A Remix of the Web2.0

Serendipity is always the best resource.

I was looking for some resources to the online course I'm teaching right now, Web Tools for Educators, when I came across this MOOC - Teach the Web. Just as I was browsing through their resources (Mozilla guys know how to make it simple, exciting and connected),  I came across Popcorn Maker. a remix video tool that I had heard about, but just very recently it has been released.

Glued, hooked immediately. That's how I felt when I started playing around with the tool. Very intuitive, user-friendly and with tons of possibilities for collaboration through remix.

So, here's my call: I want to show my students the power of the Web, and I need your help.
Could you access the video and remix it, adding your view of what the Web is all about?
I can't wait to see what the results will be and what this remix tool will lead us...
Just click on the link and start playing around.
http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/10gh

Feel free to take risks, to change, to edit, to add your voice to this collaborative experiment. Invite others to join the remix movement.

The Social Wild Web in 2 Minutes and Teachers' Learning Brains

I've produced this quick video as a Wrap up for the online course I am teaching, Web Tools for Educators at Casa Thomas Jefferson.

In the beginning of our online session, teachers are generally in a state of lethargy and disorientation. They are never sure if they should endure in the digital experience or quit. They sometimes have a feeling of being overwhelmed, at other times, at loss... I try to show them that this a common state when we face the new, when we leave our comfort zones, when we are learning, when we are challenged.

In neuroscience there's a common term to express the exact moment when our amygdala sense danger:

FLIGHT - FIGHT - FREEZE

We generally react in these three ways: we can just run away from the new experience as we feel threatened, we might decide to persist and move on against the initial moment of fear and helplessness, or we can just be in a lethargic state of no-action. 

My role as an online facilitator is to give participants the support they need for them to build up their self-confidence and move forward, fighting against their initial disorienting feeling of the non-linear digital world. Isn't that what we all try to do with our students, anyway? In this case, though, it is an even more important mission, for if they see the power of the Social Web in transforming their classrooms and beyond in truly student-centered learning hubs where interaction, collaboration, problem solving, creative thinking, fun-based learning is part of class routine, then my special assignment as an online facilitator is accomplished, and the impact of teachers' newly acquired digital skills is long-lasting and amplified in their local educational communities. 

That's why when they overcome the initial stage of getting their feet wet into learning how to participate in an online community, enhanced by numerous digital tools, they get into the experimentation level, evolving to many WOW moments throughout our 10-week online session and way beyond. 

Of course, there are those who always fly, and those who get stuck, freezing, no matter what you try to do  to give them the support they need. Educators must first re-learn to unlearn. Educators must be open to learning if they want to be part of education. However, what really makes a difference is letting our brains work in our favor, when we fight against the initial fear and sense of being in danger, for endangered professionals are the ones who are not open to movement, change and action.

by Fabrício Freire_WebTools4Educators

The Social Web is full of encounters, learning and networking. And every educator should be part of it in very meaningful ways, and that's why it is part of my job to introduce the educators who start the Web Tools for Educators course to get there in the SOCIAL WILD WEB!

Posterous - Blogging with Style

http://narede.posterous.com

I've been using Posterous for a while, and if you are considering blogging as an option to keep your thoughts, ideas, resources, comments, audio and video files in one place, Posterous might be what you're looking for.

Its main advantage is its user-friendliness. It is so simple to start using it that the whole process begins with an email. You send an email to Posterous and your blog is ready to go! Then, you can keep blogging by email. If you attach photos, Posterous creates a slideshow. If you attach an audio file, it automatically embeds a neat player.

However, what I'd really like to highlight is the group feature in Posterous. You can have a group of people blogging into one Posterous blog once the administrator invites the contributors to collaborate. It nicely aggregates all the posts into one place, which makes it very easy for the group to keep track of the updates without understanding much of feed issues (as shown in the image above).

Posterous makes blogging easy, effective and social. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

Rewarding Networks

Yesterday was delightfully exciting. Never have I worked so hard and intensively in different projects for the school I work for and my volunteer work in the communities I'm part of . No complaints. All the effort has been paying off. First, I got to know that our proposal to present in the TESOL international conference. More than being happy that our proposal had been accepted, we were thrilled to know that we will be able to share a bit of what we been doing in terms of language online learning. In fact, we don't want to show what WE are doing, but what our learners are producing, their content, their making sense of the world and the language.
http://listeningplus.pbworks.com/1o2008
http://www.pageflakes.com/edutechtools/24766454

Another highlight of the day was the e-tutoring online training session we are facilitating for the state of São Paulo educators. What an interesting, diverse group that emanates energy and curiosity about the digital possibilities they see ahead. It's a challenging mission because for most of these educators elearning is a totally new experience. However, I can see that they are into this new stage of their professional development. Uplifting.

Visit Online Start


Last but not least, as I was interacting with the participants of the training session late at night, I got to know first hand on twitter that I had won a nice blogging competition proposed by the inspiring Sue Waters. It was a simple task and one that everyone could contribute to create a mosaic of useful blogging tips.

All in all, the lesson of the day was that the best reward is being part of a network, a hyperlinked network of people who share, dare and help put together the pieces of our digital educational world. Thrilling.