Giorgia in Wonderland

Be creative!

2009-10-03T13:38:00.003+02:00

Hello all!
Hope you're doing well.

I'm feeling veeery good! I love these beautiful sunny days of autumn...there's a fresh breeze that make me feel happy without any reason!

BTW...I'm here just to tell you about an interesting blog.
I don't know about you, but I'm a passionate follower of any design product, especially concerning arts, fashion and accessories (bags, purses, rings, bangles, bracelets, earrings, etc.) and while I was surfing the net for bangles I found that blog: Coscablog. The blog is written in italian, and it's really absorbing and full of interesting information.
I love everything that comes from a creative process.

Hope you like it.
I also put the link in my blogroll.

Bye
Giorgia

Pics,pics...and pics again!

2009-09-28T16:47:00.000+02:00

Hello all,

I found a wonderful image/video hosting, slideshow creation and photo sharing website that allows you to upload your pics and also modify them...It's called Photobucket.
The services offered are very interesting and there's a lot of space (bytes) for each account.
Check the tiny little icons I put beside my post-footer elements...I downloaded them from Photobucket!

Have fun!

Bye
Giorgia

I'm back...for a while!

2009-07-30T12:59:00.003+02:00

Hi guys,
hope you're all doing well!

I've been very busy lately, but fortunately everything is going quite well.
I'll be resting a few days at the seaside so I won't update my blog as usual. Actually, as you can see I didn't work too much on my page during the last month...exams, study, exams, study! And now I'll take a well-earned rest :)

So...Have a good summer!

Bye
Giorgia

P.S. I'll do my best to succeed in writing something, if not, I'll be there again in September when I'm going to start my thesis...I'll need your support! :)

Hard Times!

2009-06-22T17:41:00.003+02:00

Hi everybody...are you doing?

I just wanna tell you that I'm still alive :)
I'm studying a lot 'cos I have a couple of tough exams to do.
However, as soon as I finish them (successfully, I hope!) I will be back on the spot!!!

Take care

Bye
Giorgia

I write, You write...Everybody writes!

2009-05-27T20:12:00.003+02:00

Hello all!

Hope you're doing well!

I was googlin' around in search of some good tips to improve my writing skills and I found an interesting blog called Copyblogger. Go and take a look to the right side bar...there's plenty of articles, concerning blogging and writing in general. The style is fresh and catchy.

Have a look to the article on Ernest Hemingway's tips for writing well...as Copyblogger says "Who better?" :)

Hope you like the blog!

Bye
Giorgia

My Tube!

2009-05-20T16:59:00.008+02:00

Hello all!

I know classes have just finished but - as I said in my previous post - my learning path will go on and on, and on...and my blog will keep on helping me in this process!

During our last class my classmates and I talked with Sarah about the benefits of music & videos in learning English. Almost everybody agreed on the fact that listenting to music and watching videos in English turn to be particularly useful to improve our vocabulary, especially when combining these practices with the reading of lyrics, original subtitles or translation into English.

Personally, I've always thought about the fact that music was helpful to improve my pronunciation & vocabulary but I never tought before that rhythm could help me with intonation. Good discovery for me and for my obsession with 'paduan' accent! :)

As you can read in some of my last posts (here and here), I love music, videos and I join these passions using YouTube. It's an amazing tool!
In particular, I like the fact that in YouTube you can find loads of cartoon videos, such as The Simpson or Family Guy. I find this kind of videos extremely useful. They represent a good way to approach - in a foreign language - difficult communicative techniques, such as irony, cynicism, mockery or satire, using simple and immediate tools, that's to say images/cartoons.

Well, I can't post there every single video I found interesting but I want to give you an info to key in YouTube: "Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy". It is a channel that is broadcast directly on YouTube by BurgerKing®; the cartoons that are broadcast are drawn by Seth MacFarlane (the same cartonist of Family Guy). Hope that nobody get offended by the "adult-oriented" content ;)
BTW, they are awesome!

Have fun!

Bye
Giorgia

Mapping my mind out!

2009-05-16T15:37:00.015+02:00

Hello all!

You know that my classmates and I have been through a long process of building up our own learning environment (see here and here). What I want to do in this post is to recap what I've done and learned so far.

My big little steps:

I took Sarah's language classes to be guided in the building up of my PLE (from both a linguistic and computering viewpoint);
I started running my own blog;
I made a first draft of my possible [desired ;)] language path. I wrote on a piece of paper the aspects of my English that I'd have wanted to improve (writing & spoken interaction);
I worked on mutual feedback with my classmates;
I tried to take advantage of any profitable situations, using English whenever it was possible (e.g. DVDs, books, TV programs);
I learned to use many interesting tools, such as GoogleDocs or Google Scholar (see Utilities on my blog's sidebar); they helped me to limit, perfect and focus my exploration of the Net in search of useful tips to improve my English.

As you can see the project involved a lot of aspects that had to be handled simultaneously. It was difficult to learn, search, study & improve at the same time but in the end the hard work is worth it. What's more, this kind of work - building up my PLE - will finish by neither the end of the English course nor the end of my academic career: your PLE is your own learning path, it's yours so it can last forever and be changed whenever you want!

Here it is the mindmap of my personal learning environment: MY PLE.

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Internet: I'm loving it!

2009-05-10T13:44:00.006+02:00

Hi guys!

I want to share with you something EXTREMELY funny (I mean FUNNY in its real sense!). It is a video from YouTube. The video shows two Korean girls who are performing at a national karaoke TV program...They are simply amazing!

The video: Korean Madness

YouTube and its videos are just another way to show that the Internet is not simply good or bad! It is always a matter of choice...your choice, made with consciousness!

BTW, hope you like the video!

Bye
Giorgia

A tangled Web of traps!

2009-05-08T17:20:00.014+02:00

Hello all!

I wanna tell you something before you start reading: I'm going to be long-winded but the subject is worth it!
I want to talk about the risks of the Internet and the related observations that we came up with last Wednesday during class.

Let's go through a brief list of the most common web-traps we might encounter while surfing the net:

to plagiarize others' works; the infringement of IPR (see here, here and here);
huge amount of information (difficulty to find and judge the info - see here);
technical problems about saving/losing/editing your materials online;
to give and/or get false information;
to run into unwanted sexual, violent, illegal contents;
privacy violation;
cloning (e.g. credit card);
viruses, spams (e.g. e-mail), crackers, Trojan horses, pop-ups;
identity problems;
addiction;
unconscious clicking, scams.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm a Web enthusiast and I know that my enthusiasm comes from a responsible and fruitful use of the Internet. The technical and intellectual information that we've learned during classes should have given us the proper tools to be - reasonably - safe and curious when using the Internet and its services.
What I want to say is that if you don't have the basic, background information on how the net should be handled, you could run into the above mentioned traps and get frightened by the Web.

What we've learned so far through Sarah's classes is that the Web is huge and we are far from knowing it properly, in all its aspects. However, if we manage to keep our eyes firmly open the net can become a 'good friend' of us.

Let's see some actions that can be useful to turn a 'bad egg' into a 'good fellow':

when you subscribe to any website, blog or create your account into any free, online services (e.g. Bloglines, Del.icio.us) always remember to read carefully the terms of the service/(web) contract you are subscribing to. We (too) often think that if something is not printed (i.e. vitual) is less valid and legal: WRONG! It's always a matter of rights...and duties too;
be aware of what plagiarism, IPR and Creative Commons are; they are crucial concepts that turn to be useful in printed works too;
be careful when giving your personal information (e.g. credit card number, personal e-mail). I've personally decided to have a second e-mail address to use when subscribing any online services;
moms, dads, brothers & sisters, anyone who are informed about web-traps: never let children alone in front of a computer, and when they are sufficently grown up give them the needed tools to deal with the Internet properly.

However, despite reading, learning, searching any information about these risks, the traps are always around the corner. So, the only thing I can say and suggest about these issues is: keep your eyes open!!!

Well, let me know what's your point of view and your possible solutions to these problems.

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Family Guy

2009-05-05T20:02:00.026+02:00

Hello all!

A few days ago I was surfing the net searching for something fun, and I thought...Giorgia, why don't you look for something entertaining and useful at the same time, that's to say, something amusing and linked to English?!?

So, I decided to put here a video from YouTube. The video is part of an episode from 'Family Guy', an American animated TV sitcom. In Italy the sitcom was broadcast on Italia1 changing the title into 'I Griffin'.

I love this show and I bought many DVDs with its episodes. After all, I bought them in English so they are useful for my personal learning environment! LOL :)

The show is known to have an adult content but I consider my readers grown up enough to handle it ;) and I know that you will enjoy it! I dare you to find somebody who doesn't like Family Guy at all!

Episode: Chicken Fight

N.B. No chickens were harmed during the making of this video ;)

See ya!
Giorgia

A tough nut to crack!

2009-05-02T13:22:00.016+02:00

Hi guys!

I wanna tell you a creepy story about 'references'...

I was a little girl - 2yrs ago :) - when I first heard about 'references, bibliography and quotations'. I was preparing my BA thesis and my supervisor (the professor who helped me out) told me how to quote others' works, make in-text citations and write a good bibliography.
I was unaware of how this experience would have dramatically changed my life. From that moment onward, I started to get extremely anxious and sometimes fussy when putting down ANY piece of writing...even a shopping list!
Recently I was having a quite peaceful period but - guess what? - Sarah has given us (my classmates and I) a tough work to do: adjust a HUGE amount of references and in-text citations. My nightmare...again! :(

Well, joking aside, I think we all have learned that the referencing issue is tough but crucial. Making proper citations and writing down a respectful bibliography protect us from plagiarism and the infringement of IPR. What's more, we now have a fresh new tool for taking advantage of collaboration and shared feedback, for referencing too: GoogleDocs (see here).

Talk to you soon
Giorgia
(photo source)

P.S. In the light of what I've learned so far during Sarah's classes (see here), I think that in my BA thesis I used the APA style...more or less. I was unaware...and perhaps it was better to be unaware!!! :)

Google Docs...rocks!

2009-05-01T16:47:00.014+02:00

Hello all!

Do you know what GoogleDocs is? Well, believe me, it's a wonderful web tool.

GoogleDocs is a free, web-based tool offered by Google. Creating your account in GoogleDocs enable you to write, edit, store and share documents online. The types of documents that you can work on are: word documents, worksheet (like in Microsoft Office™ Excel™), PDF files and presentations.

That said, one might observe that what I've just mentioned is more or less what we can do with Microsoft Office™ or OpenOffice; therefore, I'm going to tell you why this is not the case.

The peculiarities of GoogleDocs are:

GoogleDocs is NOT a software package so it's different from Microsoft Office™ and OpenOffice. It is an online service, you don't have to download it on your pc or buy it;
you can always have access to your documents. Since is a web-based tool (like Bloglines and Del.icio.us), you can log into your account from any computer and work on your documents wherever you are;
you can upload, create and edit documents directly online. You can also share them - in a private way - with your peer students, friends or workmates. You just have to send them an invitation mail to join GoogleDocs;
you can benefit from an online, real-time, shared collaboration. All the people you share a document with can edit it simultaneously and see who's working or worked on it (see 'history function'). The funny thing is that all these people can be wherever they want, they just need a computer.

What comes out is that, like any other tool in Web 2.0, GoogleDocs allows you to work, communicate and share information with peers, no matter where they or you are...You just need a computer!

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

P.S. I love GoogleDocs 'cos I won't lose hundreds of usb devices anymore ;)

APA or MLA? ...mumble mumble...

2009-04-20T11:48:00.013+02:00

Do you remember when we talked about plagiarism, especially in writing?

Well, we said that there are different ways to avoid plagiarism and make proper references to any of the works we cite or paraphrase in our writings (i.e. essays, theses, blog posts). In particular, we looked at two authoritative referencing styles: MLA Style Citations (Modern Language Association) and APA Formatting and Style Guide (American Psychological Association).
Let's see what are their main features, similarities and differences, if any.

MLA style:

large list of examples concerning in-text references and their corresponding works-cited entries; it takes into account a great number of different types of sources (books, chapters in book, works in an anthology or collection, journal or magazine articles, online sources, media, interviews, dissertations/theses, etc.);
very strict rules of in-text, parenthetical references and bibliography; it also gives advices on punctuation, capitalization, typefaces (i.e. opt for underlining instead of italics), URLs, location, publication, author/s and all the other information we have to provide (i.e. in-text references need author's last name, year of publication, chapter:page/s).

APA style:

plenty of information concerning not only the referencing style (i.e. in-text citations and bibliography), but also the formatting of a scholar paper (i.e. sections and sub-sections, headings, typing and page size);
9 sections concerning in-text references and bibliography; each section considers one type of source (e.g. book, online resource, magazine) and gives general rule on the needed referencing style (punctuation, use of italics, etc.)

MLA vs. APA (imo):

MLA has a more detailed and greater number of examples than APA;
MLA takes into account a huge range of sources' types while APA is less various;
APA accepts footnotes and endnotes while MLA doesn't, especially in academic paper;
APA in-text references are more flexible than MLA's; APA uses both (author, year) and (author, year, page/s) while MLA always requires (author, year, chapter:page/s);
APA accepts both italics and underlining; MLA does not accept italics;
MLA lacks a guideline on the formatting of an academic paper.

These are the main things I've noticed so far, but the issue is very interesting so I'm going to learn more about it...and I want to hear your opinion too!

BTW, I think that - in the end - both styles are accurate; therefore, to choose MLA instead of APA is just a matter of personal taste. Whether you opt for MLA or APA, the important thing is that once you've chosen one you have to follow it 'till the end of your work.

Sorry for being so long-winded...

Talk to you soon :)
Giorgia

Examining my conscience :)

2009-04-18T15:48:00.008+02:00

Hello all,

as anyone can see from my previous posts, me and my classmates are working a lot on sources' evaluation, reliability, writing and readability...So, as Sarah suggested, I want to think about my blog. I mean, I want to analyse if my blog posts respect some or any of the following characteristics: hourglass structure/well structured, logical, cohesive, clear, precise, concise and coherent.

As I go back and take a look to my first posts (e.g. Language Learning post) I realize that I made a lot of mistakes concerning:

grammar,
paragraphing,
post length,
use of conjuncts & subordinators (despite making myself clear, I used them too much!).

However, the more I go on writing and learning new things about text structure, the more it seems to me that I make better posts...Hope you've noticed that :) In the last posts I think I've managed to be precise and concise at the same time, which - afaic - it's very important in blogging. I myself get bored while reading everlasting and repetitive posts!

I think that blogging, unlike traditional writing, give us the possibility to be concise and precise without a lot of effort. Let's think about technical words or acronyms...you just put a clickable link on them and at the same time:

people who know the meaning of that word just go on reading without any problem, and you don't bother them with an unwanted and verbose explanation;
people who don't know the meaning of that word just click on the highlighted word and will find all the needed information, and you don't increase your post's length.

BTW, let me know what you think about that!

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Clear as crystal!

2009-04-16T10:38:00.012+02:00

As we've learned through Sarah's handout2, any text should be easy to follow and clear in meaning, especially when analysing complex subjects (i.e. academic papers). A crystalline and readable writing should be:

Let's see if the academic paper I've chosen follows this guideline...I'm going to do this asking myself some questions presented in handout2.

1.Does the paper follows the hourglass structure (iow, well structured: intro,body,conclusion)? Yes, the paper follows the hourglass shape. It stars by summarizing the content and forecasting the conclusions; it also highlights the key words. Then, the body develops each of the topics presented at the beginning, providing examples. At the end, the paper sums up the content and exposes the conclusions.
2.Is there a logical flow of ideas? Yes. Since argument is large-scale, the paper body is broken down into parts, each one dealing with a different topic. However, each part is logically linked, even without using a large amount of metalinguistic signaling devices. The logical link is provided by introducing briefly an issue in the paragraph that precedes the 'real' paragraph on this issue.
3.Is the text cohesive? Yes; the ideas and information's flow is clear and easy to follow. Nothing is left unsaid; obviously the reader has to have a basical notion of what PLEs and e-learning are. However, the cohesiveness is provided by a sufficient amount of references forward and back (e.g. In the introduction I said; these tools; moreover).
4.Is the writing clear or complex? The content is clear and well exposed; however, as I've just said above, any reader should have at least a basic knowledge of PLEs, social software and e-learning. Most of the times the writer refers to specific concept just using their acronyms; therefore the writing turns to be sometimes difficult, but - I would say - not obscure.
5.Who is the text’s assumed audience? What indications of this do you have? How does this influence how the text is written? I think that the paper is intended for someone who has basic notions about the subject. I wouldn't say that is intended only for experts because I myself understood almost everything. As I said before, the academic influence comes out when the writer uses technical terms and acronyms to specific concepts. Anyway, the researcher - at the beginning - provides a list of key words so that one can go and search for them and their acronyms.

Ops, I've been talking too much... :)

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Looking through my magnifying glass...

2009-04-14T21:01:00.037+02:00

Hello all,

last week we talked about source evaluation and we came up with a lot of criteria through which analyse the reliability of a piece of writing.

A few days ago I found an interesting article on PLEs (personal learning environment) and I want to evaluate it through some of the criteria Sarah gave us in handout1.

Here it is what I've found:

1.Who's the researcher? Graham Attwell, director of the Wales based research organisation, Pontydysgu. The paper was also published in a website's page of the University of La Rioja (Spain).
2.What's the goal of the research? The paper explores the ideas behind PLEs and why PLEs might be useful and crucial to learning in the future. The paper also considers the technologies (i.e. blogs and wikis) that can be used in PLEs and the aggregation of different devices. At the end, the paper provides examples of practices on how PLEs can come in useful in the future.
3.Where and when was the research carried out? E-Laearning Paper published in 2007, edited by P.A.U. Education S.L., Barcelona - Spain.
4.What kind of study/data collected? The data are qualitative and the paper is provided with examples/case studies.
5.Was it large or small scale? I would say quite large, since the subjects taken into account are various: PLEs, technology, blogs/wikis, net generation. Moreover, the subject is considered to be in continuous evolution.
6.Was it short or long term? I think short term, in the sense that the author considers PLEs in the present moment in which he's writing, but he specifies that the subject is undoubtedly going to develop in the future.
7.What conclusions were drawn? The conclusions are easy to understand; they are based on the evidence presented in the paper.

Ok...Hope you find it interesting!

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T18:11:00.020+02:00

Hello all,

I just want to say...

Buona Pasqua (Italian) :)
Vrolijk Pasen (Dutch)
Joyeuses Pâques (French)
Frohe Ostern (German)
Καλὸ Πάσχα (kalò Pàskha)(Greek)
E ʻôlelo mâlie (Hawaiian)
Boa Páscoa (Portuguese)
¡Felices Pascuas! (Spanish)
IPhasika elijabulayo (Zulu)
復活節快樂 (fùhuójié kuàilè)(Chinese Mandarin)
ਈਸਟਰ ਖੁਸ਼ਿਯਾੰਵਾਲਾ ਹੋਵੇ (īsṭar khuśyāṅvālā hove)(Punjab)
Христос воскресе (Xristos voskrese)(Russian)
Geseënde Paasfees (Afrikaans)
عيد فصح سعيد (Arabic standard)
शुभ ईस्टर (śubh īsṭar)(Hindi)
イースターおめでとう (īsutā omedetō)(Japanese)
สุขสันต์วันอีสเตอร์ (Suk-sənt-wən īs-toer)(Thai)
Heri kwa sikukuu ya Pasaka (Swahili)
חג פסחא שמח (chag pascha same'ach)(Hebrew)

Just a few of all the wonderful languages all over the world!

OMG!
I ate too much...My mom and my aunts do not understand the words NO, THANKS - NO, I'M FINE - THAT'S ENOUGH! - I'M BLOWING UP!

BTW,I just want to post a link to an interesting .pdf on 'personal learning environment'. I found it using Google Scholar and I'm going to analyse it using what we've learned on reliability. I'm going to bookmark it too.

Have a nice day!

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Let's save our bacon!

2009-04-11T17:40:00.021+02:00

Hello all,

according to what we've learned so far, let's try to make a list of what we are supposed to do to respect sources, IRP and avoid plagiarism.

Dos & Donts:

images - use Flickr with the CreativeCommons that provide all the info on copyrights; remember to cite the source and/or put the link which you take the image from. If the image is not taken from Flickr, make sure you are allowed to use it (i.e. see at the bottom of any web/blog page, there should be information about copyright);
quotations, data, stats, research results (written productions) - remember to cite all the needed information about what you are writing whether you are exactly repeating or just paraphrasing someone else's words. There are different ways to cite (i.e. in-text citations, bibliography) and most of the times they have to be used together. Try to take a look to the two most common referencing styles > MLA and APA. Anyway, to make proper references within a blog is far easier than doing it in a formal piece of writing. In a blog you have just to put a link which works like an in-text citation and/or bibliography at your fingertip.

Well, these are just little tips I've learned so far...so, since the topic is very important and wide, I really need your help. Everyone is welcome to write a comment giving any kind of suggestions on referencing issue.

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

It's a Carbon Copy!

2009-04-08T20:39:00.009+02:00

Today in class we talked about plagiarism and IPR (Intellectual Property Rights).
Every time somebody invents a new tool, makes a discovery or produces an artistic work, such as a book or a picture, he can protect his production through laws. These laws are called IPR; they are legal property rights and the common types are:

Obviously, if you don’t respect the IPR, you act illegally; therefore, you can be sued by the rights’ owner. One of the most common illegal act is that of copying someone else’s production (e.g. words, music or invention) and pretending that you thought it or created it; this act is called plagiarism.

Plagiarism and any other illegal act linked to the improper use of something covered by IPR are particularly increased with the wide-spreading of Internet. Since Internet allows almost all computer worldwide to connect, publish and exchange information, it’s easy to meet with the above mentioned problems.

We all know how huge is the net and how difficult is to find all the needed information on the reliability and the right to use that information (see my post on images and reliability)…So, let’s all be careful about these issues!

Bye
Giorgia

Googling here and there!

2009-04-06T18:39:00.026+02:00

Hello all,

I want to add something to my previous post about sources.
Sources are all about using the proper searching tools and evaluating. So, what about something that help you to join the two aspects?
I'm talking about fantastic tools that enable you to both search and evaluate at the same time. These tools help you to limit your search among data and information that have been already published; therefore, you can trust more on what you're reading...and half of the job is done!

These tools are:

- Google Books, a search engine that provides pieces of books from libraries and publishers worldwide; it works with tags;

- Google Scholar, a search engine that provides sholarly writings, such as theses and academic articles; it works with tags.

Another interesting tool from Google is Google Blogs. It works with tags and it searches for blogs on the World Wide Web. Google Blogs is similat to Technorati, except for the fact that the latter not only works as a search engine for blogs, but also provides info, stats and researches on the blogosphere as a whole.

So, let's surf guys!

Bye

Giorgia

(photo source)

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover!

2009-04-05T14:56:00.007+02:00

We were asked in class to write down a list of questions we usually ask ourselves when judging the content of any source (i.e. website, book, blog).
Thinking about my third-year thesis and all the academic papers I prepared during my university path, it came up that I focused especially on authors’ credentials and content reliability:

- who’s the author? Is s/he well-known? Is s/he considered authoritative in his/her field of study?
- Is it the content reliable? Does any other website/book/blog report the same information about this topic (CROSS-REFERENCING)?

I think I use these questions especially when taking information from the Internet, rather than from a book: I’m used to thinking that if something has been published it should be authoritative.

However, I discovered in class that my questions are only a little part of the numerous ones I have to ask myself when using any kind of source. I just want to point out here some of the criteria that I never thought about ‘till now:

- when was the information provided? (i.e. think about stats and surveys; it is important to know if the data are still valid at the time you’re using them);
- why was the information provided? (i.e. think about the intended audience, purposes, perspectives).

I found that the tips on sources’ evaluation from San Diego University are very useful. The website gives a clear and detailed list of questions. It takes time to analyse a source through all those criteria, but in the end it is worth it, you will feel more secure and confident on what you write using that analysed source…And if there would be any mistake you can blame the source, not you!!! :)

Talk to you soon!
Giorgia

FeedBACK to get FORWARD

2009-04-04T15:14:00.022+02:00

In parallel with the running of our blogs, me and my classmates are working a lot on mutual feedback, especially about grammar issues.
I think that getting feedback is an extremely useful way to get aware of our frequent mistakes; it is difficult for me to always recognize my errors, especially if I'm the only reader of my pieces of writing. :)
I sometimes notice my mistakes but you know...the more you go on reading and re-reading the same passage, the less you'll realize the errors inside.
BTW, if you've already read my post on 'personal learning environment', aka PLE, you know that in the last couple of weeks I've removed a few things from my vocabulary: present perfect (really hard, as you can see above!!!) and 'also'.

During the last lesson we continued our work on grammar improvement; we talked about 'building sentences', especially using subordinators and conjuncts. I learned that:
- subordinators (e.g. although, since, when) are never preceded by a comma;
- conjuncts (e.g. in addition, to sum up, therefore) are always independent words or expressions followed by a comma. They can be preceded only by a full stop or a semi-colon.
It is important to remember that subordinators and conjuncts are very formal expressions that tend to make the syntax heavy. So, if you manage to express yourself clearly and logically without those expressions, don't use them!

Then we talked about relative clauses (defining and non-defining), which are used to give additional information about something just mentioned without starting another sentence.
If you want some good tips about the above mentioned grammar issues, take a look to Grammar Girl, an helpful website about linguistic topics.

Ok guys...Hope this information will help you!
And I hope to get more and more aware of my mistakes and get rid of them!

Bye
Giorgia

Del.icio.us Feedback

2009-03-31T19:26:00.011+02:00

As I learned a few days ago, to have an account into Del.icio.us give me the possibility not only to store my bookmarks, but also to create a personal network with other users, in my case with my classmates. So, I went in and took a look to my peers' choices.

I found out that Francesca and I have the same interest in punctuation. Personally, I want to learn more about the right use of English punctuation because I usally tend to reproduce the Italian one while writing in English, and this is a bad habit! :)
She bookmarked the WikiHow page on punctuation; the content of the page is clearly organized and full of useful examples. There are a lot of tips and warnings to use some of the most tricky punctuation symbols correctly.
Feedback: clear, simple and very useful.

Among Valentina's choices, I found the bookmark on Internship Mistakes very fun. It's a website on the most common mistakes, bad behaviours and habits in the working field. Perhaps, it is not directly linked to our field of study, but it can come in useful while approaching any job field...thus, our next future!
Feedback: fun and job-oriented.

Take a look to them!

Bye
Giorgia

It's a snap(shot)!

2009-03-30T20:34:00.012+02:00

I totally agree with Betta’s post on images: that of photo sources is a problematic issue. Finding a useful photo on the net is very easy, but discovering if it's possible to use it is not so immediate. More often than not photos on the net are covered by copyrights, so they cannot be copied and then pasted somewhere else, otherwise you’d break the law.
When you find an image that you want to use try to find out as much information as possible concerning the right to use it and always remember to put the link from which you took that image.

Another great tip that I’ve got from the teacher is to use Flickr, which is an image and video hosting website (online community for photo sharing) with plenty of photos. The good thing is that each photo is accompanied by some specific symbols explaining the way in which you are licensed to use that photo (i.e. if it is covered or not by copyright). These symbols are - technically speaking - the Creative Commons license: each symbol represents a type of license.

Well, as regards my blog I've put the link of each photo at the end of my posts, while if you click on the photos on my sidebar they take you directly where I found them.

Hope you'll find some useful news!

Bye
Giorgia

...some Del.icio.us links...

2009-03-29T16:37:00.006+02:00

While I was surfing on the big waves of the net through both Technorati and Del.icio.us, I found some interesting websites and blogs that I'd like to tell you about. I decided to store them as bookmarks in my social bookmarking account.

I've pasted there the links and I've given a short description of them. Anyway, if anyone interested has an account on Del.icio.us can find my bookmarks using the search toolbar...just searching for the tag 'bloggingenglish_09'.

My bookmarks:

Omniglot is a blog concerning a plenty of linguistic issues, such as translation, ESL, education and foreign languages learning. It is very interesting, its style is formal when talking about language games and fun stuff, and it becomes formal - but not too technical - when exposing specialized issues;
Livemocha is an online international community, where people from all around the world sign in to take online language lessons and give feedback to the others. Anyone interested can choose among 20 different languages and take lessons at 4 different levels;
BBC English page is a webpage inside the BBC website. This page is full of tips, links, games, crosswords, audio files and fun stuff for learning English while enjoying;
GrammarGirl is a blog full of 'quick & dirty' tips and suggestions for better writing in English. It gives a lot of lessons through both written texts and podcasts. These lessons particularly focus on word choice, grammar and punctuation;
Two Expats is a blog run by two young Italian guys living in London. Gioia and Matteo (their names) write about food, life style, music, friends and everything else about their lives in London. The blog has a catchy and funny style, it is obviously written in English with some Italian words here and there.

Hope you like them as I do!

Bye
Giorgia

To Bookmark or not to Bookmark…?

2009-03-26T21:59:00.020+01:00

The more I go on learning new things about the web, the more I get scared :P
Well, we all know how huge is the net…scary!
We all know how huge is the blogosphere…twice as scary!
Now we can make them smaller…at our fingertips…SUPER-SCARY!

What about creating your own 'little' world wide web?

I’m talking about bookmarks, or better, Internet bookmarks.
They work just like real paper bookmarks we commonly use while reading books; therefore, we use them to find what we need easily.
When you frequently visit a website or blog you can save their URLs in order to be easily retrieved. You can do it on your pc or you can subscribe in a social bookmarking community, such as Del.icio.us and store your bookmarks in the personal page you’ve created. Being a social community you can share your bookmarks with the other people in the community. Also, you can create your network of users and see their bookmarks.
Social bookmarking communities are better than your pc, since you can visit your bookmarks from any computer, while if you save bookmarks only in your pc you can retrieve them just from it.
What's more, to make the search of bookmarks easier anyone usually put tags, that is to say, key words to label the URLs stored (i.e. if you type ‘language’ in the community toolbar, will appear all the shared bookmarks with the tag ‘language’).

I think it's a really good tool to keep track of our favourite websites, without searching for their URLs all the time, or without writing them down on a piece of paper that you may lose!

Well, I think it’s all…
Let's enjoy with this new tool!

Bye
Giorgia

(photo source)

Good Chances II

2009-03-23T18:00:00.011+01:00

Hello all,

Hope you’re doing well!

Does anybody know the American serial Prison Break? Well, I started watching it in 2005, since the first time it was broadcast in Italy. Obviously, I watched the first two seasons in Italian, but a few weeks ago…(suspense like in a drama serial!)…straight from the U.S.A. …a friend of mine brought to me the complete third season and part of the fourth in the original language! I was so excited!
Unfortunately I’d had some troubles with the dvd player, so I watched the first episode only a few days ago.
I have to admit that I sometimes missed some words, especially those of the actors who spoke with strong (strange *--*) accents! However, after the initial panic I decided to watch it as I watch to any Italian movie or serial, that is to say, relaxed! (thank you, Sarah, for your advice!)
I missed some words…Ok, fine. I didn’t understand the meaning of some words…Ok, fine. Accents made the listening difficult…Ok, fine. However, in the end I tell you what they were talking about, I can tell you the plot of the episode because I was relaxed, and when I missed a word there was an image, or a sound, or a gesture that helped me to understand. I realized that listening (and understand!) doesn’t involve only ears!
BTW, watching movies and serials in English can be fun and useful at the same time…And you know that it’s difficult to join these things together :P

Talk to you soon!
Giorgia
(photo source)

FEEDing on New Technology

2009-03-22T18:28:00.008+01:00

Shame on me…Unfortunately last Thursday I was absent from class ‘cos I was sick and I missed the important lesson on feeds and feed aggregators. By the way, although I’m unfamiliar with Internet technologies, I managed to follow the walkthroughs given by the teacher. I created my account in a feed aggregator (Bloglines) and started to subscribe to the feeds I was most interested in.
I think feed aggregators, and feeds as well, are amazing tools to keep track of the blogs or websites you like to visit. After the initial ‘technical’ effort, I realized that these tools give me a lot of interesting opportunities! I created my page on the aggregator, I subscribed to the feeds I was interested in and I made my playlists…ok, these things took time, but in the end it was worth it…Once I started to run my feeds’ page properly, it became very easy to find news, images, information, all kinds of things…and keep me updated on them!

Basically, a feed is a piece of information (in a particular format) used for providing subscribers with frequently updated content. Subscribing to a feed of any blog or website is like signing a subscription with magazines or newspapers…except for the fact that feeds are FREE!
Isn’t it amazing? I just go into my Bloglines’ page and I immediately see all the news about the feeds I subscribed to! This will totally cut down the time I usually need to search for information online, and will provide me only with the news I want…’cos I decide what to keep track of!

That’s all guys…
Let me know about your experience with feeds so far…

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Good Chances I

2009-03-18T21:26:00.006+01:00

As I've told on a previous post, I committed myself to do as much as possible to improve my English in any possible way…so…guess? I’m attending a seminar of English Contemporary Literature in which we watch movies in original language – English obviously – without subtitles! It’s definitely a good chance to prove and improve my listening skills. What’s more, these movies were produced in some of the old European colonies (i.e. Australia, Africa, Jamaica, to name a few) and therefore they are full of slang terms, which are interesting to learn as part of everyday, informal language.

Ok…just a little step forward, but a step indeed!

Bye
Giorgia

Language Learning

2009-03-12T19:12:00.024+01:00

I just want to say briefly for those who may not understand who I'm referring to when I write 'we' or 'us' (hoping that someone else - apart from my classmates - will read my blog! :) ) that this blog is part of an academic course of English language.
That said, as I told you on the previous post, this blog can be an extremely useful tool to improve English. Blogging and - primarly - reading others' blogs and get feedback or comments on yours are parts of what we called during class 'personal learning environment'.
As a matter of fact, reading others' words or get your pieces of writing corrected make you notice which are your weak points/frequent mistakes and how to get rid of them.
Thus these are the 'things' that I wanna get rid of (I'll get them back as soon as I learn how to use them properly!!!):

. present perfect
. 'also'

First of all, I have to remove the present perfect because the more I think about its use the more I mistake. I think that sometimes it's really difficult for an Italian native speaker to understand the subtle difference between present perfect and past simple, especially when the fact that you are describing happened not long ago.
Secondly, I have to get rid of the adverb 'also' because wherever I put it, it's always the wrong place :). I think that this mistake depends on the fact that I use 'also' as the italian equivalent 'anche', but syntactically they are very different.
I hope I'm not the only one dealing with these problems :(
Well...Let me know what do you think about this kind of issues, so we can discuss them together and help each other out!

Apart from these last (and new) notes, last week we fulfilled a personal ‘To Do List’ on the next language goals we would like to achieve. As far as I’m concerned, I never thought of designing my own language path before. However, to sit down, think and write my personal needs & projects made me feel more realistic on what I’ve learnt so far and what I still need to learn. As a matter of fact, I realized that I want to be more confident when I have both to communicate and interact in English. I want to organize my speeches and my pieces of writing better, more coherently. I want to enrich my vocabulary both formal and informal. And I want to get rid of my usual mistakes (see above). That said, I committed myself to spent at least 30/60 minutes a day practising my English in any possible way: reading books, newspapers or magazines, watching movies without subtitles, surfing the net, reading my classmates’ blogs and trying to interact during classes as much as possible.

Easier to say than do! :)

However, to point out this ‘To Do List’ was a good thing indeed!

Let’s start and see what happens as we go along!
Okay, that's all for now...

Bye
Giorgia

Me & Blogging

2009-03-11T20:26:00.019+01:00

I never had a blog ‘till now, ‘cos I was always concerned about being boring as well as exposing myself too much. However, as I read on the net while doing a paper on the blogging phenomenon, almost EVERYBODY has either a blog or a page into a social network...so it’s high time for us to become active cybernauts :)
As I’ve just written, I found a lot of interesting info on ‘blogging’ during the wiki project on the 1st semester: blogosphere is HUGE and there are plenty of blogs, the ‘cyber-world’ is so big that have been invented websites working as search engines for searching blogs (e.g. Technorati or Icerocket).
Neverthless I’m sure that blogging and analysing others’ blogging – using the proper tools – will become more and more interesting, useful and easy as we go on.
Try to go in Google or Technorati and key in “how to blog...”, you’ll find a lot of tips and walkthroughs for managing properly a blog and its tools.
Beyond all these technical notions, I think (and I hope) that this new adventure will help me to improve my writing skills in English as well as my vocabulary both informal and formal. I think that this can be an effective experience through which achieve some of the above mentioned language goals I set at the beginning of this semester!

Read, write, observe, analyse, learn...It's up to me now!

Bye
Giorgia

Welcome

2009-03-11T18:08:00.021+01:00

Hello all!

I’m Giorgia and this is my blog. This is my first time running a blog and I’m really excited! I hope we’ll enjoy sharing interests, improving our English and learning a lot of things together. Any comments, advices, suggestions are welcome!

We are all here to learn from each other :)

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)