekly format.

I wrote about the transition from WiAOC to Learning2gether in Stevens (2014, p.162)

2014stevens

At 42:40 Jeff asked yet another incisive question. In early 2020, when educators were forced to go into Emergency Remote Teaching mode, how has that panned out for those of us who have been dabbling in this since the turn of the century?  I thought Jeff might be able to best answer his own question if I pulled up Learning2gether Episode 441, where Jeff describes how he created his DIYLMS (do it yourself learning management systems; see Stevens, 2012) for porting his class materials over to online environments, and helps his teaching cohort do the same:

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https://learning2gether.net/2020/03/01/jeff-lebow-drops-by-blended-learning-classrooms-to-discuss-how-he-creates-his-diylms-told-as-a-digital-story/

by 46:48 in the recording, the conversation had turned toward the “Webheads spirit” and as an example, I referred to Minnie’s collaboration with Doris in her transmedia storytelling project, where Doris provided Minnie with an avatar and invited her to play her guzheng (Chinese zither) in a specially constructed theater in Second Life. I referred to the archive of their collaboration here; https://learning2gether.net/2020/08/16/doris-molero-and-minnie-wang-edutain-us-at-the-21st-weekly-webheads-sandbox-open-mic-funinar/

At 1:00:31, I mentioned that TALIN had started thanks to Michael Coghlan, one of the Webheads founders, who had suggested that we revive Webheads to serve as a community to which we could retreat weekly, as in the past, from our respective lockdowns during COVID-19
https://learning2gether.net/2020/03/30/20-years-after-michael-coghlan-and-vance-stevens-convene-a-webheads-in-action-reunion-and-launch-talin/

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In the screenshot above, we are listening to Michael Coghlan playing the Webheads Theme Song
Sing along: the Lyrics

An interesting back story behind the party screenshots and recordings

Zoom provides several options for recording sessions. Many people use the option to record online, hosted at Zoom. For this option to work, the host needs to have adequate space in his/her account for the recording. The first time I had a recording abort because I had run out of space in the middle of it, I stopped using this option (though this happened before the option to generate a backup stream was available; I should probably go back to this method). However, if you trust it or manage it well you can get an immediate link where people can go to view the recording, and the view is the richest available. You get the most faithful reproduction of what the host has broadcast to the screen in that view, and you can see the chat unfold as the recording plays. You also have the option of downloading your files and mounting them elsewhere, so this is probably the best option.

You can also record on your computer, or stream to Facebook, or you can stream onto YouTube, and you can also invoke more than one of these options simultaneously. I usually record onto my computer (for reliability) and onto Facebook for convenience and for the interaction possible in a social media space. Streaming to YouTube requires you to configure your streaming server in advance. You can do the same in Facebook but there is a quick option to just put in a title and description, and Go Live! I normally invoke this one, so I end up with (1)  a Facebook stream which I can embed in my blog posts (in WordPress just by pasting its link in the post) and (2) an mp4 recording on my computer which I can upload to YouTube and also easily embed in blog posts.

The recordings to computer and to Facebook produce slightly different results. I like to switch often between speaker and gallery view while I’m recording, but during screen shares, in speaker view, you see just the speaker in a thumbnail in the corner, or if in gallery view, you see just a few thumbnails from the audience to the right of the shared screen (the speaker and a few others). The mp4 and Facebook renditions of these vary slightly.

Another option is to make a screen capture of the session as it plays on your computer. This will give you the best view since you can include the text chat if you wish, and it’s WYSIWYG, what you see is what you get; in other words, this produces the most faithful recording of what you as host mean for the audience to see. The participants themselves have the ability to generate their own speaker or gallery views on their own devices, so no one person’s view of the event will be quite the same – but if you screen cast what’s on your screen, you have perfect control over the recording.

Two things happened during our party, both after we had been in session for about an hour. The first happened at about 1:04:36, when Doris showed us a special Webheads / Learning2gether 500th Celebration room she had created for us in Second Life:

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An unfortunate choice of background music

Doris likes to dance almost as much as she like to be in Second Life, which means that when she is in Second Life, especially at a party in SL, her instinct is to dance, which her avatar proceeded to do. The music she had chosen for this occasion was Jerusalema, apparently a popular disco beat in Argentina, as suggested in one video on YouTube entitled “Dance Video Official© | JERUSALEMA | Master Kg feat Nomcebo – Baila con VITO e STEFANIA”, which you can see here, https://youtu.be/QJgwF_9cl1M

Note the “Video Official©” in the title of the video above. Doris’s version, as it played out in our webinar, was not official. This caused YouTube to flag it for a potential copyright violation. According to the explanation from YouTube posted below, you should still be able to see the video unless you are in the short list of countries where it is forbidden.

Facebook placed a more inconvenient restriction, which prevented me from embedding the video here in this blog post, and including in its notice, where the embed should have been, a link to where you can see the video at my personal profile in Facebook. I’m not sure how many of you can see it there.

Therefore, I decided to make a Camtasia recording of the Facebook stream, while I myself could still see it. This created my own mp4 which I uploaded directly to WordPress, no need to go through Facebook or YouTube and be subject to their filters. If the makers of Jerusalema have any objection they can contact me personally, but their work is available in various versions all over YouTube and ours is a completely non-commercial rendition made only coincidentally and only for the benefit of a community of practice of educators who are celebrating 20 years together, so one would hope there should be no objection. I realize that lawyers and corporate interest might have contrary opinions, but hopefully this blog will be off their radar. Lawrence Lessig (responsible for the Creative Commons movement) is also a lawyer and I feel certain that he would support us in our petty larceny.

Webheads all over the world

The second thing that happened requiring some effort on my part came at the end of the event, and followed the participants’ request, at around 1:09:52, that I play for them Michael Coghlan’s Webheads Theme song, “Webheads all over the world”. To do this I needed to visit http://webheads.info and scroll toward the bottom, play the mp3, and share the screen, having first invoked the option to play computer sound while doing that. Laine explained how each of us viewing the webinar could alter our individual views so that we could see the gallery, by moving aside my screen share on their individual devices, which by default consumes participants’ screens in the manner described above.

When the music played, Webheads being Webheads, and Webheads in Action to boot, they went into action. They started hand-dancing and swaying to the beat. Having myself brought up a full gallery view in accordance with Laine’s instructions, I instinctively made screenshots. When I want to do this spontaneously, I just press Print Screen on my PC.  This produces a notice that my screenshot has been automatically saved in my OneDrive. I made half a dozen screenshots of these precious moments where Webheads were coming together 20 years after our emergence on the web and dancing to the song that Michael had been moved to write for us way back then.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I viewed both the Zoom and Facebook recordings and saw that the screen share views were recorded in each but not the gallery views as I had enjoyed them. Fortunately I found the screenshots, duly saved to my OneDrive web account. And here they are:

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References

Stevens, V. (2012). DIYLMS: Learner-centered Do-it-yourself Learning Management System. In Dowling, S., Gunn, C., Raven, J., Gitsaki, C. (Eds.). Opening up Learning: HCT Educational Technology Series. HCT Press: Abu Dhabi; ISBN 978-9948-16-864-5), pp.103-112. PDF available, pp.0-11  http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/archive/2012DIYLMS.pdf

Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through Teacher Professional Development. In J.B. Son (Ed.). Computer-assisted language learning: Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Available:
http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/archive/2014connectivist_learning.pdf


Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs

Zoom chat logs

21:45:29 From Bobbi : hi
22:03:11 From Bobbi : Hi Claire
22:03:19 From Vance Stevens, to the Waiting Room : Please change your name to someone we recognize
22:06:26 From Jane Chien : hello
22:06:41 From Jane Chien : just want to come in and say congrats!!!
22:07:03 From Bobbi : Thanks! Glad you are here!
22:08:36 From Bobbi : Hi Chris
22:17:30 From Bobbi : hi Mike!
22:18:32 From Mike B : Hi Hanaa, I lived in Alexandria too.
22:18:47 From Hanaa Khamis : Hi Mike
22:18:51 From Claire Siskin : me too! for a short time
22:18:55 From Bobbi : That’s interesting!
22:24:19 From Hanaa Khamis : i didn’t know u could wear glasses on top v a mask @Vance
22:24:39 From Bobbi : He is so funny 🙂
22:24:55 From Hanaa Khamis : 😄
22:37:28 From Hanaa Khamis : Hi Nina 🥰
22:38:20 From Hanaa Khamis : Webhead jargon
22:39:17 From Hanaa Khamis : Impressive mask Heike!
22:41:59 From Bobbi : Hi Laine!
22:44:17 From Nina Liakos : Bolas throwing video: https://youtu.be/TVTWCYULqmM
22:48:52 From Hanaa Khamis : Way to go dear Minnie😄
22:49:04 From Hanaa Khamis : Any warm bodies Minnie!
22:49:09 From Hanaa Khamis : 😄
22:50:39 From Mike B : trying to dream up improvised fancy dress, but I’m just in a rented place not at home…
22:51:21 From Bobbi : Ah no problem. Welcome just as you are.
23:08:58 From Heike Philp : Jerusalema
23:12:21 From Laine : https://lyricstranslate.com/en/jerusalema-jerusalem.html-0
23:18:31 From Kirsty Wood : Hi. Arrived late and I’m eating, so give me a few mins to put my cam on.
23:19:02 From Hanaa Khamis : Thats fun😄
23:22:09 From Hanaa Khamis : Amazing show to end with 🙂
23:22:19 From Heike Philp : YES
23:22:36 From Vance Stevens : http://webheads.info

Facebook chat transcripts

more or less in reverse chronological order
(or however Facebook orders them when you select ‘most recent’)

Aiden Yeh · 44:34 Happy Anniversary Webheads!
Bobbi Stevens · 0:00 Aiden Yeh Thank you!
Nahed Farouk · 0:29 So lovely 💗
Jane Chien · 1:20:39 Beautiful Webheads song!
Jane Chien · 1:19:35 Love the song!!!
Mbarek Akaddar · 1:12:10 Happy 500th anniversary❤️❤️❤️❤️
Grazzia María Mendoza · 1:06:19 Love it!
Evelyn Izquierdo …
Grazzia María Mendoza · 50:49 That sounds great Heike!
Jane Chien · 46:31 Happy 500th anniversary!!!
Aiden Yeh · 45:46 Love the hat, Vance
Jorge Kormpas · 42:13 Nice!!!
Graham Stanley · 40:21 Happy anniversary, Webheads!
Grazzia María Mendoza · 39:47 A hug to Nina, Vance, Claire, Heike!
Grazzia María Mendoza · 37:46 So good to see everyone!
Helena Galani · 0:00 Happy 500th anniversary, and many more to come


Promotion and Feedback

I live-streamed on the Learning2gether Facebook page, but, as you see …
— try clicking on WATCH ON FACEBOOK —

Facebook would not allow me to embed the streamed video as it usually does.

At first I didn’t know the reason, but we had two musical interludes during our program, and that is often the problem. Eventually, this appeared in email from YouTube

A copyright owner using Content ID has claimed some material in your video. As a result, your video has been blocked in some countries. This means that your video is still up on YouTube, but people in some countries may not be able to watch it.

This is not a copyright strike. This claim does not affect your account status.

Video title: Webheads in Action 30th revived Open Mic FUNinar and 500th Learning2gether Webcast Party
Copyrighted content: Jerusalema (feat. Nomcebo Zikode) (Edit)
Claimed by: WMG
Blocked countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria

Why this can happen

Your video might contain copyrighted content.
Copyright owners can choose to block YouTube videos that contain their content.
If this copyright claim is valid

You don’t need to take any action or delete your video.

So, it was Jerusalema!  In revanche,  I recorded my view of the stream in Camtasia and uploaded it here

This event was announced beforehand at these Facebook groups

And shared with …

A calendar event was also created at https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32748

I noted in my announcements that the Facebook live stream
would occur NOT in the Webheads in Action group
but in the Learning2gether one, since it’s Learning2gether’s 500th:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether

2020-11-29party500
Bobbi and Vance in party guise 🙂


Earlier Events

Fri 27 Nov 1400 UTC 1st Online CLIL-Ren Cafè – Focus on learning technologies for CLIL

https://learning2gether.net/2020/11/27/1st-online-clil-ren-cafe-focus-on-learning-technologies-for-clil-panel-with-greg-kessler-nicky-hockly-and-vance-stevens/

Sat 28 Nov noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZMsdOygpz8tHNc_WLlu_kPfIuQ_zb0fF75W/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGvrzgvEt2Rtx-ERpwEBYjCZ_zxmClago1eoyjJDzVsaTPwH_dzDah9QN72

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09

Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763

Passcode: 6Bgf8n

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Every week on Sat, until Jan 9, 2021

Sat 28 Nov 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Nov 28, 9-11 am EDT, 1300 UTC

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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Mon-Sun 23-29 Nov Cambridge Assessment English free MOOC on Teaching English Online – Week 4 of 4

The Cambridge Assessment English MOOC on Teaching English Online aims for participants to learn how to transfer their teaching skills to an online context and start teaching English online.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/online-tutoring/7

Started Nov 2, 2020, lasted for 4 weeks

This was a freemium course. You could take the course for free for its 4 weeks and have access to it for two more weeks for free.

It appears to be an xMOOC with a prescribed course to be completed in each of 4 weeks. Here is the beginning of Week 3’s syllabus

 There was more, as you would have seen when you registered for the course.

___________________________________________________________
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 December 4, 2020 01:00 UTC

1st Online CLIL-Ren Cafè: Focus on learning technologies for CLIL – Panel with Greg Kessler, Nicky Hockly, and Vance Stevens

Uncategorized 1 Comment

Learning2gether Episode 499

Navigation

See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

Here is the official recording
More information at http://www.indire.it/2020/11/30/rivedi-il-webinar-su-clil-e-apprendimento-delle-lingue-in-epoca-di-didattica-digitale-integrata/

I was invited along with Greg Kessler and Nicky Hockly to sit on a panel in the first Online CLIL-Ren Cafè, taking place in the Webex platform (similar to Zoom) on November 27 at 3 pm CET

I prepared some slides, downloadable here https://tinyurl.com/Vance2020clil

Here is the official poster

(Nik Peachey had to withdraw from the panel, though he was still mentioned in the flyer)

The program was posted on the INDIRE website, as hosts of the event:
http://www.indire.it/2020/11/23/clil-e-didattica-delle-lingue-in-epoca-covid-appuntamento-online-il-27-novembre/

Where it says “Click to see the poster” it takes you here:
http://www.indire.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/unnamed-file.pdf

For privacy reasons, chat logs were not preserved. But Letizia made this screenshot:

2020-11-27letizia


Promotion and Feedback

2020-11-27_fb

This event was announced at these Facebook groups

2020-11-27indire_review


Earlier Events

Thu 12 Nov noon UTC in collaboration with Phil Brown and iTDi –  Kendal Rolley’s 8 ideas to energize your classroom

https://learning2gether.net/2020/11/13/kendal-rolleys-8-ideas-to-energize-your-classroom-in-collaboration-with-phil-brown-and-itdi/

Thu 12 Nov 1800 UTC – CERES online seminar series hosts Petar Jandrić on Postdigital Challenge of Critical Pedagogy

Professor Mchael Thomas informs us that Professor Petar Jandrić will be the next speaker in the CERES (Centre for Educational Research) online seminar series at Liverpool John Moores University on the topic of: “The Postdigital Challenge of Critical Pedagogy” on 12 November at 6-7pm UK time.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-postdigital-challenge-of-critical-pedagogy-tickets-126036569773 

Title: The Postdigital Challenge of Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

We are increasingly no longer in a world where digital technology and media is separate, virtual, ‘other’ to a ‘natural’ human and social life, and education should be at the forefront of these trends (Jandrić et al. 2018). Yet, during past decades, critical pedagogy has largely ignored these challenges. In words of Derek Ford, ‘that critical pedagogy is at a deadend. This is not to say that it offers nothing valuable, but rather that it is been stagnant for some time (I would say at least since the beginning of the 21st century).’ (2017: 2) Contemporary critical pedagogy tends to view the research field as concerned with the ‘effects’ of digital media and other technologies on the existing activities of teaching, learning in education, thus continuing to assume a clear division between an authentic educational practice and the imposition of an external, and novel, technology.

During the past years, we are witnessing a rapid growth in number of academic books, articles, and journals dealing (explicitly and implicitly) with education and research in and for the postdigital age. In this presentation Petar will present the development of the contemporary concept of the postdigital and outline prominent postdigital challenges facing today’s critical pedagogy.

References

Ford, D. R. (2017). Education and the Production of Space: Political Pedagogy, Geography, and Urban Revolution. New York: Routledge.

Jandrić, P., Knox, J., Besley, T., Ryberg, T., Suoranta, J., & Hayes, S. (2018). Postdigital Science and Education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(10), 893-899.

Further reading

Postdigital Science and Education journal:
https://www.springer.com/education+&+language/journal/42438

Biography

Petar Jandrić (PhD) is Professor at the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Croatia, and Visiting Professor at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His previous academic affiliations include Croatian Academic and Research Network, National e-Science Centre at the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow School of Art, and Cass School of Education at the University of East London. Petar’s research interests are situated at the post-disciplinary intersections between technologies, pedagogies and the society, and research methodologies of his choice are inter-, trans-, and anti-disciplinarity. He is Editor-in-Chief of Postdigital Science and Education journal and book series. Personal website: http://petarjandric.com/

For more information on CERES seminars please follow us at @ljmu_ceres on Twitter or join our mailing list.

This event is organised by the “Critical Pedagogies and Theories for Post-compulsory and Informal Education” research cluster, part of the Centre for Educational Research (CERES) in the School of Education at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

Fri-Sat 13-14 Nov 13 TESL Newfoundland and Labrador virtual conference – Language Learning in a Time of Change

Here is a refreshing announcement about an online conference in a country where there appears to be an appetite for funding education:

TESL Newfoundland and Labrador virtual conference – “Language Learning in a Time of Change.”

November 13-14, 2020

Having received a Public Engagement grant from Memorial University, the TESL NL 2020 Conference is free to all participants and open to the public. So, if you would like to invite your colleagues and students, please do.

Register for FREE: bit.ly/TESLNL2020.

Keynote speakers are:

  • Dr. Jim Cummins, Professor Emeritus OISE/UT
    “Educating Immigrant and Refugee Youth: Rethinking the Instructional Implications of Research in the Age of COVID-19”
  • Dr. Paula Kristmanson, President of TESL Canada and Professor at University of New Brunswick
    “Active Learning in a Time of Change: Experiences and Insights from TESL Pre-Service Teachers”
  • Dr. Tony Fang, Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Cultural and Economic Transformation, Department of Economics, Memorial University
    “Recruitment and Retention of Newcomers and International Students: The Role of Employers”

With more than 30 sessions and 10 content tracks, there really is something for everyone.

Presentations may be delivered via livestream or pre-recorded.

Please visit teslnl.ca/tesl-nl-conference for more information (including downloadable pdf schedule)

Check out the TESL NL 2020 Conference Promotional Video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRS718DSopY

Mon-Fri 9-13 Nov OpenEd Conference in P2PU

https://openeducationconference.org/

Registration for the 2020 Open Education Conference is open! Join us for this year’s virtual convening for sharing and learning about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education initiatives.

Fri 13 Nov1500 UTC – 3rd webinar in ALIS  EL Teacher Identity series

Exploring Professional Identities of Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in the United States

WHEN: Friday, November 13th, 11:00am-12:00pm (Eastern US Time)

PRESENTERS: Feifei Fan and Ester de Jong, University of Florida, USA

This presentation discusses findings from a case study exploring the experiences of a Chinese language teacher in the United States and how she constructed her professional identities during and after her teacher preparation in a U.S.‐based ESL teacher preparation program. Using narrative inquiry to understand the participant’s experience, the study identified two key transitional periods: moving from China to the United States and transitioning from a student into a professional career. During these transitional periods, findings reveal the dynamic nature of language teacher identities as individuals find themselves in different English language teaching contexts. The study also shows how professional identities are constructed in discourse and shaped by native speaker ideologies in the English language teaching field, and reveals the dearth of critical reflection of Asian ethnic English language teachers on raciolinguistic ideologies obscuring their raciolinguistic identities. Implications for international students’ English language teacher preparation are discussed.

How to Register:

Register in advance for this meeting:
 http://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArcOqqqz0pHtx1TBChwm-ZXZMw_RAaBadC

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Fri-Sat 13-14 Nov Virtual Conference from VIT, Vellore – Online university education and English language teaching

The Department of English, School of Social Sciences, VIT, Vellore is organizing a Two-Day Virtual Conference On “ONLINE UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: SCOPE AND CHALLENGES” on  November 13-14, 2020.

For further details such as  registration, etc.,click the website link:
https://vit.ac.in/ONLINE-UNIVERSITY-EDUCATION/

Sat 14 Nov 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

Nov 14, 9-11 am EDT, 1300 UTC
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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Fri-Sun 13-15 Nov 2020 SSTESOL First Ever Annual Virtual Conference

The SSTESOL of Florida Conference Team proudly invites you to attend the 2020 SSTESOL First Ever Annual Virtual Conference which will be held from November 13-15, 2020.

The SSTESOL Board has decided to deliver our 2020 annual state conference virtually because the safety of our SSTESOL members, exhibitors, the whole Florida and the ESOL global community is our first priority. Our conference will be held Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th November so that hard working educators can attend and be professionally replenished! On Nov 13th, SSTESOL will hold a virtual party celebrating 30 years of the Florida Consent Decree, awards ceremony and SSTESOL Press’ 1st Book release celebration.

Because we learn best from each other, SSTESOL plans to showcase the profession on Saturday, Nov 14th and Sunday, Nov 15th
featuring:

  • The Best of the Best Practitioners (featuring a representative presentation from each Florida school district and local SSTESOL Chapters in Florida)
  • Inspirational policy makers
  • Supportive school leaders and administrators
  • Enthusiastic Institutional Leaders of ESOL, IEP, EAP, and Adult Education Programs
  • Uplifting cultural experiences

Exhibitors and sponsors are important constituents of the conference. We welcome your support and participation.

For more information, visit sstesol.org.

Direct link to conference: https://web.cvent.com/event/9a69c4e4-030c-448a-8a37-6c07a32033f0/summary

Cost: $35, so not technically a learning2gether event

Mon Nov 16-23 JALT2020: 46th Annual International ONLINE Conference

JALT2020

The JALT2020: 46th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Exhibition takes place from Monday, November 16, to Monday, November, 23, 2020

Online, registration required, not free
https://jalt.org/conference/registration

Louise Ohashi writes

This year JALT2020 will be online. I’m the Conference Co-Chair and I’ve been working with a huge team to get our annual conference (usually onsite in Japan) online. We have had some sessions in the evening this week, warming up for the main event. There will be hundreds of sessions from Friday to Monday (Nov 20-23). If you need some tempting, check out this link that shows many of the CALL/MALL sessions: https://jalt2020.eventzil.la/schedule/index?session_type=77&session_subtype=&session_format=&day=

More conference info is here: https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2020

You can find the registration link if you go to the main site above. It’s about €65 according to my currency conversion app. I hope to see you there! Loose Ohashi JALT2020 Conference Co-Chair

PS Times are Japan Standard Time, about 8 or 9 hours ahead of a lot of you in Europe.

Mon-Sun 16-22 Nov Cambridge Assessment English free MOOC on Teaching English Online – Week 3 of 4

The Cambridge Assessment English MOOC on Teaching English Online aims for participants to learn how to transfer their teaching skills to an online context and start teaching English online.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/online-tutoring/7

Started Nov 2, 2020, lasts for 4 weeks

This is a freemium course. You can take the course for free for its 4 weeks and have access to it for two more weeks for free (that should be enough time)

It appears to be an xMOOC with a prescribed course to be completed in each of 4 weeks. Here is the beginning of Week 3’s syllabus

 There’s more, as you’ll see when you register for the course.

Tue 17 Nov 1500 UTC CALL-IS and State Dept Office of English Language Programs webinars – Tech Tips for Teaching Today

Heather Benucci, CALL-IS Chair, 2020-2021, informs us of a collaborative “Tech Tips for Teaching Today” OER webinar partnership between TESOL’s CALL-IS and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of English Language Programs designed to meet the needs of teachers around the world facing an unexpected shift into online learning environments due to the current global pandemic.

Tentatively planned for Tuesday, November 17th at 10am Eastern Time and again on Tuesday, December 1st at 10am Eastern Time

Thu 19 Nov 11am EST TEIS webinar on Usage of English in East and West Jerusalem – Implications for language teacher education

Thursday, Nov. 19th, 11am-12noon EST: Usage of English in East and West Jerusalem: Implications for language teacher education (TEIS webinar)

The Teacher Educator Interest Section (TEIS) continues our celebration of language teacher educators’ research and practice, near and far. We will be conducting an interactive webinar with Professor Julia Schlam Salman (David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem).  The focus of the webinar is her research on language usage among Palestinian and Jewish English language learners in Jerusalem. Bridget Schvarcz (Chair of English Teachers Association, Israel & TEIS Leadership Board Member) will moderate.

Date & Time: Thursday, November 19, 2020, 11:00am-12:00noon Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To register, go to:

zoom.us/meeting/register/…

For more information about the topic, the following article is attached:

Schlam Salman, J. (2012, Nov.). Language usage among Palestinian and Jewish English-language learners in Israel: Some considerations for multicultural contexts. Circles of Education – Research, Essays, and Literary Works, (3), 3-20.

Webinar URL: youtu.be/67dYB0opGw8

The TEIS webinar (November 19th, 2020) consists of Dr. Julia Schlam Salman’s discussions of findings from her research on language usage among Palestinian and Jewish English-language learners-in particular, Hebrew-language usage, Arabic-language usage, and English-language usage. The research is based on findings from a year-long qualitative study involving ninth-grade English-language learners in three secular, State-run schools in Jerusalem; one is defined as a monolingual majority school (Hebrew-English), the second is defined as a monolingual minority school (Arabic-English), and the third is defined as an integrated, bilingual minority-majority school (Arabic-Hebrew-English). Issues of empowerment and disempowerment are examined at length in an attempt to critically examine presuppositions with regard to both local language use and the use of English in the Israeli context.

Dr. Schlam Salman is a lecturer and pedagogical advisor at the David Yellin Academic College of Education in Jerusalem. The webinar was moderated by Bridget Schvarcz, Chair of English Teachers Association Israel & Head of English at Afeka College of Engineering Tel Aviv.

Sat 21 Nov noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. This provides you with the dates weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZMsdOygpz8tHNc_WLlu_kPfIuQ_zb0fF75W/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGvrzgvEt2Rtx-ERpwEBYjCZ_zxmClago1eoyjJDzVsaTPwH_dzDah9QN72

Then join the Zoom Meeting; registration
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRULA65zf2gVN5J_V4q4Yg4Vk1eRGd3RFqgtqdFrcMmhIesw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Remaining sessions, all at 07:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Every week on Sat, until Jan 9, 2021

Sat 21 Nov 0900-1400 EST The PennTESOL-East Fall Virtual Conference

The PennTESOL-East Fall Virtual Conference was held November 21, 2020 from 9am-2pm EST – PennTESOL-East Fall Conference Call for Proposals
The conference Theme is Mapping Our Curriculum For Today’s Reality
Plenary Speakers include Dr. John Macalister and Dr. MaryAnn Christison

TESOL affiliates are holding many regional conferences. I don’t think that any of them are free to attend.

Sat 21 Nov 1300 UTC LTSIG Monthly Webinars – Synchronous and Asynchronous Interactive Tasks for Distance Learning by Milica Vukadin

From a Facebook post by Vicky Saumell

#LTSIGMonthly
➡️ November 21, 1pm UK time

🔸️‘Synchronous and Asynchronous Interactive Tasks for Distance Learning’ by Milica Vukadin
The tasks will be presented according to lesson stages of TBI (Theme-Based Instruction)
She will also share some interesting ideas and examples of interactivity beyond the screen in the distance learning classroom.

Milica Vukadin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from the Faculty of Education in Jagodina, University of Kragujevac.
For more details, including the link to join, check out blog post, https://ltsig.iatefl.org/ltsig-monthly/

Sat 21 Nov 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

The event took place on Nov 21, 9-11 am EDT, 1300 UTC
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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Sat 21 Nov 1600 UTC – Africa TESOL Monthly Webinar Series – Project-based Instruction

All were invited to the Zoom webinar.
When: Nov 21, 2020 04:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time
Topic: Africa TESOL Monthly Webinar Series – Project-based Instruction

Sat 21 Nov 1700 UTC Nik Peachey free webinar on 10 Tools & Resources for the Interactive Classroom

Nik Peachey asks: Do you want to know more about how to use digital tools in the remote or face-to-face classroom? Come along to our free webinar: 10 Tools & Resources for the Interactive Classroom

In this session, I’ll look at a short collection of tools and resources that teachers and students can use in the remote and physical classroom. I’ll show example activities that can easily be adapted to your own classroom context.  Participants in this webinar will also receive a 50% discount code for a copy of my Innovations Award shortlisted ebook  Digital Tools for Teachers – Trainers’ Edition which includes more than 100 recommended tools and more than 25 tasks and activities that teacher trainers can use in edtech training sessions.

The webinar was on Saturday 21st, 1700 UTC –
A recording of this webinar is available for free for subscribers.

Mon 23 Nov 1700 IST Stephen Krashen at Facebook RELO New Delhi


https://facebook.com/RELOIndiaNewDelhi

Mon 23 Nov 2359 UTC – Tue 24 Nov 0001 UTC – VSTE Thanksgiving in Second Life

Fri Nov 27 or 26 – Trolling in Chinese and English – Research Findings

Fri, Nov 27 · 10:00 AM GMT+11
https://www.meetup.com/Information-Innovation-UTS/events/273425978/

Online trolling can be a minor annoyance, a life-threatening nightmare or even a danger to our public institutions. But what are its causes, its true effects, and what can and should we do about it? In this seminar, three experts examine trolling from different perspectives and across cultures (with a focus on Australia and China):

  • How does trolling behaviour play out in different environments?
  • What drives trolls from a psychological perspective?
  • How does trolling relate to freedom of speech issues?

Presenters

  • Huixin Tian is a Doctoral student in the Department of Information and Library Science at Indiana University Bloomington. She has conducted extensive research into trolling in online Chinese language environments.
  • Evita March obtained her PhD in evolutionary and social psychology and is currently employed as a senior lecturer and researcher at Federation University Australia. Evita’s research interests include interpersonal relationships, cyberpsychology, and personality. In particular, Evita is interested in how people behave online, and she has explored a range of online behaviours including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online dating, trolling, and self-presentation.
  • Dr. Jay Daniel Thompson is a Lecturer in Professional Communication in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. He is researching the fraught relationship between trolling and freedom of speech. Dr. Thompson has also published extensively on the politics and ethics of media controversy.

Evita March – The Psychology of Internet Trolling: https://youtu.be/i5qkZ369MPI
Huixin Tian – “I’m in the center of the vortex”: Mapping the experience of trolling victims: https://youtu.be/RJOHCbvj6BQ
Jay Daniel Thompson – Is Trolling Freedom of Speech?: https://youtu.be/To4bPIGiXzE
Speaker Panel: https://youtu.be/zR5xcr0ggOQ

From Matt Moore, organizer

Many thanks for your support for the Information Innovation @ UTS seminar series. It’s been a rough year for many of us – but running this seminar series has been a source of sanity and hope for me. So many great speakers, facilitators and discussants. So many awesome participants.

Hopefully we will get renewed for 2021. Meanwhile

___________________________________________________________
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 December 01, 2020 02:00 UTC

Kendal Rolley’s 8 ideas to energize your classroom – in collaboration with Phil Brown and iTDi

Uncategorized 1 Comment


Feel free to download this audio:
https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/2020-11-12kendall-rolley_audio_only.m4a?

Learning2gether Episode 498

Navigation

Skip down to the Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs
See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

The video is from the Zoom recording saved to Vance’s computer

The idea for this event derived from a recent post by Philip Shigeo Brown …

In this event we discussed in open mic format how these creative and communicative ways of promoting interaction in face-to-face classrooms might be applied online.

Here is the latest version of Kendal’s final pdf document
8-Ideas-to-Energize-Your-Online-Classroom-11-13-21

The following graphic is from an earlier working version:

Details on how to implement each activity can be found here:

  1. Four Corners: https://bit.ly/3iOIcF7
  2. Inside/Outside (a.k.a Kaiten [‘revolving’] sushi) 🙂 https://bit.ly/3iNf2GI
  3. Jigsaw Groups: https://bit.ly/33P7mxr
  4. Entry and Exit Tickets: https://bit.ly/3cjHZY4
  5. Flip the question can also be played like Jeopardy: https://eslgames.com/esl-jeopardy/
  6. Chain Notes: https://bit.ly/2RKVYNe
  7. Learning Stations: https://bit.ly/2Hk3VqP
  8. KWHL: https://bit.ly/3kxGFE3

Where? in Zoom


Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs

Zoom

20:01:18 From Natalija Savićević Mrvaljević : Hello from Montenegro! 🙂
20:01:31 From Phil Brown, Malaysia : Hi everyone :_)
20:02:09 From Lija Tolpegina : Hello everyone 🙂
20:02:12 From Michael Birch : Good afternoon from Greece
20:02:46 From Mgr. Silvia Hill : Hello from Slovakia:)
20:03:44 From Minnie Wang : Hello, good evening/morning
20:14:29 From Phil Brown, Malaysia : https://jamboard.google.com/
20:14:42 From Rocio Licea : JAMBOARD
20:17:36 From Phil Brown, Malaysia : Where is it streaming on FB. I can’t find it
20:17:59 From Vance Stevens to Phil Brown, Malaysia : https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether
20:18:00 From kamilia Dhifallah : Some secretive students like the conversation thread. They just type their opinion!
20:19:43 From Phil Brown, Malaysia to Vance Stevens : Found it under videos now. Thanks
20:21:49 From kamilia Dhifallah : I have tried that during a speaking test! a random question rather than a random name.
20:25:15 From Natalija Savićević Mrvaljević : Unfortunately, I need to go. Can you please send me links to the 8 activities (you can find them here – Vance)
20:26:50 From Kendal Rolley : https://www.flippity.net/
20:27:19 From Bistra Borissova Maugeri : thanks!
20:29:12 From Minnie Wang : I’m going to check out the link later.
20:29:12 From Rocio Licea : you can also create them on WORDWALL
20:31:56 From Vance Stevens : Hi Minnie, thanks all for your contributions
20:34:07 From Minnie Wang : thank you Vance, you’ve done a lot for me!
20:37:04 From Minnie Wang : very creative
20:37:35 From Rocio Licea : What I did try was having 3 sessions on MEET at the same time in order to kind of replicate those “stations”
20:37:44 From Michael Birch : Flipgrid is good. I haven’t come across a better alternative for what it does.
20:40:07 From Kendal Rolley : https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-stations/
20:49:16 From Phil Brown, Malaysia : https://wordwall.net/
20:49:36 From Phil Brown, Malaysia : https://quizizz.com/
20:50:41 From Mgr. Silvia Hill : thank you for the link to quizziz…..it´s new for me
20:51:08 From Eva Nasution : thank you for the link
20:52:12 From Minnie Wang : yes, all are new to me.
20:53:04 From Vance Stevens : Entry tickets seem to fit well with the check-in stage of SOFLA; see Marshall, H.W. & Kostka, I. (2020). Fostering teaching presence through the synchronous online flipped learning approach.TESL-EJ, 24(2), 1-15. http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej94/int.pdf. Unpaginated HTML version: http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume24/ej94/ej94int/
20:53:04 From Minnie Wang : I will check every link to the 8 ideas,
20:57:57 From Minnie Wang : how many students are there in your classroom?
20:58:14 From Kendal Rolley : 18-27
21:01:14 From Phil Brown, Malaysia to Vance Stevens : Did you set up break out rooms and/or do you want to?
21:01:37 From Vance Stevens to Phil Brown, Malaysia : waiting for your lead , to tell me what rooms to set up, how many, etc
21:02:03 From Catherine Angus : thank you for some new ideas! must log off.
21:02:21 From Vance Stevens : thanks Catherine
21:03:15 From Michael Birch : L for learn in KWHL
21:03:47 From Vance Stevens : https://miro.com/
21:04:35 From Minnie Wang : here 45-50
21:05:23 From Stefania Vandelli : thanks a lot
21:05:51 From Minnie Wang : thanks for your sharing
21:07:45 From Kendal Rolley : That class size must be really challenging Minnie!
21:07:49 From Bistra Borissova Maugeri : I’m sorry, I have to log off now. Thank you.
21:09:41 From Minnie Wang : yes, so I’m imagining how to adopt your ideas.
21:09:44 From Lija Tolpegina : sorry, have to leave, thank a lot:)
21:10:38 From Nina Tone : sorry, I’ve got to go, thanks a lot!
21:13:55 From kamilia Dhifallah : Can’t see anything either!
21:15:09 From kamilia Dhifallah : no 😦
21:15:49 From Kendal Rolley : What room would you like to be in?
21:16:01 From kamilia Dhifallah : ok for me
21:16:17 From kamilia Dhifallah : I mean if you can do that manually please do
21:17:48 From kamilia Dhifallah : I was offline for a while so have no idea about the jeopardy question! you can let me in any room. fine!
21:20:26 From Vance Stevens : everyone’s back now 🙂
21:25:23 From Vance Stevens : Zoom alternatives, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pm4Q_jJbrWKu38-xv8-2QFrn-ialnZBT-qDofoXAWcY/edit#heading=h.zfj39jg6qaju
21:26:05 From Vance Stevens : Austin, F. (2020, April 17). 9 Free Alternatives to Zoom for Getting your Classroom Online. OxfordTEFL Teacher Training. https://www.oxfordtefl.com/blog/9-free-alternatives-to-zoom-for-getting-your-classroom-online
21:27:20 From Vance Stevens : webroom
21:33:17 From Vance Stevens : For more information on what’s coming up at Learning2gether, see: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/.
And for the complete archives of all 497 episodes plus this one, see http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex

The screenshot shows how breakout rooms were managed

2020-11-12breakouts

Facebook

Note, Facebook lists its chat remarks latest on top, so you may need to read this from the bottom up.

Susana Canelo · 1:23:09  – You can create 2 zoom meetings, so you students enter again for extra 40 minutes
Vicky Saumell · 0:00 – Susana Canelo The teacher restarts the meeting and they can enter using the same link
Susana Canelo · 0:00 – Vicky Saumell , I used to do that, but at the moment, I have to create another meeting.
Sanjeev Singhal · 19:26 – yes
Sanjeev Singhal · 1:48 – Greetings from Nepal
Philip Shigeo Brown · 0:12 – Please note you can find a number of links and resources here: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/
(but note, these resources have now been moved to the page you are looking at now)
Susana Canelo · 0:00 – Philip Shigeo Brown thanks again !!
Philip Shigeo Brown · 0:00 – A pleasure 🙂
Susana Canelo · 1:23:48 – Sometimes 40 minutes is enough.
Philip Shigeo Brown · 1:26:30 Yes, and even shorter for kindy can be good, e.g. 25-30 minutes 🙂
Susana Canelo · 1:25:31 – Thanks a lot !!
Susana Canelo · 1:24:10 – Especially with young learners.
Vance Stevens · 57:41 – whose screen?
Essa Aljebouri · 51:46 – Show us your screen
Jane Chien · 41:01 – I would say each Station would have a different focus on learning
Jane Chien · 40:03 – Could be either kind
Essa Aljebouri · 38:47 – Is this all in one website 🤔
Vance Stevens · 37:00 – hi all, looking forward to your comments, we’ll reply or pass them on
Jane Chien · 33:56 – Hi from Taiwan 😄
Essa Aljebouri · 32:29 – Hi 👋 from Iraq
Vance Stevens · 27:48 – welcome all
Susana Canelo · 25:56 – From Argentina !
Mbarek Akaddar · 25:26 – Watching from Morocco
Mbarek Akaddar · 21:43 – Hi Vance and all!
Philip Shigeo Brown · 19:46 – Hi everyone. Feel free to say hi, let us know where you’re watching from, ask questions, and share here, too 🙂
Vance Stevens · 12:56 – Hey Mr. Mike, happy birthday
Mike Kenteris · 0:00 – Awesome 😊


Promotion and Feedback

Phil created this poster showing the registration link for this event:

2020-11-12kendal

https://bit.ly/TEFL2020

The event was promoted by iTDI on https://www.facebook.com/iTDi.Pro
and also announced at these Facebook groups

The event was streamed live through
https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether/

Click the play button for the Facebook video replay

And a calendar event was set on this Groups.io
https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32745

Phil Brown posted the event on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/philip-shigeo-brown_itdi-learning2gether-activity-6732148421462921216-eo6g

Here is some appreciated feedback 🙂


Earlier Events

Fri 6 Nov 1400 UTC Letizia Cinganotto and Daniela Cuccurullo webinar on Remote language learning and teaching during the pandemic

https://learning2gether.net/2020/11/06/letizia-cinganotto-and-daniela-cuccurullo-webinar-on-remote-language-learning-and-teaching-during-the-pandemic/

Sat 7 Nov MELTA International Research Conference in English Language Education – MIRCELE ONLINE 2020

The 10th MELTA (The Malaysian English Language Teaching Association) International Research Conference in English Language Education (MIRCELE ONLINE 2020) was free to MELTA members

I am a member, living in Malaysia, so I was interested in attending

Event Details
When: November 7, 2020

 Event highlights

  • Keynote address by Professor Low Ee Ling, National Institute of Education, Singapore
  • Plenary presentations by
    • Associate Professor Troy McConachy, University of Warwick, UK
    • and Associate Professor Janet Scull, Monash University, Australia

Registration guidelines

  • MELTA members follow the link below and attach proof of membership (your membership certificate or letter confirming your status as a member https://forms.gle/pNDBJkM5ziPuVnEo7 
  • Alternatively, visit our conference website at https://mircelemelta.com/ and register from there and learn more about the event.

The event was held in Microsoft Teams, which was problematic for me as a first time user. I was registered in my Microsoft account, but had to register a second account with teams that matched the email address I had used to register for the conference. The process worked not smoothly but through persistence, and was briefly thwarted when the browser version of Teams would not open on two of my computers (using Chrome; maybe teams prefers a Microsoft browser). So I installed the app on one of my computers and managed to get into the conference.

The link to the live event beckoned, so I went there. Here the full text was:

Greetings! You may join, leave and rejoin our LIVE sessions through this link. The link will bring you to the ATTENDEE’S ROOM. If you have any questions to the speakers, please leave the questions in the Q&A Box in the ATTENDEE’S Room. Our moderators will try their best to forward your questions to the speakers. Have fun and hope the sessions add some values to your professional growth : http://bit.ly/mircele2020livesession

There  were announcements, a link to the live event, and 6 channels. There was a nice downloadable program book published for the conference and a schedule giving an overview of sessions, https://mircelemelta.com/conference-tentative/, but nothing (that I could find) saying specifically what was where and at what time.

Here was the schedule:

Perhaps I should have read the emails I received more thoroughly, and got set up in Teams earlier than on the day, but I didn’t work out from the interface that the morning activities were happening in the channel rooms. I hung out in the Live event room waiting for something to happen. There was music playing there, and a live mic suggesting that someone was bumping around in the background. If I might offer a suggestion, if the live meeting room was not where I should have been then there should have been a message there telling me where I should be. After some time I sent messages to the organizers and eventually worked out that the parallel sessions were happening in the “channels”

But by the time I got there it was lunch time and the meetings had disbanded. According to the apologies back in the live meeting room, the YouTube videos had been “public” from 10:30 to 2 pm but by the time I got there, closer to 2 pm, they had all been taken down. There were only thumbnails in the channels showing there had been something there, but the videos all no longer available.

I had better luck that afternoon with the plenaries in the live meeting room. Troy McConachy had already started when I got there. This screenshot is from the end of his presentation.

I presume you could email him for his slides. He was describing his research on pragmatic awareness and intercultural learning in English language education. When I arrived he was giving pragmatic examples from Japanese. I took this screenshot showing how he collected data. He did not appear to be displaying a web cam.

The next (and last) plenary speaker was Janet Scull, talking on Researching Young Children’s Writing Transitions. She had a live web cam and I took this screenshot from her introductory slide.

The conference ended on formalities, first the winners of the MELTA Excellence in Research Award

Followed by brief closing remarks from MELTA president Dr. Ramesh Nair

And finally a means of acquiring a certificate and providing feedback:

Sat 7 Nov 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Sat 7 Nov Oxford Day Online 2020 – Shape the future together

On November 7th, Karen Frazier Tsai and Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto will be doing a workshop together as part of Oxford Day Online about some of their favorite teaching techniques and activities to help students learn more effectively while having fun, many of which were created by the late, beloved

Ritsuko Kagawa Nakata

Their workshop starts at 11:45 CST, which is 12:45 (November 7th) for me in Japan and 19:45 (November 6th) for Karen in the US. If you’d like to see what time it is for you, you can check this coverter: http://bit.ly/KarenAndBarb

There are a lot of great people presenting at this event,
https://view.pagetiger.com/oxforddayonline2020.

Registration is open to all. https://elt.oup.com/events/global/oxford-day-online-2020….

I registered at https://elt.oup.com/events/global/oxford-day-online-2020 and received these two notices giving the times

Morning bloc:

Young Learners

Saturday, November 7, 2020 9:00:00 AM CST – 2:00:00 PM CST (1500 UTC)

and afternoon bloc:

Learning and Assessment

Saturday, November 7, 2020 2:00:00 PM CST – 4:45:00 PM CST (2000 UTC)

Follow up email from the organizers says: Here are the resources from the day:

Please note that the session resources will be available to download for six months. (Into April, 2021)

Sat 7 Nov 2000 UTC Alison Larkin Koushki and Shannon Parks present On Stage Online: Living Language and Life Skills through Drama and Arts

Alison Larkin Koushki and Shannon Parks present “On Stage Online: Living Language and Life Skills through Drama and Arts”

See students in “act”ion and empirical data as to why that works!
Brought to you in the first ever collaboration between Arts & Creativity and Career Path Development PLNs!

7 November Saturday 3 pm ET. Join Zoom Meeting
https://ufl.zoom.us/j/4267433409

Mon 9 Nov – Start of Cambridge Assessment English free MOOC on Teaching English Online Week 2 of 4

The Cambridge Assessment English MOOC on Teaching English Online aims for participants to learn how to transfer their teaching skills to an online context and start teaching English online.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/online-tutoring/7

Started Nov 2, 2020, the course lasts for 4 weeks

This is a freemium course. You can take the course for free for its 4 weeks and have access to it for two more weeks for free (that should be enough time)

It appears to be an xMOOC with a prescribed course to be completed in each of 4 weeks.

There’s more, as you can see if you register for the course.

Tue 10 Nov 0700 UTC – Digital Accessibility & Inclusion – Meetup hosted by Matt Moore

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 · 18:00-19:30 PM GMT+11 (07:00 GMT)

Digital Accessibility & Inclusion FREE, hosted by Matt Moore at
https://www.meetup.com/Information-Innovation-UTS/events/273766894/

Details

Ensuring that digital environments are accessible and inclusive for all people is critical for fairness, justice and productivity in our societies. This session will explore digital accessibility from the perspectives of those with disabilities who use such services and those who need to design them.

  • How do we design inclusive online environments?
  • What is it like to be disabled and use such environments?
  • How has the pandemic and move to digital impacted and been impacted by inclusion?
  • How do we move beyond technical standards compliance to ensure that people can actually use products.

Andrew Arch and Sarah Pulis from Intopia have collectively worked in the digital accessibility and inclusion for over thirty years. They embrace the importance of usable accessibility in delivering a more accessible outcome for people with disability. As strong advocates for inclusive design, they are always looking for ways to build awareness of accessibility as part of good user experience design, and work on strategies for how to encourage more organizations to speak with people with lived experience.

Simon Darcy is a Professor at the UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney. He specialises in developing inclusive organisational approaches for diversity groups and understanding the social impact of organisations and individuals. Simon has a long history of involvement in advocacy and volunteer boards. He was a member of the Disability Council of NSW (2011-2015), which is the ministerial advisory to the New South Wales Government’s Department of Family and Community Services.

Laila Coulton is an experienced leader who is passionate about human centred design, digital transformation and team leadership. Having worked predominantly in large corporate environments Laila is well practiced at navigating complex environments and driving organisational change. Laila has led Digital Accessibility delivery teams and is most proud of her work in the inclusive design space. AA mum of two boys, Laila is also an advocate for part time and flexible working.

Attendees (237, registered)

Screenshots and archives

Simon Darcy video: https://youtu.be/Ja_yWiYeO5E
Sarah Pulis & Andrew Arch: https://youtu.be/bQcmldTBijY
Laila Coulton: https://youtu.be/st6WDFSTnzE
Panel Discussion: https://youtu.be/Vsxeshtctqs

Matt’s comment: If you are new to the digital accessibility domain then this video is a great intro before the session – Everyone is different! https://youtu.be/WL1GMBbz9OM

___________________________________________________________
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 November 14, 2020 06:00 UTC

Letizia Cinganotto and Daniela Cuccurullo webinar on Remote language learning and teaching during the pandemic

Uncategorized 1 Comment

You are welcome to download this audio file: https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/2020-11-06-22cinganotto_cuccurullo_audio_only.m4a?

Learning2gether Episode 497

Navigation

Skip down to the Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs
See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

On Friday,  Nov 6, 2020, Letizia Cinganotto and Daniela Cuccurullo presented a webinar especially for Learning2gether on
Remote language learning and teaching during the pandemic

The webinar was aimed at showing examples of tools, platforms and repositories for remote language learning and teaching, mentioning some good teaching practices in Italy during COVID-19 emergency.

When? 1400 UTC; Where? in Zoom

Letizia and Daniella put a lot of effort into this and produced a delightful and very informative webinar. We are hoping for a link to the slides but they are at least available through the video recordings. For those dealing with teaching online and looking for tips in going to the next level, these materials are well worth watching and replaying.


Zoom and Facebook Chat Logs

Zoom

22:21:52 From Vance Stevens : Any links posted here will be posted in the archive of this talk on https://learning2gether.net
22:25:04 From Vance Stevens : People are posting in FB as well
22:33:33 From letiziacinganotto : This is the article on flipped learning I mentioned https://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume24/ej94/ej94int/
22:33:57 From Jane Chien : Thank you!!
22:34:51 From letiziacinganotto : Vance is the editor of TESL-EJ section on learning technologies which is wonderful
22:35:06 From Vance Stevens : Thanks, we posted that link in FB; you said it was from Carolina, who is a sometimes contributor with Laine Marshall, who wrote that article on SOFLA with Ilka Kostka
22:37:38 From Vance Stevens : These slides have a lot of depth, would you be able to share them with us?
22:38:06 From letiziacinganotto : Of course we will
22:38:20 From Vance Stevens 🙂
22:38:26 From letiziacinganotto : Yes that is because I know Carolina 🙂
22:38:33 From Vance Stevens 🙂
22:39:06 From Vance Stevens : Yes, they are in and out of the Flipped Leaning EVO session year to year
22:45:31 From Jane Chien : Quite a lot of tools! Thanks for sharing!
22:47:08 From Jane Chien : great session!!
22:47:54 From asli saglam : Yes, indeed! Thanks for sharing.
22:50:40 From Jane Chien : wow! looks interesting!!
22:51:10 From Jane Chien : Voicethread is going strong
22:52:15 From Jane Chien : Is wakelet an LMS?
22:52:31 From Vance Stevens : lots of interesting tools here, worthwhile presentation
23:01:52 From letiziacinganotto : http://www.indire.it/didattica-a-distanza-per-docenti-e-studenti/
23:03:41 From letiziacinganotto : danielacuccurullo@gmail.com; letizia.cinganotto@gmail.com
23:03:54 From letiziacinganotto : If you want to get in touch with us
23:05:11 From Vance Stevens : thanks, this will be posted at https://learning2gether.net if not tomorrow, by next day
23:05:27 From Carlotta : thank you
23:13:24 From Vance Stevens :  Information about the Fri 27 Nov 1400 UTC 1st Online CLIL-Ren Cafè – Focus on learning technologies for CLIL
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32204849/FrontPage#Fri27Nov1400UTC1stOnlineCLILRenCaf%C3%A8FocusonlearningtechnologiesforCLIL

Facebook

These logs appeared n reverse chronological order; read bottom to top

Susana Canelo · 1:17:06 Bye
Susana Canelo · 1:13:53 Thanks !!
Susana Canelo · 1:08:57 Challenging but not impossible, of course when you belong to such a good CoP !!!
Susana Canelo · 55:15 Brilliant !!!
Letizia Cinganotto · 46:18 😄
Vance Stevens · 39:48 I think Laine cites Carolina in that work so I wasn’t sure, but now we know
Letizia Cinganotto · 36:35 Yes Marshall and Kostka sorry
Vance Stevens · 27:16 this woud be a good time to joi and aak
Jane Chien · 25:25 These seems to be for adult learners, how about young learners? Do you have any suggestions in term of tools and activities for young learners to learn remotely?
Vance Stevens · 24:05 meeting ID 879 0649 1832 pw 899090
Vance Stevens · 23:40 want to join us and ask?
Jane Chien · 22:58 Are CLIL lessons taught remotely now in Italy? How is it done?
Vance Stevens · 23:02 Marshall, H.W. & Kostka, I. (2020). Fostering teaching presence through the synchronous online flipped learning approach.TESL-EJ, 24(2), 1-15. http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej94/int.pdf. Unpaginated HTML version:
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volum… See More
Vance Stevens · 20:45 I was thinking of that, that’s Laine Marshall’s article
Jane Chien · 19:39 SOFLA?
Vance Stevens · 18:43 great, that’s what it’s for 🙂
Susana Canelo · 18:04 Thanks. I can see and listen really clearly !!!
Vance Stevens · 16:42 If you want to join the zoom room I can post the ID and pw
Vance Stevens · 15:14 Brings to mind CoI http://cde.athabascau.ca/coi_site/documents/coi_model.pdf
Faisal Fayyaz · 14:17 Very informative session…………..
Susana Canelo · 14:16 I didn’t think about awareness, but you’re absolutely right
Susana Canelo · 11:56 Every country the same story about mobiles
Jane Chien · 12:00 Not allowed to go to school. Use Mobile!
Jane Chien · 11:25 That’s really funny! 😂


Promotion and Feedback

2020nov6remoteLetiziaDaniella497

The event was announced at these Facebook groups

And announced on this Groups.io
https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32743

And on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VanceS/status/1324698073214324738

2020-11-06tweet

The Zoom meeting was streamed live through https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether/


Earlier Events

Sat 24 Oct 1400 UTC Vance Stevens presents on Mentimeter at TESOL Gulf online event Tools for the Trade
https://learning2gether.net/2020/10/24/176471929/

Mon-Sun 19-25 Oct – 7th annual Online Facilitation Unconference (OFU) 2020

The seventh OFU event since 2013 took place once again as part of and alongside International Facilitation Week:
Online Facilitation Unconference (OFU) 2020
October 19-25, 2020
http://ofuexchange.net

Tickets were put “on sale” here
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/caceinstitute/423166

However, this conference always has flexible pricing
Note from Vance: Ticket prices have in the past ranged from free to whatever participants feel inclined to give. There was even available a
Low and No Income Option $0.00

Purchasers were encouraged to pick the amount that works best for you by using the “custom contribution” field provided.  

An unconference is one in which participants take the reigns and propose sessions on the fly. There was a participant manual for tips and guidelines on how to turn your topic ideas into unconference sessions.

When you joined the group you could access the schedule here:
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events

The following headings tracked the proceedings as they unfolded day by day over the week of the unconference

Unsessions proposed by unconference participants for October 19

Fast-Track Video Briefing Session #3: Connected Conversations World Relay for UN75
Host a Global Relay event as part of your OFU experience.
October 19, 1:00am – 1:45am Pacific Time

Learning to FOC!
Tune in to hear community engagement specialist and professional facilitator, Becky Hirst, share her insights and lessons learnt from transitioning from face-to-face facilitation to facilitating online conversations in 2020!
October 19, 8:00am – 8:30am Pacific Time

Gallery Tour of Great Events on QiqoChat
With Lucas Cioffi, Founder and Lead Software Engineer at QiqoChat Inc
October 19, 9:00am – 9:30am Pacific Time
http://qiqochat.com/e/OrjyeoNdCYiCwBLSOMlIBZKDV

Speed Networking on VideoFacilitator
With Peter Lee, Founder of VideoFacilitator
October 19, 9:30am – 10:00am Pacific Time

Fast-Track Video Briefing Session #4: Connected Conversations World Relay for UN75
Host a Global Relay event as part of your OFU experience.
October 19, 2:00pm – 2:45pm Pacific Time

OFU20 Live Session Planning
Share your topic ideas, find collaborators, schedule your first unconference session! With Jeremy Lu, Co-Founder at GroupMap Technology
October 19, 6:00pm – 6:30pm Pacific Time
https://join.groupmap.com/822-049-146

Start the week with this panel of leading experts in the field. Free and open to the public (so feel free to join even if you don’t plan on registering for OFU20 this year). We’ll run a second panel – featuring different but equally capable panelists – a few hours later to better accommodate our friends in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Kick-Off Panel: How to Humanize the Digital Experience Fireside Chat
October 19, 7:00pm – 8:00pm Pacific Time
Panelists: Jeremy Lu, Tim Merry, Tuesday Ryan-Hart, Megan Moritz, Joe Mendez, and Elise Keith.

Warm-up unsessions proposed by unconference participants for October 20

2nd Kick-Off Panel: Humanizing the Digital Experience Fireside Chat

October 20, 3–4am Pacific Time, 1000 UTC, 6 pm in SE Asia –
Fireside chat with Jeremy Lu (GroupMap), Paul Nunesdea (IAF, Digital Collaboration Academy), Molood Ceccarelli (Remote Forever), and Thomas Krecker (TFK Consulting).

How to Make Online Gatherings Social!
October 20, 8–8.45am Pacific Time, 1500 UTC
Wonder demo & Q&A

15-Minute Welcome
October 20, 10.30–10.45am Pacific Time
Meet the OFU20 team, say hi, and get any questions answered.

[COMPANION] #ZoomGalleryConversation: Remote Meetings, WTF? or FTW?
October 20, 11–11.30am Pacific Time, 1800 UTC

Running Breakout Room activities with Video Facilitator and GroupMap
October 20, 6–6.30pm Pacific Time

How to Use GroupMap at Your Meetings and Workshops (Demo)
October 20, 7–7.30pm Pacific Time

15-Minute Welcome
October 20, 7.45–8pm Pacific Time, 0245 UTC Oct 21
Meet the OFU20 team, say hi, and get any questions answered.

Wed 21 Oct – Warm-up unsessions proposed by unconference participants

OFU20 Team – Axis: Making Sure Every Voice Is Heard
October 21, 9–9.45am Pacific Time, 1600 UTC, Midnight in SE Asia
Live workshop on inclusion and diversity.

Remo: How to Connect Your Audience Virtually in the Most Interactive Way!
October 21, 11–11.30am Pacific Time
Live workshop with case studies and hands on experience with the Remo Platform.

Thu 22 0045 UTC Oct 15-Minute Welcome

October 21, 5.45–6pm Pacific Time, 0845 Oct 22 in SE Asia
Meet the OFU20 team & get any questions answers. Session planning (if you like).

Thu 22 0645 UTC Oct 15-Minute Welcome

October 21, 11.45pm–12am Pacific Time, 1445 in SE ASIA Oct 22
Meet the OFU20 team & get any questions answers. Session planning (if you like).

We started at the Zoom room

Tim invited us to move to Icebreaker
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/ofu20-virtual-meet-greet-speed-dating

So we moved, and here’s what it looked like

OFU20 Virtual Meet & Greet (Speed Dating)
October 22, 12–12.30am Pacific Time
Join us for a fun meet and greet and enjoy short 1-on-1 conversations with other OFU20 attendees.
https://icebreaker.video/events/Dp5mnih0ZxtAILi7XJxb

World Cafe Collaboration Sessions – Defining the Ingredients for an Effective Online Workshop with VideoFacilitator
October 22, 1–1.45am Pacific Time; 0800 UTC; 1600 UTC
https://meet.videofacilitator.com/join/OFU%20World%20Cafe

Building online communities – What works for you?
October 22, 2-3pm Pacific Time, 2100 UTC; 5 am in SE Asia
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/building-online-communities-what-works-for-you

Lounge 1
October 22, 3.45–7.15pm Pacific Time’ 2245 UTC, 0645 SE Asia, ends at 10:15
Your casual hang-out during the first recommended window for unconference sessions.

Stop by in between sessions and meet your fellow participants.
Meeting URL TBD

Live Session Planning
October 22, 4-4.30pm Pacific Time
Meeting URL TBD

Fri 23 Oct

Lounge 2
October 22-23, 11.45pm–3.15am Pacific Time, 0645 UTC, 1445 in SE Asia
Your casual hang-out during the first recommended window for unconference sessions. Stop by in between sessions and meet your fellow participants.

[COMPANION] VoiceVoice #Connversation Cafés for UN75: DIGITAL IMPACTS
October 23, 12-2am Pacific Time,  0700 UTC, 1500 in SE Asia
https://beta.voicevoice.com/register/connvocafe-un75digital

Unfolding the Invisible
October 23, 5–6:30am Pacific Time
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/unfolding-the-invisible

The Now What?! Global Gathering and Gift Economy
Friday, 10/23, 8–9am Pacific Time: 1500 UTC, 2300 in SE Asia
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/the-now-what-global-gathering-and-gift-economy

Webinar Stormz+Zoom: Interactive Decision Making
October 23 8–9.15am Pacific Time

Lounge 3
October 23, 8.30–10.30am Pacific Time
Meeting URL TBD

Facilitation as a Fulltime Job in a large Organization?
October 23, 9–10am Pacific Time
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/facilitation-as-a-fulltime-job-in-a-large-organization

Introducing VoiceVoice: The Next Generation of Group Breakouts
October 23, 10–10.45am Pacific Time
https://beta.voicevoice.com/start/demo?interest=facilitation

The magic in your secret sauce — A participatory mash-up
October 23, 10–11am Pacific Time
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/the-magic-in-your-secret-sauce-a-participatory-mash-up

Accessibility and Inclusion in Online Facilitation
October 23, 10–11am Pacific Time

MaestroConference Tour: Experience the leader in video breakout capabilities
October 23, 11-11.45am Pacific Time
https://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/EPKLC0AW7EC2P0F4

Live Session Planning
October 23, 12-12.30am Pacific Time,  0700 UTC, 1500 in SE Asia

Getting participants to engage with online tools
October 23, 12–12:45pm Pacific Time
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/getting-participants-to-engage-with-online-tools

[COMPANION] VoiceVoice #Connversation Cafés for UN75: EQUITABLE HEALTH
October 23, 1–3pm Pacific Time
https://beta.voicevoice.com/register/connvocafe-un75health

[COMPANION] VoiceVoice #Connversation Cafés for UN75: GENDER BALANCE
October 23, 4-6pm Pacific Time
https://beta.voicevoice.com/register/connvocafe-un75gender

Lounge 4
October 23, 4.30–6.30pm Pacific Time
Meeting URL TBD

Crafting brave virtual spaces for safety
October 23, 4:30–6pm Pacific Time, 2330 UTC, 0730 SE Asia Oct 24
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/crafting-brave-virtual-spaces-for-safety

[COMPANION] VoiceVoice #Connversation Cafés for UN75: SHAPING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER
October 23, 5–7pm Pacific Time
https://beta.voicevoice.com/register/connvocafe-un75future

[COMPANION] World #Connversations ROUNDTABLE RELAY: Asia Pacific
October 23, 6–8pm Pacific Time
https://ideasphere.x360.co/listing/roundtable-apac/

[COMPANION] VoiceVoice #Connversation Cafés for UN75: SHAPING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER
October 23, 9–11pm Pacific Time – 0400 UTC – 1200 SE Asia Sat Oct 24
https://beta.voicevoice.com/register/connvocafe-un75future

[COMPANION] World #Connversations ROUNDTABLE RELAY: Asia Central
October 23–24, 11pm–1am Pacific Time – 0600 UTC – 1400 SE Asia Sat Oct 24
https://ideasphere.x360.co/listing/roundtable-asiacentral/

Sat Oct 24

Unlock the News Jam Session
October 24, 5–6:30am Pacific Time, noon UTC, 20:00 SE Asia
https://ofuexchange.mn.co/events/unlock-the-news-jam-session

If you miss any sessions, please see the Google doc for some (rough) notes. Links to the recordings are being added as they become available.

The unconference sessions will start Thursday afternoon, Pacific Time. Anything beforehand is warm-up.

Sun 25 Oct iTDi and Steven Herder interview Scott Thornbury on Dogme ELT

iTDi billed this as an “interview with the illustrious Scott Thornbury. In addition to asking Scott to share his thoughts and reflections on the first ever online course for Dogme ELT, we’re also looking forward to learning more about the next course in November!”

Streamed on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/iTDi.Pro/videos/375830430454316

A chance to hear Scott Thornbury talk about Dogme is not to be missed, unless it’s your lovely wife’s birthday, and then it’s a no brainer.

However I was sorry to miss this one because at about 25 min 30 seconds into the Facebook stream, Steve said to Kevin Ryan something to the effect of, didn’t you post just now that Vance Stevens had downloaded all the old Dogme YahooGroup messages and posted them somewhere?

I couldn’t find where Kevin had posted this in the Facebook chat, but I found where Sibel Baytur Sezer had posted “I love Vance and now even more❣️” I guess that must have been at about the time in the chat where the foregoing exchange was taking place.

What had happened was that when YahooGroups ceased storing all its group messages online, they provided tools for downloading content. I used one of these tools to grab message histories from many of the groups I had been a part of. The messages were delivered in zip files, which in many cases I uploaded to Google Drive and shared with ‘anyone with the link’. One of these was the Dogme message history, and the shareable link is

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10Zk_LhSYHbUSo7g-kQUjTFi0T9oW7UGb?usp=sharing

If you go to that link you will see these files

At first I didn’t know how to open the files but it turns out you can view their contents in any ascii text reader, such as Notepad or MS Word. When you do that you can see that the messages are there with their headers. I’m not sure how complete the archiive is, but with this information you can see for yourself.

To be of any use some very interested party would have to grab the text from these files and paste them into one big blog or document. My own interest in these files was to resurrect the Webheads in Action ones, which for a couple hundred bucks I got successfully ported over to https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/ (using another of the tools). However, if someone wants to take on a project, the raw data are preserved as downloaded from the YG servers at the time, and I am glad to have been of some small service to the Dogme community.

Mon 26 Oct 2300 UCT  VSTE Halloween party in Second Life

Monday, October 26, the VSTE gang in Second Life is having a Halloween party! at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/170/146/58

8c506a7fb6957a3e11f397e94ef65ae2.jpg

DJ Thunder spinning Halloween songs; Costumes encouraged.

Where?  Second Life

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/ When you do this your avatar’s “home” is set to be the Rockcliffe University’s sim, bypassing the normal Second Life welcome area.

Download and install Second Life viewer software. You will be directed to download the Second Life viewer but we prefer the Firestorm viewer athttps://www.firestormviewer.org/. Either one will work but Firestorm has some advantages.

When you are ready to join us, while your Second Life viewer (software) is open, click this linkhttp://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58 to teleport yourself to VSTE Space. Look for an avatar and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest. Someone is there most Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 AM Eastern Time (Same as New York).

Tue 27 Oct 1700 UTC TESOL Gulf Taco Tuesday

Tue-Thu 27-29 Oct Free Online Cambridge Academic English Conference

A 3-day Academic English Conference, which will bring you brand new talks from a number of contributors broadcast live from around the world. Find out what’s relevant for learners and take away practical advice for teaching Academic English. All talks are free to attend and are a great way to contribute to your professional development.

http://view.ceros.com/cambridge/eapconference2020/

Sat Oct 31 1830 in Japan? Forging educational careers in Japan

More details at https://www.fukuokajalt.org
There’s a Facebook event link for it here: https://fb.me/e/3EYDV34aM

Sat 31 Oct – Doris Molero posted this at about this time – not sure where it was 🙂

Sat 31 Oct 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

Mon 2 Nov Cambridge Assessment English free MOOC on Teaching English Online begins – Week 1 of 4

Cambridge Assessment English MOOC on Teaching English Online

This is a freemium course. You can take the course for free for its 4 weeks and have access to it for two more weeks for free (that should be enough time)

It appears to be an xMOOC with a prescribed course to be completed in each of 4 weeks.

There’s more, as you can see if you register for the course.

Tue 3 Nov 0100 UTC VSTE Minecraft Monday – Redstone

8 pm Monday in USA EDT

86baa55ec3bbbfdb083e425e99276f1c.png

This week DarkJMKNight answers a request from members to share the basic elements of building with redstone. If you are a redstone novice, come learn with us. If, however, you are comfortable with redstone already, build something to show off your skills at the end of our lesson. You can start now!

I’ve seen all sorts of redstone machines that farm, sheer, fish, and more. Build an example we can follow for our own Minecraft villages and homes.

It is always fun to be together learning while we play.

See you at 8 PM Eastern time on the VSTE Place server
minecraft.vste.org:11002. (GMT -5)

Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world

You must have a computer Minecraft account fromhttps://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP:minecraft.vste.org:11002. Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter. Email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.

Discord

Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device. Download and install it for free. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple. Our channel ishttps://discord.gg/cp9tsWz  It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.

___________________________________________________________
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 November 7, 2020 10:00 UTC

Vance Stevens presents on Mentimeter at TESOL Gulf online event Tools for the Trade

Uncategorized 1 Comment


You can download this audio file:
https://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/2020-10-24tesolgulf-audio_only.m4a?

Learning2gether Episode 496

Navigation

Skip down to the Zoom Chat Logs
See our promotion and feedback for this event
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post

The thumbnail is from Georgios Kormpas’s Facebook feed

Learning2gether episode 496 took place on October 24, 2020, at the TESOL Gulf event Tools for the Trade, which was aimed at providing professional development sessions for language teachers. My presentation was on Mentimeter. You can recap my presentation in illustrated prose format at https://tinyurl.com/gulf2020vance

All were invited to “Tools of the Trade” with TESOL Gulf
When: October 24 2020, 5.00 PM -7.00 PM SAT
Kuwait/KSA/Bahrain/ 6 PM UAE/Oman

Register in advance for the meeting here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrceysqToqG9C-Oo9trIMviTgzqhG_lb5R

The TESOL Gulf event Tools for the Trade is aimed at providing professional development sessions for language teachers.

The sessions were supposed to be 20 minutes long where the presenters share with the attendees a tool to be used in online learning (e.g. using One Note, Google form, Kahoot, insight or any other tool that they find useful).

More information on this event can be seen at the TESOL Gulf Facebook page, including the stream recording of all three sessions, available here, https://www.facebook.com/groups/2944769308907551
(but TESOL Gulf is a private group so you need to join the group first).

Jose Domingo Cruz

Jose Domingo Cruz presented on his Walk and Talk technique for improving speaking fluency of having students video themselves walking down the street (or around their apartment, anywhere) talking spontaneously to the camera while holding their cell phone at arm’s length and gesturing with the other hand.

2020-10-24TESOLgulf-jose

Christine Sabieh

Christine Sabieh talked about how she uses an impressive array of tools in her especially challenging context of teaching classes virtually online to her students in Beirut.

2020-10-24TESOLchristineConclusions

Christine had barely started her presentation when she was beset with technical problems. She was joining us from Beirut over unstable internet and suddenly her power went out. Georgios Kormpas sent all three presenters links to their original Zoom recordings, but Christine’s was recorded only from the point where she had regained a stable connection. However the entire event was also streamed on Facebook. I recorded all of Christine’s presentation from there in Camtasia and removed the disaster parts to produce a smooth rendition. I uploaded it to Google Drive here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CC4EpYP7VGt7tPD7PP53ckGeM_9CMLCd/view?usp=sharing

If Christine or Jose would like to upload their presentations to YouTube, allow embed, and send me the links I would be happy to embed those presentations here.

Vance Stevens

The tool I chose to present on was Mentimeter.

https://www.mentimeter.com/

I wrote up my presentation here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s_vtyFVZS1gkjrdEsD2lH0Mj0Jg473SU4Ae5KIKlFqQ/edit?usp=sharing

And created a TinyURL for it at https://tinyurl.com/gulf2020vance

The write-up shows what I demonstrated live directly from Mentimeter. The culmination of the demo was an interactive slide show (link in the Zoom chat) which produced the following metrics:

The obvious first question was to gauge what the participants already knew about Mentimeter, It was interesting to see that none of the 6 people who responded to this first poll had yet created a Menti presentation, which my demonstration and its accompanying documentation would show them how to do.

2020-10-24TESOLgulfMenti1

The next interaction was a demonstration of quiz mode. There was a countdown to the quiz and a cutoff time for responses.

2020-10-24TESOLgulfMenti2

The 3rd option was tricky (the correct answer would be only 2 slides and 5 quiz questions allowed in a free presentation). Only two of the participants scored points on the leader board.

2020-10-24TESOLgulfMenti3

If I’d had more time, I could have asked more questions to spread out the leaderboard a bit. Inclusion of a leaderboard is optional in a Menti slide presentation (some people think that leaderboards might cause embarrassment for some students; I find they can be motivating for others).

In any event, the next question was designed to elicit one- or two-word impressions of Mentimeter and / or the TESOL Gulf PD events and demonstrate how the responses are displayed attractively in a word cloud.

2020-10-24TESOLgulfMenti4


Zoom Chat Logs

22:31:06 From Mashael Al-Hamly to Vance Stevens : you are co-host
22:31:32 From Hanaa Khamis : Hi Bobbie 🙂
22:31:44 From Bobbi Stevens : Hi all
22:32:06 From Bobbi Stevens : https://tinyurl.com/gulf2020vance
22:32:06 From Rana Khan : Hi Bobbie nice to host you both
22:32:14 From Christine Sabieh : hi
22:32:15 From Bobbi Stevens : Thank you
22:32:41 From José Domingo Cruz : Hi Liz, GOLDFish365 is my website where I keep all my work and research on fluency and authentic listening
22:32:51 From Bobbi Stevens : https://learning2gether.net/
22:32:55 From Liz England : Thanks, Jose.
22:34:56 From Hanaa Khamis : Seems to be working like clickers back in time
22:35:26 From Hanaa Khamis : You set up a PPT with Qs (selection type)
22:35:30 From Bobbi Stevens : Visit https://www.menti.com/ and enter 18 98 75 4
22:35:49 From Bobbi Stevens : Or use the direct link https://www.menti.com/btxur19nne
22:35:52 From MIN MIN PE : Thank you
22:35:53 From Hanaa Khamis : Participants respond to Qs slide by slide
22:36:24 From Hanaa Khamis : The answers appear in %.
22:36:50 From Hanaa Khamis : Pie charts n bar charts
22:37:07 From Hanaa Khamis : Is that close @Vance?
22:38:18 From Liz England : Reminds me of what some of us do as moderators of webinars, etc. and how we use Zoom (chat, polling, etc.) with Power Point (content)….
22:38:47 From Sandra Stein : Please post your questions for Vance here
22:38:47 From Hanaa Khamis : It was rather difficult back in time with the add-on in PPT n hardware clickers.
22:39:03 From Sundos Alajeel : How is Mentimeter different from Quizzizz, Kahoot, and QuizWhizzer?
22:39:12 From Hanaa Khamis : W Mentimeter it seems user-friendly
22:39:23 From Kent Jones : I’ve started to use Nearpod
22:40:28 From Hanaa Khamis : @Sundos seems a variety v tools serving d same purpose
22:40:55 From Hanaa Khamis : They could be different in interface I guess
22:41:11 From Hanaa Khamis : Kahoot doesnt work w PPT
22:41:25 From Hanaa Khamis : Neither does Quizizz
22:41:34 From Hanaa Khamis : Yes
22:42:46 From Hanaa Khamis : U simply create Qs on Kahoot n Quizizz (web-based)
22:43:34 From Sandra Stein : It’s not open yet for voting
22:43:50 From Hanaa Khamis : can u copy paste d link here?
22:44:23 From Bobbi Stevens : Visit https://www.menti.com/ and enter 18 98 75 4
22:44:27 From Sundos Alajeel : I see. So, Mentimeter is a combo of PowToon & Quizzizz. Interesting.
22:44:38 From Bobbi Stevens : Or use the direct link https://www.menti.com/btxur19nne
22:45:24 From Preeti Kolekar : Looks helpful
22:45:32 From José Domingo Cruz : Do I? 🙂
22:48:43 From José Domingo Cruz : Got it!
22:53:27 From MIN MIN PE : Thank you for great sessions.
22:53:42 From Rana Khan : Loved it Vance
22:53:52 From Rana Khan : Thanks
22:54:43 From Sundos Alajeel : Kahoot presents internet delay difficulties. Your experience?
22:54:49 From José Domingo Cruz : What does it cost to get a paid account for more slide access?
22:56:17 From Bobbi Stevens : https://www.mentimeter.com/plans
22:56:22 From Bobbi Stevens : prices
22:56:33 From Preeti Kolekar : it can be use to involve students as a warm up before the class
22:56:47 From Preeti Kolekar : like jamboard
22:56:50 From Sundos Alajeel : could definitely be used for formative assessment, no?
22:57:36 From José Domingo Cruz : Thanks Bobbi
22:57:47 From Bobbi Stevens : you’re welcome
22:57:58 From Liz England : I think Mentimeter has reduced pricing for educators and for charitable organizations too.
22:58:14 From Sundos Alajeel : Also similar to Poll Everywhere with the word cloud feature 👍
22:58:38 From Bobbi Stevens : https://www.mentimeter.com/plans/education
22:58:44 From Bobbi Stevens : educational prices
22:59:00 From Liz England : Thanks, Bobbi.
22:59:19 From Bobbi Stevens : You are welcome
23:00:00 From Hanaa Khamis : Thx @Vance 🥰👏🥇


Promotion and Feedback

This event was announced at these Facebook groups

And announced as a calendar event on the Webheads in Action groups.io
https://groups.io/g/webheadsinaction/message/32741

I was told I would be welcome to stream my presentation on Learning2gether at this link
https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether

I had indicated in my announcments above that I would attempt to stream the event, but I found when I took over as co-host that the option to stream on FB was not available. I was however able to make my own recording and upload it to YouTube.

The TESOL Gulf organizers streamed the event on their own Facebook page, and it can be seen by TESOL Gulf group members here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2944769308907551

Thanks to my ‘beautiful assistant’, my wife Bobbi, for handling the Zoom chat during my presentation and helping me to rehearse my part of this event; together we figured out exactly how Mentimeter would behave over Zoom in the hours leading up to our presentation. She appears with me in the thumbnail in the screenshot below, taken after the recording had been stopped. Thanks also to the organizers of this event, Mashael Al Hamly and Susan Stein, also pictured in video thumbnails below, and Rana Khan, below that.2020-10-24TESOLbeautifulAsst-cropped
2020-10-24rana


Earlier Events

Here you can see notes on events that were listed in the Learning2gether upcoming events calendar here http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/
since the last Learning2gether episode 495 was archived on Oct 18. 

Sun 18 Oct noon UTC Minnie Wang at the 29th Webheads Revival Weekly Open Mic FUNinar

https://learning2gether.net/2020/10/18/minnie-wang-presents-internet-plays-an-important-role-in-self-education-from-teachers-learning2gether-summit/

Tue 20 Oct noon UTC – More Than A Feeling: Knowledge Management & Emotion – Hosted by Matt Moore

https://www.meetup.com/Information-Innovation-UTS/events/273837331
A joint event with the SIKM Leaders Community: https://sikm.groups.io/

Matt Moore is an Industry Fellow at UTS. He has over 20 years of experience working in knowledge management with organisations such as PwC, IBM, Oracle and ASIC.

Our lives are full of emotion but emotions are rarely talked about in knowledge management. In this session we will discuss:

  • Different theories of emotion and what they mean for organisations
    How knowledge and information professionals can manage their own emotions and respond to those of others
  • How we design products and programs that account for emotion

Mon-Fri 19-23 Oct – Teacher Success Summit

I learned about this through a respected online colleague

Shelly Terrell was a featured speaker for the Teacher Success Summit

🍎 Find that Happy Place is her virtual presentation with wellness and SEL tips for students and teachers!

The promotional materials said:
Register for FREE for access to over 100 inspiring sessions! Oct. 19-23
http://teachersummit.com/shellterrell

This is what I soon discovered about this free Summit

Yes, you can register for free but you will find yourself here, https://teachersummit.com/offer32132fdjgg5t7hj898/

where you find this:

And then when you get your email where you can see what the sessions are, you see this

Many (self-)promotional emails with over-the-top sales pitches followed.
This email was sent out from the organizers on Day 4 of the conference

The last 3 days of the Teacher Success Summit have flown by so quickly! Here is what some people are saying already…

  • “This has been the BEST PD Experience I have had this year”
  • “The value in every presentation is remarkable. This is the new way teacher PD needs to be conducted”
  • “After watching so many great sessions it was a no brainer to pick up the All Access Pass. I can’t wait to continue learning throughout the year now from these amazing presentations!”

Today is DAY FOUR of The Teacher Success Summit

I’m excited to introduce today’s amazing speakers, but first…

If you have noticed that previous days are locked and you want to have unlimited access to sessions to watch at anytime, Simply grab your All Access Pass HERE at the special conference price of $67 today! Only a few more days until the price goes up to $97!

Geez!!

I’m sorry, but this is pathetic. I hope they make some money from it for all their trouble.

Meanwhile, Learning2gether continues to focus on teachers sharing their knowledge and expertise with teacher colleagues from passion and for free.

For her part, Shelly was much more characteristically represented in the following totally free and academically presented online conference, which promises the recordings should be available soon (with no sliding access price scale).

Sat 24 Oct 0545 UTC – Remote Learning in MFL/EFL online conference at The Koç School in Turkey

http://elt.koc.k12.tr

The Aim of the Conference:

To share and experience best practice in remote language teaching and learning across the K12 age range in order to celebrate what we are doing and enrich our collective knowledge of best pedagogical online practice

When: Sat., Oct. 24th 9 am to 5 pm, time zone not specified, but I presume Turkey

I registered (free) in hopes of receiving more definitive information

Shelly Terrell will deliver the opening keynote for the Remote Learning in MFL/EFL online conference at The Koç School in Turkey alongside Russell Stannard and Joe Dale

Schedule:

Welcome – 08:45 13:45 SE Asia time
PLENARY 1 – SHELLY TERRELL – 09:00 – 10:00 14:00 SE Asia time

 BREAK – 10:00 – 10:10

PLENARY 2 – RUSSEL STANNARD – 10:10 – 11:10  15:10 SE Asia time

Russell showed us a number of tools including a new one (to me), WordWall. Here are two he showed us:

He said if we sent him an email at handout (something) gmail.com (he dictated it, I didn’t catch it) then he would send us a “handout” with these links

BREAK – 11:10 – 11:20
CONCURRENT SESSION 1 – 11:20 – 12:20
LUNCH BREAK – 12:20 – 13:00
PLENARY 3 – JOE DALE – 13:00 – 14:00
BREAK – 14: 00 – 14:10
CONCURRENT SESSION 2 – 14:10 – 15:10
BREAK – 15: 10 – 15:20
CONCURRENT SESSION 3 – 15:20 – 16:20
BREAK – 16: 20 – 16:30
CONCURRENT SESSION 4 – 16:30 – 17:30
CLOSING – 17: 30 – 17:40

But I had to miss Joe Dale because I needed to prepare my own presentation on Mentimeter a few hours later.

Fri 23 Oct 01:00 UTC TESOL TEIS webinar on Malaysian teachers and tech use in teaching writing

Thursday Oct 22, 9-10pm EST: Malaysian teachers & technology use in teaching writing (TEIS webinar)The Teacher Educator Interest Section (TEIS) continues our celebration of language teacher educators’ research and practice, near and far. We will be conducting an interactive webinar with Dr. Abu Bakar Mohammed Razali from Universiti Putra, Selangor, Malaysia.  The focus of the webinar is his research on Malaysian teachers’ conceptions and use of digital technology in English Writing Instruction. Faridah Pawan (TEIS Chair) will moderate.

Date & Time: Thursday, October 22, 2020, 9:00-100 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada); 0100 UTC Oct 23

Zoom Room Details:
Meeting ID: 816 9149 5203

TEIS Facebook: The webinar was also streamed live:
www.facebook.com/tesol.teis

Recording: The webinar will also be recorded and will be shared with TESOL members.

For more information about the topic, the following article is attached:

Li, K., Razali, A.B., & Baki, R. (2019). Writing narrative essays using E-Book writing software: Analyses of students’ digital written works. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 16 (4), 1289-1304.

Farida Pawan followed up with this information

Professor Dr. Abu Bakar Mohamed Razali, from Universiti Putra, Malaysia,  discussed his research on ELTs’ perceptions and use of technology. The discussion took place on Oct 22, 9-10pm EST. Faridah Pawan, TESOL’s  2020 TEIS Chair moderated this TEIS October 2020 webinar.

From the discussion, the following points were touched upon:
  • Malaysia as one of the most “wired” and connected countries in South East Asia
  • The web of conundrum (Razali, 2013) in the way technology is used to teach English, involving both the affordances and the sacrifices it demands
  • The existing tensions in teaching writing through the use of technology, namely between teaching writing for the purposes of high stakes exams and teaching writing for students’ personal development
  • The process-writing approach to be fronted in teachers’ professional development if technology is to be incorporated in writing pedagogy.

URLs:

30 minutes after the TESOL Gulf webinar started (Learning2gether episode 496) the following coincident event began

Sat 24 Oct 1530 UTC KSAALT TESOL Fast Forward Webinar series continues with luminaries from IATEFL

KSAALT TESOL Fast Forward Series Online Events continuing in October with the IATEFL stars!

When: Saturday, 24th of October, 2020
Where: Zoom Interface
Time: 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM

Our international speakers are the highlight of our October FF series. We are honoured to welcome…
* Carol Read: Past IATEFL President
* Heike Philip: Online events coordinator @ IATEFL LTSIG
* Beatrix Price: Former President of IATEFL Hungary

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZUpfu…

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Join our FB group to stay updated about our upcoming events and other affiliate events as well 🙂https://www.facebook.com/groups/307290860369185

Sat 24 Oct 1300-1500 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday

About this intitiative,
https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/

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. Follow VSTE 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/

  1. Download and install the software.
  2. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
  3. and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.

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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 Oct 28, 2020 03:00 UTC