EXAMS AND PAPERS

Hi everybody!

Today I am going to write a short post on my last university exams. In these days, I am quite busy because I have not only to study for the exams, but also to write three (!) papers. As I already said in other posts, I like writing but it takes me an awful amount of time to write papers for the university courses.

I always spend a lot of time reading things that often in the end are not even usefulJ. Moreover, I always tend to re-read and correct the paper at least one hundred times, before I am satisfied… Actually to say the truth, I am never really satisfied, but that’s me and I can’t do anything about it;-).

Anyway, I will try to do my best and as these are the last exams of my university career, I’m particularly motivated!!!

Susanne

Blogging English Course & Tulane-Padova Wiki Course

Hi everybody!

Today, I downloaded this pictures from my camera and when I looked at them I started to feel a little sad. Last week, after our English lesson nearly all of our class (unfortunately, Alice could not come because she had to work) and Sarah went to a bar in the city center to have a drink and chat a little. It was our last lesson and for most of us it was not only the last English lesson, but also the last lesson in general.

It is very hard to describe my feelings. On the one hand, I always wanted to finish my university studies as soon as possible, but on the other hand it is really strange to think that I won’t attend courses in October anymore. I still have to write my thesis, but it is not the same as sitting with other students in a classroom and taking notes. I think I am soon going to miss the lesson!!!!


Susanne March

MY PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This week, we were asked to think about our personal learning environment, in other words, to reflect upon the tools and the processes we use to learn. Usually, when we think of learning and study the first things that come to our mind are classrooms and teacher. However, it is important to bear in mind that learning means more than that. Learning is a lifelong process and we learn something new everyday. We live and learn using different tools.

It is important to critically reflect upon the different tools we use in our learning process in order to exploit them effectively and in an appropriate way. As Sarah suggested, I used the software FreeMind and created a mind map of my PLE. First, I had a look at Sarah’s first draft and at Michelle’s mind map and afterwards I divided the different tools and sources I came up with into similar categories as Sarah and Michelle did.

A little description of my mind map:
In order to create a clear and well arranged mind map I tried to answer some fundamental questions:

1. Where does the information come from?
I realized that I gather information from texts such as books, e-mails, blogs, newspapers, etc, from audio files such as pod casts and CDs and from video files. Moreover, I listed the tools that I use to gather information, for example google, wikipedia, online dictionaries, etc. and I also listed the people which inform me.

2. What do I do with this information?
When something interests me, I underline parts of the text or I take some notes. In some cases I summarize the main points and discuss the pieces of information with someone.

3. What do I do with what I have learnt?
After our weekly tasks of the two English courses, I write on my blog about the new experiences. This is actually a good way to become aware of the things we have learnt during the week. Moreover, for many courses I have to write papers and give presentations or else to do an exam.

Finally, I tried to identify my formal learning environment which can be said to be university courses, workshops, conferences and tutorials.

Creating a mind map of my PLE, was useful in order to see and become aware of how I learn. It is now possible for me to use these tools in a more conscious way and to expand my learning environment in the future.

Susanne

Photo Source

Reflective Blogging on webcasts

About three weeks ago, we started to prepare our final presentation for the English course. I decided to work together with Maria Chiara and Alice and we chose the topic fraternities in the USA and goliardia in Italy. We were really enthusiastic about the topic and the following day we started to surf the web searching for useful information. We came up with a lot of interesting material and pictures and we started to prepare our PowerPoint presentation.

After to weeks and a good deal of work, we finally completed our work: our presentation was ready. That was the moment when I started to get a bit nervous also because we had to give the presentation not only in front of our classmates, but also to some American students who were listening to us online. This was possible using a new technology, so-called webcasts. Webcasts are online presentations where you can here the voice of the people who give the presentation and see their slides on your screen.


I have to admit, that I was a bit scared and nervous at the beginning, but when the first group gave their presentation, I realized that we couldn’t see the American students and they couldn’t interrupt us, so that it could seem a presentation just in front of our classmates and that made me feel less nervous.


At the end of every presentation, every student had the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. It was a very nice part and I appreciated that the American students asked a lot of questions because this demonstrated that they were listening to us and that they understood what we were talking about; that means that our presentations were probably not that bad.:-) Moreover, it was very encouraging to see comments like brava, perfect, etc. on the screen while we were talking.


I think webcasts are interesting tools and we can exploit them in two ways that is, give presentations and also listen to presentations given by native speakers and improve consequently our language skills. Moreover, it is very useful to get feedback from people who do not know you, because they are probably more objective and honest. Another advantage of using webcasts is the fact that the presentations are recorded and archived.


I enjoyed this experience and I think I will listen to other presentations in the future.


Susanne

Photo Source

EduTech Wiki vs Tulanepadova Wiki

Last week, our task was it to contribute to a public wiki (EduTech Wiki on educational technologies). In my eyes, it was a great experience because I contributed actively in the process of worldwide information sharing. In other words, I wrote something that might be useful and interesting for other people.


On Monday, I usually attend the wiki course, that is a lesson in which we develop wikipages on different topics. Every member of the group contributes to the different pages and we always come up with a lot of interesting information. At the beginning, it was difficult to structure the pages in an appropriate way, but we soon started to improve our skills.


We realized that, in order to avoid repetitions and annoy the readers, it is very important to read what the peers have written before. This basic rule was fundamental for the contribution to the public wik,i as well: I first read carefully what others had already written and than added new pieces of information.


One big difference between our university wiki and the public wiki is certainly the audience. I think most of us have (consciously or unconsciously) a certain readership in mind when they write something. When I do my contribution to the university wiki page I know that, with a few exceptions, only my teacher and classmates are going to read what I have written. This does not mean that I work less, but I know that if they do not understand something they can always ask for further explanations. This not possible when you write on a public wiki, as the readership is much larger and you have to write in such a way that it can be understood by the majority of the readers. In order to achieve this aim, I sent an e-mail with the my contribution to two fiends of mine and asked them about their opinion. This was a good way of getting useful feedback. In addition, our classmates gave us useful tips of how to improve the page.


I have to say that I learned a lot about wikis during this semester attending the wiki lessons and now I am even able to contribute to a public wiki and share information in an active way. To sum up, the most important thing is it to keep in mind the readership, trying to explain the ideas in a clear and structured way. Moreover, things are much more easier if someone gives you feedback.

It was a nice experience

Susanne

Reflective Blogging 6

Wow this week it is easy to do the reflective blogging. Unfortunately we did the last skype exchange and I am quite sad about that, because I really liked it to do this exchanges and I think they were very useful in order to improve our language skills and our cultural knowledge.

The good thing about our last skype exchange was that we did the exchange with a video camera, that meant that we could see each other!!! I really wanted to participate in this last exchange and when I finished my exam (I had an exam this day) I hurried up in order to make it to lesson. It was fun! As I wrote in the last posts I talked to different people during the skype exchange and it was so nice to see what they look like!!! It is always nice when you are able to associate a face to a voice, I think.

Obviously it was a bit strange and when we had to talk I felt quite nervous and not that comfortable because we had to talk in front of the whole class. Anyway, a part from blushing and experiencing some embarrassing seconds, I really enjoyed it :-)! If I was a teacher I would organize skype exchanges, they are fantastic!!! Thank you sooooooo much, Sarah! (I know that we should not address the reflective blogging to somebody but I couldn’t hold my horses:-))

Today, I surfed the net looking for a picture of the Tulane University and I was really impressed by the pictures. The university is sooooooooo beautiful. It looks like a building in a Harry Potter film. Well, it is better not to write anything about the comparison between the universities from a aesthetical point of view...:-)) I'm joking, I would never complain about my University... On the contrary, I have to say that the video camera worked very well and we had no technical problems during the exchange!

Susanne

Photo Source

Reflective Blogging 5

The next Skype Exchange will be the last one and therefore I want to write about this experience. When we did the first Skype exchange, I was quite nervous because I did not really know what to say to a person that I had never met before. It was a strange feeling. “What if everything goes wrong? What if I cannot utter a word? What if the other person asks me a lot of questions which I cannot answer?” These were basically the thoughts that crossed my mind when I entered the classroom (I’m not that pessimistic normally – I just had a bad day).

I started to talk to my classmates and I realized that they felt quite the same way. We logged in on Skype, creating a new account and talked about the questions to ask our American peers. “If I don’t know what to say I’ll read one of those questions,” I thought.

Finally, they were calling us. “Hello?” “Hello can you hear me?” “I’m Nichole.” “Hi Nichole, I’m Susanne!” Surprisingly, it was not difficult and she sounded really nice. I suddenly felt at ease and had no more doubts about what to say. It was just an enjoyable conversation between two girls of the same age talking about their different life experiences. I nearly forgot about the questions…;-)

After this first skype exchange I brimmed over with enthusiasm for having had the opportunity to speak with a native speaker for almost one hour. It was an amazing experience. We left the classroom, but we went on talking about what we had learnt from our American peers. We all enjoyed this first exchange.

The following week, I had to attend another class and could not participate in the Skype exchange. I was very sorry about it. While most of my class mates talked to the same person every week, I had a new peer every week. I did not mind to change every time, because I enjoyed talking to different people and getting to know different points of view.

Now, I am looking forward to the last Skype exchange. We will do the last exchange all together as there will be a web cam and we will be able to see each other! I really hope I will be able to attend this lesson. I have to do an exam on Monday and, as it is oral, I do not know how long it takes me to finish, but I will do my best.

Susanne

I took this picture last september in my hometown