Fabrizio Bartoli, Lucia Bartolotti organize a discussion of the cMOOC ltis13
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0:03 - 0:04[//// PLEASE DO NOT ALTER THE NUMBER OF LINES][Vance Stevens] Welcome everybody.
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0:04 - 0:13This is Vance Stevens in Abu Dhabi and we're in a Learning 2gether session on June 23rd, 2013.
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0:13 - 0:18We have an interesting story about how this session started.
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0:18 - 0:23I suppose I should let the participants introduce themselves, but very briefly:
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0:23 - 0:33we're going to be talking about a MOOC, LTIS13, a cMOOC that found Learning 2gether
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0:33 - 0:39and we can talk a little bit about how that happened and how this session came about.
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0:39 - 0:41But we'd like to welcome our participants.
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0:42 - 0:54I'm not sure if I might leave somebody out, but we've got Fabrizio Bartoli and we've got Luisella Mori and Gioachino
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0:55 - 1:08and, I suppose, all participants of the MOOC, and we've got Lucia - let's see, she's also - Bartolotti - Lucia Bartollotti.
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1:08 - 1:12And if anybody else is here, they can introduce themselves.
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1:12 - 1:18Rita has joined us from Argentina and Claire has joined us from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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1:19 - 1:29And so, let the people in LTIS13 introduce themselves. How are you today?
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1:33 - 1:38[Fabrizio Bartoli] Hello everybody, I'm Fabrizio Bartoli and I'm a teacher.
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1:38 - 1:49I teach English as a foreign language here, in Acireale with children between 11 and 13 at the scuola media.
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1:50 - 1:59I joined this MOOC a few weeks ago and - we're going to talk about it in a few minutes.
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1:59 - 2:04I leave the mike to Luisa maybe.
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2:15 - 2:18Or Lucia, do you want to introduce yourself?
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2:19 - 2:24I don't - I can go on, but I think we're having a round in introducing ourselves, am I right?
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2:28 - 2:35[Vance Stevens] Yeah: let's -- anybody who wants to speak, introduce themselves and say why you're here.
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2:35 - 2:40That includes Rita and anybody else just joining us.
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2:45 - 2:52[Claude Almansi] Sono Claude e -- I am Claude and I am also a participant in the LTIS13 MOOC.
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2:54 - 2:56I'll leave the mike to someone else as well.
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2:59 - 3:05[Luisella Mori] I'm Luisella from Italy and I'm also a participant in this MOOC.
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3:12 - 3:20[Vance Stevens] OK, well, I'll tell the interesting story about how LTIS13 found Learning 2gether.
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3:21 - 3:31Errh, as you know, I just ported all our Posterous recordings, our archives of Learning 2gether into WordPress
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3:31 - 3:39and it was - yes, oh, Lucia, now we didn't hear you. Let me get you to introduce yourself, you press the Talk button.
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3:40 - 3:47The Talk button is just below the big black space: it probably says "Vance Stevens" on it right now. So you can try. Go ahead.
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3:49 - 3:55[Lucia Bartolotti] OK, now -- Oh yes, now you can hear me: I can see the icon of the microphone.
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3:55 - 4:00OK, this is Lucia from Trieste, which is in the North of Italy.
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4:00 - 4:04I'm very glad to be here and let's see what we can do together.
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4:08 - 4:11[Vance Stevens] Great, OK. So nice to meet all of you.
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4:13 - 4:21There's a feature in WordPress that allows people -- well, first of all, I should say that I'm getting quite --
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4:21 - 4:25when I started the WordPress blog -- I'm getting a lot of spam posts.
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4:25 - 4:29So I'm a little bit wary about things that are coming to my e-mail.
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4:29 - 4:38And one of those things that started coming was I found people from this MOOC were reposting my blogs
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4:38 - 4:47and 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 --
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4:47 - 4:58but I didn't understand what they were doing, but Lucia came -- commented on my comment and explained that they had just started this MOOC.
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4:58 - 5:02And they seemed like friendly people, as cMOOC people are, so --
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5:03 - 5:11and we are a MOOC-like kind of group, we have something called Electronic Village Online,
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5:11 - 5:16which you surely, from Italy, are welcome to join us.
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5:16 - 5:25We can talk more about that later, but it's a serious of lots of -- it's been going on since 2001, I think.
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5:25 - 5:30So for the last 10 years, there have been annual sessions, but we can tell you more about that.
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5:30 - 5:40But 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.
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5:40 - 5:56And so, that's how we hooked up and Lucia and Fabrizio and Luisella and Claude and Gioachino - I'm sorry I'm mispronouncing this --
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5:56 - 6:03but in any event, they all participated in the MOOC and they agreed to come and join us to tell us more about it.
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6:03 - 6:07So I think that's what Fabrizio is going to start to do right now. (6:07)
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6:12 - 6:19[Fabrizio] I happened to reblog a post with an interesting webinar and...
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6:19 - 6:27And that's what I usually do, I mean, I just find something interesting on the Web
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6:27 - 6:32- it might be a webinar , or a resource or a tutorial about a Web tool -
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6:32 - 6:42and either I bookmark on Diigo and then share it with my -- with the group, I mean, or on my blog.
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6:42 - 6:51And I was in this - it is a group-- a MOOC and it is a Diigo group as well.
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6:51 - 6:55And so I thought they might be interested in joining.
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6:55 - 7:04So I just did it. It was a bit naive maybe, but I just reblogged it without any comments.
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7:04 - 7:11And after that I thought, OK, it was a bit rude of me, not saying anything, why and all this stuff
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7:12 - 7:20You hardly ever have the time to do all that ... you just, you know,click the button and go on to the next thing.
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7:21 - 7:28But it was, it was nice, it was -- you know, we had the chance to meet together
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7:28 - 7:40and I had the chance to meet Vance again, because I followed one of his webinars with the EVO session this year
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7:40 - 7:54and I thought it was a great chance to put the two things together, two really big events. And with really experienced people.
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7:58 - 8:06[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
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8:07 - 8:13and that's the one that's on the screen - on the webshare right now.
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8:13 - 8:19And if you scroll through it, you can find that -- let me read something from it if I can find it.
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8:20 - 8:26There's a philosophy: "Who should join this MOOC?" Let me see if I can find it, just scrolling down.
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8:28 - 8:34But that's worth commenting on if I - I'm getting way down here. Here we go.
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8:35 - 8:37"Potential inhabitants of the MOOC:
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8:37 - 8:43Those who fear everything will disappear if they press the wrong key: this village is for them.
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8:43 - 8:47Those who are thinking 'Where the deuce are the instructions?'
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8:47 - 8:51Well, they don't have to like this method, maybe this method is not for them."
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8:51 - 8:57[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.
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8:58 - 9:01"On the contrary, those who are fed up with strict instructions"
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9:04 - 9:10[paraphrasing] who will see different points of view and engage in critical thinking, will like this MOOC.
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9:11 - 9:15"Those who already know it all don't really need to be here", of course.
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9:15 - 9:17I like the way that's expressed.
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9:19 - 9:25"Those who think they're going to get some university credits here", they're wasting their time anyway. [quote marks checked] So
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9:25 - 9:32you can see that there is a philosophy here that's very much in keeping with George Siemens's philosophy of MOOC.
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9:32 - 9:43He says that he likes this way of teaching, because he thinks that chaos is necessary in learning
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9:43 - 9:48and where, as you've said, where the instructions are already there,
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9:48 - 9:57George 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.
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9:57 - 10:08So that's one of-- his famous philosophy in an interview he gave with Howard Rheingold, he expressed it like that.
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10:08 - 10:19So, 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,
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10:19 - 10:26which is what we're doing right now: this event, you can see, is our June 23rd event that's announced here.
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10:26 - 10:34So, 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)
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10:38 - 10:46[Lucia] OK, so I'll start. I'm a member of teachers' network, which is called "La scuola che funziona"
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10:46 - 10:49- in English it is "the school that works" -
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10:49 - 10:54and they sent a newsletter, informing all members that this thing was going to start.
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10:54 - 10:56So I just registered.
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10:57 - 11:04I didn't expect anything because I was sure I would leave in a couple of days.
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11:04 - 11:10So I said "Well, I'm just going to lurk and see what happens," and then I got hooked.
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11:10 - 11:19And this is very much the philosophy of our professor. He said sometime during the course:
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11:19 - 11:28"We want to hook our students, and then to hold them, and then to launch them into new worlds.
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11:28 - 11:37This is the only way we can convince them to face the challenge and try and learn.
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11:37 - 11:41And this is very true for all students, even our students, I think.
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11:42 - 11:44On to somebody else. [11.51]
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11:50 - 11:57[Fabrizio] I don't know if anybody else would like to have a go with the microphone?
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11:58 - 12:00Otherwise I can go on.
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12:04 - 12:19I got to know about this MOOC because I was in another university course with University Line, "Lingue nella rete"
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12:19 - 12:23and they advertised the MOOC, it sounded interesting.
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12:23 - 12:28It was the first one I actually had seen here in Italy.
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12:28 - 12:30So I said: "Why not?"
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12:30 - 12:37And as I tried to explain in my "impressions" that I -- posted them beforehand --
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12:38 - 12:45it was really different from any former experiences of MOOCs. (12:45)
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12:45 - 12:59Here, you had no fixed assignments, no -- very flexible times and as I said, a lot of talking
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13:00 - 13:07nice talking, very high quality talking about things that mattered for education,
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13:07 - 13:13the philosophy behind what we do when we use technology and when we try to integrate technology,
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13:13 - 13:20a lot of coding, which was something really new to me and I'm-- am willing to learn.
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13:20 - 13:22It's a hard job.
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13:22 - 13:31And a lot of people with a great experience behind, so, really a lot to learn, I mean.
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13:38 - 13:43[Vance] You're probably familiar with the -- the videos of Dave Cormier.
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13:43 - 13:47He's put up videos about how a MOOC progresses,
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13:47 - 13:53for example it starts off with declaring your intentions, why you are there in the MOOC.
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13:53 - 13:58And then he works through orienting in the MOOC,
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13:58 - 14:04and then networking with other people, eventually collaborating with them.
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14:04 - 14:11And he says that the main thing that you take away from a MOOC is the network.
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14:11 - 14:18And I find that to be so true: when I interact in a MOOC, I generally meet people that I didn't know before.
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14:18 - 14:21Did you find that to be true? I mean, your network --
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14:21 - 14:30well, one reason I'm interested is that is because our networks collided at the WordPress blog and that brought us together.
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14:30 - 14:33And so, here again, we increase our network, we find like-minded people
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14:33 - 14:41in other places that, you know, that gives us other people to follow and to learn more about what they do
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14:41 - 14:44and to bring them as -- how learning together works.
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14:45 - 14:54So, did you find that you met a lot of new people in the cMOOC that you just finished?
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14:55 - 14:59Did you know each other before, the people who are here now, or did you meet just in the MOOC?
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15:01 - 15:08[Fabrizio] Ah no. Personally I didn't know anybody: I didn't know Lucia, didn't know Claude, Luisella
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15:08 - 15:13or, you know, Andreas, who is the teacher and a super teacher (15:13)
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15:13 - 15:14nobody at all.
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15:14 - 15:24It was a pleasure because being an English teacher, I'm always searching for English resources,
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15:24 - 15:34English websites and in English language and having to do with technology and -- it's exactly the same.
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15:35 - 15:43But now I'm finding out that there are lots of resources thanks to this MOOC and
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15:43 - 15:58It's true Claude: we had a ..very strong chat on the Google Drive, talking about the Italian resources and--- we'll keep on later.
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15:58 - 16:09But 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)
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16:09 - 16:16It was a very important chance to meet other people here in Italy,
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16:17 - 16:27doing-- getting interested and involved in technology and online courses.
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16:31 - 16:42[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
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16:42 - 16:44and all of you could address this.
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16:44 - 16:49First of all, you're an English teacher. I don't really know what the others do.
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16:49 - 16:52Were the people in the MOOC mostly English teachers or the --
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16:52 - 16:57For example, Rita teaches English, Claire teaches English, I'm an English teacher.
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16:57 - 17:06So, we're like-minded in that way and we expand our networks through participation in MOOCs, and also in learning 2gether,
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17:06 - 17:12and in a community we call WebHeads, and other communities that we follow as well,
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17:13 - 17:16TESOL for example, Teachers of [English to] Speakers of Other Languages.
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17:16 - 17:19I met Claire first through that, many, many years ago.
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17:20 - 17:28So, do you find that it's difficult to connect with like-minded teachers if you don't use a MOOC
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17:28 - 17:35or the MOOC -- did it, you know, expand your horizons to find out there other people who thought like you? [17.35]
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17:41 - 17:44[Lucia] Well, there are a couple of questions there.
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17:45 - 17:53I already knew a few of my colleagues, here in the MOOC but the vast majority was unknown to me.
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17:53 - 17:57And the vast majority was not made of teachers of English.
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17:57 - 18:02I think most of them are teachers from primary school,
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18:02 - 18:06because primary school teachers are very innovative here in Italy,
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18:06 - 18:10they're very active and creative,
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18:10 - 18:18and so they like joining in and sharing new ideas, they are very interactive, so to speak,
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18:18 - 18:23But interaction in the cMOOC started from the start.
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18:23 - 18:31I need to explain a little how it worked so that your guests can understand how it did work,
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18:31 - 18:37So it started from the professor's blog.
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18:37 - 18:43He already had his blog and he used it to give us the first instructions.
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18:43 - 18:56And the interesting thing is that at the second post he published, there were as many as, I think, 260-something comments.
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18:57 - 19:02And people already started interacting there.
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19:02 - 19:07So they would - they would speak to each other through comments,
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19:07 - 19:15for example: "Oh you Davide, comment number so and so, I would like to tell you this and that."
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19:15 - 19:18So interaction started from the very start.
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19:18 - 19:20This was very interesting.
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19:24 - 19:28[Vance] Did you find the comments overwhelming?
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19:28 - 19:36I notice -- I'm just looking at the figures: there were almost 500 people, thousands of comments.
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19:36 - 19:39How do you keep up with so many comments?
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19:39 - 19:42Or do you find that you can't keep up with so many comments?
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19:42 - 19:48One of the things -- one of the steps in the MOOC that Cormier points out is where you cluster.
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19:48 - 19:57That is, you find half a dozen or a dozen people that you start interacting with in the MOOC, and forget the other 450.
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19:57 - 19:59Did you find it worked that way? [19.59]
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20:04 - 20:07[Fabrizio] I got lost at -- right from the beginning.
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20:08 - 20:17And it took me a while to see how it worked and all of this, the mail, the chat, the Diigo group and --
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20:19 - 20:26It's quite complicated in a way, very difficult to get in touch with all of the participants. (20:26)
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20:26 - 20:31we've got a huge amount of posts and if you don't have enough time,
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20:33 - 20:38it's quite difficult to keep in touch with everything.
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20:42 - 20:44[Lucia] Well...[metallic-like noise].
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20:47 - 20:50Sorry: that was an ambulance going by.
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20:50 - 21:02Ok, yes. Well, we're adults, so we all have families and we have jobs
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21:02 - 21:05and it was the end of the school year.
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21:05 - 21:10So, it is really remarkable that we spent so many hours doing the cMooc.
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21:10 - 21:14Really professor Formiconi had us hooked. [21.15]
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21:19 - 21:20[Vance] He sounds like a great teacher.
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21:20 - 21:23I'm just reading again, to the bottom of your list
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21:25 - 21:30of what the cMooc, "A few figures" -- and I noticed that
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21:30 - 21:34some people did it for a university credit.
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21:34 - 21:40That's one of -- that's an issue in Moocs is -- it's supposed to be a Massive Open Online Course
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21:40 - 21:45but it's perfectly fine if you want to run one that will accredit people.
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21:45 - 21:48That's actually one of the problems, that Moocs don't provide credit
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21:48 - 21:51so people are looking into badge systems and
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21:51 - 21:54of course, if you can run it through a university
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21:54 - 21:56and get university credits that's fine.
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21:56 - 22:00But the question is, are the materials open, that is,
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22:00 - 22:05can anybody... I suppose so, you must have had 430 people
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22:05 - 22:11who were able to go freely onto the Internet and find the materials.
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22:11 - 22:13[22.11] So are those materials still up there
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22:13 - 22:16in which case they will be open and anybody can go and look at them
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22:16 - 22:20and learn from them? Is that the way the course works?
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22:24 - 22:29[Lucia] Well, there weren't any separate materials.
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22:29 - 22:33There were the posts that professor Formiconi published
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22:33 - 22:43and he gave us his instructions there and he commented on what we were doing and how we were doing it.
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22:43 - 22:49[22.43 ] We worked through comments maybe, as you can see from the numbers there
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22:49 - 22:54and the material was made by us, the pupils.
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22:54 - 22:58I mean, we were instructed to create..
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22:58 - 23:00He used this metaphor of the village
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23:00 - 23:04He said: Ok, we are going to build the village all together.
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23:04 - 23:12In the village we're going to build houses, and the houses will be blogs that we're going to create
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23:12 - 23:20Then we're going to build roads, and this will be via a web feed aggregator.
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23:20 - 23:32And so we learned to import an OPML file and to aggregate the news from the blogs
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23:32 - 23:36[23.32] to link the blogs together and so we had a network
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23:36 - 23:43and we didn't need any other material, in that everybody started writing on their blogs
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23:43 - 23:48and we kept going around and visiting and reading and commenting
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23:48 - 23:57and then professor Formiconi introduced the next thing, or the next task which was to use tags
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23:57 - 24:04and he presented us with the idea of classifying the information
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24:04 - 24:08and wrote a long philosophical work about classifying and how you classify,
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24:08 - 24:15what folksonomia is and so on, so we started classifying quite freely. [24.13]
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24:15 - 24:20Then something kept on emerging - kept on emerging.
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24:20 - 24:33And so it was creative. It was chaotic on the one side but very clearly structured at the same time on the other side.
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24:33 - 24:39So, I hope I've been clear about how the thing went on.[24.39]
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24:43 - 24:49[Fabrizio] I agree with Lucia and I just wanted to say thanks again---
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24:49 - 24:56It was a bit shocking at the beginning, the difference between this Mooc and the others.
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24:58 - 25:03I didn't even dare to ask where are the assignments and where is the syllabus,
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25:03 - 25:16because there wasn't a blog or a Moodle block where you have all the assignments divided in weeks and all the rest,
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25:16 - 25:23the usual way you find in an online course or in a Mooc.
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25:24 - 25:35It looked, it seemed very improvised. I'm sure it wasn't, but that was the way they chose.
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25:35 - 25:44[25.34] Having things to ...- how can I say - to grow along.
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25:45 - 25:56We had to find our way through the course, we had to pick up that pulse with the right assignments
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25:56 - 25:59and try to do it by yourself
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25:59 - 26:07There wasn't even...as far as I know,a proper evaluation or assessment
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26:07 - 26:09no fixed days,
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26:09 - 26:15you know, first week you do this, second week you do that and then you get graded
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26:15 - 26:25and things are going on, now, we keep doing that, that's a great thing, it never stops.
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26:29 - 26:36[Vance] Yes, actually, Lucia's question was she making things clear: yes,
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26:36 - 26:43and the course as I understand is over, We are coming into summer now, so...
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26:43 - 26:50But you're continuing to meet in your community, your community continues, that's really interesting.
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26:50 - 26:56I have a question about the OPML aggregation:
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26:56 - 27:05how would you access each other's blogs? Is there a link where the aggregation occurred,
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27:05 - 27:09so that you could go to one place and see the posts?
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27:09 - 27:14How would you see the aggregation of everybody's blogs? How did you see that?
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27:19 - 27:29[Claude] Can I try? The OPML file gathers all the RSS feeds of our blogs,
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27:29 - 27:38so when you add that OPML file to an aggregator, for example Bloglines or RSSowl
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27:38 - 27:41then you could see everything that's happening in the blogs,
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27:41 - 27:48because there's a feed for the posts, and a feed for the comments for each blog.
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27:48 - 27:52So it's a very long file, but it works. Is that clear?
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28:03 - 28:05[Vance] Yes, that's clear.
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28:05 - 28:13So, I'm going to really miss Google Reader. They're threatening to get rid of it, but that's what I would, erh --
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28:13 - 28:21because with Google Reader you can... I suppose you can use an OPML file, within Bloglines, yes, OK.
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28:21 - 28:33So... Yes, I can see how you can use an RSS reader to read an OPML file into your... into a reader.
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28:33 - 28:38So, that's very good, that's... getting the basics.
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28:38 - 28:50And then -- yes, ok, anything that aggregates content, anything that will take an RSS feed, I think you can put it there.
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28:50 - 28:55So that's really good, that you got the building block, and then you learned how to build on that.
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28:55 - 29:05And I also liked, as you said, I like the analogy of building the cities and then the streets connecting them
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29:05 - 29:08I think that's ... that's really interesting.
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29:10 - 29:13It sounds very much like what George Siemens would set up
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29:13 - 29:16and one thing that fascinates me about Moocs is,
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29:16 - 29:23of course the big problem is, Where is the centre? Where do you go, that's what Fabrizio has been expressing,
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29:25 - 29:29confusion at first. How do you orient in a Mooc?
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29:30 - 29:34You have to find the streets, you have to find the the ways... the highways that people are using
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29:34 - 29:42and of course you can't find it all, which, that's the way the world is, you don't ever learn everything.
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29:42 - 29:53[29.46] So, anyway, if you can speak of any techniques that helped you to find the things that other people were doing
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29:53 - 29:56the OPML file would be one, you could see their blog posts
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29:56 - 29:59I note that you must have shared bookmarks.
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29:59 - 30:05You said 990 tags produced: so, can you tell me about that?
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30:05 - 30:07What were -- you were tagging all over the place, obviously
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30:07 - 30:14but when you say "tags were produced", how did you find the 990 tags, let's say?
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30:20 - 30:28[Fabrizio] As I was trying to explain in the chat, I've also tried to - I've been trying since when things started
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30:28 - 30:32to put things together, to put the blogs together, for example, [30:32]
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30:32 - 30:39All the blogs were too many, actually. At present one of the problems is, there's more than 200.
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30:39 - 30:42With then all the usual tools
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30:42 - 30:49we used to bookmark, and-or visual book -- have visual bookmarking of the resources
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30:49 - 30:57So, there's a padlet board that is available inside the Google Drive and in the wikispace,
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30:57 - 31:02and I've also tried to do something on Pinterest
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31:02 - 31:13And we've got a Diigo group for the MOOC that's working very very well
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31:13 - 31:21And I'm also trying to have a map with the new Google map engine
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31:21 - 31:30using the spreadsheet the teacher kindly shared through the Google Drive
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31:30 - 31:35and it is interesting, you can have all the blogs on a map
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31:35 - 31:46and being based on a spreadsheet, you can work on it, now, have them on different layers according to the tags,
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31:46 - 31:58that is, the main tags, the secondary-- and later we... I think we can have them on different layers, so
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31:58 - 32:07as regards the kind of school, primary schools, the secondary schools or the language:
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32:07 - 32:14something interesting to work on for the future. For me, at least. I'm studying that.
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32:19 - 32:31[32.22 Lucia] It is very interesting to see what professor Formiconi did to promote interaction between us.
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32:31 - 32:38Sometimes he would encourage us to meet in order to do some very practical things
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32:38 - 32:47For example there was a moment when he was introducing some very very basic XML code
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32:47 - 32:59and so he opened a pad in piratepad.net and he had us go and watch there and experiment
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32:59 - 33:05on the shared pad: so an experiment with some shared writing.
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33:05 - 33:13At moments, some other moments he would just stop and step back and watch and wait
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33:13 - 33:19and he used silence in a very active way. I know it sounds strange
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33:19 - 33:29but he would use silence and waiting as an active tool in order to give us time to know each other.
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33:29 - 33:35So... It was great fun! I was very tired in the evening,
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33:35 - 33:42I would do the washing up and then I would sit in front of my computer and then dive into Bloglines,
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33:42 - 33:51literally dive among the blogs and read it here and there and contact people and read a comment here and there,
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33:51 - 34:01and very soon I found the people who were most similar to me in a way or who had similar interests
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34:01 - 34:08and it was clear that we were interacting more often than with other people.
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34:08 - 34:13I'm quite aware that I don't know most of the people who were there
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34:13 - 34:21and I mean to go on exploring, because I think that there's riches there in the course.
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34:21 - 34:24The course will go on living for a long time for me, I think.
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34:28 - 34:31[34.29 Vance] Look, that's very interesting.
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34:31 - 34:33Steven Downes, I'm sure you're familiar with him,
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34:34 - 34:45says that the teacher's role is to model and demonstrate and the students' role is to practice and reflect.
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34:46 - 34:54And Dave Warlick says that teachers are really master learners, and to me that means
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34:54 - 35:00that teachers are both teachers and learners at the same time,
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35:00 - 35:05that is, they're always modelling, demonstrating, practising and reflecting.
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35:05 - 35:14So it works like you make coffee, you know: you percolate these four things, and do that all the time.
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35:14 - 35:23So this is obviously a teacher who models and demonstrates and then you practise and reflect
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35:23 - 35:29and with your students it's your turn to model and demonstrate.
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35:29 - 35:36And I'm wondering, have you applied these techniques in courses that you yourselves have created? Have you--
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35:36 - 35:42How have you applied the techniques you learned from your professor in your work
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35:42 - 35:47and... Not yet, says Lucia. Ok. Or maybe, how would you anticipate doing that,
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35:47 - 35:53how would you structure courses, so that you can use some of these things that have been modelled to you
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35:53 - 35:59and as you say, you're reflecting now and you're thinking - how can I ..
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35:59 - 36:06I'm learning so much from this, how can I do it, how can I... so, I don't go into my first classroom
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36:06 - 36:08and tell the students: "Open your textbooks", you know?
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36:08 - 36:14How would you make that leak now into your own work, your own courses that you teach?
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36:18 - 36:22[Lucia] Well, this is a very hard question, Vance, because...
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36:24 - 36:35For example, I teach in a high school, and in this high school we have a lot of limitations I would say.
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36:35 - 36:43I don't feel free to create and explore. If you like.... you have to do things, in a way.
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36:43 - 36:55So I feel the most important lesson I'm taking from this MOOC is, you really need to hook your students,
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36:55 - 37:01you need to create something that hooks them, so that they will be willing to explore.
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37:01 - 37:11Actually with what we - with what I do every day, I try to be creative, but I'm not very successful, in fact,
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37:11 - 37:21and so my students, who are supposed to be digital natives and are not...
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37:21 - 37:26resist me, they push back. So, this is going to be a great challenge.
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37:30 - 37:34[37.30 Vance] Maybe Rita.. She's still here, she's commenting on the chat,
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37:35 - 37:38maybe you can talk a little bit about how you motivate your students
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37:38 - 37:44because we've been participating in a community of practice called Webheads for a long time,
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37:44 - 37:53and some of the things that we do to help each other to learn, we apply to our own students.
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37:54 - 38:00I 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.
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38:00 - 38:05Maybe Rita you would like to address how you use the things that you've learned
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38:05 - 38:08from interacting with other teachers, in your own courses.
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38:10 - 38:13[38.10 Rita] Yes Vance thank you very much for giving me the floor.
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38:13 - 38:21Yes, you know, we started working together on this integration of technology many many years ago,
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38:23 - 38:35and in fact when I started, that was about 2002 or 03, nobody here was really into technology,
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38:35 - 38:40so I must have looked to people as a kind of a freak.
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38:40 - 38:48But anyhow I tried to understand that, well, my students were new to this as well
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38:48 - 38:57and the crucial thing was motivating them, to make them feel this question, I mean
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38:57 - 39:04the thing that they had been learning English for so many years and using it in a very limited context
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39:04 - 39:10the environment in which we teach our students is very constrained, I mean
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39:10 - 39:14we just do everything within the four walls of the classroom
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39:14 - 39:21and in Argentina, same as in Italy, both... maybe in Italy it's a little bit different,
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39:21 - 39:27but we don't have too many people ready on the streets to speak naturally with students in English
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39:27 - 39:33so students are not used to practising their English in an everyday context.
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39:33 - 39:39So I tried to make them realize the importance of their being learning English for so many years
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39:39 - 39:48and I also tried to see what it was that motivated them to use English in natural contexts [39.48]
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39:48 - 39:57such as, for example, the possibility of getting together with other students from other countries
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39:57 - 40:02with whom they would be able to interact, to pass on information, share experience
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40:02 - 40:14even see in fact, what life was, in other places, in other countries, and share in what they were interested in
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40:14 - 40:21so I tried to see what it was that each group would be motivated by
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40:21 - 40:31and by.. by saying this, I'm really implying that the most important thing in teaching with technology
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40:31 - 40:34is motivating our students,
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40:34 - 40:41because we can see that on a computer they learn [check] how to really work with a programme, with a new tool
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40:41 - 40:46but the most challenging thing for us teachers is motivation,
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40:46 - 40:50how to see what students would be interested in,
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40:50 - 40:59what appeals to students, to come up with a tool and with a new task that they will enjoy working on.
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40:59 - 41:01In fact that's it, really.
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41:04 - 41:09[Vance] And I think it's so important, as our Italian colleagues pointed out,
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41:09 - 41:16that you let the students build their own highways, you know, put [up] their own content.
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41:16 - 41:23I really like that kind of concept, where the teacher doesn't build the course
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41:23 - 41:30the teacher sort of makes a Petri dish, and then the students populate it, you know,
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41:30 - 41:39and you find out their interests that way. So obviously, they've been motivated. That's really interesting. [41.39]
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41:42 - 41:47Ok, we have about 10 minutes, or even 13 or 20 minutes
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41:47 - 41:53it's really up to you, we don't have any... nobody closes us down at any time.
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41:53 - 41:57[Referring to the shared screen] So, well, I've put a web page up in the share...
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41:58 - 42:03I think in one of my versions of it, there is -- that from English,
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42:03 - 42:06but I don't know, maybe you can tell a bit about this page,
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42:06 - 42:12this must be the page that... organized the MOOC, that announced the MOOC
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42:13 - 42:17so you can comment on it for those of us who aren't so good with Italian.
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42:25 - 42:29[42.25] So, I'll really st-- oh I'm sorry, I'm having trouble releasing the mike, let me try that.
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42:31 - 42:37[Vance] Oh, not sure what's going on here, let me just -- [clattering noise]
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42:37 - 42:41I'm so sorry I'm not able to release the mike.
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42:41 - 42:47It's not responding ...] Oh, oh, I see, I've got an error message on my computer also,
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42:47 - 42:51I might have to go back, I might have to come back in as a session moderator,
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42:51 - 42:56I might click "close programme", I'm not sure what'll happen, but anyway, I'll do that.
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43:02 - 43:04Yeah, I think I've solved the problem.
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43:04 - 43:11So, the page I've just put up: this is an announcement of the MOOC, in case there's anything to comment there,
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43:12 - 43:17you can, if not, we can pass on to some other things we can show you.
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43:18 - 43:23Are you ready for any other questions that anybody else has...
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43:23 - 43:25Would you like to ask questions of each other?
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43:30 - 43:33[43.27 Lucia, referring to the shared screen] What you can see is the teacher's blog.
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43:33 - 43:39So, this is where he wrote his tasks and comments and philosophy and everything.
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43:42 - 43:49We also had video tutorials, he published 23 video tutorials here.
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43:53 - 43:58[43.52 Vance] Ah, ok, yes, I was confusing Lucia with Rita, I wasn't sure who was that.
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43:59 - 44:04OK: I'm going to pull out something that one of our teachers is doing.
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44:04 - 44:12We have a teacher in Amazonia, who has been using some of these techniques with her own students.
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44:12 - 44:19And recently in Brazil they've been having protests, and so she organized her students to...
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44:19 - 44:25She's already connected with Webheads on a few of her students' projects,
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44:25 - 44:28Webheads had been commenting on her students' blogs,
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44:29 - 44:37but the one they did just recently, she said it was the best thing she had ever done in her career,
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44:37 - 44:40and that was getting the students to put online...
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44:40 - 44:44Because they've found an audience, you know, so they are motivated to connect with the audience.
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44:44 - 44:50The audience in Webheads is responding to them, you know, commenting on their blogs,
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44:50 - 44:53and with Cintia's encouragement
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44:53 - 45:01And so I'll find that URL and put it there, and show you some stuff from somebody in our community
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45:01 - 45:06who is motivating her students using these techniques, give me a moment here.
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45:06 - 45:09Please continue. [pause]
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45:11 - 45:19Ok, keep in mind we're recording, we're hoping to have the conversation continue.
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45:19 - 45:23Oh, I should say, by the way, that this is an event of...
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45:23 - 45:29Ah, well yes, ok, that's a good one. Let me... I'll share that.
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45:29 - 45:37That's not the one I was looking for, but this is actually a MOOC that we participate in,
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45:37 - 45:42"Goodbye Gutenberg", this is something that started.out as a multiliteraces course
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45:43 - 45:49and, ah, I'm just trying to type its URL in here.
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45:50 - 45:59OK: yeah, this is... we've turned this into a MOOC concept. It was... What this is, it's a...
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46:02 - 46:06Let's...somebody just switched this back to... Yep, ok,
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46:06 - 46:11Ok, maybe I can grab this ...
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46:14 - 46:19We're having more technical difficulties here. We have ... one of the moderators...
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46:19 - 46:26switched us back to the - to us off the 'web share'
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46:26 - 46:34So now I'm trying to get the URL back in there. Ok, so this is the Goodbye Gutenberg blog here.
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46:35 - 46:40Ok, so, there used to be a way to put this into the text chat.
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46:40 - 46:42Oh, you've put it in there already. [46.42]
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46:44 - 46:52So that's -- what that tries to do is to try to get participants to make -- to keep ePortfolios.
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46:52 - 46:56Is that a concept that you would think that your teacher had?
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46:56 - 47:01You know, it could be, what you're doing is making ePortfolios, that is, commenting on your own learning:
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47:01 - 47:03that is, in a way, an ePortfolio.
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47:04 - 47:09An ePortfolio can be just about anything, depending on how you like to interpret it.
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47:09 - 47:19But in this particular Web page here, you'll find the links to Dave Cormier's videos.
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47:19 - 47:21- maybe I can find those for you -
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47:21 - 47:27there is a -- and also a reference to George Siemens's interview with Howard Rheingold.
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47:28 - 47:30I think that will be here, on this page.
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47:30 - 47:32I just clicked on "Getting started."
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47:32 - 47:40And there, you find a link to Siemens' conversation with Howard Rheingold
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47:40 - 47:44and also Dave Cormier's videos.
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47:44 - 47:48So there are some links that you can follow there.
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47:48 - 47:55OK, I'm gonna go back to searching for the page I was looking for.
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47:59 - 48:06OK: I've found it. There's going to be a little dead space in the recording there, but that's OK.
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48:07 - 48:10OK, so this is one of the teachers who interacts with us
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48:11 - 48:15-- oh, it looks like it's in Portuguese, but of course, you can translate that.
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48:16 - 48:16But in any event, her students have posted some videos.
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48:22 - 48:29I suppose "Our generation does care," that's the one that she had her students do.
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48:29 - 48:33That's it, yeah, so that link will come up - should come up in a minute.
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48:34 - 48:38I'm not sure if I -- it doesn't seem to be hyperlinking, but anyway,
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48:38 - 48:42maybe you can search for "Our generation does care" on YouTube.
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48:44 - 48:52OK, so, any further comments, coming up to the top of the hour?
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48:53 - 48:58Claire is saying you can click on the YouTube text and then it will work.
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48:58 - 49:01Oh yes, I see that's true, it does. OK, yes, gotcha.
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49:08 - 49:14Yes, it just an example: this is a teacher who's been interacting with us and -- well, with her students --
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49:14 - 49:18Oh, it came on in sound, I'm hearing it now.
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49:20 - 49:21Now I'll have to turn that off, somehow.
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49:22 - 49:23Are you hearing sound as well?
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49:27 - 49:36I'm getting inundated with audio, that I'm not -- unable to turn off, I'm not sure how it came on.
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49:37 - 49:38Oh, here it is.
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49:40 - 49:41Ah, I found it.
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49:43 - 49:46[some audio in background]
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49:46 - 49:51[Vance] Hem [laughs]. Oh well. Yeah, I found it, OK, there we go.
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49:55 - 49:59OK, it launched in a window and it was blaring in my ear,
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49:59 - 50:04and I was unable to find the window that launched to switch it off.
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50:06 - 50:18OK. So, what we do when the mic -- when people stop interacting, you're so welcome,
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50:18 - 50:23Lucia is saying thank you. Please you can please say thank you or say goodbye,
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50:23 - 50:29say your last remarks in the recording, so we can have that to end our recording with.
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50:29 - 50:33And this will all go into learning2gether.net,
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50:34 - 50:36and that's where we archive everything,
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50:36 - 50:41and we'll make an Elluminate recording, which you can have almost right away,
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50:41 - 50:44as soon as everybody leaves the room, that Elluminate recording gets made.
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50:44 - 50:51I'll post the link on Twitter, I'll post it to the #ltis13 hashtag, so you can find it there
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50:52 - 51:02and so please, if you want to say goodbye, you can do that now, and thank you very much for coming.
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51:02 - 51:05It's been really a nice session, I really enjoyed this.
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51:09 - 51:12[Lucia] OK, thank you, Vance, it was nice being here,
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51:12 - 51:17and it was very useful having to prepare everything for this event,
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51:17 - 51:26because it helped me clarify ideas and it added some value to what I was doing, to what I did.
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51:26 - 51:30So -- and it will be a pleasure to be able to go to your blog,
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51:30 - 51:37and then be able to listen again and think again about what everybody said.
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51:37 - 51:39So, thank you very much.
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51:42 - 51:46[Vance] OK, well, ciao to all our friends in Italy,
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51:47 - 51:53and thank you for coming, and I've just put the learning2gether.net website up, where--
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51:53 - 51:57you'll be able to go there and see the blog post of this event,
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51:57 - 52:04which will have the link to the Elluminate recording and also, will have an MP file that you can download.
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52:04 - 52:09So, as soon as everything goes quiet, I'll stop the recording
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52:09 - 52:15and when everybody leaves the room, then that recording will get put online
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52:15 - 52:17and I'll start processing it from there.
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52:17 - 52:24So thanks again: I really appreciate your -- and nice to meet you all, and ciao - bye bye.
- Title:
- Fabrizio Bartoli, Lucia Bartolotti organize a discussion of the cMOOC ltis13
- Description:
-
Learning 2gether session, June 23, 2013. See http://learning2gether.net/2013/06/23/fabrizio-bartoli-lucia-bartolotti-organize-a-discussion-of-the-cmooc-ltis13/ for more info.
- Video Language:
- English