PLE: my personal learning environment!

Hi girls!!!
I’m really sorry because I’m in late, but I was a little ill these days and, at the same time, I worked. Yes…I also work in a shop during the weekend and in this period It is a little bit difficult to have free time…Christmas time is the most busy and confused period of the year if you work in a shop!!! Ok….that’s all, Now I begin to speak about the activity!!!
Naturally, I could not download Free mind, because without Adsl ( I don’t have it at home) it was needed more or less one hour and a half…I think that it’s too much! So, first of all I thought about my personal learning experience and the best means that I use to improve my English. Then, I divided them into four categories, which are: people, places, experiences and tools.

PEOPLE:
- classmates;
- my English family, where I lived for a month when I was 17;
- friends I knew during the experiences in England, Germany and Spain;
- teachers;
- tandem friends;

PLACES:
- University;
- School;
- Cinema;
- Station and all public spaces where I can meet people ( it often happens that tourists, or I when I was abroad, ask for information);

EXPERIENCES:
- Working (in a city where there are often tourists);
- Travelling;
- Knowing people from all over the world (sometimes during the holidays) and using English language to communicate;


TOOLS:
- Newspaper and magazines ( online too)
- Radio and TV (songs, English radio stations, TV channels,
- Internet (news, delicious, bloglines…)
- Books
- Podcasts

Learning a language is a difficult and long process that involves not only the school years and the academic part of our life and its activity, but it is something that goes beyond the boundaries of books or rules, even if they are important. This is the reason because I’ve mentioned a lot of experiences or activity which are connected with people, friends and journeys. This is because I think that learning a language is a human experience, made thanks and through others people, who we know.

I hope that I'll be able to go to the University, when I will be fine, and download the site in order to do a better work. Sorry....!!

Bye Bye...

How to be critical...

First of all, I want to say that this is a very interesting subject because it is a way for me, and for the other people that use internet as me, to question ourselves which type of sites we use and how we use them!! Generally, I visit always the same sites, which are mainly the more famous and useful like Hotmail, Yahoo or Google or sites whose I’m sure of what they are. But I have to say that the most important experience that I made with the means of research Internet was for my thesis one year ago. In that occasion, I needed certain sources and I remember that I always looked for the author of the text, for who published the material and also I was concentrated on the fact that the site was clear and with a friendly layout; that is because I think that the first impression is important also with a text, a book or a site. And that was all.

Thank to site, which sarah suggested us, I've understood that there can be a lot of way to distinguish and appreciate a good site.

The University of Essex focused on the critical use of the Internet; in particular it analysed the use of referencing, the plagiarism and the authorship. For me, this last one subject is the most important; authorship refers to the production and ownership of ideas and intellectual material, such as books, articles, images… That is to say that everybody has his own ideas and the possibility to express them writing with the favourite style. Then, in this site, there are some suggestions on how to avoid the plagiarism: learning how to note take in a effective way, learning how to create references, learning how to paraphrase. I found them very interesting because it happens very often that when you read a text, written by someone else, and you want to rewrite or summarise it, you use the same words or sentences…and this not correct.

The Purdue's Online Writing Lab is concerned with the process that comes before the you begin a research. For example, it says that is important to know exactly what we want to find out and what we are looking for. Then we must evaluate the credentials of the author and of the publisher of the material; the content of the material, his sources, references and citations, the accuracy with which the site was made and the accuracy of information. In the end, it is fundamental that the site reaches his aim and, at the same time, your aim!!!

In the third website, San Diego University, I found how important is to be always sceptical when we are surfing Internet and looking at a site…because everybody can publish everything on Internet and there is the possibility that we trust on false information.

See you soon...bye bye!!!

We are YouTube!!!

YouTube is maybe the most famous site of videos of the web. I knew it also before Sarah suggested us to see it, but I had always seen only stupid and comic videos with my friends!!! What is great of YouTube is not only the possibility to watch and download videos, but also save, organise and share them with other people. Thanks to this site, you can know other users and interact with them, through the comments about the videos.
Moreover, you can find works about everything you want, from the most crazy thing to the most important or serious one. For example, surfing YouTube I discovered some videos of a friend of mine who is in Erasmus in Spain since last September and I saw his life there… (completely crazy!!!!) or I watched to the videos of some friends who was in Germany with me last month…it is wonderful because you can feel the emotions of the nearness and of the contact with the people or the places which you know but which you can not really live!

From another point of view, it can be also a means to have news about the world or, for example, it is really very easy to find out gossip…about a 70% of the videos are comic or only about the most famous people of the world (actors, singers, politicians, TV stars…..) and their life…in this case YouTube is a sort of entertainment!!! It is clear that this new technology, which is everywhere, and the possibility to shoot also with a mobile is not always a good idea: for example, when it overcomes the boundaries of privacy.

However, if you search for another type of material, it is also a good way to learn and improve your English. As the other sites, which Sarah suggested us to use, YouTube gives the possibility to a foreign languages student to listen to English speakers and, in this way, to improve the pronunciation, but also to have a dialog with the author of the video thanks to the comments. Moreover, this site is useful because it is a different way to learn…I mean that you can choose not only with a cultural purpose, but also funny videos which could interest you and thanks which you can learn without bore yourself!!! What is important is to search for intelligent videos…and only when you want to waste your time, you can also watch to all the stupid videos which there are!!!
Have fun with YouTube!!!

Podcast: a new way to learn!!!

Hi everybody!!!!

Today I'm here to talk about another thing that is completely new for me: podcasts. They are audio files that you can free download on a portable media device, such as ipod or another mp3player. It is very very good, because nowadays everyone has a mp3 to listen to the music, downloaded from internet, and look at his own photos. The difference is only that the opportunity given by podcast is to improve our English learning by downloading legally!!! The most important thing when you want to learn a language is to speak and to listen to native people. Sometimes it is difficult because you can not travel or you don't know mothertounge people...but now Internet gives us all these possibilities, isn't great?! With Podcast you can listen to your files whenever and wherever you want thanks to your mp3player...a good chance to keep on contact with English!!

Surfing on Internet I've found some interesting websites, which could be useful for us too. BBC Radio is good because it help you to keep up to date, through many different subjects and programmes. You have the opportunity to listen to the radio in 33 different languages and this a huge help for us, who are language students. Another good thing of this site is that you can choose among a lot of files which ae divided into sections, everyone regarding a different subject. Then, if you click on the links, you can find quizzes, explanations of some words and a lot of extra materials.

www.businessenglishpod.com. In this site, the authors have made a list of conversation and text about everyday situations, expecially about the world of job, business and everything that is linked to this. You can find a lot of audio files which recreate a telephone conversation or a discussion in office in front of a cup of coffee, another one about a problem...or the "best" moment of the gossip!!!! It is good bacause you can choose the podcast that could interest you, also from the point of view of the job you will do, because there a division into categories( marketing, travel, job interviews, managment...).Then you listened to the audio files, you can find in the site also some questions and exercises about it and find out the tipycal idioms in the written text.

www.listen-to-english.com. This the simplest site I have found. The texts are really very very simple to follow while the speaker speaks, because they are short and you can have the text in front of you. In my opinion, it is a good site to start using podcast, because there are always texts about different subjects which are often curious!!! At the end of the lecture you have the vocabulary notes, you can send e-mail to the author to have explanations or to discuss directly with him about the topic and, moreover, you can send comments and read the comments of the other readers. There is also a link to look up the words: the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary. Isn't useful?!!

Well....luckily I have a mp3player!!!If you are not able to download the podcasts, you have to know that the most popular media players are Windows Media Player, Real Player and iTunes, which are available also in the net!!!

See you soon!!Bye Bye...

Delicious!!!

Hi girls!!!! This week I'm discovering a social bookmarking. I have to admit that Del.icio.us is an experience completely new for me...! At the beginning I was a little bit confused and lost with the website and I didn't really understand the purpose of what I was doing!! During the week, I've used Del.icio.us many times in order to create my list of preferite sites and to visit the sites proposed by my peers. Now I can say that I've understood the definition of Bloglines as a sort of "secretary". It is really an online list of websites which we consider good, according to our interests. What is more, we can share these sites with other people and, in this way, help each other in a research, which could be very very longer if we'll use simply Google. Surfing in Del.icio.us and through the choices of my peers, I've noticed that we have looked with interest at BBC site and I think because it is the best oppurtunity in Internet to improve English language. But, above all, I've appreciated that all of you, girls, suggested me a pair of sites about free and professional translation, not only from/to English, but also from/to other foreign languages (Google translation, Free translation)!! It could be really very useful!! Moreover I have already used the website, which Giovanna put in her list, National Public Radio; it is not only a way to listen to news in English, but also to be in contact with what happens all over the world or, simply, to be tuned in an English radio, listening to music and, sometimes, a short conversation. It is a good idea also to search in the net if we have a doubt or a question about grammar or vocabulary....or to improve our pronunciation and intonation, which is always with a too strong italian stress!! The last thing which I want to focus on is the site about the guide to write a CV. Roby has put her attention on this argument and I think, or rather I hope, that it could be useful for everybody...this should be the year at the University and so we must start thinking to our future and our next job!! Internet and Del.icio.us could be a help to find it?!!!Maybe.......
Bye bye...see you tomorrow!!!

My first impression of blogging!!

Hi everybody!!!
This is my first week of blogging, because in October I had been a month in Germany to attend a German course. This was a very useful and interesting experience, not only from the point of view of the study, but also because I have known many people from all over the world...and this is always something special and unforgettable!!! For this reason, this is my first week of blogging...I've tried to create my own blog, even if I'm not really sure that my work is correct!!!I think that tha blog is a good opportunity to write in a colloquial way about many different topics: a good way to improve my English and to have fun with other students.