Tuesday 24 March 2009

TESOL Web 2 Intro

Hi—I’m Donna from Nonthaburi, Thailand, HS teacher (ToK & ESL) at Inter’l School Bangkok. I’m in my 19th year there already! Came to this workshop today to hone in some of my newly-found skills on Web 2.0. In fact, presenting a demo on Thursday on using a Ning for HS ELL students.

Web 2.0 seems to be a generic term for new capabilities on the web, like social networking—Facebook, Ning, Wiki and interactive programs like Second Life. New options for word processing documents like sharing on Google Docs, RSS feeds whereby you select to create nd participate in various blogs, etc., using camera, storing/ using photos, VDO in new ways.

Advantages: new angles at old ideas—like developing reading/ writing skills for students. Better/ faster communications, both social and academic.

Disadvantages: One big one is time. Time seems to disappear when in front of the box. You’re engaged, but sometimes at the expense of f2f interactions with real people!

Qs—how to be an efficient user. Shortcuts to take to accomplish things.