Judging Online Sources

Hello world!

This week we’ve been supposed to reflect on what criteria we’ve used so far and should use to judge the incredible number of web pages we find on the Internet. I must admit the Internet was an important source for me when I had to do research for my bachelor thesis; nevertheless I hadn’t thought that thoroughly about the importance of a good judgement. Anyway, I think I uncounsciously evaluated everything I came across someway. First of all I paid attention to the appearance of the website; I think it is really important that a site is well-organized and without spelling mistakes. Secondly I surely had a look at the author of the document. I must say that, since I started this course and experienced how huge the Net is and how much rubbish there is on it, I’ve realized these two criteria are not enough. In these last weeks I’ve found myself having to judge a lot of online sources and this hasn’t always been easy at first sight. I’ve taken some more things into consideration:

• Since Sarah told us about it in class I’ve always had a look at the domain ( e.g. .edu or .ac.uk) and at the file type (e.g. .pdf); this way you can understand why specific pieces of information are provided and who is their target.
• I’ve always asked myself questions about the origins of the stuff I find. Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the web page? How reliable and authoritative is/are the author/the authors?
• I’ve made sure that the information given by the source is supported by valid documantation.
• If the web page offered the opportunity to see statistics about online visits or had a forum I would always check how many people has visited it and what they’ve said about it.
• I’ve usually tried to understand if the information has been updated regularly.

Of course these are useful criteria I follow to evaluate all kinds of sources. I had a look at the websites Sarah has suggested to us as well. I agree with all the tips the three universities give to students. Basically, I think I’ve mentioned all the most important points that we should pay attention to.
So we shouldn’t be attemped to rely on everything sources of information, especially the Internet, give us. It is really important to spend a little bit of time to decide weather the material we’ve found is enough serious and reliable or not.

I’m really curious to know how you evaluate information!

Bye bye from England! :)

Selena

My YouTube experience

Hi guys!

After all those serious web tools we’ve learnt so far, Sarah finally introduced us to YouTube. I couldn’t wait to explore it! I just watched comic videos on YouTube with my friends; but I began taking a look around on my own only after we started this course. Nevertheless, I’ve never thought before Wednesday about the great potential it might offer for learning English.

This week I’ve tried to search for videos that might interest me or be useful for my English language learning. I must admit I felt quite overwhelmed by the large number of videos you can find on YouTube. I realized it is really difficult to find out intelligent worth watching videos because there are really too much stuff. You can just pick and choose! However, as we just did with the other tools, we should still be critical and narrow down what we come across.

What’s great in YouTube is that you can not only watch and upload videos, but also save, collect and share them with other people! You have the opportunity to comment on them and so to interact with other users. What’s more you can make your own video and broadcast it on YouTube! I just knew that some friends of mine already did it!

taken from salpetti.wordpress.com

Surfing YouTube I realized that this tool can really help me improve my English. Most of videos are actually in English and range from serious issues to funnier and more relaxing topics. You can simply choose what most interest you and you think might be useful for achieving your goal. This means you don’t have to choose only among videos with pedagogical purposes. I think watching and listening to videos which don’t offer the opportunity to read their scripts and get a learning guide might be even more useful. This way you must make an effort to understand what you are listening to. So you are tempted to listen to the video over and over and deepen your knowledge. Moreover, since I believe enthusiasm is really important to learn a language, I think YouTube can be particularly useful. I was really stimulated by some interesting and exciting videos!

Let’s have fun! :)

The world of podcasts

Hi guys!

This week we’ve focused on one particular aspect of our English learning process: our listening skills. Understanding everyday spoken English is sometimes hard work. Informal colloquial English is a totally different kind of language from formal written English because you don’t pronounce every word separately and clearly and you use a lot of phrasal verbs, idioms and slang expressions. We always complain that we don’t have a lot of opportunities to listen to English native speakers as we don’t live in an English speaking environment; now we shouldn’t do it anymore. Sarah showed us a useful way for English listening practice that until now most of us didn’t take seriously into consideration: podcasting.

taken from peacecorpsonline.org

What’s a podcast? It is an audio or video file free distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. You can download it onto your personal computer or your iPod or mp3 player. Using podcasts instead of normal audio files on the Net you have some advantages. First of all, you don’t have to listen to or watch podcasts online. If you don’t simply have enough time to spend in front of your computer or if you spend a lot of money when you’re connected to the Internet, you have the opportunity to upload podcasts onto your mp3 player and listen to them whenever and wherever you want. This semester I’ve gone from Conegliano to Padova by train almost every day to go to university and I’ve sometimes completely wasted my time; from now I could take advantage of the time I spend in train better listening to useful podcasts for improving my English. Secondly, podcasts are a great solution for those who don’t have broadband at home too. You can download the podcast onto another computer with high speed Internet connection and then of course upload it onto your mp3 player.

It took me a while to search the Internet for good podcasts that might interest me; I realize the world of podcasts is big enough to get lost! I tried to be critical and came up with these three websites:

VOA News

This is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. It offers you the opportunity to download a lot of podcasts about all the news, information, educational and cultural programs it broadcasts every week. It helps you not only learn American English but also learn about American life and keep you up to date with world news. This website has a section with special English programs too; the goal is to communicate in clear and simple English with people whose native language is not English. Even if I prefer listen to genuine speeches at standard English speed these special English programs can help you understand complex subjects.

Business English Pod

This website offers you the chance to learn business English through free weekly mp3 podcasts. Lessons are for intermediate as well as advanced business English learners and focus on particular skills (e.g. meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating) and language functions (e.g. disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions). I’m really interested in it because I’d like to work in business!

The Bob and Rob Show

This website is a sort of variety show that gives you the opportunity to improve both conversational British and American English through audio lessons. Bob and Rob are respectively a Yankee and a Brit who teach English at the same university in Japan. You have the chance to hear two different English accents and compare them.

Have a nice weekend!

See you :)

Selena

Simply del.icio.us!

Hi everybody!

This week we’ve explored a tool that I’ve found extremely useful! It has a name that is absolutely easy to remember; it simply conveys what it is for real: something del.icio.us! Its attractive name and its enjoyable function remind me of an inviting cup of delicious strawberries!

taken from http://www.1-2-pimp.co.uk/

Since I started attending this course and surfing the Net more frequently I’ve noticed that in many sites there was a logo called del.icio.us; this name caught my attention and I always wondered whether Sarah would show us how to use this tool!

So what’s del.icio.us?

It is a Social Bookmarking, a way to store, share and discover web pages of interest online.
Using del.icio.us, first of all, you have the advantage of saving links to all the websites and blogs you want to remember online instead of on your personal computer; this way records (bookmarks) give you the chance to find your favourite web pages quickly wherever you are. Secondly, the list of web pages you saved through this tool is public; this means you are sharing your bookmarks with other people, but at the same time you are getting access to their bookmarks too. You can describe the sites you want to save not only making a short description but also using different keywords (tags); this way you can search for all the websites and blogs associated with specific tags as well as get to know how many people have bookmarked the same web pages as yours. I think creating a sort of community where you can exchange suggestions for new interesting links with people who has your same interests is the biggest advantage this tool has. Social Bookmarking gives you the great opportunity to find great websites because you are searching for them among all the websites that users regard as their favourite.

Before last Wednesday I never heard about social bookmarking; when I had to search for something online I always went to Google and explored its sections Web and Groups. So I was always overwhelmed by a barriage of sites; it took me a lot of time to filter them and find out what I was really searching for. Moreover, at the end of my research I sometimes had a feeling that I hadn’t come up with the most suitable sources; I thought that there might be something more authoritative and reliable on the Web that I hadn’t managed to find out. Social bookmarking offers you the way to narrow down the list of web pages you might interested in and successfully find the best!

taken from careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?SocialBookmarks

In order to start social bookmarking and using del.icio.us, this time, we were supposed to search for websites involving language learning and other subject matters we’re studying at university. I mostly concentrated on finding out something related to informal conversational English. I tried to search for websites that we’d never come across before too. I found three interesting English language learning websites for esl learners that can help you improve your listening skills. As we don’t live in an English speaking environment, I believe we should take advantage of them as much as possible. As I am interested in economics as well and I would like to work in business, I found out a website offering business English lessons. Well, if you are interested in learning more about everyday English and business English take a look at my bookmarks adding me at your network!

Using the network I created for the members in my group, I chose the bookmark from each of them which most attracted my attention. I really appreciated the BBC web page Elena chose about English pronunciation tips. I think speaking with excellent pronunciation is really difficult! Among the bookmarks Elisa saved I liked that about synonyms, antonyms and definitions. I think trying to increase your own vocabulary is really important to express yourself -both in speaking and in writing- better. Imma found out an interesting website about differences between informal and formal English as well. It actually shows you how to avoid colloquial writing, but it indirectly tells you what the most popular colloquial expressions in friendly e-mails and chat rooms are. Katja chose something about informal expressions too. The interesting thing of this website is that you can learn in which particular English speaking area of the world each slang is used. Finally, I chose a completely different bookmark among those Lisa stored. This time it is about funny items you can create to personalize your own blog.

I have to say you all did a good job!:)

I hope you enjoyed visiting my favourites as well:)

Selena

A fun overview of current web technologies

Hi guys!

Surfing the net I found out a curious metro map! Have a look at the clickable online version!

taken from iA

That’s the Web Trend Map 2007 created by a strategic design agency in Tokyo. It’s definitely impressive and suggestive!

I now have an almost exact overview of current web technologies!

It shows the current Internet trends using the Tokyo Metro map; there are the 200 most successful websites ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.
The focus is on English language sites, but there are some popular Japanese and German ones as well. Among the stations there’s “our” Beppe Grillo’ s blog too!

Have fun looking at it! :)

My new experience with feeds and feed aggregators

Hi guys!

I’ve just used the feed aggregator Sarah made us get to know on Wednesday in order to keep track of your blogs. It’s incredible how much this tool is useful! In the last weeks I’ve learnt so many things and found out so interesting tools that, I must admit it, I’m enjoying blogs more and more every day!

I must say I have never heard about RSS and aggregators before; I didn’t really know what they were and I had no idea of their features and advantages. When Sarah told us she was teaching us something which could make our life easier, I felt immediately relaxed! Every time I have to learn something new about Computer technologies I’m a little bit worried; at first sight they all seem to be complicated, even if, after all, they proved to be very simple to use. This time I was really enthusiastic because I was learning something that could give me the oppurtunity to save time!

Nowadays time is an extremely important resource; we should use it wisely and efficiently as much as possible. Just using Bloglines you are sent all the updated news of all the websites and blogs you wanted to subscribe to in a standard easy-to-read format. This way you do not have much effort and waste time going to every websites to see if there are updates; that’s a wonderful invention!

I also think the possibility of creating playlists is really great! The page in which you have the list of websites you subscribed to does not appear confusing anymore, and this way you may find what you’re looking for easier and faster. On Wednesday, in the lab, I created three folders: one for my group G, one for other blogs I am interested in and one for online English newspapers. What is more, Bloglines is a news aggregator you don’t have to install on your computer because you can access it free through any web browser.

I’m sure Bloglines will help me organize my time online better. I’m really satisfied with this new tool!

Have fun!:)

Selena