I'm back...for a while!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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)