Welcome May-July 2008 Class!

Welcome, everybody!

This new trimester, we will be working with The Speaking Group. But what is that? you may be asking yourself. Well, let's try to explain what it is about. To start with:

1. It is mostly about learning and practicing your English.
2. It is about learning English by talking about different topics. You will be reading, listening to, writing and talking about different topics in English.
   
3. It is about learning English using technology. That means we will be using computers and internet to find real updated information concerning your different interests. We are going to experiment and play with new ways to learn autonomously. Learning for life. Learning to learn. Learning by doing. We will watching and listening to videos as well as making videos. We'll have the chance to use different tools to express our ideas and interact with people.
4. It is about learning and practicing your English in groups, in community. Be ready to meet students and teachers from the university and the world. Of course, there will be tasks you must complete on your own.

That was a general description of the course. Now, how the classes take place:

• Classes are going to be held at the lab. I f you can't come to classes, you can connect at home or wherever you have access to a computer and Internet.
• You need to get a google account, since we will using different tools provided by Google. make sure to register to Gmail, Google Reader, Google Talk, Google Doc, and Blogger
• Blogs are going to be your personal journals. There you will register everything we do in class. All your homework and tasks should be there.
• Every class will be a taken as a workshop or TALLER. Try not to miss your classes and if you do, keep your blog updated.
• Homework will be assigned for each one of the units covered in class. The dateline to hand in your homework will be the day of your test. It means you will have the chance to work on your blog till the exam day.
• Corrections to writing will be done through Google documents.

Assesment




Things you need to do to take this class:

• Get a Gmail account and register to Google services: reader, Google talk, reader and blogger.
• Get a blog at Blogger. For instructions on how to that get the power point presentation from our box or follow the tutorial prepared by Vance Stevens.
  
  
  
  • Register to the International Collaboraction Ning social network. You need an invitation from your teacher or from one of your classmates. Make sure to write name, last name and class session you belong to when registering at our social network.
  • Take these surveys: My EFL Classes , what I know about technology use in my English class
  Benchmarks:
  At the end of this class. I should have:
  
  
  • Read my class guidelines
  • Met my new classmates
  • Worked with the introductory task
    
  • Registered at Google and have a Gmail account.
  • Registered to Google readers.
  • Registered to Google doc.
  • Downloaded Google Talk and activated my IM.
  • Downloaded Answers.com alt+ click software to my computer.
    
  • Opened my Blogger account and posted my first entry.
  • Registered at the International Collaboration Ning social network
  • Taken two surveys
  This is a mind map of the class program