Describe below your interaction with classes or students of other webheads, e.g., reading/commenting on their blogs or chatting with them.

Ronaldo Lima Jr (Brazil):

• Introducing Brazil with voicethread

Advanced Brazilian EFL students created a voicethread (they chose the pics, wrote and recorded their scripts) talking about the cities that, according to them, best represent Brazil. Webheads collaborated leaving comments and having their students comment as well. So far (Sep. 2, 2008) the thread has been viewed 1,947 times and has  92 comments (and I hope it keeps growing!). Here is the thread:

Vance Stevens (UAE)

http://writingmatrix.wikispaces.com

Rita Zeinstejer (Argentina)

SHARING CULTURE: PROJECT WORK WITH STUDENTS IN ROSARIO, ARGENTINA, AND 10 WEBHEADS

April-May 2008

Stages of the Project

• Introduction: class discussion on the “purpose of studying a second language”. Raising awareness on the need to study a new language to communicate.
• Countries and teachers involved: brainstorming knowledge on different cultures. Sharing ideas on similarities and differences. Webheads´ countries and names.
• Agenda: organization of students in pairs for a closer contact with other countries´ customs, views, lifestyles through the eyes of ten Webheads who will be interviewed synchronously on either Yahoo Messenger or Skype.
• Preparation: students get into pairs and choose a country, then brainstorm ideas and possible topics to develop during the interview.
• Wiki: a wiki page is opened for the students to start their own research on the chosen country. Information drawn from the Internet on different aspects of their culture and society is uploaded on each page, summarized on “What I know about X”, and “What I´d like to know about X”.
• Live Interview: a date for the live interviews to take place is agreed on, with the consent of the Webheads involved. Each pair of students takes up around fifteen minutes for their interviews. They take down notes on the answers to their questions and on the information provided.
• The recordings are uploaded to the students´ pages in the wiki at http://caeb2008.pbwiki.com/
• Follow-up: back in the classroom, students describe the most outstanding aspects of their experiences and compare results and impressions.
• Reporting: as a written follow-up learners write a report of their experiences, in pairs, and put it up on their wiki pages.

What the project with ten members of WIA from nine different countries implied for the students involved:

* honing listening and speaking skills

* expanding vocabulary

* using the language in authentic situations

* using English with native/non-native teachers of the language

* communicating safely

* learning about other cultures

* boosting their self-confidence

* raising awareness on the importance of learning English

Berta Leiva (Venezuela):

1, The most recent was one of José Antonio´s groups (two days ago,

even if I am still in Toronto. It is a blog,

http://thomastg.blogspot.com/ he did not really ask for

collaboration, he just mentioned it in his Facebook and I decided to

have a look and made comments to all his kids because they had made

very nice drawings and had written about their imaginary friends,

and this is what he wrote to me:

Re: Hi from Berta

Hi Bertha,

You are wonderful. I loved the comments you have left. Thank you so

much for the kind words. My students are great. They are really

great; I am sure they will love your comments. I will take them to

the computer lab and they will reply to your comments.

Thanks a million

--------------------

To reply to this message, follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1019542136858

---

So now I will visit the blog again to check on what they wrote ;-)

Moved to Collaborative Projects:

2. I had a collaboration with Sergio Mazzarelli (from EVO-Video) in

Nagasaki Japan which is at: http://writingatusb.wikispaces.com/

His 19 students participated in our wiki for almost a month.

3.  Another project was the Sisterclasses

http://esleflsisterclasses.edublogs.org

with Larry Ferlazzo where we produced a Voicethread about Venezuela

and many students made comments to it (written and recorded) and we

made comments about the presentations of students in Sacramento,

Hungary, Romania and Brazil. The student showcase is at

http://esleflstudents.edublogs.org/2008/05/16/venezuela/

4.  I made a presentation for Cora Chen´s students in San Francisco

on comparing and contrasting places in the world. It is at:

http://places.podomatic.com/  There is one by Michael and another by

Cris in the same page. I have also made comments for the students of

a number of Webheads such as Erika, Jane Petring, Susana Canelo and

Ronaldo, and you too, ha, ha (not this year, though).

Saša Sirk (Slovenia):

- have been part of Vance's Writingmatrix (http://writingmatrix.wikispaces.com) together with Rita, Doris and Nelba and their students

- was interviewed by Rita's students in the project she mentiones above  http://caeb2008.pbwiki.com/

- chatted with Doris Molero's students via YM http://rostilj.blogspot.com/2007/07/chat-with-students-from-venezuela.html

- talked to Dafne's architecture students about a local bridge http://id3124-parallel.pbwiki.com/Bridges_part2#SashaSirk/SolkenBridge , http://www.slideshare.net/sasasirk/the-solkan-bridge

- dropped comments to various student blogs