Hello
Webheads,
I wanted to let you know that the Supervisor at our Unit gave me a pc at last,
today! Let me tell how he decided to give me the pc. Well, I went to his office
this morning to show him the letter from TESOL, signed by Mark Algren,
certifying that I'm invited to join the
panel for the presentation in Baltimore. I took this occasion as an opportunity
to remind him of the fact that I still don't have a pc yet. I left his office
and went ,directly, to my 2 hours class. When I finished , I went back to my
office to find an elegant black pc on top of my desk!!!! Wow, it was surely a
moment guys.I was more than happy, I felt really
on top of the world, and this is due to Mark's letter, which has made the
Supervisor decided to give me the pc. I just wanted to share this personal piece
of information with you ,webheads, to show you - as Mark has put in his last
message to Vance and me , today- how:
"Sometimes
the unintended consequences of an action are quite wonderful, aren't they?
Buthaina - I'll
put your original letter in the mail on Monday!
Have a safe trip,
both of you, to Bawlamer (you'll have to learn to talk like a local, hon!).
Mark
(or as I'm known locally, Mahk)"
Webheads, what do you think? Isn't "Mahk"
wonderful and such a great supporter?
BTW Vance, it's you and Mark who, actually, made my day.So even if I couldn't
make it to "Bawlamer", due to the escalating current political
situation in Kuwait, at least I got a pc!
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read this message.
Best regards,
Buth
Buthaina Al-Othman
EFL Instructor
ELU/Faculty of Science
Language Center-Kuwait University
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Congrats,
Buth!
I
know how frustrating it can be to accomplish tasks on borrowed computers with
limited
accessibility. I think you letter
is good reminder to all of us of the broad variance in our groups
individual resources.
All the best,
Arlyn
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Congratulations,
Buth!
You
certainly deserved that pc!
Aiden
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Congratulations
Buth!
You really deserve this computer! You have been working hard with your students and incorporating more and more online projects for them, which in turn brings quality to the education received by those students in that institution, they could not but give you what you so rightly deserve. A big kiss and warm hug for you, dear.
Daf
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Dear
Buth,
Congratulations! What a great piece of news! better late than never, right?
Hurrah for Mark (Mahk) and Vance!
Hugs, Teresa
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Congratulations,
Buth!
I know how you feel. I was the
first faculty member in my division to have a computer on my desk back in the
early nineties. I could hardly
believe it when my boss told me she was ordering me a computer!
Chris
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Dear
Webheads:
I've been quiet for the past three days because of a presentation I had
yesterday afternoon at a School of Education in Setubal, very close to where E.
Wenger and colleagues met last May to talk about CoPs.
I was inivited by my friend Conceicao, head of the languages department, to talk
about my book and in the second part she would talk about an online community
for Portuguese language teachers that she recently created and invited me to
join. Well, I decided to ask her if I at the end of my presentation I could also
talk about our community and sort of make a bridge to her part of the
presentation. She loved the idea.
I decided not so much to talk about the content of the book itself, because I
think there's nothing like reading it and deciding if it has good ideas and is
worth using, but instead took a different approach. I wanted to try and motivate
people to do the kind of work I've done with both books. I started out with a
quote from the final official statement that my supervisor sent to the Ministry
of Education about my work to try and show the colleagues who had come to hear
me that not only is it worth doing these projects, but it is also a 'must' in
Portugal. Then I went on to talk about the road I've travelled since 1996 to
show how the unimaginable had come about: two books published (without ever
dreaming of one, much less two!) and finished this first part with a reference
to some of the projects I liked most.
The second part was a brief overview of who the Webheads in Action are, how we
started and how far we have travelled. People were totally absorbed in what I
was saying in both parts. Regarding WiAs, they never imagined that it was
possible to do the things we've done online.
It seems that my enthusiastic way of talking about both parts got the group
hooked, because many came up to me during the break, congratulated me
enthusiastically, asked lots of things about email and our community, and said
that my enthusiasm was contagious. One of them said that her head was spinning
with ideas! Mission accomplished this time, I think!
I have translated the presentation into English and have uploaded it for you at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/files/2003/week3-feb3-9/ese-setubal-2003-eng.ppt
I decided to put it in week 3 since it has my name, so it is more easily
identified with me.
I've said too much already, but I was so happy that I had to let you all know,
above all, to tell the impact that we had on that group (about 40)!
Hugs, Teresa
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I also have good news to share. Today I started an online course I designed for
Education students and tutors from a distance university here in Spain (UNED).
We offered a f2f welcoming class, and I went to the place where one of the branches
of the university is: Tortosa in
Catalonia. Well, 36 students
enrolled in the course. This is the largest number of people ever enrolled in
this kind of course which is not part of the pensa of that university, and for
which the participants do not get an official certification. The Director of the
Center was trully amazed at the number of people enrolled. The participants were
very enthusiastic, and to my amazement, when I got home this evening, I have
already found that one of the
participants has completed the 2 activities planned for the first week that
starts on Monday.
The
course is about the use of webtools
for e-learning, and it is done through a Yahoo Group. It is delivered in
Spanish.
Something
really funny happened while I was explaining the use of Yahoo Messenger. I
opened my Yahoo Messenger and projected to the participants computers. But I had
to go out of the room for a moment to get some papers. While I was out, I heard
surprised exclamations from the students: "what is this" "what is
happening" "Look at this", etc. Well, what happened was that as
soon as my yahoo was active, I started to be called by some Webheads (don't know
yet who) and many windows started to pop up at the participants' computer
screens, and of course with messages in English. They were really amazed at this
since they had never used Yahoo Messenger. They could not believe people from
different parts of the world were right there in front of them. Unfortunately,
my colleague, asked them to close the windows, so I could not use the
opportunity to show them real examples of communication with Yahoo Messenger.
But they were really surprised ;-)
Hope
to see you all tomorrow at Tapped In, and that will be the end of our week 6.