Nina's First Blog

Gearing Up for EVO 2010!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:41:00 +0000

It was about four years ago that someone at the Maryland English Institute, where I work, suggested that participating in a free six-week session at the Electronic Village Online would constitute a worthwhile exercise in professional development. I checked out the offerings and was pretty intimidated, but eventually chose Becoming a Webhead as the best entry point for what would become a personal and professional obsession with free web tools. Since that seminal EVO session, where I first met Dafne Gonzalez, Teresa Almeida d'Eca, Moira Hunter, Dennis Oliver, Berta Leiva, Maru del Campo, and so many others who have become my friends, I have participated in EVO each year. What an incredible opportunity it is to explore new areas in our profession!

This year, I have signed on to assist Vance Stevens with Multiliteracies for Social Networking and Collaborative Learning Environments, together with Jennifer Verschoor and Dennis Oliver. I had been thinking of signing up for the session, but then decided that if I was going to take it, I might as well offer to help. I will be learning along with everyone else. I have already started reading the recommended book, Mark Pegrum's From Blogs to Bombs. The author has agreed to talk to the participants during synchronous sessions about the implications for EFL and ESL teachers and students of the emerging multiliterate reality. It should be really interesting, and it will be an honor to work with Webheads in Action co-founder Vance Stevens.

We are putting the finishing touches on our wiki, ning, and Yahoo!Group. Everything needs to be in order by December 1st.

Using Bubbl.us to map a course

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:43:00 +0000

I am taking my third Sloan Consortium workshop, thanks to the University of Maryland's College Pass. The first two workshops were about second Life, and the third one is called "Getting Started: The First Step Toward Online Teaching." One of the "deliverables" (assignments) is a concept map of a course or part of a course. I already had an account with Bubble Us so I used that. I teach a Reading/Writing/Grammar course, and at first I tried to map out the reading part of the course, but that proved too daunting, so I did just the vocabulary part of reading. Although this is a f2f class, I tried to include online resources for each aspect of vocabulary study. Here is my concept map:

You can zoom in and out by using the scroll wheel of your mouse and click and drag to see different parts of the map. One thing I couldn't figure out is how to name the map something other than "New Sheet". I kept naming it, but the name on this map is still "New Sheet." Grrrr.

Sloan-C Second Life Workshops

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:37:00 +0000

In May, I signed up for "Getting Started in Second Life" with the Sloan Consortium; lucky for me, Sloan-C offerings are free to the University of Maryland community. I really enjoyed that workshop, which lasted about 8 days and which reviewed some basic skills for me and taught me some new things.

Now I am beginning "Introduction to Second Life for Educators," taught by Dr. Michael DeMers of New Mexico State University Las Cruces. Back in March, Dr. DeMers was interviewed by Scott Simon of NPR; the six-minute interview is here.

Striking a Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:54:00 +0000

Thanks for coming to join the conversation, and welcome!

I'd like to spend the first part of the discussion letting people vent about the difficulties of including everything they want and need to do in their busy lives. Webheads don't complain much, so here's your chance! (20h00 gmt)

After we've all let off a little steam, I'd like to brainstorm some strategies for keeping our priorities straight. (20h20/25m gmt)

If you haven't yet completed the survey, please do it during or after the session! After may be better, as I'd like thoughtful responses. :-) I will share the preliminary results at the end of the session (20h45m gmt).

Nina

Learning the Ropes in Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:50:00 +0000

When I created my avatar, Nina Zaytsev, back in January, I visited SL a few times but rarely interacted with anyone there. I found I was even more reluctant to approach strangers in SL than in RL. Once, I attended a "coffee with Dennis Newsome" hosted by (oops--I can't remember). This was better! But I did not really get going until I took advantage of a Sloan Consortium workshop, "Getting Started in Second Life," in May. This was an excellent workshop facilitated by Bethany Bovard (Naiad Remblai), Katie Fife Shuster (Kella Fargis), and Joanna Tong (Jananajo Swindlehurst), who introduced us to some really useful video tuorials by torley.com in YouTube. There is SO much information in those tutorials! I started collecting them in a folder but I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to learn. We also had three in-world synchronous meetings: a "meet-and-greet", a basic skills practice session and an exciting tour where we visited the Magic Bakery and rode horses in Mexico! The next day, WiAOC2009 began, providing me with myriad opportunities to practice the skills I had learned in the workshop and to learn some new skills as well (and fail spectacularly at a few). I am going on learning!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

A New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:14:00 +0000

This semester I am teaching the Reading/Writing/Grammar component of our Intensive English Program at the beginning level. There are only six students. One began the semester almost a total beginner (she already knew the alphabet, a few numbers and some random words). Another studied English grammar but somehow managed to avoid learning much vocabulary. The other four are more typical false beginners. I wanted to blog with them but felt having them create their own blogs was unrealistic. I ended up creating a blog for them: MEI Level One.

I've tried to make the blog a mix of text and audiovisual, to appeal to different learning styles and needs (four students are Asian, and two are Middle Eastern). Most of my posts concern the grammar we are studying in the class. I started out with a short post on parts of speech, because this wasn't in their textbook, but I felt they needed to know what nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions were. Then I discovered a treasure trove of grammar lessons on YouTube! I enter the topic I am looking for, e.g., present simple negative, in the YouTube search box, and then browse through the many offerings. An American teacher named Paul has over sixty short videos consisting of himself using a whiteboard and a marker to explain grammar points. Others use pictures and videos to make their point. I've found a few professional videos, like the GrammarRock prepositions video (too advanced for my guys but fun) and have used some of Mike Marzio's Real English! videos which feature the structure we are practicing. In addition, I've posted some songs (a couple of which were suggested by the students). Altogether there are 30 posts so far (we've just passed the midterm). I sometimes have the students explore the blog during our computer lab hours, and of course it is always available to them whenever they are on the Internet. I can't say if they use it much outside of class, but in the lab when I let them access it, I have never had problems with students surfing to other sites. I think they like it.

Enhancing Lessons: Wednesday of Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:21:00 +0000

I never did get around to reflecting on Week 2; I guess it went by pretty quickly, and I was distracted by the startup of a new semester at the Maryland English Institute, where I teach. While I was otherwise engaged, our session grew to over 100 participants, with an active core of maybe 15-20 people who created their own blogs and posted regularly to our Yahoo Group. We had a heated discussion about the amount of detail one should include in a lesson plan, and on Saturday some of us met synchronously in a virtual classroom at Elluminate as well as in the Enhancing Lessons group room at Tapped In.

Week 3 focuses on the asynchronous voice tools Voice Thread and Chinswing, and Rita opened threads in both of these for all of us to contribute to:

Our Voice Thread

Our Chinswing discussion

P.S. On another note, I have returned to Second Life twice and have added some of the webheads as friends. I sat with Vance, in the guise of Webhead Link, in a couple of inner tubes on a lovely pond at Edunation II, surrounded by lovely flowering trees and singing birds (I like to log out leaving myself floating there, but when I log back in I find myself standing up in the pond with wet feet!). Vicki likes to take over my locomotion and has dumped me on roofs and into oceans, which she finds quite funny. I am wondering if it would be wise to create an avatar for her in the Teen section....

Finally! Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:12:00 +0000

After about 2 years of hesitating, hemming and hawing, I finally signed up for Second Life yesterday. One of the problems I had with it was that when you register you can choose any first name you like for your avatar, but you have to select a last name from a list, and I didn't like any of the last names offered, so I tried a couple of times but never got past that stage! (I was also concerned about using up too much computer memory and the apparently steep learning curve, and I wondered just what application this might have in teaching, since it would take a long time to teach students how to do it as well.)

Anyway, yesterday I was chatting with the webheads at Tapped In as usual, and several of them were simultaneously at SL. I just did it. I found a last name that appealed to me (Zaytsev, which comes from the Russian word for rabbit) and took the plunge. I chose an avatar, a woman in a pantsuit, and adjusted her (my?) appearance a little (made her/me a little fatter), although I couldn't change the hair from straight blonde to dark curly.... I was trying to make her more like me. (Maybe that isn't the point, though; maybe the point is to create somebody that doesn't look like me at all.) When I arrived at the "welcome area" I was met by a volunteer mentor who offered some help and answered some questions for me. Then I explored a little. I learned to walk, fly, hover, jump, shrug and a bunch more things. I found Education II, where the webheads have a headquarters, but it was deserted. And I was approached by an avatar who invited me to have sex (actually he said sez). Yuck! I immediately flew away. Later I encountered him again; he had shed his clothes somewhere. I told him I had not come to SL to be harassed by naked men, and left again. (I hadn't learned yet to say "eeuuww!")

This is one of the reasons why I would be hesitant to take a class to SL.

Here's a snapshot of me at Edunation:

Week One reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Yesterday, Sunday, marked the end of the first week of Enhancing Lessons with Web 2.0. Everything has gone very well! We have 100 people signed up but of course many of them are not active; either they are lurking, or they just signed up and changed their minds; it's hard to tell. Many people overestimate their ability to follow an EVO session and sign up for several. Unless you have nothing else to do in your life, this is inadvisable! Anyway, I have really enjoyed the interactions I have had so far with our participants on the Yahoo Group,at Tapped In, in our live session at Elluminate on Saturday, on our blog and on our wiki. Robert also created a page at Netvibes where all of these things come conveniently together. This is my first exposure to Netvibes and it seems worthy of investigation.

Today we begin Week 2, Blogs: A Home Base for Web 2.0 Lessons.

EVO2009: A New Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:39:00 +0000

EVO2009 begins on Monday, and this is my first time co-moderating an entire session (you may remember that in 2007, I co-moderated one week of Becoming a Webhead). Our session, Enhancing Lessons with Web 2.0, was conceived of by Robert Squires, whom I met for the first time in New York at TESOL in April. In addition to Robert and me, our team consists of Rita Zeinstejer, my dear friend from Rosario, Argentina; three other Argentine ladies, Mary Di Monaco, Analia Dobboletta, and Alicia Zuliani; and Maru del Campo from Mexico. We have been working for a few months to pull together a great session, and we have about sixty participants signed up from Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Iran, the U.S., Indonesia, Russia, the U.A.E., Spain, Chile, Portugal, Germany, Israel, Peru, Mexico and Romania (plus several who have not yet shared their locations with us). The focus of our session is how to incorporate web 2.0 tools into solid lesson plans aimed at achieving specific learning outcomes. I am a very bad lesson planner, so I am not an obvious choice for moderating the session, but I expect that I will learn a lot by doing it!

Happy birthday, webheads!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:47:00 +0000

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of this Community of Practice, counting from the first webheads chat at Tapped In, September 13, 1998. I decided to try to connect (voice or text) with as many webheads as I could to wish them a happy tenth. I didn't actually succeed in chatting with very many, but it was fun talking with those I did find. I had a little conference call with Vance, Daf, and Carla, which was fun. We had a pretty large group of celebrants at Tapped In this morning, and afterwards we all went to WiZiQ and played around there. Vance created a wiki to which many of us have contributed. You can visit it at http://webheads10years.wikispaces.com.

TED.com: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:12:00 +0000

TED.com is a wonderful compendium of short talks on all subjects by the most innovative thinkers and doers available. The first one I listened to, and perhaps still my favorite, is Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist, describing her own stroke, which led to her great insight that we are all part of the energy flow in the world, and we can choose to be a part of everything (right brain) or to be a self-contained individual (left brain):

This and other wonderful talks are all freely available to the TED community and others, and joining the online community is free, although actually attending a TED conference is very expensive.

Scattergories

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:29:00 +0000

My oldest friend (in the sense that we met when we were 2 years old, not in the other sense) posted this in her blog, The Upper Storey.

Use the first letter of your name to come up with an item in each of the following categories. They have to be real places, names, and things. You can't make anything up. Try to use different answers is the person ahead of you has the same first initial. You can't use your own name for the boy/girl name question. Lois/Maggie (my friend) suggested everyone add one category.

Here goes:

What is your name?...............Nina
Four letter word.....................note
Vehicle.....................................Nissan
City..........................................New York
Boy name................................Neal
Girl name................................Natalie
Drink.......................................Nescafe
Occupation.............................novelist
Something to wear................necklace
Celebrity.................................Nick Nolte
Food........................................noodles
Something found in a bathroom........Nivea lotion
Reason for being late............no watch
Cartoon character.................Nancy
Something you shout...........No way!
Animal...................................nutria
Word to describe you..........nice
Disease..................................nephritis
Herb or spice........................nutmeg

Tagged in the "Meme Game"

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:37:00 +0000

I don't know why it's called the Meme Game, but if you're "tagged", you're supposed to answer some questions and tag some other people. Did I get that right? Berta Leiva tagged me, so here goes:

Berta tagged me, so it’s my turn to answer the questions in the “meme game.”

1. What was I doing ten years ago?
In May 1998 I was working, as I am now, teaching ESL at the Maryland English Institute, University of Maryland, College Park; my husband was working as maitre d’ at a country club in Bethesda, Maryland; my mother-in-law had been living with us for about six months and was recovering from a broken hip; and my daughter Vicki was in kindergarten.

2. Five things I have to do tomorrow (the question says today, but it’s bedtime so I will change it to tomorrow):
a. Attend a meeting from 9-12 to discuss our curriculum
b. Complete a faculty Survey and a Lab use survey
c. Draft a response to Mission Standard 1 for our self-study
d. That’s about all I will have time for!

3. Snacks I enjoy: dark chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, coffee chip ice cream (do you perceive a trend here?)

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: support lots of charities (medical, environmental, arts-related, animal rights, women’s rights…), redo my kitchen, maybe buy a horse

5. Three of my bad habits:
a. eating too much
b. getting stuck at the computer
c. complaining

6. Five places I have lived:
a. Jackson Heights, Borough of Queens, New York (when I was too little to remember)
b. Hackensack, New Jersey (where I grew up)
c. Rochester, New York (where I went to college)
d. In and around Paris, France (1970 – 1973)
e. In and around Washington, D.C. (1973 – present)

7. Five jobs I have had:
a. Care for and exercise Sonny Boy, a beautiful palomino horse (part-time after-school job in high school)
b. Teacher at the Ecole Active Bilingue, Paris
c. Teacher at the Club International Audiovisuel, Paris
d. Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and Assistant Director at the American Language Academy, Washington, DC
e. Teacher at the Maryland English Institute, U. of Maryland

8. People I want to know more about: Rita, Robert, Teresa, Dafne and Erika. If Erika and Robert will send me urls for their websites I will put up the links!

Nina's newest blog venture

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 18 May 2008 14:31:00 +0000

When I posted about TweetWheel I realized that I had never posted about the leanrers' blog I created back in November 2007, English Power. It is meant to be a repository of ideas for students (mine at the University of Maryland, College Park and English House, as well as for English language learners anywhere) who wish to improve their English language skills outside of class or independent of a class. The ideas I've posted about so far are mostly using free websites such as TED.com and Free Rice, but some posts offer low-tech ideas like reading for pleasure and keeping a double-entry journal.

While the blog has not garnered much notice thus far, I hope it will gradually build an audience and that teachers who find it will direct their students to it.

TweetWheel - Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 18 May 2008 14:28:00 +0000

I've been quiet for a long time. Having a web presence sometimes means being too invested in certain sites to the detriment of others. I want to keep my first blog as a place I can record some of the nifty new tools I've been introduced to. TweetWheel was mentioned on the webheads Yahoo Group, so I tried it out, and this is the result:

TweetWheel - Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other!

I was hoping the whole graphic would show up on the post, but it's just a link. It's cool, though! I wonder if it will update itself as my Twitter community grows. Maybe if refreshed?

Graduation Day #3

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:04:00 +0000

This is graduation day for BaW08, which I have been participating in, in a limited way; being busy at work, I kept up with the digests, participated in several of the synchronous sessions and have plans to listen to the recordings of the others if I haven't already, explored a few new tools, have tried out Chinswing with students, and of course met many lovely new webheads.

Webhead Ibrahimjon Rustamov in Tajikistan created a badge in honor of the graduating webheads.

It's now time to look forward to TESOL in New York and reunions with friends I met last year in Seattle (Tere, Daf, Moira, Rita--who's to be my roommate!--Vance, Aiden, and others) as well as first f2f encounters with Mike Coughlan and Ronaldo Lima, who are attending from Australia and Brazil! We'll be blogging together at WiA in New York.

BaW08

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:28:00 +0000

It's January, so it's time for EV Online. I should be focusing all my attention on the self-study we are engaged in at my institute, but I found myself unable to stay away from Becoming a Webhead. This is partly because the camaraderie is unmatched after the session concludes, and partly because although I have been a participant for two years, I have never felt like I learned everything there was to learn. Last year, as a co-moderator and a "thread lady", I actually devoted very little time to exploring new tools. Just keeping up with the Yahoo Group is overwhelming as the number of participants soars (it's already about 200, counting the mods, co-mods and others) and the daily digests of up to 25 posts each begin to pour in. So I have set my goals for the session:
1. Read the YG posts, but don't post often,
2. Focus on trying out the tools I haven't used yet,
3. Try to attend the synchronous sessions, but
4. Don't try to complete the readings (most of which I have already read in 06 or 07) or participate in the Forum.

And here I am, posting to my blog, which is not a new tool. I've also been adding lots of contacts on YM and Skype, and have already chatted with a few of the new members.

I guess the upshot is that I will do what I will do!
Me with my students from last semester

Less Tech Savvy Than I Supposed

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:02:00 +0000

We've just bought a new computer: a Dell Inspiron Desktop! I am really pleased, yet I feel as though I have regressed somewhat. When I bought my first Dell about 4-5 years ago, I think I remember setting it up myself. I couldn't set up this one, though. I needed to buy a router because the old computer is still here, and I didn't know anything about routers. In fact, I assumed that a router would network the 2 computers together, and I could use the same printer with both. Imagine my chagrin when I was told that all the router does is share the internet connection between the 2 computers! If I want to use the same printer for both I need to spend more money to buy a printer server! To network the computers requires something else again! And I found the set up more confusing than before--less color coding, few instructions. I needed the help of a kind neighbor to get the thing set up. And some things are still not right! The sound isn't working properly and I can't remember how to install buttons for Bloglines, MyBookmarks, del.icio.us, and gmail on the toolbar.

On top of all that, of course I need to accustom myself to Windows Vista, the new, as yet unproven operating system....

Venturing into Podcasting with Odeo

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:09:00 +0000

One of my goals is to learn podcasting. My f2f webhead buddy, Maryanne Burgos, has the same ambition, so this morning we are sitting in Maryanne's kitchen in Germantown MD, experimenting. Here's the result:

powered by ODEO

WiAOC

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:50:00 +0000

I am multi-tasking. While listening to the Q&A following Teemu Leinonen's keynote address at the Webheads in Action Online Convergence (WiAOC) 2007 and volunteering at the Tapped In helpdesk (where it's very quiet), here I am updating my blog. I am not particularly skilled at multi-tasking. I am afraid it is Teemu's interesting observations that are getting short shrift here.

This is the webheads' second convergence; the first was in 2005 and is still available on the web. It's my first experience with an online conference. I was on the planning committee, although I did very little, and I presented yesterday on Engrade, the online gradebook I use to record my students' grades, attendance, and homework assignments. With Moira's able help, I presented at DiscoverE's Interwise virtual classroom. I think it went pretty well, although I haven't tried listening to the recording yet. This is how it showed up on the schedule:

The Convergence schedule, so empty a month ago, has filled to the point where there is a presentation, keynote speaker, or "unconference" (at Knowplace) at almost every hour of the three days. Vance Stevens, webhead extraordinaire, seems to be everywhere all the time. How does he do it? It's only halfway through and I am already losing focus. Starting Friday evening at 6:30, I have attended all or part of 4 keynote addresses and 11 presentations! And it's only 3:00 Saturday afternoon.

Digital Discipline

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:51:00 +0000

Wesley Fryer writes about "digital discipline"--the act of limiting the time one spends in the virtual world (he is specifically writing about Second Life but generally applying his idea to all computer and television use) in this post to his blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

Fryer concludes that we need to consider how the time we spend in front of our computer screens is affecting our f2f relationships with family and friends. I constantly complain about how much time my daughter spends--or wants to spend--in front of a screen, yet I have to admit that I am nearly as addicted as she is!

Webheads in Action

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:22:00 +0000

Cris Costa has a new blog in which she writes about the wonderful Community of Practice that is the Webheads in Action. I totally agree with everything in her post! This marvelous community of EFL/ESL (and other) professionals is so supportive that I can overcome my fear of the unknown and try all sorts of new things. Next month, I will be trying a new challenge: that of presenting at an online conference, the second Webheads in Action Online Convergence! I am going to do a small presentation on the online gradebook that I use, Engrade. To do this, I am using FastStone for screen captures and Power Point; and I will need to learn to be a moderator at Alado or another virtual classroom. A stretch for me, but I can do it, with the help of my fellow webheads.

Moving icons

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:19:00 +0000

Today one of my students showed me how to embed free moving pictures in my blog:

(Visit his blog to see how to take this to an extreme.)

The Learning Goes On...

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Liakos) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:31:00 +0000

This year, unlike last year, I made it to the BaW graduation party. (Last year, I went Greek dancing the night before and overslept!) Things were not totally smooth, however--I tried to click on something in Tere's wonderful graduation page and my old overloaded computer could not handle it. It crashed and I got kicked out of Alado. What was worse, when I tried to reenter, I couldn't because the room was full! I sat here, chatting with Leanne in YM and trying to master my disappointment. Eventually, somebody left and I was able to reenter the room. I didn't miss too much and of course, everything was being recorded so I can listen later. Anyway, it was lovely. I had a great time. It's a warm, cozy feeling knowing I was interacting with friends all over the world!

When I finally looked up from my screen, I saw that it is snowing--big, beautiful fat flakes already covering the ground!

I will take a short screenbreak and then attend the EVO wrapup session at Worldbridges and then, at 1:00, the B4B wrapup party. What a day!