WEBVTT 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:04.000 [//// PLEASE DO NOT ALTER THE NUMBER OF LINES][Vance Stevens] Welcome everybody. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:13.000 This is Vance Stevens in Abu Dhabi and we're in a Learning 2gether session on June 23rd, 2013. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.000 We have an interesting story about how this session started. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I suppose I should let the participants introduce themselves, but very briefly: 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:33.000 we're going to be talking about a MOOC, LTIS13, a cMOOC that found Learning 2gether 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 and we can talk a little bit about how that happened and how this session came about. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 But we'd like to welcome our participants. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:54.000 I'm not sure if I might leave somebody out, but we've got Fabrizio Bartoli and we've got Luisella Mori and Gioachino 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:08.000 and, I suppose, all participants of the MOOC, and we've got Lucia - let's see, she's also - Bartolotti - Lucia Bartollotti. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.000 And if anybody else is here, they can introduce themselves. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Rita has joined us from Argentina and Claire has joined us from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:29.000 And so, let the people in LTIS13 introduce themselves. How are you today? 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000 [Fabrizio Bartoli] Hello everybody, I'm Fabrizio Bartoli and I'm a teacher. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:49.000 I teach English as a foreign language here, in Acireale with children between 11 and 13 at the scuola media. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:59.000 I joined this MOOC a few weeks ago and - we're going to talk about it in a few minutes. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000 I leave the mike to Luisa maybe. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 Or Lucia, do you want to introduce yourself? 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:24.000 I don't - I can go on, but I think we're having a round in introducing ourselves, am I right? 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:35.000 [Vance Stevens] Yeah: let's -- anybody who wants to speak, introduce themselves and say why you're here. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:40.000 That includes Rita and anybody else just joining us. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:52.000 [Claude Almansi] Sono Claude e -- I am Claude and I am also a participant in the LTIS13 MOOC. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.000 I'll leave the mike to someone else as well. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:05.000 [Luisella Mori] I'm Luisella from Italy and I'm also a participant in this MOOC. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:20.000 [Vance Stevens] OK, well, I'll tell the interesting story about how LTIS13 found Learning 2gether. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:31.000 Errh, as you know, I just ported all our Posterous recordings, our archives of Learning 2gether into WordPress 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:39.000 and it was - yes, oh, Lucia, now we didn't hear you. Let me get you to introduce yourself, you press the Talk button. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:47.000 The Talk button is just below the big black space: it probably says "Vance Stevens" on it right now. So you can try. Go ahead. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:55.000 [Lucia Bartolotti] OK, now -- Oh yes, now you can hear me: I can see the icon of the microphone. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:00.000 OK, this is Lucia from Trieste, which is in the North of Italy. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 I'm very glad to be here and let's see what we can do together. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:11.000 [Vance Stevens] Great, OK. So nice to meet all of you. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:21.000 There's a feature in WordPress that allows people -- well, first of all, I should say that I'm getting quite -- 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.000 when I started the WordPress blog -- I'm getting a lot of spam posts. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 So I'm a little bit wary about things that are coming to my e-mail. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:38.000 And one of those things that started coming was I found people from this MOOC were reposting my blogs 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:47.000 and I wasn't sure why they might do that -- maybe I can find the link with the comments in a moment, where you can see how it happened -- 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:58.000 but I didn't understand what they were doing, but Lucia came -- commented on my comment and explained that they had just started this MOOC. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.000 And they seemed like friendly people, as cMOOC people are, so -- 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:11.000 and we are a MOOC-like kind of group, we have something called Electronic Village Online, 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:16.000 which you surely, from Italy, are welcome to join us. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:25.000 We can talk more about that later, but it's a serious of lots of -- it's been going on since 2001, I think. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.000 So for the last 10 years, there have been annual sessions, but we can tell you more about that. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:40.000 But it's kind of a MOOC, so we're -- the people in our group are trying very much to share information with one another across the world. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:56.000 And so, that's how we hooked up and Lucia and Fabrizio and Luisella and Claude and Gioachino - I'm sorry I'm mispronouncing this -- 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:03.000 but in any event, they all participated in the MOOC and they agreed to come and join us to tell us more about it. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.000 So I think that's what Fabrizio is going to start to do right now. (6:07) 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:19.000 [Fabrizio] I happened to reblog a post with an interesting webinar and... 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And that's what I usually do, I mean, I just find something interesting on the Web 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:32.000 - it might be a webinar , or a resource or a tutorial about a Web tool - 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:42.000 and either I bookmark on Diigo and then share it with my -- with the group, I mean, or on my blog. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:51.000 And I was in this - it is a group-- a MOOC and it is a Diigo group as well. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.000 And so I thought they might be interested in joining. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:04.000 So I just did it. It was a bit naive maybe, but I just reblogged it without any comments. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:11.000 And after that I thought, OK, it was a bit rude of me, not saying anything, why and all this stuff 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:20.000 You hardly ever have the time to do all that ... you just, you know,click the button and go on to the next thing. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:28.000 But it was, it was nice, it was -- you know, we had the chance to meet together 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:40.000 and I had the chance to meet Vance again, because I followed one of his webinars with the EVO session this year 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:54.000 and I thought it was a great chance to put the two things together, two really big events. And with really experienced people. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:06.000 [Vance Stevens] Well, I'm quite interested in your MOOC, and especially this document that you and Lucia - and Claude I believe - have been working on 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:13.000 and that's the one that's on the screen - on the webshare right now. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.000 And if you scroll through it, you can find that -- let me read something from it if I can find it. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:26.000 There's a philosophy: "Who should join this MOOC?" Let me see if I can find it, just scrolling down. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:34.000 But that's worth commenting on if I - I'm getting way down here. Here we go. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.000 "Potential inhabitants of the MOOC: 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:43.000 Those who fear everything will disappear if they press the wrong key: this village is for them. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:47.000 Those who are thinking 'Where the deuce are the instructions?' 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Well, they don't have to like this method, maybe this method is not for them." 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:57.000 [paraphrasing] There are different ways to do these things... They might decide to go somewhere else, but this is a rich and varied way of working. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:01.000 "On the contrary, those who are fed up with strict instructions" 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:10.000 [paraphrasing] who will see different points of view and engage in critical thinking, will like this MOOC. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.000 "Those who already know it all don't really need to be here", of course. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.000 I like the way that's expressed. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:25.000 "Those who think they're going to get some university credits here", they're wasting their time anyway. [quote marks checked] So 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:32.000 you can see that there is a philosophy here that's very much in keeping with George Siemens's philosophy of MOOC. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:43.000 He says that he likes this way of teaching, because he thinks that chaos is necessary in learning 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.000 and where, as you've said, where the instructions are already there, 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:57.000 George Siemens says that the instructor is setting the paths for the student to walk and the student learns better if the student finds his own path. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:08.000 So that's one of-- his famous philosophy in an interview he gave with Howard Rheingold, he expressed it like that. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:19.000 So, well, tell us more about your MOOC: how did your MOOC get started, and - oh, someone has just shifted the screen over to Learning 2gether, 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:26.000 which is what we're doing right now: this event, you can see, is our June 23rd event that's announced here. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:34.000 So, how did you start the MOOC? How did you come to participate in it? What did you learn from it? And so on. (10:34) 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:46.000 [Lucia] OK, so I'll start. I'm a member of teachers' network, which is called "La scuola che funziona" 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:49.000 - in English it is "the school that works" - 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:54.000 and they sent a newsletter, informing all members that this thing was going to start. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.000 So I just registered. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:04.000 I didn't expect anything because I was sure I would leave in a couple of days. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:10.000 So I said "Well, I'm just going to lurk and see what happens," and then I got hooked. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:19.000 And this is very much the philosophy of our professor. He said sometime during the course: 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:28.000 "We want to hook our students, and then to hold them, and then to launch them into new worlds. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:37.000 This is the only way we can convince them to face the challenge and try and learn. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.000 And this is very true for all students, even our students, I think. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.000 On to somebody else. [11.51] 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:57.000 [Fabrizio] I don't know if anybody else would like to have a go with the microphone? 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.000 Otherwise I can go on. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:19.000 I got to know about this MOOC because I was in another university course with University Line, "Lingue nella rete" 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:23.000 and they advertised the MOOC, it sounded interesting. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 It was the first one I actually had seen here in Italy. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.000 So I said: "Why not?" 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:37.000 And as I tried to explain in my "impressions" that I -- posted them beforehand -- 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:45.000 it was really different from any former experiences of MOOCs. (12:45) 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:59.000 Here, you had no fixed assignments, no -- very flexible times and as I said, a lot of talking 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:07.000 nice talking, very high quality talking about things that mattered for education, 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.000 the philosophy behind what we do when we use technology and when we try to integrate technology, 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:20.000 a lot of coding, which was something really new to me and I'm-- am willing to learn. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.000 It's a hard job. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:31.000 And a lot of people with a great experience behind, so, really a lot to learn, I mean. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:43.000 [Vance] You're probably familiar with the -- the videos of Dave Cormier. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.000 He's put up videos about how a MOOC progresses, 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:53.000 for example it starts off with declaring your intentions, why you are there in the MOOC. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:58.000 And then he works through orienting in the MOOC, 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.000 and then networking with other people, eventually collaborating with them. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:11.000 And he says that the main thing that you take away from a MOOC is the network. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:18.000 And I find that to be so true: when I interact in a MOOC, I generally meet people that I didn't know before. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.000 Did you find that to be true? I mean, your network -- 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:30.000 well, one reason I'm interested is that is because our networks collided at the WordPress blog and that brought us together. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.000 And so, here again, we increase our network, we find like-minded people 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:41.000 in other places that, you know, that gives us other people to follow and to learn more about what they do 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.000 and to bring them as -- how learning together works. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:54.000 So, did you find that you met a lot of new people in the cMOOC that you just finished? 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 Did you know each other before, the people who are here now, or did you meet just in the MOOC? 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:08.000 [Fabrizio] Ah no. Personally I didn't know anybody: I didn't know Lucia, didn't know Claude, Luisella 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:13.000 or, you know, Andreas, who is the teacher and a super teacher (15:13) 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.000 nobody at all. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:24.000 It was a pleasure because being an English teacher, I'm always searching for English resources, 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:34.000 English websites and in English language and having to do with technology and -- it's exactly the same. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:43.000 But now I'm finding out that there are lots of resources thanks to this MOOC and 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:58.000 It's true Claude: we had a ..very strong chat on the Google Drive, talking about the Italian resources and--- we'll keep on later. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:09.000 But I think, yes, things are improving a lot in Italy and there are a lot of people I didn't even know of and they are doing a good job. (16:08) 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:16.000 It was a very important chance to meet other people here in Italy, 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:27.000 doing-- getting interested and involved in technology and online courses. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:42.000 [Vance] Do you find that, as an English teacher in Italy, do you find it hard to, in your context, let's say, that is where you speak English 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.000 and all of you could address this. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:49.000 First of all, you're an English teacher. I don't really know what the others do. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.000 Were the people in the MOOC mostly English teachers or the -- 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.000 For example, Rita teaches English, Claire teaches English, I'm an English teacher. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:06.000 So, we're like-minded in that way and we expand our networks through participation in MOOCs, and also in learning 2gether, 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:12.000 and in a community we call WebHeads, and other communities that we follow as well, 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.000 TESOL for example, Teachers of [English to] Speakers of Other Languages. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:19.000 I met Claire first through that, many, many years ago. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:28.000 So, do you find that it's difficult to connect with like-minded teachers if you don't use a MOOC 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:35.000 or the MOOC -- did it, you know, expand your horizons to find out there other people who thought like you? [17.35] 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.000 [Lucia] Well, there are a couple of questions there. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:53.000 I already knew a few of my colleagues, here in the MOOC but the vast majority was unknown to me. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:57.000 And the vast majority was not made of teachers of English. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:02.000 I think most of them are teachers from primary school, 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:06.000 because primary school teachers are very innovative here in Italy, 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.000 they're very active and creative, 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:18.000 and so they like joining in and sharing new ideas, they are very interactive, so to speak, 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:23.000 But interaction in the cMOOC started from the start. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:31.000 I need to explain a little how it worked so that your guests can understand how it did work, 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:37.000 So it started from the professor's blog. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:43.000 He already had his blog and he used it to give us the first instructions. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:56.000 And the interesting thing is that at the second post he published, there were as many as, I think, 260-something comments. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:02.000 And people already started interacting there. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.000 So they would - they would speak to each other through comments, 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:15.000 for example: "Oh you Davide, comment number so and so, I would like to tell you this and that." 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:18.000 So interaction started from the very start. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.000 This was very interesting. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:28.000 [Vance] Did you find the comments overwhelming? 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:36.000 I notice -- I'm just looking at the figures: there were almost 500 people, thousands of comments. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.000 How do you keep up with so many comments? 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Or do you find that you can't keep up with so many comments? 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:48.000 One of the things -- one of the steps in the MOOC that Cormier points out is where you cluster. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:57.000 That is, you find half a dozen or a dozen people that you start interacting with in the MOOC, and forget the other 450. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:59.000 Did you find it worked that way? [19.59] 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:07.000 [Fabrizio] I got lost at -- right from the beginning. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:17.000 And it took me a while to see how it worked and all of this, the mail, the chat, the Diigo group and -- 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:26.000 It's quite complicated in a way, very difficult to get in touch with all of the participants. (20:26) 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:31.000 we've got a huge amount of posts and if you don't have enough time, 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:38.000 it's quite difficult to keep in touch with everything. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000 [Lucia] Well...[metallic-like noise]. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.000 Sorry: that was an ambulance going by. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:21:02.000 Ok, yes. Well, we're adults, so we all have families and we have jobs 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:05.000 and it was the end of the school year. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.000 So, it is really remarkable that we spent so many hours doing the cMooc. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.000 Really professor Formiconi had us hooked. [21.15] 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:20.000 [Vance] He sounds like a great teacher. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.000 I'm just reading again, to the bottom of your list 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:30.000 of what the cMooc, "A few figures" -- and I noticed that 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.000 some people did it for a university credit. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:40.000 That's one of -- that's an issue in Moocs is -- it's supposed to be a Massive Open Online Course 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:45.000 but it's perfectly fine if you want to run one that will accredit people. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.000 That's actually one of the problems, that Moocs don't provide credit 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.000 so people are looking into badge systems and 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.000 of course, if you can run it through a university 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.000 and get university credits that's fine. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:00.000 But the question is, are the materials open, that is, 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:05.000 can anybody... I suppose so, you must have had 430 people 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:11.000 who were able to go freely onto the Internet and find the materials. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:13.000 [22.11] So are those materials still up there 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:16.000 in which case they will be open and anybody can go and look at them 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.000 and learn from them? Is that the way the course works? 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:29.000 [Lucia] Well, there weren't any separate materials. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.000 There were the posts that professor Formiconi published 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:43.000 and he gave us his instructions there and he commented on what we were doing and how we were doing it. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:49.000 [22.43 ] We worked through comments maybe, as you can see from the numbers there 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:54.000 and the material was made by us, the pupils. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.000 I mean, we were instructed to create.. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.000 He used this metaphor of the village 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.000 He said: Ok, we are going to build the village all together. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:12.000 In the village we're going to build houses, and the houses will be blogs that we're going to create 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:20.000 Then we're going to build roads, and this will be via a web feed aggregator. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:32.000 And so we learned to import an OPML file and to aggregate the news from the blogs 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.000 [23.32] to link the blogs together and so we had a network 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:43.000 and we didn't need any other material, in that everybody started writing on their blogs 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:48.000 and we kept going around and visiting and reading and commenting 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:57.000 and then professor Formiconi introduced the next thing, or the next task which was to use tags 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:04.000 and he presented us with the idea of classifying the information 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 and wrote a long philosophical work about classifying and how you classify, 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:15.000 what folksonomia is and so on, so we started classifying quite freely. [24.13] 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:20.000 Then something kept on emerging - kept on emerging. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:33.000 And so it was creative. It was chaotic on the one side but very clearly structured at the same time on the other side. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:39.000 So, I hope I've been clear about how the thing went on.[24.39] 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:49.000 [Fabrizio] I agree with Lucia and I just wanted to say thanks again--- 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:56.000 It was a bit shocking at the beginning, the difference between this Mooc and the others. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:03.000 I didn't even dare to ask where are the assignments and where is the syllabus, 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:16.000 because there wasn't a blog or a Moodle block where you have all the assignments divided in weeks and all the rest, 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:23.000 the usual way you find in an online course or in a Mooc. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:35.000 It looked, it seemed very improvised. I'm sure it wasn't, but that was the way they chose. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:44.000 [25.34] Having things to ...- how can I say - to grow along. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:56.000 We had to find our way through the course, we had to pick up that pulse with the right assignments 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.000 and try to do it by yourself 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:07.000 There wasn't even...as far as I know,a proper evaluation or assessment 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:09.000 no fixed days, 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:15.000 you know, first week you do this, second week you do that and then you get graded 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:25.000 and things are going on, now, we keep doing that, that's a great thing, it never stops. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:36.000 [Vance] Yes, actually, Lucia's question was she making things clear: yes, 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:43.000 and the course as I understand is over, We are coming into summer now, so... 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:50.000 But you're continuing to meet in your community, your community continues, that's really interesting. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:56.000 I have a question about the OPML aggregation: 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:05.000 how would you access each other's blogs? Is there a link where the aggregation occurred, 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000 so that you could go to one place and see the posts? 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:14.000 How would you see the aggregation of everybody's blogs? How did you see that? 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:29.000 [Claude] Can I try? The OPML file gathers all the RSS feeds of our blogs, 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:38.000 so when you add that OPML file to an aggregator, for example Bloglines or RSSowl 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.000 then you could see everything that's happening in the blogs, 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:48.000 because there's a feed for the posts, and a feed for the comments for each blog. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.000 So it's a very long file, but it works. Is that clear? 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.000 [Vance] Yes, that's clear. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:13.000 So, I'm going to really miss Google Reader. They're threatening to get rid of it, but that's what I would, erh -- 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:21.000 because with Google Reader you can... I suppose you can use an OPML file, within Bloglines, yes, OK. 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:33.000 So... Yes, I can see how you can use an RSS reader to read an OPML file into your... into a reader. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:38.000 So, that's very good, that's... getting the basics. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:50.000 And then -- yes, ok, anything that aggregates content, anything that will take an RSS feed, I think you can put it there. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:55.000 So that's really good, that you got the building block, and then you learned how to build on that. 00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:05.000 And I also liked, as you said, I like the analogy of building the cities and then the streets connecting them 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:08.000 I think that's ... that's really interesting. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:13.000 It sounds very much like what George Siemens would set up 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:16.000 and one thing that fascinates me about Moocs is, 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:23.000 of course the big problem is, Where is the centre? Where do you go, that's what Fabrizio has been expressing, 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.000 confusion at first. How do you orient in a Mooc? 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.000 You have to find the streets, you have to find the the ways... the highways that people are using 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:42.000 and of course you can't find it all, which, that's the way the world is, you don't ever learn everything. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:53.000 [29.46] So, anyway, if you can speak of any techniques that helped you to find the things that other people were doing 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:56.000 the OPML file would be one, you could see their blog posts 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:59.000 I note that you must have shared bookmarks. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:05.000 You said 990 tags produced: so, can you tell me about that? 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.000 What were -- you were tagging all over the place, obviously 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:14.000 but when you say "tags were produced", how did you find the 990 tags, let's say? 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:28.000 [Fabrizio] As I was trying to explain in the chat, I've also tried to - I've been trying since when things started 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.000 to put things together, to put the blogs together, for example, [30:32] 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:39.000 All the blogs were too many, actually. At present one of the problems is, there's more than 200. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:42.000 With then all the usual tools 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:49.000 we used to bookmark, and-or visual book -- have visual bookmarking of the resources 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:57.000 So, there's a padlet board that is available inside the Google Drive and in the wikispace, 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:02.000 and I've also tried to do something on Pinterest 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:13.000 And we've got a Diigo group for the MOOC that's working very very well 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:21.000 And I'm also trying to have a map with the new Google map engine 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:30.000 using the spreadsheet the teacher kindly shared through the Google Drive 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:35.000 and it is interesting, you can have all the blogs on a map 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:46.000 and being based on a spreadsheet, you can work on it, now, have them on different layers according to the tags, 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:58.000 that is, the main tags, the secondary-- and later we... I think we can have them on different layers, so 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:07.000 as regards the kind of school, primary schools, the secondary schools or the language: 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:14.000 something interesting to work on for the future. For me, at least. I'm studying that. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:31.000 [32.22 Lucia] It is very interesting to see what professor Formiconi did to promote interaction between us. 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:38.000 Sometimes he would encourage us to meet in order to do some very practical things 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:47.000 For example there was a moment when he was introducing some very very basic XML code 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:59.000 and so he opened a pad in piratepad.net and he had us go and watch there and experiment 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.000 on the shared pad: so an experiment with some shared writing. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:13.000 At moments, some other moments he would just stop and step back and watch and wait 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:19.000 and he used silence in a very active way. I know it sounds strange 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:29.000 but he would use silence and waiting as an active tool in order to give us time to know each other. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:35.000 So... It was great fun! I was very tired in the evening, 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:42.000 I would do the washing up and then I would sit in front of my computer and then dive into Bloglines, 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:51.000 literally dive among the blogs and read it here and there and contact people and read a comment here and there, 00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:01.000 and very soon I found the people who were most similar to me in a way or who had similar interests 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:08.000 and it was clear that we were interacting more often than with other people. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:13.000 I'm quite aware that I don't know most of the people who were there 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:21.000 and I mean to go on exploring, because I think that there's riches there in the course. 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:24.000 The course will go on living for a long time for me, I think. 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:31.000 [34.29 Vance] Look, that's very interesting. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:33.000 Steven Downes, I'm sure you're familiar with him, 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:45.000 says that the teacher's role is to model and demonstrate and the students' role is to practice and reflect. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:54.000 And Dave Warlick says that teachers are really master learners, and to me that means 00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:00.000 that teachers are both teachers and learners at the same time, 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:05.000 that is, they're always modelling, demonstrating, practising and reflecting. 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:14.000 So it works like you make coffee, you know: you percolate these four things, and do that all the time. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:23.000 So this is obviously a teacher who models and demonstrates and then you practise and reflect 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:29.000 and with your students it's your turn to model and demonstrate. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:36.000 And I'm wondering, have you applied these techniques in courses that you yourselves have created? Have you-- 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:42.000 How have you applied the techniques you learned from your professor in your work 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:47.000 and... Not yet, says Lucia. Ok. Or maybe, how would you anticipate doing that, 00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:53.000 how would you structure courses, so that you can use some of these things that have been modelled to you 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:59.000 and as you say, you're reflecting now and you're thinking - how can I .. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:06.000 I'm learning so much from this, how can I do it, how can I... so, I don't go into my first classroom 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:08.000 and tell the students: "Open your textbooks", you know? 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:14.000 How would you make that leak now into your own work, your own courses that you teach? 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:22.000 [Lucia] Well, this is a very hard question, Vance, because... 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:35.000 For example, I teach in a high school, and in this high school we have a lot of limitations I would say. 00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:43.000 I don't feel free to create and explore. If you like.... you have to do things, in a way. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:55.000 So I feel the most important lesson I'm taking from this MOOC is, you really need to hook your students, 00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000 you need to create something that hooks them, so that they will be willing to explore. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:11.000 Actually with what we - with what I do every day, I try to be creative, but I'm not very successful, in fact, 00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:21.000 and so my students, who are supposed to be digital natives and are not... 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:26.000 resist me, they push back. So, this is going to be a great challenge. 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.000 [37.30 Vance] Maybe Rita.. She's still here, she's commenting on the chat, 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:38.000 maybe you can talk a little bit about how you motivate your students 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:44.000 because we've been participating in a community of practice called Webheads for a long time, 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:53.000 and some of the things that we do to help each other to learn, we apply to our own students. 00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:00.000 I guess I'm thinking of writing matrix (?[metrics?]) just off the top of my head but I'm sure there are other things as well. 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:05.000 Maybe Rita you would like to address how you use the things that you've learned 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:08.000 from interacting with other teachers, in your own courses. 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.000 [38.10 Rita] Yes Vance thank you very much for giving me the floor. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:21.000 Yes, you know, we started working together on this integration of technology many many years ago, 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:35.000 and in fact when I started, that was about 2002 or 03, nobody here was really into technology, 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:40.000 so I must have looked to people as a kind of a freak. 00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:48.000 But anyhow I tried to understand that, well, my students were new to this as well 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:57.000 and the crucial thing was motivating them, to make them feel this question, I mean 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:04.000 the thing that they had been learning English for so many years and using it in a very limited context 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:10.000 the environment in which we teach our students is very constrained, I mean 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.000 we just do everything within the four walls of the classroom 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:21.000 and in Argentina, same as in Italy, both... maybe in Italy it's a little bit different, 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:27.000 but we don't have too many people ready on the streets to speak naturally with students in English 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:33.000 so students are not used to practising their English in an everyday context. 00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:39.000 So I tried to make them realize the importance of their being learning English for so many years 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:48.000 and I also tried to see what it was that motivated them to use English in natural contexts [39.48] 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:57.000 such as, for example, the possibility of getting together with other students from other countries 00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:02.000 with whom they would be able to interact, to pass on information, share experience 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:14.000 even see in fact, what life was, in other places, in other countries, and share in what they were interested in 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:21.000 so I tried to see what it was that each group would be motivated by 00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:31.000 and by.. by saying this, I'm really implying that the most important thing in teaching with technology 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:34.000 is motivating our students, 00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:41.000 because we can see that on a computer they learn [check] how to really work with a programme, with a new tool 00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:46.000 but the most challenging thing for us teachers is motivation, 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:50.000 how to see what students would be interested in, 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:59.000 what appeals to students, to come up with a tool and with a new task that they will enjoy working on. 00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:01.000 In fact that's it, really. 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:09.000 [Vance] And I think it's so important, as our Italian colleagues pointed out, 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:16.000 that you let the students build their own highways, you know, put [up] their own content. 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:23.000 I really like that kind of concept, where the teacher doesn't build the course 00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:30.000 the teacher sort of makes a Petri dish, and then the students populate it, you know, 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:39.000 and you find out their interests that way. So obviously, they've been motivated. That's really interesting. [41.39] 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:47.000 Ok, we have about 10 minutes, or even 13 or 20 minutes 00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:53.000 it's really up to you, we don't have any... nobody closes us down at any time. 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:57.000 [Referring to the shared screen] So, well, I've put a web page up in the share... 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:03.000 I think in one of my versions of it, there is -- that from English, 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:06.000 but I don't know, maybe you can tell a bit about this page, 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:12.000 this must be the page that... organized the MOOC, that announced the MOOC 00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:17.000 so you can comment on it for those of us who aren't so good with Italian. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.000 [42.25] So, I'll really st-- oh I'm sorry, I'm having trouble releasing the mike, let me try that. 00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:37.000 [Vance] Oh, not sure what's going on here, let me just -- [clattering noise] 00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:41.000 I'm so sorry I'm not able to release the mike. 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:47.000 It's not responding ...] Oh, oh, I see, I've got an error message on my computer also, 00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:51.000 I might have to go back, I might have to come back in as a session moderator, 00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:56.000 I might click "close programme", I'm not sure what'll happen, but anyway, I'll do that. 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:04.000 Yeah, I think I've solved the problem. 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:11.000 So, the page I've just put up: this is an announcement of the MOOC, in case there's anything to comment there, 00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:17.000 you can, if not, we can pass on to some other things we can show you. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:23.000 Are you ready for any other questions that anybody else has... 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:25.000 Would you like to ask questions of each other? 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:33.000 [43.27 Lucia, referring to the shared screen] What you can see is the teacher's blog. 00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:39.000 So, this is where he wrote his tasks and comments and philosophy and everything. 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:49.000 We also had video tutorials, he published 23 video tutorials here. 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:58.000 [43.52 Vance] Ah, ok, yes, I was confusing Lucia with Rita, I wasn't sure who was that. 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:04.000 OK: I'm going to pull out something that one of our teachers is doing. 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:12.000 We have a teacher in Amazonia, who has been using some of these techniques with her own students. 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:19.000 And recently in Brazil they've been having protests, and so she organized her students to... 00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:25.000 She's already connected with Webheads on a few of her students' projects, 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:28.000 Webheads had been commenting on her students' blogs, 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:37.000 but the one they did just recently, she said it was the best thing she had ever done in her career, 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:40.000 and that was getting the students to put online... 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Because they've found an audience, you know, so they are motivated to connect with the audience. 00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:50.000 The audience in Webheads is responding to them, you know, commenting on their blogs, 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:53.000 and with Cintia's encouragement 00:44:53.000 --> 00:45:01.000 And so I'll find that URL and put it there, and show you some stuff from somebody in our community 00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:06.000 who is motivating her students using these techniques, give me a moment here. 00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.000 Please continue. [pause] 00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:19.000 Ok, keep in mind we're recording, we're hoping to have the conversation continue. 00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:23.000 Oh, I should say, by the way, that this is an event of... 00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:29.000 Ah, well yes, ok, that's a good one. Let me... I'll share that. 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:37.000 That's not the one I was looking for, but this is actually a MOOC that we participate in, 00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:42.000 "Goodbye Gutenberg", this is something that started.out as a multiliteraces course 00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:49.000 and, ah, I'm just trying to type its URL in here. 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:59.000 OK: yeah, this is... we've turned this into a MOOC concept. It was... What this is, it's a... 00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:06.000 Let's...somebody just switched this back to... Yep, ok, 00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:11.000 Ok, maybe I can grab this ... 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:19.000 We're having more technical difficulties here. We have ... one of the moderators... 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:26.000 switched us back to the - to us off the 'web share' 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:34.000 So now I'm trying to get the URL back in there. Ok, so this is the Goodbye Gutenberg blog here. 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:40.000 Ok, so, there used to be a way to put this into the text chat. 00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:42.000 Oh, you've put it in there already. [46.42] 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:52.000 So that's -- what that tries to do is to try to get participants to make -- to keep ePortfolios. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:56.000 Is that a concept that you would think that your teacher had? 00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:01.000 You know, it could be, what you're doing is making ePortfolios, that is, commenting on your own learning: 00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:03.000 that is, in a way, an ePortfolio. 00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:09.000 An ePortfolio can be just about anything, depending on how you like to interpret it. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:19.000 But in this particular Web page here, you'll find the links to Dave Cormier's videos. 00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:21.000 - maybe I can find those for you - 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:27.000 there is a -- and also a reference to George Siemens's interview with Howard Rheingold. 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:30.000 I think that will be here, on this page. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:32.000 I just clicked on "Getting started." 00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:40.000 And there, you find a link to Siemens' conversation with Howard Rheingold 00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.000 and also Dave Cormier's videos. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:48.000 So there are some links that you can follow there. 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:55.000 OK, I'm gonna go back to searching for the page I was looking for. 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:06.000 OK: I've found it. There's going to be a little dead space in the recording there, but that's OK. 00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:10.000 OK, so this is one of the teachers who interacts with us 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:15.000 -- oh, it looks like it's in Portuguese, but of course, you can translate that. 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:16.000 But in any event, her students have posted some videos. 00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:29.000 I suppose "Our generation does care," that's the one that she had her students do. 00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:33.000 That's it, yeah, so that link will come up - should come up in a minute. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:38.000 I'm not sure if I -- it doesn't seem to be hyperlinking, but anyway, 00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:42.000 maybe you can search for "Our generation does care" on YouTube. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:52.000 OK, so, any further comments, coming up to the top of the hour? 00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:58.000 Claire is saying you can click on the YouTube text and then it will work. 00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:01.000 Oh yes, I see that's true, it does. OK, yes, gotcha. 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:14.000 Yes, it just an example: this is a teacher who's been interacting with us and -- well, with her students -- 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:18.000 Oh, it came on in sound, I'm hearing it now. 00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:21.000 Now I'll have to turn that off, somehow. 00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:23.000 Are you hearing sound as well? 00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:36.000 I'm getting inundated with audio, that I'm not -- unable to turn off, I'm not sure how it came on. 00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:38.000 Oh, here it is. 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:41.000 Ah, I found it. 00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:46.000 [some audio in background] 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:51.000 [Vance] Hem [laughs]. Oh well. Yeah, I found it, OK, there we go. 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.000 OK, it launched in a window and it was blaring in my ear, 00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:04.000 and I was unable to find the window that launched to switch it off. 00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:18.000 OK. So, what we do when the mic -- when people stop interacting, you're so welcome, 00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:23.000 Lucia is saying thank you. Please you can please say thank you or say goodbye, 00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:29.000 say your last remarks in the recording, so we can have that to end our recording with. 00:50:29.000 --> 00:50:33.000 And this will all go into learning2gether.net, 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:36.000 and that's where we archive everything, 00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:41.000 and we'll make an Elluminate recording, which you can have almost right away, 00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:44.000 as soon as everybody leaves the room, that Elluminate recording gets made. 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:51.000 I'll post the link on Twitter, I'll post it to the #ltis13 hashtag, so you can find it there 00:50:52.000 --> 00:51:02.000 and so please, if you want to say goodbye, you can do that now, and thank you very much for coming. 00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:05.000 It's been really a nice session, I really enjoyed this. 00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:12.000 [Lucia] OK, thank you, Vance, it was nice being here, 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:17.000 and it was very useful having to prepare everything for this event, 00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:26.000 because it helped me clarify ideas and it added some value to what I was doing, to what I did. 00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:30.000 So -- and it will be a pleasure to be able to go to your blog, 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:37.000 and then be able to listen again and think again about what everybody said. 00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:39.000 So, thank you very much. 00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:46.000 [Vance] OK, well, ciao to all our friends in Italy, 00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:53.000 and thank you for coming, and I've just put the learning2gether.net website up, where-- 00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:57.000 you'll be able to go there and see the blog post of this event, 00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:04.000 which will have the link to the Elluminate recording and also, will have an MP file that you can download. 00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:09.000 So, as soon as everything goes quiet, I'll stop the recording 00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:15.000 and when everybody leaves the room, then that recording will get put online 00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:17.000 and I'll start processing it from there. 00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:24.000 So thanks again: I really appreciate your -- and nice to meet you all, and ciao - bye bye.