Learning Journey

This is the second blog post on twitter within days. This must mean something.

I have been giving quite a lot of thought about this micro-phenomenon that is twitter. As I said before, I grew fonder and fonder of twitter over time until I totally fell in love with it. Just for you to have an idea, I have this awkward habit of checking my emails before leaving home for work in the morning. I now have replaced that with something even more insane: I am checking the tweets that were published during the time I was offline. It didn’t improve, I know…

As I sit here at my desk typing away some sentences that might convey the meaning twitter has acquired in my learning path, I am also listening to a podcast by Sue Waters. And if you can picture myself typing, you will also have to imagine me nodding all the way through the podcast, as I agree 150% with what Sue Waters, Alan Levine , Graham Wegner, Michael Coghlan, Kristin Hokanson and Simon Brown say about twitter.

It is an amazing new world where people communicate ideas, report about their mundane lives, complain about the weather, support their soccer teams, share resources, ask questions, tell jokes, link you to their fave tunes, etc. By the same token they make small bits and bytes of their lives available they also have access to others’ micro-existences. And all of this in 140 characters. And all of this is sharing! That is, I think, what makes twitter simultaneously so silly and so interesting. It is about how we communicate ourselves to others in our different facets and keep the conversation going while others also do the same. Some moments we twitter as learners, others as “the experts”, others yet just as “common mortals” who need a cup of coffee or are upset because the sun isn’t shining….
Because the interface is clear and the channel is straightforward the communication seems to flow quite easily and immediately (well…when twitter hasn’t reached its over capacity state!!!. And such breakdowns might also be due to the overenthusiastic usage by those thousands and thousands of devoted twitters out there who just cannot stop twittering).

Not everything is intellectually grave in twitter. And neither is everything we do in life necessarily connected to our main learning purpose. However many of the things we do or get involved in end up contributing to what we are and what we become.

There are a lot of messages your twitter friends will tweet and you don’t even have a clue what they are about, simply because you are not into that context and/or part of that sub-phere of twitters to whom such tweets are aimed to. But does that put people off? The answer is definitely no, because just like in face to face life we cannot follow all the twitters that surround us all the time.
I think, in this respect, twitter makes us develop a quicker selective eye, about what might be more relevant to us and what might not. We scan tweets, we link to resources we think might be valuable, we let other links go by just because they don’t seem that relevant to our area. But sharing resources is just one of the ways twitter can be used.
Twittering (online) is also another way of establishing networks of knowledge, or better said, of knowing.
I have connected to so many individuals I haven’t had come across before or whom I had little time to connect to previous to the twitter-mania. In some cases I have also re-connected to those who I already knew in a different way.

Tweet by tweet, plus everything else I try to get involved in, I carry on my personal learning journey in the company of those who care to contribute to it.  The further I go, the further I know there is still to go…

Twitter might not be around for that long - I am aware these networks are trendy - but the people will. And if today learning bonds are also being established in twitter, they might survive the twitter-phenomenon somewhere else, provided they are meaningful and still relevant.

Because in the end what matters is the people, and also how we connect and communicate with each other, how their messages make us feel and how that contributes to our personal growth. The channel is, of course, important, but it’s the human interaction that is crucial.

So, the question is, how have those online twitters changed your life?

This will also help me bring my next  post about the TEL Summer School experience, which I hope to write about tomorrow.

I haven’ got many words to say today, although my head is over-flooded with thoughts I want to share, but which somehow I don’t seem to be able to get across. I feel a little bit overwhelmed today!  I hate to have to admit it, but I am feeling a little adrift - not really sure of my mission. Hopefully, the tide will turn and I will feel better soon.

Meanwhile I have been listening to the The Mission Movie soundtrack. I found this video in youtube and thought of sharing it with you. Hope you like it.

Dear all,

we are in Ohrid/Macedonia this week taking part in a Summer school on Technology Enhanced Learning & Knowledge Management .

We have started a Twemes on the topics we are exploring and we would love to hear from you and your ideas/ experiences. We need you twitt-experts to help us lead the summer school by example!! ;-)  Let’s share reflection. Let’s connect! Please help us show the power of the community in action.

The Summer School participants will appreciate and learn in context. Your contribution in invaluable. Let’s learn/ twitter together! http://twemes.com/scohrid

We have already been picked up by twittscoop

Thank you for caring!

…Edumedia 2008?

I am been paying sporadic visits to the EduMedia 2008 Conference in Salzburg through twitter. And I think I can say I have been getting some interesting perspectives about education. And all of this thanks to twitter and those who are taking the time to twitter about it!

Thoughts, ideas, spontaneous reflection and immediate reactions to presentations are being shared on the spot (as they happen) by some of the conference delegates. Their tweets, pictures and bookmarks are being aggregated here…all thanks to good young twitter and the #edumedia08 tag.

This is twitter and twemes is action. It is worth checking this example of social software use making connecting the real world with the virtual one!

The next two days are going to be mad with so much webcast fun!

Today Carla Arena and I are launching People & Places webcast (through Webcast Academy) project which aims at communication, real content and cultural awareness.  Our very Special Guest is Michael Coghlan. And so if for nothing else, you should join us because Michael is a great story teller.
The launch is today at 13GMT. More info here.

Tomorrow it’s Evolve Launch time. Bee Dieu will be our special guest and keynote speaker for this first event. The event will take place in Jisc Elluminate at 1700 GMT (May 30).

Before that Doug Symington and I will webcast Bee’s session for BrazTESOL through Webcast Academy. Check more information here. The idea is to reach the Brazilian conference from whereever we are and get another podcast resource in the end, which we can listen and use later!

Finally, Jose Rodriguez is hosting webcasts in Spanish. They are worth checking although they happen quite late for Europe.

And that’s all the news for today. I just want to keep you posted about what is happening in cyberspace. It is nice to know what other people are doing and what the possibilities are.

The good thing about long journeys is that you get to catch up with reading.

Well… I didn’t necessarily focus on readings for my PhD as I should, I decided to add to my backpack the book I am reading - ‘Teacher Man’ by Frack McCourt just in case I felt like taking a break from the technical readings. Needless to say that I still haven’t opened the folder of research papers I especially printed to read on the plane!

I am now almost at the end of the narrative. I like F. McCourt’s writing style. He writes in a simple, fluid way. He is sincere in what he writes and somehow I can see bits of myself in some of the book’s passages.

Today while jogging I was thinking about it - my brain functions better when I move!!!

A good teacher is that who is able to relate to his/her own experience as a student…as someone who once also sat on those same (or similar) bench schools… and felt bored to death because he/she was not getting the point of absorbing all that “unpractical” information.
A better teacher is that who remembers being a student and recalls what s/he liked and s/he didn’t like while in that role, and how s/he felt in those situations.

The best teacher is that who is able to apply to his/her teaching what he perceived to work for him as a student, change what didn’t work, and at the same time innovate and adequate his/her practice to suit the learning experience of the generations he/she was ask to lead and inspire.

Frank McCourt narrates in his book that he did a lot of story telling…it engaged the students and it kind of created bonds and sense of trust between him and those kids. He also points out that sometimes he didn’t feel he was being a teacher because he was telling stories.

And I wonder… isn’t life this Big story made of many mini-stories. Aren’t we supposed to be preparing our kids to write their own stories / activate their own learning? Each one of us has one or more to tell and re-tell. So why don’t we do it? And why don’t we manage to write new ones in which students also become an integral part of? Why do we hide behind a pack of notes and references that are supposed to justify every single sentence we try to pour into kids’ minds? [ I am overacting here…I know that they are great teachers out there, but I have come across some very bad ones too…unfortunately)

I do think that a teacher’s role is to help students write their own story, it is also to help them refine it while inspiring them with other (his/her) own stories [ for the learning relationship to work you do have to make it personal…it is about you and the students].

A good story is always worth writing. It is 100 times worthier listening to. And learning (and teaching) is indeed about story telling; about listening to each other (an in that the conversation and interaction is implied).

just thinking aloud as usual!

My friend Illya has tagged me to answer this meme. And of course, I had to welcome it, because one again by taking part in it not only you are learning a little bit more about me; I will learn too!

So here it goes:

10 years ago…

May, 20th of the year 1998 I was finishing my first year of a 4-year under-graduate course in Languages and Literatures at the New University of Lisbon. It was a year of discovery, of challenge and of happy and confusing moments. During the summer of 1997 I had turned 18 and traded home in a little fishery town in the south of Portugal for the big capital city. My dream had always been to go to where culture was more available and start a new chapter of life which would bring me independence at many level: I hoped that transition would make me financially and mentally independent. I had gone to university to learn how to think and to make something useful with myself. Not everything turned out exactly how I had dreamed, but it was a great learning experience all the same….

5 Things I have to do today…

It is almost bed time, so I think I will have to report about brushing my teeth and try to get some sleep - something I haven’t been that good at lately, as I keep waking up at around 5am just like that. But I can tell you what I have done since I came home - I have ironed some clothes ;-(, discussed world issues with my flat mates while we exlored the wonders of our new toy: TV on demand,  packed my stuff to go to Helsinki tomorrow (digifolio seminar), reviewed my presentation (this is just my way of rehearsing it - it’s just a rough cut of my first try!!), and called my mum as I do everyday.

Snacks I enjoy…

I could live on snacks. I don’t like cooking and snacks are always a great treat. Needless to say I have a sweet tooth, which my scale is constantly complaining about. I love dark chocolate (70% or more), Salt and Vinegar rice cakes, any kind of berries, cherry tomatoes and pineapple.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire…

I would provide my mum with enough money so she didn’t have to work; I would help some friend and family members; I would organize a webhead summit which people could attend for free and I would use the rest of the money to develop some educational projects in unprivileged areas - not only in Europe but also Africa and Asia. These projects would empower those people with the tools (knowledge and know-how) to make their home countries better for their offspring. In my contribution to the world I dream not of giving people money, but empowering them with another type of power: knowledge and know-how.

3 of my bad habits…

Being stubborn [or is it persistent? nay …stubborn!], eating chocolate in the morning, walking too fast, eating lunch at my desk, drinking too much coca-cola…. oops it was only 3!

5 Places I have lived…

Quarteira (the Algarve); Lisbon (Portugal); Heidelberg (Germany); Almada (Portugal) and Manchester (UK).

5 jobs I’ve had…

Receptionist at a B&B, supermarket assistant, waitress, intern in the Portuguese Consulate in Stuttgart , and Naval Officer.

6 People I want to know more about…

Graham Attwell, Frances Bell, Angela Hook, and any member of the EdTechTalk team who I still don’t know that well and who may want to take part in this meme!

This post is an immediate response to a video I have just seen - via Dizen.

It’s Randy Pausch again and another inspiring speech of his.

It’s people like Randy Pausch who make me stop and think about the way I lead my life. I wish I could be better than I am. I wish I wouldn’t get so upset with people/stuff as I sometimes do. I wish I could do more and better and not complain.

I am learning. I have been facing the brick walls from a new, brighter perspective for a while now. But I know I still have a long way to go… a lot to learn! It will last a life time!

Meanwhile I can only hope I will keep meeting mentors and words of wisdom like these which will help keep my learning spark going. We all need good role models. I can’t think of my life without them. They are part of my education and of who I am.

As my dearest friend Carla Arena mentioned in her today’s comment to one of my posts, I too need a “share button” that connects my brain to my blog and which I can push every time I think I have anything relevant to say. Maybe more relevant to me than to others, but hey…that is also what blogging is about. Voicing my thought, thinking aloud about issues that populate my mind while I thread this uncertain path that is life. As a complement to my answer to the challenge Carla passed on to me and which I passed on to Anne Fox, Dennis Oliver, Hala Fawzi, Graham Attwell, Joao Alves, Nina Lyulkun and Ramona Dietrich here, I just would like to say that in my blog(s) I find myself. Hence blogging relates entirely to my business. I could go on and on telling you why I blog, and how important it has become to me… but I think you must have got the picture by now.

I will now move on to the topic that has made me rush home today …because on the Bus I couldn’t blog my thoughts away, and this one I had to share.

Read More »

Before I just rush to the next meeting I just wanted to quickly update you about the challenge.

I have been following the comment challenge and engaging as much as I can. I set up the CoComment as suggested. I have even created a small tutorial which you can find here. I hope it helps.

I still need to Ask a Question in a Blog Comment. I have done this in the past, but not for this challenge. I will do so soon. Maybe when I find a Blog Post I Don’t Agree With. Yes, I am a little bit late with the challenge, but I promise to catch up with it today. It is just that I needs a computer free weekend to recharge, and surely it has done me good!

Meanwhile, today, while I was walking to work I listened to Isabel Allende’s TED Talk. What a brilliant speech. How stimulating. I have read most of her books, and always felt the passion with which she writes. It is fascinating how the emotion we put into our work is received by others.

I had never seen her on TV or listen to her own voice before. She speaks with the same passion as she write. Listening to her talk was a great way to start the week (yesterday was a Bank holiday here in the UK).

Here is the video for you to watch/listen to.

Meanwhile I just want to recall one of the magnificent sentences of this amazing writer: what we need, Isabel says, is a determined heart …passion… Mavericks. dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels,…who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks!

This first part of her speech is just another version of Randy Pausch’s Last lecture(also the book), which I read a couple of weeks ago and still haven’t come around to talk about. I hope to do soon.

If only I could add a ship to my brain and my thoughts would be automatically converted into blog post… it is just while I am jogging and walking I also write … in my imagination. Those must in fact be the best texts I compose…